“What the hell was that?!” Lagron exclaimed sharply as he stared at the person that attacked him.
Lakshman looked towards the person in question and muttered, “Sevedant? What is he—?”
Before he could say anything more, Lagron immediately surged with power as he prepared to launch an attack against the two newly arrived warriors.
“They dared to attack me when I was getting ready to fight an important battle!” Lagron shouted angrily as he glared at them fiercely. “I think I’ll have to show them what happens when you mess with me!”
He continued to surge with power from the anger he felt and was just about to launch himself at them when his rival shouted, “Calm down! You’re jumping to conclusions!”
“No, I’m not!” Lagron replied with a sharp look at Lakshman. “They attacked me without warning, especially when we were about to enter into a really important battle! I won’t let it go unpunished!”
Lakshman looked at him irritably and said, “Stop that. These people are not our enemies! They’re allies!”
Lagron looked at him in surprise and asked, “Allies? Are you sure about that?”
“Of course!” Lakshman said and he pointed at the tall figure completely covered in a black robe while wearing a white mask. “That person there is Sevedant! He’s the Death Titan!”
The Dragon Titan widened his eyes in surprise and turned to stare at the man that had attacked him before, who was slowly floating towards them. He sensed a tremendous amount of energy radiating from that person and the same was also felt from his companion, who he found strange to be covered in wrappings.
“If he’s really our ally, then why did he attack me?!” Lagron demanded with a frustrated look on his face.
“I don’t know why he attacked you, so let’s just talk to them before we jump to conclusions whether they are allies or enemies. Alright?” Lakshman asked with narrowed eyebrows and Lagron grudgingly agreed by nodding his head at them.
Inwardly sighing in relief, he soared towards the two floating warriors, who did not make any move towards them. As he approached them, the Death Titan’s companion made to move forward as if to stop him, but the tall warrior raised a bone hand out of his cloak to stop him. Seeing the gesture, the companion stopped and remained floating there as Lakshman reached them.
“Hello, Lakshman. How are you?” the emotionless voice of the Death Titan asked him when he came to a stop floating a few meters gap between them.
Lakshman chuckled inwardly as he recognised the voice of the owner and the way he spoke to him despite just firing off one of his powerful techniques. This momentarily reminded him of the old days when he and Felix trained Lakshman to become stronger for a very important tournament.
“I’m good, actually,” replied Lakshman with a smile on his face. “It’s also good to see you return, Sevedant because it’s been so long since we last met.”
“Agreed,” replied Sevedant in an expressionless voice. “Busy. Training. Mentoring. Demon Titan.”
“Yeah. I remember you went off to train the Demon Titan in the Demon World twelve-years-ago at the end of the war between the Floria Kingdom and the Mardana Kingdom.”
“Yes. Took long. Worthwhile. Finally returned,” said Sevedant before pointing his finger towards Lagron. “Saw you under attack. Decided to protect. Attacked.”
Lakshman grinned and said, “No. I wasn’t under attack particularly, but you could call it being one since it’s quite annoying to deal with him.”
“Meaning?”
Lakshman smiled wearily as he explained that he was the Dragon Titan and he had been nagging him to do battle him so that he would win and return to the Dragon World. Once he finished explaining it to Sevedant, the Death Titan nodded his head once in understanding.
“An angry person,” he said in an emotionless voice.
“Yeah and that’s why I came out to fight him, but luckily you came along and interrupted this match of ours,” said Lakshman with a sigh as he looked gratefully at him. “Also, don’t take any of what he says seriously because he doesn’t care what others think about him and he blatantly says his opinion.”
Sevedant nodded his head once and said shortly, “Let’s go.”
His companion nodded in understanding and he followed behind Lakshman and Sevedant while not falling too far behind. Lakshman looked over his shoulders slightly to check on him, but he could not figure out who he was because of how heavily he was clothed by the cloak he wore on himself.
Lagron had folded his arms and wore an irritated look on his face as they landed in front of him before he asked, “What took you so long to get here?”
Lakshman looked at him wearily and said, “It’s not like we could have a short conversation meeting after a long time.”
“Twelve-years,” added Sevedant and Lakshman nodded in his direction in agreement.
The Dragon Titan looked as if he did not care as he said, “Like I care! I met this guy after countless centuries had gone by! There’s nothing special about meeting this idiot!”
For a fraction of a moment, Sevedant lightly chuckled as he said, “Funny.”
“Mmm? What’s so funny about what I said?” Lagron asked him, but Sevedant remained silent and said nothing. He waited for him to respond for a few seconds and when he saw no reply coming, he got to the main point and asked, “So, why did you attack me? Were you trying to kill me or something?”
