Chapter 106: High-Level Combat

The time rewinds to a dozen minutes prior, within the corridors of the Abyss-Dweller’s prison. Facing Mr. Colin, who gripped a blade seemingly forged from the materialization of the Void itself, Sieg and Shuguin stood in grim readiness.

"Not planning to make the first move? Then I suppose I shall," Mr. Colin’s voice echoed through the corridor, laced with a smile. The enclosed space amplified the sound, turning what should have been a mundane tone into something eerie and unsettling after the relentless reverberations.

"Roar!" A sound, inhuman and raw, erupted from Sieg’s throat. A shockwave of destructive force, nearly tangible, burst forth from his center, utterly annihilating every trace of Mr. Colin’s voice.

"Oh my, oh my. We aren't exactly competing to see who has the loudest lungs, are we, Sieg Welsbach? Aren't you being a bit childish?" Colin continued, his tone still smiling. His words echoed again, but the initial, uncanny quality had vanished.

"No need for tricks. They are useless." The vertical pupils in Sieg’s eyes flickered slightly. He was a far cry from his usual gentle, refined self; the aura of power radiating from him was almost visible, even without the presence of battle-qi.

"Very well, very well. Then might I ask you to refrain from tricks as well? We both know exactly what it is we want." Colin seemed persuaded by Sieg’s words and gave a slight shake of his head, but suddenly, he plunged his void-forged blade deep into the wall beside him with blinding speed.

"Ah!" A familiar shriek rang out. A wisp of smoke fled the wall through a smooth, punctured hole, diving back into the smoky armor that encased Shuguin.

"Damn it, how did that bastard find me hiding in the cracks of the wall?" The Smoke Demon’s muttering, filled with intense irritation, echoed from Shuguin’s side.

"You know, those who truly understand the Void have no need for eyes or ears. Because the Void is everywhere." Colin casually spun his blade before leveling it at Sieg, who stood at the forefront.

"Huh?! He can hear that too! Shuguin, maybe we should run? Even if you’re always locking me away, I don’t want to see my partner die!" The Smoke Demon’s panicked cry emanated from the armor.

"Shut up." Shuguin remained calm, his command to the noisy demon absolute.

"Fine, no more nonsense then. Kill him, Shuguin. I’ll back you up." The demon didn't fall silent, but his tone turned cold, revealing a newfound, lethal focus.

The smoke ceased its aimless drifting, gathering tightly to coat Shuguin’s armor, transforming the misty surface into something resembling matte metal.

The visor of his helmet, modeled after a traditional knight’s helm, twisted and warped into the savage, snarling visage of a wolf.

Finally, the smoke flowed like liquid into Shuguin’s hand, manifesting as an incredibly slender longsword.

Its design appeared fragile and simple, but a closer look revealed the blade’s edge was lined with countless microscopic teeth of swirling smoke, rotating at high speeds. It was not a sword, but a chainsaw forged of vapor.

"It seems I’ve managed to make you serious. How do you manage to get a demon to cooperate so well, Shuguin?" Mr. Colin’s voice returned, still provocatively irritating, though the mockery and disdain had faded significantly.

"Boom." The first to move was not the pair in dialogue, but Sieg. Without a surge of battle-qi, the physical strength Sieg displayed was already at the level of a high-ranking Grand Knight. He drove his hands into the corridor wall and whipped them back with a violent heave.

The reinforced wall, far harder than ordinary masonry, was torn away by sheer brute force. The ground shuddered as a massive slab of stone was ripped free and, with Sieg’s momentum unspent, hurled toward Colin at terrifying speed.

"Truly violent, but useless if you can't hit your target." The massive chunk of wall nearly filled the entire corridor. Even if Colin split it with his blade, the sheer mass would have crushed him.

Yet, as he had claimed, it could not hit him. A flicker of void energy passed, and the space Colin occupied was warped entirely. The position of the wall fragment and Colin swapped in an instant, and Colin’s body seemed to fast-forward, closing the distance to Sieg in a blink.

He thrust his void blade toward Sieg’s chest without hesitation. *Crack.* The sound of shattering bone echoed—the sound of Colin’s own arm snapping under sudden, violent force.

Sieg’s speed was beyond imagination. A sudden knee strike caught Colin mid-air, shattering the arm that held the blade into two pieces. Flesh and bone splinters sprayed without restraint, and the void blade flew off alongside the severed limb.

Sieg did not pause. He pulled his arm back, gathering force for a strike at Colin’s head. Perhaps it was the sheer speed, but Sieg’s palm slammed squarely into Colin’s face, leaving a look of shock etched upon it.

Then, Sieg smashed Colin’s head into the wall. It disintegrated; flesh and blood splattered, painting the floor in red and white. The headless, armless corpse slumped to the ground, its life force extinguished.

Yet, Sieg felt no joy in the kill. How could it be this easy? It was impossible. The instinct deep within his blood had warned him that Colin was dangerous. How could a being capable of triggering such a primal warning be slain so simply?

