After the flash of light vanished, Lakshman and Dominic appeared to be fighting at incredible speed with the intensity going wild. Each blow they delivered carried a lot of power and each clash sent shockwaves in all directions. After transforming and getting stronger, the two of them were matching each other perfectly while block the other’s stroke strike.
Lakshman’s wives watched the battle from the safety of their home, which was under three layers of Emperor ranked Barrier Magic Spells called Enforce. This spell works by protecting the people from shockwaves and any of great destruction around the area. At the sheer force of the battle, the barriers were supporting each other in firmly protecting the house and the wives inside it.
Lakshman and Dominic moved from location to location as they clashed swords. Sometimes, they rushed in to clash only to get pushed back from the explosion of their energy. Like Lakshman had initially expected, their speed was wild and their movement was difficult to see.
As they were about to clash again, Dominic suddenly came to a stop and leapt back, allowing Lakshman to smash the ground with his swords. Before Lakshman could recover, Dominic waved his right sword at Lakshman and shouted the technique out loud.
“Hurricane Storm Blades!”
In an instant, swords began materialising all around Lakshman and rotated around each other while pointing their bladed edges towards him. Lakshman straightened up, just in time to see the countless spinning swords all around before they soared straight towards him.
Lakshman responded by charging up both of his swords with Weapon Force and he spun around to attack as he shouted out the technique name,
“Phoenix Wave!”
He swung the Phoenix Blade at two of the swords soaring towards him like a hurricane and released a powerful energy wave, which swept forward and obliterated all the swords in its paths. At the same time, he used swung the Demon Slayer on the other side as he shouted the technique he used for it.
“Dark Wave!”
In an instant, dark energy was released with his swing and the wave surged forward before obliterating all the swords in their paths.
Like this, Lakshman continued releasing energy waves of destruction in all directions until all the swords were obliterated. Once the final one was over, the area was covered in dust and he narrowed his eyes as he focused on his Elemental Sense to detect where Dominic was. At that moment, he heard Dominic shout out the technique he had used form somewhere covered by the fog of smoke.
“Raining Blades!”
In an instant, several portals opened up in the sky and Lakshman looked up in shock. Swords swarmed out of the portals until the sky was full of them. Lakshman gritted his teeth and put let go of the sword handles because he chose to use a magic technique instead. He raised both of his hands into the air and shouted out the technique as he quickly gathered the energy to fire it.
“Blazing Hurricane Fury!”
In an instant, a fiery inferno burst from the palm of his hands and flew up into the sky like a hurricane. The raining swords became engulfed by the scorching flames and exploded into pieces that soon disappeared into particles of light. Using the created magic attack, he swung his hands around and made sure to destroy all the raining swords with his blazing attack.
At that moment, Dominic exploded out of the cloud of smoke as he charged towards him. He saw Lakshman with his arms raised while the swords were hovering on his other side.
“I got you!” Dominic shouted triumphantly.
Lakshman saw him burst of the smoke and he realised the Sword Titan used Raining Swords as a distraction to land a hit on him. He watched as Dominic pulled back his sword to land a blow with a grin on his face.
“Not today!” Lakshman shouted back and he grinned back. Then, he shouted, “Doppler!”
In an instant, a copy of himself split away from him and he charged towards Dominic, surprising him in the process. With a roar, the Lakshman copy charged Energy Force into his fist and landed it on Dominic’s fast, blasting him back several meters away. With the attack landed, Lakshman deactivated Doppler and the copy turned into light and merged back into him.
He quickly grabbed his swords and charged after Dominic, who was pressing his nose painfully. It seemed the punch had broken his nose as blood was coming out of it, but there was no stopping the battle now until one of them was defeated. Dominic became angry for his broken nose and he glared at Lakshman, who was charging towards him.
“Blasting Blade Cannon!” he shouted angrily.
He brought his two swords forward and held them in front of him as multiple swords began materialising around there. More and more swords appeared and they soon formed into a cannon. Once it was formed, Dominic began channelling energy into it and very quickly, a large ball of energy formed right at the centre of the cannon’s mouth.
