56 Chapter 56

\ Before the gate is opened /

I'll have to be very careful,' Shin thought.

Looking Acnologia in the eye, Shin teleported in front of him to punch him in the chest.

Reacting quickly, Acnologia swung her right and clawed at Shin's fist.

*BAM*

This collision created a shockwave and both were propelled a little further.

It was only a punch but I could feel the difference in power between the two of us, thankfully I have a very strong body.

Shin didn't wait a second longer, he returned to Acnologia's side to clean her up with blows to which Acnologia responded immediately.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BAM*

*BOOM*

Kicks, punches, all of Shin's blows were answered with tails, magic or claws.

Each blow was so fast that you couldn't even see their movement.

Each blow had so much force that the shock waves swept across the landscape.

In the sky or on the ground, the fight was going on everywhere and every terrain was suffering the consequences.

Now they were both on solid ground in the middle of a completely destroyed and burning kingdom.

Acnologia's body began to glow and in the light Shin saw that Acnologia's body shrank to a human silhouette.

In this place, a man stood and Shin recognized him because it was Acnologia's human form in the anime.

Except this time he had shorter hair down to his neck and looked younger and less mature than in the anime.

He was wearing torn soft black trousers, a white t-shirt in bad shape and a long black cape.

"This form would be more suitable," Acnologia said coldly and without emotion behind her words.

Shin held up his hand as his spear appeared in it.

"Mmph, a weapon won't help you, Celestial Phoenix" Acnologia said coldly with a bit of sarcasm.

Shin didn't answer but remained focused on Acnologia.

Acnologia took the first initiative and arrived in front of Shin in an instant.

He moved his claw-like hand towards Shin while Shin blocked with his spear.

But when the attack was blocked, Acnologia twisted and kicked Shin in the ribs.

Shin put his left arm in front of his ribs to cushion the blow.

Shin's body flew through several houses before landing hard on a stone wall.

When Acnologia tried to walk towards Shin, he felt pain in the hand he had attacked with and in his left leg.

He saw cuts there and blood spurted out.

Acnologia was a little surprised as he saw Shin get up from his spot.

"You may be more skilled in this form but your defense is more fragile without your scales to protect you" said Shin.

"!"Acnologia was surprised by this fact. It's true that so far, Shin hadn't broken through his scales except with the powerful magic attack so he was confident but he didn't think that without his scales, Shin would still be able to inflict damage like that even without scales.

"...I underestimated you... But don't overestimate yourself too much for simple cuts" Acnologia said with a deep and strong voice.

At that moment, Acnologia thought about using her healing magic but Shin wasn't going to give her the time.

Shin reached out his hand and threw 4 fireballs at her.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

As Acnologia dodged them with ease, Shin moved instantly and appeared in front of Acnologia.

He brandished his spear in the air and inserted his magic power into his spear.

"!!" Acnologia wanted to dodge but found himself unable to move.

As he watched, he saw Shin's unoccupied left hand with a ball of black magic in the centre of his palm pointing to the ground and as he looked down, he saw that his shadow was frozen.

Shin had completely blocked Acnologia's shadow with dark magic to immobilize it.

"Tch" A bead of sweat appeared on Acnologia's forehead as he raised his head to face the spear.

He waved his hand at the spear as a ball of concentrated magical power appeared in his palm.

*BOOM*

The ball of magic power and the spear collided and the magic power burst out in all directions.

"Mmph, you thought you could get me with tricks like this, Phoenix Celeste?" declared Acnologia arrogantly and sarcastically.

"Mmph, maybe."

To Acnologia's surprise, Shin responded with a smile, a voice of little concern and also a bit of sarcasm.

Suddenly, Acnologia saw from the corner of his eye a strong light shining.

Looking down, he saw that he was no longer immobilized by his shadow, but instead of a ball of black magic, he saw a ball of pure white magic flickering with a blinding light.

Shin had taken advantage of the fact that Acnologia was busy and focused on his spear to stop his dark magic and use his light magic instead.

However, this change happened in just a few seconds and Acnologia had not had time to notice or react.

The ball of light fired a beam of light at incredible speed.

As the beam of light came towards Acnologia, intentionally or by chance, due to the fact that he was no longer immobilized, he lost his balance a little and was able to narrowly dodge the beam.

But he couldn't totally dodge it and the beam hit and cut all along Acnologia's torso and continued to the cloud and pierced a hole in it.

Taking advantage of his surprise and imbalance, Shin increased the strength of his spear's grip and put more force into it to corner Acnologia.

Acnologia, who was surprised, was completely overwhelmed by Shin's forceful blow and fell backwards, losing face between his ball of magic concentrate and the spear.

"Celestial Phoenix!!!" In a fit of rage, Acnologia planted her feet into the ground creating craters in the shape of her feet and put even more force into her arm which was against the spear.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" x2

The two screamed with force, the ground around them sinking under the pressure as their strength increased further.

