He exhaled slowly as he gripped his staff tighter... the twin crowns at both ends of his staff began to vibrate while turning brighter and brighter.
Then... whoosh!!
Two oppressive blades of concentrated sunflame were born, engulfing both crowns, each burning with radiant intensity that scorched the surrounding air!
This was Nova Blades, the first unlocked innate ability in his Junior rank evolutionary path of the Sun Seed... with more than a week, Levi had enough time to push through both Void and Sun seeds to the first stage... If it wasn’t for him being accompanied by Feng Ling and his friends, he would have reached second stage through absorbing divine light.
But, this was good enough for now.
The golden sunflames stretched out like solid fire, shaping into dual, curved edges. Levi separated the staff down the middle. Then, he lifted the broken centerpiece and pressed it against the back of his neck.
He held onto the crimson chains tightly, rolling them twice on his hands until his grip was unquestionable.
The twin sunflame blades dangled a couple of meters away from him, making him appear like he was wielding kusarigama weapon.
Kraaaa!!!
The Phoenix saw the sunflame blades and didn’t seem to care in the slightest... the concept of fear meant nothing before the Shadowlife Seed’s hunger for sunlight that had taken over its mind.
Whoosh!!
With a flap of its wings, it took off in Levi’s direction, its beak fully open... seeing this, Levi merely twirled the weapons, spinning them rapidly until two golden illuminating circles emerged on his sides.
Then he lowered into stance and gazed coldly at the fast-approaching Phoenix, resembling Kratos wielding the Blades of Chaos and seeking to slay a deity. The Phoenix roared and charged, its wings pushing the air nonstop akin to the wrath of a hurricane.
Yet, Levi was unfazed... the moment it came close enough, Levi uttered inwardly, "Explode."
BOOM! BOOM!!...
Every ignition mark he had placed before detonated at once!
A dozen explosions thundered across the sky, engulfing many parts of the Phoenix’s body in an inferno of sunflames!
Feathers and glass shards scattered everywhere as the beast shrieked, losing control of its body midair... its focus switched from killing Levi to extinguishing the flames again.
However, Levi had no plans to give it more chances.
Whoosh!
With a burst of Combustion Leap, he blasted through the smoke like a blazing meteor... his Nova Blades dragging behind him and carving twin trails of sunlight.
Slice! Slice!
He crashed into the Phoenix’s flank, slashing both blades upward in a brutal cross-cut... the twin strikes carved from shoulder to tip of its right wing, leaving deep, glowing lines that erupted with sunflames a second later!
The Phoenix howled and thrashed, its massive body losing rhythm mid-flight. Furious, it swung its head to snap at him, its beak carrying the power to pierce through Levi in one hit.
He knew this more than anyone else... the moment he spotted it, he vanished in a burst of green light... another Combustion Leap!
Then, he reappeared by its face, his blades already in motion, cutting down toward its eyes!
The Phoenix instinctively raised a wing to shield its face... but Levi anticipated this much, as he was gunning for its left wing from the very start.
He whipped both blades downward, the sunflames slicing through flesh and feather, creating a long, burning gash that bled with sizzling, steamy liquid!
Feeling the immense pain flooding its mind, the Phoenix tried to flee again, its instincts driving it toward the safety of the sand to heal up.
As it dove headfirst toward the desert, Levi refused to let it heal up again... he activated Sun Jets, twin blasts of radiant fire exploding from his boots, uncaring if his soles were going to be burnt off at the end of the fight.
Whoosh!
As Levi’s body plummeted headfirst through the air at insane speed, he caught up to the Phoenix in no time. However, he knew that it was near impossible for him to attack it while they were both in a falling motion, as he couldn’t swing his blades without having the insane air resistance eat most of the force.
’This is gonna suck...’
Instead, he started spinning rapidly while his arms remained extended, blades still burning at full power.
The Nova Blades started picking up his spinning speed in no time until the sunflames turned him into a spinning halo of light.
Levi aligned himself with the Phoenix’s massive frame, falling parallel to it... the moment they met in midair, the real carnage began.
Slice! Slice! Slice!
Flames spiraled violently around him, forming expanding rings that tore outward in every direction, slicing through the Phoenix’s battered body from feet to head!
It was like watching a fiery spiral fall from the heavens, slicing through feathers, flesh, bone, and anything in its way!
