Aqua launched the tenth trident at the mysterious person, this time with more force than all the previous ones combined. It rushed forward, carrying the force of the ocean tides, and while every other trident just passed through his body, she was sure that the last one would hit.
This ghost-like person could not prevent a trident that moved at such high speeds, after all. While it was not even close to being as powerful as a Kilo Trident, it was much faster. As long as it hit, she would be satisfied.
The trident flew closer to the being, coming in from behind, aimed right for his back. At the last moment, Aqua changed the trajectory, forcing it to move up by a couple of centimeters, now rushing in guaranteed to hit his neck.
'One percent.'
Aqua gasped in shock on hearing that and gasped once more on seeing the trident cut in half with a casual flick of his sword. There was no sound for a couple of minutes, as everyone stared at the person in utter disbelief. A single slash, with 1 percent of his true strength.
Brik roared out in anger and rushed forward, his ivory-white claws extended, his muscles swelled, his vision red. The bones in his legs stretched out into the ground, rooting him in place while they spread out, the Death Roots tunneling forward to pierce the one who opposed Brik. Even though his bones were attached to the ground, Brik moved, anger overcoming pain. He would destroy him before he revealed the other 99 percent.
Brik reached the murderer quickly, spikes of bone emerging from the ground from multiple different angles, each one moving towards the mysterious being. His fist slammed forward into the being with enough force to tear apart the sturdiest trees and the largest boulders. His unbreakable claws that could rup through ships rushed to cut, to rip the murderer apart.
The blood in his veins, the voice in his head, every single bone in his body were all screaming in rage. He felt his fist clanging onto something hard, and he knew that this time, he had hit something and that he would get revenge for every person who had lost their lives at the hands of this murderer. Get revenge for everyone who had to lose important people to him, just like how he had lost Uncle Ken to the Demons.
Brik pummeled the being made of darkness, his fists pumping down on him with immense strength. He could hear the sound of flames roaring and water splashing. He could feel the blood coursing in his veins scream at him to make sure that this person does not return in pristine condition. Brik alone could never hope to touch him, but when together with his comrades, he was sure that they would win. However, when his vision recovered, he saw something that caused him to almost die from shock.
His claws were on the floor, smoothly sliced away at his knuckles, blood flowing down his hands. X was kneeling near the end of the clearing in the forest in a puddle of boiling blood, Aqua had fallen from the sky and was lying down, her arms twisted in awkward angles. The murderer, meanwhile was looking at them with a bored expression, the darkness retreating slightly to reveal his pale face and empty eyes. Forget injuring him, Brik could not even touch him. Rage boiled within him, his strength rising inch by inch, but it was futile. No matter what he did, he could never match up to this being.
'One percent.'
The mysterious man slashed the air apart, making a visible cut in the transparent substance as tendrils lf inky darkness spread from it. The heat from the flames and the moisture from the ocean were all gone. Brik could see, his eyes worked, after all. And yet he could not, as all his five senses slowly eroded away. Slowly withered away.
He could not see his friends, he could not see his enemy, all he could see was black. He had completely overpowered them with a single attack. Knights from the prestigious Royal Academy. Brik had never felt so embarrassed.
He had sullied not only his name but also the name of the Academy, the Tower and the Kingdom itself. He should just die in this dark void for this act. He wasted the life he lived, a life that existed due to the sacrifice of Uncle Ken. His vision changed back from black to red. He could not give up now. No matter what. For Uncle Ken.
X stared forward into the endless abyss. The void of darkness stared back, a pitch-black area that seemed boundless, even though X knew it wasn't. The darkness was so overpowering that it blocked all sounds, smells,tasted and touches.
X could not feel the ground beneath his leg although he knew that he was standing on solid earth. He could not taste his own blood that flooded his mouth. He could not feel the blow of the wind and even the disturbing smell of decaying corpses that wafted through the air. He could not hear the sound of his heart beating, although it was almost jumping out of his chest each second.
Panic rose within him. X took a deep breath, and stared forward, his eyes glowing pink. For a brief moment, there was no change, then all of a sudden X could see. Not properly, but he could see pink silhouettes of the trees in the distance, of his friends kneeling and staring into the darkness, of the pillars of bone that arose from the ground, cleaved apart, even of the bodies on the floor. He could even see the outline of the entity that created the dark void, the darkest shadow within the pitch-black darkness.
