THE VILLAIN'S POV

Chapter 335: Frey starlight vs Beatrice (2)

She cast a new spell that twisted the ground beneath me into something unnatural.

“Swallow him for me!”

As her words echoed, the earth turned into the gaping maw of a monstrous beast trying to consume me whole.

But I didn’t even blink.

My eyes were locked solely on her.

SWOOSH!!!

A gust of wind erupted.

In less than a second, I slashed through the summoned beast—turning it into chunks with one clean motion.

My attacks left behind nothing but streaks of dark aura, so fast they blurred into shadows.

The very next moment, Beatrice’s head flew into the air, a thin black aura line marking where my blade had cleaved through.

But the body dissolved—again—into a puff of smoke.

She reappeared in the distance.

“Not bad at all, Frey Starlight.”

BOOM!

I didn’t waste time with words. I dashed at her again, blades ready.

“Tear him apart for me!”

she cried once more, warping reality again.

This time, she summoned dozens of giant snakes from the void—massive serpents capable of devouring me in a single bite.

So many that they completely obscured my view of Beatrice.

But it didn’t matter…

SLASH!!!

In under a second…

The snakes were diced into tiny pieces by a flurry of slashes too fast for the eye to follow.

Without pause, I continued the attack, appearing behind Beatrice and cleaving her in two.

She couldn’t even follow my movement.

And again… her body turned to smoke.

“Again?”

“There’s no point in what you’re doing… Frey Starlight.”

Beatrice twirled her wand once more.

“You can’t defeat magic unless you uncover the trick behind it.”

This time, she cast a much stronger spell.

“Like the illusion spell earlier… You managed to dispel it because you broke the core. Hehe… But you won’t do it again.”

“Kill him for me!”

With a single command ..

Dozens of mirrors materialized around me in a perfect circle.

And from within each one, stepped out a replica of myself.

Every single one of them drew their swords and charged toward me, surrounding me on all sides.

Chaos erupted as I sprinted at incredible speed, with dozens of doppelgängers chasing me down, blades aimed to kill.

They were strong—so strong I felt as if I were fighting my true self.

And yet… for some reason, not one of them could touch me.

SWOOSH!

I dodged their strikes with precision, parrying the few I couldn’t evade.

At the same time, I retaliated with a flurry of attacks, destroying replica after replica.

All of this played out in front of Beatrice, who watched my every move.

“What’s with this bizarre fighting style?!”

After trading blows for a while, I finally understood why I was able to handle them so easily.

“In the end, you’re just poor imitations of me.”

Copies that mimicked my mastered movements perfectly ..

And that triggered my strongest passive ability:

Shadow Adaptation: 3/7

A mirage-like aura of darkness shimmered around my body as I dismantled the clones with terrifying precision and speed.

Thanks to Shadow Adaptation, I’d become fully resistant to their attacks, allowing me to dominate the fight so thoroughly that I even managed to launch a shadow arc at Beatrice mid-battle.

She dissolved into smoke the moment it struck her.

‘I can’t get close to her…’

Every time I tried, she vanished like magic.

I thought my speed would be enough—but it wasn’t.

I had to try something else.

But the damned clones kept coming. Beatrice kept summoning mirror after mirror until the battle turned into a brutal war of attrition.

It was clear she wanted to wear me down.

And not knowing how much aura she had left… playing her game was a terrible idea.

So, I decided to end it with my next strike.

“Playtime’s over.”

I raised both the Dark Sister and Balerion at once.

My skin cracked, revealing glowing purple lines beneath—raging with volatile energy.

Surrounded by dozens of my own copies, with Beatrice weaving through them behind the lines, I chose to obliterate everything with a single, all-out attack.

Drawing in a monstrous surge of aura, I roared:

“Ignition!!!”

A blinding light burst from my blades, illuminating the dark night sky and swallowing everything around me.

Beatrice stood frozen, stunned by the sheer magnitude of the blast.

BOOOOM!!!

