Time moved ruthlessly, not caring about anyone. The noisy sound of weapons hitting ones another echoed the chamber as four figures continued to battle, with Forus and Ocelia stepping side by side, Iracia and Mabilis were trying their best to regroup and turned the tide of the battle.
Sensing that the sorcery energy inside her body had dropped more than half, Iracia began to feel desperate and unease. With many battles came and went, Mabilis and Iracia never lost and always won with confidence. Supreme confidence built from extraordinary achievements. With every win, Iracia began enforcing her heroic aura as she battled fearlessly and improved with each passing strike.
The higher one surged, the broader one could see. However, the more one ascended, the more the dark clouds emerged. Once they got careless, lightning of arrogance would strike them, shattering their illusion of power.
The more pride one had, the stronger its impact upon shattering.
Gritting her teeth, Iracia did not succumb to the pressure as she fought more aggressively and displayed her art of the blade. Each strike aimed to kill or break the tempo, causing Ocelia and Forus to help each other more often.
However, the more frustrated she had, the more rigid her movement became. Openings would appear more frequently, making the numbers of wounds on her body rapidly increased. Although her body had the bloodline of the demon and could regenerate faster than normal humans, it was not something miracle enough to sustain her injury.
On Mabilis' side, the situation was not any different. Although Forus and Ocelia moved in rotation every once in a while, they still had their target. While Iracia fought with Ocelia, Mabilis had to deal with Forus. Although Ocelia had higher sorcery mastery than Forus, her tactic was elegant and hard to counter, but in the face of Forus' cruel fighting style, Mabilis faced far greater suppression from him.
With continuous strikes from the collections of potions ranging from mildly-obstructing mist to metal-corroding liquid, Mabilis had to exert his mental focus to the extreme to avoid getting direct hit by them while defending against Forus' suicide punches.
While Ocelia advanced slyly and struck to disrupt Iracia's pace, Forus did the opposite. He moved forwards bravely as his fist darted straight towards Mabilis, giving him a chance to either suffer some injury from the wall of fire, poisonous mist, and pit of ice spikes to avoid the assault or to defend against the punch with his might.
In term of fighting, Ocelia would try to wear down her enemy little by a little while staying at the peak condition to deal with any unexpected situation such as the last desperate attempt in the survival of the victim. However, Forus would use the most cost-effective method of fighting, going head-to-head, injuring himself to inflict a great deal of injury on his opponent, aiming to take their life while sacrificing a little of his blood. If he could kill Mabilis with one blow in exchange for losing his hand, he would do it without a hint of hesitation.
After every impact, Forus would create a distance by jumping away while shooting out more Elements to obstruct Mabilis' advance, forcing him into a defensive position while wasting away his sorcery energy. Before long, Mabilis would be spending his sorcery energy with the Fire Spirits while Forus was preparing for his next strike.
As the mist obstructed his view, the pressure from invisible Forus that did not strike would weight onto Mabilis, forcing him to divide his attention from destroying the Fire Spirits alone to guard against the sudden assault from the hidden enemy.
With some simple arrays, Forus could create a mental pressure that caused Mabilis to frown deeply. He delayed his attacks with the help fo the spell formations, conjuring false information for Mabilis to miscalculate, thinking that Forus was in the position where the ice spears flew out.
Although Forus could not finish-off Mabilis in one strike, making his plan failed, the new factor of uncertainty caused the stress on Mabilis to intensify. From that moment, Mabilis had to doubt the possibility of the location of Forus while fighting against the Fire Spirits.
To add into the unpredictability, Forus would sometimes shift his position with Ocelia, causing the balance to flip and surprise both Mabilis and Iracia.
A loud noise echoed the chamber as a feminine figure flew towards the wall before slamming into it and fell onto the floor. Iracia coughed out blood as her inner organs got injured, enduring the pain as she quickly sprung up to dodge the next punch.
However, as she rolled sideways to avoid the assault, she felt a wave of burning heat on her side. Before she could stop herself from moving further, the blazing flame engulfed her body as she screamed in pain. Despite her scream, she did not stop her track, but instead, she chose to move forwards, arriving at the other side.
Most of her white skin had already turned pitch-black, having burnt marks and cutting wounds all over the place. Fortunately, the heat of the flame had already stopped the blood flow and sealed the wounds.
Her stylish hair became messy as Forus and Ocelia had grazed it multiple times with their weapons. Her bodysuit clothing had become only pieces of fabric that only concealed the private parts on her body. However, looking at the burnt body and bloody skin, her beauty was no more.
Although she could use her demonic wings to move upwards to avoid the punch, Forus also could set traps and follow up with a plan. However, by hurting herself and phased through the blazing flame, Iracia injured herself considerably, and that did not occur within Forus' expectation. He got stunned for a moment before falling back, unable to reverse the situation.
Behind the wall of flame, Mabilis was fighting against Ocelia, slowly approaching his last breath as Ocelia kept him within a safe distance while increasing the intensity of the Fire Spirits' power.
