Strange, she seems to be actively avoiding my blade despite having the ability to disintegrate any arrows aimed at her. After blocking my blade with her tentacles initially, she refuses to block or even touch the blade now. Perfect, at least I know my blade is capable of hurting her even if she blocks it. Now, all I need to do is decapitate her to end this once and for all.
I pressed my advantage and fought harder to ensure my blade touches her. She expertly dodged my attacks in ways beyond my wildest imagination, such as shrinking herself, stretching her tentacles to pull herself away, or doing cartwheels to roll herself to safety. It was getting rather annoying fighting her when she is this unpredictable and nimble.
She pulled herself up a branch and started laughing after sitting on it. What's so funny for her to be laughing for no reason?
"Is this all you can manage after finally activating your Higher State of Mind? Just swinging your blade around? I'm rather disappointed," she chuckled.
Higher State of Mind? No wonder I'm feeling so calm right now. I had spent centuries trying to achieve this state but was met with failures after failures. Who knew all I needed was a legendary weapon to unlock it? Is this the reason as to why so many of us could not figure it out no matter how hard we tried?
Sigh, I had been holding myself back since I was not familiar with this new profound power, but I guess there is no point in doing that any longer since I'm being mocked by a little girl.
"I just thought of easing you in while I got used to this. Since you asked for it, don't go regretting your decision then!" I warned her as I gathered flames on my left palm before summoning a pillar of purple flames on the tree she was sitting on.
She leapt off the tree skilfully before the flames engulfed the tree in question. Wait— a minute? The tree— is absolutely fine. Despite purple flames still being visible on the tree itself, there is no sign of it actually being burned. Seems like there is something special about this purple flame that I am using for sure.
"You don't even know what your flame does, yet you use it willy-nilly. Guess I should take you out before you end up destroying everything!" she readied herself as a massive surge of electricity began swirling around her.
I responded with powers of my own. More purple flames swirled around my body as I stood ready for battle. Clutching my blade tightly, I noticed that the female jellyfish started sprouting more tentacles around her body. She is definitelytrying to end this fight quickly with those tentacles of hers. Are you ready, Priflalid?
All I heard was a grunt from him before the enemy lunged at me with multiple tentacles heading towards my direction. I created a protective barrier using the flames from my blade to protect myself. Let's see whether she is really afraid of my flames or otherwise. Several tentacles hesitated, but a couple pushed their way through my flame barrier. The blade of my flames hardened, and I started dicing away at the tentacles that came through. A few retreated before I managed to slice them, but the female jellyfish ended up dismembering those fiery tentacles anyway.
I squinted my eyes and focused on what was about to happen to those dismembered tentacles. It started flopping about as though it was writhing in pain, eventually shrinking and shrivel before completely disintegrating into dust with the purple flame extinguishing thereafter. Strange, normal flames don't behave this way. There must be a reason as to why my enemy is so afraid of my flames. And I intend to find out.
"Good, good. Keep guessing as to what my powers can actually do," spoke a deep, booming voice inside my head.
"What a troublesome formless blade you have, making my life difficult," she started sulking as she saw what happened to her dismembered tentacles but immediately extended her tentacles towards me once more, albeit with much fewer numbers.
Once again I formed a barrier in front of me, fully expecting her tentacles to pass through my barrier once more. A subtle sound of cracking could be heard below my feet and I instinctively leapt aside. Tentacles burst from underneath the ground but I was fortunate enough to dodge it completely.
I was caught off guard before my feet even touched the ground when the jellyfish unexpectedly appeared directly in front of me with a "Peek-a-boo" and extended all her tentacles towards me with blinding speed. I pulled my cloak to cover my front as fast as I could, little did I know that it was actually covered with purple flames without my knowledge.
I was slammed into the ground with my back exposed. The impact was bone-shattering, but I held firm in blocking the attack with my cloak. I felt a tentacle somehow touched my exposed skin, and I immediately unleashed a burst of purple flame throughout my body, burning all those tentacles that were pushing me against the ground. All of the tentacles retreated, and I had to pull myself out of the crater due to the strength of those tentacles. A burning and numbing sensation spreads across my right arm where the tentacle touched me. The pain magnified with every passing second, and the idea of me lobbing off my arm to escape the pain came across my mind. Damn it, I was careless. All my enemy needed to do was to graze me and it was more than enough to take me out of combat.
"Rookie mistake. Listen very carefully, lest you wish to die faster than your enemy. Pass your blade through your arm where she touched you. I'll handle the rest. Make sure to aim properly!" warned Priflalid.
My right arm was starting to shake uncontrollably as I tried to raise it. I had no idea what was about to happen, but with such blinding pain, I passed the blade through my arm as precisely as I could, fully trusting Priflalid's advice despite not knowing the consequences.
The purple flame began to wrap around my arm as the flame seems to be doing its job. I felt the flame seeping into my skin as though it had a mind of its own. Fully expecting some sort of intense blinding pain to arise due to the flames, I was completely surprised that the pain ended subsiding rather quickly. Moments later, the flames had completely dissipated along with the flaring pain on my right arm. What in the world had just happened? Did the flame target the venom or something? How can a flame target something so precisely without me controlling it? Come to think of it, why didn't the flame burn the tree earlier too?
