"So you enjoy playing the ga of a brave hero challenging the demon king? That really suits your age."
The old man's mockery was casual, almost lighthearted.
But those words unintentionally revealed sothing, further confirming Matthew's suspicions.
"I think you need a clearer understanding of what it ans to face a higher lifeform."
The old man knew his ti was limited.
With what little ti he had left, he intended to teach this boy a lesson—
to make Matthew understand what true awe was.
"Bullshit."
Buzz—
Brilliant golden ripples of light spread outward, dazzling and radiant, like flowing molten gold.
In an instant, Matthew shot forward, dragging a long trail of golden flas behind him as he blasted straight toward the old man.
He swung his long leg upward in a vicious kick aid directly at the old man's head, his Martin boot wrapped in surging golden energy.
The battle erupted in a flash.
Even Needy, watching nervously from the wooden house in the distance, had no ti to react.
BOOM!!
Just before Matthew's light-speed kick could smash into the old man's head, a cane rose to block it.
The collision between leg and cane exploded with an unimaginable shockwave.
The earth trembled violently.
The ground beneath the old man's feet cracked apart instantly, countless fractures spreading wildly in every direction as the raging air currents sent sand and dust sweeping across the land.
Although he had blocked the light-speed kick, the old man was inwardly shocked by the sheer force behind it.
Still, his combat experience was extraordinarily rich.
His other hand had already reached forward, pushing straight toward Matthew's chest.
With his sweeping kick blocked, Matthew's posture left a massive opening.
But Matthew was no amateur.
The greatest strength of Observation Haki was its ability to instantly capture an opponent's next move.
The mont the old man extended his hand, Matthew pressed force into the leg still locked against the cane.
Using it as a pivot point, he launched himself upward. His body spun in reverse midair, and then his glowing golden foot ca crashing down from above, carrying overwhelming force like a divine hamr.
The old man's expression did not change.
His left foot stepped back, and at the sa ti, his body shifted backward just enough to let Matthew's strike miss.
Then he reached out and grabbed Matthew's ankle, clearly intending to give him a full Loki-style smashing.
But the instant his hand made contact, his expression changed sharply.
Because he had grabbed nothing.
It was as if that leg had been nothing but air.
Before he could think further, Matthew's foot had already landed on the ground—yet it caused no damage at all.
It was obvious that Matthew's control over his strength had reached the level of perfect precision.
With the ground beneath him as support, Matthew smoothly followed up with an extrely fierce side kick aid straight at him.
The old man reacted quickly.
The hand that had just grabbed empty air moved to guard his chest, successfully blocking the kick.
But this kick also carried an enormous amount of light energy.
And this ti—
he failed to stop it.
BOOM!!
The blast of force exploded outward.
The old man was sent flying backward like a cannonball, skimming across the ground and carving a straight trail of dust behind him.
After being blasted backward for over a thousand ters, he suddenly halted.
His body straightened, floating silently three to four ters above the ground.
A faint stinging pain ca from his right hand.
But as a re energy projection, he shouldn't have been able to feel pain at all—so where was this sensation coming from?
Matthew, however, had no intention of giving him even a mont to breathe or think.
A ferocious follow-up attack surged in like a tidal wave. The mont he kicked the old man away, he had already turned into light and pursued him at full speed.
The old man reacted quickly. He raised his cane, and a massive surge of dark purple energy began to build within it, ready to erupt at any mont.
But what he didn't expect was that, less than ten ters into the pursuit, Matthew suddenly made a sharp ninety-degree turn straight upward into the sky.
The old man looked up.
There—dozens of ters above him—Matthew hovered midair, arms crossed.
Between his crossed hands, a radiant, circular mass of blazing golden light was forming.
At its center lay a cross-shaped core of brilliance, while concentric rings of light rippled outward in expanding waves.
Inside the sphere, photons compressed and fused at extre speed, producing an unbearable, piercing radiance.
Then, it transford into a surging golden energy beam that locked directly onto the old man.
The sheer ferocity and destructive power of the attack made even the old man feel a clear sense of danger.
"The power of light…"
The old man's expression finally turned serious.
His eyes glowed crimson as he raised one palm upward.
In an instant, the ground beneath him split apart. Endless scarlet flas burst from the countless cracks, gathering together into a roaring torrent of fire.
Within that sea of flas, one could vaguely see countless twisted, screaming, maddened faces.
Just one glance made it feel as though even the soul itself would be burned away.
That torrent of hellfire surged upward to et Matthew's descending beam of light.
In the blink of an eye, light and fla collided.
BOOOOM!!!
The clash of two completely different powers unleashed a world-shaking shockwave.
Flas filled the sky, intertwining with countless particles of light, destroying each other, devouring each other in a violent struggle.
For a mont, the two forces locked in perfect stalemate.
The earth shook wildly.
The air itself blurred, twisted, and compressed, while the surrounding space entered a state that could hardly be described.
Anything caught within it—flying dust, weeds, broken branches—was instantly crushed into powder.
It was enough to show just how terrifying the energy flooding that area truly was.
Even Needy, standing a thousand ters away in front of the wooden house, had to raise both hands to shield herself.
She unleashed her psychic power, forming a barrier with all her strength just to barely withstand the violent shockwaves and residual energy.
Her eyes widened in horror as she stared at the distant sky, where fire and light intertwined in a surreal spectacle.
Her body trembled uncontrollably.
It was the instinctive fear of death.
She could feel it clearly—those two clashing forces were like volcanoes on the verge of eruption. Once they exploded, the resulting disaster would be unimaginable.
A distance of one thousand ters sounded far, but it gave her no sense of safety at all.
And it wasn't just her.
Her closest friend, Jennifer, was trembling too—screaming in terror inside her mind.
"Run, Needy! Run now! If you don't, we're going to die!"
"You're right, Jennifer."
Overwheld by fear, Needy imdiately agreed without the slightest hesitation.
Working together with Jennifer, she unleashed all of her power.
A vast wave of psychic power wrapped around her body, and she rode the violent aftershock of the colliding energies, flying desperately into the distance.
One hundred ters.
Five hundred ters.
One thousand ters.
And finally, when she had reached two thousand ters away—
the two deadlocked forces exploded.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The gray world turned as bright as day.
For a single instant, ti itself seed to freeze.
Then, when it began moving again, unimaginable energy erupted outward, and a monstrous flood of power swept across everything.
Whatever lay in its path was crushed without exception.
Trees, weeds, even the roadside billboards were ripped from the ground and shattered into pieces.
The abandoned farm completely collapsed and was utterly destroyed.
The earth shook as though caught in a magnitude-eight earthquake, trembling violently as cracks spread across the land.
In the distance, hills shattered one after another, breaking apart and scattering into clouds of dust.
It looked like the end of the world had arrived.
And the devastation continued for a long, long ti before finally beginning to settle.
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