Lakshman saw this and he stopped in mid-charge to look on in surprise. He recognised the shape as that of a cannon that launches large energy balls to destroy fortresses and take down castles. He was startled when he saw the pulsating energy wave it was charging and it soon reached a power of level that surprised him.
Just then, he heard the voice of Tetra speaking to him in his mind in a worried voice.
“Lucky, I advise you to not think of using Positron Burst Cannon in this situation. That thing has more power than what you can put into your attack.”
At that moment, he heard Dominic shout, “Hey, Lakshman! You can dodge this if you want, but you’ll end up looking like a big chicken! So…! Are you a chicken or a Phoenix Titan?”
Lakshman became irritated with Dominic’s poly in making sure he would not get away from the face of that cannon. In the first place, Lakshman had no thoughts of dodging out of the way, but it still made him feel angry that his friend did not trust that he would take that blast head on.
“So, Tetra… Still think I should step aside after hearing that?” Lakshman asked in an exasperated voice.
“Uh…” Tetra began and hesitated before saying nothing.
“Face it like a man, Lucky!” Silvera said surprisingly. “If he wants to test you, then this is the right way to show him what you’ve got!”
“If you’re thinking like then, then it sounds good to me!” Lakshman said and his smile widened.
“Just be careful. Remember that there’s three of us here, not you alone,” Tetra said and he nodded in understanding.
Once the charging of the cannon was complete, Dominic shouted, “Attack!”
As he exerted his power, the cannon of swords widened its mouth and discharged the gathered in a massive wave of energy. The wave of destruction roared across the ground, tore up the grass and headed straight for Lakshman. As it neared him, Lakshman widened his eyes in shock as he realised it was much more powerful than he sensed earlier.
“W-What’s this?!” he said just as the energy wave reached him.
The next moment, he disappeared from sight as the wave of destruction swept through where he stood and continued onwards. It travelled some distance before finally being released, which resulted in a massive explosion that released a powerful force of wind in all directions. The three barrier had a slight difficulty in fending off the powerful wings that slammed against it in order to protect the house and its occupants.
“Oh no-nyaa! He’s gone-nyaa!” Cantia shouted before being knocked on the head by Ondine.
“Lucky will never be defeated like this!” Ondine told her angrily. “Now, calm down and use your senses properly.”
“R-Right-nyaa…!” Cantia said uncertainly and she focused on sensing him. When she found his signal, she smiled and said, “He’s alive-nyaa! He’s okay-nyaa!”
“Yes. He’s fine, but I don’t know if he’s okay,” Venezuela said as Ondine nodded while looking worried.
“He’s taken far worse beating than this from the time I came from! He’s be fine!” Erza said firmly as she watched through narrowed eyed.
“Yes, but that’s who knows how long ago in the future that was,” Emilia said uncertainly. “I mean, you said he was eighteen years of age when he came to your world, but who knows… He might’ve gotten stronger by the time he went to Alzard.”
“Oh… There is that possibility,” Erza said and, all of a sudden, she looked really worried.
Dominic was breathing smoothly as he watched the smoke slowly clear through narrowed eyes. The level of attack was not enough to kill him, but he knew it was enough to knock Lakshman unconscious. However, for some reason, he sensed that Lakshman was perfectly okay for some reason. As the smoke cleared, he was stunned when he saw something amazing.
Where Lakshman stood was a large flaming energy wings positioned defensively. As the smoke cleared, the wings spread out and opened to reveal Lakshman to be perfectly fine. He was holding the Phoenix Blade and Demon Slayer firmly in his hands while being surrounded by a large flaming aura as a phoenix energy figure towered over him.
“I don’t believe it!” Dominic shouted in shock. “He used Elemental Coated Armour in such a quick amount of time?”
While he appeared to be shocked, Lakshman breathed a sigh in relief. He had originally been taken by surprise, but his reaction did not dull and he instantly activated Elemental Coated Armour. As such, the magic spell immediately activated and creating energy wings like a phoenix, it shielded him from the wave of destruction.
