The whole area looked like a storm had swept through it not long ago, leaving much of it devastated and destroyed. At the same time, heavy clashes of steel against steel rang across the battlefield as the entire area was littered with meteor craters in the ground. The reason behind this destruction, the cause behind this chaos was none other than the fierce battle that raged between the Testament of Hatred and Testament of Greed against their sword enemies, the Sword Titan and the War Titan.
“Die!” Croto, the Testament of Hatred, shouted as he charged at the Sword Titan, Dominic Rutherford.
“Not today!” Dominic shouted back, and he blocked the oncoming sword with his sword, causing violently sparks to burst out.
Their clash of forces caused the ground to shake violently and split everywhere, making the ground beneath their feet to sink.
Croto gritted his teeth in rage as he tried his best to push his sword against his enemy, but after realising they were evenly matched, he yelled, “I hate you!”
Dominic felt a sudden sense of danger and, a moment later, a violent explosion occurred where he stood, propelling him into the air. He groaned in pain from the shock of the sudden explosion that came out of nowhere, but he did not have time to dwell on it because his enemy had launched after him at super speed. As he attempted to move his body through the air, he winced in pain as the explosion had left his body feeling numb.
“AARRRGGGHHH!!!!”
While screaming with fury and surging with wild power, Croto chased after his enemy and slammed him on the side of his helmet. The blow had a lot of force and power behind it since Croto intended in severing the head of his enemy, but it did not work. Due to the incredible durability of the Destiny Armour protecting Dominic, it took the blow and the force caused his head to spin wildly while he flew towards the ground at high speed before crashing with a heavy impact.
The floating dust from the crash slowly dispersed and revealed the Sword Titan to be rising back to his feet much to the Testament of Hatred’s dislike.
“Why won’t you die?!” Croto exclaimed, very annoyed by the fact that his enemy lived despite receiving powerful blows.
As he lowered himself to land firmly on the ground, Dominic lifted his visor that was protecting his face and said in a cool voice, “Oh… I guess death just hates me?”
That touched a nerve in Croto’s mind, which made him snap all reason and logic, which made he bellow like a bull.
“DON’T YOU DARE MOCK ME!!!! UUUUURRRRRAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!”
He began to scream with a fury that made the wind blow wildly around that felt like a storm was hitting them. The ground cracked and they spread in all directions while some places simply exploded from the sheer pressure of the power. There were no trees that withstood this force and even the mountains crumbled under the weight of the mighty power being unleashed by an enemy of the world.
“I. HATE. YOU. I. HATE. THIS. WORLD. I. HATE EVERYTHING!!!!!!” The Testament of Hatred roared like madman, losing all sense of himself and going into a rampage.
As a violent tremor ran through the ground, Dominic stared at his enemy losing his senses and heard his Sacred Spirit say in his mind, “My goodness…! He’s lost it!” Then, she sighed and said in a low voice, “There goes our chance to save him.”
Dominic made a frown and quietly replied, “I didn’t plan to save him.”
“Eh?” Seta, his Sacred Spirit, said in a voice filled with surprise. “I thought you would, master. I mean, isn’t it to do with your fair judgement of giving an enemy a chance at redemption.”
He nodded his head and lowered his eyebrows as he replied, “I normally would’ve, but this man is one of those special cases where he must die. If he had been forced into battle, then he had plenty of opportunities to peacefully surrender and lead a different life; a life away from battle. However, he fought in the ancient times and got sealed but, as soon as he got released, he comes back to destroy the world.
If he had wished to surrender, he would’ve pretended to fight us and then, he would’ve surrendered, but that did not happen. I even went easy on him at the start just to be sure that I wasn’t attacking someone who was simply trying to escape the battle with his or her life. That was not the case this time as, this person so proved well, he is not worth any ounce of mercy that I would normally show to my enemies.”
His firm words lodged themselves into his Sacred Spirit’s mind, and she remained silent for a moment before saying, “Now… Did you decide that based on your sense of justice or the freedom of sensibility?”
This time, Dominic chuckled lightly and said, “Both. After all, who the hell is he to decide that he hates the world or not? Sure, it’s his opinion and he should keep it but it didn’t mean he should display it. This world belongs to all; from the smallest creature to the largest creature alive.”
