Chapter 32: Disparity in Talent

Author's note: Hello, From this until the fight ends, I Will use Arachne to refer to the curse taking over the body of Arachne. Because the curse got no name, and calling it just "curse" is not pleasant to read and is confusing to write.

That's all, thank you.

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I immediately moved at fast speed in front of Arachne, of course this speed was not my max speed, or rather this speed is faster than my normal "max" speed because of me buffing myself with different enchantment magics.

Yes, that's right, even though Idun was hailed as a master enchantress, that doesn't mean that she is the only one who can use enchantment in such a high degree, of course because she is a close friend of mine and I am an opportunist, I get to learn from her and successfully became a master of enchantments, at my own rights.

Though a little bit inferior than her, but hey that was still quite the achievement you know? Enchantment is highly complicated after all, I mean people can't just casually upgrade a rock through enchantment into a gold right?

Going back to the fight, even though I am moving at speeds faster than my normal one, Arachne is still Arachne, even though some curse took over her. She casually caught my punch with her right hand as shockwaves of wind blades that made the trees around us be uprooted was formed between the collision of the two mighty beings in the forest.

I looked at Virgo and gave a wicked smile, the circle is already near its completion and Arachne doesn't have any idea that a magic circle that will make the curse disappear is about to be activated and is foolishly trying to get rid of me.

However, the reason of my smile was misunderstood as Arachne opened her mouth.

"KUHE... KUHEHEHEHE! IF THAT'S WHAT YOU DESIRE! THEN I SHALL SHOW YOU, JUST HOW STRONG MY RESENTMENT TOWARDS IDUN IS! THAT MONSTER WHO MASSACRED MY WHOLE RACE!!"

Oh, I see, it seems that the ego of the curse is a direct copy of the ego of the dark fairy who made the curse, that's why even though the curse gained an ego, an evidence how strong the curse is, the curse still carrying out its mission.

I looked at the magic circle that have a pentagram as the main circuit being supported by other magic circles also pentagram in shape though much smaller than the main circuit and is in the five sides of the star shaped circuit, the smaller circles then is completing the whole circle by making circuits of one smaller circle to another, it has many unreadable (even for me) runes and languages that only Virgo and Idun can probably understand and it glows a silver light that is only visible to me and is concealed with the highest level of illusion that Virgo can cast to Arachne.

The gargantuan magic circle spanned a fourth of the total size of the whole forest and it was really big that I am sure that Arachne cannot get out of this area easily, well as long as I am here she will never leave this place, it will not be hard to go out of this invisible circle, it will be impossible.

Thinking of those things, I suddenly saw Arachne transforming, as her spider half started to pulsate and contort, the half of Arachne was unrecognizable for a moment being just a pile of pulsating flesh that looks like an eldritch, the flesh then started to gather and go inside the body of Arachne, well I cannot describe it more because it really just look like they are fusing and the flesh of the lower half just started going inside Arachne.

Arachne then, after the pulsating flesh was successfully assimilated into her body, she sprouted two legs that of a humanoid, she then make her briskly spider legs appear in her back, the only difference is that, the legs was slimmer and shorter and the edges that is as sharp as blades are now gone and only the pointed and stabbing part of the spider legs can be seen in which is, as a side note can also spurt out both poisons and webs alike.

This is basically her battle form, she have used her supernatural healing factor to rearrange her limbs  which is quite gross if you think about it, imagine consciously making your liver go right and left inside your body...

Okay, going back, this form maximized her few ways of fighting, her threads and her poison. In this form, she can use her fingertips and the legs on her back that looks like spider man to spurt out those said weapons, plus the pointed part of the legs also added to the lethality of hers that is already close to perfection because of her high mastery of her craft.

However, things like her weakness will not change, she is still inflexible and if only I have a way to cancel her poisons in which I  already did with her threads with the [Black Flames] that I invented a few moments ago, then she will become an infantry without a sword and I can easily incapacitate her.

However, like I said earlier, I don't have any countermeasure right now. And there is another thing, when I got sealed some of my memories was sealed and along with it are my spells specifically designed as countermeasures to people that can be a  threat,  including my sister and my wives, of course also the Seven Rulers... Except me (duh).

And the idea was sealed with it, meaning I completely forgot about it and only the fact that I have spells as strong as those remains in my memory and I only realized that right now and maybe subconsciously went and made it a fact that I will fight Arachne even though I can just nullify her so that I will not risk her being harmed by me and vice versa.

Oh man, this is troublesome, but I can't do anything about it because things are already done and its not like I don't like this situation right now and also not like I can't find a remedy into this.

Well what would you do if you don't have spells during a fight? DAMN BIG DEAL, JUST CREATE ONE ON THE SPOT!

That's what I did earlier with the [Black Flames] and what will I do until the end because I basically forgot it all.

Thinking about those things I just gave a very faint smile in front of Arachne that already transformed into her battle form, by the way, her hair is now tied in the back with  a simple web and she's naked right now, hey that's unfair, that's distracting.

