The Assassin's Seven Principles of Manipulation

Chapter 331: Chapter 326 — Last Question

Zephyrion could already imagine what everyone watching was thinking. Like Arcturus, they probably believed the battle had reached its final stand, that what followed would be some desperate battle of attrition until one of them finally gave in.

However, that wasn’t what Zephyrion intended at all.

A battle of attrition wasn’t the image he wanted to leave in the minds of the empire.

When they remembered this fight, he didn’t want them saying the Lightning Prince had struggled. That the fight had been close, that Arcturus had nearly defeated him.

No.

He wanted it to be one-sided.

An overwhelming beatdown.

Pure and total domination.

Until now, he’d held back because he needed the Calamity Metal, but that no longer mattered. Whatever amount he needed, he could simply take after the battle.

It was time to go all out.

Zephyrion slowly exhaled, feeling the chaotic air fill his lungs as his eyes drifted shut.

Arcturus immediately frowned. Closing his eyes in the middle of a battle?

Yet despite the obvious opening, he didn’t move an inch. The atmosphere around Zephyrion had changed. The air had become so oppressively heavy that even breathing suddenly felt difficult.

"No fucking way..." Arcturus’ eyes slowly widened. "You still have something else?"

Zephyrion’s eyes opened. His response was three words.

"Titan Form: Convergence."

His Titan Armor suddenly expanded.

Metal swelled out at a terrifying rate, growing in mass and size until a colossal Titan towered over the battlefield, its enormous figure seeming to reach toward the heavens.

Then, just as suddenly, it began to shrink.

The colossal mass became smaller and smaller until it returned to the same skin-tight armor from before. The dark lines running across its surface vanished completely, leaving behind nothing but smooth, gleaming white metal.

A strange, constant thrum filled the air around Zephyrion, so faint yet pervasive that it felt as though the world itself had begun to vibrate.

He stood there calmly. Yet beneath his feet, the ground was slowly sinking under his sheer weight.

Titan Form: Convergence.

He had gotten the idea from Ingrid’s Cataclysm, which used every property within the Titan Armor to create a violent explosion. However, unlike Cataclysm, Convergence didn’t force those properties against one another.

It made them work in perfect tandem.

All at the same time.

Right now, his armor possessed the absolute metal of the Hartvains. The magnetism of the Heno. Maegorian’s compression, which made combining all of this possible. The vibration of the Ocren. And Slip State, granting him near-impossible speed.

Every property, working in tandem to enhance and complement the others.

That was Convergence.

Within the large office, the eyes of the dynasty heads narrowed to slits. This power... even through the screen, they could feel it!

No cadet, no, no Vessel should possess this sort of power!

Even Ingrid’s eyes had narrowed, all traces of her earlier confidence momentarily disappearing.

’He had another one?’

"Fine. Fine!" On the battlefield, Arcturus said, his disbelief giving way to a wide, almost ecstatic grin. "If that’s how you want to play it, then bring it the fuck on!"

His Domain rapidly collapsed, kilometers of metal surging towards him and swirling around his body like a massive silver storm. The sheer movement sent violent tremors through the terrain.

Then, Arcturus raised his blade.

Every shred of metal converged around it, twisting and surging upward until it resembled a roaring silver dragon.

"Come on, Lightning Prince!"

In response, Zephyrion lowered himself into a stance.

The pressure gathering around him made the ground tremble for kilometers. Even the cadets watching from far in the distance felt the earth buck beneath their feet.

"You’re right about one thing."

Zephyrion’s voice carried across the battlefield, heard not only by those present, but by every single person watching across the empire.

"This has gone on long enough."

"Then let’s fucking end it!"

Arcturus roared in response, bringing his massive blade down.

The pressure beneath Zephyrion became so intense that cracks began racing outward, his feet sinking deeper into the earth as power gathered throughout his body.

Slip State stripped away every trace of resistance.

His immense weight gave him overwhelming momentum.

Magnetism locked onto the surrounding metal, pulling and accelerating him forward at an insane rate.

Vibration would break down anything standing in his path.

And lastly, compression focused everything into a single lethal point.

Every property working in perfect tandem, each one amplifying the effect of the others.

When Zephyrion finally moved, it seemed less like speed and more like teleportation. One moment, Zephyrion was standing before Arcturus as his blade came crashing down.

The next, he was standing behind him.

"Wh-what the fuck...?"

Arcturus froze.

His attack was suspended in the air, his entire body locked so completely that he couldn’t move even a single inch. But the fact that Zephyrion was no longer standing before him told him everything he needed to know about the result.

Still, after a moment of silence, Arcturus chuckled.

"Well... shit. Before I go, answer me one question." he said, his voice strangely casual amid the stillness that had engulfed everything.

Zephyrion didn’t respond, but Arcturus apparently took his silence, and the fact that he was still conscious, as permission to continue.

"Cute and innocent, or sexy and busty?"

Zephyrion frowned. Then, after a brief moment...

’Women?’

His frown deepened. Who in their right fucking mind would ask something like that in this situation?

Still, for some weird, inexplicable reason, Zephyrion found himself actually considering the question. An image of a small, cute, petite girl briefly surfaced in his mind before he answered.

"The first one."

"I fucking knew it!" Arcturus burst into laughter, somehow managing to grin even while completely frozen.

"Cute and innocent all the way! Fuck, Lightning Prince, you really don’t miss!" His grin widened even further. "It’s official. From this day onward, we’re best friends! Arcturus Aur Eryndor, the Undying Prince. You better remember that name!"

Zephyrion stared at him strangely, briefly wondering if the famed genius of the empire was actually some sort of psycho. Still, after a moment, he nodded.

"I’ll remember it."

The answer brought a brilliant smile to Arcturus’ face.

"Good."

Then, time seemed to resume.

And whiteness swallowed everything.

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