SLAYING GODS (II)

Winged creatures rained from the sky as they clashed against the shields, swords, axes and spears. Chief Trios felt his blood boil; at least, here, he knew what he was fighting. They were beasts – not creatures that could upturn the entire realm all on their own.

He commanded ten thousand soldiers as vanguard force, shifting them at the front of the battle to best repel the divers. Some passed through their formation, but there was another ten thousand just behind them to take care of it. Still, the battle wasn’t smooth; many had already fallen. The encampment was doused in the stench of blood, with ground being littered with corpses of both beasts and men.

In the end, it didn’t matter who it was – lying there, on the cold ground, they all became the same. Whatever lives they lived, the death marked their union. As Chief’s eyes shifted to the distant sky, he couldn’t help but sigh; a youth that’s barely twenty stood in the midst of storm, facing off the entire world all on his own.

The Chief couldn’t help but admire the boy. As Magus, the boy and his friends could have easily escaped and never got entangled in this mess, yet they stayed. While everyone else merely defended, making sure that the line holds, they dove right into the heart of the enemy forces without any fear.

The Commander, guiding the backline of the forces, thought much the same. He knew very well that this battle would have been lost without those Mages in the sky. Even if his men were dying, so were the beasts – in much greater numbers. However, if human enemies were allowed to reign freely upon the battlefield, there would be no way for the Commander and his men to resist.

The battle was heating up, as more and more beasts dove and engaged with men; metallic sounds echoed into the sky, mixed with screams, gawks, screeches and shouts, both of agony and inspiration.

Lynne was too far away to notice or hear any of it; his focus lied on those before him. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t afraid: only fools wouldn’t be. However, he also felt excitement – something, quite queer and faint, deep inside his bones – pulsated with fire.

Gru had told him quite a lot about the men and women before him; Lucela studied Laws of Thunder, and could summon storms at a whim. Fyre – their leader – was meticulous and cunning, but had never revealed his true strength. Bython studied Laws of Corruption, and could cause even the lushest forest to crumble within minutes. In the brief moment before their battle erupted, Lynne had waged all his knowledge and began determining the best course of action to take.

Then, a bolt came reigning at him from the distant sky; Lynne scoffed as he casually waved his hand, resulting in an explosion and disappearance of the bolt. There was no more room for words, so he tightly gripped his scythe and coated himself in golden flames. He appeared like an emboldened star in the sky, withstanding the expanding void of darkness.

He shot forward, aiming directly for Fyre; to defeat the snake, decapitate its head. However, he was quickly interrupted by dozen of men and women, who all raised their arms high as shield of earth wrapped around them. From within the shield, pillars and spikes erupted, all aimed at Lynne. The latter swung his scythe, destroying them all, as he crashed directly into the shield.

The massive explosion boomed in the sky, its shockwave causing hundreds of flying beasts to be knocked awry. A body bolted from the heart of the flames, still grinning, as he swung his scythe forward. The weapon was met with a thunderous sword as bolts coiled around it.

After a brief standstill, Lucela was blasted backwards, but quickly recovered as she once again engaged with Lynne. From the sides, a few more men attacked him with the weapons of their own, and Lynne was quickly surrounded. Then, he began dancing; holding onto the scythe with both his hands, he spun in air as he hoisted scythe against the incoming strikes and blasts.

Fire rained from the sky suddenly as it illuminated the darkness; those surrounding Lynne moved back, while the latter simply stared at the incoming flames, smiling lightly. Aaah, what idiots… he thought for a moment. He raised his scythe and spun it circularly, causing the sphere-like flames to gather around the scythe; he then swung it forward, and the flames shot out like bullets towards the enemies.

Screams echoed out as bodies were caught ablaze and began falling from the sky. Lucela grit her teeth as she stared at the youth before her; it was still just the early stage of a battle and nobody was going all-out, but they were already on the defensive. Their forces had to scattered and defend against three exceptionally strong Mages; one wielded spears as she slaughtered anyone who dared stand in her path; another wielded strange whip-like weapon, unleashing coiling Dragons of Thunder upon his foes; and the last wielded a scythe, and flames that seemingly couldn’t be extinguished.

Lynne didn’t pause. Bolting forward, he engaged in melee once again; sparks flew as scythe and swords collided, with beautiful blue of the thunder and petrifying golden of the flames dancing against each other like two giants. Flashes of brilliance heaved in the far skies, and Lucela felt her blood churn.

Fyre watched the battles from the distance; although Lucela and others fighting were all also Grand Mages, he immediately noticed the difference. It was something similar to how Lynne was able to fight Gru, even when he was merely a Celestial Magus. The depth of Laws was infinite, and the borders were ambiguous. What Grand Realm to one is, may be a child’s play to another. Three Mages showcased just how deep their knowledge of Laws ran, and Fyre couldn’t help but frown.

He had to engage in this desperate battle; while outsiders wouldn’t understand, those living in deep reaches of the East would. That is why so many decided to join his cause. They had to escape the Wastelands. It was their last resort.

“Help others,” Fyre suddenly spoke, surprising Lucela and others who were desperately trying to hold Lynne back. “I’ll deal with the kid.

“Ah, finally, the big baddie wants to come out and play,” Lynne smiled as he hoisted the scythe onto his shoulder. “Good call though.”

“Go!” Fyre shouted as he saw his people hesitate. “Believe in your God!”

“Yes!”

A few moments later, there were only two that stood in the sky. A youth wearing clean, white robes with a medallion strapped around his neck, fluttering in the wind. His hair was brown save for a few strands of black and white, hanging at the side. Opposite of him was a shadow coiled in black, face hidden beneath the darkness.

“You feel it too,” Fyre suddenly spoke, startling Lynne slightly. “Beneath us. Do you hear it?”

