24 20. Fighting the Iron Giant

*Boooom* Colossus swung its sword towards Rei with immense force.

For some reason, Colossus had been ignoring the others and only focusing on attacking Rei. Even Io who were also attacking Colossus, were being ignored.

Io and Rei were focused on fighting Colossus, while Djeeta, Katalina, and Rackam were focused on battling the Archduke who was using magic to fight back.

Meanwhile, Lyria and Vyrn were in a safe spot, slightly away from the main fight. Lyria was waiting for the opportunity to summon Bahamut or Tiamat to stop the rampaging Colossus.

"The giant... is crying. It slept for such a long time... and now it's been awakened for the sake of something horrible." Lyria could hear Colossus' voice after it was awakened by the Archduke.

*Clang* Rei's sword could not penetrate Colossus' armor at all, even though he was using the sword of repudiation.

"Damn!" Rei saw that his attacks only dented Colossus' armor, but suddenly felt danger and jumped back to avoid a blow from Colossus.

Rei returned to Io, who was using a lot of magic to attack Colossus from afar.

"My attacks are not working at all to penetrate its armor, Io," Rei told Io as they stood together.

Colossus was not an ordinary primal beast, but a primal beast created by the inhabitants of the sky realm to kill astrals. And because he could sense that Rei was an astral, he had been continuously attacking Rei, as that was his goal. His body was stronger than usual primal beasts because it was made to withstand attacks from astrals, making it difficult for Rei to penetrate.

"Please lend me your strength, Tiamat," Rei and Io heard Lyria's voice as she closed her eyes and held her necklace.

Lyria's necklace began to emit a green light, and many green particles started to emerge from it. The particles moved towards Lyria's back and eventually merged into one, summoning Tiamat.

*Ring* Tiamat let out a sound and then gazed at Colossus.

"Winds of Blessings" Lyria spoke as Tiamat began to release its winds, enveloping Rei and the others.

"What is this!?" Rei's body began to feel stronger and full of energy, while the others also felt the same effect as Rei.

Djeeta, Katalina, and Rackam, who received this additional power, smiled and found it easier to avoid the Archduke's attacks.

When facing magicians, once you manage to get close to them, everything will be over because most of them are not skilled in close combat. However, the Archduke was different as he could use illusion magic, making it difficult for Djeeta and the others to locate him. But with Lyria's help, they could move faster to stop his illusion magic.

Meanwhile, with Lyria's help, Rei was able to evade Colossus' attacks more easily because the giant movements were slow due to its size and heavy armor, making it easy to dodge its strikes.

However, the issue was that Rei's attacks still couldn't penetrate Colossus' defenses, even with Lyria's assistance. He could only dent it while waiting for Djeeta and the others to defeat the Archduke so that Colossus would stop.

Colossus obeyed the Archduke's orders since he was the one who awakened him, so Rei hoped that by defeating the Archduke, Colossus would also cease its rampage.

"Rei! I can sense something from Colossus, move away from there!" Lyria suddenly shouted to Rei.

Colossus' body began to emit a red light, raising one of its legs.

Seeing this, Rei began to move away, but a bit too late as Colossus stomped its foot hard.

*BAAAAMMM* The ground around Colossus started to get destroyed, and magma from below began to emerge. It seemed that Colossus was channeling its energy underground to release magma to stop Rei's attacks.

Now surrounded by magma, Rei couldn't attack Colossus anymore, except for Io, who could still attack from a distance.

"Damn... Io, do you have an ultimate attack or something?" Rei asked Io.

"Ultimate attack? What's that?" Io was confused as she had never heard the term before.

"I mean, do you have a very powerful spell that you haven't used to attack Colossus?" Rei clarified.

Upon hearing this, Io began to think, but Colossus didn't give her a chance and started using the lava around them to attack Rei and Io.

Colossus began thrusting its large sword into the magma around it, then swinging it towards them. Rocks and magma were hurled towards Io and Rei.

"Ehhhhhhh!" Io did not expect Colossus to do that and didn't have time to use protective magic.

"Atheism," Rei raised his right hand and used his Force shield.

A blue Force shield appeared, protecting both of them from the rocks and magma.

"I have a spell that I haven't used yet, Rei," sheltering behind the force field, Io told Rei that she had a powerful spell that might penetrate Colossus' armor, or at least make it fall or disable it.

Hearing this, Rei nodded and said he would stall to give Io time to prepare her spell.

Rei then began to spread out his two black wings, before he was restraining himself out of fear that the old factory would be destroyed by his attack.

However, after seeing the Colossus attack without regard for its surroundings, he knew that this old factory would not be easily destroyed.

