CHAPTER 397

AGE OF EMPYREAN (VI)

Amid the celebratory roars that had filled the skies above the Do'r city and the world around it, the earth suddenly quaked, overtaking them completely. All eyes which had fervently looked to the sky suddenly veered downward, unable to peel themselves away from the shifting debris inside the crater. Rocks shook and quivered, bending and rolling sideways, as cracks like spiderwebs exploded out throughout the crater and around it, crashing even more buildings in its surroundings.

All suddenly found themselves staring with bated breaths, their hearts stilling once more. Just then, like a birth of a new star, a blinding pillar of light, half black and half white, exploded out of the crater and barreled straight into the sky, piercing the far clouds above. A figure soon ascended through it, his feathered wings spread wide, his silhouette overbearing, the pair of eyes visible even inside the storm.

The chunks of rock floated around the pillar as though it was their natural orbit as he arose further up, bounding the tallest tower of the city in a matter of seconds, returning to his original position. The pillar ceased soon after, revealing behind a completely fine-looking man with a faint smile plastered on his face. There wasn't even a trace of blood to behold, be it on his face or the rest of his body.

Though he smiled, it was hardly settling; after all, that smile hid a terror-inducing gaze of the pair of black eyes emitting even blacker smoke from their corners, with the white iris spitting out milky-white, holy light up above. It was an eerie sight, perhaps now more so than before, causing blood in their veins to freeze and come to a standstill. After all, a single individual had just now withstood a direct attack of millions -- and not only did he survive, he seemed entirely unaffected by it.

“... you tried,” his choral voice once more bellowed out into the ether, slithering and wounding their hearts like a snake. “Now... now’s my turn.”

Those few who knew he survived were the first to react; despite Lino’s attempt to dive in the heart of their formation, he found himself blocked by two Bearers and several Fiend Titulars who managed to cut his tunneling through space immediately. On his left, a tall, black-belted man with a rather ordinary face stared him down with a determined expression. Lino quickly realized it was the Bearer of Darkness, Erebus.

To his left, a feminine figure repeatedly drifted in and out of existence, seemingly bending the reality around her at her will -- Bearer of Nihility. No one knew her name, or even her actual appearance, which was the case with nearly every Bearer of Nihility since the time immemorial.

Behind him, four elder figures, three men and a woman, joined into a formation that locked spacetime around him, ejecting him out of the tunnel. Cracking a faint smile, he spun sideways and swung the [Dragon Slayer] as the blade roared, spitting out an array of blazing light that swept toward the four. The latter, however, simply clasped their hands together and drew slightly back as space in front of them ripped open, swallowing his attack and sending it elsewhere.

At the same time, Lino found himself inside a completely darkened world, far removed from the Do’r’s skyline. There was no light to be found anywhere, no matter how far he looked. It took him but a moment that he got locked inside the so-called ‘Beyond Event Horizon’ domain -- a signature Martial Art of the Aphotic Writ.

No light could pierce the temporarily-formed spacetime, including his own. In theory, if they had enough Qi, they could keep him here perpetually -- but, that was simply impossible. Based on Lino’s calculations, he’d remain here at most for ten seconds. It wasn’t being locked in here that worried him, but what awaited him once he moved out -- they were without a doubt setting up an array on the outside right about now.

“Use Will masked with Primal Qi,” Ataxia’s voice called out. “It operates on quantum levels.”

“... thanks.” Lino mumbled, following Ataxia’s advice immediately.

He was right -- perhaps beyond right. It wasn't a hastily-prepared formation, but one that they had most likely been working on for weeks prior to today's events. It spanned over six miles in diameter, threading nearly two million lines together in a complex set that was far, far, far beyond his capacity to understand. From the glimpses of familiar patterns, he realized it was a threefold machinery -- spacelock, weakening and confusion.

Frowning, he knew he couldn’t get trapped into it; unlike the Domain of Darkness, he could eventually break out through brute force, but he would exhaust himself too much in the process. In the meantime, they could freely attack him, from any and all angles, without him being unable to detect them.

He expanded his Will coated in Primal Qi carefully, waiting for the perfect moment; he could sense it, nearly eight seconds after having been trapped -- like veins, the walls of the domain pulsated briefly as it began its decaying process. Though a ‘process', the time it took couldn't really be quantified in human terms. If Lino hadn't used Primal Qi, he wouldn't even realize when the Domain would vanish.

