"Well, it doesn't matter. All I have come for, is my mother"
"I don't negotiate with demons"
Bursting with lightning, Ezra engaged. "You will not keep me from my mother"
Getrahan interfered, swinging his double hammer staff. "Know your place!"
With the presence being weaker than the rest of them, Getrahan guessed that his strength would lower as well. Making him an easy opponent.
Too bad.
"Mtchew"
Hissing, Ezra infused the staff with lightning, warding the staff off.
More mana had it elongate and he smashed the Getrahan's forehead with its bladeless side.
The man flew away faster than he arrived.
The others were shocked. They knew Getrahan's strength, blown away so easily meant Ezra was indeed a grandmaster, and was strong enough to contend with any one of them.
Ezra didn't pause, instead accelerating towards the Emperor when a large piece of metal appeared to obstruct him.
"Grandmaster at twenty…I'm jealous"
Deneris dry tone was too recognizable.
Ezra was annoyed.
"It seems the Emperor is afraid of his son," he taunted. "Hiding a like a cornered beast"
*Spark!*
That did the trick.
The Emperor lit up with white lightning, shredder appeared in his palm.
"Deneris, leave him"
The piles of iron were retracted.
Father and son stared down.
"You were a mistake" the Emperor said. "One I ought to correct"
Ezra sneered, the lightning streaking through his body turned dark, a cut on the hand had the scythe's blade turn red.
"A mistake better than your other sons combined that is"
The Emperor's head popped a vein. "You won't be getting away from here alive"
"That's not for you to decide" Ezra attacked.
A trail of Black lightning followed him as he brought down the scythe behind the Emperor.
Bom!
A shockwave resounded as the Emperor parried Skyfall with Shredder.
Ezra felt the difference.
'He's stronger than me'
A head-on collision would be disadvantageous.
'But not faster'
"You should've never come back" the Emperor pushed Ezra's weapon away, taking a strike of his own.
"You should have never taken mother"
Going at each other multiple times a minute, the duo's every clash resounded, and those below were affected.
Ezra constantly changed elements, using them in pairs.
Strikes landed would freeze the Emperor's weapon while the blood coated blade made sure any cut made had poison dripping into the skin.
But the Emperor wasn't the only one taking hits.
Ezra got hit a few times as well, witnessing the Emperor's masterful lightning techniques, and began copying them in real time.
At grandmaster stage, his control over elements had risen significantly.
But Ezra was losing.
'I can't match him in the air'
He'd only learned to fly a few days ago, the Emperor had been flying for years, giving him aerial superiority.
Ezra wasn't losing, so he changed things up, and started falling like a mummy case.
As expected, the Emperor followed suit.
Landing on the ground with a boom, he moved to the side, dodging the Emperor's attack.
Shredder smashed right into the earth severely damaging it.
Thankfully, Ezra landed in open space rather than a town or city. Though, they weren't far from one.
Both men had injuries. But only shallow ones.
Ezra released a layer of darkness, forming a dome above the two men.
Pulling out shredder, the Emperor brandished it, unworried about the dome.
"Is that all you know how to do son?" he said before making a sudden stop, touching the side of his neck.
"It's poison" Ezra said. With poison in the Emperor's body, he just had to tire him out.
"Poison doesn't affect me" he said.
While cleaning out the poison put in his body for years, he developed resistance to it.
"Sure" Ezra attacked, eating wide strides as he struck.
With both men in armour, each had to go the extra mile to damage the opponent.
Parrying, the Emperor came for his neck as well.
This time though, Ezra dodged easily.
'He's gotten faster' The Emperor sensed something amiss.
"Anything the problem?" Ezra smirked.
"I was almost disappointed, but it seems you might entertain me before you die"
Ezra made a cruel smile. "I guess there's nothing wrong in being positive"
The Emperor's double greatsword and Ezra's double scythe clashed over and over.
'What is this?'
The Emperor's speed began lagging.
'The poison!'
Unlike his assumptions, Ezra's poison was potent and his advancements only boosted its lethality.
Drinking a potion in a battle of such speed was impossible.
