The Legend of the Verisi Eyes [Job/Solo]

Job, lel

“Another one who claims to be worthy of the Verisi family. You could join the rest!” The blackened man declared with a hint of disapproval in his tone. This was the guardian that many had talked about, and it seems not a single one could defeat him. Elyx wanted to settle that score, mainly to get more strength within his DNA for Shadelle when he made that visit. One way or anything, he was power-hungry. Perhaps that was just selfish of him, but that was the truth. And who had the power to tell him what was right or what was wrong? Naturally, there was still some form of moral in him, and he was not contracting to the darkness more than he needed to. The dark guilds were going to be slaughtered if they cross his path wrongly. He must not forget where he came from though, a neutral standpoint, he needed to at least show mercy and give everyone a chance. As for this guardian right here, he seemed to think of the brunette like a pushover, like “the rest”. That was his mistake, especially with his newfound power.
 
The body of the man would teleport behind him with an arm extended with a balled fiery fist aimed towards his head. With instincts so sharp, Elyx would reach his left hand to grab the further part of the arm, then grabbing the wrist with his right hand. The same fashion as a Judo fighter would do it, he slammed the arm over his back to launch the man down onto the ground. Unfortunately, it seemed he underestimated the weight of the arm, and stopping the momentum took his full strength so that he could even lift the man off of the ground. Still however, he managed to fling him over his body, but that was all before letting go to launch the blackened man into the air.
 
“A Lerale does not die so easily, I suggest you give me a good battle for me to remember before I take those eyes.” He told the man, glaring upwards with purple eyes filled with ambition, his lust for the eyes showing as time quickly passed by. The blackened man smirked as he flipped back upright, crushing his right palm of his to cast forth another spell. Seems like he wanted to play more with magic now, Elyx was going to have to keep up.
 
“I like the way you step, continue to dance for me then, puppet!” And so the dance of black and red begins. Around Elyx was a circle, but no star fortunately. The circle brought a heavy weight onto his body as it proceeded to increase gravity around him at a rapid rate. The man in the meantime landed once again before charging forward towards him, this time not using teleportation before he aimed a punch to the stomach. Successful the punch was, it connected to the soft stomach of the Lerale, making him jolt upwards a bit to allow a combo to carry out. With his other hand, the man would raise his other fist by the side of his head, lunging in forward with black flames bursting from the knuckles as they connected to the airborne body of Elyx.
 
The impact being mighty, he was launched against the volcanic rock of the volcano, digging himself meters into it before being pinned by the imprint of the rock. Despite the pain of the impact, it was quickly healed by his restorative nature of his magic. It didn’t take him too long for him to have his blood loss quickly be replaced.
 
So sure of his victory, the man quickly placed his right palm onto the ground to open the Chaotic Elemental gate, forcing a barrage of minimalistic spears of all forms of dark elements open up, seemingly small, but attached to them would be a not-so-subtle explosion for each. The result would be death, it was nearly impossible to survive such a thing. But a challenger for the eyes should have no problem with being able to survive such a barrage, right? Elyx made no resistance to avoid the barrage, just taking the hits with a smirk on his face. When the first bullet connected to his eye, the explosion triggered, followed up with thousands of them doing the same thing.
 
The volcano was split into two, lava gushing from the inside out onto the island and causing mass chaos around the area. No village was around fortunately, but that mattered little, a small bonus perhaps. Any trace of Elyx? None as of currently, the dead body of the man battered on the ground, blood gushing from his lifeless body. Of course, that is if Heaven’s Keep were not active, his weaponless weapon, the four swords that made him impossible to touch until defeated.
 
“It’s my turn to strike.” The real Elyx declared from seemingly nowhere, but reappearing a good 500 meters away from the man. The opponent tilted his head, but then slammed his right fist into his metallic left claw, a massive gust of wind flying out in a circle around his body. “All right, mortal. You have my attention, hit me with your best shot. YA!” The man ordered, kicking the lifeless body of the hollow version of the Lerale towards him.
 
Now to start this dance off, he was going to have to shift some time a little bit. Placing his palm forward, he would target the lifeless Elyx body and proceed to place it in a chamber of time to recuperate. As for attacking, he would summon a barrage of spears around the body of the man in a circle, eight of them, just to provoke into the real attack.
 
Instead however, the blackened man just shoved his right palm to the side to send the spears all towards the side, directing them as if he controlled them. Projectiles were futile unless he overpowered the man’s attacks, noted. But that was not a problem, he just needed to learn how much magic attack power he has. Before given the chance to even scan, a sudden giant spirit would form behind the man’s back, not even a hand motion to warn Elyx of how a spell being casted. Yes, this was truly a man with strength, when he could break the basic rules of magic to do whatever he liked.
 
As for the spirit, it was hard to describe. It looked starry, like a constellation, but it let out a dark aura that could strike through light like nothing. Damn, it felt like fighting a fallen deity slayer. Whatever it was, it was siding with the man. It’s properties were dark, not chaos, so light could shun it should there be enough. Bringing the sun closer to the earth was not a good idea for the world, despite how tempting it was to just end the corrupt systems. Besides, there were plenty of mages to oppose him, it was bad enough that the Verisi family was against him.
 
Such chaotic thoughts, he never recalled being able to think such things. Time passed on, but he was his own person, he was not going to have a shackle bind him. Still, he cared about the people in Fiore, he was not going to throw them under the bus so that he could obtain a new form of power. To increase light, he needed to lure it from the Verisi, but that was impossible. Maybe he could outmatch it with the help of his Celestials. Yes, Virgo was going to help him out here!
 
Flicking the golden key from the pouch that he had yet to use for a long time, he would let the tip of the item bask in white light before swinging it to the side, opening the gate of the maiden. Blinding light swarmed the ruined island as the celestial world opened up, and finally, the maiden would reveal herself to the world prepared to fight for Elyx. To even up the numbers, they were now ready!
 
“Is it punishment time, master?” Virgo bluntly asked, holding a whip behind her back to Elyx.
 
“Not the time, Virgo!” The embarrassed Lerale exclaimed, his eyes wide open. She just HAD to say something that special.
 
“Just… Punish that spirit…” Elyx ordered, slamming his left palm against his face as he thought of all the other keys he had to obtain. Ones that at LEAST let him keep some credibility. Virgo’s eyes lit up at the word “Punish”, and the whip within her hands would shatter into pieces of light, as if that unholy item were angelic.
 
“You... Aren’t as interesting as I thought.” The blackened man would mutter towards Elyx about the whip.
 
“And you are as good as dead!” With that anger fueling him, a darkened Aura was produced from his body, Shima fueling the aura to strike more intimidation. Next up comes the Fear Aura, that was triggered now thanks to this being taken far more seriously. With the body of the clone in time now recovered, it would act as a second version of him running around and doing its own thing. But it was unfortunately brought back next to the blackened man, so it took a good hard punch to the face before shattering to pieces.
 
Virgo extended the length of her chain whips to be up to 30 meters long as of currently, this just to make sure that she can fight with the chains while she tries to use its effect. To strike intimidation into the hearts of the spirit and the man, she slammed the chain down with a mighty crack against the ground, making the island shake a small amount before rushing forward towards them both.
 
The spirit was ready, opening both of its giant arms before attempting to slam both hands closed onto the celestial spirit. Elyx interrupted this by placing out his left palm, forcing the arms to stay in a time loop for the moment so that they are unable to move further, those the sheer strength of the summon was massive, and holding it back from crushing Virgo served to be a difficult task. But the one second used to stall was just enough to let her through before she tried to lock the blackened man into an uppercut. The spirit didn’t let her have that so easily as it fortified a shield around its master, blocking the lashing that the celestial maiden could have inflicted.
 
The Verisi placed his palm out right in front of Virgo, a good 10 meters that was too easy for him to cover without her even blinking, and fired a trail of fire. Elyx teleported in between the impact to take the flames for himself, taking the brunt of the assault while the flames went around the celestial spirit. Clenching his teeth, he would take the burns before the attack stopped, but followed by a sudden earth sphere launched at both of them. The giant elemental attack was blocked by Elyx as he held up his arms, but his body was pushed back into Virgo’s due to the momentum, and the both of them were sliding back far thanks to this. Unable to see from the other side, they didn’t notice the blackened man lunging forward and sending a mighty punch to the core of the sphere, causing it to shatter and explode right in front of Elyx, making him fall back and take stacking damage.
 
“Your body heals fast, I just have to continue with the burst damage!” The man explained, showing that he knew exactly what the Lerale relied on for the fight, raising a flame-filled right fist. Virgo, while she took some brunt, still was active. She made this fact known as she launched her chain around the arm of the man, locking his abilities and his lineage both in one. Perfect! The fallen Elyx in the meantime stood back up onto his feet while the Verisi was bound, and so his body began to heal again. Knowing the spirit was still around to make life a pain in the ass, he made sure to be quick about this.
 
