The original Theo thrust his spear while Theo waved his sword.
Theo applied the illusion to cut the original Theo into two, but the energy for the illusion ended up getting sucked into the black plate above him.
In the end, the two weapons clashed with each other. Since they were only powered by the Magic Power, their clash only caused a small shock wave.
Theo clicked his tongue and struck him a few times, only to be blocked by the original Theo's spear.
If this continued, the black plate would have finished sucking all the energy from the Ascension Step, allowing the original Theo to use the next move.
Hence, Theo immediately used the Reverse World, his second original ability. The Reverse World allowed him to change the character of everything around him, especially the black plate.
Since it had a sucking force, the Reverse World turned it around. In that instant, all the energy that had been sucked by the plate suddenly came out, neutralizing the remaining energy from the Ascension Step.
But it was fine since his aim was something else. Since the original Theo tossed the black plate up, it could come back down.
He maintained the position with the help of Magic Power, but once the black plate started bursting out Magic Power, it gained a lot of power to break past the energy that held it.
As a result, the black plate flew down like a rocket, hitting the original Theo's head.
"Gah!" The original Theo screamed out of pain. The burst of energy was so strong that the velocity became so high even with a small distance. He tried his best to hold Theo back, making sure he didn't take advantage of this moment.
But it was impossible. Theo had prepared himself for this.
Once the original Theo got hit in the head, his sword immediately slid down the spear's body before moving away. Theo then spun his body and struck the original Theo from the side.
The original Theo tried to stop it, but the swiftness and flexibility of the sword allowed him to increase his speed further and finally break through his defense. The sword cut his waist, albeit it was too shallow.
"Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, trying to find another target.
But the original Theo had used his Magic Power to control the black plate, allowing him to let the plate face Theo. As a result, Theo got blown away by the intense pressure.
"…" Theo narrowed his eyes. Even though he had done a lot of things to catch him off guard, it was truly hard to find a big opening that allowed him to deal severe damage.
At the same time, the original Theo was angry because he was the first one to be injured. He always believed that his power was superior to Theo, so this injury truly angered him.
Without hesitation, the original Theo turned around and used the Infinite Darkness again.
The world soon darkened. In the past, it was the horizon that darkened, but it seemed that after improving his ability, it felt like the night had come.
'There are two ways to use the Infinite Darkness. By concentrating on it, you can create a sphere with absolute darkness. But if you spread it, you can create a world like this… The concentrated version will take away your sense, but what is he planning to do with this?' Theo thought.
However, there were soon a few ripples appearing around Theo.
"!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. The ripples excluded powerful energy and made him feel tremor even though they were floating in the air. At the same time, the violent energy seemed to be releasing some vibration.
He took a look at his hands and realized that he was losing some strength.
'This is Rampaging Darkness. The power is less because the Infinite Darkness is not concentrated, but I guess this allows him to camouflage the real size of this Rampaging Darkness.'
It was truly an annoying technique. On the one hand, he could ignore the Rampaging Darkness. On the other hand, the decrease in his strength might lead to the original Theo's counterattack. When that happened, their power wasn't equal anymore.
So, he ended up shifting his focus to the Rampaging Darkness instead of the original Theo for a moment.
He used Reality Removal to erase the ability, but the original Theo instantly retracted the Infinite Darkness itself.
"…" Theo frowned. If the original Theo removed his Infinite Darkness, the Rampaging Darkness skill couldn't be used after all. However, it turned out the original Theo was planning something different.
The Infinite Darkness wasn't retracted. Instead, it was being swallowed by the original Theo.
A black mark gradually came out from his heart. The mark looked like a living creature that kept growing, but Theo could see another skill from this growing black mark.
Darkness Possession.
In that instant, he suddenly saw an increase in the original Theo's status. He realized that the original Theo used the previous two techniques to distract him.
The moment he got the surge of strength, the original Theo immediately moved faster than Theo expected.
He slipped past Theo's blade and thrust his spear against Theo.
Theo clicked his tongue and raised his blade, trying to block it. Unfortunately, the spear was about to reach him due to its long attack range. In the end, Theo could only strike the spear's handle and push it to the side, causing the area next to his chest to be grazed by the spear.
With this, they managed to equalize the damage done to their body.
As one would expect from Theodore Griffith, the only one who could defeat him was probably himself.
With them having similar thoughts, they tried to outsmart each other.
Theo and the original Theo decided to jump back to regain some distance. They had some visions regarding their opponent's next move, but they didn't know whether they would outsmart the other again or not.
