"I have to admit, that was dangerous."
As Alcor lowered himself to the floor, he looked back on the two battles. The ascetic was amusing but he couldn't push him very far, however that master of his was different. As a Transcendent, he couldn't be damaged by conventional means so Alcor was forced to enter the pseudo-Divine Will state. The power that he showed was likely just a portion of the whole, but fortunately through the use of Chaos Alcor could finish him off early.
"You were arrogant, that's why you died."
It was disappointing that there was no sample left of him to collect, but Alcor accepted the result and was about to return the room to normal, but then he heard a response.
"Don't kill me off yet."
The True Ancestor flinched and looked at me emerging from the gaping hole with his eyes wide open. Indeed, at fifty-percent fusion Chaos was strong enough to shatter my safe zone and distort space and time. If I hadn't held on to a piece of debris that was nearby, I might have been whisked away to no man's land. As I stepped out of the breach in space, no part of my body was untouched by my blood and my clothes were torn up. Nevertheless, I was still a Transcendent so even the power of chaos that invaded my body was quickly purged. Once that was gone, both my body and clothes went back to normal as if I was never injured to begin with.
While I healed, I saw Alcor's jaw drop as he stayed frozen in place. I might have looked away from his carelessness another time, but definitely not after I had to endure an attack like that. I raised my left hand and closed it as if I was grabbing something with it. At the same time, Alcor's body stiffened even more and shook as if he was resisting an invisible force. Now that I had him in place, I clenched my right fist. He could use Divine Will to cancel my absolute right to attack, but that only meant that my hits could miss. Therefore, as long as I could guarantee that my attack would connect it wouldn't matter. With a simple jab in his direction, Alcor's head was blown off, followed by his arms, then his chest and so on. As I knew he could come back from this, I was merely venting, next was my real attack.
I tightened my left hand again, this time to gather the separate pieces of his body and then slowly applied pressure. The sound of his bones snapping and organs bursting became a continuous pattern that was like music to the ears. Even this was likely not enough to kill him, but as long as I could compress his body for long enough his soul would begin to adapt to the body's new shape. This would make his regeneration useless as he would still be in a compressed state no matter how many times he healed himself.
As I crushed him to the size of a basketball, Alcor kept on resisting with Divine Will but his incomplete power couldn't compete in a direct confrontation like this. Even if he could cancel the pressure for a second, my Power of Transcendence would go back to squeezing him before he could escape this predicament.
"Just peacefully accept your defeat."
With each passing second my victory grew more and more clear, but he was too stubborn to let that happen.
Once again, he used his incomplete Divine Will to interfere with the crushing force for a moment. I thought it was a futile act, that was until I saw a heart fly out from his torn clothes that were on the ground. Unsure of what I was witnessing, I watched the heart fly into him. I doubted that he could still digest anything considering the shape his body was in, but the moment I saw him vibrate, I stepped back and raised my guard up.
He should have been a powerless opponent, but my instincts picked up on potential danger. I quickly acted in order to stop him, but it was too late. From the moment he consumed that heart, it was ready.
A red magic circle appeared in front of the ball of a vampire while six black wings sprouted from his back. As I looked at the magic circle, I recalled a certain ability of True Ancestors. As masters of their bloodline, they were able to borrow the abilities of those who shared their blood, and this wasn't only pertaining to their descendants or even the living.
"Haa!"
With a familiar sensation washing over me, my movements halted while he was unaffected. No, I wasn't frozen in place, I could tell that I was still moving only at extremely snail pace. I quickly came up with the cause of this phenomenon but it wasn't good news.
'Time Magic.'
It was generally put on the same level as Space Magic, but I didn't know anyone in the current Demon Realm who could use it due to the insane difficulty associated. I was sure that Alcor couldn't use it either, therefore he had to have obtained it by eating his heart and borrowing the power of an ancestor. I would've called it unfair if I could move my lips properly, but addressing the wings aiming at me came first.
As I was being slowed down, any action I wanted to take wouldn't make it in time to defend against his attacks. Maybe Dragon Form could resist these wings, but that was also something that took time. I could think normally thanks to Laplace and Superspeed Thought Processing, but I wasn't familiar enough with the Power of Transcendence to break the control of Time Magic.
I spent a little more time pondering, but eventually I gave up. In my current circumstance, I would be defeated by one-sided attacks if I continued fighting like Brad.
'It seems this is my limit. He truly is a strong one, Brad.'
I felt disappointed by myself, but also proud of my familiar. Since even I couldn't beat him despite transcending, then he didn't lose because he was too weak but because Alcor was too strong.
I sent Alcor a look of gratitude before focusing my gaze on the incoming threats. The six wings approached like vicious beasts, but all of them stopped two inches away from my body. Furthermore, freed from the hindrance of Time Magic, I blew on the wings which then quickly crumbled into dust.
"What?!"
Alcor was so shocked that despite only fixing the upper half of his body, he stopped regenerating with his lower half still compressed into a spherical shape. A magician like him had likely realised what I did, but would he be able to accept it? That unlike he who had lived for centuries, a junior like myself had attained Divine Will. However, the power that I showed was incomplete, just like his.
To attain Divine Will, one must achieve the maximum magic capacity that their vessel can accommodate and this was something that I could easily do over time thanks to my unique skill. However, when I eventually filled this body to the brim, I realised that I had a flaw that prevented me from truly attaining Divine Will. Although I had reached the limit of my magic capacity, that was only for the main portion of my soul, not my whole soul. In other words, unless I took back the portions of my soul that I used in making my familiars I wouldn't be able to properly gain the power of Divine Will.
Naturally, I wasn't enthusiastic about following through with that, but after some investigation I confirmed that since my familiars had grown their own power, even without the fragments of my soul they would be fine. They would lose my unique skill and some of my race-specific skills, but besides that little would change beyond a minor drop in their physical stats which would be easy to replenish. Still, I had remained hesitant until now because it felt like something would change between us if I regained my full soul. But now, I had no choice.
'I'll be taking these back guys.'
Like I was tugging on a string, I gently pulled the pieces of my soul out of my familiars and returned them to me. The process only took a few seconds and there was no bright light or explosion to mark its completion, I only felt at peace, as if I had no regrets or worries for the future.
[Conditions have been met. A new title has been unlocked.]
As I indulged in this feeling, I glanced at Alcor who tried to attack again with his repaired body. This had been a hard fight, but it was time to depart.
"You shall not make a move."
Immediately, my command stopped every spell and every action of his. While he could not even shout in surprise, I took a step to appear in front of him and placed my hand on his head.
"Assimilate."
I knew that he would have quite the storage of memories so I sealed them and only took his power. I gained many new skills, titles and most surprisingly,
[Conditions have been met. You may evolve.]
It had been many years, but I could still vividly remember the last time I evolved. I had faith that I would be reborn with a completely different level of power if I went through with this evolution, but it would have to wait. I thought of my castle and prepared to teleport, but for some reason it wouldn't activate.
"Huh?"
And then, right as I began to question myself, I heard a round of applause.
"Hahaha, that was quite the battle. I'm glad I was able to catch a front row seat."
I didn't need to turn around or think about it, the moment I heard those claps the answer was obvious. There was only one person in this capital city who could stay hidden throughout our fight and could cause my hairs to stand up.
'Oh, you have got to be kidding me.'