From the very moment he was teleported to the battlefield his senses went wild prompting him to raise a palm to his face blocking the fist of Noctis, a thunderous boom echoed through the air accompanied by a strong shockwave which spread for miles on end.
He grabbed onto the fist and moved it away to stare into the calm silver eyes of Noctis which released a steady stream of gold making for a beautiful contrast, Emrys smiled and let go of his fist then in an instant both vanished. Moments later a trail of gold and one of purple painted the air intertwining over millions of times over in a fraction of a second only to be broken when Emrys was suddenly sent flying downwards but he stilled himself just in time to catch Noctis by his wrists and throw him across the sea of lava watching as he rolled and bounced again and again until he came to a stop.
His eyes held amusement as he wiped the blood from his mouth and began walking towards Noctis who had already gotten up to release his form into it's true state, he burned like a star releasing flares of golden mana and a giant magic was summoned behind him, with a casual wave of his hand thousands of bright little lights sparkled everywhere across the battlefield.
<
In moments thousands of concentrated light beams shot up in all directions forming an inescapable net, their piercing power so great it could sink deep into the sea of lava and continuously digging deeper into it for as long as it persisted, Emrys had flown up in the air to remain in the only area in the net free enough to contain him.
'Quite fast those things are, barely made it in time'.
'If I hadn't grown so much just before this battle remaining in this state definitely wouldn't be enough'.
'Now-
Just as he was about to launch his counterattack Emrys caught sight of the beams slowly moving in all directions and reducing his available space, he forced his senses to their utmost limit just as the beams moved in a flash dicing with no restriction and riddling the fabric of space with thousands of tears in all places as a side effect of its prowess.
<
As the beams came to a standstill once more right there in the gaps was a tiny purple bolt of lightning, it snaked around through the gaps in a zigzag moving up, down and sideways. Noctis smiled watching the little dance but recognized something to be off, normally that spell was supposed to create branches numbering in the thousands to millions and more could be created as they were destroyed, it was quite an effective 'life saving' technique that could also be turned around to cause utmost destruction in a heartbeat.
The fact Emrys was sticking to one branch meant two things, one he was a crazy daredevil which he could attribute to the benefits of being immortal and two he was confident in surviving the net, wanting to test that confidence he controlled the beams of light to move around once again in all directions multiple times over but no matter how much he moved them the little bolt of lightning kept finding the gaps to escape through.
'Hm, not unfounded it seems'.
Realizing very quickly that no matter how many times he changed formation he could never get rid of the gaps cause in the end the baseline foundation remained a net he decided to start all over.
Formation:- <
In the blink of an eye a cubic construct made entirely of pure light spanning tens of thousands of miles in length and reaching just as high was formed on the battlefield, a large chunk of the sea of lava below instantly vanished and inside the construct was the body of Noctis whom could still feel, see and move unrestricted within the solid construct.
'There it is'.
He smiled, within the construct was a large spiral of pure darkness, though not visible from the outside he saw it clear as day. The darkness twisted and turned to take the shape of a humanoid figure closely resembling Emrys though made of pure darkness, his eyes were a burning shade of violet and little flares of darkness continuously escaped his form.
Noctis having seen a little of what his darkness element could do in the other realm knew well that attacking that form as it were now meant feeding a bottomless pit and he himself was going to be at a huge risk of suppression if it retaliates so he had to take things up a notch.
He stopped the spell causing the construct to disperse and flew high up into the air, three giant golden circles were summoned behind him in a stacked formation.
<<The hour of Judgement>>
A single bell toll echoed through the air and in moments Emrys found himself standing in a realm of pitch black with an endless spiral sea of gold beneath his feet, he tried feeling his power but it was like nearly absolutely everything had been stripped from him and in moments he could make no further movements also as he remained spread eagle in the air, his limbs and neck bound by golden chains coming from deep within the dark.
Looking up at Noctis high above he radiated a power many times greater than what he had ever felt from him and orbiting around his body were seven tablets of gold each with a different written word that he could not discern but when looking at them Emrys found himself feeling for the first time in this tournament a true threat that he could actually lose.