Punching was not so much his style, he preferred to kick. With as much force as he could apply on his leg, he would swing his leg towards the neck of the bound Verisi… And for once, the attack connected and slammed the man onto the ground. The binding chains were broken for the moment due to the sheer force applied to them, which they just couldn’t hold onto. The man fell, now was his chance!
 
Elyx quickly hopped before placing his boot against the throat of the Verisi to pin him down, using as much force as he could on the throat. The physical body of the man must be hard, as humans did require their throat, so to take a human body while they were not used to that fact was hindering. Ignorance was weakness. Next, he would place both of his palms out towards the man and held a sphere of darkness in them. It didn’t need to charge long in this fight, about a second should do, and then a beam of dark matter would slam itself into the body of the enemy and cause the island to split from the force. The magic was digging through the earth at a rapid rate, eventually hitting the core of the earth…
 
And that was when the true attack occurred. At this point, the world would explode into a mass chaos, but Elyx redirected that chaos to move through the hole he created, the core of the earth blasting through the hole. The light to illuminate through the island swept through the scene and launched the piece of land into the air. A whole island… Launched into the air like nothing, the power of the earth should not be tapped. With all of that strength, there was no way that the Verisi man survived. Elyx was unaffected as it was his own magic mixed with the core, though Virgo and the spirit was unable to say the same thing.
 
Once the attack finished, the light began to clear out and the brunette began to see again, and he noticed a gaping hole in the island that he stood on, the volcano in pieces and the lava flowing now steaming up, taking the rock away from it. The magic presence of the man was no longer there, and perhaps the same could be said for the syringe.
 
The island was in the air, most likely going to be that way for a while before it hit the atmosphere, but he did not put TOO much magic into the attack. Chances are it will not break through the atmosphere anytime soon and drop down… Creating a few tsunamis near the area. That was going to be hard to take care of, but he could reverse matter to make sure that they calmed down with enough time.
 
But before given the chance to even proceed to do that, a sudden sense of magic slipped onto his radar from behind.
 
“You fight dirty, I LIKE THAT!” The man cried out before punching towards the head of the brunette.
 
Instinctively, Elyx flick one of the two Rugers in his pockets and lifted it up, hitting the massive palm of the man. The impact of the melee attack was enough to send the both of them sliding, but his legs were able to prevent them from moving further. His purple eyes were raised in shock, there was no way a being could survive such a devastating attack. It sent the whole ISLAND flying, damn it! Yet not only was the man here, but he looked to have nothing more than a few burn marks on his body, those quickly fading away.
 
What the… That’s not supposed to be! Shima thought, the exact words that the brunette himself had. The durability is something that the brunette could only dream of having. Still however, his offense was still a factor.
 
Turning his body around, he would aim a right hook to the head of the man, who neatly ducked under the attack by moving his head down and towards the left side. A neat dodge followed by an attempted uppercut to the stomach with his normal fist. Elyx blocked the attack with his right knee, raising it to block before trying to unbend the leg swiftly to aim a kick to the chin. With reflexes so quick, the man moved his head back to narrowly yet gracefully dodge the attack with a smirk on his face.
 
With his leg raised, he did half of the work. The brunette tried to slam the foot down onto the skull with his heel. The Verisi gripped the ankle of the brunette, enough force to stop it before using his free regular arm to punch towards the stomach of the seemingly-stopped Elyx in attempt to send him flying. However, the brunette avoided the attack by using his standing leg to jump over the fist, then press it against the face of the Verisi.
 
Still stalemate, the man moved his head back to prevent the attack connection. He took advantage of the fact that Elyx had no ground support and lunge the man over his head and let go of the ankle to send him flying. The brunette’s body was flipping over from the force of the attack before connecting to a sudden magic brick wall summoned by the man.
 
The Verisi was swiftly teleporting over to the brunette as well, prepared to continue to work he did. His head began to hurt from the impact, but the Lerale would push himself from the surface of the wall so he had a little bit of space to work with. They were both now floating on air while the island was dropping on its own into the ocean, how lovely.
 
To start the dance off, the Verisi would aim another punch at the stomach. In response, the Lerale flipped his body backwards and aimed a heel kick onto the skull of the man. Of course, the man reacted the same way and gripped the ankle. But this trap worked in favor of the brunette as he would use his other leg to slam into the face of the man, not only freeing Elyx, but phasing the man as well. While this was the case, Elyx lunged forward swiftly before punching the man’s soft stomach a few times with hooks, slowing moving his way up before hitting the chin upwards.
 
The Verisi aimed a punch toward Elyx to get some space, only to bat at dead air as the head of the brunette would move to the side. The brunette would grip the exposed arm before using his leg on the opposing side of the arm for a high kick to the man’s side. When it connected, the man would be startled a small amount as his body was forced to move to the side. With the gripped arm, the brunette would move along with this created body momentum to spin the Verisi around once. He then let the deadweight go upwards to send him far away.
 
 
“Enough with your stupid games. Give me the syringe before I kick this up a notch.” He threatened with a snarl. They’ve done enough damage to the world already, a sunken island was plenty. Unfortunately, the threat seemed to fall on deaf ears.
 
“Look at you acting all big and bad. Not many get this far. But don’t think you’re so SPECIAL!” The man replied, the fight seemingly only beginning. This battle was moving forward, and only for worse if they sunk an island and didn’t even hold back.
 
From a far distance, the man would launch a few thousand flaming crows towards Elyx in all directions around him, giving him barely any time for him to reacting. Breathing in one time, the brunette would mentally prepare himself as he would proceed to make only one rapier from his matter-make ability. With this done, he slashed towards the incoming crows, cutting a line through them as a wave of magic was launched at them. Perfect, seems like he still can create whatever he liked.
 
The barrage of crows proceeded to move towards him, screeching rather loudly in the process to try to throw off his game. However, he kept his focus locked on their movements rather than their noise. His arm moving at a rapid pace, be began to block the bodies of the animals one by one, forcing them to drop into the ocean at the same pace that they arrived in. The circle of crows slowly began to shrink as his blurring arm moved in a swift sphere to prevent even the smallest feathers from touching his body. Their momentum was like that of a regular summon, just the impact would knock them into their place.
 
When the small sphere of crows tightened to the point where he could finish them, he would proceed to slice through the remaining hundred or two and send them all into the ocean. All of the crows in the water would dissolve into the air with some black smoke leaving them. This took around five seconds to clear out the mess, that was plenty of time for the Verisi to act. Damn… What could one do in such a massive amount of time, there had to be some sort of plan.
 
Elyx looked towards the direction he launched the man towards, but nothing was there. Raising his arms to the side, he would fly through the air with his chest facing downwards. Now he was on the hunt for the man to make sure that he was not doing anything else. As more time flew by however, the more chaotic an attack there was going to be. And he would rather not destroy another area, especially if there was people in the area that the Verisi was in.
 
Eventually, Elyx would find the man on another island, though a lot of cannons were located right next to him. A massive barrage, perhaps more than the rune knights were able to supply themselves with. This was literally him against the Rune Knights artillery, or rather, something with the equivalent of their power. His rapier was not going to last long against whatever would spew out from their pipes, he was going to have to take a magical approach to these bastards.
 
One cannon fired, followed by multiple. To prevent the barrage from landing, he formed a massive shield in front of him with Shima’s making ability, only for the shield to be blown through upon impact and the beam knocking his body back a small amount. He was rolling in the form of a wheel but the beam caused more knockback instead of damage. To prevent any further beams from hitting him, he swiftly triggered the time pocket to send him into an alternate dimension for a small amount before returning with the barrage not so close. Seems he was going to have to retaliate.
 
With the king’s control spell of his, he could surely deflect all the attacks back onto the island. If he could at least reach the ground, he could make this fair game. Raising his right palm into the air, a sphere of yellow light would emit from the center. Magic coated his body in a similar color before the shots taken to him would seemingly hit him. To the naked eye, it looked like he was taking the beam, but the inside would reveal that the blinding light shots were narrowly avoiding him and moving around him. His own magic prevented him from taking the hits and redirected them elsewhere.
 
Now to send them back, Elyx placed this same palm he had held up forward to stop the barrage and return them back towards the Verisi. This took a while to do as this was just an S ranked spell compared to the barrage, but it was eventually enough to turn the tides. All the beams shot towards him would reverse and attack the blackened opponent, who glared at the same attacks coming back. Perhaps not so used to having his attacks being used against him, as if he was facing off against himself.
 
