Kyrion felt much better after he woke back up. His inner monologue was silent once again, and his body was completely whole. There were no more voices in Kyrion’s head save for his own. Which he ignored as per usual.

“Why do I sense spite directed at me… Oh well. Snake dude. You wanna come with me when I go back to my world?”

“Do you believe… I see. I will come with you in spirit when my job is done.”

Kyrion nodded before looking about.” Is that so? Good luck then.”

“Just don’t die too soon.”

Kyrion nodded before feeling the top of the tower, and he was there in the blink of an eye. As though he had taken a step and traveled miles. This time, he took all of himself there.

Almira, who was currently examining the bridge to other worlds, whirled and summoned tendrils of darkness around Kyrion. Sharp tendrils shot upward toward his body.

Before they could skewer him, Kyrion stepped through, reappearing behind the goddess and following up with a sweep to her legs. Causing the long-haired woman to be airborne briefly.

In her anger and confusion, Almira looked into her attacker’s eyes and saw her own briefly. “Al’caris. You’re in there aren’t you?”

“Yes and no, mother, part of my soul is buried in this item, while the rest of my body is long dead. I can sense my reincarnation is already running about and I just need to reunite with them sooner or later.” The ancestor projected himself for the first time in front of Almira.

“How long have you known about your status?”

“This is a temporary solution. I will explain next time we meet, in person. But you may want to actively participate in my decedent’s club. He has a friend who has a contract with a Cat of Nine Calamities.”

“I see.”

Kyrion looked about silently as people talked as though he wasn’t there before a lightbulb lit up in his head and then exploded. Cat of calamity, could he mean… “Please don’t talk about me like I’m not here and Sammy is quite mean.”

“Cats will be cats. Now then, what have you done to yourself?”

“I found the other half of my soul, that had been bumming about for a while. He looked bad so I cleaned him up and now I, er. we are going insane.” Kyrion said from in front of the goddess.

“So I’m quite a bit more dangerous than I was before I left.” Said a second Kyrion, standing back to back with Almira.

“Although, I’m stealing a few techniques from my master.” As the afterimages faded from their first and second positions, Kyrion sighed from sitting at the tower’s edge.

“Zero waste and no noticeable residue. Is that all? Or are you hiding more?”

“Do you want me to attack you?”

Almira thought for a long moment before nodding.

“Fine.”

Kyrion punched to the side as a fist of flame shot away before vanishing, only to reappear and nearly hit her face. She would have had she not barely managed to dodge out of the way. The fist of flame vanished again, reappearing, only moving much faster.

Almira dodged to the side only for the fist to tap her on the stomach, back of her neck, and ankle quickly. Causing her to stumble slightly before dispelling the weak attack with a wave of dark energy.

“What sort of technique is that?”

“Dimensional linking. I link multiple together and have my attack shoot through, predicting where you would dodge and aiming to hit that spot after it teleports. When I get a hit, the next blow with a new attack that repeats the process from that position. If my goal had been to kill, I would have channeled the stream, allowing it to form a superheated cage of fire.

“Are you a monster or something?” Almira focused on the pathway and contemplated its efficiency. She was not disappointed, but she was concerned. The technique he developed would be pretty destructive on a battlefield. With enough power, it could easily result in flames passing through the bodies of its victims.

“That is still a possibility. Not enough to overtake my friends but we are almost out of time for Marigold and Volain.”

“While Mike is coming with me?”

“Up to him.” Kyrion sighed before vanishing from her sight and reappearing in the middle of a sparring match between Marigold and Volain.

Volain’s body was covered in black and white armor with a strange helm with no slots for eyes. His greaves were adapted for quicksand movement, while his gauntlets were sharp.

Marigold was wearing golden robes that left quite a bit of skin exposed. Which made sense as he’d seen her rip material off of said robes and converted them into golden weapons. Said weapons were quick, sharp, and deadly.

The two were caught off guard as someone appeared in front of them clad in red and purple gauntlets, a single leg of black armor. Two black horns protruded from ruby-red hair that flowed past the man’s shoulders. A black cape flowed from his back, making him look like a true villain.

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Then Kyrion spoke with an awfully cocky tone that he only used when pretending to be Rion. Only now did he have the confidence and experience to pull it off naturally. “What’s with all these chickadees flapping around in my tower?”

Volain would have been afraid, only the man used the word chickadees, what in the abyss was that. And why did they flap around? Was he trying to insult him? He should have called him a goblin or gremlin if he wanted to be insulting. An actual lesser being when compared to an orc. The synapses hadn’t connected that Volain wasn’t actually an orc at the moment, as he was pretty confused.

Marigold, on the other hand, knew what a chickadee was and that they were small birds. But she wasn’t falling for weak jabs like that. However, she could feel his aura; it was everywhere and saturated the area like a dense fog, as though he controlled everything he could reach with his mind. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I need to spar for a bit. I’m thinking three or four against one. I’ve become quite a bit more dangerous.” Kyrion scratched his chin as a glint only Gamodren recognized was present.

“I’ll skip out on this one,” Gamodren said as he sat on a bench that hadn’t been there before. A strange machine next to him was holding what Kyrion assumed were supplies.

