I didn’t even realize I spoke, but my words were holding power. Hell, I didn’t even use a different language, just plain old english.

And it worked.

The moment I spoke, my mana crystallized in my non-existing hands, turning the imagination into reality.

A familiar crystal. Almost see-through, with a blood-red tinge, and very sharp. Just like the “blade” that cut me a moment ago.

-Nice daggers - he commented on my change. - Too bad it won’t help you.

But the growth was not done.

The blades were still expanding, or rather I was still pushing mana into them. I wanted to make them as durable as possible, to hopefully break his.

I managed to reinforce them, sure, but only a bit: after a brief moment of strengthening, the mana I was pouring was instead going towards them getting longer and thicker.

Even then, I was not stopping, and only finished when I felt my hands getting a bit too heavy to my liking.

Not the worst outcome, all things considered.

-I take that back. Those are swords.

Yeah, that was a tad bit more correct description.

From my wrists, where just minutes ago I had regular hands, I now was sporting two ten centimeter wide and maybe a meter long crystal blades.

-Let’s check the quality…

He swung at me with his arms, mid-swing transforming both arms into a curved version of the blade he had as a hand a moment ago.

We clashed with a loud noise, sending mass of sparks all over the place.

-Durable.

-You don’t say.

I tried to step back and swing at him instead, but he just moved slightly and trapped my own hands in with his.

-Doesn’t matter how large or how long, it’s how you can use it.

With surprising agility, he released me and changed his shape again.

This time, he looked more human: instead of two blades he just had one. Sure, longer, but a lot thinner.

It sort of looked like a cross between a rapier and a longsword.

Interesting.

-You say it doesn’t matter, yet make your own longer.

-Pff. Amateur.

-So are you.

-Of course I was. But I am not alone, am I?

-You mean…

-There were plenty of people skilled in the sword that are a part of me now.

He was not wrong.

Sad part is, he didn’t really need those to defeat me.

I was still just myself, a person who’s never thought he’d be even picking up a sword, not to mention fight with it to the death.

Even Moi would be better than me. And he was part of him as well, at least to my knowledge.

A good swordsman would be able to disarm me without even looking. Hell, even a shabby one, I presume. Good thing that was not possible with my current weapon, though.

I knew I was lacking, so I decided to be smarter and instead focused on defense.

Maybe even too much, because my body responded in kind.

What just a moment ago was a blade that I was attempting to use as something to defend myself, now was just a large slab of crystal right on the end of my hand.

I mean, a mace also works…

The sheer size of it was helping me stand my ground and I was able to bounce some attacks away.

Some.

He was still able to hit me multiple times, but at least now I was not getting slammed away by just a difference in weight.

Yeah… my body was getting better.

And by better I mean turning more and more into a crystal I remembered.

To be honest, it was easier than I thought, this process of editing my own flesh.

When Kon was doing it, I thought it was something that really should take full focus and massive amounts of magic, but now I was able to do it while being pounded by attacks from Mike.

And maybe also because of that.

According to Kon, he needed to first destroy his body to reform it into a shape he wanted it to take, right?

Well, it was true here as well… but I managed to outsource the process, so to speak.

Involuntarily, of course, but Mike was helping me reinstate myself into a being I already gotten used to.

Each hit, leaving mark, every wound, was converted into not fleshy, bleeding hole, instead into a crystal

I mean, I still was leaking, both mana and blood, but at that point, I kind of didn’t care. At least about the blood part.

And with mana… even despite his best efforts to drain me, I still was feeling strong, which was surprising. I probably was able to regenerate quite a bit just from his presence alone, it’s not like he was bothering to contain himself.

Wasn’t the freshest mana, but even the remaining pieces from our clashes were helpful.

Now, when I think about it… it was strange that he was able to convert me in the first place… As far as I was aware, he did not destroy my body beforehand… well, not completely nor recently at least.

Oh.

Right. But he did help me regrow it…

Did he do something to me then?

