5,000 meters in the air.

The sun was high, but the temperature around it was dropping sharply compared to the ground, there was not a trace of wind in the sky, and the high-level clouds were connected, looking like a gray curtain, with an inexplicable sense of heaviness.

Suddenly there was a slightly sharp sound of atmospheric movement beneath the clouds, as if something was rushing towards this direction at high speed, which was not obvious at first, but then intensified, and even thunder was not an exaggeration.

"Rumble—"

When this restless sound finally reached its peak, the thick clouds were torn apart by a sudden unknown force, and a large hole with a diameter of more than 100 meters was blown out in the center, and then two streamers, one blue and one red, penetrated the clouds and continued to rush to a higher ground.

To be precise, it was the blue light that was pushing the red light to advance higher ground.

Javier's eyes were as cold as ice, his hands were clenched with his riding spear, and at the same time, he mobilized all the fighting energy in his body and the wind energy of the emperor, and the whole person seemed to be covered by cyan light, and he exerted his strength with the maximum output.

"Zizi Zi ......"

The riot breakers rushed forward with an indomitable momentum, but were blocked by Reinhardt's horizontal sword, and moved high into the air with great force.

The friction between steel and steel burst into fiery sparks, and the wind and scorching flames collided densely in the air, creating a small storm of energy that shattered.

These two are both one of the strongest in the world, and their strength is almost the same as each other, and they have fought hundreds of rounds since the beginning of the war, but they still maintain an undefeated situation.

However, their current battlefield has long deviated from the central great plain, and they are even five thousand meters away from the ground, and they no longer know where to fly.

However, the two people who were in the middle of the battle couldn't care about these at this time, and at this point in the fight, they were already fully focused, and only their opponents were left in their eyes, and they didn't have extra energy to think about anything else.

Defeat this man!

This is the only thought in their minds at the moment.

"Whew!"

At a certain moment, Reinhardt's eyes suddenly burst into flames, and the fire wings behind him shook violently, forcibly stopping the momentum of Javier's full stabbing, and finally stopped after two rays of light continued to rise.

Time and space seemed to stand still in this moment, but this stillness lasted less than a second.

"Get down for me!"

I heard Reinhardt suddenly scream, and the fire of the burning sword in his hand suddenly tripled, and the angry slash with the power of the horizontal hill immediately slashed down with his backhand, making a loud bang like a gunpowder explosion, directly knocking Javier down more than a hundred meters and falling into the clouds.

However, this was not the end, Reinhardt obviously did not intend to give Javier a chance to breathe, his eyes flashed red, and then the flames of rage converged above his head, turning into more than a dozen spears composed of fire elementals.

- Salvo fire javelin!

In the next second, with Reinhardt's one-handed wave, the fire elemental spear blasted towards the cloud where Javier was almost at the same time, and then a series of explosions rang out, and the scorching fire wave vaporized and melted the clouds almost instantly, revealing the figure that was imprisoned in the flame cage like a trapped beast.

"It's a little hot, but that's about it......"

In the midst of the fire, Javier's dark purple eyes suddenly lit up blue, and the storm currents that appeared out of thin air swirled around his body like an impenetrable barrier, shielding him from the flames.

Immediately afterwards, Javier picked up the rifle with one hand, so that it was parallel to his right side, and then his right arm stretched back sharply, and the muscles used to exert power in various parts of his body became hard and bulged like steel, and the strength of his whole body gathered in one place in an instant, and then ...... Erupt!

- Giant Thrower!

The spear came out of his hand, whistling like a dragon, and rushed in front of Reinhardt at an incredible speed, the sharpness of the spear pointing straight to the center of his eyebrows.

"Bang!"

With a loud bang, the cavalry spear was knocked into the air under Reinhardt's full counterattack, followed by two scalp-numbing wind slicing sounds, but it was Javier who suddenly broke through the blockade of the fire wave and slashed down with two azure giant swords in his hand.

"Khooth!"

After the blow, it was followed by a more intense and fierce fight.

"Qiang Qiang-"

In the last collision, the two of them each retreated backwards under the effect of the anti-shock force, and opened up the distance.