“My techniques do,” replied Sevedant and Lagron stared at him incredulously.
“Sure! Techniques so! Even I can do it if I feel inclined to!” Lagron replied firmly with a nasty expression on his face. “What I’m asking is why did you interfere in our important battle?!”
“Fighting not important. Peace is,” stated Sevedant and Lagron stared at him in disbelief.
“Stop diverting the topic and explain yourself dammit!” Lagron said sharply with as he slowly became angrier.
“Saw you attack Lakshman. Wanted to defend. Attacked you.”
“Are your eyes blind or something?! In what way did I look like I was attacking him? We were both ready to do battle until your unnecessarily interfered dammit!” Lagron shouted furiously.
Lakshman was startled by his beginning words and he quickly looked at Sevedant worriedly, but the Death Titan did not seem to care about his words. Instead, it looked like he was taking his rude words as if they were jokes to laugh at. He had never seen the chuckle with laughter despite it being very weak.
“Interesting,” said Sevedant as he seeming to enjoy the rudeness of Lagron. “Please continue.”
Lagron raised an eyebrow as he realised his words were being found funny and he exclaimed, “I’m being rude to you and you’re finding it funny? I don’t believe this!”
Sevedant shrugged his shoulders and said, “Rudeness. Arrogance. Meaningless. Quite funny to see. Enjoyable to listen.”
Lagron stared at him in disbelief before turning to face Lakshman, who made a small smile on his face.
“Is this guy for real?!” he asked incredulously with a strange look on his face. “His speech, his mannerism, his behaviour and even the way he dresses. All of them are weird!”
“I’m different, not normal,” replied Sevedant in an emotionless voice that made Lagron turn to look seriously at him.
“Yeah? I’m not normal either cause’ I’m special! I’m awesome! I’m Lagron Rodraigun the Dragon Titan! I’m a big deal and you should realise it already so that you talk normally before I become extremely angry at you!”
“Aren’t you now?” Sevedant asked without caring about the speech he just listened to.
Lagron stared at him for a moment before he said, “You’re mocking me.”
Those words caused Lakshman to inwardly chuckle to himself as Sevedant replied, “You’re funny.”
The expression on the Dragon Titan’s face twisted horribly and he clenched his fists as he furiously said, “Oh…! You want to battle me so badly that you’re testing my temper?! I’ll get downright serious and beat the hell out of you so that you respect me goddammit!”
“I’m Sevedant the Death Titan; not goddammit,” replied Sevedant in an emotionless voice with a hint of mockery in it.
“Don’t mock me!” Lagron roared like a dragon as he unleashed his power angrily.
His angry outburst of power was so immense that the wind blew wildly around them and the ground quaked as it cracked under the sheer pressure of his power. Lakshman was unfazed by the release of his rival’s power and so were Sevedant and the wrapped warrior, who was staying behind the Death Titan. The Phoenix Titan noticed this and he had a suspicion that he knew who that person was.
“That’s it! Let’s do this dammit! Here and now so that we things clear between you and me!” Lagron shouted at Sevedant with a furious look on his face.
Sevedant nodded his head in understanding and replied, “Very well. You called your doom.”
Realising the imminent battle to occur between the two warriors, Lakshman and the cloaked companion leapt away and landed several meters away from them. The Dragon Titan also moved as he leapt away to give himself some room to act while he glared at Sevedant, who remained motionless on the spot with his hands hidden behind the cloak he wore.
After several minutes of silence, while the wild blew quickly around them, Lagron became impatient and shouted, “I don’t have all day to have a staring contest with you! If you won’t make the first move, then I will!”
He pulled back his fist and instantly gathered a tremendous amount of energy into it, which took the form of a small spherical ball. With the attack ready, he hurled the energy attack at his enemy while saying the attack name in his mind.
“Dragon Burst Blast!”
A powerful force was unleashed and with it, the energy ball flew away at high speed towards the Death Titan, who remained motionless like usual. As it neared him, he finally reacted and lifted his skeleton hand from out under his cloak and raised it in the air before grabbing a sword that appeared out of nowhere. He aimed it directly at the incoming attack and muttered a spell that activated his technique.
“Death Laser.”
In an instant, a black jet of light erupted from the sword and whooshed towards the incoming attack before cladding in the middle. There was a struggle of powers between the two forces before the energy ball was split in two, causing it to explode dramatically while the black jet of light continued on. Lagron widened his eyes in shock as the light soared over his shoulders it tore his shirt a little, but not injuring him in any way.
