The sky above the desolate ruin no longer looked like an ordinary sky.

Thousands of massive arrays spun across the horizon, golden runes locked onto the world like divine chains; chains that even bent space and spread waves of mana like a stormy sea across the entire region.

The clouds had long since been destroyed, the winds howled wildly.

And the ground was slowly collapsing under the intensity of the pressure being exerted on it.

At the center of that hell, four commanders stood in the sky: Varkas with his massive black wings covering the sky.

Alindra with that cold emerald gaze and a bow leaking the light of ancient forests.

Miralia amid hundreds of floating magic circles.

And Rodric, the quietest of all.

Behind them, the greatest army the continent had seen in thousands of years had taken the world’s breath away.

Then the battle began.

Not with a shout or a command like ordinary attacks or anything similar, but with the simultaneous explosion of thousands of attacks.

The sky suddenly plunged under a rain of light.

Elven arrows, each capable of piercing the souls of beings regardless of their power level, covered the entire horizon. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Sacred spears fell from the heavenly arrays, shattering the air like glass as they passed.

Massive war magic was fired from the flying ships; small artificial suns built only for destruction.

All the mana in the region had gone mad. The pressure of those attacks was so massive that even before impact, the ground began to split.

The surrounding mountains trembled.

And the air felt like it was burning.

Millions of luminous threads devoured the entire sky and fell like the wrath of gods on a single point.

On Daniel.

But at the center of that apocalypse, he just sat there, calm and motionless. His golden eyes looked at the sky without the slightest anxiety.

He didn’t release mana, didn’t create a shield, didn’t even take a step back.

He just watched. He was analyzing and dissecting all these attacks, as if the passage and flow of time were different for him than for others.

"This might be the biggest attack ever launched against me," he muttered to himself. Anyone else in his position would have been terrified.

Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of attacks were coming toward him. He was sure that even Walterk would have been destroyed and killed instantly by such a volume of attacks.

This showed that this world truly recognized him as one of the greatest possible threats.

And then impact.

Light swallowed the entire ruin.

The explosion was so massive that even the observation array inside the Holy Palace went white for a moment.

The sound passed beyond roaring, the resulting pressure shattered cloud layers thousands of kilometers away.

The ground sank thousands to hundreds of thousands of meters, and the shockwave from the explosion tore through the entire region like an invisible tsunami.

For a few seconds, nothing could be seen.

Only light, only destruction. The entire army and all four commanders were sure that the monster had been killed, and even if he had miraculously survived, he would be on the brink of death.

What being could survive such an attack unscathed?

Then slowly, the brightness faded, and silence fell over the field.

The eyes of thousands of soldiers were fixed on the center of the explosion.

And then their breaths stopped. Daniel was still sitting there, and even the clothes he wore were not burned.

No wounds, no dust, practically nothing. But the most terrifying part was not this; it was that he hadn’t defended at all.

The space around his body rippled quietly; like an invisible black hole that had devoured all the attacks before they reached him.

As if the very world around him was eating the energy. And behind him, the tree’s massive roots moved quietly.

The attack hadn’t even reached the tree. That massive attack had disappeared all at once without even touching Daniel.

In the sky, the dragon’s eyes trembled, and the black flames around his body became restless.

Alindra slowly narrowed her eyes. She had clearly seen that the elven soul-killing arrows had not even reached Daniel’s presence.

They had disappeared, been devoured.

Miralia suddenly felt a slight tremor in her fingers. Hundreds of magic circles behind her became unstable. Her blind eyes narrowed for a moment.

"Impossible..." She couldn’t see with her eyes, but that didn’t mean she was completely blind.

Using her senses, she had the ability to see, and she was seeing something she wished she couldn’t.

Moreover, she felt that part of the arrays’ energy had disappeared.

But Rodric remained silent, just watched, and understood faster than the others.

"This being... is absorbing the energy of the attacks."

