Brad took a step forward, and at the same time Alcor trapped him in a space cage. The cage itself was invisible, but the pressure was real.
"Your path is to endure and force your way past everything, so how about this?"
Alcor chuckled and did a squeezing motion with his right hand. Brad couldn't see the container, but he could feel it closing on him. Brad's vision was to stay strong after any attack and force his way through any trap, but now he faced space itself. However, neither of them thought that this would be the end.
Brad's arms were crossed in front of his head as he resisted the crushing force. Suddenly, all of his sigils gathered at his forehead to form a bigger and brighter sigil.
"HA!"
As soon as this sigil formed, Brad broke out of the space cage, separated the sigils and leaped towards Alcor.
"Don't you ever learn your lesson?"
Like before, Alcor blinked away from his previous spot to escape Brad, but this time he was left in surprise. Midway in his leap, Brad had used Blink to appear in front of Alcor at the same time as he reappeared. Normally, it was hard to readjust after such a movement through space, but Brad simply hit Alcor with his foot instead of his fist.
With no time for a consecutive Blink, Alcor could only use earth magic to soften the blow. As he expected, the wall that he hastily summoned was easily broken through, but he gained enough time to put up a barrier that could endure the rest of the force. The barrier shattered immediately after, but it had still accomplished its task.
"It seems I won't be able to fight as leisurely anymore."
Alcor realised that Brad had started to predict where he would teleport next, so it was time for the real battle to begin. From the storage magic items inside his sleeves, Alcor summoned a tide of blood that threatened to drown Brad. Of course, there would usually be no reason for him to fear blood, but his opponent was a True Ancestor so he had to keep his guard up.
Brad jumped to escape the large volume of blood, but then a giant hand made of the sanguine fluid arose to grab him. In response, Brad created a golden fist to face it. The golden fist shattered the blood fist, but then five more came to replace it.
Furthermore, once Brad landed giant hands of earth, wind, water, fire, darkness and light were created to surround and attack him. This sort of spell certainly took a ridiculous amount of magic power to maintain, but his opponent could afford it.
"Kekeke, show me how you break through this!" Alcor cackled.
There were too many hands for him to smash them one at a time, but Brad wasn't worried. First, he concentrated the sigils onto his hands, feet and forehead, and leaped with a stomp that left a crater behind. The walls of the room could no longer be seen, but the ceiling was only a few feet away when Brad stopped his ascent and faced the floor.
The colourful giant hands stretching to grab him were like the souls of the underworld trying to drag another one down with them. To put these hands to rest, Brad gathered the power of his sigils to his right palm. When his palm glowed brilliantly with a golden light, he pushed it forward, unleashed an enormous golden palm that made those giant hands look tiny in comparison. Hoping to crush Alcor with it as well, Brad watched as the palm smashed those artificial hands and emptied the vicinity of blood.
After the palm vanished, Brad landed in the centre of the palm print it left.
"Not bad, not bad. Why don't you try to attack me this time?" Alcor taunted.
Unfortunately, Alcor remained standing with a ferocious smile, but now Brad could get a clear sight of him. Although he could shorten the distance with Blink, Brad decided to trust his own power.
'I will push past all obstacles.'
Instead of the surroundings, Brad felt surging power coming from inside himself. Brad then redistributed the power of his sigils to his four limbs, forehead and his chest.
With these six glowing sigils, Brad pounced on Alcor. With every step came an obstacle in the form of magic, but Brad didn't stop for a single moment. His body was unhindered by spears of fire and wind, blinding light, rips in space or golems. Nothing could stop his charge.
"Hahahaha!"
Even so, Alcor laughed hysterically. Despite the fact that Brad's fist was getting closer and closer, there was not a hint of fear in his eyes. In fact, he raised his hand to catching the incoming punch. Brad was suspicious of this action, but he was confident that even a True Ancestor wouldn't be fine after taking one of his full-powered hits.
Brad tightened his fist and slammed it into Alcor, or at least he attempted to. About five inches away from Alcor's open hand, there was a swirl in space itself.
"Spatial Turbulence."
If it was just a tear in space then Brad could punch through it as usual, but this time he felt a strong suction force from the black swirl. This wasn't comparable to the earlier vortexes, especially since all of his momentum was being used against him. No matter how strong Brad was, inertia was pushing him closer towards being sucked in by the swirl. He didn't know what would happen if he got thrown in there, but the cold touch of death caressed his cheek.
'No! I must, break through!'
Concentrating all of his sigils on his chest to improve his stability, Brad tried to hold on, but Alcor wasn't kind enough to just wait for him.
"I think you're forgetting about something."
