242 Chapter 242: Spirit versus Spiri

"…huh?"

Shun Yin gaped at the person right in front of him. Appearance wise, she resembled Angelica so much, but for some reason he could instinctively tell that she was not Angelica.

"I can sense the bond between you and the host I now dwell in, and I heard the vow you made before the Possession. I am very sure you are the one I am bound to by contract. Therefore, I shall ask again. Are you my master?"

"Uh, yes, I guess?" Shun Yin still didn't understand anything, but the person who used to be Angelica nodded. In a flash, Shun Yin felt a strange warmth circulating within him, and he could "see" invisible threads of mana linking him to her. He blinked, wondering if he was imagining things, but he could clearly sense their connection.

"Let's go then." Angelica hovered past him and toward the door. "We have a battle to fight."

"W…wait! Angelica, what happened to you?"

The fiery angel turned to smile sadly at him.

"I am Angelica…yet at the same time, I am no longer Angelica."

"Huh?" Shun Yin stared at her blankly, not comprehending, but she shook her head and continued toward the door.

"It'll take too long to explain. One day…I'll explain it to you, but for now, just know that I have transcended the existence of a human, and fused with a spirit. You probably should know…after all, this isn't the first time you've encountered a being like me."

"…that's right." Shun Yin understood. The spirit possessed experimental subject at Vermillion Aquarium. Cerberus. Cronus Wright.

Angelica was now the same type of existence as all of them. For better or for worse, she was irreversibly merged with a spirit, never to return to being human again. She was no longer a human or a spirit, but both, something that transcended both.

And he was the only anchor that allowed her to exist in this world.

Swallowing, Shun Yin reached out to hold her hand, but Angelica moved away, sweeping out of the door and into the corridor. He could sense her discomfort at his attempt at physical contact, and he felt a pain stab his chest.

I'll never get used to this, he thought. However, Angelica was right. This wasn't the time to worry about intimacy or Angelica's new form. He had to help Lionel Stuart and Yuan Dao Yue Guang before it was too late.

The both of them hurried out of the corridor, Angelica practically flying above the floor while Shun Yin ran. They burst into the cavern where Lionel and Yue Guang were still dueling against Cronus Wright and the now fully restored Serena Wright.

Serena narrowed her eyes when she caught sight of them.

"I knew it," she murmured. "So you really went and did it. You went and sacrificed yourself to become a spirit in order to fight on par with us."

"What's going on?" Lionel demanded, turning from Shun Yin to Angelica and back again. "Why is Ms. Porter like that?"

Shun Yin shook his head. "I would like to know myself."

"No time to explain," Angelica interrupted. "But leave Cronus Wright to me. Mr. Stuart, Mr. Yuan Dao, please withdraw."

Lionel and Yue Guang looked extremely battered, beleaguered from their battle against both Cronus and Serena. Blood was streaming down their bodies, their clothes were ripped, and their breathing was heavy. They were nearing their limit.

However…

"I'll leave Cronus to you. But we'll take care of Serena." Lionel forced a smile. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sure that even you and Mr. Huang will have trouble trying to deal with the both of them on your own."

"Your assistance is much appreciated."

Angelica wasn't able to say much more, because Cronus was already lunging at her, instinctively recognizing her as the biggest threat in the room. Silver mana rippled across his massive form as he threw a punch at her.

"Watch out!"

Shun Yin recognized the punch as the one that ended Michael's Vermillion Phoenix earlier, the time technique that transfigured the phoenix to its future self, where it had long perished and decomposed to the point of no longer existing in the world.

Angelica didn't flinch. Instead, she steeled herself to meet Cronus head-on, soaring high into the air and raising her hands. Crimson flames enveloped her hands and she unleashed dual torrents of fire at the incoming spirit-possessed Assassin. Placing faith in his time magic, Cronus charged through the inferno without stopping.

"?!"

To his amazement, Angelica's flames didn't disappear, forced into the future where they didn't exist because of time. Instead, his silver time-field flickered and disappeared. Before he could respond to this new development, Angelica dove upon him and hammered a fist wreathed in fire right into his midriff. Cronus crossed his arms to parry the blow, but he was sent hurtling across the cavern, his forearms smoldering from the purifying flames.

