"What's mana? Surprisingly even ordinary people know about it from video games or fiction of other kinds, even more surprising in some MMO games mana works like the real thing, you go into dungeons, in our case mana zones and you farm, in our case absorb the mana entities you find there, why am I saying all this to you? To understand that mana is the key to life, and it is so present in everyday life that when people tried to create an imaginary world and the most "magical" thing they could think of was their unknown reality, every single piece of the SSS increases the capacity of someone's mana until it eventually becomes unlimited, can you tell me what happens if a human with infinite mana goes against one of the mana spirits? They will win of course, also by being one of the vessels of the golden spirit Luck can become the perfect candidate to become the one that will conquer Skotos, that's why I'm trying to get him to join us! This mana zone belongs to Aurumia so Skotos has no access to here that's why I'm able to tell you this freely, I'm just trying to create a new world not mindlessly destroy this one" Lucifer explained to both Caroline and Gnomon
"A plan like this will never work Lucifer, I have worked for you and the only thing you have ever managed to accomplish is to hurt other people, you are not by any means someone trying to create a perfect world!" Caroline replied
"Plus are you ignoring something Lucifer?" Gnomon asked
"Of course, I'm not..." Lucifer replied with a smile
"Luck was blessed with the Skotos's side of mana but "somehow" became the vessel of Aurumia, so how exactly is he a good candidate, and the irony is that you became the vessel of Skotos while acquiring Aurumia's side of mana" Gnomon said as he too started smiling
Lucifer simply sat down and stared at Gnomon
"How do you know?" Lucifer asked defeated
"When he fought Daniel the way he created a SMZ was by twisting his arms, only people blessed with "dark" mana can do that!" Gnomon explained as he laughed
"You may laugh now but we will see who will laugh at the end"
~Meanwhile inside a SMZ~
"What's the matter? Can't take the heat?" Floga asked as he was pushing Daniel against the hanging cage they both were in
"Who the hell do ya think I am?" Daniel said as he started waving his arms imprecisely
"What are you doing you loser?" Floga asked Daniel as he slammed Daniel's head to the bars of the cage with his foot
At that moment only one thought kept looping in Daniel's head
'A brat that could barely hurt me is now dominating me in this SMZ...'
In a desperate state, Daniel placed his hands together and activated his own SMZ
Suddenly the big hanging cage was surrounded by a turtle's shell
"Ya seem quite happy kid why don't ya humble yaself?" Daniel asked as he drove Floga into a corner after creating a full-bodied armor with his shells
This fight resembled one of a knight versus a dragon, but in this instance, the dragon is the innocent one defending his treasure whereas the knight is a money-hungry knight looking forward to stealing this treasure
"Things are starting to heat up!" Floga said as the fire bellow the cage started burning more aggressively
Even though Floga tried to play it cool he was more limited after every passing second of fighting with Daniel's enhanced power
'Luck won against that?' Floga wondered as he struggled to damage Daniel even after putting his all into his attacks
"What's wrong kid? I thought ya were gonna win!" Daniel yelled as he chased Floga inside the cave like a maniac
This back and forth continued for quite a lot of time before Floga finally noticed something
'Something isn't right...' Floga thought as he dodged one of Daniel's attacks while landing his
"This whole armor thing you have been wearing, it's quite a lot! Don't you feel a bit hot?" Floga asked with a smirk
"So you noticed?" Daniel asked with a smile as he tried to lock his eyes on Floga
No matter what someone does in this SMZ heat can get the best of you, unless a skill cools down the user's body nobody can escape the unbeatable power of fire
"Let's try something else then!" Daniel said with his serious voice as his armor transformed into a big spiky sword
"You must be kidding me..." Floga said with an anxious smile as he prepared for the worst
With no warning Daniel dashed forward making a massive hole in the cage, if Floga hadn't dodged that attack he would have been the one penetrated, after that attack, Daniel swung the sword at Floga who was resting on the top corner further from him
