“Lightning Blade!”

The voice of the Storm Titan, Tempest, rang across the isolated island where he and the Testament of Jealousy, Cana, were the only ones there. They had been fighting fiercely with an intent to kill each other but that had not been successful for either one of them considering one was a spirit and the other was a mortal that had been awaked after years of being sealed away in the Demon World.

After shouting the technique name out loud, Tempest summoned an energy blade that blitzed the surroundings with lightning and holding it in his hand without feeling any pain, he charged at her. Battling it out at close quarters, Cana, in her turn, immediately copied his technique and summoned an equally powerful lightning energy sword that she used to fight him back.

“This lightning sword is pretty interesting! I can feel the power coursing in my hand!” she said, smiling brightly at him as the two fought fiercely, moving from place to place with as they delivered blow after blow at each other.

Tempest did not reply and continued to fight her back without showing the slightest sign of expression on his face. After several seconds, he leaped away and aimed his hand at her before saying a technique name out loud as he activated it.

“Blitz Ball.”

In an instant, a ball of lighting formed in front of him before it rocketed away towards Cana, who reacted instantly by leaping out of the way. The attacks did not stop as Tempest continued to fire blitz balls one after the other in rapid succession at her as she continued to evade him.

“Could you please go easy on me? I am a woman after all,” said Cana with a smile as she continued to dodge his attacks with relative ease despite how quickly they flew at her.

This time, Tempest narrowed his eyebrows and responded by saying, “You’re a woman and I’m supposed to go easy on you? Are you sure you haven’t gone insane because there is something seriously wrong with your brain.”

“Oh! Now I can’t take a jab like that and let it pass without penalty!” Cana replied with a twisted expression forming on her face. As she moved, she aimed her hand at him and shouted, “Blitz Ball!”

Just like his balls of lightning, she unleashed the very same attacks that flew in his general direction. Seeing this, Tempest stopping firing his attacks and remained stock still and silent as an unmoving target, which allowed her attacks to fly and smash into him. He was immediately zapped by an immense amount of lightning, and he closed his eyes and continued to stay there while remaining at the same spot as before.

The lightning surrounded him for several seconds before fading away and leaving him without a scratch. Noticing this, Cana narrowed her eyebrows and looked seriously at him while making the last of the attacks, she was about to throw, disappear in the palms of her hand.

“Okay… That hit you directly and nothing happened? What?!” she exclaimed with a look of disbelief on her face.

Tempest looked amazed by her words and asked, “Were you expecting something to happen?”

Thoroughly taken aback by his casualness, she replied by saying, “Well… yeah! You’re supposed to be riddled with lightning and then become shrivelled so badly that you look like a burnt meat that’s smoking hot! None of that happened and that’s what’s odd about it!”

He stared at her for a moment in silence before saying with a small smile on his face, “Yeah. Sadly, such a fate is not befitting me since I’m resistant to lightning.” When she looked confused, he elaborated by saying, “Let me introduce myself, young lady. I carry the Storm Titan, but I am actually an Elemental Spirit: Lightning Element. So, you can see why lightning won’t work on me.”

For a moment, Cana looked thoroughly disgruntled by his words and it was even reflected in her words when she said, “Oh…! I thought you’re some crazy guy who loves playing with lightning, but a spirit ah…? It all makes sense now.”

She nodded her head several times in understanding before a serious look overcame he face and she asked in a menacing voice, “So… Since you’re a lightning spirit, doesn’t that mean that you could, most possibly, riddle this entire plate with lightning?”

Tempest considered her words for a moment before replying, “Ah. You’re right. I possibly could, so I wonder why I didn’t? Mmm? Any guesses?”

It looked like he was playing around with her with a smile that clearly showed that he was making fun of her. Thinking along those lines, Cana glared at him with a fierce look on her face while remaining silent as she knew he will tell her anyway. Just like she had expected, he decided to speak after realising she was not going to say as the silence stretched for several seconds.

