As the mages in the group of young devils started attacking, the sword-wielders weren't staying idle. Kiba and Xenovia had broken right into enemy lines while Kiba used his sword birth to set up an advantageous terrain for both him and Xenovia as they mowed through the magicians.
Xenovia jumped in front of a magician, slicing them in half with her Excalibur Destruction. Another magician shot at her a beam of concentrated light-attributed energy that she deflected with her Excalibur. As the beam of light persisted, pushing Xenovia back a bit, she grabbed one of the swords from the ground with her free arm before throwing it at the caster, directly stabbing them in the head.
She turned her Excalibur behind her to shield herself from another attack before jumping at the assailant and slicing them in half as their remains disappeared without any blood being spilled.
As more and more magicians appeared, Xenovia was about to receive an attack in the back by one of the distant magicians before a thick, pure — almost holy — white string wrapped around their wrists and interrupted the spell. That string strangled them into disappearing as Irina jumped down behind Xenovia, her Excalibur Mimic forming into a rapier.
"You got stronger," Irina commented but Xenovia just gave her a half-hearted 'thanks' before jumping away to another group of magicians.
Irina looked at Xenovia with a hurt look as she stabbed a sphere of magic with the rapier. She then turned away as her Excalibur Mimic turned into a string, attacking another magician. She soon got a resolute expression on her face before going after Xenovia.
As all of this was going on, Azazel's battle against Katarea had devastating effects on their surroundings as their mere aura was vaporizing the magicians who inadvertently got too close.
"Let me show you something," As Azazel was finished with his probing attacks toward Katarea, he pulled out something from the inner pocket of his cloak.
"What's that?" The descendent of the Leviathan asked, feeling a little stressed by the whole situation. She was having trouble against merely one of the leaders, let alone all three of them.
"Something much more interesting than war," Azazel raised a small spear that had a large gem embedded at the tip of the handle, "Call it my hobby if you will." As he activated the device, he explained, "It's an artificial sacred gear, created by yours truly." His gaze was directed at Michael and Gabriel as he spoke those words, telling them that his use of the gear was more for the purpose of displaying its prowess.
Abaddon's attention wasn't really on the fight, instead, he was focusing on Vali, who was currently in the Balance Breaker state of his Divine Dividing. He was aware of the outcome of Azazel's battle. Vali's actions were what truly roused his curiosity. At this point, he was only taking care of some stray magicians, only symbolically affecting the numbers with his presence.
'I guess he's waiting for Azazel to finish his fight…' Abaddon thought before crossing his arms and waiting for the fight to end, just like the other leaders and top members of the factions.
Minutes later, his thoughts were proven correct. Once Azazel took care of Katarea and killed her. Vali attacked the Fallen Angel cadre with a beam from divine dividing, reducing his power and slamming him into the ground. Somehow, Abaddon looked at Azazel's face and felt that the Fallen was already aware of Vali's plan.
"I guess I'm losing my touch," Azazel said while cracking his neck as he came out of the crater that his fall caused.
"Abaddon Bael," Vali looked down at Abaddon while flying in the sky.
"So this is the fight you were talking about?" Abaddon asked Azazel.
"Maybe," The Fallen Angel said as he stood up and dusted himself off.
Abaddon shook his head and turned to look at the man in white armor who was floating in the sky, "What?" He asked, "You wanna fight?"
Vali didn't respond with words and instead sent a blast of pure energy at Abaddon.
"Well that's not very nice," He raised his brow with an annoyed expression as he enveloped the attack within a sphere of Destruction energy, vanishing it into nothingness.
As Abaddon took to the skies, Vali flew down, directly approaching him, "You might want to activate your Balance Breaker, if you hope to stand a chance against me."
"We'll see about that," Abaddon met Vali's charge with a magic circle. As the spell was cast, a ball of flames instantly surrounded Vali, putting him within a sphere of concentrated fire. The man just shrugged it off as if it were nothing and continued approaching Abaddon.
"Interesting," Abaddon said with a smile before casting a similar spell as Akeno, enveloping Vali in a ball of lightning. This time, his charge was somewhat slowed down, but with a flash of one of the gems on his armor, the attack was divided.
‹DIVIDE›
With that, he was able to shrug it off and finally reach Abaddon, throwing a punch at the defenseless man.
"Hey, I'm not a physical fighter," Abaddon casually teleported away from the attack, appearing behind Vali instead. He then cast another spell that attacked Vali with a blast of lightning right to the back of his head.
"I can see that you aren't taking this seriously," Vali shrugged the attack off with a divide from his sacred gear and turned to look at Abaddon.