The tablets stopped their orbit and one broke free of the encirclement to come before him as it shattered to pieces, grabbing onto a part of those pieces his eyes burned with a greater intensity
"Verdict confirmed".
<<Condemn>>
From up high a pillar of light descended upon Emrys lighting up the dark and in that small infinitesimal second before impact his eyes turned a starry crimson. There was no loud bangs, no extravagant effects or bursts, just a simple silent descent only broken by the small ripple of the golden sea below upon contact and at that moment the light froze, then it began turning crystallized displaying the body of Emrys perfectly sealed within it.
'Hm, since it could not destroy him it opted to seal him instead huh'.
Noctis analyzed with a smile but soon caught hold of something, the eyes of Emrys which had turned a different hue contrary to what it was before.
'Ah'.
That was all he could say as suddenly the crystallized light cracked and shattered to pieces in the matter of a few moments, the very realm trembled as for the very first time in this tournament he would be forced to release his Dark mana.
His violet hair turned black as night and grew so long it reached his heels, from his body radiated an aura so overwhelmingly violent yet so divine and beautiful it could bring one's very soul to tears in adoration. His skin turned a pale grey and his claws darkened, though not brought out directly into the world yet just the presence of it bubbling underneath from his very core was already threatening to undo this very realm and would have succeeded if it were not for the presence of Noctis whose power had risen multiple folds more just to counteract it's effects.
But rather than fear what he felt right now in the presence of such overwhelming strength was joy, the very divine in him rejoiced for something many in the world wrongly thought to be the very epitome of evil.
"I was right, dark mana is indeed of a divine nature".
"The incarnation of it's unending wrath and unrivalled destruction, it's greatest executioner unbound by it all".
He rotated the tablets around him once more and this time pulled five of them into the last sixth, knowing full well that he could not afford to underestimate just how overwhelming that power was he had decided to go all out.
The final tablet was transformed into a little butterfly made of pure light and it perched atop his hands, his power rose to it's absolute peak by many hundred folds.
"The Final Judgement".
<<Erasure>>
The butterfly took off and flew straight ahead only to disappear in a ripple through the darkness, moments later Emrys felt the very core of his existence slowly being erased from the world.
<<Freeze>>
Just like that everything froze in place, the process of erasure was halted and if one were to look closely they would find that even Noctis seemed all too still but his consciousness was all too free and he knew full well what was happening to him yet even then it was still not any less unbelievable.
Word magic, a most notoriously difficult branch of magic to learn let alone master and yet Emrys had mastered it to such a level where it could affect the nature of an obscure power like erasure, even he did not think it an achievable feat at their level yet.
<<Shatter>>
The realm burst to a million pieces instantly ending the spell and returning them to the battlefield, Emrys conjured up a small ball of lightning of which due to the influence of dark mana had turned a deep shade of black with streaks of silvery white and a violet. The pressure emanating from it alone instantly shattered the space around them and sunk the sea of lava below into a crater nearly half a mile deep with a width spanning many thousand miles.
From the broken space around them new rifts formed and with this came storms of lightning which seemed to be made from the very essence of space itself thereby looking almost ethereal and embedded with what seemed to be little stars, quite violent yet so peaceful and seemingly attracted to both Emrys and the ball of lightning within his hands.
They rushed forward into the ball of lightning like a group of starving hyenas seeing the fresh carcass of a bison and bit into it with ferocious vigor then the spatial storm seeped into the body of Emrys wreaking havoc everywhere they went, destroying, reconstructing and destroying once again until they dug so far beyond going into the very essence of his lightning affinity changing it from the inside out and imprinting upon it their very nature.
Noctis watched him undergo this revolution, watched as he repeatedly torn apart and rebuilt from the inside out and watched very clearly as the very essence of his element was changed from the inside out, watched as it came to manifest a new nature entirely different to what it once was.