“Alright. I guess you could say I was reading you,” stated Tempest, to which she looked thoroughly puzzled. “By that, I mean I’ve been reading your movement, your speed, your skills and whatever else that I needed to know about you. After all, you’re my enemy and attacking you half-heartedly or going full power unnecessarily would be a waste, so the sensible way was to measure you up.”

His words shocked Cana into remaining silent for a few seconds before she finally recovered and said, “What…? You’re kidding me!” She placed a hand on her temple as if she got a headache and remained silent for a second or two before saying without looking at him, “I take it all back. You were going easy on me… you were… making a fool out of me!”

Coming to a decision, she turned to give him a fierce look and said, “I told you to go easy on me because I’m a woman, but now I take it back! You’re the worst and here I thought you’re an innocent boy that got dragged into this battle, but guess I was wrong! You’re truly a horrendous person!”

To that, Tempest merely smiled a little and replied, “Thanks for the complement, copy-cat.” When she flinched at those words, his smile widened as he continued to say, “Oh, you think I didn’t realise? Copying this technique, copying that technique and finally even going as far as to reusing the copied technique’s force. It’s fairly obvious, woman. You’re the worst compared to the likes of me!”

His strong words bore into her like a razor-sharp knife that seemingly struck a nerve in her mind. She immediately closed her hands and clenched her fists tightly as the anger from hearing his words boiled and rose to the surface. Due to this, she instantly began to surge with an immense amount of energy that shook the island and the surroundings, thickened the pressure in the air, and sent shock waves in all directions.

“You fool…! You don’t understand…! I’m not… I’m not a copy-cat! I’m not!” she shouted, forcing herself to believe she was anything but what those words described her to be.

As she screamed, a black aura instantly surrounded her and blocked Tempest from getting a view of her. The surrounding black aura soon faded and revealed Cana to have transformed into a dark being with jet black eyes with red pupils that were vertical like that of a demon. Seeing this and feeling the wind and shock waves intensified, Tempest finally decided to react.

“Alright. Time for me to get serious,” he said while wearing a bitter smile on his face.

He clenched his fists tightly and instantly surged with an enormous amount of power, which caused a very bright flash of light to occur that made it difficult to see the view. Cana covered her eyes with her hands as the bright flash of light and the strong blowing wind from her enemy’s wind buffeted her and slowly pushed her feet back while grinding against the ground.

Several seconds later, the bright light dimmed and disappeared to bring the view back to normal. When she took her hands off her eyes and turned in his direction, she was amazed to find a person radiating in a power unlike anything she had seen until now. Tempest was standing tall and strong while surrounded by blue radiating aura that randomly discharged lightning in all directions.

“Let’s dance,” he said in a confident which also became the trigger for their battle.

Gritting her teeth, Cana aimed her hand at him and began firing needles of darkness that soared very quickly to him. At the very last second, Tempest moved and his movement was incredible as he moved through each and every needle that flew in his direction, rapidly covering the distance between him and her. He surprised her by appearing directly in front of her and he smiled at the startled expression on her face before he attempted to punch her in the gut.

Reacting as quickly as she could, the Testament of Jealousy evaded his attack by leaping back by seemingly copying his speed. While moving, she aimed her hand at him and dark magic circles appeared in front of her extended hand before deadly jet of black lasers burst out and flew at him. Once again, moving at an incredible speed, Tempest got away from that spot where they hit and exploded, causing smoke to rise into the air and cover the view.

Reaching a safe place, he raised his hand and placed it on the ground before exerting his energy into it. A moment later, the ground began to erupt with lightning bursting out from underneath it, which took Cana by surprise. She leaped into the air and to evade the lightning, but what she did not expect was that her enemy was poised and ready to throw a spear made completely of lightning that he had gathered in mere moments.

Taking a stance and moving his foot forward to stamp it firmly on the ground, he hurled the lightning spear at her. The force of his throw was great, which further increased its flight speed and it pierced through the air and inflicted a direct hit onto her chest. She was surprised and that feeling changed to horror when lightning began coursing through her body, causing her to scream out in pain before falling limply to the ground.

“Yes! My skills aren’t hampered by the Physical Plane!” Tempest said, raising his clenched fist in triumph after seeing his attack pierce her.

