Chapter 206 Shear
"I guess I'll bury the two of you here and now…" Fifteen's words faded into the air, leaving behind an empty throne. Mello's bloodstained dagger fell atop the stone throne with a clang as Fifteen's body vanished.
"Careful, Mello! He's here but we can't see him!" Dorian yelled out loud. His Perfect Body Ability was active, as were any other passive Abilities that increased his power. His Mystic Armored Body in particular kept a strong barrier around him.
"I'm aware, Dorian." Mello returned. As he finished speaking, Mello leapt backwards, a pair of black wings appearing as he floated in the air. Crackling, black energy surrounded him, fluctuating. At the same time, a long, glowing sword appeared, floating in the air in front of Mello as he summoned it.
'Mello's not using a Law… none of us can use the power of Law here. None of my Artifacts will work either, though he might have some rare ones that do.' The thought flashed through Dorian's mind as he twitched, looking to the left and right as he tried to track Fifteen.
He kept his senses spread, trying to feel for the familiar sensation of an Anomaly. Unfortunately, Mello's presence made it harder to detect. He was already feeling a strong sense of familiarity from Mello, trying to find a much lighter one under that was much more difficult.
"My dagger is not a normal Artifact. That was a Soul Shearing Dagger created by the Pseudo-Angelic Class Craftsman God of Trion, Golber Bruin," Mello began, his voice echoing,
"While most of its power is nullified here, the attack will have seriously injured him! The blood he spilled is Heartblood, the core essence of his Bloodline! He will slowly bleed out if he doesn't immediately retreat!" As Mello finished, he clapped his hands together. A cocoon of black lightning surrounded him, creating a seemingly impenetrable barrier.
"Here!" The sword flew over to Dorian, slightly taking him by surprise. He snagged it out of the air, blinking.
As soon as he grabbed the sword, he almost dropped it. It weighed several tons, at least, and was much heavier than he had expected. It gave off a faint metallic glow, powerful and sharp. A very high-quality sword.
"I prepared both of these weapons to help us kill him! This is a Body Shearing Sword, also made by the Craftsman God! If you can stab him with this, its effects will stack with the Soul Shearing Dagger, and cause fatal injuries to his soul! He will almost certainly die from it!" Mello exclaimed.
Dorian eyed the blade briefly before replying,
"Why don't you just stab him yourself, then?" He wasn't exactly a swordmaster, his Lord Inigo persona notwithstanding. Mello's skill with the blade likely outclassed his. He kept the thought to himself as he looked around. He saw the empty stone floor and an unknown grey-skinned man walking towards him right where Fifteen had vanished from, just a few dozen meters away. No sign of Fifteen or anything unusual.
"This clone of mine is too weak without access to Law Energy, all it is good for is surprise attacks! Your body is more than 10 times as strong as mine! I can barely use this Black Lightning thanks to an Artifact I brought, most of my Artifacts aren't working!" Mello quickly explained.
At the same time, he began to send out streaks of crackling lightning, the energy swarming through the air. These bolts fluctuated back and forth, seeking out the corners of the plateau and the open areas, going over different places repeatedly.
If Fifteen had been sneaking about invisibly or anything of the sort, he would've found himself not only zapped by lightning but also exposed.
Unfortunately, the lightning had no effect. The bolts flew past Dorian, crackling the air but returning no result.
"He can Phase beyond reality, beyond Fate itself! The lightning won't change that!" Dorian was incredibly tense as the world around him seemed to devolve to chaos. The grey-skinned man that was walking towards him seemed unaffected by the lightning, something that was completely normal in Dorian's eyes. He casually ignored that being, trying to find Fifteen.
"I know! I'm trying to draw him out!" Mello returned.
'Ah, screw it.' Dorian stored the Body Shearing Sword in his Spatial Ring, his heart pounding.
'Let's do it my way.'
'Transform! Black Scaled Rage Dragon, go!'
Immediately, his physique expanded and changed into a towering black dragon. His scales gleamed as his body formed, giving off a sense of raw power and majesty.
The instant he finished morphing, he unleashed a sea of Black Flames, covering the entire area in the deadly Dragonfire. Mello was flying in the air and flew several meters higher when he saw this, dodging the attack.
The ocean of flames melted the surface of the rock and stone it encountered, creating a hellish nightmare to almost all living creatures. The flames interacted with the Black Lightning Mello sent out, even causing the lightning bolts to morph and gain certain burning properties. Soon the entire throne room was swept up.
Dorian showed no signs of stopping. The increases to his Soul had greatly enhanced his Ability to unleash Black Flames, especially in his draconic form where it both came naturally to him and had a low energy cost.
Throughout this all, the completely normal grey-skinned man continued to walk towards Dorian, unaffected.
'Come on, Fifteen! Come out!' Dorian thought, snorting as his Draconic body shivered.
'I can do this all day!'
His wish came true.
From out of nowhere, a grey-skinned figure appeared right in front of Dorian's draconic visage, just a couple of meters to his right.
The moment it appeared, two things happened.
The grey-skinned figure instantaneously transformed.
