Zero’s thin shadow spikes interlocked in a way that blocked off Valna’s hands while still pointing their blades at her. Zero’s blade drew closer to her neck as he asked, “Do you surrender?”
Rather than replying Valna transformed her whole body into a human-shaped holy flame. Zero felt that she reminded him of the aether form Sophia had taken but with flames added in. She then released a concussive wave of holy flames and aether that blasted away Zero and all his shadows.
As Zero was blasted away he released his wings to stabilize himself but 2 flame spears shot through the dust and impaled his wing causing him to plummet to the ground. Zero then used his [Telekensis] to float in the air before dropping back down to the ground in a controlled descent. The blast had damaged Zero's clothing and caused some light burn marks all over his body which had started to heal instantly.
Valna extinguished her flame form and picked up her spear and took her battle stance. She closed her eyes and when he reopened them they glowed with a light orange hue. Valna had activated 4 of her skills [War Empowerment], [Divine Combat], [Tactical Analysis], and [Lesser Aether Manipulation] causing her stance to change dramatically. Valna’s spear Serenity began to glow and change from yellow to white. As Zero watched this transformation he rebuilt his clothes and summoned another shadow sword.
Valna vanished and reappeared above Zero and used her spear to strike Zero down with a massive amount of force. Zero manage to lift his shadow sword to block and summoned many shadow spikes to impale Valna but she and her spear passed through the shadows as if they didn’t exist and struck Zero with full force.
A heavily injured Zero lay in a crater but Valna noticed that his wounds didn’t bleed or heal so she jumped and holy fireballs at all nearby shadows. The flame explosions caused Zero to be ejected from a nearby shadow and roll across the ground. Zero tried to get up when he started coughing up some blood.
Zero grabbed his shadow sword and summoned 10 other swords which he controlled with his [Telekensis] and launched a barrage of slashes at Valna. Valna was unperturbed by the barrage of attacks and dodged most while blocking a few of them with barely any movement. The blades she blocked disintegrated instantly and when all blades were gone she palm struck Zero’s chest sending him crashing into the ground.
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Each of Valna’s attacks contained aether so Zero's healing was considerably slowed but not as much as before due to him recently gaining some aether characteristics. With his shadow swords now useless Zero reached into his shadow to pull out an inky black viscous orb. Zero squeezed the orb and it took the shape of a jagged blade.
Looking at the blade Valna’s facial expression changed and took a more serious look. The blade that Zero held was made of nether and while she was resistant to darkness; nether was not darkness. She would need to make sure not to get cut by that blade.
Zero took his adaptive void sword stance and readied himself for the clash. Zero felt a cold sensation in his hand and momentarily looked down at his hand. Zero still hadn’t mastered how to fully control nether so the sword was releasing tiny tendrils than latched onto his hand. He needed to finish this fast or he might go into his berserk nether form.
Valna launched at Zero and due to thinking about his berserk form, he reacted late but still managed to barely block her attack. Unable to counterattack Zero used the force of the attack to jump back and put some distance between them. Valna wasted no time and resumed her attack and Zero went on the defensive to understand Valna’s fight style. Zero however encountered a problem as soon as he came close to understanding her fighting style Valna would switch to a different style.
As Zero and Valna continued to cross blades Zero found that each time Valna changed her fighting style he would find it took longer to understand the new style. He grimace when he understood what was going on while he was adapting to her Valna was also doing the same to him but at an incredible speed. This meant that Valna had already understood his void style, improved it, and then made it hers.
Their clash continued evenly until Zero fell behind and now all his attacks were being blocked and he received many counterattacks. Zero was badly injured and with each hit, the nether tendrils would take the opportunity to spread even more. The only bright side was that since Valna’s spear was infused with aether when the spear hit an area where the tendrils had gotten to they would recede.
{How pathetic to be outmatched by your own servant. I can stomach this anymore I’m taking over.}
When Zero heard this voice in his head his vision suddenly blurred and he fell unconscious. Although Zero’s consciousness had faded he still stood on his feet and his eyes began to glow with a purple hue. Zero waved his free hand and a crackle of black nether-infused lightning shoot out at Valna forcing her to dodge and retreat.
“Oh, you managed to dodge that I’m impressed. Hmm, this body can’t hold out much longer so I’ll just go ahead and finish this.” said Zero with a sinister smirk
The black lightning erupted from Zero’s free hand and spread all across his body until enveloped him completely. He then said, “My foolish self doesn’t understand how to best use his body so let me show you all. This is how a creature of chaos should fight!”
Zero then activated his [Chaos Form] skill and fused it with the black lightning. Zero then transformed into a being made of pure black electricity. Even his nether sword also transformed into a thin bolt of black lightning. As Valna and Hel looked at Zero’s new transformation he suddenly disappeared and multiply cuts appeared on Valna’s body before she suffered a massive delayed shock of black lightning.
A chard Valna collapsed and Zero reappeared standing over her. He raised his blade and looked as if he would stab Valna. When he attempted to do so a green barrier formed over Valna and protected her. Zero then turned to look at Hel who had her hand aimed at him.