Nodding his head in satisfaction, he activated his powers and charged at her with his lightning speed. Cana, who was slowly recovered from her heavy fall to the ground, sensed that he was approaching and immediately decided on getting revenge for making her lie down there with her back aching.

“Not so fast!” she said and placed her hand on the ground before activating her magic.

In an instant, black energy seemed to seep in to the ground before vanishing from sight. Tempest raced towards her with the clear intent of giving the finishing blow when, all of a sudden, the ground beneath him exploded and caused him to lose his footing and fall down. Looking down, he realised the fall looked very deep and unending, so unwilling to let himself fall down to see the depth of the hole, he began to surge with lightning power.

Using his power, he soared towards the side wall and began running upwards with incredible force. Soon, he reached the top and launched himself into the air before landing several meters away from the hole. The moment he landed, however, darkness erupted from underneath the ground where he stood and quickly covered his surrounding, making it difficult for him to see in the darkness.

Using his lightning speed and power, he began hammering strong punches to the darkness around him wherever he found resistance, but it resisted with a strong will. Things did not improve when a sudden explosion occurred near him, sending a few meters back and inflicting wounds on him. As soon as he landed, however, another explosion went off and he got thrown elsewhere with injuries being inflicted on him before this cycle repeated.

“D-Dammit!” he exclaimed, realising he had fallen into a trap that bombarded him. “I need some light!”

Acting on his words, he exerted his power and made himself radiate, blue lightning aura surrounded him, which finally brought the darkness into clear focus. In an instant, he realised there seemed to be a boundary that kept him locked in on all sides and looking up, he saw a magic circle that continued to release powerful dark energy blasts in his direction.

As if it was seen, the magic circle suddenly wrapped itself in a dark energy ball that exerted lethal energy from it as it quickly expanded to reach where he stood. Not hesitating for even a second, Tempest immediately held both of his hands towards the expanding mass and created an equally powerful lightning ball that also began to expand.

The two attacks collided after expanding to a certain size and it became a battle of persistence as Tempest felt himself being pushed back. He continued to exert an incredible amount of power that caused the wind to blow wildly within the space as the two forces clashed heavily before a spark went off that resulting in a massive explosion. He made a serious expression on his face and gritted his teeth as he braced for the explosion that quickly consumed him and his surroundings.

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Back outside, a large, black dome had formed in front of Cana, who had finally recovered from her fall. At that moment, the ground began to shake and the shaking only intensified and the reason for it became apparent when the black dome shape had cracks appear all over its surface. A moment later, it shattered and an enormous explosion erupted out into the open, blowing her off her feet and wiping out the very island they were located on.

“D-Did that get him…?” she asked of no one as she stared into the smoke that spread everywhere while hovering off the ground at a great height.

It took several seconds for the smoke to clear and the returning view revealed the Storm Titan hovering in mid-air as well. His body sported multiple burnt marks, bruises and cuts as he had withstood a large explosion that had been capable of wiping out the island they were on. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before slowly breathing out while stretching his shoulders experimentally.

“Good. My body isn’t too hurt,” he muttered, and he reopening his eyes to stare fixedly at his enemy.

She could not believe her eyes at the sight of him looking undaunted with what she believed were minor injuries. Despite her putting quite a bit of power into that technique, she had also hoped it would destroy him since she had no idea just how powerful he was. This made it apparent to her that her enemy was more capable of handling himself than she had expected from him.

“That was a nice try to keep my occupied so that you recovered,” he said, smiling a little more than he normally did because he was impressed by her efforts.

Surprised at receiving a praise from her enemy, she fidgeted with her fingers and replied, “I… I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel from being praised by you. I mean, you’re my enemy, so will you stop praising me? It’s weird.”

Tempest looked at her fidgeting with her fingers and said, “In war, it’s only natural to kill your enemies, so there’s no point in me holding a grudge against you. Now, why don’t you tell me why you’re participating in a war that you clearly don’t like being in. Oh, don’t ask me how I know because I’m a spirit; I just know,” he said and added the last sentence when she looked at him in surprise.

