The massive wave of light continued to dazzle the world with its mighty glow while shock waves and wild blowing winds were sent in all directions. The tidal waves of the ocean swept in all directions, submerging multiple island while others, like the island that the Manjuvad Demon Clan were on, were farther away and escaped the tsunami waves. The world quaked from the sheer force felt from the massive energy being released from the light.
It took several minutes before the light finally died down and allowed smoke to spread in all directions near the Human Continent. As the forces of nature returned to their normal state, the view cleared and revealed a completely empty space of water that contained no strips of land that were there previously. They seemed to have been consumed by the massive destruction that was unleased while ocean surface slowly steadied and became calm once more.
As the smoke slowly disappeared, a solitary figure appeared while hovering off the ocean surface. His body was heaving with great shuddering breaths from the excessive amount of energy he had released to activate the Mass Destruction spell. The Phoenix Titan had survived the ordeal of the destruction by the barrier that protected him, which he deactivated now as he no longer could keep it active.
He was feeling tired from the excessive amount of energy he had been putting out to keep up with his enemy. Not to mention, the short battle with the monster caused him to drain much of the energy he had been conserving to use against his enemy. This made his breath come in rasps as he tried his best to steady his racing heart, which throbbed with a slight pain of overdoing himself.
“Seriously… That stupid Leviathan… Appearing so suddenly and making me use all the power I had…” he muttered, bending over to clutching his knees in a desperate attempt to steady his breathing.
“You shouldn’t be blaming the monster for your faults,” said a familiar voice, and Lakshman looked up in shock.
The sun was dazzling, so it was hard to see, but a dark figure was slowly descending from the sky. That person was radiating in purple-red aura that surrounded him with black and blue lightning bursting around him, and his appearance had changed somewhat from what it used to look like. His hair had become spiky with shades of purple coloured several parts of his hair and his eyes had become that of golden vertical pupils like that of a monster. Even his body seemed to have grown and become bulky with the increase in muscle mass.
The Calamity Titan descended from the sky with a power that made the pressure thicken in his surroundings. Feeling it, Lakshman could only groan in the realisation that his plan to defeat his brother had miserably failed. He had hoped that, at the very least, he would be knocked out for some time so that he could recover, but it was not to happen. Judging from his enemy’s slight change in appearance and the dramatic increase in power, the Phoenix Titan realised that he had achieved his final transformation.
Now, while looking at his enemy, the Calamity Titan wore an annoyed expression on his face and said, “You know, I’m very disappointed. I was going to show off my final transformation, the power that I promised that I will show the next time we meet. I was going to gloat and laugh at the look of horror on your face, but I never thought I needed it to escape from that massive explosion of power. Curse you, Phoenix Titan! Curse you to the pits of hell!”
This made Lakshman chuckle and smile softly as he replied, “Sorry if I disappointed you, but I guess it proves that the plan I executed was too much for you to handle under normal methods.”
A dark shadow fell over the Calamity Titan’s face as he stared silently at his enemy, his expression unreadable. In the next moment, he disappeared and reappeared right before the Phoenix Titan and delivered a powerful punch to his gut. Lakshman, shocked by the sudden movement of his enemy, opened his mouth and groaned painfully before his enemy delivered an uppercut to his jaw with the same flowing movement.
As he slowly rose into the air, the Calamity Titan moved quickly to the side and, clasping his hands together, slammed them against the side of his enemy’s head. The force of impact sent the Phoenix Titan hurtling through the air, his body spinning wildly, and slammed heavily on the shores of the Human Continent. A great groove was dug into the ground that showed his crash landing before he finally came to a stop.
He lay there, unmoving for a moment while he breathed deeply before managing to push himself up. At that moment, he felt a violent sensation enter his throat before he lurched, unable to contain himself. Once it cleared, he wiped it off with the side of his hand and fell sideways with a pained expression on his face before managing to push himself into a sitting position.
“Pathetic!” The Calamity Titan called, his arms folded as he flew in his direction and slowly landed several meters away. “I expected the mighty Phoenix Titan to be strong, not this weak after taking three blows! Now, get up! I’m not done with you yet!”
