The demon was shot through the sky, landing inside a small lake in the middle of the forest. It tried to get up, but before he could do anything else, four trees shot through the water, pinning his limbs to the bottom of the lake, drowning him.
The demon's flames, subdued by the lake's water, were starting to increase in intensity. The water's top started to hiss and boil, enveloping the surroundings in thick steam.
The Dark Angel launched himself at the demon through the steam, but right then, a tree flew towards him, throwing him far back. Looking at the lake, the water started to grow in the center, before it burst towards the sky, leaving the lake a dry pit.
The Dark Angel landed casually on the ground in a field, looking towards the lake. Through the steam, a bright red light started to be seen, before a flaming blast dispersed it, shooting towards him.
The Dark Angel leaned to the side calmly, narrowly avoiding the blast. As the mist dissipated, the Demon of Hatred's figure started to be seen, shooting the blast from its mouth. The demon's eyes locked back on the human, following his movements and turning his head towards him, trying to catch him in the blast.
The burst destroyed everything it touched, cleaning trees and land off the scenery. The demon was opening and closing its mouth, blasts erupting from it time and time again, turning his head constantly towards the Dark Angel.
Thinking he finally caught his opponent off-guard, the demon sent one last burst, seeing no way from his opponent to dodge this one.
"Vulnus" The Dark Angel made a slash with his arm, perpendicular to the ground. Right before the fire enveloped his body, the blast was cut through the middle, along with the demon's body.
As the demon's two halves started to slide off one another, the hands on its right side gripped the left side, leaning back and throwing it towards the Dark Angel. The half that threw it fell on the ground, catching the Dark Angel's attention.
"You really are an interesting thing, aren't you?" Ili's master spoke excitedly, dodging backwards as the thrown half regenerated back into the demon's full form right as it got above him, hitting with its legs towards the ground in aims to crush him.
The Dark Angel's eyes widened further in excitement as he was caught in the air, with the demon opening its mouth once again. He was caught straight into the blast, sending him back into the city, through the walls.
The Demon of Hatred places its lower arms together, forming a hand sign. All around the field and inside the city, large bursts of flames start to erupt from the ground. A massive blast fired inside the city, taking up the place where the Dark Angel fell and all its surroundings. The demon looked in that direction, trying to sense his opponent's mana, but his eyes narrowed as he didn't find anything.
"Nice attack!"
The demon turned instantly around, raising his arms to pummel the Dark Angel into the ground. But no matter how many times he tried, how many times he regenerated his limbs, they would all perish before they could touch him. He continued the relentless attack, but it was all futile.
The demon's heat started to grow stronger, incinerating the ground into a dark mess, but unable to harm the Dark Angel in the slightest.
The human jumped backwards, dodging a final attempt to grab him.
"Don't you get bored doing the same thing over and over again?" he asked, placing his hands together. The demon opened its mouth, preparing another blast. "Seems not."
He crossed his fingers and closed them, making the demon's body instantly vanish yet again.
Regenerated fully, the demon appeared above him, hitting the ground with its legs. The Dark Angel dodged the ground kick with ease, making another wave of his arm that cut half of his body, but as always, it was regenerated the next moment.
More and more flames were starting to erupt from the ground, getting stronger each time. The heat started to grow substantially, as trees started burning even outside of the range of the flames. The demon's body was entirely covered by raging fires, making it hard to see where he actually was. Through the flames, a punch appeared from below. The Dark Angel crossed his arms in front of his body, blocking the hit, but still sending him flying high up in the air.
Looking towards the ground, the flames didn't seem to grow chaotically, but were instead forming patterns, circles of flames surrounding the demon at large distances.
"Just what are you trying to do..."
Another blast shot towards him from above, pummeling him into the ground inside the city.
The Dark Angel casually stood up in the small crater, brushing the dust off his clothes. Looking out through the broken walls of the city, he saw him...
"Ignis, hatero ophres" the Demon of Hatred stood on the ground, in the middle of the flaming circles, chanting words. His upper and lower hands were moving against each other, forming slow hand-signs.
"This..."
"Necros ortego, fuga..." The demon's hands stopped into fixed signs. The sky turned completely dark, and all sounds were abolished. The Dark Angel looked up at the demon, smiling.
