Fight to the Death (Some Bonds Surpass a Lifetime)

(Gekai, Somewhere Between Preblica and Asris)

An unmistakably divine sight.

Bell Cranel had peeked at the secrets of Heaven and Earth.

He had the honor of witnessing one of the rarest scenes in the history of Gekai, nay, the entire universe.

When Bell first caught sight of the scene in front of him, he had been bewitched.

Those flames, oh so bright.

Those feathers, oh so elegant.

Lastly, those gracefully piercing eyes… heavenly.

At that moment, Bell recalled a memory of when he was reading through the Black Book in his consciousness…

...

In all the realms of existence, there exist few Legendary Beasts.

Even less is the number of these Legendary Beasts that can be reborn after they die.

Some refer to them as gods. Others refer to them as beings that have gained true immortality and have broken the Cycle of Samsara. However, there is only one who deserves to stand at the peak of all Legendary Beasts.

The only being to have achieved rebirth after Nirvana,

The entity which exists at the limits of divinity.

The Phoenix.

Sovereign of the flames,

Reborn from the flames.

Whenever it dies, the clock turns backwards on its body, while its soul retains the same properties.

Each time, it keeps its memories. Its soul slowly becomes stronger and stronger. As its divine consciousness (soul) becomes more powerful, its spiritual cultivation rises as well.

Unless there exists something with higher spiritual cultivation then the Phoenix, it will never truly die — only become stronger.

However, as immortal as the soul may be, its body still feels the pain. To be reborn again, one must first die…

...

Indeed. It was a Phoenix. Bell didn't know why or how it was here. It wasn't like it would help him even if he did. He couldn't think. He had been too transfixed at the sight.

"Wow…" was the only word he could utter.

A minute passed.

Then another…

And then another…

When his brain turned back on, he noticed several things.

'It's being reborn, so does that mean… it died?'

*RRROAAAWWRRRRR!!!*

When he was finally able to turn his gaze away from the Phoenix towards the source of the sound, he learned the answer to his question. 'How the hell did I not notice that huge monster!?!'

...

'…Why is there a boy floating in the air?'

The Phoenix, being a Legendary Beast, had intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge. It had lived thousands of lives and been reincarnated. It was currently going through Nirvana Rebirth after being killed for the seventh time in the last day. It knew that the monster had been injured seriously, and that it would only take at the most a couple days more of fighting until it became victorious. It also understood that dying so many times in such a short amount of time would possibly put strain on its soul and damage it. What it could not for the life of it understand, however, was how a boy was FLOATING in the goddamn AIR!

It could immediately see that he was neither god nor immortal.

'He's just a simple boy… Wait.' It proceeded to send a wave of spiritual power to scan the boy's soul.

It bounced off of the soul…

Now, you see, the Phoenix was one of the few beings that's spiritual power was higher than those of most gods and immortals. For it to not be able to observe the soul of a mortal boy was… too hard to process. Not a second later, it learned the reason.

A wave of spiritual power from inside the boy's divine consciousness delivered it a message:

'Phoenix… There Are Places Even You Should Not Trespass. Do Not Believe Your Soul is the Strongest in Existence, Lest You One Day Pay the Consequences.'

It had immediately recognized the owner of the voice. 'I-Impossible! H-How are you here!?'

'I…am not here. The boy is my successor. He is destined to…' The last part of the message was only heard by the Phoenix…

'So, he is the one you've chosen. Well then, let me see if he is qualified.'

'Haha! Test him!? If you want to do so, then make sure you don't fall for his charms in the process…'

'Me? Fall for him? Ha! Sun Wukong, you've always been good at joking around!'

'Then let me see if you can keep laughing at my joke the next time fate allows us to meet… Take care, Phoenix.'

'…Yes, you too, old friend.' The Phoenix had at first been intrigued by the boy, but after hearing of his destiny… 'Show me what you can do, boy…'

...

The monster which had been fighting the phoenix had been gigantic. The first thing Bell noticed after its size was its two eyes similar to an ocean. There was a raging storm inside those shiny blue eyes.