It immediately morphed into a 30 meter tall demonic being, covered in huge muscles and green scales. The air around it pulsed with a Demonic Aura, giving it a terrifying appearance. Fifteen's Greater Throne Demon form.
At the same time, Dorian's senses tingled as he felt the sensation only an Anomaly could give off, just a couple of meters from him.
'Fifteen!' The Anomaly had struck.
His thoughts raced ahead in an instant. Fifteen was right beside him, but out of sight. By the time Dorian managed to turn and try to defend himself, he would already be attacked.
In the split second he had to react, he did the only thing he could think of.
He changed back to his Balance Demon form.
WHOOSH
The transformation process was completed in a fraction of a second. His body rapidly shrank to that of his Balance Demon form. The sweltering sea of Black Flames didn't affect him even in a different form, leaving him unencumbered.
Less than a heartbeat later, an enormous fist punched through where Dorian's draconic head had been. A shockwave formed as Fifteen unleashed some type of Ability, causing the air to explode out.
BOOM
A concussive blast of wind spun Dorian's Balance Demon form around, not because he was unable to tank the hit, but because the ground he was standing on shattered and broke apart, causing him to lose traction.
Fifteen, in that moment, had stumbled slightly as he shrugged off the Black Flames all around him. The explosive gust of wind knocked part of the sea of Dragonfire away, but not before singeing his legs, just enough to slow his attack, the unexpected pain taking him by surprise. While Fifteen was 'Phasing' he was unable to sense what was happening in reality, and thus unable to avoid the Black Flames.
"Hup!" Dorian immediately jumped forward as soon as he landed, leaping back into the fray. His Mystic Armored Body had dispersed most of the impact, leaving him uninjured. It would take a direct blow to harm him, at the bare minimum.
He led forward with a punch of his own, his extremely strong Balance Demon form smashing the rocky floor as he sent up shards of stone shrapnel.
Fifteen crossed his arms as he blocked Dorian's punch, several of his green scales cracking at the impact. The blow sent his huge, 30 meter tall body sliding backwards, kicking up a small cloud of stone dust.
BOOM
Several bolts of Black Lightning slammed into Fifteen, knocking him back several steps and causing him to stumble. Many of the scales that covered his body visibly burnt and cracked, falling off of him.
"Nice shot, Mello!" Dorian yelled out loud as he refused to let up.
In just a few short seconds, Dorian exchanged multiple blows with Fifteen, all while the other Anomaly was being pelted by Mello. He experimented with twisting Fate as he fought, but found that its effectiveness wasn't high.
He wasn't sure if it was because they were all Anomalies, or because they were in the center of the dead zone where Laws couldn't be reached, but it offered only minor assistance at best.
Due to the size difference, most of Dorian's attacks were leaping ones. Dorian's form was more agile and, despite the very large size difference, roughly on par in terms of physical strength. His Perfect Body Ability plus his already strong Balance Demon form was enough to tip the balance.
BOOM
Mello shot off several more bolts of Black Lightning, working mostly as support. Dorian tried to figure out a good time to work in the sword Mello had given him, but found no opportunities. He was able to get away with punches, but none of his attacks managed to do significant damage.
After just a few moments, all of the injuries that had appeared on Fifteen's body had miraculously healed. His regeneration levels seemed to be incredibly high, as if he was facing no burden in this battle.
'If close range won't work, I'll go for long range!' Just as he was thinking that, Fifteen did something rather unexpected.
He jumped up into the air, raising his arms above his head. He ignored another lightning bolt sent out by Mello, instead slamming his hands down onto the ground.
BOOOOM
A large shockwave spread as Fifteen activated his shockwave-creating Ability, combining with the raw power of his Greater Throne Demon's physique. A literal wave of stone shrapnel serenaded the air, flinging away from Fifteen like bullets.
WHOOSH
Dorian's clawed feet dug deep into the ground as he held himself in place, his arms covering his face and chest. He felt his bones rattle, his teeth clacking off each other as he withstood the blow, dozens of rocks slamming into him and fading to dust, unable to pierce his Mystic Armored Body Ability.
Mello fared a bit worse, knocked out of his protective lightning bubble, right into the waiting Black Flames. When Dorian saw this, he instantly cancelled his Black Flames Ability, causing them to dissipate.
"Accept your fate!" Fifteen's voice boomed as he growled, immediately charging right at Dorian again.
As he ran, Fifteen's body shivered as he transformed once more, this time becoming a large, black skinned wolf with white stripes on its tail. According to a brief note from Ausra, he had become a Sonic Mane Wolf. Dorian didn't have time to check up on what that was as Fifteen's body blurred forward.
Dorian tensed up as he saw this, his heart pounding as he activated multiple Hyperion Beams.
'If close range won't work, I'll take you out from afar!' He repeated his earlier thought, this time prepared to go all out.
Fifteen's body hurtled towards him and then…
…charged right by him, breaking off into a mad sprint towards Mello. His Sonic Mane Wolf was especially fast, crossing the distance between him and Mello before Dorian could make a move.
