Published at 29th of October 2026 1:40 pm

Chapter 2478: Word

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A few seconds earlier—near the battle site.

There were several parties closely watching the battle between Renara and Marlik, keeping a particularly close eye on every exchange between the two and following the course of their confrontation from beginning to end.

All the Behemoths were fighting one another with only half their attention truly devoted to their own opponents, while the rest of their attention remained firmly fixed on the battle between Renara and Marlik, and for that very reason, the battles between the Behemoths in particular had not spread across extremely vast distances, as none of them wanted to move too far away from the confrontation they were observing.

The Shadow Sword vessels were also documenting the entire battle from their positions, recording what was happening between Renara and Marlik in detail, but without broadcasting any of it live, so that the complete recordings could later be presented to Renara herself and the various relevant parties for careful analysis.

And finally, among everyone currently observing this confrontation, the spectators who were undoubtedly the most relaxed and least burdened by their own battles... were the Council Dominators and the Tyrant’s sons.

They had previously approached the Dominator battlefield as though preparing to participate, but in the end they had not actually joined the fighting. Instead, they remained nearby with their arms folded across their chests and devoted most of their attention to what they regarded as the greatest battle currently taking place in the universe, a confrontation that, in recent history, could hardly be rivaled by anything except the battles between Hedrick and Helmor.

"....." At that moment, after continuing to observe the battle until its apparent conclusion, the eldest of the Tyrant’s sons present finally let out a long sigh. "Marlik won, just as expected."

"Tsk." The leader of the Council of Thrones expedition looked visibly annoyed as he continued watching the scene before him. "I’m supposed to be happy because he’s on our side, but somehow I’m happier about all that blood covering his face. It’s been a long time since anyone managed to injure him badly enough to leave him looking like this."

"He’s undoubtedly a bastard, but he’s a powerful bastard." The Tyrant’s son spoke calmly, apparently not sharing the envoy’s satisfaction at seeing Marlik injured. "Don’t forget that throughout this entire battle, he didn’t use the power of the adult Space Beast blood flowing through his body. If he fights Renara again, he’ll finish her."

"And is Renara some newborn who would simply come to the next fight just as unprepared as she was this time? She dominated the battle from beginning to end if not for that despicable move that bastard Marlik used against her. She didn’t even use the properties of that terrifying Law of hers that has become so famous recently, that strange energy-manipulation Law that I personally witnessed killing several of my followers... I only hope she manages to find a proper weapon worthy of her before the next time they meet." The Council envoy sighed as he finished speaking, clearly unwilling to accept the conclusion so easily.

"I disagree with you. It wasn’t a deceptive move, nor was she the one dominating the battle in the way you’re describing." The Tyrant’s son slowly shook his head before continuing, "The Law of Causal Accumulation. Marlik has to make preparations and arrange things toward a certain point where he ultimately achieves victory, and until he actually reaches that intended point, he often gets injured along the way... The forbidden history books say that his battles have always been exceptionally bloody, but the blood covering those battles isn’t primarily the blood of his enemies, it’s his own. He simply endures everything that happens to him and keeps advancing regardless of the injuries until he finally reaches the point he intended from the beginning."

"...His madness in battle long ago while fighting beside his master, combined with the sight of him constantly drenched in his own blood as though he had just walked directly out of a slaughterhouse covered from head to toe in the blood of a thousand cattle, were what eventually earned him the title of the Butcher... But his legend has remained alive until today for a very simple reason: he has never lost. No matter how badly he is injured during a battle, and no matter how many of his limbs are torn apart before he reaches the end, he always reaches the point of inevitability he prepared for, and when everything is finally over, he is always the last man standing on the battlefield."

"Ugh..." The Council envoy grumbled in obvious displeasure after hearing that explanation, his expression showing that it had done nothing to improve his opinion of Marlik.

"Haha, from the way you’re reacting, you sound as though you genuinely want the commander of our own army to fall." The Tyrant’s son laughed as he glanced toward the Council envoy.

"I want him torn limb from limb while making sure he injures his opponent just as badly." The Council envoy’s eyes immediately gleamed as though he had already imagined the sight in detail. "Then we step forward afterward and kill his already injured opponent ourselves." He laughed with obvious satisfaction at his own idea. "Imagine that scenario."

"....." The Tyrant’s son let out a long whistle after considering the image the envoy had just painted. "That certainly sounds nice, no doubt about it." Then, after another moment of thought, he continued, "But what if—"

Pressure

Before he could finish what he was about to say, everyone who had placed their attention on Marlik’s area suddenly felt as though their tongues had been forcibly tied inside their mouths, while at the same time an inexplicable chill swept through their bodies and caused them to stiffen where they stood.

At that exact moment, Marlik was no longer looking toward the battlefield around him, but was staring directly toward a certain point in the surrounding space, a particular spot where two rubies seemed to burn so brightly that they illuminated the space around them...

"....Hedrick...."

Everyone muttered the name almost simultaneously with a sharp gasp.