The Lerale looked down at the island in the open clean sky, not a single beam or bullet being sent his way. His arms crossed, body stood up straight, he watched below to see if the Verisi was going to survive.
 
“Ha, If.” He thought to himself. The attack used to finish off his opponents barely did a scratch on this man, as if those beams were going to do anything. Taking an attack to the center of the earth and having the blast only do a few scratches, no previous opponent survived such a brutal attack. As a bonus, Elyx was holding him down by the throat with his foot, and the head would have been beheaded in a normal battle.
 
The Verisi placed his fists together, causing a small little burst to come out from them before galloping forward. His right arm was held back before shooting a hook through the first beam, the left fist following to take down the second nearly a quarter a second later. Considering the speed and strength of those attacks, that should not be possible. But his melee damage was insanely high, as the brunette experienced firsthand to the stomach. Hell, he still felt a small stomachache from that impact. This pattern repeated until the beams dissolved into the air and became nothing but particles. The ground below him broke in the proceed as there was much force being applied to his legs, and eventually, the island itself. It began to split below the man in the middle of his defensive barrage and eventually couldn’t hold up the weight.
 
A pothole it could perhaps be called, though the damage was done towards both the rock center of the earth and the surface. And just because that broke didn’t mean the beams stopped themselves. The cannons dissolved as the rest of the onslaught pushed through into the hole formed where the Verisi fell. With no ground support to help him, he took the barrage with little defense.
 
“ARGH!” The Verisi would scream as his flesh was beginning to burn through. The sounds of the beams couldn’t silence the man as his own attack was the one that… Finished him. Whatever they were made from, they were not meant to be used in Fiore, Elyx was going to make sure of that when his day comes. He took one, and it didn’t hurt too much. It knocked him back, but the effect felt more like a car running him over, rather than a massive ray of chaos.
 
Eventually, the screaming was silenced as the barrage ended, all the impacts clearly taking a toll on him. Elyx glided down towards the island, the pothole specifically. Just in case however, he made a rapier in his left hand, and kept the spell active in his right, the dominant hand needed for him to use them.
 
Despite the blows that he took, a metallic hand pressed itself against the ledge of the pothole, the man climbing. The scratches on his body was far more in count than the attack that the Lerale caused that triggered the center of the earth. This being was beyond the attacks of the most devastating force in the world, yet not its own attacks. A weakness to take note of should their battle somehow continue. Elyx himself didn’t have too many wounds on him, though he can proudly say that this is perhaps the strongest mage in existence, if one could even title the Verisi a mage. Still however, no matter how strong they were, he was going to take what he needs to gain the strength to find out what happens to Shadelle. Elyx was the judge of law while he had the power he did, and he was going to fight to keep that gavel.
 
The man continued to climb out from the crater, blood pouring out from his body, yet he moved as is he took a super scope to the balls instead, which didn’t sound as stringing as those wounds were. The Verisi then stood up with his head hanging down, clearly battered. For one of infinite life, his physical body didn’t seem to hold up too well. If this was a borrowed body, that probably made the most sense.
 
The right first aimed to strike the brunette, though with about as much grace as a Lerale trying to play a game of soccer. Elyx moved his head back swiftly, leaving his nose and a pair of bloody knuckles only a centimeter apart from contact. The second attempt to strike was just as sloppy, a sudden left uppercut with the massive fist. As swift as a hiccup, he leaped to the side quickly, raising his arm with the rapier and slicing it down into the center of the arm, cutting it off and causing a bigger mass of bleeding.
 
“You… YOU!” The man exclaimed as Elyx walked forward a small amount, raising his right foot upwards and slamming it against the stomach of the opponent, knocking him onto his back. Before he could retaliate, that same foot was pressed hard against the chest to pin his opponent down.
 
 
“How much longer do you want to play this game? May I have the syringe now?” The Lerale asked, placing the rapier in his hand towards the nose of the blackened. The instant the swift arm stopped, a wave of wind would emit in a circle, causing a wave on the beach to move towards the other direction.
 
However, the glaring man would instead smirk at the last second, his tone suddenly normal. “Should have known much better!” He exclaimed as he then disappeared from below him, teleporting. Turning behind him, he would notice five beings behind him, all of them having their own forms of body, and the dead body of the man in front of him before them. They looked down at the man, hanging their heads down to him, but not attacking him with the element of surprise.
 
“If you think you can fool me with that illusion, I suggest you turn the other WAY!” The Reiaki would declare as he slammed the rapier onto the ground, sending a rippling shockwave through the ground to send them all deep into the ground. Through all of the lifted sand, he didn’t see them, and would assume they just felt through the ripple like he planned. They were going to bite the dust now, as he would close the ripple made in the island to crush their bodies and perhaps paralyze them all.
 
When the island crushed itself back together, he felt a pair of slender arms hold him a nelson from behind. A child, but her grip was strong enough to hold him in place. With his wrist, he would slam the side of the blade against her skull. It was not enough to phase her too much, but it at least forced her to let go of him. When she did, he would spin his body around to slice to the side in an attempt to slit her throat. The damn illusions were just stalling for time, even if the body of the Verisi was trapped.
 
But before the blade could reach her throat, a man would grip his wrist from the side, despite him not appearing to be there when he spun around. Chaotic illusions all over the damn place, but he could not get past them. Their magic power was too high for him, so they became a reality for him. The man tried to yank Elyx to the side while the girl tried to aim a high kick towards his chin. The brunette blocked the attempt with his own high kick to match hers, and thankfully, his strength was higher than hers, so he did it without so much effort. Instead of letting it go however, he would aim his kick further towards the man to hit his chin.
 
Yet with a forceful push, another sudden figure appeared to sabotage his combo and forced the brunette to stumble, hastily swinging his rapier to the side to get them from the side as well. They neatly hopped back a small amount to avoid the blade without problem, then lunged forward at him to inflict some damage. It was all mental, right!? Elyx believed that it was an illusion, yet it felt so real. In an attempt to jump back, he would end up having his ankle caught by the fallen man so he couldn’t move, but would instead fall.
 
Damn it! Desperately, he would aim spheres of light magic from his palm towards them, only for them to ignore the damage like nothing before the punch would strike him down into the ground. His back pummeled through the sand and rock, painfully drilling through it until it reached the damaged core of the earth. It was not broken, but his existence being there could change that very quickly. However, the fact that he was even there in the first place could help turn things around for him. With the power of the core, he could rival anything fueled by it. The sun mages were fueled by the sun, perhaps Elyx could have own army to fight for him.
 
As his body hit the plasma of the core, he would swim through the boiling hot center to make it to the surface. It was a burning sensation, but Ignite trained him well enough to not get phased by just flames alone, plasma far less despite it being hotter.
 
“Shima? Think you can get those fueled by the core over here!?” The Lerale would ask as he looked up through the hole that he fell through, seeing that they were on hot pursuit.
 
“Hell yeah! Gimme time though, this is going to take a while to bring them all here. First, we’re going to have to cause some chaos in order to get this done. Stall!” The spirit answered, giving herself a physical form as she dove into the plasma. Whatever she was going, Elyx was going to entrust his life with her, and hopefully he can have his own army soon enough. In the meantime, obey her order and stall for time.
 
As they approached, he shot beams of lights towards them from the hole. They brushed off the beams like nothing, only being slowed down. In order for him to stop them, he was going to have to destroy some of the earth’s stability to he had more space. Well, it was either that or nothing. But before given the chance to do so, Shima accidently triggered the center of the core with whatever she did, causing a sudden burst of plasma to shoot all over the place, increasing the burns he had on his body.
 
“What the hell!? I thought you had that under control!” Elyx exclaimed over his shoulder, pushing his palms out to form many forms of slow and freeze attacks onto the bodies. They were all moving through the earth like nothing was holding them, though their pace was slightly decreasing. Still thought, it was going to take some time before he would be on time, they were going to murder him at this rate.
 
“Shut up! I said that there was going to be chaos! It’s your dumbass who didn’t believe me!” Shima exclaimed back at him, snarling in the middle of the plasma as she continued to randomly hit it. Her plan was as dumb as Elyx should have expected, but he had to go along with it now, as there was no time to do anything else anymore.
 
“GOT IT!” The spirit would yell proudly. A few moments later, many beasts and humans would appear at the core of the earth with them, none of them seemingly affected by the intense heat or the fact that this would rip open the average human like fruit.
 
“Yo Shima, what the hell am I doing here? I got some kids now, ya know.” One of the animals would tell, a tiger it seemed. Animals with such powers, at this point, the brunette had no reason to be surprised. As for the topic of being with one, that’s one he perhaps should keep in mind when he spoke with these people. If there was a battle he was going to fight on his own, it was this one. The bet to force him to stay was not going to hold up, he swears it will not happen.
 
