The purple spider that had managed to seep into the crystal of Vanis continued to spin webs around it and when it felt it was enough, it dragged and tugged on all the loose ends forming a hexagon.
Vanis was about to lunge at Jayden when his body stopped for the second time.
"What is it this time, isn't she already dead? Sabrina Page, what an annoying pest." Vanis thought slightly worried as he began to lose control of his body.
"Hello, Jayden Reginald. Did you miss me?" Vanis spoke again but to Jayden's utmost surprise, he heard the voice of Sabrina.
"What the hell?" Jayden asked, totally confused at what was going on.
"Yeah, I know you're surpised but we don't have time for that now. I want you to deliver a message for me."
"And why should I do that, you killer? Jayden replied, his previous anger returning.
"No reason in particular, you're not entitled to after all. Now listen. Relay this to your father immediately. I'm Sabrina Page, the daughter of Luina Page, and I wasn't killed like I pretended to be when I divined to him as an old diviner."
Jayden wasn't planning on relaying this message but immediately he heard the name of Luina Page, he switched on the connection between him and his father's fairy, knowing how deep their connection was, although he could barely remember Luina Page.
"Desperate for survival, I sold some of my memories, my conscience and my soul, so I couldn't remember him when he came looking for me multiple times, but it seems my memories have returned. I have a whole lot to tell him, but I'm a little pressed for time now, so tell him I said thank you, for everything he did, that he was the best fatherly figure I could have and nothing's his fault, it was just fate. That's all."
Sabrina sighed when she was done talking and stared at Jayden intensely, suddenly seeing how much of a resemblance they shared.
"He heard everything and so did I and although I sympathize with you, it doesn't mean I can forgive you, I still want to make you pay for hurting my friends, so do fast and get out of here. I have a job to do." Jayden said as he pulled out Xelvicar from it's hilt and pointed it at Vanis's body.
"Chill dude, I can't tell you to do something without paying back, my time is almost up but let me give you a bit of help." Sabrina said as she controlled Vanis's hands and began to body sync with him, wiggling his fingers to test their control.
"I think I'm getting hang of this. Just so you know, this is more for me, than for you guys. This is what anyone gets for underestimating me."
Suddenly Vanis's hands began to burn and without warning he gave himself an air shifting punch.
Another blow landed as Sabrina laughed, and controlling his body, forced him to slam his head multiple times into the ground.
Craters formed and widened with each slam into the ground.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing watching, come beat him up while he's vulnerable. Just so you know, I'm doing this for revenge not you guys, I hate this kingdom to hell."
Launching the body into the air, Jayden responded by appearing behind him and dealt an axe kick to Vanis's body smashing it into the ground.
Slamming both hands to the side of his head, Sabrina released deadly flames which burnt the face of Vanis viciously.
"SABRINA!!!!" The voice shouted as Vanis began to take back control of his body.
"Looks like my time is up, Tell Luke I loved him." Sabrina laughed her last words as she delivered a final blow to the torso of Vanis.
Luke heard it clearly, his mind a total mess, buried pain arising.
'I need to get to where Jayden is.'
Following up, Jayden rushed and aimed a kick at the neck of Vanis, but by that time the constellation of fire had returned and raising his hand, he blocked the strike to his neck.
"What? He didn't even budge." Jayden thought, his eyes widened in surprise.
Jumping back, he looked at Vanis who was staring at his hand in utter disappointment.
"Are you sure you are Fantasy?" Vanis asked as he delivered a flame charged punch to Jayden, who couldn't keep up with the speed.
The sheer force of the blow sent him flying out of the stadium and into a building but Vanis didn't stop there.
Landing on the roof of the building, using his two hands, he fired off a huge mana blast of fire.
"Where is he? Where is the Fantasy that could destroy planets without a sweat? The Fantasy that obliterated gods like it was a simple task?"
"You're going to regret asking for me." Jayden declared as he stood up from the rubble, minor scratches on his body and a torn seal in his hand.
"This is the first time I'm fully releasing everything. Let's go Vanis." Jayden said, his face full of concentration as golden bolts of mana sparked around Jayden.
Jayden appeared behind Vanis, grabbed his cloak, and swung him into a nearby house.
"Freeze." The ground on which Vanis stood began to freeze at a speeding rate.
Before he even had time to recover, Jayden appeared and clenching the most mana he could, punched Vanis straight on the face.
The punch sent him crashing through houses and destroying everything in his path.
Jayden had usually always held back when fighting so to the point of it becoming normal for him, but after the first clash with Vanis, Jayden had realized that if he held back any longer he could potentially die here.
And what that meant simply was that he could not afford to pull any punches no matter the damage to the environment.
"I'll finish this quickly." Jayden decided.
If only it were that easy.
Rushing after him, Jayden shot out multiple ice blasts which Vanis blocked by raising a wall of fire.
The two stopped a few meters from each other and smiled for a second.
Dodging a punch Jayden threw out, Vanis aimed for a counterattack with a uppercut to the ribs, but noticing it, Jayden shifted back but he couldn't completely dodge it.
Knowing the force of the blow, Jayden instinctively buried his feet in the ground to prevent being sent far back.
The blow connected and Jayden coughed in pain, the force temporarily making him dizzy.
"You should have just flown away." Vanis laughed as a huge fireball the size of a small house began to descend from above and Vanis held him tight, preventing him from escaping.
The blast was about to land, when it got cut into countless parts and a shallow cut appeared on Vanis's hand.
A glowing green silhouette appeared and stood in front of Jayden.
"You're too tense kiddo. Relax, I'm here now."
Luke smiled as turning around, he extended his hand to his son.
After all, I have a bone to pick with whatever this is."
"It did almost no damage to him, and his mana is different. It's almost like…" Luke observed and looking at Jayden, he got his answer.
