PROFANE RUE

Streets remained silent, coated deep in crimson dye as stench of death pervaded every brick and every stone down to their depths. Mighty roars, terrorizing screams, heart-breaking wails, soul-boiling cries, explosions… beneath the cloudy, raining sky, myriad of sounds drowned one another out until there was only indescribable noise, one which etched itself deep within one’s soul. Once grand buildings which presided over the mortal world now were lay in rue, ravaged beyond the point of recognition. Limestone-laid streets were filled with web-like cracks and craters, some filled with intact corpses and some only with blood and scattered limbs, heads and organs. For two days straight, the battle remained heated. Up in the sky, down below on the ground, there wasn’t a free spec of space where someone wasn’t exchanging blows.

One-armed, Parsia was currently sitting far behind the frontlines, his entire body bloodied and scarred, wrapped in gauze. His expression was livid, eyes bloodshot, teeth grinding, yet all he could do was remain placid on stone bench, surrounded with hundreds of others who were in similar predicament to his. For the past two days, they were continuously pushed back, inch by an inch, until the battle finally encroached upon the Skyfire Paradise’s capital city. Parsia had long since stopped counting the sheer number of casualties, for number ceased to matter. Beyond a certain threshold, it is irrelevant just how many died; wounds and scars of a banner which they upheld would never wholly heal afterwards.

A day ago, enemy’s army was reinforced by a singular, human Divine Magus which immediately shook the battlefield to its core. In an attempt to even it out, Parsia and Thalia headed over to intercept him, but, in the process, Parsia’s entire arm was cut off. Just in the nick of time, False God of Blood descended and pulled the Divine Magus into the battle above. That battle was no longer the matter of who will win, but how much longer would those three – two Dragons and a False God – be able to endure without dying.

“Report!” Parsia grunted towards the man sitting next to him.

“My King…”

“Report!!!”

“We’ve lost all but the Palace District, this, Central District, and the Western District where the heart of the battle is currently situated.” the man said somewhat solemnly.

“… dammit.” Parsia said, sighing. “Where is Thalia?”

“The Queen is still battling in the Western District.”

“… she’ll run out of fuel soon,” Parsia said, looking up at the raining sky. “Can we really survive through this?”

Meanwhile, at the centermost point of the Western District, two battles were ongoing – one on the ground and one up above in the air. In the air, Thalia was currently wielding a pair of diamond spears, her battle armor scarred across and beyond, much of her slightly tanned skin revealed and bloodied. She had a crazed look in her bloodshot eyes as she brandished both her spears and wrapped herself in blinding light before streaking across the sky and blasting against the enemy’s one-hundred-men-strong formation. Screams coiled around the silence as she wept sideways, causing both her spears to unleash a massive, crimson tidal wave, sweeping away nearly forty people. She quickly spun backwards and blocked an incoming sword intent, but was pushed backwards by the sheer strength, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Without even bothering to wipe it, she forcibly stopped midair and roared; her voice was hoarse, deep as the abyss itself, madness prevailing over all other emotions.

A moment later, space above her head lit up like fireworks, hundreds of spatial tears brimming with luminance appearing. All were golden and pure, exuding faint aura of unmatched holiness. From within each tear, a single golden spear emerged, twisting in a circle. Thalia was currently like a dried-up well, running on its last reserves, yet she didn’t care. She forcibly endured the backlash of overexerting her strength as she shoved both her spears forward at the same time, causing hundreds of spears above to shake before blasting off like bullets, streaking through the sky towards the enemy forces.

Each spear was like a world unto itself, weighing more than tens of mountain, bearing pressure of thousand worlds and light of thousand suns. As they streaked across the sky, they left behind a trail of golden light, appearing like a meteor shower blowing across the sky, causing space to distort and break wherever they passed. Unable to hold herself back from vomiting, she spat out three mouthfuls of blood, her body clearly shriveling up somewhat with her black hair slowly attaining gray luster. Yet, her maddened gaze didn’t subside. As those spears found their targets, they all blew up in a tsunami of golden light, blasting away space until a fist-sized black hole appeared at the centermost position of all explosions.

