Lakshman and the Overlord hovered in the air staring at one another in complete silence while surrounded by the destruction they had wrought. One was radiating in golden-red aura while the other radiated in violet-red aura, these auras surrounded each of them respectively as they hovered off the ground facing one another. The shaking sensation of their surroundings slowly settled and the wind began to blow smoothly instead of the violence it unleashed earlier.

“So? You transformed and got a power spike from it, but so what?” The Overlord asked and smiled at him.

His enemy did not say anything as he remained silent while continuing to stare at him. Then he raised his right hand and gestured for him to make his move, which greatly angered the being from another world.

“Fine! I’ll humour you and your newfound confidence,” he remarked with a smug look on his face, “with your death,” and he aimed his hand at him before unleashing an enormous wave of destruction, that appeared violet in colour.

The attack flew away at high speed and seemingly engulfed Lakshman in its destructive force. However, when the wave died down, the view returned to normal and revealed that he was still there. He was radiating in the same golden-red aura, but it had taken the shape of a large bubble with him inside of it while, what looked like arms, stretched out from it, which was the Elemental Coated Armour.

The Overlord stared at him in shock before he noticed that Lakshman had remained holding his hand out to him. A moment later, he gestured for him to come at him again and this made the Overlord lose his cool.

“You, insolent fool!”

With that shout, he surged with power and moved so fast that, one second, he had taken a fighting position, and the next he was already in front of his enemy. It all happened in a heartbeat, and he pulled his arm back before unleashing it with his fists clenched directly at where his enemy’s heart was located. Suddenly, his fist soared straight through Lakshman as it was his afterimage that he attacked.

“What?!” The Overlord exclaimed in shock.

It was then that he realised that his enemy was hovering right behind him, having somehow managed to dodge him without his realisation. Thinking that he had rushed in while ignoring his enemy’s movements, the Overlord spun around in mid-air and soared towards him, with his fist unleashed towards the True Phoenix’s chest.

Once again, the result was the same as his fist flew through his enemy’s afterimage, shocking him again. Realising that his enemy was right behind him again, he spun around and increased his speed that it was like a lie that he was facing the other way a moment before.

Like this, he continued to fight his enemy, however, it soon became evident that Lakshman was much faster than him. This fact shocked the Overlord, who had firmly believed that he was the only one who possessed such extreme powers. However, he finally met his match, or rather, someone who was much more powerful than he was.

He continued to increase his speed and power as he chased after his enemy, who merely dodged him effortlessly. What was even more infuriating than that his enemy dodged his attacks, was the expression that Lakshman wore. It was an expressionless face, almost like he was unamused and disinterested in this battle.

“Dammit!” The Overlord exclaimed, beginning to lose his cool and fighting rashly.

Seeing this, Lakshman finally decided to act as he dodged another of his swings before swirling around while his enemy was slowly turning around to face him. As that happened, Lakshman clenched his fists tightly, pulled them back and delivered a powerful punch straight to the Overlord’s gut.

The impact of the blow was so strong that an incredible force of wind was unleashed while his enemy widened his eyes in shock. Then he got blasted into the air at alarming speed, however, Lakshman caught up with him and smashed his fist down on his skull, sending him plummeting to the ground. Before he could hit the ground, Lakshman reappeared and kicked him in the chest and sent him flying away upwards again before this cycle of smash, follow, and smash repeated.

After being beaten up helplessly, the Overlord gritted his teeth tightly and thought, “This is enough!”

As he soared straight towards him and was about to get kicked again, he forcefully stopped himself and recovered in mid-flight. Then he aimed both of his hands directly at Lakshman and discharged a massive violet wave of destruction that seemingly consumed Lakshman into it. However, the Overlord was shocked when a hand came flying out of the wave and grabbed him by the face, causing him to stop the wave while making muffled sounds due to the strong grip.

Lakshman appeared, making an expression of great annoyance and said, “Enough is enough,” and hurled him straight towards the ground as hard as he could.

The Overlord flew through the air at such speeds that he had no time to react before he smashed heavily into the ground. There he lay, stunned and injured for the first time in his life by an attack that did not originate from him. He coughed and glared upward where his enemy was, however, he was no longer there.

“Looking for me?” Lakshman asked, and he was stunned to see the hero standing near him. As he saw his enemy glaring angrily at him, Lakshman smiled a little and asked, “You look angry. Is it because you’re losing to a human? I suppose it only makes sense since you’ve met a match that’s just way too big for you to handle.”

His enemy was rendered speechless by his powerful words because no one had ever dared to speak to him in such a manner before. This made him realise the mistake he had made by playing with his enemy instead of killing him when he was weak. He also realised that he should have stopped that light that had flown through the air earlier, which was probably how the human had attained an unbelievable level of power.

“Mmm?” Said a female voice groggily. “Huh? Lucky? And… who’s that?”

Lakshman shifted his attention to Raze, whom he was supporting with one of his energy arms and smiled at her.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted her with a smile.

She sounded confused as she looked between him and stranger that lay near Lakshman’s feet.

“Who’s that? What happened?”

