"Come."
Grey Orion smiled, seeing both Elyn and Astral attacking him at the same time.
"You guys sure are weak. But fret not for I will show you what true power is like."
He sneered and extended both of his hands towards each side, where they attacked.
As he did that, both Elyn and Astral stopped midway in the air. They couldn't move and were stuck in a position where their weapons were still poised to strike.
"What did you do?" Elyn's face turned dark. She felt that some sort of force had been used on her body that restricted all of her movements.
Grey Orion sneered, looking down at him. "Something that my original won't be able to do."
Orion, down on the land, watched the fight with a frown on his face. He heard what the Grey Orion said and sadly, he silently agreed with him. He knew he wouldn't be able to achieve that.
For him to do something like that, he would need to use electrostatic disruption in curse transformation mode while having full control over its abilities.
It couldn't be the half-baked ability he used to carry those people earlier. Elyn and Astral were strong and could definitely break free from his control if he tried that. But with Grey Orion, it was different. He could completely restrict their movements as if they were ordinary silver-rank individuals.
'Why is he so powerful than me? And most importantly, why is there a clone of me here with all of my powers?'
Orion's frown deepened as he thought of these things.
"I am going to attack." Erick said that and took out his small knife.
Orion was about to say something to him when he saw a change in the battle between Elyn and Astral vs. Grey Orion.
Both Elyn and Astral's cores materialised as their figures glowed in dark blue and orange, respectively. Utilising the strength boost of the Three Divine Ways, they promptly freed themselves from Grey Orion's control and launched a counterattack.
Elyn swiftly arrived at his back and slashed down with her sword.
However, her sword was caught by Grey Orion's bare hands.
"That was a faint." Elyn smiled and retreated, leaving her sword behind.
"A faint, huh?" Grey Orion turned behind, sensing an immense burst of energy and saw Astral's spear gleaming with a terrifying orange glow.
"Are you that strong?" Erick asked in shock.
"Actually, I am not as strong as my clone but I can still handle Elyn and Astral. It's just that whatever abilities I have, my clone is like using 100% of those abilities while I can barely use 30%." Orion shook his head. Like he said, he couldn't understand how the clone was able to use his curses much more effectively than he had ever used them.
At that moment, Grey Orion looked at everyone and laughed. "This is called strength—godlike strength, which you guys won't be able to achieve in your entire lifetime."
Astral smiled a bit as he heard the Grey Orion talk about godlike power. "I do have one move that could rival what you call godlike power."
"Use it and show me your full power. I have heard a lot about you and if you don't have that kind of strength, then I will really be disappointed." Grey Orion.
"Astral, are you going to use your five-limit ability?" At that moment, Elyn asked with a frown.
Astral nodded. "That's the only chance we have against him."
"But your body... it won't be able to handle it," Elyn said, her expression worried, a stark contrast to her usual behaviour.
Astral just shook his head at her and turned to the Grey Orion. "Give me some time if you want to see my full strength."
"It's fine. We aren't going anywhere and most importantly, we have all the time in the world." Grey Orion said this and waited for Astral.
"What are these five limits?" Orion asked Erick on the ground.
Erick pondered for a moment before saying, "Astral has one very unique sub-ability called Five Limits. It allows him to break through his body's limits five times, thereby increasing his combat power to a very high level. But that ability comes with a very terrifying backlash. Every time he used this ability, he was bedridden for days, if not a whole week.
His body just can't handle that much power, leading him to use that ability very sparingly."
Orion nodded in understanding. Though he wasn't sure if Astral could win here, He knew his curses very well and it seemed the clone of his had an even better understanding of those curses, considering how effectively he used electrostatic disruption.
'Will I stand a chance against him?'
He asked himself this question and the answer he got was no. The clone in front of him was the best version of him—better than him in every aspect.
Boom!—
As he wandered about all of this, a resounding sound brought him back to reality.
It was then that he saw that Astral's body was releasing an intense amount of energy. His muscles bulged, his veins twitched, and a dark orange aura enveloped him completely.