In the middle of a barren battlefield stood two men, a young boy, and an ominous mask-wearing man. There's a light black mist all around the masked man sucking the life of everything around him yet the young boy was unaffected.
Haze's cold and distant voice could be felt as he spoke, "I already know what you're going to say but I'll say it anyway, are you going to give it up or fight back?"
Zane held the emblem in his hands and slowly put it inside his storage ring. After doing so, he held his sword and took a proper stance.
"Of course you're going to fight back. Huh? What's with that sword? It's so thin."
In contrast to how thick the handle is and how thin the sword is, it completed Zane's frame for the time being.
"It's a sword a friend made. The same sword that's going to kill you."
"Big words for a little boy like you."
Haze formed whip-like shapes from the mist revolving around his body. The whips seemed to pulsate the more the mist withered away life. While looking at Haze, Zane held the amulet that Adam gave him and released his grip right after.
After a moment of silence, Haze and Zane both stared each other down and at the same time clashed.
As Zane's sword collided with the whip made of mist, it didn't go through, rather they both felt the impact and retreated after that initial clash.
Haze gazed at Zane's sword and smiled, he then created more whips from his black mist and started to attack from a distance.
Zane reacted accordingly and dodged the strikes easily since there was enough time for him to react due to the distance between them.
"You're quite nimble for a kid. Really interesting but how long can you last for?"
Zane didn't respond as he continued to dodge the whips.
As the area of decay widened, the ground started to solidify and crack under Zane's feet. Seeing this, Zane realized he couldn't keep dodging forever so he decided to go forward.
As Zane dashed towards Haze, Haze reacted by using the mist around as a sort of barrier against Zane. When Zane used his sword to slash away the mist, there was a spark as the sword and mist collided.
"Your sword is something else. That's definitely going to sell for a lot." Haze was casually standing there as if the battle happening in front of him was of no concern to him.
Zane still didn't respond as he kept on slashing away the mist. Slowly but surely he could see the mist dissipate and the barrier start to fade.
"The boss definitely overestimated you, there was so much planning that the boss made when dealing with you."
Again, Zane continued to slash as the barrier was starting to disappear.
"You made me act for no reason at all! The training that went into those horses was such a waste as well."
Finally, when Zane heard this he felt something was amiss. The amount of time before they struck and the lack of offense during the raid earlier was something he didn't realize but now he did.
"What do you mean?"
Haze then broke into a wide smile as continued, "Finally speaking, huh? Remember when you ordered your people to get on them? Let's just say that they were trained to go somewhere."
Zane felt really bad and started to slash away until there wasn't anything else in between them anymore. He held Haze by the neck as he threatened him with his sword,
"What happened?! Tell me!"
"Might as well since they should all be captured right now. The people who rode on the horses were trained to go to a certain camp where they could easily be suppressed. By now, I guess the majority of them are dead."
Zane dropped Haze and immediately ran away trying to figure out where they went. He dashed into the forest as he vividly remembered that it was in that direction.
Out of nowhere, Haze showed up in front of Zane as he flaunted, "Oh? Where are you going?"
Zane ignored him as he continued to run. Even if there was a chance what Haze said was true then it would be his fault that they all died.
Haze went forward and grabbed Zane from and back and pushed him into the ground. After hitting the ground, he bounced of the impact and managed to stand on his two feet meeting Haze face to mask.
The trees all around them started to shake causing numerous leaves to fall to the ground.
"You're still fighting me, so you might as well-"
Zane decided to end this fight as soon as possible for the sake of the possibility of his people's deaths. He struck Haze's face but Haze just barely managed to dodge causing the mask to break revealing a sinister face.
Haze's face was filled with bulbs of black goo and with a red tinge all over. It was a face that would make one repulsed if they were to ever see it.
Haze touched his face and felt that the mask that was covering his identity was broken completely showing his face to the world.
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold as Haze talked in a deeper voice, "It was fun and games before but now I'm ending it."
Zane felt something transform inside Haze as the mist around him started to get even denser. Haze once again formed whips like before but now there were even more now.
The whips all attacked Zane at once but Zane managed to dodge easily since it just all targeted a single point. Zane then dashed forward completely dodging the whips that were aiming for him.
If he couldn't dodge then he would use his sword, if he couldn't use his sword then he would use the trees as cover. He slowly made his way in this high tense situation and continued to decrease the distance between them.
After all that troublesome maneuvering, Zane faced Haze. Haze now made the mist into a barrier causing the previously numerous whips targetting Zane to decrease substantially.
Zane was attacking the barrier all-around Haze as it slowly dissipated. Haze was getting angrier on how agile Zane was so he weakened his barrier a little in hopes of increasing the intensity of his attacks.
Zane noticed this and went back a considerable distance and decided this was the chance.
