15 Puppet |||C14
[A/N: This chapter is one long-ass battle, so I'll release the next chapter 1 day earlier than normal.
+Do you like how I made the battle feel, I'm inexperienced as an Author so help is very welcome.
I hope you enjoy this chapter]
The years went by relatively fast after R'lyeh was named, around ten years, passed. Blanc never challenged Ray to a battle, and every time he asked her for a reason she simply replied, 'Losing a battle may be irrelevant to a human like you Ray, but for a primordial demon that never lost, not even once, its a great shame, so it is natural for me to plan a perfect victory, and time is of the essence when you want to construct a true victory plan.'
Ray shrugged it off, at that, he wasn't a demon and will probably never understand her reasons. He also had a few other things to do, one of which was looking for a way to evolve the seed of an anomaly, he got when he evolved, well his search was unsuccessful till this very day, but you need to try first before giving up, right?
Anyways, today was the day, today Blanc finished all her preparations and made all her plans to finish Ray off.
Ray and Blanc stood opposite of each other, on a plane in the barren lands, the ruins of the kingdoms Milim annihilated and Draguel tries to inhabit with his giant citizens.
A hundred meters were between the fighters and the judges for the battle were Yuji and Moss, the still unnamed white demon that took on the role of leading Ray's assassination squad.
""Ready... Set... GOOOO!!"" Both judges screamed, teleporting away immediatly afterward.
Ray dispelled the illusion he cast on his eyes that make them seem normal and looked at Blanc with his clock like structures as he instantly activated [Greater Temporal Magic]
*CREEEAAAK*
Blanc simply smiled and neared a Ray slowly, trodding towards the latter like she's going to visit a neighbor.
Ray looked at her weirdly, he expected her to make pressure and drain him of magicules slowly, after all, she should be aware of his low magicule reserves and go for a war of attrition. But this? She walks like she can finish him off in a single unavoidable attack.
Suspicious of what Blanc's plan could be, Ray uses [Weaver of time] and creates a huge rift with time bending capabilities.
Hundreds of small strings exit the rift and concentrate into Ray's hands, a pair of brass knuckles form in his hands, just as Blanc sped up, slowly increasing her speed until she starts running.
Ray gets into a typical boxer stance awaiting Blanc's attack with intensified care, pouring more and more magicules into [Temporal Awareness].
*BOOOM*
Blanc hit Ray's raised arms, with some force, 'but isn't she more well versed in magic, why did she go for a melee attack'? And just like reading Ray's thoughts, multiple magic circles appear midair, all of them turning around, likely preparing for their turn to attack.
Not waiting for Ray to react, Blanc charges again, this time with her personal longsword. Ray raised an eyebrow, 'what is she doing, she should know that most conventional weapons just shatter upon impact with something in frozen time.'
Not taking any chances Ray jumps backward
However, this was a mistake, Blanc used the small window Ray needed to jump away to infuse her sword with black flames coming from the aforementioned magic circles, immense dread spreading throughout Ray's body.
Ray prepared many ways to counter magic in advance, but that seems to be useless now, Blanc apparently expected that and concentrated on bettering her melee combat.
"Tsk"
Ray clicked his tongue when he landed on the ground, he created multiple techniques for countering magic, especially for this battle, and now all of them were thrown out of the window.
"Unending flames" Blanc whispered as she summoned massive walls made out of black flames.
Looking at the flames Ray knew that he couldn't pass through them, not with [Timeline manipulation] nor with any other movement technique.
"Huh? So it will end with an all out melee battle? THAT SOUNDS FUN!"
Ray tried playing this off as a small thing, something he even enjoyed, but truthfully he didn't know what to do anymore.
"Hellflame Slash!" Blanc didn't respond with words, she just used a technique with her sword.
*Fwusshhh*
With the sound of a whirlwind, in this frozen world, Ray's arm got cut off, the latter noticing nothing till it actually happened.
