"Bullshit, we're one now. Since we were separated before, we could only use half our strength. Now that we are whole again, let's see how well you hold on" Norio's voice replied.
Mathew looked at this bizarre scene gravely. He took out his Nova blade which was coated with divine fire.
"Starfall - Ring formation" Mathew muttered as eleven light orbs surrounded him. Unlike the previous hundreds of small orbs, these 11 orbs' power was concentrated and it arranged itself according to a formation, which seemed to increase its effectiveness.
"As expected of one of the 12 fragments," Orion said. "I will not let him down," Mathew said in a serious tone.
"You keep saying the same thing over and over again" Orion replied in an annoyed tone. He coated his hands in Nova and punched Mathew.
The light orbs immediately started moving weirdly and repelled Orion's attack. "Let me take over for a bit" the left half of Orion's mouth, Norio said.
"Sure" the right half replied.
"These orbs aren't just arranged randomly, are they?" Norio asked in interest. Mathew just looked at him and smiled without any reply.
"Since I am very sensitive to space, I can sense that each of these orbs protects you from each direction, aren't they? Or am I wrong?" Norio asked as he looked at these glowing orbs with a serious look.
"Bull's eye. Each orb takes each direction which occupies 8 out of 11. The other 3 watch out for attacks from above, below and center, which makes it absolute offense and defense. Of course, knowing these is one thing and penetrating these orbs is another" Mathew replied calmly.
Norio ran towards Mathew at high speed and leaped to attack Mathew from above with his Nova sword. But he was deflected by the orb.
He immediately changed and attacked from every direction but was deflected every time.
But he wasn't worried and continued with his onslaught. Mathew didn't attack personally and only moved around. This was one of the disadvantages of this formation. He couldn't attack personally and could only let the light orbs attack and defend.
'Ugh..now that they have combined their power, their attacks are harder to take on. Every attack is getting heavier than the last' Mathew thought with a frown. When suddenly the light orb in the centre vanished and Mathew was forced to block the last attack on his own.
He was pushed back a bottle and coughed up a bit of blood.
"Hmm.. as I thought, even though you have the perfect defence you won't be able to maintain it forever even if you have a large Nova pool. It's just a contest of endurance now. Unfortunately for you, our attacks are boosted by the 'corridor'. You have no chance to get out here alive" Orion said with a smirk.
Since he couldn't penetrate the formation, he chose to attack continuously tire out Mathew and break the formation bit by bit.
Orion slashed with his sword again but was shocked to find that there was just a single light orb there. There was no Mathew.
Before he could react, a sharp pain came from his behind. He heard the annoying voice as he turned back in shock.
"Starfall-blink" Mathew muttered. "You little rat" Orion groaned in pain.
"Thanks to you, I was able to push past my limits and reach a new height," Mathew said sincerely.
"Don't tell me you just-" Norio asked in shock.
"Haha, yes I did. I was able to create something similar to your technique" Mathew replied with a smile.
The cut behind Norio's back was too deep as Mathew imbued more than half of his Nova into that slash. The cut also burned silently as it interfered with Noiro's regeneration.
"Ughh…so that's where the orb went," Norio said with a frown.
"Bull's eye again. I made it look like one of my orbs disappeared but I sneaked that orb behind your back and teleported behind you to switch places with it. Since it was my first time, I missed the timing a bit and couldn't finish you off" Mathew said regrettably.
Since he only managed to create the technique in the spur of the moment, he wasn't sure if it would work. So he couldn't finish off Orion in one hit.
"Enough playing, I'm taking over," Orion said. "Spirit ability - Split reality" Orion muttered.
Nothing happened, there was complete silence.
"Was that the "spirit ability" nothing happened. Haha, maybe you forgot how to use it-" Before he could complete he was hit by a sudden attack out of nowhere and fell to the ground, even though he had his orbs protecting him.
'He didn't even budge an inch, so how' Mathew thought in shock. When he tried to get up again, he was once again met with a barrage of slashes from all directions.
Mathew was bleeding heavily. His suit became almost unrecognizable, it lost its original color and looked like a red suit. He lay helplessly on the ground.
"Look at this, what a pity. Before you die, I'll be generous enough to reveal my trump card to you" Orion said with a laugh as he looked at the helpless Mathew. It seemed like both Orion and Mathew liked to explain their techniques to the opponent.
"The skill I used creates another reality from which Norio can access this corridor but none of them in this corridor can touch the other side where Norio is," Orion said with a smile.
"Looks like I'm in a bind now," Mathew said helplessly.
"Finish him off for good. He'll become powerful if you let him do something" Norio warned Orion.
"Look at you groveling like a helpless worm. Looks like your life force is going to leave you, you know what that means right" Mathew once again heard the foul voice.
"Not, the seal-" Before Mathew could reply the voice laughed eerily.
All of these conversions with their other halves were happening inside their respective heads.
…
Valerio, who was on his way back, suddenly frowned.
"What is this uneasy feeling?" He muttered to himself when suddenly his eyes narrowed
"Oh no, Mathew. Trouble…at this rate, the seal will be undone. This is bad, I gotta get back quickly" Valerio muttered as he increased his pace.
'I hope nothing bad happens' he thought.
…
Mathew suddenly shouted in pain. He clutched his head, his face morphing into severe pain.
Orion who was about to behead him was pushed back by a thick and heavy dark purple Nova.
The dark purple Nova surrounded Mathew like a cocoon as his hair colour started to slowly change it purple. The purple Nova was spreading throughout the subspace like strong currents.
"I feel a strong bloodlust. I've never felt anything like this before" Norio said in horror.
"I am not gonna wait for him to power up. I will destroy that damn cocoon and end this" Orion said as he rushed forward but as soon as he touched the cocoon he was repelled back and thrown away.
Even his spirit ability came undone as Orion and Norio separated forcefully. Norio ran towards Orion and picked it up.
"What happened, even our spirit ability became undone?" Norio asked in horror. He got ready to disperse the subspace and run away when suddenly the cocoon burst open.
A figure who looked like Mathew walked out calmly. He had dark purple hair and purple eyes bearing the 'X' mark which was red. The previous pure white wings were now pitch black like that of a devil.
"Mathew..??" Orion called out doubtfully. He felt no trace of Mathew from that 'Mathew' in front of him.
"Mathew huh? Don't compare me to that worm" the figure replied mockingly. He casually flicked his fingers and sent a dark purple Nova slash towards Orion and Norio.
They scrambled away hurriedly. Orion looked at his hands with a frown. He had lost two of his fingers.
"Call me Lucian, the one who inherited the eyes of the devil, Lucifer" the figure introduced himself calmly.