The Emperor was in trouble.
The grandmasters spectating from above observed so as well.
Getrahan was alarmed. "We can let the boy kill the Emperor. We need to interfere!"
"You're not doing anything"
Fredrick blocked them, clad in armour of his own.
The message was clear.
"Easy" Deneris said. "The Emperor told us not to interfere. I feel he'd feel worse if we did"
Raven nodded.
Getrahan was outraged. "You can't be serious!"
Deneris kept silent, giving all answers needed.
With no certainty of beating Fredrick in a one on one, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Jebas couldn't fly, so he couldn't help.
Mervida was the seventh grandmaster to arrive, watching the proceedings without a word, and he was sure he wasn't going to help.
With that, Getrahan was forced to sit back and watch.
*Clash*Klang*Kang*Kang*Kang*
Striking after strike after strike, both men had inflicted less than ten deep cuts on each other in a battle the Emperor thought he would quickly end.
Neither had gone all out, and they had the stamina and mana to go on for the whole day.
As such, after a flurry of attacks, the fight came to a pause.
"If I run away now, you can't catch me" he said. "I'll simply wait till you die of the poison and then come back. No one can cure of that poison except me…well, maybe if you go to the demon world you'll find it"
The Emperor didn't reply.
"I'll give you the antidote for the poison, and you give me mother"
"Are you a demon?" the Emperor suddenly inquired.
"Hmm…I don't feel like one. No"
"How do I know you're not being controlled?"
"Because I can tell you where their hideout is. Wouldn't that help you win the war?"
The Emperor was taken aback. "If you're lying?"
"Kill me"
*Silence*
Still cautious, Ezra withdrew the dome of darkness.
"Lead the way"
The Emperor took to the sky and flew in the direction of Kingsmere.
With Skyfall in hand, Ezra followed, as did Fedrick, Getrahan, Deneris, and Raven.
The battle seemed to have ended.
It took a while, but the capital came into view.
Ezra entered, dropped to the ground to walk, he was better equipped to resist an ambush on the ground.
Ezra stopped in front of the castle watching as the Emperor's back faded into the castle.
Ten minutes later, he walked out without anybody in sight.
Ezra was alert, watching as two guards walked out behind him with a woman in tow.
His fist clenched tight.
"Mother"
He rushed in front of her, flinging the guards away.
She was too shocked to say anything for the first few seconds, staring into her boy's eye.
Her blue hair was tied to a point, while her eyes spoke of sleeplessness.
"Ezra" she cried out, pulling him into her embrace.
"Mom"
After being kidnapped by her own husband and locked away, Kiara tried to escape, each time unsuccessful.
Time went by as she wondered what her son was doing, and wished he'd come to her rescue. But continue trying to escape despite it.
She incessantly struggled, and now, her son had finally come.
Tears dripped down her face as she savoured the moment.
Rubbing her son's head, she spoke. "My son, you've been through a lot"
After a whole two minutes, Ezra released her from his embrace, and faced his father- who was currently chugging down a potion.
'It's not working'
Ezra was telling the truth.
"Ezra" he called. "The antidote"
He walked his mother in front of Fredrick.
"Keep her safe"
Fredrick nodded.
Before arriving, Ezra had tested the potency of the poison with Mr. Poison Cloud from Arcadia.
That's when he found that it was far more potent than expected.
According to the man, Ezra's deadly poison was boosted by his large demonic attributes, and then refined during his advancement.
His bloodstream held the most lethal of poisons, one that could end any grandmaster.
Anything below would simply die in a matter of seconds, minutes at most.
But the poison cloud was able to create an antidote using his blood.
With this, he had one up against every other grandmaster.
That was also when he thought up the plan to poison the Emperor.
If the Emperor hadn't accepted, he would have fought to the death, because Ezra was unwilling to let his mother stay locked up for even one more day.
The Emperor chugs down the antidote.
"Now, do you have a map?"
The Emperor stayed silent as the poison effects left his body before wiping his mouth.
"What for?"
"We need a plan to take out the demon worshippers once and for all, and we need to hurry"
