In battle, when the gap in raw strength between two opponents wasn't overwhelming, victory rarely belonged to the one who hit harder.
It went to the one who thought further ahead.
Power decided the opening clash... but judgment decided the outcome.
Knowing when to press forward, when to retreat, when to feint, and when to commit everything in a single decisive moment often mattered more than sheer force.
A well-timed step, a deliberate sacrifice, or a carefully laid trap could overturn an entire fight in an instant.
Those who relied solely on strength burned out quickly.
Those who observed, adapted, and shaped the flow of battle forced their opponent to fight on their terms.
In the end, combat was not just a contest of fists or magic, but a struggle of intent, patience, and foresight... and the one who planned ahead was usually the one left standing.
From start to finish, the battle had almost gone exactly as Judas had planned.
'Well... I was hoping to finish her off with my spells from afar, but her regeneration and overall toughness as a first-class combatant make that extremely difficult.'
He admitted inwardly.
Letting himself be pushed to the brink of mind down had never been an accident.
It was bait.
A deliberate opening crafted to look like desperation.
And the one who took it... was Revis.
That was why, even as she rushed toward him with unmistakable killing intent, Judas allowed himself a small grin.
Revis saw it.
Mid-swing, her broken sword frozen for a fraction of a second, realization slammed into her.
'Shit! He's risking his own life to lure me in?'
And just as the truth fully registered, a magic circle suddenly flared to life beneath their feet.
'Short-activation spells won't work.'
Judas thought calmly.
'None of them are strong enough to bypass her regeneration in one go.'
'If I want to take her down quickly... this is the only way.'
A long-activation spell... one he had been preparing since the very beginning of the fight.
It had been concealed beneath multiple layers of concealment magic, including a specialized spell that prevented any magical energy from leaking outward.
That was why Revis hadn't sensed it.
Why even Lulune, watching from afar, had noticed nothing out of place.
Perhaps a mage might have realized something was wrong.
But neither of them were mages.
Although the charge time was only two minutes... less than half of what the spell he used against Freya's executives... Judas judged it to be sufficient.
The moment the spell revealed itself, the air grew heavy with overwhelming magical pressure.
Revis' instincts screamed.
Every cell in her body urged her to retreat immediately.
'This spell...'
'It's far stronger than the one he used earlier.'
'If I get hit by that...'
Even so, Revis refused to back down.
'I've already committed. I can't turn back now.'
Ignoring every warning her instincts threw at her, she poured everything into her swing.
'Kill the spellcaster before he unleashes it.'
It was a gamble... but in her judgment, it was the only path left to victory.
Although it may seem like a long time had passed while they were lost in their thoughts, in reality, not even a full second had elapsed.
To ordinary people, the speed at which they operated seemed like nothing more than a blur of motion and sound.
But for those who had crossed into the realm of the superhuman, time itself seemed to stretch and thin in the heat of battle.
Their senses operated at a level far beyond normal comprehension.
To wield such strength without tearing oneself apart, their minds had been forced to evolve alongside their bodies... accelerated perception, sharpened instincts, and mental processing refined to match their overwhelming speed.
0.1 seconds had passed.
Revis could feel the muscles in her arm tighten like coiled steel as she swung her sword with everything she had.
Power surged through her frame, joints screaming as she pushed her body beyond its limits.
A sword slash overflowing with pure killing intent.
Never in her life had Revis wanted... needed... to kill someone as desperately as she did in this instant.
0.15 seconds had passed.
Judas reacted on instinct.
He lifted his left leg and stepped back, his movement measured down to the smallest margin.
The blade hissed through the space where his neck had been a heartbeat earlier, missing him by a hair's breadth.
But Revis didn't hesitate.
She pressed forward immediately, eyes locked onto him with ruthless focus.
'There's still a chance.'
0.2 seconds had passed.
Mid-swing, Revis twisted her wrists and shoulders, forcibly altering the trajectory of her attack.
It was a maneuver only possible because of her absurd dexterity... one honed through countless life-and-death battles.
The blade shifted downward.
A thin red line appeared across Judas' chest as the edge grazed his skin, drawing first blood.
0.35 seconds had passed.
Blood sprayed into the air.
A brutal gash tore across Judas' chest, flesh split open wide enough to expose a sliver of bone beneath.
Pain detonated through his body, his vision swimming as the force of the blow ripped through him.
Fortunately... or perhaps tragically for Revis... her sword was half-shattered.
Its shortened reach fell just a few millimeters short of his heart.
In that fleeting moment, Judas understood the truth with chilling clarity.
If her blade had been intact... his heart would have been cleaved in two.
Even his passive healing ability would not have been enough to save him.
'That was close.'
A chill ran down his spine.
Of course, Judas couldn't plan that far ahead.
Maybe luck... some cruel blessing from the Goddess of Fortune... intervened at the final instant.
Because by all rights, he should have been dead.
The arc of Revis' slash completed.
That single exchange was all the damage she had managed to inflict.
Revis saw it.
She closed her eyes.
'I missed.'
Despite drawing blood, her true objective... to kill Judas and interrupt the spell... had failed.
The window had closed.
0.5 seconds had passed.
Judas endured the agony tearing through his chest, forcing his body to obey as he snapped his fingers.
The magic circle beneath their feet flared to life.
A sharp, high-pitched ringing filled the air as space itself warped, and a small black sphere of condensed light manifested between them.
It was unassuming.
Almost harmless in appearance.
But Revis' instincts erupted into full panic.
Every warning her body could produce screamed at once.
Beads of sweat formed instantly across her face as she stared at it, unable to look away.
Then her gaze lifted.
Judas met her eyes.
Slowly, deliberately, he raised a finger to his lips.
Shh.
『Abyssal Null』
A forbidden dark-element magic.
It wasn't just an ordinary attack spell.
One of its defining traits was its ability to completely negate any form of regeneration, accelerated healing, or self-restoration caught within its influence... severing such abilities at the very concept itself.
No matter how monstrous the target, no matter how tenacious their vitality... once engulfed, recovery became impossible.
The moment it was unleashed...
It was as if the entire world was swallowed by darkness.
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