"What is this?!"

"My purification flames transcend time itself. They exist to nullify magic. Your time magic will not work on me."

Even as she spoke, Angelica continued to hurl fire at her opponent. Despite his single big advantage neutralized, Cronus was still a deadly Assassin who had honed his skills before his possession. He flipped himself over with a grace that belied his immense size and dodged the fireballs that bombarded his position. Jumping right onto the wall, he bent his knees and launched himself at the hovering Angelica.

It didn't matter if he didn't have his time magic. He could just resort to brute force to beat Angelica down. Even her purification flames wouldn't stop his sheer strength.

Instinctively recognizing the threat, Angelica banked and dodged his attack, but Cronus whipped around in midair and kicked her. Despite crossing her arms to defend against his attack, the sheer power knocked her out of the air and sent her crashing onto the ground.

"Kuh!"

Cronus descended upon her, drawing his fist back. Angelica rolled away, but she wasn't fast enough to avoid her assailant.

"!!!"

Cronus suddenly twisted around and altered his trajectory, throwing himself to the side when flames erupted across the space between him and Angelica. With his protective time-field temporarily purified by Angelica's fire, those flames would have proven dangerous to him. Keeping his distance, he turned to glare at Shun Yin, who had stepped in to intervene.

"Burn all creation to ash," Shun Yin commanded his sword. "Liu Ren Ruo Huo!"

A pillar of flames exploded outward from him, and in an instant half of the cavern was engulfed in a sea of flames. Cronus shielded himself with his arms, but he could see his skin blackening from the sheer heat. Perspiration poured down his body as he struggled to withstand the terrifying flames. if he hadn't been fused with a spirit and gained unbelievable resistance to magic, he might have been incinerated right there and then.

"Impressive…such power from someone so young."

Shun Yin said nothing and focused on attacking him. Swinging his sword, he unleashed another burst of superheated flames that would have incinerated Cronus if he didn't dodge.

"?!"

While Cronus was diving to the side, Angelica showed up in front of him, and with a flaming kick, she sent him sprawling on the ground. This time it was Cronus who was rolling desperately to avoid a blazing slash from Shun Yin, only for him to get right into the path of Angelica's inferno. He winced but managed to suppress a grunt of pain as the purification flames scorched his body.

Coughing, he rose to his feet and retaliated, forcing Angelica back. Turning around, he deflected Shun Yin's sword, only for his arm to fall away. It didn't matter. As he withdrew, his cauterized stump glowed silver and he slowly restored his amputated arm.

"…the restoration is slower…is it because of that spirit's purification flames?"

Cronus narrowed his eyes, but he wasn't able to ponder much before Shun Yin pressed on with his attack.

On the other side, Serena faced off against Lionel and Yue Guang. With her mana restored when her spirit-husband reversed her time earlier, she was able to conjure countless spectral arms to attack them. Like a thousand-arm Buddha wielding a myriad of weapons, she slashed, hacked and swiped at them, trying to cut them into shreds or bludgeon them into oblivion.

In the face of such a relentless onslaught, Yue Guang stood strong, refusing to yield ground. Clad in Armament Ba Qi, he countered each and every one of her strikes, knocking and deflecting the weapons away with what was essentially his bare hands. Despite his relative success, even his Armament Ba Qi was not invincible. Fresh cuts appeared over his body, blood streaming from countless wounds. He flinched as a huge dagger sliced open the skin on his face, and staggered when he struggled to endure the devastating strike from a massive mace, but he held firm. Heaving heavily, he knocked a halberd aside, ignoring the blood flying from the back of his hand as he did so, and kicked a sword before it could stab him.

"I'm probably in no position to say this, but you truly are a monster," Serena growled, perspiration dripping down her face. She never imagined that somebody would be able to defend against her thousand arms with Ba Qi and martial arts alone.

