Is this really a Game?!

The accumulated energy that was in the black ball was incredible. The explosion itself was able to light up the whole battlefield as an intense shockwave swept over the whole area. The ground shook violently as a lot of soldiers fell down on their butts while the others had all stopped fighting. The battle on the top of the wall was also paused and even Reign had to stop after this had happened. He clenched his katana with determination as he looked at the place where the battle between the king and the Judge took place.

A huge cloud of dust was all that was left after the explosion, even the walls of the gorge were heavily damaged from it and a part of them that got caught up in the explosion was gone, cracks that looked like spider webs had appeared at many places on the walls from the impact.

Inside the cloud of dust, the Judge was kneeling down and panting heavily. The explosion was immense and it also managed to hit him. Luckily he was still able to use his ability in order to shield himself from it, otherwise, he might have been seriously injured. Blood still dripped down from his now tattered robe, even though he managed to shield himself and survive, the explosion was too powerful even from a distance and it managed to hurt him quite badly.

Some parts of his body were exposed and they were burnt badly, some places showed the flesh and even bones, his mask was cracked and looked like it would fall apart at any moment, but he was still alive and breathing. He looked in front of him as he panted heavily, he knew that even though the explosion was powerful, the possibility of it killing the king was quite low, especially after the king had managed to make a hole in the giant ball. If he was inside then he would have suffered the full power of the explosion and would have been seriously injured for sure.

Suddenly the Judge could feel a breeze on the left side, he looked at the side, only to be met with a punch to his face, he managed to put his arm in front of him and block the attack.

Crack!

The power behind the punch was incredible and he was blown away while his arm was broken. He fell down on the ground before slowly getting up and staring at the king who stared at him with hatred. The armor on the king's body was almost completely destroyed and only some parts remained, most of the king's body was bare and one could see burns and torn skin and flesh everywhere.

A big part of his hair was gone and one of his eyes was closed, it was either injured or destroyed by the explosion. The battle gloves he wore were the only thing that was still relatively fine, a rank S item was much more powerful compared to rank A and it took a lot of power to destroy them. Of course, there was still some damage, some parts of the gloves had cracked slightly and other parts looked like they had started melting a bit, still, the general shape of the gloves was still the same and they functioned perfectly.

The red mana lines that ran through the gloves were still there, although they were a lot dimmer compared to before. The anger on the king's face was evident, not only had he been forced to fight the Judge for a prolonged period of time, but he was actually even heavily injured by him, the injury, of course, wasn't life-threatening or anything like that, but it would impact his fighting power for quite some time.

He immediately zoomed past the Judge who tried to attack him with his ability, of course, it was useless, he had used up most of his mana for that final attack and it simply wasn't viable to continue fighting anymore. The king appeared behind him and kicked him in the back with great force, forcing him to again be blasted away.

What followed was the king torturing the Judge with relentless attacks, he would kick and punch him before appearing at the location where the Judge would land in order to attack again. Time and time again he did so, not because he needed to do it, but because he wanted to get revenge for his injuries, he wanted to break the Judge piece by piece before killing him.

The soldiers were all able to see the sight and the morale of the defending army plummeted, one of their strongest fighters, together with the power of the array was still unable to defeat the king. With his loss, the rest of the battle was certain to follow the same path, there was nothing that could stop the king now. Of course, that's what they thought, but the battle between the two had become the center of attention, and the king, in his rage, failed to pay attention to anything else except for the Judge.

Another important battlefield was silent, the barely alive Idrel and Gadro were lying on the floor as they could barely even breathe, Reign however was nowhere to be seen. Thanks to the massive explosion and the king's survival, nobody had seen what had happened here. The two men were the only ones that knew about the danger that the king was about to face, unfortunately for them, they could do nothing about it.

'We've been had, to think that he was this strong, we made a grave mistake.' Idrel lamented as he tried to turn his body around and see what was happening with the king. He wished he could do something, he wished he could at least shout and warn his lord, but it was for naught, both Gardo and he were on the brink of death, their throats crushed by Reign who had completely decimated them both and disappeared.

