Shui vs. Nathan (2)

When Nathan made the resolve to risk his life for the sake of victory, the evil spirit finally couldn't stay silent anymore.

"Boy, it's time to retreat."

"Retreat? What the hell are you talking about?! You said you would let me do as I wished as long as I stopped resisting you!"

"Yes, but there's no point to it if you end up dead!"

"But I'm not dead yet. And I still haven't used up all my cards."

Shui watched Nathan ponder something with a pensive expression and guessed that he was discussing something with the evil spirit. This would be a good opportunity to attack, but he felt generous and decided to wait.

The evil spirit was glad that Shui wasn't attacking, but he still felt pressured to convince Nathan.

"Be honest with yourself, boy. Even if you reveal the phantom palace, that kid can use inscriptions, so there's no guarantee that your soul is stronger than his. Give up, boy. You can always fight him again in the future."

"What future will there be for me? I already know that you're planning on removing my soul and taking over this body, but don't think for a second that I won't dare fight back. As long as I expose your existence to my master, you'll be done for even if you threaten to take me with you."

"You dare, boy!"

"Thanks to you, I no longer fear death. All I wish for is this final battle. If you can't even grant me this, then we might as well die together."

"...Damn it! Fine, but you have to accept my power. There's no other way for us to win this."

"Okay."

Once Nathan and the evil spirit came to an agreement, Nathan could feel a surge of power enter his body. The evil spirit had no physical form, but it was made of foundational energy and therefore could send its power into Nathan. The evil spirit had yet to regain its full strength, but it was still able to force Nathan to late Earth Realm.

This promotion was accompanied by the pain of having his blood vessels burnt inside his body. He wanted to scream despite his frequent experience with pain from cultivating demonic arts, but he clenched his teeth as he glared at Shui. Of course, due to the particulars of the Earth Realm, he would be much weaker than any other late Earth Realm cultivator, but it was still a significant power boost. And he didn't stop there.

Once his condition began to stabilize, Nathan stabbed his spear into the ground and called out his phantom palace, the central feature of the Earth Realm that housed a cultivator's soul. The only reason why Kate had been stuck at half-step Earth Realm, was because she lacked the material needed for her phantom palace. That said, there was no specific material that was necessary to create one's phantom palace, but the better the suitability and quality of the material, the more stable one's cultivation would be and the more potential they would have.

Nathan's phantom palace was made with the bones of a plague wolf, an evolved beast synonymous with cruelty and terror. The palace was in the shape of a single-tier, pearl white pagoda the size of his head, but there were cracks from which nature energy leaked. As a result of his forced promotion, his phantom palace was on the verge of collapse, but he didn't care as he poured his energy into it. This was the last resort of Earth Realm cultivators, using the phantom palace as a catalyst to strengthen their spells. If the palace was overexerted and collapsed, the cultivator could be left crippled at best, so few would use this method even in a life-or-death battle, but Nathan was willing to go this far.

Shui had never been attacked by this method before, but judging from the violent energy fluctuations, while it was still below his limit, it wouldn't be an attack he could block with a barrier spell. He considered using his soul to bear the brunt, but doubted that it would actually come to that.

As the palace glowed with an increasingly dangerous white light, Nathan's face grew paler, but he pushed on. He planned on betting everything he had for this victory, but it was a shame, because he had forgotten. He no longer owned everything.

While Nathan had placed his full focus on controlling the energy, the evil spirit made its move. It slipped out of its body like a shadow and entered the palace before quickly engulfing Nathan's soul which meditated within it. This normally wouldn't have been so easy, but Nathan had been too focused on the battle to put up any resistance. The evil spirit then released the accumulated energy in form of an excessively bright explosion.

The explosion devastated the area, but Shui's eyes weren't fooled. He saw past the bright light and spotted Nathan running towards the city. He sighed for a moment while thinking about Nathan who was probably no more, and then quickly chased after him.

"Leaving so soon, you fake!"

Nathan, now controlled by the evil spirit, panicked when it noticed Shui chasing after it, but it couldn't afford to stop. Nathan's power remained at late Earth Realm, but it was because it didn't believe that this would be enough that it had chosen to devour Nathan. Still, the backlash was too much for it to escape anywhere far, so it planned on returning to Silver City. With Nathan's status as a direct disciple, it would be easy to get support at that point. Furthermore, while combat seemed hopeless, it didn't think Shui would be able to catch up to it.

The evil spirit's guess wasn't too far off as Shui did notice Nathan putting more distance between them. However, that was just because he was limiting himself. Once Shui consciously placed force into his legs, he burst forward with the speed of sound and not only caught up to Nathan, but surpassed him. When Nathan heard the shattering of the ground behind him and saw the cloud of dust that passed him and stopped some distance away, he didn't dare take another step.

"How did he..."

As Shui revealed himself with a gust of wind, his sharp gaze was locked onto the evil spirit. The evil spirit immediately turned and tried to escape to the west, but a wall of deep blue flames rose to block its path. The pretty flame tempted it to get closer, but it hastily woke up from that attraction and turned away from the flame.

'How horrifying.'

The evil spirit wasn't sure what that flame was, but it could tell that it was the enemy for all spiritual beings. When it looked back at Shui, the fear in its eyes increased, but it refused to surrender.

"Remember! You're the one that forced me!"

With self-cruelty different from Nathan's, it slapped its chest and coughed out blood. The blood it spat left Nathan's mouth, but it stayed in front of him and began to glow. When Shui noticed this glow, he immediately tried to approach, but a wave of energy forced him to stay in place. He stared as dark specters rose from the ground and gathered around them before trapping him in a black dome.

"Sin of Sloth."