Birds of a feather (Part 2)

Rowan felt his own battle gene kick into full force the moment he saw what his master did as it hit him like a ton of bricks how much he did not fathom his master's law ability before this moment. If his master was able to constantly learn at a pace even quicker than even him and he was more hardworking than Rowan could even fathom then after all these years, how powerful was the man before him truly.

Regius grinned from ear to ear and it gave Rowan the feeling that his master was reading his thoughts when all of a sudden he felt a splitting headache come over him as the words in his master's voice bounced into his mind. "This is a real battle, boy, but yes, I acquired mind reading, among other things, from my mother." Rowan's jaw dropped the moment he realized what was happening as he emptied his mind and underwent [Berserkers Trance] fighting became instinct and all of a sudden a soul mark began to form under his left eye. A rainbow cloud looked like it had tattooed itself to Rowan's face, but strange enough, it seemed active while at any point, it gave off the illusion that a different element was pouring out of it.

Rowan had under his master's tutelage given birth to a soul mark from his soul affliction, but Rowan was not the same as Regius. Regius was able to excel due to the laws of devouring and how they paired with his slightly rare attunement. Rowan was on the other side. Natural destruction wasn't some type of crazy law, but on the other hand, if you were to compare the rarity of his attunement to Regius' own, then there was no comparison. One of them excelled in laws, while the other excelled in natural endowment in the form of the attunement.

All of that contributed to the differences between the two of their soul marks. Regius' soul mark appeared on his body as well, but no one could see it with the new armor that now coated his body. It had appeared under his eye as a rainbow sword but it also had but while being similar to Rowans there was a vast difference, Rowans was faint and noticeable for those that knew what they were looking for but Regius was vibrant and radiated such power that people wanted to kneel upon seeing it fully. It felt like a blade was pressed to your throat at all times. Rowans, on the other hand, were able to give people the feeling that they were watching a storm approach on the horizon.

The two of them were birds of feather in a sense, monsters in their own right. Regius sheathed his sword and all six arms mirrored the action as sheaths made of mana formed around the blades as light began to spill from the sheathe on his waist and this in turn set of a series of domino effects as all six blades mirrored the first and light began to spill from the sheathes. Rowan knew that the attack that came towards him next would be monstrous, Rowan knew entirely too well that his master was maybe the last person who needed the boon that came from the armament spell and six arms that would mirror the world sword was enough to send shivers down Rowan's spine.

Rowan executed a series of things all at the same time while the crowd looked stunned at everything that was transpiring in front of them. Rowan jumped backwards with all of his might, leaping upwards into the sky while his own armament bloomed to life around his body. Platinum feathers wrapped around his body while it looked like the normal version of his old armor. He clenched his hand, and the armament cracked and then fell off like an eggshell and became a platinum version of Regius armor but made of feathers. The helmet closed around his head and had a slight hook in the front for the beak making it look like his head was in the mouth of a bird of prey.

His wings had sprouted from his back while at the same time, their metallic lining catching the light while the vermillion core shone like the red eye of a demon on each wing.

Rowan knew that created space had not alleviated the danger in the least. instead he was leading with his own spell. He held his left hand aloft and a brown cloud formed in it while at the same time a clear cloud formed of spirals of wind held together while at the same. Rowan opened his mouth wide and a final cloud that had formed on his tongue was pure red and he spit it towards his hands right as the two clouds met by way of Rowan clapping his hands together. The end product was a storm point that was platinum but suffused of wisps of green, brown and red. The sword of storms flew beneath Rowan's feet and he stood on the blade as he flexed all the muscles in his arm and threw the storm point at Regius with all of his strength right at the exact moment that the sword left the sheathe.

The six floating arms all executed the same slash and the blade beams overlapped and space overlapped and Rowan could see all sorts of images in the slash as they overlapped before they crossed and formed an odd shape before the whole slash mutated into a strange butterfly with wings so sharp that all the space around them present shuttered as it shot towards Rowan but he too had set off a spell of his own. The storm point shattered and became a platinum cloud at the same time that it was leaving the sheathe.