With a bang, Shin's spear cut through the concentrated ball of magic power as Acnologia's arm continued to be pushed forward.

The spear released a terrifying slash of magical power as it continued to cut through the ground beneath it.

Both were motionless, one with the spear tip against the ground and the other with the arm brandished towards the ground.

"......"

Then out of nowhere, a deep, filthy scratch mark appeared on Shin's torso and blood began to spurt from the wound.

While for Acnologia, the beam of light that had hit his skin cut through his entire torso, leaving blood smeared across his torso, as well as burns all around.

Furthermore, on her arm that had gone against Shin's spear, countless cuts also appeared and bled.

"Ah-" Shin groaned as he spat out blood and his spear disappeared from his hands.

Acnologia had blood flowing from his mouth but less as he had more wounds however it was less than Shin's.

The clean cut on Acnologia's torso was painful and burned to death but Shin's wound was much deeper and the blood that flowed from it was abundant.

'It hurts!...A wound like this is too big, almost lethal, and I'm losing too much blood. If the fight continues, I won't be able to concentrate on healing. But I would have to finish the fight right away and in this case, I have no other choice...'

[Warning, the master's vitality is low, you must heal yourself!]

"'Ahahahahahahahah!!! This is the first time I've been hurt and hurt! I congratulate you but you are wasting my time!!!" Acnologia laughed grimly but said the last sentence angrily.

Acnologia's body glowed and expanded as he transformed into his dragon form and flew into the sky.

In his dragon form, the wounds were still all visible but adapted to the size of the dragon.

Anticipating that Acnologia would attack, Shin reached out with his right arm towards Acnologia while wincing in pain and fired another ball of light towards Acnologia but this time it was much more focused.

Acnologia was disturbed by this small ball of light because, unlike the other one, it did not form a beam, but he remained on his guard.

When the ball arrived at high speed several meters away from Acnologia, it stopped and then burst into a great dazzling light.

"Aah" Acnologia was dazzled and for the little he could still see, the dense blinding light made it impossible to see down to Shin.

And after a few seconds, the light dimmed.

But through it, green flames erupted and a scream was heard.

"CROAAAAR!"

A Phoenix emerged from the light as it charged straight towards Acnologia.

"ROARRRR!"

Taken by surprise, Acnologia roared as he collided with the Phoenix.

The two struggled but Acnologia swung his jaw and bit the Phoenix's neck.

A sound of satisfaction and arrogance could be heard from Acnologia only there was a problem...

Nothing was coming out of the wound, no blood.

Furthermore, as he looked, he couldn't see the scratch on his chest either, and despite Shin's incredible regenerative abilities, he knew he couldn't have healed this near fatal wound so easily.

As he thought about this, the Phoenix began to fade into the air.

At that moment, Acnologia realized that he had been tricked!

When he went to look for Shin, he suddenly felt a huge burst of magical power!

Turning around, he saw Shin flying with his wings on his back.

'Thank you Irene' thought Shin because it was Irene who had taught him the enchantment to make a clone.

"This is the end Celestial Phoenix! Your wound is overwhelming you and you are weak! Just standing before me right now must make you feel unbearable pain! Give up and die!"

Shin said nothing but he was right.

Shin's wound was weighing him down and he was still losing blood.

His face was white and sweaty and his breathing was heavy.

But he still said nothing.

Instead, he held out his right hand and in his palm a green flame appeared.

"Mmph, you think I'm afraid of a little flame?" said Acnologia indifferently.

Then Shin held his left hand forward and in his palm, a ball of water appeared.

"Hm?" Acnologia was even more puzzled by Shin's actions, but he sensed that something was wrong and that he had to act.

In Acnologia's claw, his magical power became more and more concentrated.

Shin still didn't speak, but soon he joined his two hands.

*BOOM*

A very powerful explosion of magic power erupted as the clouds were swept away by the overpowering shockwaves.

But Shin spat out more blood and his body began to tremble.

Master, what you are about to do is highly inadvisable, your body cannot withstand the power of this attack!

But Shin did not listen and a drop of his blood fell into what looked like a fireball surrounded by the element of water.

The wild, unbridled magical power released by this fusion soon subsided after the drop of blood had fused.

This drop of blood was used to channel the two elements and make them stable because it was the only way for the moment as his power was not strong enough to handle this fusion so he needed his blood.

He knew that, he had been warned that the fusion of the elements was too powerful for the moment but he saw no other way to defeat Acnologia in one fell swoop.

The fusion of the two elements stabilized and the unleashed magical power calmed down, but the pressure remained as terrifying as ever.

"You think I'm going to let you finish that attack?!" roared Acnologia as his magic power finished being concentrated.

As he was about to rush towards him, he saw a bloody smile on Shin's face as his eyes glowed with a starry blue light.

And suddenly, without having seen or heard anything, Acnologia felt an immense pain in the arm where his attack was.

Looking down, he was shocked.

His arm was gone!

*BOOM*

A dull impact was heard towards the ground just below Acnologia.

