The next day, Faxul was interrupted in his training by a message from the king.
He knew that his best friend was occupied by some matter regarding the Big Four, and although he, himself, was very interested in mysteries, he had resisted the urge to ask whether he could join in as he had already set a goal for himself that he was ardently working towards.
Just a few days ago, before the incident where Daneel had broken through, Faxul had been pretty content in his power. Although he had been training with the technique that had been given to him which would bring out his Bloodline powers perfectly, he hadn't been too inclined to use every possible moment to train, and he had been spending quite a bit of time interacting with those from his Kingdom and finding out more about their problems.
He had assumed that his power would allow him to stay content in the fact that his friend had quite a lot of catching up to do, and hence, he had diverted his attention to things like these which he really liked doing.
As a result of that, he had gotten a better name in the Kingdom, as he had been seen going around and inquiring about the problems in even small villages and solving them right away with the resources that were being sent regularly from the Alliance headquarters. After all, they were now a part of the Alliance, so it was only to be expected that they would receive a portion of resources to spend on making the kingdom better.
Faxul knew that even though this amount of money was only a fraction of the large reserve that Daneel had obtained from multiple sources, it was all he could send without raising suspicion in those who might be regularly keeping a watch in the hopes that he might mess up and reveal something.
Of course, no one even probably expected that the King was hiding anything, but it was always best to be safe than sorry. The both of them had discussed regarding this, and they had decided that a method should be figured out where much more resources could be pulled out to further fasten the development of the Alliance so that it could eventually at least hope to stand and defend millions when the time for the battle came.
After being interrupted by the message, the sounds of many things around him clattering to the ground were heard, because they had all been floating in the air due to the minute changes in gravity that always occurred whenever he trained in the path of the Devouring Monarch of the Sky.
10 tiny black holes had been revolving around his body, and they all disappeared, too, as he picked up the display trinket to check the message.
"Fancy a battle? I want to test out some Fighter skills that I obtained."
The first sentence made Faxul flinch, as he still remembered vividly the method in which his friend had ripped apart that Mad Doctor, who was supposed to be an Exalted Champion, almost as if he was nothing more than a helpless fly in front of him. No trace had been left of him, and that sight had been imprinted into all of their minds.
That was the reason why he had thrown himself into training, but still, he had had the assurance that if they were speaking about fighting as Fighters, then his Bloodline may give him an advantage. After all, his was a slightly different path from Daneel's, who would definitely be directly using the power of a Godbeast. Instead of that, he would be utilizing magic to bring out those same powers in an even better way, and that was why Daneel had even said that in the age of the Empire, the personal corps of the Emperor who managed to use the custom techniques designed for their specific bloodlines were, in many cases, more powerful than the original Godbeasts, themselves. Of course, this was only when they reached higher levels, but still, it was something to look forward to.
Faxul couldn't help but have this small amount of competitiveness, because it was what spurred him ahead. It had always been something that was present between them - ever since they had met in the training hall. One wanted to surpass the other, and even though that one had constantly been surpassed on occasion after occasion, he still didn't lose hope and wished to see the day where he could achieve that for at least a little bit of time, in at least some or the other aspect.
He had thought that he had achieved it before, after his own breakthrough, but that hadn't lasted for very long.
Shaking his head to get rid of these thoughts, a sly smile actually came on Faxul's face, because he had just achieved a breakthrough in his own training.
The path of the Devouring Monarch of the Skies was something which completely revolved around that single word- "devouring".
He had actually gotten inspiration from seeing the way that Daneel had killed the Mad Doctor, and that had led him to understand something that he had been trying to for a long time.
Even he had been itching to try it out in battle, but there really had been no one to fight. Daneel was the best option, but he had been busy, and now that he was asking for it himself, Faxul readily agreed and teleported away from the Palace of the Black Raven Kingdom.
He soon appeared in the underground fighting arena in the Kingdom of Lanthanor, which was perfectly designed to not allow anyone to peer in and see what was really happening inside.
According to Daneel, there had been many formations laid out which would also dampen the shock waves that might erupt when two powerful individuals fought, making it so that it was perfect to conceal their true powers from whoever might be watching.
As soon as Faxul appeared, he saw his friend with a smug grin on his face, which made him ask, "Oh? You seem quite satisfied with something. Can I ask what that is?"
After chuckling, the King of Lanthanor said, "You'll find out soon. Let's begin right away. These are the rules: I will not be using even a smidgen of my mage power. You can use everything at your disposal, and all I will do is use my Bloodline. What do you say?"
This was the entire reason why Faxul had even come. If his friend was going to use his Mage powers, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't stand even the slightest chance of landing even a single attack.
