End of a Champion

Jayr POV - Tortus, Heilight Kingdom Capital City - 2013

For a few instants, the only thing I can focus on is Eri's broken body's current state, her eyes are closed, and her face is a mask of blood, in fact, there is blood all over her body, and most of her bones are broken, the lower half of her body is gone, and, from the way her muscles are torn is clear that it was violently ripped off and is now bleeding profusely, and from here I can clearly hear her heartbeat that is growing weaker each passing second.

The more I look at it, the more my rage grows stronger, and the angrier I become, the colder my mind becomes, I'm not angry for the fact that Eri is about to die from her grievous wounds, no, with my current abilities, death is only a temporary state, with Spirit Magic, I can easily protect her soul, and with Dark Resurrection, I can easily restore her body in a perfect state, making it as good as new, no, what makes me enraged, is the suffering she went through.

That Bastard could have easily killed her, but he just enjoyed tormenting her and prolonging her suffering, proof of this fact is that no one in the Hero Party is dead, in fact, most of their wounds are relatively light, just some broken bones or torn off limbs, nothing that the magic of this world can't fix, but even so, their eyes are full of despair, at the same time, I notice the state of the knights and the king's corpses, and see that more or less they all have the same kind of wounds, 'This bastard is someone that likes to play with his food...'.

Then I focus my gaze on my soon-to-be-dead fellow Champion, he is exactly like Freid described, he looks like some kind of demon, 3 meters tall, with crimson red skin decorated with some golden tribal tattoo on his arms, shoulders, head, and horn, a pair of huge curved horns, and sharp tusks, a really long tail that ends with a triangle shaped sharp golden tip, but I also notice that on his body there is only one wound, a small black burnt mark on his left chest from which I can sense a small trace of Eri's magic power.

As I notice this, the Champion, who still didn't notice my presence, brings Eri's body closer, and with a feral grin, he says, "Heh... Not so cheeky anymore, bitch! That's what you get for ruining my fun! I was going to slowly break these kids until they beg for mercy, and when that happens, I wanted to enjoy my time with you and the other girls' bodies... But no! You, little bitch were a lot tougher than I expected and kept getting in my way with your annoying magic and those undead pets of yours ...".

The Champion, Maoshi touches his burnt mark and continues, "I have to admit that I didn't expect to find someone able to hurt me, especially not with Fire Magic since I have long become immune to it, but that black flame of yours did take me by surprise... Now, where were we? Ah, right! I was about to rip off those little arms of yours to teach your classmates to not defy me... Now scream for me!", then he moves to grab one of Eri's arms while a malicious smile forms on his face.

But before he could continue, I move at full speed and appear in front of him and grab his arm to stop him, at the same time, my body is once again enveloped in the crimson light of Limit Break, and Maoshi finally notices my presence, turn his head and looks at me with his creepy white eyes and asks, "Who the fuck are you!?", but I do not reply and simply pull his arm with all my strength trying to rip off his arm, but it seems that his strength is even higher than mine in my Limit Break state that raises all my stats by 3 times, as I'm only able to slightly pull his arm, not rip it off like I wanted.

The instant, I realized this, I quickly change my approach and throw a kick aiming at his face, but before I could hit him, his tail quickly warps around my legs, and, while Maoshi yells, "Another one!? Fuck off!!", he use his tail to throw me toward the wall, but as I fly toward the wall, I raise my hand pointing at him and emotionlessly chant, "Saecularia Viverra!! (Worldly Pull!!)", and with it, I manipulate the attractive force to pull my enemy towards me, who taken by surprise by the sudden pull, let go of Eri.

Seeing that I command, "Tio take care of Eri! Stop her bleeding and keep her alive!", then as I'm about to hit the wall I calmly chant, "Porta! (Gate!)", and behind me, a spherical hole in the space appears that leads to the Divine Mountain, away from Eri and the others, so that I can fight without worrying about implicating them in this fight, at the same time, I let go of the last vestige of control I have over my emotions as they recede leaving behind only wrathful malice all directed at my enemy.

