The sage looked at the omnia in Nicol's body. "Ranyu? What are you playing at, bringing these folks to disturb the peace of this land?" She planted her bamboo stick into the ground, creating a strong tremor. Ranyu did not flinch at the threat but also did not look into Tianqi's eyes. That alone was enough for Tianqi to get her answer. "Get lost. I'll take care of it myself." She took the bamboo stick, turned around and started casting a spell. Then a long thread of light began to form from thin air and wrapped around the azure dragon. Pablo sensed the highest magic level he had ever felt and rushed back towards that mountain. "Five, six?! Seven???...twelve... seventeen?!!... how many magic circles were there?!?!"
Dumbfounded by the number of magic circles surrounding the dragon, Pablo hastened his climbing speed. Normally, a mage with 4 magic circles in their arcane circuit was considered among the best in the world of magecraft. 5 magic circles were those like the archmages of the arcane tower, whose magical power was comparable to the entire army of a large kingdom. Six or seven circles was unimaginable. Yet he was seeing magic on a scale he couldn't comprehend.
As Pablo reached the top of that mountain, the azure dragon's wing was fully healed. It swooped up into the sky and disappeared among the clouds. Then the maiden's body came flying towards him. Pablo caught her just to see how beaten up Ranyu was. She lost her glow and left Nicol's unconscious body as soon as she landed in Pablo's arms. In front of him was Tianqi, pointing the bamboo stick at him. "Leave the thousand and one cloud-crowned mountains. With that meager power of yours, that blade of the devil will never reach the eschaton."
"If I don't, then are you going to defeat it for me?" Pablo readied his sword after provoking Tianqi. But he did not expect it would mark the end of his journey.
"I'll defeat it. I've done that before." Tianqi flatly replied. Pablo was confused and felt betrayed. "Then good luck. I didn't know Ranyu also tasked someone other than me. Ah... I thought I was special. Anyway, Nil, do you want a new owner? Lady, do you need this devil sword to fight that eschaton?" Pablo awkwardly spoke his mind.
"Never mind, she looks bland." Nil seemed uninterested in Tianqi despite her power. Tianqi also declined. Pablo then laid Nicol down behind him and grabbed his stance ready. "Very well. Now do you want to tell me the reason you had to hit her this badly?"
Tianqi did not respond to Pablo's guard. She calmly turned around, ready to leave. "Ranyu tried to stall me with her vessel. I only stopped her from this foolish act."
"Then she must doubt your capabilities to defeat the eschaton." Pablo approached Tianqi's back and slashed the devil sword upward. He knew the sage in front of him was exceedingly strong. But given that Pablo was blessed by the omnia as the hero despite her existence, along with the devil sword that could cut through anything, he would never give up his responsibility easily. The spar was necessary for Pablo to prove whether he was still needed here. Tianqi used the bamboo stick to intercept his incoming slash without looking back. The devil sword easily cut Tianqi's bamboo stick like cutting paper. But Pablo staggered when his blade kept sinking deeper into the stick like it had infinite breadth. He pushed further and finally cut through the bamboo stick but never moved any closer to Tianqi's back. Pablo felt a vast amount of strength squeezing his sword from both severed bamboo stick parts at his sides. Pablo, who was always confident in his physical strength, couldn't budge his sword a millimeter no matter how hard he tried. Tianqi then used the pinching bamboo stick to fling Pablo and his sword flying aside at a speed that would certainly crush him into pulp with whatever he landed on.
However, Nil, who was watching everything from the blade, was so fascinated the blade glowed with a purplish aura. "Last time I didn't notice how you managed to survive from that height. Now I won't miss what trick you're using!" Her eyes gleamed red with excitement as she watched how the human from another realm would use her power. Pablo's heart raced too. Last time, his instinct had kicked in so he had no idea and could recall nothing about what he did with the devil sword. As Pablo was about to hit a mountain, he cut around his landing spot and kicked it away to create a tunnel that passed through it. Entering the tunnel, Pablo stabbed the devil sword down into the surrounding rock and turned the blade slightly to let its flat part disperse the impact force. Slowed down enough, he cut the mountain open to escape. "Good job surviving that!" Nil enjoyed Pablo's struggle.
In the sky above him was Tianqi, levitating. "I have no interest in killing. But you seem to be the type who needs to learn when to stop." Above her was also a flying mountain. As Tianqi breathed in and clasped her hands, that flying mountain was compressed and crushed into a glowing yellow light. The crunching sound rumbled like a sequence of massive explosions as the strong gust formed a whirlwind. The condensed glowing light fell down into Tianqi's grasp as it dimmed into the shape of a bamboo stick. Pablo shivered. "No wonder it took so long to cut. Is it now just the thousand cloud-crowned mountains left?"
Though he did not have much time to be afraid before Tianqi approached. Pablo clashed his devil sword with Tianqi's bamboo-stick-shaped mountain. This time Tianqi pushed the bamboo stick through and used the severed part to hit Pablo's shoulder before the blade reached her. Pablo's bones were crushed in an instant. He couldn't lift his arm anymore. But he still grasped his sword tight and used his other arm to support his swing. Tianqi dodged that effortlessly. She then landed another barrage of attacks on Pablo from all sides. Despite the injuries, Pablo still found a way to retaliate. When his arms gave in, he grabbed the sword handle with his calf and thigh behind his knee. When his legs gave in, he rolled down to grab the sword with his mouth. When his jaw gave in and Tianqi was about to kick the devil sword away, he somehow managed to get up and catch that sword once again. Tianqi had held back, but she was certain the warrior in front of her was in no state to move anymore. Even so, Pablo was still standing.