Seta remained silent once again, thinking about her next words before saying them in a cool voice, sounding impressed, “Hats off to you, master. That is a powerful dialogue that clearly shows why I chose you as my master. When he smiled a little, her voice became serious and said, “However, the Dominion of the Blades is weakening. It’s only a matter of time before it’s dispelled.”
True to her words, the swords materialised all around them were disappearing one after another and some did not respond to his commands. Even the space, around them, was slowly releasing particles of light as it dissolved to return them back to the Demon Continent.
“It would be good if we had help from your friend, but… he’s currently busy with his own battle,” said Seta, and he turned his head to look at a place quite a distance away that was shrouded in darkness, indicating the location of the War Titan.
A while back, the two friends were about to fight the Testament of Hatred when black smoke suddenly came out of nowhere and swept them like a storm. It selectively ignored both Croto and Dominic as it enveloped around Nara before soaring away to land and transform into a dome shape, trapping the War Titan in that black swirling space of darkness.
“I wish I could help him, but…” Dominic said and trailed away as he turned back to look at his enemy, who was surging with overwhelming power that made the entire world quiver with a sense of foreboding.
Seta voiced his worries by saying, “Yes. Our enemy’s growing stronger than us and we’re already maxed out. Anymore power you release will permanently damage your human body, unless… you activate—!”
“I know,” he said quietly in a sharp tone that made her stop speaking in mid-sentence.
He knew his enemy was as strong as him and despite the amount of power ups he performed, his enemy did the same to match him on even terms. The only field that Dominic lost the advantage was the race to which he belonged to and that was the Human Race. Being a race that had to work hard from day one to get strong unlike the demons, who were naturally gifted with magic, had limited lifetime and greater limitations than people from the other races.
“Even so, I will not give up! I will win…! I must win… for the sake of the people, my friends and, most importantly, my family!” Dominic thought, which made the images of his wife and son float in his mind, their sweet smiles being nice to look at.
“Are you sure you want to risk your life to win?” Seta asked, her voice full of concern. “You do realise your lifespan will drastically decrease and even leave you in a far worse state than you can imagine!”
He merely shrugged his shoulders and replied, “If my victory will save the world and secure my family’s future, then I’m willing to bet my life on it! After all; no pain, no gain.”
He recited the last words that he always heard his master say and, now, it had come back to make him understand the true worth of such words. It made him inwardly smile at the thought of making his master proud and, at the same time, doing something he will be proud in the years to come. He was also moved to concern deeply for his family after overhearing his friend, the Phoenix Titan’s emotional speech with the God of Energy, Engruat.
“Alright!” He said in a voice full of firm determination, and Seta did not say anything as she waited for him to perform the ritual to activate the full force of the Destiny Blade.
He spun the sword on his hand skilfully through the air and stabbed its pointed end down on the ground. Then, he clasped the handle with both of his hands and began to chant an incantation that, with eash word uttered, caused the sword to glow and made strange symbols to appear carved onto the blade’s surface.
“Spirits of the old, guardians of the new and the lords that oversee us, I proclaim my call to the lords of powers and destiny! I am a warrior with honour and dignity on the battlefield, I am warrior that fights for freedom and justice, and I am a warrior that leads victory against the greatest odds! I make this call for assistance, not for myself, but for the people around me, for the world that needs me and for the beings that follow me! I swear on my life, my blood and my soul that I, Dominic Rutherford, am the worthy successor to the Destiny Blade and beseech the Spirit Emperor to grant me victory to ensure the safety of this world!”
The sword glowed brighter and brighter until it became difficult to continue to look at Dominic as the wind blew wilder than before while shock waves were sent in all directions. The ground, around the stabbed area, shook and formed large cracks that spread in all directions. The weapon began to vibrate strongly, and he felt his hands shaking from the vibrating force, but Dominic mustered all the strength he could to keep his hands to firmly grip the sword.
When he came to an end of his incantation, he took a deep breath, then breathed out slowly and said, “Dominion of the Destiny Warrior!”