Then there was its skin, almost as if it was made of the earth itself. There were four legs with three black metallic toes on each.

Lastly, those horns which looked as if they could easily shatter any weapon that dared challenge them…

The monster itself was large enough to trample the city of Valua in a matter of minutes.

It was undeniably-

"-A King of the Land," Bell uttered.

Bell didn't know it at the time, but he had been correct. It was the Behemoth Alternative. It was the closest thing to a King of the Land that could be born in Gekai.

However, even though he was shocked by the sheer size of the monster, Bell's thoughts were somewhere else. 'That Phoenix, it looks like it's in pain. I need to help it.'

Without thinking, Bell flew down to the Phoenix to heal it. Though, he did not consider one thing…

Whenever the Phoenix died, it would always be reborn from the flames. Not any normal flames — the true flames of the Phoenix. It had already far surpassed the Dao of Fire and had become its own Dao. After all, there was a reason a King of the Land had been severely burned.

So, as Bell would soon come to learn, the Phoenix's Dao of True Flames could easily burn himself, who had only just recently perfected the Dao of Fire. And learn he did.

"Ow OW owowowow!!!! It burnsss!!! Waterrrrr!!!" He started screaming it the second he went through the second layer of flames.

He flew right back out and used the Dao of Water to try to put out the True Flames out, but to no avail.

Bell then tried using the Dao of Wind to put out the flames… That… didn't turn out all that better. In reality, it made the flames rampage even more furiously.

Finally, when he noticed that the massive monster had barely been burnt most likely because of its earthen shell, he was then able to use the Dao of Earth to basically bury himself in soil.

That did the job, but he was too embarrassed to look at the Phoenix that had been staring at him during the whole process.

...

'Sun Wukong… This is too much of a joke! Did you just pick some random boy off the street to be your successor?!' The Phoenix was utterly dumbfounded after seeing the boy's actions.

As she was being reborn; she had no way of fighting off the Behemoth Alternative without a couple minutes of time. If the kid tried to protect her by fighting the monster, he would most likely die before she would have a chance to act.

The next thing the boy did realized her fears. The boy threw himself at the wounded monster with a two-handed long sword.

...

He had considered the available paths: retreat and leave the Phoenix to survive on its own or fight the monster and likely die in the process. He had abandoned the first plan and so he was left with path number 2. Fight the monster.

Why? He didn't know. He was clueless on what kind of personality the Phoenix in front of him had. Maybe it was evil… but a gut feeling told him that it was not. It told him that the Phoenix was a gentle and caring creature unlike any other. Even if it was arrogant and prideful at times, deep down, it held affection for others. It told him to save such a kind soul from having to suffer any more pain.

Bell considered his advantages if he were to fight, and only came up with one actual advantage. 'At least it's injured… I guess?'

In front of absolute strength, tricks didn't matter. After fighting so many monsters, that was a fact he had come to understand.

The monster's wounded state was his only true advantage if he were to fight it.

Even though he wracked his brain to find a way to save the Phoenix and get out alive at the same time, there was nothing that came to mind.

He knew that no arrow, even those crafted from Dao, would likely not even penetrate through the scales of the monster. Annihilation would be completely useless if the arrows it shot didn't pass through the skin. The same applied to Null, if the strike shattered upon contacting the monster without being able to cut through, it wouldn't do any damage at all. He had only one weapon that might prove effective against it. Or so he hoped…

'Conqueror!' Bell shouted in his mind as the long sword came out of the storage space and into his hands.

He suddenly flew towards the monster, which had not even noticed Bell coming at itself until it had already been struck at and temporarily stunned… for a single second.

Bell had put all of the strength he could muster with his body cultivation equaling an intermediate Level 6, and the monster had only been stunned for one second.

At that very moment, Bell noticed how weak he still really was.

The two oceanic eyes momentarily glared at Bell before the huge tail came and slammed into him, swatting him kilomeders (look at the author thought at the end of the chapter regarding this world's measurement units) away while also knocking him unconscious.

...

'NO!' The Phoenix was internally screaming when she saw the boy smacked away like a fly.

