Without a word, Enyo simply lowered her head slightly. At her feet, small blades of grass began to take root and sprout. The short grass had long, narrow, emerald-green leaves that swayed slightly as if blown by the wind, with purplish flowers blooming at their tips. In just a moment, a beautiful lawn spread out from Enyo as the center, quickly covering half of the arena and still spreading rapidly.
"Blood Demon Art: Evening of the Dayflower." Enyo's voice was very hoarse, so low it was barely audible, as lifeless as she was.
"Wow, a wide-range ability! So beautiful!" Doma praised with a brilliant smile. "Me too!" He waved the fan in his right hand and condensed two maiden-shaped ice lotus flowers in front of him. "Blood Demon Art: Wintry White Princesses."
The maidens in the lotus flowers had their eyes closed peacefully and gently. They opened their mouths and exhaled a white, freezing mist that sparkled with specks of light, turning the rapidly spreading lawn into ice sculptures. The cloud-like freezing mist filled the air, seeming to instantly transform the world into a deep winter.
But the small blades of grass still grew tenaciously, continuously being frozen and then sprouting new shoots. Although their spreading speed had slowed considerably, they gradually covered the entire field. The grass and ice began a tug-of-war, cycling between sprouting and freezing.
Doma stepped on the short lawn and felt as if he were stepping in a swamp. The inconspicuous blades of grass pulled at him like countless small hands, making it difficult for him to use his proper speed, and he felt his stamina being constantly drained. The effect was only weakened because of the ice.
"Does Lady Enyo have a plant-based ability? Although I expected it, it's still a bit surprising," Doma said in a whining tone, not paying much attention to the lawn under his feet. The vibrant grass and the lifeless Lady Enyo really didn't match at all. "Speaking of which, the name of your Blood Demon Art is very strange. Did you name it yourself, Lady Enyo? Does it have any meaning?" he asked with a curious expression.
Enyo didn't speak. She just gently waved her hand, and countless red maple leaves appeared out of thin air, fluttering lightly in the sky. "Blood Demon Art: Red Maple Dance."
Watching the maple leaves surge towards him like a crimson tide, Doma's rainbow eyes widened slightly. "What a beautiful move! I have a similar ability too~"
"Blood Demon Art: Falling Lotus Flowers." He waved his fan and scattered a large cloud of crystal-clear, sharp ice petals, which fluttered in the air. "They match well, don't they, Lady Enyo?"
The white and crimson torrents collided in mid-air, but there was no head-on clash as one might expect. The fluttering red leaves seemed to have no attack power; some were shredded, some fell to the ground, and some flew about randomly. The sky full of ice petals continued to sweep towards Enyo without any obstruction.
"Huh?" Doma tilted his head in confusion.
Just then, countless red vines with leaves and thorns suddenly burst from the lightly dancing red leaves, enveloping the entire arena like a net cast from heaven to earth. After a series of clanging sounds, the ice petals flying towards Enyo were blocked by layers of defense woven from the red vines, falling to the ground and shattering into specks of ice. Countless cuts appeared on the vines, and many were broken, but they quickly grew back.
Doma was caught off guard, but he reacted quickly, waving his fans. Sharp ice crystals scattered from the edges of the fans, cutting through the tough vines around him. But his body was still cut in several places by the leaves and thorns on the vines. The wounds didn't heal quickly; the surrounding flesh even showed signs of melting, and a needle-like pain and numbing stiffness spread into his body from the wounds.
"Is it poisonous?" Doma found it novel. Although he really wanted to experience this poison, Lady Enyo was very strong, so it was better not to be too reckless. With a slightly regretful expression, he controlled the flesh at the wounds to freeze into ice, which eventually detached from his body as specks of ice. The remaining injuries healed almost instantly. Mmm, back to being lively and energetic~
Looking at the overwhelming red vines around him, Doma waved his fans and released four Crystalline Divine Children, letting the ice dolls clear the field. Just then, he paused and looked at the back of his right hand. A black spot had quietly appeared on his fair, snow-like skin, like a quietly blooming black peach blossom. "Oh—how strange! When did I get hit?" Doma showed a surprised expression.