The moment he yelled the technique name, the space at the top split open above where he stood and a blinding flash of light burst forth as it soared down towards him. As the light hit him with its full force, Dominic closed his eyes from the sudden jolt that ran throughout his body before screaming as the incredible power surged and enveloped him.
The Testament of Hatred, who had completed powering up to his maximum, got buffeted by the wild blowing wind before being blown away. Even the world felt some tension coming from the Demon Continent despite the force being supressed greatly This lasted for a few seconds before a blinding flash of light occurred, making it extremely difficult to see the view.
A few minutes passed before the light dimmed and disappeared to return the view back to normal to show that the dome shaped space was gone. The area around where the light struck was covered by a lot of smoke that was steadily decreasing. Several meters away, there was the sound of breaking rocks before the Testament of Hatred rose out of the rubble, scratch wounds covering his body with blood oozing steadily out of them.
He breathed a deep sigh and stared at the area covered by smoke and asked, “Such incredible power…! What was it, and where did it come from?”
It did not take long for the smoke to disappear and answer his question in the form of a single person standing firmly behind the last remanent veil of smoke. Once it cleared, the person came into clear view to reveal the spectacular sight of the man that was none other than his enemy.
The man was covered from head to foot in golden armour with golden armoured wings sprouting from behind his back, which were presently outstretched. His face was covered by a golden helmet with long golden hair streaming from behind his neck as well as a red cape, attached to the shoulders, fluttered in the wind behind his back. In one hand, he wielded a long sword that looked fashionably attractive and priceless judging from the jewels decorating its hilt and etched on the sides of the razor-sharp blade were strange characters that glowed with power.
“What the?” Croto asked, looking dimly at the figure, unable to comprehend who this person was. “Who are you?”
He felt a strange similarity that connected this warrior and the enemy he had been fighting up-till-now. Sure enough, when the warrior spoke, his voice was also similar to his enemy’s as he spoke in a cool voice.
“I am the Destiny Warrior, and I am destined to defeat you,” said Dominic in a voice that was deeper and stronger than his original, which seemed to cause some surprise to his enemy, “and, now, you die.”
As he spoke, he slowly raised his sword into the air and it got surrounded by golden-blue aura, which also surrounded its wielder as he surged with power. In the next moment, he kicked off the ground and rocketed towards Croto with a fierce intent to kill as the battle between the Testament of Hatred and the Sword Titan began reaching its finality.
***
Meanwhile, inside the dark swirling space where no light penetrated, the War Titan was fighting a fierce battle. His enemy was the Testament of Geed, Kress, who had transformed his soul into a dark swirling mist that cast his enemy into a dark space that he had created. Within this place, Kress took revenge by attacking his enemy from the safety of the shadows and, all the while, the War Titan proved to be helpless as he was one-sidedly beaten while not being able to retaliate.
“Come out of the shadows and fight me, coward!” Nara roared, swinging his arms wildly, hoping they would make contact with his enemy.
He might as well be swinging them aimlessly because Kress could see in the darkness while he could not and chose at moments when Nara least expected him to strike. This infuriated Nara greatly, causing him to unleash a torrent of fists and energy blast in all directions, but to no avail. They merely went into the darkness and disappeared with not a single explosion occurring.
“Thank you for the energy. I’ll be fully restored to power in no time at this rate,” replied Kress, a smile evident in the sound of his voice.
“Damn!” Nara grunted, breathing deeply as he tried his best to control his temper. He closed his eyes and began to mediate by thinking, “Focus… Focus…”
It was a strategy advised by Sevedant, who had noticed that the War Titan was physically strong, but was mentally weak. His slightly weak mental fortitude and rather weak patience caused him to explode with anger from time to time, which resulted in him either screaming or fighting. Sevedant had seen how bad Nara’s mental strength was and decided to spend some time training him as he saw the outburst often occurred when Nara came in contact with the Dragon Titan.
“Mind over body. Not body over mind,” said Sevedant in a severe voice at one point in time during their training after Nara and Lagron had a fierce argument. “Body listens to mind. Not the other way.”
Nara, who was self-taught his way of fighting, became annoyed and exclaimed, “That idiot keeps getting on my nerve!”
