"Edict of Time, Echoes of Reverie, Mind Acceleration!"
Orion burst forward, his speed doubled in this state, smashing his greatsword together as Ratella moved out of the way. His enhanced cognition allowed him to briefly react to his blows by just a hair slipping under Orion's greatsword. He flew to the other end of the arena swiftly, analyzing and thinking of a strategy in a split second to grasp the full extent of Orion's newfound power.
Orion didn't plan on giving him any time; he threw his greatsword straight at his head. He parried the greatsword with his wings, causing it to impact against the wall, nearly bringing it down on their heads. Ratella burst forward, charging the foe, trading blows with him. No matter how many strikes he landed, Orion wouldn't falter for a moment. He had yet to be hit by Orion, but if one landed, it would most likely mean certain death; the force behind each blow from the giant was staggering, definitely enough to break all the bones in his body simultaneously.
They were trading blows at an overwhelming pace. There was no opportunity to retreat and think the conflict through again. He would have to think of something on the fly.
Ratella rooted two of his wings into the floor below, locking himself into the conflict, not allowing much movement. He positioned the other two high above his head, a risky plan running through his mind.
Each blow thrown by Orion had a split-second opening between them; he waited for his opening, capitalizing on the slight mistake made by the now mindless Orion. Using his wings rooted to the floor, he launched himself upwards, morphing his wings into the perfect blades for slicing through the tough material. Orion's hands came to grab his legs, but were cleaved from the joint by his wings, turning him into a wheel of death, cleaving Orion in half.
The speed from his enhanced wings and the momentum gained from launching off the ground with the aid of divinity provided just the right amount to deliver the finishing blow to Orion.
He wasn't unscathed, however, as he landed a flood of divinity poured from his mouth, a crushing pain emanating from his ribs. In their conflict, Orion had landed a blow to his ribs; the adrenaline and the spell of his Edict, ignoring the pain, filtered out every unnecessary feeling. Another weakness of his spell was that he would never know if he was bordering on death or not with the spell activated.
He clutched his ribs, standing over Orion's lifeless set of armor. He hadn't wished to kill him, but it was the only option in the heat of the moment. He placed his palm against Orion's armor, and the armor was completely cold to the touch.
"Edict of Time, Echoes of Reverie, Revert," declared Ratella, a blinding emerald light emulating the set of armor.
A large bronze clock appeared in the arena, destroying a portion of the wall, emerald threads of time connecting to Orion's armor, piecing it back together, slowly restoring the light to his armor. A collection of azure and violet energy encompassed by emerald thread was returned to his body, and the former lifeless armor rose once again, renewed by time.
"I died then?" asked Orion, looking around at his surroundings, the gauntlets of armor briefly touching his helmet, confirming his survival.
"I cleaved you in half; it was the only option that wouldn't lead to my certain death. I revived you by using my Edict. I'm sorry."
He still clutched his chest, his broken ribs causing him to whimper with each word. He had won the conflict but not flawlessly.
"You managed to defeat me in a matter of eight months while I've been training for centuries on end. Do not apologize for my own weakness."
"You are nothing close to weak; I am not unscathed, as you see. My power is extremely powerful, but it comes with drawbacks. I cannot sense when I am injured or bordering on death."
"I believe with my defeat, your training is over. I'll continue to guard Mammon with my life. I'll happily duel you once again if you wish for it."
Ratella helped Orion up, ignoring the pain it brought, coursing the divinity in his body to the wound to aid its recovery and dull the pain.
"I'm sure that Mammon will be safe in your care. Whether I leave or not is mostly up to Liliana's war plans."
The sound of the doors at the entrance of the arena banging against the walls echoed through the arena, as two figures ran towards them.
"What have you done to my pristine arena!? There are holes everywhere, and how did you even manage to do that!?" shouted Mammon, annoyance and fury laced all over his mind at the arena's sorry state.
His fury was warranted; their battle had completely wrecked the arena, and the summoned clock had carved a giant hole into the wall. It was a miracle that the room hadn't come crashing down upon them.
"All Mammon's cleaning every day for nothing. If you have any chemicals to fix this damage, I believe you could use them."
Liliana's words weren't welcome to Mammon's ears, raising his eyebrow in unnatural twisting with anger.
"I'm sorry about the damage, but I had no choice. I may have killed Orion and then used my Edict to bring him back, hence the massive clock-shaped hole in the wall," said Ratella nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, avoiding direct eye contact with Mammon.
"You beat him?" asked Liliana, a beaming smile appearing on her face.
"I suppose I can forgive the damage if you did it to save Orion, but don't think about doing it again. You know how hard it is to fix damaged walls when you're isolated from outside society."
The four moved back into the laboratory after Mammon's fury was quelled by Ratella's extensive apologies and promises of fixing it later. Their research on everlasting life, restoring Liliana's wings, and its other applications had eaten up every second of their time.
"Now you've completed your training and are no longer preoccupied every single minute of the day. Mammon and I want you to slay a formidable forsaken that inhabits this little island. By yourself."
"What's a forsaken? I've never heard of such a creature."