"It seems I have underestimated you…"
All lights die out around the demon. Sounds of doors shutting down start to engulf the air. With each closing, areas in front and behind the demon start to lose their lights, the only lit up places remaining being a straight line in between, spanning forty meters to the left and right of the demon. It was as if a corridor was enveloping the space, growing longer every iteration.
The Demon of Hatred's mouth opened again, a dark and deep, primal voice sounding from inside.
"Divine Painting: Furnace"
The corridor instantly grew indefinitely in length, blocking all views of the outside. However, the inside was perfectly illuminated, as if nothing had happened...
From the outside, looking at the phenomenon could only be described as two parallel lines, one meter in width and eighty meters apart, cutting the ground for an unending length.
As the "corridor" stopped growing, the inside of the "Furnace" lost all sounds, an engulfing silence taking everything, as if underwater.
All the trees and other wooden items from inside disappeared in an instant. The ground was black, scorched beyond recognition. Every living being inside perished instantly, their flesh and bones burned into nothingness before they even realized what was happening. The houses and stone inside started to crumble.
A flock of birds flew from the outside, perishing the instant they touched the invisible barrier enclosing the Furnace. The inside of the Furnace was completely flameless, not even small signs of heat being visible. The lines surrounding the Furnace seemed boundless, both in length and height, however, far above the clouds, the sky was painted by a line of massive flames, along all the surface of the Furnace. Not even clouds were able to pass through the invisible line, vanishing the moment they touched the barrier.
From the hill, everyone remained frozen, looking at the scenery.
"How is this possible?"
"There's no way..."
Zephyr looked at the scene, his body petrified as everyone's, eyes unblinking.
"Is this the power of a god..?"
The stones of the houses were crumbling and exploding. Every piece of stone inside was turning red, and from red to white, as the temperature inside the Furnace increased. The city was nothing more but aimless structures of molten stone, slowly perishing.
Unlike the rest of the Furnace, massive flames were engulfing the Dark Angel's body. The flames were starting to stutter, before growing far stronger...
The flames were constantly struggling to keep their intensity, seeming to die out more and more. Finally, dark flames started to engulf the red ones, burning the very flames, eating them. The dark flames started to die down as well, covering the shape of a person...
In the center of the flames, with his hands spread wide, leaning from side to side, as if enjoying the breeze... A laugh was heard, echoing through the air.
"You really are something else, hahaha!"
The dark flame almost died down completely as well, revealing the Dark Angel's unharmed body, without a scratch on it. He slowly closed his arms, moving his hands towards each other. The rocks all around him were melting further under the impossible heat inside the furnace, but the Dark Angel seemed completely unaffected by any of it...
He raised two fingers from a hand, wrapping three from his other around them. His index and middle finger raised towards the sky, and the three left from the first arm wrapping around his wrist. The dark flames died down completely...
"Divine Painting: Arbor"
The ground beneath the Demon of Hatred started to shake. In an instant, thousands of stone hands shot from the ground, wrapping around the demon's body. Hands continued to grow, rising the demon's body in the air, covering it completely. Millions of dark hands grew from beneath each other, wrapping around the demon's body, growing towards the sky in the shape of a tree.
The Demon of Hatred struggles, trying to rip the arms apart, but nothing it was doing seemed to have any effect. His body was constantly wrapped between thousands and thousands of layers of indestructible hands, rising further and further up in the sky.
Flames and blasts could be seen being fired from the top of the ever growing structure, barely breaking through before being instantly covered by thousands of more hands.
The structure continued to grow, both in width and height. It soon touched the invisible walls of the furnace, making them all shatter like glass, forcefully breaking through the Furnace.
At the top of the structure, where the Demon of Hatred's body was situated, hands were ever growing outwards and around, forming the crown of a tree. The flames stopped coming out, as well as the blasts, the Demon of Hatred's presence was erased, completely engulfed by the millions of hands.
As if the Furnace wasn't enough… The people were standing petrified, watching as the dark arbor grew from nothingness.
The Arbor broke through the clouds, finally stopping its growth. The tree stood tall, making Björn's old tower look like a grain of sand... Nothing, nowhere around, was even coming close to the Arbor's size...
The Dark Angel changed his hand sign, before raising a hand towards the Arbor.
"Seal"
In an instant, the Arbor disappeared, a small, dark statue appearing in his hand, in the exact shape of the tree. A dark sphere appeared around the statue, before it vanished.