92 True genius

The moment Azel's blue eyes exploded, his power spiked, and currents of ice covering a thirty-meter diameter were formed around him due to the effect the immense amount of energy on his body had on the natural forces on his surroundings.

Sophia, Ezequiel, and Kira stopped when they felt this power and the immense threat that carried.

The power in Azel's body was so strong that even Ezequiel feared being reached by it, so without hesitation, they moved backward.

But unfortunately, due to the charge from before, now they were too close to Azel, and before they could back up enough, the energy on the Eye Lord was released, and one mighty ice storm blasted out in all directions.

The storm's speed was as impressive as his power, and it reached the trio in an instant.

The moment Ezequiel realized they could not run away, he acted decisively. The Neo-Demon grabbed Sophia and then Kira with his hands and put them close to his chest before adopting a fetal position with the two women in the center.

The energy on his body exploded as he activated his True Name and Runic Set to the maximum and released an immense amount of lightning before compressing them around his body like a cocoon.

The lightning cocoon was so dense that it adopted a plasma-like state to cover the trio.

The earth was left covered by a thick layer of ice as the storm passed by, and when it reached the lightning cocoon, it assaulted it with its raw power. A great amount of lightning vanished before a layer of ice formed around the trio creating a fifty-meter tall ice sphere before continuing its path of freeze and destruction.

The ice storm extended as it froze the tunnel for more than a hundred meters.

It did not take long for the storm to reach where Zatiel was. Luckily for him, he was far enough from its epicenter and had time to release a Sun Push from his chest, moving his body dozens of meters in an instant.

The storm continued its trajectory, but now its power was beginning to lessen. Zatiel made golden and dark flames appear over his body to protect him, significantly reducing his power, so the amount it reached him wasn't enough to truly harm him.

In the end, the attack that Azel released by doing irreversible damage to his bloodline and life force reached the power of a Rank 3 spell. It transformed a three hundred meter area into an ice hell, releasing energy that could destroy any Rank 0 life forms and most Rank 1's as well.

If this attack had been released in a populated city, casualties could have easily reached the thousand.

Had Zatiel been in the epicenter of this storm explosion like Ezequiel, due to his injured condition, he would have been forced to activate his Mirage Rune and teleport to save his life.

As he erased the rest of withe aura and ice energy that remained on his body, Zatiel looked at the giant ice sphere with concern and used his Chaotic Core to probe the condition of Sophia and Ezequiel.

It was only after confirming that they were both still conscious and the damage on Ezequiel's body wasn't life-threatening that he relaxed.

Unlike the transformation of Bloodline Magi, which stimulated the bloodline they fused in their body to materialize an illusion from an ancient creature, Ezequiel's change was due to his Innate Spell "Titanic Form." That allowed him to increase the size and weight of his body, and because his density remained the same, his physique rose considerably.

Still, even with those advantages, resisting a Rank 3 spell and not ending with life-threatening injuries would have been impossible. Still, the Runic Set inscribed on his body was known as Hardening, and it complemented Ezequiel's body perfectly.

Although the name of this Runic Set may sound simple, it was a Peak-Rank 2 Runic Set, and its complexity was even more significant than Savage and Overload.

The effect of this Runic Set was to alter the molecular structure on the wearer's body to increase its density making it harder.

Due to the significant amount of vitality and energy this Runic Set needed, Ezequiel could only have it active for a couple of minutes a day. 

When the Runic Set activated, his body in Titanic Form reached such an incredible density that his bones, muscles, organs. It made his body's natural defense could equal a High-Rank 2 magic armor.

As Zatiel observed the sphere and marveled at the boy's impressive defensive abilities, his Eye of Life and Creation noticed something. After a moment, his expression became cold and full of killing intent.

He was trying to blend himself in the remains of the ice storm but couldn't hide from Zatiel's perception.

The target of Zatiel's killing intent was the blue and red light moving in the direction of the surface, and if you looked more carefully, you would notice that inside the light was Azel, although he now looked much older and was bleeding from his eyes, ears, and mouth.

Despite his tragic appearance, it seems that some of the energy obtained by destroying his eyes continued filling him as his speed was impressive, moving more than fifty meters with each second.

Zatiel saw the tragic figure of Azel with coldness and started charging the energy on his body to pursue him, but as he did that, blood came out from his mouth, and a wave of weakness filled his body.

Although his condition improved a little after eating Mira's brain and heart, his injuries were still too severe, and he had not expelled all the white aura in his body.

