The battle in the Abyss

Fighting oneself is one thing, but fighting an upgraded, more powerful version of yourself is another.

Though kuro had almost the same battle instincts as dark kuro, dark kuro was still faster and stronger in every feat and that was a big problem.

The air was thick with tension, the battlefield shrouded in an oppressive darkness that seemed to swallow even the faintest glimmer of light. Kuro stood amidst the swirling shadows, his breath ragged, his body aching from the relentless onslaught. Across from him, Dark Kuro smirked, his crimson eyes gleaming with a mix of amusement and disdain.

"This isn't gonna be easy" he thought in his head while deflecting dark kuro's attacks.

"System" he said, it responded with a beep sound.

"Activate all skills available!" he shouted as he jumped sideways to avoid a lethal attack.

"Would you like to upgrade skills with your current xp?" It asked. "How much xp do i have?" He responded quickly seeing as he's currently battling.

"Currently at 20,000xp. Would you like me to upgrade available skills?"

Kuro hesitated. He had been saving that XP to unlock *Infernal Strength*, a skill that could potentially turn the tide in future battles. But now, facing a version of himself that seemed unstoppable, he had no choice. 

"Do it. Upgrade and activate all available skills!" he responded sounding desperate

"Skills upgraded!",

-Demonic Speed lvl 6,

-Regenerative Healing lvl 3,

-Demonic possession lvl 2,

-Shadow Manipulation lvl 5,

-Hellfire Conjuring unlocked, lvl 1

"All available skills activated" the system responded.

A sudden dark purple glow shunned from kuro's body to indicate his activated skills.

"System, when did I unlock *Hellfire Conjuring*?" he asked, his eyes narrowing as he focused on Dark Kuro's movements. 

"Skill unlocked after defeating Meldos and its minions," the System replied. 

*Right,* Kuro thought. *That battle was brutal, but at least it gave me this. He thought as he stared at dark kuro

"Time to go past my limits", he shouted as he used demonic Speed to flash step right behind dark kuro.

Reacting to his speed, he dodged right before kuro could land an attack on him.

"Wow, that's some swift movement. Sadly not fast enough to touch a hair on my body" he chuckled in amusement.

Without hesitation, kuro launched forward with The Eminence in his hand glowing fiery red.

The battle was intense as the sounds of clashes grew louder, each having their own feat. But sadly kuro was still being overpowered by dark kuro, " I haven't even started using the full power of the Demonic Rampage and you're already giving up. Pathetic" he sighed in disappointment

Meanwhile kuro was stalling time enough to activate Hellfire Conjuring. "It's almost ready.

Damn! Activating this sure talks alot of HP and time because of my current level."

System:

"10 seconds till Activation of Hellfire Conjuring, hp reduced to 50%"

Dodging dark kuro's strikes wasn't so easy even while demonic Speed was active, but he did his best to avoid a lot of damage.

"Hellfire Conjuring activated!" The system alerted

"Nice, time to get serious. Hellish bound!."

He looked up at dark kuro and smirked

Dark tendrils dripping with Hellish fire as hot as larva escaped from the ground tying dark kuro to a standstill.

"Took you this long to activate this?, I was expecting a lot more potential from you kuro"

He raised one hand and snapped his fingers, the tendrils began to drop like dead leaves. "You really thought this could stop me?" He chuckled...

"No, I know it wouldn't but it gave me enough time to do this."

He had awoken an army of shadows from the dead, the place was dripping with shadows so it was easy to do it but he couldn't do it because dark kuro obviously wouldn't have waited till he activated shadow Manipulation.

"Good thing it was upgraded to lvl 5, I

wouldn't have been able to awaken this vast amount of shadows" he said while breathing hard from the stress of the one sided battle.

"You have good battle IQ, sadly you're not still strong enough to rival me. This army is too weak to scratch me"he said

The shadow army surged forward, but Dark Kuro moved like a whirlwind, cutting through them with ease. Kuro watched in frustration as his creations fell one by one. 

"This is way too one sided and I don't like it." He said while a voice rang in his head

Use us kuro, you can't win this battle alone-

How do I use something I'm not sure how I activated it at first?- He thought. "System, activate regenerative Healing and Hellfire Conjuring "

His body wounds started closing up like it was never there. He channeled the fire from the Hellfire Conjuring into The Eminence making it shimmer like a flaming sword. The fire twisted around it like a serpent. By the time he was done activating both skills, dark kuro was done eliminating the shadow army.

"Is this all you got kuro?!" He shouted as he destroyed the last shadow, "show me something amusing!" He screamed from where he was standing.

"You want something amusing?" His stance changed to that of a swordsman. "I'll show you something amusing" he dashed forward. Both swords clashing together as dark kuro and kuro smirked from excitement.

"Being able to keep up with me without activating Demonic Rampage is a great feat" he said. "But it's still not enough to bring me to my knees"

The battle dragged on for a while before kuro drew back to catch his breath.

Kuro was breathing hard, the battle was now getting really intense. Not sure how long they've stayed in here as everything was covered in shadows, both the skies and the sun weren't visible either.

"System, I'm about to use Hellfire Conjuring-dark Phoenix whats my current stats-."

"30,000 hp remaining,Warning: using that would draw 29,999hp causing critical health and body withdrawal." The system responded

The Hellfire Conjuring is a series of attacks laced with hellish flames and the dark Phoenix is one of those attacks.

The dark Phoenix is strong enough to eliminate a whole army but it all depends on the available hp of the user.

Clenching his fist while saying out loud

"Failure is not an option."

"Activate it!"

The air around him grew hotter, the shadows trembling as if in fear. A massive phoenix made of hellfire materialized above him, its wings spreading wide. The sheer power of it was overwhelming, even for Kuro. 

Dark Kuro's smirk faded, replaced by a look of genuine surprise. "Now this… this is interesting." 

Kuro raised his blade, the phoenix's flames converging around it. "Let's see if you can handle this!" 

The battlefield erupted in a blaze of fire and shadow as Kuro unleashed the Dark Phoenix, the force of it shaking the very ground beneath them.