"First of all, they aren't my friends," Billy said. "Lackeys would be a better term. Second of all, it seems that you use that skill to see the future too much, and that makes you stop using your brain. It is easy to deal with that."
"... I see, that may be true, but nothing will change the outcome of this battle," Zenis said.
"Have you realized?" Billy asked. "You have changed a bit since the start of the fight. Meryl didn't mention that you were that bloodthirsty, but it seems that your blood is starting to boil because you are unable to kill me that easily."
"These kinds of surprises are what makes life interesting," Zenis said.
"It almost feels like someone else's will is taking over your body," Billy said trying to buy extra time to repair his armor. "Are you feeling that too? When I obtained some of the other guy's powers lately, I felt like something was on my back watching me..."
Zenis didn't say anything, but it didn't feel like he liked what he had heard. Considering the things all of them knew so far, it was clear that the system wanted a single one of them alive to get all the powers, and that single person would learn everything, but they would lose their sense of self for some reason...
After they realized those things during the fight, they began to think that ultimately, it felt like the powers also were trying to stay together on a single person, like they had some sort of will. With that in mind... Billy and Zenis reached the same conclusion. The system's creator will probably take over the body of the person who obtains all the innate skills.
It made sense... those skills were all god-like, super powerful, and useful. Their nature was beyond anyone's understanding, and they even affected things such as concepts of time, chaos, order, death, life, and space. So, the one who will obtain that will also have a suited body to be taken over by the god of that world. Why a being like that would do such a redundant thing instead of increasing their powers during those five hundred years of peace? No one could tell...
"What do you think of this hypothesis?" Billy asked once he explained his view of things.
"... You may be right," Zenis said. "Still, that doesn't change the fact that some of us have to die."
"Who is saying this? Yourself or the creator of the system?" Billy asked.
For the first time during the fight, Zenis showed some confusion and surprise. He couldn't tell... his actions changed a lot since three years ago when he obtained the powers of other reincarnated individuals. He felt compelled to do things he had never thought of before since they started to make sense now... it almost felt like he had another instinct inside him.
"You are trying to confuse me," Zenis said.
"I am trying to buy time, but my point still stands," Billy explained. "Are you really willing to risk everything out of fear of death? You don't know if you can even be considered alive once you lose your sense of self. Before rushing ahead, you need to think of how you can prevent your body from being taken by something else."
It seemed that Billy touched on a difficult topic because, for the first time, Zenis used some sort of skill that damaged his armor directly and made some particles disappear. It was probably the evolved form of Damage Control. A skill that causes damage no matter what the circumstances as long as the user wishes for it.
Billy used Mana Shield, but it didn't work, and he couldn't repair his armor faster than the spell could, so he charged toward the enemy. Zenis turned the armor of his arms into blades and then he did the same. Billy enhanced his blade, this time with pure mana, by using Mana Constructs and increasing the size of the weapon as a whole.
The blades and the glaive collided against each other, and Billy still lost the collision. Still, he saw the blades trembling like they were about to become liquid again. The armor had mana properties, and with the aura, they could nullify the mana effects of others. Still, it didn't work against the enhanced glaive.
Zenis got irritated for letting Billy recover that much mana and then created a massive hammer by increasing his armor and then swung toward Billy. He tried to dodge it, but the enemy enhanced it with Acceleration Manipulation and faster than Billy could. He managed to block the strike, but he was sent flying to the distance...
Billy landed on the ground with his back, and the impact caused a tremor, as well as a five hundred meters wide crater. Zenis got pissed again since a dust curtain emerged, and he lost sight of him. That was another chance for the enemy to gather even more mana. Zenis could do the same, but that skill wasn't on the same level as Billy's, and he was still leveling up in the middle of the battle.
In the end, Zenis discovered how he could lure Billy. He saw some demi-humans in his camp moving around and freeing the prisoners to give them a chance to escape. Still, he just launched one of his magic mercury spheres toward it. The impact caused another tremor and a massive shockwave and killed hundreds of demi-humans close to the impact point...
All of a sudden, Billy approached Zenis with his spear and tried to split him in two, and while he blocked the attack with his blades, he still was pushed backward for several meters. He also felt his stamina decreasing a bit.
"You are long gone if you think that such strategy isn't a bad option to lure me out..." Billy said. "No more holding back... I will kill you, get your powers and solve this mess by myself."
