158 Thats Just Someone Else (1/2)

The moment Arima's doppelganger used the forbidden art, his body started to disintegrate. He looked at both Lanya and Lilis one more time and closed his eyes.

Lilis immediately felt something interacting with the root of her being. Her soul, mind, and body were getting under the control of something else. She didn't resist at all and let everything go. It wasn't long before she felt a strange connection with Lanya.

In a world devoid of colors, she found herself standing in front of Lanya. The latter was looking at her and smiled wryly. Lilis had the same kind of expression. In the end, they both reached out and hugged as if it was the natural thing to do.

After they did so, their vision warped. Many things pa.s.sed by inside their minds. They felt their strength rise exponentially. The next thing they knew was that they were standing in front of Hephaestus.

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When the blue and purple fireball, touched the ground. It didn't explode right away. Instead, it bounced like a simple rubber ball.

Karaskan was perplexed at first but suddenly went back inside Pandora's temple after a moment.

Hephaestus didn't move. As long as Pandora was behind him, he will never move. His state didn't allow that anyway. What Lanya inflicted to him while she had his hand through her stomach was not something he could casually heal.

His body had become tetanized by Lanya's light. The first effects were that his skin dried and fell, then the light penetrated his bare flesh and brought over atrocious pain to his body. He himself seemed to be able to ignore it but his body was slowly crumbling apart from the inside. Like a disease.

Pandora tried to help its guardian and managed to stabilize him but the 'virus' was still there. If Pandora stops its help, Hephaestus will most likely perish.

Hephaestus was just staring at the fireball that was bouncing on the ground like a slime and it was then that the First Blue Art showed its might.

The air around the ball became so hot that the atmosphere became blurry. The ground below was turning into magma. The Art was releasing heat for the first time.

Then it happened. Everything contained in that small fireball exploded in one go. The blue fire erupted first. Hephaestus's eyes narrowed. He gripped his hammer with his right hand and light flashed in his left one.

A one-handed ax was summoned and he struck the ground with it along with his hammer. The earth and stone burned as they were dug out by the huge tremor. Instead of turning into lava, they gained a sort of l.u.s.ter as the stone and soil gained a smooth and tough surface.

They basically transformed into metal. The blacksmith of the G.o.ds showed his true colors. The stone was not destroyed but forged.

The 'dark metal' took the form of a giant long s.h.i.+eld with a refined appearance and an anvil symbol in the middle. The s.h.i.+eld glowed and red lines orderly spread on it. A transparent barrier was extended from the edges to protect Hephaestus.

The blue fire didn't do much. It just continuously grew and reached a great density as it covered the ground for more than five thousand miles. Also, the distance between the ground and the highest point of the flames was twenty meters.

If you looked from the sky, you would only be able to see a sea of blue flames that didn't release any heat. The only place you could find a change in temperature was at the source. The fireball that was still bouncing on the ground.

When Hephaestus could only see blue, no matter where he looked, the fireball finally blasted apart and a purple spark ignited the azure fire. As if the latter was just fuel or a gas of some sort, the purple color ignited it.

The rest was a chain reaction. The blue became overwritten by the purple as it exploded everywhere. The sea of flames became hot and chaotic and a final discharge shook the Original Land.

Everything was reduced to ashes and flattened to the same level. The mountains broke apart from their base and collapsed before burning too. The fire raised to the sky and a colossal mushroom in the shape of a skull formed on the horizon.

Hephaestus roared among the chaos and protected Pandora at the same time with his s.h.i.+eld. Cracks appeared on thin air.

It was indeed Arima's own magic that was destroying the dimension before. And when the blue flames finally stopped burning. It was the dimension's turn to explode with a blinding light.

Hephaestus who had taken the First Art's explosion head-on was then struck again by an odd and oppressive aura. His s.h.i.+eld had been melted already and he was full of burns. He protected Pandora with his body alone and fell into an even worse state.

The energy that left the collapsing dimension messed up with his mana and aura and he felt like something was trying to rule over him. As if it was trying to get control over his entire being. He planted his ax in the ground and forged even more dark metal to help him.