However, transferring his consciousness to a single body part in a mere second was no easy feat. To succeed, Diego played a hidden card, fusing the sacred art of consciousness transfer learned from the liches in his family with his true nature: a true apprentice soul vampire. This synthesis allowed him to bridge the gap between mortal frailty and undead resilience. Yet he had to be surgical; even at extreme speeds, a single mental tremor could result in permanent ego-dissolution.
With razor-sharp precision, Diego reached inward, acutely aware of his fading vitality and the cold steel of the sword impaling his skull. He manipulated his internal energy pathways to overclock his physical form, pushing his reflexes into a realm where time seemed to congeal. It wasn't a mere second anymore; by enhancing his internal flow, he artificially dilated his perception, stretching that fleeting moment into a functional minute of mental clarity.
Though he couldn't manipulate time itself, Diego moved "faster" than the clock, forcing every organ, sense, and tissue to vibrate at a frequency that outpaced reality. This wasn't just a burst of speed—it was a total systemic awakening, ensuring his physical shell didn't disintegrate as he prepared to abandon his brain.
Even with this borrowed time, migrating his entire psyche and the vast web of autonomic functions to his spinal column remained an agonizing struggle. He felt his essence peeling away from his grey matter like a searing membrane, a sensation of profound vertigo that threatened to shatter his focus.
Half a second passed; the transfer held firm. A full second ticked by; he was still mid-transition. As another half-second lapsed, the enemy began to wrench the blade from his skull—a killing blow in motion. With his consciousness dangerously split and the transfer incomplete, Diego desperately tapped into his spinal proprioception, seizing control of his motor functions from the neck down to evade the impending execution.
Avoiding doom sounds simple, but for Diego, it required a Herculean feat of perception. He momentarily halted the migration, rerouting his willpower to his muscles. The instant the enemy's grip shifted on the hilt, Diego yanked himself backward, retreating from the blade's lethal path. He moved with the desperate grace of a man whose life hung by a fraying thread, knowing a single slip meant certain death.
With the sword still jutting from his forehead, Diego faced the attacker. The enemy held a disciplined stance, determined to close any remaining window of escape. Yet, the tide had turned. Diego successfully anchored his entire consciousness within his spinal column. The moment his brain was vacated of its "self," it became mere meat. Using his spine as a command center, Diego reached up and violently wrenched the sword from his own skull.
Bone chips clattered to the floor and his cranium fractured further, but the lethal trauma was now secondary—a mere flesh wound to be regrown later. Now, Diego and Sebastian stood side-by-side, two predators poised to see who would strike next and rewrite the fate of the battlefield.
***
Meanwhile, his opponent, Sebastian, was now forced into the open. Deprived of the shadows, he could no longer orchestrate the cunning, silent strike of an assassin—the kind of flanking maneuver that leaves a victim wondering who dealt the killing blow. He hesitated, not knowing whether to attack or not, however he noted that an offensive from someone as strategically formidable as Diego was long overdue.
So Sebastian surmised two possibilities: either Diego was harboring a devastating counter-strategy, or he was intentionally remaining stagnant to parry incoming strikes while maintaining a tireless defense. Trapped in this psychological stalemate, the air grew thick with the metallic scent of ozone as Sebastian realized that inaction was its own kind of slow death. Though he loathed to be the one triggering whatever trap Diego had set, Sebastian decided to seize the initiative.
Reaching deep within, he tapped into his innate connection to the cosmos. His presence hummed with the subtle vibration of deep space, granting him a battle style that defied traditional physics. Harnessing this celestial tether, he surged forward with explosive velocity, matching the supernatural speed Diego achieved through raw energy enhancement.
He leveled his blade—a steel fang wreathed in a malevolent crimson aura—and lunged. The thrust was aimed directly at Diego's chest, a single strike intended to break up Diego's entire structure and stance. However, the moment the blade leaped forward, a shimmering energy shield flickered into existence. It was a paradoxical barrier: seemingly transparent and non-existent, yet physically absolute.
Seeing his path obstructed, Sebastian refused to relent. He doubled down on his spatial abilities, his movements becoming a blurred frenzy of motion. He unleashed a rhythmic barrage of thrusts, each strike slamming against the translucent barrier with deafening force. In this moment, Sebastian lacked the honor of a duelist or the discipline of a warrior; he possessed only the cold, singular drive of an executioner. He had no interest in a fair fight—he only wanted Diego dead.
Soon, the energy shield crumbled under the weight of the relentless attacks unleashed on it with unreal, unbecoming speed. A glaring crimson aura surrounded Sebastian's sword, allowing him to strike with an strong intensity at the energy shield that stalled Diego's impending doom. Sebastian thrust his sword once again into Diego's chest, aiming for ribs and arm joints, hoping to shatter the apprentice soul vampire's structure, but before the blade could plunge deep, Diego moved his hand forward, blocking the attack with his palm.The crimson aura destroyed his hand, and the blade slid into Diego's palm instead of his chest—the destruction aimed for his chest stalled by a mere palm.
While the aura utterly destroyed the palm, Diego could easily recreate and regrow a new limb, far faster than reconstructing his rib bones, joints, and breastplate. Certain he had lost, having failed to break through with this maneuver, Sebastian began crafting a different strategy, aiming to overcome to overcome Diego once an for all. However, before he could launch another attack, Diego opened his mouth, saying with sharp, mocking jest:
[You're different.]
[I feel I should know you; I mean, someone this calculative, cunning, and primal couldn't have escaped my curiosity so easily, unless…]
Diego's eyes drifted here and there before concluding:
[You are from the old generation.]