"Oh?"
Surprise flashed through Kusho's eyes, only to be replaced by even greater excitement. Naked greed became visible in his gaze.
"Wonderful. I was just wondering where I could find more power like this!"
It had practically fallen right into his lap.
A brand-new rune was standing right before him.
His heart was roaring madly.
Take it!
Take it no matter the cost!
Kusho could feel the deepest desires within him screaming out.
"Then come and see if you can take it."
Luke rose and leapt into the air, precisely controlling the rune's energy. It flowed through his body like strands of electricity, radiating considerable heat.
His physique was enhanced, and the amplification continued rising. Every cell in his body seemed to be rejoicing.
Then he swung his sword.
Kusho confidently raised a hand to catch it.
Boom!
A deafening impact erupted, and his entire body was instantly hurled nearly a hundred meters backward, smashing a huge hole through the upper section of the temple.
Luke stepped on the air and shot upward, pursuing him directly.
His speed surpassed what the naked eye could follow. Only afterimages remained in the air.
In the next instant, another sword strike came down.
"WHOOSH!"
A massive, violent tornado roared forward, infused with rune energy and looking even more terrifying than usual.
"AAARGH!"
Kusho was swallowed on the spot.
He felt his body being continuously torn apart and screamed in agony before the violent rune energy surrounding him erupted and dispersed the tornado.
But by the time he looked again, Luke was already directly in front of him.
Both swords moved at once.
Luke pushed his swordsmanship to its absolute limit. Razor-sharp sword energy tore through the temple until the structure could no longer withstand the pressure.
With a thunderous collapse, the entire building came crashing down.
Shen carried Zed out while Irelia, Akali, and Ahri escaped alongside them.
All they could do now was look upward.
Every one of them realized that they couldn't even interfere in this battle.
A moment later, Kusho crashed into the ground.
Boom!
The entire mountaintop shook, and countless boulders tumbled from the cliffs.
"Damn you!"
Amid the clouds of dust, Kusho roared in fury.
Rune energy shot into the sky.
At that moment, the heavens themselves seemed to change color. The sky turned blood-red as thunder rolled within it.
BOOM!
Several bolts of lightning suddenly descended toward Luke.
Luke moved first and avoided them.
Having finally recovered from being suppressed, Kusho began fighting back.
He wildly unleashed what seemed like an endless supply of rune energy, destroying everything it touched.
Witnessing the destructive power of a rune firsthand sent chills through everyone watching.
At the same time, they could clearly see the difference between Kusho and Luke.
Kusho looked like an enormous mass of energy, his entire body overflowing with terrifying power that seemed capable of destroying everything. His appearance was savage and distorted.
Luke was using the same kind of power, yet he seemed to continuously compress and refine it.
The two looked like complete opposites.
Unable to interfere in the battle, everyone could only hope Luke would win.
Kusho intended to use this power to rule Ionia.
If he succeeded, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Secret Art: Binding Technique!"
Kusho formed hand seals with both hands.
While speeding through the air, Luke suddenly felt a tremendous binding force descend upon him and forcibly immobilize his body.
Above him, a devastating bolt of lightning composed entirely of rune energy was about to strike.
Flash!
Clear light swept across Luke's body.
The binding disappeared instantly.
He immediately moved aside.
The lightning slammed into the ground and blasted open a massive crater, with countless cracks spreading outward in every direction.
Had Luke been even one second slower, the hit would have been difficult to withstand.
Kusho hadn't expected Luke to possess a way to break his Binding Technique.
Even so, he immediately raised a hand and whipped the boiling energy around him toward Luke.
Luke continuously dodged while circulating his magic.
Then he raised one hand toward Kusho and pointed downward.
BOOM!
A brilliant dragon of lightning crashed from the sky and exploded directly against Kusho.
He roared in pain, completely unprepared for the fact that Luke could also use magic.
Luke immediately released even more magic.
Spell formations began appearing all around Kusho.
Rune Magic, Windburst!
Rune Magic, Fireball!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Terrifying explosions erupted.
It looked as though blazing suns were falling from the sky and crashing into the mountain.
The cliffside was the first thing to give way.
With a tremendous rumble, a huge section broke off.
The entire mountain shook like it had been struck by an earthquake.
In the next instant, an even more terrifying force erupted.
Rampaging crimson energy destroyed everything around it.
Another deafening crash sounded.
A second section of the cliff broke away.
The massive, solid mountain seemed almost fragile before these terrifying forces.