A deafening explosion shattered the earth, and a towering pillar of aura pierced the heavens, annihilating every mirror and clone Beatrice had created.

Within moments, the light faded.

What remained was a massive crater—an ocean of ruin scorched into the wastelands of the Ultras continent.

At the center of it all…

I stood alone.

Surrounded by nothing but silence, smoke, and destruction.

Huff…

I let out a breath, steadying myself as I rose to my feet.

I checked my body—tired, but intact.

“My aura pathways… they can finally withstand Ignition.”

I was no longer at risk of collapsing after using it once.

Relieved, I scanned the area .. there was no one left in sight.

I thought it was over.

But in that very moment ..

Everything changed.

I felt the sharp sting of a blade piercing my back.

Warm blood spilled onto the ground as a thin sword slid out through my chest, stabbing me directly through the heart.

The world flipped on its head, and I could barely hear the voice behind me.

“Kikikikiki… Still so naïve, Frey Starlight.”

Slowly…

I dropped to one knee, pain surging through my body.

“That was a spectacular attack, truly. But you’re too naïve… Did you forget? Techniques like that don’t affect my body.”

Beatrice spoke with a confident smile as she left the blade lodged in my chest.

As expected .. she possessed some kind of magic that constantly protected her physical body, making it nearly impossible to harm her.

Ignition hadn’t hit her at all.

She simply waited until my guard was down—then struck with surgical precision.

“How tragic, Frey Starlight… for such talent to go to waste. It seems your fate was to die like this, after all.”

She spoke with certainty.

And I…

Could only smile through the pain, one hand touching the sword buried in my chest.

“Yeah… it would’ve been a shame to die here.”

SLAAAASH!!!

“Huh?!”

It was almost laughable ..

How quickly the tide of battle could change.

Beatrice could only let out a sharp gasp, her eyes wide with disbelief, as her body was cleaved clean in half at the torso. Blood sprayed across the battlefield, painting the ground.

On the other side, I rose to my feet, gripping the thin sword that had pierced through my chest and yanking it out with a strained breath.

Beatrice, now lying on the ground, stared at me in utter shock—unable to comprehend what had just happened.

“How… my magic?!”

Standing over her, I stared down coldly, my chest still bleeding, a gaping wound in the center of it.

“Just who exactly do you think I am?”

There was no way I would ever let myself die here.

“I’m Frey Starlight… son of Abraham Starlight, damn it!”

I coughed up blood as I focused all my strength on healing.

“There’s no way I’m dying like this.”

With a bitter smirk, I glanced at the system window in front of me:

Anti-Magic – Level 2 (Activated)

From the beginning of this fight, I’d been unable to get close to Beatrice no matter how fast or hard I tried. She kept spreading illusions, constantly veiling her true body and forcing me to chase phantoms.

So instead, I dropped my guard on purpose—right after using Ignition.

She must have thought I was exhausted, vulnerable after such a powerful attack. And so, she walked right into the trap.

The moment she stepped within five meters of me…

I activated Anti-Magic .. instantly stripping her of all magical protections.

“You should never have judged me by the standards of ordinary humans… Eternal Witch Beatrice.”

I pointed at the hole in my chest, which was already starting to close.

“As you can see… I don’t go down that easily.”

Not when I had a body that could regenerate like some sort of mythical beast.

Beatrice, now severed in half and stripped of all her magic, could do nothing but stare up at me from the dirt as I raised my sword over her face.

With one last smile, she whispered her final words—just before I drove Balerion down into her skull, shattering it completely.

“…Magnificent.”

And with that, the witch who had manipulated us from the shadows finally perished.

But the worst was far from over.

All the elite students had now been scattered—each stranded somewhere across this cursed land.

“I need to move.”

With a long breath, I dragged my battered body away from the ruins of the battlefield, leaving Beatrice’s corpse behind.

“This… is only the beginning of the war.”

A war no one could predict.

With turbulent thoughts and heavy steps, I pushed forward into the desolate plain—

In search of the others… each of whom was now fighting a war of their own.