Everyone watched the monstrosity of stones floating right above them, without understanding how Sharaad had survived.
"Sariel, do you know what's happening?" Luna asked.
"There's a lot to explain, so I'll summarize it quite a bit," he replied. "Basically, Bhavna was pregnant with triplets, but there was a complication in the formation of their fetus and the three merged into one body."
"Triplets?!" Ashoka was surprised. "You mean... is that why he has multiple arms?"
"Not only does he have multiple limbs, but multiple organs as well," Sariel said. "Like hearts..."
Upon hearing that, everyone needed a brief second to process that information.
"So, he has three hearts?" Aegreon asked.
"He had. Thanks to you, now he has two."
"Is that why he has multiple different auras?" Luna asked.
"Exactly. Although we refer to Sharaad as a single person, the truth is that his two brothers are alive, but in a vegetative state. Since Shiva prevented his death, the magical power of the three grew together, however, only Sharaad can control them. I wonder if Shiva took completely the souls and consciousness of the other two brothers…"
"The power of three people in one body; no wonder he became so strong..."
"Ah, but since we destroyed one of his hearts, we 'killed' one of his brothers, so he can no longer use Wind magic."
"But why is he more powerful?" Luna noticed that his magical power had increased. Of course, she could no longer detect Wind, but it seemed his Conjuration had increased.
Before the traveler could answer, Sharaad, still floating, launched dozens of huge purple fireballs, along with several rocks covered in flames.
Noticing the King of Krimisha's attack, Sariel lifted Ashoka and Luna in each arm and moved away from the spells, while the others dodged by themselves.
Despite the terrible power contained in these spells, his control and aim were very unstable. His blows did not try to predict the group's movements, and he only cast spells without thinking straight, so it was relatively easy to dodge everything.
"Basically." The traveler carried the princess and Ashoka while dodging the spells. "He had a Conjuration stone hidden in his clothes; he feigned death while using the stone to communicate with Shiva."
"Communicate with Shiva?" Luna asked. "I thought the stones were only for gaining power and selling your soul."
"Conjuration is directly connected with the Gods of Darkness, which is why you should not touch a Conjuration stone at all. Even if it's an accident, the God can try to forcibly take your soul."
The Princess stared at the large floating stone armor meters above.
"But there's a limit to how much power you can receive from Darkness without losing control of your mind, and Sharaad received too much power. He will now act in a totally unpredictable manner, and there is no more dangerous opponent than a madman."
When she heard the traveler say this, Luna remembered the way Sharaad acted when he got back up. His first reaction was to grab the nearest prey. Then, when he was injured, his reaction was to create a rock armor to protect himself, and now he was blindly attacking anyone in his sight.
Indeed, his behavior was more reminiscent of an animal than a human.
"Luna, do you still have that protection stone I gave you?" the traveler asked.
"Yes."
"Give it to Ashoka, and I'll leave him in a secluded place. We have to focus on taking down your son, Ashoka, so this is the most I can do for your safety."
"O-Okay."
Still in the traveler's arms, the princess handed the Protection stone to the King Emeritus. Right after, Sariel went to the most secluded spot in the hole and left him there.
"Squeeze the stone and a golden field will appear around you," the traveler quickly explained. "It moves with you and follows you, so you don't need to stand still, but don't try to get near Sharaad."
"A-Alright." Ashoka nervously pressed the Protection stone, creating a shield around him. He was frightened by his son's violence, but still believed that, somehow, there would be a way to stop him without killing him.
"Luna, I'll need you to finish off Sharaad. Don't try anything heroic; just stay by my side and follow my instructions."
"Understood."
Without delay, Sariel approached the Sharaad again, with Luna following him. Before they even reached the location, the ambient temperature dropped drastically, and small snowflakes began to fall gently, only to melt from the king's dark fire.
The traveler, now with blue eyes, created a strong blizzard around himself, enveloping the princess, who was completely immune to the violence with which the snow swirled.
"You know few spells, so it would be a terrible idea to try a new one in battle." Spheres of blue energy and ice dragons appeared around the traveler. "But the target is so large that it's impossible for you to hit an ally, so try to use all your power against him."
"Are you sure? What if I lose control?"
"Even better, as I will be able to use your power. Now, let's go!" As he said this, the spheres and dragons circling him flew towards the great stone abomination floating twenty meters above.
Following the traveler's movements, Raymond, Shiina, and Aegreon also launched their magic against Sharaad.
The bodyguard did the same as the traveler, and a circle of lightning appeared around him, with spheres similar to Sariel's, but violet in color and smaller in size. In addition, dozens of lions made of electricity, twice the size of a real one, surrounded and protected him.
