On the Bazaraka Continent, a whirling black hole appeared out of thin air and expanded until it was the height of a person. Out from it came a woman, who was known as the Demon Titan with the name called Ash. She exited the portal that soon closed behind her and began looking around at the landscape that was much scarred badly by the signs of war.
“What a mess…?” she muttered, looking around with a serious expression on her face.
At that moment, the ground shook and felt an intense shock wave coming from somewhere nearby. As the strong wind briefly buffeted her, she straightened up and looked directly in front to witness some crazy action occurring. There were two men, or two warriors to be precise, who were fighting furiously, moving at incredible speeds and lashing out wildly at one another.
One of them was the purple monster that Amaranda, the Magic Titan, had described to her and the other was none other than the Monkey King, Rumble. She watched as Rumble fought the monster with all he got to the point of not evening caring that his body was taking a heavy beating while the monster appeared to be not feeling any of the blows.
“RAAAAAHHHH!!!!”
Rumble roared like a wild animal as he leapt back from the previous blow before surging with power and darting at a speed even greater than before. Seemingly taking the monster by surprise, he pummelled the monster with all of his strength and treated it like a ragdoll before delivering a powerful uppercut that sent the monster into the sky at a diagonal angle.
As the monster flew away, Rumble took a stance that Ash found strange and yelled, “Warrior Wave!”
His entire body suddenly glowed in bright light as the Energy Force surrounded him before a powerful energy wave was unleased from his entire body. The wave followed after the monster and rapidly closed the distance before engulfing it in before continuing to fly into the distance before disappearing a few seconds later.
“Mmm. He’s good,” thought Ash, looking at Rumble with a newly developed respect for the aging Monkey King.
Rumble, however, felt extremely frustrated when he noticed that the monster began reforming again, causing him to yell, “Ah, come on! Just how many times do I have to do this?! ARGH!!!”
He let out a sudden scream in pain from the intense agony his body was experiencing at that moment. It was an intense pain and looking at his raised arms, he momentarily saw his arm bulge or something, making him wince in pain and close his eyes at the same time. The reason for his body going through such pain was due to him powering up more than half a dozen times, which was risky even for a Monkaggy Beast Clan warrior. At that moment, his body looked like a massively built body struggling to sustain itself from exploring.
“Pushing me to this extent… that monster truly is dangerous!” he muttered, clenching his fists tightly as he desperately fought to keep his body from giving out on him, going far as muttering, “Come on…! Keep it together…!”
He began breathing in deeply and breathing out smoothly while his body pumped up and down rhythmically with his breathing. It took him a few seconds to manage to calm his body down and the pain soon subsided, giving him room to fight once more.
“Alright!” he said and prepared to charge at the monster when, at that moment, he heard a familiar voice shout at him.
“Hey Old man! Wait up!”
He turned in the direction that the voice originated from and was surprised to see a familiar face walking towards him.
“Demon Titan? What brings you here?” he asked in a surprised voice.
“I’ve come to help and after seeing your battle, I am quite impressed you’ve managed to hold your own against that thing despite being so old,” said Ash, complementing him with an impressed expression on her face.
To her complement, Rumble raised an eyebrow in exasperation and asked, “Old? You’re calling me old?”
“Why? You got something against being old?”
“No, but seriously? Old? Young miss. I’ve lived for 350 years, and I still got 200 more years to live!”
“Oh? 200 more? That just means you’re 70-years-old according to the average lifespan of a normal human being. Even we Sepentia Demon Clan members share the same lifespan as the humans, so you’re definitely old.”
“Ah,” said Rumble, looking very surprised by her statement and making quick calculations in his head, arriving at the same conclusion as he, his shoulders slumped, and he muttered, “Damn… I guess this is the reach my body feels a little strained.”
“Your age is catching up to you…” she said and winked at him.
He was about to retort when they both heard a loud monstrous voice scream, “POW!”
They turned to face in the direction the voice was coming from and saw the purple monster, finally back together again in one piece, began launching energy blasts towards them. Reacting instantly, Ash held her hand out and summoned her staff that he swung around skilfully while Rumble braced himself to fight them back.
“Barricade!” she said, causing an invisible barrier to appear in front of her, causing the blasts to make impact against it and explode without bringing any harm to her.
“RRRAAAA!!” Rumble roared as he moved his body rapidly as each blast came, moving his hands to divert the blast or punch it aside, causing them to explode elsewhere.
