The dazzling scarlet light surrounding Helial was slowly contracting towards him as the lightning began to narrow the range of their explosions. It seemed that the two types of Mana were increasingly attracted to Cesar's young disciple.

Aure looked at the King of Orma and cursed: "Since when have you had such a disciple?!"

A new feeling crept into the heart of the Immortal, a bitter sadness that was impossible to ignore. This was what he felt every time he thought about Comodo and his cowardly behavior.

If only his son had had half the heroism of the Human in front of him, Aure could have died in peace, knowing he had done a good job as a father. But reality was not so merciful: Comodo had left Orma to escape the danger of war, but more than a year had passed and he had not yet returned home.

Though in his heart he hoped otherwise, the Leader of the Sect of Worthy feared that his son had turned his back on him. Since Comodo had been received by the Human who was plotting this whole conspiracy, Aure had not heard from his son.

Cesar had remained silent, watching in fear what Helial was doing.

Fear, that's right.

Because the Revenant had a terrified expression and its hands shielding its face, while the terrifying energy that surrounded Helial had penetrated its rotten flesh for several centimetres, to the point of removing part of its skin; but, until a few moments before, Helial had been clearly about to die.

Cesar, King of the Goblins, the strongest Immortal in Orma, had never encountered such pure and terrifying power.

…

Inside Helial's soul

Alexander looked at the screen suspended in the void with an angry expression.

"The Undead are still the scum of the forces of Destruction," he said, with a hint of contempt in his voice. It was no wonder, then, that the Revenant had been so easily damaged.

Iblis nodded, watching the fight closely.

…

The air resonated around Helial, while the light and the lighting become more and more dim, until the figure of the Human who had been covered by all that Mana was visible again.

A bleeding bare chest rose and fell quickly. The blast of energy had ripped through Helial's clothes and the boy was left shirtless. Only the trousers had somehow survived, preventing, in a very convenient way, the entry of a hero in commando.

The earth around him trembled, like air, like emptiness. It all seemed to resonate with the enormous power his body now contained.

The light that had enveloped him a short time ago had condensed around his arms.

With his head bowed downwards, until then Helial had seen only a pool of blood, his own blood, which impregnated the sand of the Colosseum. But now was not the time to look down. Helial lifted his head, panting, and looked the Revenant in the eyes, which swayed out of their sockets in what appeared to be a startled and terrified expression.

The skin of the Prince of Darkness had been torn open by Lightning and the living, bloody flesh showed off in many places. If the Revenant seemed like an utter abomination, a monstrously frightening creature, then Helial had just transformed into the God of Death.

Exactly as had happened earlier for Lumia, the attention of all warriors and spectators was now on him. The two brothers always found a way to amaze anyone who knew them, thanks to their absurd fighting skills.

Frankenstein also remained catatonic for several seconds.

Helial had always been very reserved about his Skills and not even Lumia knew exactly the effect of every technique his brother used. Apart from Iblis, the only one who knew all of Helial's abilities and how they worked was precisely that renowned mad Goblin, whom Helial respected for his knowledge and whom he trusted blindly.

Yet even Frankenstein couldn't hold back a certain surprise. He had stopped on the spot, open-mouthed, speechless Helial was using Runic Condensation.

Runic Condensation allowed Helial to use Runes on his own body.

Each Rune dramatically increased the density of Mana within his Meridians. Obviously, this meant subjecting the Meridians to a much greater amount of stress than they were used to. And only with sufficiently powerful Meridians the user could survive without literally exploding.

Given the incredible violence the Skill exerted on the body, Helial had only used Runic Condensation on his fingers. In this way he had limited the damage created inside his body. Therefore, despite possessing the Meridians of the Demon, the true potential of the Skill was dormant.

Frankenstein knew well how difficult and dangerous it was to increase the amount of Runes by just a few centimetres. He had seen directly the effects of this gamble on Helial's body and had studied that Skill with him, trying to help his leader make it more efficient.

However, what Frankenstein didn't know was that since Helial had obtained the Perfect Foundation, his body had profoundly changed. The Perfect Foundation went far beyond a simple stat boost. For some reason that Iblis was still studying and researching, the true power of that condition lay in a much stronger connection with Mana and its surroundings.

It was as if, before the Perfect Foundation, one had lived in a blanket of smoke with a blindfold. Well, there was no better way to explain it. Once the Perfect Foundations were obtained, a new world was discovered, new possibilities. The Meridians had obviously become more powerful than they were before, despite Iblis having deactivated Meridians of the Demon and the Body of the Qilin within Helial's body.

Frankenstein estimated that for every square centimetre occupied by Runic Condensation, the load on Helial's body grew almost exponentially.

So, if his eyes still worked, how was it possible to explain what was in front of him?

The Revenant looked down at Helial, who had finally emerged from the dazzling beam of light. The wounds on its body had already begun to regenerate and the fear had turned into dull anger. As an acid slime dripped from its mouth, evaporating into clouds of poisonous smoke, it observed the strange patterns that appeared on both of Helial's forearms; they reached up to the fingertips and contained strange designs.

Neither the Revenant nor the previous owner of its body knew the Runes, a now forgotten Skill, so he had no idea what he was facing. The Prince of Darkness had always relied more on his instincts than on knowledge. And now his instincts sensed a threatening Aura emanating from the Human's body and immediately the Prince of Darkness prepared to face a completely different opponent. Despite this, it was sure it could defeat him.

The Revenant assurance safety depended not on its stupidity, but on a great awareness of its own strength. In spite of his elephantine and horrifying figure, the abomination was much more intelligent than one might think.

Helial looked down at his hands and forearms as his muscles twitched in incredible spasms. The amount of mana thickening in his Meridians was so high that it wouldn't take it long to destroy his body from within. However, it seemed that Mana quality had made a significant leap forward. Helial couldn't understand how it was possible that, with normal Runic Condensation, he could use less power than with its more powerful version, but this probably depended on the purity of the Blood and Lightning Mana given to him by Scarlet Tear and Morning Lightning.

The runes on her skin were burgundy and bluish-yellow: the former gave off a soft scarlet glow, while the latter released sparks of electricity from time to time.

Skill Activated

Runes of the Blood God

Skill Activated

Runes of the Lighting God

Helial's body was visibly shaking and a thin sheen of blood was oozing from the blood vessels in the skin, because of the stress it was subjected to. The laboured breathing betrayed the difficulty necessary to maintain that state.

Squinting, Helial thanked Alexander in his heart. The King of Kings had given him a gift beyond belief.

The debt he owed Iblis was enormous, but now he had contracted an equally great one with Alexander.

The young Human felt the need to thank the King of Kings for all the power he now felt flowing through his veins.

In a flash, Helial had an idea. There would be no better way to start repaying than what had just occurred to him.

Alexander, absorbed in the vision of the conflict inside Helial's Soul, raised an eyebrow as he watched the boy place himself in a position that seemed extremely familiar to the King of Madonia...