A heavy silence fell after Valen's words.
Rhazak remained motionless, lying in the crater, his left flank charred, half hidden under the ashes. Black blood escaped from his burned abdomen, drawing dark veins in the burning dust.
But suddenly... he started laughing.
A sneer first, hoarse and deep. Then a real burst of laughter, malicious, theatrical, resonating throughout the devastated valley.
" Hahahaha... What a pathetic bitch..."
His voice was icy, saturated with contempt.
" So this... drag ended up opening his mouth..." he breathed, with an icy contempt.
" Ahhh... what an irony, she who proudly advocated the honor of the draconian lineage... she ended up falling so low. "
He slowly straightened up, his body still smoking. Part of his mask had broken, revealing a cheek lacerated with scars and a white, icy pupil of abnormal purity.
Her long black hair fell back in front of her face, hiding her eyes like a veil of mourning.
" You know... she lost her Apocalypse rank because she thought she was above the others... she was unable to see her own weaknesses. And look where it led her today... she ended up submitting to miserable insects like you," he says in a calm tone.
His voice tightens.
" I don't know how her fall occurred, nor how she ended up submitting..."
A scarlet flash crossed his pupils, then he looked up at Valen.
His voice suddenly became colder and more threatening.
" But you... the miserable puppet of the heavens, how dare you evoke our existence? "
His aura suddenly unfolded. The ground vibrated, the stones split, and the air was charged with black electricity.
" It seems that the power you received from the supreme God has ended up rising to your head, that you now believe you are invincible. "
A silence.
Then he added in a dry and icy tone:
" Let me show you what a true Apocalypse is"
And at that moment, a shiver crossed the space and the world seemed to go out.
The wind stopped. The sky lost its color. The atmosphere became as heavy as a sealed coffin.
Above Rhazak, the clouds opened abruptly, revealing a black vortex. Inverted lightning bolts escaped from the ground, rising towards the sky.
With a dry gesture, Rhazak tore the upper part of his charred tunic, revealing a torso marked with red runes, pulsating with each beat of his heart.
His figure was redesigned. Not to become monstrous... but to become perfect. His burns closed, and his skin became spectral, almost divine.
A blood-red light sprang from his back, and the rest of his clothes began to be consumed by blood-red flames. They were replaced by a black and red tunic, adorned with white inverted crosses. His hands were covered with black gloves, engraved with forbidden symbols.
His split mask reconstituted himself, black as obsidian, an inverted red cross shining in the center. Only his eyes, two white slits like death, shone through.
Valen stared at him without blinking, his calm gaze shining with excitement.
But he didn't notice that a drop of sweat was running down his temple.
His body had reacted naturally knowing that this time... it would be a confrontation where he would really put his life on the line.
The opponent who was in front of Valen was no longer Rhazak, but it was:
The Sixth Apocalypses - Orath'el Zvael... The Look of the Void.
His stellar spears trembled in the air, reacting to the appearance of this presence, but Valen did not pay attention to it.
He began to descend slowly while saying:
" It looks like you've finished your little theater..."
" We will finally be able to..."
But as soon as his feet touched the ground... Rhazak disappeared.
Not a step. Not a teleportation. But just a cancellation of the distance.
Valen barely had time to squint his eyes, when Rhazak's fist hit directly against his cheek.
BOOM!!
A seismic wave spread in the ground, fracturing the ground for several kilometers.
But Valen had managed to block the attack with one of his astral spears.
" Finally..." he said with a smile.
" I could finally face an apocalypse one-vs-one. "
His eyes shone with excitement.
"Star Magic - Verse One, Third Line: Polaris Arc"
Several astral arrows sprawed around him, then they rushed towards Rhazak (Orath'el) at an insane speed.
Rhazak raised one arm.
" Silent Embrace"
Several red spheres engulfed each arrow. Then the arrows exploded, creating a series of cosmic flashes that illuminated the valley like a supernova.
But Valen reappeared just behind Rhazak, an astral spear in his hand.
" Too slow," thought Rhazak.
He narrowly dodged the stoc, but Valen pivoted, used the momentum for an overhead kick, and struck with his leg.
