Seeing the dark space around him, Kai unconsciously clicked his tongue.

This is going to be difficult.

Kai thought to himself. The only person with him was Fate who stopped getting stronger, he wasn't in the area where fear gathered but his current strength was enough to kill Kai with a single move.

"I see, it's not that you're immune to my gaze, it's just that you're resisting it as if your life depended on it- well, it actually is."

Unlike Kai, Fate was composed, he had the leisure to be after all.

"Monster."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who has four different bloodlines of purest origin."

Passed down from the daughter of a Goddess, the son of a Devil, and a pureblood vampire, just hearing about it would make one feel terror.

"It looks like there is no mana here, you trapped yourself in a tiger's den."

Fate had a mocking smile on his face. Without mana to regenerate himself, Kai was next to worthless in his eyes. Fate had more- a lot more than Kai in terms of mana capacity, they won't be able to regenerate mana and Kai's mana wouldn't last if he needed to regenerate and attack. If Kai was at a disadvantage before, then Kai was in a disaster right now. He was like a newborn deer fighting a lion.

"I'm not so sure about that."

Kai had a smile on his face, Fate scoffed at his attempt to keep his composure.

"Right now, you have absolutely no chance against me. Even if you're a fool, you can tell at least this much, can't you?"

Kai was beginning to smirk.

"Since you can't regain your mana or get stronger, then the you right now isn't enough to defeat me. Sure, I won't be able to kill you but in this space, I can leave you so injured and unable to regenerate."

Kai tapped his pendant and brought out a scabbard which covered the entire place in a golden glow, it was a scabbard he rarely used because it took up all the mana in the surroundings and in this place, there was no mana in the air to speak of but this entire place wasn't the outside world- it was the illusion world. If the air had no mana, then he simply had to take it from the world itself, a world that he could control.

"Right now, can you face the power of an entire planet's worth of mana?"

It was dangerous for sure, if he emptied out the mana of the entire world then who knows what would happen to them? Worst case scenario, the world would combust or crush them and the best case scenario was the world being unusable. But luckily, Kai didn't need to expend the entire planet's mana just yet, Fate wasn't that strong and Erina and the others were still in the world, he wouldn't risk it.

Fate furrowed his brows and had sincere worry on his face, he hadn't made this face even when Amelia was about to stab through him because he had confidence but facing the golden scabbard, he felt like an ant in front of an elephant.

"Ancient Gear? No, it's not at that level but it's approaching the level of one- it must be the scabbard of an extremely powerful Ancient Gear."

The smirk on Kai's face became bigger.

"If you think this is everything it can give, then you're insanely mistaken."

Controlling the power of the world from within the seal was difficult but as the owner, Kai had a ton of ways to bypass security. The mana from within the world was slowly but surely gathering around the scabbard and being absorbed at an insane pace.

The golden glow became brighter and brighter as it became stronger and stronger. Right now, it was at the same level as Fate, above SS-class but the rate it got stronger was terrifying. Soon, it would become even stronger than Fate but this level of power wasn't something that Kai could handle on his own.

"S-stop bluffing! This level of power is far too much for you to handle, you'd die as soon as you use it or die before you can use it."

Feeling confident of himself, Fate ignored the cold sweat on his forehead. It was true that he couldn't be killed by anything other than Green Ki or attacks from divinity but an attack from part of Ancient Gear was enough to leave him severely injured- he wouldn't die no matter what but at the very least, he'd be split into pieces.

Stolen novel; please report.

Even though Fate tried to call his bluff, Kai didn't falter which gave Fate even more of a fright. He couldn't attack, Kai would unleash it the second he came near. Right now, his best course of action was to delay Kai and find an opening, the instant he'll try to channel mana, Kai would unleash it- he had no doubt of that.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the mana gathering in the seal was slow and bought Fate some time but in the end, that was just delaying the inevitable. From hunter to prey, the tables were turned in an instant, the both of their lives were in Kai's hands.

"And what makes you think I wouldn't risk my life to take you down with me?"

Remembering Kai's previous actions where he had little to no care for his life, Fate grit his teeth. His mind was spinning around to try and look for solutions but each plan of his was shot down because of Kai's suicidal tendencies. A dying cornered beast is even more dangerous than when it's in peak condition because it will take actions it wouldn't normally take without care for its life.