Yue Guang didn't respond to what he probably acknowledged as a compliment, and only slid forward while knocking aside an axe and a sword. Twisting around to avoid getting impaled by a huge spear, he obliterated a spectral arm with a punch. Dropping to a stance and taking a deep breath, he kicked another arm into oblivion, the sword falling out of it, and then spun to hammer a third arm that was bearing a scimitar, sending the weapon flying out of the crumbling hand.

A huge hammer then slammed into him, and despite Yue Guang fortifying himself to the max with Ba Qi and physical reinforcement spells while crossing his arms to withstand the blow, he was sent hurtling across the cavern, with blood bursting from his mouth.

"Huff…"

Breathing heavily, Serena glared at the fallen bodyguard, wondering how just one person could force her to exert herself with martial arts alone. What chilled her even more was the fact that she could actually lose to him. Perhaps, in a few years…or even months, when this man refined his martial arts and techniques further, strengthened his Armament Ba Qi by another few notches, he would be able to crush all of her thousand arms and defeat her with a single strike.

What a terrifying foe.

"A pity though, that you will die here."

Two spectral arms scythed the swords they were bearing downward, ready to cleave the sprawled Yue Guang to pieces. Truthfully, he could defend himself, but before he needed to, flower petals cut through the arms and severed them.

"So you've finally decided to step in, huh?" Serena turned to cast a scornful gaze at the approaching Lionel Stuart. He merely smiled, cocking his head toward his bodyguard.

"Thank you, Yue Guang. You bought me enough time to cast this spell."

A green dragon was coiling around his sword once more. Serena snorted disdainfully when she saw it.

"That technique again? Do you really think…?"

"Bloom, Ten Thousand Sakura Blossoms."

Lionel stabbed his sword into the ground. The green dragon coiled around his blade vanished, and dozens of green dragons slowly rose from the ground behind him, almost as if they were trees sprouting and growing from the soil.

"What the hell is that?!" Serena demanded, a sinking feeling punching her in the gut when she saw the multiple green dragons behind Lionel.

Then they disappeared.

No, that wasn't correct. To be more accurate, they dispersed and scattered, each dragon transforming into countless Sakura blossoms. Tens of thousands of pink Sakura petals drifted across their half of the cavern, soaring across the space to engulf Serena and her thousand arms.

"Hah! Do you think these flower petals will work against me? I have a thousand arms and a thousand weapons! I'll just destroy all of them!"

"You may have a thousand arms and a thousand weapons." Lionel smiled thinly. "But will they be enough against tens of thousands of Sakura blossoms?"

Serena's eyes widened when she saw the sea of Sakura blossoms blot out her vision, swallowing her and her shadowy arms in an ocean of pink. As they slammed down onto her and her spectral appendages like an inexorable tsunami, she screamed.

"!!!"

Cronus turned around out of concern for his wife. Through their bond, he could feel her seriously wounded.

"Where are you looking at?"

Angelica struck him, but he caught her foot before it could hit his face, and then flung her off. Angelica spun helplessly about in the air before she righted herself, but Cronus lunged at her with a punch, forcing her to parry the blow.

"Kuh!"

Even with the powers of a spirit, Angelica wasn't able to withstand the immense force behind Cronus's fist. Blood spurted from her mouth as she was sent tumbling across the cavern before crashing into a wall and disappearing underneath a rubble of rock.

"…"

Cronus glanced at his burning fist, which was being ravaged by Angelica's purification flames – a parting gift before he sent her flying. He extinguished the fire with sheer will and mana, and worked hard to reverse time – a process made more difficult by the lingering effects of Angelica's purification fire. He then took a step toward her.

"I had best hurry up and finish you off before I go save my wife."

"No, you won't."

Shun Yin stepped between Cronus and Angelica's buried form, blood streaming down his head. He spat out a glob of blood, an injury suffered when he was hit by Cronus off-screen earlier. However, he stood determinedly between his enemy and the girl he loved. Cronus regarded him dismissively, having judged that he wouldn't pose much of a threat, but Shun Yin couldn't care less what his opponent thought of him.

Instead, he straightened up and channeled his mana into his sword. In an instant, all the flames that surrounded the trio vanished.

"Bankai," Shun Yin growled. "Can Huo de Tai Dao."