“That was close. Otherwise, I’d be knocked out cold by now,” he said calmly and looking towards Dominic, he loudly said, “So…? Anymore dangerous stuff you want to try using on me while I have my energy armour out?”
Dominic appeared to be stunned for a moment before gritting his teeth in frustration. He waved his right sword and the gathered cannon of swords quickly separated and became individual swords once more. He charged forward and this time, he attacked together with the swords that came behind him.
“AAAAHHH!!” he screamed as he charged towards Lakshman with an army of swords behind him.
Lakshman saw him coming and once Dominic was within reach, he raised his leg and kicked him hard in the chest. The impact of the blast against was so strong, it blasted Dominic backwards, but it did not stop from sending the army of swords to attack Lakshman in his place.
“Flash Swords!”
Using that incredible move, he began moving at super speed and moved forward to destroy all the swords easily within no time. Dominic rose to his feet just in time to catch Lakshman’s swords with his own and surging with power, he threw Lakshman off and they continued to battle using their sword strikes against each other.
While they were fighting, Dominic continued summoning more swords to attack Lakshman like a distraction. However, this tactic failed as Lakshman immediately increased his speed to fight him and destroy those swords at top speed, a speed that Dominic had trouble matching as he was right now. It was pretty obvious with how quickly Lakshman was able to react compared to the speed at which he was moving at currently.
Dominic suddenly leaped back and shouted, “I’ve got no choice! Transcendent Blades of Destruction!”
There was a violent flash of light that caused Lakshman to cover his eyes in fear of being blinded. When the flash slowly vanished, he was stunned when he saw the sky full of swords. There were portals everywhere and this allowed for the continuous summoning of these swords.
He immediately knew these swords were not like the ordinary swords he had destroyed so far. Dominic hovered in the air with his right swords held above his head and when he was ready, he lowered them and aimed his sword at Lakshman.
With that, the swords began raining down on the ground and upon impact, the swords exploded violently. The ground began to explode all around Lakshman and he tried to cover, but it was no use as he was surrounded by them. It became dangerous as he soon realised he was taking damage from all the explosions occurring all around him, even though he was using the Elemental Coated Armour.
“Lucky, these are the Transcendent Blades of Destruction and they have the power to penetrate through energy defensive barriers, in which case, the Elemental Coating Armour. Did you forget about it?”
“Ah!” he said in shock as he suddenly realised what Dominic had used. “Dammit! I was under the impression these were the strange Blades of Destruction. That’s why, I was confused! Now, it makes sense! Ouch!”
He had winced when he suddenly got cut and blood slowly seeped out. Immediately deactivating the Elemental Coated Armour, he began to dodge around the explosions while attempting to destroy them before they landed, but it was no use. His waves of slicing energy passed right through them and they continued headed raining down on him.
Just then, he heard Dominic shout, “If you can’t handle this, surrendering is the best option for you!”
He was full of confidence and it made Lakshman very angry, causing him to stop dodging around. As the explosions continued occurring around him, he crossed his arms together and gathered energy all around him to destroy all of the swords and portals at the same time.
Once the energy was gathered, he released it by shouting, “Transcendent Destruction!”
A dome like shape formed around him and it expanded to great size as it destroyed all the raining swords. Dominic was shocked when he saw the attack and he quickly got away from there as the attack expanded higher and higher until it reached where the sword portals were. With ease, it destroyed the portals and stopped any means of such swords being summoning to harm Lakshman. Once it was over, Lakshman deactivated his magic and the attack disappeared into particles of light. He breathed a little quickly, but he managed to stabilise it and smile as he looked up at the sky.
Dominic was not up in the sky, but on the ground and he was currently charging towards Lakshman with his swords glowing brightly. Lakshman sensed him he quickly turned around to see him charging towards him at high speed.
He immediately raised his Phoenix Blade and as he aimed it words him, he shouted, “Stone Driver!”
