Arsonny looked around, realizing that his control over the splinters had ceased to exist. If he wanted to control them again, he needed to make contact with them on the ground.
He looked at Michael, who remained completely uninjured, compared to himself who was inundated with bullet holes.
"An Aubility that can affect people and Maugnetics?..."
A looming sense of defeat overcame his heart. As crazy as it may sound, he was going to lose to someone that was one stage lower than himself.
Arsonny had no other choice but to flee. Since his entire army had been completely wiped out by those people, he knew that even if he could somehow defeat the boy, he would have to deal with them as well.
He willed the platform underneath his feet to shoot off into the distance, accelerating like a rocket. He swung his halberd simultaneously, engulfing the air that rushed past him with the red flames.
He then controlled the air to propel him faster, hoping that he could run away from the golden-haired boy and his comrades.
In just a matter of a few moments, he was able to cross the distance, leaving the battlefield fading in the background.
A sense of relief washed over Arsonny.
WHIZZZ
Arsonny looked to the side and saw the same metal block keeping up with him!
"What the hell is this?!" he shouted. He swung his halberd, conquering the air and commanding them to form a wall of wind that protected him from the incessant metal bug.
Just then, the metal block launched two consecutive switches towards Arsonny. One of them stopped the Air Wall, and the other attached itself to Arsonny's chest.
The man found himself frozen in time once again.
A second later, Arsonny overpowered the switch and regained control of his body. But not before a beam of [Unity Gun] hit him on the right shoulder.
"Damn it!" Arsonny grumbled. Michael had already caught up with him because he was frozen for a second!
Not only that, but Michael seemed to be accompanied by a weird metal monster as well!
The Drone flew close to Arsonny, intending to launch another switch on his body.
Learning from this mistake, Arsonny didn't try to escape. He lunged forward, bringing his halberd into a 180 degree arc from behind him.
The Mithril Relic's blade clashed with the drone, creating sparks that shot off from the point of impact.
Arsonny's face contorted as his muscles bulged. He was trying to overpower the Drone, trying to spread the red flames to take over the metal bug for himself.
But as soon as the flames tried to consume the drone, the power of Unity surged through it, deflecting the red flames and disintegrating it into pure energy.
It didn't end there. As Arsonny kept on pushing his halberd into the Drone, the power from the collision started to create cracks under his weapon.
"No…" Arsonny tried to deny it, yet the cracks from his Mithril Relic were echoing in his ears as clear as day.
The red halberd in his hands shivered for a moment before finally, it exploded out into a million fragments.
Its diminished power let out small bursts of lights, before finally dissolving into nothingness.
Arsonny felt the weight of his weapon become as light as air. The world around him seemed to turn into slow motion as he saw his own Mithril Relic shatter into pieces.
With no more weapon to focus the power of his Diva, Arsonny's Flame Lion soon shimmered in and out of existence, before finally powering off.
The platform underneath his feet finally gave, leaving Arsonny plummeting to the ground.
He crashed and tumbled onto the ground, breaking several of his bones. Yet, the pain of this moment could not overshadow the pain of losing his Mithril Relic.
Completely battered, broken, and bruised, Arsonny looked up at Michael as he slowly descended from the air.
The drone floated towards Michael's palms before its propellers came to a stop and letting it fall gently onto his hand.
"I…I should have known…that's your Mithril Relic," Arsonny said, coughing out blood.
He should have found it weird that Michael had been fighting all this time without a visible weapon in his hands.
"You…you are an anomaly."
Those were the words that fit Michael the most. His strange power that could defeat those a stage above himself, and even the Mithril Relic that could somehow fly without any magic or aid.
"Tell me…tell me your secret!" Arsonny used the rest of his energy to prop himself up. "How are you able to defeat me? How do you have a Mithril Relic that can fly?! There are no such weapons in the world!"
But Michael stayed silent.
"Well, go on. Kill me then," he said to Michael.
Michael looked down at Arsonny. "After seeing how your Flarecorp company heartlessly conquers towns and forces them to submit, you don't deserve a punishment of quick death."
Arsonny scoffs. "That's the only way we could compete!"
"There are other ways," Michael declared. "And I'll show it to you. I will conquer the world, forcing no one to submit under my rule."
A laugh almost breaks out from Arsonny's mouth. Yet, he saw that Michael was completely serious.
"There's no way you can do that!"
Michael shrugged. "We'll see. I've proven you wrong once. I'll prove it again."
And it was at that moment that Arsonny felt a tug from his chest. It felt like something from inside his body was trying to get out!
He looked down, only to see that a liquid metal was seeping out of the bullet holes in his flaming orange armor.
It took a second for him to realize what it was.
Only when the first drop floated out of his body and started to burn into a white fire did Arsonny finally realize what it was.
It was a GodForge piece!
More and more drops of liquid GodForge pieces flowed out of his body.
"No! What are you doing? Come back!"
Arsonny tried to reach out to the droplets, but the white fire that consumed the GodForge pieces burned him to the touch.
These drops floated forward, coming towards Michael's chest. And as it got closer and closer to him, its speed picked up before it eventually shot towards his heart like a bullet.
Michael felt no pain from the GodForge piece.
The liquid pieces continued to transfer out of Arsonny's chest, leaving him weaker and weaker. Eventually, the last drop of GodForge left his body.
His Flaming Lion Diva roared out in defiance. But as that final drop left Arsonny's body, the Diva dispersed into the air like smoke, completely disappearing permanently.
Arsonny felt a void in his heart. Powerless.
Meanwhile, Michael continued to absorb the GodForge pieces. Each drop covered more of his heart's skin, allowing him to feel more connected with his Diva.
The robotic arm above him started to grow, completing the shoulders before it finally stopped.
He absorbed the last drop of the GodForge pieces.
Unfortunately, it was not enough to push him to the next level of the Body Formation realm.
Arsonny fell to the ground, completely shattered in body and in mind. He finally understood how Blazelle could lose to a country bumpkin like him.