But it wasn't just Fate who was in turmoil, Kai was secretly fighting his nervousness as well. Sure, he had no care if he died but that was after he finished his duties, if he died now then humanity, everyone he cared about was basically dead. The scabbard glowed brighter and brighter until Fate couldn't see Kai's figure anymore and just as he thought that it wasn't over- the golden light suddenly disappeared and covered the scabbard.

Kai reached his limit, the scabbard was about twice as strong as Fate, this was the limit of what he could control. Even if he unleashed his four wings, he felt that it wouldn't change much- as if he had reached a wall that he couldn't pass through no matter how strong he got. Normally, Kai would be shocked to feel this sensation but it wasn't the first time he encountered this- he had reached the level of divinity before, how wouldn't he know?

"Die."

Unable to hold on any longer, Kai stepped forward and slashed out with the scabbard much like he would with a sword, there was no way he would miss.

BOOM

A giant explosion came from the scabbard, both Kai and Fate were sent flying away and bleeding. Fate was worse off but Kai's body was a lot weaker than his. Fate's chest was caved in and he was cut all over from top to bottom, his left arm was broken completely and bent at an odd angle while his right arm wasn't all that different but it could still function. It looked like he used both of his arms to defend against the blast and injured one of his legs in the process because he was limping.

On the other hand, Kai's damage was more evenly distributed because he couldn't defend himself, his right side was severely damaged with the right arm being blown off from launching the attack while his left side was a bit better off because they were made from the toughest of metals but they evidently suffered the same amount of damage. Kai was panting and had his right eye closed, Fate was also in the same condition, out of breath and with only one eye functioning.

Damn it, this bastard isn't dead yet!

Inwardly cursed Kai.

Dragging his injured body, Kai recalled the living metal that he had separated from his body when the explosion occurred and covered himself. Using parts of his mana, he regenerated his other leg enough to run and recovered his right arm.

Fate lacked anything to regenerate himself because of the damage from the Ancient Gear's scabbard, his eyes were filled with rage as he limped while running at Kai. Both of them unleashed what leftover mana they had left, Fate's mana was actually only a few times that of Kai's now because he tried to defend against that Ancient Gear's power and unfortunately for him, it would take him years to recover that lost mana in a place where it isn't rich.

Covering his hands in blue orbs of light, Kai punched at Fate, it was quickly blocked and countered by Fate but using his senses to its limits, he blocked in time and launched another attack. Fate created a wall of flame to surround himself while Kai used tentacles made of water on his back to pierce through the flames.

The both of them were saving as much mana as possible but the amount they had left was still more than an average S-class and their battle was quite extravagant.

Fate created a cone of flames in front of him but Kai pushed out with water and dispersed it only to be hit by a ball of flame on his chest.

The corner of Kai's mouth leaked out blood but he forcefully straightened himself and boosted his feet using flames. Then, using ice to freeze the little moisture left in the air, he performed an axe kick which created a crescent wave of ice but it did no damage and Kai was once more forced back and the blood that had been building up in his mouth was forcefully spat out but that only served to increase his ferocity.

Fate launched himself forward by igniting his feet with flames and punched Kai whose chest also began to cave in. Normally, wounds of this level wouldn't do anything to either of them as they could both regenerate the damage in an instant or a few minutes at most but right now, they were as vulnerable as any mortal.

Kai grabbed Fate's arm, pulled him close and gave a head-butt. The armor of Kai protected him from damage but it exhausted Fate even more. One was chipping away at the other's mana and stamina while the other was chipping away at the other's life. Even if Fate was exhausted, Kai would normally be down by now but why is it that he can still stand? It didn't matter if Kai was S-class, it didn't even matter if he was SS-class, Fate had confidence in destroying him with a few moves but what was this? He couldn't beat Kai who had a foot in the grave.

"You... what is your body made of?!"

Kicking Kai's stomach and then proceeding to beat down on him, Fate asked without expecting an answer. No matter what Kai did, Fate used his experience to gain the upper hand, most of the living armor around Kai was scattered around the floor and his body was beaten to a bloody pulp. Fate was beginning to look better than before, an immortal's natural regeneration wasn't something to laugh at.

"There's... there's one difference between the two of us."

Panting, Kai stood up slowly.

"I'll show it to you now."