Harian disappeared again right in front of Josen's eyes.
Josen who had fought monsters, survived the border wars, and struck down enemies that terrified seasoned warriors felt a cold spike run down his spine. He could not track the movements of a skinny, ragged seventeen-year-old boy.
He immediately expanded his essence sense. The world sharpened around him, every disturbance in the air heightened. In that split second he caught it, Harian to his right.
Josen reacted instantly. He activated the Second Movement of the Sword Song Art, using every refined instinct he possessed. Harian's blade came down, and Josen barely managed to intercept it. The clash rang through the cell block.
But the pressure on Josen's sword suddenly vanished. Harian vanished with it. Josen's heart lurched. He twisted his body on instinct alone just in time to catch Harian's next strike from behind. Their swords collided again, but this time Josen's hands trembled from the impact. Sweat rolled down his temples. His face tightened. He had never ever.....seen anything like this.
Harian did not vanish this time. He stood there, calm, collected, lifting his sword into another beautifully structured stance. The line of his arm, the positioning of his feet, even the angle of his wrist, it was perfect. Too perfect.
Something was wrong.
Essence began gathering around Harian. Not world essence. Not divine essence. Not even core essence. Something else. Something Josen's instincts screamed at. Inside Harian's mind, Vex's voice echoed sharply.
[REPORT: ATTEMPTING ESSENCE BREAK INEFFICIENT. TARGET ESSENCE LEVEL TOO HIGH. DEVOUR FIELD, PARTIAL ABSORPTION ONLY.]
Harian clicked his tongue. "Tch. Figures."
He had tried to absorb Josen's essence. But Josen's control was too refined, too condensed. Harian could barely convert even a sliver into void essence. This would become a battle of attrition, and he knew he would lose if he chose that path. Josen's essence reserves and mastery far outclassed his current, regressed body.
So Harian chose the only path left to him.
A simple one.
Years of bloodshed. Hard-earned experience. Swordsmanship sharpened to perfection.
[ESSENCE DISTRIBUTED EVENLY THROUGHOUT BODY. MAXIMUM COMBAT EFFICIENCY REACHED.]
"I knew i could rely on you, Vex"
He moved. Josen's eyes widened in disbelief. The very air around Harian warped and twisted, as if a force beyond nature was bending it. A strange essence clung to hi foreign, incomprehensible. The moment Harian stepped in, Josen felt like the world itself recoiled.
Harian launched his assault.
Josen blocked the first strike with difficulty. The second nearly broke his stance. The third forced him back a step. Each strike came faster, cleaner, deadlier. He had to pour every shred of concentration just to keep up. Even then Harian's blade slipped through.
A cut across Josen's arm.
Another along his shoulder.
A shallow stab grazing his ribs.
Josen stumbled, breathing hard, blood soaking through the seams of his armor. His expression twisted between shock and disbelief. This wasn't just speed.This wasn't just strength. This boy this seventeen-year-old criminal was dismantling a Master Knight.
Slowly, methodically and ruthlessly. And Harian? He didn't look strained. He didn't look worried. He was smiling.
"I don't know what you are," Josen growled, essence flaring violently around him, "but I am a Royal Guard of the kingdom. A Master Knight. Do not underestimate me!"
He roared and launched forward, pouring every ounce of world essence he could muster into his sword. The ground cracked under his feet. The air howled. His blade cut through space with a high-pitched whistle as he aimed straight for Harian's heart.
But Harian only smiled, that same irritating, relentless, unfazed smile that had bothered Josen from the moment he laid eyes on him. Harian raised his sword lazily and blocked Josen's full-force strike like it was nothing.
Then Harian's counterattack came.
Faster, heavier and sharper. Josen couldn't even breathe before a second strike followed, then a third. He barely managed to block them, but each time he did, the impact rattled his entire arm up to the shoulder. His bones screamed. His muscles shook.
He needed distance. Immediately. Josen pushed off the ground, sliding several meters back. He finally created space just long enough to look up at Harian again.
