[Back to Mordred]
"Do we stand a chance?"
I asked Alisax, without taking my eyes off Naberiax.
Her answer was brutally honest, with no hesitation. "No. We don't."
Her distorted voice was calm, which didn't reassure me at all.
"We are facing the strongest daemon created by the Darkling. Not to mention, he is a Fallen Malakh as well."
"Well. Thanks for the vote of confidence," I muttered.
High above us, reality was tearing itself apart.
Twin storms of ardor churned in the heavens, one radiant and luminous while the other wild and black.
They collided and recoiled in violent pulses, the air and ardor screaming wildly fluctuating as the storms brushed each other.
The crimson sky was shattering, with cracks of light splintering it while darkness spread across its vast expanse like a malignant pestilence.
However, the white sun burned brighter, repelling the incoming darkness, making it retreat with an unnatural and horrifying hiss that echoed in my ears.
The black palace of the Demon Queen trembled all around us, spires fracturing, and stone peeling away under the immense presence of the two absolute beings.
The only reason we weren't swept into this catastrophic anomaly was the massive, translucent dome sealing the central courtyard.
Courtesy of Phoebe. She deployed the powerful barrier right before her confrontation with Lilith.
It hummed softly, gently vibrating with contained divinity.
Trying my best to ignore the possibly awesome battle about to take place in the skies, I focused on my own.
Naberiax stood there, unmoving, as if waiting for us to make the first move.
Well then, let's humor him.
Exhaling, I leaned forward with my sword held before me. "Let's hold out for ten minutes."
Streaming ardor through my blade and enveloping it with blood, I entered my Triquetra state.
Blood surged through my body like a continuous electric shock, invigorating and sharpening my body.
Ardor seeped over my skin like cold armor, enhancing my body.
The world slowed down as my senses and my mind sharpened like a scalpel.
My thoughts sharpened, and so did my perception.
Naberiax didn't move; he didn't blur in my new enhanced perception.
He was still, focused, not even a twitch that betrayed his cold resolve.
I even activated my stigma, keeping an eye out for Naberiax's every single movement.
Immediately, a massive headache threatened to break me out of Triquetra, but I endured.
As I moved, my surroundings warped around me, rushing past me as I crossed the distance in a heartbeat.
I swung my blade upwards, a killing swing aimed at his torso.
Naberiax, moving quickly despite my enhanced perception, simply leaned back, avoiding my blade by a wide margin.
It was as if he leaned away from a mere inconvenience.
A missed attack.
I was frustrated. Even after reaching S rank, I still can't lay a strike on him.
This missed attack would've been fatal.
That is… if I were alone.
Frigid shadows coiled around me like flames as Alisax appeared above me.
Her black longsword plunged downward, right into Naberiax's eyes.
A shockwave rattled my bones as the daemon High Commander effortlessly parried the attack, knocking Alisax off the air.
In that same motion, he turned his wrist and swung downward.
Right in my face.
I leaned back hard, and the black blade missed by an inch, the displaced air slicing my cheek.
My eyes met Naberiax's glowing purple gaze for a second.
And in that second, I realized his next intentions, where and how he would strike.
"Shit!" I swore, summoning multiple Blood Grenades between us.
Multiple crimson explosions detonated between us, blowing me away from him just in time to see him shred the air in the place where I was a moment ago.
I landed on my feet, skidding back.
Naberiax clicked his tongue as if he were disappointed with me.
What the fuck?
This asshole was disappointed that my head didn't split into two!
Alisax reengaged in the battle, going all out on Naberiax.
She moved with surgical precision, each strike aimed at his weak spots.
Naberiax parried every single one of them. He wasted no time or movement.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to find a gap to enter.
I put aside my sword and took out my scythe, its crimson blade wreathed in Bloodfire.
Just as I was about to make a move, everything lit up white.
My eyes burned as I instinctively looked up.
What I saw…
Was something a mortal wasn't supposed to witness.
The white sun was gone.
Instead, two comets tore through the fractured sky.
One of pure white brilliance and the other a core of pure darkness, streaked with purple flames.
The surrounding sky cracked like glass, fractures radiating outward as if reality itself were splintering under the strain.
Phoebe and Lilith.
They were fighting.
Every time they clashed, the impact didn't explode.
It simply unmade.
Space folded inward around the clashes, compressing into violent knots before snapping outward.
As I watched, numerous towering pillars of crimson smoke erupted out of the black comet, letting out a cacophony of unholy wails that were all too familiar.
Wraiths. More specifically, their spirit forms.
The wailing crimson smoke pillars converged on Phoebe, coming at her like a crimson, unholy tide.
However, as soon as they touched the light emanating from the goddess, the wraiths dissolved into red dust with painful screams.
They weren't just destroyed.
They were erased.
Lilith didn't let up and continued her assault, her laughter echoing all around.
Every time she attacked, and Phoebe blocked, the space around the clash warped, cracking the sky like glass and releasing a massive ardor shockwave.
The immense amount of ardor released smashed against the protective dome, causing it to pulse violently.
Reality seemed to hesitate, as if it couldn't decide which action to register.
And for a moment, I saw the world rewind.
The crimson pillars snapped back into place, reforming and retracting for an infinitesimal moment before collapsing again, as if time itself was rewinding with each clash.
My heart hammered in my chest.
Causality was failing.
My eyes widened as a beam of light tore through the vast expanse and smashed into Lilith with cold precision, knocking her out of the sky.
She fell from the sky, a black star plummeting towards one of the towering spires of the palace.
