The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Facing Maia, Oscar mounted Erden, firing several golden rods engulfed in spears of flame, exploding into fiery shrapnel the moment they touched Maia's fire. Taking advantage of the obscuring fire, he and Erden dashed across, aiming to bypass Maia via the ceiling. Then, a snort came from the dense fire, and Oscar felt a chill freezing his veins despite the hot flames.

Maia's figure appeared before him, extending her palm toward him, and it shone with fierce light. Below him, Erden sidestepped to dodge and veered straight down, stamping on the ground and kicking off with all the strength inside the strong legs, further hastened by a single swipe of his wings like a hawk in a dive.

"Useless." Maia's snake anima hissed out of the flaming ground, opening its jaw wide enough to swallow Oscar and Erden. Oscar leaped off Erden and flew forward on his own. He didn't worry about Erden since his beast friend transformed into his small form to avoid the tail-lashing of the snake anima.

"Is it this, Oscar Terr? It's more of the same." Maia flashed before him, snapping his whip in the air, creating a rain of powerful embers.

Avoiding this downpour of deadly fire was impossible. Raising his fist, Oscar threw out a weakened Eirin Omnireus, cracking apart the walls, floor, and ceiling to reveal the bare solid steel behind the tiles. The embers were snuffed out, but Oscar didn't rejoice in surviving. He was exhausting himself faster than expected, and Maia wasn't serious in this battle, lording over him playfully.

"Shouldn't you worry about the rest of the prison?" Oscar heard a crack come from his blue antlers, the limit fast approaching due to his recklessness. "You can feel it, can't you? There's a huge battle happening below us."

"They still can't free your master. It's impossible." Maia snapped her fingers, and the snake anima behind him sped around to return to her, coiling around her arm and resting on her shoulder.

"Impossible?" Oscar shrugged. "Shouldn't you say that to me?"

"True. I don't know how, but you somehow evolved your core and became a master of dual elements. That's impossible, but so is freeing your master." Maia crossed her arms and stared in contempt. "Do you know how long we tried to get a response from him? My aunt wants to talk to him, but he's a beast, nothing more than that."

"We checked him out. There is nothing in him. He has no real thoughts and no emotions. There's only the single desire to kill everything around him. Knowing that, do you really want to set him free? He might kill you." Maia chuckled. "I don't want that to happen. I need to collect the interest from all your offenses toward me."

"Geez. Just be glad you're alive. You also did quite the job on me." A little more, Oscar thought. He breathed in and slowly clenched his muscles.

"In the end, the winner decides what happens. By the way, are you ready now?" Maia stroked her snake anima's head. "I'm tired of waiting."

"Ah, you noticed?" He ended his Ein Awaken.

"There's no point to it." Maia shrugged this time, mimicking his actions. "I recover faster than you. And I'm still far stronger."

Oscar shot a Golden Breaker mixed with Shattering Wave and contained inside a swirling orb of flame. Maia flicked his attack away, her snake swallowing every bits and pieces of the ensuing shockwave. Riding in on Erden, Oscar combined his hands and fused his golden drills into one. Erden's antlers extended out and sharpened into a singular long blade, and Oscar fused his spell into it, the same technique he used to break through Okeanes' wave.

Erden's stomps stamped into the steel, a trail of molten steps following him. Oscar guided the long spear of sapphire, gold, and fire like a joust, aiming straight for Maia, undeterred by the fearsome power surrounding her. Flames surged from her arms, blazing from her shoulders, and Maia held out her hands.

It all happened quickly. A burst of fire exploded from Maia's hands, and Oscar remained straight and true, plunging his blow against the inferno. He used enough of his Eirin Omnireus and Erden's beastly power to equal out against her attack since she still held back to play around with him.

"Last time, you caught me off-guard, but this time, the difference between us is too great," Maia said, shaking her head at his closing in.

"You're still an idiot," Oscar swung and filled the entire corridor with fire.

"Obscuring the vision again? You'll melt before you can reach me." As he expected, Maia had no caution, not even in this blinding fire.

Oscar reached into his space pocket and threw a vial at her, glimmering with gold liquid inside.

Maia reacted to his hopes and flicked the vial, destroying it, but the gold liquid withstood her flame and landed on her arm. Before long, she screamed in pain, clutching her arm. "What is this?"

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"Raw Grade Four Wildersap. Courtesy of a good friend. Enjoy it. I'll be going through." Oscar said, passing past her. Her snake anima also wriggled in pain, unable to give chase.

"Oscar!" Maia shouted hatefully, clutching her arm. He couldn't see her face, but he knew it was certainly twisted in anger. He broke down the door and rode down the stairs until he reached a large cavern. To the side, Aunt Ward and Aunt Rosett were against the enemy's Marshal Exalts. Up above, he saw Reni and Elias. Oscar wasted no time and hurried through the large cavern, looking for his master while the others were busy.

Finally, he caught sight of a ragged figure, and he solemnly approached, lost in thought. He could never forget that black helmet with a crown of spikes. It was his master, Draven. His master's clothes were ragged and tearing apart, and he slumped on his knees, chained to the ground, looking as if he no longer had the will to live. Oscar almost lost the words to speak, nearly choking on the delight of his reunion and the sadness to see his master reduced to such a state.

