The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Oscar groaned. His skin burned from the heated sparks between the streams of Reis and Ein as the two powers combined. He heard the thumping of his heart grow louder and faster until it silenced; the heartbeat became so fast he could not discern a single beat from the rest.

"You idiot, you damned idiot," Oscar spoke harshly. Although it was only a copy and not his true demon state, he laid his grievances to it. "No wonder I couldn't use Reis and Ein after you fought Orden."

The statement was hypocritical, considering Oscar's many reckless actions in the past, and his friends would have thought the same. But he was angry, not about the overuse of his body, but the fact he wasn't in control. He accepted his many wild decisions in the past because it was his conscious choice and not any others.

For the first time in his many bouts, his eyes turned hostile similar to Demon Oscar's, but instead of the dull chill, his flared with bright fury. Quivering before Oscar's intense fury, the forces of Reis and Ein obliged, each mote, each thread, each slight flicker combined.

This was the sensation!

The power that struck through his chest hundreds of times. Around his arms, it wasn't the blue flames of Ein nor the streams of Reis but spheres of several sizes rotating. The rotations of these spheres resembled a tornado, a cone encasing his fists, which then solidified into two silver lances.

With these two lances, Oscar swung his arms around in the air faster than ever before, incredibly light. The lances made a clear sound as he swiped them against each other; their hardness was unreal. Suddenly, he groaned as his chest heaved up and down, and his face turned scarlet red in a struggle, sweat dripping from his chin.

He stared at Demon Oscar standing idle in its spot. The scrunches and furrows on his face slowly receded, and the red flush washed away. His lips curled into a smile, and his back cracked several times as he stood straight up.

"Should I thank you for not attacking me during this time?" Oscar shook his head at Demon Oscar's silence. His arms lifted to take the familiar stance, but this time with two lances encased over his fists.

With the fused power of Ein and Reis, the spell burst from Oscar's foot, a loud clang reverberated through the floor, and Oscar charged. His jacket flapped rapidly, and his eyes narrowed as the air scratched and scraped his skin, and the winds blew away all other sounds and filled his unblocked ear.

Demon Oscar returned the favor with its own 'Silver Burst.' The length of their strides and the wind behind their backs evened out. Finally, Oscar achieved the same speed, becoming a blur like Demon Oscar.

The sound of Oscar's laughter filled the white chamber. He tested out his newfound power, throwing out his left fist. Multiple silver blurs formed a wavy wall of spikes intent on impaling Demon Oscar, who matched his wall of jabs.

Their lances turned red hot as sweat dripped down their necks. Oscar could hear nothing but the battering and clanging of metals until his legs trembled and his knees buckled, plopping his rear to the floor. Now, only his ragged breathing filled the air as his heartbeat returned from silence, a rapid beating that choked out the air in his lungs until it came to a slow thump.

His heart only thumped once before Demon Oscar's lance pierced through it, tearing it into shreds, never to beat again. Red blood poured down Oscar's chest, but it shook from Oscar's laughter. The sight of himself falling before a wounded Orden popped into his head.

"Even with not caring about my body, you lasted for quite a while," Oscar gripped Demon Oscar's arm. His eyes enlarged, the obsidian pupils deeper than before. "Two hours left. I'll be back."

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"Welcome back," Gol-4 said.

"That's the first time you greeted me when I returned." Oscar laid down, huffing and sweating from his back.

"You were in a strange state earlier for seven hours and never batted an eye, only repeating your motions like a golem. But this time is different; you're finally back."

"Really now? I didn't notice." Oscar yawned. He hadn't slept the entire night, and the time was already into the early morning of the second day. Ignoring his tiredness, Oscar sat up and drank some water. "I finally grasped it."

"Have you now? Then what's next?"

"Isn't that obvious? Use up the rest of the time and defeat him." Oscar raised his hand slowly and dropped it, entering the realm of thoughts again. However, this time, Oscar fused his Reis and Ein into one immediately.