This time, he could finally use his true strength. Until now, in all the battles he had fought, he had to hold back to avoid hurting innocents, as in the village attacked by the necromancer, or to avoid killing someone, as was the case in his battle with Keya.
Shiina did the same, and a strong, cutting wind, as sharp as a sword, surrounded her with partially translucent white spheres slightly smaller than Raymond's.
As for Aegreon, his body and weapons were covered in purple flames, which surrounded him in the same way as the others, and in forms that resembled a jackal, a type of wolf found in Nunma.
They all fired their spells at the same time, and Sharaad responded with a bombardment of purple fire. The magics from both sides collided, creating explosions with shockwaves so powerful that they were capable of widening the room even further.
Luna also tried to help by creating the same spheres of light that everyone was using, as she had noticed that these spheres, despite not looking very dangerous, contained a large amount of concentrated power. However, her spheres disappeared as soon as they traveled a few meters through the air.
Both sides maintained a constant barrage of spells, and the clash seemed to be a draw for a moment, but soon the combined power of the group overcame the king's power and hit his stone armor.
In this brief exchange of attacks alone, half of the stone limbs were knocked down, and a large hole opened where the armor's stomach and head would be.
However, it wasn't enough to get the king out from inside.
Realizing that being offensive wouldn't work, Sharaad tried to dodge the spells while rebuilding his armor with more rocks from the area and using his own magic to block greater damage.
Although his stone armor was the size of a small house, he was able to float skillfully through the air, which allowed him to completely rebuild his defenses.
However, this did not discourage the group, because as time went on, the amount of snow became greater.
The key to defeating Sharaad lay with Sariel, who was using the same strategy as when he fought Indra: expanding his Ice power into the air and cooling the environment to force a blizzard and gain a climatic advantage.
For the vast majority of people, it would be impossible to replicate this technique, as it is necessary to release an enormous amount of one's own magical power to cause any climatic change, but for the traveler — and members of the Council — performing this technique was necessary to fight against a very powerful opponent or one of the same level.
As the battle progressed, the blizzard became more and more powerful, overwhelming the tornado of purple flames created by the King and accumulating snow and ice on the ground.
Pointed ice stalagmites the thickness of a tree quickly began to rise from the ground and pierced the king's stone armor in several places, as well as tearing off some of his limbs.
"Time to reveal yourself!" Sariel shouted.
Suddenly, all the accumulated snow around was attracted to Sharaad's stone armor and buried him, slowing down his movements.
The king tried to use his stone arms to tear off the snow and his purple fire to melt it, but more and more accumulated until it reached the point where one could only see a large snowball floating above.
Then, the snow glowed intensely in a light blue color and exploded, further widening the crater that had formed and almost throwing everyone in the group with the force of the blizzard.
The place was already completely unrecognizable, with a crater dozens of meters deep and wide, besides being totally covered in dense snow.
It took a few seconds to be able to see what had happened to Sharaad, but, to everyone's surprise, a small portion of his stone armor remained intact thanks to the dark metals that protected the core where the king was probably hiding.
Everyone prepared to launch more attacks expecting he would try to rebuild his armor, however, the opposite happened: the remaining stones broke free and fell to the ground, revealing a bizarre figure floating in the air.
This figure was curled up in a fetal position, but soon stretched its body and opened its six arms and six legs wide, blossoming like a flower bud.
And as soon as his body was revealed, everyone was caught by surprise, wondering if what they were seeing was really Sharaad.
The King of Krimisha's skin was completely stripped away, leaving his entire body in raw flesh. Blood began to spill, however, due to the heat of his dark flames, it evaporated and formed a red cloud, like an aura of death that covered him.
In addition, the flesh on his cheeks had also been stripped away, with only a few muscle filaments joining his lower and upper jaw, which caused his mouth to be constantly open beyond human limits and constantly dripping saliva. His nose had also been consumed, leaving only two holes.
The same applied to his eyes, whose muscles were stripped or burned and remained completely bulging, almost popping out of their orbits. Furthermore, all the veins in his eyes had burst, coloring them scarlet red and contributing to the completely crazed, bizarre, and bloodthirsty look he possessed.
Upon seeing that scene, everyone — except Sariel and Aegreon — was in shock and paralyzed. Sharaad had transformed into a bloody demon; after all, it was impossible for a human to be able to survive with those injuries.
The king slowly floated down and stepped into the crater where the group was.
Everyone was on high alert and some swallowed hard as they stared into those eyes totally devoid of sanity.
Then, suddenly, Sharaad charged at Shiina, the one closest to him.