The two warriors, the Phoenix Titan and the Calamity Titan, flew towards one another at a great height off the ground and swung their swords at each other. The two blades smacked into each other and a powerful force of power was unleashed from both warriors as they attempted to triumph over the other. When they remained at a standoff, the two began to release their incredible power and it caused the entire world to tremble.

The ground shook violently, the pressure in the air thickened and the released shock waves became relentless. Even the wind, which was blowing harder than ever before, turned into a storming gale that uprooted forests, crushed mountains and began destroying the very land of the Human Continent. While the rest of the world felt fear the ones to feel this pressure were the inhabitants of the Human Continent.

“And so… the battle has begun…” muttered Emilia, holding her child carefully in her arms while sitting on a chair near the courtyard with the rest of her fellow sisters that married the same man as her.

As the tremors reached them, the populace of the capital became extremely worried that their homes might collapse and the injuries might increase from before when the barrier was destroyed. Surprisingly, all that happened was the ground shaking with a small magnitude while the wind became intense, causing them to close their windows and remain holed up inside their houses and other places they had taken shelter in.

“I… I’m scared…!”

“W-Will we be alright…?”

“The barrier… is no longer here… for us….”

“W-We’re… doomed…!”

Such were the words of the soldiers as they became so nervous that they let their innate fears take over their thought processes. There was no one who could blame them because they had just seen their protective barrier, which had kept them safe and away from the eyes of the enemy, was shattered in a matter of seconds. So, they automatically assumed that, without the barrier, they will not survive the fierce battles raging around the world.

Their fearful words caused Cantia to grind her teeth and rise to her feet before turning to glare fiercely at all of them.

“Pull yourselves together!” she yelled, her voice echoing around the corners of the castle and made everyone fall silent while turning their gaze at her in surprise. While holding her baby daughter over her shoulders, she glared menacingly at the soldiers and said, “I know you’re scared and everything, but get a grip! You’re the defenders of this kingdom and it won’t do if the people see such ‘strong people’ not being capable of keeping their cool under such pressure.”

Her words had snapped them from their reverie for several seconds before a wild gust of wind carried itself in their direction and buffeted everyone there. Instantly, the soldiers panicked and the babies began to wail wildly from the terror of the unknown force that had hit them. Their mothers quickly tried their best to calm them down, but they were far too scared and afraid to calm themselves.

The only one that was not crying was Emilia’s baby son, who simply stared into the eyes of his mother. Emilia, who had been glancing around with concern on her face, caught his eyes and turned to look deeply into them. She did not know why, but she felt that her son was trying to tell her something very important. At first, she thought maybe she was imagining it but the reality of the situation contradicted her as her son patted her two times with his small hands and tried speaking a word.

“Shan… Shan… S-Shan… t…”

His final attempt was the best that he could muster trying to say the word that was unknown to her. Seeing him taking deep breathing and looking around at his siblings, Emilia realised he could not muster to speak again. Even since being born, he had been a child that was quite different to the rest, behaving almost obediently listened to his parents and crying only at times when they did not pay attention to him.

“Shan…t…?” she murmured the word her son mustered to tell her with a desperate attempt. Thinking about it for several seconds, a light of understanding clicked in her mind as she realised the word her son had spoken. While forming a smile on her face, she opened her mouth and said, “Shanti!”

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” her son said three times, his face breaking into a big smile in happiness at the fact that his mother understood the words and the meaning he was trying to pass onto his mother.

The word “shanti” in the ancient language meant “peace,” which was the kind of magic he wanted her to use to calm everyone down. It surprised her because she had not thought of such a thing herself, but again, she reasoned that she was very concerned with the events that were happening around.

Turning to Venezuela, she asked, “Vena, let’s perform the Harmony Resonance.”

Harmony Resonance is the spell that forcibly calms down one’s mind from whatever tension they were feeling, cools down the amount of stress they were experiencing and compels them to remain calm despite the critical dilemma they were facing. It was literally bringing down peace to everyone all around them, which was exactly what the son of Emilia, the wife of the Phoenix Titan, wanted to achieve.

Venezuela was surprised to hear the spell she wanted them to use before breaking her face into a smile and nodding in agreement. Thus, Emilia, Venezuela, and Erza gathered their Magic Force into the spell they were going to use and said the spell name simultaneously while raising their spare hand into the air.

