The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss-Chapter 199: Ocean of Despair

My opponent Thalor and I charged forward, striking simultaneously. The reinforced floor of the arena cracked under the force of our blows as we competed in strength.

He vanished from my sight and struck from behind, but I quickly defended as he repeated the attack, disappearing and reappearing at different points while I blocked them all.

Clearly, I’m at a slight disadvantage for being a bit weaker, so to compensate, I close my eyes and open two smaller eyes beneath my normal ones. This allows me to distribute the workload.

With my eyes closed, I can focus more on sensing mana and detecting general movements, while the two smaller eyes visually track his attacks if he appears in my field of vision.

I use the [Indes] technique to maintain balanced distance as he follows up with a powerful downward strike. I use my tail to propel myself, leaping over him and slicing at his neck.

"..." But he’s quickly in front of me, striking with a kick that I purposefully let hit. My armor expands in the abdominal area, defending the impact.

I use [Ringen am Schwert] to make a slight advance, entering close quarters, and land an elbow strike to his stomach before retreating with support from my tail.

"!!" Thalor delivers a powerful vertical blow, the pressure stronger than expected, so I use [Mutieren] to quickly adapt, followed by [Absetzen] to combine defense and attack, landing a cut on his arm as I dodge to the right.

’Blood...’ My closed eyes bleed from the strain of trying to keep up with Thalor’s speed, but they’re the ones helping the most to equalize my reaction time with what I see.

Thalor and I reinforce our attacks with mana and retreat simultaneously, then advance. The clash of our swords generates a shockwave that cracks the reinforced arena walls.

Realizing I won’t win this exchange of blows, I use [Durchwechseln] to redirect his strike downward while dodging left, but he reacts first, striking me with a kick that I defend with my tail.

I use [Abnehmen] to quickly fall back to recompose myself, but he doesn’t give me time and rushes in, attacking with a flurry of cuts that I barely evade.

I end up needing a countermeasure, so I use [Scheitelhau] to break his defense, lowering his guard, then attack with a thrust, as this is an irregular and unpredictable attack since bastard swords aren’t as good at perfect thrusting.

He dodges and quickly switches sides, coming to my right, and brings his sword up in a diagonal cut, attempting to decapitate me. But I quickly use my tail to hold the severed arm still gripping my sword, blocking his attack with the detached limb.

"..." I leap back, putting distance between us as I regenerate a new arm and retrieve the sword held by the old one.

I take the opportunity while he’s regaining his footing to wipe the blood streaming down my face with the back of my hand, as the blood from my eyes has dripped into the smaller eyes, making my vision red and somewhat uncomfortable.

"Maximized destruction magic..." Thalor tries to use magic, but I take this chance to advance at an alarming pace, aiming my sword at his throat. He’s caught off guard and barely manages to lean back, interrupting his spell.

"..." He retreats, taking distance and realizing that magic is not an option in this fight. I won’t give him that opportunity the moment he tries to use magic, he’ll be vulnerable, and as a skilled predator, I’ll take advantage of any minor opening.

This is also why I haven’t used magic yet. If I try to cast spells, he’ll take advantage of that to attack me, and that’s why it’s difficult for a mage to face a warrior head-on the mage won’t have time to incant their spells.

The only things Thalor can use are spells and abilities without incantation that can be launched quickly.

My attack was aimed at his throat due to his armor, which would likely reduce damage significantly elsewhere.

"..."

"[Storm..." He tries to use a spell without maximizing it, but I’m already practically upon him, ready to strike. But now he’s prepared and redirects my blade, receiving only a superficial cut to the stomach that penetrated his armor.

This sword is better than I thought.

He tried to see how fast I could reach him, but realized he doesn’t have time even for short incantations. As soon as he tries to speak, I’m already attacking, taking advantage of the slightest openings.

"[If all came from nothing, and nothing and all are one, to me you are all nothing]" I begin chanting a chaos spell while Thalor advances, but I block him and continue the incantation.

Unlike him, I’ve made an extra mouth to cast the spell. Thalor tries to interrupt me, attacking from multiple angles with blinding speed, but I don’t stop defending and chanting until the enchantment is complete.

However, I don’t use the spell, I just leave it ready for use, so at any moment I can activate it if necessary. I also make it clear to Thalor that if he tries to use magic, I’ll use it more efficiently than him.

His sword is soon covered in lightning as he throws it at me. I barely dodge, but the sword returns, piercing my shoulder and passing through while coming back to his hand.

I feel the electric discharges coursing through my body, but my expression remains cold and my posture unwavering, even as blood drips from the wound.