“You see that?! My body is old, but my power isn’t!” Rumble yelled while moving at an incredible speed.
“I’m aware, but I don’t see how that’ll help us in our predicament!” Ash said, speaking directly into his mind.
“Young lady, you think I wasted so much time with powering up so much and bringing my body to this desperate state?! I tried all means I knew in order to destroy this monster, but it just keeps reforming and coming back stronger!”
“Amaranda said that’s exactly the wrong thing to do and said we should destroy it spiritually to make it work.”
Rumble diverted several of the energy blasts and within seconds, gathered energy into his hands and fired a massive energy wave at the monster, causing it to be vaporised once more. In the moments in which it would start reforming again, Rumble turned to look at Ash with a shocked expression on his face.
“What?! Spiritually?! Are you kidding me?!” he asked, not sure whether she was serious or not. “I mean, even if that theory is possible, how do you defeat something that’s as mindless as that thing over there?!”
“Think, Rumble, think! Every entity in this world, whether it’s the smallest animal to the created ones; all have spirits in them. Without spirit, there is no life and without life, there is no existence! I’m sure you’re aware of that well-known fact!”
“It may be a well-known fact, but how do you suppose we destroy its spirit?! Keep fighting the way we did until now? Blow holes in it as many times as possible? Do whatever within our power to crush its spirit?! Which is it?!” he demanded, looking very frustrated as he glanced at her.
“Will you stop your temperamental rage and think for a second?” Ash demanded, cutting through the fog of annoyance that slightly blinded Rumble’s chain of thoughts.
“Even so, what can we do? I have no idea how to defeat it spiritually!” Rumble complained, looking angrily at the monster.
“I know that and that’s why I came. I know a spell that can—!”
She was cut off in midsentence when the monster surged with violent power while radiating deep purple aura that surrounded it. The next moment, it rocketed towards the ground at such a speed that it could be considered as blinding.
Surprised by the sudden movement from the monster, Ash did not have time to dodge, but luckily Rumble stepped in and pushed her aside while yelling, “Move!”
It appeared right where she was standing a moment before and engaged in a fierce close combat against the Monkey King. The two began moving away towards the rear from where Ash stood, taken aback by the quick turn of events. Turning around, she witnessed the intense battle between the monster and Rumble, who was fighting with his all.
“It seems that thing watches, learns and applies all the techniques ranging from magic and spell,” thought Ash, narrowing her eyes with seriousness. “I better be careful in using my spells.”
As she thought that, she realised that the monster had its back to her as it had only eyes for Rumble. Taking the opportunity, she used a teleportation magic to get nearer to the monster before aiming her staff at it and saying, “Zap Strike!”
In an instant, a powerful ball of lightning formed at the edge of her before it got fired towards the monster. As it soared towards them, both the monster and Rumble where unaware of its approach due to them being engrossed deeply in their battle. At the point of impact, the monster managed to get away as it dodged Rumble punch and the Monkey King widened his eyes in shock as he ended up being hit by the technique.
“GGGAAAAAHHHH!!!!” he yelled as an electric shock ran throughout his body, paralysing his movement and crippling his ability to defend.
The monster, not hesitating one bit and not caring about what happened, began punching the defenceless warrior left, right and centre without restraint. Ash was horrified by how bad things turned out because of the misfire and deciding to intervene, she soared towards them while casting a barrier magic onto herself in defence.
The barrier impact against the monster sent it flying away for a few meters before it regained its footing. While Rumble remained standing as short bursts of lightning emitted out of his body, Ash placed a hand on her mask and removed it to reveal a slightly grown and a much more beautiful face than was seen two-years-ago.
She was trying to petrify the monster in order to stop it permanently and for a moment, the monster did nothing but she immediately realised the problem; the monster was not turning into stone. So far, whomever she met, which was mostly male from other races or clans, always got petrified and turned to stone. Lagron, the Dragon Titan, was the best example of such a victim, but it does not work on those possessing the Phoenix Eyes, like the Phoenix Titan or members of the Phoenix Clan, and it certainly not work on those from the same gender as the caster.
So, seeing the monster not turning into stone, Ash blinked in surprise and muttered, “No way…! Impossible…! It should be turning into stone… unless… that thing isn’t… gender classified!”
Horrified by the revelation, she widened her eyes in shock as the monster seemingly stood its ground and remained unmoving. It was as if the monster was pondering as to what was going to happen and upon realising that nothing had transpired, it began to surge with power and rushed at her while yelling the same word, “Pow!”
