Man of Stone(II)

Hearing these ominous words, Amon nearly burst out laughing.

He was used to fighting the man of stone and knew that these words merely meant he was truly annoyed.

He most likely hadn't expected Amon to take this battle so seriously at first, causing him to underestimate him and lose all his momentum.

"Tsk."

Hearing Amon chuckle, Tao grit his teeth and forcefully infused his aether into his skin of stone, his wounds rapidly healing as runes began to appear and glow all over his rough body.

Cracks appeared along his skin, his body growing a size as through these cracks, rivers of black aether flowed.

BANG!

His already terrifying aether pressure multiplied threefold, but this didn't impress Amon.

He'd barely used his aether either.

From a distance, Amon swung his spear and suddenly, a grand slash of green aether manifested and slammed into Tao.

"Hah!"

With a low shout, he gathered all the aether within his body and formed a shield in front of him, barely powerful enough to block Amon's projected slice of aether, but just as he exhaled a breath, a second slice came.

"Brat-!"

A third, fourth, and fifth slice came, shattering the barrier to tear his body of stone apart.

Amon didn't stop as he then took a step and viciously threw his spear like a javelin, its speed so fast it pierced through Tao's chest before he could react.

BANG!

With another step, he formed one more spear and threw it, and with five more steps, he sent five more spears.

"ENOUGH!"

Ignoring him, Amon clenched his fist and suddenly, all the spears exploded, a cloud of green and purple aether filling the hall.

BANG! BOOOOOOM!

The marble floors quaked and the pillars of black and gold trembled as Amon then stretched out his arm, and in front of his palm, a dozen swirling orbs of chaotic green and purple aether beams formed.

Without any care, he threw them.

BANG! BOOM!

And again and again and again and again.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOOM! BOOM!

Amon laughed out loud, unable to believe he'd truly been missing out on this for so long. Aether was so fun!

He stretched out both hands and suddenly, neutral and innate aether began to gather, chaotically swirling and clashing.

His stance lowered as more and more aether gathered and he further compressed it into a sphere the size of a grain of sand.

With a mad smile, he launched it.

Amidst a cloud of explosions, beaten and broken, Tao's enraged gaze suddenly sharpened as he felt a terrifying spike of aether.

'That bastard!'

Normally, with the number of aether marks he'd formed and his outstanding skill, Tao should've dominated, but Amon's status as a limit breaker made him special.

Somehow, without any runes and with a barely tempered body, Amon was able to match him, a man that'd formed thousands of grade nine aether marks!

It could only be said that the foundation Amon built over the past centuries had truly paid off.

"ST-!"

The beam exploded, and yet, there was no grand event; instead, as soon as it collided with Tao's chest, a horrifying suction force took hold of all the neutral aether surrounding them, compressing it into the beam.

Tao's body wasn't spared, akin to a mere mortal faced with a black hole, his body was distorted and stretched into spaghetti before he was absorbed and devoured.

In the distance, with his arm folded, Amon observed this all with a smile.

He wasn't affected because obviously, this attack was made using his own innate aether. It couldn't harm him.

'So I was right.'

The attack Amon had launched came from an idea he had a long time ago, he called it [Aether Singularity Beam].

<You have killed Tao, The Guardian of Stone.>

An orb of gold and white came down from the high ceilings of the Hall, and at the same time, the throne in the distance levitated then miniaturized.

Beside it, a ring of pure black appeared.

The three items slowly floated over toward Amon as they were rapidly scanned by Mordred.

[The Orb of Truth, The Ring of Pestilence and The Throne of the Mighty. Would you like to see their descriptions?]

Amon nodded.

***

[Item: Orb of Truth.

Description: An orb containing the last fragments of the First Warlock's legacy and teachings. To access it, one must simply touch it.

Item Grade: Unknown.]

————

[Item: Ring Of Pestilence.

Description: A ring with the ability to store anything, regardless of the state, and keep it in a stasis, unaffected by time. It can carry living beings of all shapes and sizes, and its inner space is endlessly expanding. Upon wearing, gloves will manifest on both hands that'll allow one to cast a single spell of pestilence per day.

Auxiliary: It is a growth-attuned item.

Curse: Once the ring is worn, it cannot be removed, though the gloves can be retracted.

Item Grade; Empyrean Grade.]

————

[Item: Throne of the Mighty.

Description: Throne of the Mighty.

Item Grade: ?]

***

'Little Mordred, have I, your father, finally been blessed? By the heavens themselves?'

He laughed out loud. Though this battle had seemed easy, it'd only been so because he immediately fought with all he had.

To him, this was a final battle. A final battle to finally spit in the face of a fate that wanted him to die oh so terribly.

It was a cathartic release to say the least.

[Father….]

Amon's laugh was interrupted by Mordred's gloomy tone.

'Did I say something bad? I'm sorry. I was just ha-'

[No…that's not it. The Empyrean grade…it's high. Very high. This ring may be one of the most sought-after treasures…throughout the universe.]

Amon was taken aback by this.

'What?! What makes you say this?'

[…]

'You can't say?'

[…]

He sighed.

This rarely happened but unfortunately, it still happened. Sometimes, the duo encountered things much too far out their realm, and when this was the case, Mordred was unable to speak of what she knew.

Not because she was being controlled, but because certain entities were…dangerous and only needed a word to be uttered for their senses to pick up on it, regardless of distance.