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In front of me, something truly insane was happening, something that even I couldn't believe. The grumpy dragon that never dared to become my familiar was now helping me out of all things! But why now?! You really took your sweet time!
Just when I was at the edge of despair, he had to appear and save me… really? Ugh…
"Sorry for the wait!" he said arrogantly. Deep down I felt like strangling him for not wanting to show up earlier. In fact, if he appeared earlier, we could have perhaps stopped the death of Leviathan!
Then again, it's not like he cared about him, nor did he know him… Ignatius had his eyes fixated on Hell as he flew towards the giant skeleton, beginning to bathe him with his deadly flames, burning through his entire body. In response, the skeleton groaned in pain.
While Ignatius was attacking, the System was doing something absolutely desperate, risking her own life and her entire structure as she infused herself with all the Mana I had, using herself as the pillar to all the pressure instead of my soul. This effectively stopped putting pressure on my soul, however, that meant she was receive tons of damage all around her body. She was gaining even more glitches than ever before, groaning in agony. But even through all that, she never faltered.
She was doing this for me… while I was a sitting duck here, already technically dead…
System…
"ROOOOAARRR!"
"Y-you damn lizard!"
Ignatius absorbed all of this endless mana, growing bigger and bigger to the point he dwarfed the gigantic black specter, beginning to crush him using his massive blazing body while bathing him with "dragon flames", flames that seemed to be different from normal fire.
BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOOM!!!
He used his gigantic blazing limbs to push Hell into the ground while his breath constantly put deadly pressure over the Lord of Death. On the other hand, Hell used his shadows and darkness, fueled by the fragment of the Demon King, to fight back, devouring Ignatius' flames as he put pressure on the dragon in exchange.
Ignatius was way weaker than Leviathan, but because he was getting all this mana nonstop, he was growing stronger and stronger every single second. But then… how long can the System keep this up?! She's gonna break at any moment and shatter away! If she dies… what can we do? What will I do? I cannot let my friend die that way!
I feel so powerless in this situation… I feel so useless… I've done everything I possibly could, yet… yet, we're still struggling so much.
"Come on… Ignatius, give it everything you have!!!"
I shouted with all my soul, to which Ignatius roared angrily in response.
"ROOOOOAARRR! SYLPH!" he cried. The darkness and death consuming him was purified by his flames, pushing through, quickly turning it all into ashes!
"Nnnggh…! H-How do you have so much goddamn mana?! T-This is ridiculous! But even with all this fuel, you lack total power to defeat a being such as myself!!!" Hell shouted in response. With all the might of his darkness and death, he began to overwhelm Ignatius as both suddenly entered into a stalemate!
BOOOOMMM!!!
Flames against darkness, the spectacle before me was that of pure catastrophe…!
"Nnngh… T-This isn't enough…!" Ignatius murmured. Although he had all the energy he could get, his power still wasn't enough! Without properly having cultivated magic power, he could only get this far…
"Come on… Ignatius… System… Ah, Naturia! Wake up! Please!"
At this moment, I sensed Naturia sleeping inside my soul. As she suddenly heard my call, the System infused Mana into her as well, agonizingly crying in pain in the process.
"Naturia!!!"
"FOO!"
Naturia suddenly opened her eyes wide, flashing with bright yellow and green light as she rushed outside my soul, only to… reach Ignatius!
"Y-You?!"
Ignatius was suddenly embraced by the power of Naturia as something I never thought could happen at all… happened!
The two… fused?!
"Unnggh…! Agghh! T-This power! This overwhelming power…!" Ignatius exclaimed. Through their fusion, his entire body began to grow even larger as life and nature merged with his flames. Eventually, his flames turned… golden!
"W-What is this?!" Hell cried in utter disbelief! Then again, I wouldn't blame him. After all, I was just as shocked as him!
Soon, Ignatius' entire body began to grow larger and more majestic, as if the design of his draconic scales turned into a majestic armor made of gold. In fact, his entire body received this treatment as well. His claws became golden while his head gained a golden helmet. His wings spread out, covered in golden flames…
It exuded the strong power of Life and Fire the most, with Nature encompassing all of it to form a wonderful combination.
The golden flames began to eat into the darkness, devouring and burning it all with a bit more ease than normal fire.
Surprisingly, even though they didn't seem that amazing, Hell cried the loudest when he touched them.
"GRYYYYYAAAAAAGGGH…! Y-You damn lizard! Y-You've fused with a spirit and acquired such power…?! T-These are… Flames of Life! It can't be… t-this is absolutely impossible!" he roared.
"Oh, you better believe it!!!" roared Ignatius in response as his entire body began to pummel Hell into the ground, pushing through with enormous fists, kicks, whips, and bites, all with the goal of tearing down the darkness within this specter!
CLASH! CLASH! CRASH! CRASH! BOOOMM!!!
His golden flaming claws slashed through the darkness, consuming it with great haste!
Because of that, Hell's darkness and death couldn't keep up with it as he began to falter. Soon, he felt weakened. Eventually, he started to move back…
He seemed… fearful?
While that was happening, Ignatius didn't give Hell a break as he continued to fight arduously. After all, the darkness and death of Hell was tremendous, at a completely different level even. Yet somehow, he was pushing through…
At this point, I could finally sense it. The fusion between Ignatius and Naturia… it was glorious.
I could sense that their minds were aligned, as well as their thoughts. They were working together despite how incompatible they were with one another, all for me…
The System continued to supply them with mana as she began to weaken further. They only had a bit more time before the system were to weaken too much… to the point she wouldn't be able to push more mana…
"GROAARR!"
Soon, a massive blast of golden flames consumed Hell…
BOOOMM!!!
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