The world unfroze around him. Suddenly he was back to fighting Andragoth and the others.

He needed a few moments to center himself, so he withdrew a little. The others, not knowing what he was thinking, stepped back a little as well. Rafe only allowed himself a bit of time to study them, their faces, their forms. And then he was pushing forward again.

Andragoth met him in the middle. Rafe was weaker than her, even given most of her stats were not put into physical categories. But he had other ways to injure her. And with the inspiration he'd got before, he could get through the barrier mage's most commonly used shields.

With how well he knew Andragoth's fighting style, it was no problem injuring her severely enough that she had to retreat. Too bad the team had a specialised healer in the form of Quinsia.

She was already trying to cast ranged heal on Andragoth. Rafe had accounted for that. He'd had less than a second to come up with a plan, but he thought he'd done quite well. Attack the healer first.

But how were you supposed to do that when said healer was also an assassin very gifted at escaping and avoiding detection. Well, maybe she could escape his racial ability by always being far enough away from its range, but casting a spell meant she had to direct mana, and Rafe could see mana with his racial ability too. He could follow its path to wherever she was hidden.

This was a special team with a plethora of support options. Having a healer, a buffer, and a barrier mage was cheating. Well whatever. Dismantling their defenses was part of the fun too.

When he injured Quin, Andragoth was too far off to provide her emergency healing arts. Before she had recovered enough, Rafe focused on Aska and the yet unknown barrier mage.

By the time Andragoth was back into the action, the team had lost their best defender. With Quin focused on her own injuries, the barrier mage had no choice but to yield. Quin joined the battle again not long after.

It took him more than a few minutes to completely dismantle them. As long as Andragoth still had mana, none of the other two ran out. As long as Quin still had mana, no injury Rafe was able to make -restricting himself as he was to avoid the veils- was threatening.

Andragoth threw a few jokes his way as the four images prepared to ascend. He watched them until the last moment. All four of them were alive in the multiverse.

With a deep breath, Rafe decided not to leave that landing just yet. He had received a technique manual even before he reached this floor. A technique manual he had no reservations to using anymore.

Maybe it was a sign he was starting to forgive the Enchantress.

Unlike most other participants, Rafe did not have to worry about the madness time dilation caused. He could stay here and learn these techniques for months if he decided to. Provided he didn't get bored of course.

He watched the words light up once the book was opened. He noticed them resolving themselves into dancing avatars of some kind. Then the avatars floated into his soul and Rafe settled down to watch them.

The manual did not dissipate into dust like skill scrolls usually did. But it did lose its magic. Rafe could see a core nestled deep inside the book's none physical side. He saw the core sputter and die, but it was not destroyed. He saw one of the runes on it light up ever so dully.

"So it charges?" he asked, but there was no one there with him.

With a shrug he went to track the technique avatars in his soul, but he couldn't find him. A moment of panic hit him then. But he settled when he remembered he couldn't see the whole picture yet. Presumably they'd gone into the dark recesses of the curtain that he couldn't see.

It was a period of discoveries. He stopped keeping track of time as he explored the dance like moves the Enchantress had invented. She had invented them for evasion, which was not a bad thing for Rafe. She had also invented them to keep her distance from her enemies, which was not something Rafe was very worried about. He had to get in close to be an effective fighter anyway.

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The footwork was fast, which was a bonus in Rafe's book. It had the potential to be showy, with moves similar to moon walking and side gliding. Rafe could tweak the movements into something that suited him more, just like he'd done with all the techniques he'd learned in Aeon.

He did not know how long he spent practicing. Trying to change some of the movements to fit a more melee appropriate style. It was impossible to master a new technique over a few days. Even months would not have been enough. He'd literally spent years trying to master the sword techniques of Aeon.

After traveling for years to run away from everything else, he'd barely managed to reach a level very close to a master even though he could not use concept abilities.

The journey taught him much. Including the healing power of art. But also the fact that improvement was vastly easier, even in terms of techniques, when one fought their way to it.

In simple terms, the best way to improve would be to fight someone. And on the tenth landing he was sure. It was finally time to settle a few old heartaches.

****

Name: Devila Vors

Class: Arcane Whip blade (epic. lvl 42)

Race: Human

Strongest stat: Wisdom: 400

Strongest skill: Talisman Store (epic lvl. 33) A part of the storage ability has been modified for storing and sorting and producing talismans whose formulas are already stored provided materials and mana are supplied. Amount of storage, amount of talismans produced, and amount of formulas stored increases with increase in skill level. Ability to produce talisman making materials increases with skill upgrade. Skill growth may affect overall growth of storage ability.

Trait: Pseudo-mana body: A body tempered in arcane mana and rare arcane treasures. The user has improved mana regeneration. Essence conversion to mana is 50% more effective than in other beings. Increasing racial rank is easier with a body tempering technique. One or more of the user's racial abilities will be modified.

Humanity's creativity>> Mana heart (f): An extra mana pool.

Notable Title: First sign of heretical times: First Defier of the new multiversal order.

Titles and System boons and blessings are ineffective in the presence of heretics.

Devila was the only one who'd ever made it to the tenth level. It was a bit surprising, though not overly so. After her first challenge, where she'd been a bit past level thirty, now she was well into level forty.

She had an absurd amount of stats for someone at this level. And then there was the fact that all her skills and even a racial ability were geared toward making her more combat efficient. There was the title as well, although Rafe was hardly sure what that meant.

He did not have the title system. Or any system boons to speak of. He did have a blessing though. And he confirmed that unsheathing his blade did not increase his stats at all.

He had prepared himself before he reached the landing this time. Ensuring he was in his new chain mail top and leather breeches. He had left everything on the stairs, this time not even carrying any of his three health potions and one stamina potion. He had come with his sword. For this was Devila he was fighting. He needed to show her that much respect at least.

Once he'd stepped into her range, the small woman snorted derisively.

"Only one opponent here, huh?" she asked.

"Looks like it," Rafe said with a shrug after looking around with raised brows. "I see no one here but you and me."

"You hide your level? Little coward. And you dare imitate a god?!"

"How so?" Rafe questioned.

"That whole gleaming eye trick. You did it because you saw my whip blade, didn't you? Are you trying to get in my head?"

Rafe frowned at her. He did not know what to say. Unlike the others, he'd spent a lot of time with Devila. He also knew quite a bit about her motivations now.

They hadn't told him much, but he had the impression most of the other gods did not approve. Enith was conflicted. Rafe supposed it was mostly because the Enchantress was curious.

The Enchantress had followed a crafting path. Devila was following one of violence. Devila was almost a clone of the Enchantress, and perhaps Enith wanted to see how far she would have gone if she'd focused more on violence than the crafting side. Whoever Devila was in the wider multiverse now, she was an opponent Rafe would struggle with even if he somehow reached her level.

The past her was going to be a struggle too, even though her veil was weak for her level. She was stronger than she had been when Rafe first met her. And with almost ten more levels, she had had a chance to improve her build which had been a problem the last time they'd met.

Even still, like Sam had guessed, the main reason Rafe was going to struggle was because of the complicated feelings between the two of them.

In the end, it was only a fight. And Rafe preferred a good fight over thinking any day.

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