The brown light hit the cloud first and it spit brown globs that revealed themselves to be massive clods of earth. The green wisp came out second and accelerated the earth and hardened it turning it into a brown cannonball wrapped in green light. The red wisp was last, but it coated each of the earthen cannonballs in fire as they shot towards Rowan and multiplied to blot out the sky. Regius had used Valkyrie's last kiss and, based on the phenomenon, this was the real version. Rowan, on the other hand, had used his mastery of new elements to create the mixed element spell [Meteor Storm].

The two sources of power slammed into each other as the butterfly cut through the projectiles as they reached it, still headed for Rowan. There was a flash of light and the cloud was bisected, but it cost the butterfly all of its strength. The crowd went wild with cheers while Rowan and Regius had both dove through the smoke at the same time where their blades met. Rowan parried a blow from his master and delivered a kick to his gut that sent him tumbling backwards, but the mechanical arms closed off any lanes of pursuit.

Space under Regius' feet began to ripple like the top of a pond and all of a sudden he vanished, the entire ground quaking in his wake as he sped through the cloud of dust that existed there previously. He was in front of Rowan and delivered a punch into his ribs that winded him while his master smiled down at him. "Final lesson on combining spell and technique. You've grasped the rest, but this is what you can work on until you find me. Next consider it your homework. Show me what you got."

Rowan created space, but the hands had discarded their weapons and before long they created tiny white orbs that warped the surrounding space before they smashed the orbs into the world sword and it began to glow white hot to an almost blinding degree. The sword stretched to fit the massive amount of both mana and destructive energy as it stretched from a normal Katana to a blade that could match Rowans storm sword in size but it was like the blade was longer connected to the handle of the world sword there was a white orb of energy acting as the hilt and the blade protruded from that. Rowan could tell that his master had just overlapped six of the same spell before combining into his blade. He stepped once again as the final leg of the fight began in earnest.

In the stands above, several of his children watched the battle with smiles on their faces, but the person who was most interested was Regius' eldest son, Valentine. He turned to his sister and spoke quietly, "You know we should help this kid out when dad sends him back. Let's see if we can convince Empry when we have the time." The sister in question sitting there with her golden hair shining in the light of the stars was Wreathe, his twin sister. Valentine had grown up to be Regius' spitting image but with his mother's dark black star speckled hair. He still kept a golden band in it to keep it out of his eyes despite all this time and instead of royal garb like everyone else he wore a black lab coat over it while hundreds if not thousands of different images flitted by on his arms that were exposed thanks to the rolled-up sleeves.

Wreathe looked at him like he was crazy. "Beat you to the punch brother, I already talked to Empry. I've already put some things into motion, so good luck. Also, brother, did you not hear about Father's plan for Rowan when he returns to the second layer? You spend all your free time in that lab of yours or with your kids, so allow me to tell you, Father is sending him after that necromancer that you failed to kill. Rowan will have to kill him before he can naturally ascend."

Valentine scowled before he snapped his fingers and a shadow appeared to his left before forming a person. "Find Empry and report back to me." Wreathe smiled on the side this entire time. "Scared for Dad's first disciple brother?" Valentine swallowed and looked around before throwing up a bubble to block the sound "No Wreathe you know my strength well enough but that man was different, If I'm not wrong I think he knows father somehow he was abnormal but also able to fight me to a standstill and wound me." She shrugged "Yes because father set up restrictions for anyone that goes down so that they wouldn't just rule the second layer, we still get countless resources from them you are limited to the top of rank ten so of course…" Valentine cut her off as the fight was about to begin again.

"No, that's what I'm saying Wreathe, I think that necromancer, that head of the necromantic association, as they call it, he's the strongest rank ten I've ever faced and he's only getting stronger by the day. Rowan will have a long way to go, but if this battle is any indication, I look forward to seeing if he succeeds where I failed."