Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 83. Conclusion.

“Impossible… that’s impossible!” Yimar Furi shouted, staring at the oncoming Water-Ice Apocalypse with an absolute disbelief painted all over his face.

How did this happen? How come their Grand Spell was stopped and even reversed, hurled at them?! It wasn’t something that a human could accomplish! Perhaps one of those legendary figures from the times past would be capable of stopping a Grand Spell of this level, but even such a person wouldn’t have been capable of sending it back at the caster!

“This can’t be happening!” Yimar Furi groaned inwardly, but despite feeling that he had been dealt an injustice by the Heavens, he roused his Qi to defend his body. He was watching the impossible happen as all the conventions and rules of the world were being broken before his eyes, but he wasn’t planning to perish just like that; in fact, he felt pretty confident in his chances of survival. As for everyone else, however… he didn’t feel confident in regard to them at all.

A mere second after the massive Water-Ice Apocalypse had been hurled back, its lower part came crashing down at the area where the black-golden-clothed Sharu and the forty martial masters stood. The enormous masses of water and ice came crashing down at them, causing the earth itself to shudder. It rumbled forward, swallowing everything and everyone in its path. It shattered the rock-solid earth and plucked out gigantic rocks as if they were just pebbles swept up by the river’s current.

The martial masters of the third rank, who had all been wounded by Reian’s attack, turned into a bloody mush almost instantly. The unbearable pressure of the thousands upon thousands of tons of water shattered their protective Qi and squished their bodies, then tore them apart.

Those dozen or so martial masters of the fourth rank weren’t much better off; those of them who didn’t have strong defensive techniques were perhaps barely able to withstand the water’s pressure, but they were soon torn into pieces by the many shards of ice moving through the water at a great speed. As for those with stronger defenses, it was all up to their luck; some were crushed to death between the huge masses of ice, others were half-killed by being pinned down to the ground.

Split-second later, the Grand Spell reached the area where Yimar Furi and his spiritual masters stood and there, it laid true devastation. The frail-bodied spiritual masters had no chance to defend when hit with a Grand Spell; they tried putting up their own defenses in the little time they had, but without exception, all of them were slaughtered by the Water-Ice Apocalypse. The unit of seventy spiritual masters, half of which had helped Yimar Furi cast the Grand Spell, was now laid to waste by the very magic they had unleashed.

“I couldn’t kill him, nor could Furi,” Zakar mused the moments before he was swallowed up by the Grand Spell. He was regretful, but at the very least, he wasn’t completely dissatisfied. He lucked out and pierced the heart of one of those Devils but more importantly, he caused the one who killed his family to suffer the great pain of a loss. “Ah, forget it… I’m satisfied,” he thought, then everything went dark in front of his eyes; he died very quickly, without any pain… and without any regrets.

“Yimar Furi…!” the more or twenty martial masters who had been trying to block Laien and Yin were now staring at the unbelievable scene unfolding in front of them. They were no less shocked and frightened than those who had received the Grand Spell head-on; how were the few of them supposed to deal with the aftermath of this battle? This Ice Devil was at the level of a true Ice Djinn…! There was Jasmine left too, they couldn’t possibly win against them! Yet, they were all too frightened to start fleeing. They stood where they were, their legs seemingly frozen to the ground, each and every one of them unable to come to terms with what they had just seen.

“How in the world…” Jasmine uttered quietly, looking at Laien as if she had seen a monster. The strength displayed by this body had exceeded her wildest imaginations time and time again. If this kid was capable of this much at this age, then what would he become if he was given time to grow up? Just this thought alone caused her to shiver with fear and excitement. “Still, what a pity…” she thought to herself. It didn’t matter that Laien was trying to heal Yin; even if he healed his body, it would still be just a corpse. There was no way anyone could survive wound of this degree, then have his heart pierced through and continue living.

Laien, however, wasn’t paying attention to any of the things going around him. When he had been throwing the Grand Spell back at Yimar Furi, he had thought to ask Sirius to save Yin. However, at that moment a massive amount of water-element spiritual energy began flooding into his body and replenishing his strength at a terrifying rate. Before he blinked, his spiritual energy had already been entirely recovered… but it was then when he realized that something was very wrong.

He had been pretty sure that as long as he saved just about one-third of his Qi and spiritual energy, he would be able to use his Absolute Water Spiritual Domain and Martial Realm to stop the Grand Spell of Yimar Furi’s. It was that man’s poor luck that the bulk of their spiritual masters specialized in water-element; with his dual Absolute Water cultivation bases, no spell or technique of water-element could possibly harm him. Yet, what he didn’t expect to happen was that his Spiritual Domain and Martial Realm would form some kind of resonance with his body… with the blood within in!

