Is this really a Game?!

The 16 giant hands floated in the air before fusing together to form a giant black ball that emitted a dark aura through the whole battlefield. Loud banging sounds could be heard inside of the ball as the king attacked it relentlessly in an attempt to break out, it was however all for naught. The toughness of the black ball was above what the king had anticipated and breaking through it was incredibly difficult.

“Tricks and tricks and tricks, I’m getting really annoyed by this!” The king said angrily from inside the ball as he concentrated his mana on his fists, the incredible power coming from the fists was certain to affect the whole battlefield had the king not been inside the ball that completely covered the mana pressure.

“I’ll show you what it means to be someone that had gone through the first evolution.” The king calmly said as he continued channeling his mana, the inside of the giant ball was like a prison, and even though the king didn’t know why the Judge had used such a weird skill, he didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary inside of it, who knows what the Judge would do if left alone, his whole army might get wiped out.

Outside of the ball however the Judge was down on his knees, not only did the skill take a long time to be finished and activated, but the mana that the Judge had poured in order to create it was enormous and it took a toll on his body. Not only did he need to pour a lot of mana, but the problem was the fact that the mana wasn’t even entirely his as most of it came from the array, thanks to that it was many times harder to control the flow of mana and ended up with a backlash for him.

The plan was to not only trap the king inside the giant ball but to detonate it and deal some serious damage to him, with the Judge being in such a state, however, it was almost impossible for him to detonate the ball right now and he would need to wait a bit before recovering slightly.

Boom!

Swish! 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥.

Clang!

Reign fought against the three men with great ferocity, the king was now trapped and Reign could already guess that this was supposed to be it, the end of the plan they had discussed, the powerful blow that would be dealt in order to give Reign the chance to kill the king. He was now seriously fighting against the three men, there was no need to hold back now since the king probably wouldn’t even be able to sense his power, of course, he still wasn’t using the skill from his katana as there was no need to do that before going after the king.

With him finally fighting seriously, the three were in a pinch, the power that Reign had was above theirs and his speed was the one thing that gave them a headache, they were now aware that what was happening before was Reign taking them lightly and not fighting seriously, they didn’t know why he did such a thing, but there was no time to think.

They were receiving wounds quickly and they could barely strike at Reign, no matter what they did, it was useless. Idrel’s vines were not fast enough to catch Reign and neither was Idrel’s reaction speed enough to anticipate where Reign would go and trap him. Gardo was the fastest one amongst the three, but even his speed paled in comparison, thanks to his giant weapon, he was simply unable to hit Reign. Defending wasn’t a big problem as his speed was enough to allow him some leeway and follow Reign, but simply defending wasn’t going to cut it.

Luin was the one that had it the hardest, his souls were once again useless against Reign, and his physical power was not enough, even if he was to sacrifice all of his souls in order to get a boost, he knew it wouldn’t be enough. With a steeled gaze he stared at Reign before putting his sword back into the sheath, before anyone could guess what he was thinking, his body suddenly started turning transparent as all of his equipment either went back to his body or dropped to the ground.

With speed that was above even Reign’s, Luin appeared in front of him before suddenly entering his body.

“Luin!” Idrel shouted in disbelief as he watched what was happening. He knew what Luin had done as that was his trump card, [ Soul Transformation ]. The skill was a simple one, it would allow Luin to turn himself into a soul for a period of time where he could attack the enemy directly. The souls he had of course would go with him and the sheer power behind all of that was enough for Luin to defeat almost anyone.

Of course, the skill came with a price, not only would Luin have to drop some of his items that weren’t rank A, but he would also be forced to stay in the form for a while, even after managing to defeat the enemy. His soul would stay in the body even after killing the opponent, if the body was destroyed then he would simply get out and be motionless before the skill expired.

It was an incredibly useful and powerful skill, but it of course came with a cost, with the help of mana there was a lot of people that would be able to injure his soul, and healing the soul was many time harder than healing a physical body.

Luin would only use this skill if he had to. Even if Reign was incredibly powerful he would still be paralyzed for some time since he was getting attacked from the inside. In order to not waste the precious opportunity that Luin had brought them, Idrel and Gardo both charged at Reign and attacked him.

Bzzzz

Lightning flickered as Reign disappeared from the spot and two cuts appeared on the chest of the two who were shocked. They weren’t shocked by the wound they had received as it was not a life-threatening one, but because Reign had actually moved after Luin had just entered his body.

“How, how can you move?!” Idrel shouted as he stared at Reign who looked back at him nonchalantly.

“Why wouldn’t I be able to move?”

“You!”

Idrel and Gardo both had their guard up, Luin’s final attempt to help them turned out to be useless and now they had to face Reign without his help. Reign looked at them before his expression changed, he looked at the giant ball in the sky as a crack appeared before a part of it actually got destroyed from the inside.

As that was happening, something incredibly weird was happening to Luin who was inside of Reign’s body.

“Where am I?” Asked Luin who stared at the darkness he found himself in.

“You shouldn’t have done this boy.” An old voice suddenly echoed behind Luin who quickly jumped and turned around. Aethion was sitting on a chair as about 8 souls were caged behind him. Luin could immediately see that they were the souls he had sent inside of Reign previously, but why were there only 8 of them?

“Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, but someone wants to deal with you personally, so off you go.” Before Luin could do anything, Aethion waved his hand, and Luin’s surroundings changed. Luin was forced to close his eyes for a moment before opening them again, only to be shocked by the sight in front of him.

“What, what is this?”

Hundreds of souls could be seen screaming inside a sea of lightning as light and darkness ground them from each side. The light would purify the souls before they disappeared while the darkness would crush them completely.

“The sea of consciousness.” A familiar voice could suddenly be heard behind Luin who turned around.

“You.” Luin narrowed his eyes as he looked at Reign who was dressed in all black, he wanted to immediately attack him but was shocked to find out that he had no power here, it was like everything he had was stripped away from him.

“Don’t bother, you’re far too weak to pose a threat to me here, but I have to admit, I admire your courage, even after sensing that all the souls you sent here were gone, you still tried to enter Reign’s consciousness in order to let your comrades have a chance to win the battle.”

“Reign’s consciousness?” Luin asked him with a surprised expression before opening his mouth wide as he thought of something.

“You, you’re not him aren’t you?”

“Well, I kind of am, but kind of is not, but I am a separate entity right now if that’s what you wanted to know.”

“So my comrades-”

“Zero chance of winning.”

“N-no, that’s-”

“It’s true, and well, even though I do like the fact that I have someone I can talk to, I have to cut this short, sorry buddy, but this is the end of the line for you.” The dark-clothed Reign said with a gentle smile before waving his hand, Luin was immediately blasted away into the sea of lightning.

“Well, it’s far too loud here to relax, I’m out.” The dark copy said as he disappeared from the spot, the screams of the hundreds of souls continued as Luin was now amongst them. The only outcome that he would have was complete and utter annihilation.

…

Boom!

An incredible amount of mana could suddenly be felt as what seemed to be a giant laser shot out from the black ball. Of course, there was no laser, it was highly condensed mana that was launched by the king who managed to break through the ball. The mana continued forward and even penetrated through the tough wall of the gorge before exiting at the top.

Of course, that didn’t come without a price as he had used a great deal of mana in order to do this. The king was breathing a bit heavy as he stared at the Judge from the hole he had created, with a ferocious smile he stepped forward in order to get out of the ball, only to widen his eyes in shock as he had seen the Judge make a couple of hand signs before clenching his hand into a fist.

The ball immediately responded and in an instant, it detonated.

Boom!