Chapter 44: The Second Encounter

*BOOM BOOM BOOM*

More sounds of explosions echoes in the cloudy sky. Two combatants fought in the air, their weapons and magic clashed, generating mighty shockwaves that brought chaos to the entire Royal Capital of Midgar. The citizens looked on with both awe and fear at both of our powers.

Seriously, this setting is so dope! And I have you to thank for preparing this stage, my beloved nemesis, Necromancer. I was indecisive about how I want to end this tournament arc, but you provided the answer for me. It's like you know exactly what I needed and came to deliver!

You're still too stingy though.

My sword clashes with his staff once again and… hm? What is this foreign magic invading me? It's gone as soon as I noticed it. Where did it go?

He then shoots the familiar fireballs again and I dodged them easily. If this is the same trick as before, I'm gonna be so disappo— Oh? Instead of gathering like before, the fireballs changed directions to chase me from multiple angles.

The number of fireballs keeps increasing as he keeps shooting them. I sliced some of them with my sword to cause them to explode before reaching me but he just kept shooting more. Obviously I won't let myself get overwhelmed by this. I know what to do.

I flew in some random direction while dodging the fireballs, slowly but subtly getting closer to him before suddenly flying to his direction.

When I reached him, I gave him a smirk before flying away at higher speed than his fireballs could detect, causing the fireballs to fly towards him.

"You think my magic exists to trap me?" He said ominously while snapping his fingers. Hm? It's that foreign magic again and…

I suddenly found myself surrounded by the very fireballs I dodged earlier. So that foreign magic… it teleported me to his place and him to mine, essentially switching our places so that I'll be the one bombarded by his fireballs. Clever trick, nemesis.

I could slice them all at high speed before they reach me but instead I tried to copy his magic and created a purplish barrier surrounding me, protecting me from the fireballs.

*BOOM BOOM BOOM*

Explosions surrounds me but with this barrier I am completely unharmed.

As smoke from the explosions cleared out, I emerged unharmed surrounded by my barrier.

"Hoo… So you've copied another one of my spells." He said.

"Hmph. It was easy." I said, despite knowing that it's harder than I implied. Seriously. His spells are so sophisticated that I can learn so much from studying how they work by observing the flow of magical energy in his spells. I'm almost tempted to call him sensei.

"Then how about this?" He raised his hand to the sky, expelling a suspiciously large amount of magic and thunder started rumbling.

"This spell. I've seen it." I said as I rushed to interrupt him with a slash, which he blocked with his staff.

But surely he won't use this spell again if he knew that I am aware of its weakness. As if to confirm my suspicion, lightning shoots towards me from the sky and I flew away at high speed to dodge it.

I knew it. Unlike that time with the phantom in Lindwurm, he can control the weather and rain down lightning without needing to concentrate so I cannot interrupt the spell like last time.

Several more lightning shoots at me and I dodged them all. The lightning struck the buildings beneath us, causing destruction and mayhem wherever they struck.

"You may have your weather controlling magic but I can just do this!" I exclaimed as I gathered magical energy in my hand, which formed purple spiral.

"A brute force then?" He muttered as he watched me throwing my magic to the sky, causing all the gathered cloud to disperse, suddenly revealing a clear and cloudless sky.

But what my magic revealed is not just the sun and blue sky, but also… a black hole with greenish light gathering around it like a spiral. I sensed him sending magic to the sky earlier but I should've known it wasn't just for his weather controlling magic considering how much magic he expelled.

So he has already prepared his ultimate attack, Armageddon, which he used against my I Am Atomic when we first fought.

"You're going for the climax already?" I said as I saw the black hole expanding, aiming it at the city.

"It will not be over for us. But for the city however…" He said ominously, implying that if I dodged, the city will be destroyed. He can't be serious about destroying the city! That's too much even for me!

I mean…. How can we leave a legend if there are none to tell the tale!? Isn't that the whole point of this show?

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked him while grinning fearlessly.

"What do you mean?" He replied.

"Isn't there something in this city that is precious to you?" You know? Your dungeon? Also the precious stage you just provided for the both of us? It'll be a shame to blow them all up so fast!

"…." My question seems to have made him hesitate. Yes! You get it, don't you?

"Isn't there something in this city that is precious to you?" My nemesis, Shadow, said.

Two familiar faces flashed in my mind the moment he said that, making me hesitate until I realized how much I don't want to lose them.

"You're right. There are things that are precious to me in this city." I answered my sworn nemesis, who guessed correctly what I hold dear in my heart even when I didn't acknowledge them.

I cancelled my Armageddon spell after realizing that.

