Chapter 373 (1/2)

Chapter 13: 373

ARTHUR

Cadell stiffened at the sight of the relic armor, taken aback by round together, the frustration he felt e from him like heat from a flame

"Your tricks are a mockery to the asura, boy," he said scornfully as his fory

But his voice wasto my head The world blurred and my eyes locked onto Cadell—the first true monster that I had laid eyes upon in this world

I hurled myself into the air to htning

A wave of black fire roiled out from his hand I countered it with an aetheric blast before slashi+ng at his throat with my aether blade However, Cadell's body dissipated like s the sky

My ar the flames like silk curtains

But when Cadell reappeared, it was froed into h the ar the pain, I reversed the aether blade and stabbed back and down, barelyhis chest as he fleay from nore the restraints of this world as the djinn ravity pulledthe aether blade after hirip

I hit the ground with another weapon already conjured, and threw h the cloud of soulfire But ain Cadell coalesced fro fiery claws acrossthe aether blade froain in the other, I thrust at Cadell's chest with the full force of h the air, but he burst into black fla cloud

I landed in theloudly

Cadell's fores of how he had looked before he massacred the people in the castle, before he killed Buhnd, before he killed Sylvia all overlapping He was responsible for soas supposed to be mine had Sylvie not sacrificed herself for h for him I needed to crush him, to make him feel weak and helpless, just as I had felt Here, In front of all of Alacrya, Cadell would suffer

Blood and aether rushed throughall this time threatened to overwhel to overtake my sense of self It wasCadell hovering over the battlefield, a blade in each hand One was the same black iron that Uto and Nico favored, but the other was void-black, like a piece of night sky carved into the shape of a longsword

"You are a lesser to the end," Cadell spat

Letting loose an aetheric blast for cover, I burst across the ground before leaping at hiether

Black and purple sparks flew as aether iainst his soulfire-sheathed weapons I slashed and stabbed, but each furious bloas deflected A dozen neounds opened up across my body, but they hardlyaway in the air

The tip of the void-black weapon was e with it Ten feet, twenty, fifty, a hundred, until I slae shi+eld walls that protected the crowd of onlookers

But the lance continued to expand, growing through an to quiver My ar a hole in my chest

My aether blade lashed out, but the void-blackaroundto split a log My head began to pound,out around the edges of the lance

Then an icy coldness was pouring fro it in a focused kind of detachis, in his pure Destruction fors of black shadow kept hi-filled out of Destruction blazed across the lance The violet fla the lance I felt, for an instant, the hunger of those fla the inside ofdoard toward round on is floated above me protectively, and I could see his clash with Cadell, holding off another attack with a blast of Destruction

'After patronizing Nico… look at you' His voice was an inferno in my head 'Get a hold of yourself'

I spit up a ether, bones fusing, organs reseating themselves Finally, I was able to take a deep, heady breath And through each breath after, I realized, through these last reckless exchanges, I had channeled too lecting my armor

Despite where I was and how the situation was unfolding, I laid in the ash and rubble for a e that had overtaken me fizzle into frustration and e stronger, learning aether arts, obtaining relics, if all I was going to do was hack blindly in rage?

Yeah I'h

Clearheaded but still incapacitated, I continued to draw in aether fro the battle above

Purple flae of void-blackand darting around the purple flah

Destruction leapt froic to nothing, then chasing Cadell up into the sky, forcing him to retreat Patches of purple flame burned in the arena and over the shi+elds, but they were quickly doused by my companion

I'd faced both soulfire and the black ic was a different attribute, likely wind, which meant Cadell could control at least three different elements And he could combine them, like his ability to fuse soulfire and wind to meld into the atmosphere

His poasprotection against aether All it would take was a single decisive blow to defeat Cadell, just as I had Nico

The sky above grew dark Cadell flew at the center of a hurricane of blustering Decay-infused wind, which coalesced like an impenetrable cloud

He jerked his hand doard, and a rain of black spikes and soulfire was launched from the cloud like a downpour of ballista bolts Coal-black lines of infernal wind chased the burning spikes, pushi+ng them faster and faster as they fell

The coliseuround around the edges of the ruined stadiuh the shi+eld protecting the closest seats A black sphere h box, and any spikes that struck it dissolved, the soulfire flickering out like expired candles

But over Regis andthat ca us both safe

'I know you've got your deep physical and psychological injuries to sort out, but I have a lirunt of exhaustion

I noticed the shi+is did

Cadell solidified fro doith a burning black blade Activating God Step, I appeared just before hi the attack with an aetheric sword

I was just waiting for you to tap out, I answered, straining under the force of Cadell's blow

The shadoolf dissolved, beco intocrappy jokes, I assuot it fro into th

Black round between us My sword swept cleanly through the up his oord "Your new bond is a rather crude excuse of a beast"

"I think the word you're looking for is ' a flurry of cuts and jabs, pressing him further back He tried to fly up into the air, but God Step allowed round where ere on

Cadell may have been more versatile, but I was the better swords the aether blade into his ribs, I tried to slash sideways and cut hi me there

Our eyes locked, and I took in the snide, cruel expression that seeray face His chin jutted out proudly between the serrated horns that curled around below his ears But the air of absolute confidence he usually exuded was long gone He orried

And he was afraid

I noticed the shadow al away just as a spike several times the size of my body would have struck me, I watched fro Cadell down into a huge crater

Cracks snaked out fro the entire coliseum shi+ft and tremble Somewhere, metal sheared and wood snapped, and two sections of the stadiuotten audience screa them flickered and vanished, only to be replaced by dozens of ses leaped into action

The underworks collapsed, opening fissures in the coliseu A few people had the wits to run for the exits, but most were still frozen where they sat or stood I noticed Seth, Mayla, and soether beneath a clear panel of ape, awe etched on their distant faces

So the edge of one of the hundreds of black spikes sticking up from the floor A creature, ht and stretched long, thin lied claws

The shadows around Cadell twisted and bit at the air like flah bone "There are no dragons around to save you this time, boy"

Cadell's shadow-clad aran to boil out of hi tar into as left of the arena and splashed against the shi+elds protecting the staging areas, the light of which crackled inconsistently as the shi+elds reached the end of their capabilities

I felt an icy claw clutch at my insides as I reainst Nico and Cadell, racing away froration with Tessia, desperately exhausting the last ofback

Regis eed beside me, fiery hackles raised but only barely able to hold his norlanced down at is You shouldn't—

'Relax, Princess I'm no martyr; I'm your weapon, remember?'

Flashes of instructions blazed in is in a dark forest clearing

This is…How did—

My vision darkened as Cadell's shadowy form barrelled toward us

'It's not perfected, but it'll probably still work Just do it!'

As the flood of hellfire was al shadowy and see-through as it became incorporeal I raised the aetheric blade in , I reeled back and…

I plunged the aetheric blade intoer and was sheathed in dark violet flames

"It doesn't matter how many more tricks you pull out, lesser!" Cadell roared as his shadowy, dehtened around the Destruction-clad sword and a shared sense of a cold, e other than Cadell His long, taut liroice in size, and the aura of soulfire wrapped around his—I took it all in

Cadell unleashed his arsenal of spells with abandon—a volley of blood iron, a e of soulfire—but it was useless

The dark violet sword in ed flames as my body blurred Concise, wasteless s carved out by h every spell spat out by the Scythe, and his gleanoring the icy grip around ht in front of Cadell's distorted visage I raisedin a blaze of violet His ghoulish black arms crossed in front of hi like shi+elds