The blinding white light slowly dimmed and disappeared, returning the world to its original view once more. A lot of smoke covered the entire area near the spot that was previously covered by the spreading mass of the black ball of destruction. It slowly cleared and revealed that all the Nine Pillars of Power were unharmed as they seemed to be floating in mid-air with no sign of ground anywhere. Only the ocean was visible as the smoke slowly cleared to bring the view back to normal.
“My goodness!” Tempest exclaimed, removing the barrier surrounding him and looked around with a shocked expression on his face.
“This is a disaster!” Azar said, agreeing with his comrade as an equally shocked expression formed on his face.
The entire portion of the land, near the Floria Kingdom, was nowhere to be seen and was replaced by the ocean. Chunks of the land floated here and there at random places, the only sign that any land existed in this part of the continent. The land was destroyed all the way from one side to the spot that had the Teleportation Zone, which was used to travel between continents.
“Wow…!” Lagron exclaimed slowly, looking alarmed the moment he removed the barrier and laid his eyes fell on the ocean covered area beneath him. “This is… unbelievable…!”
“What happened, Lagron? What did the Calamity Titan do?” Amaranda asked telepathically, turning to face her lover with her eyes closed since she could not see for herself.
“The land…! It’s… gone…!” he said hoarsely, looking around with a look of disbelief on his face. “This entire area’s levelled! It’s like the land was replaced by the ocean!”
Amaranda remained silent for a few seconds before replied in a sad voice, “My goodness…! This is… awful!” At that moment, she knitted her eyebrows with a look of worry and asked, “Where’s my familiar? Where is he?”
“Your familiar?” Lagron asked, blinking down at her in surprise.
The Magic Titan began to panic and she used her telepathy in an attempt to hopefully communicate with her Summoned Familiar and asked, “Telker! Are you alright? Telker!”
To her relief, the voice of her familiar replied in her mind, saying, “Yes, master. I am quite find, although, I believe much of the land suddenly vanished in that brilliant light. Do you know about it?”
She released a sigh of relief and telepathically said, “Yes. It was done by our enemy. Where are you?”
“I am at the Phoenix Titan’s home, master. Apparently, the area around the house is protected by several layers of extremely powerful barrier spells. Being inside them during the explosion saved me from certain destruction. Please thank the Phoenix Titan for me because his house saved my life, and I wish to repay him if possible.”
“Yes. I want to repay him as well for his house saving you. In that case, I have a plan,” said Amaranda, explaining quickly what she wanted her familiar to perform. In response, the Eternal Turtle agreed wholeheartedly, and she smiled as she telepathically replied with, “Good. I’ll contact you soon.”
Meanwhile, the Sword Titan removed the swords protecting him and Nara to witness the shocking view for themselves. They were both speechless after being unnerved to see the sudden appearance of the ocean, clearly indicating the damage that the Calamity Titan had done. This made, not only them, but everyone else the dangerous spell their enemy had unleashed on them on them and were grateful for the forewarning from the Phoenix Titan, all except for Lagron.
“I would’ve survived it without his forewarning anyway!” Lagron kept saying arrogantly.
No one was actually listening to him because, at that moment, they heard the loud voice of their enemy say, “You survived. Bravo, but what’s the point when the land you’re protecting is gone?”
Azar became very angry, and he shouted, “It’s your fault this happened!”
“No more mercy to a guy like you,” said Tempest in a quiet voice that was filled with fury.
The two instantly surged with their respective power, Azar powering up with fire while Tempest powering up with lightning. In the next moment, they soared high into the air at super speed to where their enemy hovered, smiling serenely down on them. It was a look that said “do your worst” with a shadow of arrogance added in it.
Seeing the two flew upward, Nara began to surge with power as he said, “Dom!”
Dominic, knowing without asking why his friend called his hand, also surged with power and said, “Let’s go!”
Nara soared high into the air and was closely followed behind by the Sword Titan, who was surrounded by glowing light before it dimmed to reveal him transformed wearing his golden winged armour while radiating golden aura that surrounded him. Nara also activated his powers, causing his hands get surrounded by glowing light before gauntlets appeared on them, which he clenched and unclenched experimentally.
“I’m counting on you, Yuda,” said Nara in his mind.
“Of course, master! I’ll never disappoint you!” His Sacred Spirit, Yudastra, replied in a confident voice in his mind.
Seeing the four of them fly off to face their enemy, Lagron sighed and asked, “I think I should join them, but I don’t like to work together since it might slow me down.”
“Lagron… For once in your life, try to be cooperative with your allies. We are fighting for the same cause after all,” said Amaranda telepathically, her voice firm and gentle, making him turn to face her with a slightly dropped expression.
“Fine. Just this once though,” he replied, and she smiled warmly at him.
The two surged with power and also flew into the air as they went after their comrades. Several meters from them hovered Lakshman, Sevedant and Ash, who were gazing around at the ocean the seemingly replaced the vast land that used to be there.
“Sev… Is this—?” Lakshman began hesitantly.
“It is,” replied Sevedant before his colleague could finish his sentence.
Lakshman remained silent for a moment before replying in a low voice, “I see. That’s good, but I’m sorry I put such a burden on you.”
“No worries. It’s me. I can,” replied Sevedant, and a small smile formed on his human face despite the skeleton like armour that he was wearing at that time.
While they were convering, Ash looked between the two of them and finally asked after a few seconds of silence, “What are the two of you talking about?”
“Something. Only us,” replied Sevedant, his voice sounding firm as an indication for his pupil to not further question about it.
Knowing this, she made a disgruntled expression on her face before turning towards the sky, where the battle between their comrades flying towards the Calamity Titan, who was floating high up in the sky, where he could easily touch the clouds.
“I think we should join them,” she said, and Sevedant nodded along with Lakshman.
Sevedant and Ash surged with power and soared high into the air, and just as Lakshman was about to follow after them when he felt the presence of four people from somewhere nearby. He turned around to face in that direction to see four members of the Nine Testaments of Darkness, who seemed to be the only ones alive apart from the Calamity Titan.
