"Begin!"
Celine's voice came from far away, but neither Keith nor Venessa rushed forward.
The two of them kept taking a good look at each other, and Venessa suddenly smiled before shrouding her body in a crimson flame.
"Let me see how strong you are." She proactively said, making her intentions clear, and Keith could not help but shake his head and sigh.
She was not going to hold back. And he did the right thing by bringing everyone here. This place could handle the destruction she was about to cause.
Venessa's smile brightened up when she watched her son's eyes change to their Amethyst colour. His body was soon shrouded in a black flame, and then he disappeared.
It was her instincts that came in handy, and at the last moment, she managed to block the kick that was aimed at her left side. However, the force behind that kick still pushed her away, several meters away, and before she stabilised herself, she received another kick from behind, which connected with her Aura Shields and sent her flying several meters away again.
She had felt the burnt of the force this time as he nearly managed to break past her Aura, and her eyes dangerously narrowed in seriousness.
The third time Keith attempted the same move by teleporting behind her, he miserably failed as a majestic crimson dragon erupted from Venessa's body, protecting her, and at the same time, a terrifying flame lunged at him.
Keith wisely flipped backwards, narrowly escaping, and gaining distance, but then he shot forward again, summoning his own Aura Beast Avatar which was a wolf.
The two Aura Beasts clashed, resulting in sparks of their Auras and a dull sound of an explosion that thumped the hearts of the onlookers.
Whilst the two of them engaged in hand-to-hand combat, their Avatars, as if having a mind of their own, clashed against each other.
It was unlike anything the girls had seen before, and only Amelia seemed unsurprised by it. It was only possible after completing the Primal Desolation Realm, and she could do it too but had never tried it.
However, just like everyone else, she too was invested in watching the battle. It was already clear that Venessa was holding back on them when they had challenged her, and seeing the gap between their powers, she felt a little uncomfortable in her heart.
They were both in the same Realm of Cultivation, but the gap in their powers was too wide.
Keith was visibly better in techniques, both attacking and defensive, but Venessa was a little faster and much stronger than him, which made up for the difference.
Every time they landed a hit on each other, their Aura Beast Avatars chipped away a piece of Aura from their opponent, and so far, the Dragon was overpowering the wolf.
"I must say, I am impressed, Mother," Keith spoke as he expertly dodged and blocked her attacks.
She was much better than he has expected, very skilled in the art of hand-to-hand combat. But what truly impressed him was how much control she had gained over her Special Physique.
Though he had not seen it with his eyes yet, he was certain that Venessa could now successfully use the first Sun of the Nine-Yang Divine Physique. It was something that Ye Tian had failed to achieve even in his final gambit.
"And you lack strength, My Child." She playfully replied, which made him grin at her words.
"Brace." He warned her right before darkness engulfed her, completely shrouding them both.
Venessa found herself unable to see anything other than her Aura, and to her discomfort, there was no sound in this place too. It was eerily quiet, but she got no chance to dwell on her thoughts as she sensed her Aura defence getting pierced from behind her.
Before she could react, she felt a kick land on her back, and it knocked the breath of out her lungs.
She groaned in pain, but no voice came out, and then she was attacked again and again, which forced her to reinforce her defences and use more of her Aura.
However, it was only a few seconds later that she realised Keith's intentions. He was just going to wear her out like this if she did not break out of this void.
Unleashing the rage that had been building up in her heart, she exploded the crimson flame that covered her body, and soon it started eating away the Darkness, allowing her to gain freedom.
Or that was what she believed until she saw the room again and her eyes quivered when an army of dozens of hounds and feral creatures, made completely out of Darkness, rushed at her from all sides.
No matter how many she eradicated, there just seemed to be no end to these creatures of Darkness, and eventually, they overpowered her when a few grabbed onto her Dragon Avatar. Soon the black creatures started merging, binding her in shackles that she could not shake off.
"Shall we end it here, Mother?"
She raised her head and found Keith smiling at her from a distance, and she could not help but smile too.
"I haven't enjoyed a fight in a long while." Her smile brightened.
The last time she ever had this much fun was when she nearly beat the life out if Caesar, and that was couple of decades ago.
Keith narrowed his eyes when he watched Venessa's eyes change to a similar shade as his, and then he sensed the change in the crimson flame that he had managed to suppress with his Power of Darkness.