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As the smoke slowly cleared from the explosion, Sevedant came into clear view as he held his sword at the ready. Lagron became angry at him and he prepared to attack again by moving forward but was surprised to find that his enemy had disappeared only to reappear moments later in front of him.
“What?!” he exclaimed sharply and he took a step back hastily before getting angry at it. Getting angry at himself and at his enemy at the same time, he went forward and shouted, “Damn you!”
Before he could make a move, however, he was stopped when a lethal looking black scythe was placed very close to his throat. He blinked in amazement as he did not see it coming, nor could he believe that his enemy had instantly changed the shape of his blade to take that form in order to subdue him.
“Surrender,” said Sevedant in an emotional voice with the scythe swung around his enemy.
“Dream on!” Lagron said angrily.
He instantly reacted by ducking down and swinging his leg around in an attempt to knock the Death Titan off his feet. The force of his kick against the skeleton legs was so strong that Sevedant became off-balance by losing his footing, but he did not fall as he floated in the air. Holding the scythe threateningly like a reaper of death, Sevedant attempted to attack his enemy with killing force.
The Dragon Titan noticed this and also anticipated this exact move, which made him smile confidently as he spun his body upward and brought his hands up to fire a mega blast into the Death Titan. Surprised, Sevedant got carried high into the air by the blast as his enemy kicked off the ground to soar after him.
“Is this all you got?! Huh?! So much for being the so-called Death Titan!” Lagron shouted spitefully in order to try and provoke his enemy.
It was unclear whether Sevedant was provoked or acted intentionally, but he forcibly stopped himself in mid-air and replied, “So be it.”
He held his scythe to his side and as it was surrounded by dark energy, his eyes glinted dangerously before he swung it down at him. In an instant, an immense slicing black wave was unleashed and it soared straight towards Lagron at high speed.
Lakshman was shocked as he realised the intensity of the attack as he shouted, “Sevedant! Stop!”
There was no turning back and he realised he would not make it to help his rival, who
stopped himself in mid-flight and attempted to fight it by firing a powerful energy blast that vanished into it.
“It absorbed my attack?!” he exclaimed in disbelief and realised his attacks would not stop it. Instead, he decided on a defensive measure to protect himself to survive the attack as he realised he might die from it.
“Dragon Armour Energise! Dragon Orb!” he thought in his mind to activate them.
He was surrounded by an invisible barrier that seemed to look like a small, but thick bubble while, at the same time, red scaly armour appeared above his head. Despite these two powerful defences activated, he crossed his arms and faced the attack head on as his third and final attempt to defend.
The black wave soared down and instantly decimated the red armour before swallowing Lagron into its light. It soared towards the ground and resulted in a mighty explosion that caused a large cloud of dust and smoke to rise into the air while the wind was blown wildly in all directions along with the shock waves. Lakshman covered his eyes momentarily from the flash of light from the explosion before removing them to see what was happening.
The smoke cleared to first reveal Sevedant as he remained floating in mid-air with his cloak fluttering around by the breeze. As the smoke slowly cleared, Lagron came into view and Lakshman looked relieved as he thought that the Death Titan had taken his enemy very seriously and killed him.
The Dragon Titan sighed deeply as he made a pained expression on his face as he glared at his enemy. All of a sudden, his arms slackened and they dropped to his side as they were heavily bruised and bleeding profusely as they appeared to be broken. He survived the attack but paid a high cost by badly injuring his arms by protecting himself.
Sevedant was most surprised out of the lot to see him alive as he said, “Impressive. You survived. I thought to kill you.”
Lagron groaned and said, “Oh? You were trying to kill me. Don’t you know the words ‘defeat your enemy’?”
“I know. Hard to follow. Enemies come back. Not advisable. Killing is easier,” replied Sevedant in an emotionless voice.
Lagron blinked at him in surprise before he laughed and said, “Haha. Actually, I agree with you. Rather than give enemies second chances, killing them is so much easier. After all, it saves you the trouble of figuring out whether they will turn good or remain the same after giving them the chance, but,” he said in a powerful voice and made a wide grin on his face as he said, “killing me is not a simple task!”
As he roared, Sevedant stared down at him through his fierce red eyes behind the mask as he said, “Hardly difficult. Both arms were broken. Easy.”
“Oh?! If you think it’s easy, then why don’t you come down here and prove it instead of all this chitchat?!” Lagron shouted arrogantly with a wicked smile on his face.
Lakshman could not believe what he was hearing and he shouted, “What are you doing?! Stop this madness! You’re injured! Just give up already!”
Lagron turned to him and bellowed, “Stay out of this!”
His shout was so loud, he instantaneously surged with wild power that caused the wind to blow wildly around them and buffet Lakshman.
