It was nearly impossible to perceive what was happening between Regashi and Lord Phoenix—the two were practically unstoppable as they exhibited more outputs of strength, speed, and overall power. At one point, Regashi would land a blow that would send the masked lord to one side of the nation, only for Lord Phoenix to bounce back and do the exact same to the brown-haired prince.
It was a relentlessly violent battle.
Regashi was overjoyed to see that Tanjo had prevented the moon from crashing into Earth, adding to the list of surprises and wonders pertaining to the jet-black-haired boy who looked identical to Kenji Ketsueki.
"I never had the honor to see you exemplify such power, Regashi!" Lord Phoenix spouted, keeping himself hoisted in the air via pumping his legs.
The prince grunted with a wince, patting his waist, where he had previously sealed up the hole Lord Phoenix had penetrated earlier in the fight. "There's a reason… warriors must hold back, and you know perfectly why!"
With the two gliding in the air, their fight refused to halt.
Gripping Regashi's neck, the masked lord yelled, "There's a reason those warriors die! The same reason you will too! You're too afraid!"
Repeatedly, Regashi rammed his knuckles into Lord Phoenix's gut, hoping to have his opponent relinquish his old grip on the prince's neck, but to no avail, the masked lord tightened his grip. The two continued to fly through the air, steadily declining in altitude and homing in on the nation's land once more.
"I struggle to believe that I always fell to you! As of now, I preside over you, no longer under your boot!" Lord Phoenix barked through venomous grunts.
Eventually, before Lord Phoenix prepared to slam Regashi's body into the earth below, he reeled back his free hand, his entire fist emanating a brilliant red hue, poised to drive itself into the prince before it.
"Consider our rivalry done, Prince of Furusato!"
*ZING!*
Without warning, a yellow light zipped by, slicing Lord Phoenix's forearm off completely, leaving the masked lord stunned and unable to follow through with the execution of Regashi Ketsueki.
The rivals could see Tanjo lunging through the air, only for the moment to be cut short by the jet-black-haired teen flipping his body in mid-air and punting Lord Phoenix, freeing Regashi and separating them from the masked lord for several kilometers.
"Regashi! Are you still able to heal!?" Tanjo hurriedly queried, his eyes scanning the prince as they fell from the sky.
Regashi nodded, inhaling as his wounds began to seemingly stitch themselves back to normalcy, only leaving the blood that had previously escaped from his lacerations and dried on his skin.
"I would've had a hard time bouncing back from that attack if you didn't stop it from happening!" Regashi revealed, only to grin shortly after. "So, thank you, Tanjo!"
In a flash, a wall of multi-colored tendrils took to the sky, flying outward at velocities comparable to lightspeed, then proceeding to dip down and fly toward Tanjo and Regashi.
Regashi's grin fades. "He keeps learning his new abilities more and more… Now he can harness more than just his typical Aura Sense. Almost like you."
"I'll explain everything about myself later, but we have to survive for that!" Tanjo responded, bracing himself for the incoming tendrils of light.
The prince concurred. "So, any bright ideas to beat this?"
The teenage boy nodded.
"A few."
Unable to sacrifice any more time, Tanjo let his magic flow throughout his entire body—*FWOOSH!*—promptly expelling it in every direction. As the magic that Tanjo had shot out traversed outward, each tendril of light started to burst on the spot, disappearing with huge implosions.
*KABOOOOOOM!*
The size of the implosions from each individual tendril, which presumably varied from one to ten thousand of them, grew to frightening lengths, blanketing the night sky and momentarily making day return before the light diminished and the darkness of the night returned.
"Injecting your own magic into his to make them explode? Not the most sophisticated plan, but definitely not one known to trainees... I'm more willing to survive simply to know who you are!" Regashi spoke, his exuberance making a resurgence for a fraction of a second.
After a few moments, Tanjo and Regashi made contact with the ruined ground of Adonai, recovering their equilibrium swiftly. There were no hints of life on the surface anymore, at least not more than multiple miles from where the two currently stood. Not even the grass that patched up the ground was present; a part of the nation was too torn asunder.
"Hopefully with there being two of us, he'll go down much easier." Regashi stood tall, enjoying the few minutes of being on the ground.
