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Steven didn't know why his energy had started acting on its own. He couldn't believe that Decumia had managed to affect it, but he didn't find other explanations for the event.

Purple energy exploded in every direction around Decumia, but Steven could hover among it without suffering any damage. His black smoke also protected him from that purple halo, but his expression was far from happy while he inspected the scene.

Something was forcing his energy to escape his control. Moreover, Steven couldn't even find the source of that event. In theory, his very power went against Decumia's existence, but he knew that his battle wasn't going through external influences.

"Your confused expression is nice," Decumia said in a rough voice as energy flowed into her body and closed the many injuries to restore her appearance.

Steven didn't answer. He kept his attention on the clashing attacks to study their behavior. His black cloud continued to expand randomly, and its properties partially halted the destructive power carried by the wave of purple energy.

The clash caused no explosions. The two powers blended and dispersed as they tried to affect the universe. The void didn't react to those waves of energy, so they both vanished in the blackness around Steven and Decumia.

"How did you counter my existence?" Steven directly asked since he couldn't find answers. Testing his theories with more attacks would also work against him, so he hoped that Decumia's ego would help him out.

"I already told you everything," Decumia laughed. "Also, I didn't affect your existence. Your energy simply fell prey to my chaos."

'Chaos?' Steven wondered as he reviewed everything he knew about Decumia.

Decumia had yet to use specific attacks. The tendrils that had empowered her underlings had been her most peculiar ability, but that didn't express anything unique. She had simply shared her experience and energy to broaden those experts' minds.

It was clear that Decumia's world didn't focus on supporting others. Her character gave too much away, and someone like Steven could see through that. Her ability had to involve something that she could use on her own and everywhere, even without entire armies around her.

"What?" Decumia asked. "Are you exhausted already?"

Steven snorted while pointing his hand downward. He couldn't understand what had gone wrong with his previous attack, and thinking wasn't helping. He could only resume his offensive and hope to find a solution before running dry of energy.

Steven didn't summon his usual arrow. He diversified his offensive by creating multiple weapons and shapes around him before launching them forward.

Decumia could understand Steven's plan right away. The vast offensive with different assets would give Steven the chance to study which attacks suffered from Decumia's influence. That would hopefully give him ideas on how to prevent the event.

<br/>Decumia revealed a smirk as she stretched her arms and exploded with purple power. Her offensive carried no unique traits, and Steven's weapons pierced it easily. However, some of them ended up changing their trajectory and missing their target.

Many attacks still fell on Decumia and pierced her figure. Steven didn't hesitate to follow with another offensive, but his opponent flew away before his new weapons could converge on her.

Steven had injured Decumia. Her lever wasn't at the peak of the ninth rank anymore, so he could follow her movements and launch another wave of attacks toward her escaping figure.

Decumia laughed as a purple wave came out of her body and made her figure disappear. The incoming attacks vanished among her energy, but Steven could still sense her, and he didn't hesitate to launch more weapons toward her.

That scene happened a few times. Decumia stopped moving only when Steven's surroundings had fallen prey to intense purple light. His black aura quickly shot out of his body to disperse that power, but he remained speechless when he saw his energy flowing backward.

Steven almost couldn't believe his eyes. He had turned his black energy into currents of power meant to pierce through the purple halo, but those attacks were flowing back into his body.

Steven confirmed that he could control his energy, but that only made the situation more unbelievable. His power heard his orders but seemed unable to follow them.

Dots suddenly connected in Steven's mind. Understanding dawned upon him when he took Decumia's words literally. She wasn't talking about was a proper ability or, rather, an influence impossible to escape.

"You," Steven gasped without adding anything. He couldn't find words to describe that idea.

"Did you get it?" Decumia wondered. "I admit that my power isn't easy to understand. It goes against the natural functioning of most things in the end."

"It doesn't go against anything," Steven corrected. "You simply cause chaos."

Decumia revealed a meaningful smirk at that statement. Steven didn't need to ask more questions to know that his guess had been on point, but his stupor didn't vanish.

The ability to cause chaos sounded ridiculous among experts who had spent entire millennia or eras learning to control their abilities. Yet, Decumia seemed able to do just that, and the consequences of that power felt impossible to predict.

Everything made sense when Steven thought about it. His side was slowly gaining ground, so Decumia's chaos had made her underlings grow stronger.

The Foolery wasn't too problematic, but Decumia liked its idiocy, so her chaos was turning it into her puppet.

As for Steven, his power could hurt Decumia, so her chaos was making the dark aura go out of control.

Decumia's power seemed to have no limits in terms of applications. She resembled Divine Demon in that field but with more control over her energy.

Nevertheless, that was also a weakness. Decumia didn't have access to the energy of the world. She had to rely on her existence to express those effects, which meant that she could grow tired. Injuries could even affect her performance, and Steven only needed that to explode with even more resolve.

Steven seemed to call upon the entirety of his power as he summoned an immense array of arrows. He didn't waste time testing which attacks had a higher chance of reaching his opponent now. He only wanted to launch everything he had before Decumia's chaos affected him.

"Smart move," Decumia commented. "I didn't think your existence would have resisted so long against me. Yet, I'm glad that my first opponent in this battle can offer a decent fight."

"Enough with words," Steven snorted. "You will die, Heaven and Earth will die, and the sky will crumble. I might not live to see any of that, but I'll still be a core part of that path."

"We'll see about that," Decumia laughed as she summoned her orange energy to create an exact copy of the array of arrows.

The battlefield lit up with black and purple light as Steven and Decumia sent energy to their offensive. They were almost ready to have one last exchange, but both felt forced to divert their attention and perform evasive maneuvers.

A monstrous roar filled the higher plane and killed all the weaker experts who found themselves without defenses or superiors around them. Then, countless currents of sharp black energy flew randomly and cut severed anything that dared to stand in their path.

The entire battlefield turned toward the source of that attack once the waves of energy crashed into the sky. Every asset could see that the landmass had completely rotated to point at Divine Architect's castle, and more sharp power was accumulating on its edges.