Flames exploded around Vermilion and spread out. They burnt the disks away then fire arrows flew at Ved.

He flapped his wings and flew to the side to dodge. The fire arrows changed their direction and chased after him like honing missiles.

Nuclear blasts flew around Ved like an airplane's anti missile defence. The arrows explode upon contact with the nuclear blasts.

" Do you hate me beast?" Vermilion asked in a mocking tone." You must, after I stole your girl right Infront of your eyes. That must've infuriated you.

You want to kill me don't you, to flail me and hung my organs to vent your anger." He started laughing like a maniac.

" Yes yes yes, hate me, loath me, RAGE LIKE THE BEAST YOU ARE, SHOW THE WORLD YOU'RE STILL BUT A SAVAGE BEAST."

Vermilion laughed loudly, his eyes burning with madness. His true self was spilling out. Ved sighed and looked at him with eyes devoid of any emotions.

The more he looked at him the more familiar he became but he still couldn't link him to anybody in his memories.

' Your mask is slipping, are you not afraid they will see who you truly are?' Ved asked softly, there was not a hint of anger in his voice.

" That's not for you to worry about. Stop pretending beast, I know you hate me, show me your hatred, let loose your true self."

They continued fighting as they talked, explosions and shockwaves filled the sky. Flames covered the sky like massive clouds.

Winds howled and thunder roared. ' Hate you?' Ved's voice was calm. ' Why would I hate you? On the contrary I'm quite grateful to you.'

Ved was telling the truth, he no longer felt hatred for Vermilion. It was strange, he had hated this man for so long but now, that hatred was just gone.

To Ved, Vermilion was his enemy because they're fundamentally incompatible and he held him in contempt.

Vermilion's face changed, he scowled and waved his hand to deflect a beam of nuclear energy which melted a deep hole on the ground below.

" Do you expect me to believe that? After all I've done? That you're grateful to me? It either you're very foolish or you take me for a fool."

Ved laughed and dodged a massive flaming fist, then he was suddenly hit by a fireball sending him flying to the barrier wall on the other side.

The wound healed and closed in a blink of an eye. He laughed, ignoring the searing pain.

' Of course I think you're a fool.' Ved lunged at Vermilion like a bolt of lightning. Lightning danced around his body, he created more invisible disks and shot them at Vermilion.

Vermilion created the flame giant Ved remembers so well. It was larger now standing at over 300 metres tall.

It looked like a humanoid mountain of fire. The flame giant roared and punched the approaching Ved.

However he did not retreat, he used herculean strength and punched back. The fists met and the world seemed to stand still.

Then a deafening sound like roaring thunder shook the sky. Ved was sent flying back a few hundred metres with broken scales on his fist.

But to Vermilion's surprised, the giants fist shattered into a rain of fire and it was sent crashing down like a flamming meteor.

He frowned, realising that Ved was significantly stronger than the last time they fought.

Ved felt the differences too, especially those brought by the divine spark. All of his attacks had some form of energy imbued into them making them stronger and deadlier.

However the most apparent change was to his regeneration trait. Last time, it didn't work as well but his divine spark solved that problem.

Not entirely though, regeneration was still working slower than normal because Vermilion had a divine ember which was even stronger than a spark.

But it was enough, killing him in this state would not be easy, even for someone as powerful as Vermilion.

Vermilion raised his hand, above him a fireball appeared. It grew larger and larger until it was over a 100 metres wide.

The fireball was hotter than the sun, it became so hot it started turning while. It flames dripped like molten plasma.

The heat it emitted melted the earth below them forming a massive lava pool. Had there not been a barrier.

Perhaps he would've melted hundreds of kilometres of land. The humans below were forced to use their means to protect themselves but obviously they were struggling.

They too couldn't get out of the barrier at this point so they had to endure the burning sun of Vermilion.

Ved wasn't going to stand still and wait to be burnt into a crisp. He opened his mouth, his spikes glowed and nuclear energy moved through his veins making his body glow blue.

It gathered not in his mouth but Infront of it. The nuclear blast grew larger as well until it was over 80 metres wide.

He wanted to make it larger but Vermilion did not give him that chance " Sun Flare" he whispered. The fireball shot towards Ved like a falling sun.

Ved fired his massive nuclear blast as well. The two flaming balls, one white one blue met mid air.

They pushed against each other, the temperature around them was so high the air boiled and cracked.

However Ved's nuclear blast started losing ground, it was being pushed back towards him. He couldn't allow that to happen.

He detonated the nuclear blast, the explosion caused a chain reaction blowing up Vermilion's sun flare as well.

A wave of blue and white plasma spread out covering the entire space within the barrier in a blink of a eye.

They were both caught in the blast and probably those below as well. Ved created layer after layer of wax cocoon then coated the cocoon with the none toxic gel made from his poison gland.

It was the only thing with resistance to elements like fire. The barrier cracked from the might of the explosion, a tiny wisp of fire flew out and disintegrated one of the people holding the barrier before they could even scream.

The flames died down and the two of them appeared still floating in the air. Vermilion did not have a single speck on his body but Ved's body was healing from terrible burnt wounds, some of his fingers has disappeared, it took a few seconds for them to heal.

He faced Vermilion and continued speaking ,' As I was saying, you're a foolish man Prince of fire but it's your foolishness that burnt the veils clouding my eyes.

I held on to my humanity like a fool, bound myself to your ideals of morality. It was my comfort in this cruel and confusing world but it was also my prison.'

Vermilion was confused as to why a beast was talking about his humanity, he frowned. Ved continued.

' Now because of you, I no longer hold such delusions. You have freed me from my self imposed prison and for that I thank you but, know this, what is to come, is all on you.'

As if a chain has shattered inside him, the bottleneck that had held him back for so long finally broke, his will ignited becoming much denser than before.

Vermilion suddenly moved and caught a massive invisible sword. Ved smiled, he had figured out how Vermilion was able see through his stealth attacks but there was no way around it.

So then why did he continue using it? The sword suddenly lit up blue, that why. Vermilion tried to let go of it but it was too late.

' Boom.' Ved whispered.

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