The skies answered Alone's prayer and protected him from Mercy's spear. The spear froze in mid-air, and Mercy was unable to call it back.
"Why is Lucifer protecting and giving so much power to him for so little sacrifice?" Mercy was surprised and angry at the same time. Although the Merchant of Woes was a little shady and mysterious, he was never unfair, like now.
"Mercy tried to call his spear back again and again, but it didn't." His authority over the spear was being rejected.
So he clutched his sword tight and stared at Alone, receiving his boon from Lucifer.
"I accept as payment your soul, your riches, and the power of your orbs. In return, I bless you with some of my power." Lucifer talked from the sky.
Mercy wondered if Lucifer didn't return to the realm because he didn't want Mercy talking about his fraud.
A sword of flame in the sky was formed to deliver the boon to Alone. but something was different; the flames were coloured green instead.
"Lucifer is giving Alone a part of his own soul?!" Mercy was familiar with the colour green in magic.
Mercy activated his shield of lightning for good measure against an attack.
The sword fell upon Alone's head, and the world around them shone so brightly that it felt like the sun was shining next to them.
The light slowly passed, and the world became normal once more. Mercy opened the eyes that he had covered.
"?!" Mercy's spear returned to his hand, and he placed it on his back, and a leather belt to hold the spear appeared on him.
He saw Alone standing on the top of his ice pillar, his body, spectre, and red tunic armour all rounded by an aura of gold.
Alone stared Mercy down from his position. His eyes were no longer numb. A symbol of a skeleton appeared on his head.
"I will win this for my kingdom. I have nothing else left. I can win this. I need to win this." The golden aura calmed down, and Alone raised his spectre towards Mercy.
"Die." Alone spoke in one word.
"?!" Mercy dodged the ice crystal that appeared on his face by moving his head to the left. He was a bit surprised that ice crystals could pass through the shield of lightning.
"Die."
Mercy moved his sword and cut the crystal into pieces before it came close.
"Die…Die… Die…Die!! Why won't you die?!!!" Alone screamed and waved his spectre in the air, throwing ice crystals.
Mercy, on the other hand, countered the incoming ice crystal.
He cracked open an ice crystal with his kick, then swept to the right with his sword to cut open the next. He jumped on the crystal on his back and threw his spear with his left hand.
"Break Free." Mercy activated the spear ability.
The spear travelled almost instantaneously in the shape of a cube, destroying every crystal in its path inside the volume.
"Good." The spear returned to Mercy's hand; he had exhausted all three abilities of the spear in the battle now.
"?!" Suddenly, the ground burst open as giant ants with spikes on their bodies appeared.
Mercy jumped back to avoid any attack and looked at the ants—coal black colour, spikes all over the body, some even piercing their own skin.
Bleeding without even fighting, Mercy could sense their pain.
"I don't even want to fight, you poor sad thing." Mercy calmed his nerves.
"Then die!" Alone came flying from the side, and with a spectre covered in ice, he went close, ready to swing his spectre-like sword. He was smiling with his teeth out.
"Shut up." Mercy held his ground and allowed the attack to come to him.
Mercy focused his energy and blocked the incoming attack with his wrist. His nerves tensed in his head from seeing the ants.
Shatter…
The spectre shattered into two as it came into contact. Mercy then turned around and kicked Alone right in the jaw.
"Argh." Alone flew away on one side and half of his teeth on the other. One tooth somehow flew to the ants and killed one with the impact.
Mercy put his spear on his back and opened his sword to kill all the ants in one powerful attack without pain.
Then a swarm of wood tentacles emerged from the ground. They were carrying orbs of energy and large red poison spores on them.
"Poison is the last thing I fear."
-----
Alone was thrown far away into the forest, his head buried in the forest upside down.
He picked himself up from the ground, and he realised he couldn't see anything; he could only feel the blood flowing down his face like a river from a glacier.
His lower jaw had fallen off somewhere, the front skull had been thrust inside his brain, and his eyes had gotten up with this brain.
It was only Lucifer's soul that was keeping him alive, he realised.
He regenerated as fast as his powers allowed him to. The golden energy brought back his jaw and reshaped his entire skull.
His face slowly came back, but his will to fight didn't return the same.
"What on earth was I thinking trying to fight him in close combat? Why did I do that?!"
The realisation also hit Alone: that Mercy, without any boons from Lucifer, was still far stronger than him with a boon.
"There was no chance of winning; why did he even try from the start? Alone grabbed his bald head and started thinking of what he had sacrificed.
He thought of his daughter, her beautiful smiling face, his daughter's grown-up belly, and his upcoming grandchild—his sacrificed daughter, her crying face for her dead husband, and then his father, his grandchild, who would die at the festival of roses with his or her mother.
"What have I done? I am a priest; I served God for my life and delivered his justice. Why is my god punishing my child this way?!" His arms and neck got heavy, and he began to wheeze.
"You can still win and save your daughter." A sweet and pure voice rang in Alone's head.
Alone looked up at the sky, and nothing was there. Then he realised it was the voice of the devil.
"No, I can't have you seen his strength. Nothing can be done; my life is wasted. My entire family is over! It was because of my pride! That boy said it; he knew me better than I know myself." Alone's entire body shook. Images of his dead daughter and the words of him giving up his daughter for the sake of a battle.
"Remember your purpose. You have nothing to lose now. Then why not die trying to defeat the evil to face? At least when you die, your God sees you fighting to defeat evil. Maybe he will spare your daughter." The voice offered words of encouragement and support.
"Use everything until nothing is left. You sold your soul and your daughter for this. I will make your sacrifices for nothing."
"No, I won't." Wiping his face with the sleeve of his tunic, his body began emitting golden energy once again.
"You have the power to kill him. Cast it and end it here. I won't be able to talk to you more; I am a very small part of after all." The voice gave him the final message.
Alone looked at his hands and reflected for a second on what he had done. Then he forgot it all.
「Star Spell: Flame of Ambition」
The golden light began burning around him, and the flame grew into a sword of flame.
-------
"This is Lucifer's doing."
Mercy, with his sword in his hand and spear on his back, stared at the sky-high pillar of flame rising from afar.
The bodies of the dead ants and root tentacles lay behind; he killed them swiftly and cleanly. So they don't experience any pain. But they looked at the flame pillar instead; it was actually a threat.
The pillar of flame was coming towards him and destroying everything in its path. The trees ahead of Mercy were burning, and some trees were already ashy. The temperature was rising at an alarming rate.
"I can go if I want." The incoming threat was not something we needed to deal with, and he could wait until Alone's flames ran out. After all, his powers were temporary, but that was no fun.
With a smile on his face, Mercy moved ahead, as he knew all the conditions were met and the spell could be performed. He wanted to have fun. So Mercy began walking towards the very thing the devil made to kill him.
-----------------