Graceful but Deadly

The Giant wolf manically stomped the ground, getting ready to pounce the tiny, green humanoid.

"There's no way I can take a hit from that!

What do I do? Think, you migdet, think!", Iono panicked inwardly.

He never expected the Boss to have mastered the Heretical Energy Body and much less be able to Double Cast it.

Thankfully his years of battle experience kicked in, and his crimson eyes suddenly lit up as he quickly came up with a solution for the upcoming disaster.

"The only way to do this is to counter with a force of the same magnitude. Dodging is impossible because of his speed and defending is even more insane. Plus, this magnetic field is pulling my scythe, making it much harder for me to use it.

Alright, it's time to test my actual limits...", and with that thought, he once again started rotating his core intently, cladding both arms and legs with prana. His stabilized his footing, and bend his body. Occasionally a black hue would circulate with the energy, as it covered his limps, marking the existence of chaos.

His buggy, white leggings danced in the prana revolving around his limps, and his red shirt was torn because of the excessive force.

His untoned muscles were reaching their limits as he was coating them with prana, and the veins all over his greenish body started popping.

The Prana seeped into his bones reinforcing them and basically activating his "True Serpentine Body".

The prana around his limps, similarly to the wolf, created a movement in the electrons of the atmosphere, creating a potential difference, and therefore a strong electrical current covered them.

Prana was much stronger than mana and even though he was in a weaker stage than the Boss, not even having entered Energy Gathering, the amount of volts circulating his limps right now could shock a Cell Reverberation fighter to death.

His body was barely holding on, his arms and legs had second degree burns. His hair flared up, making him look like the reincarnation of a thunder god.

Slim snakes of electricity could be seen revolving around his limps. The prana extended to the scythe he was holding, and with it the electrical current, which created a magnetic field that opposed that of the wolf's, making the pull he was feeling up until now disappear.

His limps and weapon were now surrounded by pure, highly compressed electricity. He used his "Quantum eyes", to determine how the energy flowed inside the Boss's body, and so he was able to not only discern the weaknesses in the movement, but also the upcoming attacks.

He could see into the future!

He placed his electricity-coated scythe close to his chest, facing it forwards. Suddenly the steel scythe he was holding faded away, as if it was an illusion. Iono clapped his hands, and a moment later, while opening his hands, a scythe made completely out of prana, came out of them. You couldn't really see it, but only discern its outline because of the density of the electric field that surrounded it.

This was the realm of weapon fusion!

The scythe had fused with Iono's prana, becoming something he can control as if it was energy, but could physically harm others. The weapon still retained its durability and slicing power, as a simple steel scythe, but it could now change form as if though it was ethereal, and controlled by Iono to change in any size or shape...

This required an extreme amount of concentration and compatibility with a weapon. This is a technique that requires years, if not decades to accomplish. Not even his father, someone in the Mana and Aura Constitution realm could do it. Being in the Mana AND Aura Constitution meant that he had trained both energies from Foundation to Constitution. This was more than twice the work other people put it, but he still couldn't reach the level of fusion. This is just how profound, literally turning mass into energy was.

Iono felt his energy reserves running low, he glanced at the blue screen, that had never left his side, only to see his Prana very close to 0.

"I am running dangerously low...without prana after this attack, I'm basically cannon fodder.", but then he remembered the spikes on his back. This mistake that had caused his body to mutate, was actually a great gift. Therefore, he closed his eyes and tried to activate the absorption ability.

At this point, Iono was standing still, holding his invisible, energy scythe with closed eyes, while the Boss was preparing himself to attack. Needless to say it took less than a second for Iono to bring forth all those power ups.

The spikes on his back glowed red, as they started absorbing the two energies in the atmosphere. This was extremely dangerous as one wrong step, of placing the wrong energy at the wrong space in his core, would result in catastrophic results.

