May 14, 2020

  In the midst of the debris, Waldo and Iravin both jump out from the piles of stone. They land on their feet and stand strong. Waldo and Iravin stare at each other, smiling from ear to ear at how this battle has turned out. Neither of them would have thought that they would be forced to grow and fight as much as they have now. It’s a very welcome surprise to both sides.

  “Those chains are quite peculiar. Just where exactly did you pull them out from?”

  “I always have them on me, weighing me down.”

  “I see. Not one to spill the secret?”

  “I just told it to you.”

  “Whatever.”

  Waldo grips Hades with power and charges towards Iravin. Iravin unwraps some of the chain around his arm and swings it around at Waldo. The swing is faster than a whip and exerts a powerful aura. Waldo dodges the chains and watches as the ground gets split in two. Those chains carry immense weight. Has Iravin been fighting with those chains on his body this entire time? Is that what he meant when he said they weigh him down? That would explain his drastic change in movement. With those things weighing him down, of course he couldn’t fight to his full capabilities. Waldo lands on the ground and swings Hades, sending an immensely powerful shockwave at Iravin. Iravin’s chain wraps around his arms again and he extends his hands towards the shockwave. The shockwave makes contact with Iravin, hitting him incredibly hard. However, he endures the pain and catches the shockwave in his hands. With this, he sends several pulses through the shockwave and towards Waldo.

  The pulses collide with Waldo and inflict mass torture on him again. But instead of screaming out loud like before, he smiles through it. Iravin hears him laughing out loud, a behavior so different from his previous one. Eventually, in a matter of seconds, the pulses and energy torturing Waldo dye down and go away. His cursed energy levels even spike up after this. Iravin raises his eyebrow in slight confusion. Waldo lets out a large breath.

  “One thing that I learned about my cursed energy is that it’s not so normal. I figured out previously it has a mind of its own, but it can even hollow out other energies and make them null. It’s interesting, isn’t it?”

  “That right? It seems my pulses might no longer work anymore. In that case…”

  Iravin charges forward, transforming his legs with biomass into a much suitable shape that allows him to move even faster than before. He throws an attack that Waldo is just barely able to evade. Waldo scoffs and swings Hades again at Iravin. Iravin purposely takes the hit and grabs onto Hades. He pulls on Hades with a lot of force but Waldo intentionally lets go and lands a revolving kick at Iravin’s face, knocking him away.

  Waldo feels that it’s getting closer. The moment of conclusion is starting to become clear to him. But he cannot act arrogantly just yet. He cannot make the same mistake he did before. Iravin is tough after all. He’s a walking behemoth compared to his previous opponents. Only Osoroi would be able to be on par with him. Waldo flies towards Iravin and fires multiple shockwaves in his path. Iravin deflects the shockwaves with the chains wrapped around his arm and launches a whip of biomass at Waldo. Waldo avoids a direct hit from the whip and continues to move forward. Iravin can sense Waldo building up a lot of power again. It has to be that one monstrous shockwave he first launched with Hades. Is he planning to fire it at point blank range? He might be able to bring out his armored form in that instant, but he doesn’t want to take such a big risk. Instead of gambling his chances, Iravin’s body suddenly exhausts a giant cloud of red mist. Iravin quickly disappears from Waldo’s vision and Waldo stops in his tracks. Iravin’s cursed energy presence is gone. There’s no sound at all either. There’s no way of telling where he could be.

  (He had an ace like this hiding in his sleeve! It completely messes with my senses. I can’t track him anymore. This will be difficult.)

  Waldo is suddenly struck in the back. He quickly avoids a stagger and jumps back. He swings Hades in that direction and a shockwave is fired. A crash can be heard but it was definitely not Iravin. Waldo decides it’s best to not stand around any longer. He picks up his feet and dashes in a straight line. If he can get out of the mist, he’ll be able to see much clearer. Before he can get out of the mist, however, he’s suddenly roped in by the chains. Iravin appears from within the mist and lands a clean hammer fist to Waldo’s jaw. Waldo is knocked away into the air. He stops himself midair with the help of his shockwaves and lands back on the ground. He’s been knocked all the way out of the mist cloud.

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  “What other tricks do you have up your sleeve, Iravin?”

  Waldo stabs the ground with Hades. He sends a culmination of shockwaves into the ground and towards the cloud of mist. In just a few moments, the ground under that cloud erupts and shockwaves fly. However, Iravin walks out of that disaster just fine. Any wounds he sustained from that are instantly regenerated. That’s when it comes to Waldo’s head. The halo above his head completely forms. The entire Domain Expansion begins to glow. Iravin looks around and questions what is happening. Meanwhile, Waldo stands there with a growing smile on his face. It’s time.

