The 11th God

Battle of the Factions Arc: The Thunder Assassin

The hour given to us had ended. All the three of us feel much replenished with that hour given to us. We did not waste our time though, after immediately replenishing our energies back, we did a little bit of training so that we can prepare for the all-in battle that will happen today. Although it sounds very bad, this is the best that we can do so that we can get what we strived to fight for.

In every match and battle, we always have our own goal. All three of us may have different goal, but that goal of us will meet somewhere and someday, proving that we all took the right paths and fought for the correct belief.

Diether, just like before continued reading in the book given to him by Suthain while Elio on the other side started his magic-release training. Elio’s training lets him conserve his energy while continuously releasing them, making him last more in battle.

Everytime we cast our spells, even if we have a lot of energy inside us, that energy alone cannot compensate for how quick it dissipates even if we just cast one spell. Maybe we do lack energy, but training for energy gathering is not all that there is. Elio decided to train his magic release capabilities so that he can preserve his energy while casting a lot of spells, letting him use the most out of his energy.

I, however trained through meditation. The one thing that lacks inside me is my concentration. During my battle earlier, I am not swift enough to move and run around the battlefield using my physical energy, I always have to rely on the pressure that I have to create through my magic energy. Meditation will calm both of my magic energy and physical energy. Balancing the two of them in the most proper way I can use them without relying on one side too much.

I felt my body slowly floating from when I am sitting and I did not let it bother me. In meditation, not only does it train your physical and magic energy but it also helps you focus more. I can’t let even the smallest of things disturb me in doing something that I have to focus on. In an actual battle, I can’t let a simple mistake bother me because if I lose my focus on the battle, I will become prone more to taking damage and that is one of the things that I can’t let happen anymore.

Right after everyone gathered in the map again, Dio walked towards the center while holding his gun again.

“Right after this gun fires, each faction will be teleported somewhere around that forest. You must find the other factions’ crystals and destroy them while trying to protect your own crystal too. The last faction standing will win and there will be absolutely no limitations to this final battle. Take note that lives lost will not be the responsibility of the council and so do mine. And thus shall the final battle begin.” Dio announced.

“Fighters gather your teammates.”

“The battle will begin in 3, 2 and 1.”

And Dio fired his gun.

A magic circle appeared on each of the factions’ surface. It is the symbol of teleportation magic and from what Dio had told us; we will be teleported somewhere around the forest randomly. One by one, the remaining factions got teleported inside the forest and we were teleported last.

We are currently inside the forest. All three of us became very cautious on what may come towards us. The forest is really big and so are the trees. The sizes of the stems vary which is why some views are blocked. It may be afternoon and soon evening but the sunshine still emits a very hot energy. Elio did the first move to check out everything that is near us.

“Night of Luminous Fireflies.” he casted.

The fireflies started roaming around the forest. There is a limit to the range of this spell of Elio’s but the range is enough for us to determine if we are safe in the next few minutes. We don’t know what will come at us and we cannot just stand here waiting for people to come at us. With this size of the forest, it will be almost near to impossible finding each other in just a minute, unless-

“Enemy!” Elio shouted.

I grabbed the crystal and immediately look towards where Elio senses the presence of an enemy. I hit the crystal behind us while Diether looks out for the other side.

“I don’t feel anyone behind us but there is someone coming at us.” Elio said.

“We better prepare then.” I told them.

I felt the energy coming towards us. It is quick but the presence is not as much as I thought it would be.

“Art of Lightning; Shackling Bolt!”

“Art of Silver Moonlight; Dance of the Melodious Swan!”

The sudden exchange of spells left me shaking on where I am. Diether is quick enough to understand the current situation which is why he was able to sense the incoming spell. Luckily, we were able to block the incoming attack of the enemy. We saw who the person coming at us is and we all gathered together.

“I never thought I’d be seeing you.” he said.

He is Meliorne from Divine Resonance. His fast-paced mobility is one to be feared for. Since he uses the affinity of lightning, his mobility describes him enough. In the previous matches that we have seen him fight, he is a close-ranged beau and uses lightning bolts as his weapon. Two of them are currently in each of his hands, dazzling and buzzing while he stands in front of us.

