Ren stared down at the young man who was clutching the ground with his other palm while holding his sword in one hand and he raised his eyebrow.

’What the fuck?’ Ren thought.

He already knew that Jace was quite literally a plot armor merchant. He’d seen the massive pillar of golden light shooting into the heavens with his own eyes which was visible proof of divine protection wrapping around the Hero like an impenetrable shield but even without that supernatural advantage, Jace was supposed to be a genuinely skilled fighter.

In their past duels according to the original timeline, Jace had gone head-to-head with the psychopathic original Ren who trained by standing in pools of boiling lava and carved training dummies apart with his bare hands.

Ren’s eyes narrowed slightly.

’Wait, hold on...’ Ren thought. ’I haven’t actually checked out the memories of our past duels yet.’

He closed his eyes for just a moment, diving into the sea of memories that belonged to the body’s previous occupant.

The recollections flooded in with images of past arena matches, the clash of steel, and the roar of crowds. When Ren opened his eyes again, he took a deliberate step backward.

Not because he was afraid but because of the sheer, overwhelming realization that hit him like a physical blow.

’FRAUDDDDDDDDD!!!!’ Ren’s internal scream echoed through his consciousness with the force of a thunderclap.

This guy wasn’t just a plot armor merchant...

He was a "fraudulent" plot armor merchant!

Ren’s memories showed the truth with crystal clarity. Every single time the original Ren had wanted to engage Jace in serious combat, something conveniently went wrong at the critical moment.

A sudden slip on perfectly dry ground, sending a killing blow wide.

A mysterious gust of wind appearing out of nowhere in an enclosed arena, changing the trajectory of a perfectly aimed sword strike.

Random debris materializing mid-fight to block attacks.

The plot armor hadn’t just been strong in those matches... it had been absolutely ridiculous, bending reality itself to ensure Jace’s survival and victory and Ren’s lip curled in disgust.

The crowd had grown eerily silent with the previous cheering dying away into tense anticipation as everyone waited to see what would happen next.

Ren slowly, deliberately placed his foot on top of Jace’s head, pressing down with just enough force to make his point without causing serious injury.

"Like I said," Ren announced, his voice carrying clearly across the hushed stadium, "you are a toad lusting after swan meat."

He applied slightly more pressure, forcing Jace’s face closer to the dirt.

"Why would I need to pull out my sword against you," Ren continued with cold amusement, "when you can’t even stand properly on your own two feet?"

’Also,’ Ren thought privately, ’why hasn’t the Mission completed yet? Isn’t this humiliation enough already?’

The system had demanded he disgrace the Hero completely... apparently kicking him to the ground in the opening seconds wasn’t sufficient.

’So I’m supposed to disgrace him even more?’ Ren mused, not particularly bothered by the prospect. ’Not that I mind. I just hope whatever’s in that Hyper Mystery Box is worth all of this effort.’

Beneath Ren’s boot, Jace’s hand clenched tighter around his sword’s grip as his knuckles turned white with the force of his grip then Ren felt it... a familiar sensation in the air.

The same plot armor that had been manifesting as a pillar descending from the heavens was now radiating outward directly from Jace’s body with the golden light seeping from his skin like sweat.

’So he’s a living plot armor generator too?’ Ren thought with genuine annoyance. ’How completely unfair! I want to be a son of fate as well!’

The golden energy built up rapidly, pressure mounting beneath Ren’s foot and Jace suddenly pushed away with explosive force as his body shot backward across the arena in a burst of supernatural speed.

Of course, Ren had deliberately allowed him to escape... he could have simply increased the pressure and kept the Hero pinned, but where was the fun in ending things too quickly?

Jace skidded backward across the compacted dirt as his boots carving deep furrows in the ground before he stopped himself with a small shockwave of released energy with his sword still gripped tightly in his hand.

’What the hell just happened?’ Jace thought as he stared across the distance at Ren. ’Why is he so fast? When did he get so strong?’

His chest heaved with exertion despite the fight barely starting.

’However...’ Jace told himself, forcing his breathing to steady, ’it doesn’t matter.’

He took a proper combat stance with his feet planted wide and the sword held at the ready. Golden energy began flowing out of his body in visible waves... it was not plot armor this time but the full concentrated force of his mana reserves.

The process of bringing out his power sent a massive shockwave rippling across the entire stadium with wind blasted outward in all directions, pushing at Princess Azayla’s crimson hair in the viewing box high above and causing the clothes and hair of hundreds of spectators to whip violently.

The crowd erupted into wild cheering with their Hero finally showing his true strength and in her luxurious viewing box, Azayla’s hair settled back into place as the shockwave passed.

’Sometimes in my anger at his financial irresponsibility,’ Azayla thought with a quiet sigh, ’I forget just how genuinely powerful that man actually is.’

She turned her head slightly toward her second maid, who sat behind an intricate magical disc displaying real-time streaming statistics... another of Azayla’s personal inventions.

