It was as if the entire shrine spun, displacing the balance of all three people within it. Ouranos cloaked his hand in mana, holding onto a nearby railing, while Leon and Arthur simply augmented their feet, pasting them to the ground.
Suddenly, Arthur felt as if someone were gripping his collar. Before he knew it, he was pinned on the ground, a man with peerless handsomeness only a few inches away from his face. 'Who the fuck…'
He possesses porcelain skin, alongside long, white hair with blue streaks. His eyes were a deep shade of midnight blue. Dressed in a long, white robe that shimmered as it cascaded down his body, the man could truly be described as a peerless beauty.
All women would flock to him if he were to polish his appearance.
"What are you doing, Leon?" The man spoke in an authoritative voice, "Succumbing to this child. How far have you fallen?"
"Lucien, we cannot resist him," Leon protested as emotion returned to his eyes. "You have not seen his power, nor the power of his immortality. He has been alive since before me… And you're aware that I am an ancient existence."
Arthur wanted to scratch his head in embarrassment to admit he was merely nineteen according to his physical body, and a bit over forty mentally. But he refrained from doing so, as that would only complicate matters.
"So what if he's old?" Lucien complained, his eyes gazing with intensity at Arthur's face as if he wished nothing but to turn the man into minced meat. "Just let me have at him. It won't take long."
"Lucien…" Leon glanced at Arthur, who lay on the ground with an expression that accurately displayed his annoyance.
"Playtime is over," Arthur announced, shooting his hand forward as it burnt with an inextinguishable might. His palm traveled at terrifying speeds and seemed to bend the laws of physics.
However, Lucien simply took one glance at it before tilting his head, avoiding the blow.
A trace of surprise did appear on his face, but it quickly vanished.
Arthur released a destructive aura, releasing himself from Lucien's grip before backing away, preparing a powerful spell. "I simply want the fragment in Leon's hand. Hand it to me, and I'll go away."
Lucien burst into laughter at those words. "As if you'll ever get it."
Arthur clenched his teeth, muttering under his breath… "Worldly Gelid."
Suddenly, ice shot from beneath his feet, engulfing the entire shrine in a world of cold. Ouranos felt his lower body go numb and felt chills creep up his spine, causing his expression to distort. He felt immeasurable pain.
Leon and Lucien managed to avoid the brunt of the attack but were still struck partially.
The latter glanced at the former as if wordlessly conveying the words, 'That's enough.'
"Let's take this outside," Lucien announced, peacefully exiting the shine while teleporting to the Nightlands, or the vast grassland in which the crimson-eyed man initially appeared. Ouranos, Leon, and Arthur followed.
It wasn't long before Arthur and Lucien stood before each other, their bodies exuding immense power.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Without warning, the two collided thousands of times in a matter of seconds, their fists shaking the floor itself. Ouranos and Leon watched, the former's eyes glittering in excitement at the spectacle.
"Second Master is incredibly powerful," Ouranos muttered as if he were a child. He was entirely oblivious to the fact that in the near future, he would be the forefather of one of the greatest high-ranking clans in the history of the tower.
That his legacy would shape the pinnacle of the tower.
A diamond-shaped chunk of azure flames burst from Arthur's body, engulfing the land in a two-kilometer radius. Lucien–with a strained expression–snapped his fingers, causing long, somewhat translucent, white strings to emerge from nothingness.
The strings danced at his fingers, while he played them as if it were guitar.
Arthur–oblivious to Lucien's tactics, increased the intensity of the flames before initiating the formation of Velvet Nova, allowing his palm to gather unparalleled power.
The crimson-eyed man seemed like a god at that moment.
However, despite his rather efficient and destructive display of power, Lucien emerged with merely a few shallow burns. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes revealed the sheer exhaustion he experienced.
However, he was practically unscathed, aside from a few minor wounds.
A few broken strings were still attached to his fingers, drooping down as they fluttered along the passing wind.
"Ready to give the fragment?" Arthur asked, extinguishing the source of his abilities.
"I haven't even attacked yet."
With those words, Lucien muttered a few more words. "Oblivion Torrent."
A deathly silence descended upon the burnt grassland that smelled of cinder and charcoal. Lucien's expression distorted, and he convulsed as an immeasurable amount of pain assaulted his body, rendering him on the verge of unconsciousness.
Slowly yet surely, he turned to face Leon and Ouranos. He and Leon conversed wordlessly, causing the latter's face to pale.
"Ouranos…"
"Yes, master?"
"Run."
*
'What is this energy…' Arthur muttered internally, scrunching his eyebrows as he felt the laws of the floor change, a phenomenon he hadn't gotten the opportunity to observe prior to this. His skin tingled, while waves of energy brushed along his body.
A sensation unique to the current circumstance crept up his spine. Never before had he felt such an unusual type of energy, to the point where describing it as "radioactive" would somewhat be accurate.
The sky turned ashen, but not conventionally.
Crimson waves of energy traveled across the sky like tidal waves, engulfing the grey heavens in an endlessly changing substance. The blades of grass–at that moment–released a sizzling sound before they began vanishing from reality.
Arthur watched Lucien's pitiful figure with curiosity, but also a tinge of fear.
'He went so far as to protect the key fragment. I might have to kill him to get the fragment at this point.'
Arthur was planning on simply immobilizing the man, but that didn't seem possible anymore.
So, he could only resist and then go for the kill.
'For now, this…'
