Chapter 77. Power of a sixth Resonance (III)
The spears met their mark. Sigmund, seemingly unable to block, as the condensed flames punched through his form.
Cleanly through his chest, shoulders, throat, arms and torso.
Emerging out of the other side, leaving a trail of heat and cinders.
The scream of pain wasn’t heard, not even a wail.
Sigmund didn’t stagger, nor falter. He stood like an immovable mountain standing afloat in nothingness.
And his gaping wounds eerily didn’t bleed, as if his body were a clay doll.
"Are you playing with me right now?" Sigmund raised an eyebrow in frustration. The wounds began to close like water closing after a dropped stone.
Tongues of intertwining flames appeared where the wounds had once been, weaving together, closing the gaping wounds that once were.
In a matter of seconds, it could have been faster, he just wanted Aiden to know he was outmatched, the wounds completely closed, leaving several holes in his yellow gambeson.
"Oh..." Sigmund looked into the distance, then back at Aiden.
"Do you think you can face me alone..." Sigmund tilted his head in irritated confusion.
Aiden’s group had run right after the attack, moving at the highest speed their mounts could take them.
Sigmund saw them run, his senses of the heat in the environment making it easy to notice every movement.
He could have stopped them. He had the power to do so, even from this distance, but it perplexed him that Aiden believed he could handle him all alone.
"They will only be in the way."
Black lightning crackled around Aiden, sparking into black flames that engulfed his form, clothing him like a suit of armour, covering the entirety of his body. His glowing red eyes were the only colour in his abyss-like form.
Like veins running across the human body, lightning crackled within him.
Like an entity from the abyss, he stared unfeelingly at Sigmund, the latter’s eyes narrowing in perplexion.
"Where is he getting his confidence from?"
He was surprised Aiden was trying to fight him.
When he had heard his son had been defeated for the third time at Aiden’s hands, he believed maybe Aiden had used underhanded tactics. Valatein wasn’t in the least weak, one of the strongest fifth resonance mages in the Dominus Kingdom. Not the best, but among them.
And he believed he should have been enough for Aiden, yet...
He had died not once, but thrice under this guy’s magic.
He had joked.
"Maybe he is a Sixth Resonance hiding his strength."
A joke, but now he was wondering if it was true.
Why was Aiden standing in front of him? He, a Sixth Resonance mage, a stage where one was one with the element.
He was literally the embodiment of fire, shedding the mortal, ever-perishing body for the divine body of flames. A body untouchable by most physical weapons, yet this man with his mortal body stood before him.
"What is giving you this bravado? Are you really a Sixth Resonance?..."
"No, not yet. I have been holding back for several years now, but now I can go all out against you."
Aiden’s voice came out double, overlapping, as if two people spoke at once.
"What is..."
Before Sigmund could inquire what it was, Aiden flashed forward. Sigmund’s side was torn, ripped from his figure.
Aiden landed in the fiery lake below, clutching in his claw-like hands the flesh he had torn from Sigmund.
"One with the element..." Aiden thought as he felt the chunk of flesh that had begun to disperse, breaking into cinders that disappeared as soon as they formed.
"What type of power is that..."
Sigmund stood behind him, his arm placed firmly on his shoulder, pressing down with an insurmountable force.
"What..."
Aiden hadn’t even noticed him move. He had flashed several metres away from him, but Sigmund had arrived as if he had teleported.
The ground underneath Aiden cracked, a giant crater forming beneath him.
Crack!!
He felt it. Heard it.
His shoulder clavicle shattered.
He didn’t wail, teeth gritted as he tried to flash away, yet he couldn’t move. It felt as if Sigmund was grabbing at the lightning itself.
And he was.
Though the mana didn’t belong to him and thus he couldn’t control it, it was still a variant of fire, and with his rank, he could hold the element without form.
"I asked a question..."
Sigmund pressed further. Aiden’s body fell backwards under the weight as if he had lost his footing.
The momentary slip-up loosened his grip. Blue flames shot out of Aiden’s feet with the force of a small rocket.
The force pushed away the orange flames around them. The soil underneath melted under the intense heat, molten glass bubbling beneath it, debris flying around.
His grip loosened. Sigmund was unable to hold on, Aiden flying out of his grip, shooting diagonally into the sky with tremendous speed.
"..."
Sigmund raised a brow at the lad’s power output. He was sure he wasn’t as powerful when he was a Fifth Resonance, but what did it matter? He was a Sixth Resonance now. Skill didn’t matter in front of absolute might.
His figure disappeared, not flashed or blurred like Aiden, but disappeared.
Appearing right in front of the speeding Aiden, a wall of lava forming between the two.
Aiden shot through it, teeth gritted as a fire mage’s skin slithered under the intense heat of the lava of a Sixth Resonance.
His black flame armour broke at the parts that made direct contact with the wall of lava, half his face and shoulders exposed, red with first-degree burns.
"Hahaha."
Sigmund, noticing this, laughed heartily.
"I thought you wanted to go all out."
He disappeared once again, reappearing where Aiden was in his trajectory. With a powerful axe kick, he brought the human rocket to the ground, Aiden’s trajectory forcibly changed downwards, his nose bleeding from the impact.
He instinctively turned off his blue flames, but it was too late. The momentum still carried him down with intense force.