'Hm, I've absorbed a lot of natures over the years through my claws haven't I'.
'Wonder which I should use other than it's basic unnatural sharpness'
'The red orc I fought before had the beserkers blood, should I use that?'.
'I also absorbed a little of aunties blood....no that would be too unfair'.
A day after his birthday eight years ago, Emrys took his time to study the book which his aunt gave to him covering the description of what his claws were. Granted the name {Unguis Vitae}, they were once manifested by the greatest and oldest progenitor of the Vampire race, these claws unfairly allowed him the ability to absorb natures or attributes through blood and use them even if he were to be completely out of mana. Emrys had come to realise once again how unfair he was, his fangs in the end were basically just normal fangs which was alright.
'Perhaps she is right, I might be cruel'.
'Ah well'.
'Berserker it is'.
A red mist began steadily rising off his body which turned into a full blown rush of aura surrounding him, his eyes took on an hazy red and he grew another two inch taller than he already was. She looked to be very surprised by his transformation as she recognized the look very well though his was much more controlled but couldn't understand why he had it or why he would use it rather than the same magic he had used three years ago, did he think it wasn't worth it yet?
The thought struck a thorn at her heart which caused her anger to rise even more, her determination to crush his pride becoming even more solidified as she sent a mental command to her golem. It roared and burst forward raising it's mana to extreme levels as it cast the spell of–
<
From the four corners of the stage and reaching nearly a hundred meters high a rain of lightning descended down on the stage locking it down with little to no space left, in a split second Emrys pulled the prison he had compressed and released it until it contained the golems spell forcefully taking control of it and absorbing it all into the prison which levitated a hundred meters above.
Shaping a gauntlet of mana around his fists just in the time to meet the still rushing golem they clashed, visible ripples spread throughout the stage and the barrier but no damage was caused to neither. Emrys got pushed back a few meters while the golem only slid back half of one.
'Still much slower than I am but a little stronger than what I applied'.
'Interesting'.
From the back Emrys could see clearly that she herself hadn't fully caught on to how the spell had disappeared so quickly, having no time to savour the reaction he flew up as the golem came smashing down with both hands onto his spot sending another strong wave of ripples throughout the stage. It roared and spread it wings flying straight into the sky in pursuit of him but in that small instance of delay Emrys had returned back down grabbing onto it by the face and throwing it hard into the barrier.
It recovered fast and flew towards Emrys who dodged to the side and gave a hard elbow to it's back which bounced it off the stage and he followed by a final stomp to it's head. The golem tried grabbing onto his foot but he moved it fast and flew back a short distance, it was right on his tail once again as it chased him around the stage on all fours like a crazed animal. Emrys stood still allowing it to pounce on him but he grabbed underneath both arms and twisted them downwards as he delivered a strong knee kick to it's jaw deforming it but still not letting go as he delivered a second and a third followed by a succession of two quick jabs to it's face which deformed it.
Emrys let go of the golems arm but it immediately retaliated by grabbing onto his shoulders and delivering a headbutt to his skull with all it's might, his skin burst as blood flowed but the golem wasn't finished as it also delivered a second and a third not caring about it's own furtherly deformed face then finishing off by opening it's mouth to spew a tsunami of flames aimed at his head which spread all over turning the entire stage into a hellish landscape.
The downpour was continuous but Emrys reached a hand forward to cover it's mouth stifling the flames and forcing it's spread between the tiny gaps, with his second hand raised he gathered a ton of lightning mana and smacked it down on it's head bringing the golem to it's knees.
Still with his hand gripping on strong over it's face, he gathered up a great amount of mana and forced it into it's mouth containing the flames and making them go out control as they exploded within it's body causing it to heat up and tremble violently under his grasp.
Wasting no further effort he tossed the golem back into the barrier and it dropped to it's knees, in a matter of seconds the damage it had suffered both on the outside and inside were recovered as it released a deafening roar.
The black crystal in it's chest shone with a deadly lustre as a familiar invisible force of gravity came pressing down on Emrys greatly restricting his movements and golem rushing forward towards it's contained target punched down at him but to it's surprise got hit hard by an invisible force which repelled it into the barrier once again.
That same invisible force came crashing down on it also, both stood firmly in place greatly restricted by one another. The force holding it down felt entirely different from magic, more so like Emrys himself was physically holding it down and it tried to resist by overpowering it but that force multiplied twice what it was bringing it down hard on it's knees.
The red crystal lit up as did the blue, a spiral mix of blue and green began forming high above them, it took the shape of a flame-lightning arrow reaching nearly two hundred meters in height and even though not in contact with the stage or barrier both rippled with an intensity like never before.
