While the copy had been 'fighting' against the fog and Nearsch's soul, Reign was still fighting against the suit that was now fully operated by the AI, which meant that nothing much had changed as the AI had been fighting over 90% of the time previously.
The AI had impeccable timing, and its ability to respond to Reign's attacks was incredible, allowing it to notice an attack right as it started and perform the necessary countermeasures for it.
Even with his transformation, even with his boosted powers, Reign was still unable to gain an edge over it, which was to be expected as the suit was the equivalent of a Tier V being. If Reign was a Tier V combatant as well, then with his transformation, he would be able to defeat the suit, but even then, he wouldn't be able to do it without suffering some injuries, which would mostly be light injuries that did little to hinder him.
Reign was flying around, and the suit followed as it used mana as fuel to power up several compartments from which a great deal of energy came out, lifting the suit up and allowing it to fly as well.
The two fought fiercely, and each time Reign got injured, he healed himself with his light manipulation, while each time the suit got hit, it barely changed a thing. Reign was unable to use his most powerful abilities as not only was the chance of the suit dodging them high, but it would also use up a lot of mana, and if he wasn't able to deliver the blow straight to the suit and deal some significant damage, it wasn't worth it.
He didn't know what the dark copy was going to do, but he had sensed how Nearsch's soul was almost completely gone, sucked inside his body with the fog. Even the fog that had been inside his body suddenly disappeared for some reason and Aethion didn't need to block it anymore.
As the battle raged, some of the explosions that took place even interfered with the battle between the monsters and the rest of Reign's party, mostly interfering with the monsters since they were the ones to get hit by the shockwave after each explosion.
'Dammit, what the hell is that guy doing, I don't have much time left!' Reign cursed in his head as he even started second-guessing his actions. He had trusted the copy and let it do what it wanted, almost completely forgetting that the copy was the darkness inside of him and that this could have been a trick.
'Can he somehow gain more power after destroying the fog, can he devour it somehow?'
'Maybe he did this to make me get injured, and then he will take over my body by using Wolf and the others as the reason.'
If Reign was unable to defeat the suit before his transformation ended, that would spell the end for not only him but for Wolf and the others as well. He knew, and he was certain that the copy knew, that he wouldn't allow them to be killed, no matter what.
He would definitely allow the copy to take over his body if that was the only way to save them, and now, he was thinking that that was the copy's plan all along.
'Dammit, I was too trusting, I completely forgot about his true nature!'
"No, he won't do such a thing." Aethion suddenly said inside of Reign as he stood next to Jared.
'And how can you be so sure?'
"I am, just relax, he is almost finished, everything will be alright," Aethion said once again, and just as Reign was about to ask him again, the attack he had unleashed at the suit suddenly hit it without any trouble.
Reign looked at the suit and his sword, which had cut deeply inside of it, even cutting deeply into Nearsch's body, before using the opportunity to attack it again and channel his mana as much as he could.
[ Lighting Lance ]
Reign didn't know what had happened to make the suit stop working suddenly, but he wasn't about to waste this opportunity, nor was he about to allow the suit to continue fighting again. He stabbed at the chest of the suit, and his sword struck it, only stopping for a brief instant before penetrating through the suit and Nearsch.
Lightning exploded from inside, destroying Nearsch's body and dealing some significant damage to the suit that had turned off. The AI was no longer activated, and the suit was not using mana to reinforce itself, making its defenses a lot lower than usual.
'Jared did you-'
"No, I am afraid that it wasn't me, master," Jared said as he shook his head.
Inside Reign's consciousness, the copy stared at where Nearsch's soul had been before sitting down. Even though he had looked calm and unbothered by the fog and Nearsch in the slightest, the truth was, when the fog started destroying the mental space, he had been inflicted quite some damage.
"In the end, I had to resort to using this to destroy it." The copy said as he looked at the sea of lightning that was around him, as well as the light and darkness that had taken over the entirety of the mental space.
"I'll have to rest for quite a bit, don't get into any trouble as I heal up, Reign." The copy said as he closed his eyes and fell asleep while floating on the sea of lightning.
Reign's eyes were staring at the suit as he tried inspecting his body, as well as his consciousness. As he had thought, he couldn't sense Nearsch or the fog anywhere, but neither could he sense his copy, which was to be expected as the bastard could hide from Reign easily.
"If the copy was to devour the fog and Nearsch, it would benefit you as well as it is a part of you, but the fog is an unstable thing, so it's better to do what he has done and simply destroy it," Aethion said as he sat down on a chair he had created.
"I know that you think the worst of the copy, but so far, it had only helped you out, it did nothing that negatively affected you at all."
'Nothing my ass, he was the one that whispered in my head back in the underground city, making me lose my cool and attack a god, he was also the one that tried to trick me into giving him more power when I faced that damned orc.'
'Back when I saw Adam die, he was the one that made me lose to my anger, even if he tries to tell me that it wasn't him, there is no way I'll trust him!' Reign shouted in his head as Aethion sighed while Jared simply looked at the suit with great interest.
"Master, why did you have to destroy it, it wasn't even working anymore," Jared said with a sad sigh as Reign's eyes opened wide.
He had completely forgotten about it. Jared can infiltrate the suit, and he was hoping to use the suit as a helper, but he messed up, he completely wrecked the suit.
'Dammit, and it would have been such great help during the evolution challenge!' Reign lamented as Aethion scoffed.
"There is no way the system would allow you to use that thing during the challenge, so don't worry about it, you did nothing wrong."
"Even so!" Reign said out loud.
'It could have been used to defend the territory in the event that I and the others aren't there, a freaking Tier V, a suit that gives a person the power of a Tier V being, and I destroyed it, dammit!' Reign was on his knees, staring at the suit as his transformation had ended a couple of seconds ago.
Seeing as how Reign had managed to win, Wolf and the others all smiled as they fought against the monsters that were still alive. The fog started dispersing slightly. The hole that had been present on the floor closed, and from now on, the fog would slowly dissipate from the mountain range, never taking any life again.
Still, Wolf and the others looked concerned. They saw how Reign had fallen down on his knees and how he looked quite stressed out and worried.
'Did something happen?'
'Shit, is he in trouble?!'
'We have to get rid of these things quickly!'
"I'll go check it out, just wait a bit!" Shadow said before using his skill and teleporting near Reign before going to check up on him.
"Hey, what's wrong man, are you alright?!" Shadow asked Reign who looked up. His lips were curved downward and a dejected expression was plastered on his face, making Shadow gulp in worry.
"I wrecked it." Reign said sadly as Shadow blinked thrice in quick succession.
"What?"
"The suit, it was so cool and so strong, and I destroyed it, we could have taken it with us, and yet, I destroyed it." Reign said sadly as he stared at the suit while Shadow smiled dangerously.
"Here we are, worried sick about you, and you are lamenting a freaking battle suit?!" Shadow suddenly hit Reign on his back, producing a loud 'Thud' before teleporting back to the others.
"Hey, what-"
"He's alright."
"He's just a moron!" Shadow said as he suddenly plunged his daggers inside the neck of a monster.
"Huh?"
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