Quickly reacting, Ash aimed her staff at it and said, “Doom Casket!”
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A large magic circle appeared right before the monster in its flight path and not caring about it, the monster flew straight through it. This turned out be a mistake because the monster suddenly got snatched by magical wires being extracted from the magic circle. A moment later, a casket appeared vertically floating behind the monster and as it got pulled towards the casket, sharp steel spikes appeared inside the casket where the monster will be put in.
The monster was pushed forcibly into the casket and steel spikes injected themselves into the monster while others pierced right through. A moment later, the casket door swung from behind and shut the monster inside as it did not seem to make any move to get out. As soon as the casket door closed shut, iron bars appeared from behind the magic circle that wrapped themselves around the casket to keep the door shut as tightly as possible.
Ash smiled in relief at the thought that the monster was shut in permanently in the casket, but she was not satisfied with just that. Deciding to do more to ensure that the monster will stay inside permanently, she aimed her staff once again at the casket and said the name of the technique she used next.
“Death Charge!”
In an instant, several magic circles appeared all around them and small balls of lightning were released. The balls slowly circled around them as they rose to great height, increasing in intensity and becoming one to create one devastating lightning. Upon reaching the highest point possible, the combined form of the lightning ball began emitting an unbelievable amount of lightning before discharging straight towards where the casket was located.
The lightning charge zoomed through the air and struck the top portion of the casket, causing it to become surrounded by lightning. It became very bright and caused Ash to immediately cast a magic spell that shielded their eyes from its intensity.
A few seconds later, the lightning disappeared and so did the magic circle keeping the casket vertically upright. Losing its support, the casket slowly fell backwards until it hit the ground with a dull thud. Ash looked at the casket for a moment, her guard up and ready to attack if anything suspicious happened, but nothing happened and that made her relax.
“Finally…! It’s contained…!” she muttered, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Yeah. Good job,” said Rumble, who was freed from the paralysing effects of her spell a few moments earlier.
A little surprised by hearing his voice, she quickly put on her mask and turned around to say, “Oh? You’re able to speak again. I take it the effects of the paralysing effects have ended.”
“Yes, but next time, please make sure to inform me you’re going to do something like that beforehand. Alright?” Rumble asked, staring at the Demon Titan with a stern look on his face. “I don’t think that Sevedant will be pleased to hear you shocked me and got me badly beaten up.”
“Yes. My apologies. Please accept this as payment,” she said and began healing his wounds using her staff.
Rumble sighed and allowed himself to be healed, but he continued to glance at the casket because doubts formed in his mind, which made him ask, “How long will that contain it? Don’t say ‘never’ because never isn’t permanent.”
She nodded and replied, “Yes. I’m aware of that. My first plan failed so I’ll use this time to plan for the second one.”
“First plan? What did you do? I thought I saw you just remove your eyes and stare blankly at him,” said Rumble, who spoke slowly as an idea formed in his mind. Finally figuring it out, he chuckled and asked, “Don’t tell me you attempted to petrify that thing and turn it to stone?”
She nodded once more while looking annoyed as she said, “Of course, but it turned out to be an unclassified gender and as such, my eyes could not affect it one bit. That’s why I need to—!”
Rumble never learnt what she needed to do because, at that moment, the casket shook violently as an incredible power was unleashed from within. The force from the release of the power was so strong that the ground cracked all around where the casket lay and it started to make loud banging sounds as the monster fought desperately to break free.
“Dammit! It hasn’t even been a minute and it’s already trying to break free?!” Ash demanded, looking utterly shocked.
“Whatever! We don’t have time! Make sure to prepare your second plan and quickly!” Rumble said, taking a stance in front of her as he awaited the casket to break free.
It did not take long for the casket to burst into pieces, causing smoke to drift out of the box that clouded their view. A moment later, the cloud of smoke slowly cleared to reveal the monster standing there with pin holes all over its body. Unsurprisingly, the monster continued to wear an expressionless look on its face as the holes closed up to return its body back to normal.
“I’ll try to distract it while you plan things out,” said Rumble and surging with power, he launched himself at the monster.
“Wait!” Ash called but it was too late as Rumble rushed towards it at high speed without the slightest bit of hesitation.
The monster, seeing its enemy charge towards it, merely raised its right hand and aimed it at Rumble as it said, “Pow!”