He ran forward as fast as he could gaining speed along the way and continued on even though some of the whips have finally hit him. Regardless of the slight injuries, he received he still went faster and faster and directed his entire strength towards a single point in the barrier.
The barrier broke from that single point and Zane managed to finally have the opportunity to attack him. He targeted Haze's legs and arms while sustaining the injuries he received from earlier. After a quick exchange of attacks, Zane backed off as Haze's barrier was reformed.
As they watched each other from a distance there was an abnormal occurrence, both of them were healing from the injuries they received from that attack. Both of them were surprised at this and Haze started to laugh out loud.
"Hahahahaha! So that's why! You're like me! I guess I don't have to hide it anymore, right?" Haze's original horrifying face turned into something more disgusting and unholy.
His skin started to turn red and black as he grew incomplete horns and his original human form turned into an unknown disfigured shape.
Zane then finally confirmed it, "You're not human."
Zane thought back on how why Adam said that it wouldn't be a problem for him. It now made sense. Not being able to kill a human but being able to be merciless to anything else, what an odd mindset.
Haze was now a three-meter tall monstrosity, it looked as if he was incapable of movement due to the sheer size of his body and the lack of functioning limbs.
"Kekeke! I can say the same to you."
Haze's body was producing the black mist from the hole all over his body. This mist, however, was even more drastic in its effects than when Haze was human. Before it could wring the life out of everything it touches but now it could even corrupt it and cause it to self-propagate.
Zane now had all his small injuries healed and was facing a gigantic monster all by himself.
Haze started to chuckle but from Zane's perspective, he could only hear crying and echoing despair. Haze now had even better control over the mist and could control everything effortlessly unlike before.
The forest unexpectedly didn't wither rather it turned purple-black as the mist spread at an alarming rate.
From out of nowhere, a black whip grabbed onto Zane's leg and he was brought up into the air. He was flung around until he was in front of Haze's fourteen eyes.
Zane was then slammed in the ground as he had no way of fighting back. Zane dropped his sword on the ground as the impact left him dazed. After having his fun and slamming him around a few more times he suddenly gained a good idea.
In a mocking tone, Haze said with a crying voice, "Earlier you weren't affected but what about this time?"
The mist that was once useless against Zane was now being poured into him at an alarming rate. Zane started to cry out as he frantically tried to get out of this situation.
Haze was having the time of his life, he was torturing someone who had wronged him and he was making it as painful as possible.
As the mist entered Zane's body, it ravaged his organs badly but not enough to kill him due to his immunity.
After affecting his organs it was finally to corrupt his mana. The mist couldn't find any but still continued to search on, it finally found a small piece of mana in the middle of his body and decided to destroy it.
*Crack*
In the middle of a grand mansion, Adam was leisurely reading a book while occasionally giving out some pointers towards Eve. He just finished his book when he was about to open another one when he felt his mana inside Zane's body disappear.
Adam smiled and laughed a little.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing! It's just that Zane's going to fight for real this time."
"Ah! You mean he's going to finish the process, right?"
"Exactly! From suppressing his mana and forcing his body to cope, the blood inside him is forced to fully assimilate with him granting him unbelievable power. Even stronger when he went berserk fighting you."
Eve suddenly felt chills when she heard this. "Just how strong is he though?"
Adam laughed out and got a little excited, "Even stronger than I expected, initially I was going to undo the seal I did which would have been enough to win the bet but this time someone helped Zane so much..."
Zane slowly opened his eyes, though dazed he could roughly feel it. A blue shade of light gathered on his fingertips. He could feel his control and manipulation of it was greater than ever before.
"Is this... mana?"
Adam continued to explain to Eve, "You see when people assimilate a stronger being's power they need to squeeze the potential out of it by using it to remodel their body and system."
Zane could feel mana once more after what felt like an eternity. The empty pool of mana inside him was a beacon inviting mana all around him to gather. The mist that was infesting his body was being forced out by the incoming mana.
Adam opened the window beside him and besides its grandeur has nothing else to be said about it, "See the people around us? The soldiers I made you train with?"
Eve responded by simply nodding her head and recalled how strong they were when she faced them not even being able to land a hit when she first came here.
"None of them could defeat Zane right now." After saying that but then mumbled something under his breath inaudible to Eve. "The plan just changed a little now."
Zane managed to regain his focus and could see Haze's somewhat blurry figure and started to gather his mana and reinforced his body for an attack. Zane then coughed out black mist and felt a whole lot better. Although his body was battered he still felt he had more than enough energy to run to Maghim and back.
Haze could feel fear from Zane's small frame, it was unbelievable, "What is this?! How can you hold as much mana as an actual devil?!"
Zane simply replied with a punch reinforced with mana.