"Who are you?" Acedia took a step back, readying for any suspicious movement of his.
Her eyes shifted to the soul, which gradually turned darker at the contact with the black liquid.
"Not yet." He said, his eyes shifting back to the soul, gently caressing it as if it was a plant. "I'm still waiting for the main character to appear."
Acedia furrowed her eyebrows at his response, already secretly casting a spell to fire off any second. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm asking one last time. Who are you?"
She pointed over to the now black soul. "And what are you doing?"
The man sighed, rolling his red eyes as he brushed his hair back. "You really are an annoying woman, aren't you?"
His eyes narrowed as he shifted his gaze to Acedia, letting out immense killing intent. "You've always been like this."
The density of the surrounding mana grew, shifting to a dark red color as he raised the amount of pressure.
'He has an excellent amount of mana control..' Acedia noted, trying to ignore the trembling of her knees as she withstood his gaze.
She glared back at him and released her own mana as a defense. '...almost terrifying so..'
Judging by the double-edged black sword on his belt, Acedia assumed that he wasn't a mage.
While the sole amount of mana that he possessed in his body was enormous, almost rivaling her own, his ability to control the natural mana was the terrifying thing about him.
Usually, even though mana was everywhere in the atmosphere, one is not able to control it freely. They use their own mana to make their wishes come true and manipulate the ambient mana of the world.
However, if one is able to freely manipulate the ambient mana, they would be not far from being a god.
With that type of control, tiers become useless, and chanting would not be needed, as one wouldn't have to think about what to do to manipulate the mana.
The mana would move on its own, according to the user's will.
"What do you mean 'always'?" Acedia instinctively took a step back. She was sure that it was her first time seeing that man.
The man chuckled in response.
"That's not information that would benefit you in any way. " The man released his pressure and turned his attention to the soul, picking it up and scanning it. "It's almost done."
Although she felt offended that he turned his back on her, as if she was no threat to him, she wasn't dumb enough to let such an opportunity slip by.
Instantly, she raised her arms and casted the magic she had been preparing ever since she entered the room.
"Hellwater: Maelstrom"
As if just waiting for her call, the ground surrounding him lost its stability, turning to water.
His feet sank into the water as a dark blue whirlpool appeared beneath his feet, sucking him in.
While a normal whirlpool was easily counter able by most capable fighters, 'hellwater' spells were different.
It is a type of spell only leviathan house members could use, and had different effects than water, although being the same in its core.
Hellwater burns one's flesh, stronger than any acid could ever hope to, and in combination with the 'maelstrom' spell, the gravity was so immense that it could even distort space itself.
Immediately, Acedia prepared another spell.
Even though she was sure that her surprise attack was enough to take him out, she didn't want to take any chances.
Raising her arm, she swung it down again as she casted the next spell.
"Hellwater: Primordial blades"
Two dark blue swords materialized themself in the air and struck down into the maelstrom, distorting the surrounding space in progress.
As the swords got in contact with the maelstrom, an enormous pressure was released, cracking the surrounding area.
"That should be it.." Panting, Acedia wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Maybe I've gone a little bit overboard...heh.."
Cracking a nervous smile, Acedia scratched her cheeks, looking at the disaster that she created.
She had always been told that she had a tendency to use excessive force, but she never saw it that way.
'It's better to overkill than underkill,' was the ideal that she lived by.
She would rather destroy the environment than get stabbed in the back when she turns around, but nobody ever seemed to get her view.
"A little disappointing."
Acedia froze up as she heard the voice talking.
Slowly, almost mechanically, she turned to the owner of the voice, looking at him with widened eyes.
"It was much more powerful in my memories..." The man crossed his arms, unscathed and without a scratch. He still had the soul in his hand, meaning that if he defended himself, he did that with a single arm.
Her gaze shifted to his sword.
Although it didn't have a sheath, it didn't look like it moved.
'He defended himself with only a hand?'
Acedia shuddered at the realization, taking another step back as her back touched the gate.
Although she can be impulsive at times, she had enough experience and common sense to tell that she was outmatched.
"Ah!" The man clapped his hand as if he remembered something exciting. "It was 'chaos water', wasn't it?"
He raised his head, arrogantly looking down at her as a faint smile formed on his face.
Acedia froze at the mention of her special gift. It was a thing that only she and her family knew.
"I can remember that you mentioned something about it being due to a weird mutation..." He squeezed his eyes and massaged his forehead, trying to recall a distant memory.
"Wasn't that also the reason why you were always acting so possessive with Zenith? It's due to your mutation also slightly altering the leviathan's curse, right? Envy turns into its slightly more negative sibling, jealousy."