Looking down, he saw a spear stuck in the ground in the middle of a crater.

In fact, when Shin had received his wound and the spear had disappeared, it had not really disappeared.

Shin had sent his spear high into the sky above the clouds with his space magic and had quickly enchanted it with a strengthening and slashing enchantment and then boosted it with the wind element.

Thanks to this, the edge had been exalted, the strength of the spear had been boosted and its penetration was relentless and was able to slice through Acnologia's arm.

'Thanks again Irene and sorry' thought Shin as he thanked Irene for teaching him some enchantments.

"Phoenix Celestial !!!!!!!!!" Acnologia roared with an overflowing, tyrannical anger.

But it was too late.

Shin had had time to finish his attack.

Acnologia flew towards Shin at high speed and at the same time, he accumulated magic power in his mouth and let out a roar.

Shin looked at Acnologia and his attack without panicking, even with his bloody and disastrous appearance.

He pointed his right hand at Acnologia's attack with the fireball completely harmonized with the surrounding water element.

The fusion ball propelled itself towards Acnologia's roar and made contact with it.

But upon contact, the roar split in two and continued to be split as the fusion ball continued to move forward.

It was as if the fusion ball had a shield around it to protect it and the roar was deflected and bypassed this shield.

The fusion ball continued on its way without any problems as it reached the end of the roar which dissipated completely.

The fusion ball hit Acnologia.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A huge column of fire and surrounded by water elements rose up and engulfed Acnologia.

This column was immense and overpowering as it pierced the clouds and sank into the earth.

The shockwaves produced by the attack were fast and powerful.

Even Shin found it hard to stay in place when they hit, especially in his condition where he was about to collapse at any moment.

Then after a few minutes, the column began to disappear.

"Finally..." said Shin before collapsing and falling.

*BOOM*

Shin crashed to the ground as his blurry eyes began to close without him being able to see if Acnologia had survived or not.

\ After a dozen minutes /

Zeref and Anna, who were the only ones left, arrived at the kingdom.

Or rather what was left of it...

The walls were mostly collapsed and you could see the interior from the outside.

Huge craters, deep trenches, the houses completely destroyed and devastated, the land completely burnt, even the palace was replaced by a gigantic crater.

Anna and Zeref were both shocked at the state of the kingdom.

'So this is the result of a fight between two beings with legendary powers' they both thought.

But Zeref recovered quickly as he ran into the destroyed kingdom, followed by a still shocked Anna.

"Shin!" shouted Zeref as he saw Shin's body on the ground in the distance.

Anna and Zeref both ran towards Shin's body and when they reached it, they were shocked.

Shin was in a catastrophic and deplorable state.

His clothes were completely torn, leaving him with only a pair of trousers and a half-ripped jacket.

A deep and filthy scratch was on his chest filled with blood, his face was white and a large amount of blood was flowing from his mouth.

Moreover, his body seemed to be screaming in pain as Shin's face instinctively drooped.

Zeref was crouched beside Shin as he examined his wounds and breathing while Anna was still shocked and frozen as she saw his body.

"His breathing is extremely shallow, if we don't hurry he'll die" Zeref said with a sweat on his forehead.

"But how? Neither you nor I know healing magic, besides I doubt it would be of much use given the injuries" Anna replied desperately.

"I don't know" Zeref bit his lip as he panicked, not knowing what to do to save his latest friend.

"L-The vi-llage..."

Zeref heard a small voice and looked towards Shin, he saw his eyes slightly half-open and sore before he completely fell into a sort of coma.

"What did he say?" asked Anna not having understood what Shin said being a little further away from him than Zeref.

"The village" Zeref said quietly, thinking.

"What village?"

Zeref widened his eyes as he remembered something.

"I know which village he's talking about. He told me about it, a village he saved and where he left one of his flames."

With that, Zeref picked Shin up and took him on his back and hurried off to the village with Anna.

\ After a little while /

With his teleportation magic, Zeref and Anna quickly arrived at the village.

As they reached the village, Zeref used his immobilization magic to freeze the time of all the village except Anna.

They walked until they came to a tree with a flame in its centre.

Zeref gently set Shin down near the tree and stepped aside.

As a result of serious injury and the use of overpowering magic, the host's body is in a state of unbearable pain and death].

[The master will have to go into a kind of "hibernation" in order to fully recover]

[The environment where the master is located is the most favorable due to its abundant Life Energy]

[The duration of this "hibernation" is unknown but is highly possible to last several centuries given the situation of the host's body]

[Beginning of the "hibernation"]

Shin's body began to float and stand.

Then all around him, a crystal-like material began to form.

Zeref and Anna stood back and watched the phenomenon happen without saying anything.

The crystal finished forming around Shin, enveloping him completely.

The crystal began to fall to the ground but did not make contact with the earth but instead passed through it.

And so, the crystal in which Shin was lying disappeared into the bowels of the earth.

Zeref did nothing in the face of this but said a simple sentence.

"See you in 400 years."