Chapter 107: Conquest Instinct

Kristian was rapidly blocking Tegan’s blows, spinning his two swords, while trying to attack the slightest opening in his guard.

His dilated pupils were solicited to their climax, as he countered and counter-attacked in a perfectly fluid manner.

Each clash between Kristian’s blades and Tegan’s heavy greatsword made jets of incandescent sparks spring forth, the kinetic force of the Master of Fire making the young man’s joints vibrate up to the shoulders.

At the same moment, a lightning attack suddenly came from Tegan’s right flank. A shadow had projected itself from the burning steam, its katana slicing the air with a strident whistle.

Tegan, warned by his thermal visual perception, slightly pivoted his massive torso and blocked the lateral assault by sending a discharge of flaming Chi of a colossal power.

The thermal shockwave repelled the assailant, who performed an acrobatic jump into the air before landing heavily on his two feet, raising a cloud of calcined dust.

Kristian cast a sideways glance.

“Daemon?”

“Need a hand?”

“It would not be refused,” answered Kristian while wiping with the back of his sleeve the blood and the sweat that were flowing on his gashed cheek.

Daemon observed the profile of his cousin. He noted the tears on his blue noble tunic, the superficial burns on his arms.

“I am quite surprised, I did not think you would be here,” resumed Daemon.

“I am here of my own accord, my father did not allow me to come,” declared Kristian in a neutral voice.

Daemon raised his eyebrows.

‘That’s exactly what I thought, Uncle Dorian would never get involved with the Magic Clan.’

It was not every day that Kristian openly disobeyed the Patriarch Dorian; that absolutely did not form part of his habits as the model and irreproachable heir of the Sword Clan. He immediately understood the gravity of the situation.

“Katelyn has not recovered, is that it?” asked Daemon.

Kristian clenched his teeth.

“Yeah “

“Sorry to interrupt you… But I do not have the time to wait for you!” roared Tegan.

The aura of the colossus of the House of Fire exploded brutally. Tegan leaped toward Daemon.

“Watch out!” shouted Kristian while projecting himself immediately to the side.

Daemon inhaled deeply through the nose, letting the air charge his lungs and condensing his Chi around his chest and his limbs.

Tegan’s blade traced an arc of blinding fire in the atmosphere saturated with sulfur.

Daemon crossed his katana with both hands above his head to intercept the impact. The shock was dreadful. A pressure wave swept the ground around them, creating a crevasse under Daemon’s feet.

Without leaving him the slightest second to recover, Tegan rapidly chained powerful attacks in a fraction of a second. The flaming greatsword described a series of thrusts and horizontal cuts of a savage brutality, forcing Daemon to retreat step by step.

“Damn it! “

Kristian ran rapidly in their direction aiming for the cervicals of the Master of Fire. But in a fraction of a second, Daemon saw Tegan make a slight glance toward his cousin.

‘Shit, it’s a trap!’

But he did not even have the time to shout his warning. Tegan, feinting toward Daemon, suddenly pivoted on his support leg and delivered him a violent reverse kick full in the face.

Sent him tumbling several meters.

In the same fluid movement, Tegan pivoted to the side, avoiding by a few millimeters the upward attack of Kristian.

Taking advantage of the momentum of the heir of Spring, the colossus extended his left muscular hand, seized Kristian by the hair crushed him violently to the ground, then sent him tumbling with a brutal projection across the plain.

Daemon got up with difficulty.

“Shit, this is not good!”

In the distance, Kristian could not stabilize himself. His body was rolling on the arid earth, incapable of recovering his supports after the lightning projection of the Master. Tegan left him no chance to straighten up.

Turning first toward Daemon to paralyze him, the Master of Fire sent a roaring palm of flames.

A torrent of devastating fire sprang from Tegan’s palm, rushing toward Daemon and erecting a wall of incandescent energy that definitively cut the road to the chief of the Winter House.

All the surrounding flames, the embers that were smoldering in the earth and the ambient heat of the plain were violently aspirated by his greatsword.

The metal of the massive weapon changed color, the blade giving the appearance of a glowing charcoal of a frightening thermal density. Tegan raised the weapon above his head, targeting directly the genius of the Sword Clan who was still trying to get up in the dust.

“KRISTIAN!!!” shouted Daemon with all his strength through the blaze that barred his view.

Tegan brought down his incandescent greatsword with all his strength toward the ground.

The tip of the sword slammed against the rocky ground.

BOOOOOM!

A detonation of an apocalyptic power tore the plain.

The shockwave raised tons of rock and dust, while a wave of fire swept the entire targeted direction. The earth cracked over more than a hundred meters in length, destroyed and instantly replaced by craters of boiling lava that spat geysers of molten matter.

The thermal blast was so violent that it projected the debris to the limits of the battlefield.

Daemon widened his eyes, completely petrified by the vision of this carnage.

The gray dust and the glowing vapor masked the landscape.

The immense gap between the mastery of a Second Sense and the absolute destructive power of a Fourth Sense simply could not be overcome by will alone.

“Kris… Kristian!” stammered Daemon, the voice trembling, fearing that his cousin had been reduced to ashes by the explosion.

The silence fell heavily again on the ravaged zone, only troubled by the boiling of the lava in the trench.

As the smoke and the incandescent vapor slowly dissipated under the effect of the wind.

Kristian found himself standing, just next to the long crater of lava. His blue and white noble top, partially ignited by the shockwave, extinguished on contact with a white vapor and a glacial Chi that were continuously escaping from his body.

Daemon squinted his eyes, sensing a terrifying energetic fluctuation that made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

“There is something wrong…” murmured Daemon to himself.

Daemon came to meet him with a staggering step, crossing the smoking debris to bring himself to the height of his cousin.

“You okay, man?” he asked, extending a hand toward Kristian’s shoulder.

But Kristian did not answer. He did not even turn his head toward Daemon. His eyes were entirely rolled back, leaving appear only immaculate white.

Slowly, Kristian extended his right hand to the side. The dense white vapor that was springing from his pores coiled around the two silver swords that lay on the ground in the dust.

The white Chi coated the blades, lifted them into the air and brought them directly into his palms.

On his bare chest, visible under the tatters of his consumed tunic, the tattoo of the crown of thorns and the black sword shone with a blinding radiance, diffusing the absolute power of the first of the Evils.