Despite using her demonic wings to shield herself, Iracia wailed in agony as the black spears and blades penetrated her flesh, leaving behind wounds that saturated with rotten fragrance. Despite the power of the demonic bloodline, it could not contend with one of the primal force whose origin came from the ageless legend. Although Death Aura Forus had was merely a fragment of its all-consuming form, its legacy was still a notch above the mundane sorcery power.
As a result, her wings became tattered with holes that ate the flesh away, destroying life force and turning her skin rotten. She could not predict that Forus could manipulate Death Aura as he only used it to enhance his fist, leading her to believe that it was the effect of some treasures. With her confidence boosted by snapping icy sword in half, Iracia got careless and suffered.
Not only that but after becoming a full-fledged demon, Iracia had a terrible time retaining her instinct in check, creating an internal threat that restained her new-found power from displaying to its potential. If she relaxed her guard, the corruption of the demonic bloodline might take over her mind, transforming herself into a killing machine who only ate souls and drank blood for the living.
Flapping her wings, Iracia created a strong current of wind to slow down the black weapons before leaping away towards Mabilis, swinging her tail to knock against the Leaning Tower of Flame, changing its trajectory to make it fall onto another location, saving Mabilis as well as grouping up with him.
Under Forus' manipulation, the black weapons changed its course and shot towards Mabilis, crashing against the runes and exploding in black light, sending out scent of death and destruction. However, as Mabilis continued to stare at Forus with his third golden eye, his movement was slowly yet steady, blocking all of the weapons without fail, not getting injured anywhere.
Ocelia used the precious time Forus had gained for her to freeze her wounds, stopping the internal bleeding as well as restoring her sorcery energy. After merging with the Guardian, Ocelia could quickly draw in the Elements to her manipulation, having a higher rate of recovery as well as affection for all Elements then before, notably the Ice and Fire Element.
Although Mabilis could block all of the black spears, he could barely support the consumption of the formation at the current rate. However, as time progressed, Forus would gradually increase the numbers of the spears, pushing the limit of how much Mabilis could do. Even if he could flawlessly block with his defence, Forus could naturally overwhelm him with numbers.
Furthermore, even if Forus could not increase the number of the spears beyond what Mabilis could accept, he would still struggle against the combination between the rains of weapons and swamps of Fire Spirits. A fireball from a sorcerer-apprentice would not do anything meaningful against a first-ranked sorcerer, but, a torrent of fireballs from an army of apprentices could overwhelm the sorcerer if he could not break out of the killing formation.
Thankfully, Iracia knew about his situation and retained her sense, rushing in to help Mabilis instead of engaging with Ocelia, potentially getting grouped up by Forus and missed the chance to overturn the battle. With her help, he could slowly relax and began to create a plan to overcome the situation.
Before long, Forus and Ocelia slowly tensed up as the fight continued. Although the more Mabilis and Iracia struggled, the more sorcery energy they would consume, both Forus and Ocelia also fell into this too. Not only that, but while Iracia continued battling in her demonic form, she also gradually got used to controlling her instinct and new-found power. Once she could completely assimilate the bloodlust of her bloodline with her sorcery mastery, her strength could sky-rocket and experienced a qualitative change.
A strange blue light manifested as the formation around Mabilis glowed, displaying multiple runes depicting lost languages. In an instant, all runes that both defended against the rain of black spears and Fire Spirits merged back into the formation, emitting white fog that engulfed the surrounding, concealing Mabilis and Iracia.
Like a barrier between realm, when Fire Spirits touched the surface of the fog, they disintegrated into the simplistic particles of Elements and dissipated into the surrounding. However, the black spears could pass through it but lost its connection with Forus and became the ordinary spears.
Seeing the property of the barrier, Forus and Ocelia immediately created more conventional weapons without infusing any Elements into them. They all traversed through the fog without any problems, creating a tiny gap in the mist everywhere, showing a glimpse of the inside. However, observing the flow of Elements, Ocelia could conclude that they were trying to create something using the Elements in the surrounding, presumably activating the previous formation.
Without any choice, Ocelia gestured her hand and tossed out a copper coin, which rapidly expanded as it flew towards the fog. A loud bang resounded as the transparent barrier that held the fog together collapsed, generating a strong wind that dispersed all the mist, destroying the Elements-consuming formation.
Although the barrier could restrict the usage of sorcery energy from both sides, with Iracia's demonic body, Forus and Ocelia would fall into a disadvantage in no time. So, Ocelia chose to sacrifice her Underworld Copper Coin to disrupt the formation, causing it to collapse.
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As the fog dispersed, Mabilis faintly smiled as he waved his hand, sending out a ghastly orb towards Forus. The sphere was ever-changing, continually shifting from one structure to another. With twelve stars-like objects rotating around it, it traversed through the chamber unhindered, evading all flying spears as if it already knew the trajectory of all things.
Seeing an unknown object moving towards him, Forus exerted his force and jumped backwards, passing through Ocelia and leaping away from her, gaining more distance as he placed his hands onto the ground and channelled his sorcery energy. Slowly, ice walls began to rise from the nothing, forming a mountain of defence that could block a bombardment of countless fireballs.