“Um…” he began and paused, unsure how to proceed in talking to them.
“I want to apologise if we had harmed you or your allies in any manner in our previous encounter,” said the Testament of Fear, Angst, and Lakshman knew she was referring to the time when he and Lagron fought and sealed them in the ancient time. “I just want you to know that we don’t want to fight you; your allies are much too powerful for us to defeat.”
“Yes, and on top of that, they gave us the chance to redeem ourselves!” Cana said, smiling widely in happiness.
“Make a new beginning…” said Ezhno, his eyes cast down as if he did not want to make direct eye contact.
“And finally return to my home world,” Neerum said, finishing the dialogue that the four of them had set out to say with individual turns.
Lakshman nodded at them with smiles on his face and began addressing them one by one, starting with Neerum.
“Return to your home world? Which is…?”
“It’s the Spirit Realm,” replied Neerum, much to his surprise. “I was talented, but I always seem to make mistakes and was thrown down here to live my life as a failure. Because I didn’t like it, I rebelled and ended up causing so much trouble until now, but Azar promised me that I can return to the Spirit Realm if I behave myself.”
Lakshman was amazed by her statement, and he smiled before saying, “That’s good. Having the Storm Titan and the Sun Titan as your guarantee will surely give you the chance to redeem yourself in the Spirit King’s eyes.” As she nodded in reply, he turned towards Ezhno and asked, “Start a new beginning? You mean, you’ll start over a new life in this time?”
Ezhno nodded and said quietly, “I… failed over… and over in my past and, because of that, I became very frustrated with the world and attacked. Sevedant told me that I can change. The past is the past, it cannot be changed or altered, but I can change my future if I start over from this time period. It is possible, right?”
He asked the last sentence as a question because he still doubted Sevedant’s words, to which Lakshman smiled and replied with, “You have the chance to make a new beginning. Sev is right because, while your past may contain hardship and sorrow, you can put them behind you and move forward. Just remember to learn from your past and never repeat those mistakes ever again, otherwise, you would not be any different than you were back then. Okay?”
Ezhno blinked at him with the same expression on his face, but when he spoke, he sounded more hopeful as he said, “Yes. I hope that will be the case this time around.”
Lakshman nodded once and turned to face Cana, who was beaming at him, and asked, “So… You want to redeem yourself? For what exactly?”
This time, her smile faltered slightly as she replied with, “Uh… Since the beginning, I always wanted to help people, but I was weak and those in power always laughed at my powerlessness. That is, one day, I found that I had the ability to copy spells and techniques. Of course, I am limited by my own power to use them, but the main point is that I can use them. Sadly, it framed me as a copy-cat, and I got very angry that my goodwill was twisted into something bad.”
While she spoke, Lakshman merely looked and occasionally nodded at her and, when she came to a stop, he looked dubiously at her and asked, “You don’t like being called ‘copy-cat’?”
“Yes!” She replied indignantly. “I mean, I am trying to help them by using techniques that the strong never shared with those less fortunate than them.”
This made Lakshman raise an eyebrow and smile as he stated, “You are correct. Back in those days, the strong survived and the weak perished. So, it’s natural that most would naturally label you a copy-cat for simply copying and reusing the same technique.” When she looked crestfallen, he smiled softly and said in a reassuring voice, “What you could do is ignore what people think about you.”
As she looked up at him, he continued to explain it in a way that could clear all of her doubts completely.
“You see, we are all individuals in this world who learn, develop, grow, change, make, destroy, and eventually die. This recycle of life has been a copied continuation for a very long time. What happens during our lives makes us who we are; a copy-cat.
Take for instance; me. I watched my master use a technique and I copied it with some training. Doesn’t that mean I’m a copy-cat? Same with fighting style. I watched my master fight some monsters and I copied his way. Doesn’t that also mean I’m a copy-cat? Whether someone teaches you, or you learn on your own, it makes you a copy-cat for copying them from others, isn’t it?
So, when someone calls you a copy-cat, think of it like this: everyone, at some point in their life, has been a copy-cat. It’s neither good, nor bad; it’s just a fact of life. This has happened many times in my life that I eventually got used to it. That’s the problem with these kinds of things; you either stay strong and change, or live long enough to accept it all.”
With that, he smiled and shrugged sadly at the astonished expression clearly shown on her face because she did not expect him to admit it so frankly. So, she remained silent and simply stared at him, unable to think of any kind of response to give. Smiling a little more, Lakshman turned his attention finally to Angst and spoke in a soft voice.
“What’s your reason to change your ways? After all, the last time we fought, you looked happy just being our enemy,”
Angst opened her mouth and hesitated for a moment before saying, “I… was under control at that time.”
Her words made Lakshman widen his eyes in surprise, and he asked in a serious voice, “Under control? By who?”
She hesitated a bit longer before replying, “The God of Calamity.”
For a second, Lakshman seemingly widened his eyes in apparent shock, but he just as quickly narrowed them to make a sharp expression on his face as he nodded in understanding and said in a low voice, “I see… I get it now. Makes sense, actually.”
She blinked at him in surprise and asked, “Um… Is something the matter? You don’t look all that surprised.”
“Yeah. Your reaction is strange in every definition compared to how Azar reacted,” said Neerum, raising an eyebrow.
He chuckled and looked at him with a cool expression and said, “Oh, I am surprised, but not as surprised as them. You see, I did encounter the Calamity God once, just once, but I didn’t like him then, and I doubt I will like him now. Still, he’s not an enemy I can go up against right now.”
With that, he smiled bitterly at them at the sad realisation that he was dealing with a god. Deciding that it was not a matter for them to deal with at that moment, he sighed just as a violent bang and an explosion occurred behind him. Turning around, he saw his allies fighting a desperate battle against the Calamity Titan, who was taking pleasure in beating each of them down.
“Leave this place. It’s not safe here,” said Lakshman quickly, and he turned to face the four deserters of the Nine Testaments of Darkness. They opened their mouth and began protecting about wanting to help, but he instantly shook his head and said in a firm voice, “You will not help us, not because you’re weak, but because your enemy is far too strong and dangerous. We were kind enough to allow you a second chance at life, but your once ally is not so lenient.”