“Blizzy! YEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Come on! There are some kids trying to kill my puppet! Can you all take them out for me pleeeeeeeease!?” The spirit would ask them with a sing-song tone.
 
“H-HURRY!” Elyx added, pushing as much magic from his body as he possibly could, though the mana pool was beginning to run out. The enemies were about a minute away, their fall being supported more by his magic as they were beginning to grow used to it, and they even had the audacity to absorb it as well. The beasts and spirits were all moving through the plasma, looking at the enemies, then they looked back to Shima.
 
“We better be even for this!” One of the human mages would tell her, and they pushed past him in a barrage and knocked Elyx down into the plasma, though it felt better than the overheating pool of mana burning. With a smile on his face, he felt a lot safer than he did when he had to fight them. They were like five different versions of the Verisi man he had to fight, and that was just too much for him to handle. With that in his mind, he was going to have to deal with the ones who were down if he was going to rest here for a bit. But this was a perfect time for him to analyze his strategy and see if he could adjust his plans.
 
There are five beings and he does not know a damn thing about them. Are they real or not, well, they left the body of the man in a bad position. Either he teleported or they did If they did, those illusions are actually real beings, and they were back ups. Let’s say they are real, why would they suddenly support the man who was working with the Verisi even if they don’t know a thing about him. The answer was simple, they did know who he was. They perhaps are part of the Verisi family, meaning they all were working together to protect the eyes just so he couldn’t have it. This would explain why many fall, because not many people had a person on them with so many connections to fight for him, Elyx would have been dead at this rate. Either that, or the Verisi man was just in all of them at the same time. Considering the condition that they were in the first place though, the brunette would easily be able to defeat them, as a weakened man at a fifth of his strength perhaps would have been the equivalent of an H rank. This was an illusion somehow, these theories did not make sense. But when was the man able to trigger it was the question? The chaos illusions never let a sign out, so he was unable to tell when they were cast in the first place. In order to break out of an illusion, one must know if it’s even there in the first place. Once they did that, they pinpointed when it was made, what it even is, what it affects, and then push all of the strength into the weak point of it so that he was able to get out of it. With all these factors involved in it, Elyx himself was not too sure if he could do it.
 
Still however, he was going to give it a shot. Placing his hands in his pockets, he would try to breathe in, only for the plasma to enter instead. Right, he needed to not do that. So he would place a key of his in front of him before using the start suit, allowing him to become a Celestial Spirit. Next, he would forcefully push out the plasma from the back of his throat back out into the core that he was swimming in. Perfect, now all that was left was a bit of a numbing burnt simulation within his lungs, but that could easily be handled later when he went back to the guild. There was going to be Adrelissa, who was the mistress of healing flames debuffs. Ignite was more about attacking, so she was not going to be too much of a helping hand in that situation. The blue-haired girl probably would not be laughing at him the entire time for going through this hell just for a pair of powerful eyes, not that anyone could understand that sort of thing… With the except of said girl of course.
 
After this, he didn’t breathe, yet he felt himself calming down despite burning. His eyes opened slowly, and the plasma felt more like water filled with chorine, as if he were in a local Shadellian pool back when he was a kid before the whole drowning incident. The moment of him drowning was as vivid as ever, but such a petty fear could no longer both him. Considering the fact that he was a child and had no idea what true pain was at the time, that was the sort of fear that he was forced to have at the time. But the true struggles that he went through in Shadelle were far worse than anything that anyone in the lands could understand. Should one be so powerful, they would use their strength to gain more power. That was the human way… But it applied to all beings, no one being the exception. Control, control over others or yourself, but that was what everyone wanted at the end of the day. The control for the lands between the light and the dark guilds, all fighting, and none of them scared of the water.
 
Right, the peaceful waters. Like the way he had some fun when he went out for a swim the other day with his former guild. The lady that ran in, he dare not speak of.  But the other lady who now runs it, she set up a fun little water park bash for all of them to have. It was a lot of run, him and Ignite just swimming around, though he himself did not get in the water. Hell, he did not even remember himself taking off his shirt, definitely not his jeans though. Now that petty stuff did not matter, only the memories seemed relaxing when he thought of them again. Right, he did have some friends back then, but they did not know what he was going to do. Shima was the one who knew, not a single person could understand him any more than the spirit did. Not even that one. If she did, she would have let him go out and be free…
 
But no, he couldn’t dwell on that. Not now, not while there was still a moment he needed to relax. His anger would subside for the moment, a rare emotion he did not like to have emit. And finally, he felt himself in control again as he would dream of the memories, this time smiling again as he felt at peace when he dreamed of the others who helped him, even if they are no longer on the charts. The fun little ball that his former Guild Master friend of his used to have, and he more or less had some chat with a now hyperactive flaming girl. As for what happened to her guild, he still had yet to learn. But that was none of his business, she saw it happen, but would rather seal her lips, and that was her choice.
 
The negative memories conflicted with the positive ones. When he tried to think one way, he thought the other. Positivity these days was near impossible for him, it was like an attention span, which that of an adult these days would be 8 seconds only. So what was he going to do about this? Well, he was going to have to play out the illusion until he beat it, meaning endurance. If that means he had to get all of these people involved in the damn fight, then so be it. They technically chose to be here by supporting Shima, and whatever business they had with her was probably all their choice as well. The brunette had no regrets. Once he had all of that time to think to himself, he would lunge forward back up into the surface of the plasma, the cool surface feeling like a freezer compared to what his blood grew used to now. The army pushed forward, though many of them fell. Still, their strength in numbers was enough to push back against the Verisi. With his magic power finally intact again, he would be able to push them through the earth and gain some ground again, this time with an army to help him out.
 
So he would float towards the edge of the rocky hole gone massive, placed out both of his palms and charged a sphere of light into it. It was going to take some time, but it was going to blow the roof off of the island, perhaps send it into the air as well. The beings would move out of the way just in time to let the 5 Verisi beings through, though they clearly looked tired at the end of it. Finally, the beam of light would flash through the hole, pushing all of the resisting bodies upwards into the air. The core of the earth would amplify his attack as well, burning through the same area The roots of the island plucked up this area of the earth, knocking out a whole 8^th of it into the atmosphere. What did this mean? The chaos that Shima had bene hoping for was going to become a reality…
 
Blowing out a whole 8^th of the earth, all of the ripples and waves wiping out all of the small countries and all of the people within them. Families were being destroyed at the time as well, people dying and no one to even help them evacuate, as his own strength has just pushed through them. Yet despite all of this actually occurring, Elyx did not even give it some much as a second thought. Instead, he smirked, as he knew that the five bodies were now not going to bother him. The island was torn into pieces and launched into the air, like hellish fireworks as many of them landed in the ocean, but some of them also landed on some areas inhabited by humans. As for the bodies, they were going to have to suffer along with them. At the end of it though, he was supposed to have a syringe appear, meaning that there was a Veriri somewhere waiting for him. If it was those 5, he was going to have to dance with them more with his newfound army. But if not, he was kind of screwed, as he had no idea who he was supposed to fight next other than that man… Who did mention that he did something foolish.
 
Foolish though, like what? It was hard to tell, but he seemed confident. Chances are, he was most likely alive, though somewhere in the earth was probably not the case. If he could teleport himself out of the way like that, he was not going to let himself get smashed by the earth. And the chunk of the earth that blew up, among all of the water, Elyx would have noticed the dead body of the Verisi if he were truly stuck, as two blows from the core of the earth, the second being the worst, was impossible to just brush off

WC: 8108

“Well damn, son. I didn’t know you would go that far, I wonder how many people you just killed doing that. Do you not care about the fate of the innocent lives you took away?” A voice from the earth would ask, the same tone as the man that he was fighting before. Those words were familiar… But he could not recall from when or why they would be. No one ever said that to him before, he knew that much. Yet somehow, he felt some bitter memory panging in the back of his head to show him what he was doing, and someone that he knew perhaps said that to someone else at a different time and might have been there. Regardless of the case however, he was not going to let those words bother him. As he would raise his body up over the ocean water falling into the core, he would look up to the sky to notice that it too a nasty shade of purple, lightning storms and heavy rain suddenly battering itself all over the place. With such power came responsibility, Elyx did not know that he had the potential to take down a whole eighth of the earth with this. Yet at the same time, this was just with an ability that he had, and he just made sure to have every individual light particle count as a melee weapon. Together, they formed the worst barrage that someone could take at the end of the impact

The storms were no longer there for anyone to suffer through, as the Verisi was right, he probably took away the lives of many. Well, if he went this far just to get the eyes, he might as well not let their deaths go for no reason. And he knew Shadelle was not affected by this, this was going to be a tough task though with that in mind. He would rather not end up killing Shadelle in the process of this. Fiore, it was on the “Kind of avoid” list, but he did not really care if it took a hit or two. As long as it was not destroyed, he was content with causing some damage. Would that damage his legal title that he had on him? Eh, at this point, what good was that going to do him? As long as he was not with the darkness, he was fine with having himself gain some power and be known as a renegade. Anyone who put a price over his head would suffer the same fate, that was the gift of being powerful. If he had to move to a new area, that was fine. He, Nimpha, and Adrelissa can be moved to a different area without a problem, and that would perhaps leave the guilds with little hope as there were not that many high-standing beacons.

