Ever since the battle began, Damien had immediately recognized that something was wrong. It wasn't that his brother was weak. No, on the contrary, Keilan was among one of the strongest Spirit lords Damien had ever seen. Added to the fact that his powers worked just as much as a spear as well as a hammer, and Keilan was a monster on the field.
Entire armies had been laid waste as well as armadas destroyed simply by the swipe of his hand, and Damien had also borne witness to the aftermath of his wrath on the wreckage of a city.
Injury aside, Keilan was still a monster with a spear. And frankly, if Damien was being honest, his brother deserved the title of calamity even more than him.
No, what actually tickled his senses was nothing too concrete, it was simply the ease with which Solis had instantly given ground the moment the battle began.
Over the years, Damien had battled no small amount of Spirit lords, and the one rule everyone abided in was that: do not give ground to the enemy.
In battles of their calibers, giving ground was almost the same as forfeiting your life. You never knew what trick or hidden techniques your opponent had under their sleeves, so giving ground was tantamount to yelling: 'hey, I've given you space. Do what you want.'
Take Keilan's battle with the mad triplets for example. Had they continuously hammered him instead of stopping to probably monologue, which Damien was pretty sure they'd done, Keilan would probably be dead and they'd be alive. Their arrogance and extreme surety in the effectiveness of their techniques had cost them the battle as well as their lives.
Solis was different, Damien knew it. He knew that his knowledge of multi-stellar nobility was practically non-existent, with the exception of Vanis being his only reference, but what Damien was sure of was that, no matter where they came from, nobility was nobility. Solis should have had some serious training growing up, with expenses large enough to beggar the great families back on Ra. Xirou and Narkyra were evidence of this. Which begged the question of why Solis had instantly given ground instead of pushing just as hard as Keilan.
The answer came when the young man crashed into a mountain from a blow from Keilan, causing a cloud of dust and a hail of rubble to crash down.
From the mountainside, a location in the middle that had been hollowed out into an open cave for the audience to watch, Damien noted dimly as Nalon casually reduced a rain of massive boulders to dust the moment they came within distance of where he and Vanis stood.
"I didn't know your brother had an affinity for blood," Damien commented while his eyes stayed on the battle.
Like everyone else, his senses were also spread wide over the area, so it was easy enough to notice the essence of blood take front stage in the ambiance. Also, he could smell it, the metallic taint of blood, emerging alongside a crimson hue in the atmosphere.
Vanis grunted. "Like your brother with his unusual alignment with the wind, Solis also has one, except it isn't with the family element, but with blood. He's the same as mother."
Damien didn't need to ask what he meant. He'd noted that Narkyra's appearance hadn't been with a flare of crimson, like Vanis or Xirou, it had been with the creeping of shadow.
Throughout the entire battle with Aveanii Kings, the woman hadn't revealed an ounce of her affinity with destruction, only making use of the shadow element.
When Damien really thought out it, he hadn't really put much weight to it at that moment, but now with what Vanis had said, everything finally clicked.
Inherited elements weren't a thing commonly seen, and when it happened, the inheritor wasn't certain to align with said inherited element. Tenral was an example of this. The son of the Solarian emperor had inherited the sun flame affinity from his father, but unlike Solaris who was a talented monster with the element, Tenral's alignment with the affinity was nothing to speak about. Oh, he was strong, Damien didn't argue that. Tenral had ranked at the upper tier back on Ra, with the capability of handling most Spirit lords single handedly. Unfortunately, that wouldn't have been enough if he had encountered people like Aelar or Yuseria; or even Halar.
With that in mind, Damien couldn't help but think about Vanis's alignment for destruction. Damien hadn't seen him wield any other element aside from the crimson lightning, which at least said something about his alignment with the element. He'd find out soon enough.
Down below, Damien grimaced as with a burst of explosive speed beggaring the ones he'd previously displayed, Solis slammed into Keilan with a massive punch that sent the other man crashing likewise into another mountain.
It didn't help that Solis kept grinning like a madman all the way, his eyes glowing a deep blood red.
With a mental flex, Damien sensed Keilan disperse the rain of stones about to fall on him, and an instant later, he met Solis in a blur of green and red, and Damien became enraptured as the battle began anew.
In probably one of the greatest battles Damien had ever seen, he watched as Keilan battled what was tantamount to an interstellar prince.
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A howl echoed out just as a massive gust of wind pushed Solis back a few feet backward, a rain of blades following a moment later. The other man didn't give ground for long, retaliating with a thunderous burst of speed that saw him vanishing before Keilan's attack had even reached his location.
"He isn't attacking with blood," Damien said to no one in particular, but still, he received an answer.
"The constraint on this duel has left little time for my brother to wield his element the way he wants to," Vanis said with an air of approval. "So he's making do with the little room he has by using his element in one of the best ways imaginable."
"And what's that?"
"Self-enhancement."
Huh... Damien frowned and then narrowed his eyes down on the battle below. Like Vanis said, Solis had enhanced himself, and not by a small margin either.
