Even when his pain was killing him from within, Michael's brain still functioned, telling him not to scream no matter what. If he were to scream before the fire giant reached the ritual ground, it would prematurely attract the girl or worse, a professor.

  "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" the fire giant's scream sounded closer and closer. He could feel the ground beneath him tremble violently.

  "How long does he have to go through this?!" he could vaguely hear Gaya's outcry

  "RUN!" Nightmare shout sounded in his mind. With great difficulty, he looked up. His vision was not as clear as it used to be a few moments ago. The X-ray vision, the arch energy, and the strength he possessed were nowhere to be found.

  It made sense as the system informed him that his arch energy flow had been interrupted. He was in a most vulnerable position. If anyone chose to attack him, he would be defenseless. Even a Foundation stage cultivator with a dagger could end his life let alone a fire giant of Soul Refining stage level 8.

  The girl who slew the mountain troll was at Fusion stage level 2. If his guess was correct, the Fire giant would reach the Fusion stage after merging with the third piece of the soul.

  "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!" he felt a scorching hot smoke brush past him. The splitters came flying from the broken trees causing several cuts on his face. His blood slowly painted his face red. What stood before him was a fire giant standing over five meters tall. It was a thick limbed humanoid with deep crimson red skin.

  Its eyes were sunken into their sockets, glimmering in golden yellow. The giant's hair resembled fire, disorderly with streaks of orange and yellow, whereas its claws and teeth resembled fire-blackened steel.

  Despite their physical form, fire giants possessed the intellect of a human. Hence, when it saw glowing crimson red chakra, the giant realized that it stepped into a trap.

  However, instead of backing off, it charged forth targeting Michael.

  "NOW RELEASE!" Elidyr shouted the moment the giant stepped into the chakra. The shout was directed at Michael and he knew it.

  "ARRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!" His scream was ear piercing. The sound-absorbing array Elidyr absorbed the scream and prevented anyone from the castle from hearing it.

  The human part of his scream quickly turned demonic.

  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" A demonic voice shouted within him.

  It rendered everyone including the fire giant stunned. Powerful sound waves shot out of Michael and pushed everyone around him several steps backward.

  Elidyr was dazed by the power. Something little such as a shout contained enough force to crush a Body Refining stage cultivator. He could not even fathom the power he would possess after reaching his full potential.

  Steady herself, she saw an ethereal figure resembling Michael's Lucifer form arising from within.

  "GET"

  Michael grabbed his head as blood started to seep through his eyes.

  For the first time, he saw the third persona manifest. A ghostly chain was still connecting the both of them. Michael grabbed the chain as his lips curved upwards.

  "OUT!" He crushed the chain, finally releasing the third persona out.

  "NOW!" Michael vaguely heard another shout from Elidyr. But this time, it was directed towards Gaya. The longbow and arrow materialized in her hand and both of them glowed brighter and brighter, radiating immense power.

  A web of tiny symbols could be seen on her bow and the arrow. The runes Elidyr placed on the arrow would boost the arrow's power. Although the arrow wouldn't be able to kill the fire giant, the arrow would temporarily weaken it.

  In the weak state, the third piece of the soul would be sent into the fire giant's body relatively easily. Otherwise, the fire giant's body would explode due to the power of the soul.

  "YOU IMBECILE!"

  Gaya saw the ethereal figure scream at Michael trying to reach him whereas the glowing chakra began to rotate faster and faster.

  Boom!

  The arrow fired from Gaya's bow broke the sound barrier. In a blink of an eye, the arrow went straight through the fire giant's chest.

  "Grrrrrrrrrrrr!"

  The fire giant's shout sounded quieter than they expected. From the wound caused by the arrow, a bubble of blood dropped onto the chakra.

  The next moment, a powerful gust of wind knocked down all the trees in the five-meter radius. It didn't stop with a gust of wind but the rotating chakra created a mini typhoon. Every tree, splinters, log, and object in the vicinity got pulled into the typhoon. Nightmare felt the pull but he managed to fly to Gaya using all of his strength.

  Gaya on the other hand held onto a tree with all her might. Elidyr managed to stand still without being pulled by the typhoon using a rune.

  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

  The third persona screamed again. Little by little, it got pulled towards the fire giant. Michael's vision gradually blurred until he saw nothing but darkness.

  "HUMAN!" Gaya shouted when she saw Michael collapse onto the ground,

  On the other hand, the fire demon's golden eyes turned pitch black.

