Lilith City, Underworld
March 3rd, 1200
–
After Erik's show of power, the stadium stays silent without anyone daring to say anything or even move. It took Serafall's talking to Erik for him to tone down his magic power.
"Erik, if you continue with this we will never start our challenge."
Serafall said to Erik, who smiled sheepishly at her.
"Er… Sorry. I will tone it down a bit."
Erik replied to Serafall and did just as he told he would. After retaking control of his magic power and compressing it again inside his body, the stadium slowly came back to normal. Devils that had fainted were being woken up by the ones that managed to keep their bearings, and the commentator continued with his job after receiving a pointed look from Serafall, who was still in the middle of the Arena.
"Er… That was incredible. Erik Ravenclaw shows to the entire stadium what he is made of. His display of power was incredible. Who knew that Humans could reach such heights in power, huh?"
The commentator says trying to butter up Erik a little. He at least didn't want to be on the bad side of a powerhouse like that.
"Now for our main event and the reason that everyone came here today, let me present to you all the places where Satan Leviathan and Erik Ravenclaw will be fighting."
The commentator said, managing to recover a little of his previous 'gas'. And as he said that, big magical screens lit up around the stadium and started showing a desolated scenario on them.
"This, ladies and gentleman, is where the fight will be happening. Housed in a small portion of the Dimensional Gap is the arena for our fighters!"
The commentator announced, getting gasps from a lot of the people inside the stadium and in their homes who were watching the event via magical transmission. The reason for their gasp was simple. Everyone knew that the Dimensional Gap was a forbidden zone. But it was not forbidden because of some laws. No, it was forbidden because it would kill anyone who ventured there without enough power to protect him. It was told that to resist the Dimensional Gap's effects one must have the strength of at least a Satan level. And that was to resist it for a limited time only. The corrosive effects of the Dimensional Gap were that strong.
"But you all don't have to worry about the well-being of our Satan Leviathan. This piece of the Dimensional Gap that we are seeing was isolated from the rest of it. Enchantments were put in place too to stabilize its atmosphere and turn it livable. This incredible advancement was created by our Satan Beelzebub."
The commentator said and the devils inside the stadium start to cheer loudly.
"But the area created this way will not last forever, of course. The corrosive effects of the Dimensional Gap are so great that it will, slowly but surely, claiming its 'borrowed' space back. But the time for it to happen is far away from now, which means that it can be safely used to house the fight of these two powerhouses."
The commentator added.
"Now, without more delay, let's start this challenge for the rights to court Satan Leviathan's hand!"
The commentator said again and a big generic gray magic circle lit up in the middle of the Arena, encompassing Erik and Serafall inside it. During the time that the commentator was riling the Devils up again, Erik and Serafall were having a staring contest in silence.
As the transportation magic circle finished charging up both 'fighters' disappeared in the middle of motes of gray light.
–
Pocket Space Arena, Dimensional Gap
March 3rd, 1200
–
In the middle of the desolated scenario that was the space created by Ajuka Beelzebub, a big gray magic circle shone and two people appeared in the middle of motes of gray light. They were, of course, Erik and Serafall.
The duo stood still staring at each other without a word being said. Everything that they wanted to convey to the other was already said in a talk that they had last night.
And just like that, without a word being traded, Serafall was the first one to make a move. With the rise of her hand, a dozen or so lances made of ice materialized around Serafall, and, with the drop of her hand in the direction that Erik was, the lances of ice launched at him at high speed.
*BOOM*
The sound of the lances hitting the spot where Erik shook the place. 'Was' being the keyword here. Before the lances reached him, Erik moved away in a burst of incredible speed, reappearing by Serafall's side, ready to punch her. Around his body, a light blue aura could be seen. It was the manifestation of Erik's vital energy manipulation. Normally, the light around him would be stronger but due to his increased control over it, the wasted energy was very little. That move was seen by Serafall, who immediately turned and prepared her own punch to meet with Erik's.
*BAM*
The sound of the two colliding fists shook the place again. Around Serafall's body, a light blue aura could be seen too. During the years of training with Erik, Serafall had learned to harness and manipulate her vital energy, increasing the raw power that her body could produce immensely together with her overall power.
With a smile on their faces and the introductory moves done, the two started a frenetic trade of blows, with most of them being dodged or blocked by one or another. The sonic booms together with the impacts of each blow were quickly changing the scenario of the prepared Arena to one that resembled the moon's surface.
–
Inside the 'VID' rooms in the arena, the other three Satans, plus Grayfia Lucifuge, were watching the magical screen that was showing Erik and Serafall's fight with open wide eyes.
"Did any of you know about this?"
Sirzechs Lucifer asked the group.
"That Serafall's power had climbed so much in the space of time between the end of the Civil War and now? No."
Grayfia Lucifuge was the one to answer her husband and master. The strong she-Devil was wearing a maid attire even after having married Sirzechs Lucifer. Serafall had once told Erik that Grayfia continued to wear the mais attire because she had a fetish about maids and their masters. That was why she continued to serve the Gremory family as a maid even after having married her 'master'.
"And when did she learn to manipulate her vital energy?"
Ajuka Beelzebub was the one to ask this time. That changed things. Before this 'revelation', the dynamic of the group of Satan was well defined with Sirzechs being the strongest of the four and Serafall being the weakest. But now? Well, Serafall was not the weakest one, of that he was sure of.
"Grayfia, it seems that your rival had left you behind."
Sirzechs Lucifer said to his wife. He knew that the rivalry that the two she-Devils had was a fierce but friendly one. With Serafall stepping ahead of Grayfia, he could for sure expect his wife to restart her training routine.
Grayfia Lucifuge, who was watching the trade of blows between Serafall and Erik with great attention, nodded her head slowly at her husband/master comment while a fire was being reignited inside her eyes.
