As soon as he entered the room, he was dazzled by a large amount of bright light that made him momentarily close his eyes. Reopening them a moment later, he found himself standing at the entrance of a vast space of emptiness. The floor was white and the walls were also coloured the same as the floors. Somehow, he got the feeling of emptiness and loneliness from just being inside this place.

“Come in. I’ve been expecting you,” said a familiar voice from across the room.

Lakshman turned in the direction of the voice and saw the Calamity Titan seated comfortably on a chair that rocked back and forth. He instantly found his enemy’s behaviour bizarre because they were here to fight while his enemy was enjoying a good time sitting around. It truly did not make any sense in Lakshman’s mind at all as he stared seriously at him.

“Have a seat,” his foe said and gestured to his left.

Lakshman raised an eyebrow in surprise and turned to find a similar looking chair stationed there for him to occupy. He paused, momentarily wondering whether it was trap to lure him into a false sense of confusion, before he turned and asked, “What’s wrong with you? I thought we’re here to fight.”

The Calamity Titan chuckled and eyed him coolly as he replied, “Yes. We are, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Why don’ you sit down and have a little bit of chat?”

“There is nothing for us to talk about other than your defeat!” Lakshman shouted, his temper starting rise, making him glare fiercely at his enemy. “Because of you, people died and even those close to me perished! I can never forgive you for that!”

“Oh? Precious people died? That’s sad indeed… Sad, but,” said the Calamity Titan in a sorrowful voice, but his face was everything but sorry, forming a twisted smile on his face while staring at him with his clenched fists, “I find it exciting to think those related to you died a horrible death! I wanted to see you in pain and finally, I can see it all over your face!”

As Lakshman glared at him fiercely, the Calamity Titan shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hey, it’s your fault for not being there when they’re about to die; not mine. However,” he suddenly made a look as if he was thinking while saying, “Yes… Now that I think about it, when was it that you ever managed to save someone dear to you? Ha?”

An evil smirk formed on his face as he said, “Yes… You’re the man who promises, but can never fulfil them. A man who says he will protect his people, but ends up hurting them instead. Yes… You’re a hypocrite, and I hate you to the most!”

“I… I tried my best…” Lakshman said, trying his hardest to sound strong.

The Calamity Titan instantly leaned forward with a menacing look on his face and asked, “How? When? Did you save your wives in the past when I destroyed them? No! Did you save the people of the Rodfox Kingdom? No! Were even able to save the very people that were close to you? Even that is a no! My goodness! With all these no’s, are you even fit to be a Phoenix Titan? Can you even call yourself a protector of the world?!”

Lakshman looked very uncomfortable for a moment before he sighed deeply and replied with an expressionless look on his face, “Look. I’m a guardian and that’s precisely why I am unable to save everyone because of the role I play in the world. Same with you, only crazy and twisted. So, enough of trying to play mind games with me and get fighting already.”

To those words, the Calamity Titan was a little taken aback at how quickly he was seen through before he restored his smile and stated, “Ah. You’ve certainly changed. The you from back then would’ve gotten so angry, you would’ve rushed at your enemy to kill them” He let out a roar of mirthless laughter before saying, “Still, I hate you; I hate you with all my might!”

Lakshman, who narrowed his eyes, decided to pose him the ultimate question that was bugging him for a long time.

“Why do you hate me so much… Chandra?”

The moment he asked that question, no, the moment he said the Calamity Titan’s name out loud, the man in himself jumped to his feet filled with rage and yelled, “Don’t you dare call me by that name!”

At that moment, the pressure in the room thickened and made the Phoenix Titan realise that his foe was really angered this time. He just could not believe that just using the name of his past younger brother’s name could invoke such rage within him and it caused him to wonder just what stemmed that hatred.

“After all that you’ve done to me, do you think you can leisurely call me by that name?!” the Calamity Titan said, glaring at him fiercely that burned with the utmost fury. “I no longer care about you, nor am I going to acknowledge you as my once older brother, Asura!”

“Why…? What have I done—?”

“Don’t play games with me and pretend you don’t remember! I got sick and tired of the numerous reincarnations and with each time I clashed against your previous life incarnations, I never got anything out of them. Instead, they never remembered me, and even you when we first met this during this lifetime, you still didn’t recognise me!”