The pain of the far too great amounts of spiritual energy forcing its way into every little part of his body was almost unbearable. Were it not for the fact that his martial and spiritual cultivation were slightly fused, allowing a portion of the overflowing spiritual energy to be converted into Qi, his body would have likely burst apart into a bloody mess. He had no idea what was going on exactly… but truth to be told, at the moment he couldn’t care less, nor could he be happier!

Just as the Grand Spell was crashing down, he had suppressed the pain and crouched down. Without wasting any time, he allowed the spiritual energy and Qi to surge out of his body and form into a cocoon of water around Yin. “He’s still alive, I can tell,” he told himself in order to calm down. He could sense that Yin was still hanging on through their spiritual bond, but he could also tell that he needed to hurry up. Thus, he quickly removed the arrow from Yin’s heart and focused on mending it along with his chest and his stomach, including all the internal organs within them.

The water-element spiritual energy in the air continued flooding towards him, but instead of worrying about himself as blood began leaking from his eyes and ears, he devoted full attention to healing Yin. Of course, he maneuvered as much of the spiritual energy and of the Qi it was being converted into outside of his body, but this process wasn’t fast enough; luckily, his body was sturdy and the very same water-element that was causing it pain, was mending and re-building it at the very same time. Breaking down, healing, breaking down, healing… this process repeated in a loop; alas, it brought no benefits to Laien’s body, only increased fatigue and a lot of pain.

“Come on,” Laien grit his teeth. He felt like he was going to pass out, his vision blurring and turning red from all the blood that began seeping out from within his eyes themselves as they strained from the pressure. However, he knew he couldn’t afford to pass out; he felt how much energy he needed to use to heal Yin’s wounds, despite the aid the Aspect of Compassion provided. If he fainted, then Sirius probably wouldn’t be able to handle bringing Yin back… so it was all simple enough. He just needed to remain conscious until he was done!

“What is all that spiritual energy,” Sirius commented, his expression changing from that of a shock to one of confusion and worry. He had a very high water-element affinity, so unlike Jasmine, he saw the countless water-element sparks rushing into Laien’s body. Just like everyone else, he was secretly amazed at how quickly Yin’s body was growing back into its normal state, at how his torso filled up and how the bones of his limbs reappeared, then began disappearing below reforming muscles. However, he was the first one to notice the new drops of blood seeping through Laien’s clothes.

“This is bad…” Kasha exclaimed in a low voice. Just like Sirius, she could see what was going on with a naked eye; if this process continued, she was worried that Laien’s body would sooner or later burst into pieces! The sheer amount of energy this boy had absorbed exceeded the reservoir of a spiritual master of the fifth or sixth rank and to make matters worse, it was still flooding into him!

A second or two later, the rest also took note of the phenomenon. The Grand Spell had scattered a large amount of spiritual energy into the air so they hadn’t sensed it at first, but now it was becoming clearer and clearer! Just what were Laien’s origins, for him to be able to directly absorb such a huge amount of water-element spiritual energy from the air?

“Just a little bit more…” Laien fell to his knees and sat down, too dizzy to the keep balance while crouching. His body was making him suffer terribly, but rather than that, it was his soul that caused him more pain. The biggest problem was that he needed to… “Yin!” he called out, focusing on the spiritual bond between the two of them. Then, a splitting pain that spread from his very being itself made him think he was about to lose it and faint… but with the last straps of his will, he stopped that from happening. He couldn’t lose consciousness before confirming that everything was okay with Yin!

To his relief, despite every bit of his body screaming with pain, he felt the slight change below the hand he was holding on Yin’s chest. “Thank all Gods…” he thought with relief, having confirmed that Yin’s heartbeat returned. He even felt Yin’s chest rise up as Yin took a breath… and then, the very next instant, he collapsed to the side. He had exerted himself far beyond his limits to stay conscious through all that pain for so long and even forced himself to stimulate Yin’s soul in the state he was in, so the moment the pressure that kept him going disappeared, he fainted instantly.

Thankfully, the flood of spiritual energy slowed down and ended just a second later. In this one second, however, the skin all over Laien’s body started coming off and blood began oozing out of his blood vessels; had Laien not kept himself going for so long, all the while used up as much energy as possible, he truly would have lost his life this very day. The wounds he sustained, however, began quickly healing; perhaps not as quickly as when Laien controlled the process consciously, but after a few minutes there would be no trace left apart from his very bloodied clothes.

