The Real Monster - 93 Fighting the Spirit King of Fire

Clay had arrived at the Spirit Realm.

Surprisingly, there was nothing in this realm. What made the Spirit Realm a place where Spirits thrive, was the Spirit energy that was abundant and inexhaustible here.

Each Spirit King made their territories more comfortable with their own kind, by constantly releasing their own energy to either burn, freeze, blow, solidify and etcetera their own territories.

The Fire Spirit King, Agni, made his territory burning. If one were to picture Hell in the biblical perspective, then they would have thought this place was Hell itself. There were no buildings, no structures at all, just fire, perpetually burning in an area even bigger than the Asia continent on Earth.

There was no palace for the king nor where their politics. It was all just them, living together comfortably. There was no need for food and shelter, however, what the Spirit King of Fire liked most were hot-blooded fighters that show him fights that could be entertaining.

He himself was inclined to fighting the other Kings when he was bored. Overall, the Spirit Realm was a realm that lived in perpetual peace. There were no deaths here as well, as spirits were literally immortal. They may weaken and would need time to recover their strength but, they never truly die.

Clay had opened his eyes as he was thrown by Agni once they arrived. Then he immediately announced,

“Here is a potential contract, who wants to form a bond with me! Let us all witness a fight worthy of admiration and praise! Make room, my kin!”

Agni waved his hand as he spoke, and the lesser spirits were forcibly moved back to make room. They also did not resist, as doing so was pointless after all.

“Lord Clay, we meet once again.” Greeted Efrit who he met and fought some time ago.

Clay also remembered Efrit. “Hey. It has been so long. Nice to see you again.” He greeted back.

“It’s good to witness a fight worthy of the master’s praise and hype. We are honored to witness this!” Said Efrit as he turned around and joined the crowd outside the encirclement.

Suddenly, the heat of the place fluctuated and there appeared the Spirit King Frost.

“Agni! Are you going to fight again?! The last time you fought with someone, you rampaged on for a few years! Can you not do that again?!”

Then the wind blew so hard as if to snuff the fire out of the place.

“That’s right Agni. Even if you want to alleviate your boredom, don’t get us in as collateral damage!” The Spirit King of Gale, Syl seconded Frost.

“Syl, Frost! Do you not see who I have with me?! He is the only human who’d ever summoned me with pure magic energy! He must be quite good right?!”

“Really? This guy summoned you. Haha! You must have become weaker Agni! How could a human even begin to summon you? Even lesser spirits would be hard for them!” Syl gloated and made the low-tempered Agni blast him with a flamethrower.

“Bah! You are just jealous I can finally blow some steam off! So back off!” Agni showed a pissed expression on his giant face and threw the attack.

Meanwhile, Clay was on the surprisingly hard ground, despite not having any ground at all. He could flatly feel the sole of his feet in contact with a hard floor, but there was no floor. This was confusing for him.

“Does my opinion even matter here? Are we really in the Spirit Realm?”

[Spirit Energy washing Host’s body Automatically. In Progress]

His Ultimate skill started an operation that he did not even authorize, but since he felt that the spirit energy here was inexhaustible anyway, “Might as well.” Clay muttered.

No one answered him as the three Kings argued back and forth.

“What is this commotion?!” Another gigantic spirit arrived and obviously looked like a giant mountain that can move. This was the Spirit King of Earth, Gaius.

“Oh Gaius! I found some fresh meat and want to have a battle with him for a contract. So, keep your distance and don’t steal my prey you hear?!”

Agni was telling Gaius off as if his accusations have already happened once upon a time. Hearing this, Gaius was a bit embarrassed and said, “What are you talking about? I never stole from you! I just told them, having their contract with me would bring more benefits and I never lied!”

Feeling accused, Gaius was blabbering away to defend himself.

“Hey Human! Let us start this fight already before any more thieves arrive and steal your contract away!”

Clay heard Agni and he wanted to ask a question, but Agni had already started attacking him without warning!

Agni formed a fist and slammed it against Clay. As his fist was getting closer, Agni’s size shrunk until he was the same size as Clay.

Clay had never felt threatened by Agni or any of the Spirit Kings before, but right now, he felt like all his being only had one goal, to run away. His body was screaming for him to run away this instant.

“Damn! Maybe I did not feel they were threatening because they never saw me a threat in the first place, hence no hostility or intent to fight generated from them that I could pick up!

“That, or I was too weak the first time I met him, and I couldn’t even measure his abilities and power?

“Either way, I’m fucked if I fight recklessly. I have to discard my mortal body and switch to my spiritual body instead!”

Deciding so, Clay immediately unleashed his Spiritual transformation and entered Spiritual Body mode.

Seeing this, Agni was intrigued but only reacted with one of his brows shooting upwards without stopping his punch from hitting Clay.

With the confidence to face Agni’s punch now, Clay blocked with his arms crossed before Agni;s punch and resulted in,

Bang!

Clay was hit and was blown far away into the horizon. He could not recover in time and Agni was already in front of him even as he was being blown away. Another fist went towards his tight guard.

This time, Clay employed everything he could muster as a Spirit body. As a Spirit, Clay was unable to multiply his weight to brace for impact. Instead, he had to rely on his senses to fully control and manipulate the elements around as well as the energies involved.