"Master!" Oscar shouted, his shout diminishing to a whisper from the heaviness in his chest.

"You!" A shout interrupted him, and Oscar found himself slammed to the ground, held down by a powerful hand. Maia kicked Erden away and said, "He can't hear you. I said it before. He has nothing inside him. You have failed. I win!"

Oscar clenched the ground, struggling against Maia's hold but unable to free himself. Tilting his head up to see his master, Oscar shouted out in one final plea, "Get the hell out of your prison! You waste of a master!" He almost choked on his next words, sounding close to a whimper, "I'm back."

…….

From within the deep madness infecting his mind like a stormy sea at night, where he could form no rational thought or emotion, only the blinding rage that furthered his descent deeper into the depths of insanity, Draven felt a nudge, a strange bubble of serenity and rationality. For the smallest of moments, before this bubble could pop, he began to think, an act he had not done in a long time. Centering on this bubble for a constant, an anchor of stability in the chaos, his insane and enraged self slowly put itself back together, flakes and pieces of his being patching itself together.

His first thought was regarding the noise outside, muffled voices invading his thought, and he called out, his voice rippling from the bubble to cross the stormy ocean of his mind, asking, 'Who are you?' Who was it? Despite his best efforts to focus his senses on the noise, Draven failed to hear what they were, and his eyes refused to crack open to see who it was. Whoever was shouting outside he wanted them to stop. The irritation of not knowing was worse than the feeling of losing himself in his insanity.

'M–t-r!' It called stronger but still messy, a garbled message struggling to remain clear. He could barely make out parts of it and tried to interpret its meaning. The stormy clouds grew, crackling thunder coursing in strange arcs along its surfaces, drowning out the message. Swallowed by the raging storm, Draven found his little bit of rationality breaking away, piece by piece.

'Don't screw with me!' Draven roared, his cry forcing the clouds at bay. Straining his mind's ears, he listened to pick up the echoes of the message before the storm claimed it.

'Ma-t-r!'

It still made no sense. Draven listened deeper.

'Ma-ter!'

He was so close. He sensed he almost had it. But the madness roared, and the clouds fought against his will, blasting more thunder to stop him. More parts of what little he managed to gather of himself began to flake off, and Draven shouted, trying to cling onto what little he had, reaching out for the last piece.

'Master!'

Master? Master…Draven hadn't heard that word for what seemed to be a long time. The only one whom he gave the right to call him that was…his disciple…Oscar. Was this just a sick joke? His disciple died in Ashen Grove, and now his voice haunted him. Enraged, Draven let go of his resistance, and the storm moved toward him.

'Just leave me alone. I don't want to listen.' As his rational thought broke apart more, Draven waited for the nonsensical bubble to pop, wanting the storm to claim him. However, before it could, he heard more.

'Get the hell out of your prison! You waste of a master!' A desperate shout shook his mind, and everything came to a halt.

'You? I don't remember him saying that.' Draven groaned.

Then, a final message echoed, bringing all other sounds, the thunder, the storms, to silence. Draven heard it loud and clear, a pleading voice. 'I'm back.' As if struck by thunder, Draven realized these words were not a cruel joke, not a rambling of the madness within. Oscar returned…to him.

'He's alive!' The storm backed away, trembling and huddling away as if afraid of his boisterous declaration. He cried out again that his disciple was alive. He shouted it out as many times as needed, growing stronger and more in control of his thoughts. The voice of his disciple became clearer, and a bright light sliced across the horizon. A powerful flash spilled forth and broke apart the frightened storm, and Draven spread his astral hands, allowing it to engulf his entire being.

He groaned, confused by his hoarse voice, and struggled to see past the muddled vision. He hadn't used his eyes in years since his imprisonment. But he could see a figure lying in the dirt, held down by someone else. His eyes began to clear, and he gazed deeply into his disciple's face. Draven chuckled in disbelief. It was Oscar. After a long time, his disciple had grown up.

But why was he on the ground? Why was he held into the dirt? Draven gnashed his teeth and trembled, the chains rattling from his hands to the ground.

"The hell do you think you're doing to him?" Standing up, Draven roused all the Reis, concentrating them into the size of a crumb on the tips of his index fingers. He tapped the chains by his wrists, and they disintegrated into dust from his Shattering Wave. Reaching for his collar, he pulled it apart and stomped his foot, everyone stopping their battles to stare at him.

"Maia! Run!" A voice he could tell was Diane cried out, but he didn't care if it was Diane's relative. He closed the distance in a single step and swung his arm like a blade, gazing coldly at the young Marshal Exalt's pale face. Diane appeared behind the one she called Maia, and they defended against his strike together, but both were blown away by his blow, grunting in pain as they crashed against the cavern walls.

"Master?"

Draven turned and crouched next to the black-haired man. He helped him to his feet and patted his head, feeling strange at patting someone his height. "One should always remember to be punctual. You're late by many years. You're lacking elegance."

Oscar smiled and hugged him tightly, laughing without reservation. It was not elegant, but he allowed it this once. Pounding a fist onto Oscar's back, Draven laughed heartily and said, "You're taller now. Welcome back, Oscar."

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