Although Fate was born with flames and was proficient with it the most, his skill with the other elements wasn't something that could be compared to. Not Kai, not Erina, or Amelia. One of the reasons was experience but the biggest reason was strength, Fate could use his strength to peer deeper into the elements but when using darkness, he couldn't compare to Kai.

It's true that Kai has only been using darkness for twenty to thirty years of his life combined but unlike Fate, he reached the realm of the Gods. Although the Immortal was strong, he was still far from that realm, even at his peak, he would only be able to see the sky from the ground.

Mana quality changed after SS-class, it's called the realm of legends because not only do they have an abundance of mana, they also have many other power sources which are way more efficient. Kai's infinite mana will not necessarily an advantage in the latter stages of his life and in fact, might even prove troublesome because he would rely on mana the most.

The elements were like the ocean, Fate has yet to reach the shore of the rivers connected to the ocean but Kai has already dipped his fingers in that large ocean but both of them were still insanely far away from the depths. Nevertheless, the elements weren't controlled by mana, they simply supported it. That tiny dip in the ocean could destroy mana like it was made of paper. This is what everyone in the realm of legends believes.

Angered, Fate used all the rubble in the room, all of them shot towards Kai's group at an insane speed, this wasn't something anyone except the three, Erina, Kai, and Amelia could defend against. Erina took action first, she raised a wall of ice around her as her silver hair glowed and black eyes turned white.

Fate's strength nearly doubled from what he had before, this meant that he had stopped underestimating them. Fate used the sun-like ball of flame to test out Kai's reflect and it bore fruit, Kai couldn't reflect it because it was much stronger than him.

Without talking, Kai conveyed his message to Erina with eye contact. Seeing that, Erina nodded and opened a tiny opening which Kai slipped through before closing it again. Now, Kai was in the destroyed room along with the Immortal while everyone else was at the hallway.

Kai ignited his arms into golden flames and leapt.

Seeing Kai use flames, Fate immediately stopped the air from Kai's area and removed it which in turn, removed the oxygen and any type of air around Kai. No oxygen meant no flames, the flames from Kai's arms disappeared and his movements dulled due to the sudden disappearance but that didn't stop him for more than an instant, he also created his own artificial oxygen, although it wasn't pure, he could replicate the feat of creating an artificial oxygen tank with his element.

Kai didn't continue using flames and snapped his fingers, Kai took the moisture surrounding Fate and turned them into icicles which immediately shot out. The heat should've dispersed most of the moisture in their area but when Kai used rend which had the water attribute, they were more than replenished.

Fate simply let it all crash into his body because no matter how strong Kai was, he couldn't damage Fate with only mana.

Unlike earlier, Fate didn't question why Kai wasn't fighting with Erina who could damage him, he was angered but he hadn't lost his sense of reason, he knew Kai was plotting something.

Kai used the air to form a tornado around the Immortal and then laced it with rubble. The speed of Kai's miniature tornado was insanely fast, it was so fast that it probably reached all the way to a thousand kilometers per hour. Of course, Kai used a ton of mana to control it and the rubble he added were leftovers from Fate's attack but even he wouldn't able to escape out of an attack like that unscathed.

Fate's vision was blocked and he immediately used his own control over the air to disperse the tornado which also sent the rubble flying all over the place. The wall behind them had long since been torn down when the Immortal became enraged.

Kai had come near and was using Deceit to attack Fate who took on all of his attacks by using a sword made out earth.

"...I see, so you're trying to drain me of my mana. Stupid idea, I already said I have a hundred times more mana than you and the rate I recover isn't as fast as yours but it's definitely enough to continue fighting like this for months. On the other hand, the rate you're recovering mana is becoming slower though it's decreasing so slowly that it isn't even noticeable."

That was also one of Kai's weaknesses. His body relied on draining mana from the surroundings and if there was no more mana, he couldn't recover anymore and was reduced to the capability of normal people's mana recovery but most of his attacks all took a frightening amount of mana to cast. This was because Kai wasn't afraid of running out of mana.

During the other timeline, all of the council members worked together with Erina and Amelia and even then, they only won against the Immortal by luck. He had let down his guard and in the end, was pierced by Erina and Amelia's Green Ki but it wasn't because of them that they won, it was because the Immortal had turned his attention away from them for an instant in fear of an attack launching at him from behind.

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That instant was when Kai used Abyssal Wolf under the gaze of many, he released the power of SS-class and wiped out the undead. At that time, he was only A-class and had bottlenecked himself so that the council wouldn't notice him. To them, that was the second time Kai used Abyssal Wolf and that time, he used it to its very limits and he almost died. After that, he was forced to rest for an entire year.

That's why, after this battle is over, Kai had a blank slate of memories, he didn't experience anything firsthand and all the information he has about this year was information from others and days after he woke up, he saved Erina only to find out he was a bit late, some of her power was extracted and her emotions disappeared. Through various means, Erina finally managed to use some emotions but most of the time, her face was ice-cold.