They looked nonplussed because they realised the danger they would be in facing the one they once allied with. Even so, they still wanted to help, and Cana voiced that out loud by saying, “We still want to be useful! I mean, we don’t want to take our chances for free, you know?”
Lakshman stared at her and then the rest of them and, after seeing the determined expressions on their faces, he sighed and said, “Alright. If you still insist in helping, then can I ask you assist my familiars?” As they blinked in surprise, Lakshman activated his telepathy and communicated with his two familiars and asked, “Phylex! Draga! Are you alright? How’s it going for you both?”
“Not good, master! This thing is extremely powerful and dangerous!” Phylex, the Eternal Phoenix, replied in his mind in a serious voice.
“Nothing seemed to work on it, or have any affect on it. Fire, water and ice elements don’t seem to work on it! I don’t get it! Is it a monster of darkness, shadows or destruction? It’s not making sense!” Draga, the Spirit Dragon, replied in his mind in a furious voice.
“Oh,” muttered Lakshman, looking quite surprised to hear his familiars facing great difficulty. He turned to face the four people in front of him and said telepathically to his familiars, “Okay. I’m sending over four people to help you out. They are allies, okay? Don’t harm them and let them help you! This isn’t the time for you to feel pride and such things!”
Draga, who knew he was speaking mainly to him the last sentence, snorted in his mind and said, “Please! I’ve already destroyed my pride ages ago when I became a familiar of the man who also has a phoenix as his familiar! So, whatever else happens now will not damage my already destroyed pride!”
“Draga! Don’t be rude to our master!”
Phylex’s retort could be heard in his mind and it made Lakshman smile a little because he knew the Spirit Dragon was being sarcastic with him. If he was being like that, it meant that the battle was not lost and that there is a fighting chance. So, he bid the four deserters of the Nine Testaments of Darkness and surged with power before rocketing into the sky to fly in the direction his allies were facing off against the Calamity Titan.
As he flew higher and higher, the air became thicker and gravity slightly decreased and, after reaching a great altitude, he could see the entire world beneath him. Smiling at the wonderous look, he continued flying and saw bursts of lightning and energy waves followed by explosions from here and there. Several times, he got buffeted by the wild blowing wind and the shock waves that threatened to bar his progress to the sky.
Tempest was flying around in his lightning form, throwing blitz lightning attacks at his enemy as quickly as he could while dodging the ones that got split and diverted in all directions. Azar dodged them to release a furious energy ball that went flying at his enemy, but the Calamity Titan merely held his hand arm out and used Force Control to swing it around in an attempt to hit the others with it.
“Why waste my energy when you idiots are providing me the tools to hit you with?!” He exclaimed loudly, laughing hysterically as Nara, Sevedant and Lagron hit by it while covering for Dominic, Ash and Amaranda.
“Stop giving him attacks to use on us, dammit!” Lagron yelled, flaring up at once with rage and flying in to injure the Calamity Titan as much as he could with the building anger inside of him.
He swung one punch out and then another punch before repeating this cycle in an aggressive rapid movement. The Calamity Titan dodged the first time fairly easily and continued to dodge the other attack with relative ease with a calm smile on his face. At that moment, the War Titan appeared from behind and began to unleash a barrage of fists at him. His enemy smashed Lagron in the face and sent him flying away before turning around and moving at his speed to catch or avoid the blows.
After several seconds, the Calamity Titan smashed him away after dodging through all the blows. This angered Nara greatly, and he yelled, “UUUUUURRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!” He surged with wild power that radiated red aura that surrounded him and shouted, “Infinity Hammer!”
His body momentarily flashed with bright light before he returned to normal, and he seemed to move in slow motion. Taking a fighting stance in mid-air, he began to move his fists forward in the direction of his enemy, who was several meters away. The Calamity Titan saw the coming attack and matched his enemy’s movement as each blow released a powerful shock wave that smashed into his fist and got destroyed.
This continued to happen for a few seconds before the Calamity Titan came to the realisation that something was wrong, or rather, something was different. The movement of the War Titan gradually became faster and faster and reached a stage where the Calamity Titan realised he had met his match. After bypassing his limit, it became a desperate battle for him to just keep up with the War Titan’s insane speed, but that too proved to be no match to the mind-blowing speed of his enemy.
Blow after blow and shock wave after shock wave slammed into the Calamity Titan, who could no longer keep up. Each impact caused the wind to blow even wilder and sent more shock waves in all directions as the Calamity Titan’s body was finally treated like a punching bag.
“RRRRRRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!” Nara roared like a beast that he is, savagely delivering blow after blow without pause, a relentless force guiding him, completely beating up the Calamity Titan without mercy.
It lasted for several countless seconds before sending the Calamity Titan flying with his final smash attack. As his enemy flew away, he remained hovering in mid-air and breathed quickly with deep breaths as if he ran for hours without pause. His allies hovered around him with looks of amazement on their faces as each praised him in their own way.
As the Calamity Titan flew away, the Storm Titan raced towards him and unleashed a wave of lightning, which enveloped his enemy and began zapping him with intense lightning. At the same time that was happening, the Magic Titan aimed her staff in the Calamity Titan’s direction and activated a magic spell, which caused magic circles to appear around him before letting off a violent flash of light, followed by a massive explosion that shook the air and sent shock waves that buffeted them.
The wind began to steady and returned to normal, which allowed the other members of the Nine Pillars of Power to converge on Nara, who was still releasing deep breaths.
“That was spectacular!” Azar said, clapping the War Titan on the back in comradeship.
“It indeed was,” said Tempest in agreement with a small smile on his face. “It allowed me to strike the enemy directly.”
“Same,” replied Amaranda in agreement.
“Well, Lagron, would you agree that was pretty impressive?” Dominic asked, trying his best to show off his friend in front of the Dragon Titan.
Lagron, for his part, merely glanced at him and said curtly, “It wasn’t that impressive. Even I could’ve done it.”
“It was a nice work, Nara,” said Amaranda telepathically.
