Calamity Upon This World

"Aura Manifestation"

A blinding brown light shone through the whole area, and when it disappeared, 12 brown swords made of pure aura appeared behind Aron.

"Kid, you did well, too bad; you just chose the wrong opponent," Aron announced.

'What the fuck?' William thought as he saw the 12 swords behind his opponent.

He hadn't even seen Rex use aura manifestation yet, and now a random thug casually pulled it out from God knows where.

But it didn't matter how he had it; what did matter was that he had to somehow defeat an aura master while holding back.

The energy those swords combined released was suffocating, and William didn't think he could survive a clean hit from even one of them.

That was how much pressure they released.

Hearing his opponents words, William stayed silent as he instead cast the Quadra Elemental Arrow.

This was an upgraded version of the spells he had showcased in front of his mother two years ago, and it was the same spell he used against Michael.

This was one of his strongest spells; he didn't know what ability those swords had, and he had no intention to find out.

He was going to end his enemy before he could fully use the sword.

At his command, a bow made up of wind manifested in front of it, floating horizontally.

At the centre of this bow rested an arrow made up of ice, with elements of fire, wind, and lightning flowing through it, enhancing its strength.

Not waiting for his opponent, William pulled back the string and released the arrow at a speed too fast for the naked eye to see.

As the arrow travelled through the air, ready to take its target's life, strangely, instead of being worried like one would expect, Aron signalled one of his 12 brown swords to intercept the arrow in the middle.

Seeing this, William prepared to cast another spell, expecting both his arrow and the brown sword to cancel each other out.

However, contrary to his expectations, instead of the attacks cancelling each other out, the sword just cut through the arrow with zero difficulty, and before William could react, it stabbed him.

~Skring~

or at least that's how it should've been,  if not for the golden barrier that appeared out of seemingly nowhere in front of him, protecting his life and causing the brown sword to dissapear upon being stopped.

This barrier was summoned automatically by one of the many life-saving artifacts that William had been given by his father upon sending a threat to his life.

After protecting him, the barrier started disappearing.

Now, with one gone, he had four more similar artifacts left.

'I almost died just now,' William thought in panic, his expression hidden behind the mask he was wearing, but he quickly composed himself, not allowing himself to lose focus mid-fight.

While he had expected the swords to be strong, he could've never expected the sword to cut through one of his strongest attacks with zero difficulty, which ended up catching him by surprise, and this one mistake almost cost him his life if not for the artifacts his father had given him he would've died.

The sword had cut through his spell a little too smoothly instead of destroying it, almost like it could cut through mana.

Once he had this thought, William had a hypothesis that those swords could cut through mana, which, if true, was really bad for him.

(William, this isn't a fight you can win; your main magic-related abilities are completely countered by the man with his swords.) Gionne advised inside his head.

(I agree with him; let's use [Shadow Step] to run away and live to fight another day.) Sera also chimed in.

William seriously considered the option of running away, but after a bit of thinking, he realised that if he ran away now, he would be abandoning both Billy and the girl named Maya.

He couldn't allow that. He's supposed to be strong, but what's the point of strength if you can't even do the things you want to do?

And right now, he wanted to save those kids.

But more than even his desire to save the kids, he didn't want to break his promise.

To go back on his words and betray the trust placed in him.

The very thought disgusted him almost as much as the idea of running away was beneath him.

Was it what one would call chivalry?

Or was it plan stupidity?

William didn't know that, but what he did know was that he would rather die than run away today.

<That's right, my boy, your pride is more important than your life. Don't let mere insects affect your godly pride.

A strange voice entered his mind; it didn't belong to Zephyr, nor did it belong to the spirits.

So the question arose: just who did it belong to?

But almost as strange as the voice of some unknown being inside his head was the fact that William didn't question its source, almost like it had always been there inside him.

William found the voice comforting.

And while no one aside from Aron noticed this, his eyes glew slightly purple before going back to normal.

Seeing Williams reluctance to run away, the spirits could do nothing but sigh as they advised.

(Fine, if  were doing this, stop holding back and use us.) Both Sera and Agni advised in unison.

William smiled as he heard this and replied.

"I couldn't have said it better."

As he activated [Spirit Ascension: Modal Fire and Wind],

**

While William was preparing to beat the shit out of his opponent inside the golden world of memoirs, the whole world was trembling.

Sitting on his throne, Zephyr was having a panic attack.

The hair on his skin was standing in goosebumps, his breathing haggard and sweat covering his body as he felt a trace of the thing he had almost killed himself to seal thousands of years ago.

The presence was miniscule, completely impossible to even sense.

It was impossible for everyone aside from the man most closely connected to the energy of the universe, the god of mana himself.

Still having trouble believing what was happening, he muttered.

"This can't be."