It began with his skin.
Exedra’s skin that was always an immaculate bronze suddenly became as black as the night surrounding him. His bones stretched and popped as he grew to match Helios’ height of seven feet.
His long, dark hair suddenly grew even longer and returned to it’s previous blood red. Three proud black horns jutted from his hair like a king’s crown. In the center of his forehead, there was an ominous black eye with golden sclera.
The tattoos on the left side of his body suddenly began to glow with an odd purple light.
Though these changes were indeed impressive, no one was really able to notice them at the moment.
Everyone’s focus was currently on Exedra’s arms.
Or more specifically, the second pair that he’d grown right underneath the first.
If Exedra’s previous transformation made him look like an angel of the abyss, his current one made him look like it’s greatest warrior.
[ Primordial Demon’s Will : Second activation
-Your will is strong enough to mold your very flesh to your needs.
-User now draws 0.25% of power from all demon’s under his command.
“What the hell kind of monster are you?” Seras asked in a mixture of horror and utter fascination.
As a response, Exedra grew shiny black scales on all four of his arms. Instead of rushing forward as he had done so often before, he raised his mighty armored appendages high into the sky before slamming them into the ground with a loud roar.
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!
The ground immediately gave way before his terrible new might and chunks of earth and dust flew up into the sky.
“Ha!”
Exedra clapped all of his hands together, releasing a blast of air pressure that propelled the debris directly towards his master.
Seras was familiar with her student’s love of cutting off her vision and thus was unfazed by his attack. “Even if you have all that power you’re still just a meathead at heart, huh?”
Sprouting her wings, she shot into the air and expertly avoided all of the projectiles launched her way.
“You’ll have to do… huh?” Seras looked down expecting to find her monstrous student but instead found nothing but grass.
‘From behind?’ She spun around expecting to find him in her blindspot only to see nothing but empty night.
Suddenly, the sound of whistling air reached her ears and she looked up to see Exedra launching an axe kick from heaven directly at her head. “How did you-“
Bang!
Seras was so surprised by her student’s appearance, she only put up one arm to defend.
Unfortunately, she didn’t realize just how much his strength had grown with his newest transformation and paid the price.
His kick sent her plummeting towards the ground below and the arm that had been kicked was close to shattering. ‘It actually hurts! How the hell did he do that?!’
The moment Exedra launched the enormous wave of dirt and earth at Seras, he knew she would fly up to avoid it. In rapid succession, he opened a gate at his very feet that dropped him high above the clouds while also concealing his presence completely.
If Helios hadn’t been watching, he wouldn’t have believed it.
His best warrior had actually been dealt a painful blow by an enemy that was young enough to be her child. ‘Such absurdity.’
Seras was able to slow her fall to a reasonable speed and landed on the ground gingerly. She removed her armguard and saw the large bruise that was forming where she’d been hit.
‘He hurt me.. I’ve actually been hurt!’ She repeated internally.
Tiamat and Helios recognized the look in her eyes and they both knew what was about to happen.
‘She’s so much trouble when she’s like this.’ Helios sighed, already exhausted.
‘I can’t believe he could actually bring her to that point!’ Tiamat exclaimed in shock.
Following Exedra’s example, she grew her own blood red scales on her arms and her beautiful face contorted into a maniacal smile.
When Exedra landed on the ground, Seras immediately rushed at him and delivered a solid right hook to his gut. “Come on now, my student! You know I taught you to always repay injury with injury!”
Even though he had long acquired pain immunity, that did not stop him from coughing out a mouthful of dark blood.
Though that could not prevent him from launching his own attack in kind.
He delivered a hard punch from both of his left arms to Seras’ side.
Crack!
‘What the hell.. there’s more power in his blows than there was before!’ Seras realized as she felt her ribs break under the pressure of his attack.
It seemed as though with every second, he gained more and more power. It was small, hardly noticeable at first but now she could indeed see that his aura was rapidly rising.
“Fun! This is so much damn fun!” She exclaimed gleefully.
Soon the pair became embroiled in an intense battle.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
They took turns striking each other, neither of them bothering to avoid the blows of their opponent.
Seras had gotten so excited that she was now using 50% of her strength instead of her original 30%. She didn’t even realize when it started but she began to see her student as someone worthy of expending effort on and responded accordingly.
It was a miracle that Exedra was still standing upright.
Not only was he surviving, he was thriving.
He was initially clumsy with his extra appendages but as time went on, he became more and more adept at using them.
He even had a system prompt to prove it.𝚟𝒩xt.𝕔𝔬𝐌
[You have begun on the path of developing your own demonic martial arts technique!
[Progress towards complete understanding is currently at 18%.
“This is unprecedented!” Tiamat exclaimed in horror.
She was watching the same thing as everyone else but she was having a harder time believing it.
The last time she saw her friend get injuries of any kind was 500 years ago in the war against the phoenixes, yet now she had so many bruises on her body that she looked like a leopard beastkin.
All of his wives were also amazed. They’d seen him do some incredible things before but nothing on this level.
But there was one among them who was not as happy as the rest.
‘This is…so frustrating.’ Bekka clenched her hands in despair.
Seeing her husband so embroiled in his spar reminded her of the good days where she was capable of fighting alongside him. Their spars used to fill her with the greatest joy in the world, yet now he could defeat her in a second.
It was almost too heartbreaking to bear.
‘I have to get stronger… I have to!’
Boom!
Seras delivered another uppercut to her student’s jaw that caused him to take a big step backwards. He quickly recovered and prepared to respond with a devastating kick when his eyes suddenly became deadly serious.
His body felt like it was beginning to break down and he could feel that his soul was undergoing some strain as well.
Without asking the system, Exedra already knew the reason why.
Simply put, the skill Exedra had been using is too strong for his current self to handle.
His body may have been reconstructed and augmented by Lucifer but that was no substitute for evolution.
There is a particular energy that enters your body upon evolving that eases the burden caused by an individual’s more devastating powers.
Without that energy, he was at risk of destroying his body and soul.
Seeing that her student had suddenly frozen, Seras began to pout. “Hey! Don’t tell me you’re done already!”
He was the one that got her all hot and bothered in the first place so he couldn’t leave her high and dry now!
Exedra took several deep breaths as he slowly walked backwards.
“I’ll end it with this for now.” He muttered as he drew his weapon.
A golden halberd with a giant blade was suddenly in the palm of one of his hands.
He stared at it intensely, hoping it would respond to his needs.
There was a flash of light and suddenly each of his four arms held a weapon.
In addition to his halberd, he also held a spear, a sword and a large hammer.
Exedra wasn’t sure how much damage the attack he had in mind would do.
However, he was damned sure it wasn’t going to tickle.
He’d consider this payback for all the hits she’d gotten in on him earlier.
Seeing Exedra shuffle his feet into an odd, wide stance, Seras’ curiosity reached a fever pitch and she summoned her own weapon.
She twirled her blood red spear in her hands and put on an ecstatic expression.
“Come on now! You have to show me more interesting things!”