“Don’t get impressed because of something this small!” Lagron retorted, glaring menacingly at Nara. However, he did relent when his lover placed a hand on his shoulder, and he said grudgingly, “Fine. I… I guess he did fine.”
Dominic sighed as he realised that was the best response he could possibly get out of Lagron at that moment. Suddenly, their smiles faltered when they heard the laughing voice of their enemy and turned in the direction that he was flying in. The smoke was slowly disappearing from there and revealed a shadowy figure, who turned out to be the Calamity Titan. His body was slightly bruised, his clothes were cut in several places, but his eyes glinted dangerously with an evil smile on his face.
“I have to agree. It was a nice effort,” he said, and turned his head left and right, cracking sound coming from his neck. He also cracked his arms and stretched his body experimentally before he said, “Mmm. Yeah. I felt it alright. Good job,” and he began clapping. The sound echoing in the surroundings with a dullness that made it all the more frightening with that evil grin forming on his face when he said, “You had your fun, and now… it’s my turn.”
His last words caused the wind to slowly blow quickly around them, causing a shivering sensation to run through them. They were on guard and were prepared to fight back at any given notice, so it came as a shock to them for their bodies to automatically react in fright because of a slight blowing wind. Each of them had to quickly assure themselves mentally that he was tricking them.
The Calamity Titan, with an evil smile on his face, moved his hands with two fingers outstretched attached together. He waved them experimentally, making two to three gestures before smacking them against each other. The watching eight of the Nine Pillars of Power were puzzled by what they were doing when, all of a sudden, they felt a tremendous force of power from behind and, when they turned, they were alarmed to see Nara with his two hands smashed against the sides of his head.
Without them realising it, the Calamity Titan used his Demon Eyes: Controller along with Force Control to manipulate the War Titan into activating his powers and attacking himself with all the power he could muster. Now, he watched with an evil smile as Nara coughed blood out of his mouth while more blood seeped out of his nose before his eyes rolled up into his sockets, and his eyelids closed. In the next moment, he began to fall, with his Energy Force failing to keep him afloat.
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“Nara!” Dominic cried out, staring in horror as his friend’s limp body fell heavily towards the ocean.
Dominic whipped around to glare fiercely at the Calamity Titan and shouted, “Calamity Titan!”
His sword glowed brilliantly when he moved forward with the intention of swinging his sword at his enemy, activating the technique in the process. When his enemy prepared to swing his sword at him, the Calamity Titan smirked and moved his two two-fingers, glued together, to one direction. Dominic suddenly turned to one direction while swinging his sword, which released multiple swords that flew at high speed at Amaranda.
As everyone stared in surprise, Amaranda was unprepared for the sudden attack directed at her by her ally. Just when they were about to pierce into her, Lagron got in between them and used his body to shield his lover, and in the process, allowing many swords to pierce into his back. He widened his eyes in shock and groaned from the pain as multiple swords embedded themselves in his back, causing him a great deal of pain, and he slowly moved forward to fall heavily on Amaranda, his entire weight falling on top of her.
“L-Lagron?! What happened?! Lagron!” She exclaimed, shocked by the sudden weight of her lover falling on top of her, and they fell towards the ocean.
Dominic stared at their falling figures in horror and muttered, “No way…!”
He, then turned to face his enemy once more, eyes wide with horror and disbelief, to which the Calamity Titan said, “Told you. It’s my turn,” and he waved his fingers in a seemingly random manner.
At that moment, the Storm Titan and the Sun Titan instantly surged with power and unleashed a furious elemental attack on Dominic, Sevedant and Ash. The casters themselves were alarmed at suddenly open firing on their allies, but Sevedant and Dominic dodged out of the way while the aura around Ash formed around her like a protective barrier, causing the attacks to bounce off harmlessly.
“What the heck is going on here?! Why am I attacking you?” Azar exclaimed, completely bewildered and fearful as he looked around at his allies.
“If you don’t like attaching them, attack your partners,” muttered the Calamity Titan with an evil grin on his face before flicking his hands in a different manner than before.
When he did that, both Tempest and Azar were forcibly turned towards each other and released their immense power at one another. This shocked both Elemental Spirits, who did not see this coming and were completely engulfed by their partner’s attack. They screamed furiously in pain from the attacks for several seconds before the attack died down and disappeared to leave the two of them hovering in mid-air with steam and fumes coming out of their clothes and bodies.
The Calamity Titan burst into laughter at the disgruntled sight of his enemy, who looked like they were fried. During his laughter, he closed his eyes momentarily as he found it pretty fund when he suddenly moved his head to the right. This was because the Death Titan had attacked him by extending his chains out from his skeleton shield with a serious look on his face.
“Enough!” Sevedant said in a sharp voice, the chains retracting as he swung his sword at his enemy.
The Calamity Titan leaped away with a wide smile and replied, “No. It’s just getting started.”
“End it,” Sevedant replied back without pause or hesitation.
His enemy stared at him for a moment, half wondering whether to play around, when he decided he had enough. He was still angry from the earlier attack from Nara hurting him as much as it did, so he wanted to get serious on them, which was why he used Force Control and Demon Eyes: Controller to force them to attack one another. He wanted to control Sevedant, who appeared to be one of the strongest warriors among the group, but for some strange reason, it did not work.
Deciding to defeat this man after luring him into a trap, the Calamity Titan smirked and simply said, “Try,”
It was an attempt to mock the way of the Death Titan’s manner of speech, but Sevedant did not shown any signs that he was affected as he charged at him. Summoning his Disaster Sword, the two began to square off against one another and, for a few seconds, it looked like they were evenly matched. This was all a pretence by the Calamity Titan, who wanted to defeat his enemies with their own allies.
“Sevedant! Behind you!” Dominic yelled, flying at the Death Titan with his sword held in front of him against his will as the Calamity Titan had used his hands to move into motion while unseen by his opponent.
The Death Titan looked over his shoulders, a second too late as the sword pierced through his back and appeared in front of him. For a moment, time seemed to freeze as Sevedant looked down at the mortal wound in surprise before looking back at his enemy with an interested look on his face. The Calamity Titan, who had been sliming in satisfaction, lost his smile and looked astonished when a small smile formed on Death Titan’s face.