Direct impact in the coasts.
Rhazak growled, stepped back and planted his fingers in the ground.
" Sealing: Infernal Wall"
A black wall bristling with chains of fire burst from the ground. The latter rushed towards Valen, trying to hinder his movements.
Valen raised two fingers.
"Verse Three, Second Line: Lunar Inverse"
The chains and the wall were suddenly covered in celestial frost, before exploding into a myriad of stars.
Valen invoked and firmly grabbed a new spear, and disappeared. This time, his speed surpassed the sound.
Rhazak snapped his fingers, and... smiled.
" You fell for it..." he whispered.
" Art of the void: Tomb of Souls"
While Valen had just reappeared behind Rhazak, when the ground liquefied under his feet. Spectral hands sprouted from this dark liquid, grabbing his leg with an icy embrace.
" Tss! "
Rather than resist, Valen let the ghostly fingers close on him. A smile was on his lips as he whispered:
" Astral magic: Tear of the nebula"
His foot seized by the ghosts began to radiate a bluish glow. An absolute cold spread all at once, freezing the emaciated arms until they were reduced to a rain of crystalline shards.
Valen brutally launched his spear.
"Astral Art: Strike of the Celestial Azure. "
A bluish glow springs from the tip of his spear, vibrant, and pure, before it disappears into the void.
" Hum! "
The spear suddenly reappeared in front of Rhazak. He quickly raised his arm, parrying the blow with his sleeve. The impact created a circular wave of light and shadow.
As Valen stepped back slightly, Rhazak covered by the smoke of the explosion whispered:
" Sealing - Reflection of Hatred. "
Hundreds of dark red needles spunged from his sleeves, rushing towards Valen.
Valen invoked a sphere of stasis.
" Star Magic: Cage of Gravitational Inversion"
The needles hit the sphere before dispersing into dust.
The glowing dust of the needles dissipated, Valen and Rhazak measured themselves with their eyes through the devastated battlefield. The cracked ground was still smoking from their last assaults.
Rhazak was the first to move. With a single mouvement, he sliced through the air with his scarlet sword. Valen parried his attack with a backhand of his spear. The blades danced in a shower of sparks, and Valen countered with a thrust that Rhazak dodged by a hair's breadth.
Suddenly his sword disappeared, revealing a dagger in his free hand, tracing a purple flash on Valen's forehead. A thin line of blood flowed.
Valen grimaced, and immediately stepped back. He raised his head, the blood flowing from his forehead again.
And he smiles.
" Hahaha... Damn, I hurt my forehead again. "
He then slid two of his fingers along his forehead, leaving a trail of stars behind.
His wounds closed immediately, but his face and hair were covered in blood.
" Fuck... who exactly are you? And how do you manage to handle the spear so well?" Rhazak said, looking disgusted.
Valen smiled and said:
" It's not your onions... you shit," he says with a provocative and superior air.
After his words, the two rushed towards each other, and the earth tore under their feet.
" Verse Four, Second Line: Rain of Nebula! "
Valen found himself in the air, hundreds of small magic circles revolving around him. Star needles sproung from magical circles and were propelled like a divine rain towards Rhazak.
Rhazak replied:
" Zversh - Cursed Arm. "
Giant fists made of darkness gushed from the ground, blocking every impact.
Valen continued by raising his arms.
Ten... twenty... fifty... one hundred stellar spears appeared.
" Astral Magic - Omega Constellation: Astral Breakthrough"
He knocks down his arms. The spears fused, accelerating every meter. A divine rain. The sky was open, and a trail of pure energy illuminating each trajectory.
Rhazak (Orath'el Zvael) looked up at the sky and whispered:
"Interesting... "
He stretched out his palm.
" Scursed Art: Rain of Judgment. "
A black cloud formed above him, and huge red swords sproted from the latter.
The red swords were covered with eyes that scanned the horizon. They propelled themselves violently towards the sky, towards the spears of Valen.
The blades collided in an explosion of raw energy.
The impact made the sky tremble. Lightning began to tear the horizon. A shock wave swept the area, uprooting the surviving trees.
Valen came back down to the ground and summoned a new spear.
