"State your name," said the Seraph pointing his lance at Mora. "I wish to know whose soul I'll unfortunately be taking today."
"I guess we have a complication then."
Mora narrowed his eyes, the intense aura he had felt from the Seraph had disappeared. "Because I don't give my name to those who will soon be buried beneath me."
"You're quite confident that you can beat me then," said the Seraph with a chuckle. "I am Henry Lerophil, apprentice to General Geron an-"
"I don't care who you are," Mora grinned and took a stance with his sword. "As for being confident about beating you," the two stared at each other, killing intent evident in their eyes.
"That's because I can't imagine losing to a puppet," said Mora. Henry laughed softly the moment he heard Mora's words and raised his lance, the sky rumbled violently as the clouds darkened.
"So be it."
Mora's eyes widened and he quickly raised both his arms into the air as an arc of golden lightening descended.
"Lunar Mirror!"
A shockwave run through the air as the lightening struck and broke through the invisible shield. Mora got blasted to the ground and landed with a mighty crash that shook the battlefield. BOOOM!
Mora remained still in the wide crater his crash had made, a smile was forming on his face. 'The mirror only managed to reflect half of the attack's power and it still hurt this much,' thought Mora. His smile widened as another bolt of lightening struck the crater making it wider.
Henry appeared at the edge of the crater which was now empty. He raised his lance to guard his back as Mora attacked from behind with his sword. Mora dove back as Henry, who had turned to face him, signalled Mora to come at him.
Mora's limbs glowed with pale light and he shot forward like a beam, Henry stabbed forward with his lance when Mora was right in front of him but struck nothing.
Henry dived forward as Mora's blade came striking from above. Henry rolled and did a back flip to get back on his feet, he barely had time to register what had happened as Mora was already charging at him. Henry flew upwards at incredible speed, his expression was one of slight disbelief and amusement.
'That movement should have been impossible,' thought Henry. 'Light may be the fastest element but in can only move in a straight direction at high speed unless it was moving into a different medium and thats not all.'
Henry pointed his hand at the rapidly approaching Mora and sent a large blast of lightning. Henry had no time to block as Mora's glowing foot appeared in his line of sight.
'His Arch output increases after he moves!'
Mora kicked Henry with incredible force and speed that sent him crashing to the ground creating a crater bigger than the one Mora made. Mora appeared at the edge of the crater and stared down coldly at Henry who was already standing.
"Revenge is such a sweet dish, wouldn't you say?"
"Haha haha hahaha!"
Henry laughed maniacally and raised his hand to his helmet. Mora suddenly felt as though his body weighed ten times more as an immense pressure descended on him.
Henry removed his helmet revealing a young face with a mat of neat golden hair with bangs partly blocking his deep brown eyes. A long scar ran down from his forehead to right under his left eye.
"I understand now," said Henry crushing his helmet with his bare hands, Mora remained vigilant.
"I was wondering why one of the Godslayers, similar to the one who gave me this scar was so weak. I should've realised from the beginning," Henry sat down with his legs crossed and placed his lance on them.
"You and your friend have yet to form your Rin Contracts which explains your weak Arch."
Mora frowned, 'The pressure from his Arch disappeared so then why can't I move, and what the hell is a Rin contract.' Mora knew if he didn't move soon he would be dead.
"You use your mirror technique to change trajectory whilst you're moving, it also amplifies your Arch output because it reflects the Arch you first used to move, smart," said Henry as he rose to his feet.
Henry rose into the air until he was level with Mora, Mora felt the the temperature around him drop rapidly, 'Arch that affects nature, that's a level only true masters of Arch can reach.' Mora was shaking, at first, he thought it was because of the low tempreture then he realised why.
"That is fear," said Henry as he made a fist and prepared to hit Mora. "Its a shame, you and your friend look like you have potential but you must be eliminated."
♤♤♤
"I wonder if Mora is okay."
Kioku stood on top of the bodies of hundreds of Seraphs, blood dripped slowly from his blade. He sat down and stared at the direction in which he could feel a great presence.
"Who ever he's fighting is strong, probably just below the master's level," said Kioku with concern. "Yet I'm expected to defeat people like him and other who are even stronger than the master."
Kioku sighed deeply he was about to look for more enemies when he heard a distant explosion. 'That direction, its Mo-' before Kioku could finish the the thought Mora came crushing into him. The two rolled on the ground together before coming to a halt, Kioku stood whilst rubbing his head his face was visible with rage.
"What the hell Mo-"
Kioku stopped himself when he saw the state Mora was in. His limbs were broken severely and he had a hole in the stomach, his body was given off a soft glow.
'He's healing himself, so thats good but if he's here that means,' thought Kioku as a blast of lightning shot towards him.
"Shadow Wall!"
A wall of darkness formed in front of Kioku and stopped the attack, Kioku's forehead began to sweat as cracks formed on the wall. The wall exploded with great force and Henry stopped shooting blasts of lightning waiting to see if he killed the two.
Kioku and Mora appeared a reasonable distance from Henry, Kioku's clothes were seared from the explosion and blood dripped from his left arm.
