Chapter 440: The Battle Of The Kings

Noah looked at the horrified grandmaster with calm, almost bored eyes. "Disappointed?"

The grandmaster opened his mouth to respond but never got the chance.

Kipp shot forward like a cannonball, wind magic erupting around his entire body as he closed the distance to the nearest dark elf grandmaster in a fraction of a second. His fist, wrapped in compressed air sharp enough to shear stone, drove into the elf’s stomach with enough force to fold him completely in half.

"I’ve been wanting to do this for a while," Kipp said cheerfully, already spinning to engage a second opponent.

The battle exploded simultaneously across the entire engagement line.

Alissa drew her sword in one fluid motion that seemed almost lazy until the blade connected with the closest grandmaster’s defensive barrier and shattered it completely. She moved through the debris of broken magic like water finding gaps in rock, her swordsmanship operating at a level that made the dark elf’s desperate counters look clumsy.

"You hurt Noah..." she said quietly, her blade finding his shoulder joint with surgical precision. "That’s unforgivable."

The dark elf grandmaster tried to summon shadow constructs to defend himself. Alissa cut through them without breaking her stride.

Valeria didn’t rush forward. She held her position in the air, her eyes tracking the battlefield before raising her sword and a massive silhouette of a sword appeared behind her.

She released her sword in sequences that exploited exactly those frequencies. Two grandmasters found themselves fighting magical attacks that seemed to know exactly where their shields were weakest.

Elara engaged with other grandmasters, overwhelming them with her magical prowess. Despite their dark affinity, they couldn’t compete.

The items Elara and others consumed before the battle made them on another level.

Furthermore, her magical combat style combined powerful offensive spells with elegant defensive positioning that made her frustratingly difficult to pin down.

The five demon master-rank escorts from Lilin engaged the peripheral dark elf fighters who had begun streaming upward from the city below, their temporary grandmaster boosts from Noah’s luxury smoothies making them formidable opponents despite their nominal rank.

The two human grandmasters from Esta fought beside them.

Noah floated above it all beside Lola, watching the chaos unfold with satisfaction. His friends had grown into forces of nature through their months of relentless training and his items.

They didn’t need him for this.

Lola stood beside him with crossed arms and a slight smile. "They’ve grown tremendously."

"They have," Noah agreed, watching Kipp simultaneously fight two grandmasters while managing wind constructs that cut off their escape routes with impressive spatial awareness.

"You’re not even slightly tempted to join in?" Lola asked with mild amusement.

Noah shook his head. "They won’t experience such battles anywhere else in the world. Let them have it..."

--

The battle was winding down decisively. Five of the six dark elf grandmasters had been defeated—some unconscious, some surrendered, one dead from refusing to stop fighting after taking critical injuries. Kipp was breathing harder than usual but grinning with obvious satisfaction.

Then the atmosphere changed.

A pressure descended on the entire battlefield like a mountain, different from the grandmasters they’d just defeated. The air itself seemed to grow darker, as if light was being selectively absorbed by whatever was approaching.

King Darian arrived.

He ascended from the palace, his dark robes fluttering in the wind as his aura expanded outward in controlled waves that made even Kipp’s expression sober immediately.

The dark elf king’s eyes swept across the battlefield, cataloging the fallen grandmasters, assessing the coalition that had dismantled his finest defenders. His jaw tightened with barely controlled fury.

Then his gaze found Noah.

Darian went completely still.

His eyes widened, then narrowed into something between rage and disbelief.

"You..." The word came out barely above a whisper.

Noah met his stare without expression.

Darian’s voice rose, "Didn’t I kill you with my bare hands?! I drove a spear through your heart! I felt your heartbeat stop! HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!"

The pressure coming off Darian made the enslaved light elves below freeze in place and dark elf soldiers instinctively step backward from their own king.

Darian’s aura exploded outward, darkness erupting around him in violent waves.

Noah tilted his head slightly, studying the furious king before him with calm eyes.

"Because you are weak," Noah continued, his hand moving to the hilt of the Elemental Sword at his hip—now fully restored through weeks of work with the demon kingdom’s finest artificer, the mithril ingots and Stormglass Orb from the barter session having proven crucial to the repair process. The blade trembled, eager to be drawn against a worthy opponent. "It’s time for me to get my revenge."

He drew the sword.

The moment the blade cleared its scabbard, wind and fire simultaneously wrapped around the metal in spiraling patterns, the restored Tier 6 weapon responding to Noah’s elemental mastery with terrifying eagerness. The sight of it made several watching dark elf soldiers take involuntary steps backward.

Darian snarled and charged.

He was fast, covering distance with explosive power that had crushed kingdoms and shattered armies. His dark element magic condensed around both fists as he closed the gap, dark spears materializing around him.

Noah moved to meet him.

Their clash sent visible shockwaves rippling outward in concentric circles, the collision of their powers creating atmospheric disturbances that flattened vegetation for hundreds of meters. Dark element met wind and fire in explosive conflict, the competing elemental forces creating brilliant and terrible light.

But the exchange lasted only seconds before the difference became undeniable.

Darian’s dark spears shattered against Noah’s sword with embarrassing ease, the restored Tier 6 blade cutting through concentrated shadow magic as if it were gossamer. Noah’s counter-strike moved faster than Darian could track, his swordsmanship operating at a threshold that transcended what even peak grandmasters could follow with their eyes.

The flat of Noah’s blade caught Darian across his left arm with enough force to send him spinning sideways. Before he could recover, wind magic wrapped around his body like invisible chains, slowing his momentum.

Then fire came from below, driving him upward.