"Whoa, whoa—"

At this moment, Alfred suddenly broke through the clouds and flew in, just in time to catch Javier's rapidly retreating body.

Dispel the elemental twin swords with his hand, turning them into cyan particles, and Javier calmly raised his right hand, and his five fingers sucked slightly in the shape of claws.

Then, the spear, which had been sent into the air and was falling downward, returned to his hand in this light motion.

On the other side, Reinhardt also stood on the back of the belated silver dragon Regnat, staring at Javier from afar.

The five thousand meters in the air, where the sound of battle had been lost, suddenly fell silent, and a strange silence spread, and only the faint sound of the wind passing through the ears could make people feel that time was still passing.

The two dragons had apparently been in a fierce battle, each with their own wounds, glaring at each other in the silence to the depths of the atmosphere, spitting out a thunderous breath from their noses, as if they were demonstrating.

In silence, Javier suddenly spoke: "I wanted to ask last time...... Why would a strong man like you be willing to work for someone like Ulysses? He is undoubtedly a madman, who regards war as child's play and human life as a mustard, but simply pursues excitement and pleasure, and does not bear the responsibility of a country, these ...... Can't you even see it? ”

"I naturally know what kind of person Ulysses is, and I know very well what I am doing and what I am swinging my sword for." Reinhardt said calmly, "My relationship with Ulysses is not a subordinate, but just a fellow traveler who came together by chance...... What he wanted to do was what I wanted to do, so I decided to help him. ”

Hearing this, Javier suddenly frowned, "What are you happy to see?" What exactly is your purpose? ”

"That's a long story......" Reinhardt exhaled slowly, his eyes raised, as if caught in a distant memory, "I was born in a border town in the south of the empire, I was a mercenary in the early years, and I often traveled to various countries because of my missions, and I am quite famous in the mercenary world, of course...... In the eyes of you big men in the empire, I was just a small character who was not worth mentioning. ”

Javier didn't interject, just listened silently, listening to the man tell his past in a flat tone, with thoughtful eyes in his eyes.

"I am not dissatisfied with this kind of life, little people have the happiness of little people...... I have a beautiful and gentle lover who loves me very much, and a younger brother who admires me very much and always says that he wants to be a mercenary when he grows up, and they are the only treasures in my life. ”

"Having family and people who love you is the happiness of the little people, I am not greedy, I think this is enough, and I dare not ask for more...... Yet just when I thought that such a simple life would last until I died of old age, my happiness was ruthlessly robbed of me by the Empire. ”

Hearing this, Javier's eyelids jumped, and a sense of foreboding appeared in his heart.

"I still can't forget the incident that happened eight years ago...... I left home for the Western Kingdoms on a mission, and it was during this time that an Imperial army suddenly visited this border town and carried out a massacre in the town on the grounds of collusion with the revolutionary army, and my lover and brother were not spared, and died tragically under the butcher's knife of the Imperial soldiers. ”

"When I finally finished my mission and rushed home with my gifts in high spirits, all I saw was the town in ruins after a fire, and my family whose bodies had begun to rot and stink...... Can you understand how I felt? Do you know what kind of mood I had in mind to bury them? A Venerable Master like you, who was born with authority, should not understand, right? ”

Even now, Reinhardt still has that palpitating calm on his face, and his tone of voice is still undulating, as if he is telling the story of someone else's family.

But Javier could vaguely feel his emotional storm hidden beneath the calm, like an undercurrent at the bottom of the sea.

Is it another tragedy born during the tyranny of Ornest?

Not a distant past, because of the decay of the state apparatus, the entire empire was once in a miasma, and too many innocent people fell victim to this era, and Reinhardt's family was just one of them.

Although the empire was later restored to its proper track by a group of loyal men, all the squalor and filth that happened during that dark period was also undeniably true, and it was a burden that their successors should bear.

With an inexplicable depression in his heart, Javier sighed secretly, looked at Reinhardt with complicated eyes, and then asked, "So your purpose is to take revenge on the Empire?" ”

Unexpectedly, Reinhardt shook his head slightly, and said in a low voice: "This statement is very close, but it can't be completely correct." ”