The air cracked, whipped and boomed with miniature explosions, though so far away from it Emrys could still clearly feel just how intense those flames were, even stronger than what that familiar had used though not by much.
'Perhaps the wolf was more impressive than I thought'.
'It's master could not summon it all full strength after all'.
Deciding to put a stop to the incoming attack Emrys forcefully pulled himself up higher into the sky, his ascension was slow and weighed but he persisted and stretched both hands outwards gathering a portion of the world's mana just as the arrow had begun making it's fast descent and at it's moment of blinding impact he whispered–
<
It was like the world had come to a halt as the single ring of a bell resonated through the air, the great explosion of fire and lightning expanded at a snails pace and the wind turned deathly cold as seconds later snow began falling accompanied by a few drops of flakes and whatever they perched on began getting encapsulated in frost.
Upon a few of them perching on the ongoing explosion it steadily got encapsulated in ice which spread all over preserving it so perfectly well like a piece of amber, even the raging lightning and all it's wild branches were encased beautifully well. By the time winter was over five minutes later the entire stage and more than half of the barrier had been coated in a layer of ice, right there in the middle of the stage now all that remained was the preserved frozen piece of an explosion and the golem hunched over wrapping it's master in a cocoon made of it's own body.
Seconds later the golems body began falling apart into little fine pieces of snow drifting away with the cold wind leaving just the three crystals which fell down to the frozen stage and her slightly frostbitten form standing there looking on with distant eyes.
Emrys gently made his decent to the stage standing just two meters away from her and taking in the scenery before him, a little feeling of underwhelm streaked across his face. The world's mana could not be used to replicate the type of ice magic he possessed by nature and so to him this being the end product achieved with such a spell looked incredibly subpar.
His lightning affinity wasn't that special, it was simply just the highest affinity possible within the natural order and had no special nature to it so he could replicate it with some amount of effort if he wished with the world's mana. She crouched down to take the crystals in her hands, holding them there for a few seconds before whispering something to the crystals and swallowing them whole.
A dense wave of mana so violent it completely shattered the remnants of frost erupted out of her body, her mouth opened wide in a banshee-like scream, a black miasma enveloped her form entirely and the stage slightly cracked beneath her feet as she began levitating a meter above. The viscous black aura surrounding her wiggled and morphed around creating new shapes until it began fading away to reveal her new form underneath, there was only one way Emrys could describe how she felt right now to him.
'Unnatural'.
Her palpable hatred had mixed in with the original mess of mana churning around in her body and twisted it's very nature to create what stood before him now, from her tearducts a continuous trail of blood flowed and her two normal limbs had grown a second pair underneath and they looked to be covered in an armour of hardened flesh bathed in hot tar. From behind were two more pairs of limbs hairy like that of a spider but at the very last joint it took a form more similar to that of a crabs with a metallic lustre.
Right in the centre of her chest was a black core about three inches in width, from her neck down to her abdomen and thighs a thin reddish black armour covered them. From her knees down veins of pure larva flowed, her feet was scorched black and her hair had taken on the form of a dark ashy cloud which sparked occasionally with red lightning.
Two great magic rings spinning with a steady hum around her feet were manifested showing her status as a two circle mage, near the rings edges were five smaller circles stationed at specific points and forming the faint outline of a pentagon. She pulled the bracelet around her second arm unsealing it to reveal a short wooden staff with a bulbous head and upon grabbing onto it her power shot up by almost half a level higher, she already was a middle stage second circle mage with a prowess comparable to one at the peak but now she was easily comparable to a newly ascended third circle mage.
It was then that Emrys had remembered an important detail, the charged winds. They had never left even through all the chaos it had persisted and now it was even more charged than before which shouldn't be as so, she raised the staff and it glowed with a brightness so strong it forced Emrys to squint his eyes a bit. The light died down a second later and he felt the change in the instant it occured, a sky that looked to by dyed red, the stage turning into a land of sand that stretched for miles and then there was the shifting unstable space all around them.
"Domain?".
Recognized as the birthmark of the very strongest destined to stand heads and shoulders above most others, out of the trillions of lifeforms in this world perhaps a hundred or so existed right now bearing a domain barring the few confirmed ones he knew.