“Cool,” said Sevedant in a calm voice, his skeleton hands rising up in a gesture of calm. “Cool. Now, focus. Breathe. Breathe easily. Relax. Focus the mind. Concentrate. Anything. Just concentrate. Need inner peace.”
“Inner peace?” Nara asked, looking sceptically at his mentor, trying to perform the steps Sevedant told him, but he quickly found them pointless. “I don’t understand, Sev. What inner peace? What should it be like?”
For a moment, Sevedant stared at him in silence as he gathered his thoughts and replied with, “Feel. Ground. Air. Nature. Feel all. Flowing through. Flowing around. Clear mind. Focused mind. Inner peace. No conflict. No worries. Keep calm. Keep cool. Relax.”
Nara, realising the things he was missing were laid out by his mentor, groaned and muttered, “How do I get them all?”
To this, there was a faintest hint of a smile in Sevedant’s voice as he said, “Work. Practice. Work. Practice. Makes a difference. Changes you. You’ll see.”
Now, coming back to the present and facing a situation where he was being toyed by his enemy, Nara realised the advice, which he deemed to be useless, was exactly what he needed to help him face this danger. With him focusing on thinking that one single word, he managed to slowly calm his racing heart and steady his high paced mind to think things through.
“Now, let’s see if I can do just as well as Sevedant said I would,” he thought and inwardly smiled.
He focused his senses and sharpened his ears, which were greatly enhanced thanks to being part of the Beast Race. This helped him sense the danger of an incoming shadow energy blast that was launched from within the shadows. Just as he had expected, the blast was launched from a direction that he was facing away from as he was not expecting to be attacked from behind.
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As it flew and reached the spot he stood on, he swirled his body around and slammed it with his right elbow, sending it flying back where it came from. Its speed had increased and soared very quickly towards Kress, who did not expect it to be rebounded back at him. A moment later, Nara heard the sound of an explosion occur for the first thing within the swirling darkness followed by a curse.
“Not expecting that one, were you?” He asked, his voice filled with overflowing confidence.
At that moment, another memory from his training time played with, this time an advice given by the Phoenix Titan.
“Do not be arrogant,” he had said firmly with a serious look on his face. “The important thing a warrior must not do is become arrogant in their skills and abilities. They will only lead to their ruin and, if you do it, you’ll end up getting defeated. So, remember to not become arrogant and get carried away by your powers because you may never know when you drop your guard and when your enemy strikes you with you being completely unaware of them.”
This advice played out in Nara’s mind just in time because, at that moment, he felt a swirling force of wind flying at him before he sensed a dangerous aura headed his way. He quickly evaded the attack, which turned out to be a black swirling spear of smoke that scattered a moment after missing its target.
“That was close,” he thought, wiping the cold sweat that had formed from the sudden worry he had felt after seeing the attack just miss him. “I better take these advices, or I won’t know what other problems I’ll find myself in.”
With that firmly set in his mind, he began to react to all the attacks that were launched at him and managed to either deflect them back or dodge them with relative ease. His sharp senses further sharpened with a cool mind that he focused with, making the attacks of his enemy useless against him.
Kress, realising this fact, grew in wickedness and said, “I’m not through with you just yet, War Titan! You stripped me of my chance to take over your body, which should’ve rightfully been mine, so I’ll take from you what belongs to you!”
“What belongs to me?” Nara asked in a mock severity with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “If you mean a fist, sure; come and get it in the face, fool.”
Kress snorted and said, “Oh, I’ll get it alright, but not your fist; your memories.”
“What?!” Nara exclaimed in shock, and his eyes widened in horror as the darkness closed in from all sides and seemingly enveloped him.
He stood in a colourless world where there was no light, nor darkness; just the emptiness of the space around him. Then began the voices of people, many of them in fact, and they all shouted insults at him, words of hatred and great dislike. He winced at the sound of the voices, gritted his teeth at the great hatred the voices shared and shut his eyes tight as if hoping everything would go away because it was a traumatic experience.
“Stop it…!” he muttered in a low voice that shook with fear and anger.
These were the voices of the people he had heard at a young age, calling him out for being a weakling and a loser that always had a toy with him wherever he went. He was a simple loving kid that had no tendency for violence, which was unlike his clansmen and this fact made them believe he was a broken child. As such, this led to one event to another and that eventually led their children to bully Nara to the point of destroying the toy, which sparked the events that would change his life in a nasty way.