Tanjo hummed and said, "We can't simply overpower him with brute strength or raw power. You're accustomed to such, and it usually works, but these new powers let him manipulate basically everything."
"We need a new tactic, then," Regashi affirmed, "he's still unfamiliar with his powers, but is acquainted with them to the point of being too lethal to act haphazardly."
Tanjo cupped his chin, his eyes glancing downward, pensive. There was only so much to be done. With every fight, Lord Phoenix managed to get a better grasp of his abilities, and his uncanny powers enabled him to alter anything that could be used against him.
So, what could be done?
'Stop being close-minded, Tanjo…' The jet-black-haired boy berated himself, bouncing his right foot incessantly.
Then, Tanjo's eyes broadened. "Maybe we can overwhelm him…"
"Tanjo look out!"
*KRRSH!*
Fresh spikes germinated from underneath, directed toward Tanjo in his blind spots. Heeding Regashi's warning, the teen pushed himself away from the spot where he stood, his feet sliding on the unlevel dirt as he watched the spikes cease their growth upward.
A gloved hand then shot itself into view, belonging to Lord Phoenix. "You are not a part of this!"
*BOOM!*
Surprisingly, a blue beam had departed from the masked lord's palm, different from his usual red Aura Sense. He was learning.
The blue beam, intended to harbor more potential for causing devastating damage than a red beam—*KABOOM!*—successfully wiped out the land behind where Tanjo had been residing, with the winds that spawned from the explosion lifting even more of the earth and even purging what clouds had remained up above.
Unsuspected by Lord Phoenix, Tanjo flickered back into view behind the masked lord by utilizing his enhanced speed and boldly lunging forward with his hand open, attempting to link his hand to Lord Phoenix's body when he least expected it.
Unfortunately, Lord Phoenix figured out what was occurring, his eyes widening.
"Got you!" Tanjo hollered, biting his tongue in anticipation.
However, Tanjo's hand phased straight through the masked lord's body as if he were made of nothing but air. Soon after, the teenager's body slipped through as well, tumbling to the ground in shock.
"Would you look at that: the boy nearly caught me off guard. Though, I wonder what your plan was in the first place." Lord Phoenix mocked the jet-black-haired boy, glaring at him intensely.
Tanjo stared at the ground, his mind failing to register what had just happened. He was no longer able to even touch Lord Phoenix; how could they win now? Tanjo and Regashi were met with every disadvantage possible, or it felt like they had been. The masked lord obtained every Aura Sense, which was much like Tanjo's Aura Amalgamation; Lord Phoenix could also manipulate anything tangible, and he could now allow attacks to slip through his body, leaving him unscathed.
"Hrng!"
With a single hand, Lord Phoenix made Tanjo levitate in the air, preventing the boy's body from making any movement. He was trapped and bound to die.
"Hey! As you said, he isn't a part of this fight!" Regashi screamed, dashing forward.
Even Regashi's attacks were fruitless, permeating through Lord Phoenix. Punching empty space was as beneficial as trying to harm the masked lord as of now. No matter what the brown-haired prince did, he could not save Tanjo from Lord Phoenix's invisible grasp.
"I'll be with you in a moment, Regashi. I'm merely exterminating this nuisance!" Lord Phoenix claimed, positioning his gloved fingers to snap.
Tanjo knew that he would most likely not survive what the masked lord's snap would cause. Although the boy still pushed for freedom, bracing for an imminent death was the only logical response to this precarious situation.
Just as Tanjo clamped his eyes shut, a feminine voice reached his ears.
XXX
"Look at you—can't tell if you want to give up or still fight."
Opening his eyes, Tanjo saw nothing but distant stars and galaxies. Oddly, the boy also felt less confined than before, able to move his limbs without struggle. It was obvious that he was transported, and it looked similar to where Kronos had brought him back when Tanjo first met the God of Time—but the feminine voice he heard a second ago was not Kronos'.
"I want you to tell me if you want to give up or not." The feminine voice rang out once more.
It was Aphrodite, Tanjo concluded. The goddess that had greeted him back in Shanti when he was blinded by anger due to the terrorists that threatened to bomb hundreds if not thousands of people
She still looked the same, with luscious brown hair and an excellent white dress.
Tanjo exhaled. "You're either here to save me or tell me how I failed."