His eyes were full of killing intent as he saw the flying figure of Azel, but in the end, he could just sigh.

'Killing one and forcing the other to shatter his bloodline and escape is enough. After all, we are still at Rank 1, and the other party members were already close to reaching the peak of Rank 2.'

But as he accepted that Azel would escape, he saw how a soft blue glow was coming from the tunnel's deeper part.

Azel was escaping with all his speed, but his expression filled with terror when he felt the soft glow approaching.

'Him, if he were to grab hold of my now then...' Resolution filled Azel's face as he increased his speed even more, increasing the amount of blood leaking from his body and making him age even more.

The soft blue glow was a humanoid figure with golden lines all over his body. Its speed was beyond impressive, as despite Azel's intent of escaping, the figure could shorten the distance rapidly.

Before Azel could react, the soft blue humanoid was beside him, and the Eye Lord couldn't do anything as the humanoid grabbed hold of his neck, choked him, and stopped his movements, frustrating his escape.

"Gwyn! what... the he..ll do you think... you are ... doing"

Azel could barely speak as Gwyn's hand was squeezing his neck so tight it suffocated him and even worse was that his touch started to rot his skin and drain the little amount of energy that remained on his body.

"It's not obvious, I am killing you," Gwyn's face was full of satisfaction as he saw the fear and regret on Azel's face.

"If you... kill... me, Lord Finz... will hunt you... down"

Azel was hoping to use the name of the mighty Soul Forging being behind him to intimidate Gwyn.

But unfortunately, the only thing he managed to obtain by mentioning Finz's name was to increase Gwyn's killing intent with the strength and rotting applied to his neck.

"The fate of that old bastard will be the same as yours!" Gwyn said with immense hatred, but he calmed down, and coldness filled his face after a moment.

"But you are right. If I were to kill you, that would give that man an excuse to attack me."

When Azel heard that, he started to feel hopeful, but the killing intent on Gwyn remained the same, and his following words shattered his illusion of escaping.

"Luckily, I am not the one killing you."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gwyn launched a blow with all the power of his body to Azel's chest, breaking several bones and sending him flying away.

Azel's body was very fragile after burning so much life force and destroying his bloodline eyes to carry that potent spell, so Gwyn's attack almost made him faint.

The pain did not stop there. A hand pierced his back and buried itself in his gut before releasing an immense amount of fire that started to burn his insides.

"AHHHHH!" Azel could only cry in pain as a golden fire started to come out from his mouth, ears, and eyes.

As Azel's screams filled the tunnel, another sound was heard when the ice sphere started to break. Huge pieces crumbled into the ground, revealing the three figures inside.

Although both Kira and Sophia were exhausted due to channeling all of their energy to reinforce the defense of Ezequiel, the amount of damage that reached them was very little.

But Ezequiel's situation was entirely different. He was extremely pale, there were frozen areas all over his body, and the worst injuries were on his back, large pieces of skin and muscles were missing, as they froze and broke apart, and there was a large amount of cold energy inside him trying to extend his damage.

As soon as the ice broke, Ezequiel deactivated his Runic Set and True Name and, with the help of the two women, landed carefully on the ground and focused on healing himself.

Ezequiel's damage was severe, but it was expected. Normally, any Rank 1 life form that received a Rank 3 Spell at point-blank would have his body disintegrated. 

As this happened, Azel's screams finally ended as his body was no more, and the only thing that was left on Zatiel's hand was a great number of golden flames.

Zatiel divides the flames into two parts, sending one to Ezequiel and another to himself.

The moment the golden fire touched Ezequiel, the wound on his back started to heal rapidly, and the cold energy on his body began to vanish, improving his complexion significantly. As for Zatiel, the golden flames could regenerate the bones, muscles, and skin that cover his lung.

When Kira and Gwyn saw Zatiel's healing abilities, they became shocked.

Skills that can heal you by absorbing your opponent's energy were already rare. Still, the speed and efficacy of the healing that Zatiel provided with the body of an almost dead Eye Lord were terrific, and the fact that they were equally effective on others was even more impressive.

Zatiel didn't mind the stares of the duo and was focusing on analyzing the soft blue and translucid body of Gwyn as well the Runic Set inscribed on his body.

Thanks to his knowledge and the help from the chip, he was able to obtain information about his body transformation and runes.

"So this is a true genius of this world, interesting."