Making A Deal

Stuck in place Xelfia, Relia and Seli stared wide eyed at the scene in front of them. No words were said between any of them as they watched in silence. If that was really who they thought it was then there was nothing else to say. "I tried Xilo." Wincing, Tearia saw all of their reactions as the first time she saw it replayed in her head. The nausea and fear she had felt that day, they were all feeling it now as well on different levels. "I have to help." Since she knew about this beforehand she had to do her best to help calm down the others.

"Is..that..Xi..lo?"

Xelfia was the first to speak, the other two stayed silent.

"Yes, it is. It's a form he's desperately tried to hide I think. I've only seen it a few times now but...that is without a doubt Xilo. He isn't a monster like that man is saying though!"

Getting in front of the girls she looked at them all as she said that. She wanted to avoid them reacting like she did the first time the best she could. Xilo didn't deserve to go through that again and she was going to make sure of it. Others may run from him and call him a monster like that man but they weren't strangers to Xilo. They knew who he was even if he seemed different now. Different wasn't a bad thing, it was something that made people unique and themselves. Xilo always seemed so on edge in public places, scared even and she refused to have him like that around them.

"A..monster eh?"

"Monster.."

"A demon."

Hearing their three replies Tearia's heart sank.

"He's not...a monster. He's still just Xilo but we need to help him."

Xelfia and Relia didn't say a word as Seli spoke up.

"Tearia, do you hear what you're saying? I may not know Xilo that much but he just ripped a corpse apart trying to drink it's blood. I'm not going to speak for the two of them but...he isn't clearly just himself anymore."

"What do you know!!"

"Only the things I see in front of me. Don't get defensive with me."

The bubbly personality from before was replaced by coldness as Seli watched the two fight. "Did his Astral Ability cause this change? No he's clearly not in control so it has to be something else." Analyzing the situation she took a slight step backwards. Those two were stronger than her so there wasn't much she could do. "Maybe he's not a monster but he's clearly on a rampage." Xilo clearly needed to be stopped but she couldn't do it alone. Xelfia and Relia still stayed silent as they continued to fight.

"Time Acceleration."

Bursting forth with energy he instead stored it inside his body. This technique was incredibly dangerous to him but it let him gain a massive temporary boost in power in exchange for some years off of his life. He passed his own limits by forcing time ahead solely focused on himself and his own time. It wouldn't last more than a minute but in that time he gained at least another two stages of strength. He was now bordering on the Tenth Stage of power and it was all thanks to the Spirit inside of him. Without him he would never be able to accomplish this sort of technique on his own.

"Let's fight, monster!!!!!!!"

With a roar deep from within his throat he shouted that as his muscles tensed up. Swinging his blade toward the monster in front of him he no longer had trouble keeping up with his speed. Not noticing the differences yet Xilo grabbed the blade like before only to be ripped apart in return. His hand was instantly cut through as he lost a lot of blood as his hand was cut into. Screeching in pain like a mad dog, he quickly grew them back as he placed his full attention on the target in front of him. If his blades weren't incredibly hard he might have lost his entire hand in that attack alone.

"KeeeKee."

Crunching the blades inside his mouth together that were formerly teeth, Xilo used his whole body to attack Zelfin. He no longer needed a weapon that wasn't his body. Extending a blade from his hand he slashed at the man's body aiming to cut him in half in one strike. Sadly though the clash of metal ringed in his ears as Zelfin's sword stopped him just barely. Sparks flew off his blade as the sound of thunder rumbled from it. He felt like a building had just slammed into him at full force and he was barely keeping it from falling to the ground. The sheer raw strength he had gained in this form still wasn't enough to stop the monster before him completely.

"Good...Good!"

Instead of feeling fear and despair though he got excited. This was exactly what he wanted from this fight. An all out fight without either of them holding them back as they ripped each other apart. "Don't run from your fears. Face them, own them, Control them." Guiding Zelfin the best he could, the old man showed him the way to greatness. Zelfin's wish when they had found each other was to defeat the monster before him no matter how long it took and he wished for another chance at life. Together they made a deal and had begun to help each other. As of now though the old man knew Zelfin was in a rough spot. This was a test to see just how strong the monster he wanted to beat really was.

"Heeheee."

Pushing further, Xilo extended another blade from his body and attacked Zelfin's weak spot while he was focused on their lock.In that slip of concentration Zelfin failed to notice it as he stabbed straight into his free arm. Making him flinch, Zelfin faltered as Xilo pushed through and sliced directly at his stomach causing blood to flow endlessly. Happy with the results the monster lunged forward with more attacks giving Zelfin zero time to breathe. Forced to dodge backwards he felt pain race through his body without stopping but Zelfin was still happy. The smile never left his face the whole time, no matter how much he got hurt. At this moment he was probably the happiest he had even been in his life.

"Is that all you got monster? Time Decimator!"

Blocking an attack he used his other technique. This time though he was able to create two extra slashes to go along with it and got it off a lot faster. With four attacks filled with time energy Zelfin attacked back, breaking some of the monster's blades with each slash. It didn't bleed though instead it just shouted out in pain as it got more angry instead. In an endless clash of attacks the two continued there back and forth as the girls watched on from the side paralyzed.

"A monster eh...you know, I like to think of myself as a bit of a monster as well Xilo."

"Xelfia...?"

Hearing Xelfia's mutters, Tearia was confused until she saw her skin turning back to scales.

"Selfish."