Hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

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I woke up and saw that there was a dark red sky outside. I didn’t know how long I’ve been sleeping but at the very least I was rested.

Since I had no need of the old sword that I had, I made sure to make some gifts to give Sasha, Kaiser, and Alex. Arthur is strong enough that I don’t need to give him anything.

The dark red sky turned into a brighter shade of red when I had finished.

I made Alex a necklace with the power to heighten his senses as well as make his body much more durable. The necklace was made of the earth around me and I managed to add some dragon bones to it. In the end, the necklace had a claw shaped pendant that had a black lustre on it.

For Kaiser, I made him two bracers similar to mine. I had no idea how to recreate the effects of my Ravenex bracer but I compensated as much as I could. The bracers would resist magic used on him to a certain degree and would also suppress poison or disease. It’s not complete immunity but just a stronger one. The bracers would also allow him to use Holy magic to a much stronger degree. I designed the bracers to look and feel exactly like his skin so that no one would be able to tell that they were there.

I had a hard time deciding what to give Sasha. I knew that I was going to give her the best one that I could possibly make right now but I had no idea as to the form that I would give her. I at least knew that I would give her something that increased the power of Holy magic, protect her from a sure death, and something that would summon the nearby spirits to aid her. I had the capability but I was bothered as to the form. I could give her a ring, but that would not work exactly right. It came down to a decision between a bracelet and a necklace. The bracelet won the debate and I made one to look like it had golden filigree as a chain and it had a rose design.

I ate a Battle seed to recover my mana and talked with my new summons.

The most useful merge was with Chronos as he was able to allow me to slow down time. With my armor, I’m much more able to make sure that I avoid the most dangerous of hits.

Molx had the most useful assimilate as the stat increase was much more compared to Chronos. Galahad actually was much better but if I Assimilate with Galahad, I lose the chance of having Galahad summon infinite swords. It also did make me lose Galahad as a weapon so I decided that until I get another sword, I would continue using the sword I made.

I had finally reached the Intermediate level but I can’t use the new spell for summoning. I can’t just create a spell for it because the spells of an affinity uses pure mana of the particular magic. I can recreate the effects but for magic like summoning, it will be much weaker. The same can be said for pure Inner, Spirit, Void, Form, Healing, Holy, Chaos, Ethereal, Time and Space. The others can be recreated and still be in full power but any of the other affinities and it had to be purely that mana or else it will not be as powerful.

It was an hour after I had finished making things for my friends when the house I made disappeared and the darkness appeared beside me.

“Stop playing house… its boring, fight the shadows it’s a lot more fun,” said the darkness.

The shadow audience appeared once more and the seven remaining generals slowly appeared.

“Now then, the Seventh General, Cassiopeia, makes her appearance!” shouted the darkness after they all fully formed just as yesterday.

A shadow to my left slowly grew and revealed a large four legged silver scaled monster with spiky tails and a long scaly neck that arched up to show a dragon head.

As this spectacle was happening, I used Assimilate on Galahad, Merge on Chronos, Wind Sight, and Advent. I was going to go at them in full power from here on out.

“Begin!” shouted the darkness as it disappeared.

I jumped forward dodging her tail as it surged towards me. She reared back her head and breathed fire. I froze the fire with my temperature control spell, Tempera. Having extinguished the fire I used, Ice Age. Since I had Advent on me, all of my spells were always primed for use and I wanted to end this quickly.

The ground around me slowly turned into ice and she became an ice sculpture. Just as the ice was about to break, she broke free and was just about to bite me when I Shifted her and slowed her down with my armor. I had Molx make Cosmic Flames surround my sword as I cut off her neck, killing her.

The body shuddered a bit and I looked at the cut. Instantly it separated and it grew two more heads.

A Hydra!

I quickly dodged the attacks of the two new heads. One of them breathed fire while the other poison gas. The combination of the two burned me a bit but I was saved since my armor was made from the bones of dragons, it was naturally resistant to fire.

Seeing that my magic had no effect on her and that cutting off her neck is a bad idea, I had to quickly find a way to kill her while dodging all of her attacks.

As the tail came for another swing at me, I slashed at it which successfully cut it off. But just as soon as I did, it grew two more which knocked me flying to the edge of the Arena, about to hit one of the spikes.

Molx saved me just in time by bending the space of the spike making me avoid the sharp spike which might have resulted in my death.

Since also her tail could regrow I had to sheathe my sword as I was afraid of what else might grow if I also cut if off. I was able to dodge much faster but this fight would not go anywhere if I couldn’t kill her.

Having no other recourse, I pulled out my gun and held it in both hands. I didn’t know if this would work but it should since the spell that the gun will release is much faster and stronger than the one that I could cast.

I dodged a tail swipe to my feet by jumping. Then another one aimed at me by slowing it down and creating an air cushion to jump off from. A head was about to bite into me but I used a Magic Shield to push it away. Then came another head and I aimed my gun at its open mouth.

I pulled the trigger, knowing that my fate would rest on what happens next. I was pulled back because of the recoil and a large orb of purple energy erupted and flew straight into her open mouth. The mouth swallowed it and was just shy of hitting me as the recoil allowed me to dodge it.

I landed on the ground softly and kneeled on the ground. I looked up and saw the hydra slowly moving towards me, eyeing its prey as it smacked its two sets of lips.

Its over, I thought, but just then the hydra looked like it’d seen a ghost. It looked at its body and breathed out poison gas and fire which didn’t do anything. It then started biting itself over and over as the parts regrew. It even bit one of its heads off but then the head just regrew and it continued eating and whacking itself with its tail over and over.

