"Yes my lord, you are fully understood... I accept your deal as well, not like I have a choice at this point" Zaja arranged his helm with a small smile on his face.
"Choose which Oasis Plane you would like to experience this mortal combat..." Helios bood from behind the massive golden flas.
Zaja thought for a bit before accessing the Desire System to go through the list of Oasis Plane to see if any of them would hold any advantage for him.
Atlas he was able to find one that would help him in so way that he was yet to find out.
"Nathalorbin..." Zaja said.
Barely had the word left his mouth, the white room shattered like fragile glass. Zaja felt the world rip away from him in a single heartbeat. One mont he was bowing before the blinding pillar of gold fla. The next, his bare feet sank into sand so hit it hissed against the moist of his skin.
He now stood in the middle of an endless desert. The dunes were nuts ordinary sand, they were mirrors, every gain was sohow polished to a perfect shine.
The ground reflected the sky above, which consisted of a single, monstrous sun that filled half the heavens, white and rciless, pouring down heat that made the air dance and twist.
There was no horizon, only an ocean if liquid gold stretching forever, on and on. No wind, no sound except the low, distant crackle of fire.
Zaja looked down at himself. His fine clothes from the ceremony were now gone, burned away. The transition. He wore only loose black trousers that were torn at the knees.
He felt the regular pulse of the Shadow Fire in his chest and was pleased to see that the transition didn’t take away the ability to use his mutation.
A voice rolled across the desert like a massive thunder trapped in a drum.
"Welco... Jester Child."
A few feet away, about thirty paces ahead exploded upward in a pillar of golden flas. The roar soared high, twisting into the shape of a man— no, sothing far greater wearing the shape of a man rather.
Helios stepped out of the fire.
The god had no definite shape, form or likeness, therefore if he required to manifest he would take the shape of anything he chooses. This was so with other gods.
Helios took the form of Pope Shanar Inca, the most famous vessel the god had ever chosen from the Inca Clan centuries ago.
Ten feet tall, his skin like burnished gold, armour made of overlapping plates that drank the sunlight and glowed white hot.
A crown of living fla hovered above his head, spitting sparks. In his right hand he carried a long spear ford if pure plasma, it’s too dripping drops of molten light that was so hot it turned the mirrored sand beneath into glass!.
His eyes were fixed on Zaja. The god’s lips— Shanar’s lips did not move, yet the voice filled Zaja’s skull, deep and layered with a thousand echoing tones.
"What is the biggest thing you’ve lost in your life? Hold that mory, clutch it tight. I assure you, it isn’t bigger than what you will loose today. For today, you lose your tomorrow".
Zaja simply smiled with a smirk and rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck and then trimd even wider.
"Big entrance for a big vessel... I approve."
Helios seed to see this as what it was, an invitation to begin their mortal combat. He raised his spear and the sun overhead pulsed once causing it to shine even brighter and reach hotter temperatures.
To Zaja, it felt like a heartbeat before the attack ca.
A solar lance fell from the sky. In their numbers, hundreds of them, thin as arrows but blazing white, screaming down in perfect formation. Each impact punched craters into the mirrored sand, sending up sprays of molten glass that hung in the air like golden rain.
Zaja moved just in ti to prevent that attack from making contact with his glorious skin. He threw himself sideways, rolling across the burning ground as lances exploded where he had stood. Heat seared on his back, but as he tapped into the Shadow Fire, his eyes flashed red and the heat dealt no damage on him.
"Co Forth..."
The two draconic beasts: Egar and Naga erupted from red mist of a summoning portal, black scales and eyes glowing like fresh blood.
The Red Veil Arcane Beasts roared and lunged forward, eting the wave of lances with their claws and fangs. Zaja kept moving as his feet slid across the mirrored dunes. He wove hand signs fast, splitting his image into dozens of laughing copies. Each illusion darted in different direction, taunting the god with rude, corky gestures.
Helios didn’t even look at them, he swept the spear in a wide arc and a wall of white fla rolled outward, flat and wide just like a raging mini tsunami. Every illusion that Zaja had made got caught in it and burned away to nothing in the space of a blink.
The real Zaja dove low, his belly sliding across glass-smooth sand as the fire passed over head, the heat was so fierce that burned the air.
He ca up fake coughing, his skin blistered and lips cracked. Helios however, advanced slowly, heavy footsteps leaving pools of molten sand that cooled into perfect golden footprints.
Zaja licked his blood and laughed, the last ti he had seen his own blood was when Kael Valthorne slashed his back with a thousand dagger slashes, he has co a long way since then and now he was race to face with a literal god.
"Is that all...?" He shouted with a hoarse voice. "I ca here expecting a god. So far I only see a very tall candle."
Helios remained silent to the vessel’s remarks and just glared at him.
Zaja’s grin widened, but this ti there was tension behind it. He stretched out his right hand and then violet shimrs swallowed his forearm up to the elbow, a mont later a blade slid into existence.
Long, slightly curved at the tip, it was totally black and had no reflection whatsoever. It felt sowhat wrong, as if space itself refuse to acknowledge it.
The Shadows Edge wasn’t always used by the vessel, because he never really had a reason to use it. Now if all tis was the best ti to do so.
The god tilted his head inquisitively, the crown of living fla above his head flared violently, sparks exploding like angry stars.
"Stop this filthery..." Helios’ voice thundered, then fractured mid sentence. "... Dazzai’s blade?"
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