The ball of dark lightning with streaks of silvery white and violet had now gained an almost ghostly ethereal form in the way it moved so freely in and out of states, the flow of lightning so hypnotic yet never has it ever looked as violent and beyond dangerous, deeply imprinted within that darkness and in those streaks were obscure visions of the cosmos, each violent strike from a lightning branch seemingly travelled through the emptiness vanishing for a moment only to reappear once more in the world.
Emrys seemed to be trapped in a daze from the moment this phenomenon began occurring, his eyes glazed over by a thin film of pure white and then he blinked. The white slowly receded rippling along his pitch black sclera, he gently closed his fist dispersing the gathered ball of lightning and looked up to meet the gaze of Noctis.
He released his command over him and sighed as he undid the influence of dark mana which returned him to his normal state but there was something different, in his long violet hair which reached a length just below his waist was a new streak of white.
"Do you want to know something interesting" Emrys asked.
Noctis tilt his head a little to the side and steadily flew back down to the sea of lava below.
"I really have no desire to be invincible, yet every step I take forces me towards it".
"I've left some intentional gaps in my armor for my opponents to exploit, I allow a lot of things".
"Looking at how abnormal we are I'm sure we all had the same idea in a way also, else how is it possible we're all still one or two circle mages after eight years".
"But in doing so we've made ourselves far more dangerous, there exists no first or second circle mage with the power comparable to a sixth, seventh and eight".
"Even by maximization it's just not possible, there's a hard limit to maximization but we and most especially I, have forgotten an important part, our limits cannot in any way be compared to theirs".
"The rest of you may be under pressure to achieve or break every limit of power you can because of what you are to face but I don't like it for myself".
"Still, I know I can't stop now. My greed has already taken permanent root, I cannot come back from this path".
"So this shall be the last time I ever complain about it".
"In the end I do not fear my own power, I simply do not wish to grow bored of it so quickly".
Noctis smiled after "in those last words, we are the same".
"But unlike you I find myself in a better position, with you, Hope, Ishmael and Avistro, even Velkos".
"I will always have a goal to chase, someone to compare to and competition to keep me on my toes lest I fall so far behind".
"In this way I am indeed blessed".
Emrys smiled and gently shook his head "yeah, it would seem so".
"I shall accept my defeat here" declared Noctis.
The mini-announcer popped up within moments of his declaration and asked Emrys if he was ready to undertake the second challenge but he replied instead with a question for him.
"How long did it take".
The announcer "nearly eight minutes, most of it dedicated to your evolution and verbal exchange".
"I see, i kept my promise then".
Noctis looked between them both "so i'm guessing there was a bet you would end this fight quickly".
"No, a promise" replied Emrys with a smile.
He scoffed and requested for the announcer to return him back to the waiting area of which he did with a snap of his fingers, Emrys seeing his opponent leave finally accepted to continue on with his challenge and was immediately teleported into the battlefield.
The first thing he met with was the sight of Ishmael laying in a fetal position atop the sea of lava, from his breathing Emrys could tell he was genuinely asleep and though he should have been surprised at such an out of place thing to do, in the end he wasn't having witnessed him sleeping in a volcano once before.
"Hmm....Ishmael".
Almost immediately his eyes sprung open displaying those ferocious crimson red irises with vertical pupils, he got up in a lazy manner and stretched his body a bit.
"You're finally here".
"No need for formalities then".
His body began getting covered in smooth armor-like crimson scales and a draconic tail and wings each measuring 1.9 meters and 4 meters respectively sprung from his body along with a red hot aura so intense it near instantly vaporised the sea of lava and everything else within a hundred thousand mile radius as the very space itself surrounding them burned away and the horns on the sides of his head grew longer.
Emrys wasting no time matched Ishmael's hybrid transformation immediately upon it's release and let his form fall under the influence of dark mana once more, though leaving his body unprotected by the mana yet even still impressive was how the heat managed to cause him some burns which only got visibly worse by the second even with his quick natural regeneration.
