In a split second, Pride was covered in slashes, and his blood flew into the air. The dark red blood covered the walls and the ground, and some of it even splashed onto me.
Holding my sheathed blade in my hand, I turned back to face Pride, who wore an expression of shock on his face. He looked down at his once impeccable white suit, now stained in blood.
He stared at it for a long moment, as if he couldn't process what had just happened. Slowly, he began to feel his arms, face, and legs. As his fingers came into contact with the slick blood, his expression paled even further.
Finally, he pulled his hands back and stared at them. His eyes widened when he saw the blood that covered his hands. His visage paled even further. His hands began to shake.
No, not just his hands. His entire figure began to tremble as a dark expression fell over his face.
"My blood." He muttered to himself. "It's my blood."
And then he began to laugh.
It was a harsh, bone-chilling sound that reverberated in the empty room. It was the laugh of a madman, discordant and harsh. The hysteria was clear to me, who watched him from afar.
The sight of blood had made Pride begin to laugh hysterically, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "It's my blood! How long has it been!? How long has it been since I've bled?"
Pride's body was still trembling, and now it shook even more violently from the laughter that racked his body.
I stood my distance, watching him in shock.
What the hell is happening?
I was watching Pride lose his mind right in front of me. His aura flared out wildly.
■■■■■: Think about it. His power kept him untouchable. He was always above everybody else, no matter what. In everything that he did, he remained untouched.
And yet now, I had taken him off of the pedestal. I had muddied his perfection with his own blood. He had been knocked off of the pedestal he stood upon and into the dirt, the dirt he hadn't touched in god knows how long.
And so he was going insane. Faced with the sight of something he was sure he would never see ever again.
■■■■■: His mental state has collapsed completely. His self-perception isn't a factor in this battle anymore. Now, it's up to you to finish this battle. Rise, Raiden. Rise up and finish it.
Unsheathing my blade, I dashed forward.
As long as Pride was in this state of mental collapse, I would be able to land hits on him easily.
I was directly in front of him, but as I swung my blade—
I suddenly found myself flying through multiple walls and crashing into a desk.
"ACKK!"
I coughed, and blood was sprayed everywhere. Pushing myself up, I saw that I was in a completely different room. I looked at the crater in the wall and saw that it stretched out for multiple classrooms.
Sometime in the midst of my attack, Pride had managed to land a hit on me. I could feel the ache and bruising in my chest area.
"Just what the hell..." I muttered to myself as I picked up my sheath.
As I reached down, I noticed the rubble on the ground beginning to shake.
And then the ground began to rumble. I could hear the sounds of metal being bent out of shape and crushed far away.
I could feel a windstorm beginning to brew.
I felt it before I saw it.
A presence that sent a chill down my spine and literally made my heart stop.
A cold sweat began to run down my brow and down my back, and I could feel a faint tremble in my fingers.
I exhaled a shaky breath as I looked around for the source of the horrifying presence.
The second thing that I noticed after the presence was the sound.
The sound of metal being bent into horrific shapes before ripping apart.
The sound of glass shattering.
The sound of the ground bending in unnatural ways.
CREAAAAAK!
A bone-chilling creak echoed out throughout the halls of the school as the ground and metal that were being violated screamed out in protest.
Finally, I saw it.
It was a coagulated mess of destruction. A wave of evisceration is approaching me.
Through the hole I had been launched through, I could see the wave of space-distorting mayhem approaching me.
All around, the ground and objects were sucked in before being mangled so badly out of shape that I nearly flinched. They were mangled before being destroyed and literally wiped away from existence, not even ash being left.
The air shattered and cracked, and the objects being brutally destroyed within the vortex screamed and screeched in protest.
I stood in shock, staring at the indescribable mass of destruction that was approaching me.
In the center was Pride. The aura he was giving off was so violent that it was literally destroying everything around him. With every step he took, the approaching destruction grew closer and closer.
"I'll show you. A lesson in humility. I'll show you what it means to have respect for those superior to you." His fists were clenched tightly, and there was a murderous gaze in his eyes.
"I'll make sure you show proper manners. I'll put an arrogant shit like you right back in their fucking place."
His white suit had been dyed red from his own blood.
"She doesn't care about you as much as you think she does! You don't know the half of it! You think just because she showed herself to you that it makes you worthy? How arrogant of you to make such a disgusting assumption. The confidence you have is the farthest from commendable and the most disgusting thing I've ever had the displeasure of laying my eyes upon. You disgust me. You claim that she cast me to the side, but she has yet to even pick you up yet. Just like everyone else in this damned world, you've let your own foolish arrogance take control of your mind, and you spewed bullshit. Who the hell do you think you are? For someone so young, you possess such outlandish conceit that someone like me who practices humility. Your arrogance is a disgusting stain that I will remove from this world. How dare you think that the witch, the one who blessed me with this power, would favor you over me? And yet, despite this great blessing that she handed me, I remain humble and within my own realm. And yet now I've been forced to sin, to commit the greatest cardinal sin of them all, in order to put you in your place. Die, Raiden Chisaki! Die!!!"