The sword sliced the whole cage up to the point where Floga was, the sword stopped at Floga's ribs
'Damn it, I got caught...' Floga thought as he coughed up blood from the attack
He also fell and was curled up in pain on the floor of the burning cage
"Maybe a limited space wasn't for a stupid kid who flies around like an annoying fly" Daniel said as he supported his weight with the brand-new sword ability he came up
Both SMZs were destroyed in an instant, the battle was over, and Daniel stood victorious over the body of Floga
STAB, STAB, STAB
Daniel looked at his chest and saw three life spears that just hit him from the back, Daniel then turned around to see what only could be described as an anomaly
A smile able to light up everything had transformed into a gaze that could freeze even the strongest of the strong
"What did you do to Floga you, worthless piece of shit!" Destiny said with pure hatred in her voice
"Ya can see for yourself!" Daniel said while pointing at Floga
While doing this Daniel smirked a bit, this small smile was quickly hidden by 8 life spears that pierced Daniel's face
"DIE" Destiny said as she hit Daniel in the stomach with a death spear launching him away
"I wish I had enough mana to create a SMZ but unfortunately for ya, ya will have to die by my hands and not my sword!" The twisted knight said
"That's sad indeed poor you won't have mana to defend yourself against me" Destiny said as she placed her hands together but didn't create a SMZ but she did something as much as impressive
A guardian was created behind her, the starry guardian seemed to hold a big life spear and also had a bird's feather tied up to its head
Daniel tried to attack Destiny but her guardian dashed in front of Destiny and stabbed him multiple times with his spear, draining Daniel of his mana and also weakening him a lot
'A high-level guardian?' Daniel thought as he punched the Guardian sending him meters away
Such a high-level guardian is equivalent to a SMZ for people who use the celestial element
Destiny used a strength and a speed buff on herself and engaged in close-ranged combat with Daniel but still, it wasn't enough
Destiny was able to land some punches but compared to what Daniel's punches did to her, her punches were nothing but a slight pinch but that didn't stop Destiny from giving her all alongside her guardian where after a point they fought together as one
Destiny threw a punch then the Guardian stabbed Daniel, and when the guardian stabbed Daniel Destiny followed up by throwing a punch or two
But as mentioned before it was futile, Destiny had nowhere close to the same power Floga or Daniel had
"I won't lose to you! I have to win and take Floga to a healer or heal him myself! I won't allow someone to die in front of me!" Destiny said as she held onto her Guardian for support
Even standing became a hard task
"That's cute little girl but ya can't win! Give up before I kill ya too!" Daniel said as he breathed heavily, all this weakening from the life spears wore him down too
Destiny then slightly healed herself and created life spears and grabbed them before charging at Daniel
Daniel charged at her too, he tried to punch Destiny but she ducked under his attack, one of her life spears was floating a bit higher than his punch, suddenly the Guardian kicked the spear at Daniel's face and also stabbed him multiple times with its own spear, then Destiny hit Daniel in the ribs and in the end stabbed Daniel in the back with the remaining life spear she was holding
Daniel tried to hit both Destiny and the Guardian but both of them dodged Daniel's attacks
Many spears pierced Daniel after his failed attempt to attack them
"You still have mana to do all that?" Daniel asked as his mana was almost drained from the attacks
Destiny then created a death spear and smiled
"Now my mana is gone!" Destiny said as her Guardian faded away
Destiny gripped the death arrow and charged at Daniel, foolishly Daniel also charged at Destiny not being aware of death's arrow's true power
Destiny and Daniel clashed
Daniel hit the defenseless Destiny in the face with a punch and Destiny managed to stab Daniel in the stomach with the death arrow
BAAAAM
A huge explosion occurred upon impact launching both Destiny and Daniel away
Destiny landed on a bush but even though she was super dizzy she was able to stand victorious
Daniel was completely defeated
CLAP CLAP CLAP
"You fucking did it!" Floga said while clapping
"Your wound!" Destiny said as she tried to rush at Floga but she fell
She had damaged her leg during the fight