“Stop it!” he shouted, trying his best to shut out the voices.
As the voices died down, his enemy’s voice could be heard asking, “Really? Stop what? The pain? The agony? The torture? After all, it is your fault your parents died! If you had been a quiet boy, they would’ve lived and you would’ve been with them!”
“AAARRRGGGHHH!!!” Nara roared, getting to his feet and glaring around only to find the figures of his parents standing in front of him as an unknown source of light shined down on them. He momentarily hesitated and slowly said, “Father…? Mother…?”
He began reaching out to them when they were suddenly swallowed by the darkness in the background, causing him to widen his eyes in shock. This made him run in the direction they were swallowed into, desperately searching for to free them from the darkness of the world that he caused them to be in. When he reached a point, he found them walking away, hand in hand without once looking back at their son.
“Come back!” Nara shouted, continuing to run but no matter how fast he ran, they kept moving away at great speed until they finally vanished from sight.
He stopped running and stood there, looking dazed and alarmed by the sudden disappearance of his parents when the voice said in a playful voice, “Well, well, well! Looks like your parents turned their back on you…! After all, why would any parent choose to come back to the child that had them killed?”
“No!” Nara exclaimed, falling to his knees with a horrified expression on his face. “I didn’t do it! I didn’t mean for them to… I… I… didn’t…!”
He began to spill tears from his eyes as the long-sealed pain in his heart opened up and overwhelmed him with a great amount of sorrow and regret. There was no count to the number of times he cursed himself for being the cause, for existing that led to their demise. All he ever wanted was to live in peace with his family and that was taken from him when he lost control of his anger and went berserk on that fateful day.
As he knelt and wept like a baby, his enemy’s voice asked in a gleeful voice, “Don’t you think it’s only fair that you surrender? Isn’t it only fair that you give up? I’m sure your parents would be pleased to see you die?”
Having lost the will to fight, Nara hung his head loosely and muttered, “Why not…? I… I’m all… alone now… My parents are gone…! They left me… because I… I…”
His voice trailed away because he could not utter the words the came to his mind, which signalled the presence of his enemy to draw nearer while whispering, “That’s right. You’re all alone now. You are now empty.”
At those words, the darkness began closing in around him at high speed without a thought of sparing him the pain. Just as it was about to consume him, there was a sudden brilliant glow of light from his right arm that made the darkness recede and keep its distance from him.
“W-What’s that?!” Kress’s voice exclaimed in a voice filled with shock.
The light slowly dimmed and revealed a gauntlet that was attached to his right hand, which surprise Nara. It was the weapon he always wore as it once belonged to the War Titan before him, as was stated by the Simhara Beast Clan’s leader before him.
“Only the chosen one is to wear this and shall be known as the War Titan!”
“What…?” he whispered, staring at the glowing gauntlet that seemed to slowly fill him with a new energy and purpose that he had lost wandering all alone in the darkness.
At that moment, the gauntlet turned into light and soon took the form of a young girl that had beastly features, like possessing two ears on top of her head, a tail and sharp claw like hands. She had short blue hair that was neatly trimmed around her shoulders as she stared at the surroundings with red fierce eyes.
“You shall not come near my master!”
“What?!” Kress exclaimed, unnerved by the tone of power and authority that flowed in her voice.
Nara looked up at her with bleary eyes and asked, “Who?”
The girl looked down at him and a smile appeared on her face while her red fearsome eyes softened upon meeting his gaze and introduced herself by saying, “Greeting, master. My name is Yudastra, I am the Sacred Spirit of the gauntlet you always wear and this is our very first meeting.”
“Y-Yudastra?” Nara asked, feeling like he hard that name somewhere before when it suddenly clicked in his memories. “Y-You’re the Sacred Spirit that swore to always serve the chose one that would become the War Titan!” When she nodded, he frowned and asked, “In that case, why haven’t you appeared before me until now?”
