Arya was so out of Hal's league that the wound barely caused her to groan and it was already healing up as she raised one leg off the board and kicked his chest...

*Crack*

...fracturing his sternum.

It healed up quickly though.

It was the secret to how Hal was still in this fight and that was the resilience of his flesh and Mid Devil form.

Arya chased after him and struck him multiple times while Hal hit her as well with his trickish attacks.

However, the longer their battle went on, the more vicious Arya became and the more battered Hal was.

Her actions were absolutely vindictive and full of rage.

She had just stabbed the pointy part of her scythe into Hal's chest and slammed him onto the other side of the clearing where he landed and cratered when a loud rumble sounded.

*Rumble!*

*Crackle!*

Hal's eyes narrowed at it and Arya chuckled at his reaction,

"What's the matter? Scared of a little rain?" She mocked.

Hal ignored her,

'I'm running out of time' he thought and finally pulled out his secret weapon.

He reached out to all those he had contracted and marked and harnessed the powers of their souls.

As he did so, he rose off the ground.

His wings did not flap and they had nothing to do with the upliftment. He owed it all to the power he was harnessing.

A Nightmarish Black Pentagram suddenly formed in front of him but rather than a normal pentagram, this one contained connecting, interlocking webs that all somehow touched the center and began to charge up a blast.

Arya's hairs stood on end as she felt the energy coming off the Pentagram, this was the first thing Hal had showcased an ability that actually worried her.

She quickly moved away from its path but Hal sneered at her naivete.

While this was his first time making use of {Network of Souls}, he knew that while the strike could be evaded and confronted by certain means, it could not be dodged.

*BANG!!!*

It gave off a loud and deafening sound as it was released and flew right at Arya.

Everyone who Hal had contracted and or marked could feel it and knew that they had a hand in that powerful strike that could very well put an end to the Plebeian Master and it brought a smile to most of their faces.

Arya attempted to evade but the strike followed her no matter the direction she took.

{Network of Souls} was a one-track attack that zones in on the target and does not stop until it makes contact.

Arya stopped running, gritted her teeth, cast more spells and protected herself with shields formed from Pentagrams before the strike hit and exploded.

*Boooommmmmm!!!!*

The Explosion was immense and very deafening. The wind pressure it caused blew back so many and a lot of those on the ground had to have a footing to keep from being blown away.

Soon, only a slowly dissipating cloud of Dark and Red mist was left and those on the ground could not help but jubilate.

Only a scant few did not.

Emily did not, because she could still sense something with her cultivation while the others who did not have her powerful cultivation base did not celebrate because they saw Hal was still alert.

Sure enough,

The cloud of mist cleared up and Arya was kneeling on her board and those with sharp senses could see she was very injured.

She had multiple fractures and she was bleeding externally as well as internally.

She was spitting mouthfuls of Blood and looked like she was close to drawing her final breath, but she was still very much alive.

Arya looked at Hal with rage, glanced at the still-floating Pentagram in the sky and decided it would take too long to absorb.

Luckily, she had one more source of nourishment that she could use.

That strike from Hal had been very dangerous and it took all that she had to survive but she had and now she could counterattack.

After all, it was clear that Hal could only use that attack once and now that it had not been able to kill her, he had nothing.

Arya stretched her hand and summoned an Aurora that vanished into Tretch Forest in seconds.

It returned just as fast surrounding a humanoid Bear with bright red eyes.

A beast Scarface recognized as the Tretch King.

"It's time" Arya croaked and siphoned all of what Borus had to offer in its entirety.

She absorbed it until the beast no longer had a cultivation base and she tossed its body to the ground but Hal had Sassy catch him before he touched the ground.

Had Borus landed directly from that height, with no cultivation to protect itself, a loss which was accompanied with the loss of his physical prowess, it would have died instantly even after surviving the absorption.

Arya did not see all this as she savored all she absorbed and refined it with incredible swiftness.

All of her injuries healed and her skin returned to perfect condition at which point she stood straight on top of her board to finally deliver the final strike and end Hal's life but she could not help but pause when she noticed Hal was smiling.

"What are you smiling at?" She sneered and let the pressure of her cultivation base explode to show that she was now at the Mid Stage of the Cosmic Pagoda Realm.

Also, a Pagoda appeared behind her, or at least a Cosmic construct of one and unlike Emily's which had one floor for being at the Early stage, Arya's had two floors.

Emily groaned and clenched her fists as this made Arya the undisputed most powerful on the scene and it upset her immensely until she noticed Hal was still smiling.

"Why won't I smile? I got you to finally absorb Borus' essence. It calls for celebration"

Arya hated that smile on his devilish face and roared,

"What the heck do you mean?" While also condensing a Cosmic Aurora whose strength was bound to be reinforced by her Pagoda.

Hal flew closer to her and from his body was released an Authority, not pressure but Authority.

The Authority to command all Demons and all Devils and strike fear into the heart of all those who were not.

He released a sliver of the Authority of the Primeval Devil Bloodline.

Just feeling that Authority alone almost caused Arya to grovel but as she was stronger than Hal she could resist it and stand her ground.

*Crackle*

*Rumble*

Now there were sparks of lightning streaking in the sky but Hal kept his cool.

Arya smirked and made to attack when Hal said,

"Kneel"

*Thud*

And she knelt on top of the tendril Board. Her eyes were widened from shock,

"W-w-what is this?" She struggled to ask.

"Authority" Hal answered simply.

"You can't force your will on me. I am way out of your realm of influence" she said.

"True" Hal answered simply once again.

Because this was a mere sliver and the only amount of authority he could command, for now, it should have only affected those a whole realm ahead of him.

Which meant that with his late-stage Cosmic Armament Realm cultivation, he should have only been able to affect up to the Late stage of the Cosmic Phenomenon Realm and maybe the Peak stage as well.

However, Arya was two realms stronger than that.

"So how?" Arya asked as she expected his realm of influence to end in the Cosmic Armament Realm or Maybe the Early stage of the Cosmic Phenomenon Realm.

This was insane.

So Hal explained,

"You're right that you are out of my Realm of influence, however, all I have done from the very start was just to have you absorb Borus' Essence which would be my ticket into commanding you.

Assuming you had absorbed Borus' cultivation into the Pentagram, I would have allowed you to refine it but you kept it as a failsafe because you like being extra careful.

But you see, I planted a failsafe of my own inside Borus' essence and as long as his essence is in your system, you have a part of my mark inside you as well and as you have part of my Mark inside you, you have come under my Realm of influence.

My transformation was never going to be useful against you in the long run as you are much too powerful so it was to distract you and make you think this was me giving it my all.

The only thing I needed to do was strike you with {Network of Souls} and I did not need the transformation to do that.

The strike was to weaken you and then make you seek out your failsafe and finally bring this to a close."

Actually, Hal would still have needed to transform into the Mid-World Devil form so he could make use of the Primeval Devil Authority but she did not need to know that.

Arya choked,

"Our battle?..."

"Completely unnecessary. I wanted to draw things out a bit, to make sure you did not suspect I had tampered with your failsafe. Also, since you ARE a fan of Theatrics. It gladdened me to entertain you for a while"