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474 A Sense of Deja Vu

Boom!

Another beam of multi-colored flames struck down on Helcan\'s incarnation, causing him to sink several dozen feet lower after the ground cracked, shattered, and concaved under the sheer force of the impact.

Following the force of impact, the cracked surface and broken rocks disappeared into a single molten substance, forming a pool of lava and sinking Helcan\'s incarnation in the ground further until he completely submerged.

After the earth in the area was liquified, it was further reduced to gas under the terrifyingly intense heat. The eruption of gaseous earthen substances made the region impossible for anyone else to come close to it, let alone survive within it.

It was no different from the surface of the sun.

Helcan\'s incarnation was thoroughly burned inside out, not just his exterior. But despite sustaining such damage, his body failed to lose its form when everything else around him did.

Vaan\'s multi-colored flames only managed to Helcan\'s incarnation at a surface level.

Only the flesh was burned; the muscle, bones, and organs were all intact despite such high heat flowing through them. They were reinforced and protected by Helcan\'s divinity to keep his incarnation from being destroyed.

After all, Emperor Renardier\'s body was the only medium keeping Helcan\'s connection to Pangea.

Swoosh!

Helcan\'s incarnation suddenly shot out of the fiery region, appearing no different from an undead that had just crawled out from the purgatory level of hell, charred black from top to bottom with magma lines all over his body.

Even his eyes were seemingly gone, replaced by two pits of fire spewing out from their sockets.

Emperor Renardier\'s resemblance was nowhere to be found. Helcan\'s incarnation had completely turned into an undead-looking fire demon after taking on Vaan\'s flames.

"Kekekeke! C\'mon, show me more! This can\'t be everything you got, boy!"

Helcan\'s incarnation excitedly lunged toward Vaan, seriously aiming his claw-like hands at the latter\'s heart without concerning himself with whether Vaan could on his attack.

At the same time, Vaan narrowed his eyes with a fierce glint.

Extreme Lightning Flash Step!

With a quick burst of instantaneous speed, Vaan evaded to the side of Helcan\'s incarnation\'s attack, then took a two-handed sword pose before his greatsword even appeared in his grip.

Puchi!

Helcan\'s incarnation immediately lost his left hand after Vaan swung down on it.

Evidently, physical attacks were still effective against Helcan\'s incarnation. Only the effect of Vaan\'s Fire Authority was limited by Helcan\'s divinity.

Nevertheless, after Helcan\'s incarnation lost his left arm, he immediately lunged after it, grabbing it with his right hand and jamming it back in place.

Vaan\'s eyes flickered.

"How inconvenient. If only I also had a weapon and set of equipment that I could utilize to bring out my strength."

"Boohoo."

During the next clash, Vaan cut off Helcan\'s incarnation\'s arm again.

However, he did not give the latter another chance to reattach it, as he immediately burned it with his flames, reducing it to ashes and scattering it in the wind.

Helcan\'s incarnation failed to recover his missing arm in such a state.

Evidently, Helcan\'s divinity didn\'t extend to parts that had been detached from the main body.

But even if Vaan hacked Helcan\'s incarnation into a million pieces and erased them one by one, he still wouldn\'t be satisfied.

After all, doing so would only send Helcan back to Gehenna; it wouldn\'t make the Great Devil suffer during his incarnation in Pangea, nor would he gain much information from it.

During the first several exchanges, Vaan\'s rage had already subsided.

It seemed it was only a momentary surge of emotion, which he couldn\'t keep up for long.

Even if he wanted to shut off his mind, he couldn\'t stop his heaven-defying thought processing from taking in all the information and analyzing the battle in detail.

Suddenly, Vaan stopped using physical attacks and kept his distance from Helcan\'s incarnation; he only continued to use his Fire Authority afterward.

First came the blue flames, then the purple flames, the black flames, the green flames, the white flames, the red flames, the yellow flames...

Vaan\'s subsequent fire attacks continued to change color as he bombarded Helcan\'s incarnation. He tested the effect of each attack, collected the information, and experimented with a new attack each time.

"Kekeke, you must really hate me for you to keep using something that\'s clearly ineffective but still inflicts the most pain. I suppose that woman was really important to you," Helcan\'s incarnation chuckled sinisterly.

"She is," Vaan coolly admitted before adding, "However, I am thankful towards you. Thanks to this mistake, I am reminded of what\'s most important — of what I have to cast away to protect every other thing I consider important."

"Also, thanks to your appearance, I now know a little of what to expect moving forward and prepare for it. So no, I do not hate you. I only feel grateful."

"Let this be the first and last mistake I\'ll ever make," Vaan declared.

If he were given another choice, he would kill Emperor Renardier on the spot.

It was too much for him to expect he could have emotions like a normal human being. He was most definitely not a normal human being. He was given a great gift and a certain destiny to fulfill. To desire some normality in his life was a great injustice to the gift he was given.

He mustn\'t be tied down by human emotions, morals, and expectations; they were chains, and complacency was the guillotine.

Never again would he forget.

\'To protect, I have to abandon. To save, I have to destroy...\' Vaan thought before getting a strange sense of déja vu, even though he had no recollection of a similar incident.

"I don\'t really get what you are trying to say, but if you\'re that grateful to me, you should serve me! Someone as talented as you should be a general in my divine kingdom!"

"You want me to serve you? Sure, I\'ll serve you... to these flames!"

Helcan\'s incarnation tried to recruit Vaan, but he was suddenly met with a beam of grey flames, causing him to frown with discomfort.

"What the hell are you trying to do? Stop it. Such a disgusting flame..." Helcan\'s incarnation demanded with displeasure.

However, Vaan wouldn\'t stop just because Helcan\'s incarnation demanded it so.