Southern Face of the Kendo Dungeon
Just outside the shattered stone archway…
The air split before Korimer as he moved.
A single step — and cracks spider-webbed beneath his heel. Dust lifted in a ring around him, rippling outward as if pushed by an invisible shockwave. His spiritual energy was too dense, too compacted, every breath he took warping the air like heat.
He wasn't suppressing himself.
Not right now.
Ahead, the forest thinned, revealing a lone figure walking calmly between the trees. Each movement was precise, almost delicate — but every step cut a faint line into the earth, as if the air itself parted for him.
Edward Blooms.
The Blossom Blade.
Ace of Blooms Academy.
His academy uniform fluttered slightly behind him, but everything else was still — his posture, his sword hand, even the aura wrapped around him. Calm. Controlled. Focused.
Edward's eyes lifted the moment Korimer entered sight.
Cold blue. Sharp. Measuring.
Korimer grinned like a wolf who'd found prey and predator in one body.
"So it's true," he muttered. "You really are the prodigy from the East."
Edward stopped walking.
Wind brushed past him, bending the leaves away as if they were afraid to touch him.
"And you," he said softly, "are Korimer Ransthrol. The spear of Four Stars."
Their gazes locked.
The world held its breath.
Above them, faint warps of energy shimmered where Korimer's Spiritual Signature met Edward's — two forces pressing against each other, colliding invisibly in the air.
Even without clashing physically, the environment already felt the weight of their presence.
Korimer's fingers flexed.
His grin broadened.
"Looks like Kutote won't be your warm-up today."
Edward's expression didn't change.
"Kutote was never my intention."
Korimer raised a brow.
"Oh?"
Edward finally set a hand on his hilt — slowly, deliberately, like a pianist preparing to play the first note of a dangerous song.
"You were."
A tremor rushed through the trees.
Branches shook. Leaves spiraled upward. The ground vibrated.
Korimer's eyes lit with excitement.
"Perfect."
Neither moved.
Not for a breath.
Not for two.
Then —
FWIP—KRKSHHH!!
Edward vanished.
Korimer barely tilted his head before a silver arc tore past his cheek, slicing through the stone behind him. It didn't explode — it simply separated into smooth halves, falling apart like a quiet exhale.
Korimer laughed.
"Fast!"
He drove a fist toward the blur materializing to his right.
Edward blocked with the back of his sheathe — the impact ringing like struck metal. Wind pulsed outward, lifting dust several meters high.
Edward slid one step back, boots carving a clean red groove across the earth.
Korimer didn't give him time to breathe.
He stepped forward — and the world folded.
To the untrained eye, he vanished.
To Edward's eyes, the movement was a violent streak of light.
Korimer's leg snapped out.
Edward parried the kick with the flat of his blade still in its sheath — but the force sent him sliding back, ripping a shallow trench beneath his feet.
Edward straightened.
His mouth tightened slightly — not in fear, but in interest.
"You're holding back already?" he said.
Korimer scoffed.
"You think that's all I've got?"
Edward exhaled.
"Good. Then I won't waste time."
He finally drew his blade.
The world brightened.
It wasn't light — it was clarity.
A thin film of pressure washed over the battlefield, like air sharpened to a blade's edge.
Korimer's grin froze for a fraction of a second.
Swordmaster.
The title wasn't a metaphor.
Every movement, every breath, every minute shift in Edward's stance felt…perfect.
Korimer clicked his tongue.
"So that's Swordmaster aura… Nice. Let's see how far it gets you."
Edward didn't reply.
He simply moved.
Edward's sword cut the air without sound — not because it was slow, but because it was too fast for sound to cling to.
Korimer raised his arms in a cross-guard, catching the strike on his forearms.
The pressure wave behind it blasted the trees apart in a clean straight line.
Korimer's feet dug trenches half a meter deep.
"Alright…"
His grin widened.
"Now this is fun."
He slammed his elbow forward.
Edward dodged — bending with unnatural precision, back arching in a smooth curve, the strike passing inches from him.
Edward countered with a rising slash.
Korimer blocked using the back of his wrist — sparks flashing off his skin as SE collided with sharp steel.
Their eyes met again, close enough to see reflections.
Korimer laughed.
Edward didn't.
But his eyes gleamed.
"Show me," Edward murmured, "why Four Stars calls you their ace."
Korimer answered by launching himself upward, flipping over Edward and driving a heel down.
Edward braced — sword raised horizontally.
BOOOOM!!
The earth erupted under them, shockwaves rippling outward, toppling trees like dominos.
Both were thrown back in opposite arcs, landing gracefully.
Korimer cracked his neck.
Edward wiped a speck of dust off his blade.
They vanished again.
KRKSHH!
FWIP!
BOOM!
Each exchange tore lines into the ground, carved slashes through stone, launched bursts of wind that blew away dirt in circular waves.
