Chapter 73: Thorny Waste

He moved again, and I ran, scrambling for a strategy to counter his ridiculous power. There was something else too. I could feel the pressure around us shift.

He knew about my domain, and when he activated his own, the air itself changed whenever he drew closer. Just like him, I could tell when his domain was active… and I would know when it dropped.

But who would be forced to disengage first?

Of course, giving up wasn't an option. Even panting, even at my limits, unless I had a death wish, I had to keep fighting.

Moments passed. A hop, a dodge, the occasional clash of our spiritual weapons. But I could feel it creeping in. The headache, the fuzziness, the tell-tale signs that indicated I was pushing my inner flame too hard.

And my gauntlets had started flickering, dangerously close to vanishing.

"Hey! How's it going?"

"Luna?"

"I think I finished learning the ability, so can y—"

Kaz jumped again, cutting off her interruption. His sword slashed toward me, but something was different this time. The pressure I felt before had weakened. I barely dodged his attack and swung in return.

He reacted, but not as quickly as before.

I managed to tag him with my fist, but he still slipped away... just barely.

Pain pulsed through my skull, my vision darkening at the edges from sheer exertion.

I had no choice. I shut off my domain.

"Can you grab him?" Luna asked, pulling my attention away from the heat of battle again.

"I don't know… maybe." I answered honestly. There was only one way to get him to drop his guard enough for me to seize that kind of advantage and it wasn't going to be pretty.

"Grab him with me on your arm," she finished.

I took a few breaths, bracing myself as Kazriel prepared to move again.

"Do you think your ability can finish him?"

"...I think this is just barely going better than the fight with the monsters. So, you decide what you want to do. I won't argue."

I understood.

In this state, I couldn't win. It would end just like the battle in the cave. Except this time, there would be no second chance.

I had been given a cheat through Luna.

Might as well use it.

I was exhausted, but in the brief pause, I could see Kazriel was too. His breathing was steadier than mine, but even he wasn't unscathed.

Still, neither of us spoke.

He hopped.

My last chance.

I activated my domain for an instant, but it was too late. As I moved, pain exploded through my side.

"Hck—" A blade was buried in my torso, just shy of my vitals. But I planned this, an unfortunate painful necessity. Just like with the beasts before. As long as I avoided my internals, I could still win.

Kazriel's domain flickered, then vanished, the pressure along with it.

"If you had lasted just a few more seconds," he murmured, "I would have been the one to lose. But you didn'—"

"GRAB HIM!" Luna's voice cut through the pain like a whip.

Ignoring the fire searing through me, I reached out. One hand latched onto the wrist holding his blade. The other, my right arm, the one bound to Luna, seized his head.

"What are yo—!"

His words died mid-sentence, no longer offering any resistance.

From beneath my gauntlet, something shifted. A sleek, blue sinew stretched outward, wrapping around it like a second glove.

The next moment, thin, needle-like, thorns pierced out in eerie precision, giving my armaments a cruel appearance.

I froze with confusion. They looked menacing sure, but… they weren't deep enough to hit anything vital like his brain. Probably they were just long enough to cause surface wounds. Painful, sure, but not deadly.

Yet before my eyes, like an illusion, Kazriel began to fade.

He barely managed a muffled, "Huh," before vanishing completely. His body dissolved from head to toe. His blade disappearing with him.

Had I still been human, had I still bled, the vanishing blade could've been much worse.

I collapsed to my knees, vision blurring, but I had done it. A brutal, relentless battle. A foe who could move instantaneously, one who could anticipate my movements before I made them.

And I won.

Luna had landed the final blow, but without me, she wouldn't have had the chance.

"Peter?"

Her voice was muffled, distant, like an echo in my mind. I barely registered it. My focus lingered on the glittering particles leaving my body, possibly the last thing I might've seen had I failed.

But, just as my last sparks of awareness faded, a sigh breathed me back to life.

"I will admit," a voice, deep with authority, spoke. "I did not expect you to survive."

