"What are you talking about? How can I be the one that Xeroc wants to kill? There's nothing special about me!" Lukas spoke with fear corrupting every word he spoke.
"You truly believe that you're just some kind of ordinary being? Even after everything you've done, all of the power you've obtained and the enemies that you've defeated, you still believe that you're just as powerful as the average Protector?" Eanaro asked with genuine surprise covering his face.
"I mean, obviously I'm not normal but... but..." Lukas began stuttering as his mind was frantically searching for a reasonable explanation as to how Eanaro was wrong. As his thoughts began racing from one end of his brain to the other, tears eventually began falling from his eyes as the terrifying truth revealed itself to him.
"Why me? What did I do to deserve this!?" Lukas suddenly yelled out into the endless void surrounding him which seemed to surprise both Eanaro and Bethany. The surrounding area fell silent as energy began to spark around Lukas' hands which he tried to keep under control by taking some deep breaths.
"Maybe it's not what you have done that caused Xeroc to take such drastic measures... maybe it's what you will do in the future?" Eanaro suggested the possibility out loud which just confused Lukas even more than before.
"What do you even mean by that? How can they possibly know what I'm going to do that far in advance?" Lukas inquired as his mind filled with questions fuelled by fear as if his worst nightmares had come to life just by hearing a few simple words.
"Gods are capable of many things, Lukas. Even beings below gods are capable of manipulating time albeit in a small area... it wouldn't be that absurd to believe that one as strong as Xeroc could see into the future." Eanaro calmly explained despite the obvious panic enveloping Lukas' soul.
"That just proves my point more! Why would something like that want me dead? I'm nowhere close to being able to do anything like that! I'm not a threat and I never will be!" Lukas screamed into the emptiness around him which only seemed to make Eanaro sigh and that simple reaction just made him even more irritated as the red sparks began crackling over Lukas' open palms once again.
"Fine, if that's what you wish to believe then I suppose I can't change your mind without offering definitive proof that you're a danger to Xeroc... through whatever means necessary." Eanaro spoke in a quiet yet stern voice as he floated a short distance away from Lukas before he pushed the left side of his coat open with a single exaggerated swing of his arm before grabbing the umbrella that rested within with his other hand and pointing it at Lukas.
"Lukas... calm down, you're scaring me." Bethany politely requested with a meek tone in her voice that he had never heard before... unfortunately, Lukas' emotions were running wild and if Bethany's lessons had taught him anything, Lukas knew that his emotions were the key to controlling the powers of the Eye... and so, he was unable to stop himself from summoning his two blades within his grasp. His fear, his anger at being thrusted into this situation, all of those unanswered questions that continued to fuel these emotions would become his power to release on the being right in front of him.
"I'm glad to see that you're so willing to fight back, I personally don't like commencing a duel without my opponent's approval." Eanaro said with a smile on his face which Lukas almost completely ignored due to his current mental state.
"Reaver Armour, activate!" Lukas commanded the crimson watch that lay around his wrist which almost immediately began to shift and cover his body once again... it even seemed to adapt to his newly added scarf, covering it in such a way that wasn't uncomfortable to Lukas. The information that the helmet previously displayed emerged in front of Lukas' face once again... except this time, the technology within the armour seemed to start scanning Eanaro as Lukas looked at him. Once the scan was finished, a mountain of information quickly scrolled across the screen within the helmet that Lukas could barely read however he did notice that it correctly identified Eanaro as a Seeker which he previously thought would be too unknown for even Draedon to have heard about them.
"Ah, so he gave you that armour did he? Draedon certainly is a busy man." Eanaro thought out loud which surprised Lukas.
"You two know each other?" Lukas asked in complete shock as he momentarily forgot his other emotions which were having such a strong hold over his mind and willed him to attack the one who had provoked him.
"That doesn't matter at this moment, weren't we about to have a nice little battle?" Eanaro asked as he genuinely seemed excited for the duel to get under way. Lukas paused for a moment... before his weapons disappeared from his grip and he simply stared at his would-be opponent.
