So all that was left for Diego to do was simple: plan, and in order to plan, it was necessary to know your enemy well. Diego felt he knew a lot about Sebastian already, he knew Sebastian could manipulate space in order to achieve different incredible feats like super speed, spatial awareness, and bringing space closer to himself to achieve a strike, while expanding the space to deflect or evade a strike. Next was the annoying foresight ability which had a long cooldown, a weapon that had nearly ended Diego's life before. Looking back now it seemed Sebastian had used that same ability on him when he first attacked, an attack which almost claimed his life. It seemed anytime Sebastian used that ability, Diego mostly found himself destructured or almost dead, many bad things happened when Sebastian used the foresight ability, making foresight one of the most powerful tools in Sebastian's hand, a weapon that turned battles into nightmares.
However Diego didn't have to worry about Sebastian's foresight if he attacked now because Sebastian had been using his ability for a long time, and Diego was pretty sure Sebastian no longer had his foresight ability—it was probably on cooldown, so that was out. Next was Sebastian's ability to manipulate space, that was tricky but Diego was feeling up for the task mainly because he had more energy within him to control, and he could replenish lost energy at an incredibly fast rate, like he was basically breathing energy right now due to the aura within his body. And as Diego moved around admiring his newfound strength he noticed he was more than fast enough to take down Sebastian in one move without the need to plan, as long as Sebastian had no foresight to alert him on when, where, and which attack was coming and how best to deflect it. His confidence surged, and Diego felt the inevitability of victory coursing through his veins.
However, when Diego realized he was more than fast enough to take down Sebastian in one move without the need of a plan due to his immense speed outpacing that of Sebastian, he couldn't help but wonder how Sebastian had escaped his initial onslaught. Especially when his eyes burned red with anger and he was probably approaching Sebastian as fast as his legs could carry him, how had Sebastian managed to evade and escape his wrath? This question gnawed at him relentlessly, a puzzle that refused to be solved, a riddle that mocked his reasoning and haunted his thoughts with every passing moment. He felt he had no answer to this question, no explanation that could satisfy the torment in his mind, and the uncertainty weighed upon him like a heavy, unshakable burden.
There were only two possibilities he could think of. The first was the unsettling notion that Sebastian had been holding back since the very beginning of the fight. Diego believed Sebastian could indeed move at immense speed, rivaling his own enhanced velocity—the speed of a soul vampire, granted by the energy coursing through his veins and magnified by the shimmering blue aura surrounding him. Yet that idea was ultimately inconsistent and flawed, for if Sebastian truly possessed such terrifying speed, relying on his normal pace to evade Diego's relentless onslaught would never have been his choice. Instead, knowing Sebastian's deepest desire was nothing less than to kill him, the moment Diego began his furious assault, Sebastian would have unleashed that overwhelming velocity, cutting Diego down mercilessly while he was still vulnerable in his earlier weaker phase. But now Diego had ascended, no longer an apprentice but a fully realized soul vampire, his power stabilized, his aura blazing brighter than ever, and Sebastian's failure to exploit that earlier weakness only deepened the mystery of his evasive tactics.
However, Sebastian had not done that. Instead, he only revealed his ability when Diego had ranked up into becoming a soul vampire—precisely when Diego was at his most deadly and formidable. Doing that only proved that Sebastian was concealing far more than he had shown, hiding abilities that Diego had yet to uncover. This revelation forced Diego to arrive at his next possibility: he considered the unsettling thought that Sebastian possessed powers, he, Diego, had no idea about, abilities that allowed him to escape from such precise and lightning‑fast attacks. Diego wondered how someone could manipulate space itself in order to displace objects into chosen or random locations, bending reality in ways that defied natural law and conventional limits. He thought long and hard, his mind racing through every scenario, until at last he arrived at the chilling answer: teleportation, a power that could explain Sebastian's uncanny evasions and his mysterious, almost supernatural capacity to slip through even the deadliest assaults.
Finding out the ability Sebastian used to escape his attack did not give Diego solace at all; instead, it only deepened his worry. He wondered: if Sebastian could teleport all this while and had not revealed it even when battered and weary, what other abilities lay hidden in the shadows, waiting to be unleashed? Worse yet, Diego discovered something else—he realized the way Sebastian fought was disturbingly similar to someone he knew very well: himself. Strategic, cunning, vague, fast, and relentless, Sebastian mirrored Diego's own methods, manipulating space with the same precision Diego manipulated energy. This grim revelation struck him with chilling clarity, and the reason for his earlier defeat became more acceptable to him now. Yet he noted with fierce determination that, as a fully realized soul vampire, he was more than powerful enough to take down the version of himself from the past, and perhaps even Sebastian.
***
Meanwhile, Sebastian wore a wistful smile and a crazed expression on his face, shaped by the collision of new experiences and the heavy burden of recent events. When his gaze finally rested on Diego, he did not know whether he should thank him for the strange gift of growth or fight him once more. Witnessing Diego's evolution into a newborn soul vampire, coupled with the resurgence that occurred when Diego's form was reconstituted from mere energy, gave Sebastian the knowledge, wisdom, and clarity he needed to stabilize the feeling that had propelled him toward becoming a death knight.
Yet when he finally understood what that feeling truly was, disappointment crept in like a cold whisper. At first, he had been elated, when he found out that the sensation he had gleaned was tied to someone using a mysterious way to teleport. Armed with that knowledge and the lingering impression, he was able to learn the skill of teleportation himself, shaping it through his own attribute and refining it with relentless practice.
The reason Sebastian was disappointed was because he realized that, although he already knew much about the old ways from countless books and scrolls, he had no real idea how to apply or practice what he had learned. He felt he needed to be close to someone—an enigmatic figure whose mere presence had initiated a push to a higher level. Being close to someone like that, Sebastian believed, could greatly help him in countless ways: he could be properly educated about the old ways, guided in forgotten skills, and shown how to uncover secrets that might otherwise remain hidden beneath centuries of silence. For now, however, he had to settle with the feeling he had gleaned, clinging to the fragile hope that one day fate would grant him the chance to meet this mysterious figure face‑to‑face, and perhaps discover truths powerful enough to reshape his destiny forever.