“Maybe they really are Devils,” Sirius commented with a wry smile. He had been keeping his spiritual sense stretched out, so he could tell that both of those brats were alive.

Jasmine, in turn, couldn’t find words to describe how she felt. Those two created one miracle after another, then proceeded to cheat death itself! She never thought she would come to think in this way about anyone, but those two boys… their potential was higher than even Mustafa’s.

“Yin! Laien!” Making use of a moment of carelessness of Kasha’s, Arslan broke out of her hold and ran up to Laien and Yin, who both lay on the ground next to each other.

This action of Arslan’s made the still seriously hurt Reian attempt to get back on his feet, but all he achieved was being pushed down by Sirius once more. Instead, Sirius exchanged a quick glance with Jasmine, who then followed close behind Arslan. It was hard to say how many of Yimar Furi’s men survived in the aftermath of the Grand Spell, but in a few more seconds, that too would be revealed.

A breath worth of time later, Arslan stopped abruptly and crouched beside Laien and Yin. He ended up being relieved to see that there was not one wound on Yin’s body, but he grew anxious to see the terrible state Laien was in. Were it not for all this bloody mess mending itself before his eyes, he would have panicked more, but as it was, he managed to calm down just a little bit.

“Yimar, what happened to him?”

“And our commanders…”

Some of those amongst the twenty martial masters unaffected by the Grand Spell began saying quietly. They watched as the remnants of the water and ice turned back into natural energy, waiting for any of their superiors to show up. In case no one appeared soon… it was pretty likely that they would start running in all direction just to preserve their lives. Just that one glance from Jasmine, who stood by the Devils’ and Mustafa’s son’s side made them go weak in their knees.

All of them were ready to lay their lives on the line for their superiors… but once those were gone, they would end up being nothing more than a disorganized mob.

But finally, in the post-apocalyptic area where the stone-like ground had all been ripped to shreds, signs of movement began appearing one after another.

The first one to merge was Sharu; as the only unhurt martial master of the fifth rank, he had survived the Grand Spell with relative ease, only getting a few bruises here and there. Then, all around him those surviving martial masters of the fourth rank began getting out from below the rubble; by the looks of it, six of them were lucky enough to survive and still be able to move with their own strength. As for how many were still alive below the shattered ground, it was hard to say.

Following that, a good four hundred meters further in the back, a large stone was pushed away and smashed into the ground, falling over onto its other side. As expected, the person who appeared there was none other than Yimar Furi. He didn’t look to be wounded at all… but the look on his face was truly ugly to behold. Seventy spiritual masters, over twenty martial masters… and two of his black-golden-clothed commanders died under their own Grand Spell reversed back at them.

Feeling extremely miserable, Yimar Furi took a deep breath, then whistled and enhanced the sound with his Qi, causing it to carry truly far and wide.

Sharu groaned but didn’t hesitate. He began running away in a hurry and so did the six martial masters close to him, along with those twenty further away. That whistle of Yimar Furi’s had been to order them to retreat, but also to all their spare horses back here

“Ugh…” Sharu groaned again. He didn’t want to run when so many of his friends and comrades died here, but there was no other choice.

“It was a nightmare…” Yimar Furi mused, sending Jasmine and their group one last glance. He could tell how frustrated this woman was; and he could also tell that if she chose to chase them down, they would all end up dying. It was a good thing she wouldn’t dare to leave Mustafa’s son alone, given how she was likely the only one in any state to continue fighting between the Four White Guards and those two damnable Devils.

“Let’s hope Yimar Maar’s plan succeeded,” he thought and turned around. He turned around, but… eh? The world he could see suddenly moved in a very strange manner. Then, something crashed into his head and he rolled around… huh? What just…?

“Idiot,” Gahar snorted at Yimar Furi’s headless, still standing corpse. “If you paid more attention, you would have noticed me even in all this leftover spiritual energy,” he commented, then glanced towards Laien and Yin. Should he go and hunt down the rest of those martial masters? He probably couldn’t kill the one at the fifth Realm of Heroes in a battle, but given a few weeks, or a few days if he was lucky, he would surely be able to assassinate him.

“… Nah, it’s better to stay,” he decided with a sigh. If those two were conscious and well, or if at least those Four White Guards were in their prime state, he would have gone on a hunt. As it was though, he saw it as more important to make sure Laien and Yin would be able to recover in safety.

