Tree of Souls (2/2)

The soul tree despite not having any life to it, was able to hear Ace's request and even granted it immediately.

These guards, or to be more exact, were assassins wearing a white and red robe which concealed their true appearance.

Even though there was only one assassin as his opponent right now, Ace didn't let his guard down as he unsheathed his sword, but before he could even make a move, the assassin clouded his vision with a smoke bomb.

"Retribution." A cold voice whispered from behind as Ace turned around to parry the attack, only to hit nothing but empty air as a gust of air from his left caught him off-guard.

"Dual retribution."

The assassin stabbed his dagger into Ace's body, blood splattering from Ace's body as he pulled the dagger out from his body while slashing towards the assassin.

"Die!"

Despite the excruciating pain from his wound, Ace was still able to eliminate the dangerous assassin who was his opponent with a sword infused with his Slaughter law as he stabbed his sword onto the ground weakly.

The young prince who was Lancelot's brother was praying for Ace to survive, while Rain's parents were expecting the same from him, but their pleas for him to give up were blocked off from Ace who continued with the challenge despite his injury.

While the two assassins were spawning into this dimension, the soul of the Tree of Souls asked, "Young boy, why are you so persistent about continuing when you're allowed to leave this place?"

Ace smiled as he stood upright, arrogance cloaking his body as he said towards the Tree of Souls, "Do I need a specific reason? I'm saving the young prince because he is related to my disciple, I'm saving that couple because of a promise I made."

Besides the three of them however, the rest of the captives wanted Ace dead. Since they were going to die both ways, they would rather have another person die with them than die in solitude.

"Smoke bomb." The two assassins threw their smoke bombs towards the ground at the same time, concealing themselves among the fog while making use of their 'eagle eye' ability to gain absolute vision through the thick fog.

What they didn't expect was that Ace had already redirected the Nirvana flames towards his eyes at a gentle heat, gaining full vision within this area of fog as well.

The Nirvana flames cloaked his sword as he stabbed towards the ground with his sword, with the tip of his sword as the focus point, the radiating heat spread towards the entire radius of the fog at the moment the two assassins were about to ambush him, forcing them to retreat after being scorched by the intense flames which were still blazing.

"Relentless Ignition!"

As flames cloaked around his sword once again while the Slaughter law was infused into his sword, Ace created two separate sword waves that tore through the space in this stable yet weak dimension as they flew towards the two assassins.

"Fatal Strike."

The assassins raised their pair of daggers and managed to neutralize his attack as they endured the blazing flames after much effort, but before they could even celebrate their impending victory, devastation filled their faces as they collapsed onto the ground with a serious slash wound from behind.

"Challenger, do you still intend to continue? I can tell you right now that you'll only be facing one opponent, but that opponent of yours will be in the Martial Lord fifth realm, are you sure about this?"

"Yes." Ace replied without any hesitation as the Slaughter law was infused into his sword, ready to begin a slaughter fest while the Nirvana flames granted him absolute vision and cloaked his body as a protection.

"Young boy, unlike my clones which lacks their own state of consciousness, I'm an assassin who has my own state of mind even though this is only a clone of my true body. Remember this, my name is Ezio and if you were to grow, we'll meet again one day if you survive this."

Unlike his clones, Ezio's daggers were the colour of blood, longer and sharper as he played around with his daggers smoothly with confidence in his eyes.

"Wind element: Shuriken Hail."

A shuriken came from the front in which Ace raised his sword to block, only to realise that the shuriken was heavy as he mustered all the strength in his body to block it after kicking off the ground for more strength, but before he could even take a breather, a shuriken from behind was already within his attack range.

"Damn it!"

Ace cursed as he blocked the shuriken with his frost law to slow it down just slightly with a wall before reflecting it away with his sword, only for four shurikens to dash towards him at the same time, leaving him helpless as they ripped apart his robe while his blood splattered onto the ground.

"Ezio, why are you out to take my life?" Ace asked with blood leaking from the corners of his mouth, his body barely standing with his sword as a support that was stabbed into the ground.

"Orders from my master." Ezio replied coldly before raising both his daggers as he took a step forward, teleporting behind Ace through the use of the space lines in this dimension.

"Don't worry, I'll make it swift."

"And I'll make you regret it."