"How many viewers do we have now, Janet?" Azayla asked. The maid stuttered slightly, her eyes wide as she stared at the numbers.

"T-Ten million people watching right now, Your Highness," Janet reported as her voice was shaking with excitement. "And the numbers spiked dramatically when Lord Crowhurst struck the Hero down... There are also a significant number of people submitting coins through the Virtual Network to upgrade their subscription plans for better video quality!"

Azayla’s lips curved into a satisfied grin.

"Work on optimizing the server load to handle the increased traffic..." Azayla instructed.

"Yes, Ma’am!" Janet replied immediately with her fingers already moving across the magical interface.

Azayla shifted her attention back to the two fighters below, her crimson eyes gleaming with barely concealed delight.

’This is perfect,’ Azayla thought. ’Fight more and make me more money!’

Down in the arena, Jace pointed his sword directly at Ren with the blade’s tip aimed at the center of his chest.

"If you stand down now..." Jace called out. "I won’t go all out and you can surrender with some dignity intact."

Ren had been staring off into the middle distance, completely ignoring the Hero’s display of power. Finally, he perked up slightly.

"Huh?" Ren said, as if only just noticing Jace had spoken.

In truth, he’d been mentally running through various scenarios for how to disgrace Jace even more thoroughly than he already had.

’If a single one-hit knockout doesn’t complete the mission,’ Ren reasoned, ’then maybe I should dodge all of his attacks instead? Make him look completely ineffective? And then end it with a single decisive strike anyway?’

He considered other options.

’Or maybe a fakeout? Pretend to be in trouble, then counter instantly?’

All of Jace’s plot armor was gone, stripped away by Fatebreaker’s passive effect which meant that underneath the divine protection, this guy was functionally useless despite all that raw mana he was throwing around.

Jace gritted his teeth, interpreting Ren’s distracted "Huh?" as deliberate mockery.

"Don’t say I didn’t warn you!" Jace shouted.

He exploded forward with tremendous speed, closing the distance between them in a fraction of a second as his sword came down in a powerful vertical slash aimed at Ren’s shoulder with the blade wreathed in golden energy.

However... The attack was blocked.

...By a single finger.

Ren had simply raised his index finger, and the descending blade stopped completely against it as if it had struck a steel pillar instead of human flesh.

A massive shockwave expanded outward from the point of contact with the force so great that deep cracks spider-webbed across the ground beneath both fighters. Dust billowed up in thick clouds, obscuring the entire center of the arena from view.

A Wind Mage stationed at the arena’s edge immediately reacted, conjuring a focused vortex that sucked all the dust upward and away, clearing the view in seconds and the revealed scene made the entire stadium fall into stunned silence.

Jace had staggered backward several steps with his arms trembling. His sword... the blade he’d trained with for months had developed multiple visible cracks running along its length from the impact.

Ren hadn’t moved a single inch with his finger still raised in the same position as he was completely undamaged.

SHATTER!

The Hero’s sword exploded into fragments like glass struck by a hammer with the pieces scattering across the ground in a glittering rain of broken steel and the crowd went utterly quiet.

Even the commentators had nothing to say.

’H-How...?’ Jace thought, staring at the broken hilt still clutched uselessly in his hand while Ren hid his grin behind a mask of calm superiority.

It had been a common practice sword, already stressed by the force of Jace’s own uncontrolled mana flow so Ren had simply channeled Blade Resonance through his finger at the moment of impact creating a frequency that shattered the already-weakened blade.

’Not only is this guy a fraud who relies entirely on plot armor,’ Ren thought with amusement. ’but he’s also a nepo baby with hax abilities he doesn’t even know how to use properly.’

If someone genuinely had that kind of destructive mana output, they should be able to cut through opponents like paper but this moron didn’t understand the first thing about mana control or blade techniques.

Ren took a deliberate step backward with both hands clasping behind his back once more in that cultivator pose he’d adopted.

"Is this all you can manage for our final match?" Ren asked as his voice dripped with disappointment. "Wasn’t this supposed to be special? You advertised it as the last time we would ever duel. You told me I’d better take this seriously."

He shook his head slowly.

"This is rather underwhelming, Hero."

Jace’s teeth ground together hard enough to hurt and his eyes flickered upward, scanning the stands desperately until he found her.

Lumi sat in a private box reserved for the Saintess with her purple hair catching the afternoon light. She was looking directly at him, and her expression was one of clear visible disappointment.

That look pierced Jace’s heart more deeply than any blade ever could and his chest physically ached.

Jace’s resolve solidified like molten steel cooling into an unbreakable blade.

He reached for his storage ring with his free hand as the magical device began to glow with brilliant golden light.

The glow intensified steadily, growing brighter and brighter with each passing heartbeat as the light became almost painful to look at directly, forcing some spectators to shield their eyes.

Jace’s fingers closed around a different hilt... one that felt warm to the touch, it was practically burning with holy power that thrummed through his palm like a living heartbeat.

The crowd sensed something monumental was about to happen and the cheering died down into breathless anticipation.

