Seth immediately realized he had the advantage and took that opportunity to try landing a heavy blow on his enemy, but Velgor’s figure silently and unceremoniously disappeared, like he was a smooth and illusory shadow. 

From behind his back, Seth felt the presence of a few tentacles coming out of the floor and was forced to bring his weapon down, smiting the floor together with those tentacles. 

Bang! 

While Seth’s greatsword was buried underneath, Velgor’s body reappeared in the air above him, creating a huge sub-space from where a hundred meters wide hand, completely made of shadows and darkness, appeared. Just after it left that sub-space, it extended all the way towards Seth, trying to smash him down on that destroyed ground. 

It was at those times, that the Shadow Walk came in hand. 

A curtain of shadow formed around Seth and he used the dark teleportation technique to move away from that area, but when her left the sub-space that he had to open in order to teleport, there was another blackened hand, already waiting for him there. 

With a twist of his weapon, Seth easily smashed that hand apart while using its raw power, but impressively, when he looked sideways, he saw Velgor’s silhouette delivering him a quick kick.

Since he wouldn’t be able to relocate his greatsword to counterattack now, Seth used one of his arms to stop that kick, but at that moment, another hand of darkness that Velgor had swiftly released, struck Seth’s body, sending him flying for a few meters and crashing on the floor. 

Bang! 

But the Demon Emperor didn’t even had time to analyze the situation, before Seth’s body came flying back twice as faster as the velocity that he was sent flying away. 

Seth’s figure reappeared before Velgor, bringing his sword down at his head. 

The Demon Emperor quickly used that hand of darkness to defend himself against that incoming greatsword strike, but it wasn’t able to resist the physical force it contained and that black hand shattered. 

Velgor immediately covered his whole body in a very smooth and different shadow, before receiving the impact from his enemy’s weapon. His body was sent hurtling through the air, but before he even reached the ground, those shadows dissipated and his figure was revealed. He was perfectly fine, like no amount of physical strength would be able to do something to him. There was something special on his darkness attribute, a smoothness it shouldn’t have. 

Seth on the other hand, had suffered some injuries after taking that strike. However, a light green energy started to circled around his body, swiftly healing his wounds and bringing him back to top condition. 

Up until that moment, it seemed they were identifying each other’s weakness and strong points. 

Seth felt surprised that a physical strike from his greatsword was totally ineffective against Velgor. Those smooth shadows that he had used to envelop his body, were on a totally different level. 

As for Velgor… He felt surprised to discover how deep were the secrets that Seth had been hiding from him. A way to destroy the Banshee Crystal Core and free Serene; a heavy and threatening greatsword that could fatally injure him, if he were to be careless and now, a strong self-healing energy. He could only wonder how many more secrets Seth was actually hiding and get jealous over the fact he couldn’t have all of that for himself anymore. 

Seth’s Evergreen essence green light vanished and he was back to the game. But instead of moving forward in order to attack Velgor again, he suddenly held his greatsword with both his hands and made it instantly lit on fire. 

Velgor felt something different. Every single time that greastword was involved, he sensed a danger that he has never felt before in his life. 

The flames enveloping the greatsword suddenly intensified and changed to a scarlet color. Just that simple change in colors, in that single brief moment, was enough to exponentially increase the dangerous feeling the Demon Lord felt coming from that weapon. 

When Seth’s greatsword was thoroughly charged with those corrupted flames, he lifted it and abruptly made it descend towards the ground. 

Right before it hit the floor, he suddenly yelled: “Crimson Inferno!” 

BANG! 

Crack! Crack! Crack! 

When the blade of his bone sword connected to the ground, instead of thoroughly destroying it, hundreds of thousands of thin spider-web-cracks expanded from the tip of his weapon, moving through the ground and swiftly covering the whole valley. The longest crack had easily surpassed the twenty kilometers mark, totally sealing every single route Velgor could take apart from the air. 

But for Seth, that wouldn’t be a problem, since his skill would be encompassing the sky as well. 

Suddenly, a crimson light shone from inside those cracks and a violent fire erupted, coming from deep inside the earth and surging upwards with a great hatred. Those initially thin cracks were widened as soil and flames enragedly burned together. 

Swoosh! 

BOOM! 

The entire valley suffered a massive explosion, as if the seed of hell had just germinated there, creating a situation very similar to what was like in the interior of the Fire Labyrinth. Thousands of crimson walls of fire, sent the soil and everything that stood on top of it flying upwards, incinerating everything at the same time. 

The Demon Emperor stood right at the center of that raging crimson inferno, with flames assaulting his body from every single one of the four directions. He felt like he was standing right on top of the mouth of an erupting volcano. 

Velgor could actually flee from that area while repeatedly using the Shadow Walk to relocate his body to an area where those flames couldn’t reach him, but he wanted to kill Seth more than anything, and fleeing from his technique would be a humiliation he would never accept. Other than that, repeatedly teleporting would waste a lot of Mana, even more than using a skill to defend himself. 

That’s why he chose to deal with that ability while using a concentrated defensive darkness technique. 

“Touch of Darkness.” 

Taking his body as the center, shadows wildly danced around of him, expanding and swallowing those crimson flames to oblivion as they moved to every single direction. His Mana Sovereign middle-stage Realm cultivation, supported his dark elemental ability perfectly, making his shadows fight tooth by tooth with Seth’s crimson flames. However, he felt that he had to put thrice the effort to wipe those flames out, in comparison to any other type of flaming arts that came from ancient inheritances. 

Velgor didn’t want to think what that implied, but he knew that Seth’s flames had to at least be stronger than flames from an ancient beast like the Phoenix, for them to have that effect. 

While he was defending and counterattacking Seth’s skill, Velgor suddenly saw hundreds of red lights twinkling through the corner of his eyes. Immediately, his senses captured many objects approaching him from the side with a high speed. 

When he turned his head to look, he saw hundreds of spiraling crimson spikes hurtling through the air and penetrating his defensive shadows to reach him. The energy inside those spikes was overbearing, that they would require him to use another skill to extinguish their power. 

Velgor made a motion with his right hand, tightly closing his fingers and a giant hand made of darkness elemental energy, appeared beside those spikes, copying his gesture and crushing the spikes inside of it. At the same time, it opened a sub-space, swallowing that crimson energy inside that dark abyss. 

But at that moment, when Velgor was concentrated into defending against two abilities at once, Seth’s body abruptly appeared behind of him. That usage of the Shadow Walk was so perfect, so clean, that Velgor wasn’t prepared for it. 

Seth’s greatsword smashed Velgor’s defensive layer of Mana away and descended at full force at his back, but when it was about to connect with his body, a strange smooth shadow appeared in between them, completely soothing the force of the impact and nullifying the energy behind that move. 

Velgor smiled, but before he could even do anything else, he saw Seth’s figure shifting positions together with his greatsword once again, appearing right in front of the Demon Emperor, where there weren’t any shadows covering his body. 

Seth was totally prepared this time, even going as far as predicting that those strange shadows would appear at the critical juncture. But now, he was staring at the unprotected Demon Emperor’s chest, with his weapon already moving to deliver him a great gift. 

Seth’s greatsword came down with full force, threatening to smash Velgor’s body to tiny bit, but just as it touched his clothes, his silhouette suddenly vanished, appearing right behind Seth. 

“Did you really think you were the only one that could do it?” 

There was a spiraling darkness rotating around Velgor’s entire left arm and just as he reappeared, he moved it towards Seth’s back, not giving him any chance to move away from that attack.