The King's Beloved

~ [Music Recommendation: "The Last Hunter" by Naoshi Mizuta. (Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST) - available in Youtube] ~ Please listen to it in loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter XD ~

Sweat trickled down on Ventus' forehead. "That's impossible," he thought, "It requires the most advanced level of control with spiritual energy. Even amongst guardians and apprentices, it takes years of practice. The prodigies who have lived from the beginning of time were able to learn it fast but it still took them months! Everyone failed numerous times when they tried evolving their weapons. How can I believe that this child can do it? Even if he is the Supreme's anointed, it's just -" on and on his mind rambled.

Not caring for his disbelief, Elliot concentrated his spiritual energy on his Zweihänder as they remained floating in the air, high above the mist-filled arena.

"Zweihänder - third form, Verus Mode," Elliot whispered to himself. After that, his sword began transforming! The body of the sword got covered in bright light and its shape started changing. It became longer and the blade curved until finally, it became a scythe.

The scythe was long and stood almost as tall as Elliot. The pole handle was black and a purple snake encircled it from bottom to top. From the ring that connected the handle to the blade, up to the middle part of the blade, an intricate design of the mouth of a basilisk covered it. There were two large fangs on the mouth of the basilisk that looked very sharp and golden. As for the blade, it was purple and broad in shape and was as long as half the body of its pole handle. 

It was a very beautiful scythe to look at … beautiful but dangerous. It emitted a dark purple glow and even from afar, the crowd felt the ominous aura it released. 

Ventus' eyes widened and his mouth gaped upon seeing the successful transformation of Elliot's sword. He focused spiritual energy in his eyes to assess the scythe he was holding, and indeed, it was the full potential of the third form of the Zweihänder. Its spiritual energy was too much that it reeked out and became a purple aura that enveloped the whole body of the scythe.

"H-how in the world is this possible?" Ventus' lips trembled and so did his body in both excitement and awe. "Amazing! Truly splendid! You are a prodigy amongst prodigies! The one and only who defeated all other geniuses before him! Ha ha ha ha! Magnificent!"

"So Caligo's was a scythe," Elliot assessed as he looked thoroughly at the weapon he was holding. "A Basilisk Scythe … and it has purple blades," he chuckled. "I wonder if he's fond of purple?"

"Go on, try it!" Ventus yelled to Elliot since he noticed he wasn't listening to him.

Elliot looked back at Ventus. "Alright. I'll use 50% too, like you did. I don't want to destroy this realm as well".

Then Elliot raised the Basilisk's Scythe and slashed upward towards the sky. He was careful not to hit anyone so he decided to unleash it towards the pastel colored clouds in the sky.

When Elliot slashed upwards, the purple aura from the sword got released and struck the clouds, parting it into two and clearing the whole sky of all its clouds! Now, the sky, not only within Ventus Kingdom, but all the surrounding areas that the eyes could reach, up to the horizons in all directions, was cleared up! And to top it off, purple sparkles fell all over the place like the gentle snow during winter. It was such a magnificent sight - even if the sparkles were remnants of the aura that the scythe released.

The whole crowd was awed from what they just witnessed, including Rania, Luna and Ducis who saw it all from down below.

"Wow, that was powerful," Elliot said as his lips gaped in amazement. "I wonder how strong the 100% would be". He then pointed his scythe towards Ventus. "Thank you for teaching this to me. Now that I know how to unlock my weapon's full potential, I don't think your bow will do anything to my scythe," he smiled confidently.

In these words, Ventus smirked all the more. "At last, an opponent worth fighting!" he yelled with all his might and he transformed his bow back to a rapier, and attacked Elliot. Indeed, his bow, though powerful as it was, cannot cross blades with a scythe. Instead, he imbued more magic unto his rapier and struck at him.

Elliot smirked as well and spun the scythe on his hands as he evaded Ventus's attack, gaining more momentum and striking back at him. Ventus was almost caught by its blade if he hadn't teleported into another area. After regaining his balance, he attacked Elliot again, and their battle continued on.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

Their weapons struck against each other over and over. The few minutes grew into a couple of minutes. And the crowd was hyped once more, cheering on their own favorites. You could hear an equal amount of cheer for Elliot and Ventus now as compared to before. More and more people were trying to change their bets but it wasn't allowed anymore since the battle had already started.

"Elliot," Rania whispered and Elliot heard him from the earring that was on his left ear. It was Luna's communication bracelet that he changed into an earring, according to the strategy he told Rania. "I'm ready".

Elliot smiled. He blocked the incoming attack from Ventus and swung him back with a forceful strike, sending Ventus far away from him. Then, he fell on his back towards the arena, got engulfed by the black mist, and landed on his two feet inside. He concentrated spiritual energy in his eyes and they glowed bright blue. He spun his head around, looking for Rania's trace and there he found her hiding on one of the earth walls she created. There were now lots of earth walls all around the arena making it look like a maze.

Not long after, Ventus followed Elliot inside the mist. He, too, concentrated spiritual energy in his eyes so he could see the traces of spiritual energy and easily detect his opponent. He looked around and easily spotted both Elliot and Rania. He was about to launch towards Elliot when he remembered that it was still a match. Trying to catch two birds at once, he lunged towards Rania instead.

"Got your little partner here, ha ha ha ha!" Ventus laughed and teleported in front of Rania and attacked her. 

Rania wasn't able to move and got stabbed in the chest.

"Ugh," Ventus was taken aback. He didn't mean to kill her. "W-why are you so slow? Why didn't you evade?!" he yelled at her.

With his chest beating hard, he pulled out the sword from her chest.

Psssshhhh …

Instead of blood gushing out, Rania's body turned into a mist!

"W-what the! An illusion?" Ventus was appalled. "But I'm using magic in my eyes! Clearly, it has spiritual energy in it! How in the -" he turned his head around only to be attacked by Elliot from behind.

"You can thank Caligo for that," Elliot smugly told Ventus. Their weapons pushed against each other and held its position.

"Huh! So it's his illusion. Great strategy, but don't think it can work on me twice!"

Ventus put more force in his sword and managed to push Elliot backwards. But Elliot used the opportunity to vanish within the mist.

"Argh, I hate this mist!"

Ventus lunged forward again but suddenly, he couldn't get passed two steps ahead of him. He was trapped inside a barrier! He tried slashing it but nothing worked - it didn't break. This barrier was much stronger than the one Rania used before.

Rania showed herself to Ventus. "Please, surrender. You won't be able to get out of that barrier now".

Ventus frowned at her. "And who says so? I am Ventus! I cannot be contained!" he yelled and he transformed his rapier back into a bow. He gathered spiritual energy in his hands once more, and aimed at the barrier.

Seeing this, Rania took a step sideways to avoid the arrow aimed at her.

Ventus released the arrow, and it went through the barrier, breaking it into thousands of pieces. The force was so much that a strong gust of wind swept all the mist from the arena and cleared the view for everyone to see. Then, his eyes fell to Rania. He switched back his bow into a rapier and lunged at her again.

"You won't escape this time!" he shouted.

"Tornado!" Rania shouted back.

Knowing Rania's magic was voice-activated, Ventus stopped mid-way and took a step back away from her. A tornado was a wide-area magic and he would surely be caught if he didn't take a step back.

But … there was no tornado.

"Wait, why didn't it -"

"Gotcha!" Elliot whispered from his back.

And at last, on his hands, was Ventus' white ribbon which he took from his right arm.

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