“You are fighting to kill, but there must be a motive for you unlike your allies who, most of them, are fighting for the thrill or the hunt, but you’re different. I don’t feel an intentional ill intent from you nor do the spirits surrounding you. So, if it’s possible, I’d like to discuss with you for a possible solution instead of fighting it out like the rest because the fact is that you intentionally went easy on me up until now, which points out that you don’t want to hurt me.”

His words were reasonable, and his voice was smooth and soft that would swallow any listener into it. Cana remained silent while he spoke and when he finished speaking, she continued to remain silent and folded her arms as if she was thinking about his message. Finally, she looked at him and spoke four words that took him by surprise.

“I’m not a copy-cat.”

***

Elsewhere, the Dragon Titan, Lagron, and the Testament of Madness, Keizer, where battling it out ferociously. Smashing each other with their fists and then kicking each other away before recovering to come back for more. Every now and then, they would fire energy blasts at each other in rapid succession that would either collide against the other and explode or smash into their target and explode, causing them injuries and bleeding.

“Bastard! Die!” Keirzer roared as he rushed at Lagron with his massive body with fists and kicks flying.

“I won’t!” Lagron replied back, also fighting back with his fists and kicks aimed for his enemy.

They continued to brawl it out and they speedily moved from places to places as they beat each other up viciously before sending each other flying away. Lagron flew through the air and immediately spun himself in mid-air before unleashing a powerful energy wave at his enemy, which smashed into Keizer and sent him flying away for several meters.

As soon as he landed, Keizer glared fiercely at his enemy and began to roar wildly before raising his fists into the air. In the next moment, he slammed them hard on the ground and caused it to explode and split apart several meters in all directions around him. Lagron stumbled as the ground shook, cracked and gave way beneath him before he managed to leap into the air.

Seeing that his enemy was momentarily distracted, Keizer leaped at him while shouting, “Dragon Fist!”

He pulled his fist back and brought it forward to unleash a powerful energy wave that quickly transformed into that of a dragon that seemed to roar with power as it flew towards Lagron. The Dragon Titan, sensing it and then turning to see it coming, smiled with arrogant confidence on his face.

“Fool. Dragon Crusher!” Lagron shouted, and he brought his hard forward and seemingly crushed the head of the dragon with relative ease.

In an instant, an explosion occurred that caused the wind to blow wildly and sent shock waves in all directions. This made Lagron fly several meters back before he recovered to see Keizer flying towards him with his fist raised. Momentarily surprised, he did not quickly act in time when Keizer reached him and slammed his fist against the side of his face.

The force of impact was so strong that Lagron flew straight down with incredible speed and smashed heavily into the ground, causing it to erupt and sent debris in all directions. At the same time, Keizer began firing energy blasts rapidly down onto him with the intent of not giving his enemy the chance to recover from the fall. They fell, landed and immediately exploded, causing clouds of smoke to rise to cover the view while the area shook violently from the blasts.

“Die, dammit! Die!” he roared as he fired energy blast after energy blast relentlessly.

After an umpteenth time, Keizer gathered a massive ball of energy above his head and launched it towards his enemy. With a heavy smash, the entire ball exploded and decimated the entire island in seconds while the blast radius continued to increase greatly before disappearing. Soon, the clearing smoke revealed the entire ocean was covered in debris from the remnants of the destroyed island with no sign of Lagron anywhere to be seen.

“Finally! I did it! I killed the Dragon Emperor!” Keizer shouted, throwing his hand up in triumph with a broad grin forming on his face.

“It’s Dragon Titan, fool. Try to get your enemy’s title right for once, idiot,” said the voice of the Dragon Titan, and Keizer whirled around to see Lagron hovering there with his arms crossed in front of him while his body showing burnt marks, bruises and cut all over it. As he stared at him with eyes widened in shock, Lagron spat blood from out of his mouth and wore an evil grin on his face as he said, “Now then, it seems you’re done, so why don’t I give it my best shot at killing you?”