I stared in horror. All the while Pride spoke, the world around us seemed to literally be ending as classrooms and walls and miscellaneous objects were torn apart and out of existence.
I didn't have time to think about just how hypocritical his words were.
I didn't have time to think about how self-centered his entire spiel was.
I didn't have time for any of it.
Because in that moment, Death was approaching.
■■■■■: Now's the time, Raiden.
Nearly masked out by the destruction, I heard ■■■■■'s faint voice.
■■■■■: Prove that you've broken free. Prove that you're ready to achieve your goal.
The destruction inched closer and closer as Pride finally stepped into the room.
■■■■■: Now is the time for you to evolve and complete your rebirth. In order to do that, you have to win. Show me and show yourself who you really are, Raiden Chisaki.
I didn't have any more time to listen to ■■■■■'s words because the personification of Destruction was upon me.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
To describe what I was up against as just a force of nature would be disingenuous. The ravaging bundle of destruction that Pride had transformed into at this moment was something beyond even that.
Unlike a storm, a tsunami, or an earthquake, which were indiscriminate inanimate forces of nature, this force wasn't. It was living. It was breathing. It was angry.
And it wanted my head.
I felt a deep chill in my bones as Pride got close, and I was forced to jump backwards. The edges of my trench coat had begun to be destroyed by Pride's explosive aura.
At the moment, I had no way to fight against the pure destruction that Pride had transformed into.
With just a flick of his fingers, lines of destruction were drawn in the air that literally shot out and eviscerated whatever they came into contact with.
So I dodged and ducked over desks, avoiding Pride's wild attacks that were vaporizing the surroundings around us.
We dashed from room to room. And I used my blade to set up obstacles and cover; however, it was all useless.
Whatever the hell Pride was doing, it couldn't be stopped by trivial distractions.
There was no second look required for me to see that he wasn't using any sort of magic spell. Even with space magic, whatever was going on here should be impossible.
After jumping over a desk and playing an extreme game of limbo with a slash that took off a few strands of hair, I kicked up a chair and used my sword as a bat to send it flying at Pride.
The chair was churned up and destroyed before it even got within a foot of him.
"Tsk!" I jumped backwards, continued to run and avoid as I tried to figure out just what the hell was going on.
It has to be a product of his delusion. However, his ability shouldn't work if he's experiencing extreme emotion, right?
As I sidestepped another wave of destruction that tore apart the rest of the room to my right, I shook my head.
Maybe the conditions have changed slightly? His entire ability couldn't be completely different, so it has to be based upon what I know of his ability!
Sliding under a table, I dodged three more slashes before finally deciding that I would need to run a test. I used a lightning spell to strike the ceiling, trying to hit Pride.
The spell clashed against his aura and was dissipated.
Magic doesn't work?
I dashed towards Pride, using a jump boost spell to jump over the wave of destruction and out into the open roof.
The sun flashed in my eyes as I began to run along the rooftop.
Behind me I could hear the sound of the roof being torn apart as Pride gave chase.
Turning to face him, I sheathed my blade, activating Perfect Counter.
The slashes simply doinked off of his massive aura, not even coming close to where Pride was.
The aura around him was not only acting offensively, but it was also acting like a barrier that protected him.
As I jumped up and began to run along a battlement, I could feel its base being torn apart as Pride followed me.
I shot magic spells at him, watching as they all clashed against the barrier and were neutralized.
In my peripherals, I saw that Nova and Yuri were in the midst of setting up a trap.
Using mana to amplify the strength of my voice, I shouted out towards them. "SCRAP THE PLAN!"
They turned to look at me, and one look at whatever the hell Pride had become was enough to convince them of my words.
Jumping off of the battle meant that I was now falling because its base had been taken out of existence; I began to fall downwards.
Infusing lightning mana into my blade, I released a massive slash.
"Cloud Shattering Slash!" I shouted.
In front of me, the massive tower was sliced in half by a wave of powerful lightning.
The lightning clashed against Pride's barrier for a moment before finally dissipating.
Watching that interaction, Raiden began to slowly come to his second major conclusion of this battle.
If Pride's ability worked on his self-perception, in this state, where his emotions were high, he must have thought that he was better than literally everything.
Because he thought that he was so much better than literally everything else, and he was in such a wild emotional state, the 'delusion' that he possessed amplified this times ten.
It transformed his ability, which put him in a realm above his opponents, into something that devoured everything and prevented it from soiling him any further.
It was a power that was fueled by his insecurity, meaning I couldn't just taunt him out of it. That would only serve to make his ability even stronger than it currently was.