Muscle memory kicks in almost instantly and, Ray used [Timeline Manipulation] to escape into a Timeline without Time.
The dome/wall of black flames followed Ray into this Timeline, but he couldn't care less, he just stared at his missing arm.
"FUCK!"
He used [Weaver of time] and used its strings to connect his hand to his body once more, he can't rewind time, at least not yet like Ray2 but he can pierce his own hand with strings and animate it with [Weaver of time]
Ray looked at the unmoving stars in the sky, if he wanted to win this stupid bout he would need to break his limits, something he wasn't able to in the last thirty or so years.
Glancing downwards at his dead hand, suspended in its current state due to [Greater Temporal magic], and pierced with tons of strings he realized something...
If he wanted to become stronger...
He needed to sacrifice himself...
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///_Blanc Pov_\\\
Blanc had geared up and trained for this moment a long time, while she liked the time she spent with Ray, her pride as an originator demon didn't allow her to lose to anybody, even somebody whose militaristic mind was matched by nobody, not even her.
She invented new techniques, like her new 'Unending Flames' a prison made with magic, that can contain even those who are uncontainable.
Or her Black flame coating, which enables her to use her most fearsome weapon, her black flames, and magic in melee combat whenever she wished to.
*CREEAAK*
Another rift opened in front of Blanc, Ray dropped out of ut and fell to the floor like an unused puppet, "You must be quite exhausted, give up already, I like you, so I'll let you live, I'll even keep your city and its people intact." Blanc sensed how low Ray's magicule amount was, it was so low it's like he doesn't have any at all.
Instead of receiving an answer, Ray raised from the ground, all of his limbs cracking and moving like those of a bad puppet, his eyes lost their clocks structures, they were replaced by two dead pupils.
His lips curved up to form a smile, slowly this smile deformed as his lips curved higher and higher going from pleasant to look at to horrifyingly big and unnatural.
Blanc knew something wasn't right, but before she was able to act, a hand penetrated her stomach. Ray was so blindingly fast that Blanc couldn't even perceive his movements.
*Fwusshhh*
Blanc in fear of losing once again swung her black flame coated sword upwards, separating Ray's left arm and left leg.
Just as both limbs fell to the ground, black and white strings emerged from the inside of Ray's flesh and connected his lost body parts to Ray's body.
Blanc looked on in horror, at the sight of Ray's body stichting itself up, and slashed her sword multiple times, detaching all of Ray's limbs, his head and torso included.
She leaped backward, Ray's arm still in her stomach, as Ray's body reconstructed once again. A large amount of black and white strings exited Ray's different body parts and dragged his body into shape, his eyes of the once beheaded head staring directly at Blanc.
Ray, with his newfound speed sprints in front of Blanc just like a puppet, and swings his right arm at her, Blanc cuts of said arm, but Ray's left leg swings upwards right after while his right arm connects to his body once again, an unnerving smile still plastered on his face.
*BOOOM*
Blanc gets shot upwards. Ray appears above her with his godlike (in her eyes) speed but gets cut in pieces once again, though that doesn't matter to Ray, well more like his puppet, as he simply regenerates. He holds both of his hands together and smashes Blanc to the ground damaging her entire body.
*BOOOM*
The ground beneath her cracks and forms spider web like craters.
*Step Step Step*
Ray takes his steps just like a puppet and nears Blanc, his expression changes, his disturbing smile disappeared, replaced by dead eyes and an emotionless grimace.
"Do. You. Give. Up. ?" Empty words escape Ray's mouth.
Blanc looks at the puppet, that once was a man, and nods, she sees no chance to win if that battle continued.
The animated corpse, as Blanc thinks of it, takes a few more steps until it collapses besides Blanc, blood streaming out of its eyes as the pupils return their clock like structure form.
Ray's limbs slowly fall apart at the places, but no blood came out of them, and he mutters something with emotion returning to his eyes, "If I do not wake up, bring me to Ruminas... the god, say that I can revive her beloved, she'll understand it once the hero awakens"
