Approaching Miasma, Orion suddenly stopped, which caused Elliott and Karteira to catch up to him, who, in turn, also stopped.


    "Orion? What are you waiting for?"


    Karteira questioned his abrupt stop. With his crossbow clenched in his hands, Orion glared at the monster standing a few hundred meters away.


    "..."


    His eyes squinted lightly.


    "I simply thought of something."


    Amelia and Henrietta came at that moment. Orion''s demon form changed to his angel from, enveloping the group into a comforting light.


    In silence, they looked at Orion.


    "I heard from Dramia and Drania, that Miasma took advantage of his corrupting powers to creep his way into his body during their fight."


    "There''s a possibility he will do that once again. I can''t risk losing my life in the way the Hero Noah did."


    Lifting his hand in the air, a pillar of sunlight breached through the dark dome, and forcefully pried it open.


    This light purged the corruption in the air, and on the surrounding ground.


    "As I thought..."


    Orion perceived traces of creeping corruption building inside them. If he hadn''t remembered, everyone would have fallen for the same trick.


    "Now that he has recovered enough to walk on this earth again, we should expect him to be a dangerous being. Forget about the fights we''ve gone through so far, and always focus on defending each other."


    The light pillar died down, instead covering the five in a faint light that protected them from the tainted energy.


    "Let''s do this, then."


    Elliott took a step forward, his hand on his sword.


    "Right."


    They nodded at each other, and before moving forward, exchanged a short glance.


    "Don''t throw your life away."


    "The same goes for you."


    Elliott rushed forward, while Orion aimed Alcyone in front of him. He aimed at Elliott''s back, and unexpectedly shot a fast-moving arrow into his back.


    "!"


    The arrow lodged itself into his back, sunk into his body, and entered his core. His eyes shone a white light briefly, before his speed and reaction time improved without the use of his abilities.


    ''Thanks.''


    With this thought, Elliott focused on the deformed being in front of him.


    "Tsk!"


    A tongue-clicking sound echoed in his ears the moment he came closer to Miasma. Without exchanging a single word, Elliott slashed at him.


    *Cling*


    Miasma opened his hand, and caught Vanitas''s blade between his fingers.


    "Elliott. I''ve already went through this with you. You should''ve been a good son and stayed behind."


    "..."


    The glare he gave to the ''thing'' that was his father was full of hatred and disdain.


    He looked at the sliced eye of Miasma, and rapidly scanned for any sign of Tetra''s Remnant power.


    ''Where is it?''


    Noticing the frantic eye movement, of his son, Miasma smirked.


    "Too bad."


    He jabbed at his chest after pushing the blade to the side.


    "Hmph!"


    Elliott dodged the attack, and sliced at Miasma''s arm after taking a step sideways.


    Then, they both entered a continuous state of focus, where they threw flurries of strikes at each other.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    But, this was only the introduction of the fight. Over them, a shadow suddenly fell on them.


    Miasma, intrigued, looked above him after kicking Elliott away.


    "!"


    He jumped backward, avoiding the raining arrows by a thread. A large amount of light arrows followed his movements, piercing the ground with loud thudding sounds.


    Forced to constantly avoid the arrows, he looked in the air once again.


    "Orion!"


    For the first time since his nightmarish encounter with Miasma in his dreams, the two fated enemies met and glared at each other.


    In his angel form, Orion aimed at Miasma with Alcyone from the air, his wings spreading radiantly behind him.


    Miasma aimed his palm at the mixed-blood Hero, and released bullets of corrupted energy at him.


    Putting his crossbow to the side, Orion opened his hand, and fired a beam of light from it.


    The two attacks met, but before a clear victor emerged, two blades of water flew toward Miasma from the ground.


    Not appreciating the ambush, he stopped attacking Orion, and placed his over hand toward the incoming water blades.


    He looked past them, and looked at Amelia and Henrietta with a hateful gaze.


    "Stop intruding."


    Clenching his hand around nothing, he destroyed the attacks. The corruption floating in the vicinity came back toward him, and engulfed the two blades, disintegrating them in the process.


    But as he returned to focus on Orion, two figures appeared on both sides. Karteira and Elliott both attacked his flanks, slicing deep into his body as they passed paralleled to each other.


    "Kh!"


    Miasma hurriedly repaired the damage done to his body with corruption, and ignored the two to focus on Orion.


    The need to get rid of him was stronger than Miasma expected. The more he looked at him, the stronger that deranged fear crept into his core.


    With a frigid expression locked on his face, Orion fired even more arrows at him, and even fired beams of light magic at him from a safe spot.


    "I won''t let you the time to assimilate her power."


