The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1246 - 192 - Leon Vs. Veronica - Climax (3)

Chapter 1246: Chapter 192 - Leon Vs. Veronica - Climax (3)

The instant she stabilized her footing, the air detonated around her.

Veronica vanished.

No one saw her dashed nor did a stepped. She vanished entirely.

The ground where she had been standing cratered inward from the sheer force of her acceleration, cracks spiderwebbing across the stone platform as shockwaves blasted outward in concentric rings. The pressure alone felt like a physical weight slamming into my chest.

She reappeared above me.

Three Veronicas.

No—six.

Afterimages layered over each other, each one slashing downward with blades that shimmered in overlapping arcs of silver light. The sky above fractured with the trails of her strikes, each swing compressing the air so violently that it screamed.

I didn’t move.

My sword lifted once.

Steel met steel in a cascade of impacts so fast the sound blurred into a continuous shriek. Every slash she delivered collided against my blade with pinpoint precision. Sparks erupted like fireworks, raining down in molten fragments before evaporating mid-air from the heat of the friction.

Her real body emerged through the illusions, twisting mid-air as magic ignited along her arms. Lightning wrapped around her blade, wind spiraled at her feet, and a burning sigil flared behind her back.

She dropped.

I stepped forward and swung upward.

The collision ruptured the platform beneath us. A vertical pillar of force blasted into the sky as if the world itself had been split in half. The shockwave rolled outward violently enough to rattle the protective barrier surrounding the arena.

She flipped backward before the counterforce could seize her, landing with enough pressure to sink her boots several inches into solid stone.

And then she raised her hand.

Magic circles layered over one another in complex, rotating formations with each humming with catastrophic energy. They stacked in the air like celestial gears aligning for destruction.

The temperature spiked instantly.

Flames roared outward in a spiraling inferno, merging with concentrated beams of water jets that tore across the arena in jagged streaks. At the same time, compressed spheres of wind detonated around me, attempting to crush and tear from every direction.

It would’ve erased an army.

I stepped forward into it.

Guardian manifested without flourish. It was just a quiet shimmer that swallowed the inferno whole. The flames crashed against it and dissolved. The water struck and dispersed into harmless bubbles. The wind detonations imploded against the invisible wall and faded into nothing.

Veronica didn’t slow down.

She blurred again, this time splitting into dozens of overlapping trajectories. Each version of her launched a different skill with them starting projectiles of pure mana, crescent blades of condensed air, spiraling lances of fire that bent unnaturally as they hunted me mid-flight.

The arena floor disintegrated under the barrage. Entire slabs of stone lifted into the air before being pulverized into dust.

I walked forward.

Each incoming attack met my blade and ceased to exist. I didn’t swing widely. I didn’t waste motion. A small shift of the wrist. A slight pivot of the shoulder. Every destructive force unraveled the moment it reached me.

She appeared at my side, blade already descending toward my neck.

I tilted my head.

The sword passed so close I felt the wind cut a strand of my hair.

She rotated instantly, knee driving toward my ribs with bone-shattering force. I caught it with my palm and pushed her away without effort.

She used the recoil to spin mid-air.

Her aura exploded.

Power poured out of her in violent waves, the pressure cracking what remained of the platform beneath us. The barrier surrounding the arena flickered visibly under the strain of her unleashed energy.

She came at me again and this time, much more faster.

Not just speed of movement.

Speed of existence.

She blurred beyond perception, attacking from every possible angle simultaneously. Strikes descended from above, erupted from below, and carved horizontally from blind spots that shouldn’t have existed.

Reality bent around her blade.

For a fraction of a second, space itself seemed to ripple.

She was cutting through dimensions.

Multiple slashes materialized at once, each one targeting a different vital point, like my heart, throat, spine, and even skull.

I exhaled.

Time felt slower.

My body moved minimally. A shift here. A tilt there. I also stopped some of the them with Time Manipulation.

My blade flickered like a reflection in water, intercepting every impossible strike with absolute accuracy. The dimensional tears sealed the instant they touched my steel.

Her eyes sharpened.

Mana surged again.

She slammed her sword into the ground.

The entire arena convulsed.

A colossal magic array erupted beneath my feet, expanding outward in layers upon layers of glowing sigils. Pillars of blinding flame shot upward, attempting to trap and compress me inside a prison of pure energy. The air itself became dense and crushing, as gravity multiplied within the circle.

Stone liquefied from the pressure.

The barrier surrounding the arena trembled violently. Hairline fractures streaked across its surface from the inside.

I raised my hand.

Guardian expanded.