  “Behold, Iravin! What you’re about to witness is the full extent of my power! This is my true domain expansion! The power of a god!”

  As everything is devoured by a bright white light, the blue barrier surrounding the two warriors begins to fade away. They appear right back in the disastrous and ruined rocky plains. Iravin looks around again and sees that they’ve returned to their original location. He turns back around to Waldo. Waldo’s body is completely encased in some kind of blue light. The halo is still above his head. His pressure is beginning to increase and rise.

  (Power of a god? What could he mean by that? Is he not a cursed spirit but another thing entirely? No, that couldn’t be. Has to do with that halo. But this power is nothing to scoff at.)

  Waldo’s body and clothes suddenly begin to shift. His skin gradually turns into a pure, clear white as shiny as a pearl. Not only his skin, but his clothes change their color into that same pearly white, only with some slight variations and shades. His cape becomes shorter and fully wraps around his shoulders and neck, almost acting like a secondary jacket. His face is covered with an armored-like mask. His blue eye becomes more condensed and hidden inside of that mask. But along with this transformation, Waldo now has a second blue eye. Hades is also transforming its shape. It’s becoming more majestic, sharp, and larger. Eventually, the blue light around Waldo scatters and covers everything in the area. Iravin blocks his eyes to avoid suffering any damage to them. When the light dissipates and Iravin looks up, he sees that Waldo is no longer in his normal form. His halo has grown larger. His body is fully covered in shining white body armor. A royal cape drapes down his shoulders and back. And a cerulean glare that is as imposing as a great war. He’s gotten taller too, about an entire foot.

  (This is unexpected. What a flashy little form.)

  Waldo, in his newly discovered form, looks down at himself. He lifts up his arm and stares at his hand. This power he feels… He’s eternally grateful that Rāj had put him back on the right path. If not for his determination or her interfering, something as brilliant as this would never have happened.

  “Iravin.”

  Iravin perks up. Even Waldo’s voice has a small bit of distortion to it.

  “To extend my appreciation towards you, I will crush you with this new power. I apologize if I do not wield it right. This is the beginning.”

  Waldo begins to stride forward. Iravin can feel the sheer intensity that is left in his footsteps. As he is about to move from his spot and deliver an attack at Waldo, he instantly finds himself struck by Waldo in the chest. He coughs out a small amount of blood. In another flash, he’s struck several times in just one second. Iravin is sent flying by the tremendous increase of power. His body has been wounded far more than Waldo has been able to do with just regular punches. He regains his senses midair and sprouts biomass from his back. The biomass morphs into wings. With the help of the wings, Iravin stops in the air and looks down at the ground and at Waldo. His face is scrunched up and surprised.

  (What the fuck?! This is more power than I thought! His speed is on a whole other scale! It’s even faster than what I can react to!)

  “Having fun looking down from the sky?”

  Iravin turns around as fast as he can only to get blasted by a shockwave. Waldo appeared right behind him and sent him back crashing into the ground. Iravin lands on the ground with a large crash and coughs out more blood. He regenerates his wounds and quickly gets back up. He looks back up at the sky. However, Waldo is not up there. Instead, he looks back down and sees that his arm has been severed. Waldo is standing behind him with Hades in his hand. Iravin’s left arm is resting on the cracked earth. Iravin’s eyes stare back at Waldo. He couldn’t care less about his arm or the pain he feels. Compared to his feelings of surprise and ecstasy, pain is easily drowned out by those two. Iravin eventually regrows another arm in the place of the severed one. Waldo looks back and stares into Iravin’s eyes.

  “You must be surprised. I’m more shocked at my power than you are.”

  Iravin stares at Waldo silently. His face seems to relax. His eyes are unreadable. Waldo turns around fully and aims Hades at Iravin.

  “The only way that you will win against me in this form is if you surround yourself in that armor once more. You might be able to grow stronger, but my progression has also accelerated.”

  Iravin glares at Waldo when he says this. He might have a point. This level of power that Waldo is showing is beyond what he has previously shown. It’s above Iravin’s expectations. He could even be holding back some more power. It’s about time to go all in. Iravin’s hands curl into fists and his body begins to change. Once again, his body is suddenly covered in that tough armor that he used before. It shines in the light of the moon, glistening like a rough exoskeleton. Waldo and Iravin stare at each other in their new states. They each stride towards each other. Their auras collide. Their stares are powerful enough to bore holes into the ground. Another stare down… but this time it’s completely different. And it’ll be the last one.