Gol D. Ace In Coiling Dragon

Everyone present, be they saint or mortal, watched in shock as Lanke, O’Brien’s 22nd Disciple, a true expert at the peak of the saint realm, fell to his death, his body a charred heap of meat!

“Lanke!” Fain cried out.

Although there was a lot of competition and negativity between most of O’Brien’s disciples, Fain was one of the very few who cared deeply for all his junior brothers and sisters, even Byrius, who seemed dead set on antagonising everyone around him.

His heart had been thrown into turmoil after the death of his other juniors at the hands of Arianna’s disciples a couple of years ago. Still, there was nothing he could’ve done back then as he hadn’t been there to help.

But this was different. This time, he was right there, yet all he could do was watch as his junior brother was killed right before his eyes.

Even Byrius felt a hint of sorrow. With him being so agreeable by nature, Lanke was one of the few martial siblings Byrius got along with. Still, they weren’t given any time to mourn.

“Haha, good kill!” Wukong exclaimed as he turned into a bolt of lightning, charging straight towards the saddened Byrius, his staff bending as it came hurtling down towards the crown of the red-haired warrior’s head.

“You’re courting death!” Byrius growled, ignoring the stinging of his soul as his sword arced towards the Wukong’s neck whilst side-stepping the crystal-white staff.

Unfortunately, with his soul still tingling from Wukong’s last attack, his spiritual essence couldn’t completely lock on to those around him, allowing Ace, Byrius’ original target, to suddenly leap into the fray unnoticed.

Just as he was about to evade Wukong’s attack, Ace’s [Conqueror’s Haki] surged forth. Its effects were limited against saints. Still, it was enough to cause him a fraction of a millisecond lapse of concentration – more than enough time for Wukong to capitalise.

By the time he shrugged off Ace’s mysterious attack, Wukong’s staff was right in front of his face.

Knowing he wouldn’t be able to block in time, Byrius tried his best to dodge. Unfortunately, despite not being a saint, Wukong was too fast. Ultimately, all he could do was move his head out of the way, allowing Wukong’s staff to hit him on the shoulder.

The sound of his shoulder dislocating rang through the air as his body was sent flying.

“BYRIUS!” Fain roared unwillingly as he saw Ace’s body move at a speed that should be impossible for a warrior of the sixth rank. “DODGE, QUICKLY!”

After taking two of Wukong’s attacks, his soul was in copious amounts of pain. It took everything he had not for him to lose consciousness. If not for Fain’s shouts, he may well have done.

Unfortunately, his soul was in far too much pain to pay attention to what was going on around him; his eyes had barely opened when he noticed the tip of a fiery halberd piercing towards his head.

For the second time in as many years, Byrius was overwhelmed by fear as the threat of death loomed over his head.

“NOOOOO!” Byrius roared as he tried to fly away as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, Ace was too close. He barely moved fast enough to avoid his head being pierced. Unfortunately, his chest wasn’t so lucky.

Still, as a peak saint, his battle-qi wasn’t something Ace could pierce through easily, but before he could sigh in relief, Ace’s cold voice seemed to penetrate his soul. “Die!”

Everyone watched in absolute disbelief as the flames coating Ace’s halberd suddenly blew.

Whether it was the experts from the Cult of Darkness, the Radiant Church, or the Yulan Empire, their brows all furrowed when they saw the might of Ace’s attack.

They had all read the reports on Ace’s strength. During his fight with Olivier, he displayed the strength of an early saint, but that was with the aid of a forbidden technique of some sort.

When he finally made his reemergence into the world a year later, when fighting Harelk – the early saint-level rainbow dragon – he was able to comfortably display the strength of an early saint without the forbidden technique.

A year after that, during the ambush of the Cult, he displayed strength nearing that of a mid-stage saint when fighting against Sulturn – one of the cult’s Archbishops.

And just now, whether it was his strength or speed, they were equal to that of a mid-staged saint.

This was the first time those from the Yulan Empire or the Radiant Church had seen Ace in action, and both felt that rumours of his talent weren’t able to do him justice. There were no words that could describe the talent needed to accomplish what Ace had.