This was because the old factory was designed to withstand attacks from the golems created by Drauph and the heat from the magma surrounding it.

"Eh!? Wings? You have wings, Rei!?" Io exclaimed in surprise as she saw Rei's wings, as this was the first time she had seen wings on a human body.

"That's not important now, Io. Prepare your magic, I will try to distract the Colossus," Rei said.

Hearing this, Io nodded and focused on her staff. Her staff began to emit a bright light, while Rei removed his force field and saw the lava surrounding them both. He could see Io sweating from the heat of the magma, but she remained focused on her magic.

Rei then turned to the glowing red Colossus, seeing him like that make Rei remember when Colossus was in overdrive mode in the game.

However, at least his sword was not glowing red, indicating that he would not use "Dimensional Cleave", a really high-damage attack in the game.

In the game, this attack dealt a really high amount of damage even as early boss raids, and Rei was confident that attack could easily injure him, so he had to be careful.

"Sword of Renunciation," Rei called out his other sword and a red light appeared above him. The light faded, revealing a floating red sword.

Rei then began to flap his wings and took flight, so he doesn't need to worry about the magma that surrounding Colossus. The Colossus seemed to take notice of Rei and prepared to attack him if he got closer.

Rei first ordered his red sword to attack the Colossus. The Sword of Renunciation responded to Rei's command and began to move towards the Colossus.

Meanwhile, Rei channeled energy from his wings to the Sword of Repudiation, his golden sword started to emitting a dark aura that enveloped it.

Seeing that his preparations were sufficient, Rei flew directly towards the Colossus, which was still trying to attack the red sword controlled by Rei.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >

*Bang* *Bang*

*Clang* Clang*

Rei and the Colossus continue to attack each other, causing the ground around them to tremble.

This time Rei's attack was able to penetrate the Colossus' defense compared to before when he could only dent it.

Now he was able to pierce it and try to cut off its hand holding the sword so he could stop the Colossus before it used "Dimensional Cleave."

But the Colossus did not let Rei cut off its hand, as it had been using lava around it to disrupt Rei's attacks.

Rei hesitated to touch the lava because he didn't know if his astral body could withstand the heat from the lava.

Meanwhile, Archduke, Djeeta, and the others were watching the battle between Rei and the colossus, stopping their own fight as they felt the ground beginning to tremble.

"This is impossible… How can someone fight one-on-one with a primal beast… What kind of creature is he!" Archduke felt awed as he saw the colossus fighting with the winged being.

"Oh wow, I will never get used to seeing Rei fight like that," Katalina said to Djeeta and Rackam.

"Phew, thankfully Rei is on our side, I don't know how we would be able to fight a primal beast without him," Rackam also said as he watched Rei sword clashing with the Colossus sword.

While Djeeta was still focused on Archduke, she saw an opportunity as he was distracted from their fight.

Djeeta, with the help of Tiamat's aura, quickly moved towards Archduke and her sword was enveloped in a green aura.

Archduke, hearing someone running towards him, turned in panic as he saw Djeeta approaching and starting to use his spells.

But it was too late as she was already close to him.

"Reginleiv."

[IMAGE]

Djeeta's sword began to be enveloped in a green aura and she pushed her sword towards Archduke.

A wave of green aura emerged from her sword and quickly headed towards Archduke.

"Gyaaagh!!" Archduke, unable to use his spells in time, was hit by Djeeta's attack and was thrown against the wall.

Djeeta swiftly went towards Archduke and separated him from his staff so he couldn't use his spells.

Katalina and Rackam, seeing Djeeta, were impressed as she could really take advantage and finish the fight quickly if she was serious.

"Now, stop the colossus," Djeeta threatened Archduke with her sword.

Meanwhile, Rei was still dueling with Colossus while waiting for Io to finish gathering her mana.

"My spell is ready, Rei!" Io shouted towards Rei.

Upon hearing this, Rei immediately backed away from Colossus and landed next to Io.

Io could be seen holding her staff tightly, with the tip emitting a very bright blue light.

Rei's body was exhausted from the continuous clashing with Colossus, and his back was truly sore from constantly flapping his wings.

Colossus, sensing the large amount of mana gathered in Io's staff, began using his force field.

Colossus's entire body was enveloped in a red force field that increased his defense, and his sword also began to glow.

"Umm Rei, I'm not sure if my attack can penetrate that force field!" Io panicked upon seeing Colossus wrapped in the force field.

Rei, unsure of what to do upon seeing Colossus and his glowing sword, he was certain that if he attacked the force shield, Colossus would counter with "Dimensional Cleave."