Passing through the gate, I adjust my position in mid-air, and land on the ground, but the power of Maoshi's throw still makes me skid on the ground for a few meters before I'm able to stop, at the same time, Maoshi passes through the gate and keeps moving toward me as he is pulled by the attractive force of the spell, but he adjusted his position and it is clear that he is about to release his attack.

He lets out a loud incomprehensible roar as a small ball of fire appears between his horns, which then he shoots out in the shape of a huge storm of flames that quickly move toward me, the temperature of this attack is so high that the ground melts everywhere it passes, in fact, the very space-time continuum seems to distort under the heat of this attack, so I can't use the spell Porta to redirect the firestorm somewhere else as the attack would distort and destroy the gate with its heat.

So I quickly use another spell to counter this one, I start to combine the Ice and Dark elements as I quickly chant in a hushed tone, "Veniant spiritus glaciales obscurantes! Cum obscurationi flet tempestas nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!! (Come, spirits of ice and darkness! With the darkness flees the Snowstorm! Snowstorm of Darkness!)", generating a powerful storm of ice and darkness that freezes everything in its path into dark crystalline ice.

This is a storm-type attack spell that combines the forces of ice and darkness into a directed storm that obscures light and causes high ice-based damage, and another useful aspect of combining Ice and Dark magic is that enables the Ice to absorb and negate the effects of most magics.

And so the firestorm and the dark ice storm clash against each other with such power that the resulting shock wave blows away both me and Maoshi, at the same time, the whole Divine Mountain starts to shake so much that seems on the point of collapsing, but once I steady myself, I look at the result of our clash and notice that that the area where our storms clashed is totally erased there are no rubble or marks of the fight, nothing but a strangely shaped, deep spiral hole in the ground, so deep that the end of it can't be seen with the naked eye.

Then on the other side of the hole, I see the figure of Maoshi who is looking at the hole, then he raises his gaze and looks at me, and with a smile he yells, "Good job! This is the first time I have encountered someone who can cause as much destruction as me... Well, that is to be expected... After all you are a Champion like me!", I'm not too much surprised by the fact that he realized that I'm also a Champion, after all, everyone that knows the story will find out of my presence suspicious and be able to guess my identity.

But Maoshi seems bothered by my silence as he continues, "Cat got your tongue? It was easy to find out... After all, that little bitch kept muttering about removing some "Jayr's enemy" as I kept pummeling her and even when I ripped off her legs she kept repeating that as she tried to fight back in vain...", and now it is clear that he is trying in vain to make me lose my calm and commit some mistakes, but that is something that I've lost the moment I have seen Eri in that state, but that doesn't mean that I become as stupid as a rabid self-destructive dog that attacks randomly without sense or reason.

No grandpa has beaten away that part of me long ago, now the angrier I get, the colder my mind becomes, and my moves become more ruthless, and all my emotions become more and more suppressed, until only one thing remains in my mind, pure unadulterated malice, all directed at the cause, my enemy, at the same time, I continuously coldly calculate how to reach my objective, destroy my enemy.

Maoshi POV - Tortus, Divine Mountain - 2013

I look at the emotionless young man in the distance, and a cold shiver runs down my spine, especially as I look at those cold crimson eyes, 'This is bad... I have already seen eyes like that before... Those eyes that are devoid of all kinds of feeling and emotions... that silent tranquil gaze that seems to be the prelude of only one thing... Death!'.

While thinking that, I see the young man pull something out of a swirling dark hole, something I'm quite familiar with as that is the same gate that opens when I enter my territory, the thing he pulls out is an object that I easily recognize even if its appearance stumps me for a second, 'No way! That is a fucking Gatling gun! Where the hell did he pick that up!?', but I don't have the time to question that, as the young man aims at me and pulls the trigger, and with a roaring sound a shower of bullets comes flying my way.

