The finals of the S section ranking tournament.
A section that has been filled with many many wonders. Crazy moves and techniques that are way above their rank and age.
Both of us having broken through to E- rank and steadily making our way to E rank.
This battle had just begun,
and yet neither of us had made the first move.
Henry with his silver sword walked ever so slowly around the stadium and I simply just watched him.
Who would be the first to attack?
'He'll have to attack me eventually.'
He did but he never fully committed just testing the waters around.
He slashed reinforcing himself with mana a couple of times even using his inky black dark magic to slash at me.
He immediately backed up with every swing as I teleported around them.
"Abyss."
heavy ominous darkness flooded the stadium, dripping like heavy oil, rising into tendrils twisting and turning.
[Horizon of The Abyss Art: Advent of True Abyss]
[Horizon of The Abyss Art: Abyssal Dive]
He disappeared into the inky black as it slowly creeping up around me, trying to encase me into its domain.
"Harden."
I swished my hands around me and a barrier of hardened space blocked the incoming abyss.
[Space Magic: Hardened Space]
'The first layer shouldn't be a problem for me. The real problem is the second layer.'
The abyss had seven layers, Henry only used the first layer of the abyss on Cale, and he used the second layer on Lily.
Henry at this point hasn't reached the third layer so I just completely ignored it for now as I kept my focus on the battlefield.
[Shadowcarver's Hidden Blade: Network]
[Shadowcarver's Hidden Blade: Abyssal Black]
Henry and his dark, shadowy, somewhat misty clones all struck down simultaneously leaving a waterfall of inky, dark abyss.
[Space Magic: Sign Shift]
[Space Magic: Sign Shift]
Multiple [Sign Shift]'s instantly redirected the eight clones Henry had summoned, making them bounce off the barrier of hardened space.
'That was close. If that had landed my barrier would have been a goner.'
As Henry bounced off the barrier he flipped around and swung his hand forward.
Calling upon the abyss below him to annihilate me.
[Horizon of The Abyss Art: The Devouring Abyss]
A wave of darkness like ink clawed down at me like a hungry beast.
And as Henry landed, he swung his hand from his other side as if he was swatting away a fly.
[Horizon of The Abyss Art: The Devouring Abyss]
As I redirected the first wave, the second surged skyward, twisted and turned like a snake before striking its fangs into me.
The coiled and snapped like tangled whips as I struck at me again and again.
All I could do was redirect their attacks with [Sign Shift].
The moment an attack landed my barrier would be devoured by the abyss.
Henry didn't just sit around, and from the opposite side of the stadium, his sword slowly encased itself with the abyss.
Wrapping and coiling around his blade, enhancing his dark magic, and flowing ominously.
It dripped down his blade like ink.
[Dark Magic: Shadow Burst]
He swung his blade towards the floor and the wave of shadow both enhanced and carried by the abyss rushed towards me like a shark.
The first abyss enhanced magic while the second devoured it.
'The more magic I use, the more I feed it. I need to take control.'
The snakes of the abyss kept clawing at me as thoughts ran through my head.
'Vectors, I could use them, but I'm not that experienced with them.'
Every single solution, it just wouldn't work.
'Warping? No, I've been trying forever, and I still can't use it.'
Outcome after outcome, solution after solution, every time I would be the one to lose.
'How do I win?'
I teleported up into the air dodging all the attacks that came at the exact time.
My barrier got torn apart instantly and the ominous, abyssal tendrils like snakes coiled around and flung themselves at me as I was in the air.
[Shadowcarver's Hidden Blade: Abyssal Black]
Two snakes of the abyss were in front of me and Henry unleashed an arc of heavy, black, inky darkness at me.
It was as if time had stopped, the goal that I thought was unreachable slowly crept closer to me.
My goal was to become untouchable, unreachable.
The answer was so simple.
I didn't have to make infinite space or an aura of redirection.
Distance.
Locking down coordinates on the axis of space, stopping anything from going past that coordinate in space.
To control the axis of space.
Distance Manipulation.
Of course, I wasn't at that level yet where I could control and manipulate the axis, but there was something I could do.
Make a barrier upon the axis of space, not in reality, but in space itself.
The Axis of Space was like a dimension on its own, and when you unlock space magic you gain awareness of that dimension.
Glistening stars and white streaks surrounded me, and I looked at them in just amazement.
It was beautiful, a black void, full of piercing lights and bright streaks.
I knew exactly what those lines were. The axis of space, the graph of space itself.
'25847193276, 48'
No calculations, no math. I simply just knew it.
My exact coordinate in space.
[Skill Acquired: Spatial Connection]
[Gift Acquired: One Acknowledged by Space]
[Space Magic: Hardened Space]
"Space Magic, Hardened Space."
I said an ability incantation, one that targeted my skill with that spell.
I needed it simply because making a barrier and maintaining it along the axis of space was really hard.
And I needed to track it onto my exact position.
I snapped back to the world around me, the predicament I got myself into. Three attacks, two from the front and one from the back.
It looked different, not that different, but different still.
Every time I blinked my eyes; I didn't see nothing, a deep black, or even the light shining through my eyelids.
All I saw was that world, The Axis of Space.
"Aghh! My head..."
Three loud thuds rang in my ears as the attacks got stopped in their tracks the moment, they came a few feet from me.
But that wasn't what hurt my head.
'25847193276, 48'
'25847193276, 47'
'25847193275, 45'
It hurts, it burns, numbers, numbers were running rampant through my head every time I blinked or closed my eyes.
'How do I turn it off!?'
I held my head in pain, and I looked up at Henry. My dull-green jade-like shaking vividly as I stared at him trying not to blink.
"Hah... Hhagh..."
My breath was heavy, and my feet seemed to drag along the floor.
Thud.
Thud.
The snakes of the abyss still danced and coiled around me as they struck, but they never came close to hitting me.
My steps, heavy and slow, and my head felt as if it was on the verge of collapse.
Henry for the first time I've seen him, his face wasn't neutral. He was smiling, and his sword snapped back.
[Shadowcarver's Hidden Blade: Shadow Weaver's Canvas]
"Breakthrough."
Waves, arcs, circles of inkiness, of deep, dark, shadowy blackness. They were fast, they twisted and cracked in tendrils of power.
Henry had to be able to cut through dimensions to break my barrier, and the [Abyss] in him hasn't reached that point yet.
A crazed smile was still blooming upon his face as his sword violently cracked with utter darkness.
However, nothing worked.
No matter what he did, no matter what solution or outcome he came to. Attack after attack, spell after spell.
Swords of darkness launched into me, tentacles, and shadows burst into my form.
Yet, I still stood there, my arms hanging low, my breathing heavy and slow, my feet planted against the hard floor.
I raised my arm up towards him.
[Space Magic: Spatial Manipulation]
His body had slowed; it was as if he was swinging his sword against a mountain.
Slow enough for my spatial manipulation to hold him in place for only a couple of moments, but that was all I needed.
[Space Magic: Collapsing Space]
[Unique Skill: Singularity]
"Lucien Polstrey has won."
I collapsed onto the floor, but yet as my eyes closed, and as my consciousness faded into darkness.
All I could see was one sight through it all.
Lines and stars, a deep black void, a number ringing in my head every couple of moments.
It felt like an eternity, floating there, thinking.
'I wonder what I should have for dinner.'