So how could I beat it? How could I overcome this new power he had developed?
■■■■■ was right when she said that I needed to evolve, but how?
How could I beat something that wasn't based in the laws of the world that I operated in?
In that moment, Yuri and Nova were at my side.
"Just what the hell is that?" Nova asked, staring at Pride, who was quickly making his way towards us, destroying everything around him.
"He's throwing a tantrum. Albeit a destructive one." I addressed Nova's question while my mind was wheeling, desperately trying to come up with any sort of solution to the problem we were faced with.
"We can't get close, and magic doesn't work?" Yuri asked. His face was pale. The mana exhaustion was going to get to him at any moment.
"I'm almost there. I just need a moment to think. Can you guys—
"Keep him busy?" Nova asked. "It's only fair. After all, it looks like you managed to land some good hits on him. I'd love to ask how, but we don't have the luxury of exposition right now. Just keep thinking. We'll buy you as much time as you need."
Before Nova and Yuri left, I told them. "Just hurl insults at him and claim that the witch he talks about so much doesn't love him. That'll anger him enough."
As they jumped out and began to battle against him, I began to rack my brain, trying to figure out how to counter the ability.
I saw as both Nova and Yuri flew through the air, hurling insults at Pride and firing off random spells and tossing debris at him.
I watched as the debris was vaporized instantly.
I watched how the magic spells clashed against the barrier for a moment before being neutralized.
I thought back to how my own spells clashed against the barrier.
I thought about how the barrier was a product of his ability, created from his mana.
And then it clicked.
All at once, I made a realization.
Space. It all had to do with space.
Pride's ability used his own aura to literally manipulate space, distorting it in such a manner that it served as a barrier that protected him from magic.
The destruction caused by his aura was just the space around him being twisted and manipulated.
Essentially, he had just set up his own 'domain.'
In order to break through it, I had to establish a 'domain' of my own. I needed to make one that could stand up to his and shatter it.
I let my mana flow out of my body, allowing it to flow around me. But that wasn't the extent of it. I needed the mana to interact with the world as if it was taking a physical form. I needed it to distort the space around me.
I needed to manipulate the space.
I concentrated, trying to solidify the mana around me.
On multiple occasions, Pride turned his gaze towards me and tried to attack, but he was distracted by Nova and Yuri.
I continued to channel my focus, trying to get this 'domain' to form.
I failed multiple times, each one causing me to grit my teeth.
I didn't have much longer.
I looked up.
At some point, Pride had risen into the sky, and he was now floating up there somehow. He was charging up his mana, and it took the form of a massive javelin.
He was charging up two, but one of them was already fully formed, and he aimed it down at me.
As soon as he threw it, I saw Yuri dash in front of it and begin to set up defensive spells. I was surprised. Yes, we were allies, but I didn't think he would put his life on the line for me. Our relationship was strained.
However, something went wrong.
Both I and Nova watched, unable to do anything as we realized what was happening.
Yuri had exhausted a lot of his mana. That wouldn't be a problem in and of itself, as he still had enough for a basic defensive spell.
However, that was when the nail in the coffin showed itself.
His brain had been used to its limit. He had processed so many magic sequences that now his brain couldn't process another one. It didn't matter that he still had mana left; if his brain couldn't process the magic sequence, he couldn't use magic.
Because of that, his defensive spells didn't activate.
The javelin came for him. Yuri was caught in a hard place.
He couldn't activate any spells to save himself because it would fry his brain.
However, even if he could, he was in too much shock to move.
I and Nova acted as quickly as we could, sending out mana.
Our mana clashed with the javelin, cutting it down to a fourth of what it was and redirecting its momentum.
However, it wasn't enough.
The tip of the javelin pierced Yuri's left eye that was wide in shock.
The tip detonated, and his eye as well as a portion of his face exploded in a fountain of blood.
Yuri's face was knocked backwards.
He began to fall, crashing down towards the magic academy.
"Yuri!" Nova shouted as she chased after him.
As much as I wanted to check on him, I didn't have the time. I had finally managed to establish a domain.
I jumped into the air, and as I got close to Pride, our domains clashed against each other, causing sparks to fly and the air to release a mysterious crunching sound.
We clashed in the air, lights sparking off.
Pride's second Javelin was finished charging.
My own slash was finished charging.
Using the domain I had created to curve around my blade, I slashed diagonally.
At the same time, Pride swathed his javelin with his own domain and threw it.
In that moment, unbeknownst to Raiden, he had developed a completely new and original ability. A new concept.
"SPATIAL REND!"
The space around Pride shattered like glass.
A massive diagonal slash tore its way across his body.
At the same time, my own domain shattered, and a javelin pierced my chest.
At the same time, both of us began to fall from the sky, crashing down like two comets, as our domains faded away.