X felt uneasy. It was not because he was facing an unknown opponent who could defeat him with a single glance, whose "1 percent" amounted to more than their combat abilities, combined. It was a kind of speculative fear. X was afraid. Afraid of who he was.
What would happen if he remembered his past, and it turned out that he was a murderer, just like this person? A person who enjoyed killing, and did it for now reason whatsoever. What if he had caused unnecessary bloodshed?
He was already unstable after killing the demon and was questioning the very purpose of himself and the world, and now he was questioning his unknown personality more than ever. But that did not matter, because right now, there was a person in front of him who deserved punishment. X could decide later if he deserved similar treatment or not.
X's eyes stopped glowing, and instead bright golden flames licked up his entire body, starting from the tips of his fingers. His dark tunic was burned apart partially, but X did not care. The darkness was temporarily offset by the light produced by the flames.
It crept away from X, returning to the person who created it in the first place. But it did not stay away for long. Slowly but steadily, the darkness returned and overcame the source of light. The golden flames shone brightly all over X's body, not losing any of its burning intensity, trying to fight back, but the darkness absorbing it was too powerful. The flames burnt without producing light.
X's eyes glowed pink, and at that moment, he doubled over, spitting out blood. His internal organs had still not recovered from using Pyrokinesis and Immortal Tree together in the past, even if it was incomplete, so redoing it would only cause him more injuries.
But if he had to stop this person, even if it was only 1 percent, he had to do it completely. He glanced over to Aqua. He could see her, but she. She had covered her ears and closed her eyes tightly, trying to stop some unknown terror that was haunting her. But right now, X needed her, so he screamed out loudly, his flames moving along with the screech, the power of Immortality carried by the sound waves. Aqua barely seemed to recognize it, but she turned and looked at X, as he continued screaming,
'Wake up'
Brik did not blink, looking forward in terror. The moment his vision changed from red to normal, he started having visions. Scenes flashed through his head. He stood alone on a battlefield, blood covering his whole body, shattered bones lying on the ground. He was facing off against four beings, each one a shadowy trail he could not completely decipher. Behind him stood an injured person, green light showering out of his hands and into Brik's body.
The scene changed, and he saw himself lying down on multiple pitch-black spikes, dead. Then he saw himself, X and Aqua walking through a massive room, a person wrapped in dark purple bandages guiding them, as a massive storm brewed outside.
He blinked and blinked once more. A loud sound was heard in the endless land of darkness and silence, and when Brik opened his eyes, he could see nothing. But he could feel X, standing beside him.
Brik did not know him that well, mostly because X did not know himself properly, but among every person on this planet, he was sure that only he knew X a little bit. And right now, he understood that X had made a plan and needed time. So Brik bought him time by rushing forward into the eye of the dark storm, even though he could not see where it was.
X held out his hand, and on that hand, he felt a small object falling, a pearl of pressurized water. Aqua had dropped it, and as far as X knew, it held a Kilo Trident. He did not want to resort to this, but he had no choice.
The cause of the difficulty in using Immortal Tree and Pyrokinesis together was that the golden flames of Pyrokinesis burnt him while healing him at the same time, but when empowered by the strength of Immortal Tree, the internal burns were too secer to handle. And to stop the fire, all he needed was to douse it.
X swallowed the pearl and felt it force the flames of Pyrokinesis out of his body, bright golden flames with a pink tint. He grabbed his hatchet and ran forward, flames billowing all around him, starting to combat the darkness, illuminating the area.
Brik punched, but he did not hit anything. But that did not bother him, because at least for now, the attention of the dark being was on him, His claws swiped at thin air, and a moment later, he raised his leg, aiming a kick at the place where he expected the person's neck to be at. Another miss.
He was hit in the gut by a sword butt,causing him to crash into a tree as his vision returned to normal. From behind him, he could sense light. The source of Light rushed forward, slowly offsetting the heavy darkness. A boy coated in pinkish-golden flames, rushing forward while dispelling the darkness. The steel hatchet struck the dark Katana, and at that moment Brik got a front-row seat of the clash.
Golden flames and bright white light collided with the dark shadow that was cast over the land, splitting the darkness apart. The light bloomed on one side, and darkness withered away everything on the other. Two beings stared at each other, all the flames and darkness wiped out from their faces. One being moved its mouth up and down, muttering a certain two word for the third time.
'One percent.'
Two beings with uncannily similar faces stared at each other while being in the dead center of a wheel of darkness and fire that decimated parts of the Forgotten Forest.