A domain in the simplest of words was godlike, allowing you the power to slaughter or instantly defeat almost anyone in the same realm of strength as the caster, could even be multiple opponents within the same realm depending on how much mana one had. One of it's special properties was that it also allowed a near absolute suppression to be imposed at a certain level on all within it except for a few, if the opponent is only a whole level stronger than the caster then the domain brings them two or three levels lower and if two levels greater the suppression effect weakens by half and is vulnerable to the possibility of being resisted.
Domains also brought the casters own personal strength by either one or two levels higher so even if one is to be two levels greater they remain still at a slight disadvantage due to one other special property of a domain. The freedom to attack from all angles and manipulate the terrain as the caster wished, some stronger ones were even known to grant one the freedom of teleporting themselves or their opponents as well as their attacks or that of their opponents as they wished within the domain.
A number of absurd things were granted to one within a domain, a domain also grew with it's caster and the stronger one became the more access they had to the domain's properties. Another thing was that not all domains were the same, a hierarchy existed even between those possessing one and the very top level ones could manifest an innate special nature or two unto itself. There were no two ways around getting a domain, you were either born with it or not.
Well, that was how the saying usually went. Something miraculous had happened here, he turned his attention to the wooden staff in her hands understanding what was going on here. Whatever that thing was it had allowed her the freedom to create an imitation using the charged winds of earlier as the base to paint this shaky canvas onto the world. This was something that Emrys could only applaud as impressive no matter how fraudulent it might be compared to a real one in retrospect, there was no doubt in his mind that it had to be on the level of either a Legendary or Divine artifact to achieve this insanity.
Emrys smiled and shook his head as he began a slow clap for her, never had he ever been as amused as he were now since returning home and this truly was amazing.
"I knew you made preparations but this truly goes beyond my expectations".
"I congratulate you".
"State your name Jorōgumo".
She stated straight into his eyes parting her lips to utter the words- "Isla Horák".
"I see, you will remain in my memories for a bit".
"The promise wasn't quite an empty one after all".
"You've shown me a bit of what heights perfect hatred and determination can push one to reach".
"I thank you".
For the first time in years Emrys unfurled his wings, a pair of pitch black ethereal wings spread out and with it came a great change in pressure that seemed to infect the artificial domain with a tinge of darkness, countless little black feathers slowly fell from the skies all over the entire domain and seemed to fade away into shadows upon reaching the ground but the rain never seemed like it would stop.
Though Emrys knew the domain to be a false imitation of one, he still had no knowledge just how much of a true domain's properties it was able to imitate and as she was also not the caster of an original domain how long would hers last.
Domains were known to be one of it not the most taxing thing possible on a caster's mana pool and people born with one were also given copious amounts of mana by nature, she might be above average in terms of mana pool but nowhere near enough for what's needed to maintain a domain past one or two minutes at most which led him to the conclusion that she was supplementing with an outside source.
Perhaps multiple mana stones or at least one high grade stone, he wasn't sure yet but he was ready to find out if need be. For one thing he had already confirmed one aspect which had failed the moment it hit him, she noticed this too and though having a faint idea in her heart she still put forth the question.
"Why is the suppression effect not working on you".
His lips curved in a smile "Blood".
Having her suspicions confirmed a cold chill ran up her spine, though already preparing herself long before this tournament in the midst of her plans she still held on to a chance. It may have been called the birthmark of the very strongest but that did not necessitate a hundred percent chance you would be born with it even if being born as part of the strongest else there would not be so little of them present in just this world but the realm itself.
Accordingly if things were to have turned out he did not possess one then her plan had a near seventy percent chance of working, but now that it had been confirmed to her she was betting everything on a twenty percent chance. Isla wasn't afraid, not really as she knew failure wasn't an option even with such low odds. She had accepted the possibility of her dying here today but not without his life safely in tow with hers if things ever came to that point, no true reason was left for her to live after all was said and done. No home to return to, whatever would remain for her would be nothing but pure emptiness after all this burning hatred and revenge had been satiated.
This would be her last hurrah, the coupe de grâce.
With her determination even firmer now than it had ever been she proceeded with her opening, she put the staff forward summoning two successful magic circle in front of the other.
<
Hundreds of super thin nearly translucent silks of web poured out fluttering in the wind before chasing down their target, Emrys manipulated his ethereal wings to wrap around himself like a cloak as the webs reached him. Upon contact multiple small ripple like effects were created as the webs got negated. As per it's name most physical attacks would have been useless against them and so were some magic attacks as well, but his wings bearing something of the same nature but far superior to theirs made for an easy counter.
The entire terrain began moving upwards, like as if to swallow him whole but projecting the invisible force to a wide enough area he was able to hold it in place while launching an attack of his own. He burst forward with his wings spread wide aiming at her stopped in place for a moment before curving his wings around him as he twisted to the side avoiding the large wind blade.
