The screen now showed Merlin but the runic letters on her body now fully visualized. Merlin has a special mechanic where she can redirect the damage she receives to her mana. Just one strike from Cersei deleted her remaining mana which was 70%. This in turn activated her passive skill called ‘Child of Mana’ which is a passive skill that all Daemonios are born with.

Cersei thought that she has the upper hand in battle because of using the forbidden skill Devil Possession. It gives the user the qualities of the devil that they have a contract with but only something that the mortal body could bear.

“Well, it is only a forbidden skill in Pandemonium because the holy churches would burn you alive if they knew that you have a skill like this.” Cersei stated as she saw the column of water shooting towards the sky. 𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚

Cersei saw the person that she thought would be dead or close to it perfectly unscathed, but Vepar told her that her opponent no longer has mana. The Devil God told her that there is a special skill that half demons are born with that redirects their damage to their mana which is why the powerful ones managed to defeat demons back then.

The mana in the surroundings is unstable.

There is a slight small chance that spells will not activate due to the mana fluctuation.

Merlin could see that her innate skilled Child of Mana triggered. This special skill that she received did not often trigger as it is a mysterious skill that has been imprinted on the soul of the half demons. Even Emrys, the strongest of the Daemonios in the current generation, cannot forcefully trigger this innate skill.

“To think that this woman managed to trigger the innate skill means that she is leagues above me in strength. It is said that this innate skill only triggers when we half demons are outclassed. My only fear is that people would speculate that I am really not of the Human Race, but the match comes first.” Merlin stated but deep down she is scared of being bullied online for lying.

“Inferno!”

“Blizzard!”

“Hurricane!”

“Thunder!”

“Rock Avalanche!”

Merlin casted five high class spells at the same time as this is one of the effects of the Child of Mana skill.

You are able to invalidate the chant of spell up to High Class for the duration of the Child of Mana innate skill.

You do not need mana to cast the spells that you want as your core will pull mana from the surroundings.

The duration of the innate skill ‘Child of Mana’ is one minute.

Merlin did not joke around once her innate skill activated as she used five high class magic immediately. She then directed those high-class magic spells towards Cersei. Not only that, but she also conjured up mid class spells as well as follow up in order to be sure that she will defeat her opponent within the given time.

All the spells that came crashing towards Cersei is then blocked by something that she summoned from Hell where Vepar rules. The water below her suddenly turned black and became murky. This water then clashed with the five high class spells and destroyed them by sacrificing the murky water.

Any mage would panic if this happened to them as their spells became utterly useless but not Merlin. She used another set of High-Class spells that she learned as Emrys’ apprentice and launched them again towards Cersei.

The smoke from the clashing magic spells arose but Cersei is not in the location. Merlin immediately knew that something is amiss and immediately used five layers of barrier to protect herself. As if she read the future, a loud thud followed by the sound of glass breaking is heard.

Cersei appeared beside Merlin and destroyed three of her barriers with just the force of her kick. This fight is happening at the speed of sound and all the audience could see is flashing lights if the fight was not slowed down.

“Aquatic Demon Cursed Trident!” Cersei stated.

A good chunk of water from the sea suddenly shot up and condensed towards Cersei’s arm. The moment she touched the water, its color suddenly changed to that of darkish green hue. Merlin could feel the tyrannical energy from the trident and increased her barriers to ten.

Cersei swung the trident towards Merlin and destroyed two barriers with just a simple swing. The next barrier is then marked with runic letters and disintegrated after two seconds. Merlin did not know what happened to the third barrier which is why she decided to increase her perception with Mind’s Eye.

Upon using a skill that increased the perception of one’s surroundings, Merlin noticed that the trident that Cersei used applied a curse or hex to the barrier that invalidates the mana gathered.

“A curse that scatters mana!” Merlin stated as she fired off spells in succession in toder to gain some distance.

If she ever gets hit by the trident, then it would disable her innate skill as the runic markings on her body gathered mana towards her like a vacuum. Merlin also noticed that Cersei’s body looked vastly different compared to before as her strikes started to weaken.

“She is growing weaker. That form is also taking a toll her body since it is too powerful. I just need to draw out more of her power in order to win this.” Merlin thought.

As Merlin guessed, Cersei’s body is also breaking down because her Devil Possession skill is closer to Devil God Descent as an aspect of Vepar is inhabiting her body. Even if it is just an aspect, it is still that of a god which meant that a mortal vessel would grow weaker the longer a god inhabits the body.

She is holding quite well unlike Equinox and Levin Cloud did as only an aspect possessed her, but her body is showing signs of deterioration. If one looked closely, some parts of her body is already fading into oblivion.

“You must stop this Cersei. Your body could no longer handle the stress. Even with multiple strengthening curses applied to your body. A mortal would not be able to handle a gods power unless they are the perfect vessel born for them.” Vepar stated as he is worried for Cersei.

Cersei did not heed Vepar’s warning and continued pushing herself to the extreme. She continued the attacks even though parts of her body could be seen rapidly deteriorating. Merlin is having the same problems as well.

Merlin could feel her body shutting down as well since this is the first time that she handled mana in large quantities such as this. Her half demon core could not handle using all the mana in her surroundings. She is basically flooding it as she still needs to convert the mana from her surroundings into her own mana.

She might not take in the mana but transforming the mana around her into her own mana signature. The two women fought bravely until the audience could see their tired appearance. Merlin’s body is showing signs of extreme fatigue while Cersei’s body could be seen missing some limbs.

Merlin knew that she had one more choice in order to absolutely win the match. One spell that is available to all mages at a certain point when they level up. She has yet to test it to mana outside her body though.

“Mana Burn!” Merlin shouted as the mana in her body plus the mana around her started to manifest into bluish streams of light.

Cersei wanted to escape the area where the spell is getting affected but she is already weakened to the point that she can only swing her trident once. With the last bit of her strength, Cersei swung her trident towards Merlin for the last time.

Merlin did not attempt to dodge or getaway as she is focused in implementing her Mana Burn. The bluish light that the mana around them started to glow brighter and brighter until a huge explosion happened. The whole map is flooded by a bright light with both contestants being enveloped.

When the light subsided, a large void of nothingness could be seen on the map. The island and even parts of the sea has been erased. It is not like it was destroyed but what looked like space being erased is seen. The whole audience is lost for words.

They could not believe that a simple spell and powerful like Mana Burn could erase parts of reality. The audience then saw something like large insect claws come out of the void to start and fix the tear in reality. When reality became fixed, they could see that a feeble body that is almost as dried as a mummy could be seen on the monitor.

“Merlin wins the match!” The announcer announced as Cersei was the one ejected out of her gaming pod first. The audience recovered from their silence and congratulated the two for doing a job well done.. They gave a match worthy of their titles.

This content is taken from 𝘳.𝑐𝘰