Varkoth's scream echoed through the battlefield, a sound that pierced through the air like a banshee's wail.
For the first time in this fight, the Red Demon prodigy was caught off guard instead of Alex being the one.
Inside his soul space, Varkoth found himself surrounded by a nightmarish void.
The space, once a sanctuary that housed his soul, had turned into a prison of unimaginable torment.
Shadows formed around him and clawed at his very soul with their intangible hands, tearing his soul to pieces bit by bit.
Varkoth tried to summon his strength, to push back against the onslaught of horrors that assaulted him.
His claws were once again readied for combat, but no matter what Varkoth did, he couldn't summon his penetration talent in the soul space.
Every swipe he took at the shadows, only seemed to pass through them with ease, as if they were made of smoke.
Yet each touch, each whisper of darkness, sapped his strength and dragged him even deeper into despair.
The pain alone was beyond anything Varkoth had ever experienced.
It wasn't just physical pain like he was normally used to, it was spiritual and it targeted his soul directly.
Alex's soul fire had invaded his mind, his soul space, and was now fully unleashed, burning away at his arrogance and exposing the raw fear beneath.
But outside, Alex knew that he was strapped for time to get as much damage in as possible.
He had used the same ability on Gormak when he fought the elites, which had ended up killing him after 10 minutes or so had passed.
But Alex instinctively knew the moment Varkoth made contact with his soul fire that the effect would only last 30 seconds or so on him.
The disparity in strength between Gormak and Varkoth was great it seemed, as Varkoth had a much tougher mental will than him.
Alex knew that it wouldn't be able to take such stress for much longer.
The power surging through Virtue's Edge was nearly all of the Phoenix Flames that Alex could summon at once.
The tip of the blade glowed with an intense crimson heat, seeming ready to explode any second.
He took a deep breath, steadying himself, calming himself.
The battlefield around him was eerily still, except for the Red Demons at the bottom of the cliff who were all roaring and shouting for Varkoth to wake up, as they watched Alex practically walk all over him, while Varkoth did nothing about it.
They wanted to intervene in the fight, but with the Humans also on the battlefield keeping an extremely close eye on them, it would be impossible for them to without reigniting the war between them.
Finally, the energy in Alex's sword reaches its peak, with it practically roaring at him that it couldn't take anymore.
It was said that Virtue's Edge was indestructible, but that didn't mean it couldn't still take damage.
The sword knew that too, which was why it was so adamant that Alex stop pumping it full of energy after a certain point.
And finally, with a swift, fluid motion of the sword, Alex moved from his spot.
The blade cut through the air with a speed that made it invisible to the naked eye.
The force of the swing was intense, carrying all of Alex's strength behind it like a tidal wave, concentrated in a single, devastating strike.
The moment the blade connected with Varkoth's scaled skin, the battlefield erupted in a blinding flash of crimson light.
It was like a supernova had just graced the battlefield, with every soldier, no matter if they were human or Red Demon, in a 50 mile radius all closed their eyes and shielded themselves from the light.
Alex's Phoenix fire was unleashed in its full fury, and it collided with Varkoth's own Penetration energy.
The two forces clashed in a spectacular explosion of power.
Varkoth's penetration energy flared in response.