Looking carefully, the entire mountainside was already covered in cracks.
Kusho stood at the very center of the crimson energy.
His body looked partially ruined, while rune power surged freely across its surface.
By now, he no longer resembled a human being at all.
He was a rampaging monster made of energy.
He charged toward Luke again, recklessly pouring out his power.
Luke had already drawn upon the full power of one of his runes and met him head-on.
The surrounding mountains continued being devastated by their clash.
Even the sky repeatedly changed color.
The sight alone inspired fear.
At the foot of the mountain, countless members of the Navori Brotherhood looked upward, trembling both physically and mentally.
"You think you can defeat me?!"
Kusho's voice had become increasingly distorted.
It no longer sounded anything like his original voice.
"My path to becoming king will not end here!"
He unleashed everything he had and charged straight at Luke, striking with a palm wrapped in rune energy.
Luke showed no fear and met him directly.
The two masses of rune energy collided.
Violent winds erupted outward in every direction.
And at that exact moment,狂喜 lit Kusho's eyes.
"Secret Art: Soul-Transference Annihilation!"
In an instant, a tremendous pulling force erupted around him.
Like a black hole, it forcibly dragged Luke toward him.
The two forms of rune energy twisted around one another.
Time seemed to freeze.
Both of them became locked in place.
Kusho unleashed all of his mental power and forced his consciousness into Luke's mindscape.
It was an extraordinarily dangerous forbidden art.
Using it inflicted serious damage upon the caster's mind, while its effect on the victim could be utterly devastating.
"A battle between runes won't end anytime soon! I'll rip that rune straight out of your body!"
Kusho charged greedily into Luke's mind like a starving ghoul.
He could already sense the rune.
It was ahead.
Right ahead!
He moved through the mindscape without restraint, only to discover that Luke's inner world was unimaginably vast.
It seemed endless.
"Wait!"
Kusho suddenly realized something.
He immediately turned around and tried to retrace his path.
Yet like someone lost in an endless wilderness, he could no longer find his way out of Luke's mindscape.
"Finally noticed?"
Luke's voice echoed around him.
"Walking into someone else's home without permission is pretty rude."
Luke had noticed the intruder long ago.
But this was his mind.
With a Level 9 Mental Barrier protecting it, this wasn't somewhere Kusho could simply enter and leave whenever he pleased.
"So what?!"
Kusho roared and wildly unleashed his rune energy.
"Then I'll destroy everything in here!"
Crimson power instantly swept outward like an uncontrollable tidal wave.
But rune energy released by Luke surged in from every direction and completely surrounded it.
The two powers collided within the mental world.
This time, however, there was no stalemate.
One side overwhelmingly crushed the other.
Orange rune energy brutally compressed the space occupied by the crimson energy.
Smaller.
Smaller.
Smaller.
Fear gradually appeared in Kusho's eyes.
He desperately released more power, but it accomplished nothing.
Then he discovered something even more terrifying.
The rune's power was gradually ceasing to obey him.
"No! Impossible!"
He felt his strength slipping away.
To his horror, all of that power was flowing toward Luke.
This bastard was taking his rune from him!
"No!"
Kusho's scream became almost shrill.
But now, every attempt to resist was useless.
He finally realized that forcing his way into Luke's mind had only accelerated his own death.
The realization filled him with despair.
"Impossible!"
He refused to accept it.
He frantically searched the endless space around him.
"Come out! Show yourself!"
As he wished, Luke's figure gradually materialized within the mindscape.
He simply stood there, perfectly calm.
Kusho charged madly toward him.
Yet no matter how fast he ran, the distance between them never decreased.
His power drained away faster and faster.
Finally, Kusho fell to his knees.
He stared up at Luke in disbelief.
"You and I each possess a rune! Why can you do this?!"
"It's simple."
Luke looked down at Kusho.
His eyes shone with divine rune light, while profound rune energy flowed throughout his body.
Two different forms of rune power converged within him.
One rune appeared above each of his hands.
"You are controlled by your rune."
Luke's expression remained calm.
"I'm different."
"I control the runes."
As the words left his mouth, a third rune began forming above his head.
Kusho stared blankly at the second rune that had appeared.
Two.
This man already possessed two runes.
And now he was about to possess a third.
Two years earlier, Kusho had accidentally discovered the crimson rune inside an ancient temple.
The instant he touched it, however, he had been seduced by its promises of power.
From that day onward, he gradually lost himself.
