Lucas stood in the tower until he suddenly felt a spike in pressure. The bloodlust permeated in the air around him. A fiery hand grasped his heart, clasping his chest, he felt the hairs on his arms stand on edge.
A desire for death so powerful, Lucas choked on his spit. It was only for a single moment, but it made things clear enough for him. Spreading his willpower, he found nobody around him besides a few fallen angels and desperate undead.
'Was that shit just...?'
'It certainly felt like him.'
It felt familiar, too familiar, turning his head towards the source, Lucas' heart got pulled. Unable to control his emotions, he wasn't given a choice on how to move forward as he saw the Rank 4 mage drop from the sky to snuff out the source of power.
It didn't matter what he felt was genuine or not, if Alastor spoke the truth, one of his few, if not only friend, was in danger. Destroying the wall closest to him, he jumped out to chase after the mage.
His reveal attracted the attention of many, but they were already having enough trouble with the sudden rise in undead from the amount of fallen angels due to Lucas' trick.
'A good thing we brought them with us.'
'They're like vultures, obedient to their instinct as always.'
Making his way through the sky, he wasn't even close to the speed the rank 4 mage exhibited, infuriating him. Boosting his mana output slightly, he stopped himself.
'This isn't going to be easy.'
'No shit.'
'We'll have to throw him off his game, no holding back any cards either.'
'Well yeah, we'd be dead.'
'I'll take the first few clashes, can you switch in the moment you have a grasp of their combat style?'
'Sure, but I ain't going to survive if you don't pull that armor out.'
'Don't worry, I'm not planning on holding back.'
Lucas could already hear explosions in the distance, the mere thought he would be too late made him stop holding his energy back, boosting his flying speed ever so slightly.
Reaching a large forest, Lucas had multiple ideas come to mind to help him in the fight, but after flying for a few more seconds, he reached a barren wasteland, a desert in the middle of a forest. It felt so out of place, Lucas halted in his tracks.
He could feel the mana in the air. It wasn't just mana, he experienced something similar not too long ago. Fearing the worst, he rushed to the center to find the Rank 4 mage standing in the air with his arms crossed.
"Demon! Stop this foolish endeavor! You stand no chance against the Goddess!", the pressure emanating from him pushed a lone demon deep into the desert ground. The grin on the mage's face made something click in Lucas' mind.
Unlike before, they weren't capable of using someone else's aura to counter the angel. The trick Lucas and Asta used before was useless. The only thing they could do was work together to push his aura away.
But to do that, he would have to get close. Crash-landing on the desert ground, he shot mana forward to create five massive tornado's of crystallized sand sharp enough to shred apart any skin.
"What in the blazes is this supposed to be?", the Rank 4 mage waved his hand to destroy one of the tornado's in an instant.
Glancing towards the culprit, he was already gone, "Reinforcements? Hah! No manner of demon or beast stands a chance against Harut the Great!"
Clapping his hands together, a burst of mana blew everything to the side, the tornado's that blocked his vision removed without breaking a sweat, revealing Lucas next to the hunched over demon. It took no great mind to realize the tornado's only served as a distraction, but Harut wasn't pleased.
"A Rank 3? Are you looking down on me?!", releasing his aura and pressure, Lucas felt his bones creak under the pressure. Collapsing to his knees, he stared at Asta. Two large and sharp horns protruded from his forehead, reminding him of the Duke.
His hands seemed to have gained a scale-like structure to them. Lucas didn't understand, but his guess was close enough.
"Asta! We need to work together to get out of here! His pressure is too much to handle alone!"
Grabbing him up by the arm, Lucas freed him from his shackles until his instinct screamed at him. Without any time to react, he felt a hand pierce his stomach.
Looking down, he saw the pure hatred in Asta's remaining eye reflected back at him. The pain vanished with the wind as he stared into that teary eye. The two large horns protruding from his head, the long nails and almost scale-like skin around his hands all disappeared.
The hatred, the rage. It made the world slow around him.
What did he do? What happened to Asta? Was he responsible?
Jumping backwards, he quickly healed himself, "Asta! What's going on?! We need to-", Lucas barely had the time to react as swords of pure mana shot from under his feet, piercing his body in multiple places.
Blood flowed down on the sand, creating a stain below him. Lucas was unable to grasp what was happening. Only one person enjoyed their little display.
"Oh? Looks like I was wrong about you being reinforcements, hahaha! Infighting between a demon and a human traitor, what a sight! What a sight!"
Lucas wasn't able to share in his delight as he stared at the monster Asta had become. The swords missed his vitals because he twisted his body at the right time. Asta was attacking him with the intent to kill.
The bloodlust he felt from afar, it was for him, nobody else. Lucas knew it. He had no choice but to come here. And yet. His heart couldn't take it.
"Asta! What's wrong with you!? I'm here to save you! We have to work together to survive, can't you see that?!", Lucas had to keep prodding, he lacked crucial information, clearly something out of his control changed Asta to what he had become now.
