Chapter 226
Armenia.
With the departure of the knights who once filled half the village, the bustling atmosphere had faded.
“Huff! Huff!”
In the midst of this, a young boy was diligently swinging his sword.
Beside him, a girl of similar age watched with a worried expression, while a one-armed middle-aged man observed the boy’s movements with a stern gaze.
They were none other than Valdes, Lia, and Argon, Yan’s father.
“Your sword tip is shaking. It means your power distribution is off. Focus and swing properly.”
“Huff. Yes, thank you!”
Valdes bowed his head in gratitude.
Argon smiled faintly and patted Valdes on the head.
He was a child Argon had met during a recent walk, taken for recuperation.
At first, he had merely watched over him.
But upon recognizing Valdes’ extraordinary talent, he began to teach him.
Valdes absorbed the lessons like a sponge, making it a joy to teach him.
“I wonder what my son is up to now.”
As Argon clicked his tongue, Lia giggled beside him.
“Master Yan must be doing something amazing!”
“He could take it easy, though.”
Argon took a bite of the sandwich Lia handed him.
As the three of them started chatting while eating their sandwiches, Argon’s expression suddenly changed, and he stood up abruptly.
“…This is!”
Seeing Argon’s serious expression, Valdes and Lia also tensed up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I need to go somewhere, don’t worry about it.”
With that, Argon hurriedly walked towards Yan’s mansion.
Inside, Momon was looking out the window.
“Momon.”
[Could it be… the Sky Fortress has reappeared?]
Hearing an unfamiliar name, Argon asked.
“What is that?”
Momon sighed deeply and continued.
[The Sky Fortress. It’s the ark of the Celestials, who built a brilliant civilization a thousand years ago.]
“The Celestials…”
Argon’s face turned pale.
He knew that the leader was a Celestial.
But if you asked him what exactly the Celestials were, he wouldn’t know.
He had never asked, and even if he did, he wouldn’t have received an answer.
Argon had been comrades with Aquinas for many years, but he knew nothing about the Celestials except that they used a unique script called ‘Heavenly Script.’
“…Is it dangerous?”
[Dangerous? If that thing is perfect, this empire won’t stand a chance and will be shattered to pieces!]
The empire, shattered?
An empire with five second-tier superhumans?
As Argon found it hard to believe, Momon shouted.
[The Sky Fortress can analyze all mana, and thus, it can nullify or destroy any attack made of mana!]
“…!”
Argon finally understood.
Momon trembled with rage, his skeletal form beginning to change.
Transforming into a handsome young man with golden hair, he spoke urgently.
[I’ll go. Stay here and don’t move.]
“Please take me with you!”
[You fool! Even in your current state, you say such things? You’re nothing but a burden!]
“…Please. There must be something I can do.”
Seeing Argon’s earnest plea, Momon frowned.
[Do as you wish. I don’t care.]
“Thank you!”
Momon turned his head away in disgust and waved his hand.
Soon, a teleportation magic circle began to spin fiercely around Momon and Argon.
* * *
Yan spread his senses, trying to detect his opponent’s presence, but it was elusive.
Swish!
At that moment, something shot towards Yan’s neck from the direction of the waterway. Yan frowned.
‘…?’
It was an incomprehensible attack. The problem wasn’t the thrown dagger itself.
‘The direction is strange.’
The dagger came from a completely different location than the first one. Yan quickly drew Ascalon and deflected the dagger, then leaped towards the waterway from which it had come.
But there was nothing to be found there.
This could only mean one thing: there was more than one enemy targeting him. It was impossible for even a superhuman to move that far while using stealth techniques capable of deceiving his senses.
So, the enemy was a group…
“Why don’t they show themselves?”
Of course, assassins often hunt from the shadows.
‘That’s only possible when they know everything about their target.’
If they didn’t fully understand their target’s abilities, some assassins would reveal themselves as bait to probe the target’s capabilities.
Just then…
Swish!
Another dagger flew through the air. Yan’s gaze followed it, and he quickly understood the situation.
The dagger wasn’t aimed at him but at the plaza.
This meant…
“Someone else has entered besides me?”
Yan, having finished his thoughts, used stealth techniques like the other assassins.
Swish.
