Voragor, smirking menacingly, spoke with a chilling tone, "Did you really think you could seal me again so easily? Foolish attempt."
With Voragor's back turned to Muttle, she moved in to attack, but a casual wave of his hand wielded the power of darkness, sending her hurtling back into a tree. Voragor walked deliberately toward Lennox, teleporting periodically to close the distance.
Observing Muttle being thrown into a tree, Lennox thought, 'Just a wave, and he can exert that much power in it.' He focused his gaze on Voragor. 'I need to keep him away, but if I use my fire, I may disrupt the ritual... I've got no current options,' he pondered.
Lennox caught between the need to escape Voragor's focus and the imperative to maintain the ritual, pondered his limited options.
Calculating the seconds before Voragor teleported again, Lennox anticipated his move. As Voragor reappeared right in front of him, Lennox jumped back a couple of feet, channeling his fire into his nexus vein down to his feet. He slammed the ground, and a large wall of fire grew, reaching about 2 meters in height. Although Lennox had used the firewall skill on Theo before it was 1 meter in height, now it was twice as tall.
Backing up a couple more steps for safety, Lennox contemplated, 'Will he come through? Even if he does, I don't have another skill to stop him... I hope Muttle is okay and still able to help,' he worried as his eyes darted around the wall of fire.
"Why such pitiful tricks?" Voragor's voice sounded behind the wall of fire. "You think you can stand against me? You're nothing but a mere pawn in this game," he taunted, his dark presence intensifying through the flames.
Suddenly, Voragor appeared in front of Lennox thought that it would have taken a while for him to teleport through, Lennox had initially wanted to go towards Muttle as he grew worried. Now, Voragor was about to attack him, and Lennox felt nervous as he had no way of escape. In his peripheral vision, he saw Muttle dashing at supernatural speed towards him. She intercepted Voragor just in time, blocking his attack.
Voragor used his hand infused with darkness to block Muttle's katana. "Kitten... You again," he said, showing a hint of frustration.
Muttle continued slashing her katana at Voragor, but he effortlessly blocked each strike. When she infused her blade with lightning, he quickly countered, bashing his body against hers while gripping her katana. The two struggled, pushing each other back, locked in a fierce stare.
"It seems like you're holding back. Is it because of fear, or is it that you have no intention of ending my life?" Voragor observed a subtle shift in Muttle's gaze from his words and remarked"You won't kill me, I don't need your pity," he declared with frustration.
Muttle, being mute, had honed the skill of conveying emotions through her eyes, a talent that proved advantageous but also had the potential to complicate situations, as it did in the current standoff.
Lennox, on the side, ran toward the ritual circle. In the last second, Voragor shot a darkness beam at him. Lennox couldn't dodge it, and the beam hit him, sending him flying back. Voragor then brought his hand back, slapping Muttle as she spun in the air.
"Nox!"
"Twinkle!"
...
With the bat-like creature screeching at Theo, Kira quickly decided to pull out her bow and attack. Anticipating the possible arrival of the grey man, she fired two shadow arrows straight up toward the bat. However, to her surprise, the bat vibrated and split itself into two.
"Clone?" Kira questioned.
Theo explained, "Seems like it, but every skill it has comes with a cost."
What Theo said was correct. The bat's splitting ability, known as shadow splitting, came with a price it lost 15% of its power with each split.
As Kira prepared to fire more arrows, she suddenly felt like she couldn't move. Panicking, she looked around, wondering why.
"Kira, you take the one on the left while I take the other," Theo instructed.
As Theo moved to attack, he noticed the bat on the left grinning at Kira. However, he found it strange that Kira didn't respond. Observing her she appeared like in a frozen state, Theo realized weird is happening as her eyes looked panicky.
"Kira, what's wrong? You look like a statue," Theo said, attempting a joke. However, Kira still didn't answer or move, though her eyes kept moving back and forth. Theo scanned her body and he noticed something unusual was wrapped around her legs, slowly making its way up her body It was a shadow
'A shadow is controlling her body, but it seems like only one has control. That means the other can too,' Theo thought.
While scanning Kira to free her, Theo noticed a shadow creeping up to his legs. He jumped away and dashed behind a tree, observing the shadow still coming toward him. Simultaneously, he glanced at the two bats in the sky looking down at him.
'As a bat, it can hear me very well. If I make less sound, I might be able to eliminate the one that has Kira controlled,' Theo thought. 'I just need a good spot.'
Turning around, Theo easily climbed up the tree, walking slowly on a branch. However, the branch shook, making noise and exposing his location. The free bat screeched and flew down right in front of his face, unable to see him. He slowly backed away, Theo peered through the tree leaves and saw the other bat still flying high in the sky.
'Perfect, without sound or being seen, but I have to hurry. I don't know why the grey guy hasn't come yet,' Theo thought.
Kira, who was stuck, surprised appeared in her eyes. 'I got him,' she thought.
Theo took out his Aerial Blade Emitter, only the second time he had ever used it. He wanted a quick but efficient shot on the bat, he aimed the emitter up at it. Concentrating a small ball of air, thanks to the emitter being silent, the bat didn't hear. Theo released it, and the ball of air shot out like a beam, going straight into the bat's head.
With the other bat feeling the backlash of its double dying under its control, it felt pain in its head, causing it to be distracted. With Kira now free and already having her bow notched, she quickly killed the distracted bat with one shot through its chest. Black blood splashed out as it dropped from the sky, dead.
Theo dropped down from the tree. "Kira, are you okay?" he asked.
Kira nodded. "I have been wondering where the grey man is," Theo asked.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, a distant roar echoed through the air, leaving Theo wondering.
"Well, that's him," Kira said.
Theo looked at Kira, confused, but she started walking toward the sound of the roar. So he decided to follow her in case there was anything dangerous that he needed to protect her from. Finally, after heading in the direction they came from originally, they both saw the grey man wrapped in shadow tendrils and spikes through his body.
"What? How did this happen?" Theo asked in surprise.
"I used my Shadow Spike," Kira said, walking over to the grey man.
Kira explained that while on Theo's back when he was running away from the hounds, she used her Shadow Spike as a trap placing it into the ground. When the grey man walked over it, he had no choice but to be stabbed and captured by it as it was too quick.
Theo smiled. "And that's why you're our deadly strategist," he said before turning to look at the grey man.
"Release me!" the grey man roared.
"Why when you're perfectly tied up like a chicken?" Theo said jokingly, laughing out loud.
As the grey man reacted angrily to Theo's words, Kira noticed that the shadow tendrils on the man were about to break. "Bad," she said, moving quickly behind the man and knocking him out.
"We should quickly check on Nox and Muttel. Now that we know how strong Voragor is, they might not survive him," Theo said, running toward Lennox with Kira following.
"Nox!"
"Twinkle!"
...
Muttle, Lennox, and Voragor all saw Kira and Theo. Lennox smirked, and Muttle's smile showed relief as they realized that with Kira and Theo here, they had survived the encounters with the grey man and the bat.
'Has Nocturne and Bat failed? Then again, no one has their real power yet,' Voragor thought. "You're all here. Looks like I have to do this myself... so we can finish this easily, Darkness Swallowing," Voragor said with a sinister tone.
After saying "Darkness Swallowing," Voragor snapped his fingers, and a hole made up of darkness appeared. Everyone felt a strong suction as the air around them, along with leaves, stones, and other materials, was pulled into the hole. They, too, started to be drawn into the hole and as they felt a force pulling them in. Desperate to resist, they clung onto anything they could find to avoid being sucked into the swirling darkness.