"Well, I can't really kill you or else Azazel will stop being my drinking buddy," Abaddon said, "So I might as well satisfy your battle thirst until you decide to give up."
Vali chuckled, "It seems that you aren't planning on taking this seriously at all," He said, "Let's add in some stakes."
"Look," Abaddon said uncaringly, "You aren't strong enough to kill me, nor do you have any real stakes that I would be hard-pressed for —"
"Oh, but I digress," Vali said, "What if I said that I have a way to cure the devil's sleeping disease?"
Abaddon's casual expression disappeared. His eyes focused on Vali and he straightened himself, "I could kill you for that."
"Yeah, now you're taking it seriously," Vali said, his smirk could be made out of just his tone even through the helmet that completely covered his face.
Abaddon didn't respond and just appeared in front of Vali before punching him in the gut. It happened so fast that the man wasn't even able to react as he felt himself flying away.
"Now who isn't a physical fighter?" Vali said with a weird sense of pleasure even as he coughed up blood from the attack.
"I'm not," Abaddon said flatly before snapping his fingers. Vali screamed in pain as the place that Abaddon had punched exploded out with Destruction Energy.
Vali had to divide away the energy as his damaged armor reformed, seemingly as good as new, "You shouldn't look down on me, Bael."
"And you shouldn't provoke me," Abaddon said before teleporting right behind Vali and kicking him with another Destruction mine. This time though, Vali was prepared. Just as Abaddon's kick made contact with his back, Vali's sacred gear sounded out.
‹DIVIDE›
Abaddon instantly felt his strength, energy reserves, everything getting halved. As for the attack, it dissolved away as Vali turned and punched Abaddon. A shield appeared in front of Abaddon as he moved back before Vali's fist broke through the barrier. That was when Abaddon noticed that Vali's white and blue draconic wings had gotten much larger than before and were expelling some kind of formless energy.
"How cute," Abaddon provoked, "Having to expel the extra energy because my power is too much for you."
Vali didn't respond and instead, let out a scream before spreading his arms apart as he released the huge amount of energy that he had divided from Abaddon.
"You're wide open," Abaddon said, "Don't expect me to wait for you to power up," He directly teleported in front of Vali before punching his gut. Unfortunately, before he could make contact, a huge burst of energy escaped Vali's armor, stopping Abaddon's fist in its tracks. He stepped back so that Vali wouldn't be able to half his power again.
‹HALF-DIMENSION›
Moments later, Abaddon felt the space in front of himself being manipulated as Vali appeared directly in front of him, 'No, he halved the space between us repeatedly to appear in front of me …' Before Abaddon could react, his power had been halved once again, leaving him feeling even more sluggish than before as Vali punched him to the ground.
"Still don't want to use the Boosted Gear?" Vali asked Abaddon as he appeared in front of him again, about to punch him.
"How troublesome …" Abaddon grabbed Vali's punch, stopping it.
‹BOOST›
With a flash of green, Abaddon pushed Vali back as he tried to divide his power again. For a few seconds, the two sacred gears got into a battle of boosting and dividing before Abaddon and Vali finally separated. Soon, Abaddon's crimson armor formed over his body, signifying his Balance Breaker state. Abaddon boosted himself multiple times, not holding back anymore. He attacked Vali with a blast of Destruction energy that was evaded through Vali's use of Half-Dimension as he manipulated space.
"I know all devils have a high affinity with Space Magic," Abaddon said before teleporting right in front of Vali and punching him with a Destruction-enhanced punch, "But you take that even further with this ability …" He said as he found Vali pulling himself away from his punch.
"You still aren't taking this seriously …" Vali growled at Abaddon before releasing even more power and attacking him.
"I never believed that you had the cure for the Malaise in the first place," Abaddon teleported right in front of Vali and intercepted his attack before blasting him with destruction energy, "If I did, then you'd be pressed under my heel right now."
"Motherfucker!" Vali growled at Abaddon before using his spatial manipulation to appear in front of him and blast him with an energy attack.
Abaddon used Destruction energy to destroy that attack before intercepting Vali's path and punching him again, "Now that's no way for someone of your stature to act," Abaddon taunted, "Don't you think so, Vali Lucifer?"
Vali was a little surprised at Abaddon figuring out his identity, but not too much. It was easy to deduce with some information, "Should I give you a cookie as a reward?" He instead gave Abaddon a punch to the face that was promptly blocked by a destruction energy membrane.
"It's pretty simple," He shrugged, "That's why you're working with the Khaos Brigade and the Old Satan Faction. Though you don't strike me as the type to aim for world domination."
***
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