Safe to say that our battle was going to be legendary.
We wasted not a single moment in trying to kill each other, as Asphodel and I tore through the courtyard.
Each clash of our scythes ripped through the air like relentless storms. Each impact cracked like thunder and released waves of ardor that swept over the assembled daemons witnessing our battle to the death.
Having two curved blades fused to his arms, Asphodel had a huge advantage over his opponent, capable of slashing with raw strength and an enhanced reach.
That is, if the opponent wasn't me.
In my past life and this life, I had mastered multiple weapons, and in this life, I became crazy good at using a scythe.
Mainly because Iris and I found it cool to wield a scythe.
For combat involving a longer range than my sword, a long-shafted scythe always felt more elegant and effective than a spear.
I matched Asphodel's powerful slashes and blows with precise counters and deflections.
This daemon's techniques and skills weren't clean, but he compensated with sheer raw power.
Each strike rattled my bones and seriously tested the durability of my scythe as he unleashed a continuous assault in his mission to slice me up into ribbons.
But that didn't mean he was overpowering me. We were more or less equally matched.
I lunged forward and swept my scythe upward in a graceful arc, aiming for Asphodel's chest.
He leaned back and let the blade miss his body; however, the searing heat of Bloodfire burned him as it licked his chest.
But he was unfazed by the damage. Instead, he ducked low and swung his scythe at my abdomen.
My blood appendages met the attack, and I skipped back a few steps, briefly creating a distance between us.
But Asphodel was relentless.
He rushed forward in the blink of an eye, closing the distance between us, and converged his scythes at my head.
I ducked low, dodging the blades, and went for his legs, slashing my scythe in a wide arc.
Suddenly, his leg erupted with black roots that surged toward me, lashing out like deadly snakes.
I quickly reacted, forming a Blood Grenade in my palm. I shoved it right into the surging wave of roots and detonated it.
The searing heat burned me, and the force of the explosion flung me away from the daemon.
I tumbled onto the floor until I stopped right at the edge of the pit. It's weird gravity almost pulled me into its gaping darkness if I hadn't dug my scythe into the white stone of the courtyard.
"That was close!" I gasped and rose to my feet. Crimson smoke arose from my body, my tattered uniform smoldered, and everything just really hurt.
However, the pain was brief as Haema immediately healed my burns and other injuries.
I looked ahead and watched Asphodel emerge from the crimson smoke. Significant damage had been done to his torso region, which was quickly regenerating.
His scythe arms were gone, instead replaced by massive serrated claws that reminded me of Genisix.
Black energy enveloped his claws, and he slashed in my direction, launching multiple black crescents at me.
I increased the Bloodfire covering my scythe and swung it, releasing a blazing arc of crimson-black flames that intercepted the black energy arcs in an explosion of ardor.
I entered my Triquetra state.
My blood flow accelerated, surging like a torrent through my blood vessels. Ardor spread all over my body, enhancing it. Everything slowed to a crawl as Transcendence opened my senses to a whole new level.
I exhaled and streaked towards Asphodel, swinging my scythe in a horizontal arc.
The daemon moved to intercept my strike with his claws when I suddenly twisted my wrist and slashed upward.
Black ooze, thick and glistening, spurted out of the deep cut I inflicted on Asphodel's chest.
But I wasn't done.
A split second later, I shifted my grip and swung the scythe in a full circle, dealing another upward swing.
This time, the results were better as the blade covered in Bloodfire plunged into the tough flesh of Asphodel's gut.
Asphodel let out a grunt of pain.
Ah, that is music to my ears.
Suddenly, a shockwave exploded from Asphodel. It slammed into my ribs like a battering ram. Before I could react, his knee jammed into my gut. My vision flared white.
He grabbed my hair, yanking me up in the air before tossing me away from him.
I hit the ground hard.
"That fucking hurt!" I grumbled, rubbing my stomach as it throbbed. I'm pretty sure the brute force damaged some of my organs.
Asphodel pulled my scythe out of his gut and tossed it behind him.
Straight into the pit.
"OI!" enraged, I leaped at him, ardor and blood swirling around my fist, igniting into a fiery gauntlet of crimson and black flames.
"That was expensive!" I yelled, delivering a punch to his head.
