The grass around Adhrit was uprooted and flung meters in the distance, as the silver energy radiating off him propelled him forward with immense force. Tejash saw the incoming attack and quickly stretched his hand forward, formed a yellow flame sphere, and launched it toward Adhrit.
Adhrit slashed his sword forward. His silver glowing eyes stayed locked with Tejash. The flames dispersed the moment Adhrit's silver energy covering the sword made contact with them. Tejash's brows flinched. He refused to believe that Adhrit's barely present attention was enough to negate his attack.
Tejash joined both of his palms. An immense amount of his flame condensed. The flame began forming a blade as Tejash distanced both of his palms. His eyes glimmered with confidence. He moved his hand, and the flame blade followed his hand's movement while floating in the air.
[BHUM!]
A powerful shockwave was released the moment Adhrit's sword clashed with the flame blade. Tejash smirked, making it apparent that he didn't use any force to block his attack. Adhrit's eyes contracted with an absolute focus on the blade. Tejash moved both of his hands in a pattern, resulting in the flame blade jumping around Adhrit and forcing him to block the attack from all directions.
Adhrit landed on the ground. The entire area trembled with a powerful shockwave. Tejash immediately realized Adhrit's lack of flight and moved his right hand forward. The flame sword moved perfectly in sync with his hand and rushed towards Adhrit at tremendous speed.
[BHUM!]
Another powerful explosion occurred the moment the blunt side of Adhrit's sword collided with the sharp flame blade raging with a powerful force. ‘This isn't a technique,’ Adhrit thought. Despite blocking the attack, he was constantly getting pushed back with the force from the flame blade increasing every passing second. Just as he began formulating a plan to counter-attack, the flame blade suddenly moved above him and attacked him from behind.
Adhrit quickly dodged the blade by ducking, his eyes briefly moved towards Tejash and found his hands moving in a pattern. It didn’t take him long to realize that the flame blade moved in sync with Tejash’s hand movements. ‘‘This..is his mantra..’’ Adhrit whispered while he blocked the flame sword, which once again was headed towards his head.
Tejash began moving his hand in a pattern, appearing as an elegant dancer instead of a warrior. The flame sword kept jumping in different directions and attacking Adhrit, with greater force behind every collision. ‘He has greater maneuverability than me…and doesn’t need to exert physical strength.’ Adhrit's mind raced while Adhrit's well-trained body instinctively blocked the attacks. Just after a dozen of times, the flame sword held enough force to decimate the entire kingdom. This made Tejash’s eyes contract, with a serious expression replacing his smirk, as Adhrit's strange swordsmanship kept blocking the attacks seemingly impossible to be counteracted.
The woman beside him gazed down with a bewildered expression, as at that point, Adhrit appeared as a streak of silver light moving on the ground while being followed by a yellow stream of light. The ground occasionally lit up with bright silver and yellow light, as Adhrit attacked or blocked the flame blade.
‘This is it…’ Adhrit’s eyes lit up as a vulnerability came into his sight. He noticed Tejash’s hands slightly shake every time he clashed with the flame blade, along with a fixed distance maintained between his hands. ‘I’ll see just how fast you can move..' With these words, the silver energy surrounding Adhrit condensed on his body, his speed increased exponentially, with him being on the offensive. Attacks from all directions began rapidly hitting the flame blade. Tejash’s eyes widened with the display, and his hands began to shake. Until;
[BOOM!]
A sudden explosion occurred on the ground. Tejash’s hands were flung away with immense force. The woman turned towards Tejash with a pale face, as she found blood gushing out from both of Tejash’s palms.
All the while, Tejash’s eyes were locked on Adhrit on the ground, who now stood holding the shaking flame blade in his palms. Adhrit coldly gazed at Tejash, he pressed his fingers on the flame blade’s surface, resulting in the flames dissipating in the air.
"Haah…What incredible swordsmanship.." Tejash spoke with a bright smile, while his eyes glimmered in awe. The woman bit her lip while her eyes shivered with rage, "Have you gotten mad? That Astra-less brat just defeated your Mantra." She spoke with gritted teeth. Tejash’s expression turned serious as he listened to her words; he raised his right palm toward the sky.
[SHING!]
The ring on his finger vibrated, with an immense amount of flames appearing out of it the very next moment. Adhrit raised his sword towards Tejash while expecting another flame blade, but as seconds passed, his expectation dwindled. The amount of flames kept increasing exponentially, to the point of covering the entire Paradise. The next second became a witness to another strange occurrence, flames began condensing back right above Tejash’s open palm. The flames solidified in a similar manner to the flame blade, but in this instance, they formed a long spear with far greater energy pouring out of it.