His premonition was correct. "Haha, so cautious. I knew such tricks wouldn't fool you." As Colin’s voice echoed from nowhere, the scattered limbs began to dissipate, while the blood and gore began to encircle Sieg.

"Do I need a physical form? Haha, thank you for liberating me. I think your body will do quite nicely; why not gift it to me?" The void blade had vanished, but the "blood" was now infused with the endless, pitch-black "Void."

The liquid converged from the air and the ground toward Sieg. Wherever it touched matter, it devoured and eroded it, leaving a trail of decay. The destructive power of this "blood" was clearly terrifying.

The liquid closed in from all directions, inescapable and chaotic, pressing down on Sieg from every angle.

Sieg made no move, merely standing still with his head bowed. "So confident? And why is that?" Colin’s chatter was incessant, as if he delighted in stoking his enemy’s rage.

"Sizzle..." The liquid, converging on Sieg, suddenly met an obstacle. In the seemingly empty air, something blocked its path. The liquid, with its immense power of consumption, clashed against this invisible barrier.

"Ah, so it’s the teammate. How touching." The voice never ceased.

The invisible smoke had seemed to be entirely absorbed into Shuguin’s armor, but in reality, a portion had dispersed into microscopic particles, undetectable without instruments. They hadn't hidden; they had simply spread throughout the space, appearing as if they had vanished.

When needed, they manifested. Now, the smoke rapidly coalesced into a barrier, shielding Sieg from the encroaching liquid.

Simultaneously, Sieg lifted his bowed head. His handsome face was now covered in fine, creeping scales, and within his throat, something scorching and luminous began to brew.

The next moment, the smoke barrier dissipated, drawing all the scattered particles back into Shuguin’s armor, where they formed a shield between him and Sieg.

"How ruthless. Dragon’s breath? Aren't you afraid of hurting your own tea—" Colin’s grating voice was cut short by the eruption of fire and shockwaves centered on Sieg.

From Sieg’s core, light, heat, and flame exploded in a deafening roar, sweeping through the corridor in a scorching, terrifying tide.

The sudden expansion of matter in the confined space whipped up a violent gale, sweeping away the debris from the earlier struggle.

When the fire and light faded, the corridor had been reduced to a scorched wasteland. The surface of the floor and walls had melted, turning pitch black.

The area around Sieg was even more extreme; beyond his immediate vicinity, the surrounding walls and floor had collapsed entirely. The falling masonry was swatted away by Sieg, and the very section of the corridor he stood in was teetering on the edge of a total cave-in.

In the spot Sieg watched, a purple hand broke through the scorched earth. A humanoid shape began to crawl out, but before it could react, a chain of smoke shot from Shuguin’s position.

The sharp tip of the chain pierced the humanoid’s head, and with a sharp tug, Shuguin pulled himself across the distance at high speed.

Having prepared for the explosion due to his synergy with Sieg, Shuguin had used his smoke shield to deflect the brunt of the blast, while the liquid had been wiped out by Sieg’s indiscriminate attack.

But Shuguin, who could observe everything through his dispersed smoke, knew the liquid hadn't been destroyed; it had merely gathered into this hand—this emerging purple figure.

As he pulled himself toward what was undeniably Colin, Shuguin’s slender sword, operating like a chainsaw, sliced through the purple figure’s neck as if cutting through tofu. The head soared into the air.

The fine teeth, spinning at high speed, sacrificed themselves to tear the durable purple body apart. Because the smoke could regenerate infinitely, the blade maintained its maximum lethality, easily shredding a body that had withstood Sieg’s point-blank dragon’s breath.

"Gather into a body and I get attacked, but stay dispersed and I can't withstand Mr. Sieg’s dragon’s breath. I am in such a predicament..." Colin’s voice returned, filled with feigned grief and dissatisfaction.

Ignoring him, Sieg followed Shuguin—who had just decapitated Colin—and drove his scaled, clawed hand into the purple torso with all his might.

*Clang!* It was not the sound of flesh, but of a violent collision with metal. Yet, Sieg’s immense power prevailed. He forced his hand, his claws, deep into the torso, and then, with a violent squeeze, he crushed something within.

"Ah, ah, that really hurts. You two are so difficult to deal with. But even if you can hurt me, it is meaningless. Who told you I needed a body?" Colin’s voice finally shifted. The combined strength of Sieg and Shuguin was indeed formidable, and he had been genuinely wounded. However, the Void would show them what true power was.

His body was suddenly covered in a layer of deep, pitch-black hue. Everything in the vicinity began to blur under a sudden, erupting wave of energy, fading from reality. Even Sieg and Shuguin could not avoid it; the blurring spread rapidly, a sense of unreality diffusing through the air.

"The Gate of the Void. Feel it well—the key that links reality to the Void. And it is incomplete. When I have gathered all the keys, heh heh..." Colin’s arrogant voice echoed through the space as it shifted from reality to the Void, wild and unhinged.

"Uh, am I interrupting something?" Suddenly, a head popped up from the stairs at the end of the corridor, asking the question with a hint of hesitation. It was Shael Lade.