However, as soon as Iracia reached the other side, she immediately darted into the encirclement and started assisting Mabilis without any regard in her body condition. She also did not consider finishing off Ocelia as Forus was trying to come over.
All of them knew that none had exposed their trump cards yet, and none would attack mindlessly while not knowing the true extent of their enemies. If Iracia and Mabilis tried to take Ocelia down, they might not succeed as Mabilis was not by her side, and the two did not know if Ocelia had anything powerful.
The fact remained that Mabilis and Iracia had already exposed their rewards in the battle. Although it was not all of their trump cards, the demonic bloodline and the third eye were their strongest asset. However, looking at Forus and Ocelia, both of them had not displayed their rewards yet.
The path of life remained filled with the darkness of the unknown. Only with the touch of wisdom that created from the fuel of knowledge, could one traverse it freely, avoiding the danger of predicament and benefitting from fortunes.
"Till the end, all things crumbled. The Light of Salvation shall purify us all. Only by creating more sins, shall one receive more attention from it." Accompanied by her unknown chanting, Iracia used her Heart Blade to stab into her chest, directly penetrated her heart, causing the centre on the blade to fuse with her.
As the Heart Blade implanted itself onto her body, becoming a part of her, the Eyes Shield trembled in excitement as the eyes on it snapped into multiple directions, expressing insanity beyond reasoning. After a shrill scream, the shield broke into pieces, becoming floating pupils that moved in to attach themselves on Iracia.
Her burnt-black skin slowly transformed into rigid scales that shone in metallic lustre as candles' light reflected onto it. Her human-like pupils turned sharp like a crescent moon, instilling darkness of demonic aura into the mind of the onlookers. Three spiral horns emerged from her forehead, branching away in three directions, two to the side while the last one to the front.
Seeing the transformation, Forus and Ocelia decided to back away while Mabilis sat down, revealing a glimmer of determination as he tapped onto her forehead lightly, channelling his focus and sorcery energy onto the third eye, causing them to slowly open, leaking out in piecing golden light.
"String of Fate weaved all things. Destinies dictated all futures. Only through wisdom, could one trick fate, and with endurance, could one change their destiny." Mabilis' remaining pupils glowed in golden radiance as an invisible network fo web slowly extended outwards, touching upon the immediate futures, deducing the movement of destiny.
In the state of trance, Mabilis' hands moved in coordination as he drew many runes in the air, finishing them in a flash as they floated around him, protecting him as well as providing support for Iracia.
As their sorcery energy decreased more than half, if they did not use their trump cards, they might not get the next chance to overturn the situation. No matter how much treasures ones had, if they got killed before they could realise, none of the wealth they obtained would change the outcome.
Four runes gathered above Mabilis before a violent impact resounded, generating a powerful surge of wind that disrupted the melody of the battle. The Leaning Tower of Flame got blocked by the symbols, making it unable to smash the immobilized Mabilis into meat paste.
Although Ocelia could repeatedly use the tower to crush the enemies, she must channel her spell for a long time before she could move it once, and it would consume too much of her sorcery energy. After knowing that her assault did not succeed, Ocelia commanded the Fire Spirits to come out and fought with Mabilis, trying to upset his formation.
However, before Ocelia could rush in to fight, a chill cry resounded as a black figure dove towards her from the height, using its sharp claws to stab her heart. With the two demonic wings, it traversed through air unhindered, ignoring the traps Forus had set as it headed towards Ocelia.
Iracia laughed in amusement as she used her hand to grab at the incoming icy sword and broke it in half. After her transformation, the bloodthirsty feeling inside her soul rapidly intensified her hunger for blood rose, causing the negative emotions and thoughts to manifest in her mind.
Although her battle tactic became mindless and inflexible from the change, the demonic bloodline strengthened the toughness of her body, becoming more dominant than Forus and could quickly regenerate from the small wounds.
Her claw grazed Ocelia's face, causing blood to seep out, permeating the surrounding with the murderous fragrance. As Iracia saw blood, her pupils turned crimson-blood as her body trembled in extreme pleasure, threatening to lose herself within the frenzy dance of the slaughterer.
After narrowly avoided the strike, Ocelia used her hand to touch Iracia's chest gently, and she immediately exerted her strength and channelled her sorcery energy at the same time. Both Fire and Ice Element moved out from her hand and mixed with the other, creating an explosion that separated Ocelia from Iracia.
By creating an explosion at her hand, Ocelia suffered a burnt injury as her hand and arm turned black, leaking in blood and wounds. On the other hand, Iracia howled in anger as she could not experience the sensation of ripping through raw flesh with her claws and the pleasure of bathing in the blood of the opponent. The explosion did nothing to her body other than a mild annoyance and numerous wounds that quickly sealed itself.
Before Iracia could move again, groups of black weapons flew towards her, aiming at her vital points. She snorted in displeasure as she used her wings to envelop her body, shielding them from danger. After the enhancement, they had strengthened themselves into another level, greatly surpassed her body.
At the same time, Mabilis finally finished drawing the last rune and gestured his hand, willing the formation to change its shape according to his posture.