The absorption rate was simply too fast for Iono to separate the energies. But he clenched his teeth and used his brain power to the extreme. As he was separating the energy flowing in his body, at extreme speeds, his brain was working none stop. Even though Iono's soul and, consequently brain, was incredibly powerful, this was still a tremendously staining task. His core rotated at high speeds, speeding up by the millisecond, as it absorbed energy. When Iono realized how quickly his energy was rising, he had another thought...

"Maybe with this much energy, I could handle that move... Let's hope It doesn't ask for too many..."

At this point the Boss had gathered sufficient energy around him. He took one small step, and then suddenly almost disappeared. His speed was at the peak! His body moved so fast, his figure blurred, and two rows of flame where left behind as he moved towards Iono.

The ferocious giant wolf opened his maw ready to bite the head off the little Goblin. Covered in thick electricity and wreaths of fire, he almost instantly appeared in front of Iono.

At that same moment, Iono opened his eyes. With the slim electrical snakes surrounding his limps, the red, glowing spikes on his back, the crimson, unfathomable eyes that seemed as if they could see through the highest of mysteries and the invisible prana dancing around his body, he grew his ethereal scythe to be as tall as the wolf, and everything around him went silent. The Boss seemed to be stopped mid-air, and the world around Iono seemed to have lost it's colour. He was incomparably focused at the moment. As cold sweat was dripping down his forehead, he switched the way he was holding his gigantic, energy weapon, and he exhaled...

*Phew...*

God-Class Scythe Arts:

Reaper's Sorrow

*Chime*

Only the ringing of a tiny bell was heard for just a tiny moment, and then the world turned incredibly silent.

Suddenly, a 4-meter-tall, hooded figure emerged from Iono's back. There was a blood-chilling smile on it's withered face, as it held a scythe, identically to the way Iono held his own.

Iono made a sweeping motion with his scythe, in this absolute, meek, silent world; the figure copied his movements. It was as if Iono existed in another dimension when he cut the Boss down with his scythe. The motion was neither fast nor slow, but incredibly graceful and precise. It was as if time came to a standstill, just for this slash to happen.

By the time colour returned to the world around him, Iono's eyes were closed, his scythe and the figure had disappeared. Electricity no longer circulated around his limps, and the spikes on his back had stopped glowing.

*Plop*

The Boss's body slumped next to him, sliced in half with incredible precision, the light in its eyes long gone.

Iono opened his eyes and looked at the body of the gigantic Green Wolf.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

He swayed twice and then fell on his knees.

His attack was incredibly powerful but it came with a great price. His core was devoid of energy and his heartbeat had slowed down by a lot. He was barely holding his consciousness, when suddenly time, actually, stopped. His surroundings froze, the air froze, even the energy was frozen in place.

"Shit...", he thought.

Smoke had appeared out of nowhere, and like a ghost, the same 4-meter-tall hooded figure that had emerged behind him, had now appeared infront of him.

That bone-chilling smile still hung on his withered face, as he extended his arm, to reveal a wrinkled, boney hand. His nails were pitch black and they looked broken and worn down.

"The...

Payment..."

The chilly, deathly voice made Iono's hair stand to no end. Time was frozen so sound couldn't travel through the air. The ghastly man's voice resounded directly into Iono's head.

The figure had come to collect the payment for the God-Class art.

"10... Years..."

Iono barely managed to say those words. In his condition even speaking was hard.

The ghastly man moved and thrust his withered hands into Iono's chest. He didn't pierce his flesh, but grabbed his soul.

Iono's eyes widened as intense pain made him scream to the top of his lungs. It felt like someone was stabbing his heart repeatedly with a small knife. He was trying to stay conscious but the pain made it impossible, he blacked out more than once, only for the pain to bring him back.

When the man pulled his hand out, a small mouth had grown on it, and hid away the moment he pulled his hand out.

The man disappeared as quickly as he appeared, and the flow of time was restored.

Iono slumped on the floor, his face pale, and his expression full of pain.