Descent of a God

Mystery

Arthur POV:

Sylvie then turned towards me and gave me a forced smile, "Arthur, I only have three days left before I die."

My mind seemed to have gone blank as I struggled to process her words. 

"I-It can't be..." I stammered out with tears threatening to fall out of my eyes. 

Everyone precious to me, everyone full of happiness seemed to disappear like I was a plague infecting their lives.

First, it was my father. An ordinary man who lived a quiet life in Ashber was pulled into the middle of all this because of the genius of my brother and I.

Then, it was Tessia. She wasn't anybody ordinary seeing how she was a princess but now her soul would be forcefully crushed while someone else took control of her body. All because by best friends from my previous life wanted to revive his lover

And now, it's Sylvie, who was going to die because of my lack of planning and foresight.

'If... if I had just done something better. If I had planned better... or taught the lances faster. I am sure that Jude would have been able to prevent this.'

I abruptly got up from my seat and conjured aether around me. The purple motes linked to each other before forming a spatial bridge for me to teleport with.

Hundreds of kilometres went by a flash as I could almost make out Grandpa's alarmed voice as he tried to catch me before I could escape.

Yes, escape. All I have been doing is escaping, running from my problems. I never dared to face them head on.

I turned off my mental link with Sylvie even though she was already out of range and flew aimlessly. The sight of destroyed land below me did nothing to better my mood.

However, an interesting mana signature caught my senses. I honed on them, locating the person who caught my attention.

She was a girl, with obsidian like black hair travelling down her back. Her skin was pale, however it only accentuated her beautiful facial expressions rather than giving her a sickly outlook. She reminded me of Kathyln, only taller and more voluptuous. 

However, the cadence of her walk told me all about her experiences in life and death situations. Not only that, the aura that she was futilely trying to contain told me that her strength surpassed even that of the Scythes, albeit ever so slightly.

Arthur, you shouldn't do this. Regis's gruff voice resonated inside my head as he tried to convince me to return.

Meeting such a powerful opponent by myself was not a good idea, logically speaking.

I don't care anymore, I am tired of losing and running away. Heed my orders, Regis. I replied and charged in without waiting for his response.

For some reason, my core started to throb as I created the spatium bridge between the woman and me.

'What is this feeling of nostalgia?' I wondered before pushing those thoughts behind my head and landing in front of her.

"You have been observing me for quite some while," the woman said, no trace of shock apparent on her face from my sudden appearance. 

My emotions were bubbling inside me even more as I felt some sort of connection with her.

Thump!

My core lurched and I almost made my face meet the ground, just managing to catch myself in time.

I looked up to see the woman look at me with shock while her hand rested on her mana core, signifying that she felt the same thing as me.

"Who... What are you?" she asked as her amethyst eyes gleamed with killing intent.

Goosebumps spread across my skin as I activated Regis Armour to surrounded my body just in time.

BOOM!

A huge explosion blew me away. Even though I was mostly unhurt because of Regis, the raw power of the attack was on a completely different level.

Without giving me any time to rest, the woman shot forward towards me, her hand clenched to form a fist as she brought it to my jaw.

'Fast!' I thought before barely dodging the attack by ducking. Her right fist swung straight for my abdomen, hoping to knock the air out of my lungs. 

However, I used [Static Void] just in time to position my arms to block the attack.

THAT HURTS! Regis screamed.

My arms were completely numb with pain and I was once again blown away.

I quickly activated [Thunderclap Impulse] boosted my aevum to slow down my reaction time even more.

Her impossibly fast fist seemed much more manageable now as I twisted and turned my body the perfect amount to flawlessly dodge her barrage of attacks.

The fact that my blue core was throbbing didn't make this any better.

Regis, Dual Gauntlet Form! I demanded while deploying a delayed complex spatium pathway spell to dodge her next series of attacks.

Regis moved himself from covering my entire body to just my fists. Purple flames flickered to life and I could feel my power increasing by the second.

The woman was unshaken as she once again punched. I reciprocated by meeting her punch equally, just to see the difference between us.

As I thought, there was quite a bit of a gap between us when it came to raw power. My body was pushed back and I dug into the ground.

Princess, you better have a good plan! Regis said in my head while trying his hardest to aid me.

I calmed my brain down, increasing the pace of its operations by using lightning magic and aevum.

'Calculation done,' I thought internally before counterattacking.

The woman struck me by punching to my liver but I easily dodged her attack and punched her back. She deflected my attack and we kept on going on like this.

Even though I figured out her attack patterns, her speed and power advantage caused the battle to slow down to a standstill, with neither of us getting any decisive hits in.

NOW! I screamed internally when she had her guard down. Regis instantly understood as he moved all his power to my left hand.

My powerless right hand was crushed by her attack, but it gave me the opening I needed.

[Static Void]

I paused time just enough for my fist to sail past her and hit the woman squarely on her jaw.

Time began to flow freely once again as my full power attack was released on her. Her body was sent tumbling back down. My ragged breathing was the only noise that could be heard.

Just when I was about to move forward to confirm the kill, chills went down my spine.

But they were way worse this time. 

It took everything I had to look at what stood in front of me, and my eyes almost darted away as soon as I did.

The black-haired woman's purple eyes shown with intensity that I had only seen from the Asuras before.

However, what was on her back was much more startling. 

Windsom had once told me that most Asuras had a third form, a hybrid one between their first and second forms.

Obsidian coloured dragon wings similar to Sylvie's protruded prominently from her back. Her onyx horns, that were previously hiding, her much more prominent than even the Scythes. Her arms had turned into those of a dragon and semi-transparent scales were dotted on her skin.

This was the first time I felt true fear.

(A/N: Cliffhanger time! I have a very busy week coming up, so early update for you guys! Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed!)