Previously, Keilan had been able to rival and even beat Solis when it came to sheer speed and power. But now, not only could he match Keilan in speed, he was wrecking him with sheer power.
[The element of blood isn't just any common element; it draws power from both the great elements of Life and Creation.] the voice of Gray suddenly echoed out in Damien's head. [What the young lord has just done is create a few extra muscles while also Imbuing himself with excess vitality to boost his biology and also keep it from falling apart.]
Damien grunted at that, saddened. He didn't claim to fully understand all that Gray had just said, but he knew that a Spirit lord enhancing themself was never a good thing for their opponents.
[Don't despair,] Gray comforted. [He can't keep this up for long.]
"Why?" Damien asked, mentally.
[Because, taking an excess of something for too long, while it might be helpful in the short term, a long term intake can swiftly In turn the other way around.]
Damien grunted in acknowledgment, ignoring the side glance Vanis sent his way. While he agreed with what Gray had just said, Damien was more worried about how long Keilan would last before he was overwhelmed. Presently, he could already see the strain taking its toll on him.
Wait, strain? Damien frowned just as he leaned forward, ignoring the open edge before him. Injured Keilan might be, his stamina shouldn't have taken so much of a hit that a battle barely past its half-hour mark would begin tiring him.
"Ahhh, you've noticed the second effect of my brother's powers," Vanis nodded.
Damien's head snapped towards the other man. He didn't have to ask before Vanis answered.
"Solis's alignment with blood is so much that I find it very... Uncomfortable—" he grimaced. "— to deal with when battling him. My brother's limit to controlling blood doesn't just stop at his body. With a superior will and soul, his will can extend into the blood of others."
Damien couldn't help himself, he shivered. Among some of the worst situations to be in, losing control of a vital part of oneself was probably at the height of that list, and he couldn't help the intense worry that crept up at the thought of Keilan having to deal with that.
He studied Keilan for any more signs of tiredness, but he found nothing. In fact, on the contrary, aside from the lag in speed, Keilan was still going hard on power. Already, their fight had warped the landscape, courtesy of the scything blades that tore through the earth, drawing out long trenches in the land and carving out large chunks off of the mountains. Solis was just as bad, his sheer strength was so powerful that when he swung, his blade sent forth echoes that did as much damage as Keilan, leaving behind large craters in their wake.
"I don't know why, probably because most of our battles are usually fought with techniques, but the sheer power a Spirit lord could unleash just from their physical strength alone is nothing short of amazing," Damien said with admiration.
Beside him, he sensed Vanis' nod. "True. We tend to fight with techniques so much that we forget the sheer powers we could unleash with our physiques alone," the man said just as Keilan punched forward, releasing a pinpoint blast of kinetic energy that caught Solis on the shoulder, flipping the man into the sky with a loud crack.
"Ouch," Vanis grimaced. "His shoulder's definitely broken."
Damien agreed, and he also noted that Solis's enhancement must have been reaching its limit, seeing as when he stood back up his shoulder stayed broken, unlike the many times he'd taken an injury. The man in question smiled, a contrast to what he must have been feeling, and with a crack of thunder and a cave-in of the earth, he launched himself at Keilan.
With his senses, Damien saw as Keilan stretched forth his will, and this time instead of going for the wind, his element, he went for something else.
With a start, Damien's eyes widened as gravity was inverted, instantly launching the already-on-air Solis far up with a speed that beggared that of sound. And to the surprise of no one other than Damien, Keilan also launched himself into the air.
Beside him, Vanis grunted. "He shouldn't have done that."
Damien couldn't argue. Even he, careless as he was, was wise enough to know not to tamper with an affinity that wasn't his. Keilan must have still been feeling the rush of his newly enhanced willpower to have tried something so risky.
Soon enough, gravity reverted back to normal, and within seconds, both duelers came crashing down onto the earth.
Damien winced at the cloud of dust that rose up from the two new craters on the ground. He knew a fall like that wasn't enough to take them out like that, but a few injuries must have been incurred. And truly, when both of them rose back out of the craters, it was with a broken limb from Keilan, as well as another from Solis.
For a few seconds, both Spirit lords studied each other from their respective crash sites, scrutinizing each other's injuries, and when Damien began to think that they were going to call a halt to the battle, his brother launched forward, carried through the air by probably his last remaining willpower.
With a bark of crazy laughter, Solis matched in stride, lifting himself into the air with his last walking leg and the shred of a probably drained willpower, his large sword raised high with his last working limb.
Damien felt it as the air was sucked away just as Solis's sword came down. His eyes blacked out for a second at the sudden deprivation of air, Vanis also, judging by the way his eyes widened and how hard his chest rose. When Damien finally turned his attention back down, his stomach dropped at the sight below.
Keilan lay down on the sand, bleeding profusely from having both his hands chopped off straight at the elbow. His will must have been completely drained, because he was already unconscious.
Standing over him was Solis, who probably wasn't too far away from collapsing. The man's right hand had been speared through from the palm right up to his shoulders, which spurted out blood in a gruesome manner.
With a rueful smile, Solis also collapsed into unconsciousness just as the wind spear dispersed.