Law of Space and Time

As for Erwin, no one had expected him to progress anywhere near this far in the tournament prior to its commencement. There were many far more renowned contestants in his group, yet he had somehow staved off all of them to emerge as one of the semifinalists. Some of the nobles in the spectator stands were beginning to discuss how fortunate Count Friar was to have such an outstanding son. However, despite Erwin's exceptional performance during the tournament, Count Friar had never come to watch any of his matches. Ever since Erwin was a young boy, he had always suspected that his father had social anxiety as he had never seen his father appear in any large gatherings.

As the contestants entered the venue, all of the spectators erupted into a raucous frenzy. Everyone was extremely excited about the upcoming matches, and thunderous cheers were ringing out across the entire venue.

Seeing as the four semifinalists were all assembled, Prime Minister Fuller gave the four administrators before him a silent nod, and the four administrators immediately raised their hands in unison, upon which four iris flowers that were glowing with golden radiance lit up in the sky.

The much-anticipated name-drawing ceremony was about to begin.

"Please kick things off for us, Your Highness," Fuller said as he extended a respectful bow.

Onean nodded in response, then pointed a slim finger at one of the iris flowers. Light immediately began to surge over the entire flower, and it instantly turned from a golden color to a blue hue.

"Next up will be Lana Lazaar," Fuller said as he made an inviting hand gesture.

Lana raised her head to look up at one of the three remaining iris flowers, then flicked a finger through the air, and the golden iris flower quickly transitioned into a red color.

A string of disappointed sighs rang out across the entire venue as Onean and Lana weren't going to face each other. That was the most highly anticipated matchup. After all, the rivalry between Princess Onean and Lana had always been one of the biggest drawcards of the entire tournament.

Even King Cameron was slightly disappointed to see that the two of them weren't going to be facing one another, and he turned to Master Piro with a wry smile and a faint sigh.

"Next up will be Jeff Lazaar," Prime Minister Fuller announced, completely unaffected by the mood of the spectators.

Jeff turned to face one of the two remaining flowers before beckoning toward it, and the dazzling golden light radiating from the iris flower instantly turned blue.

Onean's opponent was Jeff, so Lana's opponent was naturally going to be Erwin.

An awkward look appeared on Erwin's face as he raised his head to look up at the final golden iris flower, wondering if he even needed to reveal the color of the final flower, given that the outcome was already obvious.

Onean was rather amused by Erwin's awkward display, and Lana just so happened to take a glance at Erwin at the same time, upon which the corners of her lips turned upward ever so slightly, despite the cold expression that she wore.

Fuller could see the dismay on Erwin's face, and he consoled, "Erwin Friar, you can choose when your match will be held. It's up to you whether it's held in the morning or the afternoon."

Erwin nodded in response as he heaved a faint sigh. This was hardly any consolation to him, but at least he had a choice in something.

Thus, he unleashed an instant-release spell toward the final iris flower in a resigned manner, and to no one's surprise, the golden light radiating from the flower turned red.

I'll have to get it over with at some point, so I may as well do it sooner rather than later. Otherwise, I'll be in suspense until the afternoon, he thought to himself.

Thus, Erwin told Fuller that he would like his match to be held in the morning, which meant that his match against Lana was scheduled to commence very soon.

After the conclusion of the name-drawing ceremony, Fuller announced loudly to the crowd that the first match of the day was going to be held between Erwin and Lana, and that Erwin was the one who had chosen the timing of the match.

Prior to leaving the competition platform, Erwin cast his gaze toward Lana. On this day, she was wearing a pristine white dress that gave her the appearance of a pure and holy celestial maiden. Her red hair was arranged into an immaculate braid, and there was a cold and aloof look in her eyes, as if she were completely unfamiliar with Erwin.

Onean cleared her throat to snap Erwin out of his reverie, then asked in a cold voice, "Is she really that beautiful to you?"

In the face of Onean's displeased expression, Erwin hurriedly shook his head with a fawning smile, then obediently left the venue behind the princess, hoping that he would be able to avoid punishment.

...

"Can you beat her?" Onean asked out of politeness. At this point, she and Erwin were already seated in the contestants' lobby on the western side of the venue.

"It doesn't really matter to me. I already decided that I'm not going to risk my life if my opponent isn't Jeff," Erwin replied as he turned to Onean. "Having said that, please forgive me in advance for what I'm about to do?"

"What do I have to forgive you for?" Onean asked with a curious expression.

Erwin merely gave her a mysterious smile and offered no reply to her question.

Even though Erwin had already assured her that he wasn't going to risk his life in this match, Onean still couldn't help but urge him to be careful, in response to which Erwin gave her a reassuring nod.

Once both of the contestants were ready, the first semifinal match finally began.