Asta got up as he waved his hand, a wave of purplish flames was shot towards him. Lucas was more than familiar with it, "Don't!", splitting the wave of fire in two with a pillar of earth, dozens of smaller swords were waiting on the other side, rushing towards him.
Breaking them while they flew around him was almost impossible, but he was lucky they were the same swords he had seen in action plenty of times. Lucas knew how Asta fought, and adapted to his attacks mid-combat.
Conjuring a blade of Darkness, he removed the swords from existence with a few swings. Asta didn't look surprised at his unique spell, but the angel in the sky held a different expression.
'Is that? Solidified Darkness? How in the world...?', he frowned as he raised his hand. He loved to play around, but when faced with something as heretical as that, he had to step in.
The pressure around Lucas and Asta rose immensely, pushing them both back into the ground. Lucas gritted his teeth as he let his aura leaked out of his body, consuming the energy in the air to strengthen itself at the cost of his sanity.
Asta was of the same mind as his body became enveloped in light purplish flames, easing the power of the pressure enough to stand back up. They didn't bother staring at Harut who interrupted them, as they only had room for each other.
Harut had to blink twice as mages below his Rank stood up despite him not holding back his strength. Grunting, he poured more of his mana into the surroundings, but the mages before him kept their stance steady defying his common sense once more.
"Leave us. I will kill him and then you can take my life," Asta spoke with a strange cold detachment, anger lingered underneath every word. Lucas knew he was using his all to keep his calm, but his heart couldn't believe it.
"Asta, please listen to me! I don't know why you're acting this way, but I've done nothing but look for you! Whatever you heard about me isn't true, it's all a setup!"
"I heard you loud and clearly, though!", the flames around him grew intense for a moment as his anger made him lose control for a second. Lucas didn't understand. What did he say? What happened for Asta to turn against him?
"What did I say?!", Lucas almost lost control over his voice as he saw Asta clenched his fists tight.
"Oh don't try to act, I can see through your lies! Using me like an experiment, like a tool, an objective to achieve! I'll make you regret betraying me like that!"
Lucas couldn't wrap his head around it, nothing he said made any sense. Dozens if not hundreds of images and conversations flashed through his mind, all pointing to a single instance.
"Wait! That was-"
The angel in the sky didn't care about their personal drama, "Stop it! I bore of this theater, for all I know you're plotting to escape during the fight. Both of you will have to die here."
Conjuring up a spell, a massive hammer of pure Light appeared in his hand. The handle was long enough to be wielded with both hands, yet he swung it around with one hand like it weighed nothing. The large hammer head was neatly decorated, a shame it was often covered in blood when he used it.
His wings slightly changed, it was a small movement, negligible in the greater fight, but he was up against two geniuses of their time. Both Asta and Lucas dodged to the side as the large hammer smashed the desert ground into a large smoke screen.
Lucas let his mana course through the sand in the air to create a few more sand tornado's that damaged the shields protecting Harut, but they easily endured the attack.
Swinging his hammer again, the tornado's were blown apart, but it just gave Lucas more sharp sand to work with. Activating his spell again, he felt heat coming from behind. Conjuring a wall of sand in the nick of time, a massive explosion of flames blew through his wall, flinging him to the side.
"Asta! Don't use those flames!"
"Scared I might beat you!?", the taunt came from with the cloud of dust. Not taking any chances, Lucas took to the sky dodging a few basic fireballs as they devoured anything they touched.
'It has some of the same properties of Darkness, consuming whatever it can to fuel itself.'
'At the cost of his own life... that bastard!'
"Don't worry, I'll have killed you before my lifespan is depleted," Asta shot out of the dust cloud, rising above him as he surrounded himself with those flames.
"Stop it!", Lucas screamed out to no avail as the pure rage in Asta's eye made any kind of communication impossible.
Lucas flew backwards as he felt Harut approach with an extreme speed. He was so fast that even Lucas was too slow to simply dodge the incoming hammer. Crashing into the ground, Lucas felt his left leg missing, as it was smashed into smithereens by a single swing of Harut's hammer.
This wasn't the time to hold back, and Lucas knew taking risks was the only way he would be able to survive against such a powerful opponent. The blood from his blown off leg started to flow around his body.
His blood pulsed and thickened, oozing over his skin like molten tar before hardening into plates of crimson armor. The sound of his bones splitting and reforming resounded with wet cracks as they speared through his flesh as jagged spines.
His fingers trembled as they elongated, morphing into massive, serrated claws. His eyes turned black as a maw of protruding teeth that looked carved from ribs formed on his face.
From his spine erupted a forest of bone-laced tentacles, writhing like hungry serpents, their tips ending in barbed hooks slick with blood. Each lash came with the sound of skin tearing open and cartilage snapping.
His aura was poured into each and every cell, empowering it massively, enough to completely withstand Harut's natural aura. The lost leg had long reformed from a pool of blood, forming a crimson plated equivalent.