Endless desire consumed his body and mind.
There had been moments when he regained clarity and tried to control the rune through sheer force of will.
But he could never do it.
Yet Luke remained perfectly lucid while controlling two runes.
What kind of man was he?
What kind of existence was he?
Kusho couldn't understand.
He never would.
Because his consciousness was about to be completely annihilated here.
Nothing would remain.
He wouldn't even pass into the spirit realm.
Looking at the dazed Kusho, Luke saw that without the rune's power, the old man's body had become even thinner and more withered.
Luke showed no mercy.
He destroyed him completely.
Outside, all the others saw was every trace of energy gathered around Kusho flowing into Luke's body.
Even the shadow power Kusho had possessed was absorbed along with it.
Then Kusho collapsed.
His eyes were empty.
He died with them still open.
His hands stretched toward empty air, as though trying to grasp a crown that seemed both infinitely distant and tantalizingly close.
His dream of becoming king had already shattered.
"Is it over?"
Everyone watched with worry in their eyes.
"They're fighting through their consciousnesses. I still can't tell who has won."
Shen recognized the forbidden art Kusho had used, though he had only ever read about it in ancient texts.
After Kusho and Zed staged the false death all those years ago and the old Kinkou was torn apart, Shen had lost access to the original records.
But he knew what kind of technique it was.
It was essentially body possession.
It could seize control of another person's soul or destroy it outright.
The technique completely violated the Kinkou's principles of balance and had long been sealed away.
"He'll win!"
Akali's gaze never wavered.
She believed Luke would win.
"He's fine. He already won."
Ahri believed the same thing.
But she could sense more than the others.
Luke's soul hadn't even fluctuated.
The moment she finished speaking, Luke opened his eyes.
He withdrew the rune energy surrounding his body and immediately felt weakness wash over him.
He had still overused his power somewhat.
But compared to the weakness he had suffered the last time, this was much lighter.
Apparently, the deeper his control over the runes became, the fewer side effects he suffered.
There were now three World Rune fragments within his mindscape.
Crimson, orange, and green light intertwined with one another.
And he had gained something unexpected as well.
He had also taken all the shadow power Kusho had absorbed.
That power merged directly into the demonic power Luke had obtained from Nocturne, strengthening it significantly.
Of the three demonic powers now residing within Luke, Nocturne's had clearly become the strongest.
The conclusion was obvious.
The shadow power known as the Tears of the Shadow had indeed been left behind by Nocturne long ago.
Thinking about it carefully, it made sense.
Nocturne had been born within the spirit realm and had once been closely associated with shadow mages.
And Ionia had always existed unusually close to the spirit realm.
"Are you okay, M-Master?"
Akali was the first to run over.
She stumbled awkwardly over the word, but her eyes were filled with concern.
Shen paused when he heard how she addressed Luke.
Then he relaxed.
Given Luke's strength, he truly was more qualified to guide Akali forward than the Kinkou Order was now.
"My back is killing me. Come give me a hand."
Luke showed absolutely no restraint and immediately leaned against her.
"You don't look injured to me!"
Akali eyed him suspiciously.
Still, she supported him.
Her soft body pressed against his, and for some reason her heart began beating noticeably faster.
"Just help me over there so I can rest. And give this to Zed."
Luke really was somewhat tired.
He let Akali take practically all of his weight while reaching into his pocket and tossing a medicine bottle toward Shen.
"There's medicine for his injuries inside. It should help."
Then Luke took out a bottle of mind-restoring potion and swallowed a mouthful himself.
"Thank you."
Shen caught the bottle and immediately went to Zed.
Ahri and Irelia hurried toward Luke as well, checking him with concern for any injuries.
"I'm fine."
Akali helped Luke sit down somewhere to rest.
He estimated that a few days of recovery would be enough.
At least this time he wouldn't need an entire month like before.
"More importantly, you should start thinking about how you're going to calm everyone down there."
He looked toward Irelia.
There were still large numbers of Navori Brotherhood members gathered at the foot of the mountain.
"It's fine. I'll explain everything to them."
Irelia's expression was resolute, her eyes shining with determination.
She had once viewed Luke as an idol.
That hadn't changed.
But now that she had personally witnessed the true extent of his strength, she had also found a goal she wanted to pursue.
Luke had remained completely unshaken against an enemy that powerful.
How could she possibly fear the comparatively minor difficulties awaiting her?
It was time to make a decision.
Ionia's reform would begin with her.
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