“… you know what it is?” Lynne asked, putting their battle aside for a moment.

“Eastern Wastelands is a graveyard, boy,” Fyre said, chuckling. “Beneath the sand lie the ashes, and beneath the ashes lie things we can’t even fathom. Whatever it is, I have no intention of staying to find out.”

“… and your best solution was to declare a war?” Lynne chuckled back.

“To the people from the mainland, we are savages,” Fyre spoke slowly. “Nothing but beasts in love with blood and gore. I was simply trying to meet your expectations.”

“If it helps, you did do it.”

“Who are you?” Fyre asked suddenly. “No ordinary Empyrean can be as strong as you, and no extraordinary one should be walking through this forsaken land.”

“You’re a calm, smart man, I suppose,” Lynne said as he took the scythe off his shoulder and pointed it at Fyre. “You’ll figure it out.”

“Come, then,” Fyre chuckled as he spread his arms and bowed lightly. “Show me the meaning of the Flames.”

“Burn, then.”

Like a strand of light, Lynne appeared before Fyre within a blink and swung his scythe quickly. The blade slashed across the man’s torso as blood splurted out, trashing Fyre down from the sky into the desert. Lynne knew it wasn’t that easy, so he immediately followed.

Fyre crashed into the desert, causing eruption of sand as a crater appeared. However, he immediately jumped and rolled in the air as Lynne finally caught up to him. The former spread his arms once again and seemingly threw something towards Lynne; however, the latter saw nothing… until a moment later.

From seemingly nowhere, rotting corpses arose around Lynne. Humans, orcs, dwarfs, beasts, legendary creatures… he was soon surrounded by a sea of dead and its stench.

“Ah, Summoner,” Lynne chuckled. “First time seeing one.”

“I’m honored.”

“Let’s do this then.” Lynne said, brandishing his scythe as the weapon wailed like a wounded beast before being set ablaze in gold.

Lynne’s expression grew serious; from his left a hound size of the elephant dove at him with its open maws. Lynne sliced forth as he spun in place, decapitating the dead beast, as dozen more alike dove at him yet again. Lynne kept spinning all around as his eyes constantly looked for the movement and kept Fyre’s position in check. He wielded scythe as if it was a part of his body as flames engulfed the corpses and petrifying screams echoed out into the sky.

Lynne suddenly stabbed the sand beneath with the shaft of the scythe, causing flames to erupt like a volcano, spewing fire all around. As darkened corpses flew towards him, they turned into blazing stars, falling down shortly after. However, no matter how many he mowed, more kept appearing.

“Reaping!” Lynne suddenly shouted, his roar causing a massive shockwave that blasted away all the creatures that were pouncing toward him. The scythe disappeared from his hand and reappeared above him, like a harbinger of death. Fyre arched his brows as he starred at the massive weapon, slightly surprised. “Agony~” Lynne muttered; black and white elongated round him like children do around their parents, cascading into the sky like dragons and wrapping around the Emperor’s Scythe. Skyfire and Hellfire burned anew, causing even the rotting dead without reason or thought to stagger in fear, to say nothing of the living that saw it. “Heaven’s Fall!”

As his understanding of both Law of Flames as well as Empyrean Scything grew, Lynne began modifying some aspects of the technique to better suit his style. In turn, Heaven’s Fall became true reaping of souls. Scythe flashed through the sky faster than light itself, breaking whatever laws operated with its vicinity; it bore fires of Death and Life with it as it crashed into the desert beneath.

Blasts echoed like cannons; wherever scythe hit, only calamity followed. Sand was blasted into the air, and scythe appeared to be pecking – however, it did so at speeds that were unfathomable. Once… twice… ten thousand times. Summoned creatures were blasted off into smithereens, buried under the onslaught of blasted sand, and all around Lynne craters began appearing. In the end, nothing but solitary him remained, with Fyre in the distance staring at the sight in awe.

“Ha ha,” the man laughed joyously, as if fires within his soul had finally been lit. “Good, you don’t disappoint me Empyrean boy. Keep at it!”

Fyre roared into the sky as black shadow elongated above him; it warped like a dying soul and distorted as if in agony, forming a spectacle shortly after: a Dragon. A massive, rotting corpse of a Dragon appeared before Lynne; merely its wingspan was larger than the scythe itself, to say nothing of its entire body. Yet, Lynne knew, that this Dragon was still child at best. Still, he flinched as his eyebrows twitched lightly. Dead or alive, Dragons were still Dragons.

“Torment~” Lynne muttered. “Divine Sweep!!”

Scythe spun in the air as the Dragon roared; black flames erupted from the massive Dragon’s maws, clashing against the Skyfire and Hellfire burning alongside scythe’s body and blade. It was like two giants clashing while all mortals around drooled in awe. Black flames of the Dragon weren’t Hellfires, but they weren’t weak either.

Fires eclipsed the sky and scorched even the dried up desert; the rotting Dragon bellowed as it dove towards Lynne, while the latter roared back as he suddenly clasped his hands. A blink later, countless explosions boomed through the sky as they assailed the Dragon, while the scythe swept circularly, slicing off a Dragon’s wing.

However, the creature still crashed down and buried Lynne under its enormous body. The short silence eclipsed the battlefield, and then a massive explosion resounded as a pillar of flames erupted from the rotting Dragon’s body, with Lynne flying out. However, instead of focusing on Fyre, his eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of something that froze his heart; in the distant sky, he saw Fen’er battling a few humans with her short, silver sword. Her body bled in several places, and she was gnashing her teeth as she endured. Behind her a shadow moved, and just as Lynne was about to call out, a dagger struck at her back and her painful scream breached the sky. Her body stiffened for a moment before it fell, revealing behind another familiar face: Leana.