She hadn't even conversed with the boy yet, but she had learned that what Sun Wukong had just told her was the whole truth. She would've known it even if he hadn't communicated it to her. She knew the boy was in no way required to help her, but he had tried anyway.

'Is this kid an idiot!? Why in the world would he do that?!'

She had seen the determination and resolve in the boy's eyes. He was ready to die for someone he didn't know, just because they were in trouble.

'I just hope he's alive and knows when to run-! Oh, come on!!! You've gotta be kidding me!!!!! This idiot has a death wish!!!'

...

'OowwwWWWW!!! That hurttttt!!! A LOTTT!!!' Bell had gained consciousness after being pummeled into the ground far away from the battlefield where he just got 1-hit KO by a monster.

He had noticed how the monster looked at him. Those eyes had told him all he needed to know. The monster didn't even recognize Bell as what someone in another world would call him: 'a weakling'. No, to that monster, Bell was no more than an annoying mosquito to swat away. And that's exactly what it had done. This fact annoyed Bell, but he had bigger things to worry about.

'I know the Phoenix is immortal and all, but it shouldn't have to go through the pain of death so much…' He understood that nothing that currently existed in this realm could truly kill the Phoenix. However, that didn't mean the Phoenix couldn't be wounded and die.

'How can I…Will that work?' As Bell was contemplating on how to rescue the Phoenix before it was once again killed, a light bulb lit up in his brain.

"It has to work!" With that, Bell immediately got back up on his feet, at least, he tried to…and he stumbled and fell back on his butt. "Oh. I forgot to heal myself."

He used the Daos of Light and Life to heal his flesh and bones as much as possible. This time when Bell stood up, he didn't stumble and was able to fly back to the battlefield at top speed.

He was glad that he could recall the weapons back into his storage space no matter how far away they were, since otherwise his Conqueror would've been lost. This time however, he had a different plan and wasn't planning on using the longsword.

'Null' He called for the sword, which appeared in his hand. When he arrived at the battlefield, nothing had changed except the Phoenix had gotten a bit larger and its flames were burning with even more might then they had been before.

Bell once again threw himself at the Behemoth Alternative. Except, this time he wasn't aiming for its side, he was aiming right at the monster's face.

This time the monster was able to notice Bell coming at it from straight ahead. But after seeing how weak he was last time; it decided to disregard the boy and turn its gaze back to the Phoenix. Right when it was about to attack the Phoenix once again, it felt true pain for the first time.

Bell had aimed at the weakest spot he could think of while also utilizing the monster's arrogance to his own benefit.

He had activated the Dao of Space which had been imbued into the sword while it was forged and swung the sword four times, slashing twice towards each of the monster's eyes in an X shape.

Not a second later, the anguish of a King of the Land was heard throughout Gekai.

*RRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Bell had to cover up his ears at the roar of the exasperated monster.

Neither Bell nor the Phoenix knew at the time, but the sound had echoed hundreds and thousands of kilomeders away from their current location. It had reached Telskyura, the Empire, and even made the weaker monsters in the Elsos Ruins kneel down in fear.

...

(Gekai, Orario)

The Dungeon City. The City of Adventurers. Orario.

Normally, it would be the most active city in Gekai. Thousands of adventurers and citizens alike walking in its streets.

The King, Ottar, resided in this city.

The Braver, Finn Deimne, did so as well.

The number of admired adventurers that lived in Orario were too many to count. They had fought against gigantic beasts and overcome the greatest challenges the Dungeon could throw at them.

Yet when the roar echoed throughout the streets, back alleys, and buildings, not one of them could muster the courage to move. All frozen in fear.

The citizens had all fainted. Lower-level adventurers had not fared any better either.

It took several seconds before any high-level adventurer could shift themselves out of their terror.

Among them, a Pallum's thumb tingled more intensely than ever before.

A swordswoman's heart skipped a beat at being afraid of something other than her goal.

A Boaz' eyes narrowed, and his resolve was strengthened.

The city buzzing with activity had gone silent in a matter of seconds. It was all because of one monster.

