320 Rematch
Ezra stood speechless for a few seconds.
"Skyfall?"
'Master?'
"Whew" he takes a breath of relief, afraid something bad happened to Skyfall.
"What, no. How did you do that?"
'I'm…not sure'
"Can you turn back?"
'Let me…try'
Placing the swords against one another, the hilts conjoined and slowly, Skyfall became a scythe again.
Zydrax dropped a comment.
[It'll have to be faster if you want to use that in the middle of a fight]
"Skyfall, how fast can you change forms?"
Like before, it turned into twin swords, taking thirteen seconds.
Without stopping, it turned back into a scythe and then turned into the twin swords again, doing it more than five hundred times, changing faster each time.
Ezra stood still, watching.
This exercise took only a bit more than seven minutes and by the five hundredth time, it took only two seconds.
Skyfall would have continued if Ezra hadn't told it to stop, staying in its twin swords form.
It fit his grip like a glove, well, since he'd been Skyfall for so long, it was to be expected that the weapon had also grown accustomed to him.
Moreover, with this, he certainly didn't need any other weapon.
Swinging the sword, Ezra tested it with multiple slashes, and ended it by having it combine to form a scythe and then separate into twin swords.
"Huu.." taking a breath, he channelled elemental energy onto Skyfall, and activated his ice element.
Skyfall started glowing blue.
Slashing downwards, it let off a wave of ice that clashed against the wall and spread over it.
While not covering it completely, it was the same size as that which he used to hold the guards down.
Moreover, this was a casual strike. In battle, he would not fight Alvarach with such a light attack.
[Try changing the element] said Zydrax.
Ezra willed it to fire.
'Oh!'
Unlike before, there was no delay, the ice element turned into fire without any hiccups.
Quickly, he tests the other two, like the first time, fire changed to darkness which changed to lightning instantly.
He realized this was the effect of his element orbs coalescing along with his mana turned into elemental mana.
Also, all his elements were strengthened through his advancement.
Unfortunately, he had to cut himself or have blood in his surroundings to use his blood element like before.
Unlike the previous three, Blood was not created with just mana, it could only be controlled.
Nevertheless, his control over it was far better than before.
With little effort, the blood would shape itself into different weapons.
Though, controlling the blood weapons was a whole different aspect entirely.
But if he could create multitudes of a single weapon…
'That would be awesome' Ezra thought, before shaking out the thought.
With all that done, Ezra willed his aura to erupt.
Bad idea.
With the eruption of his silver Aura, the charred entrance-thanks to his lightning attack-to the chamber was broken off and blown away, causing a loud commotion.
"Oops…"
With the palace bear empty, the sound echoed.
Ezra was certain that Bolton heard and suddenly realized it was time for him to leave.
He steeled his resolve.
'With this, I'm ready'
This was as much power as he could muster in the little time permitted.
While he couldn't certainly say he would win-so as not to jinx out-there chances had increased dramatically.
He was about to step out when Zydrax's voice resounded.
[Those weapons, who are you leaving them for]
Ezra blinked and blinked.
'I hadn't thought about that'
Less than a minute later, the three Legendary weapons had vanished.
Steal? No, no, no such thing. He simply put it in his space ring for safekeeping…if you know what I mean.
Looking around once more, how fast everything had been was astounding, he had jumped from one situation to another without pause.
He promised to treat himself to a well deserved break after this battle.
He was also disappointed that Bard wasn't at the castle, but he could do greetings later.
At Mythic rank, there weren't many armours that could contend against Mythic rank attacks, they would just be shredded like paper against Alvarach.
As such, except for armour covering his legs because normal shoes would get burnt off when running, it was better for him to simply use his body.
In no time he was fully garbed in his favourite colour, black.
18:04
In no time he was fully garbed in his favourite colour, black.
With that, he sped out of the castle and took to the skies with a blast.
It was time for him to face his demons…literally.
Even with the efforts of three Grandmasters, less than half the town was able to survive Alvarach's attack.
The town that had been joyful the night before was now in such desecration that the original residents didn't know what to say.
Drinking potions, Frederick was thinking of his next move.
Jebas and Cabrera though, were still reeling in their feelings having faced Alvarach's attack.
From Frederick's words, that attack had been slightly above causal.
The difference between seeing and hearing was stark.
"Let's go" said Frederick, before taking off towards the red dome.
"Hey, hey, didn't you see the attack just now, why are you-
He had to shut his mouth when he saw Cabrera follow along.
"Damn it" he cursed, before running along.
Frederick's thoughts were simple.
While he didn't know what made Alvarach so urgent-though he had a guess-with him gone, they could do serious damage to his plans and kill his subordinates.
As for why he believed they were inside? The barrier wouldn't be left maintained for no reason.
So even without subordinates, just destroying the barrier would net a win for Frederick.
Having fought Alvarach, he knew the demon didn't do anything thoughtlessly.
Frederick crossed into the barrier.
Like the Grandmasters before him, he immediately felt their Aura's.
Of course, they felt his presence too.
Without delay, he shot towards them, with Cabrera and Jebas behind him.
Jebas yelled from below. "The barrier blocks us from leaving"
Frederick simply nodded. Not surprised, and flew even faster.
