In the Soul of Helial, a boy with a black fringe was sipping a cup of boiling black tea. Iblis stopped drinking and, placing his finger on the white porcelain cup, slowly began to brush its edge.
A harmonious melody was evoked by that simple gesture and, gradually, the sound became louder and louder.
With each of Pseudonym's steps towards Helial, the sound seemed to become more intense and to rise an octave.
A slight dent in the black steel armour was the result of the boy's last attack. All around, the landscape had been razed to the ground by the explosion.
Helial's right arm hung helplessly along his body, covered with a web of blood and exploded capillaries.
Iblis stopped rotating his finger on the cup. "It's an impossible fight," he mumbled, sipping his tea. A light noise, caused by the lips Black flames to sip the drink, was the only thing capable of breaking the silence full of solitude within the Soul of Helial.
If Iblis had stopped playing with his cup, then where did the new melody Helial could hear come from? The boy understood that the new sound did not come from his Soul, but from somewhere else, not far away.
But Iblis, who watched the confrontation with resignation, knew that someone was responding to him.
Even Pseudonym, for a moment, seemed to hear a high-pitched and intense sound, like a finger sliding on a porcelain cup, which seemed to take hold inside his head.
The Champion shook his head and continued to fight.
Skill Activated:
Dance of the Phoenix
Leaping forward, Pseudonym broke the sound barrier.
Helial looked bitterly at his arm before laughing at the sky. Had he done all this just to leave a small dent on Pseudonym's armour?
And his opponent had also decided to activate the most powerful Skill he had.
The situation seemed to be dire for Helial.
"Well, by now," the Devil chuckled, "you should be used to dyi-", but the words died in his throat when he saw something before his eyes. What was going on was not a simple clash. It was as if the memories of a past life were passing in front of his eyes.
Helial, against all expectations, raised his arm, which should have been shattered by the enormous power he had used to activate Death Flame Pistol. This is what happens when you try to take on too great a power.
However, his wounds began to heal visibly, while a very strange sensation shook his body.
He suddenly felt invincible.
He understood immediately.
He looked at the runes on his fingers and did not need to know more.
The colour of the runes had gone from the usual yellowish to a strange light blue, which bristled with energy. The Runes had even begun to give off sparks, as if they were about to jump out of Helial's skin at any moment and come to life.
In a majestic black flash, Curse of the Demon appeared in the hands of Helial, who launched himself into attack, even before Pseudonym could end the movements of Dance of the Phoenix.
Was the prey going to be delivered between the hunter's jaws?
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Still, the strange premonition that had grown more and more in Iblis' heart showed no sign of disappearing from the boy's pitch black irises. The figures of Helial and Pseudonym slowly began to overlap to one of the biggest clashes of the past ages.
Without either of the fighters knowing, what had started as a training was about to become an epochal, legendary battle.
Helial spread his arms, screaming at Pseudonym, which was higher up.
The surrounding landscape was levelled with each blow that the two warriors exchanged, intertwined in a mortal dance. It seemed that there would be nothing left after they finished there.
Although Pseudonym had deliberately lowered his Aura to get to the Initial stage of the Second Phase, to be at the same level as Helial, his advantage continued to be huge.
The only thing that allowed Helial to stand was the terrifying amount of Mana that circulated within his Meridians and Runic Condensation.
Thanks to Runic Condensation, which had now risen to Master rank, Helial had no problem returning Pseudonym's blows, therefore damaging his armour in several places.
The animals and monsters living in the forest where they had met had all escaped and had retracted their Auras, to avoid getting involved, terrified by the amount of energy unleashed by that fight.
The beasts must surely have been smarter than the humanoid creatures that had reached the place of the clash: not far from the clearing, hidden in the trees, some boys and a huge cat were observing the progress of the fight. Their eyes were following to the two opponents.
"Pseudonym!" Helial yelled, leaping at terrifying speed from one white flame to another in mid-air.
The armour replied with a puff and a smile from under the heavy black armour that was more and more battered.
His incredible perception allowed Pseudonym to understand exactly what was going on in his opponent's: Helial had several bones that kept fracturing and regenerating, swirling him in an infinite spiral of pain.
"It doesn't seem that you will be able to keep on for much longer!" said Pseudonym, with a sincere hint of regret in his voice.
"Stop that!" Helial roared, suddenly furious.
Pseudonym may have had highly developed senses, but Helial Perception. Through the flickering in the Aura of the legend of Orma, the boy was able to sense his emotions.
And Pseudonym felt like a lonely, unreachable and distant titan. His Aura emanated bottomless resignation and sadness.
Helial thought that Pseudonym's worry was baseless. The legend of Orma would not have been alone on the summit for much longer.
The blood that covered the boy's body began to evaporate.
His eyes turned pitch black, while the horns on his head took on a more tangible shape and a series of black veins appeared on the surface of his body, just below the skin.
His hands let go of Curse of the Demon, which remained floating in front of him. Helial started creating a huge number of seals, too fast for the eye to follow.
Pseudonym frowned as he felt Helial's Aura become more powerful.
Iblis watched Helial's transformation without saying anything. In another context, perhaps he would have bothered to warn him, as Helial was in danger of destroying his own body. Metamorphosis and Runic Condensation already strained it to the maximum, subjecting it to incredible mechanical stress.
Occasionally it is only fair for Devils to behave like Devils... The child's body floated in space and leaned on an invisible hammock, swinging on nothing.
A hat with bat wings applied to the sides appeared on his head, while the Devil closed his eyes and began to snore loudly.
"Turn a blind eye" is an expression that is sometimes taken too literally, so much so that the blind eyes eventually become two.
All the muscles in Helial's body began to send painful impulses so powerful that he nearly got knocked out.
Helial gritted his teeth and went on, completely ignoring all the warning signs his body was giving him.
Raising his swords, Pseudonym jumped forward. He was not the one to give the enemy a chance to recover in the middle of a fight, just when he was winning.
But, a few meters from Helial, a shock wave made him bounce back, for about a hundred meters, and injured him.
The large black phoenix wings flapped several times to regain balance.
The first thing Pseudonym saw after returning upright was Helial, motionless, who had just stopped creating the seals. Now, his enemy's fists were closed against each other, while a reddish mist seemed to come out of the pores of his skin.
Helial smiled maliciously. "Maybe it's not enough to defeat you at your full strength, but if you believe you don't have a rival at your Phase, I have to say you're wrong."
Flame of the Qilin, which just before had enveloped his body, was shrinking fast.
Two huge, barely visible bat wings seemed to delineate behind him as white fire enveloped his hands.
Pseudonym saw Flame of the Qilin shrink to tiny strands and settle on the Runes present on Helial's hands. The bluish runes suddenly turned pure white.
More and more satisfied, Helial's smile widened into a grin. "Mana is not the only medium that can be used to create Runes."
Flame of the Qilin cannot be used for 24 hours.
Secret Skill Activated
Runic condensation temporarily evolves
Runes of the Qilin