Harian stood still, his thoughts drifting far from the battlefield he had just overturned. Justice. The word surfaced again, as it often did whenever he watched people like George or Muliad act without hesitation. For them, justice was simple. A belief. A pillar. Something that gave structure to a broken world and meaning to their actions. To protect the weak. To punish evil. To make those in power answer for their sins. It was a concept they carried in their bones, something they did not need to question.
Harian was not like that. He had never been. Even now, he could not say he truly understood what justice meant. Was it mercy? Was it balance? Was it retribution? Or was it simply a word people used to justify violence when it suited them? He knew that if he asked George, he would get an answer probably a good one, maybe even the right one. But in his previous life, George had died long before Harian ever reached that question. He had never been given the chance to understand justice through someone who believed in it.
Instead, Harian had lived by his own rule. He pointed his sword at anyone he deemed an enemy to his beliefs, regardless of how weak or insignificant they were. That path had led him to become the Nightmare King, to drown the world in destruction without restraint. He did not regret it. Not truly. But even now, a question lingered in the back of his mind, one he had never bothered to answer before. Was what he had done justice, twisted though it was? Or was it simply the indulgence of his own will?
This time was different. Fate had given him another chance, and he had no intention of wasting it. George would not die this time. Harian would make sure of that. He would walk this life again, but he would do it differently. Not by chasing justice, not by pretending to uphold some moral high ground, but by protecting the ones who might one day give him the answers he lacked.
His gaze sharpened as his thoughts settled. He did not need a sword in his hand to make a decision. His intent alone was enough. The man standing in front of him was indirectly responsible for his closest friend's death in another life. Harian examined his own emotions carefully, the way he always did. There was no hatred. No rage. No disgust. The Harian from before the Nightmare King would have felt all of those things.
Now, there was only clarity.
Those responsible for twisting his fate, for turning his life into a long chain of loss and ruin, would be erased. Not out of vengeance. Not out of justice. Simply because they stood in his way.
[ESSENCE AUTHORITY INCREASED.]
[ESSENCE MANIPULATION EFFICIENCY IMPROVED.]
[TARGET CONFIRMED.]
Vex's announcement echoed in his mind, cold and precise. Harian welcomed it. His breathing remained steady, his expression unchanged. Whatever this world called justice no longer mattered to him. His resolve was set, and this time, he would not hesitate.
Sparrow did not like the look in Harian's eyes. Not one bit. It unsettled him how a young kid could possess such a gaze. Harian was looking at him as if he had already decided to cut him into pieces, as if Sparrow's fate had been settled long before this moment. The realization sent a chill through his spine and made the hair on his neck stand.
What disturbed him even more was what he felt within himself. His essence authority was waning. A massive amount of essence had already drained from his body, something that had never happened to him before. He struggled to gather more, forcing his control, but it refused to respond properly. His thoughts raced as he tried to understand what was happening, and that uncertainty triggered his survival instincts. That was exactly why he could not afford to hold back.
He gave it everything he had. Sparrow had fought on battlefields soaked in blood and faced opponents far stronger than himself. He had survived Wyre's hellish training, a process that broke most people long before they ever saw real combat. He would use all of that now. Activating the sword song technique, he began gathering world essence with precise breathing, pulling it into his body and stabilizing it through sheer discipline.
Once the essence was collected, Sparrow pushed his authority to its limit and converged it into true essence. The strain was immense, but he endured it, forcing the energy to take shape. Slowly, Vel began forming in his hand, unstable yet unmistakable.
Still, desperation clawed at him. His entire body screamed that he was in grave danger. With Vel forming in one hand, Sparrow summoned more power behind him. More than a dozen highly concentrated wind spears manifested in the air, far denser than before. They raged violently, the surrounding winds screaming as they twisted around the weapons, producing an eerie, unsettling sound that echoed through the forest.
Sparrow had used this technique only once before, during a battle against another true essence user. He had never thought he would be forced to use it again.
Sparrow finally spoke, his voice sharp and filled with hostility.
"You shouldn't underestimate me," he said coldly. "If you do, you'll die."
A smile spread across his face, twisted with resolve. In his mind, this unknown bastard would be erased from the face of the earth.
Harian did not answer. He stood there in silence, unmoving, while the essence around him continued to rise. The pressure in the air thickened, heavy enough to weigh on the lungs. Muliad stared in disbelief at the sheer number of spears Sparrow was forming, each one vibrating with lethal intent.
Yet what unsettled him more was Harian. The boy's composure never cracked. His posture remained relaxed, almost casual, and his essence only kept climbing. Muliad's instincts screamed at him to retreat, to create distance before whatever was coming erupted but he couldn't move. Instead, he did the only thing he could think of and began gathering as much essence as possible, preparing a defensive stance against the impending attack.
Harian's gaze shifted calmly from the storm of forming spears to the fake Vel in Sparrow's hand, and then back to Sparrow himself.
[WARNING. ESSENCE INPUT EXCEEDS CURRENT STABILITY THRESHOLD.]
Vex's voice echoed sharply in his head. The amount of essence Sparrow was forcing into those spears was far beyond what Harian could safely absorb.
Harian already knew that. He had felt it earlier when he absorbed the wind spears. Even Vex had struggled then. His body was still too weak. If he tried to activate Devour Field on those spears now, his organs would rupture from the internal strain. If he used Essence Break instead, the spears would simply pierce straight through him before the nullification fully propagated.
But despite all that, Harian wasn't worried in the slightest.
The essence he had collected during the earlier exchanges was more than enough. And more importantly...
[FORESIGHT BEARER ACTIVE. TRAJECTORIES CONFIRMED.]
Vex announced that it had fully predicted the paths of every spear. Not just their direction, but their timing, their angle, and the exact moment Sparrow would release them. Using Harian's memories from his past life, Vex had already reconstructed Sparrow's combat patterns. It knew how he fought, how he moved, and how he killed. That was why Harian remained calm.
He wasn't preparing to survive.
He was preparing to win. A slow, merciless grin spread across his face. No..he wasn't worried at all.
He was going to beat this ugly asshole straight into the ground.