As the assault of the Blood Chain continued, its spiky exterior showed a sign of declining, losing its crimson radiance as well as its momentum. However, before the chain stopped moving, the orb suddenly sent one more star-like sparkle towards it, merging with the chain and provided an additional source of energy, propelling it to move forward.
With the last push, the ice wall crumbled as they blew apart into rains of droplets, showering the surrounding with moisture and natural mist. Without any delay, the chain soared towards Forus, moving straight at his heart, aiming to devour all of his blood, feasting in his flesh and soul.
Having no choice, Forus had already prepared his Death Aura and engulfed his arm with the blazing black flame, burning his skin alive and devouring his life force, turning his smooth surface into that of a rotten corpse. With his black fist, he punched out and clashed with the Blood Chain, creating a brutal impact that screamed in madness, mixing the metallic racket with the screeches of agony.
As the aftershock rang outwards, it generated a strong wind that disrupted the tempo of both Ocelia and Iracia, whose attention quickly snapped towards Forus then shifted back to their respective opponent. However, by utilizing the current of the wind, Ocelia willed and led the Underworld Copper Coin towards Iracia, suppressing her once more, tilting the battle into Ocelia's direction.
Although the Underworld Copper Coin was hovering outside of Iracia's range of attack, it constantly emitted the aura of the Underworld, causing flow of time to stagnant and slowed down her reaction speed as well as her motion. Even if it only slow her down for an instant, it was more than enough for Ocelia to stab into the demoness with her black, all-devouring spear.
After Ocelia realized that her strong offensive tactic did not work, she immediately stopped using her sorcery energy to create icy spears. Instead, she changed her usage of sorcery energy into producing raw, dense Ice Element to flood the surrounding with its freezing gusts. With the mist of coldness everywhere, it silently seeped into iracia's body, lowering her body's temperature and upsetting both her mental and physical condition.
The two battled aggressively, unlike Forus and Mabilis where the two never came into contact with each other, staying outside of their enemy's effective range. Their fighting style was devious and scheming, not leaving behind any potential threat that might unexpectedly endanger their life.
After propelling himself backwards, Forus panted as he checked the condition of his arm. Many tiny cracks and wounds presented itself as the pain continued to assault his mind. Even if he could not see, he could roughly guess the location of the injuries by feeling the origin of the pain.
The Blood Chain retreated for some distance to lower to the momentum of the force before charging towards him again, getting faster as time passed. As if the chain itself had wills in it, it shook violently as a soundless scream echoed outwards, telling the world how much pain it felt.
After a couple of exchanges, Forus could only withdraw as he suppressed the pain on his arm, which had already reduced itself into a mess of flesh and bones. However, as soon as the latest exchange happened, the last star of the orb silently moved towards Forus, exploding in front of him and turned into a purple whirlpool, pulling everything towards it.
Forus' expression turned solemn after he saw the vortex as he exerted himself to the extreme, using his physical strength to move away as soon as possible. His sorcery energy was running dry, and he could not waste anymore of them.
With the meticulous arrangement, Mabilis had already exhausted almost all of his sorcery energy, reserving the last bit to protect himself from assassinations. Without any more card to play and resource to use, Mabilis closed his third eye and waited for the result. With his predictive spell, he had extreme confidence in the plan.
First, he told Iracia to entangle herself with Ocelia, forcing the two into a stalemate as Ocelia could not quickly defeat Iracia. To increase the odds of succeeding, he told Iracia some tricks to counter Ocelia if the situation turned dire. By telling Iracia Ocelia's general fighting style, she could barely hold against the might of Ocelia and Underworld Copper Coin.
Second, he deliberately used his cards to fight a long-drawn battle, gradually lessening Forus' sorcery energy. Even if his sorcery energy could recover thrice times the average recovery rate, he would still empty himself under the successive usage of sorcery energy, and if he had a little bit of sorcery energy left, it would not be enough to deal with both the whirlpool and the Blood Chain.
After he finished off Forus, Mabilis would be free to help Iracia. Even if he could not defeat Ocelia by himself, just by diverting the pressure from the Underworld Copper Coin, he could subtly help Iracia gained the advantage and defeated Ocelia by herself.
Mabilis willed and commanded for the orb to move at Forus for the kill, sending it flying at him, expanding as it did so. He did not even look at the scene as he set off to help Iracia, rushing at full speed to quickly attack and overwhelmed Ocelia. It would be a lot harder and time-consuming if Ocelia managed to familiarize herself with his battle tactic.
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However, as soon as Mabilis moved, Forus who had a grave expression revealed a faint smile before waving his hand towards Ocelia's direction sending out his last bit of sorcery energy towards her. The remaining sorcery energy turned into two-colours light, glowing in green and white as it became two rays of strings, intertwining with each other as they shot towards Ocelia.
At the same time, Ocelia heard the commotion and forced herself to take a graze from Iracia's claw to push her away, widening the distance between her and Ocelia, giving herself enough time to channel her spell. Just as she started chanting, the Leaning Tower of Flame began to turn hazy and transparent, slowly disintegrating into dust.
