*The battlefield was silent.

Amidst the ruins where countless masters had fallen, Baek Ya-ryeon stood alone. The Black Dragon Blade was slung over her shoulder, and her expression held neither joy in victory nor tension from the fight.*

Just boredom.

Her gaze looked as if she were waiting for a result she had repeated countless times.

"Again?"

Baek Ya-ryeon spoke lowly, looking down at the fallen.

"At first, I had expectations."

"That maybe, just maybe, this time would be different."

She slowly turned her gaze toward her opponent.

"But in the end, they are all the same."

"Believing they are strong, deluding themselves into thinking they can surpass me... and in the end, they all make the same face."

Baek Ya-ryeon's eyes sank coldly.

"The face of realizing just how lacking they truly were."

She lifted the Black Dragon Blade.

Instantly, the sky grew heavy.

Everything in the vicinity seemed to be crushed with her at the center, and the opponent realized instinctively.

This is not just a strong person.

This is not a being fighting in the same realm to begin with.

"However..."

Baek Ya-ryeon smiled for the first time.

"You are a bit different."

"You're still standing."

"Good."

"I like those eyes."

She pointed the tip of her sword at the opponent.

"I have waited a long time."

"For the moment I might fall."

"For the being I would look up to for the first time."

Baek Ya-ryeon's aura exploded.

The Black Dragon blooming from the tip of her sword covered the sky.

"So do not disappoint me."

"Prove that I was wrong."

"If you are truly a being capable of surpassing me..."

She gripped the Black Dragon Blade firmly with one hand.

"Come."

"Try to break it."

"Everything I possess."

"If not..."

A cold smile spread.

"I will make sure you never utter the word 'strong' in my presence again."

Everyone who stood before Guest is dead.