The crushing gravity ceased to matter. The flame pillars shattered against the shield like glass striking diamond. The fractures spreading across the arena’s protective barrier halted the moment my Guardian overlapped with it, reinforcing it instantly. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

She launched herself directly at me, abandoning large-scale destruction for close-quarters annihilation.

Her blade ignited with black lightning this time, with her using the power she had stored on the cursed sword she was holding. Each swing carried a sonic boom in its wake, each collision against my sword detonating in bursts that tore apart what little remained of the arena floor.

She accelerated further.

Her movements became less human and more phenomenon.

She wasn’t just attacking.

She was rewriting her limits. Actually, it feels like she was getting much stronger.

This was very much different to our last two fights on the earlier rounds.

Afterimages lagged behind her by full seconds now, as if time itself struggled to keep up. Every step she took shattered the ground. Every breath she exhaled steamed with overflowing mana.

She drove her sword downward with everything she had.

I blocked.

The impact split the platform completely, dividing it into two massive halves that began sliding apart under the strain.

She didn’t retreat.

She pushed harder.

Veins of mana spread across her arms as she poured even more power into the strike. The air between us ignited from friction alone.

The barrier around the arena screamed audibly this time.

It was an echoing hum of strain as the accumulated pressure battered against it from within.

I shifted my stance slightly.

That was enough.

Her blade halted.

Not because she stopped.

Because she couldn’t push any further.

Her muscles trembled. The aura around her flared violently, whipping her hair and clothes in a storm of her own making.

She pulled back suddenly and spun, launching a horizontal slash so fast it left a vacuum in its wake. The empty space imploded a millisecond later, creating a localized explosion that swallowed the center of the arena in blinding light.

When the light cleared, I was still standing there.

Unmoved.

Guardian shimmering faintly around me.

She was now breathing harder. Breathing harder than before. Although her expression remained controlled. Magic gathered above her, far more than before.

The sky darkened unnaturally.

A massive spear of condensed mana formed overhead, larger than the entire platform, crackling with every element she commanded. Fire coiled around it. Water snapped violently along its length. Wind compressed at its tip until the air shrieked in protest.

She hurled it.

The descent tore through the atmosphere like judgment itself.

I didn’t dodge.

Guardian solidified fully this time, expanding upward.

The spear struck.

The explosion consumed everything.

For several seconds, the arena disappeared beneath a dome of light so intense it erased color from the world. The shockwave blasted outward, slamming against the protective barrier hard enough to make it buckle inward.

I stepped forward through the fading light.

Guardian held.

It was practically untouched.

Veronica landed, aura flickering violently around her as the last remnants of her ultimate strike dissipated.

She didn’t hesitate.

She rushed again, blade raised for another exchange.

I met her halfway.

At that moment, I felt it.

Her strength was gone.

When our swords met again, the impact was nothing like before. The pressure behind her strike had thinned out, the overwhelming force that once split the arena now reduced to something unsteady. Her blade trembled against mine. She tried to push through and even tried to force more power into it, but there was nothing left to give.

She was beyond exhausted.

It was only natural. She had broken past her limits again and again, forcing her body to keep up with power it was never meant to sustain for long. On top of that, she had conjured a spell that monstrous. It was something that would have been nearly impossible to cast without burning through an absurd amount of mana.

She went all out because she knew she couldn’t defeat me otherwise.

And now, the cost had come due.

Her arms weakened first. The tension in her shoulders collapsed. The aura that had once flared around her like a storm flickered faintly before disappearing entirely.

Then her body gave in.

She stumbled forward.

Instead of striking again, instead of forcing one last reckless attack, she simply fell against me with her forehead pressing lightly against my shoulder as the last of her strength drained away.

The Cursed Sword slipped from her grasp.

For a split second, it began to fall toward the shattered remains of the arena floor. But just before it could hit the ground, it dissolved into thin air, vanishing as if it had never existed.

Stubborn, prideful bastard.

Even in defeat, it refused to touch the dirt. As expected of a cursed sword.

I steadied her instinctively, one hand holding her upright so she wouldn’t collapse completely. Up close, I could feel the rapid pounding of her heart through her chest.

It was beating wildly.

Not just from exhaustion.

There was something else in that rhythm. It was something almost... satisfied. Thrilled, even. As if, despite losing, she had experienced exactly what she wanted.

Her breathing was uneven but steady. Her face, usually so unreadable, had softened. The faint flush from earlier hadn’t faded. If anything, it had deepened.

For a moment, I simply looked at her.

Then the umpire’s voice rang out, declaring the result.

I was the winner.

With that final announcement echoing across the arena, it was decided.

I had won the entire tournament.