Author's rant:

Anyway enjoy this chapter!

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Silence.

The arena fell quiet, not a single decibel of sound could be heard. I opened my eyes and saw that I was safe. I looked up and saw green dust on the floor.

I smiled but then pain came from my right cheek. I moved my right hand towards it and felt the sting. I winced and looked at my right hand. There was black dust and blood.

“Necros died just as the tip of his scythe hit you, master,” said Marduk.

My summons gathered all around me, each one unhurt because of my healing.

“The winner is Zed…” said that darkness.

And I thought I heard him say, “and here I thought I would have another plaything…”

“Necros is now yours. Just like before, choose his form and then we can begin the final fight.”

I chose Necros’ form as a helmet. It was jade and obsidian in color and it only covered my forehead to my cheeks, leaving my eyes, nose and moth open to the air. At the top, the helmet looked like it was a crown with sapphire gems attached to the tips of nine small spikes.

I wore the helmet and I heard a omninous voice say, “I am Necros, the Spirit of Hell. I am yours to command, master.”

“What can you do?”

“I control all the spirits of the dead, those that die and wander the world. I am death incarnate.”

“Is controlling the dead a Spirit magic?” I asked.

“Not necessarily. Spirit magic controls the spirits in non-living beings. Necromancy, a special affinity, controls the spirits of living beings.”

“Special affinity?”

“It is understandable that you do not know. Special affinities are irregular affinities that cannot be categorized within the known system. They are also the one affinities that can only be gained through one’s bloodline or in your case, master, by subduing one such as myself.”

“I do mean to be rude so I want to start the next fight. Presenting, the one you all have been waiting for! Witness our pride, our strength as our mightiest General–Abaddon, the Archdemon of Hell–takes the stage!” said the darkness.

The last remaining shadow shuddered at his name. His form twisted and churned as his body grew to an astonishing 100 meters tall. Fire sprang up from his right arm and lightning from his left. Ice formed on his left leg while rocks swirled on his right. Muscles rippled all over his red body clothed in scarlet red and obsidian black armor. The armor was menacing as faces of all the races of the world appeared and disappeared endlessly. His face had a war-crazed look as he smiled, showing his fangs. His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes looked pleased at the slaughter it would see. Ten horns grew from his head, each one getting longer the farther back it went. Black, menacing energy appeared all over his body every now and then, making his form even more menacing.

“Master, each element can switch spots. The ice on his left leg can switch with the fire on his right arm. Only by using the opposing magic can we even hope to injure him,” said Molx.

“Not to mention he uses Demonic energy,” said Marduk.

“Demonic energy?” I asked.

“It is different from mana that magicians use,” said Necros.

“Its of the same principle as mana, but the spells it creates are much more destructive,” said Galahad.

“He will most likely use Chaos magic the whole time,” said Molx.

I was about to ask but Fenrir said, “Demonic energy can use Chaos magic to its fullest. There is no repercussion in using it.”

“I will make sure that master knows where to hit,” said Shiade.

“Master, please use the Lord-ranked summoning spell, Adapt,” said Midgar.

“It should be the same as when master used. Release, correct?” asked Chronos.

“Yes, you are correct Chronos. Master, please do so now,” said Marduk as the darkness yelled, “Begin!”

“We’ll hold him off!” shouted Midgar as he and Shiade flew into the air. Molx and Necros, whom I had already released, jumped forward to help Midgar and Shiade. Fenrir, Marduk, Galahad, and I were left behind as I tried to cast the Adapt.

I felt the bond once more and instead of leeching it, I imagined myself becoming one with it. I thought that this would be how I should go about it because of the name of the spell. I felt my body get hotter and hotter as I heard rocks crashing on the ground, the crackle of lightning and the explosions of ice and fire. When the heat was gone and I felt myself at peace, I cast the spell Adapt.

Instantly my body felt powerful and the link between myself and my summons grew brighter and seemed to get thicker.

“Adapt is a lower version of Takeover. It does not match it in strength, but for now it is a better option,” said Marduk.

I nodded and shouted, “Let’s take care of him!”

Fenrir growled and we all headed to join the fray.

“Master, the left foot is now fire!” said Shiade through our link.

I cast Frozen Orb, a normal Water Ball filled with Wind mana, at his left leg as per Shiade’s information.

Just before the orb hit Abaddon’s left leg, fire sprouted out and he screamed. Ice spikes then hit the left leg as well and I looked to where it came from.

