The Laughing Swordsman

A massive wave of energy had shot out from the large ball of condensed purple and green energy in Hex's hands, straight towards the old man.

An earth-shattering explosion resounded.

The purple and green energy combined into one large wave of destruction that spread out like a cone.

A massive pit had formed before Hex. A nearby tree creaked a little before snapping off, then tumbled down the pit.

There was no trace of the old man within.

"Your insolence has gone too far."

But that was because he dodged.

The old man appeared several meters high up into the sky, as though there was some invisible flat ground he was standing on. Not even a second before the purple and green energy reached him, his figure distorted, allowing him to escape the blast radius.

Hex looked up to the old man.

"Me is stronger."

The old man responded with an empty smile.

"You seem rather certain, despite speaking such foolish words."

Hex shrugged his shoulders.

"No you."

The old man narrowed his eyes and chuckled.

"I suppose there is only one way to find out."

His aura suddenly changed, making the air feel heavy. Three black creatures materialized behind him. Their bodies seemed to consist of black flames, but the way the tongues of flame danced was rather slow, making it clearly different.

Each of the creatures had eyes and a smile that were both glowing white. Their eyes were a circle, while their smiles were wide with a very simple overall shape, like standard shapes.

The creature on the left resembled a dragon. Relative to other dragons, it was on the smaller side, but was still several times larger than the old man. Normally, most looking at the figure of a dragon would feel awe, but the strange smile distorted the image too much. It inspired both power, and fear.

The creature on the right resembled a phoenix. The size of the phoenix itself was also on the smaller side, but still dwarfed the dragon because what appeared to be black flames extended far out from its body. Normally, it would look majestic, but now, it looked like it was sneering.

The creature in the middle looked relatively humanoid. The only reason it didn't appear to be a human, was because of the six prominent horns on its head. In other words, it resembled a demon. Those that understood what six horns meant would almost all be afraid. However, the smile made it give off more of a strange fear.

Unsettling not because of the power behind it, but a strange sense of mischievousness.

Hex pouted.

In reality, he was stalling this entire time, hoping to restore his energy as much as possible.

The old man actually knew that Hex was attempting to stall, but in a sense, he too was also trying to stall. The old man needed to gather his energy from outside sources that could be compared to a battery.

The power was there, but he still needed to take it out.

As for Hex, his body was trying to digest the yellow crystals he ate from when the houses came to life in the Obrad Empire. Those things weren't designed for eating, making them especially hard for Hex to digest.

However, he had gained large amounts of energy because of them.

This could be clearly seen from how he directly passed out the first time he combined with Blackie, while the second time, he only felt a little tired.

Nonetheless, Hex knew he couldn't stall anymore.

"Blackie!"

His shadow wrapped around his body, combining with Blackie once more. His face was immediately obscured by a shadow while glowing blue eyes and mouth formed on his face.

The features of the three creatures and Hex were not too different.

However, it appeared they couldn't reconcile despite being so similar.

The creature with six horns slowly raised one of its hands. As for the creature that resembled a phoenix raised its head, as though preparing for something. The last creature, the one that looked like a dragon, directly charged towards Hex, emanating a heavy pressure.

It roared, but the sound was heavily distorted. In fact, the dragon's jaw didn't move, almost like it was forbidden to stop smiling.

As for Hex, he took to the air and rapidly retreated. His sleeve slowly pulled back, or more accurately, something came out. A black wrinkly hand with unnaturally long fingernails was revealed.

The creature that appeared like a dragon was slower than Hex. However, it was not helpless. The dragon was over ten meters away, but then its head shot forward.

It was as though the dragon was either made out of elastic or moldable clay. Its neck was stretched to its limits, becoming a thin string.

The head reached Hex in less than a second, but before its head would collide with him, he disappeared altogether.

Hex materialized to the side of the dragon's neck and slashed with his black hand.

Although it did not make direct contact, the dragon's neck was slashed into several pieces, while the ground underneath was slashed apart as well, leaving several black marks.

While the size was nothing like the other times Hex slashed, it still contained quite a bit of power.

However, the dragon itself was not dead.

Its head turned around while hovering in the middle of the air. As for the body, one of the claws raised, attempting to slash Hex.

Hex paused for a moment, seemingly hesitating. However, he made up his mind in less than a second.

Hex pulled out his other hand, though it wasn't really a hand.

After all, there was no flesh. Instead, there were pearly white bones that moved flexibly despite the lack of muscle.

Hex pulled back both hands before letting them snap out.

The black hand tore the dragon's body into pieces while the skeletal hand greatly deformed the dragon's head, turning it into a thin line.

The dragon was no more.

But then, the phoenix acted.