Metal and what seems to be wood, or not, clashes, creating sparks that comes of, burning the very air itself with its sheer heat, all from a single exchange between a night black sword and a simple spear, both wielded by men whose eyes were filled with such desire to triumph over the opponent in front of them for very different reason.

The younger one among them, a young man whose eyes seem to be filled with quite the anticipation, along with excitement for the future in front of him, the very same one wielding the eerie sword, having this burning intent to win as he wants nothing more than to ascend the tower higher, and higher, and this middle-aged, towering man is the sole person blocking his path to the next floor.

Not to mention that, just the thought alone of surpassing the person who became his master, his teacher, albeit for a very short time only, forces him to give more than just his best to win this fight.

The two of them took a single step back, feeling the heavy brunt of force from the clash of their attacks, both of them smiling in satisfaction as they felt like their strength and power is the exact same, the only thing that will define this fight of theirs being the skills, abilities and techniques in their possession, along with how well they use them in a fight.

Meanwhile, contrary to the life-filled eyes that Azrael has, the towering middle-aged man that is the Twisted Principality of Permanence, Zhang Tian's eyes, is mostly similar to an endless, unending and ever-devouring void, the pureness of his life-drained, dark eyes something that will just pull people in while wondering what sort of struggles can a man face that will make him have a gaze like that.

Amidst this eerie darkness though, a single sliver of light shines through, a sliver of light only made to him as he witnesses the growth of this student of his for the past few days, his student's alarming rate of growth making him think that maybe, just maybe, there's still a chance for him to have that glorious death in battle that he had dreamt of ever since his fall.

And this hope of his seems to about to prove itself true as amidst their clashes, weapon's fragments burning the very air around them with the two of them not even remotely caring about that given how focused they need to be to defend from each other's strike, making him feel a pressure in battle that he had never felt ever since that last one he had before all those other divinities brought him to this state.

'He's still taking some leisure huh… what a fucking monster…' looking at the eyes of his teacher seemingly flying around gazing beyond him every now and then, Azrael couldn't help but remark, being impressed and frustrated at the same time,

'Forty seconds left…' he reminds himself as once again, the two of them creates distance from each other, their strength making it so that the hand holding their weapons are already shaking in absolute pain, and yet, the two of them continues to smile, taking joy in this battle that appears like it would end should one of them make even the smallest of mistake.

'What a fucking monster this kid is…' unbeknownst to the two of them that they are thinking about their opponent the same thing, the Twisted Principality said in his mind as he stares at his student after their last exchange, his shaking hand making his face flash a twisted smile both in annoyance and joy, feeling like that one week of training this young man is the greatest thing that he had done ever since he had fallen into this state.

Knowing that despite being on the second floor right now, being able to use all of his remaining strength, his actual strength actually is way beyond that of any creatures within the first five floors of the Ethereal Tower, Zhang Tian finds Azrael's achievement of having fought against him toe to toe all the more impressive, his blood pumping him with such vigor thinking of this, his thought about how he shouldn't lose to such youngster especially when there's a massive gap in experience between the two of them.

'What I can't bridge with my talent, I can make up with massive amount of experience that I gathered along the way!' Zhang Tian thought to himself as he lets go of the spear in his hand the moment him and Azrael initiates their exchange once more, taking the young man by surprise as he was pushed forward by the force of his own attack.

This only lasted for an extremely brief window of time as given how skilled he is in combat, Azrael managed to stop before he made an even bigger of a mess up, however, it was already too late for this exchange.

Taking this small window of time to his absolute advantage, Zhang Tian then exploded in speed and agility as he disappears from his current position, immediately reappearing right behind the young man with another weapon now in his hand, this time, a saber with a completely similar theme and design to the spear he has.

And then with a single, mighty swing of the blade in his hand, wind parts its way as if it is scared that its existence will be slashed into two by this terrifying attack as well, the swiftness in his motion causing a singular, pure white arc to draw itself along his blade's trajectory.

'Tsk…' feeling like there's nothing he can do to avoid the attack, Azrael then immediately moves his free hand towards the trajectory of the blade, making sure that his Immortal Energy is running rampant only in this hand as he receives the blow.

Flesh tears apart and bones cracked, blood flows from the massive cut that Zhang Tian's blade made on Azrael's arm, but despite the massive, hell, even devastating damage that he had done, the young man, the student, smiles victoriously all while blood flows from his mouth.

After all, despite stopping the attack, the very force behind such blow isn't anything to scoff at, and even worse parrying it this way is the fact that all that force then travels along his radius and ulna, connected to his humerus then all the way throughout his entire body, the wave from the force disturbing his internal organs so intensely that some softer parts of his insides are completely turned into a mush.

Despite the pain caused by such damage that will normally kill any person, this seems to be nothing but an average Monday for Azrael, the fresh blood from his mouth merely like a small sting to him as his damaged, even battered body starts recovering and regenerating itself at an absurd, inhumane rate, his flesh already starting to bridge itself and cover his bones as Zhang Tian, his teacher, pulls his blade out of his arms.

All while this is happening, the previously mashed organs and innards he has already returns to a brand new like state once more, the only consequences to such risky move being the fact that his already dwindling Immortal Energy, also being drastically reduced by the second just to keep this level of Demonic Transformation up, took quite the dive once again.

'Thirty five…' both of them said in their minds at the same time, both seemingly keeping tracks of just how long Azrael can still keep this state up, their counts being in exactly the same time.

Not pulling back as he knows that this student of his will take this opportunity to attack, Zhang Tian immediately compresses the area of his petrification ability, the very air around his body turning into a solid, marble-like white stone, with toughness far greater than before, allowing him to receive the slashing attack from his student's eerie, night black sword with minimal damage to himself.

This very action made him quite vulnerable though as all the pressure bearing down on Azrael was lifted for a second, making him feel the true strength of the state he is currently in, and just like the moment of slip up that he had previously, the Twisted Principality of Permanence managed to recover not even a moment later, a singular frame in time that allows the student to capitalize upon the master's mistake.

Not even bothering to set himself up for an attack behind his master, the young man smiles as the sword in his dominant hand continues to put pressure on his teacher's petrification ability, his free hand clenching into a fist as it moves, tearing apart the wind making it appear like a blur as it drives then plunges on the Twisted Principality's gut, forcing the monster to take a step back as blood flows out from his lips.

"Fuck, that hurts really bad…" gritting his teeth as he felt the culmination of training the young man in front of him, Zhang Tian exclaimed both in complain and thrill.