I quickly jump out of harm's way, as there is no way that my body can withstand such an onslaught, sure my body is a hell lot stronger and tougher than before, and it is even immune to fire, but bullets of that caliber and number are all a whole new story, I can easily see from the damage on the ground that each one of those is an anti-armor one at the very least, and so I roll on the ground to continue dodging, but then he stops shooting, and I raise my head to look at him.

And all of the sudden, he disappears from my sight, but my instinct honed in the forest of my home world already warned me and so, without hesitation I jump forward and avoid a huge two meters long sword that just pierced the ground where I stood a few moments ago, but I do not have the time to counterattack as I feel a strong impact on my face that blows me back a few meters and see that the young man is still in his kicking position as he pulls out the sword from the ground.

Seeing that small opening, I quickly attack him with my tail, hoping to grab him just like I did before, but this time, he is ready for it, as he spins around, and, like a flash he cuts off my tail, I blank out for an instant, before I feel an excruciating pain coming from my tail, so much that I let out a furious roar, before quickly focusing back on my enemy while quickly thinking, 'SHIT! I'm getting slower and weaker! My ability as a Demon Overlord that enhances all my stats as long as there is enough fear, despair, panic, agony, and other such negative emotions around isn't working!! I'm too far from those so-called heroes I had almost broken... meanwhile from this asshole I don't feel any kind of emotions, only a clear intent, focused only on harming, killing, and making me suffer until he is satisfied!!'.

While that thought flashed in my mind, the young man named Jayr continues to spin and soon I feel a strong impact on my stomach so strong that I feel a small shockwave course through my body damaging everything in its path, and as I unconsciously double over in pain as I throw up some bile, I see Jayr's leg as it moves away from my caved-in abdomen, at the same time, he starts to spin again to gather even more centrifugal force, and this time he is getting ready to slash me with that huge sword, 'This can't go on! I have to do something fast!!'.

Seeing that he is about to bisect me, I quickly focus on my horns and gather all the magic power I can gather, and without hesitation, I release it all toward the ground and a huge gout of flame explodes that engulfs everything around me reducing it into ashes, nothing is spared from it, not even the ground below me that is quickly incinerated into nothing.

I quickly start to look around me and see that I'm in a huge still burning crater, hell the ground around me is so hot that it can melt an iron block, not seeing my enemy, while breathing roughly I mutter in a hopeful tone, "Did I get him?", but soon I feel a sharp pain in my right arm, and see that it was clearly cut off by some kind of water blade, then I notice a bright spherical hole in the space on the border of the crater created by my flames, and in front of that hole, there his is unscratched figure as he looks down on me with his hollow eyes, no trace of my attack can be seen on his clothes, it is clear that he was able to get away in time.

Seeing that, I click my tongue and while holding my stump, I say, "You sure are a tough bastard... Well, since I can't empower myself in the usual way... It is time to try the way of this world...", and so I focus on two things, first I once again gather as much Fire magic power between my horns as possible, at the same time, I focus on the magic I learned in this world, the Age of Gods Metamorphosis Magic, and I make it run through my body, to apply the needed changes, so that I can gain the ability I desire, luckily it seems that the fire magic gathered in my horns is so strong that is able to divert most of my enemy attack as I see him shooting various spells at me, and seeing this I fully focus on what I'm about to do.

As I run the Metamorphosis Magic through my body, the gathered magic power between my horn grew to the size of a small sun, and feel that all is ready, the only thing I need is a small push, and so, without hesitation, I take a deep breath, before I start to suck and absorb the small sun above me, and soon I feel that every single cell inside my body start to fiercely burn, making me feel an incomprehensible pain, and the next moment, the Metamorphosis Magic merges with the burning energy inside my body and I feel that it is finally starting to change, at the same time, I feel something unexpected happening, I'm going through the very thing I longed for so long, Evolution.