“I see. Nice plan. Too bad. I’m undead,” he said, his voice sounding as if he felt sorry for his enemy’s attempt to backstab him with his own ally.
“Sevedant! I’m sorry!” Dominic said, taking his sword from out of the Death Titan’s back with a remorseful look covering his face.
“This is intriguing,” said the Calamity Titan, looking mightily impressed as he stared at Sevedant. “To think a member of the Nine Pillars of Power is an undead. Quite surprisingly, really.”
“Damn you! You dare to control us?!” Dominic exclaimed, charging past Sevedant in an attempt to attack his enemy.
He suddenly felt an immense force as if something grabbed him and hurled him away when the Calamity Titan waved his fingers. As it happened, the Demon Titan appeared out of nowhere, her aura surrounding her with a deadly look on her face. She hated fighting amongst people she relied on, hating it especially when the fact that an eternal force had an involvement in it.
The Calamity Titan turned to her and chuckled, which angered her greatly, and she shouted, “Don’t you dare laugh at us, you monster!”
She charged at him, ignoring Sevedant’s shout, “Ash! Don’t!”
Racing towards him at super speed, she began using her aura to capture the man and tried to crush him. He instantly broke free from her hold and hovered above her with a bemused look on his face, which angered her further. She began using spiritual magic to destroy him utterly, but for some strange reason, her magic kept failing as soon as the activation occurred.
“Young miss, if you want to use such dangerous spells, then I suggest you get permission from me,” said the Calamity Titan, indicating at himself, who was using the Force Control without her realisation to destroy the spells the moment they were activated.
“You—!” She began when Sevedant flew up to stop her.
“Ash. Calm down. You’re being tricked, Relax. Think,” he said in his usual manner, but a tone of worry entered his voice.
Ash did not notice this and glared menacingly at their enemy while saying, “Fine! How about this?”
With her magic powers, she amplified the petrification effects of her eyes and projected them to where he hovered several meters away. For a moment, nothing happened and the Calamity Titan made a look of surprise before Ash began turning into stone. Sevedant was shocked and before he could do anything, she became a statue that hovered in mid-air. It looked like the effects of the petrification were reversed and somehow affected the Demon Titan.
“No! It can’t be!” Sevedant exclaimed, catching her stone-cold body that had turned into a replica rock formation of her. He shook her several times and shouted, his feelings bursting forth uncontrollably, “Ash! Snap out of it!”
“Stop… talking to a rock. It’s… weird…” The Calamity Titan said, making a strange smile as he watched the scene with some interest.
Sevedant lifted his eyes off Ash’s petrified form and glared at his enemy, his feelings quite visible for everyone to see. He let go of Ash’s solidified form and vanished on the spot before reappearing a meter away from his enemy, his sword held above him. As he came closer, he swung it down to cut his enemy in half, but the Calamity Titan blocked it with his Disaster Sword.
“What have you done—ugh?!” Sevedant exclaimed in a sharp voice, his eyes widening in shock.
The reason he showed such an expression and groaned was because of a hole in the centre of his chest. The Calamity Titan had reacted immediately by placing his hand on his enemy’s chest after blocking his attack to fire a deadly attack through his chest. Sevedant looked down at the hole in silence and waited for it to heal back since he is an undead. For some unknown reason, the hole remained there and, to make matters worse, blood began seeping out from his noe and ears, which made him look at his enemy in horror.
“W-What did you—?” Sevedant tired asking when, all of a sudden, he suddenly vomited blood out of his mouth.
The Calamity Titan vanished from sight as soon as the blood came out and appeared hovering several meters away. He eyed his enemy with a look of distaste and said, “It’s called Soul Destroyer. Let’s see how you can live when there’s a big hole in your body… and your soul.” When Sevedant glared at him with blood spilling from his mouth, the Calamity Titan smirked and said, “So much for being an ‘undead’ whose soul isn’t ‘un-killable’. Ha!”
Sevedant heard his sneering voice and felt his consciousness fading before his body went limp, falling from high in the sky. At that moment, Dominic appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto him as well as holding onto the statue form of the Demon Titan. He was shocked to see the extremely powerful Death Titan reduced to such a sad state, the Sword titan look up at the Calamity Titan with a furious look on his face.
At that moment, his enemy aimed two fingers sticking together down at them and unleashed a powerful black wave of destruction. Dominic widened his eyes in shock and instantly swung his sword, materialising swords out of thin air and they formed into a defensive wall around them as the wave came down and seemingly enveloped by it.
Lakshman, who was flying high into the sky to meet his enemy, watched in horror as each of his allies were sent down with terrible injuries. He called out to them but they did not seem capable of responding to him due to the heavy injuries sustained in their battle with the Calamity Titan. He finally met up with the Storm Titan and Sun Titan, who were slowly descending towards the ground while breathing heavily.
“What happened up there?! Tell me!” He demanded them, a worrisome look overcoming his handsome features.
Tempest did not seem capable of speaking, but Azar managed to croak, “He’s… too strong…! He beat us… so easily…!”
“Made us… fight each other…!” Tempest added with a heavy sigh. “We stood… no chance…”
“He made you fight each other…?” Lakshman asked, letting the two descend while remaining to hover there in a state of utter shock.
Earlier, when he passed Amaranda and Lagron, he was alarmed to see swords sticking out of the Dragon Titan’s back. Now, after hearing the tale of what had happened, Lakshman surmised their enemy had used Force Control and Demon Eyes: Controller to force Dominic into attacking the others. From there, he guessed what had happened to the rest. His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden black wave of destruction that flew down from the sky near him.
As it passed him, Lakshman sensed the presence of Dominic, the weakening presence of the Death Titan and the tiniest presence that belonged to the Demon Titan. He looked down and watched as it soared down and smashed forcefully into the ocean that was once a land that was part of the Human Continent. Using Zooming Force magic spell, he saw Dominic emerged from out of the water while holding onto a badly wounded Sevedant and Ash that seemed to have turned into stone.