–
Inside another 'VID' room, a group of old Devils was watching the magical screen with open mouths.
"How can this be?"
One said.
"Impossible!"
Another exclaimed.
"This must be an illusion. There is no other plausible explanation."
A third one said. They all had the same thoughts inside their heads: 'How could a mere human contend blow against blow with one of their Satans?'.
A fourth old Devil scowled at the reaction of 'his peers'. This was Zakram Bael, undoubtedly the Devil that held the most power inside the Underworld.
"You fools. Don't you see? He is just like them. He is an anomaly. An aberration of nature, just like those four that we named Satans."
Zakram Bael said, putting some degree of order back to the room. But inside, he was asking himself the same questions. He was old. Zakram Bael was an old Devil. He had seen a lot during all this time. He had seen other anomalies being born in the Devil race before their current Devils, but all of them ended dead before reaching their true potential because they bite more than they could chew. But never he had seen a human that could hold that kind of power that Erik Ravenclaw had. Near it? Sure. But never something that could put him above all the other supernatural races.
Inside his head, Zakram Bael was already starting to plot against Erik Ravenclaw without even knowing the result of the fight.
–
Inside the pocket space created by Ajuka Beelzebub, the trade of blows between Serafall and Erik were going for tens of minutes already. At some point, their trades had gone up by a notch. Now, with each blow, spells were being cast and launched against their opponent. Serafall's bloes were freezing everything that they touched, while Erik's blows were burning everything that they touched. And when both happened to collide against each other, a steam explosion was created together with a new crater.
Suddenly, both fighters separated. Serafall was breathing hard. She was not used yet to the continuous use of her vital energy together with her magic and it was weighting in her body. Different from Serafall, Erik showed a calm visage. That kind of trade of blows was what he was used to doing while he was learning with Sun Wukong. The old monkey King was a true stamina monster and had ingrained one thing inside Erik's head: a lot of fights in the supernatural world were not decided by who was the strongest. They were decided by who got tired first. What was the use of being a glass cannon if you need too much time to recharge after each shot and is useless for the time being?
"Getting tired, Serafall?"
Erik said in a teasing way. Serafall glared back at Erik.
"You are the only one with the freakish stamina here, Erik."
Serafall replied while still glaring.
"True."
Erik said, admitting that he had very high stamina.
"Let's wrap this up then, ok? Don't want to hurt you to the point that would mess with our celebration party later tonight."
Erik said after protecting his last words from being transmitted back to the Underworld.
"Sure it has nothing to do with the punishment that Selena promised if you hurt me too much."
Serafall replied, returning the teasing to Erik, who smiled at that.
"Let's bring the Big Guns out then, Serafall!"
Erik announced in a loud voice and a huge blue magic circle with a raven mid-flight in the center of it appeared behind him.
Serafall nodded her head at that and, with a smile on her face, summoned an equally big blue magic circle behind her. In the middle of it was the shield of the Sitri family.
The magic circles were quickly charged up and were soon ready to be unleashed.
"Ice Age!"
Serafall yelled and released her spell by 'slamming' the magic circle under her. From it, copious amounts of ice started to flow, freezing anything and everything that they touched, transforming the place into a frozen moon surface. As the ice quickly advanced in Erik's direction, the High Human smiled at it. 'Ice Age' was Serafall's ultimate move. She was certainly pouring her everything in this one spell. And what would Erik be if he didn't answer her on the same level? Erik raised his right hand to his front and snapped his fingers loudly.
*SNAP*
"White Hungry Flames."
Erik announced quietly. From the huge magic circle behind him, a white substance started to pour without end. It poured like it was a giant waterfall and behave like a sort of heavy gas or liquid, quickly covering a huge area of the destroyed surface of the pocket space. The white substance could behave like some sort of heavy gas or liquid, but in reality, the white substance was, in truth, flames.
But when the wave of white fire met the wave of ice, something strange happened. Or better said, nothing happened. No steam explosion happened, no battle for supremacy between hot and cold. The white fire simply consumed all the ice that it made contact with. The White Hungry Flames were Erik's signature spell. The same one that he had created while being inspired by the Fiendfyre. The same one that he could designate anything as the target for its 'hunger'. And in this one instance, that he had cast it, the flame's target was only one: ice. That was why there was no steam explosion, differently from the trade of blows from before, this white flames simply ate away all ice that it made contact with.
Quickly, the wave of white flames gained ground over the wave of ice, hungrily devouring it to fuel itself more and more.
Serafall quickly found herself surrounded by the white flames and almost panicked at the possibility of being devoured too. She just stopped herself from panicking because she knew that spell and knew that Erik would never truly hurt her. And so, the white flames covered Serafall's body, devouring the Satan completely.
*SNAP*
Another loud snap of finger from Erik and the sea of white flames started to die down. Having taken care of all the ice generated by Serafall, the fire's objective was reached and Erik commanded it to disappear. In front of him, at a good distance, as the white fire disappeared, Serafall's body was revealed. The Satan was still standing in place but was barely holding herself up. She was breathing hard and her legs were trembling in the effort to keep their owner standing. She looked at Erik and smiled. A wide and happy smile.
"You… win…"
Serafall managed to say before having her legs give up and starting to fall on her front. But, before her body could make even half the way to the ground, a figure appeared in front of Serafall and caught her. In a quick movement, Erik had Serafall in his arms and was carrying her in bridal style.
"Welcome to the family again, Serafall."
Erik said in a low voice that could be heard only by the two of them with a smile on his face. The Satan was unaware of all of this, having lost consciousness after declaring Erik the winner of the challenge.
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Chapter #105 is done!
To those interested, this chapter has 2457 words.
Chapter #106 is incoming in one, max two days.
Stay 'tuned'!