She smiled sadly and replied with, “I’m sorry for not doing so, master, because you didn’t need me until now. You were strong, brave, rather reckless and somewhat overconfident in yourself, but you never once needed my direct contact with you. You understood the basics of using my powers with the gauntlet, so I watched. I couldn’t do that now because you are being taken advantage of by our enemy about you being alone.”
Yudastra placed a hand on her chest and said in a sincere voice, “Your parents may be gone, master, and your friends will eventually move on, but I am here for you, master. I’ve always been here, watching you, listening to you, and following you wherever you went. I was also there when your parents lost their lives and you believed you were alone.”
Nara widened his eyes in alarm and asked, “What?! Y-You were… there…?”
She nodded sadly and said, “Yes and let me tell you straight; your parents did not die because of you, they chose to sacrifice their lives to save you. Forget the half-baked lies and false statements that told you things to cover up the truth, but it cannot be hidden forever. On that day, they died so that their son could live on. It takes a lot of courage and guts to stand up to what is right and willingly give up their lives for the sake of their child.”
Nara stared at her with his mouth gawking open in astonishment and as she smiled softly at him, Kress began speaking in a heated voice, saying, “Woman, don’t you think—!”
She abruptly turned to face in the direction the voice came from and bellowed, “Shut up!”
The force of her shout followed by the sudden release of dangerous power caused Kress to instantly to go quiet. Her face showing a truly fearsome expression before she spoke in a voice filled with killing intent.
“I’m speaking to my master. Don’t interrupt me!” Yudastra said, her eyes throwing daggers at him. She turned back to her master with her smile back in place and said, looking embarrassed, “Forgive my rudeness, master, but I’ve always been told I seem to possess a personality that rivalled that of the Goddess of War. I am only short tempered, so there’s no way I could compare myself to such an incredible being.”
During that interruption, Nara had slowly recovered himself and regained his confidence after being released from the mental torture he was put through by his enemy. He was aware of the fact that his parents died to protect him, but he was the only one who believed that, so being told about them by his Sacred Spirit made them believable and hard to doubt. Turning his attention to her, he realised she had been with him all this time without knowing, which made him ask a question that he desperately needed an answer to.
“Will you always stay by my side?” he asked, looking hopeful.
She stopped speaking and blinked down at him in surprise before making the kindest smile he had ever seen a person make to him and say in a quiet voice, “Always and always.”
Nara looked up at her and a bright smile appeared there before she extended a hand towards him. She wanted to help him get to his feet, but he realised he should not take it and, instead, rose to his feet on his own.
When he noticed that she looked disappointed, he said in a soft voice, “A War Titan shouldn’t seek help from a woman just to get up, you know?”
He was slightly worried that he had hurt her feelings, which was why he turned his statement into a question. To his relief, she beamed up at him and said, “Well spoken like a true warrior, master! Now, why don’t we end this matter here and now so we can finally move on?”
Nara knew that she was referring to the matter regarding his enemy, the Testament of Greed, who had been hurting his mind and heart more times than he could count. So, he quite agreed with her and decided to put an end to the enemy once and for all. When he nodded, she transformed into light and became a gauntlet that attached itself to his right arm.
“Master, let’s finish this job by using Soul Destroyer,” she said in his mind.
“Wait. Isn’t that... excessive…?” he muttered, realising how dangerous that attack would be for his enemy.
“He deserves it, master. After all the pain and agony, he put you through, taking control of your body and then making you relieve the nightmare of the time when you lost your parents; he deserves to not exist at all!” Yudastra said, her voice filled with firm belief in wiping out their enemy.
Nara smiled a little because he wholeheartedly agreed with her and because his enemy was not worth any show of mercy. As such, he activated the gauntlet’s power and it shone brightly in the surrounding darkness that could not move any further in fear of being decimated by the brilliant light. In an instant, his hand was also covered in a similar looking gauntlet and impressive looking chain with splendid decorations appearing around his neck, giving him an impressive look.
“Bastard! Don’t you dare—!” Kress’s voice bellowed, realising what his enemy was about to do.
“I will!” Nara growled, a fearsome look worn on his face. He clenched the gauntlets and bumped them together as their power grew with greater intensity before he raised them into the air and bellowed, “Soul Destroyer!”
“Stop!!!” Kress yelled, his darkness surging forward with great desperation despite it disappearing the moment they drew nearer to the light.
