Chapter 260

The hall was far larger and emptier than Haruto had expected.

At its center, the replicas of Haruto and Frieren were already waiting in silence.

The instant the three of them stepped inside, Frieren moved.

Mana surged around her as she raised her staff, and her body slowly lifted from the ground until she hovered steadily in midair.

Across the hall, Frieren’s replica mirrored her perfectly and rose into the air as well.

The only difference was its eyes.

There was no emotion in them whatsoever.

A second later, the deafening roar of magic shook the entire chamber.

Destructive Lightning Magic!

Dark-purple storm clouds churned beneath the ceiling. A lightning bolt as thick as a great tree screamed through the air, carrying heat intense enough to melt steel as it crashed toward the replica.

The replica answered with exactly the same spell.

Two enormous bolts illuminated the entire hall, their violent electrical force seeming to distort even the surrounding air.

Before the lightning had fully faded, deep crimson hellfire erupted.

Flames tore into one another and exploded, sending a massive shockwave rolling outward.

And that was only the beginning.

Piercing spells capable of punching through nearly anything shrieked through the hall.

Layer upon layer of defensive magic formed impenetrable barriers.

Every spell Frieren cast, her replica reproduced perfectly.

The entire chamber trembled under the endless magical bombardment. Waves of stray mana slammed into the surrounding stone walls like a raging sea, leaving cracks spidering across the surface.

The scale of their duel was almost mythic.

Any ordinary mage watching would have been left speechless.

On the other side of the hall, Haruto had already engaged his own replica.

The two stood dozens of meters apart, staring at one another.

The replica’s face remained completely expressionless.

Haruto rolled his neck once.

Then both figures vanished.

There were no flashes of magic, only the violent sonic cracks produced by sheer speed tearing through the air.

Their movements were far too fast for the naked eye to follow. Only two blurred afterimages could be seen racing through the hall before they collided head-on at the center.

Their fists met.

A visible white shockwave exploded outward like a tsunami.

The stone beneath their feet shattered into a web of cracks, and countless fragments were thrown into the air, only to be burned into fine ash before they could land by the residual magic from Frieren’s battle nearby.

And that single exchange was merely the beginning.

The two moved at extreme speed, fists and kicks raining down on one another in a relentless storm.

Heavy impacts echoed continuously through the chamber, mixing with the thunder of magic from the other side.

Their bodies darted, reversed, and changed direction again and again. The floor beneath them had long since been reduced to a field of broken stone and craters, but neither slowed in the slightest.

Of course, even while trading blows, both Haruto and his replica constantly kept track of the magical crossfire above.

Every so often, a stray bolt of destructive lightning would tear past them, or a wave of hellfire would sweep across their path.

Both would react at nearly the same instant—twisting aside, dodging, kicking off the ground, then immediately resuming their fight from another angle.

Haruto was confident he could survive one of Frieren’s stray attacks if he had to, but taking one cleanly would still hurt like hell.

His replica, on the other hand, would be seriously injured if it took a direct hit.

After dozens more exchanges, Haruto had completely figured out what the replica could do.

It had perfectly reproduced his strength, speed, reactions, and even his combat instincts.

But that was all.

None of his other abilities had been copied.

Neither his Food Techniques nor his Nen existed in the replica.

"Knife."

Haruto gave a low command.

His Food Technique activated, and a translucent kitchen knife formed over his right hand.

The replica made the exact same motion—

But nothing appeared in its hand.

For the first time, it hesitated.

Haruto naturally had no intention of wasting that opening.

His right hand swept forward with a razor-sharp whistle, aiming straight for a vital point.

The replica reacted almost immediately and managed to evade the strike.

But from that moment onward, the balance of the fight changed completely.

Against Haruto using Knife, the replica was forced steadily onto the defensive.

It did not take long before one of its arms was severed.

That made it even harder for the copy to keep up.

In their next crossing exchange, Haruto’s strike flashed past.

The replica’s head rolled among the rubble.

Its body remained upright for a fraction of a second before breaking apart into countless motes of light and fading into the air.

Haruto stood where he was and stared at the disappearing replica.

Then, almost unconsciously, he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck.

Even though he had only decapitated a copy, watching a head identical to his own hit the ground left him with an extremely unpleasant chill.

He shook his head and pushed the thought aside.

Then he turned toward the battle taking place overhead.

Compared with the clean conclusion of his own fight, Frieren’s battle against her replica was far more spectacular—and far more evenly matched.

Fern had remained hidden nearby, gripping her staff while watching the fight with absolute concentration, searching constantly for an opportunity to intervene.

She had actually spotted an opening earlier and fired an offensive spell at the replica.

But the copy had reacted instantly, raising a defensive barrier and blocking the attack.

Fern had been forced to wait again.

Worse, the replica had adjusted its tactics afterward.

Its casting rhythm had become faster and more aggressive, making it even harder for Fern to find another safe opening.

As a result, Frieren and her duplicate had fallen into a complete war of attrition.

Frieren possessed a terrifying depth of mana.

Unfortunately, so did the replica.

If they continued like this, there was no telling how long the fight would last.

Haruto stood amid the rubble with his arms folded, watching the two figures streak back and forth through the air while exchanging spell after spell.

He clicked his tongue helplessly.

’Getting involved in a fight at this level really isn’t that simple.’

There was also one particularly annoying problem.

Haruto could not fly.

Still, that did not mean he had no options.

And since he had the opportunity anyway, he might as well find out just how strong Frieren really was.

Haruto drew a deep breath.

His Nen surged through his body like a tide and gathered continuously in both legs.

The muscles tightened like two fully drawn bows, storing an explosive amount of power.

His eyes locked onto the battle above.

His breathing became long and steady.

Every ounce of his attention focused on each movement made by Frieren and her replica as he patiently waited for the perfect moment.

Sometimes, an opening existed for less than a thousandth of a second.

Then Frieren and her replica once again cast their destructive lightning spells at the same time.

Two enormous dark-purple bolts collided in midair.

The resulting explosion shook the entire chamber.

A violent shockwave blasted both mages backward, and for the briefest instant, the flow of mana around them faltered.

That was it.

Haruto moved.

The rubble beneath his feet was instantly crushed into powder.

His body shot upward like a cannon shell.

He broke the sound barrier almost immediately, a clear white vapor cone exploding behind him as the air screamed under the force of his acceleration.

In the blink of an eye, Haruto crossed dozens of meters and appeared beside Frieren’s replica.

His right fist clenched.

He drove it forward with enough force to tear through almost anything.

The replica reacted with astonishing speed.

Almost the instant Haruto appeared, multiple defensive barriers layered themselves in front of it.

Haruto punched straight through them.

Crack!

The barriers shattered beneath his fist.

But that tiny fraction of a second—the infinitesimal delay created by the defenses—was enough.

The replica twisted violently aside.

Haruto’s fist, originally aimed at its torso, struck its left arm instead.

The limb was torn away from the shoulder by sheer force.

The replica itself was hurled sideways through the air.

For the first time, something resembling anger appeared in those cold, emotionless eyes.

Even as it was sent flying, the replica snapped its gaze toward Haruto.

It made no visible movement.

Yet in the next instant, Haruto felt an irresistible force slam into his chest like a heavy truck traveling at full speed.

His entire body was blasted backward.

He crashed into the solid stone wall hard enough to leave a deep, human-shaped crater.

Loose fragments of rock rained down around him.

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