Whenever he saw her, Kai felt guilty and powerless. That's why he did everything he could and managed to finally restore most of her emotions before the war with the Demons and Gods.

Only now did Kai find out about his opponent's habits.

Fate countered each of Kai's moves with pure swordsmanship, he had mastered every weapon that existed during his time, how could Kai compare to him? Both of them didn't focus on a single weapon but one has the experience of thousands of years- maybe even millions but the other only had two or three decades at most. Kai's weapon mastery was most likely in the top 5% or maybe even higher in this world but when compared to the Immortal, he didn't amount to much.

Kai used the Null Distance Sword and Flash Step combined, both were skills derived from the same principle and so the synchronization was great but no matter how Kai switched places or whatever direction he went, he was still countered. Kai was using Deceit on one hand and had a dagger held in a reverse grip on the other. Kai used his dagger to defend and the sword to attack but no matter how he changed styles or places, Fate kept on predicting his moves.

Kai made a mistake first, Fate quickly took that opening and thrust his sword at Kai's shoulder but as soon as he did, the armor broke apart and went straight for his face forcing him to dodge. It was true that mana couldn't damage him but like Erina's attack earlier, he didn't know which attacks were covered in Green Ki.

"Sentient Blades?!"

Seeing the floating blades, he yelled out in surprise.

"Living metal, I'm sure you're more than familiar with it."

The blades went back to form Kai's armor and he stepped back. If the Immortal realizes that Kai doesn't know how to use Green Ki, he would use his absolute power to crush Kai but fortunately, the Immortal still hadn't realized. He was enraged but he was still rational.

The both of them came to a standstill until Kai broke it by stepping forward, the armor around him broke apart and revealed him wearing the classic black trench coat. His cape also formed into blades and now there were over a hundred blades swarming around Kai, they weren't long and looked like spearheads, they were insanely sharp.

"You actually found this much living metal in today's times? Ever since fifty thousand years ago, those were nearly extinct and you could only find the amount to make a sword in a hundred years yet you managed to get this much?"

Greed was present in the Immortal's eyes. Living metal wasn't truly alive, it used to be normal metal but when someone was killed in the mines, they made a discovery. Some ordinary metal, when baptized by blood would gain sentience, this was called living metal. After gaining sentience, they can then be contracted to link with the owner's brain waves. The only way to sever this connection was if the owner relinquished ownership or if the owner was killed.

Naturally, this fetched an insanely high price. With it, they could control their weapons without touching them, even the weakest of swordsmen could gain fame in the battlefield with these swords who could seek out their own enemies. In the past, living metal costed over a thousand gold for a sword's worth. For one, there was the fact that these types of metal were extremely rare because they could only be found when blood is spilled on them and to awaken them, it has to take at least a bucket of blood.

"Good luck."

Saying that, the swarm of blades that circled around him pointed at the Immortal and shot forward. With the light from outside shining down on them, it looked like a giant drill heading straight for the Immortal, it seemed even more threatening than the whirlwind but the Immortal didn't lose his calm.

The Immortal's eyes became sharp and just as he did that, the blades fell from the sky one after another and by the time they reached the Immortal, they were all on the floor.

"...How troublesome."

"As long as it has a mind, I can plant fear and give it immense pain. Your blades won't be usable for awhile and now that you lost your armor, my innate ability will have full effects."

Kai clicked his tongue. The only reason Fate's gaze couldn't hurt Kai was because he was covered in sentient armor. If it was just plain armor, the Immortal's gaze will simply pierce through but it was different if the armor was alive. They didn't need to move and were simply in a dormant state so they didn't lose power but now that they did, Kai was now taking the brunt of the attack but...

"...You aren't even flinching."

"Naturally."

"Truly amazing, you have quite the strong mind there."

The Immortal vanished from his spot, even Kai's left eye couldn't track him at all and before he knew it, he was already flying towards the wall.

BOOM

Kai's body broke the wall, a single back of the hand to his face sent him flying hard enough to break apart an entire wall but he didn't stop there, he continued flying and only stopped about a kilometer away from the palace.

Kai broke dozens of houses on his way and finally crash landed inside one. The corners of his mouth had blood and his body was severely injured.

He's getting his power back...

Kai stood up and spat out the blood in his mouth.

"[Lightning Speed]."

In an instant, Kai arrived right next to the Immortal and sent out a punch of his own, this was a kilometer's worth of distance at the speed of lightning, the power behind this one attack was insane but it only managed to make the Immortal move his head, his feet didn't even step back.

"It's useless."

The Immortal grabbed Kai's wrist and slammed him down onto the floor then he pulled both hands and used a knee to send him flying to the roof. Another mouthful of blood was spat out, the organs in his abdomen were crushed.

"Kai!"

Erina yelled and shot out from within the shield.