System vs Rebirth

"What?!" Heirden gasped as he instinctively thickened the layer of rocks that protected his skin to the point where he looked like a golem instead of a human.

After that, he raised both hands, trying to stop Anna's blade.

Anna utilized the momentum as well as the fierce lightning to strike Heirden. She wanted to know how much strength she could muster by this Awakening.

Obviously, the power of the Awakening was not at the same level as the True Spirit Body. But the pill had transformed the Spirit Links, including her veins, to a level where her body could assimilate with the Spirit itself.

When her blade struck Heirden's blade, the Spiritual Energy erupted. The lightning was rampaging on the area, shattering the ground even further. The rampant lightning also bounced toward the barrier.

"!!!" Her father, Kevin, couldn't help but increase the output of his Spiritual Energy as the barrier began to tremble. Kevin looked at his daughter and sucked a cold breath, 'Since when has my daughter become this strong? No, what is she doing the whole time?'

Not only the control but also this transformation. Kevin thought Anna had done something unprecedented.

He was afraid because showing too much would definitely shoot her down. After showing her profound control, the Royal Family might be trying to tie her down. But with this transformation, there was a possibility of the royal family using their influence to suppress her and get whatever they wanted. If they didn't receive it, they would consider Anna's act as treason and carry out the execution.

Still, he hadn't seen Anna's True Spirit Body, so he didn't know how big the gap between this transformation and the True Spirit Body was.

Even the Marshall trembled upon seeing this transformation. In normal cases, he wasn't afraid of anything, considering he was a Spirit Transcendence. The only one who could fight with him equally was Commander Oscar or Alexander.

But from the power of this transformation, he'd got a sense of dread, not because of her power, but because of her potential.

If Anna could completely grow to her fullest potential, there was a chance that her power would be so strong that no one could bind her anymore.

Even the king had to re-evaluate the situation.

Still, the fight had yet to end.

The lightning was shattering the rocks that covered Heirden. Anna had just shown a strength second only to the True Spirit Body.

If their power was equal before, this transformation would have completely overcome the gap.

"Haaa!" Anna roared while releasing all her strength to complete one full swing.

"!!!" Heirden could feel that the rock was beginning to be crushed, and eventually… "Aaaahhhh!"

Heirden screamed out of reflex. Anna managed to complete a full swing. As a result, the rock was completely crushed to the point where his hand was sticking out of the rock.

There was a deep cut wound on his hand. Heirden was clutching his hand, not being able to move his finger. He doubted he could use this hand for at least a few months even after it was healed. The cut was simply too deep.

But… this wasn't enough to make him give up. If he lost this time, his family would be ruined.

"I haven't lost!" Heirden made a clutching motion with his other hand.

The ground suddenly surged out as if they were alive, trying to form a sphere that would completely lock Anna inside.

Anna simply stomped the ground, using that force to scatter her lightning.

The lightning had far surpassed the rock and shattered them into pieces.

But there was a reason why Heirden was one of the twelve Arbiters.

The sphere earlier was just a distraction. When Anna destroyed it, the floor trembled as it shot up to the sky, forming a giant humanoid golem.

Its height was more than eight meters and its fist alone was as big as the arena.

More importantly, the golem joined both hands together and planned to slam the arena, crushing Anna altogether.

Even the audience was terrified. This was one of the reasons why Heirden's rank was pretty high. In fact, each Arbiter had the power to destroy an entire town with ease.

Obviously, Heirden was having a hard time controlling that massive amount of Spiritual Energy. Without it, he wouldn't be able to attach all these rocks and turn it into a giant golem.

Blood started flowing out of his mouth, nose, and eyes. Yet, he still maintained his focus as everything would end with just this attack.

Seeing such a challenge, Anna took a deep breath. Because everyone was so focused on the golem, they didn't notice the excited smile on Anna's face.

The instinct of the berserker had begun influencing her mind, taking this golem as a challenge that needed to be overcome.

She sheathed her blade once again. All her Spiritual Energy was concentrated in one place only: her sword. There was nothing to protect her other than the Reduce Impact Zone.

Just by releasing their Spiritual Energy alone, a fighter could exert some pressure. The more they concentrated their energy into one particular spot, the more pressure it brought.

Anna did it before, but because she always shot out the excess energy, it didn't accumulate enough to achieve such a thing.

But this time, she sealed all that energy within the scabbard of her sword.

Instinctively, both the Sword Arbiter and the Marshall had placed their hands on their blade.

The spiritual pressure emitted from Anna's blade was so strong that it deepened the crater.

This would be a deciding clash between Anna and Heirden.

Everyone became tense, preparing for the worst.

"Ah…" Anna suddenly felt something nostalgic. This amount of pressure, Spiritual Energy, and challenge couldn't help but remind her of what had happened in her previous life.

Her soul instinctively recognized this challenge.

"It's been a while since the last time I wielded this much power…" Anna surprisingly closed her eyes for a moment.

There was a scene that flashed in her mind. Noel was standing in front of her.

"This is the day I defeat you. You won't be able to escape anymore." Anna glared at Noel while concentrating her energy on her sword.

"If you can, that is…" Noel raised his hand. A huge flame erupted from the ground like that of a pillar, releasing tremendous heat.

It burned everything, whether it was the soil, the grass, or even her Spiritual Energy. Her lightning fluctuated as if the flame was forcing it to submission.

"Kh." Anna gritted her teeth. She wasn't afraid of this flame, but it didn't change the fact that Noel had clearly shown that if she wanted to defeat him, she would have to do more than that.

Anna fell silent for a moment. Her lightning was overwhelming. She had known that fact, but it still lacked the explosiveness that Noel's fire possessed. To bridge that gap, she had to create an artificial burst.

Whether it was her instinct or her talent, Anna actually sheathed her blade. If she lacked that burst of energy, she had just sealed it and unleashed everything in one go.

"!!!" Even Noel raised his eyebrows, noticing what she was doing.

There was an eerie silence for a few seconds before Anna and Noel leaped at the same time.

Both of them waved their sword diagonally as their abilities erupted. The sky turned white and black for a second.

The black flame was overwhelming the lightning, trying to burn it into nothing. The lightning was rampaging around, stubbornly resisting the fire.

In that split second, both of them had passed each other.

What remained after that clash was shattered, dried ground with everything was reduced to ashes.

"Interesting…" Noel smiled as he involuntarily dropped his sword to the ground. It appeared that his hand had grown so numb that he couldn't even hold his sword.

On the other hand, Anna's hands were shaking uncontrollably. If not for the fact that she switched to both hands to resist Noel's violent attack, her condition would probably be the same as his.

"That's an impressive attack, but that's not enough to defeat me." As Noel said those words, the temperature had dropped, indicating that his ice element could still fight. But Noel simply left that time.

Remembering that scene, Anna couldn't help but smile. Noel had been pushing her to the limit the whole time.

This technique was developed in order to defeat Noel. But in this life, they were fighting together.

'Back then… You are like a mountain standing in my way. Whenever I climb it, I feel like it's never ending. But what if we climb it together? Will I still continue climbing that mountain? No, I think the answer is simpler than that… We will simply destroy the mountain… destroy all the mountains standing on our path.'

Anna gradually opened her eyes. Her expression was tranquil as if the golem didn't have any effect on her.

The lightning suddenly disappeared from everyone's vision as if she had just given up. But this was the calm before the storm. She accumulated all that into this one single slash… a slash not to 'climb' the mountain but to destroy it.

"Raging Lightning Descent."

As she called its name, Anna drew her sword and the entire arena was overwhelmed with blinding white light.