System vs Rebirth

The soldiers were watching Noel and Raincart standing apart as if they were going to fight.

"What is this? Are they fighting?"

"No way. Sir Raincart is probably trying to test his strength."

"Can he even put up a fight against Sir Raincart?"

"Idiot. Who was the one creating this hole we're filling now?"

"This is getting interesting."

The soldiers became excited as they were also curious about the strength of the person who created such a phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Noel had been closing his eyes, concentrating. This was the first time he used his ability as a Spirit Grandmaster, so he had to be careful.

At the same time, he also wanted to see how far he had gone just by advancing to the Spirit Grandmaster stage and forging the Spirit Link.

Noel took a deep breath before opening his eyes. "Are you ready, Grandfather?"

"Yeah. Just give me your best shot. I will see if that's enough or not."

"Alright." Noel raised his finger. With the connection he got with the Undying Fire, he could concentrate even more energy into his fingertip.

This was his usual way of summoning the Undying Phoenix. In the past, the Undying Phoenix would decimate everything it touched to ashes, so he wondered what kind of difference he would see now.

Noel's Spirit Mind changed the nature of Spiritual Energy within his body, improving its strength. At the same time, the Spirit Link had turned the flame into a part of his body.

With these two empowerment, Noel waved his finger.

Undying Phoenix.

Even before the phoenix was released, the people were already dumbstruck. The fire was so strong that it created a shock wave that carried the intense heat of Noel's flame.

In the instant Noel released his Spiritual Energy, that heat razed everything within one meter radius to the ground. At the same time, the fire in the fingertips formed a black circle connected with a plus inside.

From that symbol, the phoenix emerged.

This time, the phoenix carried everything that Noel had set up previously, including the intense heat and high temperature.

The radiation coming from the phoenix burned everything underneath it. The phoenix was two times bigger, but Noel could see that the strength within that phoenix was three times stronger.

It might be because of the Undying Fire Will, but Noel could feel the phoenix like it was a part of him. As a result, the phoenix flapped its wings, creating intense heat like his other ability, Fire Gale.

In fact, the phoenix looked like it was alive.

"This is…" Noel gasped. If he had complete control over his phoenix, this wasn't an ability anymore. It was a summoning. Most of his fire abilities were related to the Undying Phoenix. Flame Scale, Fire Gale, Undying Fire Feathers, and Phoenix Wings.

If the current phoenix executed all those abilities, it would feel like fighting two people at once.

However, Noel could sense that his Spiritual Energy was draining at a pace he'd never seen before. If he continued this way, he would empty all his energy reserves in just thirty minutes.

The higher the level of the opponent, the longer it would usually take to finish the battle. So, losing everything within thirty minutes was something he couldn't afford no matter how strong the phoenix was.

Even then, Noel wanted to test this potential.

Raincart raised his right hand, summoning four ice pillars to isolate the phoenix. Unfortunately, Noel had control over the phoenix, so the phoenix abruptly stopped instead of hitting the ice wall.

After that, the phoenix soared to the sky, surprising the others.

"!!!" Even Raincart widened his eyes, not expecting to see the phoenix behave that way. In addition, the phoenix flapped its wings.

Raincart instinctively formed another ice pillar to block the heat, but it was hotter than he originally thought as the ice wall rapidly melted.

Then, the phoenix sent forth multiple Fire Feathers to hit the melting ice wall.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Every time the feather hit the wall, it caused an explosion. As the thick wall had been thinned out by the temperature, the explosions were enough to shatter it.

The phoenix flew through that gap and reached Raincart.

"I see. It's quite strong." Raincart smirked. "Let's test its firepower, then."

Without hesitation, Raincart clapped his hand. Right before the Undying Phoenix formed a small ice crystal.

It was just a gentle ice at first, but the closer the phoenix was, the more violent the crystal became.

It started expanding uncontrollably to the point it matched the phoenix's size.

"Oh?" Noel raised his eyebrows. His phoenix had a wingspan of five meters. So, it was quite shocking that the ice could expand to that state. More importantly, the energy became more concentrated as it expanded.

It was supposed to be the opposite, so he couldn't understand how his grandfather did it.

When the phoenix and the ice crystal clashed, their energy erupted. The phoenix caused a massive explosion, burning everything, including the ice. On the other hand, the ice released all its energy to massively expand its original size as if trying to freeze the explosion itself.

