"Incandescent Ray!"
Valença launched the attack directly at Sairao. He raised one of his arms to block the magic, but the impact pushed him away from Val'Drakar, who took advantage of the moment to kneel and begin concentrating. Luckily, the attack had not hit his core.
"Are you okay?"
Valença ran toward Val'Drakar to check his condition, but Enrico ran past her and the guardian, charging directly at Sairao with Charged Impulse. Sairao defended himself using his burned hand and managed to grab Enrico's fist. That was not good. That body could not withstand using so much power, but that could not matter less at that moment. Sairao raised his other hand, which was surrounded by a black aura with red trails, and several seeds came out of his palm. As soon as they fell to the ground, they began generating distorted creatures.
"Only four? What garbage."
Sairao snapped his fingers, and the creatures seemed to be sacrificed, being transformed into energy and transferred into his body. His mana amount increased considerably and, immediately, he appeared before Enrico, delivering an earth punch directly to his face. The blow hit him squarely and sent the boy flying away.
Valença took advantage of the opening and launched a large fireball at Sairao.
"Devouring Shards."
A sphere appeared in Sairao's hand and, a second later, shattered, spreading several shards around him. When Valença's fireball touched one of them, the magic simply disappeared in the air.
Two fire slashes were launched at Sairao by Val'Drakar, but, since there were still several shards scattered through the air, both attacks disappeared before reaching him. Surrounded by the three, Sairao snapped his fingers again, causing two more creatures to appear.
"Sacrifice Explosion."
Moving two fingers, Sairao transformed the two creatures into magic and launched them toward Valença and Enrico. The two realized the danger and immediately tried to escape, but even after creating some distance, they were hit by the explosions.
Several cuts appeared across Sairao's body, tearing half of it apart. While regenerating, he realized that Val'Drakar had launched that number of slashes again, this time against the other half of his body. Sairao knew exactly what he was trying to do: find his core.
It should have been unfortunate for Val'Drakar, because that core, created by Sairao himself, moved automatically inside his body to prevent it from being destroyed. Even so, so as not to leave that information as a trump card, Sairao simply dodged the attacks.
"Lava Terrain."
The ground beneath Sairao transformed into lava. Even with his feet being burned, he did not take his eyes off Val'Drakar.
"Multiple Lava Slashes!"
Thirty attacks were launched in just one second, constantly striking Sairao's body. He spread shards around himself to make several of the slashes disappear, but he still received some blows. While regenerating, two more creatures appeared beside him, and Sairao began preparing them to launch new Sacrifice Explosions at Val'Drakar.
"Cataclysm Flame!"
Valença launched a fire sphere that fell between Sairao and the two creatures. The explosion immediately destroyed both of them and blocked Sairao's vision.
He felt three arrows strike his back, causing deep damage. Soon afterward, his body was almost completely torn apart by a new sequence of slashes launched by Val'Drakar.
The three regrouped and watched Sairao regenerate.
They still did not understand why the core was nowhere to be found. Sairao had been hit in practically every part of his body and, even so, none of them had managed to find it. It could only mean that the core was not visible or that it possessed some mechanism to protect itself.
Sairao finished regenerating, clearly irritated.
That was precisely why not only he, but all the gods preferred to use human bodies or those of similar races. Nartheis possessed that damned core that could interfere with their movements.
"I just need to remain calm. I will lose this weakness in three... two... one."
A sphere began spinning around Sairao, causing the air to follow it. An energy completely different from anything Valença had ever felt appeared before her. An enormous pillar of energy covered the entire region with black light.
When the sphere disappeared, Sairao had changed.
A dark cloak swayed over his body. His appearance still possessed some lizard traits, but they had diminished considerably, while his green skin was much lighter.
"With this, I should be at that Ranvil level of the Nartheis."
Upon hearing that, Valença and Val'Drakar showed some apprehension. Before Enrico could advance again to face Sairao, Val'Drakar grabbed the boy by his clothes.
He had a plan.
However, it would be risky.
First, he needed to try to make things easier for those two children. Val'Drakar raised one of his hands and summoned ten of his creatures. Then, he placed the two swords against each other and assumed an attacking stance.
"Double Lava Slash: Fusion."
Val'Drakar swung his swords, causing an enormous lava slash to tear through the ground in front of him and advance directly toward Sairao. The god raised one of his hands and managed to stop the attack.
However, he realized that he could not pull his hand free.
After a second, Sairao realized why: the palm of his hand had melted and become stuck to the attack. Everything had happened so quickly that he had not even felt pain, taking a moment to realize what had happened.
"I understand. But this will not work a second time."
Sairao clenched his melted hand and broke it in two.
He might only have been at the level of a Ranvil Level 1, but that would still be more than enough to finish all of them. Raising two fingers, he made four creatures emerge from his body and advance toward the three.
Val'Drakar stood in front and defended himself with both swords. The creatures exploded with such great force that the explosion covered the entire region.
Val'Drakar was destroyed by a single attack.
Valença and Enrico were thrown toward Val'Drakar's tree. A new fruit fell from the tree, transformed into a core, and then Val'Drakar appeared again.
"If we can endure two minutes, I will be able to recover my power..."
Two new attacks came toward them from the palm of the evil god.
Valença launched an Incandescent Ray at one of them, but she could not stop it. Val'Drakar then placed his hand in front of the attacks and was destroyed again.
Another fruit fell from the tree and transformed into a new core.
They were lucky that the tree behind them strengthened everything around Val'Drakar, preventing another explosion from causing even greater damage.
Above them, Sairao descended at great speed and stepped on Val'Drakar's body, causing several cracks to appear in his structure. He raised his hand, preparing to use magic, but a hand grabbed his.
Enrico had moved in time.
A sigh escaped from the boy as blood began to flow from his body, opening several new wounds that had not been caused by anyone since the beginning of that battle.
"From what I heard, there should be one and a half minutes left now, right, Sir Val'Drakar?"
Valença looked at Enrico and smiled upon realizing that his eyes had returned to normal.
Below them, Val'Drakar also showed a satisfied expression. The boy had managed to do what those two Elves had failed to do.