His mouth slightly parted as he breathed out a chilly breath, almost immediately everything was cooled to a point where just a comfortable warmth could be felt and Ishmael's pupils contracted upon feeling clearly a hint of what was imbued within that breath.
"You-
"Yes, the true essence of the ice dragon emperor".
"That, is my magic".
"Just as you possess that of the flame emperor's".
His eyes turned a bright crystal blue as a wave of icy blue mana spread outwards clashing with the crimson red hot of Ishmael dividing the world into halves of extreme cold and extreme hot but if one were to look closely they would find the cold slowly but surely encroaching upon the territory of Ishmael.
"In the past, the ice dragon emperor lost to and tied with the flame dragon emperor, no records about a win".
"Hm, perhaps we make history today".
Ishmael smiled "no, I'd rather a second victory".
<
A pillar of flames rose up from beneath Emrys engulfing him and reaching thousands of miles high but then in moments everything was frozen to bits and shattered away into multiple crystallized blue particles of light to reveal the form of an unharmed Emrys.
"It's best you use it, no matter how many spells you cast with your 'basic' dragon fire it's pointless".
"All I need is a breath always".
Silence reigned for a few seconds between them both and suddenly the aura of extreme heat around Ishmael died leaving the aura of extreme cold to dominate the space in it's place, his blood red eyes burned with power as he opened his mouth to whisper the word-
"Crimson"
Without warning Emrys found himself suddenly pulled into a different realm once again but unlike the last this was was not a realm of darkness but of sunset yellow skies going on endlessly with nothing below or above bar the golden clouds.
A reddish-black flame steadily envolped the claws of his right hand and upon it's manifestation Emrys felt like the very core of his existence could be permanently burned away to nothing even under the protection of his immortality.
Even if just an illusion, the very fact he felt that much of a threat signified truly just how powerful those flames were and he could not help but smile as he made a show to reciprocate the sincerity of it's power in kind.
He opened the palm of his right hand to summon a small piece, It's appearance wasn't much, simply looked like a crystal blue candle flame with a white essence to it's core and it gave the feeling it could be extinguished at any moment by just the slightest breeze.
But by the heavens it's power, the very fabric of this realm was infected by a thin layer of crystallized frost from the inside out and superimposed itself over the divine scorching heat imprinted upon this space. The clash between the supreme sides of two opposite extremes was destructive beyond imagination and if it were not for this realm being especially durable enough to barely just handle it, everything would have already collapsed a long time ago.
<
A spiral ring of reddish-black flames was summoned in their midst bearing a power far greater as it instantly overpowered the influence of cold on this realm and grew to cover hundreds of thousands of miles in but an instant. Emrys initially protected himself from the expansion of the flames by forming a cocoon of ice around himself but found the true terror of this spell lied in being caught within it's space.
It was a double-trigger spell with a tracking nature designed to impose a dimensional lock effect and trap it's target within if the first expansion of flames failed to achieve complete destruction of it's target and with this second effect triggered the property of compression and amplification comes into play to pressure it's trapped target who can do nothing but watch as the ring continously shrinks bringing with it a power that jumps to new heights with every compression and only stopping the moments it's target has been noted to have been truly destroyed.
Right now this was what Emrys was facing trapped within that ring of hell, the growing pressure and power of those flames already near destorying his cocoon of ice even with continuous reinforcements to it but with the power jumps being non-linear and mountanuous with every compression left him playing catch up of which he was now falling considerably behind as reinforcement by nature followed a defined and limited process.
In moments the cocoon would be destroyed and then he would be at it's complete mercy so for the second time in this tournament Emrys would be forced into interrupting the development of a spell before it reached it's complete peak.
<
The air turned eerily chilly at a visible rate and Ishmael looked down at his own body in surprise as He, bearing the supreme manifestation of flames and also being a dragon himself was trembling under the effects of the cold. This, somehow, felt far more insulting than simply being frozen outwards. In seconds the piercing cold reached his bones, every bit of his mana pathways and core, he tried fighting back against it but only felt like all he had done was slow down the inevitable.
