Healing System

"Oho, what was it again? The Kraken Slayer Sword?" Pardoth chuckled upon seeing the greatsword. It was like a relic at this point.

However, Fafnir chose to ignore him. The sword meant a lot to him since it was gifted to him by Athena herself.

He swung the greatsword downwards, immediately attempting to end the fight, but Pardoth simply evaded with a bored look. It would not be that easy.

But just as he was about to swing again, a pair of tentacles came out from the ground and shot up toward his leg, pulling it down slightly and messing up his momentum.

As that happened, the air twisted, and suddenly, a massive portion of the ground below them disappeared, replaced with a vast array of all sorts of colors—one that seemed to dominate the surroundings for a moment before once again fading away and revealing the previous rubble.

Despite that, the ground was pulsating with a strange energy, one that sent a shiver down both of their spines. Nonetheless, they decided to continue the fight. Such a phenomenon was not that uncommon, after all.

'The world is already rejecting us...' Fafnir sighed and dashed back upwards at a speed that caused the space around him to lag behind, distorting the surroundings and causing sparks to fly outward, destroying the surroundings further.

However, that was but a triviality; both of them could survive inside those fissures. The only problem would arise if those fissures began influencing the world around them.

There was an oath, one that forbade them from destroying worlds with their massive strength. Therefore, he had to limit it quite heavily, and even then, he was still too strong.

The same went for Pardoth. As he decided to finally take the fight seriously, summoning a red blob in front of him, he threw it upwards. It suddenly turned into a completely red spear, one that seemed weak at a glance but actually wasn't.

Pardoth dashed in and thrust the spear forward, infusing it with his Eldritch magic.

The blow nearly landed; however, Fafnir nimbly redirected the attack with a wave of his greatsword before making a counterattack of his own.

They had to resort to such methods because of the limitations. If there weren't any, then the world would have already fallen.

However, just like Fafnir's corrosive poison that seemed to melt through everything, the Eldritch magic made it so regular mana could attack the soul instead of the body, effectively ignoring a few of the limitations the world itself had imposed.

Fafnir swung his greatsword in an arc, and suddenly, another pair of tentacles grabbed him. But before they could do anything, he did a minor transformation.

He switched to his dragon form for a mere moment before switching back to his human form, breaking free of the tentacles and resuming the fight.

Their few exchanges managed to render the ruined city below them completely unrecognizable. It looked like nothing but a completely grayed-out ashland, with spatial fissures dominating the sky, shining down all sorts of colors.

It almost seemed too good to be true, as the fight had lasted for much longer than either of them anticipated. Usually, the world would have interfered by now.

However, no one knew how the world actually worked. The only thing they knew about it was that it imposed oaths and laws. Without it, there would be nothing stopping them from going all out.

As the two kept clashing without repercussions, they grew a bit wary, and Pardoth spoke up with a clear frown on his face. "We can take this to the Eldritch realm; there are no limitations there."

But Fafnir quickly turned down his offer with a scoff. "I'll have to pass. Why would I battle you on your land anyway?"

If he took the fight to the other realm, he would lose badly. Currently, he still stood a chance since they were forced to lower their strength.

"You are a fool," Pardoth replied in an eerily chilly voice, and suddenly, a green glow expanded from him.

With a twist of his hand, a bunch of miniature eyes appeared. As the seconds passed, they began growing to an abnormally large size.

'He's doing that absorption technique again,' he scowled at the sight. It was the same technique Pardoth used earlier to absorb his Eldritch killing techniques.

Fafnir was unsure of what exactly the principle was behind this type of technique. However, one thing was for certain: if he continued like this, he would lose.

There was a bit of regret in his heart. After all, most of his abilities focused on destruction and killing, and none except one was safe to use in this fragile realm.

However, the technique was a bit... unconventional. That's what caused him a bit of reluctance because, after he used it, he would not be able to see Amanda for quite a while.

But with his current circumstances, it seemed like his best shot at winning. Long-term, he would lose, and ending a fight quickly against someone who used Eldritch magic was impossible.

He dashed in again at an incredible speed, but much to his surprise, before he reached Pardoth, his entire body froze. The same seemed to be happening to Pardoth, who appeared to have trouble moving as well.

'What is this?' Fafnir tried looking around with a frown. However, something stopped him. It was neither pressure nor mana; it just felt like he could not control his body anymore.

Before they could react further, the world around them began dyeing itself gray, almost like the ground was bleeding into the surroundings themselves.

The world began slowly turned empty, with only Fafnir, Pardoth and the grayness remaining. Their weapons disappeared, and Pardoth's tentacles seemed to vanish as well.

Fafnir attempted to talk but was unable to. However, as the wave of hopelessness washed over him, he decided to use more of his strength until, finally, he was able to slightly move his head, albeit with a lot of difficulty.

As he turned his head to the side, some kind of completely white being became visible, standing and watching over them with clear curiosity etched on its morphed face.

However, as it noticed his stare, it immediately vanished, and once again, he was able to move.

The only problem was, the mana he unleashed just moments ago was that of a Tier 15, something that was way above the allowed limit of the realm and world he was in.

"Shit..." He suddenly heard a sound coming from his side and noticed it was Pardoth, who, for some reason, had shrunk... a lot, looking as though he was some kind of child.

"Pfft... huh?" Fafnir was about to laugh but stopped himself upon hearing his own voice. It seemed childish, yet his strength remained the same, so he was sure something else was at play. It was practically impossible for him to fall into an illusion, yet he could not dispel this one.

The fight that, just a moment ago, seemed to have nearly reached its conclusion had halted as the two beings created transparent crystals of mana, ones that acted the same as mirrors.

'My appearance...? My strength too? What the...' Fafnir looked on in shock and inspected his body further. His strength was still that of a Middle Tier 15; however, his body no longer felt sluggish or fatigued, as if the fight from before did not happen at all.

Even his mana was completely restored, and it seemed like all of that was due to the completely white being.

Fafnir glanced at Pardoth and felt his mana. It seemed like his strength had been reduced to a mere Tier 11, and all of that had happened in a few seconds.

It did not look like it was going up either. His core took a hit right after becoming younger, and immediately, Fafnir understood what had happened. Stay connected through empire

There were many paths to gain strength via Eldritch magic, and one of them was age. The older one was, the more strength they held. In the case of both of them seemingly growing younger, Pardoth's strength diminished as well.

All the while, Fafnir's remained because he did not rely on anything like that. He just had a simple Flow core, one that he honed since birth.

Nonetheless, Fafnir took this chance to finally end him. Slashing the air before him with strength that would not normally be allowed, he just hoped the realm would hold out this one time.

It traveled right at Pardoth, but just before impacting him, he pulled out his own eye and suddenly disappeared inside of it, with the slash merely slicing the eyeball in half.

However, that did nothing, as this was a way for those practicing Eldritch magic to simply go back to their realm, meaning he was already too late.

"You are still a coward, huh? After all this time, I expected you to grow a pair." Fafnir snickered and looked around once again. The encounter just then was strange—a being who could make them younger and restore their strength or even take it away.

Before he could think about it further, he noticed the realm around him cracking. The domain was breaking apart since Pardoth was no longer present.

'I have to get stronger.' Fafnir sighed and covered himself in mana, preparing to project himself to a world where he could fight those of a similar level to him.

However, just before he left, he made a vow to himself and to his daughter. One that he was planning on keeping this time.

'I'll make sure to be strong enough to protect you next time, Amanda.'n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om