My armor, which had tried to protect me, was damaged, so it consumes my flesh to repair itself while I regenerate. Thalor changes his magical approach, beginning to form a magic circle with one hand as I advance to attack him.

I use [Zornhau], a powerful diagonal cut, and form two additional arms of mud to create magic circles. My sword strike is blocked by him as he completes his magic circle.

Soon, hundreds of ash swords are formed and launched at me, with Thalor seemingly controlling the trajectory of each one, leaving me on the defensive.

"..." My two magic circles are completed, and a lot of blood is spilled, flooding the arena floor. Thalor glances at the blood for a moment, then refocuses his attack as I continue to evade.

"[Explosive Life]"

"[Explosive Life]" My second mouth and I repeat the same incantation, instantly activating the Explosive Life spell, causing the entire arena environment to explode, as the Explosive Life spell transforms my blood into a bomb, and the magic circles had the effect of filling the area with my blood.

Thalor seems to have emerged unscathed, but all the swords he created were destroyed.

"[Return to Nothingness]" I use the Return to Nothingness spell on the ground. If I used it on Thalor, he could likely evade it, as the Return to Nothingness spell is quite specific, and easier to dodge if not used on a large area.

And since my closest servants are here, I can’t use this spell at full power, so I’ve simply transformed the entire arena floor into salt, creating a small salt desert.

"Is Pandora getting desperate? Why do you think turning the floor to salt would help?"

"[The salt angel that consumes the world, the Seraph that seeks neither justice nor redemption, only punishing the wicked by purifying their souls]" Thalor realizes I’m chanting a new incantation, but he doesn’t know it, so he becomes cautious.

He quickly advances towards me, but I create multiple mouths, as this incantation is quite long, and I don’t want to be interrupted with him destroying one of the mouths.

I need to complete it soon before Thalor realizes how dangerous it is, as the longer the incantation, the more powerful the magic.

"[The world of salt that covers the feet of sinners, purify the sins of all mortal sinners who tread upon your pure soil]"

Thalor strikes me with a sequence of powerful blows, causing serious injuries and deep cuts, but I maintain a defensive posture, continuing to chant the spell.

"[O mighty Seraph who treads the world of salt, your sacred flames that make the vision of your being impossible to behold]"

Thalor notices that this incantation has had more than 3 sequences spoken in almost 1 minute, indicating a long spell. His expression remains serene, but his gaze shows slight nervousness.

My sword attacks would hardly have the strength to kill Thalor, but with magic, it’s possible, so I’m using a chaos spell that I’ve been secretly keeping as a malicious little trick.

"[O Seraph, punish the sinner who treads upon this sacred soil, this pure white soil that is stained by the darkness of an unworthy sinner who is unfit to behold it, turn the world of salt into a world of blood that drowns the sinner in the purest despair]"

The salt on the ground begins to change, becoming liquid, but still maintaining its solid form, showing that even with the incantation incomplete, it can already interact with the world and its laws, which makes Thalor nervous, and he starts attacking more irregularly.

The reason for his nervousness is obvious spells rarely affect the world if they’re not fully incanted. For a spell to affect the world without being completely chanted means that this spell is too powerful.

"[O saline world that turns to blood, make this sinner repent for his sins, and though he is unworthy to behold you, he may still receive the punishment that comes from your hands]"

I’m weaker than Thalor, that’s obvious to me, in terms of speed, strength, and the amount of magic. I would need more power to match him, so I’m using what I have an advantage in to overcome him.

Thalor manages to break through my defense and impale his sword in my throat, but I change form and create a mouth, biting the blade and holding him close to me.

I drive my blade into his thigh, piercing his armor. I grip the blade tightly.

He tries to move the sword and even pull it out, but my jaws, empowered by the Devourer passive, make it impossible to pull or move the blade. The only way to remove it would be to break the sword.

"...A swordsman proud of his fencing...who abandons his sword is nothing but trash," I say, spitting blood, wondering if his pride as a swordsman is greater than his love for his life.

"..."

"[The saline world that turns to blood is a vision that exalts the salt Seraph who descends to such a world only to punish a cruel sinner who does not repent for his sins]"

The incantation is nearly complete, and Thalor decides to abandon his sword, letting go of it while trying to make me remove my sword from his thigh. He cuts off my hand using a sword technique with his bare hand, but I hold the sword with my tail.

This way, he can’t get away from me in time.

"[And so the Seraph who punishes such a sinner can finally return to his place of observation, waiting until he is summoned once more to the world of salt on his noble mission to punish sinners]"

I complete the incantation and speak the spell.

"[Ocean of Despair]"