Chapter 197: Xanxus

The final corridor shook as another automated cannon fired.

Emily opened a spatial corridor, redirecting the barrage through the wall behind the weapon that had launched it. The resulting explosion shook the upper floors, and Reinhard immediately used Spatial Step to cross the opening before the next defense could activate.

Three magical cannons emerged from the ceiling.

Reinhard raised his hand. Spatial Push struck the first cannon sideways, forcing its barrel into the second just as it fired. The explosion damaged the third, but the remaining weapon continued tracking him.

Emily appeared beside it and brought Aeon down.

The blade split the cannon before it could release another shot. She continued forward without waiting, trusting Reinhard to follow, and he crossed the opening she had created before the tower’s defenses could recover.

A reinforced door opened ahead of them. Weapon compartments emerged from the walls, and a series of magical swords launched toward Emily from several directions.

She raised Aeon and cut through the first two, but the remaining weapons changed direction in midair, converging on her from behind.

Reinhard used Attraction Anchor.

The weapons abruptly veered toward a single point, gathering around an invisible center. Emily turned and swept Aeon through the cluster, destroying the swords before they could reach her.

"Thanks," she said.

"Anytime. Try not to get stabbed before we reach the person responsible for all this."

"I was doing fine."

"Of course. That’s why I helped."

Emily gave him an unimpressed look, but the faint smile that appeared on her face disappeared when the final doors came into view.

They stood before an enormous set of black doors covered in silver inscriptions. Beyond them lay the highest chamber of the tower, where the Baal Family’s master had been waiting.

Reinhard’s Mana perception spread through the doors. He sensed a single presence standing near the windows, its Mana so dense that it seemed to press against the surrounding space.

Emily felt it too.

"SS-Rank," she murmured.

Reinhard’s expression sharpened. "Then let’s meet the man responsible for all this."

He pushed the doors open.

The chamber beyond was enormous, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Axom City. Broken relics and strange instruments occupied several tables, while black crystals rested beside the far wall.

A man in a black suit stood before the windows.

He wore an expressionless black diamond-shaped mask, and a black-and-white sword rested in his hand. The outline of the weapon blurred whenever Reinhard tried to focus on it, as though the space surrounding the blade couldn’t decide where it ended.

The man turned toward them.

"Emily Ashcroft," he said gently. "Thank you for your efforts in Marvello. Your actions were invaluable."

Emily’s expression hardened.

"That was never my fault!"

Xanxus tilted his head, then chuckled.

"How ignorant. But I suppose that is better."

Reinhard’s smile faded slightly. The man had thanked Emily for surviving the Black Moon incident as though she had completed a routine assignment rather than endured a disaster that had nearly consumed an entire city.

"You’re awfully comfortable discussing the suffering of other people," Reinhard remarked.

"Because I understand what matters." Xanxus turned toward the windows again. "Marvello was a successful experiment. The Black Moon appeared, its influence spread, and the conditions we had spent so long pursuing finally became attainable."

His voice remained gentle.

"Some people suffered. Others died. Yet the result was worth the cost."

Emily tightened her grip around Aeon. "You experimented on people. You turned their pain and resentment into part of that phenomenon, and now you’re calling it a success?"

"Of course."

There was no hesitation in his answer.

"The suffering of individuals has little importance compared with what I intend to accomplish."

Emily felt her stomach turn. She had seen what the Black Moon did to people. She had watched civilians lose themselves in terror and fought through a facility built around the exploitation of their suffering. Hearing Xanxus discuss it so casually made her want to cut through his mask.

Reinhard moved half a step forward.

"Then we’ll have to make your experiment a failure."

Xanxus turned back toward them.

His SS-Rank aura erupted across the chamber.

The pressure slammed into Reinhard and Emily, making the floor crack beneath their feet. The windows trembled, and the black crystals on the tables began vibrating as Xanxus’s Mana filled the room.

Xanxus raised his sword.

"Let us see whether you can accomplish anything beyond destroying my property."

He disappeared.

Reinhard’s Danger Intuition screamed.

He activated Spatial Step, removing the distance between himself and a position behind Xanxus. Heavenpiercer appeared in his hand as he thrust toward the man’s back.

The spear never reached him.

The distance between them expanded.