“This… has… gone too far!” Lakshman exclaimed, clenching his fists tightly with rage.
He gathered a tremendous amount of energy into the palm of his hand, aimed it up at his enemy and unleashed it with immense force. In an instant, a massive wave of destruction was released, soaring high into the air and headed straight towards the Calamity Titan, who merely looked down at the oncoming attack with a bored look on his face. He swung his Disaster Sword at the wave and unleashed a powerful slicing energy wave, which smashed into the energy wave with incredible force.
The two attacks struggled for several seconds before they went wild and exploded, which covered the entire area with smoke while the wind blew wildly and shock waves soared in all directions. A few seconds later, the smoke cleared and brought the Calamity Titan and the Phoenix Titan into view, looking at each other.
“What’s with that face? You look like you saw something horrible. It’s actually making you look funny,” said the Calamity Titan, chuckling at the livid expression on his enemy’s face while looking down on him.
“There’s nothing funny about this, Calamity!” Lakshman shouted, his rougher personality taking over in dealing with this situation. “The problem you have is with me! Me! Take it out on me! Not on my allies!”
“Oh…? Taking it out on your allies…? Do you think I give a damn what they are to you?!” The Calamity Titan shouted back, the cool expression being replaced by a very angry expression as he flared up at once. “You are nothing but a coward, traitor and a murder, so your allies also deserve the same treatment as you!”
“Basing yourself on false truths, believing in lies and then taking action based on them without bothering to find the truth; I don’t know what a person like you can be called!” Lakshman yelled back in a fury he had not known he had in him.
The Calamity Titan’s face became livid with rage, and he declared, “These eyes remember the events of the old. I know the truth better than you could possibly remember, and I know that you deserve far worse fate than simply dying at my hands! You must suffer, face torture and then, only then, you can be allowed to perish in humiliation!”
He held both of his hands down towards his enemy and activated his powers, which created a powerful shock wave that buffeted the Phoenix Titan and sent him flying downward. Lakshman forcibly stopped himself in mid-flight within few seconds and turned to face the sky, only to widen his eyes in shock. There, the Calamity Titan’s hand held above his head, was the form of a large black pulsating energy ball of destruction.
It seems he had conjured it out of thin air within seconds during the time Lakshman had been flying downward. It currently remained motionless while purple lightning danced around the exterior of the black ball of destruction as it pulsed with a dangerous pressure.
“Ultra Nova!” The Calamity Titan said brought his hand down in a swift movement.
With the flow of his hand, the large ball of destruction soared downward and towards where the Phoenix Titan hovered. As it quickened its descent, Lakshman instantly surged with power, while radiating red aura that surrounded him, and gathered energy into his fist before unleashing it at the ball while shouting the technique out loud.
“Agrakilli!”
In an instant, there was a violent sound that came from the point where his fist collided against the ball of destruction. For a moment, Lakshman was pushed downward while he pushed his fist forward with all his might, but the attack was just too powerful. Deciding to act quickly, he brought his other hand forward, gathered energy into it and slammed it with equal force and power against the ball of destruction.
The shock waves reached towards the ground and began shaking the entire continent. The inhabitants took shelter wherever they possibly could while desperately praying to the gods they believed in to protect them. Even the people at the castle were not safe as cracks appeared all over the castle walls and courtyard, were the majority of them were gathered.
“UUUURRRRRRAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!”
While screaming with power and exerting all the power into his fists, the Phoenix Titan managed to blast the ball of destruction back into the sky. The Calamity Titan was momentarily surprised before he held his hand out and began absorbing the ball of destruction. Within seconds, the attack disappeared in a flash as if it did not exist from the start, returning the view back to normal.
Lakshman was breathing quickly with his hands stinging from the amount of pressure he had to apply on that single ball of destruction. This was the cause of him not being at full power like at the beginning of their battle and, now, he was worried he might not be able to keep up with his enemy’s attacks.
“Come on…! I need something…! Something…!” He thought desperately, hoping a clue would arise from somewhere in helping him but, unfortunately, lucky did not seem to be on his side this time.
“Well. You still have power left in you to deflect one of those,” said the Calamity Titan, raising an eyebrow with a look of intrigue on his face.
“Yeah!” Lakshman replied confidently, but inwardly, he was worried about what his enemy was going to do next.
The Calamity Titan seemed to ponder for a moment before coming to a decision and said, “Okay. You dealt with one, so how about dealing with five?”
The Phoenix Titan widened his eyes in shock and exclaimed out of reflex, “Five?!”
“Yeah!” His enemy replied, smiling as he received the reaction he had been expecting. Holding his hand towards his enemy, his smile widened as he said. “Five of them while trying to defend your kingdom.”
Lakshman could not believe what he just heard and realised his enemy was going after his wives, who were very close to them.
“Don’t you dare—!” Lakshman yelled.
“I dare,” replied the Calamity Titan in a simple tone, turned his aim towards the Floria Kingdom’s castle and launched five small black energy balls from the tips of his extended fingers.
A few seconds later, the five of them instantly grew to massive sizes that seemed to blanket the sky. Lakshman gritted his teeth as he powered up and rocketed in that direction as fast as he could, arriving several seconds later with several kilometres separating him and the castle. Lakshman glanced once in that direction before turning back to face the descending balls of destruction while powering up to the max.
“Elemental Coated Armour!”
As he shouted, his aura changed and rapidly took the form of a phoenix bird that extended hands on all sides. Several arms extended out from the Elemental Aura and caught the quickly balls of destruction, where their descent was increased by the pull of gravity. In an instant, Lakshman, who had held his hands out as a means to catch them all, felt a tremendous weight against him and got pushed back with incredible force.
“Damn!”
He gritted his teeth tightly and kept pushing with all the force he had against the five balls of destruction while utilising his Elemental Coated Armour. When this did not help, he surged with all the power he had within and applied even more force into his energy arms, managing to finally stop the descent of the black pulsating balls of destruction before pushing them back up. Even the people at the castle and nearby began to cheer as they saw the balls moving away from them.