As I watched, I noticed the spire flicker.
For a heartbeat, it looked shattered, its pieces suspended in the air, frozen.
It flickered again, and the spire was whole again.
That was until Lilith went through it.
And that was a truly bizarre sight.
She simply phased through it, as if she were a mirage.
However, a second later, the spire exploded, as if it were a delayed impact.
And debris didn't fall or blow away into the sky; it remained suspended in mid-destruction, frozen in a moment that hadn't decided whether it should continue its course through time or not.
Just like the momentary flicker I saw.
I blinked, disbelief coursing through my body.
Did… Time just broke?
I felt a presence approaching me. It was Alisax.
"Space and time are destabilizing," Her voice snapped me from my shocked daze, and I saw Naberiax's blade coming straight for my face.
Alisax immediately grabbed me by the collar and yanked me away from certain death.
"Their battle in the sky is tearing the very fabric of reality!" Alisax explained as she blocked a sword strike with a grunt.
I leaped on top of her and swung my scythe downward in a wide arc, which Naberiax swiftly blocked.
Alisax's words repeated in my head as I rushed forward with a flurry of swift, graceful attacks with the scythe, Bloodfire spilling off every strike.
So this is a battle between gods.
Leaning back, I barely avoided a decapitating slash, and I saw Lilith back in the sky.
She spread out her arms, and countless black vortices tore open behind her. From them emerged writhing, clawed appendages of inky darkness.
They shot towards Phoebe at blinding speed, accompanied by the wailing crimson columns of wraiths, the sky screaming under the immense strain and power.
However, before I could see Phoebe's countermeasures, Naberiax struck.
I was forced to block a horizontal slash that came for my neck.
The black edge of his blade struck the shaft of my scythe with bone-rattling force. The purple runes along the sword's blade glowed brightly, and I felt the blade dig into the tough material of the shaft as if it were flesh.
Grunting, I shifted my grip and dragged the blade along the length of the shaft, sparks screaming as a long sliver was shaved clean off.
That was too close for comfort!
Alisax appeared at my flank and jabbed forward.
The shadows emanating from her body solidified and took the form of numerous blades that went straight for Naberiax.
The High Commander was forced to step back, but he effortlessly deflected the blades away from him.
Gritting my teeth, I summoned and fired multiple Vortex Bloodlances covered in Bloodfire.
Naberiax deftly avoided them, each sailing past him with an inch to spare.
I smirked. Oh, no way I am letting you go this easily.
The Bloodlances abruptly twisted midair and went straight for the daemon. He noticed them and moved, only for them to follow his every movement.
He quickly twisted his sword and slashed the fiery lances from the air.
That's when Alisax appeared beside him. She had switched her sword for twin curved daggers that glinted in her hands, their serrated edges aimed straight for his heart.
But Naberiax was quicker. He slashed the last Blood lance and let the momentum carry his blade forward in the continuous sword path, straight toward Alisax.
She was too close to execute an evasion.
And so I moved.
Accelerating my blood towards my feet, I dashed forward, coming right behind the High Commander.
Everything around me slowed down as Transcendence showed me a glimpse of this monster's sword paths.
I slashed my scythe downwards. The thin, curved blade moved between the two daemons. It intercepted Naberiax's blade in a clash of sparks.
But there was a cost.
The shaft and blade shattered under the immense power of the sword strike, fragments exploding outward like shrapnel.
However, it was enough for Alisax. She took advantage of the extended time and leaped back.
White fiery agony tore through me as the shock of blocking the attack traveled through my arms, spine, and skull, almost tearing my body.
I almost collapsed to my knees, but I held on, gritting my teeth so hard that I tasted blood.
Using Haema for a quick heal, I stabilized myself.
A shadow fell over me, and I saw Naberiax's sword descend on my head, its unforgiving edge slicing the air apart.
Immediately, I pushed Transcendence to its absolute limit, something I had done only once, when facing the spirit of Isaac Zierhart.
Transcendence: Absolute Nirvana.
The world around me came to a stop while Naberiax's blade slowed to a crawl.
My head felt like it was splitting open.
I have observed enough.
I reached inside and grabbed hold of something that was never meant to belong to me.
Naberiax's skills that he perfected over the course of several millennia.
Taking a deep breath, I took out my sword, and my whole body exploded in agony.
Copying and executing the skills of Naberiax, an X-ranked being, will incur massive consequences for my body.
My body wasn't built for these monstrous talents and skills.
It knew its limits.
The best I would be able to manage is one minute.
Beyond that, I will destroy my body beyond repair.
Exhaling, I willed Naberiax's skills into my body, his every movement overwriting my own.
This is going to be the longest one minute of my life.
The world resumed, and the pain hit me like a tsunami.
Sparks and flames flew between us as I deftly blocked his strike, the impact tearing through my arms and setting my nerves on fire.
Naberiax's eyes narrowed as our gazes met for a moment.
He immediately understood.
An imitation.
But my eyes shifted to the sky.
And I saw it.
Black blood streaked down Lilith's face from a wound on her cheek.
It was a huge cut on her cheek, not fatal, but the sight of her black blood flowing down her face was enough for me.
The insane daemon who plunged her Agony Thorn into me all those years ago… was bleeding.
Her expression was calm, but even down on the ground, I sensed it.
She was shaken.
For the first time since I had known her, Lilith was shaken.
My lips curled into a smile despite the immense pain.
Phoebe's voice echoed in my head, soft and mechanical.
"Nine minutes have passed. One minute remains."