“This should be a good catch.” he mentioned.

“Don’t be confident enough.” Elio told him.

“Art of Moonlight; Gathered Purple Lining!”

Suddenly there is a rope that Elio is holding which is attached to Meliorne’s left hand.

“What are we playing? Rodeo?” he said as he laugh.

He stanced himself and looked at us. He gathered pressure in front of him and placed them toward his feet which are now engulfed with lightning. In a few seconds, he kicked the floor and flies towards us with his head coming first. His whole body is engulfed with summon lightning bolts and it seems like he wants to charge at us with his body wrapped in lightning.

I should do something.

Before I could even cast a spell, Elio immediately faced his palms towards where Meliorne is flying.

“Shine!” Elio shouted.

“Art of Silver Moonlight; Holy Showering!”

Our current platform started shining and I can feel the pressure of energy coming right towards us. The energy doesn’t seem to deal damage on us, instead the light feels so warm that it feels like it is replenishing all our lost strengths and energy.

Meliorne is stunned in his position while covering his face with his left hand where he still holds a piece of his lightning bolt.

“Al.” Elio told me.

I realize that this is my turn to attack him now.

“Edgelights!” I called.

I swiftly run towards him and dwelled my swords on the side, spurting out a huge pressure from where I both wield my edgelights and swinging at towards him. At a certain point I reached near him, he immediately sensed me.

“Art of Lightning; Flash Step!” he casted.

In a blink he immediately teleported some meters away from us, protecting himself from getting slashed by my swords.

“Art of Illusion; Concealing Truth!” I casted out loud.

He did not expect that he will be teleported right back to where he was before but I did not hesitate after bringing him back. I immediately smashed the back of my edgelight in his stomach. The pressure applied from the back of my edgelight doubled as I insert the energy I have gathered before swinging my edgelight in his stomach. He flew a few studs far from us and ended up having one knee down while the other supports his body.

“That hurts.” he said.

“But not enough.” he continued.

He stands up again and focused on gathering the energy around him. The sparkling aura around him increases as he focuses more into gathering his energy. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and looked at us.

“Art of Lightning; Raging Thunder-“

“Dark Phoenix; Devouring Shadow.”

Meliorne did not finish casting his spell, he was interrupted by another person. I sensed the energy from afar and took notice that the person uses darkness affinity.

“That’s Lary.” Elio said.

“I think we should get out of here before this gets worse.” Diether told us.

“Let me.” I told them.

I immediately casted my altered reality spell to transfer us to another place. We were teleported to the same place I teleported yesterday and I used my illusion affinity to show the visual of the current map.

“This is…” Diether said in confusion.

“A place where reality is changed.” I told them.

“What do you mean?” Elio asked me.

“This place is more of a reserve meaning, everything in the real world right now is moving smoothly while our real body lies in here. We are still present in the outer world  through memories but our physical selves are in here where after a few seconds, the reality will change based on what had happened here.” I told them.

“So it’s like time manipulation.” Elio answered.

“Close but no. In time manipulation, you only manipulate the time frames of the real world however in this spell, we alter the reality by any means we want to.” I told them.

“That is one godly spell.” Elio said.

“I am a god after all.” I told them.

“So what should we do now?” Diether asked.

“We will be going somewhere discreet and plan out our next move.” I told them.

“Can’t we just teleport behind our enemies and destroy their crystals?” Elio asked.

“We can’t. The more we stay in this world, more energy is drained from me and not to mention everything in the real world is still happening but our physical bodies are just excluded there.” I told Elio.

“Very well, let’s find the spot now and plan our next move.” Diether agreed.

We all started walking inside the visual world I created using my affinity. We are looking for the perfect place that nobody can find us and this map is really huge. The sustainability is our priority right now; we have been attacked immediately right after we got teleported randomly inside the map so we must be more cautious this time. Without Elio’s spell, we wouldn’t have been able to sense an incoming enemy.