Vael's voice echoed around him.
"Planet Level mages bend force and space together. You're still on Sky Level. But your Spark is clear. Show me more! Ren. Show me more! "
Ren's aura surged again.
His chest pulsed, and more lines of mana burst across his arms. The Echo-Form shimmered over him now. Fragmented symbols that marked his soul's shape.
He shifted his footing.
"Then I'll climb. Climb the ladders that have power to defeat me."
He charged again. His movement cracked the ground this time. His Spark flowed like molten silver. Each step pulsed darker. Again he landed punch on Vael.
Vael blocked with a single hand.
Flesh met dark light. The energy between them cracked like thunder.
Ren ducked low, swept his leg...missed.
Vael answered with a palm to the chest. Ren flew back again. Boths attacks were infused with mana. Ren's dark mana and Vael's light blue silver mana.
But this time he flipped in midair, landed hard, and dashed forward again.
He wasn't giving up.
Vael's expression changed. The smile faded. Now his eyes narrowed, truly measuring the fight.
"You carry the pain like armor. Your emotions are well connected with your powers. That's interesting...," he said quietly. Then he laughed..."Hahaha..."
"Then feel it," Ren shouted with anger. He thought that Vael treated him like a new born baby.
Their fists met again. This time, the explosion of force lit the air. Both stepped back due to impact force.
The lake behind them rose, waves crashing against the shore.
Elara gripped the grass, breath caught in her throat.
★★★
After the Elara's message Mage King ordered everyone to meet him in the war preparation ground.
The alarms echoed around the whole Arkenhall. Evryone was gathered in to the war preparation ground. Their were different colours of alarm. In one of them the dark crimson colour alarm was dangerous one. When that echoed it means the war was near. Evryone took their wine cups too.
Then far away, in the sky above, twelve figures flew in perfect formation. Cloaks trailing starlight behind them. The Mage King at the lead.
He floated above the thousands mages.
All mages were possessed the power that enough to shake the world. In his right hand he holded the cup of the wine. Everyone their holded too. Before the War their were tradition to take a last drink with their comrades.
The Mage King shouted as leader...
"We are going to meet death. May it's our final battle. May it's the last time we see this world but everything is for future. For future generations. They will remember us or will not. We don't care about that. It's our duty to protect evryone. To protect the humanity. This final Cheers to all of you my comrades."
"Cheers! Cheers!"... Thousands of voices shouted at a same time. They didn't care about what was waited? What will happened with them? They just enjoyed their wine.
"Toward Kullon Lake."... Mage king shouted.
All were followed him.
"Toward the battle that would decide the fate of this world." He again shouted with energy.
All were again followed him. Then they all were started moving towards the battlefield. A future battlefield.
★★★
The world trembled as the Spark ignited fully between the two. The two are Ren and Vael.
Mana crackled across the surface of Kullon Lake, boiling patches of water where pure force collided with intent. Trees bent away from the shore, groaning under invisible pressure. The ground beneath Ren's boots scorched black, mana veins pulsating beneath the earth like exposed nerves.
Ren's breath slowed.
He narrowed his eyes, every emotion buried beneath a calm he had forced into place.
Vael stood motionless. Ren too.
Elara, still hidden among the distant stone outcroppings now far from the shoreline, gasped silently.
She had retreated deeper into the terrain once the battle escalated, knowing her presence might compromise everything. Her eyes shimmered with horror and awe. This… was not what she expected.
Not even close.she knew her limits too. She was strong but not as much to handle planet level mage.
★★★
Ren stood still, his Spark burning across his skin. Echo-Form marks pulsed around his limbs angular, fluid symbols written in white fire.
"You're not human. You are monster.," he said quietly.
Vael's mind-voice answered, heavier than sound.
"Neither are you, Ren."
They both laughed like they both enjoyed the Spark. A pulse exploded from Vael's body.
Ren barely moved in time.
He blinked backward, a tear in the air left behind where he once stood. Vael's tendrils lashed forward, not like weapons like thoughts shaped into violence.
They struck the ground, and the soil caved in like clay under a hammer.
Ren appeared behind him instantly, forming a shape with his hands.
"Erase."
He reached forward near to Vael and for a single breath, the world at Vael's back blinked out of existence. The space behind him warped into nothing.
But Vael twisted.
His body didn't turn. It vanished from the half, slipped sideways like smoke into itself. But he regenerated. Ren shocked. Then Vael spoke... "As planet level mage, we have potential to regenerate. So don't shock. It's quite normal."
Then he vanished from Ren's sight and reappeared behind him, limbs flaring.
A mana rope wrapped around Ren's ankle and flung him like a meteor. Ren's back slammed into the side of a massive stone, the cliffside cracking under impact.
He fell to a knee, coughing blood.
Still, he stood.
"You can regenerate too," Ren muttered.
Vael drifted closer. His limbs now moved with elegance not strikes, but dances. Fluid, impossible paths. He spoke... "I don't believe mercy on you. Prove yourself Ren."
"I do not fight with power. I fight with knowledge. Spark is not enough if you do not know the universe it ignites. Knowledge is everything. It gives you a wisdom that devour the world."
Then Ren's aura surged. He didn't spoke anything just listened. Understood Vael's words.
His Spark ignited again but this time, he didn't move forward.
He stood still. Focused. Remembered.
" You are not meant to be part of the Arkenhall. You are meant to break it. You born to rule over the world." In his mind this voice echoed. His eyes turned blue into red. The black aura started surround him.
He reached deep into his heart. Past the memory of Watson. Past the forgotten voices of his parents. Deeper, into the silence that Nyxa had shown him.
The void within himself.
The place where no one had touched.
"Dark Abyss: Imagination Script."
The sky twisted.
Shapes formed in midair unspoken scripts of creation forged from emotion. His grief. His need. His fractured truth.
They didn't shine like Elara's light.
They devoured.
Ren raised his hand. His red eyes glowed with red black light.
"Erase. Rewrite moment. Devour the world."
A pulse rippled outward and for a moment, Vael faltered. One of his hand curled away, uncertain.
Ren dashed forward. His body blurred not just speed, but absence. A movement made of gaps. He stepped beyond the light's speed.
His fist met Vael's side. It landed.
Vael bent slightly and then responded.