In an instant, the ground began to flow into the air to form into a giant stone drill and it began spinning at high speed. With an exertion of his energy, Lakshman launched the drilling stone attack straight at him. Dominic was startled to see the attack coming straight at him, but he kept charging forward while being undaunted by the fearsome stone drill.
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“Cutting Blade!” he shouted and like an onion, he copped the stone drill into pieces in a flash before charging towards him.
As Dominic charged towards Lakshman once more, he was looking frustrated and it was obvious why. Thus far, Lakshman had demonstrated that he was capable of taking care of himself and was quite skilled with the both the sword, magic and energy techniques. He realised there was no way he could defeat him like that.
“Hmm…? I thought I came here to test him, so how did I end up wanting to defeat him?” Dominic thought as he was surprised with himself.
“You initially did, but you’re purpose changed because your fight with Lakshman brought your warrior spirit to the surface, master,” the Destiny Sword answered for him calmly. “Now, use that spirit and win this fight because you are a warrior known as the Sword Titan!”
He inwardly chuckled and thanked her. With renewed energy and determination, he charged forward as he yelled while Lakshman stood his ground and prepared to fight back. However, just as they were about to clash, he smiled and activated another technique.
“Paralysing Swords!” he shouted and as he swung his swords at him, he sent numerous swords hurtling towards Lakshman at great speed.
“Crap!” Lakshman shouted in shock.
He tried to destroy them, but there were too many and they stabbed into his arms, legs and chest. In just one second, he found himself trapped and unable to move or defend himself as Dominic came forward. His swords fell to the ground as his grip slackened from the effects of the paralysis. Dominic was wearing a gleeful expression on his face as he swung his sword down at Lakshman to cut him and knock him out.
Lakshman saw the blade coming and with frustration pumping inside him, he screamed, “Inferno Fury!”
His body suddenly exploded into flames and he used it on himself, which caused him to feel his skin burning. However, this allowed him to momentarily break free off the paralysing effect of the Paralysing Swords. He quickly ducked around Dominic and pulled out all the swords, which momentarily surprised him as he realised there was no blood after pulling them out.
“What the?!” Dominic exclaimed in surprise when Lakshman suddenly moved, which he was not expecting at all.
Lakshman deactivated Inferno Fury and as Dominic turned around, he punched him the chest so hard that it blasted him high into the air. Dominic was stunned from the impact and found himself defenceless when, all of a sudden, he was hit hard in the back by Lakshman, who disappeared and reappeared behind him in an instant. Slamming him hard in the back, Lakshman sent Dominic hurtling back down to the ground. Dominic turned around as he flew towards the ground and his eyes widened in shock when he suddenly saw Lakshman standing there with a large ball of energy ready to fire.
“Positron Cannon!” Lakshman shouted and he released the energy as a beam.
With surging force of power, the beam was discharged and it engulfed Dominic before sending him flying into the distance. Dominic screamed from the intense pain of having received the powerful attack at close range. He was knocked out even before he crashed onto the ground and slid to a complete stop. He lay there, unmoving as smoke slowly drifted upward from his burnt clothes.
Lakshman breathed a little quickly before sighing and saying, “I won— Ouch!”
He suddenly felt intense pain from his arms and he looked to see burn marks all over them. It seemed that using Positron Cannon with an unfocused mind caused his hands to get burnt in the process. There were also other injuries from burning himself to break free of the Paralysing Swords effect.
Later that day, Dominic was sat down forcefully by Venezuela, Ondine and Cantia before being scolded by them numerous of times. Lakshman was busily healing himself while receiving scolding of his own from Emilia and Erza for burning himself, no matter how many times he stated clearly he had no choice.
After finally being set free from their individual scolding, the two of them sat together and talked quietly to each other. Venezuela and Erza were outside fixing the destroyed ground with Venezuela using water magic to clear away all the dirt and Erza using earth magic to make the ground good as new again. Lakshman and Dominic wanted to assist, but they were forced to stay home
“Sorry I caused so much mess!” Dominic said as he apologised to Lakshman.
