A primordial storm against a divine inferno.
Alan just kept at it, exhausting himself as he poured down fireball after fireball, concentrated breaths of fire... everything he could as the nausea and exhaustion took over. Kizmal reciprocated by raining down lightning from the skies to shoot the divine bird of flame down, as well as launching eviscerating beams of light whenever he could.
Alan had assumed the form of a golden Phoenix the moment Emma had done her ’enhancement.’ But he could feel it lose its power. He knew he had to end this stalemate.
The barrage of magic had to end soon, he was feeling empty, and so was Kizmal. He had to be!
The storm was reducing, but the lightning was still the same. Kizmal roared, and Alan was thrown back by the sheer force of it. The golden fire around him was fading.
Unleashing a dozen more fireballs and another concentrated breath, he rose high up into the skies, tearing through the already torn realm and piercing the storm. It was like he was colliding against a solid wall, and not a veil of dark clouds. Lightning attacked him, but he persevered and broke through.
Exhausted, tired. He honestly didn’t know if he would have the will to challenge the trial once more. Kizmal had left a haunting impression on everyone in the party now.
’...I have to end it.’
No matter the cost. He let out all his insides and fought against the disgusting feeling, the nausea, and desperately went as high as he could. His flight was disturbing, he was struggling as he flapped his wings.
Kizmal took deep breaths as he rested for a few moments. His destroyed body was a sight to behold. How was he still alive when in this state? No one could tell.
The giant knew this moment of respite was brief, and that belief was cemented once it heard a sharp whistle even among the storm. A roar that tore the sky apart. There was no point in raising its head, its eyes were in no shape to see. Kizmal had been using mana sense to decipher everything for a long, long while.
A tired sight escaped it’s ruined mouth, and it knew what was coming, a mass of rock, steel, and golden fire that tore the realm apart as well as his storm. A meteor covered in golden fire, a divine comet.
The giant braced himself, and there was no roar, no declaration of might. Just a silent preparation of what was to come. It had no more mana for an eviscerating beam of light... So it raised its hands.
Its titanic palms seemed small in front of the meteor, but they withstood its grand might, as a grunt escaped the mouth of the abominable giant. So what if he was unable to use his strongest attack?
He still had the strength of a giant. A giant that consumed stars for sustenance. He was a fragment of such a being.
Alan watched from above, collecting his breath. Soon, his meteor would collapse into nothing, he would stop supplying it with mana. He simply didn’t have enough to keep doing this any longer.
The struggle was real, and Kizmal let out a small roar as he threw the meteor to the side, to confront the golden light beaming towards him. A tired giant raised its fist high to punch the Phoenix of golden fire barrelling towards him.
The golden fire was a mantle that was breaking apart, like an angel losing its divine authority the gold crumbled to reveal a pale blue, a Phoenix much smaller than the one Kizmal was facing before.
The first approached him with blinding speeds, it was as if the declaration of his defeat, but Alan evaded it at the last moment, a bolt of red lightning emerged and attacked him, causing him to stumble.
In that brief moment, Kizmal’s other hand approached him like a whip, He was successful in grabbing the blue bird. Alan cancelled his transformation. Unlike his dragon transformation, where his entire body was turned into a dragon, the Phoenix transformation merely covered him in a shell of fire.
Nonetheless, he was still not free. His legs were still ensnared by the giant. Alan let out a sigh...and pushed.
His iron bones, his body of steel, was ripped apart from below by himself. He used enough strength to sever himself from below the knees, and with the last dregs of his strength, he transformed his hands into claws and went towards the giant, lightning, less in number, assaulted him.
But it was bearable. Alan jumped, right towards Kizmal, he knew he had only a few seconds to finish this damn thing, or else it would finish him.
The giant was tired, but he was exhausted, The giant was fatally wounded, but he was on the brink of death. One foot, metaphorically, was already through the door.
He summoned the AME-No-Sakahoko. The spear shone with incandescent light in this dark world as he brought it down on Kizmal.
Alan didn’t hold back, he used as much power as he could.
The world was dyed white and black not once, but twice.
That was it, his right arm was gone, Lightning and his own strikes had evaporated it. But his left was still there.
He could feel the world collapsing around him. Whatever realm Ariel had conjured was failing, it was being destroyed as both Kizmal and Alan let it all out.
He had no more limbs... and the fall into Kizmal’s maw, open from screaming in pain as the world ending strikes were unleashed on it, appeared dreadful. Alan, firmed his resolve, whatever of it was left.
One final strike, so what if he had no limbs...? He had run out of aura, mana was scarce. He manifested wings on his back, pitiful little wings that helped him catch the falling AME-No-Sakahoko with his teeth. Furthermore, he bit with such force, a few of his teeth went into his gums. With a bloodied mouth, Alan lost all light in his eyes as he simply did what he could.