As he walked back to everyone, suddenly, three short blows of a horn resounded throughout the area. Jasmine and the other immediately tensed up, but he laughed viciously and called out to them. “It’s the battle horn of a patrol of the Ruishi Federation. Listen well, they are going through the hills back there, right towards those fleeing cowards,” he pointed out. It wasn’t rare for the patrols of the Federation to attack Ikarians on sight, but it wasn’t all that frequent either. The patrol this time around seemed to be on the more vicious side; the moment they spotted a wounded bunch of Ikarians running from a field of battle, they made haste to attack them.

“I wish they came sooner,” Jasmine said with a snort, but she didn’t hold a grudge against this specific patrol. They weren’t obliged to help them in any way, so them getting rid of the leftover trouble was already a sign of goodwill. On the other hand… she sent an uncaring look toward the five thousand people crowding around the carriages a kilometer or so away. “We shouldn’t have involved ourselves with those Euleanians,” she stated bitterly and with a clear dose of anger in her voice.

Didn’t all of that happen because of the affair in Ulme Village? She couldn’t bring herself to think ill of Laien and Yin after what they had done to win this battle, but she had a hard time with dismissing the influence all those helpless, useless people had on this series of events. If it was up to her, she would have abandoned them all at this very moment, but she knew it was something for the three little master to decided later.

“Three little masters…” she repeated the thought, this time consciously. “When did I start thinking of them as three little masters?” she asked herself and smiled slightly.

“What is done is done,” Sirius said calmly after helping Reian up to his feet. He had done all his could with the spiritual energy he had left; Reian’s life was no longer in danger, but he would find walking hard, much less fighting. He could heal Reian again after a few hours… but he guessed that Reian would prefer to allow his wounds to recover naturally. A battle of this kind carried the risk of death, but it also provided an opportunity for those who survived it; were Reian to take time and recover on his own, his gains wouldn’t be negligible. With some luck, he could even advance to the fourth Realm of Heroes and if not, then his body would still become stronger and sturdier after this experience.

“They will be fine… right?” Johan approached Laien and Yin, then turned his head to Sirius and asked worriedly. His mind was still in a state of chaos and he was far from being calm, but he was genuinely worried about those two. He didn’t want them to suddenly die or turn out to be crippled, or anything like that.

“Yes.” Sirius nodded, then snorted and smirked in amusement. “By all means, both of them should have died during this battle. I truly don’t know under which lucky star they were born,” he said with a laugh, trying to loosen up the mood while listening to the faraway sounds of battle.

With the confirmation form Sirius, Johan relaxed a little. He exchanged a glance with Arslan, then returned to observing Laien and Yin’s faces, as if worried that if he didn’t look carefully, then something bad would happen, as if inside of one of his bad dreams.

“Oh, right, right,” Sirius hit his forehead with his knuckle, then headed to the left. He spotted the twin swords of Yin’s pretty quickly, but he took a good moment before he found the two golden interspatial rings. “Laien’s spear… he must have stored it away in time,” he assumed and for the time being, stored the twin swords into his own interspatial ring. He could have broken the imprint on Yin’s rings without much effort and stored the twin swords in them, but he thought it would be too rude to do that. The boys certainly had many secrets they wouldn’t like to divulge; he didn’t wish to pry into them and thus, he simply slipped the two rings onto Yin’s index fingers.

“I will give you the swords the moment you wake up,” he said with a smile, quietly wondering if he wasn’t going senile with age. What was he, a veteran healer, doing talking to an unconscious patient? He couldn’t remember how many students and pupils of his he had scolded for doing the same thing in the past; he really was growing soft with age. “For the time being…” he murmured and produced two sets of simple, white clothes he always had storied for patients. He swapped them directly with the bloody, tattered clothes of Laien’s and with whatever was left of Yin’s clothes. He nodded with satisfaction; it was much better than having them lay here half-naked.

“Johan, Johan!” from a hundred meters away, Sarah called out in a shaky voice. She had been watching the whole fight with everyone from the distance and all along, she couldn’t stop being scared for Johan. The level of this clash was so high that the explosions of Qi were clearly audible even one kilometer away, not to mention the cataclysmic crash of that huge mass of water and ice.

“Thank God that you are okay!” she said with relief after falling to her knees and hugging her little brother tightly.

Right after her, Albert arrived. However, he quickly sensed the heavy atmosphere and noticed the scornful gazes directed at Sarah by the majority of the experts present. Considering that they had all heard the shout of Yimar Furi’s about the reason he came here with his men, it didn’t take him long at all to figure out why Jasmine, Reian, Ruan, Liza and the rest were angry.

