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Michael didn't appreciate being tricked. He looked at Avarice and scowled in distaste.

"Don't be like that. It took a great deal of patience and preparation to approach you finally," Avarice chuckled.

"Ugh, that flight took forever," Wren complained as she stretched out her stiffness. "I thought I'd die of boredom."

She tried to step forward but felt the resistance from snow trapping her feet.

"I hate snow," she asserted as heat radiated from her, melting all the snow in the area.

"What's this..." Michael said as Junichiro unsheathed his sword, and Wren approached him.

"You're even taller than I thought you'd be. Taller than Junichiro," she commented, looking slightly up, stopping only a few feet before him.

"Hm?" Michael observed as the falling snow halted in midair before becoming tiny water droplets. Those droplets gathered above Wren's palm until they formed a melon-sized, shapeless blob.

Without warning, Wren willed the water into a spike that shot straight through Michael's neck, causing him to spit up a bit of blood.

She raised an eyebrow.

"You didn't even bother defending against that. You're taking us a bit too lightly, don't you think?"

"Why would I?" Michael responded as the hole in his neck was already nearly closed. "You can't kill me."

"Wanna bet?" Trevor remarked as he and Junichiro charged at him.

Trevor initiated the fray with Scatter Shot, firing a barrage of small explosive orbs at Michael, but Michael readily maneuvered between them and escaped the cluster of explosions without getting so much as singed.

Trevor looked vexed as he shot off an even larger number of explosions. Michael flew skyward as explosions burst behind him, unable to connect with their intended target. Once high enough, he used an attack of his own, Piercing Heavens, where he gathered light into dozens of 12-foot, needle-shaped arrays that floated in the air, pointing toward the ground before willing them to rain down on the area below.

The arrays of light beamed down, beating themselves into the ground until each protruded from the soil like large acupuncture needles. Expectedly, the attack hadn't done any damage as a dark purple shield was floating above Avarice and the others, a product of Junichiro's power, Michael presumed. The shield was riddled with several of Michael's pillars of light.

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"Expand," Michael commanded, looking down at the others. This caused the massive protrusions to instantly open and form a bed of burning energy that trapped them inside the bombardment.

Once the light faded, Michael was astounded that Junichiro had protected them all yet again by enclosing them in a protective force field of his energy.

"Impressive," he called down. "You're quite powerful."

Junichiro made a "tch" sound as he looked up in annoyance.

"I'm growing tired of you not taking this seriously. You've refrained from using spirit enhancement or transforming, yet remain confident. Why?" he demanded.

Without answering, Michael vanished from view and appeared in front of Junichiro, connecting a hefty kick that sent him backwards. However, Junichiro's reaction time was quick enough to guard it with his blade. His feet never left the ground, but Junichiro had veins visibly throbbing on his forehead as he forced himself to a stop. Michael knew the veins were from his growing frustration, not effort.

"Interesting. I put all my strength into that kick, and you took it with relative ease. Aren't you the one holding back here?"

"Each of you," he added, looking at Wren and Trevor.

"We want to test our full strength against you to prove ourselves superior," Trevor stated candidly. "But I wanna know why you're so fast without transforming."

Michael noticed Verin, who'd been watching him intensely. She tilted her head slightly as her purple eyes peered into him.

"He's been doing it in bursts," she called out. "Somehow, he's learned how to transform for only a split moment, saving him the trouble of burning through energy by maintaining the transformation. I didn't know that was possible."

Michael smirked.

"After all these millennia, you still manage to surprise me," Avarice applauded with a smile.

"So this is it?" Junichiro asked with disappointment. "This is what I've been aiming to surpass? This is who you warned me not to fight alone? Give it to me, Father. I'm more than capable of handling this alone."

"Now you're the one underestimating him," Avarice laughed. "Why do you think he's still so confident?"

"His heal—"

"Besides his regenerative power." Avarice interrupted.

Speechless, Junichiro looked at Michael, who decided to show him. Michael's body began to glow white as it morphed into a white, featureless form. Before Junichiro could even blink, Michael was back in his normal state, standing two feet in front of him.

Junichiro's eyes widened in shock as Michael kicked Junichiro's sword out of his hand, hurling it toward Trevor, who caught it as it flew past him.

Michael flew straight up, immediately chased by Junichiro and Trevor.

"Trevor cut him vertically!" Junichiro yelled as they flew after Michael.

Trevor released a cloud of smoke that engulfed the three of them. Michael started to choke from unintentionally inhaling some of it, giving Trevor and Junichiro the opening they needed to close in on him. When Trevor appeared before Michael, he cut him clean in half at the waist in one swift motion.

"I said vertically!" Junichiro scolded. "We need him slowed down as much as possible."

Trevor then quickly cut the two halves vertically, creating four segments. Following this, Trevor willed the smoke's radius to shrink until only Michael was enveloped within it, then ignited the smoke for extra damage, creating a large explosion in the sky.

When the blast was over, Michael's segmented body floated there, charred and unrecognizable aside from the destroyed clothes and indestructible coat, but in the next instant, his body snapped back together and rapidly recovered from the burns until he was back to normal.

"Seriously..." Trevor slumped forward.