"It really has been a while since we last sparred, hasn’t it? And given the new abilities we’ve both obtained since, it’ll be interesting to see how this goes," I remarked, cracking my knuckles.

"Yeah, but given how laid-back you look, I’m guessing you’re pretty convinced that you’ll still win, aren’t you?" Cleo surmised with a wry smile.

"Well...yeah. Of course, since I want to test out Spirit Fusion here, I won’t be able to use Descent concurrently. I’m not going to use Desecrator either, I want to focus on Spirit Fusion in this bout. Also, besides the Apostle I use Spirit Fusion with, I won’t summon any of the others during this bout," I informed her.

"Not sure how much of a difference that’ll make to my odds of beating you. You may not be able to use Descent, but I’m in the same boat, I can’t stack Spirit Fusion with Monstrification," She sighed wistfully.

"Yeah, true. Alright, enough talking...it’s time to see how this goes, so let’s get started," I suggested, a sense of anticipation welling up inside me.

"No objections here."

"Now, then...<Spirit Fusion, Apostle of Sloth: Acedia>!" I chanted, a burst of electric energy erupting around me.

Electric dark blue scales formed all over my face and body, my teeth and nails extending into claws as a pair of wings and a tail appeared, my power surging intensely.

"Oh, I thought you’d go for one of Avaritia or Gula instead," Responded Cleo in surprise.

"Yeah, well...I’ve always wanted to use lightning-based attacks, so yeah," I grinned sheepishly, before adding, "Of course, I’m not done yet. <Enrage>."

A grimacing smile appeared on Cleo’s face as dark purple energy burst out and swirled around me, steadily settling as my power surged further.

"That’s one hell of an intimidating Aura...now, my turn. <Spirit Fusion, Atomiguana: Nuke>!"

A burst of hot, stinging energy erupted around her as jet-black scales spread out across her entire body, along with wings and a tail.

Several spots across the scales cracked open, a deep, dark blue glow shining out of the cracks, her teeth and nails extending into fangs and claws.

A loud smack rang out as she whipped her tail down and slapped it against the floor, cracking her neck with a tilt of her head.

She opened her Item Box and took out Incisio, her Personalis Arma gloves, slipping them on and chanting...

"<Mana Claws>."

Three blades of Mana appeared over either set of her knuckles-...hm? The hue of the blades looks different to how they looked before, it looks a lot closer to the hue of the glow shining out of the cracks between her scales.

I lifted my gaze as she shot up into the air and swooped down towards me, whipping her right arm across and firing three slashing waves of energy towards me.

I took a swift step back and manifested the jaws of Ravage, swallowing up the slashes as they closed in...just as I thought, this isn’t purely Mana, there’s something else mixed in.

I extended Ravage forward, expanding the jaws wide as Cleo closed in. She veered up the jaws snapped shut, evading them and snapping her jaws open.

The glow of the dark blue cracks all over her body sharply intensified as blue energy swirled inside her mouth, before unleashing it in a rapid, powerful blast.

I quickly shuffled across to my left, the blast shooting over my right shoulder and past the side of my face, stinging my skin as it grazed me before crashing onto the floor behind me and erupting powerfully.

I see, so this is what atomic energy feels like, it certainly does sting quite a bit.

<Well, yeah, that was a concentrated blast of radiation, of course it’s going to sting>

Yes...I knew that.

<Sure you did>

<It shouldn’t have any lasting effects against you or Ariella since you’re immortal, and any such effect should be relatively minimal against Jaden and Ciel as well, but...>

<She should definitely avoid using this power around most others>

I’ll be sure to mention it to her after we’re done sparring. For right now, I need to focus...

I unleashed a crackling bolt of lightning towards Cleo, who zipped up into the air to evade it, the bolt narrowly missing her right foot.

As I fired several dancing streaks of lightning up towards her, her entire body began glowing with an intense dark blue hue, before an intense atomic burst erupted around her, canceling out my lightning.

She then took aim and unleashed a flurry of atomic projectiles towards me, peppering the floor as I raced across while charging Negative Energy and lightning into my left hand, before coming to a swift halt and whipping my arms across.

I unleashed a rapid slash of Negative Energy crackling with intense lightning, grazing Cleo’s right side as she swerved across to the left, grimacing slightly as I inflicted a shallow cut across her scales and drew out a trickle of blood.

The cut swiftly closed up, before she whipped both arms out, firing six atomic slashes towards me.

As I swallowed up the attack with Ravage, she switched her Mana Claws to Mana Blades, the three claws over each of her hands combining into one and lengthening.

She swung her right arm across, firing a wider, faster slashing wave, as she shot towards me, an intense glow gleaming around her entire body.

I manifested Void, generating a large black hole with a powerful gravitational pull, forcing Cleo to come to an abrupt halt.

As the glow around her body intensified sharply, I deactivated Void and backed away as fast as I could, right as a devastating atomic shockwave exploded around Cleo.

As the blast barreled towards me, I quickly activated Ravage: Cloak, shadowy black and misty white energy swirling around me and enveloping my entire body, absorbing the force and energy of the shockwave before it could hit me. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Her atomic attacks are certainly troublesome...but I can handle it.

And now that I’ve seen what she’s capable of with this Spirit Fusion, it’s time to take a more aggressive approach...