His form blended into the background. Since reaching the third rank, he could hide himself in nature itself, making it difficult for even the most sensitive opponents to detect him.
In this state, Yan converted all his mana into yin energy and began to move slowly away from the waterway.
Tap!
Yan leaped. He headed in the direction the dagger had flown earlier. Arriving at the plaza at incredible speed, Yan quickly scanned the surroundings.
Then he clicked his tongue.
“…Tsk.”
Even the targeted enemy seemed proficient in stealth, as he couldn’t sense any presence. Moreover, there were no traces left behind, indicating a meticulous personality.
The most troublesome kind of opponent.
Both the hunters and the hunted were not ordinary.
At that moment, Yan sensed a faint presence.
Simultaneously, he drew Ascalon and unleashed a sword strike in that direction.
In a split second, Yan’s sword strike contained enough power to defeat any ordinary assassin without resistance.
Slash!
Boom!
However, contrary to Yan’s expectations, he couldn’t defeat the opponent. Not only did the opponent react quickly, but they also fully defended against his sword strike.
And then…
“…!”
The sight that unfolded left Yan’s mouth agape.
The opponent, too, was astonished to see Yan.
The one who had received Yan’s sword strike was none other than…
“How is this possible…!”
Another version of himself.
Yan was dumbfounded, staring at another version of himself with a shocked expression.
The other Yan, equally bewildered, looked back at him.
He must have been looking at him with the same expression.
Then, the other Yan’s eyes suddenly calmed.
Yan realized that ‘it’ had the same thought process and behavior patterns as himself.
No matter how shocking or nonsensical the situation, he would first explore and observe.
So now was not the time to be idly thinking.
At that moment, the other Yan reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
Though it was obscured by his fingers, Yan immediately knew what it was.
‘Smoke bomb!’
If he were in that position, he would definitely use a smoke bomb to obscure his vision.
Then he would slowly assess the situation.
So, if the opponent thought the same way, they would surely act like this.
Yan quickly drew a dagger to stop him.
Bang!
But the other Yan was a step ahead.
As Yan had predicted, the other Yan had pulled out a smoke bomb.
In an instant, the area was filled with smoke, and the other Yan’s presence vanished.
Yan was about to give chase, but it was too risky to pursue an already vanished opponent.
In the end, Yan had to blend into the background again, waiting for another opportunity.
Meanwhile, Yan thought of the vanished ‘it’ and let out a bitter laugh.
“Am I seeing an illusion?”
It wasn’t an entirely unreasonable hypothesis.
Facing an identical existence was impossible.
Of course, there were legends of doppelgängers who could perfectly mimic someone’s appearance.
‘There’s no way such things exist.’
Yan didn’t believe in such things.
If they did exist, they would have transformed into the strongest beings and conquered the continent.
But there had never been such a case.
So, the most likely scenario was that he was seeing an illusion or hallucination.
‘…Since there’s no information about the Sky Fortress, it’s hard to be sure there’s no unknown illusion array.’
Even if he considered this phenomenon to be caused by an illusion array, another question arose.
Such things usually had a purpose.
An array to kill the target.
An array to confuse the target’s mind.
An array to protect the interior from external forces.
But if this was an illusion array, what was its purpose?
If it were a killing array, the enemies here would have joined forces to kill him.
If it were a confusing array, it would have shown dark pasts or despairing situations.
If it were a protective array, he would have been ejected from the Sky Fortress upon intrusion.
But the current situation didn’t align with the purposes of those three arrays.
Based on the flow of events, that is.
At that moment, Yan sensed something again.
A new presence.
It was felt from the place where he had first entered the Sky Fortress.
Yan’s eyes sparkled as he leaped towards the source of the presence at incredible speed.
* * *
Yan arrived at his destination and his expression hardened as he took in the scene before him.
It was because of the identity of the opponent who had appeared there.
“This is a real city?”
The opponent he was watching from his hiding place looked exactly like him.
At the same time, a sinister hypothesis formed in Yan’s mind.
The ‘figure’ he saw now, the ‘figure’ who had set off the smoke bomb and fled earlier, and the ones hiding somewhere around here, as well as those who had thrown daggers at him…
“Could it be…?”
The unsettling hypothesis that all of them might be ‘Yan.’