A single roar had shattered the will power of all. It was almost as if it was delivering them a message: 'You are not worthy!'

"R-Riveria, Gareth…"

"Y-Yes, Finn?"

"Is it just me… or did that sound to you like a roar of agony?"

"I… think you might be right about that."

"The loathsome elf's right. Whatever made that sound is in suffering."

"…I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. If there exists something that could put such a powerful monster in a state of distress…"

"Yes, you are indeed correct, Finn. We need to investigate the cause of this as soon as possible."

...

(Orario, Room of Prayer)

"Fels" The god who spent his days in Gekai keeping the Dungeon at bay called out the name of his trusted aid.

"Yes, Ouranos-sama?" A cloaked figure moved out of the shadows to answer the call of the God of the Sky.

"I need you to investigate the source of that sound."

"I will do as you ask, Ouranos-sama."

...

(Rakia, The Royal Palace)

Rakia was not doing much better than Orario. Most of the army was out of commission, though they were farther from the source of the sound and thus their generals were still able to barely stand on their feet.

"A-Ares. The place where that came from seems to be where he headed to!"

"…I'm afraid so. I believe he may have something to do with this." Ares sighed. "I hope no trouble has befell Ambrose."

...

(Gekai, Telskyura)

"Bache! Argana! What the hell was that?!" A dark tanned, crimson-eyed goddess screamed at her Familia captain and vice-captain in the Amazoness language.

"…"

The pair of sisters were silent until the generally belligerent Argana spoke up.

"No idea. All I know is that I don't want to be on the receiving end of whatever's hurt that thing…"

Bache just stared at her. 'It would be better if you were… though I am surprised you don't want to fight for once in your life…'

...

(Gekai, The Elsos Ruins)

As the roar made the low-level monsters kneel in reverence, somewhere in the depths of the ruins which lay to the North-West of Gekai, a sound echoed.

*Crack!*

"There's not much time left…" A certain blue-haired goddess was deep in thought. "I need to find him soon."

She looked back at the sealed monster and sighed.

"I wonder who he'll be?"

...

(Gekai, Somewhere Between Preblica and Asris)

Bell's ears were still ringing.

Bell had been right in front of the monster when it had roared, so he had wholly heard the sound.

It had been a dangerous test of his resolve, and he had passed.

If he had been paralyzed for even a second, he would most likely be monster chow right now, as the monster had lunged forward with its mouth open, ready to chew Bell up.

Bell had just gotten lucky because he had sensed something was about to happen and had flown up as high as possible right after he swung at the monster.

'Whew. Nearly died there… Okay maybe I already should be dead, but I haven't got any time to think about that right now. I'm just glad the plan is working. It'll be much easier for the Phoenix to escape if this thing is blind.'

He had successfully sent the eyes of the monster into the void by striking at them with Null. Now all that mattered was for the Phoenix to get away…

...

"Hey! Phoenix! Run, err, fly away from here!!" The boy shouted at her while pointing away from the Behemoth Alternative.

'How did he…' The Phoenix was amazed at the boy's actions.

At first, she had thought of him as an idiot with a death wish.

Now, she truly understood what he was.

'A hero with a death wish.' Indeed. In her eyes, the boy still had a death wish, but now, he had been promoted from 'idiot' to 'hero'.

If I must say so myself, that's quite an upgrade.

Right as she was about to fly off in the direction which the boy pointed towards, she stopped. 'Is he crazy!? Why is he not…' The Phoenix considered why the boy was still looking at the Behemoth rather than fleeing like he had told her to do so, then it struck her.

'Oh. If he doesn't fight it… then others will have to do it in his stead. He's fighting it, because otherwise people will die?!'

Right away, she knew there was no way the boy could kill it alone. '…Should I, help him?' She sighed, breathing out true flames from her mouth. 'I guess I did say I would test his qualifications. This'll be a good time to get closer to him. And no! I will not fall for a little boy, you sly bastard Sun Wukong! Teasing me whenever he gets the chance!'

She shook of that last thought and turned her head back to the battle which had already resumed when she was daydreaming.

