On the top of a hill in the 75th Plateau, Pronos snacked on random Wilden with a few of his heads at full size while spectating the battle ongoing in the distance.

A streak of aura with the same color as the sea clashed against a midnight-colored one. With each blow, a momentary apparition of a large winged werebeast and a giant shark manifested.

“[Blade of Rupture,]” Rakna’s eyes flashed and he swung at Cura. The dimension-breaking art shot out in the shape of a crescent but was immediately broken off into two parts as Gulon ate the middle half. The rest struck the ground and sectioned the concrete into countless boulders.

‘So, he can eat even that, huh?’ The werewolf thought.

“[Unity Craft,]” Cura intoned and teal water was invoked in his free hand. It spiraled into the shape of a spiky sphere and began to release a strange and unseen aura of power. “[Tide Force.]”

Rakna’s instincts promptly took over and with widened eyes, he wrapped himself in his wings and channeled their powers to defend himself right as the shark man crushed the sphere with his grip.

A muffled detonation echoed across the Plateau, and the sounds of ocean waves raged before being cut off right in the middle as if striking a wall. A shockwave stronger than anything Rakna ever felt before smashed into his wings.

❮ ◈ ❯

You have learned a new Sub-Technique Trait; Quantic Cage.

❮ ◈ ❯

A Royal Luquila’s Wings could separate their owner from the space-time dimension and drastically reduce all forms of external influences. Yet, it easily pierced through and sent the werewolf flying toward the ground.

The activation of the Quantic Cage essentially transformed him into a living cannonball with more aerodynamics than most projectiles. The impact alone was reminiscent of a meteorite.

‘Okay…’ Rakna groaned internally, re-opening his wings and snapping his shoulder back into place whilst letting his Alkahestic body heal the rest. He mentally reallocated his attributes and released a burst of Neverwinter Aura that was then quickly reeled back inside by his Nephilim skills.

The debris all around him combusted and exploded away from him. The werewolf looked up with his eyes radiating a golden cross. ‘That was a combination of magic and a Nirvana Skill… And both are rare types. Hadal Sea; a compound magic element that combines water with the pressure found at the deepest levels of the ocean. And his Nirvana is ‘Force Vector’...”

“{Incredible,}” Fray exclaimed. “{The theoretically limitless weight and density of his spell is quite a cruelly efficient ability already. But his Nirvana Skill is also exclusively geared toward controlling the vectors of physical force, thus amplifying and controlling it beyond even those limits.}”

‘No wonder I could hardly defend against it,’ Rakna mused. ‘There’s no physical medium. The collision is somewhat inexistent and the shock spreads whilst ignoring defenses to a certain degree.’

As he thought that, he sensed another eruption of raw momentum and the next thing he saw was the sharp scales of King Gulon going right for his head. He counteracted by whirling his Guandao and deflecting the living weapon mid-spin with an application of Ghost of Rupture.

Rakna had learned from Arimane the potential his Internal Art had to redirect the strength of his opponent. Without redistributing his attributes to Strength, Cura surpassed him by at least several hundred points, so he had no choice but to focus on evasion. Truth be told, he probably was one of the very few Hosts capable of enduring such a disparity in attributes.

Ripples traversed the air from where the weapons collided, the white scales scraping against the blade of Sonata before they were pushed away from each other. At the same time, Gulon could be heard laughing and Cura raised his fist, which Rakna mirrored.

“[Hadal’s Hammer.]”

“[Fist of Rupture.]”

The punches struck and the dimension-breaking noises of the Rupture were rapidly lessened by a wave of water and a crushing pressure.

Rakna grunted, his Dusk Mane glowing faintly. ‘How stifling. This really feels worse than gravity; it’s like I’m drowning. Even Roias’ ‘magic’ wasn’t this unsettling,’ he thought and separated himself from Cura with a burst of Intent. He flapped his wings and teleported backward.

King Gulon growled sullenly afterward and the werewolf snorted.

“Well, sorry about that,” he uttered and pointed his Guandao at them. “Let’s just say I’m dressing the table for you,” he smiled and spread his wings wide open. The feathers all began to glow silver individually.

