"It's ready!"
As soon as Alia sensed the newly born flame from Shui, she borrowed it through the bond they shared and used it to confront the fallen.
"Good. Now to teach this rude beast how to sit. Tribulation of Spirit."
Alia spread her arms wide, and hundreds of weapons condensed from Shui's heavenly void flame hovered above the fallen. Even the Masters who were on the same side as Shui and Alia, backed away in fear from the aura radiating off of the heavenly void flame. It was more than just a fear of death; it was a fear they were familiar with because they were Masters. Though faint, the heavenly void flame carried the aura of divine judgement, the same aura they sensed when they went through the tribulation to become Masters.
Danger alarms rang inside the fallen's head, but it knew there was no escape, so it fired black beams of light to intercept the weapons. However, it was futile. The heavenly void flame could not be affected by the black beams and plunged towards the fallen without facing a shred of resistance. Like nails on a block of wood, the heavenly void flame pinned the fallen to the ground and roasted its flesh without mercy. Even Shui's mental strength was superior to the fallen's, so naturally Alia had no issue triggering the tribulation flame's destruction.
[Will this kill it?]
[No, your tribulation fire is still too weak to kill a fallen, but I should be able to create a seal strong enough to keep it suppressed for at least a century.]
[I suppose that'll have to do. I'll keep it from bothering you.]
[Good. I'll try to make this quick.]
As Alia approached the aflame fallen to seal it, Shui summoned a spirit-rank sword artifact from his storage ring and dashed towards the fallen. Though it was burning, the fallen could still create tentacles from the edges of its body to attack. The tentacles would only last for a few moments before melting away, but the period was long enough to strike any of its threats. Shui cut through those tentacles with ease while the Masters regained their composure and joined the attack.
"It's almost finished! Keep it restrained!"
The reckless ferocity of the fallen and its spatial transfer ability made its attacks difficult to predict, but Shui found himself able to react with surprising ease. Even in peak condition, he doubted he could have reacted as well because the speed of the fallen's tentacles was comparable to his top speed.
'Could it be that my soul...?'
Deciding to take a risk, Shui surrounded himself with a wall of tribulation fire and used mental control to manipulate his body. The headache that he tried to ignore transformed into an aching pain across his entire body, but he gritted his teeth and swung his sword at a tentacle that charged at him from a gap in space. As the tendrils of his soul stretched throughout his vessel, Shui's perception of his immediate surroundings drastically improved. He could even feel the specks of dust blowing against his skin. From this, Shui could tell two things: his soul cultivation had improved, and he was very close to attaining Soul Perfection.
'This must be the effect of interacting with the natural laws of fire. Perfect timing.'
Determined to reach Soul Perfection in this battle, Shui charged towards the fallen and severed all the tentacles in sight.
"Ethereal Blade Method, Speed Form, First Stance: Instant"
He cloaked his sword in his heart flame to prevent the tentacles from re-emerging quickly and then extended its reach to carve into the fallen's body. Neither blood nor flesh could escape the heavenly void flame, and with Alia's seal gradually inching closer to completion, even the fallen's dull mind could see its impending defeat. However, it vehemently refused to accept that outcome and unleashed the power it gained from absorbing the energy of the land.
"!"
The fallen's desperate screech created shockwaves that flattened the ground and killed all life too weak to resist it within thousands of feet around the city. The Masters believed this to be its last struggle and redoubled their efforts to restrain it, but Shui sensed a change in the air and immediately retreated.
"Move—"
Before the words could leave Shui's mouth, countless tears in space appeared around the fallen. Judging by how unstable the spatial distortions were, this didn't seem to be a technique that the fallen could control, but the damage it produced was undeniable. Alia was safe thanks to how close she was to the fallen, but two of the four Masters were torn apart, while the other two were seriously wounded as a result of the spatial tears. Their barriers had no effect in stopping the distortions; the two Masters that lived were simply lucky, but the lives saved by luck wouldn't last much longer. Before space was restored, even Shui didn't dare to approach, nor could the Masters escape the fallen's reach.
"Gah!"
"N, no!"
With the dying screams of the Maiden Academy Master and the remaining Argentwave Master, Shui was the only one left who could restrain the fallen until Alia completed the seal. As soon as space was restored, Shui dived towards the fallen, but it now focused on only him. Shui could still manage to dodge its tentacles, but the chances for counterattacks became few and far between. He was wary of it disrupting the local space again, but he believed that as long as he kept its attention, Alia would eventually succeed in sealing it. However, the fallen wasn't so lost in rage that it forgot the true threat.
Seeing that it couldn't catch Shui, the fallen diverted some of its tentacles towards Alia. Naturally, this wasn't something Shui could overlook. By quickly entering the harmonic trinity state, Shui blew through the tentacles and protected Alia, but he couldn't maintain this state for any longer because he didn't have enough divine energy. Since dodging was no longer an option, Shui switched his blade to Sui and efficiently sliced through every tentacle that tried to reach Alia. However, despite being on fire and slowly losing volume, the fallen's regeneration was still fearsome. Even if he could cut through the tentacles in front of him with one slash, a greater number would await him the next moment. Furthermore, the fallen's tentacles seemed to get tougher with every wave as it realised that simply regenerating them wouldn't be enough. To an ordinary viewer there wasn't any delay in Shui's sword, but he could tell that microseconds were being chipped from his speed.
'I can't continue like this. I need to put more power into my attacks, but how?'
It wasn't enough to simply extend Sui or make it heavier; he needed a way to transform all of his force into power that would smash through the fallen's tentacles without resistance. He needed a new technique.
Once Shui saw the need for a new technique, he scanned through the knowledge he gained from the Primordial Library. Even he couldn't master a suitable technique in this situation, but he could take inspiration to form his own. The strength of his grip, the angle he swung his blade, the shifts in his stance, the balance of his weapon; the moment Shui found inspiration, he immediately made adjustments to his attacks. He didn't always improve, but martial intent ensured that he found the optimal motions in at most three attempts. Slowly, an image began to form in his head, but the fallen wasn't willing to wait for him to complete it. Sensing that the seal would soon be complete, it paused for a moment before erupting with enough tentacles to cover the sky.
"I guess it's now or never."