I slowly descended onto the ground, landing next to Katrina and helping her up.
"Are you alright?" I asked her and lent her a hand. Katrina gazed at me and nodded before taking my hand.
"Good, go rest, I'll take it from here."
"Wait… wait! You can't do that!" Deroc yelled but I had already brought Katrina to the girls before appearing in front of him.
"Do what?"
Instinctively, he jumped back and retrieved his sword. He glared at me and inspected me from head to toe before spotting the sword I had strapped to my waist.
"You dare interfere with my duel!?" He yelled, pointing the end of his blade towards me.
"Interfere? Well, you can say that was one of my intentions, but that is not the main reason why I am here."
"Then what is it?"
"I've come to make you suffer."
A moment of silence struck the field before Deroc burst into laughter. He laughed and laughed, palming his face in disappointment.
"You say that, but you've already lost once to me. Why, why is it that weaklings always declare they can win against someone that is clearly more superior than them? I don't seem to understand. Is it because you want to feel pitiful after you fail miserably? Flaunt your overconfidence? Or maybe you just want to make an excessively high opinion of yourself so you don't taint yourself with woe. I understand if you deem your own ego as high as others, but don't you think you should keep it to yourself? You see, commoners like you should know your place… and that… is to bow at the feet of your superior!"
WHAM!!
Immediately, I cut the distance between us and delivered a sharp, heavy kick across his face. I didn't stop there. As an addition, I slammed his face into the ground before kicking him away with a Distorted Kick.
He stumbled and rolled across the ground, dust kicking everywhere.
"Heh, sorry about that but you were wide open. I expected you to say something meaningful, but I didn't think you would start monologuing about your own superiority, so I decided to kick you across the face instead."
I then beckoned him to come at me.
"Now then, if you want me groveling at your feet and licking your boot, then you're gonna have to force me to my knees, or to make it easier, you can just try and kill me. Don't be alarmed, I won't kill you, but I will shut that obnoxiously loud mouth of yours."
Deroc slowly got up from the ground and onto his feet, his head still facing the ground.
"Aww, what's wrong? Did tarnishing that princely face of yours with the sole of my boot hurt your feelings?"
"Disrespectful ingrate, you won't have the chance to hurl insults AFTER I KILL YOU!!"
Deroc lunged towards me and swung his sword horizontally. I quickly ducked and struck his stomach with a Distorted Fist.
Somehow he didn't seem affected and quickly got a hold of my arm, attempting to drive his blade through it.
Quickly, I drew my blade and parried it before delivering a kick to the side of his hip, launching him away. As he flew away from me, I swung Caustic Blue, launching Lapis Lotus towards him.
"You arrogant bastard!" He yelled as his body was wrapped in light and entered his Altima form. He swiftly evaded my projectiles and shot straight towards me.
I dispersed Caustic Blue and activated Rebellious Shield before dashing forward and clashing with him. We began barraging each other with kicks and punches. I managed to damage him by hitting where he couldn't defend and blocking his every attack. Normally, when I collide with anything with divine energy, I would be damaged in return but due to the nature of Rebellious Shield, I was able to nullify the divine energy that is supposedly supposed to damage me.
As we continued to clash, I quickly stepped to the side after he performed a massively telegraphed punch, which I evaded. I then kicked Deroc into the air and barraged him with a couple of Distorted Fists, launching him further up into the air.
Teleporting above him, I would then hammer him towards the ground. As he plummeted, I caught up with him and snatched his face while accelerating myself using Cursed White Arts, speeding the plummeting process even further.
As we neared the ground, I dragged him in front of me and he crashed into the ground instead of the both of us. I pinned him to the ground and grabbed onto one of his arms before breaking it.
"AA-!!" Deroc screamed but he was cut off as I shoved his face into the ground.
"What's wrong? Is this all the power the Altima has to offer? Last time you were able to catch up with my speed and even managed to counter me with my own attacks. Did your senses degenerate after you drowned in your own arrogance for beating a commoner like me?"
"Pesky swine… I'll make you regret being so pretentious!"
Suddenly, I was blown away by a wave of divine energy that had shot out from his body.
As I skidded away, Deroc appeared above me and attempted to plunge his sword through my body but I quickly evade and kicked it away. Then I bombarded him with Scarlet Shots before I slammed him away with Total Oppression.
"Hmph, boring… I'm not entertained…"
I turned to his sword before using Telekinesis to toss it towards the bleachers.
"You say you are good with the sword. Let's see how good you are without it now." I taunted as Deroc rose from the ground.
"Fool… I don't need the sword to kill you."
Suddenly, his body was wrapped around in divine energy, except I felt a malicious feeling corrupt the atmosphere.
