Bang!
The dark-red mirror shattered on contact. Black's body broke apart the instant it was struck, dissolving like scattered light and vanishing.
Phaga stopped midair and waved away the flames, narrowing his eyes as doubt crept in.
Where did it go?
In the next moment, his eyes widened. He spun around and slashed downward.
Clang!
Sparks erupted as residual flames were blasted apart, scattering in all directions.
Black's claw-blade halted right in front of Phaga. The back of its hand—wrapped in dark-red fire—pressed directly against Phaga's blade.
It let out a shrill, grating laugh.
[As expected of the Creator. Such quick reactions.]
With a sudden beat of its wings, Black drifted backward.
Once it reached a safe distance, it stopped and casually patted the back of its hand. The purplish-red flames clinging to it refused to go out. Black raised an eyebrow and immediately poured in more Nether Flame.
The Nether Flame swelled in an instant. The surrounding air heated rapidly, and even Black's face was stained dark red by the firelight.
A few seconds later, the Devouring Flame was swallowed by Nether Flame at more than ten times its own volume.
Black couldn't help clicking its tongue, its chest heaving as lingering fear surfaced.
[What a troublesome power. Even after investing ten times the Creator's output, it's still hard to extinguish that purple-red flame.]
But in the very next second, it shook its head. The earlier panic vanished, replaced by a bright, almost cheerful smile. Phaga frowned slightly—the voice sounded as though it were carried by the wind.
[Still, as long as I don't touch that flame, it should be fine, right?]
Whoosh!
The moment the words fell, Black vanished.
When it reappeared, it was already right beside Phaga.
Phaga's pupils shrank. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a claw-blade completely shrouded in Nether Flame, ripping straight toward his temple.
He twisted sharply. Purple-red Devouring Flame erupted beneath his feet and detonated at once.
The explosion was small, but it was enough. Riding the recoil, Phaga snapped his left leg upward and stomped down hard at Black.
Black shrieked.
Phaga watched in alarm as its entire body became wrapped in Nether Flame. Bathed in that eerie glow, it looked translucent and gleaming, almost like flawless jade.
If one ignored its absurd outfit, that was.
But Phaga quickly realized Black's ability wasn't solid like jade at all.
It was more like a drifting cloud.
His kick passed straight through it.
Wind?
Suspicion stirred. In Phaga's understanding, New Eridu knew very little about wind-based power.
Among everyone he knew, Soukaku's attribute came closest—but what she wielded was an ice-type W-Engine.
Yet now, on Black, he was seeing a wind attribute—formless and elusive, like [Mist].
The [Mist] drifted lightly, smoke-like, creeping toward Phaga even without any wind to carry it.
Suddenly, one end of the [Mist] rapidly condensed. Everywhere else it remained visible yet intangible, but that section abruptly solidified into a massive hand that lunged straight for Phaga.
The giant hand closed in, compressing the air until it detonated.
Amid a chain of thunderous blasts, Black's voice rang out from within the [Mist]:
[It's coming—take it all, Creator!]
"Disgusting."
Phaga's eyelid twitched. He slammed both palms downward.
In an instant, a circular ring of Devouring Flame formed in midair. As his palms pressed down together, the ring tore apart, and droplets of Devouring Flame poured down like a torrential rain.
Corrosive Rain!
"Tch. Wind or not—I don't care. Die!"
Phaga roared. The thought that Black had not only copied him completely, but even carried traces of Ellen, made a nameless fury surge up from his gut.
The downpour crashed down. The dark-red hand hissed violently the moment it touched the rain.
In the blink of an eye, purple smoke rose. The entire arm was eaten away into a pitted ruin, its sheen dulled, its earlier arrogance completely erased.
[Aaaah—!]
Black's scream echoed from within the [Mist].
Same origin, same body. That massive hand was both its attack and a part of itself.
How could it not feel pain when its own body was being so severely eroded?
And this wasn't ordinary ether corrosion.
It was Devouring Flame—born from the fusion of ether and Nether Flame. Far more vicious. Black felt as though fire was burning through every component of its body, its energy draining at a terrifying speed.
[No… I haven't been acknowledged by the Creator yet!]
An obsession surged up from the deepest part of Black's core, forcibly snapping its fading consciousness back into focus.
Suddenly, the [Mist]—which had been on the verge of dispersing—began to condense again. Vaguely, its original form became visible once more.
Moments later, a fierce gale roared.
The violent wind softened into a flowing force, deflecting the falling rain. Though the air had already been scorched red by Devouring Flame and the temperature continued to climb, Black seemed unaffected. It guided the Corrosive Rain into spiraling arcs around itself, gathering it into a dense sphere before slamming it hard into the ground.
Bang!
The purple-red fireball crashed downward. The rising temperature stalled abruptly, then plunged.
Black wiped sweat from its brow with the back of its hand. A cool breeze flowed around it, leaving its body feeling light. It exhaled the pent-up heat in its chest and sighed softly.
[Hah… As expected, the Creator is the strongest in the vampire faction. It took everything I had just to barely hold on.]
[But after this, even someone as untalented as me has gained quite a few insights into wind. Dealing with the Creator's attacks next should be much easier—eh? Where did the Creator go?]
Only then did Black finally look toward where Phaga had been.
He was gone.
It blinked, unease creeping in.
Slowly, Black turned its head toward the TOPS building. Its gaze locked onto a shattered window—and a familiar figure slipping inside.
Phaga.
Black's face went pale. It clutched its head and wailed, its mouth stretched wide in sheer panic.
[It's over—our home is gone!]
Only then did it fully realize—
While it had been entangled with the Corrosive Rain, the Creator had already gone straight for the heart.
…
"Enemy intrusion! Enemy intrusion! Repeat—enemy intrusion!"
"What's going on? How did Phaga get in?!"
"Don't ask! Hurry—notify the elders to relocate! They're on the top floor!"
"But Phaga's already up there!"
"What?!"
Boom!
A heavy metal door was kicked clean off its hinges, flying past the gathered vampire elders before smashing violently into the opposite wall.
Through thick dust and smoke, Phaga stepped in slowly. He glanced around the room, frowning slightly.
The vampire elders looked as though they had been waiting for him all along. Even as Phaga burst in with brute force, not one of them stirred.
The white-robed elder seated directly opposite even rose shakily to his feet. His face was full of satisfaction as he nodded toward Phaga, then lowered his withered arm in an inviting gesture.
"Good child," he said gently. "Sit down."