The man held his sword high, ready to strike.
Dareth's eyes widened as he quickly drew his own sword to defend himself.
CLANG!
A sharp clang sounded through the air as the swords collided violently.
With amazing speed, the older man kicked Dareth hard in the stomach before Dareth could react any further.
THUD! THUD! THUD
It sent Dareth hurtling backwards, slamming into another house after crashing through a small shop. He fell to the ground after colliding loudly with the wall.
Sharp, relentless pain shot through his body. Despite the pain, Dareth gritted his teeth and tried to get up.
"You've sealed your fate with your own hands," the older man said coldly, stepping closer to Dareth with his sword pointed straight. His tone was calm yet mocking.
"How foolish. You've sacrificed everything just to stop this village from spreading the truth. But let me tell you something—you're already too late. The information about the Velnoctenes and war is out. The world knows you still exist and is two steps ahead of you."
Dareth's eyes widened in disbelief. 'What?!'
'H-how could this be? We weren't even late... This can't be true. If the world knows Velnoctenes are alive... It'll be a big problem...Arvian... If he can truly see the future, he should've seen this!....he—'
COUGH!
Dareth coughed violently, blood dripping from his mouth as he tried to steady himself.
The older man stopped a few steps away and raised his sword, which began to glow with a crackling yellow energy. Sparks of light danced along the blade, casting a menacing glow over the area.
"You've failed, Velnoctenes," the man sneered, his voice low but commanding.
With a chilling tone, he uttered the spell while holding the sword high, the energy growing:
"Sun Rend!"
'So, this is the end... huh,' Dareth thought, his hand weakly moving toward his chest as he prepared to accept his fate.
With every second that passed, the older man's sword's crackling energy grew larger and larger, ready to devour everything in its path. A dark, smoky chain of energy appeared next to Dareth just as the great explosion of energy was about to happen.
With tremendous speed, the chain cinched around Dareth and pulled him to the left, pulling him away from the path of the blast.
An enormous explosion erupted from the older man's attack, sending energy skyward and sending out a powerful wave of devastation.
The village was ripped apart by the explosion, which destroyed houses and sent shockwaves everywhere. The energy was so great that it would have destroyed everyone within its radius. The older man, however, had surrounded himself with a barrier of protection and was quietly observing the devastation.
Dareth, on the other hand, had been saved at the last second. Arvian had dragged him out of danger with the Celestial Chain.
Arvian and Dareth were both swept up in the destructive wave, flung violently by its power.
But then, something extraordinary happened.
As Arvian's chain dragged Dareth, a surge of blue energy rippled through the air, and black tendrils of shadow swirled around Dareth
His eyes glowed in the darkness, and his armour moved, dark and jagged. Suddenly, Dareth's surroundings turned dark, and he started to change.
The ripples grew stronger around Dareth as the dark blue energy engulfed his body. His once-calm eyes blazed with a dangerous, wild light, and his form seemed to get stronger by the moment. He was a completely different person now than the man who had been having difficulties just moments before.
In the blink of an eye, Dareth disappeared.
The older man's eyes narrowed in suspicion before he could even react. Then, just as quickly, Dareth reappeared in front of him, moving faster than the human eye could follow.
Every movement he made was slick and precise, like the blow of a deadly predator, and his whole body radiated a dark energy.
With a low growl in his voice, Dareth whispered, "You are fast, but not fast enough," as he suddenly drew closer to them.
He swung his sword with incredible speed, the blade cutting through the air like a slash of lightning.
The older man lifted his sword in an attempt to block, but Dareth's blow was too powerful. Even as the sound of the steel clash reverberated through the night, Dareth's sword was already in motion once more. He left the older man without an opportunity to respond.
Dareth moved in a blur with each swing, getting faster and more vicious with each blow.
Despite the older man's defensive efforts to block or avoid every attack, Dareth's unrelenting speed made it all but impossible. The sword blows were too fast to follow and too strong to block, like bursts of darkness.
Once more, Dareth moved, slicing into the older man's guard with his sword. But this time, the older man didn't just block. He roared and pushed back, launching Dareth backwards with a forceful explosion.
But Dareth didn't land. He instantly vanished, reappearing just behind the older man.
"Too slow," Dareth said with a double echoing tone.
Before the older man could turn around, Dareth's blade was at his throat, glowing with the dark energy of his Nyxian form.
When the older man realized how outmatched he was now, his eyes widened in shock. But before he could react, Dareth's sword slashed through the air, cutting through his defences with terrifying precision.
The blow was too much for him.
With a final, earth-shattering clash, Dareth's sword cut deep into the older man's side.
Dareth stood with his eyes fixed on the older man with icy intensity, his chest rising and falling with every breath. His Nyxian body throbbed all around him, the transformation's force reverberating like an impending storm.
The older man, barely able to stay on his feet, grinned weakly. "So this is your true power..."
The older man was in excruciating pain as he twisted the sword in his chest, causing blood to drip down from the tip.
"This is my second time using this form."