From the fifth fight on, I faced multiple Domain users, which were essentially improved models of the constructs I'd already beaten.
The next round had squaring off against the tal Knight and the Brawler Telekinetic, both wielding fairly cookie-cutter domains, but powerful nonetheless.
Fire and Telekinesis saw the most use during this round. Every step was propelled by both elents, stacked on top of my already ridiculous wind boost.
Each punch from Eryx was earth-shattering. Despite the Knight's best efforts to block and counterattack, I blew off chunks of his armor and body, forcing him to regrow his tal body at a staggering rate, all while peppering with exploding weapons ford from heat and warped tal. Those were his domain abilities.
Unfortunately for him, I was immune.
He was the first to fall, despite his partner's best efforts. The telekinetic's domain made his power monstrous—amping his output to an unbelievable degree. He kept up with easily, often forcing to use boosts from my runes just to stay ahead. His attacks were landscape-altering now. A simple shove had enough force to level a small town, and a single stomp shook the entire arena.
His ntal attack even caught unaware…for close to a second.
I turned the attack back on him, turbocharging it with all of my runes. He was a vegetable long enough for to deal with the Knight.
I deflected the Knight's descending blade with a flex of my Telekinesis and half a dozen runes, sending his shield wide in the sa breath as I closed the distance and delivered a fully charged Dinsional Slash to his torso. Rebellion split him in half again, and again, and again.
Reality shattered.
I spun and swept the jagged axehead of a fully charged Arbiter straight into the neck of the Telekinetic. It was prid with all 24 Precision runes in my armor. His head separated clean from his shoulders.
He'd tried to sneak up on —penetrating my mind again, trying to hide his presence.
My sixth round ended nearly as quickly as the fifth. The chain user and swordsman returned, this ti with four wings instead of two, and more energy than seed reasonable.
They unleashed their domains instantly.
Chains sprang up around my body, rapidly locking away my energy stores and fine motor control.
My eyes widened. At the sa ti, the sword wielder swung down, manifesting a greatsword of pure light.
Ti Warp flared to life with a herculean effort. I ramped it up, only managing to reach 3x perception delay before the chain wielder's magic began snuffing it out.
Alright. I'd had enough.
Devil Trigger.
The world shuddered as my aura exploded, detonating in a shockwave that swallowed everything.
Manipulating Demonic energy felt as easy as breathing. Purple fire exploded out of my trapped hand, shattering the seal.
A calamitous wave of purple fire followed, mimicking the initial shockwave of demonic energy. It chewed away at the seals until I shattered them with a flick of my wrist. The descending greatsword shrank so drastically that it shattered against my upraised arm.
I pointed a finger at each of the constructs and uttered my favorite command.
BURN.
I swear I saw a flicker of recognition—or was it fear?—before the world was consud in fire.
The seventh wave brought together all five types of enemies I'd faced—each with their domains and aggression cranked to eleven.
I entered the fight with Angelic Ascension and summoned Aquila. My runes flared with light as I poured every ounce of energy I could channel into the weapon, manifesting six massive spectral blades. They warped the very air around them as they hovered, slowly spinning.
Kurogiri appeared in my left hand, and a long-ti favorite—Severance—in my right, each limned with purple fire. I donned my mind and fire cloaks—I'd need the extra processing power to keep up. To top it all off, I activated Ti Warp and dialed it past its forr 5x limit.
The difference was imdiate. Between my Astral Wings and Angelic Ascension, I was certain I was experiencing ti at ten tis slower.
But even that didn't seem to matter when they struck.
Weapons of all sizes rained from the sky, soaked in heat and pure angelic energy. Chains burst from the ether. Faceless clones surged toward from all directions. The very air thickened, oppressive and crushing, pushing back against my affinity-boosted willpower.
It was almost too much. Almost.
My blades blurred, zipping out and carving through space, eliminating most of the attacks. A rune-fueled slash from both weapons unleashed a cyclone of purple fire—with standing at its center. With a flex of my wind affinity, I fed the flaming cyclone, pouring more and more energy into it until all that remained was chaos.
The constructs hesitated, taking cautious steps back.
In that mont of weakness, I struck—appearing behind the Chain Wielder, the most troubleso of the bunch. My spectral blades converged on her, spinning so fast they kicked up their own storm.
They severed her astral wings and cut straight through her, breaking her domain. The pressure in the air lessened.
I twisted, gliding low to avoid a spray of hundreds of detonating weapons. I summoned all spectral shurikens to and launched them forward, shredding through a tunnel of force that would've pulped had I taken it head-on.
The Swordmaster and the Knight tried to flank . The Knight's sword warped and compressed into a malford mace of force and heat.
I ducked under his weapon sweep, parried his shield bash with a kick, and sent him hurtling into the cloud of spinning blades the Swordmaster was rallying.
My own rotating blades spun around , deflecting the strikes from above as twin-blade shadows fell like rain.
I snapped my fingers, unleashing a rapidly widening cone of razor-sharp wind laced with Dinsional energy.
It tore them apart.
Thousands more replaced them.
The ground cracked beneath just before I was yanked upward. The swordswoman charged from my blindside, wielding a lance of light. It shattered against the two rotating blades I sent forward. I flexed my Wind and Dinsional affinities, shredding the Telekinetic's grip before teleporting in front of him, firing all of my blades.
With surprising speed, he dodged—and so did I—avoiding stabs and swipes from the Knight, the dark spear wielder's endless army, and the floating swords of the swordswoman.
I was breathing heavily.
It was hard to admit, but they were good.
I manifested dozens of blades and got to work—swinging, teleporting, launching shurikens—while slowly pulling them towards the giant Anathema fire tornado at the room's center.
They realized my plan too late.
I vanished my weapons, shoved chunks of Wind and Gravity energy into the tornado, and flared every rune I had. The tornado exploded inside, expelling scorching waves of purple plasma and fire, wiping away hundreds of clones before stabilizing into a narrow tunnel five tis larger than its original size.
It ripped in everything—stone, magic, and enemies alike.
All the black clones went in. So was the Knight.
Only the Telekinetic and Sword Wielder held out.
I snapped my fingers.
The tornado destabilized, exploded outward, and shattered the virtual space. My vision went white, and suddenly, I was back in that strange corridor where it had all started.
A final, androgynous figure stood before .
"It seems you've surpassed my wildest expectations, son," it said. The voice was female. Warm. I recognized it from Dante's mories.
"Eve?" I asked.
"It's been a long ti, Dante."
I blinked. "How are you still alive? Yao told that you… that you died."
Read ahead up to Chapter 210 on Patreon/artandcreativewriting.
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