Turning back to face his enemy, he grinned madly and taunted him by saying, “Come on death! If you’re really the Death Titan and have the power to kill me, get over here and finish the job! I dare you!”
Sevedant remained motionless in mid-air as he momentarily pondered about the reason as to why his enemy sounded so confident. He could not think of anything that could save him from the face of defeat, but he could not ignore the confidence the Dragon Titan was radiating with.
None of them knew the Death Titan only wanted to test the Dragon Titan and he believed this should finalise it all. Only Lakshman had a vague suspicion that Sevedant was not serious because he knew, from memory, the Death Titan had a technique that reverses all that had happened just before.
“Your choice,” he said simply and his eyes flashed dangerously.
He disappeared and reappeared in an instant right in front of his enemy and prepared to cut him down by unleashing a powerful slicing death wave from his scythe. As he swung the scythe down, he was momentarily surprised when he found that he could no longer continue swinging his weapon. The reason for this showed its form in Lagron as he raised his broken left arm to catch the scythe just before it reached him.
Despite his arms broken and bleeding heavily, Lagron gritted his teeth and willed his arms to move, causing his left arm to rise up and catch the lethal blade. As the forces between the two warriors clashed, red lightning began to erupt from within and around the place Lagron was holding the scythe. Lakshman watched in disbelief as his rival defied the impossible by using his broken arm to block it.
“You may have hurt me badly and broken both of my arms,” he said in a powerful voice as he glared at his enemy while pulling back his other fist as he finished by saying, “but my spirit will never surrender!”
As he finished shouting, he unleashed his fist and smashed it directly into the Death Titan’s face. The force of impact was so strong that Sevedant’s mask formed a large crack on it before he was propelled backwards and soared through the air at super speed before crashing several kilometres away. Dust rose from his crash site as it indicated where he had crashed as Lagron slowly descended to land on the ground.
He was breathing a little quickly and winced at the pain caused by forcibly moving his arm by his will, but he still managed to form a grin on his face. Lagron was feeling extremely happy for beating up a man he found very weird and watched as the figure of the Death Titan suddenly materialised in front of them while standing next to his companion.
Lagron saw the crack on his enemy’s mask and chuckled as he said, “Ha! Your mask’s cracked! That’s so hilarious, don’t you think?! After all, you mocked me and you got what you deserved!”
Sevedant stared back at him silently as his eyes glinted dangerously as he replied, “Not really.”
As Lagron looked confused by his enemy’s reply, the Death Titan clapped his hands together and said, “Real Fiction.”
In an instant, the air felt intense from the sheer pressure of something occurring around them. Lagron narrowed his eyebrows in suspicious and looked around as things around him seemed to be going through some weird change. It lasted for a few seconds and once it cleared, everything returned to normal and he looked around while still confused.
“What did you just do?” he asked as he scratched his head in confusion.
Instead of Sevedant, Lakshman answered him by saying, “Real Fiction. It’s a technique that returns the events of a certain time back to the way it was back then. That means you’ve returned to your normal state before the battle even began. Just look at your hands.”
Lagron was surprised and he was even more amazed as he realised he no longer felt pain for using his arms. Instead, they felt free and normal like before, which momentarily stunned him in disbelief. As the realisation sank in, he slowly turned to face the Death Titan with widened eyes filled with shock. The mask on Sevedant’s face was completely recovered as it looked like what it did before it got cracked.
“I am Sevedant, the Death Titan. Messenger of Death. I can kill anytime. I can restore anytime,” stated Sevedant in an eerie voice that caused Lagron to narrow his eyes with seriousness. There was tension in the air for a moment as Lakshman looked between them nervously before it was lifted by Sevedant saying in an emotionless voice, “You’re strong. Very strong. I acknowledge you. I am defeated.”
Lagron took a moment to react and he exclaimed, “Huh?!”
“Oh!” Lakshman said and he smiled as he realised his hunch was actually true. “I thought so! You were testing him, weren’t you, Sevedant? I wondered why you were overly reckless with your techniques since they’d drastically weaken you!”
As Sevedant nodded at him, Lagron looked at them in confusion as he demanded, “What? Was he testing me? For what?” He clenched his fists angrily and said, “Answer me dammit!”
The Death Titan turned to him and said, “You were different. Extremely egoistic. Arrogant. Prideful. Bad traits. Don’t know your strength. I needed to check. Fought you with full force. Understood, your power. Cacked mask is proof. I acknowledge you now. Part of Nine Pillars of Power.”