The area around Mabilis began to heat up as he felt a threat of death looming over his soul. However, Iracia quickly moved in and caught him with her tail before fluttering her wings once, leaping away from the impact radius. Because Ocelia had gained some distance from Iracia, she could not obstruct her even if she tried to.
Seeing the situation, Ocelia could not conceal her emotions as she uncontrollably smiled, beaming with confidence and admiration towards Forus as she gestured her hand, finishing her spell. Although the Leaning Tower of Flame did not connect, it had given Ocelia even more time to went forwards with her plan.
Iracia and Mabilis did not dare to move closer towards Ocelia when she channelled her spell and decided to leap outwards, distancing away from Ocelia and Forus.
Without any delay, Ocelia began chanting again. However, the content of the spell became different, and the Leaning Tower of Flame did not start to dissolve. Instead, the temperature around Forus dropped rapidly as a new silhouette of a tower emerged from the shadow, hovering in front of him.
Seeing the unexpected development, Mabilis frowned as his mind rapidly moved to find the answer, and soon, his face twisted into panic as he realised what he had missed.
"Iracia, we must not let her succeed! Stop her!" Mabilis screamed. As Iracia and he rushed towards Ocelia, disregarding the Fire Spirits that tried to obstruct their way.
Although he could dodge the fireballs from the Fire Spirits, he intentionally took the hit to reduce timeframe that he had to spend with them, not willing to give Ocelia any more time. Fortunately, with the protection from Iracia's demonic wings, he could avoid getting hit on the vital spots.
After moving past the Leaning Tower, they did not show any joy, but instead, they got hindered again by something else. The two strings of white and green moved forwards fearlessly as they transformed into two different things.
The two light stopped intertwining as they shot towards their respective opponent. The green light extended its branches outwards and became corporeal, turning into layers of vines. The white light shaped itself into the shape of a hand, spreading its five fingers outwards, turning into a golden hand.
Mabilis had to deal with the green vines, considerably slowing him down as he had almost no sorcery energy left. The entangle roots were agile and flexible, dodging his strikes and whipping its tips onto his body, cutting his magical robe and created many sliced wounds.
Iracia screeched in pain as her voice twisted from the enchanting tone into a rough, hellish noise. The golden hand radiated a white radiance that continued to damage her soul, directly assaulted her bloodline, threatening to purify her demonic nature and burnt her alive. Although she could withstand it, her power gradually dropped as her bloodline thinned down.
At the same time, the silhouette of the bluish tower appeared in front of Forus, descending towards the ground as soon as it manifested. The timing of its drop was perfect, causing it to clash with the Blood Chain as well as obstructing the orb. With the Leaning Tower of Frost, Forus managed to avert the crisis and gained the upper hand with his plan.
Mabilis almost lost his focus when he saw the tower descended. He exhaled in defeat as his mind gradually relaxed and let out a sigh in relief. Without any extra sorcery energy, he knew in his heart that it was impossible to reverse the situation.
In the end, Mabilis' plan was almost perfect, accounting every information he had gathered as well as assuming the worst case scenario, forming a scheme that involved a magnitude of factors, integrating onto each other like a web of destiny. However, they failed to understand what Forus and Ocelia were hiding, and miscalculated their estimation.
They had no way that Forus and Ocelia would meet a specific requirement for an extraordinary inheritance, and that Forus had a wondrous soul property, as well as the grand will that withstood two lifetimes. With their mystic adventure, they had gained much more than Iracia and Mabilis, both in term of experience and power.
Nevertheless, Mabilis and Iracia still made use of their rewards to the limit, forcing almost everything out from Forus and Ocelia. If not for Forus' extreme cautious nature and Ocelia's complete trust in him, they would win the exchange and became the winners of the Door of Hope.
"Ocelia, you have to remember. Your trump card is not supposed to be the strongest strike you could muster. Instead, it should be the most unpredictable spell you could cast, having the potential to throw your opponents' plans into chaos." The words that Forus said after he narrated his whole life to her was echoing in her head, imprinting itself into her memory.
Since the time the blue-robed sorcerer had captured him, Forus had been fighting his whole life, and he also gained much wisdom and strength to progress further.
When battling with the blue-robed sorcerer, Forus almost caught him unprepared and killed him several times. However, due to his hidden traps, he managed to restain, confuse, slow, or incapacitate Forus without having to face any severe injuries. If not for Forus wishing for an end and went for mutual destruction, he would not have defeated the blue-robed man by doing unexpected actions.
After that, he went on and fought with the young master of the Ninguis Family, using his sudden and suicidal strikes to quickly overwhelm him before he could use his life-saving cards, telling the Ninguis Family as well as escaping the death.
In every battle, he quickly defeated his enemies, killing them and silencing their methods. If he did not finish the fight fast, he would face exponentially worse consequences when his enemies managed to use their trump cards, or send out a distress signal.
Knowing how he battled, Forus also adapted his fighting style according to his knowledge, concealing his most unlikely move as his secret and using them at the right time to disrupt the pace of the battle.