  "AWAY!" Elidyr raised his hand at the fire giant. A golden chakra shot out of Elidyr's hand and flew towards the fire giant. When the fire giant and the golden chakra clashed, a bright beam of golden light exploded. Their eyes were made to close by the brightness. When they opened their eyes, the fire giant along with the crimson red chakra on the ground and the typhoon disappeared.

  Gaya finally fell to the ground. The moment she hit the ground, she rushed towards Michael. She slid through the mud and splinters to reach him. She picked up his head and put it on her lap. Nightmare landed beside him with his two eyes welled up with tears.

  "He's not breathing!" Gaya shook his body,

  "Ghosty" Nightmare scratched his arms with his mouth,

  "Now it all depends on the girl," Elidyr sighed, looking at the distant horizon.

  **********************************

  Somewhere else in the Akilan Realm, a giant palace was floating above the clouds. The palace was basking in the light of the full moon. This was the residency of the Holy Maiden, The Ice Palace. As the name indicates, the palace was made of nothing but pure ice. Only the Holy Maiden could inhabit such a harsh environment,

  In the center of the palace where the snowy mist was covering as far as an eye could see, Rowena was meditating. Her eyes opened abruptly as they twinkled like sapphires.

  "Fire Giant"

  She mumbled. In a few moments, another figure came running to Rowena,

  "Holy Maiden, a fire giant has appeared in the black forest" Bai Ning exclaimed.

  Rowena already stood up, the icy swords attached to chains materialized in her hands. There was no door in the palace. She just walked towards a wall but the wall split open as she approached

  "Holy Maiden, we need a plan of attack" Bai Ning tried to stop Rowena from blindly rushing into a battle.

  At first, when Bai Ning sensed the fire giant, its power was over the roof. The fire giant was unusually powerful and that was what made Bai Ning worried.

  "I have a plan, attack" Rowena shot out through the hole breaking the sound barrier.

  Her figure disappeared into the clouds while Bai Ning followed her behind. The old woman could barely keep up with the Holy Maiden.

  "Order Mazeroth to stay away from the fire giant"

  It was the last thing Bai Ning heard before Rowena's figure completely disappeared from her sight.

  Rowena was flying like a bullet towards the black forest. She spread her senses to locate the fire giant and it only took a second to pinpoint its location.

  The fire giant was wreaking havoc in the black forest. It was destroying every tree and everything in its path. Rowena increased her speed. She had sensed the unusual power radiating from the fire giant yet it didn't stop her.

  The arch energy radiated from the fire giant was fluctuating. One time, it was at Fusion stage level 2, and another time, it was at Soul Refining stage level 10.

  "YOU!"

  She was slightly stunned in mid-air when the fire giant directed its gaze at her and talked like a human. The fire giant now possessed by Michael's broken piece of the soul threw its fist at Rowena.

  Covering her fist with chilling ice, she met the fire giant's fist with her fist.

  Boom!

  The moment their fists collided, it produced a powerful shockwave that decimated everything in a twenty-meter radius. The ancient trees exploded into million pieces.

  Rowena landed on the ground comfortably while the fire giant stumped back several steps.

  Rowena cracked her knuckles,

  The fire growled angrily before steadying itself. There was at least ten meters distance between them. For a few seconds, neither of them made a single move as they just stared at each other. Regardless of her puny form, the fire giant did not dare to underestimate her. After all, the soul piece posing the fire giant was part of Michael and inherited his intellect.

  Therefore, instead of rushing into the battle like big dumb, it looked around, planning in its mind. In Rowena's mind, she had gone through hundreds of scenarios of their battle.

  Although she won the battle in many of the scenarios, she still didn't underestimate the fire giant because of two reasons; first, she had no clear idea about the fire giant's abilities. Of course, she studied about the fire giant but something told her that this fire giant was different from the ones she read about.

  The second reason, the energy being radiated from the fire giant wasn't purely arch energy, it was something much much more powerful.

  After several moments of staring at each other, they finally started to run toward each other.

  From the distance, Victoria and Edith were looking at the fire giant along with all the other students. Every single one was woken up by the sound and came to the balcony to witness the battle. Unfortunately, they could only see the head of the fire giant but not Rowena due to the physical forms.

  "Let's dance" with a battle cry, Rowena jumped into the air raising her fist.