“[Quantic Plumes,]” he intoned and the feathers imbued with the power of space and time shot out toward Cura, but they were not aimed at him. Instead, like a bombardment, they filled the area in the blink of an eye and stopped in place as if frozen in time.

The shark man raised an eyebrow at one of the closest to him and then widened his eyes when he saw a small rune etched on its surface. Before he could do anything, Rakna spoke up.

“[Great Rune Array – Kuvāṇṭik Ciṟai.]” The runes on every feather flared up, and purple flames connected them all into an intricate web. Immediately, Cura felt the grasp of space and time weigh on him, holding him in place.

Gulon quickly opened his mouth and began sucking in both the flames and the distortions of space as if it was a regular snack.

“Hah, as expected,” Rakna snickered as the feathers began to shake and move out of place. He lifted both hands and pointed his palms forward, letting Sonata float next to him. On his left, soul flames appeared and, on his right, a constellation shone into view.

“[Wolfen Lord,]” he first activated his title skill and the purple flames divided themselves into two different clusters. They rapidly transformed into beasts with scales and wings of legendary nature that none could fail to recognize.

Furthermore, each of them arose with opposite types of Star Energy. An Everfrost Dragon as well as a Neverwinter Dragon roared to life right then and there. Cura’s eyes widened slightly and both creatures started charging breaths without wasting a second.

“[Star Monarch,]” Rakna continued and the constellation rang into existence. “[Draco.]” A ghost-like apparition of a giant black dragon transiently joined the other two and dissolved into particles of light that merged with and reinforced the two summoned beasts.

The effects were instantaneous and the two dragons’ aura grew stronger in the blink of an eye and their breaths began to release heat and cold beyond what could be imagined.

Finally, Rakna aimed his index finger at Cura and King Gulon. A granulated orb spiraled at the tip and shards of obsidian began to spin around a core of flames.

“[Slātta Natcattira Raja,]” he intoned and fired the spell at the same time as his dragons’ breaths.

All three attacks converged toward the wielder and weapon pair. Right before they hit their target, however, Rakna caught a glimpse of King Gulon’s lips twisting into a smirk. The combined might of all his three stars subsequently detonated the dimensional cage and its surroundings.

He used both Space Leap and Rift Shuttle to avoid his own spell and watched it from a distance as a mushroom cloud the shape of a six-pointed star glittered all three colors, crowned with a halo of sorts made out of volcanic shards.

The Plateau quaked due to the explosion and the shockwave alone toppled down a few mountains nearby, collapsing them into a pile of gravel and rocks.

The golden crosses in Rakna’s eyes shone strongly and soon enough, the smoke was blown away by a peculiar pressure. The dragons emerged from the aftermath with both their necks chewed off by a pair of summoned sharks.

Cura himself was standing in the same place he was before, unscathed and with some kind of red barrier surrounding him that seemed somewhat electrified.

“[Positive Field,]” the shark man whispered and the barrier blinked from red to blue. It promptly changed shapes and flattened into a polyhedron.

Then, Cura raised Gulon who wore a satisfied grin, and pointed him at Rakna. The tendrils dangling from the scales of the weapon flared up with all kinds of energies at once and King Gulon’s mouth opened, a mass of energy pooling in the back of his throat.

“[Superior Pharos,]” Cura uttered and the Gulon spat out a concentrated wave of power, evidently mixed with several kinds of Star Energy. The blue field surrounding the shark man was transferred to the attack at the same time and Rakna narrowed his eyes.

He maximized his movement by using Enthymio and Space Leap together, but it was for naught as the attack literally curved to chase him. The werewolf frowned and fired some of his feathers to create a defensive array right in front of it.

But, to his surprise, the wave didn’t try to break through but instead bounced off and circumvented it altogether. “Well, I’ll be damned. What about this then?” He muttered and allowed it to catch up to him.

It happened almost instantaneously but with Eye of Symphony, it was easy to time it perfectly, and when Rakna felt it start to sear his fur, his wings flickered and his figure fizzled out. Yet, the attack properly struck and a burst of countless energies created a storm in the air.

However, none of that mattered to Cura already since King Gulon was categoric; it hadn’t hit. Time had been displaced right before it could.

