Chapter 394: Ruler of All

Sporting a smile that was incredibly rare to see on his face, Erudis looked at Aurus as he quickly conjured a magic circle, shooting out a beam of light that seemed to move way faster than any of the other attacks he had shot out so faster.

"[Unshackled Omniscience: Relentless Blaze]."

Whoosh!

Although Erudis had fired the skill towards Aurus, rather than head straight for Aurus directly, it instead headed towards one of the decoys he had made. Naturally, such a move confused Aurus quite a lot, since even his primal instinct thought that a direct attack would be the quickest way to end a fight. Though, at the very moment the beam of light destroyed one of his decoys, his question was answered then and there.

Schwing!

As if it had absorbed all of the energy that was made to create the decoy, the beam of light stopped for a moment as it seemed to have gained a few wings slightly far away from what could be considered the head of the beam. Soon after, the wings then shot out smaller beams of light, propelling the beam of light as a whole at a speed that even Aurus couldn't follow his sense of vision on.

However, after seeing what the beam could do after destroying one of his decoys, Aurus instantly made a decision in his mind, dispelling all of the remaining decoys that had been created through [Flux Doppelganger]. In response, Erudis let out a light chuckle as he turned his body to face Aurus, saying, "Well, you're no fun."

At this moment, the indifferent and somewhat haughty Erudis was nowhere to be seen. Instead, an Erudis, whose flame for combat had been rekindled, was now available for all people to see. Even emotions that would be rare to see on Erudis's face was on constant display, which would surely shock the other Spiriveritae once they know of it.

Of course, that was only because Erudis was forced to use all of the skills in his arsenal to trade blows with Aurus. And that was even considering the fact that his comprehension over his Epiphany was over Level 80 at this point, the closest any of the Spiriveritae had gotten to reaching the max level.

Whoosh!

Even though he said those words to Aurus, he continued to redirect the now upgraded beam of light towards Aurus, wanting to do some sort of barrage that would make it hard for the latter to dodge. Naturally, it did not take long for Aurus to think that something like that would happen, prompting him to use his movement skill as a decoy of his took his place.

After that, he quickly teleported a few more times, wanting to make sure that his traces weren't seen. Then, in a massive turn of events, Aurus started to activate and deactivate [Flux Doppelganger] a countless amount of times.

Whoosh! Swoosh! Whoosh! Swoosh!

For a while, in one part of the wilderness, the sound of something forming and then dissipating off into thin air could be heard incessantly. As the one who was doing this, Aurus, or to be more exact, the primal instinct controlling his body at the moment, was now discovering more and more things it could do with Aurus's body, such as hastily improving and evolving what would normally be a weak skill to something that would make multiple beings envious.

Crash!

As for the upgraded beam of light, it crashed against the decoy that stood where Aurus previously was, instantly destroying the decoy as the beam absorbed its energy to upgrade its form. Seeing the result of the clash, Erudis could not help but imitate the sound of one clicking their tongue as the wings surrounding the beam gained more wings, improving the speed and power behind the beam as it moved.

However, feeling that the beam wouldn't be able to hit Aurus no matter how hard he tried, Erudis dispelled the beam, collecting all of the energy that the beam had absorbed and used it to return his condition back to its peak. While doing so, he could faintly hear the sounds of something being made and broken multiple times in a short span of time, easily figuring out that Aurus was there.

But surprisingly, rather than heading to where Aurus was and ambush him, Erudis instead stayed where he was as he released a bit of his energy, aiming to use the energy to create a clone of himself that would be able to emulate some of his properties.

Well, as someone who had control over the Epiphany of Omniscience, he already had the skill to do such a thing, it's just that it took quite a long time for him to do so. Now that he was pressed for time, he was using the pressure of being ambushed back to improve the speed, as well as the number of clones he could conjure.

…

After what seemed to be ten minutes of both parties doing whatever they did to increase their advantage, Erudis looked at the clones he had conjured, satisfied with how much he had improved within such a short span of time.

In front of him stood nine entities that had the same appearance as him, as well as the same presence as him. If not for the fact that one would realize they were clones if they looked closely, Erudis would have perfected the art of making clones.

Though, just as he was about to head to where Aurus was, relying on the sound he was emitting back then, the sound of leaves rustling soon resounded near him, eventually revealing an Aurus that had come alone.

Seeing how the battle seemed to be in his favor, Erudis could not help but exude a great amount of confidence. Nevertheless, he was still vigilant as he felt that Aurus had not shown everything to him yet. With that, he surrounded himself with the nine clones he had made as he asked, "Are you planning to concede, Verdante?"

