Cù's and Tiana's battle had finally ended. It had been quite the show, and it had only lasted a few minutes, that did not mean that Cù Sith was that much stronger than Tiana. At their level, sudden increases of strength were devastating, it shook the entire rhythm of the battle, and as skilled as they were, when that happens, a battle could be resolved in seconds.
Tiana had held her ground well. Even after two howls, she was not overwhelmed much and was capable of holding him back, alas, the third howl was too much.
Ray and Mara had watched the fight with great interest. As someone who had met both of them and even fought one of them, Ray was quite excited about the match, and his expectations were fully met.
'As expected. If not for my soul's unique existence and the fact that he explored its past state, I would've lost.'
He had come to such a conclusion after seeing the projection being finished as soon as the red glow enveloped both of the fighters.
After that, both of them had come back to the audience. The barbarian tribe barely congratulated him, while Tiana's little friend group eagerly welcomed her, trying to give her some consolation that was unneeded. Tiana seemed to be in high spirits and endlessly kept talking about the fight.
Various matches followed theirs, but none of them were fascinating. There were some unique affinities, but none with as much potential as Tiana's or Cù's.
"Next is participant number 13, Zillah Emrys."
It seemed that someone interesting was finally going to fight.
"Against, participant number 77, Arianne."
Both contestants rose from their seats. One of them in a graceful manner, with no hurry or worry. The other was trembling all over the place.
'I thought those who were really strong were not going to be facing the really weak ones! How did I end up fighting the Saintess?!'
Regardless, Professor Eris looked terrifying, so he had no choice but to go to the rooms assigned to them.
It didn't take long for their projection to appear in the center of the arena.
"Huh, do you think he will be alright?"
Mara was slightly worried, ever since she met Zillah, he had never given her the impression of being actually capable. Then again, he had reached the first island, but being paired with the Saintess?
She had heard rumors about her, something about having the biggest levels of divine power ever, some said that it rivaled or even surpassed the Last Hero.
She was definitely among the particularly strong, along with herself and Ray.
"Hm. I'm not sure, but you know that he is not that simple."
Yes, she knew. To be able to completely fool both of their senses was eerie. Was he capable of more than he showed?
In the virtual world, both Zillah and Arianne stared at each other.
Zillah was carrying a short sword, its length was something between a normal one-handed sword and a dagger. Arianne, on the other hand, was carrying nothing.
«Participants, prepare yourselves. Once the countdown reaches zero, you can start the combat.»
«3»
«2»
Arianne stretched her arm sideways and summoned her weapon. In a flash of golden light brought by her divine power, a polearm appeared, it was oddly shaped like a cross, except each of its ends was sharp and pointy. It was golden and was inscribed with several passages, prayers, one could guess.
«1»
«0!!!»
With a burst of divine power, Arianne rushed forward, prepared to strike at unimaginable speeds.
"Eek!"
With a sudden shriek of terror, Zillah suddenly disappeared, the cross polearm vainly struck the ground, making it shatter. Weirdly enough, there was no shockwave or huge impact.
Infusing her eyes with divine power, she silently wished to her goddess to help her find her opponent. It was like looking at the world through golden-tinted glasses, everything gained a golden tone, except her target, who was hiding in her shadow.
Without hesitation, she struck the ground where her shadow was cast.
However, to her astonishment, her shadow moved, splitting into two, revealing the shadow of a boy frantically running away.
"..."
She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. She was quite aware of her strength, so she was confident that she ended up in the group of those that were evaluated as the strongest participants. Therefore, she went on the offensive, but who had expected Zillah to act like a frightened cat?
From the shadow the young and frightened man appeared. He looked at her warily.
'Isn't she a Saintess?! Why is she swinging a weapon like that?! Don't priests normally use prayers and offerings to use divine power? I never heard of a priestess swinging a weapon!'
The thing was that Arianne was indeed praying. Not out loud, of course. She was using her own divine power, which originated from the gods, to convey her feelings and intentions in order for the divine power to shape and follow her wish.
She sighed and took a step forward.
"N-no! Get away!"
As he screamed, his shadow suddenly expanded, growing at an alarming rate, aiming to fully engulf the ground of the virtual world.
Startled, Arianne reacted quickly, her own divine power warning her of danger. Slamming her polearm into the ground, she raised a golden shield around her, preventing the ground inside from being engulfed by Zillah's shadow. To prevent any mishap, she also protected her own shadow.
The whole ground was now covered in a black, almost inky substance, it was magical shadows.
Unlike normal shadows that weren't fully black most of the time, magical shadows were unnaturally dark and didn't need an object to cast them. But even then, Zillah's shadows were special.
"!!!"
Arianne was startled.
'His shadows are slowly forcing the divine power in the shield to slowly erode into nothingness. How is that possible?'
Her senses were telling her that these shadows were evil, vile, and disgusting, but why?
The answer could only be found in the head of a particular individual that was watching the match in the arena.