Hours passed by as I stood there watching the hydra tried to kill itself. It now had 144 legs, 200 tails and 500 heads. It had grown to heavy for it to stand and so it just laid there as it mutilated itself.

I had grown to be scared of the spell Haunter. The sight in front of me as it kept on going for hours is now ingrained into my head as the most gruesome sight to behold.

The hydra’s body was then surrounded by darkness and it disappeared. The darkness then appeared in front of me and said, “… you broke her.”

“You broke the Broodkeeper of Hell… There is no turning back for her anymore… she can’t do her job as a General so we shall now use her as food from now on.”

I shrugged and he said, “For the feat of breaking one of the general’s of hell… I will give you her egg.”

A large silver egg drifted in front of me as it appeared out of nowhere.

“This will give birth to a summon that grows along with you, but it will only hatch once you are out of here. Since you still have some fights, I will keep hold of this until you win. Also her form when she hatches will be up to you.”

The egg then disappeared into tiny white dust.

“We will continue. The Sixth General of Hell, Shiade, makes his appearance!”

One of the shadows became as tall as the average human but this one had wings. He had black armor with black wisps of smoke coming out of the slits of his eyes as well as the joints. His wings were black as night as he used them to fly in the air. He had no weapon but his gloves had claws.

He swooped down from the air and just as he was about to hit me I slowed down time but he was still coming in fast. I was barely able to dodge his claws but I felt the pain of being scratched. I had dodged his attack by a hairsbreadth but I still felt the pain and blood oozed from inside my armor.

It ignored the armor, I thought as I quickly applied healing magic as I ran away.

I then casted Tempest, a spell made from Wind, Nature, Arcane, Chaos, Dark, Light and Spirit mana. The spell would create massive tornadoes that would not interefer with each other’s strength but rather increase them.

As they touched the ground, lightning jumped from tornado to tornado as each one hit the flying Shiade. His flight would be adversely affected within the storm of the tornado while it avoided affecting me.

Shiade was tossed all around as he was hit with the lightning as he steeled himself and flew straight towards me. He looked as if he was riding the winds and I had to do something.

I used Distortion Binds to stop him in midair and had Molx use Cosmic Fire to travel the chains towards him. The fire burned Shiade as lightning struck him and charred him to death.

Seeing that he was well burnt, I was suddenly hit from behind me and when I twisted, I saw Shiade in perfect health with both claws in an x-pattern. Blood oozed from my back inside the armor and I healed myself as I was pushed forward a bit.

The Tempest had already died down and he was finally able to fly freely in the air again. He swopped down towards me one more time and I readied my gun and shot at him. He dodged it and kept on coming closer as I kept on shooting. When he was close enough I slashed at him again but he dodged but then the Assimilate and Merge broke so I Assimilated with Chronos and merged with Molx.

I had Galahad surround us with swords pointing towards Shiade and I coated them all with Cosmic Fire. I jumped away and ate one of the Battle Seeds as I was about to run out of mana as Shiade was shish-kebabed by thousands of flaming swords.

I distorted the space around Shiade with one of the skills Molx’s merge granted me, Distortion. It was effective as I was able to feel with my Wind Sight and Distortion that he was trying to get away by using something.

Having been unable to keep up the distortion, Shiade was able to get away but not after suffering countless burns and stab marks. He was still able to move but he looked much weaker now.

We ran towards each other, me with my sword out and him with his claws extended outward as we were surrounded by Galahad’s countless swords once more.

I dodged his right swipe by bending down and I stabbed towards his chin. He pulled his head back and swiped with his left. I blocked it with a Magic Shield and used Distortion Binds on him as the swords flew towards us.

He was trapped but he still put up a struggle as some of the binds broke and I used Cosmic Fire on him. He screamed from the pain as I jumped back and he was stabbed again and again.

I cast the spell, Cursed Empowerment on him. It gathered large amounts of Chaos mana and small amounts of Dark, Inner and Spirit mana. This spell would increase his power by several times but it would come at the cost of a lifespan of nearly ten seconds. The empowerment this spell caused was the strongest that I had observed and also the most disastrous.

His screams became louder as his body got stronger at the same time as his pain perception got sharper. He didn’t last two seconds when his shouts finally died and all that was left was a charred corpse.

“The winner, once more, is Zed Rigel!” shouted the darkness as it appeared.

I ignored the boos from the audience and listened to what the darkness had to say.

“Shiade is now your new summon and his true form is an eye. He will now bond to one of your eyes so that he can exist outside of hell. My creatures are fragile after all.”

As it said that the charred corpse slowly changed into dust and it all flowed directly into my right eye. I screamed at the pain that my right eye was experiencing but then after a few minutes it stopped and I heard a voice say, “I am Shiade, Watcher of Hell. I am now yours to command master.”

“What can you do?” I asked.

“What I see, you also see. I see the truth of the world and can bend these truths. What once was true is now false and what once was false is now true.”

I nodded as I looked towards the ground. I could see the Earth mana now and not just see it with my Wind Sight. I could actually see it with my own eyes as it flowed from one point to another. I could also see Earth mana with a sinister movement to it. Earth mana usually flowed solidly and orderly but this one was erratic and moved wherever it wanted.

That must be the Demonic Earth Malakir was talking about, I thought.

“Now we begin the next match!”

“Wait I haven’t rested!” I argued.

“What once was true is now false and what once was false is now true,” the darkness said repeating what Shiade had just told me.

“This is not fair!” I shouted eating one of the seeds.

“Its not. I’m just bored and those seeds of yours can keep you going for a long time. Mind giving me one to use for my harem?” the darkness asked as one of the shadows changed.

“The Fifth General, Marduk, the Gladiator of Hell, makes his appearance!”

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