The moment he said those words, he instantly began to surge with power while radiating a red aura that surrounded him. The wind became faster and wilder with shock waves that caused the area around them to tremble and slowly sent Keizer backwards as the forces buffeted against him. At the same time, an enormous bright glowing light erupted from where Lagron hovered, making it difficult to see him and it lasted for several seconds before it died down.

As Keizer looked back at his enemy, his eyes widened with shock at the sight of his enemy’s slightly changed appearance. He had grown taller, his body had become somewhat more muscled, but the greatest change had occurred in his hair and eyes. His hair had become spikier and his black eyes changing to that of red vertical pupils, which was similar to that of a beast.

The Dragon Titan was grinding his teeth as he stared at his enemy before saying, “You’re the Testament of Madness, so call me Mad Dragon!”

Keizer blinked twice before exclaiming in confusion, “W-What?!”

Lagron smirked and moved so quickly that Keizer missed his movement and before he knew it, Lagron had appeared standing behind his enemy. At the same time, the Testament of Madness realised a part of him was missing, and he turned to look at his left arm, which was missing from its place. Widened his eyes and slowly turning around, he saw Lagron clutching the severed arm in between his teeth like a wild beast as he turned around to face his enemy.

“I believe this is yours,” he said, taking hold of the severed arm and gesturing it at his enemy.

Keizer controlled his painful feelings from his arm missing from its place and glared menacingly at his enemy.

Seeing that expression, Lagron made a silly expression and tossed it at him while saying, “Here. You can have it back.”

He threw it at Keizer, who was startled to see the sudden action of his enemy, but he did not expect what Lagorn did next. The Dragon Titan, after waiting a second after throwing it, raced after it and quickly grabbing it in one hand, he used it to slap its owner across the face. The stinging pain on his face did not hurt him much, but the fact that his enemy had used his own severed arm to hit him struck a nerve that made him seethe with anger.

Whirling around, he was about to retaliate when, to his surprise, his severed arm came flying back and hit him in the face. Startled and distracted, it did not leave him with the option to retaliate when Lagron came rushing at him with his arms spread open in front of him as he gathered a large amount of energy before firing it at him. The large wave instantly decimated the severed arm and enveloped Keizer before continuing to fly towards an empty portion to the Bazaraka Continent before crash landing.

The smoke cleared and revealed that Keizer was lying down on the ground with burnt marks all over his body as well as bruises and cuts that seeped with blood. There was no resting time, though because Lagron chased after him and landed in front of him with a serious look on his face. Without any sign of mercy, the Dragon Titan forcibly brought his enemy into a standing position before treating him like a punching bag.

He was fierce as he punched him hard in the face, hammered him in the chest and kneed him firmly in the stomach. The blows were dealt with a rapid succession with an amount of ferocity that was nothing like their battle until then. Finally, Lagron delivered one powerful punch that was so strong that it created shock waves and shook the ground as it smashed into Keizer’s face and sent him flying into the distance before he came to a crashing halt.

As the dust rose from his crash, the Testament of Madness lay still and silent on the ground with his face pointed upward. He coughed blood out of his bloodied face and his entire body ached with pain from the suffering multiple blows he had received by his enemy. He was angry, infuriated and filled with the murdering intent to kill his enemy, but his body felt sluggish, and his wounds made it difficult for him to move.

“Oh? What do we have here? A guy who calls himself madness but is not actually madness but a pitiful trash that deserved what he got for trying to go up against an awesome person like me!” Lagron said, who had chased after his enemy and landed in front of him.

“Y-You… b-b-bastard…!” Keizer croaked in a very weak voice.

Lagron stood there and remained silent for a moment before kneeling down to get closer to his enemy. In the next moment, he grabbed the Testament of Madness’s hair and forced him to rise up a little while his enemy felt intense pain from his hair being forcibly pulled.

“You understand now?! This! Is! Called! Madness!” Lagron yelled in a merciless voice into his enemy’s face.

He let go of his enemy’s hair and delivered his most powerful punch to his enemy’s face, which pushed him down hard onto the ground and cracked both his face and nose. The impact was so great that the entire continent shook and the ground around them cracked and split away, causing the ground’s surface to sink around them.

