Now that he had already defeated three out of five puppets, Jason's confidence to defeat the remaining two was shot up like never before.
Not only was his physical strength higher, but he felt that his reaction speed and unique traits were much more advanced.
He also had more unique traits to make use of, which was why he could distract his opponents relatively easily.
Despite that, he couldn't help but feel exhilarated when he arrived in front of the Celestia puppet, at which he smiled brightly, challenging it.
Even though he had never personally met someone from the Celestia race, Jason couldn't help but feel that fighting the Celestia puppet might allow him to make a rough measurement of how strong the paternal side of his bloodline truly was.
Jason was aware of the fact that the Celestia puppet was not necessarily as strong as a true Celestia, but that didn't matter right now.
The only important thing was the fact that he wanted to win against the Celestia puppet.
It gave him the much-needed reassurance in order to confidently advance through the cultivation ranks, knowing that he wasn't making any mistakes.
Once he was confident enough, he might even be able to release more seals as long as he didn't pressurize himself too much.
Feeling weak and powerless was the one of the biggest reasons most cultivators died.
Their haste made their attempt to rush through the cultivation ranks, without the necessary resources or foundation.
Other than that, there were more than enough Cultivators who desperately tried to gather specific items that were said to help in breaking through a cultivation rank.
However, most restless Cultivators died in their efforts of finding such items.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})What good would resources be, if you weren't even alive to make use of them?
Death wasn't a way to taste success, not as a Cultivator, let alone be strong as an ordinary being.
Thus, Jason had required the reassurance that his current path was the correct one.
And the Celestia puppet was a means of ensuring the same.
At least that was what his mind was telling him because he felt drawn towards the Celestia puppet.
In the end, his entire being released its instinctive desire to defeat the Celestia puppet, fueling him with determination.
Defeating the Celestia puppet was the most important right now, and when he stood facing it, the two of them released their aura the moment the battle started.
During the first few seconds of their battle, neither moved, and both the parties tested out the strength of their opponent's aura that clashed with their own.
Watching the face-off it became apparent that none of the auras seemed to be stronger than the other, which caused a faint smile to emerge on Jason's face.
He had known that his aura was weaker than that of the Celestia puppet's.
Because of that, he had intertwined Solaris' flames into the Celestia aura, strengthening it to the extent it could compete with the Celestia puppet's aura.
At the same time, Solaris could finally show what it had comprehended by devouring and annexing the fiery aura of the fiery puppet.
By releasing strong streams of searing heat, Solaris' flames weakened the Celestia puppet's aura.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})It was slowly pushed back, and Jason had planned to use Solaris in order to devour more of the puppet's aura.
Yet, shockingly enough, Solaris informed him that this was not possible without sacrificing its own flames.
As such, Solaris had to suffer a little in order to deteriorate the Celestia puppet's aura by a slight margin.
This was not worth it, and Jason believed that it was already more than enough if Solaris and his Celestia aura could compete against the aura of the Celestia puppet.
When he witnessed that his aura was strong enough to compete against his opponent, Jason was finally able to switch his entire tactic, to what he had initially planned to do.
Repeating the same procedure as in the fights before, he increased his strength to an extent which exceeded that of the other puppets'.
By completing his fusion with Petri, he was finally already fully prepared to clash with the Celestia puppet head-on, but only now did he realize that he had missed an important factor.
Seeing how the Celestia puppet manifested the transmuted energy of several different affinities, namely wind, ice, water, fire, earth, and light, Jason almost forgot that the Celestia puppet was able to transmute its mana into any kind of element.
Through this it could perfectly imitate an affinity, creating powerful attacks with all kinds of affinities.
However, there were still exceptions such as the darkness, shadow, poison, blood, and other affinities which the Celestia puppet hadn't made use of.
This was something that intrigued Jason and he assumed that only Infernal Celestias were able to use these affinities…and halflings as he was one of them.
Otherwise, he might already be considered an Infernal Celestia because Scorpio had been his soulbond, and thus, he could use the poison affinity.
Despite this though, Jason knew that his capabilities were different compared to that of the Celestia puppet.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})A major difference between them was that it could change its transmuted mana at will, while Jason was unable to do that.
Instead, he required the affinity and necessary understanding of said affinity. Without it, he would be unable to use them!
As such, the Celestia puppet's unique trait was quite advantageous to fight with a wide range of attacks.
Nevertheless, Jason was not all that worried, even if the Celestia's elemental attacks were extremely powerful.
He might not be able to fight them directly under normal means, but Petri's scales followed by a thick layer of Solaris' flames enveloping him was already enough to block some attack, without the need for him to do anything.
Yet, instead of remaining idle, Jason swiftly made use of Byakur in order to cut through the attacks that were shot towards him.
Some attacks were partially deflected, and other attacks were evaded completely, without restricting him too much.
However, just as he thought that he would be able to reach the Celestia puppet, it began to use several different affinities at once.
This change of events restricted Jason's advance severely and even pushed him back a little.
In only a minute, he was pushed back to the spot he had been standing on before.
This was not only annoying but extremely disadvantageous considering that the Celestia puppet's mana consumption seemed to be negligible.
It was almost as if it could continue fighting him all day, which was something Jason couldn't imagine to be the case.
Sighing deeply, he could only change his entire tactic, realizing that he had been too foolish to attack the Celestia puppet head-on, trying to force it to a close combat battle.
As such, the battle to decide who the stronger Celestia was changed as Jason replaced Petri with Artemis, and fused with her.
This changed the surrounding environment completely as everything froze in an instant. Following it, a bright smile emerged on Jason's face owing to the mana that surged into his body.
"So…now let's see if multiple strong affinities or one overpowered ability will emerge victorious today!"