When Brad shifted his gaze to look at Alcor, he also noticed the high tidal wave of blood rushing back. Before he knew it, even the ceiling was blocked out by blood. In his position, there was no way for him to extract himself in time, so he could only endure.
The pool of blood wrapped around him and the swirl, locking them in a spherical red prison. With Brad's abilities, there was no reason to worry about suffocation, but like he suspected, the blood controlled by Alcor wasn't normal. As a True Ancestor, he could use Blood Magic. Using this magic the blood he released had its properties changed to be as poisonous and corrosive as possible, in addition to absorbing mana through contact.
"Only at this level, huh?"
Alcor was sure that the end was near, so he stood and waited for any screams. He waited patiently for Brad to crack, but then suddenly, he flinched from the smell of danger. Alcor's response was swift, even so he was too late as it had already happened. Somehow, Brad had escaped the blood prison which now returned to normal blood, and had pierced Alcor's chest with his arm. Blood leaked from Alcor's mouth, but for a vampire of his level this wasn't a fatal wound. However, all attempts at regeneration stopped when sigils began marking his chest. In addition to the powers brought out by his vision, Brad's sigils had the power to purify curses and poisons, including the curse of immortality which vampires possessed.
In order to finish him off, Brad tried to remove his arm, but then Alcor grabbed him. With his superior strength he was certain that he would be able to shake him off, but in the brief moment before he could, Brad saw the ecstatic expression on his face and felt a sharp pain in his gut. Despite the glowing sigil on his chest, Alcor had pierced him with a finger and created a vortex within his body.
"No...How..?" Brad murmured with eyes wide open in disbelief.
"Oh please, I may not have seen through your friend's disguise, but did you really think I wouldn't realise what sort of being you are after such a battle. You spiritual types are all the same. You may seem invincible but you always let down your guard after using Spirit Form, so I just had to force you into that position."
After a generous explanation, Alcor released Brad and watched him stumble backward. Out of the two of them he looked to be in worse condition, but he soon proved otherwise. Alcor reached into his own gaping wound and removed a small black sphere that sucked up the sigils which had marked him. Once they were gone, he visibly got better while Brad became even more pale.
"Impossi,ble. How can you control it like that?" Brad wondered.
"Well, if this was Dark Magic then you would be right. But I have learnt Abyss Magic so I have full control over these and I can make it devour anything I wish. Including your sigils, and your life."
Just as Alcor pointed out, his sigils were ineffective against the vortex that Alcor had placed inside him. He eventually crumbled down on one knee, with death becoming closer and closer, but Alcor couldn't allow any miracles so he moved in for the finishing blow.
"Any last words?"
"Not, to you."
"Is that so?"
Alcor raised his hand and prepared to decapitate the stubborn man before him, then, splash.
Out of nowhere, a hand had appeared from a crack in space that shattered Alcor into a million pieces, splashing more blood on the floor. From that crack in space, a certain young man appeared.
"Mas...ter."
[******* (Elios)
Race: Forest Dragon's Kin
Strength: 999
Agility: 999
Dexterity: 999
Defence: 999
Innate talent: Laplace
Skills: Assimilation (Unique) | Curse Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Swordsmanship (level 6) (Rare) | Imbue Holy (Common) | Magic Eyes of Perception (Rare) | Fire Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Devotion (Special) | Berserk (Rare) | Hypnosis (Rare) | Forest's Blessing (Special) | Dark Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Necromancy (MAX) (Rare) | Bone Magic (MAX) (Special) | Mana Manipulation (Rare) | Barrier (Rare) | Superspeed Thought Processing (Special) | Drain Touch (Rare) | Dragon Eyes of Truth (Incomplete) (Rare) | Nature Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Dragon Form (Incomplete) (Special) | Regeneration (Special) | Spearmanship (level 6) (Rare) | Riding (Common) | Summon Undead (Rare) | Command (Rare) | Charisma (Special) | Hulk (Special) | Blink (Special) | Permeability (Special) | Master's Touch (Special) | Light Magic (MAX) (Special) | Soul Magic (level 7) (Epic) | Space Magic (level 5) (Epic) | Summoning Magic (level 3) (Special) | Earth Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Wind Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Water Magic (MAX) (Rare) | Etiquette (Common) | Chaos (Sealed) (Special) | Lightning Magic (MAX) (Special) | Life Magic (level 5) (Epic) | Abyss Magic (level 3) (Epic) | Inferno Magic (level 4) (Special) | Divine Will (Restricted) (Epic)
Titles: Heretic | Child of the Sacred Beast | Summit of Strength | Summit of Agility | Summit of Defence | Summit of Dexterity | Teacher | Aberrant | Noble | Strong Parent | Rebel Leader | Peak of Mana | Summit]