When he removed his fist from his enemy’s face, Keizer spluttered blood out of his mouth as blood seeped freely from his broken nose. Giving him a satisfied look, Lagron began speaking in a calm voice despite the murderous look on his face.

“Before I send you off, I think I should clarify why I killed my brother since it doesn’t feel right to just kill you off!”

Keizer coughed more blood and groaned weakly, but he still mustered the strength to glare menacingly up at him. Seeing this, Lagron smirked and continued speaking without pause.

“If I don’t like something, then I truly hate it and if I like something, then I truly cherish it. It’s the same with my brother; I cherished him very much since he was the only family left to me, but the bastard grew horns of stupidity along with his growth. He tried to usurp my rulership of the Dragon Clan, he thought he could backstab me, and he believed himself to be superior to me.”

He jabbed a thumb at himself said in a menacing voice, “The only one that’s better than me is the one I label as my rival and that’s the Phoenix Titan!” He shook his head to clear his thoughts and returned to his speech as he continued to say, “Anyway, after learning about his betrayal, I was speechless. I was hurt. I was angry. I was furious! How dare he betray me?!” He leaned towards his enemy’s face and said in a low growling voice, “That’s why… I killed him!”

The look on Keizer’s face changed to that of horror and he attempted to speak but his broken jaw did not let him.

Leaning back, Lagron sighed and said while looking into the distant, “That wasn’t my first time killing my family, though. My father, who was the Dragon Emperor before me, went wild with power and brought ruin to our world. I confronted him, pleaded him to stop the destruction, but he did not listen. So… I killed him! These were the hands that took his life!”

He raised his two hands and looked at them for a moment with a serious look on his face as he contemplated about something before letting down drop to his sides before expression changed to that of sadness.

“It’s sad, really. Having to kill my only family members and then be banished to the Dragon World, which was all but destroyed, because of the people believing that I, the Dragon Titan, was the one responsible for the cause. I didn’t complain because it left me all alone, having finally no one to disturb me, I began to train for the day I will eventually face my greatest rival again!”

He suddenly pointed a finger at him and said, “But you’re a remnant of the past that should’ve been long gone and perished! An idiot that refused to change with time, understand his surroundings like the rest of the fools in the past. A complete waste of my time and effort trying to deal with you! If you had shown the slightest bit of mercy, I probably would’ve spared your life, but you’re so miserable that it’s not worth my time caring about you one bit! That’s why; never wait for mercy because it won’t wait for you!”

With that, Lagron stood up and faced his enemy, whose eyes were twitching wildly in panic. Keizer realised his doom was upon him and after hearing the words of his enemy, he realised he had made a grave mistake. Even so, it was too late for him as Lagron did not have it in him to forgive someone who had gone as far as to attack him like that.

Aiming one hand at his wildly panicking enemy, Lagron wore a merciless expression and spoke one last time by saying, “It was unpleasant meeting you, and I will not bid you a happy ending because you aren’t worth it.” He momentarily paused and narrowed his eyes before saying, “Also, when you visit hell, inform my brother that I don’t give a damn about him anymore.”

Keizer’s eyes widened in shock and he began to scream, but it did not last long as Lagron gathered a tremendous amount of energy and released it all at once at his enemy. The wave completely consumed and destroyed the Testament of Madness from existence before creating a huge explosion that shook the whole continent. Wild blowing winds were unleashed and shock waves went in all directions, causing the mountains in the distant to tremble and caused others to crumble to the ground.

He remained silent for a moment as the smoke cleared and showed a huge hole in the ground that was quite large as he hovered in the air above it. There was not a trace of his enemy left and even the life signature of his enemy had completely vanished. The wind soon settled and the sound of battle from elsewhere on the continent could be heard from afar, which made Lagron look up and mutter in a dangerous voice.

“Let this be a lesson to those who mess with me… I am unkind like the Phoenix Titan and am a ruthless warrior!”

With that, he surged with power and soared towards the place where the war was continuing to happen between the demons and the inhabitant warriors of the Bazaraka Continent.