Nara swung his gauntlets down and smashed the ground, causing an instantaneous release of overwhelming power. The world shook and great cracks appeared everywhere on the ground, revealing red glowing lights in between the cracks. A moment later, the lights erupted onto the surface and covered everything, decimating the darkness while the drawn out scream of the Testament of Greed could be heard before it vanished along with the world.
Several seconds later, the darkness was shattered and Nara found himself standing in broad daylight on the Demon Continent. Feeling relieved, he breathed a deep sigh and looked at the blue sky overhead with a feeling of satisfaction.
“Well done, master,” said Yudastra, speaking in a complimenting tone.
“If it weren’t for you, I would’ve pointlessly fought him or died with my will crushed,” he replied, admitting his fault and accepting her assistance. “So, I’m the one that should really be thanking you, Yuda.”
“Yuda…” she said, sounding surprised that he had shortened her name into nickname.
Feeling he might have hurt her, he quickly said, “If you don’t like it, I’ll just call you Yudastra.”
“It’s fine, master. I actually like it. Please call me that from now on,” she replied earnestly.
As he smiled, the ground shook and almost made him stumble from the shock, which made him realise there was another battle going on nearby. Turning in that direction, he saw swords flying, raining down from all sides towards the Testament of Hatred, who seemed to be desperately trying to evade them. Turning the other direction, Nara saw an unfamiliar golden armoured warrior with golden armoured wings sprouting out of his back as he chased after Croto.
The maddened figure of Croto continued to scream his hateful words at the oncoming attacks, making them disappear but not all of them were affected as they soared and scratched or stabbed into him. He howled in pain and screamed more hateful words, which made the swords disappear and heal the wound, but the attacks kept coming.
“Wow…! It’s a war of blades!” Nara said, watching as swords came flying out of the sword that the golden warrior wielded, whom he instantly recognised to be his friend from what he shouted.
“Hate yourself for hating the world that you’ve been given the privilege to live in!” Dominic shouted, using all of his might to summon swords out of thin air to surround his enemy.
Several times, Croto dodged them and grew closer to him to take his head, but Dominic merely summoned swords from out of his armour that flew directly at the unsuspecting enemy. He was pushed back as several swords struck him down in the arms and legs, pinning him to the ground. He roared in pain and agony as blood poured out from the wounds as his enemy stepped towards him with the glowing blade beside him.
“Reform yourself and you can start a new life in this place,” suggested Dominic, who was giving his enemy one last chance at redemption.
“Keep it!” Croto snarled, his eyes bearing deep hatred for his enemy. “Stop pitying me and trying to spare my life! Either kill me or die yourself because I hate the fact that I exist in this forsaken world! I did all I could, but nothing ever went my way! I hated that fact, and I also hated the world that made it seem that I am a truly worthless maggot with the rest of you lot!”
“You don’t understand—!” Dominic began, but he was cut off in mid-sentence by his enemy.
“You understand nothing! Life is unfair, unforgiving and such a world should not exist! That’s why, I’ll destroy this place and avenge all that I’ve lost because of it!” Croto yelled, his face twisting in madness as he lost all sense of logic. Before the Sword Titan could do anything, he screamed, “Spirits of Darkness and Death, heed my call and accept this one soul that hated all who exist and come forth to vanquish all that I loathe! Disaster Sphere!”
The moment he screamed the words, a murderous aura surrounded him before his body transformed into a dark light that turned into a sphere of energy, which began expanding on all directions. Dominic, realising the fatality of that attack, leaped several meters away as the sphere began decimating the ground as it expanded to a large scale. Whatever it touched got disintegrated as the entire continent shook the continent, causing many of its inhabitants to stumble and fall as the distant mountains trembled and collapsed in a heap.
Nara remained in his spot, realising he was safe where he stood when he noticed his friend standing just out of reach of the attack.
“Dominic!” the War Titan called to his friend, moving forward to lend him a hand.
At that moment, the Sword Titan held his golden armoured hand towards him in a gesture to stop him while saying, “Stay there, Dom! I got this!”
“Eh?” Nara blinked, surprised by the next course of action that his friend took to destroy that seemingly invincible attack.
