This hole that had been hidden was revealed as it was among the last part of his body that was turning to stone.
One of the talents given by his Endless Vault Meditation Art was the ability to turn into data.
This state was unique and Andar had not been able to decipher the mysteries involved, but he knew that while he was in this state, he was not made up of energy but something in between energy and solid mass. Among all the things he had hidden from his masters in the Black Tower, this was one of them.
When he was in this state he could "Refresh" himself, this was another unique and overpowered ability that would heal him from any wounds and return his energy to the peak. The best part about it was that he could do this Refresh, nine times, effectively granting him nine lives.
During his experimentation with this ability, he had learned that he could only Refresh himself a total of nine times in a year, and if he split his body into different pieces, he could choose the pieces he wished to be born from. He knew he was not unkillable, but he was close.
He had stored pieces of his body in hidden places all around the Black Tower and he even left a part of himself to drift away in the darkness of space. If he were to ever be killed, no one would know where he could regenerate himself from.
When Andar had killed Mira his tears had entered her body. For anyone else that was nothing of import, but every part of Andar's body, even his tears contained a massive amount of information, and storing it inside the girl's body meant the next part of his plans became possible.
Andar held on for the expected amount of time that he had calculated holding back his shield from collapsing using sheer force of will and his seemingly inexhaustible store of Aether, but it was a losing game, no matter how much energy he sent into this shield, it was only strengthening the red flames.
Before the slightly confused gaze of the girl who seemed to be holding on to consciousness only because she wanted to see him lose, his shields were consumed, and the red beam of light slammed into him.
The explosion released a bright flash and a gigantic mushroom cloud that could be seen for miles, the heat was so great that it vaporized the entirety of Andar's body.
Even under the hold of Gray Will, Andar discovered that dying like this was still truly unpleasant.
A quiet laughter echoed over the glow from the flame and the shattered body of the girl surged forward and entered the flames.
As if time was reversing, the mushroom cloud shrank as the red flames began pouring into the body of the girl, in a few seconds the massive conflagration that was miles high was swallowed into her body and she emerged healed, wearing the robe of ashes.
Her skin glowed and her eyes were now bright red once more, there was a flush to her face as if she was full of vitality, but she knew that this fix was temporary, it was similar to the last burst of energy before death, and she tried to enjoy this sensation for as long as possible.
The confusion in the eyes of the girl was apparent as she looked around her, although she had released her entire power in desperation she did not expect the battle to have ended like this.
She soon came to terms with the fact that Andar had not made any more moves before he died when she realized that Andar had already exceeded her highest benchmark, and the power he had unleashed at the end was solidly at the level of an Arch mage.
She was two ranks higher than him and she had access to the Supreme Meditation Art of Mages, she was unable to unleash such might, and she only won because she had consumed the power that he had unleashed.
Yet she had expected… more.
Sharing her head in amusement, she considered that for a Rank 1 Magus, to be able to release power to this level was nothing short of amazing, and she was overthinking this matter. What was left now was just to resurrect him and take him away from here.
She turned to the Arch mages watching the battle, previously there were sixteen Arch mages with the addition of Andar's mother, now their number had almost doubled and all the Arch mages of Black Tower were here with their real bodies.
However, there were two figures that held all the attention in this place and they were not even present.
The two figures resembled two streams of vibrating light, one was of the darkness of the void, and the other was the light of the moon.
She clasped her hands together and bowed her head, before her were two esteemed Tower Masters and one of them was her mother, and if she was not wrong the other presence was the Tower Master of the Black Tower.
She rose up and waited but she received no acknowledgement and she frowned. If they were not announcing her victory, then that must mean—
The pain that struck her next was the greatest she had experienced in her entire existence. It radiated from her core as every single cell inside her body screamed in pain as they were shredded to pieces and consumed.
A voice entered her ears and for a moment she was screaming too loud to even think but her powerful Spirit was able to reconstitute the meaning for her, it was Andar's voice and he said,
"You have displayed the power of your Art, allow me to display my own. Please, don't die quickly, it will… sadden me."
He was using her words against her, and then she began to laugh because the pain had grown so great that it had broken her mind.
There were risks to a battle of this level, and she had been willing to pay it, yet if she had known that the price would be so steep, she would have rethought her actions.
A series of loud cracks emerged from her body and her skin began to bubble and squirm as if she was filled with thousands of spiders.
She brought one of her fair hands up and observed as her bones were crushed to powder, her skin blistered and peeled away, only to be replaced by a new skin… but this skin was not her own.
She laughed and laughed as her breast deflated before flattening and growing broad like the chest of a man, her spine elongated as it was crushed repeatedly and she grew taller.
Her long hair was sucked into her scalp as short black hair replaced her own, the last thing to change was her struggling eyes.
The horror inside them was profound as they slowly transformed from the glowing red of coal to a cold silver.
Andar shrugged his body and his clothes returned to him, he stretched his hand to the side and caught the cape he had released when the battle began, he had sent it into the sky and the moment the battle was over, it had fallen beside him.
No one here would believe that this was a coincidence.
"Two can play the game," he whispered to the last of the dying screams inside his head.
Andar was a fast learner, and when this strange girl wore the flesh suit of Mira, and the application of her Supreme Art, he not only saw this as an opportunity to learn, but it also gave him a new idea about the application of his ability.
He chose to resurrect himself inside the body of this girl, and when he did, he was in his Data Form. It was a simple thing for him to merge his body with her own, down to the individual cells and he had learned that the number of cells in his body were a hundred times more plentiful than her own and were vastly more powerful.
Coordinating all his cells was easy when the order was simple—
Eat.
Andar had not killed her, in his hand was her pulsing brain that was connected to a pair of furious eyes.
He looked at the two powerful beings and he bowed.
"Andar you have won the right to determine the fate of the Mages in this universe." A deep voice resounded in the heavens.
'Wait… what?!'