Lakshman remained quiet, staring at his previously younger brother who had turned evil because of something that had happened in the past. He tried his level best to remember what could have caused such a friction to occur, but he could find none. All he knew was that the brother he knew before Chandra left with his wife to live outside, died when he returned as a demonic being consumed by the twisted force of destruction in his heart.

The Calamity Titan, realising he had just lost his cool and shouted at his foe, breathed a deep sigh and sat down while trying to smile as he said, “Oh… I’m not really sorry about my outburst just now, but do remind yourself to never call my name so casually because we’re not related anymore and that we’re enemies. Alright?”

Lakshman narrowed his eyes suspiciously and asked, “If we’re enemies, then fight me! I’m tired of the loses!”

To that, his foe merely smiled and aimed his hand to the side that instantly caused particles of light to start appearing there. A moment later, the particles took eight rectangular forms that started to create a strange buzzing sound before a clear moving image appeared on it. Lakshman, who had seen him performing the action, blinked in amazement at how real it looked.

Instantly recognising what magic it was, he still could not believe his foe was able to master and use it, which was why he suddenly turned to him and asked, “Vision?! How?! How did you master a god’s technique?!”

The Calamity Titan merely shrugged his shoulders and pointed a finger at the man before him and said, “I’m stronger and better than you. Now, take a seat and let us observe their battles. I really want to see you writhe in agony at seeing how helpless you are when your allies are going to meet their eventual demise! I’m going to relish it!”

The Phoenix Titan, after hearing such words, blinked twice as he felt a mix of feelings; anger and hatred both boiled inside him from remembering the people killed by the Calamity Titan killed. At the same time, feeling of family and brotherly concern rose within him and they consoled his strong negative feelings. He had no wish to kill his brother if he could help it because he still regrated killing him the first time.

Deciding to act passive for the moment, he sighed a little in resignation. He momentarily looked at the chair that was already provided, but deciding against it, he aimed his hand to his other side and summoned a different looking chair that was equally as comfortable as the other. Taking a seat on it, he finally looked at his foe and smiled confidently.

“It’s okay, Calamity Titan. You’ll soon find out that my allies are more than a match for your allies that I and Lagron defeated in the first time. I recall you were there as well.”

“Quite but I awakened them two-years-ago and their training was extensive since then, so you should be prepared to see some loses, although, for a guy who never managed to save anyone dear to him, I doubt these loses should hurt,” said the Calamity Titan, who mockingly looked upset despite the smile lurking behind his façade.

Lakshman, with his burning a little from the powerful taunt, managed to chuckle and say with a soft smile, “At least, I protected my family and the world we lived in. That in itself is a great achievement and besides, I’m no hero that can save everyone; I’m just a guardian.”

To those words, his foe chuckled with laughter before they focused their eyes on the screen as the moving images showed the other members of the Nine Pillars of Power entered a similar looking white room like them.

***

Lagron, who had entered into the tower right next to the one his rival had entered, walked into the white room with a rather surprised look on his face. The surprise, however, was only momentary before a bored look replaced it since that was how exactly he felt about the place.

“Seriously! That Calamity Titan knew how to build strong towers but doesn’t have the mind to decorate the interiors!” he commented out loud purposefully to goad his foe to come out of hiding, whom he suspected was hiding at that precise moment.

As he predicted, his foe was really hiding within the room as a loud cackling loud was heard before a man’s voice replied, “Yes indeed. I must agree, but you’re also an idiot for not planning things through by lowering your guard and make comments!”

As the man’s continued to cackle with mad laughter, Lagron somehow found the laughter annoying and retorted with a smirk, “So says the guy who’s hiding and talking casually instead of attacking me! Just goes to show you don’t have brains like me, fool!”

Once again, his tactic worked marvellously as his enemy, angered by such insulting words, roaring wildly and seemed to charge straight towards him. Lagron, of course, could not see his enemy due to the high level of concealment that his enemy had cast on himself. It also proved to be difficult to sense his whereabouts by his enemy that got masked as well, however, Lagron was a true warrior and his sharpened senses worked wonders.

He sensed his enemy charge toward shim from the far-left corner of the room and just as he was about to strike, Lagron moved his body instantly and grabbed his fist. Call it intuition, but his body, that was trained extensively, reacted naturally and grabbed the enemy’s fist that was aimed straight for his face. In that instant, as the attack got stopped and the enemy made contact against his foe, the cloaking magic deactivated and brought the man into plain view.

“Huh? Wha—?!”

“I can see you,” whispered Lagron with an arrogant smile on his face.