She was once again astonished by the boy's actions. Even she herself would never have expected such an occurrence in a million years.

...

"Hahh, Haahh… this is… way more… difficult… then I thought it would be…" Bell had swung Null at the monster several hundred times by now. Most of the time, the Dao of Space was either shattered upon impact, or only able to send a little piece of a scale to the void. He had tried concentrating upon one location, it's throat, so he could fire Annihilation at it and end the beast.

However, it wasn't going as easy as he had imagined it would have.

He had been able to tear away most of a scale which was right under where Bell believed the monster's throat was. But the last layer of the scale didn't even get a single scratch on it no matter how many times he hit it.

If he tried using the bow now, he predicted that it would just anger the monster without gaining him anything. There was a simple reason for this.

After having used the Dao of Earth so many times, he had learned that the Dao of Earth had no opposite. In the Ten Dao, earth was the only one Dao that none other could truly suppress alone.

Fire and Lightning suppressed Wood and Life, while Water and Earth suppressed the former.

However, no matter how many combinations he used, there was no Dao that suppressed Earth.

He had contemplated on the topic deeply, and he had come to a conclusion.

Earth is the foundation of all the other Dao.

Without it, no Life would exist, and without Life, neither would Death.

Without it, Water wouldn't form rivers and oceans, and therefore no clouds would birth Lightning.

Without it, nothing could spark a Fire, and the Wind wouldn't breeze from the seas to the land.

Without it, there would be no stars — even though the sub-Dao of Stars belong to the Dao of Light, without matter, none of them could form — and without Light, there would be no Darkness.

Without it, even Space and Time wouldn't exist.

Without the Dao of Earth, it would be an eternity of Nothingness.

So, what could suppress it? Was the answer nothing?

No. There were two ways to suppress the Earth. But the first one was impossible to do for the current Bell. There was no way he could perfectly comprehend every single Dao in existence. To do that meant being the master of all things in existence. It was simply impossible.

The second way, however, was more reasonable.

To fight fire with fire. In this case, Earth with Earth.

Bell once again sighed after remembering his more reasonable (almost-impossible) backup plan in case he couldn't break through the scales of the Behemoth.

On that day, a new epic was written, and a new legend was born.

For the first time in the history of all magicians and immortal cultivators, Magic and the Dao were combined, resulting in the creation of the Dao of Magic.

"Dao of Earth, I call upon you!" Bell started chanting.

"Give me the power of the great world!" Particles rose up from the ground as Bell continued chanting

"The endurance to survive a million years of ruin! The strength of a thousand giants! The toughness of a hundred golems!" The particles formed into a shape above Bell. The shape became more and more discernible with every passing moment.

"Grant this lowly one the majesty of an Earth Dragon!"

Anyone who gazed upon the sight would be awestruck. A spear that towered larger than the Behemoth itself assembled in the air, its tip aimed at the weak spot created at the monster's throat, ready to strike at the command of its wielder.

"I shall wield the true might of the earth! Terra Firma!"

Bell finished chanting, and the spear propelled itself towards the Behemoth Alternative.

For the first time in its life, the Behemoth felt true, uninhibited fear.

The spear drove through the monster's throat, entering from the weak point, and coming out from the back, its neck.

*ROOAWWRR…*

The monster gave a bleak wail before collapsing onto the ground, taking its last breath.

Bell didn't have any time to celebrate as the last of his endurance gave way and his eyes slowly closed as he plummeted towards the ground.

...

'Wow… he actually… did it.'

The Phoenix had been stupefied the moment the boy had done the impossible by creating a new Dao. 'Can that even be called a new Dao? He basically just combined Magic with the Dao. I really wasn't expecting him to have the talent to do something like that, and he's also this young… I guess I should talk to him-!'

As she was thinking of how to approach the young boy who was floating in front of the Behemoth's corpse, the boy suddenly lost his ability to fly and started falling towards the ground.

'Ooohh… That one's gonna hurt.' She just stood on the side as he continued to fall, and finally impacted the ground.