"No, I've fought you before and I know what you're capable of, I don't want to go through that amount of pain ever again. I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you, Eanaro." Lukas stated as he turned away and the Reaver Armour began transforming back into a simple wrist-accessory once again. As Lukas looked up at Bethany, he smiled and saw her return the smile as it seems that they were both relatively happy to avoid the battle. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared at Lukas' side and a searing pain shot through his left arm only for him to look down at his arm to see the sleeve of his jacket ripped open with minor burn marks covering his arm as the new opening in his clothing appeared to be releasing smoke. Lukas turned to face Eanaro once more only to see his umbrella appeared to have electricity coursing up and down the handle.
"You misunderstand, Lukas; we're going to fight whether you like it or not. Just imagining the utter embarrassment that would be inflicted upon Xeroc after the creation that he considered a failure is the one who kills his target is too tempting of a sight to resist. I've been thinking about it recently and... to be honest, the desire to end your life in the name of Xeroc is still rooted deep within my soul... I've just been able to resist the temptation to act on that desire but I don't feel like I should hold it back in this scenario. Come, strike me with all of your might, if you die then this all just simply ends but if you win... then you accept that it is your duty to defeat my creator to save your own life." Eanaro explained in his monologue with a smug grin plastered over his face the whole time which only scared Lukas more when he realised how serious his opponent was being.
"Eanaro, don't do this, please." Lukas pleaded as he stretched his open palm out which was more of an automatic reaction to the situation, he knew that his hand wouldn't be able to stop anything.
"Besides, I do feel pretty emotionally damaged after our last encounter, I have expectations to live up to after all and I feel like it'd be pretty productive of me to prove my strength to you as well." Eanaro continued whilst ignoring Lukas who was practically begging for him to stop.
Before another word could be exchanged, a bolt of lightning shot out of Eanaro's umbrella and darted towards Lukas causing him to raise his hands in an attempt to defend himself but that was all he could do in the brief moment that it took for the bolt to strike him. Lukas' eyes were tightly shut as he braced for the pain... only for him to feel nothing... confused, Lukas opened his eyes only to find that his entire body was coated by the Reaver Armour once again. As he saw this, Lukas heard a voice in his ear that, although slightly muffled due to the receiver which didn't seem quite up to standard, he recognised as Draedon.
"Consider this another favour for you." Draedon spoke before the connection was cut off and Lukas was left staring at Eanaro who at first had a look of surprise on his face... which quickly turned to one of disappointment as he clicked his fingers and a large, glowing box appeared around Lukas and his opponent, trapping them within the enclosed space, forcing them into combat. Whilst the space that Lukas was permitted to travel around in was quite large for an arena, he felt that Eanaro specifically chose a battlefield of this size because he expected Lukas to need all of the room to manoeuvre around his attacks.
"So, this is the way it's going to be?" Lukas asked as one final, hopeful attempt at stopping Eanaro from attacking him... but he wasn't given a vocal response as his opponent simply raised their weapon and pointed it directly at him.
"Lukas... this is a matter of life or death now, he might be the strongest thing you've ever fought but just remember, you've beaten him before, you've got this. Show him no mercy!" Bethany shouted as her nervous attitude seemed to immediately fade since she saw the real danger that Lukas was in. Without any more hesitation, Lukas lunged forwards, his blades appearing within his grasp once more which he swung as quickly as he could towards Eanaro... only for that same floating golden shield to appear in his way just like the last time... although, now that Lukas inspected it with a much clearer frame of mind, he noticed that it was less like a shield and more like a magic circle that he read about before his universe was destroyed.
"Saw that coming." Eanaro spoke with a laugh as that same cocky grin appeared on his face once more, Lukas couldn't tell if the smile was because Eanaro was simply being smug about overpowering a child or if it was specifically done to annoy him even more... either way, he couldn't wait to wipe that attitude off of his face. Before Lukas could make another movement, a blinding light appeared at the tip of Eanaro's umbrella which was quickly swung forward like a sword, causing the light to fly directly into Lukas' chest, sending him flying back a good fifty meters away into the wall of the arena.
