The white light intensified, forcing everyone except Knox and Noah to shield their eyes. The red orbs pulsed inside Noah's hands, merging into one another and growing larger. As they fused, the sphere became darker and more shadowy than before. A red beam of power shot out from the gigantic orb Noah now held. His black eyes shimmered as the orb pulsed. The light finally died down, and what Noah saw in front of him nearly made him cancel the orb of power. Nearly.
A young girl with black hair and all-white clothing stood before him. She radiated a large white aura from her entire body. Ray, finally opening his eyes, looked at her. "Lily, what are you doing here?" he said.
Lily just smiled. "I came here to protect you, Ray."
Ray was shocked. Protect him? She was a kid. How could a child protect him, the leader of the Black Star faction?
Knox still stood there, his bleeding stump—which was once his arm—pulsing as it began to regrow. His face remained emotionless, blank as ever.
"Growing back your arm, huh?" Noah said, stepping forward.
Knox just stood there. Dice did the same thing. He wanted to move, but his body wouldn't obey. After all, his body didn't belong to him anymore—it belonged to Sin.
Suddenly, both Knox and Dice received a mental link. They felt it. Sin had sensed the energy. Even though he lay in bed, his organs nearly damaged, he could still feel the energy—and it was too much. Way too much. Both needed to get out of there. Both Dice and Knox listened to their master and ran.
Meanwhile, back in the room, Noah smiled at the young girl in front of him. He wondered if he would even need to use this large amount of power on her. But then he remembered—he did feel a large amount of energy coming from her body. So her appearance didn't really matter. She was interrupting a fight. A fight that he wanted. But then again, she was interesting. How much power could a young girl like that hold? It was fascinating. And Noah needed to test it.
The gigantic red orb pulsed as it grew larger, seemingly endless.
"Let's see what you can do," Noah said, his dark eyes fixating on Lily.
Lily simply raised her hand and began to gather a large amount of white energy. It grew at a rapid speed. Eventually, it was just as large as Noah's red energy beam. How? he wondered. How could a young girl produce that much energy? It was impossible. Utterly impossible.
She threw the white energy without any hesitation. The white orb flew towards Noah, and he ducked at the last second, not wanting to destroy the entirety of the Black Star mansion. He quickly dispersed the gigantic white beam that was heading towards a wall. With that problem gone, Noah had an easy opening. The red beam in his hands pulsed one last time before he shot the large orb at her. The red orb came out faster than she had expected, Noah putting extra strength into it.
Ray felt himself getting stronger, but he wasn't strong enough to stop that.
"Dodge!" Ray yelled.
Lily tried to dodge, but the orb was too fast, too large for her to cover that much ground. Ray had no choice. He leaped in front of her as he grabbed the gigantic red orb. Immediately, his hand started to disintegrate, and he quickly let go. The red orb hit Lily and exploded.
BAM!
The explosion rocked the entirety of the mansion. Nearly everyone felt it. A red, blinding beam shot out on all sides of the orb when it hit Lily. Ray was thrown back through a wall, then through another, and through another. And Lily? Well, Lily just stood there, taking the entirety of the attack without flinching. A red shield of energy had protected Noah from his own attack, and a white shield of energy protected Lily from his attack.
"Impressive," Noah said.
Lily just stepped forward. She raised one hand and shot out a beam of white condensed energy towards Noah. But Noah grabbed it with one hand.
"Weak," he said as he punched the beam away, back towards her.
The beam came out twice as fast and twice as strong. Lily dodged at nearly light speed. Her eyes changed—they became pure white. She ran towards Noah, nearing the speed of light, and punched him with such strength that he couldn't even brace himself. The punch landed, sending a gigantic wave of white energy out. Noah was thrown back, flying through the air. He nearly smashed through the entirety of the demon energy he had gathered. He crashed through one wall, then crashed through another, and finally landed with a loud thud outside of the Black Star mansion. He coughed up dark black and red blood as he stood up.
"I won't let you win," Noah said.
The red energy around his body pulsed, growing darker and darker. The mansion was heavily damaged—walls shattered, foundation cracked under the pressure of Lily's punch. Noah walked towards the hole that had been punched through the wall and stepped back into the mansion. He continued walking until he was finally back in the large room.
Lily was just standing there, condensing white energy around her fists.
"She's a little monster," Noah said quietly. "I will end you."
He began floating, his hair standing up as his eyes sank deeper. He raised his hands and began to form a gigantic scythe in each hand. The scythes were red and black in color, long and sharp.
"I will kill you," Noah said.
"No, you won't."
Noah turned. He saw Ray standing in the middle of them.
"How did you—"
Before Noah could finish, Ray punched him in the gut, sending Noah flying backwards a few feet. But he quickly stood back up and composed himself, the two scythes gleaming as he quickly formed them to be solid.