He had been on guard against this ability of Enyo's, having covered his entire body, including his respiratory tract, with a thin layer of ice to prevent pollen invasion. "But I still couldn't prevent it. You're amazing!" he said with an innocent smile. "I didn't even notice until just now!"
In this short period, the black peach blossom on the back of his hand had visibly grown larger, and a second one had appeared beside it. At this moment, Doma also clearly felt his own flesh and blood being absorbed, becoming nutrients for the blooming black flowers. "Ah, it seems I have to fight a quick battle with Lady Enyo~"
"What a strange feeling." Doma smiled nonchalantly and raised his right hand. At the same time, Enyo's hoarse voice reached his ears. "Blood Demon Art: Hydrangea Fall."
Countless round fruits slowly grew on the red vines covering the entire field. The colorful fruits were like small suns.
Rumble—
Some of the fruits exploded with a roar, instantly blasting the four Divine Children into fine ice crystals. At the same moment, an ice Bodhisattva over ten meters tall rose from the ground, its hands clasped together, its face compassionate, and all the surrounding red vines were frozen. "Blood Demon Art: Mist-Ice - Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva."
Doma sat in the lotus on the shoulder of the ice Bodhisattva, looking down at the spectacular scene of the fruits exploding like fireworks, a brilliant smile on his face. "...Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen! Wow, the things inside the fruits are all different!"
"There are sharp leaf blades, spiky cones, and corrosive toxins..." Doma clapped his hands together, his smile as bright as the sun. "It's like opening blind boxes. Every moment of fighting Lady Enyo is a surprise!"
The ice Bodhisattva raised its arm and slapped down towards Enyo's position. All the red vines in its path froze and shattered. Enyo looked up at the slowly enlarging palm with her dead, silent eyes, and raised her right hand to wave. "Blood Demon Art: Morning Glory Rain."
The white silk ribbons wrapped around her body suddenly unfurled, scattering into countless white flowers that danced in the air, carrying a charming fragrance. In an instant, the place turned into a dreamlike, hazy sea of white flowers.
Boom—
The Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva's palm hit the ground heavily, but there was no solid impact. Enyo had dodged just before being hit. In the charming sea of flowers, Doma shook his head, feeling a bit dazed and tired. "How amazing," he patted his cheeks and looked around for Enyo. When he saw several identical figures on the ground, he showed a surprised expression. "Eh? Lady Enyo knows the clone technique?" Doma blinked his eyes, then was captivated by Enyo's appearance.
At this moment, Enyo only had a few scattered silk ribbons on her body, wrapping around key areas. Her long black hair cascaded down to her waist. Her exposed face was expressionless, not beautiful, but could be called delicate. Large and small black peach blossom-like patterns connected into chains, stretching from her left cheek all over her body. Contrasting with her pale skin, it gave her a seductive and strange beauty.
"You're very charming, Lady Enyo," Doma praised with a chuckle. "Why did you cover it up? What a pity~"
The several Enyos on the ground seemed to pause for a moment, but in an instant, their red eyes were filled with coldness and hatred. The ice Bodhisattva swung its palm horizontally, grabbing at one of the Enyos, but missed. The surrounding fruits exploded, leaving several deep wounds on the ice Bodhisattva's palm, but they healed in the blink of an eye.
Doma tilted his head and controlled the ice Bodhisattva to strike again and again. The entire arena rumbled. After playing hide-and-seek with Enyo for a while, he covered his mouth with his fan and narrowed his rainbow eyes. By now, the black peach blossom-like spots on his body had increased, quietly crawling up to his cheeks, adding a demonic touch to his handsome face.
"Ah, I see. They're illusions." Doma nodded in confirmation, smiling like a child who had won a guessing game. "The Blood Demon Art just now, those beautiful flowers, they had a certain hallucinatory and hypnotic effect, right?"
"No wonder my head felt a bit dizzy. It wasn't just because of these black spots on me."
"Mmm~ To be able to make the vines and fruits indistinguishable from real and fake, and to create such lifelike illusions..."
"Mmm—I'm not even sure if the real you is among these illusions, Lady Enyo." Doma looked at the increasing number of black spots on his body and then was surprised to find that a large number of peach blossom-like black spots had also appeared on the Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva beside him. The pure and flawless ice Bodhisattva had grown evil black patterns, a striking contrast with great visual impact.