“Booo!” Kyrion jeered as he teleported twenty feet away from Volain and Marigold.

Gamodren was immune to such taunts.

“Don’t mind him. I’ll take the defender role. Marigold, provide support with your skills. Volain, you will be our attacker. Go wild.” Mike said as he took a defensive position in front of Marigold.

Volain would protest, but Mike was an exact equal with more battle experience. And so, before the battle could officially begin. Volain had moved faster than sound, landing a solid blow on Kyrion’s face.

A cracking sound echoed across the room, followed by a surprised yelp. Only both sounds originated from a position behind Mike. This caused the man to turn and see Volain’s arm hovering in the air with golden specks attached to his hand while Marigold lay unconscious on the sand, seven sand dunes away. Her jaw lay strangely positioned as though it were broken despite not having physical bones here.

“That was brutal.” That was all Kyrion said.

Kyrion followed up with a knee that hit Volain in the stomach, forcing him through three chained tears in reality that doubled his velocity each time, leading him into the ceiling on the opposite end of the floor.

Mike laughed as he withdrew a flaming sword with golden scales covering the hilt down the guard with a diamond pommel and blue leather handle. His normal shield glowed with radiant light as two sets of feathery wings shot out from his back through his armor.

Gamodren sat up upon seeing that and withdrew a pencil and pad, preparing to draw. He was exceptionally gifted in art and decided that this piece could sell for a pretty penny if he painted it when he got home. Angel vs Demon lord, or something.

Kyrion flickered forward and followed up with a punch at Mike’s throat.

Mike countered via sword to the gut that Kyrion was forced to displace five feet behind him, messing up his concentration.

Mike followed his counter-up shield bash, forcing Kyrion to flicker backward ten feet. Only Mike was already there, his flaming sword withdrawn from the portal and prepped in a charging thrust position.

Kyrion’s eyes widened as he teleported ten feet to his right and followed up with a blast of flame meant to push him through another portal while burning the opponent that gave chase.

Kyrion reappeared where Mike’s burning sword had been left and ended up with a burning blade in his gut. From there, Kyrion was bashed with the shield four times before he was able to escape. His body was riddled with cuts and bleeding wounds.

“How much have you been holding back!?” Kyrion flickered backward in a chain of smaller jumps in an attempt to throw his opponent off balance.

Mike smiled. “I wan’t fighting you with the intent to kill before. Not that I want you dead, but I want to see your limits in a place with lesser stakes than permanent death.”

“Oh. Oh no…” Kyrion realized that it wasn’t that Mike was holding back. He just wasn’t strong enough to require this level of effort at the time. And by Volain’s gaped expression and Marigold’s confusion, they hadn’t seen him fight like that either. The only unsurprised one was Gamodren, who tended to conduct his spars with Mike on a separate floor while licking their wounds.

“Don’t hold back!” Mike flew forward past the flickers, arriving where Kyrion was about to teleport sword thrust before he could arrive.

However, the only thing waiting for him was a stream of white-hot flames that snaked around his body before wrapping over and over. Like a coil of fire before constricting through concentrated effort, Kyrion appeared ten feet behind and to Mike’s right.

“Misdirection. Didn’t think you were the deceitful type of fighter.”

“I can’t beat you fighting head on.” Kyrion said as he grunted while squeezing the coil.

“Do you know why binds are dangerous? Especially those made using D.E?”

“No?” Kyrion asked.

“Because when broken in just the right way it hurts the binder greatly.”

Kyion released the walls, holding the flames together out of instinct. Causing the floor to be filled with a tornado of white-hot flames, the area around him exploded as pockets of gathered air exploded in a chain that faded in moments. From there, a tornado made from thick glass entrapped Mike, much to everyone’s surprise.

“Break through that.” Kyrion fell to a knee, exhausted.

“Interesting work around.” Mike held his shield up and slammed it against the glass, causing the piece of art to shatter.

“You aren’t done already are you?” Mike said as he began to flap his wings, flying upward.

“Who knows.” Kyrion said as he held the sand in a deep grasp, heating it until it began to slightly melt before dropping it right on top of the floating Mike, causing him to fall to the ground due to his covered wings.

“Rock beats birds.” Kyrion said as he passed out, as the sand movement took much more out of him than he had expected. Or so he thought.

Gamodren pulled out another token and placed it in the strange machine, and an item fell out of the bottom, pulling energy from the exhausted boy.

Mike looked about his wings molting. He hadn’t lost, but he was close. He could see why he was supposed to follow the kid for a bit.

Marigold held her jaw with a sour expression. “Why did you decide to use all those tokens just now? Couldn’t you have waited until after the fight before you started draining him of D.E.?”

“Kyrion wasn’t ready to win that fight yet. Mike is a peak expert equivalent with eight of eight shards collected. I get that we’re weaker here but winning with that much power disparity would draw too much attention. That and I accidentally hit the jackpot. Only meant to tip, not flip.”

Mike shook his head. “He also had another technique or two and you didn’t want to be here if he used them.”

“Correct. I may not like it, but I’m in a position where I may have to kill my student. I would rather he have an ace or two up his sleeves that I don’t know about. The way he just fought was exactly how my father fights. Which is both curious and concerning.” Gamodren waved as he left the room.