Chapter 97 - Northern Emperor

"Two humans, master realm, caught and killed near the rift two weeks ago.

I have come to collect the debt in blood."

The emperor was a huge man, one more than 2 meters tall. His skin was brown, and his body was extremely muscular.

Hearing the words Arthur spoke, the emperor was initially confused but he quickly figured out what Arthur was speaking of.

"So you're from that other world huh?"

"From? Oh please, there's no way I'm from a backwater planet like this. 

You and your brother killed my subordinates, even though I never knew their names, it still pisses me off that foolish humans like you killed my men."

Arthur then paused his speech, turning around to Lute who was behind him and said.

"No offense Lute."

"None taken your highness."

Seeing this short interaction, the emperor raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You, you're human yet you take orders from this devil?

He might be a kid but devils are devils, who knows what kind of schemes he's cooking up in that little head of his.

Why don't you join me, you can have Gerix for yourself.

I'd tell my brother and us three could rule the two worlds."

Both Arthur and Lute stared at him in shock for a few seconds before simultaneously bursting into laughter.

"Hahaha…he said rule the two worlds….why the f*ck would you want to rule such unknown planets."

"He d-doesn't know…hahaha…that your highness is a prince…Haha…of the universe."

The emperor was slightly pissed off at Arthur and Lute's reactions.

'Prince of a universe? What is that?'

For someone like him who had never left Phirex, comprehending that existence of something as big as a universe that spanned billions of light years, was simply impossible for him.

"Ahahaha….he's so stupid I don't even wanna just kill him anymore."

Arthur continued laughing as he said those words, this enraged the emperor as he summoned another axe and was about to attack.

Arthur's next gesture, then made him loose it.

He outstretched his arms, holding Celsetia in one hand, his other hand was empty, and so Arthur saw fit to hold up a middle finger. His gesture was basically saying, 'C'mon!' or 'Attack me! You f*cker!'

"Sure, why not." The emperor threw his left handed axe.

"Destroy Target!"

***WHOOSH!

His axe spun in the air like a top, and rapidly flew towards the crown of Arthur's head.

Arthur moved to the side, dodging the axe.

***BAM!

Once the axe struck the ground, the dirt surged into the air like a landmine had just gone off.

"Hey Lute, space isolation please."

"Yes your highness."

Lute, who had long stopped laughing, activated the space isolation artifact he came with, sealing all of the emperor's chances of escape.

This also prevented his vassals or army generals from coming to aid him.

***WHOOSH!

The axe flew back to the emperor's hand.

Of course, Arthur didn't just sit there. Arthur followed the axe right back to its owner.

"Huahp!" He swung Celestia upwards.

'Aura Strike!'

A golden wave surged like a salmon jumping upstream.

The emperor immediately swung his larger axe.

**SHATTER!

**BAM!

Sword and axe clashed.

However, Arthur was the one pushed back.

'Tch….superior stage.'

Arthur was conserving his strength as he had to fight against the southern emperor too, however the strength he was putting in, wasn't enough to match the strength of his superior stage grandmaster opponent.

The emperor noticed this and grinned, he threw his small axe once more.

"Destroy Target!"

Arthur threw himself to the side, simultaneously swinging Celestia.

"Sword of Victory!"

A golden aura surged from the blade and pounced on the emperor.

"Hmph, as if!" The emperor responded by slamming his axe into the ground and using an aura attack of his own.

"Havoc!"

***BOOM!

The earth shook. A mighty aura powered shockwave rose from the ground and clashed with the golden aura.

Then...

Arthur pierced through the shockwave, and like a deft snake, aimed for the emperor with Celestia.

However, his back suddenly felt cold. His senses were warning him of danger.

'The smaller axe!' 

The emperor seemed to be capable of retrieving his axe. Which meant that this feeling indicated that the axe was returning.

Arthur halted midway, and rolled onto the floor.

**BAM!

The smaller axe swept through where he'd once been, and softly landed in its owner's hand.

"Do you have eyes on the back of your head? To think you'd be able to dodge this too. As expected of a devil." The emperor frowned as he spoke.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" Arthur stood up and spun both his blade.