The Calamity Titan saw this and nodded approvingly while saying, “Indeed… You certainly are strong, Phoenix. However, I’m your enemy and fairness is not a part of me anymore.”
Extending his hands out, he fired another set of five balls of destruction, which instantly took the form like the ones Lakshman was fighting against. They soared down with incredible speed and smashed into the previously released once, creating an incredible pushing force that caused Lakshman to widen his eyes in surprise and get pushed back once more.
Lakshman, feeling his powers slipping away as they drained at an alarming rate, muttered, “Not good…! If this keeps up… I… I….!”
He could not finish the sentence as he felt a strong urge to not think about the negative outcome from this battle. Instead, he focused all that he had into pushing against the ten balls of destruction, making more hands out of his Elemental Coated Armour in the process to help him. Even so, the ten destructive balls of darkness continued to soar down, threatening his life, the lives of his wives and all the people living at the Floria Kingdom’s capital.
Down below, the people there looked up in horror as the five large balls, each the size of a moon, descended down on them. The castle was in far more panic than the civilians as they did not know what to do or where to escape to survive. Several were screaming and running in all directions, but many screamed the same thing as the rest.
“We’re going to die!”
Some kept their calm as they resigned themselves to their fates and only hoped for a miracle to happen. At the castle, the family of the Phoenix Titan remained calm and composed while looking up at the descending mass of balls that looked like the moons falling on top of them while the soldiers, around them, went wild with fear of the imminent destruction.
“Get your act together!” Cantia bellowed, causing a temporary calm to precede the courtyard. “We will not die!”
“She’s right! We will live! That’s for sure!” Marilia said, staring around at the frightened soldiers with determination on her face.
“Have faith in my husband; your king!” Venezuela called, using the magic words to restore the calm they once had from before. “Believe in him and we will make it out of this alive!”
“Trust him! We must because it is the only option we have!” Soinia said, doing her best to support her family members.
While that was happening and the others were muttering to one another, Ondine looked at Emili and asked with a fake smile to hide the worry that was bothering her.
“the soldiers sure are panicking unnecessarily.”
To that, Emilia turned to give her a cool smile and said, “Ondine, I know you’re worried. There’s no point in hiding it.” When Ondine went to say something, Emilia forestalled her with a hand gesture and said, “In the ancient times, we were killed by the Calamity Titan but that won’t happen this time. Back then, we were alone, but this time… we have our husband with us.”
Her voice was confident and that was reflected in her face as she looked intently into the fear filled eyes of Ondine. A moment later, she turned back to look up at the descending balls of destruction and made her son put his hands together in prayer before she prayed for the success of her husband. There was a moment of pause, in which the other members of the Chand family stared at her in surprise before micking her action of making their children put their hands together and making their own pray.
Soon, this method was being copied by everyone around the castle and it quickly spread into the capital as everyone earnestly prayed with all their might.
“Please, save us, Phoenix Titan!”
Up in the air, struggling between the ten balls of destruction, Lakshman felt he heard the voices of many reach him. He did not understand how or why, but he felt like they were calling for him and beseeching him to save them. This spurred him on and made him decide to risk it all using any means necessary to win this battle if it ensured their safety.
“Power Mode!” He yelled, his last-ditch effort in helping him fend off this onslaught.
In an instant, he felt his entire body strengthen and a new energy began coursing throughout him. At the same time, his hair, which was completely black, began to turn bright red as it went to the back of his neck. His eyes also changed from deep black to bright red with his pupils changing from round to vertical like that of a monster. This was the full release of all that he could muster at that moment, which finally gave him the edge he needed.
Exerting his newly released power, the ten balls of destruction came to a sudden stop and began flying backward. The Phoenix Titan began to exert more of his new strength before it ran out to push them farther and farther away from the Floria Kingdom’s capital, which now began to resound with cheers as everyone cheered and clapped for the balls of destruction moving away from them.
“This is… unbelievable…!”
The Calamity Titan watched in shock as his attacks were being pushed back and slowly moved in his direction. Getting infuriated by this, he extended his hand out again and prepared to fire several more when, all of a sudden, he heard a voice in his mind instruct him with a new action instead.
“Destroy them and you’ll take out the Phoenix Titan.”
In an instant, the Calamity Titan obeyed the voice and aimed his hand at the ten balls of destruction, firing a deadly wave of destruction towards it. The attack soared straight down and slammed into the ten destruction balls, causing all ten to ignite at once and explode with an unbelievable amount of force, making the Phoenix Titan desperately fight to contain it, eventually losing it and being sent flying downward with incredible force from the explosion.
A massive explosion occurred and it was so strong that the entire world seemed to shake violently, causing much of its inhabitants to stumble and fall. At several places, mountains cracked and fell, causing dormant volcanos to suddenly become active and explode after rising to the surface with immense speed. The Human Continent began splitting apart as caverns appeared, the ground sank, or simply got destroyed as the shape of the continent started changing by it.
The Floria Kingdom struggled to survive against the explosion as much of its force was restrained by the multiple barriers placed by Lakshman, but the forces of nature still penetrated through and threatened to carry everyone away. Many houses were uprooted from their positions and several people, who were unable to keep a firm hand on the ground, got carried away by the wind. At the castle, the wives of the Phoenix Titan and the wife of the Sword Titan, along with other magicians gathered around them, activated their strongest barrier spells to protect themselves in case something were to happen to the castle.
Fortunately, this disastrous force of nature did not last long and, soon, mother nature began to settle down. As the wild blowing wind and shock waved steadied and died down, everyone lay on the ground or floor with their heads down. Some were brave enough to life their head and look around before shouting for the rest to follow suit. Many of the buildings were destroyed and a small portion of the populace were gravely injured while others sustained minor wound and cuts, but the majority survived.
“We… We survived! We lived! We live!”
Many began shouting and it became a chant for all the survivors, who were immensely relieved to find themselves alive. Their livelihood might have been damaged but that was nothing compared to losing lives. They knew it and were grateful for their saviour and began chanting his name over and over in a repeated cycle with great respect.