Lakshman coughed and spluttered a few times as he managed to stagger to his feet while muttering, “I guess… this is my penalty for… all the wrongs I committed in the past…”
His nickname was Lucky, but he felt that it did little to help him in his current situation. He knew, throughout his life, he had been lucky to have kind, rather overprotective parents, women that he once loved back with him and people that would die for him without hesitation.
He also thought about the numerous times he almost died in battle, but luckily survived due to someone’s timely arrival, the release of his powers, or the power of Divine Protection. Now, he was alone, with no one to help him as he turned to face his enemy with only mother nature being the witness of their battle.
Seeing the sad state his enemy was in, the Calamity Titan snorted and said disdainfully, “I can’t believe, moments ago, you were gloating about using a spell that might’ve killed me!”
Lakshman stared at his enemy, a look of disbelief on his face as he replied, “No! You’re wrong, Calamity Titan. That power was enough to defeat you and, in the worst-case scenario, knock you out with severe wounds! That is all! You should realise it yourself since you were the one that attack was aimed at!”
His words seemed to momentarily confuse the Calamity Titan, who looked like he was thinking about it before shaking his head. He was sure his enemy knew of the intention behind its execution and hoped he would understand, but his heart sank when the Calamity Titan narrowed his eyes and spoke in a disdainful voice.
“Whatever it is you tried for; I don’t care. All I can think off, right now, is to beat the hell out of you!”
When he spoke, he cracked his fingers menacingly and began walking towards him in a slow, menacing pace. The expression on his face was not good as well because the evil intent could be seen clearly on his face, which made the Phoenix Titan quickly prepare for battle by taking a fighting stance.
For a few seconds, the Calamity Titan walked slowly towards him before vanishing from sight. Lakshman, who always had Elemental Sense spell constantly active, lost track of his enemy and blinked in great surprise. At the exact same time, the Calamity Titan appeared standing before him, with a few centimetres of gap that separated them. The Phoenix Titan was greatly taken aback and, in slow motion, moved backwards and away from his enemy just when he heard his enemy speak to him.
“The time of your downfall is upon you now,” he said in a low quiet voice that carried with a lot of chill that made goose bumps to form.
The Calamity Titan moved in an instant and delivered a powerful punch to his enemy’s gut, causing him to groan painfully before being sent flying away. He, then, chased after him at super speed and twisted his body around to kick him on the side of his ribs, which made Lakshman breathe out in alarm before he got sent flying high into the air. Once he landed on his feet, the Calamity Titan kicked off the ground and rocketed into the air at super speed to catch his enemy.
As he reached the Phoenix Titan, Lakshman, who had managed to recover slightly, spun his body in a round arc and smacked his enemy his leg across the face. This stunned the Calamity Titan momentarily as he flew away, but he quickly recovered and forcibly stopped his flight and begin firing energy blasts at his enemy, who activated a barrier to defend against them. Smoke covered the field upon impact that resulted in an explosion when, to Lakshman’s alarm, the Calamity Titan appeared out of the smoke with his fists pulled back and a great amount of energy prepared.
“Take this!” He yelled.
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“No thanks!” Lakshman replied back with a shout.
Gathering his own energy into his arm, he moved it forward with support of his other arm and guided it to divert the flying fist. This small movement surprised the Calamity Titan, which left him wide open for Lakshman to pull back his fist and inflict it into his enemy’s chest as hard as he could. There was an instantons sound of impact against the body and a shock wave got released as his enemy was sent flying away and landed several meters separating them.
He scratched his chest irritably and said with a smirk, “You aren’t down, but you won’t win either. Watch and learn.”
Lakshman watched his enemy move his hand to aim towards him in a stance as if he was preparing to fire an attack at him. There was a sudden chilly wind that caused the back of his neck to prickle and the hair to stand on ends, which surprised him. He felt an ominous feeling emanating from his enemy, who was radiating purple-red aura that surrounded him with his arm outstretched towards him. Even his expression was calm and composed without a chance of giving away what he was planning to do.
“Right. Let’s see if this works,” muttered the Calamity Titan so that only he could hear himself speak.