In an instant, a large magic circle that was vertically positioned appeared out of thin air right in Rumble’s path of flight. Shocked, the Monkey King attempted to avoid it, but he seemingly flew through it before magical treads extended out from the magic circle to snatch at his limbs.
“What?!” he yelled, shocked by the powerful restraining magic as he recognised the use of that spell.
The Demon Titan was also shocked as she thought, “Impossible…! It also mastered that technique after seeing it being used just once?!”
While she was in the midst of thoughts, Rumble struggled with all his might with no avail as a casket suddenly materialised right where the magic circle hovered. As the steel spikes erupted inside the box, and Rumble was forcibly pulled towards it, Ash finally acted by aiming her staff at it.
“Maga Distrab!” she said, and the magic instantly destroyed the magic spell while making a sound of breaking glass.
At the sudden sense of being released, Rumble skilfully spun through the air before landing on his fee right near Ash. By then, Ash clapped a hand on her forehead in shame at the realisation of what had been done. Since she used Maga Distrab right before the monster, it should now be able to use it against them. She was distraught at the dangerous spell she had unwittingly shown to the monster.
“Thank you. You saved me,” said Rumble in an appreciative voice, surprising her in the process.
“Pardon?” she asked a moment later while feeling unsure whether she heard him correctly or not.
“I said I’m grateful for you saving my life,” responded Rumble, looking at her for the first time with a smile since she arrived. “If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been in a tight pinch.”
Ash blinked rapidly at him, quite taken aback because it was her first time someone was grateful for her saving their life. Not once did she perform the honourable task of saving someone because she ever only met those that betrayed and eventually got killed by her powers that she was unable to control. Now, in full control and using them to save someone’s life, she felt a strange unknown feeling that she soon understood them as gratification and happiness.
“So… This is how it feels to save someone…” she thought, inwardly smiling with pleasure.
“Okay. I’m saved but that thing is still on the lose!” Rumble said, cutting her off from her thoughts and bringing her back to reality. “Any other plans you thought off yet?”
“Uh… No…” replied Ash shortly.
Truth be told, after being under full control of her powers, she felt she was unable to naturally kill like she did before. Of course, if someone attacked her, she would definitely fight back and kill them with ease, but this was the first time she met an enemy that just never died. Trying to kill a living being spiritually made her hesitant because, while she knew a few spells that might work, she never actually performed them since she merely watched Sevedant using them.
As she remained hesitant, and Rumble turned to look at her with a questioning look on his face, the monster kicked off the ground and rocketed towards them. Just as it reached them, it aimed to take out Ash first since it felt she was a bothersome opponent for it to deal with. Its attempt failed when Rumble appeared from the sideline and punched the monster so hard that a shock wave occurred as the monster was sent flying away.
Reeling in front of the shock of suddenly being attacked, Rumble turned to her and asked with a serious look on his face, “Is this your first time fighting in an actual battle?”
Startled by his question, she eventually nodded and said, “Yes. I’ve trained with the others, but I never fought this seriously before. Well, I fought the Phoenix Titan seriously two-years-ago when I met him, but—!”
“That’s too much detail, and I’m not interested in knowing your entire backstory!” Rumble said, cutting across her while looking cross. He finally sighed and said, “So, this is your first time fighting? You’re doing better than most beginners.”
“Well… Yeah… I’m the Demon Titan…” she began, but once again, he rounded on her with a look of deadly seriousness on his face.
“Don’t care about your title; know who you are and what you are! You’re fighting an opponent in a live or die setting and frankly speaking, you don’t seem to be resolved to die just yet! Otherwise, why wouldn’t you be able to react quickly like before when that monster suddenly attacked you just now, ah? The shock of suddenly seeing the monster face to face while you were distracted too much of a burden to handle?
If so, go home because this isn’t a place for amateurs to be at! You’ll be saving your life and not getting in my way because, frankly speaking, you haven’t come to terms with the thought of dying! I’m grateful that you saved my life, but I’m concerned that you haven’t decided how you’ll save your own without the slightest clue about what you should do!”
Ash blinked at him in surprise after listening to his powerful speech before replying in a firm voice, “I don’t feel the fear of death.”
To that, Rumble looked sckeptically at her and said, “You don’t feel fear? Of course not, but when you are close to it, you will definitely feel fear! Take it from a man that’s seen a lot in his 300 years of life; every living being, whether naturally born or manipulated into existence, will feel fear as they face the oncoming death! Even that monster, which hasn’t shown a shred of emotion, will definitely feel fear right before its death!