"Die," Noah said as he rushed forward and nearly cut Ray's head off with a scythe.
But Ray dodged and tried to grab it. The scythe was too quick. It moved towards his face again, and he dodged. He only had one hand to work with—his other hand was broken.
Back in the room, Sin lay inside the bed with both his spawns right beside him.
"I can't let this continue," Sin said.
He began to sense the large battle going on. His room shook with each punch that Noah and Lily exchanged. It wasn't even close to their location, yet somehow he felt the power.
"If I let this continue on, both of them will die," Sin said.
A system message popped up inside his mind. It was both red and black, mostly red with hints of black.
**Demonic Vampiric Form available. Would you like to transform? Yes or No.**
**Warning: This form must only be used for around 5 minutes. If host reaches over that limit, then host's body will start to break down. Ignore warning?**
Sin looked over the warning and quickly pressed ignore on the system interface. Then he pressed yes to accept the transformation.
A shadowy mist filled the room in complete darkness. Back in the mindscape, the Shadow Demon began to break down. Its smile began to fracture. Its entire body began to fracture. Eventually, it shattered. It flowed into Sin's consciousness and laughed. Finally, the mist was gone.
Sin stood in the middle of the room. His eyes were bleeding shadow, and he had a smile on his face. In this form, he was able to control both blood and shadow at a higher level than before.
"It's time to end this," Sin said. "It's time to get rid of this guy for good."
Back in the middle of both Lily and Noah, Noah smiled.
"You think you are powerful?" Noah said as he walked forward. "You are nothing but a bug."
He backhand slapped Ray into a nearby wall. Ray's body flew and smashed into the wall, debris flying everywhere. Lily quickly ran towards Ray as she healed him up, placing her hand on his head. She healed up all of his injuries that he had gotten from this entire battle. Then, with the speed of light, she came back towards Noah. Her eyes were still white as her fists began to glow. She shot both beams of energy towards Noah, and Noah grabbed both of them with his hands. He was pushed back a few feet but managed to keep his composure, his black eyes glowing darker and darker by each second.
Ray quickly appeared beside Lily.
Noah quickly transformed two scythes in his hands—the same scythes that he had tried to kill Ray with.
Ray walked forward. "You think those are going to do anything? You tried that two times. You tried to hit me. I dodged. So you really think you're going to do anything?"
Noah smiled. "I don't have to think, Ray. All I have to do is know."
He slammed the two scythes together and began to create a larger, more powerful scythe. Lily dashed forward and dropkicked the scythe into particles. Noah just smiled, standing completely still. He began charging up a gigantic beam of energy. He threw it towards Ray, and Ray grabbed it. The same thing that happened before was about to happen again. Ray's hand began to disintegrate until he quickly let go of the beam and dodged just in time for it not to hit him. The beam charged towards a nearby broken wall and smashed through it. It continued on until it reached a certain room. It smashed through the door, and the red beam stopped—caught by a single hand.
Sin had caught the beam, shadowy energy surrounding his entire body. He quickly corrupted the beam with shadow energy. Once the beam was corrupted, he shot it back from where it came. The beam flew back towards the direction of Noah. Noah just stood there, and when he saw the dark beam heading towards him, his eyes widened. But he quickly dodged. The beam exploded right behind him, knocking him forward a few feet.
"Who in the world—" Noah said.
Back in the room, Sin stood there. He wasn't harmed at all from the beam. Two minutes had passed. He only had three minutes to act. He looked at the system interface.
**3 minutes and 49 seconds.**
He didn't realize that time had passed so quickly. So he quickly sank into shadow and was gone.
Back in the open room where multiple walls were now broken, Noah stood with Lily and Ray right in front of him. But he felt something—a shift. A dark aura. A chill went down his spine, and for the first time in Noah's dark, twisted history, he felt fear. The Noah that once was had been replaced by a malevolent entity. The Noah before would have been shaking in his boots, but this entity—this entity hadn't been scared ever. And now fear was creeping into his gut.
A shadowy mist spread throughout the entirety of the area. When the mist finally cleared, a man stood there.
Ray recognized him. He was the young boy that Ray had saved. The young boy Ray had brought in when he found him unconscious in a random apartment building, lying in the young boy's room. Shadowy energy surrounded him as he looked dead at Noah.
"It's my turn to fight now," Sin said.
Noah's eyes narrowed, his body tensing. The air itself seemed to vibrate with power. Sin took a step forward, and the ground beneath him cracked.
"Who... who are you?" Noah whispered, his voice trembling for the first time.
Sin's smile widened, shadows swirling around him like living serpents. His eyes bled darkness, and when he spoke, his voice echoed with something ancient, something terrifying.
"I'm the one who's going to end you."
The room fell silent. The shadows deepened. And somewhere in the distance, a clock began to tick down.
**3 minutes and 30 seconds remaining.**