"The moment the attack hit the natural Arch of the area responded and attacked as well," Kioku said whilst breathing heavily. "Retreat is the only option right now but if i teleport the normal way he'll find me, i have no choice i have to-"
Kioku raised his head quickly as Henry's lance came charging at him covered in pure white lightning. Kioku's entire right arm got covered in darkness, he slammed into his shadow which grew bigger.
"Shadow Wall Stage Two."
Seven thick doors, as tall as the sky, erupted from Kioku's shadows and formed a line leading to the lance.
"Shadow Guard!"
The lance broke through four doors before stopping and exploding at the fifth. Henry stood shocked at what he had just witnessed, the doors he saw were touching the sky.
"That technique," said Henry impressed by what he saw.
Kioku raised his hand and the doors dissolved into darkness that was absorbed that the hand absorbed. The darkness spread from Kioku's right until it covered his entire body, Mora's body was also covered in darkness.
Before Henry could react Kioku made a gesture as though praying with one hand and a cold silence filled the area making even Henry pause.
"Level Three Control: Inversion."
A tornado of dark energy erupted around Kioku and Mora and when it subsided the two were gone.
"Damn it," said Henry, he closed his eyes as he searched all the natural Arch of Fong for Kioku and Mora. He opened his eyes and a look of deep concern formed on his face.
"They didn't escape outside the barrier around this place yet its as if they disappeared completely from this world..as if they never existed within its natural order."
Henry run a finger down his scar as he recalled Kioku's earlier technique. He had a small smile on his face, the technique had seen Kioku perform was fresh in his mind.
"The scent is strong with that one."
♤♤♤
Mora opened his eyes and found himself inside a large black cave. He sighed heavily, he immediately knew where he was, his nightmares always started in a cave.
"Here we go again," said Mora as he walked deeper into the cave.
He walked in silence with his eyes closed, the only sound to be heard was that of his footsteps echoing through the cave.
He arrived at a familiar door and opened it, inside was large circular room and in the centre of it was a woman with a child next to her standing before a blood red throne, its occupant was invisible to the eye but ultimately still there.
The woman was bleeding from her forehead and her arms, one of her eyes had a large cut on it which was bleeding heavily. The woman was young with an angelic face and snow white hair and brilliant blue eyes. She wore a long black dress patterned with silver flowers.
"Is this your final decision?"
The voice was deep and feral and appeared to be coming from the throne. The woman nodded and then turned to face the young child beside her. He had short silver hair and eyes and he was dressed in silver robes that had crescent patterns on them, the child looked at his mother with sad eyes.
"Where are you going?"
"Don't worry Mora," said the woman with a soft calming laugh.
"Mother is just going away for a while but before I send back home promise me something."
The woman held out her pinky finger and smiled warmly. "When you grow up you'll be strong like your mother and win all your fights okay?"
The young Mora held out his finger as well and sealed the promise with his mother. "I promise."
The woman hugged Mora who was glowing brightly and began to cry. Mora hugged his mother back shocked to see his usually calm mother crying.
"Win and survive," she whispered and Mora disappeared.
The real Mora watched all of this with a stoic expression, he closed his eyes and when he reopened them he was standing on a cliff overlooking a valley filled with black flowers that had glowing blue leaves.
"Welcome."
Mora turned and found Kioku behind him sitting cross legged on a large boulder. Kioku stood and jumped landing easily in front of Mora.
"What happened?" asked Mora, his usual cheerful voice was gone and replaced by a dark tone.
"The simple way of putting it is you almost got yourself killed," said Kioku. "I teleported us back to the palace so that Draco could heal us."
'Though using Inversion comes with a cost,' Kioku thought, his vision blurred slightly and his head started to ache.
"Send me back," said Mora, Kioku realised something was wrong with Mora.
"Going back to fight him is suicide, we have to be smart about this, staying here and waiting for help from the Shadow Realm is the best course of action," said Kioku.
"How long are you going to remain like this!" Shouted Mora. Mora faced Kioku with a deathly stare that sent chills down his spine and when he spoke next his voice angry.
"Hiding here will only increase the enemies master has to handle. And if that Seraph comes looking for us here than we risk Draco's life as well. I'm going to fight him because fighting and winning is the only way we can survive."
Kioku started to say something but stopped himself as he realised Mora wouldn't listen. He snapped his fingers and disappeared from his subconscious. He sat back crosslegged on the boulder and stared at the rune embedded into his right palm.
"The will to survive," said Kioku to himself, he raised his head to the sky and smiled.
"Draco, I need you to fully transform we're going to back Mora up."
Kioku heard a roar of consent and went back to staring at the rune. He sighed softly and the rune began to glow with blue light, all the flowers within his subconscious began to glow along with the rune.
"I sacrifice fifty years of my life to activate the most sacred and ancient of runes, the Rune of the Soul," said Kioku and his eyes started glowing blue, as he slowly closed his eyes he let out small laugh.
"I'm not like you Mora, sometimes I want to run away from all of this, to hide from the path people want me to walk. Right now there's no where to run nor hide, the only thing I can do is fight."
Kioku closed his eyes and around the land of Fong a large roar could be heard. The enemy was yet to realise that the son of the Dragon god Longwang had awoken.