Necros had summoned his legion of skeleton mages and scattered them all over the arena in groups. Each group struck different body parts with the opposing elements while Necros himself sent his green energy waves at Abaddon’s torso.

Abaddon roared and the dark energy gathered all around him healing his wounds. He reared back his arms and the dark energy gathered there. He then brought his arms down towards us and released the dark energy which turned into countless fire balls.

I cast Ice Age at those fire balls, but it didn’t have any effect. We all dodged the fire balls as they fell and exploded. I had to rely on slowing down time just so that we could escape unharmed as Galahad could not block each one.

We were all scattered around the arena, running and dodging when Abaddon gathered the dark energy once more and made it rain down toward us in small amounts. Each energy amount then turned into swords bathed in flames, surrounded by ice, or coated in lightning.

Abaddon kept on raining death towards us, not giving us any time to counterattack or regroup.

He’s toying with us!, I thought.

I steadied myself on Fenrir and said in our link, “I need to do something, keep him from hitting me.”

“Yes master,” said my summons, and they all used everything they could to protect me.

Galahad made sure that I was protected by his swords and Fenrir made sure to keep on running, but the one most useful was Necros, who created shields of skeletons.The rest of them did as best as they could, but they were not as successful as the other three.

While they were doing that, I was thinking of how to recreate the result that turned the Mountain of Frost and Fire into a normal mountain.

Steeling myself for what may come, I cast Time Stop all around me. This spell caused everyone and everything except for myself to stop for as long as I want. Seeing that my mana was running out, I then cast Slow, Accelerate, Distortion Binds, Reverse, Bend, and Shift all in order.

I ran out of mana and the world moved once more and I saw that the Abaddon was feeling the effects of the spells that I used. He looked surprised at the number. He was either stupid or as war-crazed as I thought he was when he moved his arm.

This triggered the space around him to change. Cracks started appearing in the air around him and he looked at them curiously. The cracks widened and began devouring him. His whole body was being ripped apart as it was being sucked into at least ten different cracks that appeared all around him.

He screamed and he sent his demonic energy towards the cracks but no matter what he did it did not work. The cracks were dimensional and could not be repaired unless it was left alone. This is the result of using many Time and Space magic at once. The first time I saw this result, the Mountain of Fire and Frost lost all of the Fire, Water and Wind mana it had leaving only Earth mana.

Abaddon stepped forward and more cracks appeared. My summons and I went as far away as possible from him, watching him and making sure that he didn’t make any cracks in time-space near us.

He ignored the cracks as he continued attacking us, trying to take us down with him, I thought.

We retaliated by attacking from afar. Midgar breathed fire balls, Fenrir created that Black Lightning strike again. Galahad sent countless swords to rain upon him and Molx used his Cosmic Flames. Necros commanded his newly created army to attack just like us, while he himself used his green energy waves.

Soon enough, Abaddon reached his limit and he started to fall down. Right before he fell to the ground, a large rip in space formed under him and swallowed him whole.

The rip kept on swallowing even the air around it, dragging us along slowly to be swallowed up. Fortunately, the larger the rip, the faster it repairs itself, and it closed up after a few minutes.

All the cracks having been sealed on their own, the arena finally came to another silence.

“The winner, unfortunately, is Zed! Abaddon is now yours. Like before, his form is your choosing, but it can only be a weapon.”

I made Abaddon to be a long barreled black gun with red streaks to replace my prototype.

“I am now yours to command, master. My knowledge of Demonic Energy is yours to control,” said Abaddon with a gruff voice.

“Now that you defeated my generals, how about fighting my lords?” asked the darkness expectantly.

“No, no more, I need to go back,” I said resolutely as I holstered Abaddon.

“But going back is so boring! Stay here and kill more things for my enter- I mean for your growth!”

“I am going back,” I repeated.

“Alright fine,” said the darkness, “Dismiss your summons; it will cancel the Release.”

I dismounted from Fenrir. Dismounted, my summons lost their release forms and I felt that they were now a part of me.

The darkness said, “We begin.”

A bright purple light surrounded me as I looked down and when I looked back at the darkness again, I asked, “Who are you really?”

The light intensified as the darkness changed shape into a human looking figure and said, “I am your-”

I never got to hear the last words. I was suddenly back at the forest that Malakir led me to.

I looked around and saw that it was nearing morning and small rays of light were visible. The forest was quiet, and I heard a voice say, “Welcome back.”

When I looked toward the source of the voice, I saw that it was Malakir, and I said, “I’m back.”

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