The body of the Verisi would appear right in front of Elyx, a punch to the stomach to send the brunette flying. This time, it had some fire inflicted onto his body, and he felt a burning sensation within his body. There was anger behind that punch, the emotion was evident. Now what could such a powerful being care about? Placing his hands in his pockets and flipping backwards, he would let his body heal itself with the regeneration ability. It was not that hard to avoid the damage as long as he paid more attention, the first attack was a cheap shot.

“Tell me, Reiaki. What kind of power are you looking for? You take away such a mighty amount of earth for some reason, is that not right?” The man would ask him, as if he did not know. However, that snarl that he had on his lips told the Lerale that there was more to it than just that. It was not going to be an easy fight from here on out, as anger could amplify attacks to an unfair and insane number. With that in mind, he was not backing down just yet, the army was there for him as well below, ready to strike should they be needed. However, that could be covered by the Verisi as he would send some more shadows towards them without even flinching his body, the spells triggering upon his mental command. And below at the core of the earth would be another brutal fight. Unfortunately, this meant that he and Shima were both on their own once again against this beast of an enemy.

“And why do you care? I don’t owe you anything, but you do owe me those eyes. I take it that you surrender and will do just that?” Elyx threatened, his eyes turning purple once again thanks to his bloodline. The man would cross his arms, his eyes half-closed with a lack of approval showing from both of his red eyes.

“You seem lost, and a sheep that is lost can only be guided by one of more power. You though…” He would look down to the earth that had taken a good blow, then shook his head. “You don’t seem to have much of that anymore. This battle is not just for a pair of eyes, the Verisi family could never take in someone with so much hatred that they would eliminate the earth!”

Bold words, but the Lerale did not care. Those eyes were waiting, and the man can choose to continue the battle or to let him have the eyes. Instead of replying, he would stand still with his eyes looking the same as the Verisi. After a few seconds of the silent treatment, the man placed his right palm against his hip and shook his head, but his iris’ would still lock onto the brunette.

“There is no hope to stop you now, is there son?” The Verisi would ask as he would place his left metallic arm forward and emit a dome of fire around the both of them, continuing what they started. However, the Verisi got himself to power was something Elyx could not understand, but he had plenty of fight left in him to last him days if needed, now that his mana was restored. And his core spell had yet to bring itself onto the battlefield. It seems like he was going to have to retaliate. “I like your ambition, but the family does not let those with such a corrupt mindset to have their bloodline. We represent blood that is pure, and yours was once pure.”

Elyx still stood there, not feeling phased by the flames as they would slowly swarm around his body. The man still continued, despite there being no resistance to whatever attack that they were about to carry out. The flames were consumed by the air, then turned black as the palm would emit some dark form of energy as well as the flames, the temperature increasing a mighty amount. The Lerale could feel his body growing slightly numb, only for Shima to handle that quickly by triggering the collapse spell he had, and he became immune to the effects of the flames and the damage that they inflicted. Well was this not a bitch for the enemy to face off against, an enemy that did not fall for magic for a small moment. And it continued the sacrifices needed for him to end the fight.

The swirling fire would eventually close in onto the target, the dome compressing and heating up the flames to the point where even solids could boil instantly.

“You are not a man worthy of such power. There is plenty in you, and I am afraid you are going to misuse them.” The man would explain to Elyx, turning away from him as he would let the Lerale burn in the flames. So confident in himself, he would look down at the shadows and the mages. Perhaps he could finish them off as well to prevent them from fighting for the insane Lerale.

“You don’t know what it’s like to never know.” Elyx’s voice would answer back in the heat, audible through crackling flames so damning that a human had no right to speak through them, yet there he was doing just that. With that in mind, he would cross his arms and smile as he would place his palm out, summoning Shima in front of him, who glared at the Verisi before pulling the flames out. As if unwrapping a gift, the flames would end up opening for the man without a problem, and the Lerale would float out towards the enemy. Still, his smile was there, but it was nothing crazy. It certainly wasn’t happy, it resembled more of a painful smile. Sad perhaps, but not exactly. His eyes were always half-closed, this scenario was no different.

“I’m sure you have no idea what that means, no matter how long you spend thinking of that. You don’t know what I want, and you don’t know whether or not I deserve it. I owned a guild, that didn’t mean I knew who it belonged to and who it didn’t.” The brunette explained, looking to the side towards Shima, still glaring. Seems her full strength is something she did not like using, as that is something they agreed not to use until they found whoever it was that she was looking for. Yet here they were, forced to do it or the “vessel” of strength would be dead as they speak right now.

“There… Is no way...” The man would mutter to himself, but it was perfectly clear to the Lerale, one who had too much experience with music.

“I’m afraid your infinite health can’t help you while you have a physical body.” Elyx replied, floating closer at a slow pace. The man moved back at the same pace, not risking anything. “If you attempt to call off those shadows, those mages down there are going to give me a hand, are they not? I suggest you keep this business between you and I from now on. Give me the eyes or continue this fight, but it’s far too late to let ‘nothing’ be an answer.”

The Verisi clicked his teeth, eyes squinting with anger. There was some aura within him that increased in pulse, the amount of power within his body revealing itself at a massive rate. Yet despite this, Elyx saw through the trick, and there was no way he was going to fall for it this time like he did previously. If that was all that the man had, he lost this battle.

“While I do not have infinite health myself, it appears that way, right?” Elyx explained as he would place out his right palm, chuckling to show that his body was in perfect condition. A hopeless situation that was sort of amusing to him to think about, it was useless to try anything else. “You are NOT the only one with the ability to use illusions. I still don’t know where the illusion is, but it could be this whole thing for all I know.”

“Are you seriously taking those chances!? You murdered many mortals, your own kind! Don’t you give a damn about those fuckers!?” The Verisi replied, opening his eyes as they held a nasty red glow now, not the most appealing fashion choice. Contact game was clearly weak, perhaps glasses were the route for him to take.

“Yeah, I don’t mind those odds. They might not even be real in the first place.” The brunette would explain, flicking his spiky bangs in front of him to the side, showing that it was genuinely how he felt. “But if you really believe that they are real and that this whole freak show is not some illusion, why don’t you prove it. Whatever illusion you made, take it down right in front of my eyes and see if I don’t detect a thing. I bet you can’t.”

“As if I owe anything to you, mortal!”

“Wrong, you do owe me a syringe, do you not? Or will you just hand me an illusion of that as well?”

The man took as much as he could take, the anger boiling in him as he teleported behind Elyx, already at the peak of a high kick. Predictable anger though, it was too easy to see where it was aimed. The brunette ducked his head calmly, moving to the side in the process before spinning around to catch the second leg aimed at him, this time by the ankle. It was not as heavy as it used to be.

“Your strength is a bit drained.” Elyx commented with a sing-song voice, the taunting working successfully.

“Shut your damn mouth!” The Verisi replied as he pulled his leg back to pull the brunette towards him. A big left fist of fire would take a shot at his face. To prevent any damage from reaching him, the brunette teleported to the other side of the man before punching his spine twice with two swift hooks, each one allowing the Verisi two chances to turn around a slight bit.