The details do not matter.

What matters is, I was able to somewhat stand my ground, and that was before my other hand started transforming.

Yeah, apparently my attempts on defense and the response from my own mana to it wasn’t finished just yet.

While swinging wildly with the mace, I noticed that also my other arm was slowly getting transformed. Bulging and bubbling, it was almost leaking, which was making me mildly uncomfortable.

But it really wasn't all that bad.

Especially after I realized what was being created.

A tower shield.

Yeah, that’s about how I’d describe it.

A large, rectangular slab of crystal, replacing my whole arm and even partially shoulder, helping me deflect his assault.

But, despite my best efforts, he was looking at me like I was just a minor inconvenience. Maybe with a hint of amusement.

Can’t blame him, I also would not choose this as my default setup for a battle. A short mace and a shield? What am I, some kind of scuffed paladin?

I think my own flesh was resonating with that idea, or rather the complete and utmost weirdness of it, because just as I was complaining to myself the other hand started turning once more.

It looked like someone had put it into the lava and pulled it out way too late: the large slab that was working as a weapon started stretching and getting thinner… and thinner.

I honestly got a scare.

What if I accidentally destroyed it? Turned it into something that was unusable?

But, it wasn’t all that bad.

I managed to create two shields, a bit too much, but that’s just probably because of me being a bit fixated on the idea of “shielding myself”.

It did work though, for one or two hits.

He was surprised to see me effortlessly block, but that was just for a moment. He realized what happened and immediately changed his approach, or rather switched to actually attempting to feint me.

He did succeed, I have to add.

But I had a plan.

Since I, apparently, had a good idea on how to modify my body by now, I thought, why not do it again? Expand my horizons!

And by that, I mean expand my shields.

I slammed my fists, or rather my shields, together and focused mana on them both, trying to cleanly and evenly distribute my magic along them.

It… sort of worked.

What I had in mind was to make my shields a lot wider, to cover me from each side, and if that was going to work.

I managed to do that, essentially walling myself in in some sort of a hollow pillar.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

But, the problem was, I was not able to move my hands.

Sure, I was protected from every direction, but what for? I was going to stand there and wait?

Ouch!

Suddenly, a hit to the head.

While not exactly painful, I definitely felt it.

About that “every direction”... I kind of forgot about one.

Up.

Yeah, Mike realized that and straight up started stabbing me from above.

How did he even manage to do that? What, he jumped up or some shit?

I mean, he probably could but that was not it.

His weapon… was curving.

And was a lot longer than I had seen before.

Of course. I wasn’t the only one that was able to modify their body. Obviously. He just lengthened his “rapier”, and by that point spear, and made it change shape so it could reach me here.

I have to say, it looked absolutely ridiculous, like some sort of weird living crystal snake, slithering through the gap in my shields to just poke me from above.

I had to change my tactics once more…

I was wondering, was I even needing to block those attacks?

By this point, my body was fully back to its old and crystal self. Sure, I was a bit more red-tinged, but that didn’t mean I was weaker. Hell, it seemed like the knowledge of how to modify my own body helped me heal faster: I could actually focus on the spots that needed it and direct the resources there.

Surely I could just stop and go on the offensive, right?

For a moment, to test that theory, I just stopped doing anything. I was standing there, letting him hit me just as he was doing, the “snake” stabbing me every moment…

It seemed like it wasn't doing any damage.

Sure, I was getting chipped a bit, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. Surely I could just drop the shields and do something else…?

But, what I didn’t notice at first were small sparks of mana that were stabbing me along with his weapon.

Just like a poison, it was seeping into my wounds, and slowly making me sluggish.

I did notice it a bit late, though…

Or maybe it was because of that I noticed it a bit late?

The main takeaway from it was that I couldn’t let him stab me freely. I had to defend.

Back to my original idea: more shields.

I once more spread my own mana and wanted to change the shape of the shield.

