Born in Blood

All of the chaos churned around Liam's body and converged to his head.

The Copy recoiled in shock.

He saw it happen in real time, but he was too close to jump backwards to safety. 

Instead, the Blood Demon Arts surged around his body and enveloped him in with knightly armor. 

Just as the sphere of chaos—

BOOOOOOOM!

Caught off-guard, Liam-Copy was flung into the air like a stiff ragdoll.

What Liam used was a Rank 2 spell – Chaotic World. One he made before he entered the inheritance.

Although it was a Rank 2 spell, it had the destructiveness of a Rank 4.

All it did was swallow half of Liam's chaos reserves and shoot it outward.

The Copy's Blood Demon armor cracked and splintered under the weight of Liam's chaos. 

Liam was a fool if he let the opportunity slip away.

With a burst of insane speed, he surged forward with his Black Blade, sending more than 30 instantaneous slashes towards the Copy as he flew away.

At the same time, he used all the Umbral Needles, blood spikes and Sanguine Strings he could.

Then, before those attacks even landed, and before the Copy landed on the ground, Liam's odachi turned into the Breaker Blade, which rapidly sucked in darkness from his core.

The Copy flailed mid-air as he tried to erect his defenses. 

At once, his body turned thick and his bones densened, using all of his blood to defend and his shadows to empower it all.

A mistake.

Liam sank under the ground, tendrils of shadow wrapping around his body and yanking him to where the Copy was going to land.

At the same time, Liam started his swing with the empowered Breaker Blade.

The Copy wasn't stupid. He saw that Liam disappeared, but he didn't know where he went.

The Copy had the slashes, Umbral Needles and Sanguine Strings to worry about, which he deflected mid-air with his sword.

But by then, he landed just where Liam was waiting for him.

And by then, Liam's swing hit full force against his back.

A shower of blood and guts fell upon the stony platform.

A muffled grunt rang out within the fake dimension.

The right side of the Copy's body was completely blown away by the Breaker. 

At the last second, he tried to dodge by twisting away from the blade's edge, but it was too fast.

Surprisingly, the Copy had solid insides. Who would have thought?

They were outside of his body now, though.

However, the Copy still wasn't dead.

Like Liam said, he was a hard-to-die cockroach, and the Copy tried to flee to safety once more, erecting another 3 Shadow Clones.

Its 'Ora' reserves were endless, so even with such a deathly condition, it could cast such a heavy spell.

But they were useless against Liam.

Liam killed each with one instant swing, then arrived beside the Copy again.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

The Breaker turned into the Black Blade and severed off the Copy's limbs.

Then, the Black Blade turned into the Dusk Blades and ripped into the Copy's abdomen and stomach.

KRSH! SPURT!

Liam felt something crack under his blade's vicious edge.

It was the Copy's core.

The Copy screamed, lacking limbs and a core. His stomach was also punctured, oozing viscous blood.

Once again, Liam towered over it.

The dual-wielding swords had now become the odachi once more, its tip pointed at the Copy's neck.

"Gurlggh," the Copy gurgled blood, laying across the floor in a near-death state. "Glrgh."

"You're pathetic," Liam coldly said to the Copy as it coughed mouthfuls of blood. "What did you say a minute ago?"

"Grralgh," the Copy coughed again.

It was so pathetic.

"I think I know what you are now," Liam said with cold eyes.

Despite seeing 'himself' dying, Liam didn't have a dramatic reaction.

It was a surreal experience. 

But truthfully, Liam had imagined himself dying thousands of times already.

Every time he fought.

Every time he picked up a sword.

Every time someone handed him a drink, even someone he 'trusted'...

Liam imagined himself dying as a result.

This was his paranoia.

This was the difference between him and the Copy.

Despite how Liam had chaos and the Copy didn't, he still understood something from the Trial.

"You're what I'm afraid of becoming," Liam said. "Something vain that lost its purpose."

Liam took a deep breath, then exhaled, his menacing gaze fixed to the dying Copy.

"If I forget my purpose, you're what I'll become."

"I am what I am because of who I am. Even if you take the slightest piece away from that, I crumble apart."

Liam swiped his Black Blade upwards.

The Copy's face split open like a flower made of flesh.

"I must be wary of change."

***

…So, what exactly happened?

Firstly, Liam noticed how there was no chaos in the Copy's aura.

From his own solar plexus, there were volatile red energies radiating in a controlled but unstable fashion.

The Copy did not have this.

Thus, Liam silently baited out the Copy throughout the fight, just in case it was hiding his chaotic abilities. 

Liam refrained from using his own chaos, too, just in case it would alert the Copy of something amiss.

The Copy was not hiding anything.

He didn't have it at all.

There was a simple conclusion, and a not so simple conclusion.

The simple reason being: the inheritance could not imitate the Chaos Pearl. In fact, it couldn't imitate Liam's Ashura strength.

However, Eternal Sword's inheritance basically had full control over those inside it.

Thus, the Copy was strengthened to match Liam's physical strength. 

On the other hand, the Triumvirate Body was not as difficult and rare as an Ashura's physique or chaotic abilities.

It just consisted of a Shifter's elasticity and free flowing flesh. 

The same went for Liam's blood. 

Any liquid could be crystalized to imitate what his blood could do.

An Ashura was an ancient creature. Back from the Thousand Year War period. 

The Eternal Sword was from an old age. Perhaps he lived at the same time as the Ashuras. 

But there was little chance, if any at all, that he was capable of stealing and copying an Ashura's power. Even with his Celestial status. 

Whatever Liam was supposed to learn from this test, Liam learned something else in its stead.

There was an error.

That error was Liam himself.

Anyone else, this Trial might have taught the importance of experience or discipline or blah, blah, blah. 

That's probably what Twilight was going through.

But with his existence alone, Liam ruined that entire notion.