*Thud!*

'Yup, that definitely hurt. Wait… I could've just flown in and saved him…' The Phoenix had been too flabbergasted to act while the boy had been falling. 'Meh. I guess I just have to heal him and wait for him to wake up.'

While she was flying towards the boy, a thought popped up in her head and her eyes glinted for a moment.

...

…

…

Bell slowly woke up. He noticed that the pain had gone away. Had someone healed him?

His head was on something soft, 'that's a nice pillow,' he thought to himself.

He opened his eyes and could make out a figure even though it was quite blurry.

"Mom?" He asked, thinking he was in some kind of dream.

"Sorry, I am not your mother." The voice answered.

It took him a couple of seconds to recognize that he was not dreaming. He jumped away faster than a squirrel and stuttered.

"W-W-Who a-are y-you?!"

"Oh, I did forget to introduce myself. I'm the Phoenix you nearly died for. Several times. You may call me Phoe."

Bell just stared at her, dumbfounded. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again.

"Well, I decided to heal you as thanks."

"U-Uh, t-thank you?!" He stopped to take a deep breath and compose himself. "I appreciate your help!"

"I could say the same to you, after all, you did save me from dying over and over. If I may ask, why did you try to save me?" She asked him straightforwardly.

"I j-just thought that you…" Bell paused to think. 'Well, the truth is that I was kind of entranced by the Phoenix's exquisiteness… But I can't really tell her that, now can I?' He continued, "I thought that you were in pain, so I wanted to help you escape."

"Hahaha!" Her giggle was gracefully divine unlike any Bell had ever heard before. Now that he actually recovered from his prior embarrassment, he was able to get a good look at the woman who had claimed to be the Phoenix.

Both her hair and eyes shone the same color as the True Flames he had witnessed before — crimson. Her skin was white with a slight yellow tint.

She wore what Bell had read from the Black Book to be a cheongsam — one of the cultivators' common clothing. Its color was much closer to that of blood then her hair. It had rising phoenixes made out of gold as decoration on it.

All in all, the woman in front of him now perfectly reflected the grace of the Phoenix in its true form.

"Sorry about that, I was just surprised, that's all. So, umm… what was your name?"

"Bell! Bell Cranel!"

"It's nice to meet you, Bell. What are you planning on doing from here on?"

"I'm going to travel to Telskyura, why?"

"No reason, I just found you interesting, so I'm going to be coming with you."

"Okay then, see you lat- Wait… you're coming… with me?"

"Yes, is that a problem?"

"U-Um, no? ...Maybe? …Yes?"

"Aww… I just wanted to be friends…" She gave a cute pout which made Bell melt away. A minute of silence passed until Bell regained his composure.

"…" He thought of what to answer, then he recalled his grandfather's words.

Bell, always remember this. If a woman offers to be friends, you MUST accept.

Of course, there are some exceptions *Cough* Artemis *Cough* who hate men. But don't worry, those women won't ask to become friends in the first place.

You have to start the relationship as friends first. With time and some luck, you'll have no problem with reeling her into your harem.

So, ALWAYS say yes, do you understand, Bell?

"Never mind! It's not a problem at all!" Bell shouted with an eager tone while shaking his head.

Phoe was surprised at Bell's change of attitude, but smiled, nonetheless.

In front of Bell, she transformed back into the Phoenix and took into the air. "Alright then, let us get going."

Bell nodded and used the Dao of Wind to fly up next to Phoe. He could feel the heat from her flames even from 20 meders of distance. However, it was less than before, because while he was burning in the Dao of True Flames, he had actually started comprehending the Dao.

It was nothing compared to Phoe's comprehension, but he had been able to achieve the beginning realm in the Dao of True Flames by simply being burned by the True Flames.

Phoe had noticed. Bell wasn't being scorched by her flames even though any other cultivator would've at this distance. 'This boy keeps bringing surprises on after another…'

The duo took off towards the South, to their next destination — Telskyura, the country of true warriors, the Amazoness.

Neither the divine being, nor the child knew, but the fortuitous encounter would slowly form a bond that would surpass a lifetime.