The next moment, Ace stabbed his sword towards Ezio while Ezio had his daggers raised up, but instead of celebrating his victory, Ace backed away without pushing his sword any deeper in.

Not because he lacked the strength to push the sword deeper in, but because there was a solid object preventing him from pushing the sword deeper in. Apparently, Ezio was able to adjust his dagger quickly enough to block his attack at the last moment.

"The Tree of Souls, I hereby inquire, how is this fair?"

"But how is life fair?"

"Life isn't, but this only happened because of the selfish decisions people make in order to satisfy their own desires."

The Tree of Souls vibrated violently to express its conflicting idea.

"Human, even if you know the reason, what can you do to change this fate of yours? In order to progress, you must defeat Ezio and that fact will remain unchanged."

"I understand, which is why I'll defeat him right now before your eyes."

Looking at the remaining 1000 system points he still had, Ace made a decision and said towards the Tree of Souls.

"System, please use the remaining 1000 system points I have to purchase a one-time usage explosion elixir."

"1000 system points have been deducted. Divine Explosive Strength Elixir has been added into the host's inventory."

Divine Explosive Strength Elixir: The next attack from the cultivator who consumes it will be increased by ten to a hundred folds. But as a price, the cultivator will be unable to generate or command any spirit energy for the next month.

It was a double-edged sword and considering that there was only about two weeks until the start of the annual sect competition, it wasn't a sensible decision to make, but Ace had no other choice right now.

Taking out the elixir from his system inventory, Ace could sense the intense heat emitting from it and the searing heat was permeating through his skin.

Ezio saw the elixir Ace was grasping it his hand, he could sense the fatal danger it possessed towards him, but instead of trying to prevent Ace from even consuming it, he just stood there patiently, his gaze clashing with Ace's as their auras struck each other.

"Consume it." Ezio demanded.

His request gained a smile from Ace who swallowed the elixir without any fear of being interrupted.

It wasn't blind trust he had in Ezio just because of his actions and words, but because it was mutual respect to each other as an opponent.

"Young boy, you ready to end this battle in one move?"

"Of course."

"Very well." Ezio muttered under his breath as energy gathered into his daggers, his robes swaying with the commotion he created, his eyes flashing with killing intent, his legs creating a mirage in this dimension with each step he took as he travelled in a zig-zag motion.

Ace on the other hand was infusing both his slaughter law and Nirvana flames into his sword, since things have already come to this stage, just Relentless Ignition wouldn't suffice anymore.

"Fatal Retribution!"

Ezio's daggers glowed with a dangerous glow to it, but when he saw Ace chanting without any fear of his impending daggers, he sensed the danger but refused to pull back as his daggers increased in speed once again, his body breaking past his own limits at this point of time, his cultivation aura soaring exponentially and on the verge of a major breakthrough.

"Shall the past be ruined, the future shall be recreated. Shall the past be destroyed, the future should be reborn. Shall the past be forgotten, the future shall be rewritten. Shattered past, Rewritten future!"

A strong blast of energy from Ace's sword was threatening Ezio to pull back as the Phoenix Sword and the pair of refined daggers collided against each other, neither side backing down as Ezio increased his strength and yelled with his spirit energy losing control.

I can't give up here no matter what, this is a battle I must win! Ace told himself within his mind as his sword pushed back against the pair of daggers, the two weapons carrying their masters' hearts and souls unwilling to suffer defeat, winning and losing without the final victory being decided.

"Ezio, this is the end!" Ace called out as he swung his sword upwards in an uppercut, breaking Ezio's pair of treasured daggers as his sword cut his body into half cleanly, the Nirvana flames burning his soul into nothingness.

"Tree of souls, I hope you stick to your promise."

"Leave with them right now before I changed my mind."

"My thanks."

Ace bowed and thanked the Tree of Souls from the bottom of his heart before leaving with Lancelot's brother, Lancer behind him and Rain's parents.

After they left that dimension, Rain, who was trotting around in worry, was shocked when he suddenly bumped into a young man he had never seen.

The young man was Lancer and behind him, were his parents.

Rain looked towards the bed, only to realise that his father was indeed missing from the bed and standing in front of him physically, beside him was the mother he had not seen for a long time and a mysterious young man.

"I fulfilled my promise, yea?"