Danso slashed all the slimes that he could, but they kept on reappearing in swarms. Instead of trying to use brute force like Tensei, Danso decided to use his brains by checking where the slimes even come from. Danso had attempted to use his ring ever since Karkous had returned back to the ring as an experiment to see if he could use his soul slimes in the trial but it seemed that he could not.
The ground beneath was not only disappearing and reappearing but was also shrinking, meaning that there was a time limit for the trial. Danso was alerted and the more he slashed the soul slimes the more appeared.
"I need to end this quickly!" thought Danso.
Danso decided since there were multiple targets the most suitable attack would be Dragon's Breath. What he needed was the perfect time to lure all the soul slimes and kill them all in one swipe. If they all die and still somehow manage to revive then he has to check for a Plan B otherwise if the trial is completed then that means it worked. Danso glanced at the walls of the room and lit his foot on fire and burst himself up, his hands touching the walls. He wanted to confirm one thing and that was if the walls would retract and contract.
It was also a tactical advantage, having the higher ground which helped him strategize better. He had a very simple ideology when it came to fights and that was pure brute strength alone cannot win, you need brains.
After the ground started to disappear little by little, the walls did not seem to change at all. Danso was astonished by the reveal of this fact, so now he officially had a plan B in mind.
Plan A was simple and that was to lure them in and finish all the soul slimes with one single Dragon's breath.
If that failed then he would attempt Plan B which was to wait until the floor completely disappeared and he would just fly and use the wall as support. He could not walk on walls of course, but hovering against the gravity and using the wall as support was an easy way to waste time.
Now the only thing that was left was to execute Plan A. Danso flew down to the center of the chamber where almost instantly multiple soul slimes rushed towards him. Danso sliced a few and created a moment's space, which he used to utmost perfection.
"Sword Art of the Dragon:- Dragon's Breath," said Danso as he took a deep breath.
The blade's flame started to grow brighter as Danso prepared to attack. He charged his stance and attacked before unleashing the Dragon's Breath which covered the entire room in a bright red and yellow color. Ever since he awakened his second seal he did feel stronger but he never imagined his attack to do this much damage. As the smoke cleared the tiles on the floor stopped to retract and all the soul slimes were burnt to a crisp and fell down to the abyss below.
Danso's ring started to vibrate and glow suddenly. He immediately took the ring off and threw it onto the ground, making sure not to throw it to the void below. Then, Zephyr appeared above Danso.
"O'Great One you are truly a worthy heir," asked Zephyr.
"Thank you for the flattery," replied Danso.
Zephyr gracefully flew down as he recreated the tiles of the floor with ease.
"Now for the final trial," said Zephyr.
"Let me guess, I have to beat you?" said Danso.
"The Great One has smarts and strength," praised Zephyr.
"Then let's start shall me?" asked Danso gripping his sword and getting ready for battle.
"Alright Great One," replied Zephyr.
Zephyr unsheathed his sword from his back. The sword had an emerald helm with a bright white blade attached to it. As he unsheathed the sword, sparks and feathers started to fall down from the roof of the chamber creating a scene that intimidated Danso. It was truly like a boss fight from a video game.
"Where do the feathers come from," thought Danso trying to ease himself.
Zephyr struck Danso like a bolt of lightning, yet Danso blocked the attack with his sword. With a grunt he deflected the attack and started swinging, aiming his wings to ground Zephyr. There were many things that Danso realised about Zephyr. The first one was that Karkous original body was weaker than Zephyr but now with his host, The Arch-Angel of Shadows, he should be around the same difficulty. This meant that in order to beat him he needed to get close and use the Ruby Gem in his sword's helm as his final move.
Karkous could fly, so could Zephyr. Karkous used Shadow Bombs as explosives, and Zephyr used Lightning Bombs as explosives. The major difference must be their main weapons. For Karkous his main weapon was his fists, charging them up with soul energy and shadow energy to attack two times at once. However, Zephyr uses a sword like Danso to attack.