Jace began pulling the weapon free from the dimensional storage.

The light exploded outward in a blinding wave, becoming so intense it was like a second sun had appeared in the arena as golden radiance streamed out in visible rays like liquid sunlight given form, casting dramatic shadows across the entire stadium that stretched and danced.

First came the tip... it was impossibly sharp, gleaming with an edge so fine it seemed to cut through the very fabric of space around it then more of the blade revealed itself, perfect silver-white metal that had never known rust or imperfection.

Intricate runes ran along the fuller script that glowed with their own light and each rune told part of a legend... stories of demon slayers, of heroes who’d stood against the darkness and won.

The crossguard emerged next, shaped like spread wings of some divine bird with each feather individually crafted with microscopic detail. They seemed to move slightly in a wind that didn’t exist and the grip was wrapped in leather taken from a beast long extinct, its hide blessed by the first priestess of the Goddess of Light herself.

Finally, the pommel... a massive gem the size of a fist that pulsed with its own heartbeat of power, containing enough concentrated holy energy to level a small city if released all at once.

The light reached its absolute peak, forcing even Princess Azayla to squint in her viewing box then, in one smooth motion, Jace pulled it completely free.

The radiance finally gave way fully to reveal the magnificent weapon in all its legendary glory.

This was the Divine Sword Caliburn... The weapon that had chosen Jace as the Hero... The blade that legends claimed had been forged in the heart of a dying star and quenched in the tears of angels...

The same sword that, in stories passed down through a thousand years, had slain the first Demon Lord with a single perfect strike.

The crowd collectively held their breath, awed into silence by the sheer presence of the legendary weapon.

He pointed the holy blade directly at Ren.

’Hollup... Isn’t this a bit too much?’

’For Lumi,’ Jace thought, pouring everything he had into that single goal. ’I’ll defeat you. I’ll prove I’m worthy of being called a Hero!’

Jace shot forward with explosive speed, closing the distance faster than before and his slash came down with the full weight of his conviction behind it, the holy blade singing through the air but as the attack descended, Ren was already gone.

The Hero’s blade carved a deep trench into the ground where Ren had been standing with the holy energy cutting through dirt like butter.

Ren had simply taken a few casual steps to the side with his hands still clasped behind his back as his expression turned into one of mild interest.

Jace immediately spun, bringing the blade around in a devastating horizontal slash aimed at Ren’s midsection.

Ren tilted his entire body to the side, bending at an almost impossible angle close to the ground as the holy sword passed harmlessly over him, the wind of its passage ruffling his hair.

The blade carved another trench through the arena wall behind them and Jace charged forward again, preparing to slice Ren in half with an upward diagonal cut.

Ren simply backflipped, his body rotating gracefully through the air as the blade passed beneath him. He landed lightly on his feet several meters away with his hands still clasped behind his back as he was not even slightly out of breath.

The slash carved yet another massive trench into the ground and the crowd’s cheering grew louder with each exchange.

"HERO! HERO! HERO!" they chanted in unison. Jace pressed his advantage, launching into a relentless combination of strikes.

He came with a vertical slash but Ren sidestepped left. A Diagonal cut followed next and Ren ducked smoothly. A Horizontal sweep came after but Ren hopped over it like a jumping rope.

Every single dodge was performed with Ren’s hands remaining perfectly clasped behind his back, as if he were taking a casual stroll through a garden rather than fighting for his life. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The crowd was going absolutely wild but they didn’t know whether to cheer for the Hero’s aggressive assault or marvel at Ren’s effortless evasion.

"HAH!"

Jace roared in frustration and executed a wide horizontal slash with everything he had and Ren jumped straight up.

The blade passed beneath his feet, cutting through the air where his legs had been a moment before but Jace had anticipated this.

The Hero immediately reversed his grip and brought the blade straight down in a powerful overhead strike, trying to catch Ren in mid-air where he couldn’t dodge but Ren’s hand shot out from behind his back for the first time.

He placed his open palm directly on the flat of the descending blade, channeling Blade Resonance through his hand and the frequency disrupted the blade’s momentum, slowing it dramatically.

’The only reason I can do this is because Caliburn isn’t truly awakened...’

Using the blade itself as a platform, Ren kicked out with both feet with his boots slamming into Jace’s face with devastating force.

CRACK!

Jace’s head snapped backward from the impact as his body shot across the arena like a cannonball, tumbling and rolling across the dirt in an undignified heap before finally skidding to a stop.

The crowd fell silent again and Jace dug both feet into the ground, carving deep furrows as he forced himself to stop completely.

His face was already swelling where Ren’s boots had connected.

’Fu— Fuck...’

He looked up with his vision slightly blurred as Ren was standing calmly in the center of the arena with his hands clasped behind his back once more, looking completely unbothered.

Rage and desperation mixed in Jace’s chest and he charged forward with another massive shockwave of released mana, the ground cracking beneath his feet from the force of his sprint.

’I’ll...’

Jace glared at him.

’I’ll kill you!’