Ashen Flames roared up, consuming me entirely. With the crackle of burning flesh, gray smoke seeped out from my pores, spreading like a thick fog.

Seto squinted at me, baffled. “You’re really not going to look for the bomb?”

If one could put the jumble of emotions in his blood-red eyes into a single sentence, it would probably be: “Is this bastard really an aspiring hero?”

Frowning in thought, Seto suddenly clapped his hands and burst into high-pitched laughter. His red, madness-lit eyes fixated on me. “Ahh, I get it! So that’s what this is! I was wondering why I didn’t see the Spider. You’re expecting her to find the bomb for you, aren’t you?”

The Archbishop spread his arms wide, lips splitting into a jagged grin. “Hahahahaha! Too bad for you! Even with her Blessing of Insight, the Spider won’t be able to figure out where I hid the bomb!”

I shrugged. “Is that so?”

I took a step toward him.

Seto was flabbergasted. “What do you mean ‘is that so’? I just told you she can’t find it.”

“You’re misunderstanding something.” I took another step. “Professor Baldwin isn’t even at the central plaza right now.”

Seto’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

I kicked off the ground and charged. He was one of the Six Archbishops, second only to the Archbishop of Ruin in sheer physical power, but I could not afford to take it easy.

“Ignite.”

The Primordial Flame ravaged my body as I forcibly ignited it, skipping straight from Ignition to Blazing Fire. I pulled the power of the Primordial Flame straight to its limit and let it consume me. Mana surged through me like boiling magma. Then I gathered the blazing Ashen Flame into my blade and swung.

The wild flames lunged for Seto. Grinding his teeth, the Archbishop thrust out a hand toward the oncoming blaze. Scarlet spikes erupted from the ground, crashing into the flames. With a boom, the clash shook the area. Normally, the explosion would have been loud enough to echo all the way to the distant plaza, but Seto had put up a barrier beforehand, keeping the sound contained.

Seto was shocked. “You...”

The Ashen Flames pressed fiercely against the blood spikes; no, the fire burned through them, growing larger as it devoured Seto’s magic. Seto’s trembling pupils reflected disbelief. He couldn’t fathom that someone was overpowering his dark mana with sheer force.

“What are you?” he asked.

The power radiating from me was so overwhelming that Seto wondered if I was even the same person he had met before even though it had only been a few months since then. He was probably wondering how a fledgling brat could grow so strong, strong enough to gain the upper hand against the Archbishop of Madness.

“Didn’t we already exchange introductions?” I replied.

Carving through the blood-spikes, I closed in on him. My sword, wrapped in Ashen Flames, swept upward from below him.

Seto jerked back just in time to avoid being sliced in half. Grinding his teeth, he stomped. From the soul stigmata on his body, a surge of blood-red aura spilled out. Like a drop of crimson ink spreading through clear water, the space around him warped into a sticky sea of blood.

Spikes erupted from the blood-soaked space, and he said, “No matter how strong you’ve gotten!”

Hundreds, thousands of them burst forth in a crimson tide. “You think you can defeat me?”

The storm of spikes rained down. However, I conjured a wall of Ashen Flame to block them. The blazing flames instantly incinerated most of the spikes, but one pierced through the wall and buried itself deep into my left forearm.

A searing, nauseating pain burst from the point of impact and spread across my entire body. The veins around the spike bulged grotesquely. I stared down at my wounded arm, frowning.

Seto giggled brightly, shoulders bouncing in amusement. “What’s wrong? Can’t move your arm? That right there is the power of my Blessing, the Blessing of Blood!”

He pointed gleefully at the spike. “When the blood-spike hits, I get to control the area it pierces! Like this!”

At his finger-flick, the veins in my left arm erupted. My bone shattered, my flesh tore, and my blood spurted violently into the air.

He stuck out his tongue and hopped around like an excited child. “Hahahaha! Hurts, right? Is it painful? Is it? Once you’re hit, there’s no escape! My Blessing travels through your blood vessels and soon your whole body will...”

“It travels through the blood, huh. Then I just have to cut it off before that happens.”

Without any hesitation, I lifted my sword and severed my left arm cleanly from the shoulder.

***

Seto stared at Dale’s severed arm on the ground, lips pressed tightly together. He let out a short laugh, shoulders shaking with amusement.

Like Dale had said, since Seto’s Blessing spread like a toxin through the bloodstream, amputating the infected part before it spread would stop it completely. But how many people could cut off their own arm without hesitation? Especially a swordsman, whose entire fighting style relied on both arms?

