She held her hand to his wound and a purple liquid as cold as Macarthur's ice when he was eleven coated her hand but yet it still managed to be so hot that it cauterized the wound as she whispered in his ear. "My talent in fire excelled and my concept brought the two extremes into balance giving birth to this my flame of the depths."
Regius looked at the amethyst liquid that coated her hands and had cauterized his wounds while it bubbled against his skin. It flowed like water burning him slowly as embers floated off of the liquid-like bubbles underwater but in their talking the one thing Regius had never once told her was how his concept worked so as he stared into her eyes that had squeezed themselves together and formed purple Taiji symbols his concept did what it did best, It ate.
Link had been operating his concept silently gobbling at the wisps of her abilities this entire time and during his beating, he had been twisting them into strands and her pride that matched his own had explained what it could do. He sent Stella Sanguis back into his mana space and applied her concept to all of his Empyrean equipment. He could use all of the elements through his equipment but now he had more than that he knew to perfectly balance them and create his elements. Ashlyne's concept was a meal that mattered second only to the first Astra that Regius had eaten and all at once his possibilities expanded at such a rapid rate it made his head hurt. He touched his hand to her chin and looked her in the eye "Thank you for the meal."
Her eyes widened with alarm and with limited space she sent a palm to his ribs that sent him flying while he digested everything that even the limited contact with her had given him. She had a mana body like his own but better. He had never noticed that his mana broadcasted itself like that until he thought to look after Ashlyne told him during their walk and he was thankful that he had not broken into rank 4. He had been waiting for Macarthur to tell him more and he had almost squandered the opportunity Macarthur had told him that the technique had further levels but he hadn't explored them and wasn't yet comfortable teaching it to the boys but it had to be done while in rank 3. It would have ended all of the progress of his mana body, halting that aspect of his progression with Mana.
An instant after being hit his mana compressed itself into his body and began to rapidly heal his wounds and all at once he shattered thousands of weapons feeding all of the mana that each cell space had gathered and forcing it into his primary mana space into Link and pushing him directly into rank 4 while repairing his Empyrean equipment as it to broke into rank 4.
Regius' talent was monstrous and mana was his life and this moment felt like a second birth. Link flew out of Regius body and into the air before diving into Regius body while all the other cell zones shattered the batteries within themselves and turned into pure mana that purified itself in a trip through his body before coming into his primary mana space firmly pushing him into rank 4 while link executed incomplete spirit fusion and Regius applied the strands of balance to his most powerful creations.
Ashlyne smirked as Regius righted himself in mid-air and skid to a stop with a wide smile on his face as his body began to morph. Silver scales covered his body and Regius looked up and saw that he had broken through during the short window of Dusk when he and Link would be at their most powerful. His only equipment that used Regius scales was Stella Sanguis but the scales always felt dead other than their obscene sharpness but now things were different as he stepped into rank 4. All of Link's scales were tipped in a clear gem that was triangular and capped each scale but they also changed color with Link's forms and in the dusk, they were tipped in a brilliant Amethyst that matched Ashlyne's flames.
They all coated his body forming natural protection while two massive wings burst from his back but they were nothing like Links. They were feathered and dark black with glowing amethyst circles that looked like eyes to Ashlyne and Regius flapped the wings once and they revealed to be exactly that while golden slits opened in them looking like hundreds of dragon eyes staring her down while two curved horns grew out of his head.
Regius's every breath was dragging massive amounts of mana into his body and the world trembled. Regius pulled out Stella Sanguis and saw that the edges of the blade and the scales had come to life there as well with the introduction of balance and breaking into rank 4 and the strand had mixed itself into the blade and formed a string that strung together several golden dots making a constellation in the clear starry zone in the center of the blade that resembled the symbols in Ashlyne's eyes.
The footing was equal now. It would be a while before Regius would be able to replenish his new rank four mana cell zones with new batteries and begin to supercharge himself again but for now, he had to enjoy the rest of this battle that he had gained so much from while he got accustomed to a new body once again. Regius flapped his wings and was in front of Ashlyne in moments. He swung the blade and she would parry his blow and they fought back and forth on land and in the sky, all the while Regius was draining this entire lesser world dry of mana.
They used no spells and purely fought with their weapons while Ashlyne finally created distance and sent a smoldering Regius flying before dropping down on him with an ax kick that sent his feet into the ground. Regius smiled as he freed himself and he used the only balance element that he knew at the time. Stella Sanguis seemed to anguish over what form to choose for itself, it's all water form or all fire one but Regius guided the blade and his love for fire won out and it assumed the form of the fire blade but purple as the eyes on the dragon on either side of the blade had one switch to red while the other switched to blue.
His flame of the depths didn't let out bubbles as hers did but instead dripped off of it like water searing a hole in the ground and going who knows how deep. They both looked each other in the eyes and came to the silent agreement that they would decide the winner and loser with this next attack. Regius charged and became a purple light on the skyline while Ashlyne rapidly spun her harpoon and released purple bubbles that multiplied by the thousands in an instant in front of her. Regius used his wings to avoid a couple of the bubbles but he was losing speed and the Falling Star of Surtr needed speed to reach its maximum power. He decided to charge through a smaller bubble and it exploded on contact wounding him slightly.
He began to cut through the bubbles before they could explode as he combined a mana technique and a Lowe family technique to create the spell Waltz of the Abyssal Star. While Ashlyne called her bubbles, collecting them all on the tip of her harpoon as she executed her spell that concentrated all of these bubbles into a horrific explosive spell she named Depth charge.
The weapons met and while Regius' spell was a sequence of attacks hers was a single explosion of epic magnitude focused into one point and shot forward with a thrust of her harpoon. A person could not wound themselves with their mana but what happened here was that in an instant when the weapons met and the explosion happened Regius Realized that due to the compression it would blast out in waves and so each sequence of his waltz focused on cutting through its weakest part but each explosion could be felt with him partially taking damage from each while Regius was too close for her to avoid the sweeping waves of his blade during his spell and when it ended they both plopped down on the ground covered in blood and panting while their mana worked to fix them.
They reverted to their regular forms and their spirit bodies while they looked at each other exhausted. Regius reached a handover and Ashlyne did the same and they shook hands while they both echoed the same sentiment "Draw"