I have no idea who I was against.

But I had a clear idea of what we are against now: a human.

Not a remnant, a living human.

I don’t know how it came to be, but in one way or another, he returned from the dead.

"Heon!Han! Fall back!! "

I knew we were no match for him the moment he began absorbing the surrounding mana. The factor that had turned this place into an endless grassland and had trapped us here with him was no longer active, so there was no reason for us to stay any longer.

I immediately hopped onto Heon's back to flee this place, but something happened before we could.

"Watch out."

Something that I identified as the man's summoned small floating bubbles flashed at us then exploded into small yet powerful explosions, powerful enough to blast Heon and me to a thousand pieces. The only reason it didn't kill us was that Han's lightning dragon vessel was in the way of the explosion.

"Han!" I couldn’t help but scream.

Despite having shielded us from the blast, it still sent Heon and me blasting away.

"I’m here!" He was now in his bear-like form. "Shit, just when I had just gotten used to manipulating that vessel, Damn that bastard."

We'd already lost two of his vessels, the first being him sacrificing his Queen Chrackt to give me a chance to take down that woman, and the second being attacked by the speared man before he came to impale me.

After that incident, it became increasingly difficult for us to find a good vessel for him because, despite losing a vessel, its power and strength do not simply vanish; by losing a vessel, he could no longer manifest it, but its strength and power are evenly distributed among his other vessels, which is why even his older vessels still held ground despite the long road we traveled.

It took us six long months to find that vessel, and now it was gone just like that.

Who knows how long it will be before we can find another one.

"First he sucked us within his barrier, then trapped us in, now he doesn’t want us to leave the place alive. I’m beginning to think this bastard has something very personal against us… What again? "

With a strange hand sign he incanted “Manifestation d'un monde éternel.”

His bubble thing flew at us at breakneck speed yet again.

I immediately dug my hand into the ground and formed an earthen wall. I built that wall using the same method I used to control my appendages and create those whirlwinds and lightning attacks.

I knew it wouldn't be much help, but it would be better than letting Han's ships serve as a shield.

I also summoned an earth wall, which appeared as a second layer on top of Hon's earth wall.

When the explosion occurred, it penetrated the walls like a knife through butter, but it was weakened enough to be contained to a non-lethal level by a light attack from Heon.

As if the attack from earlier wasn’t enough, the man leaped at us.

I, from his previous attack, was just below Heon’s when she fired her blast that weakened the man's explosive bubble.

When the man charged at us, Heon grabbed me by the collar, then withdrew as far as she could from the man.

The man swung his sword and slammed it into the ground where we had been a few tenths of a second before, causing yet another massive explosion of mana.

I'd fought that man a few moments before and had a good idea of how strong he was; there was no way it wasn't intentional, that bastard’s goal was to blast that and nothing else.

Despite the distance Heon had put between us and the man, the blast was powerful enough to injure us.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!! Leave us alone bastard!!"

Han assumed his cryptid snake form and fired an ice attack at the man in an attempt to slow him down, but the man simply met his attack head-on, then counterattacked by closing distance to Han's vessel, slashing the midair, producing a magical attack with the same power as my strongest attack.

On my side, despite how tired I was from everything that had happened, I tried to summon my attack, but before I could even go through half of the process, the attack engulfed the three of us, but Han's cryptid vessel tanked a huge percentage of it before disaggregating and continuing its course the blast of that explosion came imminently at Heon and me.

I was hanging from Heon's mouth when I witnessed Han's cryptid snake being reduced to powder by the sheer force of these explosions, and by the looks of it, I was about to be roasted by the same attack.

But then Heon curled up into a ball and wrapped her body around me, protecting me from the blast.

"Heon!"

When the blast reached her and we were thrown hundreds of meters apart by the blast, I heard her bawling in pain.

I was exhausted from my previous attack, being blasted and bounced here and there by that man's attack, and I had reached my limit.

I was now tiredly lying on the ground,

"Heon?!"

I crawled my way to her body.

"Heon?!... Thank God you’re still alive. "

She was still breathing, albeit weakly.

Her blood was pooling on the ground, and the horrible smell of burning flesh and fur filled the air; then I heard the man's footsteps approaching once more.

He was only a few dozen meters away from us now.

"FUCK!!!!"

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Han's bear vessel condensed just above the man and proceeded to maul him like an animal in the most savage way possible.

The man then attempted to dispose of Han by creating an explosion similar to what he had done earlier with the small bubbles, but Han was able to resist and continued mauling him like a wild animal.

He was able to resist in this form because, as previously stated, when one of his vessels lost power, the strength of the lost vessel was distributed evenly among his remaining vessels.

This one, along with his other remaining vessel, the Deathseeker, are his two strongest vessels ever.

"This was meant for Heon!"

My body was blown around by the shockwave of these explosions, like a leaf in the wind.

Han and the man made a flesh-tearing noise, and then something fell from the sky right next to me.

It landed with both a lumpish and metallic sound.

I recognized what it was right away.

The man's arm, still firmly grasping his sword.

Using all of my strength, I retrieved the sword from his severed arm and forced myself to stand in order to assist Han.

Then I noticed it.

Han's bear-like vessel exploded into a dust cloud along with an explosive sound.

The man, with one arm missing, was already standing and walking towards me when he came to a sudden halt.

Something happened that I couldn't explain. It was brief and fleeting, but it was impossible to miss.

Emanating from the man, something similar to both an explosion and an implosion occurred at the same time.

It was as if I was killed in an instant by being completely atomized, then put back together in the next instant by a reverse process.

For a brief moment, it seemed as if the world had been replaced by something limitlessly empty and boundlessly infinite, only to be abruptly returned to reality the next instant.

What?!

What happened earlier aside, something was not right, we were approaching the end of the afternoon, yet now I felt the burning brilliance of a midday sky upon me.

“Qu’est ce que c’etais à l’instant?”

Hon, listen closely. At this point, we have no choice left. We can’t run away. We’re going to end this here, I still have the Deathseeker and I’m confident, I can hold him for several good seconds, but that should be enough for you to-

I can’t

I can’t

I can’t. This is your first and last vessel.

This is nothing. I won’t disappear just because of that.

I know that it is an untold agreement for both of us, but you’ll have no choice but to use it.

For a dead man, there is no such thing as unworthiness.

This time only I’ll allow it, so use it.

We can still find a better vessel, later on, tomorrow, in six months, in two years, whatever time it takes, but only if we survive this.

For Heon, for you and I, for us.

Han reappeared above the man, this time in his Deathseeker form.

"I'm sorry, Heon, Bear with me. " I announced as I propelled her as far as she could go.

Returning my attention to the man and Han, I made my way toward them, but the shockwaves from their struggles were so strong that I struggled to stand and move forward.

Reaching a certain distance from them.

With both hands, I raised the man's large sword high toward the sky.

Something surged from within me, then through my hands, intertwined onto the blade of the sword I was holding.

It created a massive whirling pillar that pierced the sky in a matter of seconds.

Magic.

At the time, it felt like I had the weight of a thousand mountains in my arm, waiting only to be unleashed on something.

"Hon, do it!"

A Han’s words, with a scream, I launched that attack at both of them.

I witnessed the devastating attack that I, myself, had mustered being unleashed at Han's DeathSeeker foggy appearance.

It was the same appearance that has been like a light in the dark for me during all these years.

The attack consumed everything in its path for dozens of kilometers in a straight line.

A spherical blast formed, then exploded into a massive pillar that melted everything in its path and its vicinity.

Or so I wished it had.