“A lot of things happened,” he said, smiling serenely at her.

Raze tilted her head in confusion, appearing too cute despite the mask hiding her face. Watching this exchange, the Overlord got an idea and closed his eyes to momentarily gather energy without his enemy noticing this. When he had enough energy gathered in his hands, he brought his hands up and clapped them together while shouting the technique out loud.

“Shadow Flash! Slow Stand!”

In an instant, a brilliant flash of light occurred while the second caused everything around the alien to move slowly. He watched as his enemy slowly closed his eyes while Raze turned away reflexively. Using this opportunity, he quickly rose to his feet and headed to where Raze was while the spell only lasted for a few seconds.

As speed began to return to normal, Lakshman realised the mistake he had made by taking his eyes off his enemy and quickly used his senses to go towards Raze to protect her. By then, the Overlord had moved away from that spot and moved towards her before holding her hostage and shouting a warning at him.

“Stop right there!”

Lakshman stopped, realising the situation that he was facing right then, and he slowly opened his eyes to find Raze being held as a hostage while the alien stood behind her. He had one arm wrapped around her neck while the other was poised to plunge into her neck, resulting in her death.

“One more wrong step, and she’s dead!” He called to him with a fiendish grin on his face.

“Wait!” Lakshman shouted, raising both of his hands in surrender. “Don’t do anything to her! I know you need her alive for whatever reasons you’ve come here for.”

“Oh? I need her alive?” The Overlord asked, and he let out a dark chuckle that Lakshman did not like one bit. “I think you’re mistaken on that part, mister hero.”

Without warning, he shifted his poised hand and plunged it into her chest, causing Lakshman to scream, “No!”

The Overlord grinned as he felt the thing he had been looking for and pulled it out of her chest; which was a small orb.

“See? This is what I was looking for,” he said with a sadistic smile on his face.

At that moment, Lakshman bellowed, “Bastard!” and charged at him while firing rapid attacks in his direction. His enemy leaped out of the way, and the True Phoenix was able to catch Raze as she almost hit the ground.

“Erza! Erza!” He called out to her, a desperate expression on his face.

She coughed twice and answered weakly, “I’m not… Erza…”

“Yes, you are,” he said, and gently removed the mask covering her face, revealing it to be the true Erza. “I could never not know who my wife is.”

Erza was surprised, but she winced from the pain in her chest and coughed blood out of her mouth. It pained to see her hurt like this, and hovered his hand over her injury while muttering, “Restoration.”

Feeling the pain receding, she looking up at him and asked, “How did you… know?”

Before he could answer that question, he heard the cold mirthless laughter of the Overlord, and looked up at him angrily. The man was holding out the orb in his hand while an electrical field began emanating around him, a clear sign that he had encased himself in a powerful barrier to make sure no one interfered in what he was going to do.

“What is that?” He asked the alien coldly.

“This?” His enemy asked, turning to him and indicating at the orb. Then he grinned and said, “This is called a Power Orb, that which contains the power to make me a Demigod!”

“What?!” Lakshman asked, looking shocked.

“Yes. I’m shocked too, but when an oracle informed me of this, I knew it was my one chance to achieve what I had been seeking all this time; to be a God!”

With that and a maddening expression on his face, he placed the orb near his chest and began pressing it into his body. His skin gave way under his weight, and he grimaced as blood spurted out of the wound he made. However, the orb went right through, and he quickly healed the wound before he lost any more blood.

There was a moment of pause as they watched him in silence before his entire body shuddered violently. He began to scream and clutch his chest as he experienced an unbelievable pain beyond anything he ever had. It caused him to spontaneously cry tears of blood from his eyes as they turned back, showing only the whites of it.

A moment later, a violent flash of light occurred that caused a violent wind to explode in the area. Lakshman, who was still surrounded by his Elemental Coated Armour, was unfazed by this powerful wind and hovered off the ground, which got cracked and got further destroyed the area around them. At the same time, the pressure in the air thickened, and the entire world began to shake from the insane power being unleashed from the Overlord when he fused himself with the Power Orb.

This lasted for almost a minute before things began to die down and return to normal. A lot of smoke drifted everywhere, and as it slowly dissipated, Lakshman caught sight of his enemy and widened his eyes in alarm.

The Overlord appeared taller, a little bulkier, sporting green spiky hair with green symbols on his face. He breathed a sigh and opened his eyes, where he noticed that the man was missing his pupils and instead in their place was a strange design instead, similar to the eyes that the God of Energy, Engraut, had. This made him realise that these were the signs that he had ascended to that of a Demigod status.

A moment later, his enemy began to chuckle before his chuckling turned into high cold mirthless laughter. It was filled with madness without a sense of reality, except for that fact that it was a maddening laughter.

“Finally! I achieved it!” He said, looking down at his hands and clenching them tightly. Then he turned his attention towards his enemy, who he was on the verge of losing against, and winked as he said, “Have a taste of my new-found powers!”

He surged with incredible power before he clapped his hands together. In an instant, a violent flash of light occurred, and it was so dazzling that it was as bright as the sunlight before everything turned white.