Sophia’s chest heaved up and down as she breathed in and out loudly, exhausted from constantly bashing out at the undead steed with all of her might. Both of the knuckles of her hand were bloodied entirely. And there was a layer of burn on all of her beautiful, pristine white skin.
So parts of her dress were also burned. But once the stallion nad Nefron was eliminated. The blue fire was extinguished, and she used her darkness to repair parts of her clothes. Her extraordinary innate regeneration started working again, healing the injuries she had suffered in just a minute, and she was as good as new.
She picked up the half-remaining skull of the mighty steed and walked confidently towards the Death Knight.
Both the undead Knight and Gareth were looking right back at Sophia. The clash between those two was halted as they both had watched from the beginning to the end in disbelief at how brutally, mostly using her very fists, she had utterly decimated the mighty steed of the undead Knight, leaving it a bunch of broken bones.
The skeletal Knight only continued to look at the Valkyrie with its sunken hollow eyes; despite coming within its range, the Knight did not attack her. Sophia threw the fragnt of the dread mount’s skull at the feet of the Knight.
The Knight looked at it for a mont and picked it up with his armor-covered hands, the blue flas in its eyes dancing chaotically, expressing a maelstrom of emotions that the Knight didn’t even know he had in him. While the Knight was busy looking at the last remnant of its loyal Mount, Sophia approached Gareth and hurriedly gave him two vials of the golden colored potions.
Axel had given her one extra, apart from the one she used, and she had a few with her, so she gave him two, adding one from her own stash. Gareth seed to want to rebuke her and wanted to say so many things, but Sophia only glared at the forger coldly and stated, "Stop wasting ti and drink these. You won’t be of any help in that state. We have to kill this bastard no matter what. Otherwise, he will kill everyone."
Gareth’s expression hardened as he imdiately gulped down both of the potions, and as expected, their effects were not so significant for soone of his level. But it still managed to heal so of his major internal injuries. Sophia used her all-encompassing darkness to cover the figure of Gareth, like a tight black cloak worn by assassins.
This slowed the festering Death Energy marks across his whole body. Basically, it just stopped the injuries from worsening. As the master forger finally regained his ability to speak, and his own recovery power as a 4th phase Seeker kicked in with the help of the potions.
He looked at the Death Knight with cautious eyes, but the Knight was still intently looking at the broken piece of skull of its Mount. It seems the Mount was quite important to him, from what the forger could tell. Sophia also turned around. Facing the Death Knight.
Gareth stated in a hushed tone, speaking his mind, "Valkyrie, you will die."
Sophia sneered, "Like I said, we will all die one way or the other, if the Death Knight is not eliminated, and there is no one else who is strong enough to be of help in this fight. So, please shut the fuck up, and do what you have to do."
It was at this mont that the voice of the Skeletal warrior resounded, almost sounding lancholic, "80 years.....for exactly that long of a ti, this mount nad Nefron had been with ."
"For so many years, it had survived with , against so many enemies, so many hard-fought battles that I cannot even count. Orcs, Elves, Serpentines. None of those races was able to make my mount fall. Even when it fought alone or alongside . And yet, to think it fell against a peak 1st phase being and a human at that."
Then it let out a soft chuckle, "But I suppose it is only fair that Mount t its end, in the hands of the only Valkyrie. It was a good death. An honorable Death."
"But Valkyrie, are you strong enough to defeat its master as well. I wish to receive my end at the hands of the very being who also ended my stallion. Can you grant that wish? Because if not, I will be very disappointed. And I will kill everyone here."
"So, I hope you can perform another impossible feat, just like the one you did now, and grant an honorable Death. May the lineage of the Valkyrie continue to achieve the impossible. If not, humanity is dood from this day forth."
Sophia’s face grew more and more serious as she heard every sentence uttered by the Knight. As much as she wanted to mock and ridicule the Knight, especially since she killed its Mount right after the damn thing had called her an insect. But she could not bring herself to do so.
Death knights were the only class of undead creatures that retained their code of conduct as a knight even after undead resurrection. The damn thing was absolutely serious about wanting to die at her hands. Which basically translates to, I won’t hold back, you either kill with all you have, or I will kill you all with all I have.
No matter the outco, it will accept it with honor. Sophia asked, her voice calm and cold, "Didn’t you just label as an insect? And why would I give you an honorable death when you have insulted to such an extent??"
The Death Knight looked one last ti at the broken skull of its Mount, then, using a burst of the Death Energy, it was turned into dust. The undead warrior answered as he looked Sophia in the eye, "I will tell you sothing invaluable. A piece of information that you were never supposed to know, and I swear it upon my very loyalty to the Emperor of our race."