Perhaps he was more shocked and even surprised than anyone, but the calmness on his face didn’t show it, or perhaps he wasn’t surprised at all and had expected such a thing.

Then he quietly drew his sword. At that moment, space bent.

The white blade of his sword was so sharp that even mana didn’t dare approach it. A blade that could even cut space.

The air around him split apart.

And each of his steps left a thin trace on space; as if the world was being cut beneath his feet.

Rodric didn’t say a word, gave no extra display. He just took a step.

And the next moment, he appeared in front of Daniel, and his sword descended.

A pure white slash, something like cutting the very laws of the world. A blade that, as it moved, split the entire ruin in half.

Space cracked behind it, the ground was cut in two, and the path of his attack continued to the horizon.

But Daniel just raised one hand, and the blade stopped between his fingers.

A deadly silence fell over the field. Even the dragons did not roar.

Because Rodric Halvis was not someone whose attack could be stopped. He was the "Divine Sword of Heaven."

A man who had split cities with a single strike. But now his blade was caught between Daniel’s fingers.

For the first time, Rodric’s eyes narrowed. He who hadn’t been shocked by Daniel remaining unharmed from that attack, this time his eyes trembled.

Because this was not a simple attack. He was using a sword that should not be stoppable, a sword that could cut and destroy anything in the world regardless of its nature.

And Daniel calmly looked at the sword.

"Your sword isn’t bad, but I have a better one." Then he said indifferently.

This sentence was heavier than any insult, because Daniel was truly evaluating it, like someone examining the quality of a weapon.

And then he just tapped the blade with his index finger.

Tap.

A small sound.

But the next moment, the pressure of eternity exploded inside the sword. Black cracks spread over the sacred blade.

Space behind Rodric collapsed, thousands of invisible waves exploded in the air.

And Rodric’s body was thrown backward with terrifying speed.

The sound barrier broke several times.

The ground along his path exploded, and he landed hundreds of meters away among the ruins.

Blood dripped from the corner of his lips. Just one strike.

Just a simple touch.

And the world’s strongest swordsman had been pushed back.

The army’s silence grew even deeper, because they had seen something they never thought would happen.

The continent’s legendary swordsman had not only been thrown back with such force but hadn’t even managed to scratch the enemy.

A few holy knights unconsciously stepped back, some elves forgot to breathe, and even the dragons no longer dared to roar.

Because what they had seen was not at the level of ordinary battles.

This was a gap in level, a gap so massive that their minds could not comprehend it.

Miralia realized with horror that the suppression arrays were being consumed faster than her calculations, and their speed had even increased tenfold compared to before, as if the world itself was resisting restraining Daniel.

That massive attack had absorbed a lot of their energy. They thought they could at least wound him, but that attack only tired them out and didn’t inflict the smallest wound on the enemy.

But Daniel didn’t even seem excited. His gaze remained on Rodric.

"So this is the level of the continent’s strongest swordsman..."

Then his gaze slowly went to Varkas.

Then Alindra.

Like someone examining new raw materials.

And at that moment, for the first time, the four commanders shared a common feeling.

Perhaps they were not the hunters, but the hunted.

In the distance, Rodric slowly rose from the dust, the broken sword still in his hand.

Blood dripped from the corner of his lips, but more important than his wounds was his gaze.

No trace of testing or initial caution remained in it.

Only the pure understanding of truth.

"If we make a mistake... we all die here."

In the sky, Varkas suddenly gave a fierce smile. Black flames exploded around his body and burned the sky.

Alindra nocked another arrow on her bow. Now she understood that they were not facing an ordinary enemy. They were facing a monster that, if not destroyed, could destroy the continent.

It was no longer just a matter of duty. To save and ensure the survival of her race, she had to kill this monster here.

Miralia activated hundreds of new arrays.

And Daniel slowly rose from his spot, and for the first time, part of his true presence was released.

Suddenly, the entire sky of the ruin turned dark.