"!!!"
'That's impossible! Those shadows, how do they have...'
He was completely startled and surprised.
'It's small, but I can feel it. How did the Saintess not notice it?'
The reason for his surprise was simple...
'Demonic Power!'
Those shadows were tainted with demonic power.
He wasn't sure how, but it was a fact that made him even doubt his senses. The amount of demonic power in those shadows was incredibly small and of extremely low quality, and yet it was still there.
Demonic Power, like Divine Power was born from the Gods' opinion of an individual. One with Divine Power was someone who had their favor and was able to bend the world according to their will with it. On the other hand, Demonic Power was present in people who had the disdain of the gods and the world itself, with it, one could ignore the rules placed by them.
That was how Demonic Power users could fuse elements and hide themselves from the gaze of saints who could see karma.
The only ways to have Demonic Power were to be corrupted by a monster, to be hated by both the world and the gods, or to belong to a demonic race, like Ray, who was a Demonic Dragon.
Zillah was human, and with his attitude, he didn't seem to carry the disdain of the gods. So, was he corrupted or...
'That entity inside him. Is that the origin of the Demonic Power?'
For now, he would keep watching vigilantly the progress of the battle.
Arianne was silent, inspecting the inky shadows around her. The way that they were dissolving her barrier was unbelievably slow, to the point that she was comfortable to simply watch and try to think of a solution.
She looked at Zillah, who was seemingly calming down.
Interested, she tried to read his karma. Zillah's karma was pretty generic, really, it was the normal little bit of both, but the values were so slow that it was obvious that the boy was just too scared to do any harm or good to anyone. But there was a problem, there were two karmas and one of them, she couldn't read it.
'Again? Just what is happening.'
As she was thinking, for the first time since the battle started, Zillah made his move.
From the shadows, several inky shadow hands rose. They carefully approached the golden barrier and started to try and rip it open.
'Is he trying to get me to touch the shadows in the ground?'
Entering into a stance, Arianne dissolved the golden barrier, and with a few swings of her Divine Power-infused polearm, she cut off the shadowy hands and leapt into the air.
She was kept afloat with divine power as she looked to see Zillah's reaction.
And he was scared, because of course he was.
'What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?!'
'Goddammit, brat! What are you whining about all of a sudden?'
'AAAH! You are awake! I'm fucked! I'm going to die!'
'Hmph. A Saintess? Well, she is quite young, not like the ones during my time. Listen, you brat, if you follow my orders, I will not kill you.'
'And why should I believe that? You always try to kill me!'
'Do it now, or I will kill you after ripping your eyeballs out and feeding them to you!'
'Yes!'
Arianne looked closely. Zillah seemed distracted by something else.
She decided to take this opportunity and swung her polearm sending moon-shaped arcs of Divine Power in his direction.
Suddenly, walls made out of shadows formed between her and him, successfully blocking her attacks.
Suddenly, the shadows rose, encompassing the whole virtual world.
'That disgusting feeling is becoming prominent.'
'The Demonic Power is rising.'
Arianne and Ray both noticed the increase in power of the shadows, in their own ways.
For Arianne, her world was completely enveloped in darkness. She sent more divine power into her eyes and prayed in order to see what was in the darkness.
And she saw hell.
It was a dark forest. With pitch-black trees and leaves with their eerie branches looming over her, over everything. In each of these branches, various corpses were hanged in a morbid display.
Zillah was at the center of such an abomination of a scene. He seemed as scared as she was appalled.
Her Divine Power flared, and she rushed forward, ignoring the several corpses around her. Her Divine Power was compressing on itself, becoming purer and brighter, illuminating the surroundings.
"Oh Gods, hear this poor lamb's wish and purify the lands she has found herself in!"
And with a slam, golden light surged forth, purifying the surrounding land, making the morbid surroundings disappear.
"Phew"
That was really tiring. Although it was not as tiring as forcing open the seal of Rex Draco, it was something that had still required a little effort.
Enough for her to not notice...
...that Zillah had disappeared, once again.
Until it was too late. From her shadow, Zillah suddenly appeared and stabbed his short sword towards her neck.
Spurt
"Ugh!"
"AAh!"
'She dodged!'
'Damn you, brat! Can't you do anything right?!'
The short sword was stabbed into her left shoulder thanks to her fast reaction and the contribution of a little late intuition of her Divine Power.
"You... you really took me by surprise there, Zillah."
"I-I'm sorry?"
"Yes, you are."
Her Divine Power manifested in the form of golden chains that completely restrained Zillah. In the several chains, religious symbols appeared, reinforcing the sealing effect.
«The match has ended!»
«The victor is Arianne!»
*************************
Author's Note: And with this another fight as concluded and some hints for a future arc as been planted. Next Fight: Mara Flamma vs Jynn Caster.
And who do you think should have won?
Zillah?
Arianne?
Tell me your thoughts
Check out my other Novel(Fanfic): Transmigrator Competition