"No," Aurus succinctly replied. Though, soon after, an incredibly malevolent aura soon covered the vicinity of the area they were in as Aurus let out a rare chuckle, saying, "Though, I could say the same thing to you."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

In less than an instant, a great number of decoys that looked similar and felt similar to Aurus had appeared from behind the various trees and plants that covered the area they were in. As he looked at the number of decoys Aurus had made, he could not help but look at the number of clones he made and wonder how Aurus had improved in such a short time.

Well, that was because Aurus had made way beyond nine clones. He didn't make just 10 clones…not 20 clones…not even 30 clones.

He made a thousand clones.

After activating and deactivating [Flux Doppelganger] in quick successions, the speed at which he gained experience was vastly improved, only being hampered by the times he had to wait for his energy to recover. Nevertheless, within the span of ten minutes, he was able to improve the B-grade Mortal skill [Flux Doppelganger] to the X-grade Mortal skill [Myriad Flux Legion]. In fact, if he did not decide to come at the exact moment he had reached the max level for [Myriad Flux Legion], he would have probably evolved the skill to the C-grade Transcendent level.

In any case, a thousand clones was more than enough to shock and overwhelm Erudis at the same time. But as he was the first Spiriveritas of Erudinia, he was not dismayed nor depressed by the sight that seemed to not work in his favor. Instead, he chose to go one step beyond what he was already doing, prompting him to let out a great burst of energy, wiping out around 10% of Aurus's decoys as he said, "You know, this is the first time another Spiriveritas has forced my hand."

"Well, whatever happens to you from here on out…"

"Don't regret it, okay?"

"[Unshackled Omniscience: Ascension Art]."

"[Metanoia Sage Form]!"

Swoosh!

Within an instant, the aura Erudis was emanating had far surpassed the intensity of the aura surrounding Aurus, as well as a small portion of the decoys Aurus had made…combined. Adding onto the great improvement in his aura and power was his appearance, which seemed to have brought him back to his heydays as his ash gray bark gradually turned silver, making him give off the feeling that he was a being that transcended the world he treaded upon.

Surprisingly, even the clones Erudis created had undergone a change, changing their appearances to his current one. Of course, the increase in aura and power wasn't anywhere near as substantial as the one to Erudis. In any case, Erudis had never entertained the thought of using his clones other than to combat Aurus's decoys.

To him, this form was more than enough to fight Aurus and obliterate him many times over.

Hovering in midair, Erudis then put on a slightly arrogant expression as he waved his right hand downward, forming a large blade of light that aimed to destroy Aurus in one shot.

"[Metanoia Sage Art: Heavenly Blade's Descent]."

Bang!

Containing a great portion of his power into this one attack, the ground started to tremble as Aurus teleported out of the trajectory of the attack, hastily retaliating as he used his mastery over the element of Wind to levitate in midair.

After stabilizing himself, he then willed a small portion of his decoys to jump to where Erudis was as all of them started to conjure blades of wind at the same time. In response to the move Aurus was going to do, Erudis quickly brought up a barrier, only for him to hastily stack more layers on top of it as he soon felt danger from the imminent attack.

Swoosh!

In less than a second, claws made out of a thousand blades appeared behind all of the decoys, as well as Aurus. After that, a mysterious type of energy connected all of the claws together as a feeling of grandeur emanated from Aurus, something anyone had never felt from him before.

"[Domain of Nobility]."

Not even a moment after, a domain wherein Aurus was the center soon spread out, reducing the amount of control Erudis had over the energy forming the barriers surrounding him, and even the energy maintaining his Metanoia Sage form. With that, he could not help but look at Aurus in shock, wondering how he was able to do something like this.

Of course, such a strong skill could only come from the latest evolution he had undergone, wherein his species was now considered a part of royalty. [Domain of Nobility] may not be the strongest skill one would obtain as being part of the royal line of a certain species, but it was enough to make what already seemed an unequal fight more unequal.

"[Ten-man Manifestation]."

"[Spellswords of Ruination: Ultimate Art]."

"[Myriad Sword Embodiment: Ten Claws of Decadence]."

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

One after another, the claws conjured by the decoys collided against the barriers Erudis had created, shattering it one by one as he gradually lost more and more control over the energy. Eventually, the claws from the decoys had shattered all of the barriers, leaving his bare body for Aurus to strike.

And strike he did.

Bang!

Utilizing the remaining energy from the claws that haven't struck yet, Aurus fused them to the claw behind his back as he condensed all of the power in his body towards this one swipe, sending Erudis flying before he soon followed after him through teleportation.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

While Erudis was flying in the air, he could not help but look at Aurus, who was following him, in shock as he did not expect to be defeated by someone he thought was weaker than him. With that in mind, he could not help but ask with genuine curiosity, "What kind of being are you?"

In response, Aurus solemnly replied in his hoarse voice, "Someone you shouldn't have messed with in the first place."

"Anyways, it's time to end this."

"…"

"[Ruler of All]."