Reinhard’s thrust continued, but the space separating Heavenpiercer from Xanxus stretched farther with every inch the spear traveled. What should have been a direct strike became an attack against an opponent who seemed to recede endlessly.

Xanxus turned and swung his sword.

Emily appeared at his flank, Aeon already descending toward his shoulder. Xanxus glanced at her, and the distance between them abruptly vanished.

Emily was dragged forward.

Her body shot toward him, carrying her directly into the path of his sword. She twisted at the last instant, and Aeon met the black-and-white blade with a violent crash. Sparks scattered across the chamber as the impact forced her backward.

Reinhard immediately used Spatial Push to strike Xanxus from the side.

Xanxus increased the space between himself and the incoming attack. The invisible force crossed the chamber without reaching him.

"So you can manipulate distance itself," Reinhard said.

"Not quite." Xanxus turned his sword toward him. "I can add space where it is useful and remove it where it is inconvenient."

He swung again.

Reinhard used Spatial Step, removing the distance between himself and a point behind Xanxus. He appeared at the man’s back and brought Heavenpiercer down.

Xanxus altered the space around the spear.

The distance between the weapon and his body increased, stretching Reinhard’s attack into an ineffective thrust. Xanxus then depleted the space between his sword and Reinhard’s side.

The blade arrived almost instantly.

Reinhard twisted, but the strike still cut through his suit and grazed his ribs. He retreated with Spatial Step before the follow-up could reach him.

Emily attacked from the opposite side, opening a spatial corridor to create an unexpected angle. Xanxus adjusted the distance between her and her target, making her emerge farther away than intended. Her blade cut through empty air.

He counterattacked immediately.

Emily blocked, but the impact forced her across the chamber.

"Your spatial abilities are impressive," Xanxus remarked. "But you rely on deciding where you want to be. If I decide how much space separates you from that position, what will you do?"

Reinhard grinned despite the blood running down his side.

"Find another way."

He activated Combat Analysis, reading the possible paths of Xanxus’s next attack. Five projected afterimages appeared in his perception, each suggesting a different trajectory. Reinhard selected the safest path and moved before Xanxus committed.

This time, he didn’t attempt to appear behind his opponent. Instead, he used Spatial Push to strike the floor beneath Xanxus, forcing him to adjust his footing, then attacked from the front with Heavenpiercer.

Xanxus expanded the distance between himself and the spear.

Reinhard had anticipated it.

He released All-Cutting Slash.

The invisible attack crossed the altered distance and cut through the space Xanxus had manipulated, forcing him to shift aside. Emily seized the opening, appearing from a spatial corridor and swinging Aeon toward his exposed shoulder.

Xanxus blocked her blade.

For the first time, he was forced to take a step backward.

Reinhard’s grin widened. "There we go."

Xanxus glanced at the shallow cut across his sleeve.

"Perhaps I underestimated you."

"That’s going to be an expensive mistake."

Xanxus laughed softly before his expression returned to its usual calm.

Then he raised his sword again.

The next attack came from the left, but the space between the blade and Reinhard suddenly contracted, allowing it to reach him before he could finish raising his guard. At the same time, the distance between Emily and Xanxus expanded, preventing her from intercepting the strike.

Reinhard blocked with Heavenpiercer, but the impact drove him to one knee.

Emily immediately opened a spatial corridor beneath Xanxus’s feet, intending to disrupt his footing. He increased the space between himself and the corridor’s exit, then removed the distance separating Emily from his free hand.

She was dragged forward again.

This time, Xanxus didn’t attack her directly. He swung toward Reinhard, forcing Emily to choose between continuing her attack and intercepting the sword threatening her husband.

She chose Reinhard.

Aeon struck the black-and-white blade from the side, redirecting it before it could break through his guard. The collision sent Emily stumbling, and Xanxus used the opening to kick Reinhard across the chamber.

Reinhard crashed against a table, shattering it beneath him.

Emily’s eyes narrowed.

Xanxus wasn’t merely countering their abilities. He was manipulating the distance between multiple targets and attacks simultaneously, turning their attempts to help one another into additional complications.

They couldn’t keep reacting to him separately.

Emily looked toward Reinhard.

He met her gaze and immediately understood.

"On your signal," he said.

Emily nodded.

She opened three spatial corridors around Xanxus, deliberately placing their exits at different distances. Xanxus adjusted the first, expanding the space before it could connect to him. The second contracted, threatening to drag Emily into his reach.

