Fae's vision immediately went dark as the flames burned over his face, he was overcome with an immense pain as he fell to his knees and screamed. He would've cried but the flames were evaporating the tears quicker than they could come out.
'Am I going to die?' 'I don't want to die.' 'After all of this was I still to weak?' Fae's thoughts turned against him as he began to feel pity in his final moments. Pity that he wasn't strong enough, pity that after all this time he was still nothing.
Suddenly the words Tessa spoke to Fae the day he died sounded in his ears. "Stop being such a burden Fae, if you aren't strong enough to protect yourself than stay out of the way." Tessa said this because she cared for him and didn't want to keep seeing him be hurt, but she was right.
Even after all this time Fae was still just a burden, too weak to protect himself, too weak to win, too weak to stand beside Tessa, just too weak.
Fae began to succumb to his thoughts and stop fighting against the flames, there was no point, he might as well let the flames consume him.
"Are you some kind of loser?" A voice sounded to Fae through the darkness. "I gift you with my pressure and this is how you repay me?" As the voice said this a green light began to emerge from the darkness, slowly morphing into a human form. It was similar to Crimson in the way that it looked similar to Fae, but where as Crimson looked more rugged and aged, with a rough beard and scarred face, the man in front of Fae was a lot more delicate with clear skin and small muscles, he seemed as if he hadn't been through many hardships.
"ANSWER ME FAE!" The voice screamed into Fae's head. "ARE YOU A F****ING LOSER?" Fae began to feel even worse as he fell even further into darkness, this voice was right, he was nothing but a loser. "Pathetic, I guess Crimson was wrong about you." The green light said as it began to move even further away from Fae, cruising into the darkness, pausing for a moment to deliver some more harsh words to Fae. "Tessa wasted her time protecting you everyday, she should've let you die years ago." Those words cut Fae the deepest, he never wanted to be a burden to Tessa, but somehow he always was.
"You don't think I know that?" Fae screamed back at the light. "No, I don't think you do. If you knew how hard she worked for you than you wouldn't give up, you wouldn't prove her efforts useless." The voice said as it turned back around to Fae. "It wasn't useless!" Fae screamed back trying not to tear up. "Than show me Fae, show her, show everyone that Tessa fighting for your life was worth it, show everyone you're worth something." The light said as it was now brightening up the darkness surrounding Fae. "How? He's too strong, I can't stop his flames. I lost" Fae said hopelessly.
"Open your eyes Fae." The light began to glow so brightly Fae was blinded. "OPEN YOUR EYES!" Suddenly Fae was back in the real world, feeling the overwhelming burn of Joseph's black flame, but he knew what he needed to do.
Fae stopped screaming. He began to slow down his thoughts and focus on the air around him. 'All his powers are fueled by bloodline energy.' Fae thought to himself, he began to replicate what he did during the first exam and began to strip away the bloodline energy that surrounded him, leaving his bare body to bare the brunt of the flames. 'WOW THIS HURTS' Fae thought to himself screaming internally.
After a few seconds he began to force the bloodline energy inside him out of his body attempting to force out the energy of the black flame. Immediately the flames dissipated finally freeing Fae from the infernal burn.
'WHAT?' Joseph was thrown off by his flames suddenly dispersing, but that moment of confusion was all Fae needed as he dashed out and punched Joseph in the face. "SURPRISE!" Fae screamed as the punch sent Joseph flying backwards. The same way fighting back the pressure in the first exam had strengthened Fae's bloodline energy and increased his Mythic rank, pushing back Joseph's flame had strengthen him as he was now officially a Human rank 4, but thanks to the power of his system stats he was about the strength of a Human rank 7.
Joseph wasn't ready for Fae's sudden increase in strength and was helpless as he flew backwards from the punch. "Impressive..." Joseph said as he stood up brushing the dust off of his pants "... but not enough!" Joseph exclaimed as he dashed towards Fae.
Fae narrowly avoided the attack and decided to jump backwards instead of countering with an attack of his own. Even with this new strength Joseph was still slightly faster, it was no longer overwhelming but Joseph could still get to Fae before Fae could get to him.
Joseph turned and dashed towards Fae once again this time managing to reach Fae who tried to block by putting his hands in front of his chest, still sliding back from the impact. Fae returned with an attack of his own as he quickly slid to the right of Joseph and upper cut him, sending him slightly into the air. "Not done with you yet!" Fae screamed as he grabbed Joseph's leg and slammed him out of the sky, throwing him back up and punching him in the chest.
The punch sent Joseph back, but as Fae tried to continue with another punch Joseph countered by grabbing his fist and kicking him in the stomach. They began to go back and forth neither of them being able to get an edge over the other. Eventually Fae used a feint left hook and summoned an ice blade in his right hand, slicing a giant gash into Joseph's side, spanning all the way onto his abdomen.
*AHH* Joseph exclaimed as he broke away from Fae and jumped back. He used his hand and burnt his wound, cauterizing it and stopping the bleeding.
"Guess you have a bit of strength, time to get serious." Joseph said as the flame surronding his flame began to mold together and create something. Once it was done Joseph was left holding a scythe made of black flame, he held the scythe along his shoulder and spoke again.
"My name is Joseph Limpervil, with an S+ Blood purity rank. I am a descendant of the god Hades. Today is the day you die."