Immediately the two rushed towards each other again as the sword clashing continued as if in a pre choreographed method. Screeching sounds were heard and lightning flashed each time their swords met.
White was realizing something was different about the Black he was fighting. Why was his enemy using such low spells in the middle of such a high level combat? And there was something wrong in his eyes too. Well, he would take advantage of that. He suddenly increased the pace of his sword movements, pushing back his adversary with quick rapid reckless strokes and swung around mightily till he got an opening. Immediately he raised one hand upright, still levitating in flight.
"Ability of the Light 74; Lightning bolt." Clearly visible waves of white colored energy dissipated from his hand as much higher up in the clouds static charge accumulated sparkling with the same color as on the white angel's hands, but on a much larger scale. White brought down his hand swiftly, guiding lightning from the skies to strike his opponent as a blinding flash obscured his view for a second.
Had he got him? Had he struck down his opponent? It had been a powerful spell. White felt movement behind as he swirled around to find Black inches behind him, with his sword striking out. He jerked backwards with all the momentum his wings could muster, barely missing the blow. So Black had used a teleport ability at the last moment? This 'different' Black was far more furtive and savage than the one he had fought before. White would have to be careful.
The adversaries sparred with a few more swings and separated once more. White breathed heavily. He was using up too much energy but his opponent seemed hardly enervated. He watched as Black brought both his sword wielding palms together and joined them in a finger lock.
"Internecine Ability 98; Million Scattering Brutal Shadows." White's eyes grew wide in surprise; this was a drastically high level spell.
He watched helplessly as the massive dark angel's form became hazy and slowly started disintegrating into tens of thousands of pieces. Pieces that would act as millions of blades and attack the enemy from every possible direction. Black had temporarily broken himself down to these Scattering blades that could cut up an enemy into zillions of tiny shreds in seconds.
White quickly held his hand perpendicular to his body for defense. "Guardian Ability 7, Golden Sphere."
Instantly a golden translucent bubble sphere surrounded White, encasing him in safety. But White knew even this force field would not be able to sustain continuous attacks from the brutal shadowed scattering blades. And playing extreme defense at a time like this was not a very smart thing to do.
White watched from inside the force field as hundreds of tiny black blades - the dissembled form of Black himself; hurled themselves with force and momentum onto the spherical enclave. He gritted his teeth as the particle blades began colliding, each attempting to slice the sphere or at least crack it; and there were a countless number of them. White would not be able to maintain his force field much longer.
He gripped the hilt of his sword tighter as he called upon his inner energies and burst into golden flames. The powers of the flames of the Helos Saber would hardly protect him from these ruthless shadowy blades, but would at least offer some resistance. His body was refulgent in golden flames and not a moment too soon. The golden sphere collapsed as the blades swarmed in and rushed onto him.
White let out a blood curdling scream as the blades tore across every possible millimeter of his body, shredding bits of meat, feather and cloth alike. The innumerable particulate blades formed a spate of destructive projectiles, totally encasing his form as it plummeted downwards from the sky. His body crashed into the rooftop of a building, cracking the roof floor where it landed.
White painfully opened his eyes. Black had reformed himself from the blades and was motionless in his co ordinates in the sky far far above. White understood that he was recuperating himself from the effects of the immensely powerful internecine spell he had just used. But he was still up in the sky? This was definitely not the ordinary Black; the dark angel should have been groveling on the ground with pain after using such a 'mutually destructive' ability.
White tried to budge but his body would not let him. Every modicum of his frame had been sliced, thousands of deep cuts and thousands of superficial ones. The pain was overbearing. His face, his torso, his legs, arms, shoulders, back; all were covered in blood. Blood that was even blurring his vision. His wings were torn and ragged once again. Most of the cloth fabric on him had been reduced to shreds. Would he die here? Would this mark the end of a Perpetual? Would this bloody mess and pain be his death? And then he once again remembered Aiden. That's what he was fighting for here; the Alchemist who was a boy that he had sworn to protect. He did not know where the boy was right now, but it was good if he was away from the battle.
White felt strength surge within his body as thoughts of Aiden overwhelmed him. He would fight for the boy, and he would not die till he had eliminated all possible forces that worked against the boy. He heaved himself up, shuddering, trembling with throbbing and shooting pains and weakness, but he would do this for Aiden. It had started to rain heavily now, and water droplets that fell on his body trickled down after turning red in color, dissolving his blood. But White felt energies flowing back into his body as his resolve got more and more determined. He shrieked Aiden's name out loud and then clasped his palms as he held them above his head. If Black was using his full power in this battle then so would he.
"Ability of the Light 99; Heaven's God; Flaming phoenix."
As those words left his mouth, yellow and orange flames of fire started whirling around his body. A swirling mass of flames that got larger and larger with each passing second; flames that formed a whirling tornado of hot energies that were slowly taking a gigantic form Flames that spread across for hundreds of feet making everything around for miles glow red in color. The flames were getting hotter as more and more energies imploded onto a critical point. The critical point would serve as the eye of the phoenix.
Fire swirled into the sky like the sun's solar prominences as steadily they took on the form a giant bird; a bird of fire that constantly burned itself out; a bird whose entire body was composed of fames that burned at more than a thousand degrees; a bird with a dozen tales of fire that extended to hundreds of feet; a bird more than 500 meters in length and even greater wingspan; this bird was heaven's god - the flaming phoenix; summoned by White to fight his battle.
The phoenix screeched in a high pitched tone, its scream shattering window panes and glasses for miles across as it lurched towards Black. Thousands watched dumbstruck as the gigantic fiery bird sailed through the air towards the dark Seraph.
~~~
The Empress was incensed. Her cute chubby face was absolutely livid with anger. She had been wasting too much time in this virtual world of the darned angel Frigeria. She needed to get back to the real material plane fast; reach there, finish off the Alchemist and then help her guardian Black to eradicate White. She knew for sure that her guardian would not lose to White this time; not while the stone of Subjugation was embedded within him. The stone made him more resistant to damage and made him a fighting machine.
But for now she had to get out of this damn virtual world. A world which was barely a hemispherical dome with a radius of about half a mile. Topographically, the whole area resembled the one where she had initially tried to teleport from when she tried to appear right next to Black and White and the Alchemist boy. But otherwise this world was swarming with humans that were nothing but illusions; young boys playing with dogs in a park as an old couple sat on a park bench watching them. Sharply dressed suited men and women scurrying about to get to work. A hot dog vendor shouting as he advertised his wares; very city picturesque. But the little girl was getting annoyed.
She knew that getting out of such a 'maze' involved solving clues and riddles and conundrums. But she had had enough. Her eyes turned as red as hot charcoal as two figures in front of her caught fire and screamed as they ran amuck. A few moments later everyone had either caught fire or had turned to ashes; the old couple, the hot dog vendor, the boys and suited men and women, even the dogs. And an angry little girl was turning everything into gutted ruins and cinders. She was getting out of this labyrinth one way or another.
~~~
Aiden frantically raced up the steps of the town's clock tower. He had been frantically trying to find a way to get closer to the two winged beasts that were his friends. He knew not what he would do if he got closer to them, but he was determined to get to them somehow. He had raced about for very long in the town trying to follow the two clashing angels as they fought in the town's skies. But their fight path had been highly erratic and they covered astounding distances in a few seconds.