I was a bit tired of all this snaking bullshit, so I went with what I probably should have in the first place: a large orb.

I turned myself into a ball. Well, technically, it was just my arms, but from the outside I definitely looked just like a large crystal ball.

There was an obvious flaw, though.

I was blind.

Be it because my crystal was thick, or maybe just because of the newly acquired red color, but I wasn’t able to see anything through it.

Hell, even my magical sight wasn’t helping: I was just seeing my own mana in front of me. After all, I was just looking at myself.

And since I was still quite full on mana, everything behind was being drowned in the mana flame that I was the center of.

Not all was bad, though.

I was protected from all sides, and while I could still feel his weapon poking me from outside, the damage wasn’t serious.

If it was to continue, this fight would probably end up being a straight up test of stamina.

Honestly, I kind of wanted for that to happen.

Sure, I was warned about his mana capacity and all, but that’s the thing…

I’ve seen his body first hand. And while me being mistaken was possible, from what I’ve seen we had a very comparable amount of mana.

Sure, he was better at fighting, but so what? He was expending more mana to just attack me than I was to sit there in a ball healing and protecting myself.

On top of that, I was also pretty sure that he was infusing his mana into attacks, trying to make them powerful, to break through the crystal. That means even more mana wasted, right?

And we can’t forget my ability, or, well, the crystal’s ability to absorb mana.

Even if he was trying to hurt me by infusing his attacks, I still was able to get some of that magic to myself, to regain what I was expending.

From my perspective, it obviously looked like I had the upper hand.

It definitely wouldn’t look like that from an outsider perspective. Hell, it most likely looked like Mike had lost his marbles, trying to hurt a piece of crystal.

Unfortunately, he also noticed that.

And I don’t mean how stupid the exchange looked.

No, he noticed that it was pointless to attack.

I sort of was banking on him trying to attack over and over and eventually tire himself out, so I could try and free Il from his will, but that was just wishful thinking on my part. He was smart, no way he’d just smack his head against the wall till exhaustion.

If he was to continue his attack, I had to taunt him or something…

But, when I was thinking of what to say or do to make him do that, I felt him strike me again.

Strange.

Did he really go mad?

I mean, it was pointless and he knew that.

Did that mean he figured something out…?

Hm.

Didn’t seem like it.

His attacks still were as vain as ever. And on top of that I am pretty sure that they were even weaker than before.

What’s up with him…?

That wasn’t my imagination.

His attacks were getting weaker.

I mean… That was my plan… But for it to go so smoothly… And without any input from me felt… bizarre, to say the least.

No, that was impossible. Something had to change.

I am sure he is not that stupid. I was just overlooking something.

While at that point I sort of wanted to dismiss that thought as a mild case of overthinking things, the truth was I was right.

Sure, his blows were weaker. But the mana infused in them was not.

He wasn’t trying to do damage. Not immediately.

He was focusing on striking a singular point. A point on which he was gathering mana, with each consecutive strike.

Sure, I could absorb it. But not all of it, and not immediately.

If he was to damage my crystal more, this tactic wouldn’t have worked: the wound itself would be healing itself using the mana from his blows.

But, since his blows were barely scratching the surface of my shield, the excess was slowly building. And, was not making any sparks.

Since I was being blinded by my own mana, I had a hard time even seeing it. Plus, it was just the same color as him, so one could easily mistake it for just his body, since they were next to each other.

And he was counting on that.

Finally, I did notice it, but it was too late.

Even if I was to realize it sooner, I wouldn’t be able to do anything to prevent what was going on.

With his final strike, he swung hard. I am not sure if he even needed to cast any spell: the sparks would’ve done the trick.

An explosion.

A strong one.

It was powerful enough to crack my shield and that’s not something to be taken lightly.

While I wasn’t able to see from the outside, I assume that if someone would see us, the blast radius would've been enough to knock someone off their feet from more than just a few hundred meters.

Also, I said “cracked”... I mean more like shattered.

It wasn’t all because of the explosion, though.

