While Kojin was in the lord's office with Najenda, she complimented him with a calm smile.
"Your warriors are strong. I had no idea the city of Kagahara was capable of grooming such powerful people."
Kojin responded proudly, folding his arms.
"I'm glad to hear that. I picked the most well-trained soldiers. You asked for it, and I delivered."
Najenda then turned toward Nazuna.
"How many of the lightning soldiers are left?"
Nazuna gave a nervous smile.
"Actually… they were all defeated in the battle. Not one of our top-rank lightning soldiers are in good condition—except for your son, Kuro."
Kojin raised a brow.
"Your son?"
Nazuna quickly explained, "Kuro is the son of Lord Najenda. He's the strongest B-rank soldier the lightning country has."
Najenda, still extremely calm as she sipped her tea, spoke without the slightest trace of worry.
"I was expecting this. But honestly, I didn't expect the fight between our two nations to be a one-sided beatdown. I'm amazed."
Kojin chuckled lightly.
"Oh, come on. Don't feel bad. Your soldiers put up quite a fight."
Najenda exhaled.
"Hopefully Kuro will put up quite a fight… and win."
Kojin leaned back in his chair with a smirk, thinking to himself:
"Alright now… the rest have put on quite a show. Alex, Kazuki… it's your turn. You better not disappoint."
Meanwhile, in the ancient ruins, Alex, Kazuki, and Kuro blasted out of the ruins and shot straight into the forest. Their clash was so fast and intense that slashes of energy and lightning tore through the sky due to their intense combat abilities and speed that was just as fast as light. Their fight was ripping apart mountains and detonating huge explosions across the forest with every burst of speed and slash they made.
Alex had entered his Amplified Energy State—his hair glowing blue as his power surged over forty times his normal level. Kazuki had already activated his Spirit Mark, a crackling scarf of purple lightning around his neck, both arms wrapped in blazing purple flames.
They faced off against Kuro, who wielded massive swords of lightning in each hand, his aura crackling violently. All three flew at incredible speeds, Kuro clashing swords with Kazuki, both soldiers were showcasing incredibly swords skills with every strike causing a storm of yellow and purple lightning. Kuro wasn't just combating against Kazuki, but he was also dodging Alex's beams of energy that were being shot at him as he fought Kazuki.
Alex charged I'm at top speed, his first igniting with energy. As he created multiple Blades of Death, he fired them rapidly like beams of light. Kuro intercepted the attacks with a wild smirk on his face and weaved through the barrage with light speed precision, each missed blade causing massive detonations all over the landscape around them.
Still dodging at blinding speed, Kuro countered by forming lightning swords and firing them back. Kazuki while on the ground, anticipating the attack, sliced through the incoming lightning with his purple-flame sword, each strike cutting apart the lightning bolts.
Seeing this, Kuro narrowed his eyes "This guy...", he charged at Kazuki. The two started to clash again, each clash of their swords producing explosions big enough to cause powerful lightning bolts to fly around the wastelands.
Kuro retreated into the air to prepare another attack.
Alex quickly formed two giant Blades of Death and launched them at him.
Kuro moved to dodge—
—but Kazuki appeared behind him, punching him straight into Alex's attack.
The resulting explosion lit up the entire sky.
As Alex and Kazuki rushed in to finish him, Kuro suddenly shouted:
"Lightning Glacial!"
A titanic column of lightning fell from the sky, incinerating the entire forest. When the smoke cleared, Alex and Kazuki were standing inside a glowing purple energy force field.
Kazuki glanced at Alex.
"Hey Alex, this guy is a freaking powerhouse. Even with both of us, we're nowhere near beating him. We need way more power than this. At our current level… it's still no use."
Alex formed a hand sign—countless giant Blades of Death appearing all over the forest.
"I know you're low on energy, so I'll stall for you."
The blades shot toward Kuro like raining meteors.
Kuro smirked.
"This lame attack again?"
Kazuki sighed.
"I'm surprised you're this strong now. Seriously, you've got a massive pool of energy at base. Not to mention your demonic energy. Now this? At this point you're probably as strong as Sughi or even Tomoa."
Alex grinned.
"Oh come on now, are you glazing me? We could just end this rivalry and admit I'm stronger and better."
Kazuki scoffed.
"No way, you numbskull. You think I'll lose to you? Our rivalry continues till the day we die."
Kuro, now irritated by the endless barrage, unleashed another storm of lightning from the sky, blowing apart mountains and neutralizing the incoming Blades of Death.
"If you want to beat me," Kuro warned, "you'll have to do better. Otherwise you'll end up dead."
Kazuki suddenly asked, "Alex, you remember Tobi?"
Alex frowned. "Yeah, but what about him?"
Kazuki replied, "If Tobi were to fight for real, he could pull off something like this."
Alex gave a goofy expression.
"How is a 14-year-old kid that overpowered…?"
Kuro resumed firing a massive barrage of lightning swords across the battlefield. Alex and Kazuki darted out of the force field, dodging with everything they had as explosions tore apart the landscape around them.
Inside Alex's mind, his inner demon spoke:
"At this rate, you and your friend will get badly injured. Let me lend you a little of my power. Just one percent should be enough."
Suddenly, Alex's left arm transformed into a demonic arm, bursting with dark energy that released gusts of wind powerful enough to shake the entire region.
Both Kazuki and Kuro were stunned at the sight of the overwhelming demonic aura.
Alex smirked.
"Alright… let's get this started."
END OF CHAPTER.