It’s natural, but you will become a better you by accepting the fear, learning to control it, thinking of it as a friendly neighbour and using it to spur you on because of your urge to live! Not by running away, but by fighting back! Not by cowering behind someone, but by standing at front and forcing yourself on! That’s a thing all warriors accept and only those who have conquered that challenge would ever become the best they could possibly be; a true warrior!”
The Demon Titan listened to him once more in silence, looking utterly shocked by his statements before replying, “Are you… suggesting that I’ll never be a true warrior the way I am right now?” When he nodded, she got very angry and retorted, “How dare you?! I was trained by the Death Titan to not feel fear and to move forward as being one with it!”
Rumble sighed and stated, “That might work for him considering who he is, but it doesn’t mean it will work for you. Everyone is an individual and are different, including you. Think of how it will work out best for you because you got no choice in this battle. After all, you either think fast, quickly learn and adapt to live, or waste time thinking and complaining till your road meets its end!”
With his hand extended towards her, he seriously said, “The choice is yours!”
When he finished speaking, Ash remained silent and still as she was lost for words. The words spoken by Rumble were severely harsh, but his words came from the wisdom of fighting for so many years and observing the behaviour of many warriors. So, seeing the young lady before him acting so lost made his cool attitude to switch over to seriousness as it reminded him so much of the youngsters who played fools with life and were taught a valuable and a painful lesson by it.
Ash, on the other hand, was feeling complicated due to her beliefs and training. All this time, Sevedant had been her master that trained her throughout her, and she also trained a little bit under Amaranda to master various magic techniques from her. So, it was the first time that made her wonder whether to accept his critical analysis on her, or ignore it and think he did not know her.
She could not do the later because, despite Rumble being who he was, she quickly understood that he had years of experience and knew firmly well what he was talking about. This very situation made her wonder whether it was wise of her to rush into battle without prior experience and maybe accept her master’s help when he offered his assistance.
“No…! If I rely too much on Sev, I will only end up depending on him for everything! Mmm… This is right… Rumble is right… I need to come to terms with myself… What I should do…? I… What I need to do right now is…?”
Her thoughts were broken when she and Rumble felt the surge of power from the distance as the monster stood up once again. After seemingly knocked out from the powerful punch delivered by Rumble, it took nearly a minute for it to recover and get back to its feet. Turning around, it surged with power and rocketed towards them at an incredible.
“Quickly decide for yourself what you’re going to do; adapt to become strong or wait till you die a loser! Your pick! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a battle to win!” Rumble said, a hint of arrogance in his voice, before he surged with power and rocketed towards the monster.
He did not get far, however, when a familiar voice from high in the air shouted, “Roaring Cannon!”
In an instant, there as a release of immense power as a massive energy wave descended from the sky. It flew downwardly at an angle from the launch point and aimed directly at the monster before it got consumed in the wave. As the attack hit the ground, extreme wild winds were created as well as shock waves that were sent in all directions while the ground shook violently. It was incredible as the powerful attack’s impact caused the inhabitants of the continent, including the warriors engaged in war against the demons, to cower in fright.
Several seconds later, the tremor steadied and the land became normal as the clouds of smoke bellowed everywhere on the battlefield. The vision of everyone got clouded, causing them to retreat away from each other to a vanity point that was safe from another attack. Rumble and Ash, who were shielded from the wind and smoke from the attack’s impact by Ash’s magical barrier, watched in awe at how powerful the unleashed attack was.
“Wow…! That’s an insane amount of power…!” Rumble commented, staring in awe towards the area of impact while Ash wordlessly agreed while a similar expression showed on her face.
As the smoke lessened and the wind steadied, Ash deactivated her barrier, causing them to be exposed to the surrounding smoke. Coughing a little, they both turned and looked up at the sky where the voice was heard before the attack was unleashed. Both the Magic Titan and Monkey King recognised the voice as it belonged to a powerful ally they knew for a while.
The smoke clouding the vision slowly cleared and it revealed someone floating high in the air still airborne. That person had the body of someone from the Simhara Beast Clan as well as clothes similar their warrior’s attire. He was indeed a powerful warrior as someone from the Nine Pillars of Power and a friend of the Sword Titan. This person, wearing a wild look of satisfaction on his face, was revealed to be none other than the War Titan, Nara Simhara.