He exerted his powers, and his muscles instantly tensed up as he activated his powers. In an instant, something invisible, like a barrier seemed to encase Lakshman, but the warrior did not sense it, nor realise that something was put on him. With a smile slowly forming, the Calamity Titan waved his hand to the side and, with a shock, the Phoenix Titan was lifted off his feet and thrown to the side with tremendous force.
The Phoenix Titan, who was initially shocked by suddenly being move without his volition, broke his flight and landed on his feet before exclaiming, “What the?!”
Before he could say anything, the Calamity Titan, who still had his arm aimed at him, waved it once again, this time to the other side. Once more, as if being pulled by something invisible. Lakshman got thrown in that direction with incredible force. Like before, the Phoenix Titan quickly snapped out of his shock and broke his flight to land neatly on his feet.
“W-What’s going on?!” He exclaimed, not understanding what was happening.
The Calamity Titan folded three of his fingers, leaving only two fingers outstretched, which were the forefinger and the middle finger. With a dark shadow falling over his face, the Calamity Titan raised it upward in a throwing gesture. In an instant, Lakshman felt himself lifted high into the air, and he struggled desperately to break free from the invisible grip that seemed to be pulling him up. He surged with power and used all of his might, but he still could not break free.
“W-What the hell is going on!?” Lakshman shouted, wearing a look of utter shock and disbelief on his face.
At that moment, the Calamity Titan, wearing a sinister smile on his face, tightened his muscles on his fingers and swung it down with incredible force. In an instant, the Phoenix Titan was brought down with such force that, when he smashed into the ground, a great explosion of dust and debris erupted into the surroundings. Even the ground shook from the force of impact and as it soon died down, only smoke remained to cover the vision.
He waited several seconds, and then extended his hand towards the spot his enemy had fallen before raising it up once more. There was the sound of broken rubble before it split as the Phoenix Titan was forcibly raised into the air. He was groaning with multiple wounds on his body as he was unable to defend himself from the sudden drop, which momentarily stunned his senses.
Seeing his enemy in that state, the Calamity Titan gritted his teeth and swung his hand down again, which promptly dropped Lakshman with heavy impact. Once more, the dust, debris and shakes occurred and died down, the Calamity Titan repeated the cycle of raising his opponent into the air and dropping him before doing it again. This continued to happen several times before he breathed a heavy sign and gestured, with his fingers, towards him.
With a tremendous force, the Phoenix Titan flew at him with his limp body and, just as he reached him, the Calamity Titan held out his hand to stop him. There was a rush of wind that followed the sudden freeze in his enemy’s flight, who hung slightly off his feet with a dazed look on his face. His body was aching all over from the numerous impacts and blood was seeping out of the many wounds that covered his body.
The Calamity Titan gestured with his hands, and Lakshman’s body gradually descended until their heads were level with each other. Seeing the pain written all over his enemy’s face pleased him as he took great pleasure in inflicting such bloody wounds and throwing him around like a doll.
“Did you watch? Did you learn how you were defeated?” He asked finally, drawing closer to smile eerily into his enemy’s face.
The Phoenix Titan gradually opened his eyes and coughed twice before muttering, “Force Control?”
The Calamity Titan was a little nonplussed by his enemy’s skills in deducting his powers, but he quickly recovered his smile and replied with, “Of course. It’s the magnificent power that has you bleeding like a broken vegetable!”
Lakshman looked into his enemy’s eyes and recognised them as the Demon Eyes: Controller. He quickly guessed that his opponent had deduced that there would be a force that was powerful enough to control the very presence of someone and that it would be the Force Control. This thought worried him because, unlike the Elemental Control, this power enabled the caster to control the force around their victim, which also included the elements themselves.
His thoughts were confirmed when the Calamity Titan said while pacing around, “You know how I have these wonderful Demon Eyes? I was inspired by them, and I sought out any means to achieve that power until… I finally transformed.”
He whirled around with mad energy fully visible in his eyes as he continued to say, “Not only did I gain in strength and power, but I also obtained the one I had been seeking for so long; Force Control!”
His grin widened at the last two words, and he drew closer to face his enemy before saying, “I finally got what I wanted, and you’re finally where you were meant to be; beaten and broken!”
The Phoenix Titan listened in silence while his enemy spoke and now, given the chance to speak, he coughed and replied, “I’m neither beaten or broken.”