"We've already established that I cannot purposely slow down your progression toward becoming stronger, but if I were to let you resume your painful death from Lord Phoenix, then I couldn't be blamed." Aphrodite stated, smirking confidently.
The boy frowned. "Then what do you want?"
"Your word." The goddess answered simply.
"My word?" Tanjo inquired, "Like, a promise?"
Aphrodite hummed, gleefully smiling. "Yup!"
"And that promise is?" Tanjo asked, perplexed.
"That you will never die." Aphrodite unveiled, folding her arms behind her back.
Silence surrounded the two, leaving Tanjo to become stupefied and try to mentally reason about the goddess' request.
Tanjo parted his lips to speak: "I certainly don't plan to die, but I can't control what's out of my reach—and currently I'm referring to Lord Phoenix."
"That's where I can help!" The goddess proclaimed happily. "But, I need you to accept my request!"
The jet-black-haired boy was silent, hesitantly replying, "I can promise that I will fight to live, but beyond that, the future is the future."
"The future always changes, Tanjo. You don't need to be Kronos to know that." Aphrodite rationalized, closing her eyes gently.
Tanjo reflected on the request given to him by the goddess, his eyes wandering around the abyss of space around him. It was true: the future is in a permanent state of change; every second, the future is altered. One decision after another—even the God of Time is wishing to build a better future.
And that's why Tanjo was in the alternate universe.
"Fine. I promise. I will never die, not until I have done my part and succeeded." Tanjo abruptly promised, his eyes meeting the goddess'.
Aphrodite smiled. "Good, because Kronos had tasked me with not letting you die in any circumstance anyways!"
"I figured as much." Tanjo sighed exasperatingly.
The brown-haired goddess pouted. "You did not!"
"Trying to help me whenever I'm about to ruin something, namely Kronos' work of wanting to build the future? Letting me die while you sit idly by would definitely be included as something that would anger Kronos." Tanjo informed the goddess lamely.
Aphrodite was temporarily quiet. "I'm starting to both hate and adore you, but don't push it."
"How do you plan to help me, by the way?" Tanjo questioned, "you can't exactly show yourself like Kronos accidentally did."
The goddess chuckled. "Well, when I bring you back to your fight on Earth, I want you to pour everything you have into breaking free, and you'll see how I'll help!"
"I feel like this is cheating." Tanjo said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Aphrodite smiled brightly. "Tanjo, almost everyone you've fought so far has advantages of their own, a ton of them having god-like potential—my help will just be… balancing it out!"
"If you say so." Tanjo accepted the answer."
XXX
With the blink of an eye, Tanjo was instantly placed back on Earth and returned to being restrained by Lord Phoenix's invisible clutches. The boy missed the feeling of being free again, but the goddess' words were well retained in Tanjo's head.
'Now I just have to try to escape with everything I have!'
Despite being unable to do something as small as clench his fists, Tanjo's body began to shake erratically as he tried to force himself away from the transparent barrier that seized his entire body. After a few seconds, the teenage boy's body began to feel strange, a foreign power fusing itself with his soul.
'Come on…!'
*KRRSSHH!*
Unexpectedly, blue fissures in the space around Tanjo appeared, lightning-like ripples stretching throughout the vicinity wildly and seemingly shattering the hold Lord Phoenix had on the teenage boy.
"What is with this boy!?" Lord Phoenix roared, his yellow eyes glowing heatedly.
With his feet back on the ground, Tanjo looked around, eyeing the floating fissures that assisted him in being free. What were they? What could they do? What did this change? Whatever they were, Tanjo still had no time to lose, especially now since he had made an important promise to Aphrodite.
"The only one dying here today is you, Lord Phoenix!" Tanjo asserted with newfound confidence.
XXX
Oh no! A cliché moment in a story where the protagonist is given a powerful ability! Whatever will happen next!? Now, don't get me wrong, but I am not the biggest fan of those types of moments, especially when the main character in those stories hardly work for their new powers, but almost every person Tanjo has fought, or just everyone else in the novel, has powers that literally turn them into gods amongst men! Tanjo, despite having the Aura Amalgamation, still struggles quite often and he works quite hard to reach his ambitions. Trust me when I say this: Tanjo's new power will not make him overpowered unless he strives to be stronger, which also goes for any character in the novel(hint-hint.) What will happen next? Stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_