Moving at lightning speed, he kicked the man across the side with his leg and sent him flying into the distance. The enemy, momentarily stunned by the blow, quickly managed to recover in mid-air and broke his flight before landing on his feet. Turning around, he gazed very angry at him when, all of a sudden, his expression changed that to shock.

“Y-You!” the man shouted, a look of utter disbelief on his face. “It’s you!”

“Yeah. It’s me. If you got any problems with me, come to my face, Cloakman,” said Lagron, and he chuckled at the nickname he had given to the man.

“Shut up!” the man shouted, angered by the nickname and while pointing at his foe, he continued to shout, “You’re that bastard! The Dragon Emperor!” He placed a hand on his chest as an indication of himself while shouting, “It’s me, dammit! Keizer! I fought you and the Phoenix Titan before I got defeated!”

Lagorn blinked at him for a moment before replying, “Uh? I did? Mmm…” He pretended to think for a moment before shaking his head and saying, “Nope. Can’t remember you since I defeat so many people in my life, it’s hard to remember their faces or the count.”

The truth was that Lagron does remember who Keizer was, he even recognised him the moment the cloaking wore off. Still, deciding to not care and play mind games with his enemy, the Dragon Titan strategized to act like he does not remember.

Getting very angry and not realising he was being tricked, Keizer shouted, “I remember you though! You’re the bastard that kicked me around and defeated me without lifting a finger!”

This time, Lagron burst into a fit of laughter that enraged Keizer further and eventually said, “Ah…! That does sound like me! The guilty as charged! Haha.”

As he continued to laugh, Keizer’s face twisted immensely before he began to roar like a wild animal. Energy and power both surged out of him as he was consumed by a deep violet coloured aura that surrounded him. It was clear just from seeing his Elemental Glow that he had no shred of light within his heart, which led him on the path of destruction.

Now, his anger reaching the peak point, lightning began to erupt from all sides. It was intense as the lightning, along with the wild blowing wind and shock waves, were sent to all sides. Lagron remained stationed there, wearing a smug smile while he watched his enemy powering up. A moment later, however, his expression changed to that of shock as the powers of his enemy far exceeded his expectations.

“What the hell?!” Lagron exclaimed sharply.

He was soon having to hold himself firmly against the increasingly powerful wind and the shock waves that shook the room as if a hurricane had hit it. The surging power was intense and he had to close his eyes as his enemy was going through a transformation that he never imagined would happen, not even in his wildest dreams.

It all settled down almost a minute later with the wind slowly settling down and the room stopping to remain motionless once more. Lagron removed the arms he was using to cover his face and stared ahead to find his enemy in a form that was truly unbelievable.

The man seemed to have lost his shirt as his muscly upper body was revealed and there were whit glowing lines running all over him that seemed to come together on his forehead and reach the bottom of his feet as his bottom half was covered by a long sturdy pant he wore. In addition to that, lightning began randomly bursting all around him in a frenzy. Even his eyes had become completely white as the man gritted his teeth while clenching his fists tightly in rage.

“Nice to meet you, Deagon Titan! I’m Mad Lightning Dragon, Keizer!” the man said, finally introducing himself in a deeper voice than before that resonated with strength and power.

His introduction alarmed Lagron, who quickly asked, “Dragon?! You’re from the Dragon Clan as well?!”

The man nodded and said, “That’s right. I was abandoned by my family and escaped with my life when the clan attempted to terminate me!” He glared fiercely at Lagron and said, “I was part of the faction that your brother belonged to!”

As if that explained everything about his enemy, Lagron could only gape in horror as he slowly said, “No way… I thought the faction died… I was certain we eliminated the lot of you, including my brother that dared to plot against me!”

“I survived after narrowing escaped the extermination! The slaughter of my people! My family! My beliefs! I threw them all away and lived!” Keizer roared and with his white blowing eyes, he glared furiously at Lagron, who could only stare at him with wide eyes. “I lived for the day when I could kill you lot and now, I will make my dream into reality! UUUUURRRRRAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!”

Roaring like a wild dragon, he surged with incredible power while radiating deep violent aura that surrounded him as lightning rampaged all around him. The next moment, he kicked off the ground and charged towards Lagron with his bulky body that looked as if a giant monster was hunting down its prey with a vicious intent.

As the enemy soared towards him at an unprecedented speed, all Lagron could think of saying was, “Crap!”