I applaud you, my nemesis. For seeing through me… For knowing me better than I knew myself.

For seeing through my… weakness… weakness that gets in the way of my villainy… weakness that I must soon correct.

"I applaud you, my nemesis. For seeing through me. For that, I shall reward you with this." I said as I snapped my fingers and the world around us changed.

Perv Asshat escaped the city along with King Oriana on a common carriage instead of the kingly and decorated carriage reserved for Oriana royalty in order to escape incognito.

In addition to the chaos brought by the titanic battle in the sky and the clash between Shadow Garden and the Reaper Squad, the city is also attacked by a horde of undead warriors emerging from the underground maze after they broke through the barricades guarded by the Knight Order.

The Knight Order personnel are now too occupied with evacuating civilians and fighting off the undead horde to bother noticing a suspicious carriage escaping from the city.

"Hmph. Lord Necromancer is well prepared. With the Knight Order busy fighting his undead monsters, we can escape undetected. Everything went smoothly, hasn't it, your highness?" Said Perv.

"Not completely. My daughter hasn't come into our hands yet." Replied the king.

"I had my agents disguise as members the Knight Order too. I'm sure they will arrest her and bring her to us soon." Perv replied.

"Not enough. Not enough at all. You should've asked for Lord Necromancer's assistance."

"I cannot do that! I already owe him too much! My achievements will be overshadowed by him if I keep asking for everything out of him!" Exclaimed Perv.

"Hmph. No matter. Sooner or later, she will return to us." Declared the mad king while grinning ominously.

Alpha engaged Gilfried in a high speed swordfight. Slash after slash, parry after parry, it looked like both of them are evenly matched but even with all his experience and Artifacts, Gilfried slowly starts to lose ground as the battle goes on.

A moment of weakness is all it takes for Alpha to launch a kick that sent him colliding with a building and through the wall.

"Urghh… it seems that age has caught up to me." Said Gilfried while groaning.

Alpha soon entered the building he was in through the wall he went through and smiled triumphantly.

"Perhaps now it is time for you to give up." Alpha said while pointing her black sword at him.

"I see. You want information, eh?"

"Indeed. You are Necromancer's closest aide, yes? Rest assured that Shadow Garden will make you spill all that you know about him."

"Heh heh heh. I'll become an undead monster before then." Declared Gilfried fearlessly.

"…." Alpha was unable to retort as she knew that the Necromancer have a way to prevent captured Reaper Squad members from spilling information during interrogation by remotely turning them into zombies.

As she was contemplating on how to take Gilfried into custody, she felt Shadow's aura disappear.

"What!?" She exclaimed as she looked to the sky and found the lack of Shadow's presence along with the lack of explosions from his battle against his mortal enemy.

"Heh. So he's gone and done it." Gilfried said.

"What do you mean!?" Exclaimed Alpha angily.

"You shall see it soon! HAAAA!" Shouted Gilfried as he launched himself at Alpha with a slash after he finished healing himself. Alpha hastily blocked the surprise attack and was thrown away by the impact of his attack but she managed to properly land on the rooftop of a building.

"What is the meaning of this!?" She exclaimed after she sensed that the Necromancer's aura also disappeared.

Author's Note:

I'm back! Finished with the irl stuff I must do this week. I'll probably be back to publishing chapters daily if I'm still up to it, at least until next year where I'll likely get busier and releases may become weekly.

primenidus: You what was not expecting the decapitation I mean fuckjng hell

Answer: For once Cid's plan was foiled. I want to switch the position of Midgar and Oriana in this fic.

TheVirtualPug: Claude? Worrying about his sister? Seems like he's not as evil as he believes. Def gonna be interesting.

Answer: Maybe he's a tsundere?

Wholesome07: I shall await for the epic battle.

Answer: Here it is. But them cliffhanger though.

J-More: For a moment I expected Sherry to throw a Lord Sidious into Alexia while screaming "power! unlimited power!"

Answer: Would be funny but uncharacteristic for Sherry and out of place for this fight.

BetweenIandGirl: timeline wise... it seems war oriana vs midgar will happen at the same time as blood moon(since it seems blood moon arc only one or two weeks away from final act of bunshin tournament festival arc) how would you mitigate this double act of arc?

Answer: The war won't happen that fast. In fact Blood Moon alone would halt any plans for war because people fear the legend.

Soulbow109: Interesting conversation between Nu and Charl. Look forward to the result. Boy Iris is really hating Shadow Garden and the Reaper Squad huh.

Answer: We'll see where she goes from here. And yes, in Iris' mind, these two freaks started a war that killed her dad and brought much chaos to the kingdom.