Kreeeee!!!
The Phoenix screamed in agony, its massive form squirming as it tried to escape, but Levi didn’t stop... he kept spinning, cutting upward to downward, bottom to head, the heat so intense it twisted the surrounding air, leaving anyone viewing this scene from a distance to believe he fell victim to a mirage illusion.
By the time Levi reached its upper chest, the Phoenix’s wings were absolutely shredded... torn, bleeding, and burning... resembling a plucked-out chicken.
With no feathers available, the Phoenix lost complete control over its body, dropping uncontrollably toward the desert.
BOOOM!
It crashed headfirst into a dune with a thunderous impact. The shockwave blew Levi off course midair... he tried to steady himself, but his balance was already questionable after spinning like a bey blade nonstop.
Knowing that he might not survive the fall in one piece, Levi swiftly decided to cut off the losses... instead of saving himself, he redirected his jets at the last second to blast sideways just as his body was about to smash into a dune. But he was still not in the clear as he shot across the desert like a skipping stone before smashing hard into a sand dune.
Thud! Thud! Thud!...
He tumbled violently, rolling over and over until he stopped at the base of a dune... his whole body ached... he could tell he had torn his muscles and broken a couple of bones.
"...Ugh." Levi spat sand mixed with blood, his voice hoarse. "That hurts..."
Although he was in immense pain from the fall and the overuse of Sun Jets, he swiftly reached out into his wallet and pulled a wooden bottle... he murmured the incantation and popped it open, letting the green liquid flow into his mouth.
The moment he felt the pain getting numbed down, he stood back up with great difficulty and used aetheric grasp to swiftly head back to the Phoenix.
He knew that the recovery totem acted as a mere painkiller and hadn’t fixed his problems... but he couldn’t afford to let the Phoenix remain buried in the sand for too long... its healing capabilities were too fearsome even while weakened.
The moment he arrived, Levi floated some distance away from the dying Phoenix... his breathing was ragged, his body beaten and somewhat numbed, but his spiritual eyes stayed fixed on the fallen creature.
He could see that its spiritual aura was dying off, representing that its subconscious barrier was at its weakest... the perfect time to carry on with his initial plan.
Slowly, he raised his hand... then he pointed his finger at the squirming Phoenix, which resembled a burnt-off turkey, and uttered calmly, "False Sun... devour its soul."
Once the order was given, Levi’s body started emitting dark particles, resembling ghostly fireflies... they swiftly gathered in a single dot, which bent the surrounding light, turning darker and bigger until... a giant sphere of pure nothingness spread out behind Levi.
It swallowed everything... the sound of the wind, the movement of the sand, and even the dying breaths of the Phoenix... only heavy silence was allowed in its presence.
Then, Levi was left spooked at the sight of the Phoenix’s body shaking nonstop, its eyes going wide as the pull reached it... the sphere behind Levi had turned into a massive black sun, and its pull was like a black hole.
The Phoenix’s soul began to stir deep inside its subconscious barrier... it tried to hold on, but its subconscious barrier was already weak.
Kraaaaaa!!!
Cracks spread through it fast, glowing lines of light breaking across its body... the Phoenix screamed in hellish agony, feeling like someone caught its soul with their bare hands and was pulling it from its roots.
Fortunately for it... the pain didn’t last long.
A huge wave of light burst out of its chest, but in Levi’s spiritual eyes, he saw the Phoenix’s corrupted soul trying its best to hold onto its body but to no avail.
It got pulled into the singularity, twisting and breaking apart as it was dragged in... the moment its presence was fully gone, the Phoenix’s body lay there motionless, its wide-open crimson eyes gazing at the sky without any thought behind them.
Levi neither moved nor said anything... he kept gazing at the fallen Corrupted Phoenix, bathing in the silence of the desert.
’I thought you would be more excited.’ Ash’Kral smiled, quite pleased with Levi’s performance.
Although the Leviathan was more or less crippled and Levi wielded the greatest weapon against it, still... he won, and that’s what mattered.
’I am, my face is just numbed up from the medicine.’ Levi tried to smile, but he ended up with a twisted visage.
How could he not be excited? He had slain a Corrupted Leviathan outside the CRS Platform or the Nocturnal Ring.
This meant... he was entitled to harvest everything about it!