'Good news.' I said.
'Well the good news is, I don't think the demon in front of us has merged with any beast core and have completely severed his ties with world mana.' Merlin said.
'You are telling me that he has become this strong without relying on mana, which can only mean….' I said but stopped mid-sentence understanding the severity of situation.
'He is an 'Aura master'.' Merlin completed my sentence and confirmed my hypothesis.
If I have to describe my most hellish experience while fighting in the sea of consciousness, than without a doubt, it was to fight against an aura master and aura grandmaster.
I was somehow able to deal with aura master but a mere touch of an aura grandmaster was enough to melt me.
Fortunately and unfortunately the opponent in front of me was an aura master and with this revelation, my chances of winning reduced by a huge margin.
'Whatever you do, just don't let him get a hold of you.' Merlin said.
Aura was a force existing on this planet since ancient times, when native of this planet didn't knew how to merge with beast cores or wield mana efficiently.
But when a person called meeker founded a way for human and demons to merge with beast core all races switched from learning aura arts to mana spells, which was more versatile and had many uses.
In later days people discovered further physiques, from transformation physique to mithril physique and only handful of people remained in the world who tried to master the aura and thus this two co-existing forces became highly archaic.
Normal aura users can only wield the aura possessed in their bodies but an aura master can freely absorb and manipulate aura present in its surrounding.
There hasn't been a single case in history when a person who has opted the path of mana has become aura master and thus I had dropped the idea of becoming an aura master long ago.
An aura master is an existence who has transcended the physical and spiritual limits of their mortal body; they are the powerhouses whose existence can be compared with the people, who have completed their immortal physique.
And I have to kill such a person when I haven't even completed my transformation physique.
I was panicking this much because I will face many problems in the upcoming fight such as in order to resist the aura of demon jabel from harming me, I will have to use huge amount of mana and whenever his aura touches me, it will burn my mana reserve faster than I could recover.
It takes at least 2.5 hours for my 5 million units of mana reserve to get full, which means I have to defeat the demon jabel with the current mana reserves I had.
It was annoying to deal with aura user because if my mana is weaker than his aura, he just needs to hold me in place until his aura eats away my mana and I will not have anyway of fighting him.
'But think on the bright side, if you manage to kill him, you will gain the aura equal to millions of units.' Merlin tried to hook me but even if I absorb his aura after killing him, I will not be able to use it anyway as my aura control is non-existing.
'Let's think about that later.' I said imbuing huge amount of mana into Ether sword.
The thick black aura covered both his fists and every ounce of energy in my body warned me, not to approach the entity in front of me but fighting against my instinct I activated my trump card.
[Hybrid draconic transformation]
The disguise mask from my face fell and my body started to change into a human dragon hybrid.
Suddenly the demon's expression became ugly and my body was filled with unparalleled hatred I never knew I had.
'Dragons are the beings loved by mana and aura is his natural enemy therefore your mana attack will have enhanced destructive capabilities but he will also get a boost while fighting against you.' Merlin said to me.
"A dragon, I don't think I need the core of those rank 12 beasts anymore." The demon jabel said charging in my direction but soon he stopped in his tracks and looked behind from where he has heard a scream.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….." The unconscious demon Makia woke up and started to scream like a madman while his body twitched uncontrollably.
The demon makia was screaming because when I pierced his chest with Ether sword, I had left some particles of Ether inside his body, which had reached his heart remaining dormant there for my further instruction.
Before demon jabel could charge at me, I willed the Ether particles to extract his aura which was a painful process because it was akin to piercing the body of a person with hundreds of thousands of small needles.
I charged at the demon jabel while he was distracted but sensing my approach he manifested 6 wolves like creature made out of pure black aura to distract me while he examined makia's body.
'It won't do.' I said in my mind and prepared my own powerful magic spell which would help me defeat demon jabel but needed 15 seconds to prepare.
The creatures, which jabel has created to attack me disappeared by single slash of my sword but he kept sending more and more different aura creatures to attack me while he examined demon makia's body.
"You two seem close." I said as I slashed last remaining creature with Ether sword and charged toward jabel.
"I am warning you, if it is you're doing, stop it this instance and I will spare your life." The demon jabel said without looking in my direction.
He placed his hand on the chest of demon makia where I have pierced him with Ether sword and some of the black aura entered the body of makia.
I felt some other force resisting the aura absorption of Ether particle but soon the black aura was also swallowed by the Ether particles resting inside demon makia's body.
"That foreign entity in my son's body, that is your sword isn't it bastard, halt his moment this instance, or I will torture you to the point you will beg me to kill you." Demon jabel shouted seeing his son agonize in front of him.
I was few meter away from him but hundreds of aura filled black weapon assaulted me stopping my momentum but at the same time my magic spell was also ready.
[Lightning domain]
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[Skills: Lightning magic spell]
[Name: Lightning Domain]
[Rank: 8]
[Description: Host can create an invincible lightning domain of mana, which will continuously rain down higher tier lightning attacks using host's mana on the entity host wishes, the domain cannot be breached until host's mana reserve has been exhausted or host has died.
Additional mana will be consumed if the opponent inflicts damage on the lightning barrier.
Mana recovery of host will be doubled while host is within the lightning domain.
The rank of all lightning spell will increase by 1 rank]
[Mana Cost: 6, 00,000]
[Fate point: 1,500]
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The [Lightning Domain] was 150 meter huge and engrossed many structure and two demons present near me.
The atmosphere around us changed as we were surrounded by a thick layer of golden lightning as the mana surrounding us became unstable disintegrating everything into nothingness.
The demon jabel was still infusing his black aura inside the body of Makia trying to expel the ether paticles but it didn't work and soon Ether from makia's body returned to me changing into sand particles merging with Ether sword.
[Aura: +35,000]
"Noooooooooo." Demon jabel stopped infusing his aura as he sensed the foreign entity leave his son's body and his son took his last breath.
He turned toward me releasing his intense killing intent then examined the golden cage I had created.
The power of [Lightning domain] must be equal to a rank 10 spell which would be enough to restrict his movements, those annoying aura creatures and attacks, let's test how effective my mana attacks are against this aura master.
I thought and charged toward the demon jabel while preparing a rank 6 sword art [Soul slash] enhanced with my draconic physique and lightning mana.
"Don't underestimate me you little monster." The demon jabel said and charged at me as he launched himself from distance and appeared in front of me aiming his aura filled fist on my face but ignoring his attack I used the sword attack I had prepared.
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[Skills: Void reaper sword art]
[Name: Soul slash]
[Rank: 6]
[Description: Host can perform a quick slash with lightning speed which aims to injure opponent physical body as well as soul, the weaker opponent will have their soul destroyed and stronger opponent will receive the damage to their soul, the attack will consume 5% of host's soul force]
_____
My sword and his fist collided with each other, making the space around us tremble and my sword stopped midway but an immaterial after-image of sword left my sword passing through his fist and body as I withdrew few steps away from him.
The next moment demon jabel fell on one knee huffing vigorously and spat out dark red blood.
"A soul based sword art… Bastard who are you?"
The soul based attack wouldn't have much effect on him, if my soul was weaker than his but fortunately it was stronger.
"Bastard… huff huff." The demon jabel immediately distanced himself from me creating a thick black aura shield around him and making multiple copies of different creatures and weapons to attack me but the continuous barrage of different lightning attacks hindered his movements while I focused on attacking him with [Soul slash] once again.
Multiple [lightning bolts] and [Divine verdict] spells rained down on him from every direction but his thick aura shield was neutralizing my every attack while he focused on recovering.