When the rotation when a bit too far, Elyx stopped and ducked under the fast jab that crossed all the way to the other side. In response, he kicked the man’s hip with the strength of a whip. The man winced his eyes in pain, but took another sudden strike as he tried to use the same fist he used to jab to swing back the other direction where it came from

But he knew better than to let that arm get away from him so quickly, it was trying to get back in the original position so that the playing field was even. If he did that, well, he was going to gain some ground back. Elyx prevented this by gripping the wrist of his opponent so that it was forced to a complete stop. Next, he would use this same arm to spin around the Verisi swiftly, forcing his body to go with the momentum. Due to how tired and drained of mana he was, there was little was to resist the swing of the Lerale before the wrist was freed. However, once that pull was gone, the momentum of the body was still there. The instant that happened, the Lerale raised his left leg up to the chin of the opponent with all the forced momentum. With both of those impacts at high speed, it sent the body of the Verisi flying towards the ground at rapid speeds that are impossible to catch with the average eye. Damn, perhaps that was a bit too hard. But with little remorse, the Lerale would chase after the body by diving downwards. The oceans of the world were still collapsing into the core, and already the temperature was beginning to change at a rapid pace. Due to the change of weather, there was perhaps a lot more damage being done to the world than he thought, including Shadelle. Well, too late to turn back from this choice now, and this would just weaken whatever evil source of power there was over there anyways. If anything, it was a good thing for him to be doing this. As for the guilds, they were kind of on their own now, as he was not suffering through whatever they were. Not to say he turned his back from them, but they were all mages and he grew up where they did. 100 year jobs were not as hard as what he was going through, and they had plenty of supplies to keep themselves warm or cold, whatever the case it. And hey, not many can say that global warming was the problem anymore.

Once he got down towards the body of the man, he would teleport the both from the oceans onto a different unknown island, far from the shadows and the mages. They were on their own now, and hopefully whatever debt that they owed Shima was paid because of that. Or not, they didn’t defeat this guy at the end of the battle. If they were not going to hold up their end of the bargain, Elyx didn’t mind having some blackmail to make sure they played along or else. Hm… The Verisi was right though, there was a huge lack of care for others now, but this thought didn’t bother him in the slightest. With that in mind however, it would be in his best interest to keep certain people alive, like Nimpha for example. Her strength and luck were just impossible to stop, there was no way in hell he was going to be able to beat her in a fight. And the Verisi thought he was the strongest thing in existence, they clearly never met the happiest, luckiest… Deadliest… Mage alive. Or, one of them perhaps, the world was just that big. On top of that, she was the one who brought him to Fiore, so he technically did owe her that much credit, the credit of being able to obtain so much power. The Lerale adults like he remembered it had the strength of S ranked mages, perhaps the leader like Cain having H rank power with their gear equipped. But that was not enough these days, as the magic council revealed that there was still a lot more strength to be obtained should one want it that badly. And that was why the Reiaki was here.

Setting the body down on the sand, Elyx would place his hands in his pockets as he looked out towards the beach, noticing the massive canyon he made and all the water flowing into the cracks he made. It was massive, a whole eighth of the earth is not damage that can be fixed within the few decades, as earth magic did not hold as tight as regular earth did, nature was just that much stronger. The same thing applies for any element, otherwise any D rank spell would travel at the same speed of the average lightning bolt… Impossible to dodge at any cost.

It was all created by him, with just one form of attack.

One.

“So, what do you think of this? Are a pair of eyes really worth taking away millions of others?” The man would ask. When Elyx turned his head to the side, he noticed that the man was in tip top condition. There was no way that he could enjoy the sight in front of him. The world being torn up, probably the one that he was raised in. It was all being shattered because of the brunette and his ambitions.

“I need those eyes, you don’t know what I want to know.” The brunette replied, tracing his rapier against the sand to draw a small object. It was supposed to be a game of tic-tac-toe, though it was no so obvious from a distance away. It was Elyx’s move, he chose the middle to start off with.
“I can understand what you mean in a way, yet look at what I am saying now.” The Verisi would explain, cutting his magic through the sand so that he could create a small circle located on the top left corner of the game.

“What would you know then?” The brunette asked, then drawing another X, this time through the left side. It was scratch from this point on, so Elyx kicked the sand to cover itself up, then drop the weapon. It shattered the instant it hit the sand, as it was a creation from the magic, and now it no longer belonged to its owner.

“I know that it’s not right to kill people for your own benefit. Something that no amount of power seems to get through your skull.” The man would turn his head around, placing his fist against his cheek and looking at Elyx with what seemed to be a “bored” expression, but there was much interest in him. “But you did once know this, did you not? Hell, you even made a whole guild with those rules in place, I don’t know how you could have possibly screwed that up. What threw you off that train track?”

“Like hell are you getting that answer out of me.” Elyx retorted, not turning his head to meet the gaze of the man.

“I’m not asking you. That’s a question you’ve already had in your when you ran from your former guild.” The man replied calmly. He was not talking Shadelle either, he was talking about the moment he got away from a guild for his own benefit. Yes, he and Nimpha formed a plan that ended up with him not wanting to run the said guild anymore, as he was unable to provide for them as much as he wanted. Money was fine, it was just the time that he did not have. The jobs were there, and he needed to live his life the way he wanted to.

“We don’t talk about that.”

“Shut up, you can handle a few words if you can handle killing innocents.”

“Show me that I really killed them.”

The man shook his head as he slowly stood back up from the sand, placing his own hands in his pockets and looking back to the edge of the world. It was in far worse condition as the wet sand was looking like a desert that had been rained on. It was once a body of water as well, it was a shame that it got reduced to nothing but a wasteland.

“You used to once be a man who lived by facts. The fact is, you would murder for power.” The man explained.

“I wou-“

“Shut up. My turn to speak.” He would order, glaring at the brunette. Out of respect, the Lerale would hear him out. “You lived by facts. And now when they are right in front of you, you deny them. You are as petty as one who wishes they are a mage, despite the blessing. And now that you have reached nearly a pinnacle, and use abuse it in such a way… You are right to believe there is an illusion. But you didn’t believe it because you knew, you believed it because that was what you wanted to believe. Am I wrong?”

There was a sudden extra chill in the air when those words hit his ears. Part of him wanted to place the rapier he dropped back in his hands so that he could pierce it through the heart of the man. The other part of him with better morals and instinct told him to listen to the words, drink them, and ponder. If he truly did hear the man out, he could consider what those words would mean and perhaps even reflect upon them.

“No, I wouldn’t say so. And why am I supposed to care?” Elyx replied, Shima crossing her arms on the side, watching the whole thing go down, but not interrupting the both.

“Where is the happy young boy that loved to play the violin? That violin got thrown away so that he could get more power.” The man explained, then summoning a bottle of gin in front of him. It seems he could have created whatever he wanted as well, it’s impossible to determine why he didn’t do that in the middle in their battle. Maybe he did not know how to use it, or forgot to use it and remembered by the time he ran out of mana. Either way, to use it now while Elyx was at full strength was just begging to be beaten to a bloody pulp.

“I don’t know. I guess he just learned what the real world was like. Kill or be killed, and you need to survive by being able to destroy what you cherish the most.” The brunette explained, looking down after hearing the worlds that he said. His moral compass was screaming at him now, it was insane how numb he became to the emotions of others and the outside world. Thanks to whatever he had been playing with in the past, he now obtained a new sense of power that also made him grow corrupt. Live long enough and you will see yourself become the villain. While he most likely would not use it to take over an area unless needed, he was not going to play such a role. But to stray away from the light instead, that was problematic for him.

“Careful, boy. You continue to act that what, and you’re going to lose what makes you human.” He replied, taking a shot of the gin from the bottle like a badass would do. Alcohol healed the wounds, did it not? But the burning sensation, bad taste, and risk of getting drunk was not something he had much interest in having happen. So, the Lerale did not drink, mainly due to what could happen to him and everyone around him while he was not willing. They say that being drunk reveals the true version of yourself. Elyx did not want to learn about himself being destructive in his heart, he would love to throw that into the closet and lock the key.

“But I must commend you on one thing, however.” The Verisi explained, taking a bigger shot from the bottle, already sending it halfway towards it’s empty state. What a heavy drinker, that liver was going to suffer heavy damage.

“If there is someone I can fight and lose against, it would be you. With the power of the illusion, you would never be able to get out of here with a victory. But of course, a mortal can’t prevent that. In a fair fight…” The Verisi would stop, the bottle now empty before turning over to the brunette. “I can say proudly that you would obtain the needle. Of course, I don’t want you to abuse this, but it’s not in my line. With such power though, the Verisi expects you to reproduce and spread the power of our eyes onto your children. Allow us to rise once again, and never lose a fight while you bear our middle name.”

Middle name? What did he mean by that?

“What are you going on about, middle name specifically.” The brunette would explain, crossing his arms over his chest, but not looking to rest and sit down. Hell, his own power was still high, it was a dumb idea to take away the strength he had.

“Elyx Verisi Reiaki. Do you think the family runs by the rules of that of a mere mortal?” The guardian asked, throwing his bottle to the side before chuckling. “That moral compass of yours though, it’s a little bit screwed up if I can be honest with you.”

“You act as if I asked for your opinion.” The Lerale replied, turning his head to the sinking ocean, the wet sand forming more and more as time passed by.