“Harmony Resonance.”

In an instant, blue magic began emanating from their hands and it soared into the atmosphere which soon began spreading in all directions. The three of them were using quite a large amount of their Magic Force to forcibly calm down the entire populace of a kingdom, but they did not mind in the slightest considering the fierce battle their husband was engaging in at that moment.

“Here’s my chance to help the people in my own way.”

That was the thought coursing through each of their minds and they smiled happily while doing their best to spread it throughout the kingdom. Once that was over and after feeling that everyone had calmed down, they stopped their magic and began breathing a little quickly due to the amount of energy they had released.

After calming down somewhat, Venezuela called for two of the Phintex Rajas, who appeared in an instant before her while kneeling with their heads bowed. She queried with them about the number of Barrier Magic Scrolls and Healing Magic Scrolls, which had the effect to calm a large people down, they had. With the numbers, she believed to be available, she immediately ordered for them to distribute the scrolls to soldiers stationed outside and the other kingdoms since they would be panicking like them.

When one of the two Phintex Rajas, with their faces covered by the phoenix masks they wore, looked up doubtfully at her master and asked, “But, your highness, they are a large amount that you want to distribute and also, the Phoenix Titan is not here to authorise such a thing and the Phoenix Emperor is still recovering from his injuries.”

To that, she merely replied by saying, “I’m one of the wives of the Phoenix Titan and the Queen of Floria Kingdom! My word carries every bit of authority that my husband possesses within the Phoenix Clan and besides, if he were here right now and seen this situation, he would have said the same thing as me and passed them on.”

“I… I understand!” the Phintex Raja replied quickly, bowing down to her before warping out of there.

As Venezuela sighed, Cantia knitted her eyebrows together in great annoyance and said, “So annoying. You did it out of good will and they question your objective with the amount existing?”

While the Queen of the Floria Kingdom meekly smiled, it was Ondine who responded by saying, “Cantia, think about it. The fact that they questioned her about the authorisation not being given by the Phoenix Titan or the Phoenix Emperor goes to show just how deep their loyalty runs to our husband and Zen.” She turned towards Sasha and said, “Isn’t that good for you, Sasha? Despite your husband being new to the clan leadership, he’s earned a lot of respect!”

Sasha smiled at her and replied, “I’m happy. Truly happy that he’s managing to get along with the clan after, you know, having to face some critical issues with the other members questioning the decision of my father…”

As tears began appearing on her face, Emilia leaned over to her left to pat her on the head while saying, “Father made the right decision and your husband is an excellent man for the job, so cheer up.” As Sasha wiped the tears off her face, Sumara said half in a half-joking manner, “I think we should actually be cheering up the people out there that’re risking their lives to save us!”

“That I agree to because I’m cheering for their victory inside my heart,” replied Erza with a smile.

“Couldn’t you phrase it more specifically like ‘cheering for them because I’m too embarrassed to show my feelings outside’? Right?” Cantia asked, winking at Erza with a grin on her face.

As the two women nodded, one of the soldiers asked in a nervous voice, “Um… What about the barrier? There’s nothing protecting us right now and—!”

He was cut off in mid-sentence when Sumara, who eyed him coldly, said in a sharp voice, “There’s nothing protecting us? Then, what is my husband doing right now? Swatting a bunch of flies for amusement?”

There was an instantaneous silence within the courtyard where the soldiers hesitated to speak up, but they did not need to as she continued to speak.

“My husband has placed his life on the line for us and is fiercely engaging in a war for the world against our enemies. Rest assured because, knowing my husband, he would’ve already placed a powerful barrier around us before departing to battle. So, have some faith in the man who is your king.”

“Y-Yes…!” the soldier replied a few seconds later, looking ashamed by his behaviour and dropped his head.

Emilia watched all of it and smiled sadly before turning to face in the direction the battle was raging, which was also where her husband’s energy signature was emanating from and thought, “Yes. Let’s believe in him because he is the last hope we have left.”

With such a thought, she smiled and looked in the direction where she sensed her husband fighting his enemy.         

***

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”

“RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

The two warriors roared fiercely as they pushed their swords forward, but the clashing forces exploded and exploded, sending the two warriors to either sides. Both of them flew for a few seconds before rapidly spinning and flipping through the air to regain their posture for battle before flying back at one another. Reaching each other again at the same spot as before, they began exchanging rapid blows by swinging their swords at each other with incredible speed.