The arrogant version of the old man appeared in full form, standing within arm's reach as renewal bled through me.

My breathing steadied. The pain faded, replaced by a warm, comforting energy that filled me to capacity.

The next moment, thin, needle-like thorns shot out with eerie precision, giving my armament a cruel edge.

The man's gaze shifted to my now weaponless right wrist, locked on Luna.

"It seems you did not waste my gift as I expected," he mused. "Your tame is… something." His tone lacked its usual mockery, but it wasn't praise either. At best, it was begrudging, mild respect.

"Is tame the same thing as pet?" Luna chimed in my mind with rising anger.

"Not now," I ordered.

He exhaled as though the next words physically pained him.

"Since you passed such a dangerous trial, I will reward you accordingly of course." His voice dipped with clear reluctance. "Tell me, what is it you want?"

"What?" I blinked, thrown by the question. "What I want?"

He wasn't just giving me something?

"I can, if that is what you want." His tone sharpened with impatience.

"NO!"

I turned inward, making the decision to involve my 'tame' in the choice. "Luna, what do you think I should get?"

"Power, obviously."

I nodded. "Soooo, more techniques… Actually, I could probably get Elric to teach me that. Then again… something like what you got is ni—no."

"Ugh, just pick something," Luna cut in.

"I'm thinking!" I snapped, regretting my decision to include her.

How about for outside the trail? Something for my body? Something that could repair the cracks in my Grand Channel?

"Have you decided?" The ghost's voice carried authority.

I hesitated. Then, while staring at him, at the form he inhabited, at the trials he crafted along with the avatars we used, it clicked.

A moment of inspiration and clarity.

"I want to know how to create the Circuit System of force control."

The cracks in my Grand Channel weren't just damage. They were an opening. A leak in a previously closed system. And since the Grand Channel was like a pipeline, there was room for something new around it.

My disaster would now be an opportunity. If I could master it, my Grand Channel would be perfected, previous weaknesses would be made up for.

Unfortunately, even if I succeeded, teaching this to others would be impossible. Not unless they survived blowing up their own bodies first.

Holy! He smiled!

"I didn't think you would actually pick something smart," he admitted.

He waved his hand, and to my displeasure, no memory surged into me, no vision to absorb.

Instead… A book.

I stared at it.

I mean, sure, I could read… but deciphering the script here took me forever.

"You can't just teach me through the orange lightning thingy?"

Obviously reading my discomfort, he smiled cruelly, clearly enjoying this. "I can't show a memory of something I never developed in my own body."

I reached out, but the moment my fingers brushed the book... *poof*. It vanished.

Yeeaaah… that better show up in the real world. No way he'd just offer something like that only to take it away.

I glanced up, witnessing the new mocking smirk plastered on the translucent form. He wouldn't... right?

He ignored me, turning his attention to my wrist.

His voice invaded my mind. "I suppose you are more than just an extension of his power. You are intelligent—"

"That's right!" Luna chimed in just before she was mercilessly crushed.

"—Even if only just."

He barely acknowledged her before moving on. "What do you want?"

"To kill y—"

"LUNA."

She performed her version of a huff.

After a long pause, "…I want to refine my 'waste' into something more… intentional."

Oooh! That's what she did to Kazriel.

A shiver ran through me. Poor guy. He'd taken an instant injection of everything. Chemicals, minerals, whatever other waste she stored in her roots. Maybe even some of that emerald liquid, all at once.

"At least you're smarter than the boy," the old man mused.

Before Luna could respond, a bolt of orange lightning streaked from his fingertips, slamming straight into her.

Which, let's be honest, hardly seemed fair. I would have to study, and all she had to do was sit in someone else's body.

But I won't lie. A small part of me enjoyed knowing she was stuck dealing with the discomfort of living in Kazriel's body again.

With a final wave of his arm, the old man tore another rift into the void.

"Everyone is waiting for you. The final trial will begin when you arrive."

Then he was gone.

I stepped through onto the final trial.