Against the Son of the Sun God (ll)
Although El could utilize all of his abilities, from the Inverse Skill that increased all basic stats, to equipment such as the Shana-leveled sword Perak- this battle felt like challenging fate itself.
Even with a special energy (Dou Qi) equivalent to Dou Zun that had undergone eight transformations, being in the mid-third-level Authority range, plus the special effects of Inverse, victory could not be guaranteed.
Not without reason.
Karna's three Noble Phantasms stood at the top of the world, as if to declare that only destruction awaited anyone who tried to challenge him.
"Observing the opponent, not attacking directly. Good move," Karna said, her tone flat but not judgmental-as if she were appreciating El's choice.
The voice pulled El from the whirlpool of his thoughts, from the long memory and analysis of all Karna's abilities and Noble Fantasies.
"Thank you," El replied, slowly opening his eyes and letting out a deep breath. "And... sorry for looking at my opponent for so long without moving."
"There is no need to apologize. You've taken the right step," Karna said in a firm tone, but without a hint of judgment.
El gave a faint smile. He raised his left hand, bending the ring finger and little finger held in place by the thumb, forming a hand seal with the index and middle fingers rising.
On the other side, Karna's red eyes narrowed sharply. His grip on the spear in his right hand tightened, Karna knew, the battle had begun.
A hundred strands of El's hair suddenly snapped off, each filled with reddish-purple Dou Qi, blending with Ash Flame, a cold white flame that froze the surrounding air.
Slowly but surely, from each strand of hair formed a sword, a hundred sharp and deadly ice-fire blades.
In an instant, with El's single will, hundreds of swords shot towards Karna at lightning speed, tearing through the air with a deadly clang.
SHIIIING!
Seeing a hundred swords flying like remote-controlled missiles, Karna remained undaunted.
One sword whizzed by, followed by twenty more. Karna parried ten of them with his spear, metal meeting metal, creating sparks and sharp clanking sounds.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The swords were knocked down and stuck into the ground around him.
Wasting no time, Karna leapt into the air. His body spun lightly, then landed momentarily on his own back, a strange yet graceful movement, before leaping again, dodging the remaining ten swords that struck where he had been.
But that was only the beginning.
Eighty more swords shot out in unison, like mind-controlled projectile bullets. The sky seemed to be filled with blades of light and ice.
Meanwhile, the ten swords stuck in the ground flew again, attacking Karna from all directions, forming a deadly trap.
Karna drew his spear again. With amazing agility and precision, he spun, leaped, and struck the ground with tremendous force, an explosion of pressure erupting from his feet, pushing dozens of swords back momentarily.
Suddenly, from the very back of the line, a region only slightly touched by the pressure wave, twenty swords shot into the air, screaming with a deadly clang.
SHIIING!
Karna immediately ducked, dodging just in time as twenty swords nearly took his head off.
On the other side, eighty swords again maneuvered in the air, attacking from various directions. Karna jumped to the right, his body spinning in the air.
Karna swung his spear to deflect some, but let the rest hit his body directly.
CLANK... CLANK... CLANK!
The sound of metal hitting metal echoed, like the clanking of heavenly steel.
The swords failed to penetrate the barrier. Kavacha & Kundala, Karna's immortal armor, blocked the attacks flawlessly.
In the distance, El stood still. His gaze was calm, his hands did not move an inch. He controlled the hundred swords only with his mind, through the thin threads of Spiritual Strength connected to each hilt.
El's Rinnegan's eyes glowed serenely, the six tomoe within slowly rotating. A deep purple Susano'o aura began to wrap around his body-silently, yet forcefully.
From the giant's looming skeleton, muscles formed, then flesh, to a solid layer of skin. In a split second, Susano'o's full body stood up perfectly, and both feet hit the sand with a soft, yet deep thud.
The fifth stage had risen.
"Karna..." murmured El, almost as a whisper to himself. "He seems to dance in the storm of attacks. Beautiful... yet deadly."
He let out a long sigh. "Kavacha & Kundala... too much defense. This will be a long fight."
Suddenly, Karna swung his spear, now engulfed in Mana Burst (Flame), the power of divine fire that exploded from the tip of his weapon with great force.
In a single slash, he created a gigantic wave of fire, sprawling like the fury of a sun god. The flames shot out like a golden-red tsunami, carrying a power capable of setting the sky on fire.
The holy explosion devoured all of El's swords. In an instant, the hundreds of blades vanished in the flames, leaving only faint shadows and sand melted into glass, as if hell itself had trodden the earth.
Karna's fire burned not just matter, but existence itself.
On the other side, El's dark purple Susano'o aura trembled... then burned.
White flames enveloped the giant's body-the Ash Flame, a flame that carried two poles at once: heat and cold.
But right now, it was the cold pole, as cold as emptiness, as cold as death.
El quickly released Shana from his grasp. The sword flew up... then stuck into Susano'o's right arm.
In an instant, from that arm grew a gigantic sword, created from the essence of the Ash Flame-a dense white flame that did not burn, but froze all possibilities.
"Flame..." whispered El, his voice low and almost drowned out in the turbulent dance of fire in the air.
In one mighty stomp, Susano'o's feet hit the golden sand. The ground shook, creating an instantaneous crater and a five-meter-wide spatial crack that spread like lightning.
Without hesitation, the giant's body shot forward, piercing through Karna's still-burning firestorm, tearing through the air with an unstoppable aura.
Then, Susano'o raised his sword high, and El whispered...
"...Splitting Tsunami."
SLASH!
CRASH!
A single slash sliced through the world.
The space itself shattered, like glass struck from a great height, shimmered, cracked, then collapsed.
The remnants of destruction froze in an instant, forming a silvery frozen path that followed the trajectory of the strike, even the golden sand just behind Karna was not spared.
However, when the smoke and cracks subsided, the result was only a small scratch on Karna's chest.
The wound healed before blood could even appear. His skin returned intact, leaving no evidence that he had ever been hurt, as if reality rejected the fact that Karna could get hurt.
'That's right,' El thought when he saw Karna's wound heal so quickly.
At the same time, Karna's left hand was raised to the sky. Karna's red eyes remained calm.
From the sky, ten spears of fire appeared, their blades huge, burning like little suns, hovering just above El's head.
Their aura was heavy, as if each spear carried the will of destruction.
Without hesitation, Karna swung his left hand down.
WHUM!
Spears of fire fell from the sky, fast, heavy, burning brightly like the splinters of a cursed sun. They streaked toward Susano'o's body, ready to scorch everything.
But just before touching the target, El whispered softly, "Amenotejikara."
ZAP!
In an instant, their positions switched.
Karna was shocked to find himself right in front of Susano'o, in too little distance to dodge.
Before Karna could react, Susano'o's gigantic arms blazing with Ash Flame grabbed him, locking his body in a giant embrace of power.
Then the fire spears struck.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Multiple explosions shook the desert.
The sky flashed a fiery red.
The golden sand boiled and melted, turning into waves of molten glass that were split apart by the pressure. The shockwave drove away all dust and sound, leaving a silent destruction amidst the flames.
Amidst the flames and melting golden sand, El stood tall. El knew it was not enough to overthrow Karna.
Moreover, the fire would not be enough to burn Karna. If Karna could survive because of his magical Fire and the addition of Kavacha & Kundala, then El could survive because of his physical endurance, the Light Armor effect that reduced damage by 50% and the Heavenly Fire within him.