Another concussive blast of wind shook the air, this one stronger than before, as Fifteen launched an attack from point blank. It seemed it was the natural Ability of the Sonic Mane Wolf. Just like Black Flames were stronger and easier to use in Dorian's Black Scaled Rage Dragon form, Fifteen's shockwave-creating Ability was likely enhanced when he was in that form.
Mello was strong, but the body he had here was just a clone. Further, he couldn't access any Laws to support himself. Dorian still wasn't certain what Law Mello studied, but it obviously couldn't help him here. His clone was at least Lord Class, but compared to Fifteen's true body going all out, it fell short.
With a resounding grunt, Mello shot across the sky, his body landing somewhere in the distance. The impact audibly snapped a large number of bones, a sickening crunch that made it clear that he had been taken out of commission. If he wasn't dead, he would at least need several minutes to recover.
'Damn.' Dorian swore as he saw this, blinking furiously. Fifteen was an opponent he could not take lightly.
His heart thumped as he felt a very real sense of danger.
He could die here.
Even worse, if he did so, he would leave Helena to her fate, captured by the Shade forces or whomever it was that was looking for her. She was a powerful enemy commander that was currently very weak, and even if they didn't torture her for information, they would undoubtedly still execute her.
As this thought flashed through him, a fanatic sense of determination ran in his veins. He absolutely would not give up if he could find a chance of victory.
'All I need to do is pierce him with Mello's sword and I win. Even if he has a freakish ability to recover, injuries to the soul are not a joke. At the least, he will become stunned and leave himself open.' Dorian's reasoning was sound. As the thought crossed his mind and he saw Fifteen jump up into the air to attack again, his Sonic Mane Wolf form reusing the same type of attack, inspiration struck.
"Hup!" Instead of waiting for Fifteen to land, Dorian jumped into the air. He jumped quite high, leaping more than 50 meters up. The ground beneath him exploded due to the force, a webwork of cracks spreading out. After Dorian weakened large parts of the Array, the nearby stone had lost its previously invincible nature.
Fifteen landed on the ground, his wolf form pausing as it looked up at Dorian instead of unleashing a shockwave. The air began to quiver around it as it sprinted over to be below him, preparing to ambush him as he landed.
When Dorian saw Fifteen stand still, just as Dorian reached the apex of his leap, he smiled.
He then withdrew and threw Mello's Body Shearing Sword at Fifteen, transforming into a Black Scaled Rage Dragon right after.
A fraction of a second later, he activated an Ability he hadn't used in a long time.
'Expand!'
Earlier, before he entered the dead zone and was still getting ready, Dorian had made a few silent preparations.
One of those was to regain the Expand Ability.
According to Ausra, that Ability had vanished when he got the Perfect Body Ability. The Perfect Body Ability was a mix of both his Expand and his Condense Abilities, mysteriously created by Yukeli.
However… she also stated that Dorian still had the Titan and Grakon Bloodlines stored. They were stored within him.
While it was impossible to activate the Perfect Body Ability and either of the Expand and Condense Abilities at the same time, he discovered that he could still reconstruct the Abilities. It would be possible to use one of them as long as he deactivated his Perfect Body Ability.
The process of reforming his Grakon Bloodline turned out to be surprisingly strenuous on his soul, something that wouldn't have been possible if his soul hadn't grown to be so abnormally strong after taking in all of the Demonic Inheritances. He had managed to regain the Condense Ability long ago, due to the Titan Bloodline being far easier to manipulate, but never used it since it was inferior to his Perfect Body Ability.
Dorian's Black Scaled Rage Dragon form abruptly grew a gargantuan amount. Its bones, muscles, tendons, and scales expanded a huge amount, growing to several times its previous size.
It was now a behemoth that towered over everyone and everything present, weighing millions and millions of pounds. In terms of height it was more than 70 meters tall, stretched and expanded to the very limit that Dorian's soul could handle.
Despite that, in terms of raw strength, it was much slower and only on par with his Perfect Body Black Scaled Rage Dragon form.
Dorian ignored all of that, however. None of those were the reasons for his transformation.
Instead, he focused on the Body Shearing Sword that he had lobbed at Fifteen.
His entire mind zeroed in on this single blade. Every iota of focus was on it as he put almost everything he had into his next movement.
'Lesser Magnetic Manipulation, go!'
'Push!'
His Lesser Magnetic Manipulation Ability allowed him to push and pull magnetic things. The Body Shearing Sword was metallic and reacted to his command. It was created by a legendary craftsman and was incredibly durable, carrying with it mystical properties.
If Dorian had pushed it with his normal dragon form, despite his Black Scaled Rage Dragon being quite large, the impact wouldn't have been anything too significant. It would've been a powerful strike, but that was it.
However… when he pushed with the full force and weight of a leviathan that weighed millions of pounds…
The attack was almost unfathomably strong. The impact alone would've disintegrated a lesser Artifact. It even managed to slightly damage the Body Shearing Sword, cracking it. The Artifact still maintained its coherency, however, only the hilt suffering a small amount of damage, keeping its mystical properties.
An instant after Dorian activated his Ability…
The sword he had thrown vanished, moving so quickly it seemed to teleport as it plummeted towards Fifteen with enough kinetic energy to level a mountain.
.
.