“And that is the problem, you refuse to look at it through any other perspective than your own. For that, the damage will be severe if I don’t do something about it.” The man explained. Interesting proposal, but what exactly was that supposed to do for him? Even better, what did the man think he can do to Elyx to make him change his mind on the situation? With power, his opinion could be whatever he wanted without the fear of being forced to change. How bliss it was to be so powerful.

“So what? Are you going to try to change my mind?” The brunette asked, crunching his hands into fists once again, prepared to continue their little bout. The chaos within him told him to just go for the strikes once again, to defy the Lerale was a punishment to be dealt with. The man however just yawned in response, seemingly unaffected by the threat given to him.

“Well, you seem to have that part down pat. So I’m done stalling.” He explained, disappearing suddenly. In a second, the world around Elyx would proceed to fade to black, leaving him in emptiness. Oh hell no, there was no way he was just going to just become nothing, he needed to break through out of the illusion!

But how… If there is any hope in doing that, he needed to have an H rank illusion spell. Last he checked, Cooldown Dino was not the best tool for him to use that with. It seems he was going to try to break through it with force! Shima’s energy was not around him however, seemingly as if she were not there. When he tried to release his magic from his body, he would end up seeing a pop up HUD message in front of him.

“Denied, you are not to be cheating in this dream, Mr. Reiaki.” The message explained. After he read it, it instantly disappeared after his mind drank the words into his memory. Seems like magic was going to be gone for this part of the illusion, he was completely at the mercy of the Verisi family. Damn… It seems like there was always going to be someone stronger, the hidden rankings of the council must be no joke. The Verisi would be identified as the highest one if that is not what Elyx was.

A small little harp would be playing in the background. It was gentle, soothing, something to be given to someone who was in need of peace. It was internal, so an insane attempt to cover up ears will just be ignored by the illusion. As bliss as the sound was, he would just walk forward through the darkness. If he was going to face some trials, he was going to have to face them the same way he did when he ran to Fiore… Without any power. Helpless to resist the game, he proceeded to see a dim light out in the distance. The first task.

In the distance, he would hear a small child crying. Somehow… He felt that cry in his heart. Something was off about it, he was not usually supposed to care. If it was not his problem, he was going to let the guardian deal with it. But there seemed to be none present. A helpless child crying out for help in the distance. The high pitched baby was not as annoying as the brunette thought he would be. But instead… He was far more… Understanding.

The Lerale heard the voice of the child who started off in Black Rose as a mere D rank. Irrelevant to the world, consistently eating chocolate… So happy. He too was once a baby, and the baby needed an assist didn’t he? With that in mind, he would proceed to charge towards the light to where he heard the baby crying out. It pained him to hear such a noise, a helpless being without no power to resist or prevent it’s fate. Babies were unable to fight for themselves, which is why their default source of power is the reliance on others. But if there is no one to help the child, then there is no hope for them.

The thought of them being left alone with the fate of suffering was unbearable. As he thought more of it, his pace quickened so that he could reach a cradle. Inside of the bars was a small little brunette baby, crying miserably. No one was around, and its beet red face was painful for him to swallow the sight of. To the point of snapping, he felt as if he needed to take care of the child, to make it happy once again. Such a delicate little piece of life.

Swiftly reaching out his arms, he would gently grab the waist of the baby boy, placing him one his chest and hugging him with both arms. It was his humanity kicking in once again, the Elyx of the past would have done this the best he could. The adult was not so quick to do such a thing. A pang of guilt sunk deep into his heart as he let this thought stick to him.

The child continued to cry, this time close to his ear so that it could echo. The cringe that his body felt from the cry only caused the hug on the child to be a bit more firm, but not so much that he would crush the poor thing to death. He placed the child’s head onto his shoulder so that it could let out all of its frustration out comfortably.

“Shhhhhh, there there little one. I’m here for you.” Elyx told the baby, using his left hand to gently pat it’s back, moving his body up and down to rock it a bit. For a few seconds, it continued to cry, but then it’s volume began to lower. The comfort of the hug and security was beginning to tame it. As the volume went down, the scene around him began to paint a scenery. A room to be exact, with a kitchen and a living room as well as the crib being in the middle of it. A bottle was on the counter of the kitchen, filled with milk. The baby was thirsty.

“Here, are you thirsty?” Elyx asked awkwardly, moving himself towards the bottle before grabbing it with his right hand, the left holding the baby. He grabbed the bottle of milk from the counter, popping the rubber tip of it into the mouth. Not only did it silence the child, but it would then calm the baby down to the point where its teary eyes opened up. They were light brown, just like his own used to be. It was just like him. Every now and then, he would let the baby rest from drinking the milk, to prevent it from being stuffed forcefully. When he did this, he would pat the back of the baby to get a burp or two out of it. Eventually, he got the burp out of it, and it would giggle happily right after words.

If the crying of a baby was what made Elyx lose sanity, then perhaps the laughter and happiness of it was the remedy. An innocent baby that was happy because of him was the most heartwarming thing to happy to him in a long time. Even if it was not real, the feelings of attraction he had towards it was real. It placed a stupid grin on his face as well, he held the baby up so that it would feel like it’s up in the air. It approved of the game and laughed even more. Unfortunately, that was about as much as he knew about playing with the child without any toys around. With Shima, he would provide those things. But this was a task he needed to do on its own. Besides, if she were around, she would probably just throw the child around like her own game of basketball. Not the best babysitter to leave with a child. Maybe the guardian was right to keep her out of the equation. As he continued to play as much as he could with the child, he would eventually notice that it yawned, showing that it was in need of some sleep. Time to put the child down.

Into the crib the baby would go, eventually being put to rest at last. The fun few minutes that Elyx had with it was perhaps the most enjoyment he’s had in the last year. It was funny how that worked, people tried to make him happy, only for them to fall short due to his ambition. But here, it was not the ambition that mattered. It was him wanting to help those who could not help themselves, just like the old Elyx Reiaki would have wanted.

It slept gently, a small smile on its face. The peaceful baby, saved because of him. Thankless, yet the payout felt so good. A small warm feeling in his chest, as if a flame burned him to the core. As hot as it felt, it was none at all painful. Nothing he had felt in a long time, but it was nostalgic to him at the same time. Once something he would try to fight for. Slowly but surely, he turned away from that course. As for the reason why he did, he still wouldn’t know the answer up to this moment.

“That too will become a human, one of the eight pieces of the earth you broke, that child was one of them.” The guardian spoke, the volume of the harp still soft and quiet in the background. Elyx just raised his eyes… There were children getting involved in the things that he did. The ones that did nothing to deserve the infliction of pain. Yet he was able kill this child without hesitation. No, he didn’t do that on purpose, he killed it without thinking it existed. Its life was not on his mind. While he was a Guild Master, he was able to take care of the enemy without putting others in the middle of the chopping block. But he was able to attack the core of the earth without giving it a second thought, knowing that he was going to survive. Hell, just to toy with it, he was pretty much just swimming in the plasma in the process, which would destroy the average human body. Even something as delicate as eyes would have been destroyed, but his own were not bothered. The power he possessed, they destroyed his morals. Would the dark guild masters love him now…

The child he nearly killed, it was so innocent and happy when he took care of it. The ones who left it alone, he wanted to place one of the ruger guns inside of the roof of the mouth and pull the trigger, twice. It was not like the child had chose to be born with such neglect… An appreciation for life. A helpless being with no way to fight back, the world was like a baby to him, and he needed to take far better care of it. At his rank, one Fiore claimed that no one else had been worthy enough to have yet according to the magic council, he should take care of the earth, not destroy it. So, what did this mean? He was going to have to rearrange his goals.

Now, he was in the right when he left instead of get pissed off with the other fight, that would have done a lot more damage to not just the world, but himself as well. It was a fight he… Picked. That fact hurt him the most, but he was not going to do it again. With that said however, he was still prepared to get outside of the illusion and get into it… Wait… No. No. Absolutely not, he was done with that, he was also done with the title of wizard saint as well, especially with the lack of knowledge on the rules presented to him.

But it doesn’t matter, it provided nothing to him. Those with that to think they are any better, when he takes the Verisi eyes with him, he was going to take them down a peg. These days though, not many mages in Fiore are prepared to even take the title. Even if they did, they were unable to do much with it, there was nothing to do. Hm, perhaps he could revise that with his own group.

It required those mages to live, the group that he needs to take down opponents. With a smile on his lips, he was going to have to take a group of his own. Not quite his followers, but an army with the same goal. They were going to visit Shadelle. As for his own people, he was going to take good care of them, and they were going to do the same thing for him. But where he was going to get them was up for anyone to decide. Placing his hands in his pockets, he would look up to the darkness, his brown eyes seeing nothing, yet he was able to pinpoint where the source of the illusion was located.

