With the swish of a hand, Alcor summoned deep black claws that reached after me. It was easy to mistake this for Dark Magic, but I knew better. As Abyss Magic was an Epic magic skill it could actually scratch me, but it still wasn't enough.
For the first time, I raised my hand to defend against this attack. With a single jab, the ominous hands were destroyed and replaced by thin threads that tried to restrict me. Now that he was serious, I could possibly take damage, but fighting like Brad didn't mean simply enduring these attacks. It was also about smashing through them.
With a low-effort hop, I reached above Alcor and flung my leg down. He tried to escape with Blink but it was no use. The moment I started my attack, it was destined to reach its target.
"Kuh!"
He managed to teleport but Alcor's head was still easily separated from his body, even so, that didn't stop him from his next spell. He opened his mouth wide and everything around us seemed to be sucked into it. Soon there was no light, heat, or even space. It was as if I was sent into the void itself. If my guess was correct, this was an intricate spell that should capture me and then degrade my body into nothingness. I could feel myself being worn down so it was no doubt a terrifying technique. I would probably die if I stayed here for approximately a millennium or so.
"It's not bad but,"
It was well done, but even this powerful spell broke under the might of my fist. With a single punch, the emptiness was shattered and I was returned to the endless room that was stained by blood.
"Tch, you've actually broken the limit."
Alcor's fatigue showed from his heaving chest, but the truth probably hit him harder.
"Finally acknowledging it, huh? I won't let you surrender though."
'You gave up that chance yourself.'
He couldn't hide his fear from me, but it didn't seem like he gave up yet. In fact, he chuckled.
"No, this is fine. Finally! I have the chance to test this ability against a Transcendent!"
With that roar of excitement, Alcor opened his mouth and created a suction force with abyss magic again, but this time he was targeting something specific. The mana and dead souls in our surroundings were sucked towards him at a vigorous pace as the change began. Normally I would interrupt him or place a curse in the mana, but considering Brad's personality I chose to generously wait for him to finish transforming.
There was no apparent change as he gobbled up the mana and dead souls, but I could sense the change to his soul. As if his soul had become a vacuum, it sucked everything up while compressing it until it could be compressed no further. Once he had his fill, Alcor closed his mouth with a satisfied expression. Looking at his soul which was at the brink of saturation, I figured out what he was trying to do.
"What a sloppy method."
"Kukuku, I won't disagree, but I believe the ends justify the means."
His appearance was the same, but anyone who looked at him and thought that he hadn't changed was worse than an amateur. It was forced, but he had managed to reach the limit of his magic capacity and had taken a qualitative step in his mana control.
Attaining the limit in magic capacity was incomparable to with physical stats, both in difficulty and in power. Now that he had forcefully achieved this status, he could now borrow the power of Divine Will and stand on the same playing field as Transcendents like myself.
As Alcor used this power to float in the air, I thought about using my Dragon Form, but decided not to.
'I still have more to bring out.'
Instead, I rolled up my sleeves and clenched my fists. It was now time for round two.
I started off this round with a lightning quick jab, to which Alcor said this.
"You shall not reach me."
I felt that he was being too arrogant but like we both expected, the absolute right to attack I had as a Transcendent of Strength, was cancelled by his Divine Will. Furthermore, he wasted no time in raining down several types of offensive magic on me. I had started getting used to simply ignoring such basic spells, but as they were imbued with Divine Will they also held the power to break through the safe zone right I received as a Transcendent of Defence. It would be a little difficult to dodge or block all of the incoming spells, but I didn't need to worry. Yes Divine Will was powerful, but he could only cancel the most basic rights of Transcendents. Granted, it would take time to master my new Transcendent abilities, but with Laplace that time was cut short.
I dropped my hands and allowed them to hang loosely before I slowly raised my right hand while deeply inhaling. Then, once my hand was at my chest and the spells were only a couple feet away, I pushed out my palm with a sharp exhale. All of the spells aiming at me collided with an invisible wall. Although he had Divine Will, a fake like him wasn't on my level.
I thought he would be more shaken, but Alcor only squinted his brows at the scene.
"I admit that you're a very strong opponent, so why don't you have a taste of my unique magic?"
Subsequently, ten feet long blood-red wings sprouted from his back two by two. Each wing had ominous eyes with black pupils and for some reason I felt like I could hear their screams. As I looked at his twelve wings, I could see that they were made of blood magic, abyss magic and curses. It seemed like an interesting concept but I didn't see how this would change anything.
"Come."
At my taunt, the twelve wings stretched like rubber and attacked furiously, but I knocked them back with a barrage of fists. Eventually, he grew tired of this stalemate and retracted his wings. Then, he transformed two into wide-mouthed snakes that leaped to devour me while creating a dome around me with his other wings which fired beams from all angles. I couldn't punch in two directions at the same time, however it was easy for me to come up with a way to defend from every direction.
I stomped with my right foot, entered the horse stance and clasped my hands. I then imagined bending space to my will and traced a circle in the air by carefully swinging my right hand above me to the right and my left hand below it to the left. Once the circle was complete, I laid my left palm on top of my right palm and completed the technique.
His magic blocked my sight, but not a single attack was able to breach the reinforced safe zone I made. I wouldn't be able to do the same thing with spatial magic since abyss magic could devour space as well, but the Power of Transcendence allowed me to create a truly impenetrable barrier. I thought that I could peacefully wait for him to change tactics, but then I sensed a change in the magic he was using. He detached a pair of wings, but this time one was white and the other was black. I needed no other clue to realise what he was trying to do. If it was on the same level as what I was used to then there would be no problem, but if he could completely fuse them through Divine Will...
'This might be dangerous.'
I thought about dodging but the wings were too fast. In an instant, the two wings intersected right before my eyes. When they made contact, the two wings combined into a grey orb of dazzling light. Thankfully the light became chaotic around halfway, but I knew the devastation would still be unbelievably immense. I didn't like the idea of facing that at such a close range, but once I remembered Brad I gritted my teeth.
"Bring it!"
The orb expanded to gigantic size before bursting like a balloon. The sound alone could shatter eardrums from a mile away, while the blast itself ruptured both space and time. No one could tell how long the blast actually went on for, but like a few panels were missing from a comic, one moment there was a bright light and the next moment there was only a gaping hole in space that slowly mended itself. Alcor had escaped the blast by teleporting away ahead of time and looked at the devastation with satisfaction. He was certain that he could no longer sense the presence of his opponent.