That's when Deroc's body began to bulge and grow bigger. He began to sprout torn wings, his arms grew longer and bestial-like, and his legs growing more muscular and turning into large bird talons. His armor shattered, revealing the rest of his feathers, and the mask on his face also broke, revealing a beak with cracks on it. He was at least almost triple my size.
"What the hell?" I said, stunned by what I was witnessing.
'Watch out, Nero. He's turned into a Primal!' I heard Celestia's voice reverberate in my mind.
Primal? What is that?
'It is a desperate state Altima users enter when they are in dire need of strength. You having the upper hand must've begun to hurt his pride and cause him to go Primal. He will now be drowning in his own pride and wrath because of your interference. From here, you need to be careful of his attacks for he will be extremely powerful, powerful enough to shatter your entire body.'
Hmph, well I'd like to see him try.
"You low-life trash!" Deroc began to yell. "You just had to come in and interrupt the duel I would've won! You fucker! I could've had her all to myself! Then I could use her to satisfy whatever desires I've always wanted! I would've been finally satisfied!"
"So you just wanted her so you could make her your slave?"
"Precisely yes. Who wouldn't want to make such a beauty like her a slave? I could've but you just had to barge in and rob me of my prize!"
"It's a good thing I did it then. No one should have someone like you to be their partner!"
"You… are no better!!"
Deroc stomped his way towards me and threw his fist towards me. I quickly dodged as I had noticed his speed had decreased and begun barraging him with countless Distorted Fists and Kicks.
"What's wrong? Did you become an ugly duckling and sacrifice your speed just so you could become my punching bag!?"
"Mongrel! I am the embodiment of perfection!" He proclaimed before throwing another massively telegraphed fist. I dodged and struck him directly in the abdomen before kneeing his chin. As I flipped backward, I grabbed the handle of my blade and threw it towards him, boosting its speed with Oppression.
Deroc quickly looked up and grabbed ahold of the blade. He attempted to crush it, but when he looked at it again, it didn't break.
"You're wide open!" I yelled as I kicked him across the beak, chipping a few pieces off.
"Idiot, you fell into my trap!" He yelled before clutching my leg and slamming me into the ground.
"Ack!"
I stared at Deroc before I notice him driving my sword towards my chest. I managed to catch it before he plunged it through my heart.
Crap, he's grown immensely strong! He's like a god damn compression machine!
I equipped Osiris to give myself a strength boost. I attempted to use Rebellious Shield but as it was in the process of forming, my hands slipped and the sword had pierced my heart. I grabbed onto it and attempted to pull it out, but it was no use.
"Impudent fool, you thought you could fool me? Just because you wrapped an Altima sword around with black bandages doesn't mean you've won."
That's when he began to pour divine energy through the sword. The feeling I was experiencing was as if my entire body was bathing in lava.
"This was your own downfall. You are not worthy of possessing the Altima. You wield darkness, so you could never even host such power even if you were worthy of it! Give up while you can!"
I could feel my strength seeping away and my vision blurring until I was in a sea of black.
"Huh?"
[I dragged your consciousness into your soul... For now, everything on the surface has stopped...]
I turned and Yukie was standing up, looking at a light that was dyed either blue or purple... if I remember, the color is called indigo.
[When I return your consciousness to the surface, you will let go and let the sword pierce you thoroughly...]
I noticed her voice was different, and quickly realized it was Seffirot talking.
"What happens if I let go?" I asked him.
[When you do, this light which is the divine energy from the Altima sword will pierce the barrier keeping the Satanic energy at bay and a few of your astral chains will break, but not all of them... When that happens, your soul and its soul will merge together, or to be specific, you absorb the soul and it will become a part of you...]
"What do you mean by that?"
[Remember what I said about Satanic energy originating from Asuras? Asuras naturally develop the ability to resist divine energy and manipulate it, so when you absorb the divine energy of the Altima and the Altima itself, you automatically gain the ability to wield divine energy...]
"I see. That is useful."
[When you trigger your Altima for the first time, you will receive new abilities, new strength, and you will also become a different variant of the Altima...]
"What? What variant?"
[That is all I can say for now... I hope you remember what to do...]
And then my consciousness returned to a large beastly bird, pushing my sword towards me.
"Give up... you lost..." Deroc said, but I just smiled.
"No, you lost..." I replied, letting go of the sword blade and letting the sword pierce me fully.
At that same time, I felt something shatter inside me and an overwhelming sinister feeling coursed through my body.
"Idiot... do you not know the last way to obtain the Altima?" I replied, slowly pushing myself off the ground with the sword still in my chest.
"I'd like to thank you, for helping me obtain Altima."
And then there was a bright flash, mixed in with an eerie aura.
.
.
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