“Hmph,” Jasmine snorted loudly. “Quite some gratitude you have, little miss. Those two risked their lives fighting a battle that came to them because of you and your people, but you don’t spare them one look nor do you ask if they will be fine,” she reprimanded ruthlessly, feeling not a shred of compassion toward Sarah. One of the few things she couldn’t stand were the people who didn’t know how to repay the goodwill they had received. Sarah’s behavior seriously rubbed her the wrong way… what given her current foul mood wasn’t a smart thing for anyone to do.

Hearing the ice-cold words of Jasmine’s, Sarah quickly let Johan go. When Jasmine finished speaking, she gulped down; the sound of saliva going through her throat rang out so loudly within her head, she was sure everyone around must have heard it too. Frozen stiff, she looked at the two unconscious boys clad in smooth, pure-white robes. She hadn’t seen the battle all that clearly from so far away, but it didn’t take an eagle’s eyesight to be able to see how those two had fought.

“I… I’m sorry,” Sarah forced the words in a breaking voice but coughed a few times in a hurry, then added. “I was worried for my little brother.. he isn’t a strong practitioner like the rest of you, so any small attack could have done him a lot of harm…” she attempted to explain, however, when she saw the expression on Jasmine’s face turn increasingly sour, she pursed her lips and said no more.

“Will they be fine?” Albert asked calmly, disguising quite well how nervous he was. He had forgotten it while they were traveling, but those people were only helping them because Laien and Yin made such a choice back then in Ulme Village. If Sarah or anyone else was to really piss them off… especially after this battle, then it wouldn’t be surprising if they released their anger upon them.

Jasmine looked at Albert and smiled slightly, her expression turning softer. She didn’t hear the question she wanted from Sarah despite urging her on, but this youth seemed more sensible than her. He was also getting along with the three little masters the best along with Johan. “They will be fine. There shouldn’t be any long-term damage to their bodies. They just need to rest,” she informed straightforwardly, the anger from before no longer present in the tone of her voice.

“That’s great,” Albert responded. He looked at Laien and Yin, then smiled in a warm fashion, causing the last bits of anger to disappear from within Jasmine’s heart.

“Oho, they are coming,” Gahar said and pointed at the unit of forty-four riders galloping down a hill. “They aren’t using their horns, so they aren’t planning to attack us… probably,” he said with a laugh. He wasn’t knowledgeable enough to tell apart the new patrol units of Ruishi Federation by their sigils since he had been retired for quite some time, but at the very least, he knew there were quite a few fanatics amongst them, ones that would kill any Ikarian they found, be it an armed unit, travelling merchants or a caravan with civilians. He didn’t worry about Laien and Yin much… but he was slightly anxious about Arslan and the other four… well, three, since Reian wasn’t an Ikarian.

“You did them in beautifully!” the grey-haired young man in the forefront shouted as the forty-four of them were approaching. “I apologize we didn’t arrive earlier. We came rushing over when we heard the sounds of battle, but when we got close it was already over,” he said loudly, all the while bringing his horse to a steady stop.

After getting closer, he swept the group in front of him with his gaze, his eyes stopping for a moment longer on the four White Guards, only to land on Arslan.

“You should be Arslan. We’ve received the information you were heading to our country with a few thousand refugees from the eastern Faren Yimarate,” the grey-haired young man said with a smile. His words made Jasmine and the rest to tense up, but he only laughed at this sight.

“They are staying behind me so you probably can’t tell, but apart from me, there are eleven martial masters of the fifth rank in my unit. If we wanted to kill you or capture you, we would have already done so,” he informed with a somewhat prideful smirk and chuckled at the anxious looks he received in response. “You needn’t worry. If it was some other band, they might have tried capturing you while you are tired, but not me and my Cherubim. If anything, we wouldn’t act against those of Makarash,” he said playfully but a second later, sighed and stopped smiling.

“You would probably want to know…” he said and clicked his tongue. “We just received news about the battle to the west. The fresh reports say that after being ambushed and attacked from all sides by Yimar Maar, Arakar and the forces of Yimar Furi’s that betrayed him, Mustafa chose to go on the offensive. He had been doing well in the beginning… but then, all of the sudden, his forces were routed. The rumors are saying that Mustafa had been killed and that’s why his White Guard fell apart…” he informed bitterly, feeling quite unhappy about this development. He had very much hoped for Mustafa to slaughter all those detestable Ikarians, alas!

Apart from the young grey-haired man shaking his head, no one else made any considerable movements.

Mustafa… had lost? The most powerful of Ikarians lost a battle? He is said to have been killed? They refused to believe it!

“Father!” Arslan exclaimed quietly. It was impossible for his father to have died like that! It was impossible…!