Rhazak, for his part, created a cursed sword in his left hand.
They stared at each other for a moment.
The wind resumed during this tiny pause.
Then... the two opponents threw themselves against each other hand-to-hand.
A shock. A wave. A cataclysm.
The two blades collided in a rain of sparks. With each blow, the air broke. Screams of dead souls seemed to resonate around them. The trees withered.The sky was weeping ashes.
Valen attacked with the precision of a divine swordsman. Each spear stroke vibrated with stellar power, each movement created magical currents visible to the naked eye.
But Rhazak appears with an inhuman calm, his style fluid, calculated, almost surgical. He did not retreat, he advanced, absorbing the attacks, then replying.
Their confrontation intensified, becoming more and more brutal, to the point of destroying the surrounding environment, but no one took over his opponent.
After a long exchange of blows, Rhazak found a flaw in Valen's defense. So he discreetly invoked a dagger in his right hand and planted it deep in Valen's shoulder.
The latter gritted his teeth, and lost his balance slightly.
Rhazak put his hands on the floor.
"Scursed Art - Pillar of Condemnation. "
A huge black pillar springs under Valen, propelling it into the air. The pillar pierced the sky by carrying it with him. The latter crossed his arms and released several star shields.
" Verse Six - Second line: Shield of the Astre-Source. "
A starry sphere stood between Valen and the huge pillar. The two forces neutralized each other... then exploded into a dazzling light.
Rhazak took advantage of this light and sneaked behind Valen, his fist outstretched.
" Scursed Breath. "
The punch hit Valen head-on, sending him crashing into a mountain, lifting a cloud of dust.
When the dust cleared, a figure was walking through it.
It was Valen, advancing in the middle of this dust, his body smoking and his right arm bleeding.
He advanced slowly, smiling on his lips, his heart beating.
" Hehe... damn, it's good... that's what I call a real fight..."
" What? " launched Rhazak looking surprised.
Valen slowly raised his hand, pointing the finger at Rhazak.
A sincere smile on the face.
" You're not disappointing, you know… you really deserve your Apocalypse rank…"
" I want to continue to confront you... and know how far my limits go, " he added, excited.
After his words, Rhazak's gaze through his mask betrayed his incomprehension.
He could not understand how, despite all his injuries and blows, Valen was still standing, especially since for him he was just a simple magician.
But that's where Rhazak's (Orath'el Zvael) mistake lay: Valen was not a simple magician who was content to stay in the rear, protected by his allies.
He was not afraid of melee. He wielded the spear with a rare mastery, and had an extraordinary understanding of combat.
In reality, Valen's body had transcended human limits. His abilities far exceeded those of simply using astral magic. From his youth, despite his genius, and thanks to his intelligence, he questioned the abilities of a mage, thus realizing the limits and weaknesses of a magician.
So he decided to strengthen himself without depending entirely on his unique magic, spending most of his time training weapon mastery and close combat with the help of Raiden, Kaelis, Garran, and other elite warriors.
He didn't want to be a burden to his teammates. So he set himself the goal of equaling the one he sees as his big brother and idol, Raiden.
Even as the youngest and most powerful archmage of his generation, he never missed a single opportunity to improve.
This is how Valen was never seen as a simple archmage, but as The Ultimate Combat Archmage... a being capable of redefining rules.
Valen looked up at the sky, his gaze filled with stars. He was focused... but his smile remained.
He raised a finger.
" Astral Magic... Alignment of the stars. "
Seven miniature planets formed above him, perfectly aligned. Each of them contained a portion of its mana, each could disintegrate matter.
"Are you crazy..." whispered Rhazak.
"Shadow of the Eons... Eclipse of the Void. "
At these words, he stretched out his hand, and seven spectral moons emerged from the darkness.
Their cracked surface ooded a reddish glow. The space itself seemed to retract under their weight.
Each moon absorbed the surrounding light, threatening to swallow the stars.
A lightning bolt crossed the skies, hitting a mountain in the distance. The earth trembled, and the air vibrated with an almost sacred tension.
Two living beings. Two wills. Two dogmas.
What seemed to be a fight between deities... was just beginning.
To be continued...