Zini dashed at me in a straight line and vanished midway.

I spun around while swinging my left meteor-hammer at him, striking the edge of his ax. I jumped back and twirled my weapon around me as rapidly as I could.

"Impressive," Zini said as he vanished from sight again.

I closed my eyes and struck his ax once more. He had tried to hit me from behind again.

"How did you know what angle I was coming from?"

I snickered. "I can sense it when I clear my mind."

He chuckled as he stepped back. "Seems this will be tougher than I thought."

I opened my eyes and leaped into the sky as the air around Zini grew denser and crackled. Waves of orange-red energy swung past him several times as his body began to become more muscular.

He's activating second heaven, huh?

I gasped as his ax split into two, with one part swinging one-hundred-and-eighty degrees while the hilt started to melt.

Out of all the weapon transformations I'd seen, this was the most unusual. It was as if the ax were bending to the will of Zini's energy.

I took a deep breath and swung my weapon at him.

Zini held out a hand out, catching it in his bare hands, somehow placing his fingers in just the right areas to avoid the diamond spikes.

I flew higher and clenched my hands together. It seems I'll need to activate Second Heaven too.

The air around me crackled with energy as my amber eyes glowed bright orange. I held out my hand toward my weapon. "I'll be taking that back!" I yelled as I pulled on my meteor hammer. Yet, the man's grip on it was surprisingly firm despite only holding it with the tips of his fingers.

Zini snickered and raised his arm into the air. "You want it back? Then here you go!"

I dashed out of the air caught it by the platinum chain. "Figures you would do that. I've faced a lot of opponents who like using my weapon against me."

"Well, it is a weapon with an obvious double-edge."

I smirked as my orange aura intensified. "Same goes for you and that ax you're wielding."

"But, mine isn't as easy to stop and grab as yours," Zini said as he swung his ax down. The black floor cracked in both directions, sending chunks of half-melted stone falling into the orange yonder.

"Impressive strength, but I don't think that'll be enough to tame me!" I yelled, raising the shards of stone that had fallen. I snapped my fingers, sending the sharp rocks at Zini who stood still.

I gulped. Is he going to tank the hit?

A bubble of molten rock formed in front of Zini in the blink of an eye, the remnants of my projectiles. The debris came together, forming a black spear.

I gasped. How can he control stone?

"Back in the day, I was a champion at throwing the javelin," Zini yelled as he launched the stone weapon.

I held out my hand. My mana pulled on the spear as it zoomed toward me, but the earth wouldn't budge. How can a fire and wood mana user have a such a well-built stone construct?

I flew out of the way and watched as it vanished into the sky like a meteor zipping past.

"How can you use earth mana?" I asked in bewilderment.

Zini grinned. "I'm not."

"I thought you would've noticed," Alma's voice called out from the ax.

"Wait, it's you who made that, isn't it?" I said.

"Yes!" A wave of stone rose behind me like a tsunami.

I slammed my meteor hammer against the center of the wave, crafting a hole just wide enough for me to pass through safely. I watched as the stones twisted and turned as if they were alive.

So this truly is two against one.

I held out my hand and formed an orb of dark mana. "Shadow Sphere!" I yelled, launching the energy straight at the tide of rock. A cloud of dust formed in front of me as the stone disintegrated upon making contact with my attack.

I flew higher to get away from the radius of the dust cloud. However, I did so too late as stone chains formed from the debris coiled themselves around my feet.

I smack both sides of my meteor hammer down against the two rock coils, shattering them at the same time, but more dust floated upward and grasped me. The debris contracted together until a cocoon of rock covered me.

I closed my eyes even as I started to lose altitude due to the restrictions on my wings.

"Numb all your senses. Empty yourself of all thoughts and worries," Kaliq's word echoed in my head.

I took a deep breath and reverted Alma into its bracelet form. The orange aura swirling around me retreated into me.

Without me even commanding it, my right index finger tapped the cacoon—the once-solid earth encasing shattered in seconds, drawing gasps from outside.

Upon landing on the floor on both feet, I opened my eyes.

"I did it!" I said, grinning. Though, saying that causes my second heaven aura to flare up again. It had taken some work to use this technique properly as one needed not to think at all. The body simply moved on its own in response to threats. One could say it was more instinct than anything. Even now, I don't think I've completely mastered it.