His body turned paler and colder at a visible rate, his breath frosty and looking ahead he would see the approaching ring of fire had been frozen in a special way, almost as if it's very nature had been changed rather than brutally overpowered and encased in ice. The reddish-black flames were now a crystallized blue and looked just as ethereal as the flames were, only if one were to touch them they would find themselves sharing the same fate and also unable to move them in the slightest, as if frozen in time.
The dimensional lock, by nature an obscure and invisible effect had found itself also under the mercy of the cold. On the very fabric of space were little glints of crystals that shone intermittently, soon enough the cold shattered it's effects on this realm thereby releasing Emrys from his prison.
At this moment the cold reached his core and upon contact it stopeed for a moment and simply vanished, it's traces all over his body were gone just the same, almost like the effects of reversal had just been implemented and if one were to look closely they would find that the air around Ishmael was greatly distorted, like an invisible wall of steam was enveloping his entire being.
Without warning the influence of the cold over this realm vanished as did the frozen ring of fire which was burned to nothing in an instant and yet the heat never seemed to reach Emrys, that was how controlled they were and it's temprature kept on rising and rising until it burned to a point where a hint of color was restored to it's hue once more and just then he vanished.
Reappearing before Emrys his palm was spread out and a ball of reddish-black gathered before it as he smacked it into Emrys who responded by constructing a wall of reinforced ice before him just before impact.
It was catastrophic, like he was suffering the onslaught of a blazing meteor, the flames exploded bringing with a large trail that went on for miles on end as the wall shattered to pieces but right as it broke Emrys had also gathered a flame of ice around his palm of which he used in meeting the palm of Ishmael.
Both attacks immediately canceled each other out leaving nothing but cooled steam wafting off their hands, a second activation was initiated and the impact pushed them apart before they rushed in again with Ishmaels mouth wide open in a roar as a tsunami of reddish-black flames poured out endlessly with such ferocity it covered the entire sky only to be horizontally split in half and matched by a wave of crystal blue ice-flames.
Their clash split the realm into halves of red and blue with both sides at a stalemate and the longer it went on the further this realm became unstable as it trembled under the might of two supreme existences, with a final boost Ishmael finally began pushing the ice emperor's magic back slowly but surely and just when he had thought his victory to be at hand his flames were suddenly pushed back returning them to a stalemate.
A deep feeling of annoyance welled inside of him as he made the final decision to end this once and for all, a deep and primal growl escaped his lungs as suddenly a presence so terrifying it nearly ripped apart his very being descended upon this realm instantly neutralizing both their magics and Emrys watched as a tornado of reddish-black flames began encircling Ishmael who was visibly growing larger at a visible rate untill suddenly it burst wide open bringing with it a pulse of crimson red mana which spread for miles on end.
Right before his eyes a 150 meter tall majestic red dragon with four horns reared it's head up into the skies and released a soul shaking deep primal roar which near shattered this very realm, a single flap of his wings was like a natural disaster capable of flattening entire countries with just the wind pressure alone.
A copious amount of blood red mana emanated off his body warping the realm to high extremes, it's deep crimson eyes locked on to the figure of Emrys who looked like a complete bloody mess but still on his lips was a smile as he raised his gaze to meet that of the dragon's.
–<Dark spirit manifestation>–
Darkness poured out of his body in waves near drowning the entire sky as his body coated in a blob of darkness began expanding until it all receded back into a needlepoint and expanded once more taking shape into the form of a 150 meter tall lion born entirely of darkness and coated in an aura of it, it's eyes a deep shade of starry crimson and it's mane full and majestic with streaks of silvery-white.
On it's body were a pair of wings spread wide and with a majestic stomp of it's front paws atop the fabric of this realm it's head up into the skies and released an earth shattering roar.
The two behemoths stood facing off against once another, their eyes unyeilding and their bodies slightly crouched, deep spine chilling growls escaping their vocals as they finally pounced.