________
On the side of the thirteen Grandmasters or was it five Grandmasters now, because after a fierce resistance, the third Vonnamorian Grandmaster had been killed through focused fire.
With Talia gravely injured, it was back to a four on four.
But with the demons seemingly inexhaustible, their loss was but a matter of time.
The presence of three Grandmasters was a ray of light in such a situation, and since the demons understood that as well, the battle was instantly kicked up a notch.
Talia who had been left alone for later had to start dodging multiple attacks aimed at her.
For the next few minutes, the Grandmasters struggled fiercely, stepping right on the line of death before stepping back.
Their struggle proved fruitful when the demon clashing against Rita had a hammer blast it afar, denting its head while the spikes left holes.
With a grunt, the demon got back on its feet, its skull fixing itself.
This was what the Grandmasters had been dealing with.
Frederick and the gang had reached the scene.
With Cabrera striking them with wind strikes and Jebas throwing lightning streaks, the situation changed immediately.
The other Grandmasters were allowed breathing space and brought the newcomers up to speed on the current situation.
Jebas and Cabrera felt their bloods chill hearing how Grandmasters had been wantonly slaughtered.
Frederick simply clicked his tongue and got to work.
The other Grandmasters had theorised that the barrier was the cause behind the inexhaustibility the demons displayed.
Seeing the circle of descent carved into the ground, he had no doubt that it was connected to the barrier, most likely the formation's core.
They needed to destroy it to push the battle in their favour.
Meanwhile, Ezra was headed towards Guavedra.
Thinking it through, Ezra realized there was no reason for him to fly all the way to Quartez.
With Valentine's help, he would be able to shorten the distance considerably.
With two hours having already passed, either Alvarach had chosen to stay in Quartez, or he was already approaching and they would soon meet.
Either way, Ezra was ready for battle.
While getting there, Ezra busied himself talking to Zydrax.
"Zydrax, with the clarity rune, shouldn't my senses extend farther than this? Is it not effective anymore?"
[You're only using it passively]
"What do you mean?"
[Just having mana flow through a rune and actively using it produce completely different results]
Without a word, Ezra concentrated mana into the clarity rune.
The change was so jarring that Ezra almost fell out of the sky, it felt like the world suddenly expanded.
Ezra shook his head, that was a wrong deduction.
'It's the range of things I can 'see' that increased'
The amount of information he brain collected at once increased so suddenly it had almost overwhelmed him.
He felt the muscles in his body better than before, allowing better balance and body coordination.
His perception was greatly boosted.
The difference between using it passively and actively was really wide.
'If this is like this…
Ezra activated his haste rune, and his speed increased by almost twenty percent!
With the lack of a target, he couldn't use the impact rune to augment his attacks.
The concealment rune had lost most of its appeal, because it wasn't more effective than what he could already do.
Then, he used the condense rune.
'Hmm?!'
This was even more shocking than all the others.
The remainder of his mana still in gaseous state began to fuse into liquid state, albeit slowly.
Regardless, this was astounding.
Right now though, his priority was to reach Guavedra as fast as possible, so activated the haste rune.
Already close, the haste rune shortened the flight time considerably.
Alvarach on his own part was rushing towards the region he marked out.
Using only flames, he was considerably slower than Ezra.
But after two hours, he was almost there.
With his patience thinning out, a red magic circle formed behind him boosting his speed.
Both moving at great speeds, their senses tingled the moment they got within two hundred miles of one another, because they were heading in the same direction!
Ezra's killing intent began leaking out unintentionally.
[Seems like you won't be needing that portal anymore]
On the other hand, Alvarach felt like he could go crazy.
After so many years of watching and planning, a Mythic rank entity popped up right at the crucial moments of his plan.
Was the universe trying to joke with him?! Because this wasn't funny!
Ezra was at Elisa's home when he advanced to Mythic Rank, and that was the region Alvarach perceived and marked.
With more than an hour's head start, Alvarach arrived in Guavedra.
But, contrary to his original intentions, he simply flew by, forgoing the city and heading straight towards the source.
With a magic circle boosting his speed, it didn't take long for the two to meet.
The moment they got in each other's sight…
"YOU!" Alvarach was pissed.
This was the boy prophesied to destroy the demonic cult and put all his efforts to waste.
He managed to avert the prophecy from fruition, but despite his efforts, he hadn't been able to kill Ezra back at their first meeting.
He hadn't pushed himself because he decided they weren't worth the energy expenditure.
There was no reason to fuss so much over a bunch of Grandmasters.
In the end, they would all either submit or die to him.
Plain and simple.
As such, while it was regrettable he couldn't kill Ezra, the boy couldn't threaten him any time soon, he just felt it would've been nice to take the demonic scythe for himself.
But what was this???!
Ascending from Grandmaster to become a Mythical being IN TEN DAYS???
"YES. ME!" Ezra bellowed back.
With the enemy in front of him, there was no reason to hesitate.
Bathing in killing intent and with Skyfall in hand, Ezra attacked.
"Let's begin our rematch, shall we?"
Reaching Alvarach almost instantly-
Sha!
-he drew first blood.
Let's Fuckiiiing GO!!!