“[Mark of Vindication,]” a chant echoed from all directions, and with a surge of sinister mana, the spell was invoked. An emblem carrying the Sin of Wrath appeared above Cura’s head like a curse, as if designing him a target.

Gulon’s body immediately stretched to eat it but before he could do so, a greatsword blazing with purple flames swung from behind and deterred the voracious creature.

“Can’t let you eat that quite yet,” Rakna’s voice sounded and Cura immediately pulled on the handle of his weapon. The blue barrier flickered back to life and he swung at the werewolf whilst applying his Nirvana Skill to his movements.

The werewolf countered with an upward swing, attempting to deflect Gulon, but despite that, the scaled weapon did not change course, and the blue field swathing it briefly glowed.

‘I see,’ Rakna thought to himself before leaning back to dodge Gulon. He maintained the momentum and flipped his body, simultaneously using his tails as limbs to shoot five Star Flares.

The five arcs of Star Energy were swallowed by King Gulon in the blink of an eye and Rakna used that moment to activate one of his newest skills. “[Invert All Creation, Anastrofa,]” he chanted and a certain zone was established with him as the epicenter.

He gritted his teeth at the intensity of the dimensional force assailing his body and the area became somewhat dimmer, as if light was weaker all of a sudden. King Gulon growled warningly and Cura became wary.

“[Negative Field,]” he uttered and the blue barrier reverted to red.

At the same time, Rakna teleported face to face with him and swung his fist crackling with all the energies he had at disposition. “[Fist of Rupture,]” he struck forward and the ultimate blow of his Internal Art collided with the barrier.

Or at least, it would have if his fist hadn’t stopped centimeters away from it. Rakna’s arm trembled as he tried to push forward even a bit more, but eventually, his punch was completely halted and the power infused into it shattered.

“Magnetism… or a concept similar to it,” the werewolf grinned. “Let’s see how much it takes to get through, shall we?” He jested and filled the blade of Sonata with mana. The greatsword turned into a one-handed sword and shapeless power flowed along the edge.

“[10 000 Nights of Severance,]” Rakna triggered the perk and swung at the negative field.

Cura mirrored the attack and tried to counter with King Gulon, but at the moment of the swing, he stiffened in shock when he saw his arm angled somewhere he never intended to.

Rakna cackled and in the end, Sonata slashed the field and opened a thin breach. Before it had the time to repair itself, he reared his left arm once again and rekindled his Internal Art. However, he added two layers to it.

The Dusk Mane around his neck became agitated like orange flames and the Mark of Vindication above Cura flashed red. “[Fist of Rupture,]” he reiterated and punched forward with more than half of his attributes put into Strength.

It slowed down briefly when brushing against the red field, but quickly overpowered it and broke a hole into it, accelerating back to normal right after. Cura hastily lifted Gulon in front of him to act as a shield and when the fist landed, the Wrath Spell showed its true colors.

The Mark dissolved into Rakna’s arm and the attack value of the Fist of Rupture doubled. Coupled with the momentum hoarded in the Dusk Mane, a blow several times stronger than normal struck the shark man.

The dimensions shattered like glass and the energies carried by the fist exploded outward, hurling Cura toward the ground in the distance at breakneck speeds. The force behind the attack was such that he failed to regain control until he crashed.

The shark man dug a trench with his body until he forced his body to move and plunge King Gulon into the stone to break the impetus. It took a few seconds for him to stop completely and with one knee down, he spat a mouthful of blood.

“…as expected,” Cura mumbled and unearthed King Gulon. The creature seemed to be chuckling as if the attack had done nothing but amuse him. “Hey, Gul, this is pretty nice, huh?” The shark asked calmly and a huff was the reply.

He then stood up and a stream of transparent energy and water coiled around him like an aura. He gazed at the werewolf hovering in the sky with his four wings spread out and an uncharacteristic grin split the shark man’s stoic expression.

“Very nice…” He whispered and lowered his body slightly. Then, with a resounding boom, he took off with strength that trampled the Plateau’s surface even worse than his fall had. Another clash occurred up above and countless Wilden cowered away from the lethal winds caused by it.

This battle lasted until the evening after enough land to house many countries had been ruined.