"You dammed devil, you'd pay for this!" 

The emperor imitated Arthur's earlier gesture, as if he was saying 'All of you come at me at once!'

Of course, if he knew Lute was a demigod and understood what sort of existence he was, he would not have dared to do so.

"Hmph." Arthur snorted. 'You're no match for me!'

"Kuhahk!"

"Haahp!"

The two clashed once more. 

'Destroy Target and Havoc, gotta watch out for those two.

Destroy target only seems to work if the axe hits though.'

Arthur marked the two skills that the emperor had used so far, he retracted his slightly open wings and dashed towards him again.

**WHOOSH!

**BAM! 

Each and every one of the emperor's attacks were powerful enough to seriously wound Arthur in a single hit.

'That gesture, he's about use Havoc!"

"Havoc!"

**SHATTER!

His attacks weren't fast, but they had a large radius and were extremely powerful. Thus, it wasn't easy to deal with them.

However, the combination of Arthur's ability read the flow of a battle easily, high evasion, and exceptional combat abilities kept him from getting hit.

Arthur continuously predicted and avoided the emperor's attacks, then counterattacked with quick, precise blows. 

"You're like a rat. You sure are good at dodging," 

The emperor said after getting hit a few times. He was clearly provoking him. 

"If this is all you got, then I'm disappointed. Show me that you're not just a strong, dumb brute," Arthur replied.

"Alright then." 

The emperor threw his small axe into the air. Then, something interesting happened.

"Flying Axe!"

The emperor's axe floated in the air, ignoring the laws of gravity!

That wasn't all.

He then pulled out two more small axes from what was most likely an inter spatial artifact and threw them into the air. Like the first one, these two axes floated in the air.

"Go!" 

He pointed at Arthur with his large axe. Then, the three axes went flying like a horde of wasps.

Meanwhile Arthur was staring at the flying axe while thinking of something totally out of place.

'I should pick up the law of gravity sometime.'

**BAM!

One of the axes struck Arthur's head. However, it was just a mirror image. Arthur had used an artifact to generate a mirror image of himself, while the real him was thinking about the law of gravity while checking his body for any cracks on his skin.

'I'm getting better at controlling the energy, now I can use my aura and magic with little issue and the divinity would not react. That other negative energy too is also dormant.

As I thought, it only acts up and starts destroying my body when my divinity is active too.'

"Mm." 

The enraged emperor bit his lip. No one had ever dodged this attack as easily as Arthur had, he was even more enraged when he saw the real Arthur staring at his arm in a corner. 

'This is just the beginning!' 

The emperor opened his empty hand.

The three axes spun over Arthur's head, and then shot towards him once more. However, it didn't make much of a difference this time either.

Arthur avoided, deflected, or blocked them all.

"Why don't you come over yourself?" Arthur dealt with them so easily that he could even talk in-between.

"As you wish" The emperor closed in towards Arthur.

He specialized in using his small axes to distract his opponent, and then split them in two with his main weapon, his large axe.

"Kuha!" 

The emperor cried out like a wild beast. His axe was aiming for Arthur's waist.

Arthur's eyes gleamed. He created a blade of aura and deflected a small axe with it while tilting Celestia. 

**SCREECH!

The emperor's large axe slid off Arthur's semi-transparent blade. 

'The brat can use Parry on bladed weapons!'

However, the emperor was no weakling, at least, for a grandmaster.

"Hmph!"

He had lost his balance, but kept himself upright with pure physical strength.

Normally, Sword Parry would expose an opponent's weak point, but the emperor had no such weak point to exploit. Despite that, Arthur attacked.

'Aura Blade.'

His semi-transparent blade was coated with a golden energy.

The emperor's eyes gleamed. 

'I'll give you my shoulder.'

He gritted his teeth.

He was fully capable of dodging or blocking Arthur's attack. However, he didn't do so. The emperor was willing to take a flesh wound in order to deal a fatal blow! 

The emperor swung his axe upwards.

However...!

Arthur didn't follow through, and stopped halfway! In fact, he even stepped back!

**WHOOSH!

The emperor completely missed.