Everyone was now at a stand within an open plain of the forest, magic ignited and fluctuated within the air between the four of them together, but there was a noticeable distinction between that which flowed from Toriel and Adam, and what flowed from Asgore and Asriel. The magic from Toriel and Adam had a far greater sense of purity within it. The mana was raw and unfettered, not dulled by any other aspect. And after they had all stilled, Adam spoke.
"You two can feel it can't you. The difference between your presence and ours? You monsters aren't quite the same as we are. You have learned magic all wrong, dulled down from incorrect scripture which affected your very own beings. You have not seen the ability to access the same magic that we can. But you both seem rather strong and smart too. Shouldn't take too long." He then pointed at Asriel. "We'll have to figure out that odd nature of yours after."
And then for hours on end, or was it days? The trainees could not even keep track of how long they had gone on, for the second time they've been here already. It was hard for either of them to tire, but learning to gain pure mana was such a grueling thing to learn especially since they were literally made of the impure mana itself. It required them to slowly bleed the mana out of themselves and attempt to replace it with this more pure essence. Creating it and replacing the emptiness they created within themselves. The thing about pure mana was that it was everywhere, but not just everywhere, but it was everything. Pure mana is the essence of the world and denotes the true formidable power of monsters had they been able to achieve it.
Now Toriel was trying to aid Asriel in further discovering his nature of ambiguous essence. Adam, on the other hand, wandered with Asgore into a deeper part of the forest. Adam placed an arm out in front of Asgore after walking some distance as an indication to stop. The sound of growling began to brew within the forestry, a sudden chill felt itself creepily crawling with a cold presence through it.
"So, this will be a sort of… test run. Oh, I forgot to tell you there were creatures here. Must have slipped my mind." Adam said, giving a reserved laugh after this.
The eyes of Asgore glanced towards Adam with a comically displeased look, but quickly shifted into a nice smile. "And here I believed you were a man too stern to make jokes." Asgore got into a fighting stance as his crimson red trident appeared within his grasps.
"Well, who says kings can't have fun sometimes. I just can't appear to be all soft in front of my little girl you know?" Adam spoke with a voice slightly heightened in pitch above his more gravely and monotone one. His hands crossed behind his back prepared to watch Asgore's bout.
A flicker of a memory came to Asgore, it almost made him laugh thinking back onto it once more. He would recall the time that he tried so hard to impress Asriel on his birthday by picking up the largest boulder he could find and then smashing it to pieces the next instant. He was so impressed and he had the biggest smile on his face afterwards, it's something that he could never forget.
Just as the flicker of thought had vanished from the mindscape of Asgore a beast barreled its ways through bamboo and trees, the size of it was far greater than Asgore had thought towering over even him. It looked like a giant pig? Certainly not what came to his mind either, but none of that mattered. His newfound magical power coagulated through his trident, its color shifting to a far purer and brighter red, it seemed to become almost clear. There was an utter beauty about the weapon, free and untainted from plague. It went from his trident and then the aura crept over his whole body, not to be visually seen, but only felt.
"Do not hesitate, Asgore, this creature is nothing but a stain on our world. Despite the beauty of this place horrors lie within. Due to this being one of the strongest collections of magic within our realm, it is easier for beings from other realms to enter here. And what chooses to try and invade us… are those erroneous beings that only wish to plague reality with distortions." Adam would comment seeing a slight faltering within the stance of Asgore.
Asgore suddenly narrowed his vision, his stance once more strengthened and his trident burning with a pure white flame, it burned with something far hotter than what could be found in reality, the ultimate. One moment it was within his hand and the next it had touched the pig-like creature. Stabbing into its chin it soared high into the air with the force of the trident until it gained some distance. And then, bang. The trident suddenly exploded with white fluorescence consuming the entire pig and much of the sky beyond. When the explosion cleared it was as if the pig never existed. Its body, nor any surpassing essence within him.
Asgore would blink several times looking at what he had just done, he looked down at his hands and back at Adam. Adam crossed his arms with a gentle proud grin on his face. Asgore then fully turned around. "Well, that was certainly a lot more than I thought it would be. But you did warn me of such things-"
"GET AWAY!"
Just as Asgore was about to finish, the scream of Toriel was heard in the distance, no more words were spoken between Adam and Asgore. There was only action. Within a moment they appeared back to where Asriel and Toriel had been, only met with the sight of a hooded figure holding Toriel by the neck with two others surrounding them. Adam seemed to have a sudden shift in his expression, he not only seemed angry but disappointed.
"I don't need to see you to know who it is. Maxus, you have proven my theory correct, I am disgusted. I knew not of such boundless greed one could have, and to threaten my daughter?!"
Maxus somewhat panicked when he was called out as he held onto Toriel tighter as she could feel her own strength slipping. Asriel had strange rainbow colored flames blazing within his paws, he had been prepared to fight, he just didn't want to risk his mother getting hurt of course. Maxus saw this hesitation and took it to his advantage.
"Let me leave with her… give me your position that SHOULD be mine. And then I shall return her safely. Oppose this and she shall die, my original plan will succeed!"
Nothing more would be able to escape the mouth of Maxus as suddenly a force slammed into it, tossing him away and crashing into a tree. After this happened Adam would sigh and shake his hand as if he had just hit it. "You say you were deserving? Show me not with petty tactics, but your might. Your resolve. If you have what it takes to be a king, do not run."
Maxus stood up with a scowl across his face, his hood had dropped off of his head, his expression now revealed. He may have been sneaky within his tactics, but he still had a sense of pride. He ran right towards Adam with his magic blazing in potency, a green and black sickly aura being created. And like a blur of the wind zipping around is how the two combat each other, such is the pinnacle of yokai.
Asriel now having the capability to attack without a second thought tossed the rainbow flames within his hand towards one of the people that stood with Maxus, the flame erupting and consuming their body, their strength, their will. They felt themselves come to a complete faltering before the flames disappeared. Asriel using this opening suddenly warped behind the yokai and elbowed them in the back of the head, cleanly knocking them out. It surprised even Asriel, but then again he was somewhat one of them.
Toriel had recovered standing up once more, her gaze quickly snapping towards the other that was behind her. And in a sudden flash, nobody even knew what happened, but in the next moment the other was knocked onto the ground in a daze.
Some time later Adam crashed back down with the group holding the hands of Maxus behind his back apprehending him. "You shouldn't have struck first."