Just as he perceived it, however, he immediately unfurled his wings. The darkness surrounding him vanished as he used one of the effects his Wings obtained as they grew alongside him -- [Ascendance] -- coat oneself inside the quasi-Primal Light, becoming immune to winds and wounds of reality for 2 seconds; gain Absolute Speed for the duration.

The formation activated, pillar of rainbow-colored light blasting away and wounding itself into a spiraling cone before condensing into a man-sized sphere. However, everyone -- the original six, and the six newcomers who had joined them immediately after -- realized something was off.

“ABOVE!!!!” a feminine screech cried out into everyone’s minds as they, by pure instinct, used their best defensive Arts and aimed them upwards.

Just then, a blade-shaped shower of black lights descended. Each blade was at least a hundred meters long and forty meters thick, and there were at least forty of them. Explosion after an explosion ensued, consuming the world around them.

Blood sprayed out of each of them as they felt pushed back from the sky and down into the crater. Lino followed immediately after, appearing next to Erebus and swinging the [Dragon Slayer] immediately at him. The latter made a rapid turn midair, summoning a black orb that blasted out toward Lino, pushing him back slightly. Quickly recovering, he dove right back over when the reality in front of him shifted, sending him over twenty meters backwards where his lower back was suddenly impaled, cold, sharp steel piercing right through to the other side.

Gritting his teeth in pain, he used his free arm to hold onto the spear-like tip and pull it even further through him, dragging Nihility Bearer from her mid-reality phaseout. Swiftly cracking the shaft, he used the grabbed spear tip as he spun around and shafted it directly into her neck. He briefly managed to see her figure as she cried out in pain, quickly vanishing in the spiraling reality. Blind?

Frowning faintly, he drove out the rest of the shaft out of his body, but had no moment to rest. The sky above him suddenly lit up as hundreds of arms appeared, all pitch-black, jetting out smoke in droves. They heaved over toward him in an all-consuming fashion, blocking all escape routes as he once again found the spacetime around him locked. Tsk, you guys are fucking annoying...

Grumbling inwardly, he switched over to the backhand, fluttering his wings once more as, instead of retreating, he sped toward the arms. Just before reaching them, he began spinning in a circle, stirring winds with the momentum of his blade, cutting away the massive arms one by one, cleaving them into millions of pieces.

He exploded out of the entrapment, trails of smoke billowing back over his body, as his twist came to an end nearly a hundred meters further off from where he began. Rather than taking a breath, he extended his free arm once more toward his side and grabbed at her face, ripping her out of the phaseout and driving the [Dragon Slayer] straight into her gut.

Her arms suddenly expanded from the space and wrapped around his neck, pulling him further in. Once more, he found himself impaled -- not once, twice, or thrice -- but rather forty times altogether. Small, dagger-sized objects drove each at least two centimeters into his body, causing it to bleed profusely. She aimed perfectly, avoiding his Armor Set entirely.

Roaring in frustration, his grip on her face tightened as he managed to win the push-and-pull match between the two, ripping her back out into the reality, exposing her entirely. Just before she dove back in, slithering away from his grasp once more, he managed to grab at her left shoulder and rip her arm clean off. The arm itself was skinny and tiny, as though child’s. However, Lino knew better; when she wrapped her hands over his neck, he knew that he couldn’t pull himself out of that embrace quickly.

Grumbling, he sensed a massive Qi surge from behind him immediately after; he saw that the numbers of opponents had swelled up once more, from twelve to nearly a hundred. Once again, a cascade of attacks was shoved directly at and around him, closing down his escape routes. His eyes shimmered for a moment as he gripped the Slayer tightly, still holding it in a backhand.

Activating , his body temporarily swelled, veins on his muscles pulsating like worms, his Will expanding into a corporeal form behind him, forming a giant the size of a mountain. It wasn’t a human, but a fiend-like creation, a perpetual shadow cast over the hearts of millions who laid their eyes on top of it. It was edgeless and boundless and heartless, looking down at the rest of the world with cold, frigid indifference.