Feeling off that this fusion didn't have a proper term, Oscar decided to name it. A fusion of Reis and Ein deserved a proper name, so he dubbed it the Eirin.

The two Oscars charged once more. They used up their entire arsenal, constantly redirecting each other's blows as their deer animas wrestled on the ground, and neither pair retreated a single inch. Oscar's movements were unrestrained, flowing perfectly.

Equal, Oscar was finally equal to his demon. When their kicks clashed, neither gained the advantage, their lances could not pierce the other, and their silver stars bounced off each other. Demon Oscar's advantages of combination attacks and strange patterns were whittling down until the only one that remained was time.

Demon Oscar felt no pain, but Oscar did. The pain of the Eirin weighted down his light limbs and lances until his body dropped to the floor again. Each time, Oscar smiled at his demon before it stabbed him in the chest, an earnest gaze filled with expectations and hope, a hope to become far stronger than the demon.

The arrow rotated slowly but came closer and closer with each passing second to complete one full revolution. With a pale, trembling face but a bright smile, Oscar never stopped for a second, delving back into the throes of battle.

"Hey, this should be our last bout. The time is ticking down." Oscar's voice reached Demon Oscar's ears, but the copy had no function to respond. Following a sigh from his lips, his feet stepped slowly across the white floor. He felt sad to let this battle come to an end, but he had to return to Ashen Grove and his friends.

"I wanted to thank you and the Forest Heart Clan, though Gol-4 might yell at me for that." Oscar exhaled, and his arms limped to his sides, exposing his chest. His expression mellowed out as his eyes dropped—an open stance with no resistance, the stance of one who lost the will to fight. "You have taught me so much I didn't know about myself. I wonder how I instinctively figured out the fusion between Ein and Reis."

Demon Oscar showed no immediate reaction, the same indifferent face it had since the start of this twelve-hour-long duel. It didn't waste any time and lifted its heel, kicking off its toes and 'Silver Burst.' The lances around its fists gleamed.

Oscar's chest burst open from the searing tip of the lance. This time, instead of the earnest smile from before, Oscar made a toothy grin, a savage animal baring its fangs. His feet spun up the threads of Reis, his body took into the Reis from Demon Oscar's lance, and all his Adamasreis flowed to his right foot.

The overwhelming Reis fused with the last of his Ein into the Eirin, and his foot shone with the light of blue spheres, small but condensed and packed together, appearing like strange blue clouds. He hardened this power with 'Edureisclad', and his foot parted the air as it lifted on a devastating path toward Demon Oscar.

Demon Oscar realized this too late, and Oscar's hands gripped his arm tightly, not allowing it to retreat.

'Omnireus'

The final technique of Reis exploded into a deafening shockwave as Oscar's foot sank into Demon Oscar's chest. The fused power elevated the destruction many times over, and Demon Oscar finally, finally showed a crack in his expression, a tinge of bewilderment.

Even as the 'Omnireus' ravaged and shattered its incorporeal body, spewing out blood from every inch, tearing out the skin, and exploding the bones to dust, Demon Oscar still held its confusion until its last moments when it evaporated into a puff of smoke.

"Hah hah," Oscar's bloodied back fell to the white floor. He closed his eyes as his lips formed flat, a sense of peace this time, not the touch of death he had endured for twelve hours. When he opened his eyes again, Gol-4's blue glass eyes appeared right in front, and the mechanical golem hummed.

"You won."

"I did."

Oscar took his hand off the needle, applied some salve, and bandaged it. He turned to the arrow and waited for it to end its rotation. In a few minutes, the arrow returned to its original position.

He heard a rumbling noise, and the chamber trembled. The tile with the handprint and needle sank into the floor and moved to the side. From the open space, a block rose with a single metal plate placed on top.

Only a few words were etched on the metal plate's surface, 'Reward.'

"Finally," Oscar's eyes brightened as he walked to the elevated block. "What kind of reward will I receive?"

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