Zephyr was dodging Danso's attacks like he was dancing along with the flow of wind. Soon Danso let himself be open which Zephyr capitalised by slicing him almost in a majestic way in the stomach. Danso used first stage sorcery to reinforce the part which got damaged and continued to fight. Danso swung his sword and Zephyr also swung his and each meeting of their swords was heard with a loud clang noise.
After a barrage of attacks and deflections, Danso ignited his sword and used first stage sorcery to enhance the grip on his sword along with the Holy Steel Blade.
"Sword Art of the Dragon:- Dragon's Claw," said Danso.
Zephyr realising that Danso was going to attack him with a Sword Art quickly charged up an attack of his own.
"Sorcery of the Wind:- Gales of Souls," said Zephyr.
A greenish wind started to surround Zephyr's blade as he pointed it up and then faced it towards Danso. Both of them ran towards each other and attacked with neither one giving up. Eventually the build up in soul energy repelled both of them back causing Danso to hit his head on the wall behind him. Danso got back up and cleaned the blood dripping to his eye with his wrist and continued fighting.
Danso noticed that Zephyr's left wing was damaged due to the damage he took due to the repelled soul energy and knew this was his chance.
Danso flew up using his passive Sword Art and started to shoot fire bullets using his left hand shaped as a miniature gun. Zephyr used his right wing to block the attacks before sending multiple wind slashes at him which Danso deflected to the roof of the chamber causing a few rocks to fall down. Danso strategically threw the rocks towards Zephyr, but he easily cut them all and started to heal his left wing almost instantaneously.
"I forgot that Soul Slimes could regenerate darn it," thought Danso as he racked through his brains thinking of a way to beat him.
Then Danso realised. He had a plan in mind. He was going to wait by flying up in the sky and when Zephyr flew towards him for an attack Danso would block the attack and use the Ruby Gem as the finishing move.
The plan started to work as Zephyr took the bait, flying towards Danso. They both exchanged hits and then Zephyr charged up an attack. This forced Danso to do the same.
"Sword Art of the Dragon:- Dragon's Claw," said Danso.
"Sorcery of the Wind:- Thunder Strike," said Zephyr.
Sparks started to dance on Zephyr's blade as well as fiery flames started to heat up on Danso's blade. Suddenly, like the time when Danso fought Hiroshi, his blade started to ignite more and more turning into a dark purple flame. Danso used his leg to attack Zephyr on the neck but he blocked it with his wings. Danso then lit his legs on fire and burnt the wings causing Zephyr to fall down in air suddenly. Then there was his chance, Danso attacked by smashing the Ruby in the helm as the energy contained in the gem transferred to him and he struck Zephyr with a powerful strike. This sent him flying to the ground and Zephyr fell down and lost.
Danso descended as Zephyr tried to get up but failed and Danso smirked.
"Did I finally pass the trial?" asked Danso.
"Yes, O'Great One," said Zephyr, getting up and bowing.
Danso patted Zephyr's back and smiled.
"No need to do that," said Danso.
Danso walked towards the cube in the farthest north of the chamber and touched it. The ring resonated with the Soul Slime cube and became a part of it. The Soul Slimes of Karkous's nest suddenly got an appearance change. Maybe this was to differentiate the nests was Danso's thought. Karkous's soul slimes were now dark in color, losing their previous light green color, while Zephyr's nest's slimes were green in color but they had cute little wings to their sides.
"Are you a Rank One Slime?" asked Danso.
Zephyr nodded.
Then Zephyr entered Danso's ring as Danso walked outside the empty chamber which was slowly disappearing.
"Maybe the Soul Nest in the subway station also disappeared," thought Danso.
Danso returned back to the hospital to view everyone fast asleep. He smiled at all of them, huddled up on the couch and then threw a blanket on them. He went to look at Tensei's condition. Even though he was annoying, Danso still cared for him.
"I will save you," said Danso with a blaze in his eyes.