"Impressive technique. I should've figured the heir to the throne would be able to use Zen mode," Zini said as he calmly walked toward me.

Why was that? Did my early predecessors know how to use it too?

I took a deep breath as I jumped back. "Then I take it you know what this entails for you, huh?"

Zini vanished from sight once again. "Your form broke down too easily, though. It pales against what my brother-in-law could do."

I jumped and spun in mid-air. My bare hand grasped Zini's heavy ax. If not for me being in my Second Heaven form, I would've lost my footing from the sheer force of his swing and potentially end up sliced in half.

Zini smiled as his ax glowed bright red.

I yelped and jumped back. The ax burned me!

"Alma, if you don't mind, I'll like to go all out now," Zini said as he swung his weapon over his shoulder.

"Go ahead," the guardian angel's voice echoed from the ax. "Go wild."

Zini grinned. "Thanks!"

I transformed my ankle bracelet back into its weapon state, but this time, I had it turn into its mace form.

"Wow, so you can transform your weapon too. But why did you change to such small things?"

I smiled and threw one at her.

Zini swung his ax forward to use as a shield. He gasped and gritted his teeth as soon as the mace struck his weapon.

"You should've dodged!" I yelled.

"What in the world? How can something that size be so heavy?" he said, eyes wide as the side of his ax struck his chest.

I chuckled as I retrieved my thrown mace. I grunted. The thing was as hot as his ax had been when I had blocked it.

"Just because it's small doesn't mean it's a light-weight. My colleagues learned that the hard way too," I said with a confident smile, ignoring the pain in my right hand.

I clenched both weapons and dashed forward and leaped into the air as he recovered from my attack.

Zini moved up and smacked the side of his angel tool against my side, sending me rolling toward the edge of the battlefield.

I pushed myself up but choked as a knee kick struck my stomach, sending me flying into the air.

Dang. I shouldn't have let my guard down.

Though the pain, I swung my left arm behind me, striking the fist coming my way. Zini and I were pushed into opposite directions by the resulting shockwave. Thankfully, I hit Zini at a slight angle, allowing me to avoid striking the battlefield below. I spread out my wings to halt my fall from the tower.

I flew up and formed two dark spheres in my hands, putting as much mana into them as I could gather from my surroundings just as I had done during my battle with Hyo back in Tetsu's place. Though, this time, the concentration was much higher.

Hyo. I hope he isn't panicking about me fainting. Nah, he's not the type who would. Even if he did, he's probably calmed down by now and figured out what happened.

"What are you thinking about?" Zini whispered.

I turned my hand around and launched one of the spheres at him while using the energy of the other to form a barrier around me.

Zini slapped my attack away with his ax.

"Not bad, descendant," he said, smiling. "If that hit me, I probably would be heading straight down along with it."

I grinned as small orbs formed on the transluscent purple surface of my barrier.

He tilted his weapon and slashed at my defenses as laser flew out of the glowing violet dots around it. I grunted as my shield went down, luckily the other parts remained.

Zini ducked as a beam of amethyst light came close to his head. However, that wasn't enough as another hit his arm, sending him back. He grunted as held out his right hand. Vines swirled around his fingers as emerald light surrounded his arm.

I glided away. However, he didn't pursue me.

I threw my right mace at him once more and flew up as fast as I could.

Suddenly, the vines in his hand grabbed the mace and slammed it against the black stone tower. Many rocks flew toward him, but each one melted as soon as they touched his aura. The resulting lava raining down on him did not affect him nor his clothes.

I held my hand up and teleported my weapon back into my hand.

Zini glanced up at me and chuckled. "Neat trick. Where did you learn that from?"

"It's one of the first things I learned when I got it," I said as I floated around him while keeping a distance.

He yanked his right arm back, pulling the thick vines away from the tower and whipped them at me.

I jumped on one of them and ran toward him.

"Is that a smart move?" Zini asked, swinging the vine down.

However, my attention shifted upward as the other four vines coiled together, forming a roof over my head. One that would splat me for sure if I wasn't careful.

I slammed my maces against the vine I was on, tearing it apart, but smaller vines emerged and grabbed hold of my legs.

"You did well, Princess Setsuko, but it's over," Zini said. "Maybe you'll pass next time."

**Solar Note: If you enjoyed the chapter then be sure to give it a star :). I would also love to hear your thoughts/opinions on it regardless whether you enjoyed it or not ^_^**