"...What? How do you know this..?" Acedia furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "That's not someth-"
"An outsider would know?"
The man rolled his eyes.
"You know, Acedia. Even though you are unpredictable most of the time, you show too much emotion on your face."
His smile turned into a sinister wide grin.
"I can read you like a book if you keep doing this."
The corners of Acedia's mouth twitched at the ongoing provocation of the man. Her fear almost completely disappeared due to her rising anger.
"You seem to enjoy talking very much, snow head."
"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "That's the best thing you could come up with? Snowhead?"
"Hmph."
Letting out a single huff of dissatisfaction, Acedia chose to end their friendly banter and charged into combat.
It was only a matter of time before he decided that having a conversation with her would be useless and attacked.
Instead of being the one to defend, Acedia decided that starting a surprise attack would be a better choice.
Using blink, she appeared before him, taking him by surprise as she could spot his eyes widening for a second.
"You didn't expect that, did you?" Acedia ducked, going into a position. that resembled a swordsman unsheathing his sword.
SLICE
The sound of a blade singing through the air rang out as she conjured a purple water blade into her hand, swinging it as if it was a sword.
The man leaned his head back, dodging the blade by mere inches as his gaze landed on her, calmly observing her.
"That was certainly unexpected."
Acedia flashed him a provoking smile.
"Here is your beloved chaos water, Loser!"
Acedia instant-casted another spell, conjuring purple water needles behind her.
Without even giving the man a second to react, the needles shot forward, directly aiming for his eyes.
The eyes of the man narrowed as he realized that the so-called 'chaos water' could pose a threat to her.
The man tried to disengage, creating some distance between them.
He was taken by surprise when Acedia advanced, not expecting that style of fighting from her.
Chaos water had an even stronger effect than hellwater. It is an element that applied anti-heal and curse effects, completely ignoring the defense of one and stopping their regenerative abilities.
Manipulating the ambient mana, the man raised the density of the mana in front of him, slowing the chaos needles down.
However, even as he did that, the needles pierced through the wall of mana, stopping right before his eyes.
He narrowed his eyes as he realized that he had underestimated the girl.
She was the 'witch of chaos', after all.
Her power couldn't be underestimated.
"Surprised, ain't ya?"
Dispersing the mana blade in her hand, she smashed her hands into his stomach, invoking another spell.
"Chaos water: High-pressure beam."
Purple mana particles gathered in her palm before releasing a beam of water.
Realizing that, the man shifted her weight and leaned sideways, upsetting her balance and creating an opportunity to dodge.
CRUSH
The beam shot out, crushing the surrounding environment, missing her target by a slight amount.
He repositioned his body before delivering a knee strike into her stomach, sending her back.
Crack
Her body flew against a wall, cracking it as a result.
Acedia coughed up blood, panting as she gathered her strength to stand up again.
She was sure that the force of the impact had broken at least a few of her ribs.
Trying to stand up, she was stopped by the pain that suddenly spread through her body.
"Urgh."
For a second, the strength left her arms, causing her to collapse again.
"You got me quite good." The man remarked. "But I can't just let you interfere in my plans."
The man looked down, his eyes focusing on the soul as he analyzed its progress.
"It should be done now..:" He brought the soul to his mouth and took a bite of it, eating it just like an apple.
Acedia glared at him with a face of disgust, not believing that the guy just chose to eat a soul.
Noticing Acedia's stare, he returned it, just cracking a pretentious smile in response.
"I know what you're thinking," He chuckled. "But it's just something that had to be done."
As Acedia couldn't muster any power to retaliate against the man, she gave up trying to stand up again and instead just tried to stall some time for, hopefully, someone to arrive in time.
"..Why are you doing all this..?"
"Stalling for time, huh?"
"No I'm-"
"No, it's alright." The man took the last bite of the soul before turning his attention to the gate. "I wanted to see him again, after all. Even if this time, it is as an enemy."
And as if to confirm his desire, a dagger shot through the gate, barely missing its target as it buried itself into a wall.
A small drop of blood flowed down his cheek.
Wiping the blood drops away, he flashed the new challenger a smile. "You still have to improve your knife-throwing skills."
"Possibly."
"Not one to like talking, huh?" The man's gaze softened for a single moment as he saw Zenith approaching him. "Well, I've gotten used to it already."
Immediately after he finished his sentence, a black aura started to appear around him, wrapping around his body. "Ah."
He looked at his hand, closing and opening it again as if to see if it really was his body.
"The synchronization rate seems to have risen."