“Phoenix Titan! Phoenix Titan! Phoenix Titan!”
At the castle, everyone was relatively okay, only shaken by the force of the explosion as they were the closest to feel it. They stood up and began looking around, the wives of the Phoenix Titan and the wife of the Sword Titan clutching their babies, who were bawling as loudly as they possibly could while their mothers did their best to calm them down. The only one that was not crying was Emilia’s son, who was turning his head left and right in a cute way as if he was searching for something.
“That was… wow! Intense!”
“Yes. It really was.”
“It’s incredible we weren’t hurt so bad. Should count ourselves lucky.”
While Emilia was looking around and talking, her son began hitting her with his small hand while saying, “Ah! Ah!”
“W-What is it?” Emilia asked, surprised by her son’s strange behaviour.
When she turned to look at him, he did his best to point with his small hand to the front of the courtyard. She turned and saw a lot of smoke covering that area, but it steadily declined and brought a view that startled many onlookers.
“Lucky!” Emilia exclaimed, stunned to see her husband lying in a large crater in the middle of the courtyard.
Lakshman lay in the large crater, where the ground had sunk due to the heavy impact of his body. Now, he lay, moaning softly and making small meaningless movements due to the extreme tiredness he felt from the pressure of using Power Mode. His wives and many soldiers rushed over to see what they could do for him, only to be alarmed by the numerous wounds on his body.
“My goodness! Lucky needs to be healed! Immediately!” Sonia said loudly.
“It’s alright. We’ll heal him now,” said Sumara, handing her baby over to Marilia and lowering herself to the ground.
“I’ll help,” said Emilia, also handing her baby over to Sonia and kneeling down beside her husband.
As the two were about to activate their healing magic, Lakshman grunted, “Don’t… do it…”
“Lucky!” The two of them, including his other wives, exclaimed in surprise and alarm.
He steadily opened his eyes, which had returned to their normal dark colour and the colour of his hair had returned to dark black like it usually was. The straining power subsided, and he could finally feel himself once more without the pain of overexerting himself. So, without waiting a second, he began to move his body steadily, but in his drained state, he was unable to quickly push himself up.
“Lucky! Calm down! Rest! We’ll heal you!” Sumara said hurriedly, trying to push him down by placing a hand on his shoulder.
He, however, shook his head and said in a firm voice, “No…! I have to… get back…! This battle… isn’t… over…!”
Tears formed in Sumara’s eyes as she could not bear to see her husband in such a sorry state and said pleadingly, “Lucky… Please… Stay down. We’ll… heal you…”
Lakshman caught the sight of his wife’s eyes and seeing tears streaming down from them made him look away while shaking his head.
“No. Stop it… Stop… it…!”
Emilia watched the proceedings in silence before she placed his arm around her should and began supporting while saying, “Grab my shoulder, Lucky. I’ll help you up.”
“Emilia…” he said softly, smiling weakly at her as she did her best to support him.
Realising Emilia could not hold his full weight on her own, Ondine quickly walked forward and swung his other arm around her shoulder before also supporting him up. The rest of his wives and family members, including Marilia and his sisters, remained silent and unmoving as they supported him to his feet. When they stood, Lakshman’s legged wobbled weakly as his body could not muster the strength it needed to keep him up without support.
Seeing this, Venezuela knitted her eyebrows and said, “Lucky! Look at you! You’re so… weak! Listen to reason! Get healed up first before you do anything else!”
Lakshman knew his wife was worried about him like the rest of them, but it did not help him in the slightest, so he said in a firm voice, “I’m quite… alright!”
By exerting what little strength he had, he managed to break free from the support of both Emilia and Ondine. His legs wobbled dangerously, making it seem like he was going to fall at any second. Fortunately, he seemed to settle and stood firmly with his feet separated before looking up into the sky, where a dark spec could be seen.
The Calamity Titan, who noticed this movement, used the Zooming Force spell of his own to check only to be startled at the sight of his enemy, alive and standing tall.
“No way! He’s still alive?!” He exclaimed in disbelief.
Lakshman clenched his fists tightly and began to exert what little power level in him as he said, “I… am a Phoenix who… rises from the… ashes in the… name of… freedom and… justice!”
At the last word, he began to scream while unleashing the remainder of his power, all at once. In an instant, he began to surge with wild power, radiating golden-red aura that surrounded him, which shook the ground and caused wild blowing winds to blow in all directions and buffet everyone standing near him.
In the next second, he felt his vision losing colour and spin wildly as his mind went into a daze. He shook his head to clear it, but the dizziness only intensified until he could no longer keep his vision straight. As such, he closed his eyes and his power went out, causing him to stand stock still like a statue before slowly fall backwards and into the arms of his nine wives, who quickly came forward to catch him. His unconscious body rested on their arms as their other arms were busy holding on their children.
Up in the sky, the Calamity Titan released a deep sigh and began to laugh normally, which gradually intensified into a cold mirthless laughter that rang in the air. In the next moment, he punched the air above him and screamed at the unseen people there.
“Hey, gods!” He shouted, showing no respect to the mythological gods that many people respect and worship. “Did you see? I finally did it! I finally defeated your champion! With this, I proclaim myself as the strongest warrior in the world!”
His voice echoed with no one to answer him in sight and, after several seconds, his laughter subsided, but his smile remained as he turned his attention back to the spot his enemy was at.
“Finally, after all this time, I’ve succeeded! I’ve finally defeated the man that… that… Why am I crying?”
He said the last statement as a question because he was truly crying. Tears seemed to be coming out of his eyes on their own without him understanding the reason for it. Believing that the pressure in the air, or some dust had entered his eyelids, causing him great pain. He kept rubbing his eyes constantly for a few seconds before the tears subsided, and he looked at the view with a sense of overwhelming excitement bursting from within him.
“Today is the day that I finally defeat… my brother!” He said, fully accepting his past and ready to put an end to it. He extended his right hand and aimed his forefinger and middle-finger together at the same time towards the spot his brother was at and said with an evil smile forming on his face, “With this, it’ll finally be over.”