But the third wasn’t aimed at him at all.

It opened beside Reinhard.

He threw Heavenpiercer through it.

The spear emerged beside Emily, and she struck its shaft with Aeon, redirecting it toward Xanxus from an angle he hadn’t prepared for. Xanxus expanded the distance between himself and the incoming weapon, but Reinhard had already used Spatial Push to strike the space surrounding the target from the opposite direction.

For an instant, Xanxus had to adjust two competing spatial effects.

That instant was enough.

Heavenpiercer grazed his shoulder, cutting through his suit and drawing a thin line of blood.

Xanxus stepped backward.

Reinhard rose from the broken table, smiling as he recalled the spear. "See? Marriage does have its advantages."

Emily glanced at him. "Is that what we’re calling it?"

"Teamwork? Love? Shared financial responsibility?"

"Focus on the fight."

"That’s my wife."

Xanxus watched their exchange in silence. Then he looked at the blood on his shoulder.

"You two really do work well together."

His sword rose.

"Then let me see what your partnership can accomplish when you’re forced to give everything."

The SS-Rank aura intensified.

Reinhard activated Heavenpiercer.

Golden light erupted around him as spectral armor formed over his body. The golden spear appeared in his hand, and several spectral spears manifested behind him, each carrying a portion of his E.G.O.’s power. The weapons floated independently, their points turning toward Xanxus as Reinhard prepared to attack from multiple directions.

E.G.O. — Heavenpiercer.

Xanxus’s sword shifted in his grip.

Emily closed her eyes.

For a brief moment, she heard nothing but her own heartbeat. She remembered the people she had lost, the family she had built, and the power that had once threatened to consume her. She had spent so long trying to separate the different parts of herself, afraid that accepting one would mean losing another.

Not anymore.

When her eyes opened, they were crimson.

Crimson Blood Mana began leaking from her body.

Her silver hair lengthened, flowing down her back as its color gradually shifted into brilliant blonde. The crimson aura surrounding her spread with every breath, filling the chamber with a terrifying pressure. Her clothing transformed into dark Bloodkin attire, and a long crimson robe formed around her neck before flowing toward the ground like liquid blood.

A strange hexagonal sword appeared in her hand.

Aeon.

Emily reached into the power she had inherited from her father, no longer resisting the Bloodkin within her. She drew Tepes into her other hand, its spatial authority resonating with the crimson Mana flowing through her body.

Then her aura exploded.

The windows shook. The remaining black crystals shattered across the tables, and the pressure rolling from Emily forced even Xanxus to pause.

His masked face turned toward her.

For the first time, the Baal Family leader seemed genuinely surprised.

"You were a Bloodkin?"

His voice carried unmistakable fascination.

"Amazing... I didn’t think it was possible to tap into and out of that power."

He slowly tilted his head, studying her crimson eyes and the Blood Mana spilling from her body.

"The lines of fate didn’t reveal it."

Emily raised Aeon while Tepes hummed in her other hand.

"Then your lines of fate were wrong."

Xanxus laughed.

"Perhaps they were."

Reinhard stood beside his wife, golden spectral spears circling behind him while Emily’s crimson aura spread across the chamber. For the first time since the battle began, Xanxus no longer looked at them as opponents whose limits he had already measured.

He raised his black-and-white sword.

"Excellent. Show me what else fate failed to predict."

Reinhard’s golden armor brightened.

Emily’s grip tightened around both weapons.

Their powers surged together, and the chamber trembled beneath the pressure of their awakening strength.

[E.G.O. — Second Awakening]

[E.G.O. — Second Awakening]

Golden light and crimson Blood Mana erupted across the chamber, but the two manifestations remained distinct, each carrying its own overwhelming presence. Reinhard’s spectral armor gleamed around him, while Emily’s crimson aura coiled around her transformed body and both weapons.

Xanxus watched the two powers rise before him.

Then his sword began to shine

The space around the blade began to distort. Reinhard’s Danger Intuition screamed a warning so severe that he immediately raised Heavenpiercer.

"Emily, get back!"

Xanxus’s masked face tilted toward them.

"Now," he murmured, "let us see what happens when fate itself is put to the test."

Gnosis Domain: Spatial Throne — The Sovereign of Distance.