Still, the youth in question was looking at his halberd, shaking his head.

“That didn’t feel right,” Ace muttered, ignoring the severely wounded Byrius, who was desperately fleeing for his life. “The explosion needs to be more focused.”

It wasn’t that Ace didn’t want to chase after him. It was that he knew as fast as he had become, he was nowhere near as fast as he was; he was still significantly slower than a peak saint like Byrius, injured or not. As a result, Ace decided to focus on reflecting on his last attack.

The others, though impressed, couldn’t understand the true intricacies of Ace’s last attack. Of those present, only Wukong was able to. As someone who had also begun to fuse two separate profound mysteries, Wukong was able to clearly sense that Ace had done the same.

As a result of his enlightenment, not only had Ace’s comprehension of the Profound Mystery of Explosion jumped to that of a mid-staged saint, he had even begun fusing it with the essence of fire, and by the looks of it, it had far surpassed the elementary stages of fusing.

“Little freak!” Wukong snorted when he saw the look of contemplation and unhappiness on Ace’s face.

At the same time, Byrius was desperately fleeing for his life. He had seriously come too close to dying just then.

Right now, he had absolutely no intention of fighting against Ace. In fact, he had subconsciously decided he would never appear in front of Ace or anyone from the Pavilion again. The shadow they had left over his heart was simply too vast. It was like every time he saw them, he would lose disastrously!

After the lesson that he’d just been taught by Ace and Wukong, all he wanted to do was escape and live the rest of his life in a distant corner of the world, far away from Ace and far away from the Pavilion. He didn’t care that he would be disappointing his ancestor. From that moment on, he wanted to live a solitary life without violence and struggle.

It was hard to believe someone could change so much so quickly, but that was what happened when one was pushed past their breaking point. Byrius had lost all his willpower; as such, the chances of him being able to take even a single step forward with his comprehension at this point were non-existent.

Unfortunately, despite his sudden change of heart and his desire for a life free from struggle, destiny had other plans for him.

He had barely made it more than two kilometres when his already pale face was drained of any and all colour.

“You… How… No…” Byrius stammered incoherently as his eyes fell on the man in front of him, casually standing in mid-air holding nothing but a gourd of extremely potent alcohol.

“HAHAHA! IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!” Byrius suddenly roared with laughter as any hint of reason vanished without a trace. “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!”

No one had been paying much attention to Byrius after he flew off, nor did they blame him. If he chose to stay, all that awaited him was death. Still, he hadn’t left the range of their perception when they heard his mental breakdown.

Turning their attention in his direction. The eyes of all the experts on the side of the O’Brien Empire constricted.

Even now, as their eyes fell upon that lone figure, they were wholly unable to sense him. But unlike Carter, he clearly wasn’t wearing a shadow robe.

“Huh, old man?” Ace called out in surprise as he too had no idea he was here.

Aiden lazily stood in the air, seemingly barely paying attention to what was going on around him, focusing more on the contents of his gourd.

Byrius, who had lost all reason, attacked without any technique. He simply charged at Aiden, allowing his blazing aura to flare wildly.

Those watching were taken aback as Byrius’ wild and searing aura suddenly skyrocketed. Still, Byrius didn’t seem to notice that he had finally achieved his goal of becoming a prime saint; his crazed eyes were focused solely on the man, who, in his eyes, was to blame for all his suffering as of late.

Even as the temperature spiked, Aiden remained utterly uninterested. It was only when the deranged Byrius began roaring like a lunatic that he looked up with a hint of frustration.

Still, he didn’t draw for the glaive strapped to his back. He simply pressed his index and middle fingers together and thrust them forward.

Everyone, whether it was Ace, Jordon, Fain, or any of the other experts present, watched in complete and utter disbelief as Aiden’s fingers pierced the skull of the newly promoted prime saint like a hot knife through butter, killing him instantly.

“So noisy,” Aiden mumbled as he rubbed his temple, trying to ease his apparent headache.