'That Mist…' Orpheus narrowed his eyes as he noticed Nux, who was currently surrounded by the Devouring Mist. 'I didn't sense the Devouring Demon Physique the first time I met him.' Orpheus narrowed his eyes. This dual has been a roller-coaster of emotions for him. First, before the dual even started, that human managed to locate the bests spies in the Bloodheart House like it was nothing, then, that strange ability this Human was using, the ability that allowed him to create that Purple Black material at his will, without any Magic Circle or casting time, that ability in itself was enviable, however, the Human then went on and suddenly disappeared, even he, a Divine Stage Cultivator failed to find him. Melia, of course, was unable to find him and was taken aback when he appeared right behind her and attacked her. Then, this human started using his Spells. That Fireball. Almost everyone knew, that was the most basic 8-Star Fire Spell, however, for some reason, the Fireball this man used had a strength of at least a peak 9-Star Spell, and from that distance, it even managed to injure his daughter, who was a Great Sage Cultivator. Then those Fire Lances, just like Fire Balls, all of those were stronger than normal as well. Orpheus has been observing Nux's spells for a while now, and from everything he had gathered… nothing made sense… The basic way working of a spell was simple, A cultivator creates a Magic Circle and then injects Mana into it, the Magic Circle then controls the Mana in its surrounding through the cultivator's Mana and create a certain structure, once the structure is activated by the essential element, it creates the spell of a said element. The Spells had a rich history, and a deep in-depth knowledge was needed to actually create even an 8 Star Spells. Therefore, for Cultivators below Saint Stage, experimenting with Spells was simply impossible. Anyways, according to the normal way, the more Mana you inject, the more powerful your spell would be, however, at the same time, the casting time would increase as well. One can increase the speed of forming the Mana Structure as he increases his Mastery over the Spell, one could even decide to inject less Mana in a certain part of the structure where it is not required, decreasing the Mana requirement to cast the spell, However, no one, absolutely no one, can use limited Mana, with less casting time, and still create a spell far, far stronger than normal, except… Expect this man who was sparring with Orpheus's daughter in front of him. How he was doing it? Even a Divine Stage Cultivator was scratching his mind over trying to figure out his method, and of course, he was still failing. And the fact that he was able to hide his physique from the eyes of a Divine Stage Cultivator was not even mentioned. Orpheus now realized why Nux was so adamant about not allowing anyone to witness this match other than him. That man was a box full of secrets. Secrets any person would be willing to kill for. A small smile appeared on Orpheus's face as he observed Nux through all that Mist, 'I wonder what more secrets are you hiding, human.' This was getting interesting. The time where Heroes are hailed as supreme existences with unparalleled talent, there he was, a human boy, with a potential far higher than any of the heroes, standing right in front of him. Orpheus was curious to see what would happen when this human meets the 7 Heroes. That would definitely be an interesting face-off to witness. "Alright, Melia. Round two, It was your victory." Suddenly, Nux spoke up while he was surrounded by the Devouring Mist. The Poisonous Blood that was devouring his Blood, inflicting agonizing pain all over his body, had now disappeared. It was devoured by the Devouring Mist, which seemed… a lot more threatening and menacing than before. "Only 1 minute is left. So let's end this battle, shall we?" Nux spoke up, then, *Step* He stepped forward, the Devouring Mist surrounding him disappeared, and the ground under him turned purple black and it didn't stop there. It started spreading, and within a few seconds, the entire Stage turned purple-black. Melia glanced at Nux with a wary look on her face, "You wanted to fight in a domain, didn't you? Why don't we play the game using my rules this time?" Nux questioned with a playful smile on his face, and then, a purple spike popped out of the ground and attacked Melia, just like how her Blood Spikes attacked Nux. Melia dodged, and Nux continued to attack her without stopping. Melia dodged and continued to dodge, then, she finally gained her footing and jumped in the air, unlike Nux, she had the power to fly, after all. She glanced at Nux with a confident smile on her face, however, suddenly, her expression changed, Nux was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared again. Melia panicked. She looked around and just like before, she couldn't find him no matter how hard she tried to focus. She glanced at her father, and seeing the frown on his face, she knew that just like before, even he couldn't find him. Melia's eyes then fell on the Hourglass. 47 seconds were left. "NUX!" She shouted. "Are you going to end this fight in this cowardly manner!?" She questioned out loud. She widened her eyes as she looked around, desperately trying to figure out where he was because if she didn't, she knew she would lose. "NUX!!" She shouted again. This battle, she had enjoyed this from the start till the finish, however, she didn't wish for it to end like this. Even if she was going to lose, she didn't want to lose like this. "NUXXX!!!" Melia shouted again, the Mana around him moved erratically as 5 Huge Blood Spears were formed almost instantaneously. Each of those Spears had the power to absolutely annihilate anyone under Great Sage Stage, and why wouldn't it? Melia used half of her Mana to create them, after all. Melia was fuming. She wasn't having any of it! She wanted to fight! This could not end like this! On the other side, Nux, who was currently in another dimension was looking at Melia with a bland look on his face. 'Close your eyes, you idiot! I cannot come out of here!' He cursed in his head. Even he didn't wish for this to end like this. However, when he glanced at Melia's expression, he knew it was hopeless. Her eyes were wide open, she was 'prepared' for the moment he would appear next to her. There was no way she was going to blink anytime soon… Nux glanced at the Hourglass, and then, he sighed helplessly. 'It is over…' 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢 5 seconds were left. "Nux! Are you going to act like a coward at a moment like this!? Was this all that big talk was worth about!?" Melia shouted. However, in the end… even Nux was helpless here. The sand in the hourglass continued to flow from the top blob to the bottom blob, a few more seconds later, the last spec of the sand fell, Indicating the end of the Dual.