The clash caused the area to be illuminated by two colors, black and blue.

"…" Noel frowned. The moment the phoenix exploded, he couldn't control his phoenix anymore.

Meanwhile, Raincart was astonished by another thing.

"This phoenix… Did I misjudge it?" Raincart observed the fluctuation of energy and muttered, "The strength of that phoenix should be lower than this… No, my ice should be enough to freeze it. Wait a minute, isn't that…"

Raincart finally understood the real power of the phoenix. The moment the phoenix exploded, it influenced the Spiritual Energy around it and converted it to fire energy, causing the explosion to become stronger and bigger.

"If this continues, it might completely burn my ice… Although it's not my strongest move, it's one of the top in terms of freezing power." Raincart never expected that a new Spirit Grandmaster could achieve this much. However, he also noticed another thing within that explosion: Noel's fatal weakness.

It was because of this very reason that Raincart decided to put an end to this. He clapped his hands one more time.

The explosion suddenly entered the ice crystal as if it were trying to evaporate the ice from the inside.

Noel thought he could win against his grandfather's ability, but that was when Raincart surprised him.

The instant the explosion came in, the ice expanded in all directions, creating a sphere to isolate the fire.

Obviously, the Undying Fire released its full might. If it was so easily frozen, it couldn't be called Absolute Flame.

However, there was a reason why Raincart was unstoppable among Spirit Grandmasters. His ice was also extraordinary. Even if Noel's fire was overwhelmingly powerful, his ice wasn't that far from it.

This time, the ice was the one taking the initiative to attack. Branches with flakes began to appear in all directions, freezing the fire little by little.

The fire tried to fight back, but it was rendered useless by Raincart's skillful control.

After a few seconds, there was no sign of fire anymore and the huge chunk of ice finally dropped to the ground and crumbled into pieces before returning to its original form, the energy.

Noel dropped his jaw in disbelief. Even against Qiel, he was able to stop her to some extent.

Yet, his grandfather managed to overwhelm his fire this easily.

Raincart, on the other hand, turned around and shouted, "What are you doing? The show is over. Go back and fill the hole up!"

"Y-yes Sir!" The soldiers hurriedly returned to their original task.

Meanwhile, Raincart looked at Noel for a moment before shaking his head helplessly. He waved his hand, calling him.

Noel felt that he was too confident in his fire, only to feel disappointed that it didn't match his expectations.

The moment he stood in front of Raincart, the latter said, "You are very good. If it's anyone else, they will have a hard time stopping your phoenix."

"But…" Noel looked down. No matter how much he praised him, it didn't change the fact that his fire was completely suppressed.

"As I said earlier, if it were anyone else, they would have a hard time. I don't know if you have noticed this, but you are weak." Raincart sighed.

"Weak…" The only one who could say that to a person who managed to fight multiple Grandmasters and even stop Qiel would probably be Raincart.

"Yes. However, you don't have to feel disappointed. Knowing your weakness is the same as knowing your way to get stronger. And currently, you have one fatal weakness."

"A fatal weakness?" Noel couldn't find anything like that. His fire and ice were strong. He had runes and other things. Even his swordsmanship was quite good at his level.

"You become this strong way too fast." Raincart's expression turned serious. "Because of that, you're lacking experience and other skills to match your elements."

"But I have fought a lot of people in the past few years, Grandfather." Noel tried to explain that he managed to overcome all those people.

However, Raincart added, "Yes. But that's because they don't know about your elements. What if the enemies research you thoroughly? I know what your flame can do and immediately react to it.

"Your flame is extremely powerful, but because of that, you are extremely reliant on it. What if you put everything into the phoenix's beak before it touches the Ice Crystal?"

"That's…" Noel fell silent. He could easily envision the scene.

With that beak carrying a large amount of energy, it would melt the ice in that single point. That level of control should be enough to create a hole and slip through it. Even Raincart would be pushed back and change his approach.

When Noel was slapped by that reality, he became lost.

"As I said earlier, your elements are powerful. You have a massive repertoire of techniques from sword to Spirit Technique. You also have runes. But because you have all these things, you have lost the very foundation of your ability.

"If I have to call you now, you are not a master of swords, a master of elements, or a master of runes. Instead, I will call you, a master of technique throwers. You don't master them, but throw them in a certain order to overwhelm your enemy. That's all.

"It might work for some time, but the closer you are to the peak, the more you will realize how powerless you are."