The Joker stomped his foot and immediately dispersed the annoying Void mouths and ignored the Heavenly Arrow which pierced his shoulders but wasn't able to injure him. The arrow vanished soon after as it wasn't able to use its fast momentum to wound Arthur's enemy.

Just as Arthur retreated a few hundred meters, a dark streak flew across the sky and headed toward him with incredible speed. Makaze, which just appeared on Astria, charged toward its partner while leaving waves of black flames in its path.

As for the Joker, he folded his arms and inspected Arthur's body yet again after taking one a special black card.

'0❤ Masquerade!'

The Joker's eyes shone with a bright golden light as they landed on the small rat which emitted a thick black fog.

"Hmm lemme see... a Dual-spi...no... it's a Tri-Spirit.... a soul of Transcendent Holy Knight.... a pathetic orb... and an interesting cube. Hahahaha each of these things will make anybody greedy. The spirit will surely bring a tribulation... argh this is so annoying, I'll have to interfere."

Due to his attention focusing on Arthur, only when the sword was held by its proper owner did the Joker shift his focus to the curved dark blade which was vibrating despite it being sheathed.

The moment his eyes landed on the blade, he furrowed his brows and mumbled

"Evil wind... that means you're..."

He gazed at Arthur, who regained his appearance. He no longer was jet black and his original appearance could be seen. With long grey hair and a scar on his face. All the dark fog and darkness around him disappeared, in fact, he looked pretty calm as he stroked the dark blade.

"Arthur MoonStar. So you're actually from this world. Fate, that bitch really knows how to handle things."

Just as he cursed fate, a white bolt of lightning descended from above and struck his head. Although it burned his funny hat and caused slight bleeding, such an injury was healed in just a second. It may look like a simple lightning bolt but it could even kill a God Monarch.

"Bitch! Do you think hitting me with your petty shit will do something? I dare you to come here and fight me!"

Just as he yelled on top of his lungs, only the silence was his answer. Annoyed, the Joker clicked his tongue and shouted again

"Ha! I knew you're one cowardly bitch! I'll roast you alive if you dare show before me! Now fuck off somewhere else and stop bothering me."

He was the one who addressed her first yet he told her to stop bothering him. It was a funny sight but the other end couldn't do anything about him. Just like that, the Joker waited for a few seconds before he looked back at Arthur, who closed his eyes.

Three bright triangles appeared before him, each with a color. The biggest one was Dark, the second biggest was a grey one and the smallest was yellowish.

Each emitted an abnormal amount of either Nether Magic, Dark Mana or Death Energy. Slowly but surely, the triangles were approaching each other and a strange square.

Once the fusion was successful, ominous looking black chains appeared out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around the square.

As he watched this scene, the Joker looked at the skies and noticed dark clouds clustering above them. He rolled his eyes in irritation and took out a card

'9♠ Celestial Opposition'

The card was becoming bigger and bigger until it was more than 100 meters in length. Even the black chains retracted themselves and decreased the fog they were releasing, it was a clear sign of fear.

Once it reached the necessary size, the card shone with a blinding light, causing the square to shake from fear and even pushing Arthur more than a kilometer away from the Joker.

The clustering clouds tried resisting as small red lightning bolts hit the card but to no avail, the light extinguished everything and in merely one minute, the there sky became clear, devoid of any cloud.

In doing this, the Joker helped Arthur avoid another celestial tribulation. He didn't do it out of kindness but due to personal reasons.

"Now that I got rid of the annoying sparks, shall we do one.last.exchange?"

This time, Arthur wasn't enraged or angry like before. He was unusually calm and upon hearing the Joker, he looked at him with eyes devoid of emotions and softly nodded his head.

The Joker clapped his hands in excitment and exclaimed

"Excellent! I would like to witness the full potential of [Thousand Waves] but I guess you aren't able to unleash its full potential so I'll be content as long as it's a strong attack."

Arthur didn't respond and merely bent his back and held Makaze. One hand was on the sheath and the other on the dark blad's handle. The square above him entered his body and the fog disappeared completely. Although Makaze was broken, thanks to the Oath and Arthur's darkness, it enabled it to display a formidable amount of power.

"Amazing, I sense no energy around you. An attack made from pure Sword Essence.. bring it on!"

With a slowly beating heart and a very calm mind, Arthur concentrated on the Joker and said

"Two souls but one heart, two wills but one goal. By the eternal oath binding us, I command you to kill our enemy!"

As he spoke those words, a dark and ominous mark appeared on the Joker's hand, which surprised the latter.

However, this wasn't the end as by the time the mark appeared, Arthur already attacked.

Makaze and its illusory sheath shone with a blazing golden light for a split second before it disappeared. This was none other than the [Golden Lone Sheath], one of three ultimate sword skills Arthur currently have.

The attack was simple as it's only unsheathing and sheathing one's sword in a lightspeed manner but it'll result in an incredibly fast attack that locks on its target and kills it.

"I respect your swordsmanship and your dedication to be able to summon such an oath which is why.... I'll become serious just this one time."

Although Arthur already attacked and it would reach the Joker almost immediately, the latter wasn't panicking. With movements that seemed extremely slow yet transcended the concept of time, he retrieved his deck of cards and said

"Shuffle, Spread, Draw! Random Card Roulette!"

Without looking at the drawn card, he held it in his hand and said

"Third move of the Trickster series; Light from Darkness, Gold from Sand!"

A light as bright as Arthur's skill appeared in the sky and stretched to all corners of Astria before it suddenly retracted and became a ray of light that met the golden sword slash.

When the two attacks clashed, space shattered like glass and a gigantic wind tornado enveloped the area, even causing the other continents to suffer a bit of damage.

For a moment, it seemed as if the golden slash was going to cut the white ray of light in two but that was merely an illusion as the ray of light enveloped the golden slash and slowly weakened it.

Both parties were pushed a distance away from the clash and just when Arthur's golden slash was going to disperse, another blue and freezing light joined the fray and caused a huge disturbance as it spread to all directions, freezing the air itself and even the shattered space couldn't handle the coldness.

This was similar to the ultimate skill of the Ice attribute; [Absolute Zero], however, the range was much bigger and the coldness was increased by a few more levels.

This coldness was concentrated in a rotating blue bullet that had three circles around it. Instead of disintegrating the golden slash in its way, it actually helped and in a harmonious manner, the golden Sword Essence and the Yin Power joined hands in eliminating the white ray of light.

Unfortunately, even with two against one, the ray of light emerged victorious and with a speed faster than sound, hit Arthur and sent him flying across the sky with blood pouring from all holes of his body.

Very quickly, a white light followed right behind Arthur to support him and heal his injuries.