    Two arrows pierced his shoulders, but Miasma didn''t react. In fact, most of the attacks he defended against would cause barely any scratched on him.


    Having a constant and near infinite supply of corrupted energy meant he was practically immortal.


    All he had to do was bide his time to learn how to control the power of ''Space and Time'', and everything would become meaningless.


    Yet, his mind was too preoccupied by Orion to focus on assimilating that power. He feared that Orion would cause everything to go haywire with his unique magic.


    Arrows pierced his large and twisted body, swords and sharp plates ripped pieces of sludge, and magic hindered his movements.


    Yet, none of them noticed a single trace of struggle on Miasma''s expression.


    Even if he was hit by attacks, there was no reaction. What began to be a concern to everyone was the fact that Miasma still hadn''t gone on the offensive.


    There was still the fact that he had to learn how to use Tetra''s Remnant powers, which explained his passiveness.


    But, at one point, the changes that they were waiting for began to appear.


    Miasma lifted his arms at his sides, and opened his hands in a very particular way, as if he was trying to catch something.


    In fact, they weren''t even at the same height. Which confused Orion. Then, everything became clearer.


    Elliott and Karteira appeared near him, and slashed his flanks. Unfortunately, the two blades slid perfectly between his opened hands, as he tightly grabbed them before they could leave his grasp.


    "Huh?!"


    Karteira exclaimed, surprised. She tried to pull her plated blade from Miasma''s clutch, but she was unable to. A state of panic suddenly overcame her.


    "Damn it!"


    On the other side, even Elliott was showing anxiety, as he found it difficult to pull Vanitas from Miasma''s hand.


    "..."


    Orion glanced at Henrietta. The two stared at each other for a very brief instant, but they managed to think the same thought.


    ''Miasma''s starting to use her power...''


    He was, even under attack, able to steadily learn the power to manipulate ''Space and Time''. In that case, Miasma managed to get a glimpse of the future.


    But, at a cost.


    "Agh!"


    He let go of both blades as an arrow of light pierced his chest.


    "If only you knew not to overuse it. Were you seriously hoping to wield Tetra''s power without any unwanted consequences? What a joke."


    Miasma took a few steps back, pulling the arrow out of his chest. With a deadly glare, he clenched the magical arrow in his hand, and crushed it.


    "Don''t tell me you hadn''t thought about it? You took her authority without knowing that you couldn''t use it? Why do you think she never used it to rectify your mistakes?"


    "..."


    Hearing the mockery in Orion''s mouth, Miasma began to feel annoyed.


    "You, greenhorn, better shut it. If you don''t know what you are talking about, then don''t open your mouth."


    While still feeling the pain of the arrow where it punctured his skin, Miasma growled. He closed his eyes, before opening them again.


    The eye that was destroyed when stealing the Remnant''s authority appeared, healed of its awful wound.


    Inside of it, a blinking hourglass appeared, blinking in and out of existence with a faint pink light.


    "Stop resisting, bitch! Give me your power!"


    Miasma placed his hand on his eye, and arched his back in anger.


    With his enraged voice booming across the land, more resistance met his order.


    *Burst*


    His eye exploded again, this time damaging him greatly.


    Henrietta looked at this with a feeling of helplessness.


    "Tetra... She won''t give him her power, even now..."


    Hearing the screams of pain emanating from Miasma, she marched forward under the careful eyes of Orion and Amelia.


    Karteira and Elliott both jumped back toward Orion, and entered a defensive stance, knowing that the entire game had changed.


    With Miasma being able to see parts of the future at times, it became futile to try to weaken him.


    The air became heavy with wrath, as the footsteps of a blonde woman echoed on the battlefield.


    She placed her hands in her pockets, and retrieved two pieces of jewelry from each side.


    A golden bracelet with a fiery ruby embedded into its center, a silvery ring with a black opal encrusted on it, an entire jade jewel transformed into a ring, and an iron necklace with words etched in a language only elementals could understand.


    She put the four items on her, and approached Miasma.


    "What do you want?"


    Miasma clenched his painful face, and glared at Henrietta.


    "You''ve killed my best friend in front of me. Were you expecting me to sympathize with your pain?"


    Henrietta carefully stopped a few meters away from him, and glared at him without hiding the intense hatred she came with.


    "Pitiful. You should''ve died with her, that''s why I took the chance and attacked you."


    "Keep your pitiful excuses to yourself!"


    A blast of energy escaped her, pushing air against Miasma. Suddenly, his uninjured eye opened wide, as he noticed the absurd amount of magic emitted by Henrietta.


    "What..."


    "You don''t have to know. All you have to do..."


    "Is to die."


    The center area of Henrietta''s left backhand opened, revealing a large sapphire under her skin.