“Oh? We shall see about that,” his enemy replied and attacked his enemy in a brutal fashion.
The Calamity Titan proceed by pulling his arm back and delivered a powerful punch into his enemy’s gut, which sent him flying away. As soon as he was several meters away, the Calamity Titan waved his fingers and forcibly pulled the Phoenix Titan’s helpless form towards him before delivering several rapid blows in quick succession to the gut. Gasping for air and moaning from the intense blows, he was sent flying away again only to be pulled towards his enemy once more.
These blows continued to befall the Phoenix Titan, who became a living punching bag for the Calamity Titan to take his stress out on. Each blow stunned him and his inside did felt like they were on fire as the injuries ached worse than the torture he survived at the hands of the Demon Dragon Titan so many years ago prior to this. Each blow carried with it a tremendous force that release shock waves and wild blowing winds with each delivery.
He was at the mercy of his enemy for several minutes until, finally, the Calamity Titan stopped and made his enemy hover in front of him. Lakshman was covered in sweat, and his eyes were closed as his breathe came in rasps due to the struggle from the numerous blows he received. His body felt numb and, while it helped in not feeling the pain, it also made it difficult to feel his body as he was close to losing his consciousness.
“Phew!” The Calamity Titan said, releasing a deep sigh and looking at his enemy with a smirk on his face. “I, truly, never felt this kind of satisfaction in all of my life and, now, it’s all thanks to you!” He brought his hands together and clapped them several times, which echoed dully in their vicinity. A moment later, he stopped clapping and said with a mocking worry voice, “Still, I do feel sorry that you will be defeated with no one to watch it. All alone to the very end, where there’s no one around to lend their saviour a hand.”
Lakshman was breathing deeply with his eyes closing and opening slightly, but his enemy’s words registered in his active brain and, mustering his energy, he said in a low murmur that was audible for his enemy to hear.
“I’m not alone.”
As the Calamity Titan blinked in surprise to his foe’s words, he suddenly felt the presence of eight people quickly drawing closer to him. When he looked around, a rush of wind soared at him and, before he knew it, Lakshman was snatched from his grip. A moment later, small magic balls fell from the sky and began exploding everywhere on impact, but the Calamity Titan merely swatted them away like an annoying fly buzzing around him.
The explosions caused smoke to spread in all directions, which clouded the vision. This left the Calamity Titan surrounded by a spreading smoke with no clear sight, so he remained calm and composed. A moment later, a large bulky warrior appeared out of nowhere and began lashing his fists at him with incredible speed while roaring like a beast.
“Die!” Nara Simhara roared, his fists whirling with incredible speed at his enemy.
The Calamity Titan managed to dodge all of them and still had the time to say, “You got speed and brawn, so a little bit of brains could help a long way.”
“Dammit!” Nara growled, throwing all he had before unleashing a powerful fist that destroyed a portion of the shaking ground while the Calamity Titan leaped away with relative ease.
As soon as he landed, the Calamity Titan extended his hand and summoned his Sacred Spirit, Disaster, before rushing at the War Titan with the intent to kill. Nara was slow to react because of his enemy’s movement being much faster than his and was saved at the last second from the deadly swing when his friend came in between with his own sword raised.
The Destiny Blade and the Disaster Blade struck each other and sent a whirling wind and shock waves in all directions as the ground shook violently. Both Nara and Dominic got pushed back while the same thing happened to the Calamity Titan, who quickly regained his feet to see his enemies disappear into the smoke. At the same time, he activated a powerful barrier spells to protect himself from the fire and lightning attacks that came out of nowhere.
“Mmm. They’re attacking me from behind the smoke,” he thought in a matter-of-fact tone, but instead of worrying, he smiled and additionally thought, “Why don’t I welcome the new guests?”
With that, he clasped his hands together and spread them apart, unleashing a powerful shock wave that instantly dissipated the smoke. It brought the view back to normal, and he turned around in the realisation that his enemy were standing around him in the shape of a large circle and instantly recognised who they all were.
“So, the mighty Nine Pillars of Power are here at last,” he said, his voice filled with mockery. Then, a sinister smile crept on his face as he said, “I guess it’s time to hand you all a bloody beating.”