Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 124: The end of the battle

’Nothing is making sense.’

Adrian’s sword was clearly enveloped in lightning; it wasn’t just her eyes playing tricks on her. But—

’That’s elemental infusion, right?’

According to what Adrian himself had told her a while ago, Infusers couldn’t benefit from their elemental affinities until they reached Phase Three and gained Elemental Infusion ability. An ability that allowed one to infuse mana with their element.

This ability was the very basis of infusion arts.

But if Adrian was using elemental infusion...

’Did he somehow ascend to Phase Three just now?’

No, that wouldn’t explain the absurd amount of mana he was releasing right now. Moreover, didn’t he have Space affinity? How can he suddenly use lightning?

Adrian glanced at the blue lightning covering the surface of his sword, then he turned his gaze to the assassin, making the man back away instinctively.

"Y-you... what sort of monster are you?!"

Adrian sharpened his gaze. And then—

—he disappeared.

The assassin instantly strengthened his guard, as if ready to block an incoming attack. Evangeline also expected Adrian to appear in front of the assassin the next moment and behead him with his sword.

But—

BAAM!

A sudden loud noise made them both turn their heads towards the other end of the clearing. A tree was toppled to the ground, and Adrian was slowly getting back up. The state of the tree’s trunk made it look as though Adrian had crashed into it.

’What just happened?’

Wasn’t he going to attack the assassin? Why was he suddenly at the other end of the clearing?

The assassin also seemed dumbfounded by this development, but he quickly came to his senses and launched dozens of fireballs at Adrian. Adrian was quick to react, cutting down fireballs one after another with incredible speed.

But every time his lightning-infused blade made contact with a fireball, it would produce a miniature explosion, which made things even harder for him.

Evangeline also came to her senses moments later and began casting spells.

’Now is not the time to be lost in thought!’

She fired several wind blasts at the assassin, pulling his attention towards her. At the same time, Adrian rushed to close the distance. The assassin barely dodged the wind blasts, but Adrian was upon him by then.

He lashed out with his sword, and the assassin responded to his attacks by blocking with his magma sword. Their swords clashed dozens of times in a single moment, and their clash was becoming more intense with each passing second.

Adrian didn’t seem to have gotten physically stronger than before, but the assassin seemed to be putting a lot more effort. Each time he blocked Adrian’s sword with his own, she could see his expression visibly strain and his muscles contract.

She quickly realized the reason.

’It’s because of the lightning.’

The assassin blocked another strike from Adrian and gritted his teeth.

"This little—! Just what sort of freak are you?!"

Just like her, the assassin must also be struggling against the tyrannical pressure pressing down on them. He must be constantly releasing his mana to offset the pressure, just like she was doing. Maybe that was also one of the reasons the clash seemed less one-sided than before.

As their clash continued, Evangeline began preparing another attack. She materialized a rock the size of a watermelon and made a vortex of wind spin around. Using the wind to propel it forward, she launched the rock at the assassin.

With most of his attention focused on Adrian, the assassin was just a moment too late to react, and the rock smashed straight at the right side of his face.

"-Argh!!!"

The assassin roared in pain and clutched his face unconsciously as he lost balance. That gave Adrian the opening, and he slashed across the assassin’s chest.

"Gaah!!"

That slash added a cut across the assassin’s chest. The assassin gritted his teeth and roared.

"Don’t screw with me!!!"

With that roar, flames burst from the assassin’s body in all directions, causing Adrian to jump back and dodge the flames.

The flames burned the brown robe the assassin wore, revealing his upper body. A large cut spread across his chest, and blood constantly spilled out from it. Sadly, the cut didn’t seem too deep.

The assassin clenched his teeth and burned the cut over his chest, as if to stop the bleeding.

"Ughh!"

A muffled groan escaped his mouth as he burned the wound with his own flames.

As he finished, the assassin directed his sharp gaze at the two of them. Moments later, he lunged in her direction. Evangeline was a bit startled, not expecting him to attack her instead of Adrian, but she was still quick to react, shooting a wind blast at him.

Still running towards her, the assassin sidestepped to dodge the wind blast, but Adrian was already upon him by then, resulting in another exchange of blows.

Adrian shouted without looking at her.

"I will block him and give you time; prepare your strongest attack."

Hearing that, the assassin gritted his teeth.

"And you think I would let you?!"

Suddenly, his magma sword rippled and changed shape, growing larger. In the next moment, it turned into a greatsword. The assassin lashed out with the magma greatsword. At the same time, he released bursts of flames from his body.

Since Adrian was engaging him to buy time, he couldn’t jump back to dodge the flames. So he clenched his teeth and endured them, all while blocking the heavy strikes from the magma greatsword.

The defining sound of their clash rang throughout the whole area.

It was clear now that the man was going all out, and Adrian was struggling to keep up.

As their clash continued, the lightning covering Adrian’s blade became more and more dense, creating a short explosion every time it blocked a strike from the magma greatsword.

Standing behind Adrian, Evangeline took a deep breath.

’I have to focus.’

She was not very proficient with the Tier Two spells she had learned, so she needed a lot of focus to cast them.

’I need an attack that can finish this.’

Mana gathered on her left palm, slowly twisting to form a spell. A spell that looked much more complex than before. In the next moment, a crown made of water materialized above her head.

Another spell formed on her right hand, and a ball of flame materialized in front of her.

She gritted her teeth.

’Ugh, c-can’t do more than this.’

With the crown of water above her head, her control over water was significantly strengthened. She created a small rock with earth manipulation and pushed it into the fireball. She then manipulated water and added a layer of it over the fireball and then made a small vortex of wind spin around it all.

The conflicting elements clashed against each other, the wind fanned the flames, the water melted into steam, and the rock became magma from the flame’s heat. Blood began flowing out of her nose as she struggled to hold it all together.

"Adi!"

Adrian briefly glanced back, then instantly jumped back to the side. At the same time, Evangeline launched her attack straight at the assassin.

Seeing the incoming projectile, the assassin clenched his teeth and brought his hand forward. In the next moment, the magma greatsword turned into a round shield.

Her attack slammed into the magma shield, shattering it completely. He tried to dodge, but the assassin wasn’t fast enough, causing his entire right arm to be incinerated.

"Aaaghhh!!!"

The assassin screamed in pain but then gritted his teeth.

"No, not yet!"

The assassin roared and aimed his left arm at her, as if preparing to cast a spell. But Adrian rushed past him, cutting his remaining arm off.

He then pointed his blade at the assassin and spoke in a cold, chilling tone.

"This is the end for you. Now tell me who it was that sent you after us."