Ocelia did not idle as her eyes flashed in realization. She willed and sent out a drop of condensed water towards the orb, moving steadily yet fast. However, as moments passed, the said droplet crazily absorbed Elements in the surrounding and began replicating itself, turning from a single speck of sparkle into a sphere of fluid.
Without any delay, Ocelia flicked her fingers, drawing a strange symbol and pushed it towards Mabilis before pointing her finger at the revolving orb again, feeling the pulsating rhythm of her soul. As she concentrated, a faint echo appeared within her heart, leading her soul towards the location of the Underworld Copper Coin.
As the resonance reached its peak, Ocelia's mind formed a mysterious connection with it, and she transferred her thought into it, causing it to tremble and shoot towards the strange orb. As if something within the coin woke up, it released a blinding ray of crimson light, engulfing the surrounding in the fragrance of blood and decay.
However, a burst of feminine laughter echoed as a strong wind passed through Ocelia's face, causing her to divert her attention towards the origin of such wind. Iracia flipped her demonic wings and shot towards the orb, intercepting the Underworld Copper Coin as she struck down her claw. Her eyes reddened in excitement as their crescent pupils retracted in delight the moment the sparks between the inhumane nails clashed with the coin.
The revolving sent its stars towards the wave of all-consuming water and moved towards Forus without any pause. The five stars danced around each other as they slowly expanded their size, forming spheres of blazing flame.
Upon contact, the wave of water extinguished three of the stars before one of the remaining two exploded into a brilliant light of the red hue, creating a vortex of heat that evaporated the residual droplet. As for the last star, it rushed towards Ocelia as it slowly disintegrated, turning from one complete sphere into numerous strings of fire.
Seeing that her Underworld Copper Coin got obstructed by Iracia, Ocelia rushed in with a black sword in her hand. After she realized that her Ice Element sword could not pierce the demonic skin, she mentally signalled for Forus to create her a sword with Death Aura as she witnessed that it could penetrate the wings.
Although the Underworld Copper Coin could suppress various treasures, its effectiveness would decrease upon something outside of its speciality. When obstructed by Iracia, its oppressing aura of the Underworld naturally assaulted Iracia. However, as Iracia was a living being, the power of the Underworld would not work at its best.
Sensing the danger, Iracia stepped sideways and swang her claw at the black sword, creating a colourful metallic spark before using her tail to crash with the copper coin, forcing it back a little, gaining herself an opening to distance herself from the suppressive aura.
At the same time, by crashing with Iracia, Ocelia also established the connection with the Underworld Copper Coin, sending it towards the incoming star. By utilizing the force supplied by Iracia, the coin increased its pace and managed to arrive before the sun.
Without the coin, Ocelia slowly fell into a passive state as Iracia exceeded her in both physical strength and reflex. However, with the help of the Death Aura from the sword, Ocelia had a much better weapon to finish off Iracia as she could not heal from the injury inflicted with Death Aura.
Meanwhiles, Forus gazed at the battle between Ocelia and Iracia, feeling a little worry as he snapped back to his side. As he manipulated the ice wall to create spikes to obstruct the orb, it managed to evade almost all of them as if it could predict the future. After a couple of rounds, Forus then began creating them in swamps instead of one powerful shot.
Once the orb got close to the wall, it had already lost three more of its stars, leaving only the last four. However, if those three stars did not fall, then the orb would have gone from the surface of the world. Every time Forus managed to corner it, it would decisively sacrifice its star to break the formation.
Mabilis coughed out black blood as the light on his eyes dimmed a little, causing him to frown, showing thoughtful expression. After an instant of silence, Mabilis waved his hand before cutting open a wound at his finger, forcing blood to leak out.
As soon as the unique fragrance of his blood spread, a low howl resounded as something beneath his clothing moved, travelling from his chest towards his arm.
The living chain moved towards the blood and used its needle end to stab into the wound, greedily devoured his blood as well as his sorcery energy. The more blood it ate, the more wicked the chain became. At first, its exterior was silvery, reflective to light and elegant to inspect. However, as time passed, it gradually turned crimson-red and dull, changing from its artistic form into a frightful appearance, covering in spikes.
"Blood for blood, and one life for redemption." Chanting under his breath, Mabilis pointed at Forus with his bloody finger, signalling the target for the Blood Chain.
However, before it could reach him, a strange symbol moved in its path, obstructing its routine. The rune shone in blue light as cold breeze emitted from it, slowing down the chain and forcing it to defeat the rune first.
Although the rune still lost in the end, it gave Forus enough time to create the black spears. He gave the order, and they moved according to his will, shooting towards the Blood Chain and exploded in front of it, destroying a part of the chain every time they reached it.
After sensing the chain's struggle, the orb sent two of its stars towards the chain, making them blew up and created a pathway for the Blood Chain to move forwards. Without anything to hinder its path, the Blood Chain drilled itself into the ice wall, facing the icy spikes and the massive defence alone.
at the same time, the Underworld Copper Coin finally managed to suppress the strings of heat and began moving towards Iracia, who was overpowering Ocelia.