"Assessing damage of protective shell... damage; minimal." The armour stated in a robotic voice as Lukas quickly stood back up on his feet only to look down at his chest to see that Eanaro's attack had not even pierced the Reaver Armour, much less shown any visible damage dealt to him.
"Hey, you beat him with that 'Hysterical Strength' thing last time, right? Why don't you just do that again?" Bethany asked in a panicked voice as seeing Lukas being thrown away so effortlessly clearly had her worried.
"It doesn't work like that, from what I've researched, it only happens when I'm practically on death's doorstep." Lukas explained as his weapons vanished and, using his thoughts alone, made two portals open up on either side of him. Before Eanaro could react to what he was doing, Lukas created crystalline chains within his open palms that rapidly extended outwards, through the portals before secondary portals appeared right next to his opponent as the chains wrapped around Eanaro's arms and legs, interconnecting with each other and, not knowing what to do next due to inexperience, Lukas gripped the chains tightly and pulled them as harshly as he could in an attempt to crush his enemy under the physical stress.
This shocked Eanaro, Lukas could tell just by his face despite the two of them being quite far away and the chains seemed to be causing him some genuine pain which surprised Lukas as the only way he found that he was able to harm Eanaro before was by using some of his strongest abilities, this attack was mostly improvised. In the blink of an eye, Eanaro suddenly disappeared from the chains which fell to the ground and caused Lukas to quickly dart his vision around the surrounding area trying to find his opponent... but there was nothing. Lukas quickly realised what was happening as he remembered his battle with Bete Noire who was able to turn invisible either through some kind of trick of the mind or by literally becoming transparent, regardless, Lukas knew what he needed to do and so, he stood completely still and attempted to focus his senses so he could find his enemy.
Slowly but surely, Lukas steadied his breath and eventually, that became the only noise which he could hear... before suddenly, an alarm began blaring within the armour.
"WARNING, WARNING; THREAT APPROACHING FROM BEHIND." The armour screamed into his ear which caused Lukas to react out of fear as he summoned one of his soul blades into his hand and span around with a single, direct, perfectly aimed slash that caused blood to seemingly come out of nowhere as Eanaro's scream could be heard ringing throughout the nearby empty space. Suddenly, Eanaro appeared once again a few metres away, clutching a bleeding injury that Lukas had inflicted on the side of his torso.
"I guess that works, who needs to focus their senses when they have access to this technology?" Lukas asked jokingly as he felt the same smugness that Eanaro once possessed appearing on his face despite his opponent not being able to see it.
"Damn Draedon and his technology, why does he always give it to the weak ones?" Eanaro muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Lukas to hear it.
"Oh, so you're familiar with Draedon? I suppose I shouldn't surprised, everybody seems to know everyone except I'm kept out of the loop the whole time... I'm sick of it." Lukas responded before diving towards Eanaro who swiftly summoned his shield again... although it wasn't enough to stop the force of Lukas flying into him and so, Eanaro was pushed back into the barrier that he had created to contain the battle to a small area.
Suddenly, the walls of the arena disappeared, supposedly because Eanaro realised he wouldn't be able to move any other way. Without even another second passing, Eanaro suddenly disappeared and Lukas felt a force push him downwards at a speed he had never experienced before and before he could even stop himself from falling, Lukas felt his place within the Multiverse shift... and everything went dark despite the fact that he could still feel himself spinning through space.
Soon after, a bright light made its way into Lukas' vision... several in fact however one grew bright than the others as Lukas approached it at a velocity that would most likely kill other beings... before long, he felt the impact into the ground as his vision blacked out.
"Kill him, don't allow him another second to live!" That distorted voice called out throughout the emptiness as Lukas felt an uneasy presence creeping over him.