"I'm going to borrow your sword, you'll have to fight like a mage for now." Luke said as he ran forward.
"I have no business with humans." Vanis said as he wiped his hand wildly, expecting the human to be blown away, either to death or far away.
He greatly underestimated Luke, and it was that same mistake that had caused Vanis to die the last time before the great reset.
Xelvicar appeared in Luke's hand and skillfully weaving around the attack, he struck a clean blow to Vanis's torso and jumped back.
Seeing the damage he caused, as there was a moderate cut, he smiled, finally understanding the concept.
Normal attacks wouldn't work or cause little to no damage, but Jayden, Xelvicar and Vanis possessed a different type of mana, which was durable against normal attacks, so using Xelvicar and not his usual sword, he could inflict good damage.
Connecting their minds, Luke said "Use every ability you have, we'll overwhelm him with magic and swordsmanship. Can you keep up?"
"I'm no longer holding back, can you?" Jayden quipped back.
"Eyes of the gods: Maximum output."
The sky turned dark and the ghastly voice spoke once again.
"The power of the…ho ho ho, what do we have here? Vanis, it's nice to see you again after you died for the second time." The voice laughed, for the first time, saying something different or even acting like a living being and not just some activation key for the ability.
"You dog, Zenosa, so this is where you've been, I knew you were trapped but like this, utterly pitiable." Vanis shouted, looking at the dark sky as if he could see someone there.
Both Jayden and Luke stopped and just listened, confused with what was going on.
"Big talk from someone like you. Let me tell you your future, for old times sake, you die here today."
"BULLSHIT!" Vanis shouted back in rage.
"Eyes of the gods: Maximum output. Accept your death, fool"
The pressure crashed down on Vanis, shaking the ground and causing air distortions.
"It would take more than this to hinder…"
"We've allowed you to run your mouth for too long. Shut the fuck up." Jayden said as he punched Vanis.
"Two!" Jayden shouted out loud and Luke appeared behind him and hit him with the blunt side of the blade.
"Four." Luke responded as Jayden followed up and kicked him back to Luke
"Six!" "Eight!" "Ten!"
"What is happening? The force is increasing and I can't break free. Does it have to do with what they're counting."
"Twenty."
"Twenty tw…"
"Enough!" Vanis shouted as he exploded outwardly.
Luke jumped back and dragged Jayden along with him.
Although subtle, Vanis noticed something was amiss. Why did the human have to drag Fantasy out.
Not giving Vanis the chance to think, Luke let out wind slashes which Vanis dodged, finally realizing the threat that he was.
The last wind slash hit Vanis but just left a minor scratch on him.
"So it's only direct attacks that deal damage, that's good to know." Vanis thought as lunged at the two, targeting Jayden, deciding that his best bet was to finish him off and then easily deal with Luke.
"Phase two?" Luke asked as Jayden stretched his muscles.
Jayden rolled his shoulders. "Let's go."
Before Vanis could land a blow, Jayden had vanished and stood a few steps behind Vanis.
Luke and Jayden nodded, signaling the start of phase two.
"Three!" Jayden shouted.
Without a moment's hesitation, both immediately charged towards Vanis, Luke and Jayden moving in perfect synchronization, bombarding Vanis with an ever increasing rhythm of attacks that were impossible to predict.
Luke threw Xelvicar at Vanis with the command to attack which blasted Vanis deep into a building.
Although Vanis started to adapt to the insane speed and increasing damage of the two, he noticed Luke's mana flared up wildly while Jayden's dimmed down after each attack, an attempt to confuse between the two, and so he decided to ignore Luke's attacks and finish off Jayden off directly.
However the sight of a fast wind slash behind him became a distraction and deciding to tank it, expecting a minor scratch he placed his hand in the direction of the attack.
At that exact second, Luke kicked him from behind, pushing him into the attack.
The attack made contact with his hand and cut through his flesh, not enough to take off his arm but more than enough to send him flying off into the distance.
As blood began to pour from the injury, the silhouette of Jayden Reginald suddenly emerged from the mist shrouding the battlefield.
"I've gotten tired of this!" Vanis shouted, visibly enraged by the turn of events as multiple flame meteors fell from the sky.
Luke instinctively dodged, forgetting to continue to land his attack and suddenly Jayden froze.
"Damn!" Jayden cursed as he couldn't move.
Luke tried to rush over to where Jayden was, but Vanis beat him to it and punched Jayden into the air.
"I finally get what you guys have been doing, three seconds is enough for me" Vanis growled as appearing right above Jayden, he raised his two hands and slammed him back down to the ground.
Dashing to his intended fall area, Luke created an air vacuum which softened the fall.
Vanis was almost where Jayden was when the penalty had worn off, and he braced himself for the coming attack, but to his alarm he had turned to Luke and aimed a condensed fire ball.
Seeing the attack, Luke raised Xelvicar and summoned a wind barrier, hoping to intercept the attack but when the attacks clashed, Luke saw himself losing desperately being pushed back as the barrier cracked.
"Switch."
Jayden punched the fire ball, switching places with Luke, but that was what Vanis wanted as the blast burned off Jayden's right hand completely.
Ice began to form and encroach the fire, and with the assistance of Luke's wind barrier, Jayden neutralized the blast.
'I wanted to kill off the human but this will do for now." Vanis grinned as he looked at Jayden.
Light began to glow where his right hand once was as he began to regenerate slowly, the blood flow stopping slightly.
The three stood opposite each other, a grin hiding their pain.
"Luke Reginald, what a disturbance. I would have killed off the brat already if not for him. A wall that keeps annoying me, no matter the timeline, I'll kill him first."
And so, Vanis deciding the best course of action, turned his full attention to Luke, with the intent to kill him quickly.