The moment Tejash grabbed the spear, his eyes glowed yellow with incredible strength surging throughout his body. A drop of sweat streamed down Adhrit’s forehead, while the immense force of the weapon made the twelve shadow members go on their knees. Tejash stared at Adhrit, strangely enough, his eyes were regretful. Adhrit took this strange expression of Tejash as a warning, solidifying the sense of immense danger now Tejash held in his hands.
The shadow members gazing at Tejash had a strange sense of familiarity about the phenomenon. The immense yet calm energy pouring out of the flames reminded them of a particular sight from the near past. Before they could form a clear picture:
“O Agniastra! Hearken to my plea and vanquish my foe!” Tejash’s heavy voice made the ground tremble, making most of the elves and Chandra kingdom’s citizens lose consciousness immediately. The shadow members barely kept their eyes open, with blood streaming out of their noses. At the same instance, Adhrit stood still with the pressure having the least effect on him.
Tejash flung his arm forward, throwing the spear made of flame towards Adhrit. The air vaporized in the spear’s path as it rushed forward. Adhrit collected every iota of energy he had and concentrated all of his strength in his front.
[BHUM!]
The spear made of flame clashed with Adhrit, vaporizing a huge chunk of ground along with everything present on it in a matter of seconds. An immense amount of flames erupted out of the spear and engulfed Adhrit entirely, and it appeared that the attack had yet to be completed. The flames kept rising with even greater force and expanding the radius of destruction in the process. The ground appeared brighter than the sun with the heat, forcing the shadow members to finally use all of their strength to defend themselves. The shadow members' and the elves' eyes darkened, their attention didn't stay on the heat or the damage it dealt for even a moment. They all gazed at the constantly increasing flames with utter concern for Adhrit.
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—
"Ho?...What is this energy?" a being spoke in a shaky voice while engulfed in almost constant darkness. He had a dark shell covering his entire body, which was barely intact and shattered just by his speech. His eyes were completely dark, with pale skin and bones appearing under the skin. "Pralaya...who knew his Dragon tongue would have its effect even after he died?" the being whispered without even the slightest attempt to move. Then, suddenly, a stream of faint flames appeared above his head. He could only lift his eyes and see the stream of flames enter his body from his chest. "Hehe...It seems your Dragon tongue has a weakness, Lord Pralaya," he spoke while clicking his tongue, along with the dark shell around him healing at a rapid pace.
—
Tejash's eyes suddenly widened with utter shock, his eyebrows expanding with a strange smile covering his face. The woman, who was now a short distance away from him, noticed this and had a curious expression on her face. "Why are you smiling? Is he dead?" she asked, seemingly expecting the answer and quite pleased by it. Tejash just shook his head from left to right until he opened his mouth. "He...is quite the warrior."
[BHUM!]
A shockwave erupted from the impact area of the Agniastra. The woman's face turned pale, and she quickly looked down with her horrified eyes restlessly attempting to find something amidst the fury of the flames. The flames engulfing the entire place suddenly tore apart from behind. Tejash gazed with amazement as the flames began getting pushed back towards the spear by an as-yet-unknown force. Then, in the next instance,
[HUM!]
Incredible energy burst out of the flames, completely dispersing them and pushing them back into the spear. The silver color of the flames sent chills down the woman's spine, while Tejash smiled as he anticipated the next moment. Just a second later, Adhrit, after clashing with the Agniastra, came into sight. His clothes were tattered, with every inch of revealed skin burnt, and his sword's metal had turned a burning red with steam constantly emerging from his entire body.
[BHUM!]
The next tremor brought a shocking realization to Tejash, "The Agniastra...is getting pushed..." he uttered words that he himself couldn't believe. The woman's face had a horrified expression with shivering eyes the moment she heard those words. "That is impossible...this, this can't be happening...it's a dream, it can't be real." She whispered while clenching her fists, resulting in her nails impaling the palm and causing bleeding.
At the same time, Ambu stared at Adhrit from a distance away. Her eyes appeared concerned while noticing irregularities in Adhrit's energy, "He's nearing his limits..." She whispered.
Blood streamed down Adhrit's chin, caused by him gritting his teeth with immense force. His hands shivered with pain, along with the thought of letting go becoming more and more potent. But, to quite the contrast, his eyes were strangely calm. He kept reminding himself of a particular image - Arav defending them from the figure's attack while being in the worst imaginable condition. "He didn't give up...nor will I..." This thought kept him standing against Agniastra.
[BOOM!]
An explosion alarmed everyone present in the area. Tejash turned to look at the source of the explosion, which was located a short distance south of the Paradise. Just as he began to wonder about the explosion, a huge dark energy sphere suddenly emerged from the ground. It didn't take Tejash long to realize the target of the explosion. He quickly grabbed the woman's hand and began rapidly flying away from the Paradise. The state of confusion was shared by all looking at the sphere, except for one – Adhrit's eyes widened as he sensed the energy radiating from the sphere. He turned his head slightly and saw the dark energy sphere almost reaching the center of the Paradise.
