"Do you think Scarlet has her memories too?" Ray asked with concern if things played out like that, if both of them were walking corpses.
The woman said with an emotionless tone, "No, probably the only reason I got some of my memories was because of our bond. So let me ask you one question this time: do you want to continue your own path?"
Ray's determination hadn't shaken a little after all those years. "Yes, we will cross paths with each other when I reach that point."
The woman had white and golden hair that was braided on her shoulder; with her cloak, nothing was visible from her body, only her face and a pair of cold spiral yellow eyes.
"Dismiss your disguise; I won't kill you, but having me after you can boost your image in the military." She threw a few crystals at Ray: "And here, just a small gift."
Ray inspected the crystals; they were all pure blood magic crystals. Each one's price could be unimaginable if someone even had the chance to buy them.
"Thanks, Jade." He stored all the crystals into his system; there was going to be a lot of time to craft them.
Jade opened her hands; her gloves were white, shining with a golden light. "Shall we begin?"
His blood healed all the scars on his face, with his hair returning to its black color. He smirked. "She said she wouldn't kill me, but she probably is going to cut off a few limbs."
Ray activated his teleportation device, which could at best teleport him thirty kilometers three times each week. His figure disappeared from sight; his target was to reach the surface of the earth.
Sky itself around him shattered with yellow eyes staring at him from them. An archangel came out from one of the cracks in the sky, with twelve wings and two longswords in each hand, and charged toward Ray.
His mind now could work on two tasks at an efficient level; his body dodged the attacks from the angel while his mind was searching for someone. There was only one person that could help him at the moment.
"For fuck's sake..." Another angel came out to life, but this one had a long bow.
Each of its arrows could turn into twenty arrows after being shot.
The angels were way slower than normal, but for Ray's current level, he had to push his body to the limits to survive.
After a minute of constant dodging, his teleportation device could be used again.
This time he found himself in the tunnels that led to the surface.
The person he wanted to talk to finally opened her mind.
"Alexanderia, I think the witch is after me." Angels appeared from the thin air again.
"Ray? What the fuck? Are you the one that Jade is after?" Alexanderia was in the middle of a conference with two other generals.
Jade going on a rampage was not a simple action; her magic could destroy cities in an instant. In the whole underground, she was under watch the most.
"I don't know her name, but she can summon angels, and I'm on a thin line of survival just from her summons." Ray breathed heavily; scratches and cuts were becoming visible on his skin.
"Where are you?"
"In the tunnels above the Ether city."
"Good, go to the lava lake in the north; I will be there."
Ray dismissed the connection and focused on the battle at hand. His device needed a few more minutes before it could be activated for the last time.
From the cracks in the air, Jade herself walked out.
"You have become weak." Her hand pointed at Ray, with her index finger raised. A golden orb appeared in front of Ray.
His figure transformed into his blood angel stance, and he flew as fast as he could from the golden orb, yet that was futile. The golden orb shook for a second, and then it exploded, destroying anything in its pathway.
Ray was on the verge of falling into its light; his wings flew faster. The light swallowed his feet; the loss was so fast that he couldn't feel it at first.
The device rang, and Ray didn't hesitate to teleport himself above the ground.
The sunlight greeted him, mixed with the destruction under his feet; anything below his ankles was gone. His magic stopped the blood loss for some time.
"Did she have to go this far?" The distance between Ether City and the surface was near 100 kilometers, but now with just one bomb from Jade, all the stones between it and the surface had been vaporized.
The sound of sky shattering reached his ears once more; his wings moved on their own, with two angels on his back persuading him.
The device had reached its limit already; it couldn't be used for a whole week, and until he reached the lava lake, it could take three minutes. Time he didn't have, with their attacks becoming fierce with each passing moment.
"Alexanderia, I'm at my limit." Ray couldn't move any longer; he turned around to face the two angels.
Jade herself stepped up from a white staircase into reality too.
"Five minutes left."
Thousands upon thousands of golden spears were created in the sky above them.
One by one, spears attacked toward Ray, followed by the two angels.
"And she said she doesn't want to kill me." Ray cleared his mind from any other threat. Nine dark crystals all appeared at the same time above his head.
With his new upgraded mind, one by one they got destroyed, making a literal inferno around him. Golden spears melted as they entered the Hell flames.
The problem was that Ray himself didn't know if he could handle that much Hell flame; his mind was like a monolith in the middle of a chaotic sea, with his consciousness fading away with each breath.
"Oh young man, some dark crystals can't stop me."
Jade put her finger on her lips as her body glowed.
"Heavenly form."
Ray knew this move better than anyone else; a golden meteor the size of a city penetrated the sky with a terrifying speed on top of him.
"Dance of the Death."
Another voice echoed in the sky; a figure showed up under the meteor with a long katana in her hands.
Her blade moved with such speed that Ray didn't notice at all. The aura of death surrounded them all as the meteor was torn in half.
Jade laughed: "Hahaa, Alexanderia, rare to see you."
She teleported beside Ray; her sword absorbed all the hell flames in it, and she checked his mind to see if he was still sane.
"You are the stupidest person I have known. Just stay here."
She faced Jade: "What do you want?"
"Some entertainment..."
Alexanderia's killing intent could be felt from cities away. "You pick up a kid for some entertainment?"
"Oh, the real entertainment was you all along, but he's better than I expected; just imagining your face when you find your vice general died after a week could make my day." Jade's expression turned serious too.
Even though she was a level stronger, there were too many variables for a serious fight at the moment.
"I will entertain you." Alexanderia summoned a ring above her head.
"Death's door."
The world itself changed around them; once a blue sky turned into a grim, dark sky with screams of souls filling the area.
Jade smiled; if she wanted to become serious, she was not going to back down.