Nodding, he said, "Fine by me. Should I control my power? Or will you be fast enough to activate your Mage powers in case you need to?"
Faxul said this in a jesting tone, but he was actually only half-kidding. In battle, many things could go wrong, and if he went all out, he knew that there was a very real risk that his friend might get injured. True, he might be crushed afterward if he chose to use this Mage path, but the damage would be done, and he didn't want something like that to happen in this crucial time where they were still under the surveillance of many in the continent. It seemed that they had gotten quite a lot of attention due to the breakthrough of the King, and a lot of people were apparently watching to see what he would do next.
In response, Daneel simply raised an eyebrow and nodded, following which he made a gesture with his hands as if inviting Faxul to attack.
Faxul shrugged, and a slight expression of anticipation came in his eyes.
He knew that his friend was not someone who usually underestimated others, but in this case, he hoped to give him quite a big surprise.
Taking a deep breath, Faxul raised both of his hands, and at the same moment, three black holes, each the size of a fist, appeared right above Daneel.
The expression on the King of Lanthanor's face changed to reveal slight surprise as he saw these three black holes swirl around each other and then slowly begin to enlarge. The reason behind his surprise…was that he also found himself to be stuck to the spot, mainly because the space elementary particles in the area had been completely taken into the control of his friend.
As these three black holes continued to revolve and grow larger and larger, Faxul folded his hands behind his back and began to speak.
"As you must already know, a Black Raven's power exists in its desire to devour the entire world. At first, I used to think that this simply meant that a Black Raven wishes to keep devouring until it can grow as strong as possible. However… When I saw you deal with the Mad Doctor the other day, I realized that I might have missed the essence. I had always known that there must be something wrong in my understanding, but seeing that image allowed me to understand that devouring… Also means destroying. In the accompanying technique that you gave me, there was a spell which I had used even before, but it hadn't been very powerful because I wasn't able to completely bring forth its essence. After my revelation, I was able to understand what it means to 'devour' much better, and now… I daresay that this spell can probably defeat most Champions even a level above me, and that it might also stand a chance in killing that Mad Doctor if I manage to catch him off guard. It is very taxing to use, but you must admit that it is quite effective. There was no specific name in the tome, so I decided to give it one myself. It is called…'Devouring Prison of Darkness'."
As soon as that name was heard in the stadium, the black holes reached a point where they complete covered Daneel from all directions.
Before, the attractive force from each had at least been manageable, but now, with it being present from all directions, it even started to tear away at the barriers that Daneel had conjured.
Daneel couldn't help but admit that he was impressed. The black holes around him were designed to swallow up even the attacks that one might use to try and escape, and because the space was locked very firmly, one couldn't teleport, either.
All of his barriers began to break, and finally, Daneel even had to activate the Divine Cockroach Bloodline to defend.
The negative was clear, though. If the one casting this spell didn't manage to kill their opponent in a short time, they would be completely devoid of energy to do anything else, as it was too taxing on the caster.
After around a minute, this came to be. Faxul had to stop the spell, and after he was revealed to Daneel, the King of Lanthanor saw that his friend had a slight expression of frustration on his face.
However, after seeing that Daneel had had to transform into the Cockroach to defend, that changed into a small smile, and it was clear that he had been sad before because he had probably thought that Daneel had defended against the attack without even needing to use this ultimate defense.
Smiling back, Daneel said just one thing.
"Not bad, I'm impressed. Now, it's my turn. I simply call this…'Smash 'em into bits'."
What happened next was an incident that would result in Faxul waking up for many nights thereafter sweating, as he would keep getting nightmares about it.
In a simple motion, the King of Lanthanor first took out the crown that he had made before and put it on his head.
After that, he leaped into the air with his hands outstretched, almost as if he was coming to hug Faxul with enthusiasm.
However…after a moment, the King's body blurred, and what took its place cast a shadow on Faxul that was so big that the Black Raven King could not even hope to run out of it even if he began fleeing with top speed.
The King had transformed into a gigantic beast with blue skin that was at least 30 meters(100 feet) long and 12 meters(40 feet) wide. It somehow even seemed to have the effect of locking space elementary particles in place, and as it reached closer and closer, Faxul could guess that it must weigh at least 200,000 kilos(2200 tons). It seemed to be an aquatic animal, as it also had a tail that was as wide as its main body.
All in all…it was so terrifyingly huge that it defied all common sense, and in front of it, he felt as if he was nothing.
As he understood the reason behind his friend giving that name to this attack, Faxul began to really, really wished that he had just stayed in his Kingdom, because in that case, he would simply have been looking forward to drinking tea instead of being in this situation, where his future only consisted of finding out how it would feel if he was smashed into the tiniest of bits.