Lino suddenly threw out two scythe-like objects above him, which quickly expanded into miles-long blades held by the massive giant's invisible arms. Roaring madly, he dove right through the heart of the attacks, cutting away at them as though they were made out of thin parchment. Though a few managed to strike at him, he ignored them entirely.

On the other end, he was welcomed by a choir of terrified faces whose beholders immediately scrambled to run away. But.. they were not allowed to. Frustrated and angry, he swung the [Dragon Slayer] upwardly, splitting apart space where they were, preventing them from moving an inch further.

What ensued right after was a simple massacre -- whatever little fight they tried to put up was snuffed out immediately, as heads and limbs and hearts rolled and exploded, showering the sky and the earth in deep crimson. Body after body fell listless, joining the ever-growing tomb beneath them that was once a flourishing city.

Though they wished to rest for a moment, Erebus and the rest were compelled to immediately try and rip a way through into the spatially isolated point. It was terrifying -- beyond terrifying -- how many lives he had managed to reap within what felt like a few seconds of time. In total, six hundred and twenty-two souls were felled by the time the reality bent itself back over, revealing him.

He stood in the sky, dyed in deep crimson, his face hidden beneath the maroon shade of blood, black-jetted eyes peering through. He still held a single head, cut clean off, in his free arm, his demon blade resting freely in another by his side. Glancing at them, he didn't smile or speak -- rather, he remained expressionless, as though he had merely chatted with the felled.

Trying to take a moment to recover his breath, Lino remained floating in place. His heart, however, suddenly froze over as he let go of the head and whipped the shield out once more, towering it toward his left. Just a nanosecond later, a massive beam nigh blew straight through him, pummeling him all the way back to the edge of the formation, causing him to bounce back like a ball, breaking nearly every bone in his body. Though he recovered quickly, he was forced to spit out several mouthfuls of blood, and to endure the feeling and the sounds of hundreds of bones in his body cracking simultaneously.

He quickly located the perpetrator -- she stood where Lino had, cast in blazing, holy flames, staring at him indifferently, ‘3’ jetted over her forehead in brilliant gold. That was sooner than expected... he mused inwardly, meeting her gaze squarely.

“... we have warned you,” she said in a calm tone. “Not to descend down this path, or you would face the consequences. It seems you’ve chosen to ignore our advice.”

“... alas, another coward steps forth to preach me morality,” Lino chuckled faintly, his choral voice echoing out freely into the world. “And, all the same, I’ve repeatedly warned the world -- which includes you -- not to fuck with me. Yet, you keep fucking with me.”

“Step down, Lyonel,” Three said in a somewhat somber tone, raising her massive sword overhead. “While you still stand a chance at living hereafter. You’ve done enough damage for today.”

“... I’ve nothing against you,” Lino said, suddenly taking out a small, ordinary-looking cube and twirling it through his fingers. “But... this is not a fight you should entangle yourself in. Today, I’ve decided to end the lives of two Bearers. And not a single soul among the living or the dead will come in-between me and that goal. I’d rather do it whilst avoiding as much collateral as possible. However, if big-shots step in, I can’t promise that.”

"... that's enough, Lino." for the first time since the battle's beginning, Lino's heart shook as he looked to the Three's side, where Six stepped out, his expression solemn. "Retreat, please. There's no victory to be had today."

“...” Lino sighed faintly, his heart cracking. “So... the Descent truly decided to step in today, huh?”

“...”

“I’d expected two at most,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “Which, though difficult, wouldn’t be enough to stop me, at least from killing those two. If all of you come, though...”

“... listen to them.” Ataxia’s voice echoed out. “Today’s not the day...”

“... you and I seem to always disagree on the timing of things, Ataxia,” Lino said, chuckling lightly as he pressed the cube in his hand tightly. “Never on the same page, it seems.”

“It would be a pyrrhic victory,” Ataxia said. “Which, for them, would be an actual victory. You are handing them over the keys to the doors, Lino. Willingly.”

“... no, I’m handing them a lesson,” he added. “The last one they’ll ever need. Besides... by now, Ella should know the stakes.”

“... she, unlike you, can be killed, Lino. She may be strong, but if they realize her body is virtually mortal’s, it will be easy for them.”

“... let me see them try.” Lino mumbled, cracking the cube in his hands that soon after turned into the black mist swirling over to above his head, shifting into a breathtaking Crown.

It has begun...