Veritas suddenly appeared in front of Mercury, who was standing as he awaited the start of the match. It had only been a couple of minutes since they were transported and Mercury wondered what took Veritas so long to be teleported.
Upon staring at his facial expression, Mercury thought that something must've happened.
With his shiny golden hair and light blue eyes, he walked around the area to scout for potential enemies. Seeing that the area was clear, he walked back to Veritas and informed him of their situation.
"See anything?"
Mercury shook his head side to side.
"I see."
Veritas walked forward and closed his eyes, the Winds in the surroundings seemed to move in every direction and swept through Mercury's body.
"Yeah. We're calm for now.."
Veritas walked to a nearby log and sat on it, grabbing a stick to poke the leaves below. Then, he stared at Mercury's direction, "Do you prefer to fight now or conserve our energy? With our combat prowess we are guaranteed a spot for the third stage."
He chuckled.
"Quite ironic isn't it, no one could actually hope to contend with us.."
Mercury stared at him with a blank expression, listening attentively at his warm words.
The only person that Mercury could think of being on par with him is either the daughter of Duchess Dragonia, Alice. Or the person in front of him, Prince Veritas.
In the entirety of Elrod, no Impure Pathbearer is better than the three of them.
Perhaps they could even be on par with a Pure Pathbearer, as long as the Path is Noble or Mundane.
As for a Sacred-Ranked Pure Pathbearer, it would be quite difficult for two Impure's to face off against them.
Actually, the difference between Impure, Pure, and Beyond isn't quite that large. It is only after one ascends to a Hallowed that the qualitative change begins to take notice.
One could say that the three are in the lower tiers of a Pathbearer. While Hallowed and being the sole mid tier and Empyrean being in the upper tiers.
The low-tier ranks are not that much different from one another, only changing the pureness of their Soul and their unity with the respective Path.
So, if an Impure Pathbearer with a Sacred Path fought with a Pure Pathbearer with a Noble Path, then it would most likely end up in the Pure Pathbearer's victory. But there is a chance of the Impure Pathbearer winning against the latter by utilizing the rank of their Path.
It was very unfair to those that only unlocked a lower ranking Path.
Unless one is really united with their Path, then a Noble Path has no chance of winning against a Seraph Path.
It would take years to even grasp the true nature of the Path and the runes themselves were tricky.
Sometimes, there are wordplays that could not be relied upon.
Even Veritas did not know what Visionshaper really did, nor what it's capabilities are.
As much as Veritas hated to admit it, the Seraphim of Gold, Aurelium, had showed the best display of unity between the Path and the Pathbearer.
He utilized Brilliance in a terrifying way and Veritas only got out due to the help of the Fallen Angel.
It was utterly terrifying..
He stared at Mercury and thought:
'What is the true difference between a Seraph and a Sacred?'
Being 2 tiers above Sacred, the Seraph rank was quite a mystery. It was great in power of course, but really difficult to utilize. Additionally, it is not as simple as other Paths.
Veritas felt that there was something more to it.
Something alien to Veritas' mind, as if his Path was very unfamiliar to his nature.
He sighed and contemplated no longer.
For now, Veritas needed to focus on the task in hand and that is the upcoming battle in the second stage.
The winds suddenly shifted far to the right, signifying that an individual had just entered Veritas' range.
He stood up from the log and alerted Mercury, "Get ready, someone's coming.."
Mercury unsheathed a normal meter-long steel sword and held it in the direction where Veritas was looking.
After a few seconds, Veritas felt that a pair of Pathbearers were slowly approaching their direction.
Veritas jumped to a nearby branch and scouted from high up. With his enhanced vision, he could vaguely see a person with black hair that was laid down to his shoulders, and a girl with similar colored hair tied up into a ponytail.
Shifting his head down towards Mercury, Veritas casually stated:
"Act solo for a while. If you wish, you can battle with other Pathbearers or you can keep a low profile."
"Okay."
"We'll meet in the final stretch of this stage."
Veritas flew towards the next branch and his appearance slowly started to change. His marble armor dissipated and turned into the similar clothing that the boy with black hair was wearing.
His white hair turned into the same color as that boy, and his facial features started to resemble him too.
By the time that he reached the next branch, Veritas had already turned into a different person.
After a few minutes, Veritas arrived near the pair of Pathbearers. He hid in a nearby tree and watched them carefully.
As if he were camouflaged, Veritas stood still like a bird sitting down on a tree.