The two of them looked into each other's eyes, and Lana's blue eyes were still as tranquil as ever. She swept a slender palm through the air, and gusts of howling wind intermingled with ice and snow instantly swept forth. In what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye, the entire competition platform had already been transformed into a world of snow and ice.

Erwin remained still on the spot, watching in silence as Lana completed her spell. He then raised his head to look at the ice and snow swirling around him, and he found that it coincidentally matched the scenery in his heart. He raised a hand, and a pillar of ice rose up from the ground, then exploded right beneath Lana's feet.

Amid the flurry of flying ice shards from the exploding pillar, Lana rose gracefully up into the air as if she were scaling up the steps of a staircase to heaven. Erwin was used to seeing her wilfully erratic mood swings and her tendency to express her emotions in the most direct way possible, so he couldn't help but heave a forlorn sigh at this version of Lana, who was so cold and forbidding and seemed intent on bottling up all of her emotions.

A cold smile appeared on her face as she raised her staff, and the gemstone on the top of her staff immediately began to glow with scintillating radiance, until the entire venue was basked in blue light. A storm of ice and snow then descended from the heavens, and the ice quickly transformed into sharp blades, each of which could deal a lethal strike. Thankfully, Erwin was the only person standing on the competition platform. Otherwise, there would've already been mass casualties.

Erwin remained calm and collected as he casually unleashed a few instant-release spells to defend himself, then unleashed a space split technique to instantly arrive behind Lana. He looked at her slender waist and heaved a faint sigh as he unleashed a few more instant-release spells.

Lana was already extremely familiar with Erwin's battle style and tendencies, and she didn't even turn around as she conjured up a magic shield behind herself, upon which all of the purple instant-release spells exploded violently.

"Stop playing around! Take this seriously or you're going to get hurt!" Lana said as she turned around to face Erwin with a cold expression.

"Make me!" Erwin had also adopted a frosty expression, and his tone was just as cold and unyielding.

Thinking back, this was the first time that the two of them had exchanged words since they parted ways that night.

"Fine, you asked for it!" Lana began to chant an incantation, and her white dress and sheep wool cape flapped violently behind her as a giant sword abruptly took shape. It was clear that she was trying to force Erwin to go all-out against her.

Alarmed gasps instantly rang out across the entire venue.

The giant sword bloomed like a budding lotus flower, and countless longswords spread out within the radiant white light. The sword array concealed the entire sky, while the entire venue was caught in a storm of snow and ice, presenting an extremely romantic scene, albeit one that was also fraught with peril.

Erwin heaved a faint sigh at the sight of Lana's Shadowgleam Sword Array, and he made no attempt to disrupt her chanting. Instead, he descended back onto the center of the competition platform before dusting away the snow that had fallen onto his shoulders. All of the spectators looked on with astonishment in their eyes as he casually strolled around the competition platform, seemingly completely unfazed by Lana's sword array.

However, the more astonishing scenes were still yet to come. Erwin spread open his arms as he let loose a loud cry, upon which a series of pillars of ice instantly erupted out of the ground. A burst of rumbling rang out as dozens of pillars of ice emerged to form a circle. Each pillar of ice was a different height, with the tallest ones scraping the very heavens, while the shortest ones resembled icy tree stumps. After that, Erwin stood at the center of the circle of pillars, looking up at Lana in silence.

"What kind of spell is this?" All of the spectators were even more perplexed now. Erwin had never displayed this type of magic in any of his previous matches.

Lana's gaze was also drawn to the circle of ice pillars, but she was unable to see anything special about them.

Seeing as she was unable to discern what purpose the pillars of ice were supposed to serve, Lana decided to ignore them as she sent countless swords flying through the air directly toward Erwin.

Erwin took a glance at the storm of swords falling toward him, and he thought back to the ancient sword array spell he had used to eliminate Shawn and Lanyon. It seemed fitting for him to be defeated by this Shadowgleam Sword Array, almost like an act of karma.

With the fearsome storm of swords descending from the heavens, everyone thought that Erwin was going to conjure up his signature light shield again. However, Erwin remained completely still on the spot as if he were quietly appreciating the scenery.

Of course, he wasn't able to relax for long. His mirage necklace was able to fool the first wave of swords, but all of the magic longswords in the Shadowgleam Sword Array were imbued with extremely potent tracing properties, so countless flying swords instantly swiveled around to fly toward him again.

A longsword flew past Erwin's shoulder, a second one sliced a large gash onto his leg, a third one flew right past his ear, almost slicing it off in the process, and there were still countless more swords to come.

It seemed that Erwin was either powerless or unwilling to resist, and the administrators around the competition platform wanted to step in. However, half of the platform had been sealed by Erwin's pillars of ice, while the rest was completely inundated by the ferocious storm of ice and snow that Lana had conjured up. As soon as the administrators stepped into the storm, they were left completely disorientated, so they were powerless to do anything.