“It’s fine, but really… You’ve certainly shown me your skill with using so many different magical sword techniques,” Lakshman said with a smile. “That last one took me completely by surprise when you used those Paralysing Swords on me right when you reached me. That was brilliant!”
“Thanks, but that forced you to burn yourself to break free of the effects,” Dominic said as he looked sad. “That really surprised me.”
“Yes. About that…” Lakshman began and he looked seriously at Dominic. “That technique is amazing and strong, but it lacks the kind of power it needs to make that effect stronger. Do you understand what I mean?”
Dominic nodded and said, “Yes. I know I lack certain amount of skills, but I’m training to get stronger. My plan is to eventually reach the Golden Warrior transformation and be super strong!”
“Golden Warrior? Mmm… That is indeed a powerful transformation a Sword Titan can do!” Lakshman said and he nodded in understanding. Then, he looked at him with a shrewd smile as he asked, “How do you plan on getting stronger if you’re sneaking away to Rodfox Kingdom to enjoy some time with Shalany?”
Dominic was startled by those words and he quickly looked up at him.
“W-W-What’re you talking about, Lakshman? Me and Shalany? She’s engaged to the Slavemancer, remember?” said Dominic while looking uncertain.
Lakshman looked at him with a knowing expression on his face as he said, “Oh… I’m aware of what I’m talking about. You used your Destiny Sword to shield her as well by passing the energy chain between you two. I noticed through my Phoenix Eyes the strange energy that seemed to be linked between you two back when the Slavemancer used everyone, including the king of Rodfox Kingdom to attack us. However, she was the only one, other than us, that really did not get affected by it. Now, tell me how to explain that? You didn’t even bother to shield Darian or Rumble, but you bothered to shield her instead.
Also, you’ve been returning late in the night at the hotel you are staying. You finish instructing the soldiers in the evening and after that, you return straight to the hotel and eat. For some reason, you leave the hotel for hours before returning in the middle of the night. After recurring occurrences of this and suspicious of your relationship, I set a Phintex Raja to tail without being detected by you.”
Hearing this, Dominic widened his eyes in shock and Lakshman nodded with a grin forming on his face.
“I had become suspicious of your relationship with her after that night at the party. So I set the Phintex Raja to tail you and it wasn’t before long that he found a trail of you leaving through the use of your Teleporting Blade technique. The Phintex Raja lost you several times because that magic was difficult to trace, but after finding a strong trace, he used Warp to go where you went and guess where that was? Rodfox Kingdom’s castle!
After searching through the castle using his Sneaker Transport Magic Spell for silent movement, he found you hugging the princess and consoling her. I was pretty surprised upon receiving the news, but I was busy with handling the details about the slavery system and all. Now… Tell me what you couldn’t tell me before and lying won’t help because I can sense if you lie to me.”
Lakshman became silent and looked intently at Dominic, while the Sword Titan appeared to be nervous looking. Then, he finally told Lakshman from the start, which started two years ago.
Upon not receiving any word from Lakshman after leaving Mardana Kingdom, Dominic grew worried and he began travelling around the kingdoms and one of his trips brought him to Rodfox Kingdom. While there, the king suggested for him to stay at the castle and Dominic tried to refuse, but the king insisted and because of that, Dominic stayed at the castle. During his stay, he had regular contact with the princess and because they shared a friend with the same name, it grew them closer until finally they were attracted to each other. However, she was a princess and he was a Sword Titan, which separated them because of their social status.
“After that, we regularly met without anyone knowing about it,” Dominic said as he came to the end of his love story. He chuckled and said, “I’m a coward aren’t I for not making her mine when I have the power to do so.”
Lakshman shook his head and said, “No. I see that you’ve taken into consideration of the status quo and knowing it will upset the kingdom if they learnt the princess eloped with the Sword Titan of the Nine Pillars of Power, you kept your status quiet until you achieved a higher rank. Is that part of the reason you came here and started instructing the soldiers? To earn yourself a name and rank of nobility?”
