Andre stared at the man he once looked upto—the man he once called father with distain in his eyes. The hatred flowing through his veins fueled his desire to put the man six feet underground. <"You changed me.">
Borr chuckled again. "I changed you? You changed yourself, you became what you hated in pursuit of your hatred towards me.".
Andre's mouth tucked downward—he was nothing like the man standing before him. "we are nothing alike, you are a cold-blooded murderer." He spat, venom laced in every word that escaped his lips.
Borr's eyes narrowed and his hand on the staff tightened—his knuckles turned white from the grip he had the staff under. "Watch your tone boy, just because I allowed you to roam around as you please don't mean I will allow disrespect in my presence." A heavy aura flooded the area dwarfing the one from earlier, making it hard for Lia and Damon to breathe. The staff started to emit blood-red strands from around its handle.
The opposition was not phased—the gauntlet he had stolen a couple of days ago coming in clutch as one of the gems on the gauntlet glowed dispersing the aura Borr wanted to impose on him.
GRAPPLING TOUCH
The gauntlet glowed bright red and Andre threw a punch—the gauntlet emitted a stream of light towards Borr. The old man slammed the bottom of the staff on the ground—the strands of blood exploded in extremely quantity forming a spherical construct around Borr just as the blast hit causing a humongous explosion that chipped away from the spherical construct—Borr was unfazed even when he saw the shield he created be chipped away.
Borr slammed the base of his staff again—the blood around him circumventing the blast and covering it like parasites—the Neuro-Qi imbued into the blood devouring the one created by the gem, in his years of being alive, Borr had experienced all kinds of fights, from fighting the first user of the gems that were created by the first Cybercultivator and he knew how to counter them. "You are still 100 years young to defeat me."
Andre seeing the tide shifting from the simple counteroffensive measure Borr did—he cut off the Neuro-Qi supply to produce the blast and dodged to the side as the tendril of blood pierced the ground creating a massive crater from the weight the blood had. He landed on the tree and activated the second gem.
DEATH TOUCH
The black gem released an ominous aura that expended outward in a form of a sphere—the trees died, the stones turned to dust when they got touched by the aura and Borr seeing it's debilitating effects jumped up and distanced himself from the range of the attack—he landed next to where Lia and Damon were hiding.
"Not bad, to control not one but two gems." Borr commended chuckling—he closed his eyes briefly and opened them releasing an aura that covered the staff tearing away the wooden structure revealing a pitch-black sword underneath. He grabbed the sword and placed it horizontally across his face in both hands. "Time to get serious."
GRAVEYARD OF BLOOD
Borr unsheathed the sword and the blade exploded with Neuro-Qi that formed more tendrils of blood that pooled around his feet—the blood sphere around his feet expanded and from within crawled out monstrosities that could not be described—cladded in blood, humans, beasts and even trashbeast appeared at his command. "Attack!" Borrs commanded the blood creations.
And attack they did—the sky before Andre was covered in red as the army of blood descended upon where he was—Andre gritted his teeth as he was forced on the defense dodging every attack that befell on him, each of the impacts of the creatures made the ground shake—and they would shatter into blood puddles them reconnected themselves to form another set of creatures that continued their endless pursuit.
SHIELD OF ARES
The blue gem glowed—and a force field appeared as the creatures crashed on him from all around him—a massive blast shook the west wing, easily towering over the trees and once it died down, the forest was curved out and Andre stood at the center of the crater. He huffed, as he made his way to the surface where another army of blood creatures awaited him—he was getting sick and tired of the creatures and their creator.
Andre's foot stepped on the sand and he took another breather—his body was starting to feel the strain of the multiple use of the gems, it was screaming at him to stop but the vengeance in his heart refused to stop, it refused to drop. He was doing it to get revenge—nothing mattered to him but revenge, he wanted to see the light vanish from the man's eyes and then would he be at peace.
DAUNTLESS SHADE
The purple gem glowed and space became an extension of it—Andre swung his hand downward causing space to project five claws that cut through the ground from the invisible gashes. Borr's hyper awareness made him acknowledge the attack and his creatures piled up before him tanking the attack at the expense of their life, blood from the destroyed constructs painted the ground merging with the sand and dissolving into mud-like substance but they served their purpose in defending Borr from the attack.
Borr fully unsheathed the weapon—he pointed the blade at Andre and a smirk appeared on his face. "You have improved but, you are still as weak as you were back then my child. You cannot amount to anything with your potential—" Borr closed his eyes channeling Neuro-Qi across his body releasing steam from his body. "Let me show you, YOUR MOTHER'S SACRIFICE."
JUDGMENT
The blood creatures popped one by one sending blood flying—the droplets of blood reversed into a flowing stream and they coated the sword Borr had in his hand causing it to ignite—his ability, the blood fire, with the blood ignited into roaring flames—Borr lowered his hand and the fire fell on the ground slowly. He placed the sword on his hand and severed it establishing a blood pact for his attack. The entire west wing glowed crimson as blood oozed through the veins running through this specific wing and a column of fire, clawing to the sky appeared burning everything around Borr including Andre, the attack extended outward and the column ended up forming a sword like flame in the air.
"Sister! I'm burning!!" Damon cried out in pain as his skin started to catch fire.
Lia watched in horror—her brother was dying before her eyes, the blood that covered them was burning him not her. No no no no, Yuanchen help!! she pleaded in her heart as she tried to stop the flames but they kept on growing stronger and Damon's screams increased—until total silence followed and what was left behind was a body burnt beyond recognition in a matter of seconds. The body of Damon in the hands of his elder sister who tried to stop it but nothing worked.
Lia's eyes trembled at the scene—the last person she called family perished in her eyes—something snapped in her.
Blue and yellow flames ignited in her eyes—flames that weren't cold nor hot appeared on her body covering her eye, forehead, hair, shoulder and some parts of her body—her teeth grinded together, creating a melody similarly to the metal being grinded on one another. RAAHHHH The flames consumed her body and sent the rubble that covered her body flying away from them.
The flames connected and formed wings on her back—half of her face became similar to a Phoenix face and her lower body was covered in flames morphing her physical features into those of a Phoenix—the healing effect of the flames brought Damon's skin back to normal but despite its miraculous healing capabilities, it could not bring back the departed soul.
"Impossible..." Andre and Borr whispered as they saw the Phoenix.
Before their eyes, a cultivation skill that was long thought to have gone extinct had reappeared.