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Each swing carried with it an incredible amount of force that became a slicing wave that whooshed from behind each of them and sliced up whatever was in that direction, such as mountains, forests and deserted islands. Each blow from the Calamity Titan was released with a clear killing intent while the slashes delivered by Lakshman possessed the strength to disarm his opponent without causing too much damage to them.

After several clashes, the Calamity Titan pushed his sword forward in another standoff between them, but he did not want to let the forces decide for him. Instead, he moved himself forward and smashed his head against his enemy’s skull, disorienting him in the process.

Lakshman, who flew back a few meters in surprise while clutching his forehead where the pain was stinging, he saw the Calamity Titan charge at him with his sword becoming coated with lethal energy once more. He brought his sword up in defence just in time as his enemy swung his sword down and unleashed the black slicing wave at him. The Wave began pushing him down towards the ground with incredible force, making him struggle to control it.

Exerting great power, he finally managed to split the energy away with a slicing energy wave of his own. By the time he did that, he had landed firmly on the ground and looking up through narrowed eyes, he startled to see a large black wave of energy coming down heavily on him. Gritting his teeth, Lakshman leaped away just in time before the wave soared down and smashed forcefully against the ground, causing it to explode wildly and send broken rocks, strong wind, shock waves and smoke in all directions.

Once the explosion was over and the smoke slowly settled, Lakshman coughed several times before looking up at his enemy floating in the sky and shouted, “What are you doing?!”

“Killing you, of course!” the Calamity Titan replied nonchalantly with an evil grin on his face.

Without warning, he dived down and created a boom like sound behind him as he soared straight towards his enemy. Seeing him coming and quickly thinking of a strategy, Lakshman pulled his sword arm back and hurled the Celestial Blade at him. Surprised by this move, the Calamity Titan stopped himself in mid-flight and dodged the sword just as Lakshman clapped his hands together and shouted a technique out loud.

“Thousand Army!”

There was instantaneous flash of light that made the Calamity Titan to cover his eyes and, once the light dimmed, he removed his hands, seeing he was still half blinded. That moment he caught a glimpse of a movement was the image of the clenched fist that flew upward and smashed heavily into his face. Making a painful sound, he reeled back in surprise and looked again just as another fist came from the side and smashed into the side of his face.

“Dammit it!”

He yelled as more and more blows were delivered, causing him to fly back while gritting his teeth before the blows resumed. Soon, the Calamity Titan was pummelled by the unknown that he could not see nor sense due to there being no break to the number of blows that were delivered. Even so, he was a powerful warrior and the amount of attacks did not diminish his fighting spirit.

Having had enough of being beaten around by an unknown amount of forces, he yelled, “Enough!”

Spreading his arms wide, he released a lightning ball of discharge around him that instantly stopped the attacks from coming. He increased its output further, causing it to expand and send the unknown enemies to fly away to keep a safe distance from it. Judging that no unseen attack would come, he released the lightning discharging sphere and looked around him and snorted at what he found.

Surrounding him were the thousand copies of Lakshman that he had easily dealt with earlier when his enemy unleashed them. So, seeing them appear before him once more, made him feel a twinge of disappointment at his enemy not being able to deploy a more powerful force of technique than this one.

He made his disappoint very clear by saying, “Seriously? Is this all that you got to offer me, Phoenix Titan?!” As soon as his enemies opened their mouth, he forestalled them by saying in an exasperated voice, “Don’t tell me ‘it’s to beat you’ or ‘It’s to find out what you can do’ kind of thing! They’re overused, dull and extremely boring to hear! Come up with something new for a change!”

For a moment, the numerous copies of Lakshman merely blinked at him in silence before smiling and saying in a chorus of the same voice, “We outnumber you one to thousand.”

The Calamity Titan chuckled darkly and said, “You must be desperate to think this kind of lame strategy might work on me. Unfortunately, though, I’m not impressed and even more so because I’ve changed!” Without further ado, he raised his sword in front of him and said in a menacing voice, “Will of Disaster!”

In an instant, the blade began to emanate strong killing intent before it released a whirl of black waves that soared everywhere. The moment it touched the copies, they began to writhe in pain and suffering before their bodies became tainted with a dangerous black energy that corrupted them and quickly transformed them into shapeless black masses.