Not only that, Doma found that the same black patterns had appeared on the stone floor and walls of the entire arena, like enchanting murals. The hard stone began to loosen and twist, making the structure of the arena a bit unstable.
"Eh—?" At this moment, Doma was truly surprised. "Isn't this a plant? How can it grow in stone and ice?"
"Could it be that this isn't a plant-based ability?"
But the current situation didn't allow him to get to the bottom of it. Doma looked at the fruits bombarding his ice Bodhisattva and then at the Enyo figures, not knowing which were real or fake... "Then I'll just freeze them all."
He raised the golden fan in his right hand and swung it down heavily. An extremely cold ice mist quickly spread out from the ice Bodhisattva as the center. The ice figure also exhaled a white freezing mist, and everything began to be sealed in ice. The ice Bodhisattva's huge and flexible palms wreaked havoc on the arena. When the red vines were all frozen, Enyo could no longer hide.
The huge palm grabbed Enyo, and her body began to freeze rapidly. Enyo remained expressionless, as if nothing could move her in the slightest. She raised her right hand with some difficulty, her palm suddenly bent into a claw. "Blood Demon Art: Calamity Peach."
Doma's eyes widened. Sturdy black branches suddenly grew from the black spots covering his body, their tips laden with blooming black peach blossoms. Not just him, all the black spots were sprouting!
The crystal-clear, huge ice Bodhisattva was instantly covered with black peach trees, and countless black peach blossoms bloomed brilliantly, exuding a charming fragrance, like clouds of strange and beautiful black mist. The entire arena was blooming, turning into a black peach blossom forest.
"So beautiful..." Doma exclaimed. He wanted to lift his hand but found his body had become very stiff. The roots of the peach trees were deeply embedded in his body, drawing his flesh and blood as nutrients, blooming brilliantly. "I can't move..." Doma thought, feeling no panic at all.
He calmly sensed the state of the ice Bodhisattva and found that although its movements were a bit sluggish, it could still move without hindrance. So, Doma controlled the ice Bodhisattva to exhale freezing mist at the Enyo in its grasp, completely sealing her in ice in a moment.
"Oh—I understand! This ability has a limit..."
"I'm so severely affected because the degree of infection by the black spots is deep enough."
"And with the size of the Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva, the infection is only superficial, so it was only slightly affected."
"Oh my, was I playing too wildly before?" Doma gave a feigned embarrassed laugh. He looked at the Enyo frozen in the ice and said with a smile, "Lady Enyo, I've won."
"Let's end it here. But don't worry, I won't eat you..." As he spoke, he suddenly paused. He felt the peach trees on his body still unscrupulously drawing his flesh and blood, growing vigorously, and blooming with effort, making him feel waves of fatigue.
"Huh? That's not right."
"Lady Enyo should be unconscious by now..."
"Why is the Blood Demon Art still being activated?"
A Blood Demon Art without its master's control should become ineffective. Even if this ability was very special, without its master's support, it should be easy to break... "But... I can't." Doma tried, but he couldn't break free at all. Even the peach trees on the ice Bodhisattva were trying to root deeper, making its movements more and more sluggish.
"Is it Lady Enyo's will that is constantly urging them to grow and bloom? Even when only the purest instinct remains?"
Only now did Doma belatedly realize that this battle seemed to have been—a fight to the death from the very beginning.
"What tenacious life force..." Doma stared blankly at the Enyo in the ice crystal, tears suddenly welling in his eyes.
Although Lady Enyo as a person seemed to be already dead, within that deathly silence was such an unyielding life force—like a withered and rotten piece of wood still stubbornly sprouting green shoots and blooming vibrant flowers. The miracle created by this life force was truly moving, shocking, and enviable.
Doma lacked this kind of thing, but precisely because of this, he was especially drawn to it, moved by it. He wept silently, the tears instantly freezing into pure ice crystals, sparkling with a crystalline light.
Enyo's body began to melt in the ice, becoming more and more transparent. But even so, the surrounding peach blossoms were still blooming brilliantly. Every moment was more vigorous, more splendid than the last!
Until the figure in the ice completely turned to nothingness...
Countless peach blossoms suddenly withered, falling like a black rain.
-------
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