“I think I get your point, Verisi.” Elyx would tell him, his voice echoing through the illusion. Huh, funny. He thought he could feel a smile from above, as if that was something to be felt. But regardless, it was warm for him, a pleasant feeling. Almost as if he felt warm inside from having the approval of the man. The darkness within him was not going to consume him, he was going to let the world play itself out, and if it wanted to attack him, he was going to attack. But everyone deserved a chance at getting to where he was, should they put in the hard world needed to do so, though that was not the case for everyone.

There were powerful vessels for this generation though, there was no worry. And based on the current knowledge of Fiore, no one really worth mentioning in the list of villains, as none of them have caused too much chaos recently according to the headlines. Good, looks like they had their tails in the right place, and they need to keep it. This sense of confidence, but he didn’t have to humble his thoughts with the strength he had, but he can still keep a humble shell on the outside just so he didn’t come off as rude. After all, he was raised as a musician as well as a magician, he had to have some level of formality.

The darkness around him would begin to turn away from him, the light revealing itself. Shima was not here, so she couldn’t contribute anything. He closed his eyes for a small moment, opening them up to find himself on the first island once again, as if they did not sink it in the battle. So the whole thing was an illusion after all, good thing. He was being given a second chance, and he was going to heed to warning of the guardian. He started explaining to Elyx about the choices he had.

“To let you know Reiaki, there is nothing wrong with your previous choice in my opinion, really I don’t think so.” The guardian would explain as he would cross his arms, tilting his head to the side. At this point, the brunette should not question him or what he meant, that was not even important right now. So the Lerale would let the Verisi continue explaining himself. “I wanted to show you the choices you had before you made a choice. Whatever you do, I want you to continue the Verisi bloodline and make it one of the most prosperous in existence. No, the most prosperous, as this is power that we do not hand to anyone. When you make your choice, we want your choice to be aided with the power of our eyes. Do you understand?”

With that, there was a small silence and a slight breeze. Both of them locked eyes with each other with neutral facial expressions. Indifferent to what choice he made? Well, he lived for the light at first, he was going to continue finding it until he found what he wanted… And so finally, the brunette would break and give his answer.

“Yeah, I think I do.” Elyx explaining, holding back the urge to demand the syringe from the man. After all, they were having a moment, and he was most likely going to be getting it soon in due time.

“Glad to hear it. In that case, I will grant you the power of the Verisi.” The man would explain, holding out his palm and a sphere of white light would emit from it. The next second later, a crow would form from the light with the syringe. Inside of it would be a red liquid, most likely blood… Or something equivalent to it. Now this made Elyx wonder if he could have killed the man in the first place. If he did, there was no way he would have gotten the syringe, right? As the guardian had to take it out from his palm from some storage that he probably owned. Yeah, that was probably why the illusion was cast, he did not underestimate any opponent. Theoretically speaking, the man could totally beat Elyx in a real fight, with illusions designed to destroy him and literally taking away any power he had in a realm that belonged to the man, but that was not what this fight was about. His skills have been proven, a complete opposite to before, and now he can accept his reward.

“One thing I should mention. Did you know that the Verisi name is not a last name?” The man would ask, tilting his head to the side with a curious look on his face. Huh, something that even he did not know, that was more a refreshing and humanistic way of things to happen, eh?

Elyx shook his head in response. “No, I always assumed that was the case in fact. I assume it’s supposed to be something else? Is it even a name?” The Lerale would ask, placing his left hand in his pocket, taking the syringe with his right hand.

“If you have time, I would like to tell you the story of the Verisi.” The man explained. It was about time he got some lore on the family anyways, their power might be explained through the story anyways, something that the brunette had been longing for. He proceeded to spike the needle into his arm, then squeeze the blood of the Verisi into his bloodstream. When every last drop was finished, he would end up looking at the man while feeling nothing.

“The blood takes a bit to dissolve into the bloodstream. The effects should come up later on, hopefully not at a bad time, because you’ll probably feel paralysis in an hour. But if you really want to, I suggest teleporting to a bed.” The Verisi would explain before then pulling out a bottle of alcohol from nowhere, gin specifically, and would begin to hardcast the drink into his liver once again like a freak would. This man was on a whole new level of insane from even Shima, who silently watched with her eyes half closed. It seems she did not like being taken out for the equation, but she knew her limits for now.

The story of the family is that that seemed so simple, and they came to an end due to an unfortunate fate. The lack of numbers due to their choice of keeping their blood clean. If you know what that means in the tribe you came from, you would come to the same result that we did. Imagine it like this, we ended up losing ourselves to age, all of us. No child was killed, even they possessed our eyes, and anyone who held a knife to them faltered. So the age was the only way we would have died, and even mortals can be found among the Verisi. What did this mean? If we were to not reproduce, we would die, so we did. Now the thing about the Verisi bloodline is that there was a limited number of us in the family. Meaning that was generations passed, we ended up having many of us relate to each other by blood. Simply put, this wouldn’t end well for us. But the blood of the Verisi did not need to be brought out to the outside world, for those who lived in it would use it outside of the ways that the Verisi would permit.

Elyx tilted his head to the side, not quite sure what he meant by that. If they didn’t allow that, why did they offer up their eyes? Much better, why did they end up offering their bloodline through a syringe with their own blood? However, he didn’t get a chance to speak as the man continued to speak.

“Now you probably wonder why we offered the blood to the one powerful mage who could use it. The Verisi family went extinct you know, my mere body is just a flesh controlled by the spirits of the family.” He explained, rolling his wrist around in a circle and smiling a small amount. It would make sense, all that power compressed into one. Elyx chuckled, now understanding why one could get in a battle without getting so much damage on them, it was as if he had to break down through a wall of people with the same amount of strength that he did, a lethal and rare amount to have indeed. “Imagine it like this, they had to keep their blood pure. But they decided that the one bond that they had among themselves was strength. If there was any hope that the family could continue on, they were have the ability to rise once again. They had to swallow their pride and accept the fact that the bearer was going to have to reproduce with someone of no pride to the family. Still however, if they can continue to live on, that was more than enough to make up for that one sour note that they had to swallow. And you, Reiaki… You are that one. That blood puts your name as a Verisi. Elyx Verisi Reiaki, I don’t think that’s so bad a name, makes it far more elegant in my opinion.”

The effect of the blood in his veins was slowly taking its toll on his body, his vision growing blurry. The guardian would cross his arms, looking at the Lerale as the brunette would begin to rock from side to side. An hour, another lovely illusion. But Elyx wasn’t quite down yet from the blood, and Shima was prepared and took her Chaos Theory effect into play, resulting in the strengthening of his body… At a small cost of her not being able to take advantage of that anytime soon. Unfortunately for her, this meant that she was going to have to wait a bit longer before she can try to fight him for control. A vessel that grew too fast, and now she was trapped inside of him like a mental prison. Still, his mind didn’t seem empty, it was nice and warm for her to enjoy anyways. Plus, the areas that Elyx visits tends to amp her lust for destruction and chaos anyways, which was more than enough for her to enjoy.

And just like that, he was awake once again, not even knocked out. The interference from Shima did not go unnoticed by the Verisi, in which he would take a small look at her. She glared back at him as well, creating tension as more time passed by. They both stood in each others way for their own goals, one to make the Verisi bloodline continue, and one to have her control over a body at last. But neither of them could do a thing, not while Elyx was there in between the both of them. Placing his hands in his pockets, Elyx would turn his back on the guardian, prepared to leave the island.

“I have what I came for, thank you so much, Verisi family.” Elyx told them, nodding his head as he would proceed to manipulate the air, walking on it as he prepared to make the long way home.

There was no more time to waste, he got what he came for. And his morals have been changed for now, he wanted to treasure life the way that he once did. Kill only in self-defense, and not for his gain. Those people might have been like him, prepared to do the same thing. During a time where there was a lot of mages around the area, he would have not been able to take them on knowing his strength. If he had to be honest, compared to the average mage, he was not that powerful. But now he obtained a power within him that could burst through the earth without much trouble. If he were to go ham… What was he able to do? This was a question he would rather not learn, planets were fragile, another lesson he needed to keep in mind if he was going to protect the earth. Still though, the human body was being given far too much power, mages were not something to exist if he had to be honest. With this in mind, he was going to get through to the cores of the earths troubles once he got to Shadelle. Adrelissa was just as strong if he recalled correctly, so he was going to have no trouble with defeating them if she was by his side. The thought brought excitement to him, but he was going to stay calm. After all, he needed to have a little test run with the gift of the Verisi family. And so he was a step closer to victory.

WC: 8905