Reincarnated Hero System

Our clash was a dance of opposing forces. My White sword coated in a serene grey light, met Evan's blade bathed in crimson gold light.

I wasn't really the best at melee combat, I could at least hold my own long enough to keep him busy and give me time to prepare spells—is what I originally thought but I quickly realised how much of a herculean task that was.

Evan's sword strikes were fast, heavy and precise, all aimed for vitals and primed to deal as much damage as possible.

Supersonic clashes echoed through the air as we flew, breaking through the rubble of the buildings destroyed earlier by Evan.

We hurled powerful magic spells at each other, each strike threatening to crumble the already ruined structures beneath us.

I summoned my magic power to aid me as fast as I could, attempting to conjure a spell of fire but Evan's sword sliced through my spell circles before I could even finish the casting process.

In a battle like this, the few seconds I spent casting were more than enough time for Evan to destroy my spell circles and return to attacking me with plenty of time to spare.

'But this is my Soul Realm. My Spells can be conjured anywhere I want!'

With that internal declaration, a dozen fire spell circles emerged around Evan and released spirals of intense flames towards him. The heat distorted the air around us as the fire converged on his position, forcing him to deftly weave through the scorching inferno.

For a moment, I was mesmerized by the sight of him weaving through the flames with his wings, but I quickly snapped out of it and released another spell.

"Fire Magic: Crimson Claws."

And another.

"Fire Pillar."

And another.

"Aerial Mine."

Pillars of flames shot up from the ground and surged towards the sky, attempting to consume Evan from below, and even though he moved to dodge, he entered the range of the aerial mines and detonated them.

'It's not enough'.

I held up my hands and conjured a three-ringed magic circle, which gave birth to a ball of hyper-condensed flames.

The bright ball of flames increased in size and dispersed an extraordinary amount of violent and hot wind, and subsequently attracted Evan's attention.

"Solar Flare!"

"Mesarthim: Red!"

***BOOMM!!!

The two attacks collided and my vision was painted in prismatic hues, adding to the chaos of our aerial battle.

Without hesitation, I began casting a lightning spell, using the sword of Soul Power to aid in the casting process.

I thrust my blade towards the sky and the magic circle manifested on the tip of the blade, releasing a stream of magic power into the air that rained back down as a storm of crackling energy.

Bolts of lightning arced through the air, aiming to strike Evan from all directions. The brilliant flashes illuminated the destruction below, revealing the twisted metal and rubble on the ground below us.

In response, Evan summoned a spherical shield of earth-attributed energy, intercepting my lightning assault. The lightning crackled and danced upon the protective surface, casting an eerie glow.

Undeterred, I shifted my element to water, spiralling liquid tendrils around my blade and forming a torrent that surged towards Evan to overwhelm him while the lightning still lingered in the area.

However, he immediately deactivated that shield skill of his and held up his left palm, activating the ice skill and turning the torrent of water into suspended icicles.

'Figures'.

I snapped my fingers and unleashed all the spells I had just used simultaneously, yet Evan pulled back his sword and unleashed a vortex of crimson-gold light that shredded it all to oblivion.

Evan then teleported right in front of me and attempted to slash me, but I warped behind him instead and sent out a thrust with my own blade.

As if he had eyes at the back of his head, he was somehow able to turn his body around and block my strike, following up with another supersonic slash.

The clash of swords quickly went in Evan's favour, the weight of the sword bearing down on me and knocking me through a burning building to the ground.

I quickly warped myself out of it just in time to avoid the three serpentine dragons that bathed it in breaths of flames right after, sending slashes with my soul power that sliced their necks off.

Almost instantly, I moved to the side to dodge a strike, before spinning around to block. In this manner, our swords moved in a blur, leaving trails of light behind.

Despite my agile manoeuvres, I felt the tide turning. Evan's sword overwhelmed mine, and with a powerful strike, he knocked me down to the ground once more, shattering my sword to pieces.

I blinked and Evan was already in front of me, his sword once again bearing down on my neck, leaving me no choice but to create multiple barriers to block and give myself time to warp away.

"Hydra!"

That was what I heard as soon as I reappeared, with the three serpentine dragons already surrounding me and releasing prismatic flame breaths in my direction.

'Ah…'

**BOOOMMMM!!!!

I barely held down the urge to curse as I leapt out of the blast radius, breathing heavily as I held up my hand to my side.

'I wasn't fast enough.'

The third barrier I attempted to generate was a fraction of a second late, and that time was enough for the breath to reach me, resulting in the injury I had now.

'The pain…'

Blood dripped onto my hand, and though I was a bit scared to look, I knew I had to otherwise I could not heal it.

'Yikes…'

It was as if someone had carved a crescent moon out of the side of my torso. A portion of the flesh from below my ribcage to my hip was completely missing, destroyed by Evan's flames.

He just erased a portion of my soul just like that…

I took a deep breath and warped myself away to avoid the three dragons from tearing apart the rest of my body with their jaws.

When I reappeared and saw Evan pulling his sword out of the ground where I was standing a few moments ago, I felt my Soul Realm shake.

'Finally!!'

Though I had stated that my 'Word was Law' earlier, Evan's continuous destructive essence damage was interfering with my ability to exert complete influence over my Soul Realm.

But now, I should be able to use something that befitted my 'god-like' authority over this realm.

"That vibration…phase 3?!"

I don't know what Evan meant by 'Phase 3', but from the look in his eyes when he saw that my wounds had disappeared as if they were never there in the first place, I could tell;

'He knows! He knows what I'm about to do!'

Somehow, the thought that he knew so much about made me happy.

"Hydra! Burst Cannon! Hollow Magic: Nihilistic Nova!"

"Novae Magic?"

I warped myself away to avoid the first two attacks, but that Nova spell was fired in the direction of where I reappeared, making me wonder how he could even tell where I was going to appear.

"Soul Magic: Soul Nova."

The spell circle that manifested in front of me channelled a considerable portion of my soul power, manifesting as a radiant orb of ethereal light pulsating with the essence of my soul.

As it expanded, it engulfed everything in its path, blasting the three serpentine dragons to pieces as it moved to clash with the orb of what seemed to be non-attributed magic power.

*—!

The two spells clashed with a silent explosion, erupting into a powerful burst of spiritual force. However, this didn't last long as the Nihilistic Nova spell seemed to create some sort of strange zone that caused the soul power to dissipate forcefully.

But this caused the spell to also use up its own energy as it vanished right after.

'Wow, they cancelled each other out.'

While I was admiring the results of the clash, Evan was charging towards me, but I wasn't bothered by this.

"You're really strong, you know? This is MY Soul Realm and you're actually giving me such a hard time. But all that power is pointless if you can't use it in the first place."

His sword was coated in a blend of his icy energy, his destructive essence and his prismatic flames but despite the damage potential this fusion held, I remained calm and sent out arrays of spells using different elements to hold him off.

I had a sure-fire way to deal with him, something that I could not enact in reality due to my lack of affinity, and the stupendous energy consumption.

"I believe I said this before.

That within this Realm…I am god."

Evan's sword cut through the air so fast that all I saw was a blur, but before it could reach me—

"Time, Be Still."

—the world around me turned monochrome.