Claws were brandished as their forelimbs clashed with such force it near instantly annihilated the realm returning them back to the original battlefield and destroying everything around them in a near ten million mile radius with simply the much weakened residual force left of their clash.
In the aftermath Emrys was sent back for many miles before flapping his wings and coming to a stop, he growled and looked upon the form of Ishmael a distance away then flew back at a speed almost akin to teleportation to ram his paws into the dragon's chest and send them both crashing deep into the sea of lava causing destruction like never before.
Thunderous booms could be heard from beneath causing turbulent movements to the surface above, like multiple nuclear weapons were being detonated in multiple places all at once and seconds they burst out of the lava releasing devastating roars that instantly shattered thr fabric of space sending them deep into an almost void-like space.
Emrys dodged a dangerous claw swipe from Ishmael with an all too agile movement nowhere near compatible with his size and then bit down onto the dragon's neck causing it to roar in pain which quickly turned into anger but Emrys had already let go and flown a distance away before it could launch a counterattack.
He looked at the wound inflicted upon his opponent and found it far too shallow, the dragon's scales were tough beyond compare even after making sure to strike at an optimal timeframe where it's body was unguarded by mana.
Realizing very quickly that he could no longer opt for a frontal assault against the dragon he perched down onto the fabric of this void-like space as did Ishmael who had accepted he could not deal with the lion's speed.
Their claws sunk deep and their jaws partially parted, from inside a power incomparable to anything else began boiling, reddish-black flames with prominent streaks of gold steadily spilled from the gaps of his mouth and it sent tremors through this space, distorting it's structure with the power contained within those flames.
From the jaws of Emrys a frosty aura brewed partially off-setting the influence of the flames on this space and once their jaws were opened wide the elements condensed to a point drawing in a heavy amount of power until it was unleashed.
A concentrated stream of crystal blue and reddish-black with gold clashed instantly turning the very structure of this space into one of shattered glass violently being juggled against one another within a box until it was all suddenly separated, breaking out of the box and drifting around in space.
The collapse of this space took very little time and now the were stuck in a realm of pure white with their clash still ongoing, as if the changes occuring around them mattered very little. The two behemoths were laser focused on one thing only, absolute victory.
Hundreds of grand magic circles were summoned by both individually and it surrounded them, the circles of red and black were activated releasing smaller versions of their breath attacks and at this moment both their manas were flared to high extremes pouring out of their body in waves and darkening the realm itself as they made the final push for a tie-breaker.
The intensity of their atacks rose by hundreds of magnitudes higher until slowly but surely the stream of blue began pushing back against the stream of red. As the seconds went by the pushback continued, Ishmael fought his very hardest in trying to stop it but yet it kept on growing closer and closer it overcame him entirely. The red dragon was frozen from head to toe, inside out and so was his magic, even down to his very soul all was frozen.
The summoned magic circles were deactivated and Emrys stopped his attack, he stared into the eyes of Ishmael which looked unyeilding even in defeat and then turned his head to look at the space around them which was already being restored, in minutes they were back to the battlefield standing atop the sea of lava and only then did he remove his transformation.
He laid down and closed his eyes, right now he was nearly exhausted though not in the physical sense as that was endless, just mentally and of his mana. Even if possesing two cores and the largest pool of mana amongst his peers they all still possesed a more than monstrous amount of it and Ishmael was one out of the three "closest" to him in both quantity and quality.
Without a doubt if he were to face her in his current state he would lose oh-so terribly, within mimutes the min-announcer popped up with the widest of grins on his face and a portal summoned at his side.
"And now the finals are set, congratulations on your victory".
Emrys lazily turned his head towards the announcer, then his gaze shifted to the portal and he sighed but still got up nonetheless.
"Thank you".
He replied and walked through it to find himself back in the arena and lauded with a booming audience welcoming him and her who had walked out seconds before he did. Nearly fifteen seconds later so did Ishmael and Avistro, now all four stood on stage and just then the announcer's true body was made visible still with that wide grin of excitement plastered on his face as his eyes roamed over the four finalists.
EnD.