Speed Is King

The fate of the Shadow Realm hinged upon one thing - how quickly Blytoros could defeat the Octopus God.

If he failed to do so in time, his late victory would lose all meaning if the massive octopus army wiped out his troops and dispersed to do the same to his nearly defenseless Kingdoms within the Shadow Realm.

But the Octopus God was proving to be an extremely resilient enemy. Despite being burned over and over again by the powerful meteors that landed upon it, it simply refused to die.

In fact, it seemed to be taunting Blytoros slightly as it sent its tentacles to try and wrap around his limbs.

Having learnt his lesson, Blytoros did not slice the tentacles away. Instead, he got his clones to deftly grab hold of those tentacles and struggled to tie them up together!

If they weren't emitting so much power that could easily turn normal Primals to dust, Elliot might even find their fight slightly hilarious.

But one glance at the massively powerful meteors smashing onto the Octopus, and dealing minimal damage to it, smothered any sense of mirth before they could bloom.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The utterly massive Blytoros unleashed his blue flamed meteors unceasingly upon the Octopus.

"I REFUSE TO BELIEVE YOU CAN WITHSTAND MY IGNITED SPIRITUAL FIRE FOR MUCH LONGER!" Blytoros roared as even more meteors appeared from every single direction and hurtled towards the Octopus God.

One particularly large one which burned an ominous violet flame also appeared in the distance.

It dwarfed the other meteors by a factor of at least a hundred to one, and its intense violet flame even caused Elliot's clone to feel slightly threatened.

Upon seeing the massive meteor, the Octopus God finally became serious. It withdrew its tentacles from Blytoros and started grabbing nearby blue flamed meteors to throw at the violet meteor!

In doing so, the tentacles that grabbed the blue flamed meteors were quickly rendered completely useless as the blue flames scorched and burned them into crisp.

But by sacrificing his tentacles, the Octopus God managed to slow the advance of the violet meteor, and even reduce its size by a significant thirty percent!

A choice now presented itself to both Elliot and Elise. Should they help the Octopus and reduce the strength of the violet flame meteor? Or should they help Blytoros by immobilizing the Octopus so it could take the full brunt of the meteor's attack?

"The octopus realm has a secret backer. I think we should eliminate the octopus first. The Shadow Realm is pretty much crippled anyway with all of our clones about to destroy thousands of their main military production planets." Elliot suggested.

"Do not underestimate the other Gods of the Shadow Realm. I think we should kill Blytoros right here if possible. Strengthen that Banshee God as much as possible and allow it to challenge and hopefully destroy the other Shadow Realm Gods as well." Elise Sands said quickly.

"Hmmmm. How about we kill them both? Two dead Gods are two less Gods we have to deal with." Elliot said as he looked at the looming meteor thoughtfully. "I am pretty sure I can recreate that strange fire to deal with all the other octopuses in the octopus realm.

"Banshees. They are called banshees." Elise Sands remarked dryly.

"Banshee octopuses." Elliot corrected his words rather absentmindedly as his mind raced to figure out a way to create spiritual fire.

"Spiritual fire is something that only life forms belonging to the lower realms can produce." Elise Sands started to say. She was about to say, "You can't do it." When she caught herself and kept quiet instead.

With Elliot that love child between Fate and Lady Luck, anything can happen!

Elliot frowned deeply and put on a very serious look even as the violet meteor streaked across space and ate up the distance between the octopus banshee and itself at an incredible rate.

Elise Sands nodded in approval.

"That's how it should be." She thought to herself. "It would be beyond insane if he could produce spirit fire even as a life form of the neutral, main realm."

The seconds ticked by and Elliot's frown only grew deeper and deeper.

KABOOOMM!!!!

The violet meteor finally smashed onto the octopus banshee who had tried to escape, but to no avail as the meteor adjusted its trajectory perfectly in real time to maintain collision course onto her!

The violet flames surged out of the meteor's point of impact and swept across the octopus banshee's entire body, completely lighting her up in flames.

SCREEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYY!!! SCREEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYAAA!!

The octopus banshee shrieked in pain and in anger. The fact that she still had the strength to be angry simply proved one thing very clearly.

The violet meteor's clean hit wasn't strong enough to be a killing blow.

Although gravely injured, the octopus banshee was still very much alive!

And pissed off to the maximum!

"Ah!" Elliot finally cried out.

"Gave up? I told you only life forms from the lower realm can create spirit fire. It's impossible for a life form from our realm to produce spirit fire." Elise Sands said with relief. She didn't think her heart could take it if Elliot turned out to be capable of somehow creating spirit fire.

It was just too unfair for her and the rest of the plebeians who weren't the secret love child of Fate and Lady Luck if he was to be able to do that.

"Gave up? Of course not." Elliot said in surprise. "I already know how to create spirit fire. I was just struggling to include the principles from the Ascendant Rune into them to give them a power boost. Seeing that violet flamed meteor crash onto the octopus banshee gave me an inspiration. I think I get it now!"

Elise Sands' face turned pale and her heart started to pound in excitement and no small amount of jealousy.

"It can't be." She whispered to herself weakly. "After so many unfair advantages and unmatched power within this realm, don't tell me he has the power to create and upgrade cross-realm spells as well??"

She closed her eyes and didn't dare to ask him what exactly he "got".

But in any case, she didn't need to ask.

"I know how to make everburning spirit fire!" Elliot exclaimed excitedly.

Blearghhhhhhhh.

Elise Sands vomited blood.