While standing in the broken debris of what was once the cave, Balvin asked the man in front of him, "If I say that I didn't do it, would you believe me, Kael?"

  The man, Kael, simply observed him for a few moments and then gestured with his head toward the body of the dead Ascender, which was still radiating the aura of Frost. Following his gaze, Balvin let out a light cough. "You know, there could be a misunderstanding here, right?"

  Hearing these words, a vein bulged on Kael's forehead, and he looked at the debris beneath them. Along with the broken earth, there were also visible bodies frozen in ice, their expressions clearly indicating how horrified they had been before their deaths. The water elementals around him started to grow restless and gathered around him.

  "It cannot be helped," Balvin said in a deprecating manner. Soon, the force of the world enveloped him and once again threw him back into the Void Realm. Following close behind him was the blue-haired Kael.

  As soon as he arrived, Balvin activated his Ascension Spell, Frozen Death. And just as he did so, a massive river of water appeared from behind him and completely engulfed him. There was a sound of someone stomping, and the whole river was frozen to ice. Large cracks appeared throughout the frozen river, and it was soon broken into multiple pieces. Balvin walked out from it unscathed and, shrugging his shoulders, faced Kael.

  Not surprised by this turn of events, Kael raised his right hand, and a large number of water elementals started to gather around it. Once again, a large river of water was formed, but this time it did not directly attack Balvin. Understanding that conversation was out of the window, Balvin also drew his sword, which was gleaming in a cyan hue.

  The river of water formed the shapes of several dragon heads, which lunged toward Balvin. Seeing the incoming attack, Balvin just raised his sword and slashed down. A slash of cyan light was thrown out, and it decapitated two of the six incoming dragon heads. The third one had neared him by now, so he met it head-on and was thrown back, but not without freezing and destroying the head.

  The remaining three chased after him, giving him no chance to recover. Steadying his momentum, he caught a string of space beside him and appeared behind the three heads. Raising his foot, he stomped heavily on the ground. Elemental energy from his Nexus Rings was consumed, and his Ascension Spell, Glacial Slam, was activated. It froze everything around him, including the dragon heads. Soon, those heads were broken down into small particles and dissolved in the void.

  Following this, Balvin trained his gaze on Kael. Till now, they both had not been actually fighting, but only gauging each other out. Since the initial process had completed, the real fight was about to begin.

  Kael's eyes started to shimmer with a bright blue color, and the river behind him started to change its color. Soon, its appearance changed, and instead of a bright blue color, it had transformed into a dark green color. His Ascension Spell, Poisonous Swamp, converted all the elementals under Kael's control into very poisonous and toxic water.

  Small snakes made of the green water started to emerge from the water. As if they had received a command, several thousands of them rushed at Balvin. To counter them, Balvin formed dozens of layers of shields in front of him. But as soon as the snakes met the shields, they drilled a hole in them and followed through. Due to their corrosive nature, even the compact and concentrated ice elemental walls were only a stopgap and were rapidly whittled down.

  Balvin once again stomped his feet, activating his Ascension Spell and freezing them again. But this time, the snakes broke through the ice. Their heads were only half the size before they were frozen. However, their ability to counter an Ascension Spell was, in and of itself, a great advantage.

  Catching a string of space from beside him, Balvin disappeared from his place and reappeared above Kael. Raising the sword relic in his hand, he started to pour massive amounts of elemental energy into it. The energy rapidly saturated and formed a translucent layer around the sword.

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  Balvin brought it down at Kael, and in response, Kael activated his second Ascension Spell, Point Blank. A small water bullet formed at the tip of his fingers and shot toward the descending sword. The small, finger-length bullet collided with the large sword and stopped it in its tracks.

  The space surrounding them cracked at many different places. These cracks even extended to the Material World. As if prepared for it, the will of the world quickly threw out the intrusive energies and patched up the gaps in its space. After tussling for some time, the translucent layer on the sword faded, and the bullet also lost its blue shine and disappeared into shimmering particles.

  "I really hate it when someone uses the paradigms of technologically advanced words to create their Ascension Spells," Balvin commented with a slight frown.

  "But I quite like it," Kael replied with a tone of fascination. "How they can achieve maximum effects with the minimal amount of energy. Moreover, it's the perfect method to produce highly destructive spells with a very slight expenditure of energy."

  Right then, several more such bullets formed around him, and this time their color was the corroding green, similar to the water. By now, the snakes had also caught up with Balvin. With a sign from Kael, the bullets shot out and, along with the snakes, surrounded Balvin.

  When he tried to look for strings of space, Balvin discovered they had all become unstable due to the recent clash and could not be used. Thus, raising his sword, he faced the attacks head-on. And their fight continued, with Balvin deflecting or destroying the snakes and the bullets, while Kael rapidly deployed more and more. The space was being shredded and mended at almost every collision. And since it was not a life-or-death battle, both of them were saving their trump cards.

  Seeing that the fight was going nowhere, and since both of them were Rank One Demigods, Kael decided to compromise and dispersed his Ascension Spell. The murky green water turned back to a bright blue color.

  "Tell me from the beginning what happened," he demanded from Balvin.

  Balvin just gave him a baffled look. "Weren't you the one who started this fight?"

  Kael just rolled his eyes at this. He looked at Balvin, who had not even broken a sweat and whose breathing was still stable. "We can fight for days without determining the winner and still not get anything useful out of it. For the time being, I am ready to believe you. If you really turn out to be a liar, I will use everything at my disposal to deal with you."

  Balvin nodded his head at this and thoroughly explained the events that had happened to Kael, who listened with rapt attention. After pondering for some time, Kael finally replied, "You do realize that there is a big hole in your explanation, right? For all you have said to be true, it means someone from inside our side had betrayed us and also, without anyone noticing, replaced all the original transmission spells to bring the Paragons here. And since I arrived, I have not sensed even the slight presence of death energy, but only of your people."

  Balvin just looked him straight in the eye. "Do you believe me or not?"

  Pausing for a moment, an answer came from Kael. "Yes. It's just too perfect how this has gone. And more than one person must be involved with this. For now, you are my best lead to get to them." Then, taking out a small bracelet, he threw it toward Balvin. "Keep it with you. It will help in communicating. If you find something useful, tell me quickly."

  Taking the bracelet, Balvin carefully observed it. There were several spells carefully engraved on it. He quickly pocketed it and, catching a string of space, disappeared into the void.

  Kael just stood there, looking at the place where Balvin had disappeared, for a few moments. He then slightly opened and closed his fists; some frost had settled in them and numbed them a little. After some time had passed, the frost was gone, and everything returned to normal. He tore the layer of space and returned to the Material World. Then, carefully floating down, he observed the debris.

  The bodies of the Paragons were still scattered around. With a swing of his hand, the water elementals in the air gathered and, forming several hands, started to clear out the debris and collect the bodies. Soon, the area was properly cleared. The body of the Ascender, already half-converted to energy, was fading away. Since Ascenders start to transform into a full energy form after their death, their bodies would slowly be converted into pure energy and return to the world.

  Kael flicked his hand once, and this process sped up. Soon, the Ascender was completely gone. Then he removed the ice encasing the Paragons and slowly dissolved them. Burying the bodies of dead Paragons was a very foolish decision. An evil Soul Caster could use them for his nefarious purposes.

  Having done all this, Kael simply sat there, waiting and pondering matters known only to himself.