Thousands corpses, some intact while some disintegrated to the point of nothingness, fell from the sky in a mesmerizing shower. The black hole itself disappeared as quickly as it arrived, yet its breath-long presence caused the entire battlefield to sway as some were unable to bear pressure, falling from the sky like flies without wings. Yet, the battle continued, some merely glancing at Thalia before moving their attention onto their opponents. Many before have blown up in a last blaze of glory, downing hundreds with their last attack; were the place not reinforced with a massive formation, space here would have long since collapsed into nothingness, with all of them dying instantly.

Thalia breathed heavily, barely hanging on in the air. No matter how much she pushed herself forth, her body didn’t listen. Bit by bit, her rationale returned somewhat upon which her lips broke out into a bitter smile, her eyes downcast and cold like snow. She looked up toward the sky, letting the cold rain blast against her face. Her hands relaxed as she lost grips on her two spears, letting them fall from the sky. Her strongest attack, her all-out effort, didn’t even kill five thousand people. She couldn’t even laugh at herself, or even mock her efforts. All she could do is remain silent and let her mind wander aimlessly, far away from the death-inspired battlefield, far away from the stench of blood and crimson rivers, far away from cries and screams and shouts, far away from this heavy rain, from the massive burden laden across her bare shoulders, far away from these familiar streets and venues turned upside down, far away from everything she knew… everything she believed in… every facet of her being she upheld.

She landed into nothingness, into the days before she was awe-inspiring Magus. Streaks of light formed a joyful memory of the days before blood, gore and wars, days when her Master picked her up and taught her, days when she spent her time with her Sisters in a land of wonder… for the first time in her life, she had finally grasped why Lynne despite magic so. Why he seemed so reluctant to learn it, despite talents which far overshadowed any other Thalia knew of. She used to go mad because of his indifference to it all, his loathing of this wondrous world… yet, now, she understood.

In his eyes, she saw unprecedented rue toward all things, his seeming indifference she believed stemmed from lack of knowledge, or his laziness. Why would someone endowed by heavens in Magic abhor it to the point of insanity? Why would someone who could upturn heavens and earth with a little bit of effort execrate all that Magic entails? She believed it to be ignorance, childlike naivety, yet, now, she stood in the sky, stood in ceaseless wonder, her thoughts drifting like a passing brush of the wind. Is this battle necessary? Was any battle she ever fought in her life necessary? How many people here truly wanted to indulge themselves into the madness of heaven-tearing war? How many truly wanted to indulge into unprecedented slaughter?

“… heh,” she muttered weakly, lowering her gaze as she closed her eyes. “World is cruel… yet it still failed to corrupt you. Just how strong is your heart? How far beyond the rest of us do you preside?”

Her mind and heart was suddenly jolted by a soul-inspiring screech and a mighty roar which shook the heavens. Her eyes widened as she looked up toward the sky and saw a massive, towering Ice Phoenix stream across the nightly sky in a radiant glory, with a massive, nearly half a mile tall Ape sitting atop its back, a large scar streaking across its angered face.

The Ape suddenly leapt off the Phoenix as the latter swept its tail downwards, causing a rain of icicles to fall upon those who were battling two Dragons and the False God. Meanwhile, the Ape streaked past that battlefield and landed onto the ground, pounding his fists against his chest and bellowing mightily into the sky. He then clenched his fist and threw it upward, tearing space apart as massive energy erupted upward into a chaotic pillar, rendering all it touched dead.

The Phoenix above dove after its icicles, screeching non-stop, directly joining the trio in the high sky, supporting them and immediately stabilizing the situation. The Ape continued to send out fist after fist, reaping lives like wheat, his crystalline, black eyes brimming with madness far surpassing Thalia’s.

The appearance of the two shook the entire army – both sides – because they soon realized both of them were existences on a level of a Divine Magus, the Ape even reaching the higher tier of it. Every single fist of his claimed hundreds of lives, and none were able to either evade it or block it. In the same vein, no matter how many attacks landed on his gigantic body, he shrugged them off as though they were tiny branches tickling his skin. Thalia stared at the sudden reversal with eyes nearly popping out of their sockets and her jaw slightly slacked. She recognized the duo, which left her even more befuddled.

“… eh? The… the monkey? The bird…?” she mumbled weakly. “What the fuck?”