He was hesitant about using Paradise Lost because he could only control 4 rays of light, and he feared that the remaining dozens of rays might attack the magma below them, causing it to erupt.

"No other choice then," Rei murmured.

"Eh? What do you mean?" Io, hearing Rei's murmur, was puzzled.

Rei then turned to Io and looked at her seriously.

"Listen, Io, I will try to destroy the force field. After it's destroyed, I want you to use your spell immediately without delay," Rei informed Io.

"What do you mean? How will you destroy his spell?...Dont tell me!," Io remembered the previous incident in the abandoned mines when Rei used his sword to destroy many golems at once.

"That's too dangerous, and look, you're already exhausted," Io observed Rei's trembling body, worn out from clashing swords with Colossus.

"It's okay, besides, I'll do it quickly," Rei then turned to Colossus and ordered his wings to channel all remaining energy into his golden sword.

Rei's two wings began to glow brightly, but as time passed, the brightness started diminishing slowly.

Then the golden sword he held started emitting a bright light.

Rei then summoned his red sword, which was still hovering near Colossus as his sword couldn't penetrate the force field after Colossus used it.

The Sword of Renunciation then flew to Rei, and once it was near him, Rei commanded it to transfer its energy to the Sword of Repudiation.

Upon hearing Rei's command, the Sword of Renunciation moved to Rei's left hand, and finally, Rei grasped it.

The red sword began emitting its dark aura, and Rei started absorbing it and transferring it to his golden sword.

Io, watching this, felt fear as the aura from Rei's golden sword felt stronger and more powerful than before.

Meanwhile, Colossus watched silently, unable to move without commands from the Archduke.

The Archduke was currently being threatened by Djeeta, but due to the dark essence affecting his mind, he remained motionless.

The bright light emitted from Rei's golden sword surpassed even Io's staff, which had gathered a lot of mana.

After the light disappeared, the red sword of Rei began to fade away, and his golden sword turned into Gray colored with Spikes around it.

[IMAGE]

Seeing his sword change colors, Rei could feel the power of his Sword of Repudiation greatly increasing.

He then looked towards Colossus and started flying towards him.

"Rei!" Lyria and Vyrn, who saw Rei approaching Colossus, felt extremely worried about him.

But Rei continued towards Colossus's force shield and finally, when he was close, he began using his technique.

"Phosphorous."

Rei swung his sword at Colossus's force field, and as his sword touched the force field, it shattered as if there was no defense at all.

But Colossus was not just going to stand still; he lifted his brightly glowing large sword and swung it towards Rei.

Rei, still in the middle of swinging his sword couldn't avoid Colossus's attack and could only use "Atheism" to try to protect himself.

*Clang* Colossus's sword hit Rei's force field, but because Rei had run out of energy, his force field began to crack rapidly.

"Ughhh!!!" Rei felt as if he was being crushed by something very heavy, and then his force field shattered, causing Rei to be thrown back.

"Aghhhh!!" Rei was thrown against the wall and pierced through several walls until finally coming to a stop near the exit door of the old factory.

"Rei!" Lyria and Vyrn, seeing Rei, immediately tried to chase after the thrown Rei.

"This is where I show my true potential! Absolute Zero." Io immediately used her spell upon seeing Colossus's force field shatter.

Colossus began to be enveloped in freezing air that became colder and colder until finally, Colossus was surrounded by ice that stopped all his movements.

The ice became harder and harder until Colossus could no longer move.

Colossus, exhausted from almost using all its energy to create the force field and use Dimensional Cleave, could no longer move and could only remain silent inside the ice created by Io.

"Hah...hah...hah, I did it!" Io looked happy as she successfully stopped the Archduke, but then she remembered Rei who was thrown away and started to panic.

"Eh, Rei?? Where are you, Rei!?" Io shouted, but she stopped upon hearing the Archduke speaking.

"So, Io. Even you have decided to steal this away from me, have you?"

Io turned to the voice and saw Katalina bringing the Archduke to Io along with Djeeta and Rackam.

"Where's Rei?" Djeeta looked around Io as they were occupied with the Archduke and didn't see what happened.

All they knew was that suddenly they felt a very strong aura but couldn't turn to look because they were too focused on the Archduke and didn't want to give him a chance to use illusion magic again.

"Rei was thrown after being hit by Colossus's attack!" Io quickly told Djeeta and pointed towards where Rei was thrown.

"Ehhh!?" Djeeta was shocked to hear that and immediately ran towards Rei who was thrown.

Djeeta left Katalina, Rackam, and Io to handle the Archduke because she was more worried about Rei.