Sanzang and Alaric were fighting in the air, and Sanzang rushed him into a forest causing an explosion. Sanzang’s dragon wings disappeared, and he went into God Stance, and Alaric jumped up, summoning Divine Soul in his hand.


    Alaric pushed his hand to the ground, and ice rushed the ground, causing a glacier to form. Sanzang jumped back, narrowly dodging the attack.


    His leg surged with Divine Soul, and he sprinted up to the ice, kicking it as hard as he could. The entire glacier shattered, but Alaric wasn’t bothered by it, transforming the ice into fire, causing raging flames to fall onto the ground.


    Sanzang dodged the falling fire, jumping from tree to tree. He jumped above Alaric and dropkicked him, causing Alaric to have to block it.


    “You''re holding back!” Alaric yelled.


    Sanzang switched from Divine Soul to Chaos Soul and pushed down harder, breaking the block and kicking him in the face. Alaric was knocked back and Sanzang jabbed him in the throat, causing him to stumble.


    Alaric noticed the Chaos Soul that Sanzang used was unstable and uncontrolled. Sanzang punched him in the jaw with Divine Soul, again unstable and uncontrolled.


    Alaric summoned a hand made of the earth out of the ground and grabbed Sanzang. Alaric squeezed his hand and the earth hand squeezed at the same time. Sanzang broke out of the hand''s grip and slid on the ground, grabbing Alaric’s face and slamming it on the ground.


    “You want me to stop holding back!? Alright!” he yelled, throwing him against a tree and running up to him.


    He punched him with Chaos Soul, and then with Divine Soul in the gut. Sanzang continued the alternating assault, not giving Alaric any breaks. Alaric transformed the flames into lightning and struck them all at Sanzang at once.


    Sanzang stumbled in pain, but just as Alaric was about to escape, Sanzang grabbed his arm and threw him away.


    “You don’t fight like this, at least not like how I remember it.”. Alaric charged lightning in his fist and punched Sanzang, throwing him back, but the armor absorbed the lightning.


    Sanzang dashed up to him and did a spinning kick imbued with Chaos. He seemingly teleported behind Alaric and grabbed his head, slamming him against the ground.


    They clashed, Alaric using his elements to his advantage, and Sanzang punching through them.


    Sanzang began building up Divine Soul, and Alaric noticed, dodging all of his punches and blasting a soundwave, disrupting Sanzang long enough for Alaric to launch a flurry of lightning, fire, ice, and wind.


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    As they fought, the Chaos Soul Sanzang used began to become more and more unstable until he entered his Overload state. But his eyes were gold. The Overloaded Sanzang and Alaric fought, Sanzang grabbing Alaric and kneeing him in the back.


    Sanzang then grabbed his leg and slammed his face into the ground, again and again. He then threw him into a tree, and de-transformed back into normal. He dashed to Alaric and kneed his stomach with Chaos Soul.


    Sanzang continued his attack, and Alaric began to bleed more and more. His gauntlets began to chip away from the impacts. Alaric broke free and began to use lightning and ice to punch back.


    Alaric was able to punch him far enough so that he could punch his fist into the ground and summon a glacier, trapping Sanzang. Then Alaric transformed into a glacier of flames, burning Sanzang.


    He walked towards Sanzang, but for some reason he couldn’t move. He felt as if an earthquake was happening. Then Sanzang appeared in front of him. Sanzang punched him into the ground with all the Divine Soul he built up, breaking his right gauntlet into fragments and breaking his arm.


    Alaric was down and Sanzang grinned, but then his smile turned into a frown. He grabbed his head in agony, and began to scream, his eyes raging with energy. Alaric got up, feeling his head almost broken and a pounding headache. Alaric stumbled back and felt the Soul.


    “You okay…?” Alaric asked. Sanzang stumbled as if he were carrying weights on his shoulders.


    “I feel disgusted at myself. I just fought to kill. Varinzik and my Soul are colliding. As if we’re not getting along. All of his memories flood into my mind. I used to like fighting, feeling the blood rush made me excited. Now I just wanna finish things. It’s Varinzik’s nature. He fought for survival. This is a war I don’t want to fight. I broke my own arm just to kill you in that frenzy,” Sanzang told him, flames enveloping him and making his armor disappear and his eyes go back to normal.


    Alaric looked at him, adjusting his armor. “You know, my Nova wasn’t originally mine?” he told him, causing Sanzang to look at him in surprise.


    “As a kid I was taken in by the Old Novas. They wanted to perform an experiment on me to give me a Nova. Another kid with the Nova of Isanagi was brought in. He was going to die in a week, so they used him as a subject. After the experiment, he died. I feel like I killed him, but since I got these powers I felt as if I owed Elias a favor. Elias made me destroy the house of a small family with a thunderbolt. It was the house of a prodigy. They were proud, but I wasn’t. I don’t want to be a Centurion, but I have to,” he continued.


    Sanzang smiled and told him, “Do you have to, though? Elias made you a murderer. If anything, he owes you. You can take them down with us. You’d really help. Someone on the inside would be perfect.”. Alaric smiled and sat down, Sanzang following his movement.


    “Dionysia. It’s happening soon. They’re setting up a power allocator using Titan Stones to make them stronger. They’re setting up a party to celebrate. Everyone is invited. They aren’t scanning ids. It’ll be easy to get into,” Alaric told him. Alaric stood up and tapped his ear.


    “They have us install earbuds for communication and teleportation.”. Sanzang smiled and stood up.


    “Alaric, you’re back! Are you ready to be teleported?” A voice said on the other side of the speaker.


    “Elias, there’s nothing left for me to do. I’d like to formally announce my retirement by telling you to GO TO HELL.”. Alaric grabbed his earpiece and crushed it.


    “Great! It would''ve been good to have a mole though,” Sanzang said.