He was smiling as he asked that and Dominic knew he was angry about it or anything. He sighed and said, “Yes. I wasn’t being cunning or anything, but I wanted to achieve the higher rank and gain her hand in marriage through effort. However, it was decided that she will marry the Slavemancer.”
“I see…” Lakshman said slowly and he nodded in understanding. “Perhaps, asking the help of her brighter would help. I know he’s a guy who always had his head in the book, but he cares for her deeply and I’m sure he would want to see her being happy with the man she loves from the bottom of her heart.”
Dominic suddenly had a dark expression on his face as he said, “No… He’s in no position to do that.”
“Huh? Why not? Is he being shut up by from intervening in this marriage?” Lakshman asked with his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
Dominic looked very sad as he said, “Yes. His mouth’s been shut for good.” When Lakshman looked puzzled, he looked up at his friend and said, “He’s dead.”
Lakshman’s eyes widened in shock and he quickly asked, “Dead?”
Dominic nodded and said, “He was blamed for treason for apparently betraying the interest of the kingdom. As such, he was executed by beheading in front of everyone.” He suddenly clenched his fists tightly and gritted his teeth as he said, “All of it was schemed by the Slavemancer to take him out of the picture because he is one of the possible people that would interfere with his plans to marry Shalany.”
Lakshman could not believe what he just heard and he slowly said, “That bastard…!” He looked at Dominic and asked, “What are you planning on doing?”
“She’s really worried and wants to elope with me, but that won’t satisfy my justice. I want to punish the guy who did that to her brother and then marry her, however…” Dominic said and he looked very lost about what to do next. “That’s why, I wanted to talk to you, but somehow ended up saying I wanted to fight you. I used this opportunity to test to see if you had the power to handle a guy like him and you pretty sure did well.”
“I see… Now, it all makes sense,” Lakshman said and he nodded in understanding. He contemplated for a moment before saying, “Very well! I’m going to push my plans a little faster now that you’ve told me about this. It’s time I take the hurt to him!”
“D-Don’t do this just for me—!” Dominic began, but he was cut off when Lakshman threw him a sharp look.
“It’s not just you! That guy killed a man who only wanted to protect his little sister and what’s more, used a crude method of getting rid of him! I’ve only thought of him as an enslaver, but now I am certain he’s a mongrel that deserves to die!”
Dominic nodded and he wore a firm expression on his face as he said, “Yes! I completely agree! It’s time he faces the judgement of justice for all his crimes!”
Lakshman leaned over and patted his friend on the shoulder approvingly. He made a mental note to immediately return tomorrow to accelerate the plans to meet with the other three kingdoms, so that he can start his direct attack on the Slavemancer.
Afterwards, they retold everything they spoke to the girls and they also agreed. They could not find it in their heart to forgive a guy who would enslave and murder for selfish reasons. With that, it was decided that they would all assist in getting Dominic and Shalany together. Lakshman was very eager for their marriage because it became clear to him that they were destined for each other, just as he was destined to marry the Nine Destiny Queens.
That evening, Dominic bid them farewell and using his Teleporting Blade, he left for the hotel room. Before going, he checked with Lakshman to make sure that he was not being tailed, which made Lakshman laugh and reassure his friend that he was not.
“Make sure you don’t end up in danger,” Lakshman said before winking at him, which caused Dominic to laugh before leaving.
That night, Lakshman went to sleep together with his seven wives and although they all slept quickly, he had trouble sleeping. Knowing about what had happened to Shalany’s brother made him feel sad and it fuelled his anger towards the Slavemancer. He remembered the tears shed by the freed slaves yesterday and it spired his determination. Feeling slightly happy from seeing their happy smiles later, he finally closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The night was quiet and peaceful, but that would not last for long because danger was approaching their home and this was something Lakshman was certainly not expecting at all.
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Author's Note
Yes! Second chapter in one day! I'm feeling quite happy today since I've finally crossed 250th chapter of Phoenix Rising! I thank all readers and fans for sticking to the story this far and I hope you still will as the story continues with me writing and me doing my best to make the story interesting and cool. Once again, thank you for your support and encouragement! They mean a lot to me!