“URGH!!! NO!!!!!” He exclaimed while pouring all of his strength in an attempt to push the Agniastra back. While it did work, it was nowhere near to allow him to do anything against the energy sphere. He brought one of his arms off the sword’s hilt and kept trying to create a portal, but failed. His peripheral vision caught the sight of the dark energy sphere ripping through the Paradise’s houses and almost reaching the ground. “Everything…will be destroyed..please…just for once…” Adhrit pleaded to someone even he wasn’t aware of. “All of the training…all for nothing…” Desperation and anger engulfed his heart while he saw the dark energy sphere almost making contact with the unconscious elves on the ground.
Adhrit restlessly shook his sword, trying to get it away from Agniastra no matter if he gets burnt alive. But the sword was strangely stuck between the collision of his silver energy and the Agniastra’s destructive flames. Adhrit was left with the last yet incredibly dangerous option, “I’ll remove my ener-” Adhrit suddenly sensed a palm resting on his shoulders.
Adhrit’s mind went blank, a strange sense of security removing the feeling of danger and desperation from his heart. Tears streamed down the young boy’s face, yet he didn't have enough courage to turn back. The next thing Adhrit saw was an arm stretched towards the dark energy sphere. The sphere halted all its movement and began moving back up, with strange marks appearing at its base as if pushed up by an unknown force.
[WOOSH!]
The sphere disintegrated in thin air. Tejash gazed around the area to find the source of the sphere and the one responsible for destroying such force. His gaze was answered the moment he noticed someone standing behind Adhrit–a man with long silver hair that covered his face, black clothes that were torn apart at various places. The man stood on the burning red ground with naked feet, while his right arm had effortlessly impaled Adhrit’s silver energy barrier, something that even the Agniastra couldn’t do yet. Tejash sensed a powerful presence from the man, enough to force himself to float down towards the ground and lower his gaze in respect.
“Calm your mind…focus on your energy…” The man said in a low yet confident voice, while lowering his previously stretched arm. Adhrit’s entire body raged with powerful energy just by listening to the few words the man spoke. Tejash wasn’t surprised anymore, even after he saw the Agniastra completely pushed back and its flames disperse in thin air. “Haah…haaah..” Adhrit couldn’t speak, he lost all the strength in his body and began falling back. The man swiftly stretched his arm, caught Adhrit, and began flying towards Ambu.
Ambu gazed at the man with a smirk, her white eyes practically shining with excitement. “Took you long enough,” she said while stretching her arms forward as the man laid Adhrit on the grass. “He has grown,” the man said while standing up. “His amazing teacher should be thanked,” Ambu answered while the man began floating towards Tejash.
Tejash’s heart was already filled with respect, at the same time, the woman glared at him while still floating in the sky. The man softly landed on the ground right in front of Tejash. “You have incredible control over that Astra,” the man said while his head was tilted down. Tejash realized the man's gaze was focused on the golden ring on his hand, causing a smile to appear on his face. “I never expected to meet such an incredible individual,” Tejash said in a respectful tone while moving his hand forward which had a golden ring, “This artifact is my family’s heirloom. It has the ability to amplify as well as control the power of Agniastra.” Tejash added.
The man raised his left arm towards the south, causing goosebumps all over Tejash's body from a strange force.
[CRACK!]
The ground cracked in the distance, with something dark appearing out of it. Before anyone could conclude the identity of the dark object, it rapidly flew towards the man's arms and collided with a shockwave. "Urk!!" Pratira gasped for air while his throat was tightly gripped by the man. A small amount of dark energy began appearing right at the tip of Pratira's finger. Tejash and the woman were still left comprehending the sheer strength of Pratira , before they could arrive at a conclusion. "Not this time."
[SPLURT!]
The man's voice strangely vibrated, with Pratira's entire body turning into a mass of flesh and blood the next moment. The man shook his hand, brushing the blood off his palm and calmly placed it on his back. "I'll be taking over the Chandra kingdom." The man spoke in such a calm tone that sent chills down Tejash's spine.
The woman's brows flinched, she clenched her fists and appeared done with all that was occurring, "WHO EVEN ARE YOU?! ONLY AN ASTRA WIELDE-..." She began exclaiming with all of her might, but before her frustrated speech could complete;
"Padmastra," the man's voice vibrated strangely once again. But this time, both the woman and Tejash couldn't focus on that. The woman's eyes widened with horror and shock, while Tejash's eyes glimmered with awe. No matter what direction they looked in, they found Paadmastra. Tejash swiftly turned his head around and found the entire Paradise covered in a number of Paadmastras floating in the sky.
[Chapter 44: END]