"That's because I am controlling my flames," spoke Priflalid.
Are you saying that you can control what your purple flame burns? But why does your flame behave so differently than the common flame? Don't tell me— you can even choose what your flames burn too?
"Bingo. I can choose whatever I wish to burn. A continent, a bacteria or even the whole world. My personal favourite is burning the lifespan of my enemies. There is nothing more satisfying in seeing my enemies shrivel and turning to dust," spoke Priflalid as I swore I heard him chuckling in the background.
That— sounds like a horrible way to die. Watching your very body turn to dust before your very eyes, I doubt anyone would want to see that throughout their lifetime.
"So you're saying you would rather see your body get dismembered instead? Trust me, all I'm doing is quickening the process of something natural, nothing more. Or you're saying you would rather see your enemies burn alive instead? That is even more inhumane, isn't it? Besides, the enemy in front of you would just shrug off any normal flames. You need myspecial flames to deal with her," explained Priflalid.
I suppose you're right. The enemy in front of me is supposedly a Vessel that is trying to please her Cosmic God by conquering this realm. I doubt the effects of any common flames are going to do anything here. I'll leave it to your discretion on how you want to— "burn" her.
He answered with a "With pleasure~" as I readied myself to face her once again. She had dismembered most of her tentacles that she used to attack me earlier, probably to avoid getting her lifespan reduced the longer the flames burn her. It would appear that the flames will continuously burn until your lifespan runs out, or if you're able to dismember the part where you're being burned, that is— if you're able to do that without dying.
The two of us leapt at the same time, facing each other head-on. Either she ends up losing all of her lifespan or I end up getting electrocuted for the life of me.
***
Where— where am I? I thought Kirin told me it'll just take a second for me to regain consciousness after he overhauls my body's currents. This doesn't feel like I've regained consciousness at all.
"Dad?" spoke someone.
Huh? "Dad?" Am I dead to be hearing voices? Am I actually imagining my daughter calling out to me? So, Kirin did end up killing me instead. Told him that he shouldn't get overconfident in simply "improving" my body. It's not as simple as clicking on a reboot button, damn it!
"Well, pardon me. It had crossed my mind that Inazuma had absorbed some electricity from the enemy earlier. What I "zapped" you was a combination of my lightning and your enemy's; which means it was something much, much stronger than what I hit your father with," said Kirin.
My eyes flew open when I heard Kirin's voice. I'm— not dead? In front of my vision was a rather beautiful-looking woman that was staring strangely close to my face, as though she was checking if I was dead. Hang on, she looks rather— familiar.
"Oh, thank the above. I thought you were dead. Don't scare me like that, Dad," pouted the female after she breathed a sigh of relief.
"D— Daisy? Is.. that really you? You're not—" I was interrupted by her before I could finish my sentence.
"No, I'm not. It took a hell of a search to find you through the Ethereal. Thank goodness there was a sudden surge of— something that sort of highlighted your location when I was navigating. Thanks to that, I finally found you. Now I can finally pinpoint your frequency pulse for me to find you next time. I won't be missing you so much anymore," she hugged me.
"O— oh. You had me worried when I thought you died with me. I guess you're sleeping right now and came looking for me in your dream. Well done, Daisy. I knew you could do it. Is there— a reason why you look different? You looked somewhat more mature, almost like— your real age," I hugged her back and felt her warm. Her familiar smell was definitely a sign that this was her.
"What do you mean? Am I really that different?" she chuckled as she inspected her body.
"Well, you're twice your size in real life, for starters. And you're starting to look a lot like your mother," I smiled as I patted her head.
"Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but you do realise that your real body is currently kissing dirt on the ground," said Kirin.
I quickly turned to my left and realised that Kirin was standing over me all this while. I didn't even notice him since I was so focused on my daughter. Now that I see him, it's about time I gave him a piece of my mind.
"And who was the one who said that everything will be "fine"? Did you actually kill me with your powers? Is that why I'm here?" I squinted my eyes at him.
"Like I said earlier, I did not factor in the powers absorbed earlier. You're not exactly "dead" per se, just sort of in a coma. Have no worries, I'll revive you soon," he shrugged.
"Uh huh. You do that, since you're the reason why I'm in a coma in the first place," I continued to squint at him.
"Alright, Daisy. I have to go now. I'm actually in the midst of a battle currently. Do tell your mother that I'm fine when you wake up, alright?" I turned my attention back to her and kissed her forehead.
"Can I stay and watch you fight? It's still too early for me to wake up anyway," she shrugged awkwardly.
"Um— I guess you can? Just… promise me you won't disturb me during the heat of battle," I stood up.
"I promise," she made a cheeky smile which melted my electrified heart.
"I'm ready, Kirin. Hit me," I turned my gaze at him.
"With pleasure," he spoke as I felt a shot of electrical currents ran through my body once again. If I have one word to summarised what I've been through, it's gotta be SMOKIN'!