However, he was too caught up in the conversation between the Kings that he did not pay too much attention to Agni. And this was the result.

In his 20 years of solitude, he had already mastered his Spirit body transformation. The only thing he lacked now was fighting experience in this form. And what more could he ask than to have a battle with Agni, Spirit King of Fire?

This second punch of Agni’s was already seen by Clay who had adjusted his mindset. He need not think about collateral damage and whatever as he fought. He only had one goal in fighting, to win. To come out on top with each encounter. He did not want to be on the receiving and losing end, instead he wanted to be the one to decide fates.

This twisted kind of mindset was born from his frustration about his power, or the lack thereof.

Seeing Agni’s punch, Clay unleashed the force of a nuclear explosion in his attempt to block this punch with his own.

Agni saw this and smirked. This attempt of Clay seemed laughable in front of this King. However, reality was exacting.

Clay’s punch that contained the force of a nuclear explosion collided with Agni’s casual punch and resulted in a sound explosion that spread from the place they were hitting each other to the initial point where they fought. Covering the distance of over 240 thousand miles, showing just how ridiculously large the Spirit Realm was. This did not even cover half of the Spirit Realm at all.

Before the explosion even resounded, Clay and Agni were separated by the force of their punches. Clay had been blown back again, this time it was relatively shorter than the first, while Agni was blown away just enough to let Clay recover his stance. Then it was his turn to go on offensive.

Clay employed the speed of light he can achieve and directly appeared in front of Agni who was just recovering from the force of the collision midair. Clay sent out a punch that this time, contained the force released in a Sun fusing millions of tons of hydrogen in but a second. He wanted to show Agni that he simply cannot be looked down upon.

Agni received this punch as well but this time, he turned serious as he sensed the energy that it contained. He was not unfamiliar with the energy produced by Clay’s punch, but he was curious how Clay was able to harness this type of energy when he was a man off magic, in a world of magic.

Questions cannot be asked in mid-fight and so, he guarded himself and prepared a return when he successfully received Clay’s punch.

Agni yelled and laughed out loud as he received Clay’s punch.

Kaboom!

The collision produced yet another wave of energy dispersion that reach beyond the original scale they were dishing out.

Agni was yet again blown away and Clay was hot in pursuit in no time at all, he was about to punch out again against Agni when suddenly, Agni disappeared from his sight that surprised Clay. He was not moving at light speed; however, Clay could not detect him.

“You still don’t know how to use heat as a weapon and as defense. I can probably teach you how to use your powers properly instead of wasting this talent you have.”

Clay suddenly heard Agni’s voice behind him but as he moved away and turned to face him, Agni was not there. Clay was baffled but he could not find the answer.

Bang!

“Ahh!” Clay was hit from behind. He was punched by Agni on the lower rib part which hurt like hell.

Clay screamed in agony but had to hold it in just a second after his outburst. He wanted to return the favor to Agni with even more energy contained in his punch, however, as he swung behind him, his punch met no resistance, hitting nothing.

“Tsk!” Clay was growing more frustrated with this fight.

As he kept getting hit by Agni using this mysterious ability that Agni employed to hide himself completely from Clay’s sight, his limits showed, and he gritted his teeth as he prepared to go nova on Agni.

Clay compressed solar energy to his utmost control on his palm and continued to refine it to the size of an atom. The mass it contained could not be called light. It was heavier than even Alleucanth’s weight.

Clay compressed it and just like making a sword, he folded it time and again to continue to compress it.

Since even his Ultimate Skill could not detect Agni, he had to hit the surroundings instead. He didn’t know if it will damage Agni, but he was so mad he just did not care.

“Argh!” Clay abruptly released his hold on that mass of energy on his palm and defended himself against its explosive energy by fully utilizing his ability to absorb energy of this type.

“Let’s see where you’re hiding now!” Clay declared loudly to make sure Agni could hear.

“You’re too impulsive.” A nonchalant reply resounded beside his ear and he immediately lashed out against Agni who he thought was beside him. After Clay released the energy to produce a nova explosion, the area they were currently in was left silent. Not one of the other elements were left aside from heat and fire.

“You do know that I am King of Fire, right?” Again, Agni spoke to Clay as if a teacher lecturing his student.

“I also absorb fire, light and energies that run wild when left unaccounted for. That’s why I took an interest in you, because you seem to have the same trait as I have, being able to absorb energy from a great fire source like the Sun.

“I can teach you; you know. I can teach you to better control your abilities and use them expertly instead of brute forcing your way into anything. That may work with lower beings, but people like you who’s ascended, would find that control and grasp of your own ability is urgently important than more raw power instead.”

“Come under me for discipleship instead of a contract human. I can make you ascend further down the line if you manage to master my craft. After all, the Spirit Realm is just a small piece of the greater Celestial Realms and the Eternal Realms. Once you master your Spirit Body and its abietites, you will have an easier time in ascending.

“Of course, without much work, you won’t be able to achieve anything beyond just knowledge. What do you say? Your second ascension should be close, I can help you with that after you learn and master the techniques, I am going to impart to you.

“What do you say? Right now, you have no hope of beating me, much less scratching me. Do you agree to become my disciple?”

Clay nodded without hesitation. He was already sold with “Help you Ascending”