The cage and shackles of Darkness binding her were eaten away by this new crimson flame, and though it was hard to visibly see the difference, Keith could tell that it was no longer the same as before.
He could sense something from that flame, something very dreadful, and he did not need it to be answered by the system to understand what it was.
A moment of surprise nearly caught him off-guard, but at the very last moment, when Venessa's flame-covered fist was about to connect him, he used his Spacial Powers to teleport to a safe distance.
He kept dodging her attacks, and though he was doing it successfully, he was not smiling anymore.
It was not that she had an upper hand on him, but that Crimson Flame was a little too dangerous.
"Why Keith, scared to take a fist from your mother?" Venessa teasingly said after she found out that he had no intentions of blocking or replying to her attacks.
It was after he was trying to not come in contact with her flame, and she knew very well why he was doing it.
But then to her dismay, he simply stopped and grabbed her punch.
The moment their Auras came in contact, it took just a second for the crimson flame to start eating away his Amethyst Shields, and then the Runic Shields Amelia had placed on his body started shattering one after another, scaring the girls who could not understand how blocking a punch could do that to you.
To Venessa's relief, Keith finally teleported away, but when she was about to rush at him again, she crashed against an invisible wall.
She jumped backward, and there was another wall there waiting to greet her.
There were walls all around her now, and she was caged inside these invisible walls.
Narrowing her eyes at her son, she unleashed more of her unique Power, and everyone saw visible cracks appear in space around Venessa as her Crimson Flame flared up.
But then something very mysterious happened.
The invisible cage started filling up with Darkness, and though the crimson flame kept resisting it for a while, it was soon overpowered by Darkness.
It was only then that the girls saw the cage Venessa was imprisoned in. It was a cube whose sides were three meters long, and now, it was a completely black cube as it had been filled up with Darkness.
There was no trace of Venessa or her Aura.
Keith kept staring at the Spacial Prison for the next ten minutes until it finally started shattering and specks of crimson flame pierced through the Darkness, which he immediately recalled. He then took a good look at his mother.
She was stubbornly staring at him, but her face was a little pale now. It was clear that she had expended a lot of her Aura and Mana to break out of that Spacial Prison.
He also saw what he wanted to see in her eyes, and the unbridled rage sent chills up his spine, prompting a light smile to creep on his lips.
She lunged at him, at a speed much faster than before, but he did not do anything to block or dodge it.
"I concede." He announced right before Venessa's fist was about to connect with him again, and his mother stopped mid-air and retracted her arm in confusion.
"Why?" She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Because I don't want to get hurt." He smiled at her, and his words evoked a smile on her face.
"I doubt you would get hurt."
"You over-estimate me, Mother. I am but a Mortal right now."
As his words fell, he carefully observed the change in her expression and the change in his crimson flame, and it proved another one of his guesses right.
The Power she tapped into intensified depending on the level of her rage, and now that she had calmed down, it was going away.
Though the System refused to tell him about his Bloodline, after observing the Powers of Minami and Venessa, Keith had narrowed down his guesses.
He was still not certain, but whatever the truth was, it was only in his favour, and so he did not fret much over it.
Another thing that immensely pleased him was seeing how capable she was in battle. And Keith knew that he did not have to care about her safety in this world as there could hardly be anyone who could harm her, and that included the Children of Destiny too.
And there was no point in continuing the battle, and he did not wish to harm her.
"It was awesome!" Celine came running towards them and then happily hugged him, smiling brightly.
And the smart her only hugged Venessa after his mother recalled her Aura and the Crimson flame, and only when her eyes returned to their usual dark brown colour.
"You are strong! I was so worried when he imprisoned you in that cube."
"So was I," Venessa admitted without any hesitation. "But I would have liked it if he played with me for a while longer."
"You just wanted to teach him a lesson for imprisoning you in that cube." Celine giggled and then grabbed her arm. "By the way, what was it like being imprisoned in it?"
"Silent and Dark."
"Oh... Were you scared?" She playfully asked as she dragged her friend away, and then the girls surrounded Keith, some smiling, some curious, and others apprehensive.
"I am not challenging Mother to a battle again. She's scary." Rebecca pouted, and her words made everyone around her feel better.
"I heard that."
And they giggled when Venessa turned to look her way with a smile, and the blonde's face paled a little as a result.