Lieara fought against the army leader fiercely and both were injured, with the defeat of the Judge, however, even she was faltering, even though she knew that the plan was for Reign to kill the king, if the Judge died then it would be a big blow to the kingdom as he was one of two individuals that were not only incredibly powerful but were destined to go through the first evolution and become a cornerstone of the kingdom.

As she thought of that, the enemy had suddenly exploded with power, he quickly pushed her weapon aside before drawing a small dagger and attacking her with it. There was nothing that she could do as the attack was too sudden, the army leader had hidden a powerful skill that would allow him to move thrice as fast for a moment and managed to catch her completely off guard. As the dagger drew close, Lieara knew that there was nothing that could be done to prevent her from dying.

Thud.

…

Bang!

The Judge was once again blasted away before flying off to a different area, the king had been doing this for quite some time and it was now time to end things. He appeared in the air above the Judge and punched him down with full force, he could feel the bones of the Judge breaking from his attack as the blood flew down from the mask.

Bang!

The Judge hit the ground with full force before being lifted up by the king who grabbed his hair. The king's expression had returned to a calm one as he stared at the mask that still shielded the Judge's face. It was made from some kind of metal and was quite durable, even after the king had punched him multiple times in the face, it still didn't break. Of course, now it was time to do so, the identity of the Judge had been a secret for quite some time and many were wondering who he was, the king was no different of course.

Even though he was angry at what had happened, he had to admit that this was without a doubt one of the hardest battles he had gone through after going through the first evolution. Of course, it was mostly thanks to the array that the Judge could do so, but it was no different, the king at least wanted to see the face of the man that had managed to injure him so seriously before ending his life.

As the king grabbed the mask and started taking it off, the skin of the Judge started becoming black, the king however failed to see that as he was completely focused on the face that had appeared in front of him. His eyes widened in shock before the familiar face turned black as well.

"YOU!" Before he could do anything, the body of the Judge exploded.

Boom!

Bang!

The army leader that had attacked Lieara stopped in his tracks as two purple chains suddenly appeared beneath him, both the chains ended in a spike that had gone through both his arms. The man looked at the chains with confusion before turning his head sideways. Calm footsteps could be heard as one person slowly walked toward the battle while making hand signs in the air.

Even though it was weaker compared to before, chains, weapons, and even fists appeared in the air and attacked the opponents. The familiar posture of the man coupled with the same power as the Judge made everyone stop fighting for a moment.

"Raigon!" Lieara shouted in disbelief as the calm face of Raigon flashed a smile before continuing to attack the enemy. The aura coming from him was the exact same as the Judge, it was unmistakable.

"Creation can do much more than simply weapons and attacks you know, for example, using a clone and transferring most of the power to him in order to hide," Raigon said as he continued attacking, he didn't have a lot of mana and was using the power of the array in order to use his ability.

Yes, Raigon was indeed the Judge. To be more exact, Raigon had created the Judge with the power of his ability in order to hide, even if a clone died it wouldn't have a great impact on him as he only needed to put a small portion of his soul inside. For years he had acted in secret, always showing how weak and talentless he was for one simple reason, to stay hidden in the shadows.

Right now, however, that was not viable, the original plan was to detonate the ball right away before Reign would appear and attack the king, but since the king managed to break out, the tactic had to be changed a bit. Allowing the king to beat up his clone before dropping his guard was the best one he could think of at the moment, with the power left inside of the clone he detonated in an attempt to injure the king even more before giving Reign a chance to kill him.

"That's impossible!" The king angrily shouted as he got up from the ground. Blood flowed from his wounds as he stood up. His legs shook a bit as the explosion, although not that powerful, was able to take him by surprise, not to mention that it happened right in his face.

Before the king could do anything, however, he felt an incredible amount of mana behind him, one that was almost at the level of a first evolution combatant. He quickly turned around, only to find a golden-clad Reign bringing his katana down at him from a distance. An incredibly powerful blade of light fell down on the king who managed to put his arms in front of him.

The powerful attack forced him to go down on his knees as his arms slowly started dropping as well. The attack managed to cut deeply into his shoulder before disappearing. As the king panted he looked in front of him, only to find that nobody was there, he tried to get up, only to widen his eyes in shock and look down in disbelief as a golden katana penetrated his chest from behind.