Asphodel blocked the strike, but the force of the attack caused his knees to buckle.
Blood and flames swirled around my left arm, pulsing and taking the shape of a massive dragon arm with claws of crystallized blood covered in Bloodfire.
{Haema: Scarlet Dragon's Hand}
Asphodel's black flesh seared from Bloodfire and tore as I swiped from the side with my code.
Another grunt of pain escaped the daemon as he flew in the air like a rag doll, black roots flailing all around.
Before he hit the ground, more black roots sprouted from his body and anchored themselves to the ground, supporting Asphodel and preventing his fall.
He landed on the ground and turned his head toward me. His sickening grin returned, wider than ever.
"That was a neat trick, Little Prince." He got up and strode towards me, dragging his serrated claws across the white stone of the courtyard.
I simply clicked my tongue and approached him, taking out my trusty Nightwood bow and a few black arrows.
Asphodel scoffed. "A little late to use an arrow- Argh!"
He stumbled backward, immediately tilting his head down to notice the black arrow sticking out of his chest.
Before he could react, I planted five more arrows on his body, four into his joints and one at his neck.
I calmly nocked another arrow and aimed it at the daemon's head.
With a soft exhale, I released the string, and the arrow hit its mark faster than the blink of an eye.
Asphodel's head jerked backwards, and he almost fell.
When he straightened up, the horrifying grin had vanished, replaced by a smooth blank visage devoid of any features that would comprise a face.
I smirked. Using Felix's final gift on his killer felt quite right.
"Are you done?" Asphodel's distorted voice slithered in my ears, no longer amused.
I gave him a sweet smile and snapped my fingers.
"Oh, I am done. Almost."
Before he realized, the arrows embedded in his body exploded violently, ripping apart his limbs from his body and engulfing his head and neck in Bloodfire.
Those were special arrows I had Master Lorvar make for me in the Shield, each containing a tiny yet powerful bomb inside the arrowhead.
They were powerful enough to rip apart steel cables or, in this case, Asphodel's limbs and head.
"That was for Felix, you rooty son of a bitch." I muttered, watching the now limbless and headless body of Asphodel plopped to the ground like an ugly sack of potatoes.
I tucked in my bow and took out my sword. I have a feeling this isn't the end.
A few seconds later, that point was proven, and the air shifted.
A powerful wave of ardor surged across the courtyard, almost making me fall over, and a terrifying aura threatened to bring me to my knees.
An unearthly scream echoed across the palace walls.
Asphodel's decapitated and dismembered body convulsed and contorted gruesomely as it swelled and distorted itself.
It erupted into a huge mass of flailing black roots that grew rapidly. They twisted around and coiled against each other, forming something out of nightmares.
It was still Asphodel, but he looked… mutated.
He looked… wrong, disturbingly wrong.
His limbs were replaced with elongated, writhing bundles of numerous roots that flailed like angry serpents, each one seeming eerily alive.
His destroyed body put itself back together, forming a torso and chest bigger and more muscular than before.
With my enhanced hearing, the straining and tightening of the black roots forming his torso sounded like the high-tension wires used by cranes in the Shield.
But the worst part was his head, or lack thereof.
There was no disgusting grin or the smooth black visage.
Just a mass of roots that sprouted from his blown-up neck. It was a roiling mass of black roots, too numerous to count.
They trailed back and converged into a pair of grotesque, misshapen wings that stretched like massive and nightmarish black sails.
Despite the absence of a mouth, his voice, more distorted and garbled, reverberated through my body and even caused the floor to vibrate.
"Let us end this farce, shall we?" The powerful and utterly revolting aura he released threatened to overwhelm me and made me retch.
It was… suffocating.
"Incarni! That is a nasty makeover." I muttered, watching Asphodel rise off the ground, his horrifying wings releasing a sickening black vapor with each powerful flap.
I narrowed my eyes and gripped my sword as the daemon commander ascended eerily, shaking the very air he was now dominating, his grotesque wings blotting out a small portion of the crimson sky above.
I streamed ardor and blood along the blade's edge, accelerating it and forming a thin layer of rapidly moving blood concentrated with ardor.
Man, I wish I could form wings and act all cool like that.
I blinked and then grinned.
Oh wait.
I can.