Next, my body is lit up in hellish hot flames, but that doesn't bring me any pain, only a warm sense of completeness, then everything clicks in, and I unconsciously release a loud roar as a pillar of magic and fire envelopes my body.

Jayr POV - Tortus, Divine Mountain - 2013

I calmly look as my enemy is enveloped in a huge pillar of fire, I also notice that the temperature around us is constantly increasing, so much that all the vegetation around me is now burning, in fact, I sense that the whole mountain is on fire, at the same time, Maoshi's roar is so loud that I'm sure it can be heard all over the Heiligh Kingdom.

Then, all of the sudden, with a burning shockwave, that almost scorched me if I didn't use ice magic in time to protect myself, and disperse the pillar of fire, and now I can clearly see Maoshi in his new form.

He became slimmer and smaller, about 2,5 meters tall, but that isn't the only change, his skin from red, became charred brown, and the tattoo on his body are also gone, and instead, fire-like lines glow all over his body like fine cracks, the shape of his head changed from a bestial one to a more demonic skull-like, he also gained a natural rock-like armor on his chest, arms, and things, even the shape of his tail changed, from the long elongated one, to one much thicker and shorter, almost shaped like a beaver's one, moreover, it seems that a massive amount of heat is gathered on 7 specific points of his body turning then into glowing burning red spots, those places are, the eyes, the horns, the forearms, the ankles, the tail, and the most massive one, the chest, that seems to glow at the rhythm of his heartbeat, overall he looks like a demon made entirely of molten rock.

(Image Here - Maoshi Evolved Form)

The heat that Maoshi's new form is releasing is almost unbelievable, I can clearly see the ground under him melting, moreover, the very air seems to distort around him, from his presence alone it is clear that he become much stronger than before.

After his transformation, Maoshi looks at me with his burning eyes and says in a hellish voice, "Time for round 2!", and with an explosion sound, he disappears from my sight, but my other senses can still follow his hypersonic speed, after all, I'm used on dealing with the lightspeed attacks, so without hesitation, I jump forward dodging, Maoshi's attack that came from behind, but even if I dodged the attack, my clothes are still turned into ashes, and I feel a second degree burn on my back, meanwhile, his fist melts through the ground like it is made up of butter, 'That is tough... He is releasing so much heat that I can't even get close to him... Moreover, all the wounds I inflicted are healed, even his arm grew back...'.

At the same time, Maoshi yells in surprise, "How can you dodge my attack!? I moved a lot faster than you!", then he pulls out his fist from the ground and starts shooting a barrage of fireballs from the red burning spots on his forearms, and in response to his assault, I fire off a barrage of Sagitta Magica, Series Glacialis, making the sharp icicles 'blades' clash against Maoshi's fireballs, raising a steamy fog to cover my figure.

But before I could gain more distance, I again hear that explosion sound, and the next instant, Maoshi appears in front of me and says, "You can't hide from me! These eyes can see through anything!", then from the burning spots on his forearms, two larger blades like flames appear, then he wildly attacks me with them forcing me to use my weapon fo block these attacks, but even so his heat is hurting me, many burns marks appear all over my body, and at the same time, my Tactical Arm is unable to withstand the heat of his fire blades and is slowly melting, but I remain calm and endure waiting for the right moment to counterattack.

And soon the opportunity arrives, as he leaves an opening in his defenses, while he mocks me in euphoric glee, "What's up? Not so tough anymo- Argh!!!", and I quickly take advantage of his distraction to cut off one of his arms, but before I could start my follow up attack, the burning spot on his tails start to glows, and Maoshi's body is enveloped in a sun-like spherical barrier of flames that melts parts of the blade that is about to touch his body, and so I jump back and gain some distance from him.