“Who needs your acknowledgement?” Lagron asked with a serious look on his face as he folded his arms in irritation. “Besides, if you wanted to see my strength, I would’ve shown it to you in full force if you had just asked instead of making me fight in a useless battle! I don’t care if the outcome is favourable to you, but it’s a complete time waste for me!”
There was a fleeting of a moment where the Death Titan chuckled as he said, “Unfortunate. You are powerful. You have potential. There are drawbacks. Bad emotional control.”
“Bad emotional control?” Lagron asked while looking surprised. “Are you blind behind that mask or can’t you see how calm I am right now?”
Sevedant shook his head and said, “Very explosive. Extreme anger. Lack of emotional control. Eventual defeat. Must train. Understand them. Control them. You will improve.”
Lagron listened, but he did not care as he snorted and said, “Whatever. Go give your useless advice to someone who listens.”
“Hey! It’s a valuable advice that you could use, knucklehead!” Lakshman said with an irritated look on his face.
“The only valuable advice I need, right now, is how to beat you without all these interferences!” Lagron said angrily as he glared at the Death Titan.
Lakshman straightened up and sighed wearily before turning to face Sevedant as he asked, “Anyway, do you know what’s been happening lately? The Calamity Titan and the Demon World?”
Sevedant nodded in understanding and replied, “Preparation for war. Making multiple Orb monsters. Resurrecting the Eight Disasters. Forming the Nine Testaments of Darkness.”
“As I thought!” Lakshman thought firmly with a serious look on his face. “I had a feeling he’d release them and make them join his cause and they’ll happily join him since we’re the enemies here.”
“The Nine Testaments of Darkness,” said Lagron quietly with a knowing look on his face. “Looks like he’s trying to challenge the group formed by the Emperor of the World as he tries to take over his position. It reminds me of his plan to take over the previous time 8000 years ago when the Emperor of the World disappeared.”
“Quite troublesome. Not a major problem. Our comrades are strong,” said Sevedant and Lagron grinned as he those words to mean that he was praising him.
Lakshman smiled and became hesitant to bring up the topic of Felix, but he knew he had to say it since Sevedant and Felix knew each other for a long time and were on good terms. Still, he knew he had to bring it up eventually, so he resolved himself and began, “About Felix…”
“He died,” said Sevedant simply and Lakshman blinked at him in surprise. “Felt him passing. Tragic. Powerful warrior. An interesting man. Served his kingdom.”
“You felt it?” asked Lakshman and Sevedant nodded, making him feel as if a great load lift from his shoulders. “Good. He was killed by the Calamity Titan as he was trying to kill him in order to bring peace.”
“Fulfilling his duty. Quite fitting,” said Sevedant and there was a hint of respect in his voice.
Lakshman smiled before turning his attention to his companion, who had remained completely silent this whole time. The wrappings all around his face made it impossible to tell who that person was, nor was it easy to identify because they had not spoken a single word.
“Who’s that with you?” Lakshman asked finally as he gestured towards that person.
Sevedant glanced to his side for a moment before turning back to face Lakshman as he said, “This is Ash. The Demon Titan.”
Lakshman made a small smile appear on his face in triumph as he thought, “Ha! Guessed it!”
“The Demon Titan?” Lagron asked and he stared at the cloaked figure up and down with a quizzical look on his face. “Okay, but what’s with all the wrappings and the disguise?”
“Special reasons. Certain circumstances. No option. Must wear for protection,” said Sevedant in a quiet voice.
“Oh,” said Lagron shortly as he looked up and down at the Demon Titan with the same expression.
With a smile on his face, Lakshman stepped forward and held his hand out in greeting as he said, “Welcome to the Human Continent, Ash. I’m Lakshman Reddy and I carry the title of the Phoenix Titan.”
There was a pause in which there was no apparent movement from the Demon Titan, who remained motionless like a statue. Lakshman continued to hold his hand out, expecting it to be greeted likewise, but realising it was not coming, he pulled it back awkwardly. He looked around at Lagron and Sevedant with a confused look on his face before he heard an unfamiliar voice from in front of him.
“Will you kill your allies?” Ash asked in a quiet, but sinister voice that was slightly high and feminine.
Lakshman turned to face him and looked startled as he asked in disbelief, “Kill my allies? Why?”
The cloaked Demon Titan nodded its head and asked, “Can you kill your allies if the need arises?”
The Phoenix Titan did not understand why he was being asked that question so suddenly, but he firmly replied, “I won’t kill my allies and even if they turned against me, I’ll only take that option last when all of my other attempts to change them have failed.”
There was momentary pause and as the atmosphere around them became tense, the Demon Titan spoke again as she said, “Okay then. Kill me.”