"...Do you want to dance too?" Marlik revealed a broad smile as he faced Hedrick’s piercing gaze, keeping his expression steady despite the oppressive presence coming from those two ruby-like eyes.

"...." Hedrick’s two ruby-like eyes stared directly into his soul without the slightest fluctuation, as though that gaze alone could see through everything Marlik was trying to conceal. "Do you have the ability?"

"No, I’ll leave." Marlik answered without hesitation as he calmly sheathed both swords back into their respective scabbards, making his decision without attempting to pretend otherwise. "Should I prepare for a chase?"

Marlik spoke with a smile deliberately kept on his face to conceal the anger boiling inside him and the disgust he currently felt toward himself for admitting such a thing so easily, but the reality remained unchanged: he truly could not fight at this level of power in his current condition, especially not against someone like Hedrick who had yet to expend himself and still retained his full strength.

"I thought so too." Hedrick spoke calmly, showing no surprise at Marlik’s decision to retreat. "Leave, and don’t even think about interfering in any other battle taking place in this Sector. Your opponent is Renara alone, and what happens between the two of you will remain between the two of you... Go recover from your injuries and prepare yourself properly for the next round."

"Oh." Marlik could no longer restrain the smile spreading across his face when he heard those words, his previous anger seemingly finding something else to focus on. "You’ll actually let me face Renara alone again? Your partner might truly lose this time if you give me another chance... No opponent of mine has ever managed to escape from me twice."

"You’ve never fought anyone at our level before either." Hedrick spoke in a heavy voice, answering Marlik’s confidence without the slightest hesitation. "Renara will fight you and retreat once, twice, three times, even ten times, however she pleases, and every single time she returns to face you again, she’ll come back stronger than the time before, until she eventually reaches the point where she cuts off your head... just as I do with Helmor."

Then, from the middle of the surrounding space, a row of gleaming teeth appeared as Hedrick revealed a grin beneath those ruby-like eyes. "You and Helmor are nothing more than high-grade training dolls."

"....?" Marlik’s eyes immediately opened to their widest upon hearing those words, and his hand moved toward the hilt of the crimson sword almost instinctively, resting upon it as a heavy killing intent erupted from him.

"Ooh." A small laugh escaped Hedrick’s mouth when he saw Marlik’s reaction and the hand resting on the crimson sword. "If you draw that sword, it’ll be the last thing you ever do. Renara will probably be angry with me for taking away her doll before she finishes playing with it, but I can always find some way to appease her afterward."

"....." Marlik continued staring silently into Hedrick’s blazing ruby-like eyes for several moments, his hand still near his weapon as the tension between them remained heavy, but in the end he merely nodded a few times instead of drawing the sword. "Remember what happened today."

Huuum

Marlik took a single step backward, and with that movement, his figure disappeared from where he had been standing.

"Heh~" Hedrick let out a regretful sigh as he watched the place where Marlik had just vanished, clearly disappointed that his words had failed to produce the reaction he wanted.

The chances of catching Marlik were extremely slim as long as Marlik himself chose to abandon the battle and focus entirely on fleeing... and even deliberately provoking him by calling him nothing more than a training doll had not been enough to make him lose control and stay.

It seemed that all of Marlik’s accumulated combat experience had not gone to waste after all, and even with his anger stirred to that degree, he still knew when remaining on the battlefield would no longer benefit him.

Then Hedrick slowly turned toward those around him, shifting his attention away from the place where Marlik had disappeared and toward the numerous powerful figures who had been watching everything that happened.

"....!!!"

Whether it was the Council Dominators or the Tyrant’s sons, the hostile Behemoths who were stealing intermittent glances toward him while still occupied with their own battles, or even Arkail and the others on his own side, every single one of them instinctively held their breath as Hedrick’s attention shifted toward the battlefield.

If Hedrick personally entered the battle at this moment, the entire situation would change immediately, and the balance that had been maintained across the different battlefields until now would no longer remain the same.

The Tyrant’s sons and the Council Dominators would inevitably be forced to intervene whether they wanted to or not. They could not simply continue standing there with folded arms and watch Hedrick slaughter their allies left and right without so much as letting out a fart, and even if entering the battle meant that some of them would inevitably fall and die, they would still have no choice but to fight!

And once those forces entered the battle as well, the casualties on the side of the True Beginning Empire would undoubtedly increase dramatically. They were nearly 250 Dominators, after all, and even if Hedrick managed to kill 50 of them before eventually being forced to withdraw from the battlefield, the large number remaining afterward would still be enough to crush the others into the ground.

Therefore, regardless of which side they belonged to or what they personally wanted from this war, it was currently in everyone’s best interest for Hedrick to simply leave this place without interfering any further!

"...." Under all those fixed gazes and the heavy anticipation that had descended over the surrounding battlefield, Hedrick remained silent for a moment before finally opening his mouth and uttering a single word, "Continue."

Then the surrounding space covered his eyes once again.

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