Soon the barrier disperse, and I see the figure of Maoshi holding his stump as he glares at me, then the burning spot on his chest starts thumping, and in an instant, his arm starts to regrow, and in a matter of seconds, he is again as good as new, then with a grin, he says, "Heh... You can't beat me! With my last evolution I become invincible!", then in an act of total overconfidence he doesn't continue his attack but start to explain "You see these bright spots... Each of them represents one of my powers... The ones on my ankles make me release all kinds of explosions to enhance my speed... My tail generates a barrier so hot that is comparable to the sun... My forearms make me control the Fire my body generates in any way I want with only my will, no more incantation it is all instantaneous... My chest regenerates all the damage I take... My eyes enable me to see everything even the magic power in the air... of course all these need magic power to work... And that is where my horns shine the most, they turn any kind of heat and fire into magic energy... even the one I produce myself, that means I have now an infinite amount of magic power!", then he starts laughing in a poor imitation of Seito Kaiba evil laugh.

Then he raises his arms and from them, he shoots two huge storms of flames at me, much stronger and hotter than the one he fired off at the beginning of our fight, so the only thing I can do is quickly use Porta to get away from this zone and teleport behind him, and what greets my sight on the other side of the gate, is the fiery explosion of Maoshi's attack as it blows away a nearby mountain.

Then I see the burning fist of Maoshi that quickly moves toward my face as he yells, "I already told you! You can't escape!!", but I'm already ready for it and duck under his fist to dodge it while gritting my teeth as I endure the burning pain on my back as his fist pass over it further aggravating the previous burns, then before he attacks again, I put my hand on his scorching abdomen, and enduring the pain as the skin and muscles on my hand quickly melt, I chant, "Pain Overload!!".

This is a dark spell that I came up with by mixing the spell that I picked up from Eri, Phantom Pain, a spell that distorts the target's sense of touch and causes them to suffer extreme agony, and a technique with a similar effect I learned from the Asklepios Imerológio (Diary of Asclepius), Past Injuries, that makes my opponent suffer the pain of any injury that they have sustained in the past as though it just happened, and since I mastered both, I decided to try to fuse the aspect of both of them and turning them into my original magic, Pain Overload, that makes my opponent suffer the pain of any injury that they have sustained in the past and enhance them to many degrees, moreover, this spells can imprint the pain into my enemy body and brain, making them feel this pain constantly until they shut down.

The effect is instantaneous, as soon as I'm done with my chant, Maoshi starts rolling on the ground forming a small track as he melts the ground under him, at the same time, he continues to scream in agony, the pain he feels is so much that he starts to crash his head against the ground trying to knock himself out, but the heat of his body is working against him, and the ground quickly melts away, so he starts to hit himself but even this doesn't work, and after a few minutes of agony where he tried everything at some point he even started to randomly shoot off fire blast and makes himself explode, but it didn't work, in fact, these new injuries are added to the ones he is currently reliving, then he finally can't endure it anymore and it brain shuts down.

Seeing this I move close and without hesitation, I start to chant "To sumbolaion diakonêtô Moi, hê krystallinê basileia. Epigenêthêtô, taiônion erebos, haiônie krystalle (Let the covenant serve me, the crystal realms! Be reborn, thou ribbon of irritation, thou everlasting crystal)" and as soon as "everlasting crystal" is spoken, the area around me becomes frozen, and Moashi's body is encased, immobile in pillars and spikes of ice, and without pausing I continue "Pāsais zôais ton ison thanaton, hos ataraxia, Kosmikê Katastrophê!! (To all life, is equal in death, which is unrest! Cosmic Catastrophe!!)".

With the final passage, "Kosmikê Katatrophê", Maoshi is completely frozen at a temperature of absolute zero so cold that even the flames on his body can't melt it, then I snap my fingers and command "Brich! (Break!)", and the next instant Maoshi is shattered into fine pieces, and soon after, I sit on the ground totally spent, but the next instant, I feel something enter my tired body, then I hear the familiar voice of Culture as he says, "Congratulazioni! You have killed Evolution's Champion and have absorbed his blessing making yours stronger!!".