He watched how the boy acted, his speech patterns, his manneurisms, and many more.
So, Veritas followed them throughout the day, hiding in the nearby branches and trees.
He acted as a bat that slept in the Hyperion trees above and the pair of Pathbearers were oblivious to his act!
Well, he was using Visionshaper to hide himself from their visions too.
In this hot afternoon, Veritas spent all his time studying the boy with black hair below and saw them walking together in the vast expanse of forest.
"Line! Be careful.. I sense two figures nearby." The girl with black hair suddenly stated.
Veritas noticed that her black eyes turned gray the moment she sensed the foes.
'So that's her Path..'
He continued to watch as a scene of a battle soon unfolded itself below him.
The boy named Line stood his ground and got prepared for battle. He unsheathed a steel blade and faced in front of him.
In a second, a man with a thin and scrawny physique lunged at him!
With his tongue laid out, the man looked crazy for blood!
He swung a serrated dagger towards Line but was immediately parried, countering with a heavy fist to his abdomen.
The man was winded and taken aback. He immediately jumped back to recuperate and licked his serrated dagger.
"Quite the strength you have.. Is yer Path related to buffing the physique?"
Line clicked his tongue and gripped his blade even tighter.
Then, he jumped towards the scrawny man and formed a downward slash, overpowering him with his strength.
A crater formed beneath the scrawny man and the leaves flew up in succession.
He laughed and then sent Line's steel blade to the side, which left him open for attacks!
"Wide open!"
He struck down the serrated dagger in hopes to damage the boy, stabbing him in the right shoulder.
Blood came gushing out of the wound and Line gritted his teeth!
Suddenly! Another man came out of the bushes, this time a man with a bulky physique and holding a tremendously big bat!
He swung the bat heavily towards Line's side, making him fly out towards a nearby trunk!
Line hit the tree with his back, making him feel dizzy!
In their pair, he was the only one with combat prowess. His partner, Jade, had improved senses but her capability to fight was closer to none!
She used her senses to survive in the first stage by guiding her team to the location of the abominations.
But here.. in this all out battle, she could not shine quite considerably well.
Of course, they could always hide but what hope is there to cower in fear while they await a hunter to make them a prey?
Dust formed where Line was struck onto, winds made their way towards him, and the leaves were thrown out.
"Kekeke-" The scrawny man laughed, "I'll take him, you go find that girl."
"Hmph." The bulky man nodded.
He walked slowly towards Line, entering the dust cloud formed on his impact.
"I really do wonder how weak Pathbearers exist in this world..." He provoked.
Then he swayed his serrated dagger side to side, "You are all but fodder to us hunters! You should thank yourselves, at least you serve a purpose."
The scrawny man ran quickly towards the tree, he looked like a madman thirsting for blood!
"Kekeke!"
Then, he brought down the serrated dagger in hopes to stab the boy!
However! He received the serrated dagger and parried it with the edge of his blade.
The dust cloud dissipated revealing a wide-smile on Line's face.
In a fraction of a second, he kicked the man's foot to make him lose balance, then he used his fists to punch on the man's abdomen, sending him down to the ground!
While the man was on the ground, Line ran towards the man with a bulky physique who was headed over to his partner. He spun his body and sent his sword flying, spinning quickly and hitting the man on his arm.
Startled by this, the man nimbly reacted and ran towards Line!
He sent out a giant swing of his bat but Line leaned back to dodge, then he twisted his body as if he were dancing in the winds!
Line ducked, turned around, and stood up with his hands. Then, he sent a roundhouse kick to the man's bat, sending it with great force to make it fly away!
Immediately after that, Line rotated his body to kick with his right foot! With great force, it made the bulky man tremble in pain!
But a moment of faltering made Line take the advantage to stand up and send an uppercut towards him!
The man staggered upwards and was thrown to his back. While he was falling, Line jumped and used his entire body weight to kick the bulky man to the ground with even more force!
Without even 10 seconds passing, Line had already taken down the two assailants! Immediately, the two of them were teleported away, as if their figures vanished in space.
Line walked towards his partner, who was sitting down in shock! He extended his hands towards her.
"A-are you alright?" She asked upon seeing his bloodied knuckles.
"Oh this.. It'll be fine, trust me."
The girl with black hair looked at his Face.
"Let's go, Jade."
Line smiled widely and his right eye slowly turned crimson-red, glowing in the everlasting darkness of the Hyperion trees.