"Why don't you give up?" Tianqi stopped before she actually ended his life. This was the first time Pablo had faced a total defeat. Speed, strength, technique — there was nothing he could match the sage before him on, not even one bit. Such an experience he had never felt before made him wonder where the limit of his opponent was and what ridiculously powerful fighting he would see next. Before Pablo knew it, his body had already gotten up on its own. "Why did Ranyu choose me as the hero over someone as strong as you? I feel like the only way to find out is by holding on to this sword."
At Pablo's weakest moment, Bovorn came out of nowhere and snatched the devil sword from him. "My Nilrend!" He had been waiting patiently all this time for this single moment. The moment to unleash his true power. Nil was thrilled. "Hi there, Bovorn!" She had been watching from the other dimension of the blade with pure joy. Whoever could entertain her, she was down for all of them. Even without monstrous physical strength or magic, he had wielded the devil sword for centuries and destroyed empires solely by his swordcraft. Bovorn's sword dance was efficient and deadly.
Few clashes were made but Tianqi still couldn't get to him. Bovorn even managed to cut the bamboo sticks in both of her hands shorter. "Bwa ha ha ha, I never tasted a sage this strong before. With your durability, we're gonna have plenty of fun while I learn ultimate destruction from the eschaton!! Ha ha he hehe he..."
Bovorn with his devil sword was invincible. Unless there was a light pillar spell with 24 magic rings that pinned him down to the earth's mantle. That was how the tale of a horny undying barbarian ended, returned to the mother earth and eternally burned by her molten magma.
Nicol came back to her senses and looked around just to see a fading light dispersed over the smoke and a newly formed lava pool. Ranyu then swiftly took over Nicol's body and ran towards that smoke. There, she found Tianqi casting a healing spell on Pablo.
Without the devil sword, without magic, Pablo was just a strong man, not even considered a threat to the sage who had lived for millennia. But as soon as Pablo was healed, he grabbed Tianqi by her hand. It should have hurt his self-esteem but all he felt was relief to finally be humbled. Instead of despair, he found challenge. Instead of humiliation from being saved, he felt compassion through every particle of the healing he received. Instead of fear, "I think I finally felt the sensation of love."
Pablo fell in love under the most bizarre circumstances and confessed in the most unlikely way. This caught Tianqi off guard. Ranyu, running close behind, tumbled headlong.
Ptooey.
"What deranged madman are you?!" Ranyu spat out the grass and crawled up from the ground. Tianqi slapped Pablo's hand away after her astonishment subsided, then leapt away faster than any eye could see. Pablo was about to follow her trail but was stopped by an incoming double-footed light-enhanced dropkick from Ranyu to his face. "Stop your lunatic head right now! She's a sage!"
"But you're also an omnia with plenty of love stories, aren't you?" Pablo did not understand why Ranyu was so against it. Was it because she was envious he found Tianqi beautiful but not her? That must be it. That was why Ranyu was now slapping his face nonstop with her light magic hands. "Get yourself together!"
Slap!
"Get out, you devilish mind!"
SLAP!
Slap!
But this wasn't right. Pablo had finally found someone who didn't just respect his deeds or fall for his charm but treated him with care regardless. The more he looked at Tianqi, the more beautiful she got. And there was still so much mystery behind her that he wanted to discover. If she went to fight the eschaton, the being that would destroy the world, by herself, she wouldn't succeed without a hero's blessing according to Ranyu. But she had said she had beaten eschatons before. And this time the hero cycle had been hastened by a century.
But whatever reason Ranyu was hiding from Pablo, he wouldn't let Tianqi fight it alone. He might not be of much use right now, but at least he could be there for her even as a lucky charm with his hero's blessing.
Ranyu read Pablo's mind and kept hitting sense into him until she got out of breath. "Every lady has their own mysteries. She can take care of herself for the time being. Stop obsessing over her and focus on retrieving your devil sword already!"
But Pablo had decided. "Fine, we will get the sword. After I make sure Tianqi did not head out to fight the eschaton all by herself right now."
Ranyu stopped her hand. "Hm... Who would've thought you could be such an idiot after having a taste of love. Haven't you learned something from sparring with her power? She's beaten a bunch of eschatons long before your great great grandparents were born. A small fry like you is a million years early to worry about Tianqi."
"Then why choose me over her? What's the meaning of all the sacrifices made up until now?!" Pablo grabbed Ranyu's collar and clenched the only fist he had. His death stare straight into Ranyu's soul told her he wouldn't accept her answer lightly. But Ranyu looked back at him with a determined, glowing gaze. "Insolence, to doubt your omnia for the balance she maintained. Tianqi was the greatest hero this world has had and would ever have. I'd have chosen her again any day over anybody else!!" Ranyu shouted. This only made Pablo angrier. "Then what's stopping you? What made you think someone who stood no chance against your favorite hero would defeat the eschaton in her stead?!"
"Because she has become the eschaton!!" Ranyu hugged herself, shaking. Her eyes were full of sorrow yet full of resolve. "You and your devil sword are the only choice we had. To save us, you have to defeat her. You need to kill Tianqi."