And what he saw… froze him. Harian stood there with his sword lowered at his side, essence vapor flowing from his body like living shadows. But that wasn't what terrified Josen.
It was the presence he was emitting. A cold, suffocating, predatory pressure one he had only ever felt twice in his life. Once during his training against Leon Lighthart.And once when Leon fought a monster at the southern border. This aura belonged to people who weren't warriors.
They were calamities.
Josen felt like he was standing in front of a starving beast, one that had decided he was prey. His knees weakened. His heartbeat hammered so loudly he could hear it in his ears. His breath trembled.
"W-Who the hell are you…?" Josen muttered. His voice shook. His hands shook. His entire body trembled in panic.
The other knights, who had been fighting Muliad, finally noticed. They turned their heads just in time to see Harian simply standing there and yet the pressure was enough to make their faces pale. Had it been them facing him… they would already be dead.
Even Muliad, exhausted and crouched low while gathering world essence, stared wide-eyed. His armor was cracked, his breath ragged, his arms numb from blocking multiple Advanced Sword Song strikes from the three knights. He looked like a man prepared to die.
But when he saw Harian… even he stiffened in shock. He had seen monsters.He had fought calamities.He had stood against the empire's elite. But this?
A scrawny seventeen-year-old boy radiating the presence of a battlefield sovereign? No, he had never seen anything like this. "Kn-Knights!" Josen finally shouted, voice cracking. "Regroup!" The knights jolted in fear and scrambled to his side, forming a defensive circle around him. Their grips shook. Sweat dripped from their temples. They activated their essence in unison, but even together, their pressure was crushed by the suffocating aura Harian exuded effortlessly.
Muliad dragged himself forward, chest heaving. He stared at Harian's back, stunned. A moment ago, he was ready to rush in and help the boy. Now… he wasn't so sure the boy needed help at all. Not even a little.
Harian didn't move, didn't speak, he didn't even look strained. He simply stared at the circle of knights with that same cold smile. The kind a predator gives cornered prey. "Well… that just makes it easier," Harian said quietly. The moment those words left his mouth, Muliad froze. His eyes widened. Then instinct old, battered, veteran instinct screamed at him.
Move.
Without hesitation, Muliad threw himself backwards, rolling across the ground and creating as much distance as possible. The other knights cursed him immediately.
"Coward!"
"You're abandoning the boy!?"
But Josen didn't call him a coward. Josen understood immediately because he felt it. He saw the air around Harian's sword twist...no! distorted as if reality itself was recoiling from the blade. He felt a pressure that made his lungs seize. A twisting, suffocating force he only barely survived moments before when the prison exploded. Only now did he truly grasp the truth :
This boy was the source.
"DEFENSIVE FORMATION, NOW!" Josen roared. His knights jolted, confused then the pound reached them. Harian's sword… was vibrating.
A deep, unnatural hum reverberated through the stone floor. Essence gathered like a swirling storm around Harian's arms, condensing into a dense black vapor that rose like smoke from hell. Vex's voice echoed in Harian's mind:
[EXECUTION POSSIBLE. WHENEVER YOU ARE READY.]
But Harian didn't rush. He lifted his sword slowly, deliberately blade tip aimed toward the sky. His heels together. His posture elegant, almost ceremonial. His aura relentless. Josen felt his throat tighten. *Beautiful…* he realized. That stance whatever it was terrifyingly beautiful. The knights felt it too. Their knees buckled as they scrambled to reinforce their defenses, gathering every scrap of essence they could muster. "HURRY!" Josen shouted again. They obeyed.
None dared hesitate now. Behind them the air screamed as essence converged, denser and denser, like a black sun forming in Harian's hands. Vex complained in Harian's mind:
[YOU ARE TAKING FAR TOO LONG. THIS IS UNNECESSARY. AND THEATRICAL.]
"This is to put the fear of God in them."
[NO. YOU JUST WANT TO LOOK COOL.]
"...Fine," Harian muttered under his breath. He drew in a breath. His eyes sharpened. His smile grew cold. And then "**Shadow Ascend.**"