His senses alerted him this time to an attack coming in all directions at him and for the first time Emrys would be forced to use a bit of his own mana, the domain trembled a bit and her eyes widened upon feeling it.
<
Thousands of arrows made of mana were summoned which continuously shot off in every direction meeting with the incoming elemental attacks and obliterating them on the spot.
Isla put the staff forward to create a mana shield to protect herself from the onslaught and even though the shield endured every hit felt heavy without question, at the end the shield had begun cracking but to her luck the spell had come to an end. If even after now possessing a mana nearly the same as that of fourth circle however still falling short and beginner level spell like that could cause such damage then what possibly was that mana of before he had been using.
The form and mana she had seen him use in the past was nothing like it, his mana had felt so plain in the past and that was what she had thought him to use upon using it on the stage though a stronger now than back then though that was to be expected.
A realisation hit her that she had to stall for longer, that mana was too dangerous and as the suppression effect of the domain could not be counted on she had bring an outside influence. With not the slightest bit of hesitation she bit hard into her own flesh ripping it off as a huge amounts of blood spilled in the air, with both hands around the staff she whispered a chant summoning a grand magic circle in the air circle of two smaller ones stacked before the other.
Summoning magic-: <
The blood pouring from her wound began ascending upwards and gathering around into a ball which then spread out into a great red portal, more blood was forcefully pulled out of her until it had become stable enough. Through the portal a knight on a horse both made of blood walked out in the air, another followed and so did another until eight knights and sixteen flag bearers now stood in formation.
Isla wasn't done yet, from the crystal embedded in her chest she summoned a spiral mixture of red, blue and black which grew to about nearly four hundred meters in size taking the form of a gigantic spear
Emrys looked to be cornered now, surrounded from all directions with a small Cavalry in front and from up high with a much too destructive weapon blocking the path of his escape anywhere within this domain. With a loud cry the spearbears all simultaneously struck their poles down three times in succession which sent three pulses of mana through the entire domain, everything trembled and Emrys felt a strong lock being imposed on his power. His blood brurned like lava and chains of blood summoned from four smaller portals wrapped around his limbs holding him in place with another sealing effect, the knights straddled their horses and brandished their blades as they charged forward all activating a single skill.
<
Their blades were oversaturated with mana and the excess wafted off them in waves, from their horses hooves the red lightning grew enveloping them in a great torrent in but a fraction of a second as they struck down at Emrys from all sides with all their might.
In that moment his pupils turned vertical as everything in his perception slowed down to crawl, violet colored lightning ran rampant around his body and then burst out into a dome-like field around him sending the knights flying back and partially damaging them. The chains holding his body began vibrating and moments later they shattered to pieces as his mana burst forth in waves.
With a hand raised to the sky a great magic circle was summoned in the clouds above and one smaller one before it.
<
It was instant, the premonition of what was about to occur sent alarms ringing aloud in her mind, a bone chilling danger like what she had felt three years ago, that same feeling of helplessness as she watched her people get slaughtered like cattle and her home wiped off the world's surface.
Nothing was allowed the freedom of movement under it's tyrannical presence, the bolt tore through it all. The spells and everything contained within the domain along with the very domain itself, everything was wiped out in but an instant and it's reign of destruction continued on the fortified stage which was obliterated to nearly a quarter of what it once was in the oceans depths.
The barrier was riddled with cracks and looked to be barely holding on, still floating before him was the bloodied form of Isla. One eye was gone, her right arm and leg had been completely obliterated and a great portion of her flesh had been burnt to a crisp, the whites of her bones could be seen all over her body and the staff she held in her hands turned to ashes drifting away with the winds. Even after casting deflection magic and sacrificing it's strength along with most of her mana for greater protection this had been the outcome still, yet even though in this haggard state she had the brightest smile and a look in her eyes that just screamed one thing–
I. Have. Won.
Out of nowhere an ear piercing and soul wounding ghastly screech assaulted his entire being sending a great pain racking through his body, he knew that scream, had read on it extensively well and had a small look of disbelief present in his eyes facing the creature as it tore it's way through this world breaking the very space apart.
A ghastly appearance like that of a glitching phantom, a presence colder than nearly anything he knew, eyes like that of void, a mouth with razor sharp teeth, a voice like that of nails on a chalkboard except far worse, in it's chest was an empty hole, it's nails were of pure black measuring nearly five inches and sharp beyond words.
