Leyk felt at peace, he did feel scared, but he was certain that he was done for already, after all, he had no way to block such a high-speed attack, no ability to block something of that velocity, something with that kind of force behind it, as what had just ripped away a good chunk of his flesh, nothing he could really do to counter the man called Vexxen, though he did seem to recall that the messenger of the great pillar had assured him that this would not mean his death, even if he was still inclined to not experience dying, he could simply try his best, most likely fail, and die, so he was at peace.
He just stood there, waiting for the man to do the next move, knowing that they should be able to easily reflect any of his attacks, turning them against himself, he knew that if he attacked with a kick the man would appear behind him, he knew that if he sliced with his blade the man would step away, he knew that if he sent an overload the man would most likely catch it with ease and send it back, not that he wouldn't do all of these things, he just had to analyse the move set of the man further, preferably absorbing his skills into his very own abilities, learning to be even more strategical with it all, even if it meant taking this loss, taking his own death at face value.
Still, it was as he had thought before, the man wasn't making his next move, he simply walked once more, causing Leyk to follow soon after, once more resulting in the two fighters circling each other, just as they had done before it all began, once more with Leyk planning, with the man's eyes wildly darting from place to place, as if he was experiencing epilepsy only there, once more causing the fight to start anew, the only problem being that Leyk could feel his left side hurting, could feel the weakness, could feel that his left side lacked defence, that his left arm lacked strength, he could feel that his overall defence had been weakened, he could feel that even his mobility had been impacted, as expected from this person, a person they had claimed to one day become a great enemy of his, though he had no idea how he was able to defeat such an enemy if he was allowed to be honest for once.
Finally, as the tension reached beyond where it had previously been situated, something finally happened, though Leyk was not happy about that, that was for certain.
Out of the bandaged parts of the cloaked man there slowly crawled a thick, light blue light that seemed as iridescent as the calm ocean itself, but not inviting, not kind, simply calculating and exact, precise and destructive, and at the same time as if it built something, yet, as if it was going to destroy that very same thing right after, just as a toddler would do with a house of card they spent hours building, just to watch it fall atop the imaginary children playing within, crushing their family and friends, and creating a story akin to Leyk's, or more precise, Cades own story.
The thick light twirled around in the air, spreading out far and wide, more so resembling geometrical shapes and crystals made of bismuth than anything else, rather than wild tentacles as they seemed to be from their intent, it was beautiful and ironically, very chaotic and full of violence.
Then, one of the various bismuth-like tentacle structures that seemed to buffer as they continued to move, as if the person had to repeatedly calculate something, as if Vexxen wasn't even allowed to move during the use, crashed into the stunned Leyk's chest, surprisingly sturdy and having grown stronger and more refined over the course of this adventure through nothingness and pure insanity as he now realized, and threw him back as if he was just a ragdoll.
No, Leyk was still standing still, he had not been sent away, it had just been an illusion, he saw both at once, he saw himself standing still, the blue light crouching around him, caressing his very body, licking his everything like angry flames dancing atop a with that had already received the guilty verdict though she just wanted to spread kindness.
Yet, in the other vision, in the vision where both he and the man stood still, he was unable to do anything, while in the false vision, that he was certain of, violet smoke began to spread out, and he heard something, a distant call, one that he had already heard before, not too long ago, a calm and decisive voice that couldn't truly be called a voice, he heard Cades within the violet smoke that seemed to be just as purple as the flames he had once felled the demon of the skies with, though he was now uncertain of why he had been able to fell a lord-ranked being using such relatively unfocused and weak flames.
Still, as he felt Cades beginning to move into his own consciousness, as fi having began to slightly panic because of the bismuth-like crystals, everything became normal again, and the real Leyk was thrown away, the illusion encapsulating both of them having been broken into pieces, the reason for the creation of it being unclear, with Leyk realizing that that was most likely an iteration of the so-called "light of dominion" that his other self, or rather, that the other Cades, whatever it might truly have been, his own, old, subconsciousness, had said he would soon receive as well, perhaps the reason he had broken it so easily and even heard Cades voice.
Yet, despite having broken the illusion within his mind and having been thrown away, struggling to quickly stand up once more as his breathing accelerated, already feeling cold steel on his neck, or whatever material the man's blade was actually made of, he was glad to realize that he wasn't attacked while he was down, the lord instead standing where he had been standing all this time, about sixty feet away, a distance both of them could cross in a very short time, looking at him intently, seemingly starting to grow an interest in what he was capable of doing, just as Leyk had grown before with other fighters, once that were weaker than himself, when he had played with them to gain their skills.
Indeed, he was f#cked.