Astaroph took pause as he witnessed the monstrosity Lucas had become, but was more amazed he was still conscious despite the amount of aura he used. The only giveaway was the fact that his slightly changed posture meant he was dividing the burnout of his mind efficiently.
While Asta was stricken with a kind of dread, Harut had an entirely different view.
'Is that... Light magic? He's proficient in Light and Dark?', to Harut, Lucas still looked like a very young mage, yet the level of expertise in the rare elements made him confused. 'What kind of core does he have to get this far so quickly? He can't be allowed to live. I can't take such a risk.'
Taking things a bit more seriously, Harut swung his massive hammer with the goal of completely eviscerating Lucas, for as he was weak right now., if he let Lucas live for a few hundred years, he might become a threat to The Holy Kingdom. Just as his hammer got close, dozens of tentacles shot forward from Lucas' back to take the brunt of the attack.
The bones and blood formed a large shield, taking the swing head on, transferring the shock to the ground beneath them through the bloody armor, completely devastating it. As the hammer landed, Harut was surprised he didn't break the bone, but even more so when his hammer suddenly broke as the blood surging from the tentacles corrupted it with darkness and Lucas' personal aura, infecting his hammer to fall apart.
"What sorcery is this?!", staring at the bloodied monster Lucas had become with a grave look, he was suddenly doused in a sea of flames as Asta flew above him. A massive pillar of fire shot out of his hands as Asta wasn't planning on saving his lifespan in the slightest, catching both Lucas and Harut in a single attack.
The crimson monster screamed out loud as the blood started to boil, tentacles thrashed around to block the flames.
Harut's shields had broken down, his skin was starting to take damage, but a newly formed hammer was already in his hands. Swinging it once towards Asta, all the flames were blown away in an instant to reveal hundreds of tiny swords made of pure mana hidden within.
Flocking towards Harut, he swung again to destroy a couple dozen, making them explode. The explosion only caused the others to react, creating a chain reaction. The hundred swords blew up right near him. The explosion was still ongoing as a large Dark Red beam blasted it's way through the combustion.
A large shield of Light appeared in the nick of time to block most of the beam, but even that was consumed in an instant, making Harut dodge for the first time. He didn't get the time to process his evasion as he felt the ground beneath him explode in flames.
Arrays around him activated to conjure exploding swords and chains to hold him down, which were pulled apart the moment Harut moved. His shields had to be constantly reconstructed as his defenses were dwindling.
Turning around, he felt danger approach as a large tentacle ending in a sharp bone covered in blood was headed straight for his core. Slapping the bone away right on time, a claw covered in blood and Darkness lunged through the flames, aimed at his face.
Conjuring up large defenses, a very basic array appeared near him that drained all the mana from his spell, making the shield crumble. Harut used his speed to back up, but the claw had already plunged itself into his chest, just not deep enough to scratch his heart.
Jumping out of the ball of flames, Harut took to the sky, hurrying to heal his wounds. As a Rank 4 mage going up against two lesser ranked mages, Harut felt his pride hurt, his ego couldn't take it. But he had to admit it.
He almost died by that monster had he not backed up fast enough. Having a small bit of breathing room, he assessed his current state. Covered in wounds, defenses drained, his chest badly damaged, his wings and armor were almost torn apart, the golden luster a memory of the past. Realizing he had been damaged badly by two lower Ranked mages started to piss him off.
Harut felt a rage surging in his heart, "You dare- Argh!", but was cut short as a few strange runes were formed in blood on the armor covering his leg, making the armor completely compress, destroying his leg in the process. He could've easily healed it, but couldn't because it was stuck in the armor.
From behind him, a compressed orb of fire landed straight on him. Walls of Pure mana appeared around him to box him and the flames into the same location. The walls shrunk slowly, but didn't last long as two large Golden hammers broke through the enclosement, freeing the flames and captive.
Dozens of bloody tentacles dashed forward, slicing whatever it came in contact with as the tips were covered in darkness. Harut felt his newly conjured shields break down in an instant as his left arm was completely pierced by a couple of tentacles.
Flying even higher, he used a strange Light Flame to purge the tentacle blades around him while healing his wounds once more.
"Enough of this nonsense!", fully enraged, he used his speed to approach Astaroph. A couple of arrays activated to pepper him with explosions, but they delayed his approach not in the slightest. Arriving near Asta, he brought his hammers down with his full might, blasting him down to the ground. Crashing in the sand, a large crater was formed from the impact, but Harut wasn't going to stop here.
Diving down, he held his hammers ready to deal a finishing blow. Right as he landed on the ground, the hammers hit the desert floor, creating a large earthquake that was felt throughout all of Sabaoth. The entire landscape was reformed to a large empty crater. Harut's full power on display, Sabaoth trembled in fear.
The desert sand was nowhere to be seen, neither was the forest that surrounded it. There was nothing but rubble. Everything had been flattened or pushed away, yet underneath the hammer was nothing but more cracked stone.