Sophia thought for a few seconds, then nodded, accepting the terms. "What is your na, Knight?"
"You may call Eryndor, The Dread Warden, and both of you may challenge ," announced the Ghost Knight proudly.
"Very well then, I, Sophia Evercrest, challenge you, Eryndor, to a Duel of the Last Honor," stated Sophia, her voice overflowing with Determination.
The forger standing beside Sophia followed in a similar tone, as he switched to his Elental aspect, "I, Galagar Gareth, also challenge you to a Duel of the Last Honor."
The death energy of Dread Warden flared with malevolent intensity, power so dark and sinister that the very air and mana were corroding from his power, as he proclaid deeply in a ghostly voice, "And I accept both of your challenges."
The mont those words ca out of the Knight’s mouth, Gareth roared like a beast, "Elental Magic, Scorching sword slash..."
Sophia whispered, "Switch aspect," and she dissolved the darkness manifested sword in her hands.
The giant sword held in both hands by the forger lit up in a scorching red fla; it radiated a bright, destructive light that illuminated everything and cast deep shadows on all three of them from various angles. It didn’t even take a full second to happen, as the mighty forger slashed out horizontally; the ground quaked from the sheer power, and an arc of red fla shot out towards the skeletal warrior.
Till now, Gareth had only used his Aurauser aspect, as it was the stronger one amongst the two, and yet. He realized that the Death Energy was too good at countering any non-attributed power, as the undead power had no issue corroding his Refined Aura. Most of his attacks lose energy midway and fail to have the powerful impact he wished.
So, he opted to use his Elental Aspect, the aspect that granted him the power to wield multiple Elents instinctively at once. As overpowered as it may seem, to be able to wield various Elents instinctively, unfortunately, it was only a 1-star aspect. Too limited in its potential.
Just as expected, the attack did not lose power as much as it did before, not to ntion these attacks were now being powered by his very life force, which he had sacrificed to convert to an imnse amount of mana reserves. The death energy couldn’t corrode that so easily.
But the Knight of Death remained unbothered; he slashed upwards vertically. The horizontal wave of fire split in half where he was standing, while the rest of the wave passed him by; the entire wave exploded a few seconds later, causing a powerful shockwave.
In just a single second, Sophia’s aspect switched from ’Saint’ to ’Arcanist’ as a change occurred in her complete being. The Saint aspect was suitable for direct combat, as the unique Energy, Saint Force, was too well-suited for overwhelming martial prowess.
Pri Nexus notified her at this mont,
[Doom Arcanist Title is active, and all effects of it have been deployed.]
But at this mont, she could not engage in combat with the Knight directly because that would be suicidal on her part, as there was a significant difference in power between them.
Sophia chanted, holding both of her hands forward, "Radiation Magic, Radiant missiles."
Twelve small spheres of darkness manifested all around Sophia, hovering over her head, but there were many other colors infested in them, swirling chaotically; they all looked like a bunch of unstable balls of power, on the verge of exploding.
Each of them shot out towards their target. The mont that fire slash from Gareth exploded right behind Eryndor, as the missiles shot from Sophia neared the Knight, the undead unleashed his death energy like a powerful wave of discharge, thinking that alone was enough to blow away those balls of energy, especially since he couldn’t sense much power from them.
But alas! his assumption could not be any more wrong. As the radiant missiles t with the erupting Death Energy, they all exploded into countless white particles, almost infinite in number. The missiles weren’t powerful, but the nature of that energy was dangerous.
Twelve waves of radiation all exploded in the sa manner; the potent death energy was unable to stop those small fragnts of particles, as all of the knights’ skeletal armor and bodies. Nothing was able to block it.
The waves of violent fire that exploded from behind seem to find a new source of fuel, as it trailed straight towards Eryndor, and another explosion followed. And Eryndor was right in the middle of it. Sophia and Gareth both watched on with narrowed eyes.
Gareth asked with surprise evident in his tone, "What is radiation magic? Those particles directly went through the Death Energy of that thing, as if the layer of Death Energy didn’t even exist."
But Sophia did not answer his question and commanded, "Prepare for attack."
The clanking of the old armor grew resounding in their ears, echoing the Dread Warden’s steps, and he ca out unhard; not even his armor took any damage, as a blue fla covered his whole figure, shielding him from the explosive scorching fla. The radiation missiles didn’t do any damage to the Knight either.
Both Gareth and Sophia tensed instantly as the Ghost Knight beca visible in their eyes, and both started channeling their power, ready to attack again, as Eryndor declared, "My Turn."
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