Lakshman knitted his eyebrows in seriousness at the sight of his thousand copies transforming into shapeless black masses. Once the transformation was done and with a wave of the Calamity Titan’s hand at his direction, the black masses soon headed towards him with bubbles of black substance exiting out of their bodies. The sight of the sky darkening due to the black masses made Lakshman pity the copies for their fate and decide on his next course of action.

Raising his hand into the air, he shouted, “Celestial Glade!”

 Almost instantly after his call, the Celestial Blade flew down from the sky and soared between the black masses to return to its master’s hand. Gripping it firmly in his hand, Lakshman swung his arm to the right while exerting his sword’s power. At the swing of the sword, a blinding wave of light was unleashed and the wave soared towards the masses before completely decimating them.

Even the Calamity Titan widened his eyes and disappearing seconds before it could reach where he was as it continued to soar into the sky. Momentarily, the sky was covered by the blinding light      , which drew the attention of everyone around the world at the amazing spectacle and the display of power.

***

While that was happening, the Death Titan was fighting fiercely against the Testament of Loneliness with his armour, sword and shield while his enemy was firing energy blasts and using energy blades to attack him. They exchanged blows at incredible speed with Sevedant using his shield to block the attacks while using his sword to attack him as Ezhno fought furiously against him.

Sevedant blocked one attack with his shield and pushed the energy sword aside to distract his enemy while swinging his sword in an arc to cut down his enemy. Ezhno, acting quickly, dodged the blade and leaped backwards before firing a powerful energy wave at him. The Death Titan brought his shield forward and blocked it, which pushed him back while his feet got dragged on the ground.

As soon as the wave died down, Sevedant spun his sword around and stabbed it firmly into the ground and said, “Eruption!”

All the ground, in front of him and beneath his enemy, instantly cracked and exploded, which lifted Ezhno into the air with incredible force. A moment later, dark slicing waves appeared from the dust and cut him in several areas of his body before crash landing on a relatively intact ground. The dust slowly cleared to reveal Sevedant walking slowly towards him with a serious expression on his face with his sword slowly returning to its resting side.

“Choose: Surrender or Perish,” said the Death Titan in a deep resonating voice.

Up until that point, he had spoken to his enemy with his sword of being firm and strong, but now it was calm and cool. Ezhno realised that his enemy did not view him as a threat anymore, which made his eyes to widen in horror as it reminded of his past. His current predicament played out the memory of a similar situation in his life in the ancient times where he once lived in.

Back in those days, he was isolated, had no friends and was always alone with no parents or guardians. Yet, he strived to survive, he tried his best to succeed and attempted to get make a reputation of his own. Unfortunately, he was doomed to failure from the beginning as his attempt to become a knight in a clan failed and was thrown away with the other trash that were failures in their eyes.

What hurt him the most was not them throwing him away, but saying harsh words that hit him right at home.

“We don’t need a nobody with nothing to offer us!”

This made him feel betrayed for the first time in his life, and his repeated attempts did no good. In the end, he was cast away and isolated from all of civilisation as he was condemned to remain as loner for life. He hated it, he truly hated his predicament and came to hate the world that made him experience such pain and suffering, making him rot away with an indescribable feeling of loss. It was then that he had received the chance to exact revenge on the world, but he failed and was sealed away before finally being reawakened.

So, fuelled by anger and hatred, he screamed, “Surrender?! I will never surrender until I exact my revenge on the world! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!”

While screaming with fury, he raised the palm of his hand into the air and instantly gathered a lethal purple energy ball that pulsated with black lightning. With it firmly in his hand, he firmly set his feet down and dug them in as he exerted his strength and hurled it straight at Sevedant. The ball soared through the air at high speed and headed towards the Death Titan, who stood his ground without making a single move.

At the very last second, he brought his shield in front of him and the moment it made contact against the metallic object, the pulsating ball erupted into an incredible explosion. A violet purple dome from the explosion began expanding from the point of impact, causing the wind to blow wildly in all directions and shock waves that creates waves in the ocean surrounding their island. Even the island they were on was consumed as both warriors disappeared into the light that expanded several times until it reached a very large size before finally disappearing.