Sure, the blast did make a sizable opening in it, to the point where I was able to see the outside, and the peeking blade that made its way towards my face.

I reflexively wanted to shield myself with my hand, but that was not happening.

It would’ve been futile anyway, because for once he was not aiming for face, it just looked like that for a moment.

Immediately after breaking through, the blade that was pointing now towards my eye started swelling, and did not stop until it shattered the remains of my defense into small pieces.

It was a bizarre sight, to see something that was supposed to be made of stone, crystal, to swell like a balloon.

Yet that was exactly what happened. To add to the weirdness, it also didn’t make any sound at all. Or maybe that was just me who was a bit stunned by an explosion that happened right in front of my face a moment earlier.

Strange or not, it was effective. And quick.

All that happened in less than two seconds, leaving me absolutely discombobulated.

And more importantly, without any defense.

I was just standing here, like a cracked egg, right and ready for someone to scoop up the insides.

While Mike was definitely going to aim at assaulting me more, he was not about to start scooping. He just went for yet another stab, connecting with my forehead.

I want to say that it was this strike that finally managed to shake me up enough to get me out of the stunned state I found myself in, but it wasn’t it.

It was the immediate pain that I felt.

Not at the point of impact, not. It was deeper in.

So he never stopped infusing his blows with mana, hm?

But this man.. was different.

It wasn’t just some unattuned, neutral mana that you’d expect of someone who was about to cast a spell.

No, it was more… personal.

And I don’t mean that he was attuning himself to me, rather the opposite.

He wanted to force my own magic to submit to him, after all.

But, I had no idea how he was going to do that. Or rather how he was attempting to right now, because that deep seeded pain in my head was most likely indicating his own presence invading.

I didn’t know, but my thought about his mana being “personal” was on point.

As mentioned, regular spells will use regular, unaspected mana to then turn themselves into select element or any other effect caster desires and is able to will it to.

But that does not mean you can’t do something different.

I even used that exact thing before.

Like for example when I “transfered” certain souls into different bodies. Anso, not only I did that.

Another, more obscure and probably more similar method would be using someone’s mana. And I don’t mean drained mana, or borrowed. I mean someone’s essence.

I did that at least once before.

While mostly unaware, that was while I attempted to fly when I first arrived in here.

It was a long time ago, but it also explained the searing pain that I was feeling right now and I felt before.

In both cases, my own essence was getting drained.

But, what’s the difference? our mana, your essence, who cares, right?

It’s pretty easy to explain.

Think of regular spells and normal mana usage as just someone cutting your hair. Or nails.

You don’t feel pain, you are used to it. You know what exactly to cut so nothing happens to you, and eventually it regrows, right?

Draining your own essence is similar to being overzealous in either of those. But a lot worse.

With hair or fingers, if you… em, “remove too much” you face an almost certain consequence of losing them.

The simile ends here, because without hair or nails you can easily survive, while with your soul… the essence…

Well, your body will survive.

For how long? Who knows.

A soulless husk… will not act on its own. It will just be there.

Technically you could attempt and make it survive by taking care of it, but that’s just it.

It would be useless.

At least until a new soul would appear to take housing inside the free body.

That was going to be my fate, if I was not to react.

Just burned out and empty, an empty shell ready for him.

His magic was getting more and more invasive, making it harder for me to resist.

I had to figure out some kind of plan, and soon.

But, nothing was coming to my mind. Or rather that my mind was already too preoccupied with other things: his mana was already burning me from inside, along with my own.

Not good.

I had to focus…

Right. My mind. I had to shield my mind from him. To maybe regain a bit more clarity of thinking…

I did try, but it was too late.

He was already too deep.

I wanted to speak, to try and say something to him. Maybe make him reconsider.

I know, a bit delusional, but still. In my state, I wasn’t able to think clearly, if at all.

Those were essentially my death spasms.

The last thing I remember was his face, staring right at me with relief.

He did it.