Down on the command balcony of the Ebon Citadel, Sylvia Thorne and Morwenna stood side by side. They were watching the sky.

The initial shock of the Heavenly Smite reversal had faded. It was replaced by the thrill of absolute dominance.

"She is fast," Sylvia noted. Her icy blue eyes tracked the golden blur of Aurelia darting through the burning wreckage of the Armada.

"Her Aegis of the Sun physique grants her near-instantaneous speed. She does not just fly. She rides the ambient light."

Morwenna let out a dark sultry laugh. She leaned her hip against the ruined railing.

"Fast just means she will die tired. Look at him. He is not even trying to kill her yet. He is playing with his food."

Sylvia smirked. "Ten thousand divine crystals she breaks in three minutes."

"Make it twenty thousand," Morwenna purred. Her fangs bared in a predatory grin.

"I give her two minutes before he shatters her spirit completely."

High above the clouds, the battle was a terrifying display of high-speed brutality.

Aurelia was fighting like a cornered lioness. Her six golden wings beat furiously. They propelled her at impossible speeds.

She thrust the Spear of Longinus in a blinding flurry of strikes. Each one aimed at Arthur’s vital points.

"Die! Die! Die!" Aurelia screamed. Her usual composed elegance was entirely replaced by desperate fury.

Arthur didn’t draw his sword. He ducked and weaved and parried her spear thrusts with his bare calloused hands.

His movements were incredibly lazy. It was almost insulting. He wasn’t trying to strike back. He was studying her.

[System Notice]

↳ Target Aurelia is utilizing Valkyrie Combat Art: Solar Flare Piercing.

[System Ability]

↳ 10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated! ↳ Host is receiving massive insight into divine spear techniques.

[Skill Upgrades]

↳ Host has gained: God-Tier Mastery of Valkyrie Arts.

Arthur’s dark eyes gleamed. The centuries of Aurelia’s painstaking martial training flooded his brain in a second.

He suddenly understood the exact muscle tension required for her thrusts. He knew the precise angle of her wings for maximum velocity. He even saw the microscopic flaws in her defensive guard.

Aurelia lunged again. She brought the spear down in a devastating overhead arc meant to split his skull.

Arthur didn’t dodge. He mirrored her exact stance.

He raised his right arm and stepped into her guard perfectly. He didn’t just block the strike. He intercepted the flow of her own attack.

Using the exact footwork of the Solar Flare Piercing art, Arthur delivered a devastating palm strike directly to the center of her chestplate.

"CRACK!"

Aurelia gasped loudly. Her eyes bulged as the wind was violently knocked from her lungs.

She was sent flying backward. She tumbled through the air before she frantically stabilized herself with her wings.

She looked up at him in sheer unadulterated horror.

He hadn’t just hit her. He had used her own sacred heavily guarded technique to do it. And he had executed it better than she ever could!

"Your form is too rigid," Arthur criticized. He floated casually in the air with his hands tucked into his coat pockets.

"You rely on the spear’s reach to cover the blind spot on your left flank. If you shift your weight a fraction of an inch, you would not bleed so much kinetic energy."

"How..." Aurelia stammered. Golden blood dripped from her perfect lips. "That is the sacred art of the Heavens! Only the Vanguard knows that stance!"

"I learn fast," Arthur sneered. "Come on. Show me something else. I am bored."

Aurelia’s brain short-circuited.

The absolute despair of facing a monster who didn’t just outpower her but completely stole her life’s work in a matter of seconds was suffocating. The pride of the Valkyrie shattered.

If physical combat couldn’t kill him, she had to rely on the absolute laws of the universe.

Aurelia let out a guttural desperate roar. She channeled every single drop of her solar mana into the Spear of Longinus. The golden weapon began to hum with a terrifying weight.

"I am the Vanguard of the Heavens!" Aurelia screamed. Her aura ignited the sky.

"By the laws of the Apex Realm, this strike cannot fail! Spear of Longinus: Absolute Piercing!"

She hurled the spear.

It didn’t travel through the air. It bypassed physical space entirely.

The Spear of Longinus was a conceptual weapon. Its defining rule was that once thrown, it had already pierced the target’s heart. It was a localized edit to reality itself.

The universe bent. It forced the spear directly toward Arthur’s chest at infinite speed.

Down below, Sylvia’s breath hitched. "He cannot dodge that. It is a conceptual lock!"

Arthur didn’t try to dodge.

As the spear materialized inches from his heart, his Dimensional Breaker Physique roared to life. His dark core flared and utterly rejected the laws of the Apex Realm.

To the universe, the spear had to hit. To Arthur’s body, the universe rules were merely suggestions.

[System Warning]

↳ Foreign Conceptual Law Detected: Absolute Piercing.

[Biological State]

↳ Dimensional Breaker Physique Activated: Nullifying external reality enforcement.

Arthur simply shifted his shoulder a fraction of an inch.

The unavoidable Spear of Longinus missed his heart. It grazed the fabric of his coat instead.

Before the weapon could correct its trajectory, Arthur’s massive calloused hand snapped out. He wrapped his fingers around the golden shaft in a vice grip.

The spear violently vibrated. It fought against his hold, but Arthur’s physical strength was absolute.

He crushed the ambient divine energy suffocating the weapon. He rendered the legendary artifact completely inert.

"Nice stick," Arthur said smoothly. He admired the weapon before tossing it into his personal spatial ring.

Aurelia froze. The universe seemed to stop spinning. The Spear of Longinus had missed!

Her absolute law had been casually sidestepped by a man in a dark coat. The jaws of everyone watching dropped. They stared at Arthur as though he had run mad! 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Before she could even process the impossibility of the moment, Arthur blurred.

He didn’t use her Valkyrie arts this time. He used pure violence. He appeared directly in front of her. His towering frame completely eclipsed her vision.

"NO!" Aurelia shrieked. She raised her arms to defend herself.

Arthur’s heavy palm lashed out. He did not aim for her body. He aimed for the magnificent glowing wings on her back.

"CRACK!"

The sound of shattering divine bone echoed across the sky.

Aurelia let out a bloodcurdling scream of pure agony. Her six golden wings were brutally snapped and violently ripped from their sockets!

Golden feathers and blood exploded into the air as the source of her pride and mobility was extinguished in a single blow.

As she began to plummet toward the earth, Arthur reached out. His hand clamped like an iron vice around her throat.

He arrested her fall instantly. He held the broken bleeding Valkyrie Commander suspended over the edge of the floating Citadel.

Aurelia choked. Tears of pain and absolute terror streamed down her flawless face. Her face went pale and drawn.

Her golden armor was cracked. Her wings were gone. Her invincible fleet was burning around them.

Arthur looked into her terrified eyes. His expression was utterly devoid of mercy.

"The Heavens lied to you, bird," Arthur whispered. His cold voice cut through the sounds of the burning Armada. "Let me show you the truth."