"The King," Ottar, against "Gluttony," Zald.
The current strongest adventurer in the city stood facing the strongest of the past.
Two legendary pillars of two great Familias.
Everyone present realized one undeniable truth: regardless of the final outcome, this clash would surely go down as a legendary battle in the history of Orario.
Faced with Ottar's question of whether this attack was simply revenge for the fallen Zeus Familia, Zald remained completely silent.
A deep sense of disappointment finally broke his stoic expression.
"Must you always have a reason?" Zald asked.
"What?"
"I have already drawn my sword against you, yet you still insist on asking about such trivial matters. Can you not simply fight without a reason? Or are you truly afraid of me, and that is why you stall with conversation?"
Zald's tone wasn't just calm, it was downright indifferent.
An oppressive aura of might emanated from his massive frame. Combined with his deep disappointment, it served as a heavy provocation against Ottar.
"Afraid?" Ottar echoed in a low, rumbling voice.
"In the past, perhaps that was the case. But the me of today can defeat you."
There was absolutely no hint of boasting in his words. The Boarman's tone was neither overly confident nor arrogant, he spoke as if he were simply making an objective, factual evaluation of their strength.
Zald was taken aback for a fraction of a second.
Defeat him? Heh.
"It seems you are in desperate need of a lesson. Three of them, in fact, to properly remind you of the painful beatings of the past."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Zald swung the greatsword in his hand straight down.
Ottar snorted heavily, the thick veins on his arms bulging as he viciously tensed his muscles to intercept the strike.
Their massive weapons collided.
CLANG!
It was a deafening impact, completely unlike any sound normally made by two bladed weapons striking each other.
The two titans locked in a brutal stalemate. Zald wore a completely composed expression, looking almost bored.
Ottar, however, was already red in the face from the immense physical strain.
In a pure contest of raw strength, Zald undoubtedly held the upper hand.
Screeeech—!! The heavy metal ground together violently.
Ottar struggled desperately to hold up his weapon against Zald's monstrous, overbearing strength.
He dropped heavily to one knee, thick beads of sweat pouring from his brow.
"Raaaaaaargggh!!"
Putting forth every ounce of his remaining strength, Ottar successfully deflected Zald's crushing sword, then immediately swung his own massive blade directly at Zald's upper body.
Zald casually dodged the heavy blow with a simple sideways step.
He commented dryly, "It seems you really have made some progress."
"But it's still far from enough!"
CLANG!
The greatsword in Ottar's hand was knocked aside by Zald's lightning-fast counterstrike.
The Boarman's legs sank deep into the shattered ground.
His towering body was forcefully pushed back, step by agonizing step.
"Ottar.... is being completely overpowered..."
"He can't win. As expected, he really can't win."
"A Level 7 is just too strong. Even The King is helpless against him!"
"The gap in strength is too wide. There's no hope left for us."
The Adventurers of Orario watched in sheer despair. In stark contrast, the Evilus cultists actually began to cheer wildly.
"Lord Zald!"
"Lord Zald is way too powerful!"
"Lord Zald! Go on, slaughter The King! Destroy Orario!"
Watching the completely one-sided battle unfold before him, Rayleigh was the only person present who managed to remain relaxed.
Ottar was getting thrashed? That was perfectly normal.
Although the current Ottar was a complete monster in his own right, the gap in power between him and his future self was still immense.
Not to mention, even the Ottar from seven years in the future would still have a very low, almost negligible chance of achieving victory against Zald.
Gluttony was a transcendent existence no longer bound by the common sense of Levels.
If his bug-like Skill was fully unleashed, he could heavily wound or even fatally strike a Level 9 monster in a single devastating blow.
But Zald was already a spent force due to his illness, and he was clearly holding back his true might.
Ottar only needed to defeat a Zald severely weakened by his constant hunger.
In that case, there was no real problem.
"You really are incredibly strong, Zald." Ottar wiped away the thick sweat from his face, his gaze gravely locked onto the man's armored figure.
"This is the very first time I'm using this in public. But if my opponent is you, there is no reason for me to hold back."
'Hmm?'
'Was he about to use some hidden trump card? A powerful Skill, or perhaps a rare Magic?'
