As the explosion subsided, a figure emerged from the smoke and debris. It was humanoid in shape, but its features were twisted and dark, shrouded in a cloak of corruption. The entity floated above the ground, its eyes glowing with malevolent energy.
Reign stood ready, his weapons drawn as he stared at the figure, fully prepared to face this new threat. The entity spoke, its voice echoing with a sinister resonance.
"Ah, a Nephilim."
"I must admit, I did not expect to meet one of your kin in this world, after all, you are quite ... rare in the universe." The entity said, his face looking similar to the enemy leader, but his voice and mannerisms proved to be very different.
"I see, you have broken that poor bastard a long time ago, haven't you?" Aethion asked as he suddenly appeared next to Reign, his body looking incredibly realistic even though he was just an avatar created using mana and soul power.
"Ah, the being that helps the Nephilim, no wonder that poor boy had no chance of winning, I can sense that you are not an average soul at all." The entity said with a smirk as he stared at Aethion.
"You still haven't answered me."
"Why would I need to answer a question for which you already know the answer?" The entity asked Aethion who sighed and shook his head.
"You took position in his head, you slowly ate away at his soul, changing it and removing parts without him even realizing it before drawing him over here where your power is the strongest."
"Let me guess, what we faced was merely the last vestiges of the person that used to exist, the final pieces of his consciousness that you didn't destroy and allowed to exist, he probably had no idea that he was basically dead for a long time, did he?"
"That was why he was able to reform his body each time Reign killed him, and why I felt that his soul was different."
"Correct you are, old soul." The entity spoke with a smirk on his face.
"His body was quite useful, he was in touch with the corruption and there was no meaning in destroying it right away, I had my fun, I allowed him to build up this faction, to gain people under his wing, to become stronger while unaware that his strength was actually mine."
"Had you bastards not arrived here, everything would have been great, but oh well, I can always start anew, find another person to control, create another faction, take over a new body." The entity said as it glanced at its hand which had a small crack in it before a miniscule part fell down.
"Even if you are a Nephilim, you are still a fledgling, you might be dangerous for most, but for me, you are akin to a child that cannot even walk normally yet." The entity said as it enjoyed watching Reign move around and use everything it had in order to combat the many attacks coming from the entity.
"You are holding on well, however, so how about we increase the difficulty by a bit?" The entity asked as it stomped with one foot, causing corruption to suddenly start spreading from him before smirking as corruption also appeared behind him and his body changed, this time sprouting two large wings that he used to fly like Reign.
"Air, ground, even water are my domains now, you will not find any place to hide from me and my power." The entity spoke as the corruption that had spread like water on the ground suddenly calmed down before its size changed.
It was seemingly becoming smaller and smaller before dividing into two. In the end, what looked like 2 small puddles of corruption were left on the ground, but before Reign could try to comprehend what the entity had done, arms came out of the puddles.
Two humanoid monsters, each one having the body of a human with two arms and two legs, crawled out of the puddles that joined their bodies.
"Let's see how much fun you can give my little children." The entity said as the two humanoid monsters made out of corruption changed, their bodies gaining skin, their faces getting features as in less than 4 seconds, two regular humans were standing in front of Reign.
Reign was staring at the two humans whose auras were nothing to scoff at before glancing at the entity and scoffing.
"Do you really think this will do anything, you just summoned two monsters, they won't be able to help you at all."
Reign suddenly disappeared from the spot, white lightning left in his wake as he appeared behind the two monsters. Their bodies split in half and fell down on the ground, but there was no blood or sounds of pain coming from the bodies, in fact, the moment their severed parts fell down, the corruption inside of them reconnected them and they stood back up.
'Kid, we need to focus on that bastard, otherwise, you will die.' Aethion said in a serious voice as he stared at both the two monsters, as well as the entity that was merely floating in the air above them and was watching with an amused expression.
'This isn't a human being, it is a monster, a powerful and old one, that managed to arrive here under heavy restrictions, and now, this monster has regained quite a bit of his power.'
'These two monsters that he summoned are almost immortal, destroying them is almost impossible, and the best course of action is to seal them or ignore them as much as you can while fighting against the entity.'
'Soul power is effective, but I have no idea how good his control over soul power is, after all, he might originally be a Transcendent being like I was, and if that is true, then dealing with him will be incredibly difficult.'
'I would recommend the others to stay back for now and only join if it is absolutely necessary, we are both going to have quite the difficult fight ahead of us, one mistake, and death might be the result.'