Dominic gripped his sword firmly and exerted his energy in activating a new technique he had never used before. In response, the sword transformed into light and became one with his armour, which glowed brighter than the sun up in the sky. He moved his one hand upward and held his forefinger extended towards the sky, which led the gathered energy to fly up in a straight line like a laser.
He, then, stood his ground with firm determination as he prepared to unleash the attack that was gathered at the tip of his finger. Turning his attention back to the destructive sphere, he realised it had gotten nearer to him, which spurred him into bringing his finger down while shouting the technique name out loud.
“Sword of Judgement!”
The laser like energy split the air into two as it came down and struck the top of the swirling, out of control, dangerous sphere. It was an attack that had the full force of the Sword Titan and his Sacred Spirit behind it, making it a devastating attack. In an instant, the murderous sphere of energy was split into two and the result was a massive explosion that shook the continent with a tremendous force.
The wild blowing wind destroyed much of the forests nearby and the mountains lost their support and came tumbling down. The warriors of the Vampires, Werewolves and the demons desperately cast many barrier spells to survive the onslaught by nature from the resulting explosion. Smoke spread in all directions and covered the entire view, making it difficult to see what was happening at all, covering the warriors in the debris that followed.
Once the smoke separated, an astonishing view of the Demon Continent having a large hole in its middle, which cut the continent into two small parts. The surviving warriors were on the larger portion of the continent and they slowly stood from the dust covering them to gape in shock at the large mass of missing land that used to be there moments before.
“Wow!”
“That’s insane!”
“It’s… gone…!”
“Oh man…!”
“This is crazy!”
Many of them shouted out their exclamations as their feelings were mutual in that respect despite being enemies. Elsewhere, on the smaller portion of the continent that was left to drift away by the ocean tide, stood two warriors.
“I think I overdid it,” muttered Dominic, who had returned to his normal attire with his golden armour losing their energy and disappearing after being overused, except for his long hair that remained.
Nara, who was his best friend, hesitated for a moment before saying, “Yeah. You certainly did, but hey, it was his fault for making things difficult, so you had no choice, right? You did what you had to do.”
The War Titan was trying to be supportive of his friend and Dominic knew this, which was why he smiled and replied with, “Thanks for the support but this is bad.” With that, he sighed and as his friend looked questioningly at him, he continued on by saying, “We split up so that we wouldn’t cause too much damage to this continent but, in the end, this happens. This is… frustrating.”
Nara smiled a little and said reassuringly, “Relax. It’s not your fault. The enemy used his own life to set off a bomb like destruction that could’ve had much more devastating results, but you stopped that from happening. So, cheer up.”
Dominic was surprised, not by the supporting words, by how cheerful his friend sounded, which was greater than usual. Nara was grinning more than he ever did in his presence, which was very unusual to see. He was about to ask him about it when the two of them simultaneously sharpened the looks on their faces and turned towards a certain direction. At the exact same moment, a huge mass of energy rocketed into the sky and split it apart with a sight that was both magnificent and terrible to see.
“Oh! That’s a lot of power!” Nara said, putting heavy emphasis on the word ‘lot’ because it was exactly that.
“W-What the heck is that?!” Dominic exclaimed, eyes widening with shock. Then, as he recognised the energy signatures from its release, his eyes narrowed gravely, and he muttered, “This power… it belongs to Lakshman!”
“The Phoenix Titan?” Nara asked, and Dominic nodded with a grim expression on his face.
“Yes, and he’s unleashing a lot of power for some reason,” said Dominic, becoming worried for the safety of his friend. “Maybe he needs help.”
Nara looked at his friend and then at the wave of energy soaring into the air and said, “Okay. If he needs our help, then that’s exactly what he’ll be getting from us! We’re done with our enemies anyway, so let’s head over! The Calamity Titan is, by far, the strongest enemy we have to face, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s struggling in that battle.”
Dominic nodded and said, “I agree. Let’s go!”
Agreeing in unison, the two surged with power and rocketed into the sky before soaring towards the Human Continent. At the same time, the other Nine Pillars of Power also began making their way towards the Human Continent, where the fearsome battle between the Phoenix Titan and the Calamity Titan was taking place.