That was a wraith, a most taboo and corrupted creature of pure chaos hailing from the dark continent or as it's been come to be known as these days, the underworld.
The process of summoning a wraith was a long one and it's price was always the same, half of your soul would be fed to it in return for completing it's task. That payment was already insane enough as it was but now there was the fact that the contract with a wraith was not absolute, at any given moment if impulsive enough the wraith could kill both it's caster and the target then go on a rampage causing devastating amounts of damage.
The fact that Isla had summoned that creature into this world despite knowing all this meant she truly had accepted her demise and cared not for what comes after. It was a known fact, the weakest possible wraith you could summon was on the level of a fourth circle, no one knew what the strongest was because nobody had been as insane as to test it and due to their very special nature and affinity they were a most dreadful existence for even a fifth circle not possessing the correct tools to subdue them.
A dominion over souls, it was like no matter what defense you had set up around your soul they were like a sheet of paper in the face of a wraiths onslaught. The wraith turned to look at it's summoner and then suddenly impaled it's hand into her chest, a deep ghastly gasp escaped her vocals as she felt her soul being literally ripped in half. It began pulling it's hand out and her mutilated soul along with it of which the wraith then proceeded to devour whole in it's jaws making for a most gruesome scene hearing the heart wrenching wails of her soul.
With it's payment completed Isla's unconscious form began falling to the depths having been placed into a state of limbo, dancing somewhere in-between life and death and soon enough if nothing is done to halt the process of her slowly evaporating wounded soul she would cease to exist. The wraith turned it's attention back to Emrys and growled as it approached him, he could feel it staring into his eyes and he also gazed into it's emptiness. Once close enough it raised a hand and struck it's claws into his chest, he raised no struggle as it grabbed a hold of his soul and it was there that everything went wrong.
In the little borderless world of empty surrounding the wraith there two stood great beings towering above it, one was a skeletal figure cloaked in ethereal darkness with eyes a burning white and bearing six arms. The lower pair of arms each held a ghastly scythe crossed downwards, the middle paif were each nearly closing around on a dark orb floating in-between and the final pair above were covered around a ball of deep violet flames with a tinge of crimson at it's core, from it's back sprung a pair of great wings made entirely of bones and coated in white flames burning with a comforting warmth.
But upon laying on the second avatar even though bearing no presence the wraith trembled a fear beyond comprehension as if having committed a great taboo, it was a fear so great it went mad with it and hastily tried to escape from this word but Emrys would not be allowing for such a thing.
Before it could escape through the crack it had created upon it's entry Emrys surrounded them in a dome of darkness, the wraith tried phasing through it but it's nature got perfectly negated preventing it's escape, the wraith turned around in a mad mixture of fear and anger roaring at him as it attacked but found itself unable to move. The darkness encroached over it's entire being completely devouring it until the wraith was completely gone, now permanently stuck in the world of darkness all he to do now was wait until it had been rewritten for his use.
Emrys released the dome of darkness which faded away to nothing and began his descent towards the bare remains left of the stage where her body lay deformed. There was a sadness in his eyes as he looked at her, not out of pity or anything like it no, it was simply a sadness that came from the fact he could not make her a part of his undead.
Her soul was nearly gone and therefore not viable, he could pull the little piece there was into the world of darkness to rewrite it but he doubted it could make her whole once more, maybe it actually could but on the off-chance it couldn't then he would be stuck with the rewritten small piece.
His mastery over the arcane arts and necromancy hadn't yet reached the point where soul healing on this level would be feasible, the only silver lining he could find in this situation was that he would make sure not to be unprepared if a second time such as this were to occur.
A sudden thought occured to him, the young fairy, she most surely should have the power to undo this but a preexisting problem had become clear to him with this revelation, taking her soul with him would surely not be allowed when considering what was to occur after this tournament was over, which also led him to another realisation.
'I worried for nothing'.
If the ones organizing this tournament hadn't made an effort to retrieve or fix her even at this point that meant they obviously had sure methods to undo her death bar the blessings of the goddess upon every participant which was only ever to undo conventional deaths in this tournament.
"Congratulations, you'll live to die another day".
He crouched down and grabbed onto her head then sunk into the depths of her mind but gave up moments later, her memories were all too fragmented to get anything out of her in this state, though he could partially fix it with some effort his motivation was far too low to make an attempt.
A mini-announcer popped up right next to him and stared at her before shaking his head.
"Such a foolish one, but lucky in the end".
He snapped his fingers and teleported them both back to the arena along with most of the others in wait thereby bringing an end to his participation in this round.
EnD.