Shades of the New World

Some hesitation became apparent on the Easterners, after they saw the blue flames.

'What? How can he achieve that already? What kind of a mage was he in his previous life?' Elashin thought with worry.

The two others did not know about the truth of the Children, so they were even more confused. To them, the fact that a child with a measly beginner level core being able to achieve a blue flame was simply too absurd.

They also did not think that the child was using an illusion, since they could clearly see the hue Evin was emitting.

But Elashin was thinking inside the World of Thoughts and found some matters a bit weird. The kid was too inexperienced, first of all. Why would he not use World Chameleon skins to veil his energy hues? Also, his general movement and decision-making was okay, but nothing that indicated a seasoned warrior. Even if he was a mage in his previous life that did not focus on fighting, they would still have had to go through some sort of training in their lives.

'Natural talent?' Elashin wondered.

That explained a lot of things. Perhaps he was a commoner in his previous life, but was too unlucky and did not receive a mana-core from his birth. But since he was reincarnated this time, and also received a mana-core, he could finally put his talents to use.

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed to him. He felt a bit wasteful to cull such a young genius, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

There was a battle to be had, and such unnecessary thoughts were a hindrance. Elashin exited the World of Thoughts and immediately ordered his subordinates to attack, but found them inside a box-shaped prison of portals, unable to move anywhere. Not only that, the old man was running towards him with a bright-red dagger in his hand, one heated to its limits. If the old man cut Elashin with that, the easterner would need extra mana to fix his body, since the wound would be cauterized slightly.

Ssatsko was Elashin's equal when it came to melee combat, maybe even better than his opponent. Since he would be at a disadvantage with his short dagger against the Easterner's longsword, he fearlessly got close to the Easterner and stuck on to him like a leech. Elashin fell into a passive state, since he couldn't swing his sword to his heart's content, but his attempts to create distance were all foiled by the seasoned warrior.

Moreover, Ssatsko also had better control over his fire magic. The burning dagger's reach kept changing throughout the fight, giving the Easterner many small wounds over the course of the fight, forcing him to waste mana on healing himself.

Ssatsko also utilized many small, but impactful maneuvers in the fight. Aside from his flames acting as extra reach for his dagger, he sometimes flashed his flames to blind his enemy briefly, randomly attacked with flaming arcs to threaten his enemy's blind-spots. He also used the World of Life to harden his skin for a few seconds, so that Elashin's sword strokes did not hurt him too badly. He also seemed to invigorate himself with short bursts of strength, constantly using his pink horn to his advantage.

The Easterner tried to best Ssatsko with his magic, but he simply could not match the peerless control that the horns granted. He also used his invincibility throughout the fight, but Ssatsko was already getting used to dealing with it.

Just like how every ability had limitations, the invincible state was not perfect. One could not cancel their invulnerable state when their limbs or invincible objects were in another person's body, and it could not be used indefinitely. Abusing these two points, Ssatsko was able to keep the battle in a tie.

Rith kept her promise and locked the two others in a portal prison. It was a box with its walls made out of portals which lead to the wall on the opposite side. Try to go left, you appear from the right side, try to go forward and you see yourself from behind. Try to go up, but you will be met with a normal wall. Even if they tried to phase through the portal with their invincibility, they would find that it wasn't effective.

It was an ability that was easily solved if you were a talented mage of the World of Space, but the two obviously weren't such talents. They could only twiddle with their thumbs and hope their leader wins against the old man.

Evin saw how easily Rith took care of the two mages. He took a glance at the Feline, but found her leisurely looking back at him. She looked like she could easily take care of the other mage too, but she simply chose not to. It was obviously a test of some sorts for him.

He neared the battle between Elashin and Ssatsko, while hiding himself in the shadows of the trees. He realized how dumb and impossible it was to try to shoot Elashin down with fire when the Easterner was brawling with his grandfather, so he canceled all his other Worlds and channeled the Dark World. He was trying to deal a decisive blow to the Easterner from the shadows.

One would say that it would not have an effect on the fight, since the Easterner could easily heal his wounds, but one thing gave him courage to do so.

The voice in his armor seemed to have settled down greatly, as it was calmly explaining its abilities to the Child.

[I can hurt him in a way that makes it impossible for him to recover shortly! Get behind them stealthily and shank the bastard in his ass, ] it was saying in Evin's head.

Evin thought the voice meant "in his back", but did not ask the voice for clarification.

[Also, don't worry about him returning the blow to you, as long as you can hurt him, I'll be able to protect you from harm, using the armor part of my body!]

Evin decided to trust the armor's words, since he saw it do the same with the bird and himself, so he was silently waiting for an opportunity in the shadows. And soon, his long-awaited opportunity came to him.

Ssatsko finally managed to trip Elashin towards where Evin was waiting and the child did not hesitate to use the chance. Also, fighting Ssatsko took most of his attention, so the Easterner did not expect Evin's sudden ambush.

Evin violently stabbed with the dagger towards Elashin's side. He tried to take it out quickly and run away, but could not manage the strength to do so. He panicked and did not think to just leave the dagger and leave.

Elashin suddenly felt a sharp pain on his side and found a toddler sticking a dagger inside him and also trying to take it out. He brutally swung his sword at the child, but the armor managed to protect Evin from harm. But the impact still affected him greatly, so he was knocked back a few meters. He felt that his ribs were cracked, so he immediately let go of every World energy inside him and took on as much World of Life Energy his mana-core could handle.

Since he received the enlightenment from the World Sprites, he was able to confidently fix his ribs without worrying for consequences.

Elashin, on the other hand, took out the dagger that was stabbed inside him, but was shocked to find himself unable to heal the wound on his side. Evin also managed to get his kidneys, so it also should have hurt like hell.

Unable to focus on the fight properly due to the injury, he soon died at Ssatsko's flames after exchanging a few blows.

Rith, judging that the battle was over, swiftly willed two portals to fall over the two mages' heads and forcefully cancelled the portals when it was at their necks, decapitating the two.

"I can see why you seemed so confident in winning the fight," said Evin towards Ssatsko, after seeing what Rith just did.

"Cosmic Felines are the Easterner's worst enemies. I don't know why they would try to fight us with such a disadvantage. But I supposed they underestimated Rith's abilities. They most likely thought that she could only take care of one of them," Ssatsko replied.

"You're also very strong, I can't believe you can go toe-to-toe with an actual mage," Evin said, genuinely impressed with his grandfather. The old man did not even look spent.

"I'm a twin-horn. I received enough training in the North to handle a few weak mages," the old man shrugged.

"That's unimportant. Tell me what the voice is saying," Rith interrupted the two's gloating.

"I don't know, he went silent after we killed those guys. He tried to say something to me, but then he screamed like he was hurt really badly. Now can you tell me why we needed to kill these people so desperately?"

"Normal metal skinshifters usually choose their wielders randomly. They have some form of intelligence, but it's mostly just instinct. There's no method for someone to force the weapon to choose it. They can wield it, sure, but they can never dig out its full potential. Reincarnated metal skinshifters, on the other hand, can obviously be reasoned with. And what do you think is the best way to have it cooperate with you? I suppose fulfilling its wishes would be one way to do it," Rith concluded.

"You mean that people could be reincarnated into different races?"

"Of course"

As they were talking, the voice reappeared inside Evin's head.

[Not bad, kid. You must be one of those Children of the Goddess or something, right? Thanks for killing those bastards for me] the voice resounded in his head.