"Are you trying to distract me?"

I made a wry smirk as I looked at Arachne, Arachne seem to become more confident as she just went and changed in a form specialized for combat as she also made a sensual and suggestive smile and replied.

"WHY, IS IT WORKING?"

Arachne then crouch for a moment and made a spear out of her arms and then disappeared from her position and appeared in front of me, I immediately caught the spear hand aiming for my heart as I casually replied.

"It is not...?"

Arachne used one of the spider legs on her back and tried to inject me directly in the mouth with poison, I immediately dodged it and went for an upper kick but it was blocked by Arachne with her other hand, I then used my fingers and snapped my fingers as I said.

"[Black Flames]"

Black Flames emerged from my fingers as it expanded in  size until it fully engulfed Arachne, the flames went on for a few seconds, trees after trees and grass after grass was incinerated as I don't have time to think of those and was fully emersed in the fight, no ash was left and only nothing remained showing the power of the flame attribute being merged with my Dark Magic.

However, of course because Arachne is Arachne, she just made a cocoon out of her webs and let it be the one to get fully burnt as she also muttered in a hoarse voice.

"[Purple Storm]"

Wow, both of us have such creative naming sense, I wonder what is her attack will be?

Thinking sarcastically like that, Purple colored hurricane made out of smug and raging and circulating winds appeared in front of her, circulating as it intensified and started to make the earth itself be churned up because of the mere RPM (Rotation Per Minute) of the strom.

The storm pierced swiftly towards the dark colored flames and dispersed it with ease as if the destructive flames that can incinerate things out of existence didn't even existed in the first place and came right straight to me, however, because I am so creative and not a plagiarist at all. I also made my usual on the spot spell creation and I Call it.

"[Herald of the End]"

Black and silver colored hurricane atleast in the same level if not a level higher than Arachne's [Purple Storm] appeared in front of me and I promise that I didn't copied the principle of Arachne combining her Poison Magic into the Air attribute, the one and only elemental attribute that she can use... Or not really because she just make tornadoes that is not even a proper one and have to be released from her palm, and that's lame.

Anyway, I copie- I mean, took inspiration from that and also infused my own Bloodline Magic into the air attribute, however because it is perfectly controlled by my amazing magic proficiency, the wind formed blades and is more solid, unlike Arachne's tornado that have some smug from her Bloodline magic compensate with the mass of the whole thing.

Mine was purely infused dark and wind magic and is a full volume of violent, deadly and all severing blade of winds. Upon contact, the two tornadoes collided and a dome of explosion of winds immediately circulated in whole of our vicinity, even disturbing Aries and Virgo who is already finished in the third circle and is only a little away  in the finishing the fourth one.

They temporarily shielded themselves and stopped casting the magic as the purple waves of lethal miasma melted anything and everything in its wake and the black and silver blade of winds created crater upon crater in the vicinity effectively shaving off the whole area of any trees and making it an inhabitable wasteland of poison and darkness.

At this moment, every member of the Twelve Heavenly Stars feel silent, Aries and Virgo was still running around but an oppressive silence lingered between them as they saw Arachne and me showcase our full power, however everyone knew who will win this fight.

Arachne and me is matched in raw power, that means if calculated, our physical and magical strength is just the same and it did not considered other factors than that. And that's what is causes the dismay of the curse  that is currently in control of Arachne's body, Arachne's ability is too specialized and too focused that it has the potential of being something extremely useful.

However, it is just useful to people who have a lower level of power and experience as her, and not me that have a super flexible mind that can create spells by copying a spell that is coming for me and make a new version of it and then using my own version to counter the original just like what I did earlier with Arachne's only integrated attack.

This basically means that Arachne is inferior in technique, versatility and flexibility even though we have the same power levels, at first the curse thought that she can get rid of me, a hinderance to her creator's plan of making Idun disappear from this world by simply fighting and killing me, this is the conclusion of the ego that was copied from someone so smart and calculative.

However, it was just a copy after all, that means it has a loop hole, thus the curse's thinking was stuck on the fact that Arachne and I have the same amount of power, not determining the difference in techniques and talent.

Thinking of all of this, and also thinking that I knew and analyzed her very own train of thought right now, the curse's attitude of confidence towards the battle form of Arachne disappeared and a desperate look surfaced in her face, she started to back run at speeds that shouldn't be possible for people back running in the first place as all of  the legs in her back shoot out poison towards me in reckless abandon in hopes of distracting me to escape and reorganize her plans in how to bring Idun's demise.

"Where do you think you're going?"

However, of course, Arachne also knew, that I will never let her go.

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Author's note:

Hello, Author here.

So, the plot point about Loki's "powerhouse" spells being sealed may look haphazardly brought up, but actually, no, it was already planned long ago and was supposed to be mentioned before the fight even began, but I cannot find a proper spot from the chapters before so I squeezed it in this chapter in which they will "go all out", also showcasing what Loki's brain processing speed is capable of at the same time.

That's all, thank you and please look forward into the next chapter!