Seto breathed in surprise. He looked at Dale and pulled his lips into a grin so wide it looked like his face would tear. “Yeah, yeah, yeah! This is it!”

Seto let out a mad howl of joy. “I’ve been waiting for someone exactly like you!”

It wasn’t just Dale’s strength that thrilled him so deeply. If all he wanted was a strong hero, he would have gone after the current first-ranked hero, the Empress. But Dale wasn’t just strong.

“You... You’re actually insane, aren’t you?” he muttered.

In his mind, Dale seemed even crazier than himself.

Seto spread his arms wide. “Well then, shall we keep playing?”

He stomped. Blood-red energy exploded upward, and crimson spikes shot toward Dale in a vicious barrage. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

***

I ducked low, weaving through the cascade of blood spikes. “Hmph!”

As they grazed past my skin by a hair’s breadth, I pulled my arm holding the sword far behind me, and then, like hurling a spear, I stepped hard into the ground and swung with all my strength.

The sword wrapped in Ashen Flame pierced through Seto’s side and flew far behind him.

Seto screamed as he looked down at the fist-sized hole torn through his flank. “Gaaah! That hurts!”

He thrashed like a child who had fallen and scraped his knee. “It hurts! It hurts! I said it hurts!”

Blood gushed from the wound as he clutched his side, wailing with big, messy tears, until suddenly, he went completely still.

Seto stared at my right hand. “But now, you don’t even have a sword anymore, huh.”

Watching him, I simply said, “Is it?”

I opened my right hand wide. The skin of my palm split open, and a crimson, blood-colored sword emerged from within. It was the Demon Sword Veskal, which I hadn’t drawn in a long time.

“Eeh?! What the...?” Seto pouted as if he were disappointed. “You had something like that on you?”

But when he properly looked at the red sword in my hand, he slowly curled his lips into an amused smirk. “Do you even know what that sword is?”

“At the very least, I know it better than you do.”

I hadn’t used it much lately, but in my previous life, Veskal had been my main weapon.

I drew out the sword’s power, feeling a sudden dizzying sensation as though all the blood in my body were about to be sucked dry. But it passed in an instant. Strength flooded my limbs, and an explosive surge of power boiled up inside me.

Seto burst into hysterical laughter. “Hahahaha! You really think you’ve got more than one life to burn, don’t you?”

He charged forward. Wherever his feet landed, blood spikes erupted up after him. My sword clashed against the spikes. Blood spikes shot from every direction, endlessly overflowing. If even one of them hit me, the Blessing of Blood would inflict fatal damage.

I stepped closer and swung my sword at Seto again. With a groan, I continued pushing forward.

I didn’t care about my life. I didn’t consider death. I just ran forward as if sprinting across a tightrope stretched between two cliffs, swinging my sword like a madman.

“Grahh!”

The Demon Sword, wrapped in Ashen Flame, sliced through Seto, sending him flying. His blood-red eyes trembled violently as he clenched his teeth hard enough to crack them. “You little!”

I had experienced his Blessing’s power first-hand, and yet I didn’t hesitate or retreat for even a moment.

Seto crossed his arms. “Let’s see you block this, then!”

He stomped again. With a rumble, sticky blood flooded the entire area, covering space itself. It was a massive blood barrier, the same one he had used the first time we fought.

“Rise!”

Up, down, front, back, right, and left, from every possible angle, blood spikes erupted. Thousands and tens of thousands appeared at once. It was a barrage with no gap big enough for even a fist to slip through—a hopeless, suffocating attack that allowed for no escape.

Yet, I let out a small laugh. “Haha! Never thought that stupid Challenge Mode would actually end up being useful.”

With a crooked grin, I kicked off the ground toward the incoming sea of spikes. The moment the crimson spikes were close enough to pierce through me, my vision flickered black, and I exploded into pieces.

Seto’s jaw dropped in pure horror. “What the...?”

How could he not be shocked? A human had just voluntarily blown himself up right in front of him.

He stumbled backward, staring at the scattered chunks of flesh. “W-what is this?”

At that moment, a swirl of dark gray smoke brushed past his cheek. “Huh?”

And then, I was instantly reborn. Without wasting any time, I rammed the Demon Sword straight into Seto’s abdomen while he stood frozen in shock.

Seto collapsed, clutching the sword skewering his stomach. Eyes wide with disbelief, he looked up at me.

I grinned down at him. “You asked earlier, right? If I thought I had more than one life? You were right. I do.”