Although Zald clearly sensed Ottar's shifting intentions, he remained completely nonchalant.
The massive gap in their raw strength was not something that could be magically closed, let alone filled by a few minor flashy tricks.
"Hoo!"
Ottar exhaled a heavy breath.
He pointed his sword straight ahead and roared his command into the sky.
"Roar, Tenken!"
As the Boarman chanted the release command, the massive Zanpakuto in his hand immediately emitted dense, crushing waves of spiritual pressure!
Normally, for a Shinigami, the physical size of a Zanpakuto directly reflected the raw amount of its master's Reiatsu.
However, Rayleigh had to carefully consider this specific client's weapon-handling habits when originally forging it in the fire.
Thus, Ottar's unreleased Zanpakuto reached a staggering length of 2.05 meters and a width of forty-two centimeters, with the entire sword weighing well over two hundred kilograms.
Only a pure physical monster like Ottar could wield such a ridiculous slab of iron with absolute ease!
"Tenken!"
After successfully releasing his Zanpakuto, Ottar swung the heavy greatsword in his hands fiercely down toward Zald.
To the surrounding onlookers, this aggressive action was utterly baffling.
The distance between the two warriors was at least fifteen meters, maybe even twenty.
Was he planning to launch a compressed air shockwave with brute force, just like Zald had done earlier?
But could a mere shockwave even hurt someone as tough as Zald? Definitely not.
Even Zald found the empty swing quite strange.
However, in the very next second, a massive unnatural shadow appeared directly above his head, completely enveloping his entire body in darkness.
"What?"
Zald looked up at the sky, and his pupils immediately constricted to pinpricks.
For the very first time in this battle, a look of genuine astonishment appeared on his stoic face.
As the heavy shadow expanded over the street, more and more people slowly looked up toward the sky above.
Then, they were all rendered completely speechless by the shocking scene unfolding above them!
"So... so big!" one Adventurer finally cried out in pure alarm.
This terrified scream violently jolted the people around him, instantly triggering a wave of primal terror through the crowd.
One of the cultists desperately tried to turn and run, but his legs completely gave out from the sheer pressure, and he collapsed pathetically to the ground.
At that exact moment, the massive 'thing' looming above began to fall.
"Ahhhhh!! A sword as big as a tower is coming down! Run! Help!"
The girls of the Astraea Familia were also deeply shaken to their cores when they saw the forty-meter-long spectral blade hanging in the air.
"That's a Zanpakuto!"
"So Ottar has one too."
"Is this really just its Shikai? It's insane!"
Rayleigh glanced up at the fully released Tenken, feeling a deep, thrilling sense of anticipation.
'Let me see exactly how much of my blade's true power you can draw out, Ottar!'
"What is this?!" Zald actually took half a step back.
His warrior instincts had flared up, loudly sensing a genuine danger from that attack.
This falling attack was not simple Magic. If it hit him, he could actually get severely injured!
Mirroring the exact swing of the greatsword in Ottar's hand, a colossal phantom armored arm materialized from the heavens above.
The monstrous sword gripped tightly by that spectral arm was an identical, perfectly magnified version of the physical weapon resting in Ottar's grip.
BOOM!
The forty-meter-long phantom blade fell at blinding speed.
Its terrifying mass violently compressed the surrounding air, causing the very atmosphere to thunder and howl—just as the Zanpakuto's release command had dictated: Roar.
The giant blade slammed mercilessly into the earth.
In an instant, the ground split wide open, and it felt as though the surrounding mountains were crumbling to dust!
A devastating fissure stretching for several hundred meters was effortlessly cleaved deep into the earth.
All the stone buildings caught anywhere along its catastrophic path were instantly affected, violently collapsing and breaking apart into rubble one after another.
The raw, physical destructive power of this single, earth-shattering blow was easily comparable to the most advanced, high-tier attack Magic.
Every single person who witnessed this scene was left completely dumbfounded.
Even the ever-calculating Erebus was visibly astonished.
He opened his mouth slightly, staring blankly at the ruined scene unfolding before him, completely at a loss for how to properly react.
'Zald... he should still be alive under all that rubble, right?'
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