Neither had used a technique.
Neither had tapped into deeper forms.
This was pure base combat — fundamentals sharpened to deadly edges.
Edward's sword rose.
And the environment reacted.
Leaves lifted. Grass flattened. Even sound warped slightly.
Korimer's face grew serious for the first time.
Edward whispered:
"Petalfall Arc."
He slashed once.
A single, elegant cut.
But the air rippled — and then a cascading rain of sword-arcs manifested behind it, thin lines of concentrated SE falling like petals on a spring breeze.
Each arc wasn't large.
They didn't explode.
They simply sliced.
Cleanly.
Korimer's eyes narrowed.
He spread his stance —
And punched.
Not one punch.
A storm of them.
Each fist shattered a falling arc, breaking them into bursts of harmless wind. His movements blurred until his arms were just streaks of motion.
But Edward was already behind him.
Korimer spun.
Too slow.
A blade hovered just at the skin of his neck — not cutting, but stating clearly:
"I win this exchange."
Korimer froze.
Then he grinned again.
"You sure about that?"
His foot tapped lightly.
Edward blinked — only now noticing the pressure underfoot.
Korimer had compressed SE into the ground at the moment Edward moved behind him.
One tap released it.
WHOOOM!!
A geyser of spiritual force erupted beneath Edward, launching him upward into the air.
Korimer appeared above him instantly.
Edward's eyes widened slightly — the first break in composure.
Korimer brought his fist down.
***
Meanwhile the western ridge.
Outside the range of Four Stars Academy.
Toward the overwhelming, suffocating spiritual presence that had just entered range.
Dementor's jaw tightened.
"Who is that?"
Sankaiju's pupils shrank.
"Not one of ours…"
A shadow crushed down the earth with each step he took.
Fadex.
Dementor felt his skin chill.
Sankaiju just behind him, cloak fluttering unnaturally despite the still air felt it too — both recognizing immediately:
This was not someone they should be fighting at their current output.
This was someone whose aura had the weight of a calamity.
Fadex's gaze scanned the field — landing first on Dementor.
Then on Sankaiju.
Then on the academy far behind them.
He sighed softly.
"So many weak ones… all in one place."
His tone wasn't mocking.
Wasn't angry.
It was almost sad.
Dementor raised his fists again — posture tense, aura tightening around his body.
Sankaiju lifted his blade made from ice steel but didn't advance.
Fadex raised a hand lazily.
"Don't worry. I'm not here for you. You abomination of a man."
The air shivered.
"But if you keep fighting like that…"
He looked past them, towads the academy a few miles away.
"…then the ones you left behind will be caught up in this as well. And then all of you die in the crossfire. But what are YOU doing here?"
Dementor clicked his tongue.
Sankaiju exhaled shakily.
They understood.
Even if they hated it.
Fadex stepped forward once —
And the ground cracked. It was then Dementor felt something. All the while the man had spoken to them it seemed to have been growing even stronger than he already was. Meanwhile the earth around him lost their vitality.
Behind Dementor, Sankaiju whispered with a grin under his hood:
"Brother... He seems to be absorbing energy from the planet."
Dementor's voice cut sharply — cold, commanding, protective:
"So it seems."
He stared at Fadex again.
"It would be impossible to not riun here after all you are releasing your pressure like a honing beacon, someone one was bound to notice"
"Indeed. I want them to come. The legends— Carpathia and Kime!"
Dementor felt that was wrong, something was seriously wrong with this guy if he felt he could take on not just one but two legends as the same time.
It was crazy!
No — Suicide!!
But something he could use.
And then he walked past them, descending the path toward Four Stars Academy.
Dementor swallowed.
"Wait! Carpathia is nowhere to be found. And Kime, he's not even at the academy"
Fadex stopped and looked back at the abomination of a man. He spread out his senses and found that he truly couldn't find Kime. Besides he was certain he would have come already if he had felt his spiritual pressure. And Carpathia couldn't not be here! He had check Mt. Dekka but he wasn't there that only left here.
"Where? Where is he!? Where has he disappeared to!?"
"Nobody knows. All we know is he went missing about six months ago." Sankaiju stated.
"No—No! Then Kime! Where is he!?"
"I know where he is we can take you there—"
Sankaiju sheathed his blade.
"Okay. No wait—"
Then he wondered why they were helping, it occurred to him that he had no reason to trust those damnable humans.
"Why? What is it in for you?"
"Choas—I want chaos and I need your help"
"Okay. I accept that. Tell me what do you want me to do then?" Fadex asked, and Dementor did not even think.
"I want you. To take down Brandish Kingdom. I will handle the rest."
"No—we" Sankaiju said stepping from behind Dementor.
"Then we have an alliance?"
"Indeed."
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Spiritual Energy (SE)
Spiritual Sea (SS)
Spiritual Signature (SST)