3054 Finale I “Slow!” I said as it launched another attack like it had done thousands before that, but just as I muttered the word, an alarm flashed in its eyes, and it slowed immediately before stopping. I looked at its hand before at its body, everything that was wrapped in the strings, with the deep shock in its eyes. “These strings, so sneaky,” it said, and immediately, extremely powerful fire, the most powerful I had ever sensed, came out of it, and ranged into the strings. For the first few minutes, nothing had happened, but soon, they turned red, and even faint steam began to appear from the strings, seeing that a grin couldn’t help but appear on its face. ..... “I have to say, your strings were sneaky, but like the old ones, they will burn to the ashes,” it said wicket, grin. “Are they?” I asked, and the grin froze, and it looked at the strings. Soon, a frown appeared on its face before a surprise and then a shock when it realized my strings were not burning, and instead, they were consuming its fiery energy and making themselves stronger. Its fire was strong enough that my strings couldn’t consume it such easily, but with precious time it had provided had given me the to find a way. I had changed the formation of the strings, strengthening the formation inside my core, and also added resources that could help my string neutralize the power of the fire and consume it. I am spending resources like water, but I do not care; killing it is important, and I will spend every single resource I have to do that. “Good, very good, but if you think this would be enough, then you are far too much overestimating your strings,” it said with rage, and an aura burst out of its body, more powerful than anything I had seen before. The aura formed the phantom above its head; it was bigger than past bloodline phantoms and looked much clearer, almost real, and when it merged back with Grimm, its power had broken all boundaries. For a moment, I had thought the power had broken the realm of Primary II and entered Primary III. It did not seem like the case, but I do not know, seeing I have never seen a Primary-III, just read about it. It did not matter to me what stage had its power had reached; what matters is that I had to kill it, no matter the price I needed to pay. “Now, let me show you how I crush these strings of yours,” It said, and golden fire seeped out of its body; it did not feel like fire at all, but lava gave how thick it was, and now, all of it is moving to burn my strings. I did not move, but my clone inside my core was throwing the resources inside the formation without care about the rare and precious they were. The fire that is thicker than the water entered inside the strings and set them on fire while more strengthening energy merged with my burning blood essence to strengthen the strings further. The strings wouldn’t burn; once they did, it was game over for me; I would not be able to do anything other than die under its blade. Seconds passed in silence as nobody moved even an inch from their places; we did not even dare to blink as we watched the invisible clash of fire and strings, and my strings were surviving, albeit barely.𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞 It is not making Grimm any happy; I could see every second that fire was unable to burn the strings, and the rage in its eyes would increase. A minute had passed, and the Grimm seemed to have snapped as quickly moved its hand and tried to pick the strings it had done last time, but to its great surprise, it couldn’t. It begins to use its abilities, but even with them, it couldn’t just pick the strings. Earlier, it was able to sense my strings because I had revealed them to it, and it is for the same reason it was able to pick them and burn them to ashes. It was intentional, the strings are my signature, and Rhaek might have mentioned it. So, if I did not show it, it would already be guarded against them, even if it would not consider them a true threat. Now, I have revealed my strings will fully power, and they are not easy to deal with, especially with the aid from my core. It had tried for a full half minute before it turned to me with its eyes filling with unending rage. “I will kill you!” it said lowly and came at me, even with strings wrapping every part of it. Its speed is fast, with immense power coursing through the veins. BANNNNNG! It had just moved when it sensed something and brought down its saber, and immediately, my shields were revealed. All twenty-four of them are completely round with green and silver color, with a picture of the world at their center. All of them are around it, caging it in a spherical formation. “It is not easy to kill me, Grimm,” I said as it looked around the shields, and I thought it would shout something angrily, but it did not and instead turned toward me with a smile on its face. “Nice shields you have, but how long will they be able to stop me?” It asked and saw its saber covering the thick fire before it attacked. BANNNNNG BANNNNNG BANNNNNG It began to attack my shields, and each of its attacks would send a ripple across them, and a few cracks would appear, which would heal immediately before appearing again with the next attack. ‘Bastard!’ I cursed as I stabilized myself and gulped down the blood that came to my throat. The bastard is very smart, it knows I am burning my blood, and now it is attacking wildly to make me spend more of my essence. The quicker it will expand my essence, the sooner it will be able to kill me. Its plan is working, and I am losing my essence fast, and my internal injuries are becoming bigger and bigger, but I am also extremely close to achieving my goal; in a few seconds, I will make the final move. It might seem like I am just caging it, but I am doing far more. ..... This is no common Grimm that I could just pull inside me; no, I couldn’t do that. It will resist, and once I fail, I will not get a second chance, so I need it to be perfect. I need to take inside me without giving it the slightest chance to resist, and I am throwing everything I have for that. Seconds passed, and it continued to attack, rapidly draining my burning essence; it is a great thing that I have the strengthening formation; without it, I wouldn’t have been able to hold it in my cage. Hun! Suddenly my eyes widened as I noticed the faint changes in it and immediately acted with everything I had. I had needed around ten more seconds, but the bastard was moving to burn its blood, and I couldn’t let it happen. Once it happened, nothing would be able to stop it.