The view soon returned to normal and revealed the island to be missing with fragments of its remains were left behind by the explosion. Several of them kept floating while others just sank into the bottom of the ocean as the last wisps of smoke slowly vanished from the view. A moment later, Ezhno appeared hovering in mid-air while breathing deeply as bruises, cuts and burnt marks appeared on his body as he had narrowly escaped from his own explosion.

“Finally, I got that bastard!” he said and sighed deeply while trying to bring his breathing back to normal. Spitting blood out of his mouth, he looked down at the destroyed island and muttered in a regretful voice, “Maybe I overdid it a little… Oh well. This is just the beginning… of the end…!”

At that moment, his eyes widened with shock when he heard a familiar deep calm voice say, “Chain Lock.”

In an instant, numerous chains appeared and quickly soared towards him and Ezhno, feeling a little exhausted, attempted to destroyed them but was surprised when his body felt sluggish from his hard attempt to escape his own destruction. So, the chains wrapped themselves around him and held him as a prisoner. While struggling to break free, his head turned and saw the Death Titan floating in mid-air and slowly glide towards him.

“Crazy bastard…! How the hell did you live?!” he exclaimed in disbelief.

He looked at him with a disbelieving look on his face at the fact that not a single bruise appeared on Sevedant’s face nor was his armour sporting any of the black smoulder that it should from taking on that powerful attack. The only difference as the colour change of the shield as it had become pure black and was emanating a powerful energy as the chains binding him had originated from it.

“Death Lightning,” said Sevedant in a quiet voice.

The moment he finished saying the words, the black energy from the shield began to discharge a crazy amount of lightning. Its destructive power coursed through the chains and inflicted an immeasurable amount of lightning onto the Testament of Loneliness. He opened his eyes wide, and he screamed and screamed endlessly as his entire body shook and writhed as it was hung by the chain in mid-air.

Ezhno experienced a pain that he could describe as he screamed and screamed, wishing he was dead many times over as the attack continued. It was unbearable as if his entire being was being pulled apart, but with not the force required to completely severe him from existence. He continued to live, experienced the pain, wished that he was dead and the cycle repeated itself over and over again.

Sevedant watched him writhe in pain from the lightning before raising his hand up to stop the attack. The black lightning stopped and Ezhno hung with black smoke emanating from his clothes and body from the harsh punishment he had endured. As the Death Titan moved closer to him, he could hear his enemy making light moaning sounds as he was drastically weakened by that unbelievable attack.

The Testament of Loneliness saw his enemy draw near and croaked, “Finish… me…! Don’t… torment… me… any… further…! I’ve… suffered… enough…!”

His words made Sevedant narrow his eyes and ask, “Why do you hate the world?”

For a moment, his enemy did not seem to understand the question and so he repeated the question again. This time, with clarity in seen in his eyes, Ezhno groaned painfully before began speaking with the little strength that slowly returned to him.

“You… won’t understand… my pain… my loss…! I have suffered… greatly… because I… am a… nobody…! I had no one… no family… no friends… no one to talk to… no one to rely on… no one to understand me… I was… all… alone… That’s why, I hate the world…! It… made me suffer and lose everything that I… I worked so hard to achieve… but you… you are different. You have people to fight for… You have people to protect… You have companions to depend on… and that’s why… you’ll never understand… the true meaning of… loss…!”

He finished speaking and continued to grunt while panting for breath due to him being really tired. Sevedant remained motionless and stared at him with an expressionless face that did not show the slightest of what he was thinking in his mind.

At that moment, a blinding flash of light occurred from somewhere in the distance and they both turned to look in its direction. It was a truly remarkable spectacle and one that made the world appear beautiful from their viewpoint.

“Beautiful,” muttered Sevedant and a smile hung at the edges of his mouth.

As the spectacle died down several seconds and the view returned to normal, he turned back to face his enemy and when he finally spoke, his voice was rather soft and generous, which was quite different to the way he usually spoke.

“I guess all I can say is… the time in which you were born was wrong.”

Ezhno, after hearing his voice, looked up at him in surprise and asked, “Huh?”

Sevedant set his shield and sword aside while saying, “and that’s why, I believe you should start again; a brand-new beginning in this time with me as your first friend.”

With those words, he outstretched his hand towards Ezhno, who had gone silent and widened his eyes in disbelief.