"Don't worry I used my fire to close it by burning it, more importantly, are you okay?" Floga asked as she picked Destiny up
"I-I am thank y-you..." Destiny said as she blushed
The dragon was carrying the princess home after defeating the wicked knight... that was the end of this odd fairytale
~Meanwhile inside Risha's SMZ~
Every punch thrown meant that Risha's and Abet's lives were at risk, one wrong step for Risha meant certain death while one slip-off for Abet meant a fatal injury that could result in his death
This SMZ was a gamble
A leap of faith that could bring an end to the fight with a clear winner
"What's wrong? Are you afraid now that we are even?" Risha asked as she pressured Abet with countless of light speed attacks
"Not really! A brat like you could never pressure me!" Abet said as he ducked under one of Risha's punch
He then kicked Risha's leg and prepared a hook that would have hit Risha in the face but thanks to the physical capabilities this SMZ provides to Risha, she dodged the attack and counter-attacked by hitting Abet in the stomach and creating a hole on impact
'Her attack power is no joke! If I let my guard off again she might be able to do real damage!' Abet thought as his stomach started to slowly regenerate
In that one moment, Risha was sure that she had the upper hand so she dashed at Abet and fighting completely offensively, she launched a barrage of attacks toward Abet
The result? A large number of wounds were inflicted on Abet's body with some being quite fatal with the most fatal being Abet's decapitation
"I won..." Risha mumbled as she struggled to breathe
She then tried to wipe the sweat off her face
"Huh?" That's the sound Risha made when her hand was unable to connect with her face
CLANCK
It was a cold sound that Risha's metallic hand made when it crashed to the ground
Suddenly Risha let out a scream of pain, her right hand was completely cut off
"Do you think you can kill someone like me by smashing my head into pieces? I envy your naïve way of thinking, but sadly for you, you can't decapitate something with no clear amount of heads can you? Hercules certainly couldn't!" Abet said as many faces started appearing from all around his body
Out of pure hopelessness, Risha broke her SMZ and both she and Abet returned to Eden's garden
As soon as they reappeared at Lucifer's SMZ Risha started to bleed intensely from her cut-off hand
"I told you it wasn't a good idea!" Kamira said as she tried to heal Risha's hand while being cautious about Abet's next move
"It was bound to happen! A nobody like her shouldn't expect to stand toe to toe with someone like me!" Abet said while most of his wounds were already healed
"First my student then my brother and now my friend... I'm done doing nothing sin of envy, I'm done allowing you to get away with all this! I'm done..." Kamira said as she placed her hands together
In a flash, many stars started to form around Kamira and started to move like moons
Kamira then twisted her hands together and the stars collided with one another creating a dense mass of energy, well-known as a black hole
With no words exchanged Kamira launched the black hole at Abet, destroying half of his body in an instant
The attack caught him completely off guard
"Wha..."
Before he could say another word Kamira created a disk out of the stars she created and sliced the remaining of his body
In a desperate attempt to escape death, Abet ripped his own head off and threw it as strongly as he could in Lucifer's direction
"COME BACK HERE YOU BASTARD THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER! YOU DIDN'T WIN! YOU NEVER WON AGAINST ANYONE YOU COWARDLY TRASH!" Kamira yelled as loud as she could while tears ran down her face
For a moment she visualized a reality where Risha died from him so the mountain of offenses where a reaction to her least desired outcome of the fight
The fights inside the Eden's garden were very intense and life-threatening but they weren't the only ones happening
~In the mean time~
'What the hell happened? Everyone disappeared! This is my father's doing, isn't it? It must be...' Luck thought as he looked around at the now empty cargo ship
At least that's how it appeared at first but after Luck started walking toward the control tower of the ship he spotted many people holding bats and metallic tubes with not-so-nice intentions
"Looks like I have to do my part too!" Luck thought out loud as he got ready to fight outnumbered with no mana
A fight between D E T E R M I N A T I O N and evil was about to start
Who will be victorious in such an unwinnable scenario?