Three Supreme Elders. Something that Erias had never faced before, but at that moment, he felt fired up. For the first time since giving up his life and venturing into No-Space and beyond, he finally caught a glimpse of the finish line. After countless years of consistently working, planning, and hoping it would work out, he now felt like it was within arm's reach. Just a little more, and he would bring down the hammer of justice on the Undead.
"Fighting clowns should be easy!" He chuckled, and then his figure distorted, losing all of its color… no. The world was losing its rosiness.
The trio of Che felt the change immediately, heading straight towards it. Without hesitation, he split from the other two, heading to the left while Kyaranin took a sharp turn to the right, leaving Laupa to head straight into it. Unlike the other two, he was aiming not to dodge but to break through, whatever this… Erias fellow had planned to do.
Laupa himself never faced off against him, and when previously Che couldn't capture or finish him off, he felt nothing about it. He only thought that the so-called 'number one' of the Supreme Elders was nothing unique. In his eyes, anyone who reached the rank stood at the same level, and he didn't feel endangered by someone who came from the outside. Someone who wasn't privy to the techniques and unimaginable power of the soul. It was a mistake, and he realized it the moment his body crossed the boundary of Erias's spell.
The second he passed the invisible line, all sensations left his being without a warning. Be it sound, smell, or the feeling of the energy clouds brushing against his soul… everything was gone in a snap. All turned into a uniform of grey, and he could no longer establish a connection with the other two lingering on the outside. He was cut off from everything.
"Tricks," Laupa grunted, making his essence resonate and vibrate increasingly high and higher, trying to dispel Erias's spell without success.
Yet no matter how much miasma he pushed out of his soul, trying to surround himself with it, the moment it left his core, it turned from green to grey and got frozen in mid-air. Laupa couldn't determine how did it happen or if it happened at all. Was it an illusion, or was their enemy capable of manipulating time? No. That can't be. Time is not something anyone can bend to their will.
What he didn't realize was that his body was already burning, set ablaze, yet he felt nothing. As all of his senses were muted, and everything looked grey, he failed to grasp the insidious nature of Erias's trap. Laupa's miasma was not really frozen; he just didn't feel his connection with it. Neither did he consider being gradually eaten up. With a mixing of his four elements, the zone under his control was a place where his will was law, overriding anything that came under its influence.
While Laupa was trying to figure out how to move forward, missing that he was standing in place, doing nothing, and letting the colorless fire burn his essence, the other two launched a joined attack. Holding their hands forward, two beams of greenish-black light penetrated the spell, finally disrupting it by overflowing it with energy from their souls.
When its effect broke, and Laupa finally regained his senses, he hurriedly flew back, escaping the shrinking influence of Erias. As color returned to his world, he finally saw the golden fire around his soul, starting to put it out, releasing his energy from within, this time with complete control over it. By now, he realized the force they were facing and that it was something on par with theirs, if not higher.
"You will not escape now, Erias!" Che shouted as the greyness dissipated, revealing him smiling with hands behind his back.
"It was not I who escaped previously if my memories are accurate."
"They are not!" Che snorted, flying towards him, but then Erias exploded with the opposite of his previous move. The trio was suddenly blinded by a golden light so intense that it hurt to look at. Their souls started to smoke, and the sheer force behind it pushed them backward.
With an otherworldly roar, Kyaranin's form changed, and she morphed into a four-winged, unique-looking dragon. With a deep breath, she started to siphon away Erias's light, slowly revealing the man who was looking at her with a grim expression. The form she showed was known to him… and it infuriated him.
It was the true form of Erias's first real love and wife, the princess of the Nerifits, the woman whom he cherished, even after breaking up with her. When her children died, he mourned them as his own, and when she died… he mourned her as a husband would have done it. Seeing Kyaranin desecrating her memory filled Erias with righteous rage, as it could only mean her soul never entered reincarnation.
"I'm going to end you. Remember that, wretch."
Erias's words echoed far and wide as he shot at Kyaranin, ignoring the other two or the fact it opened him up to their attacks. With the speed of light, he was flying past Kyaranin's now enormous body, landing on her back, between the joint of the four wings. Without giving time for Kyaranin to react, Erias concentrated all of his powers into his right hand and punched down.
His arm was surrounded by black and gold fire that flowed around it like water as the punch made contact with Kyaranin's soul. The shockwave made the surrounding orange clouds partially split while Kyaranin echoed a low grunt, still in the process of dispelling her attacker's previous spell. Worse, Laupa and Che weren't holding back and capitalizing on the opening; they were also firing their spells, aiming at Erias on her back.
"Bastard!"
With a painful grunt, Kyaranin let her form explode, throwing Erias off her back. Like a shooting star, a child-like version of herself blasted off to the distance, disappearing amongst the clouds before the joined attack of the Supreme Elders arrived, hitting Erias, who was in no place to dodge.
With another blast, a second tremor swept through the chaotic fields, disrupting its relative peace and creating an energy storm that obstructed everything for multiple minutes. All eight elements suddenly showed themselves from nowhere, clashing, merging, and exploding. When it finally settled, none of them could find Erias, who disappeared under the chaos, but they were sure he was injured at least.
"You pricks!" Kyaranin returned, looking like a twelve-year-old, growing up before their eyes, aging a year at every minute that passed.
"Whine less!" Che snorted, angry that his prey had escaped once again. He didn't expect him to manage to erect such a strong shield and do it so quickly. He should still be injured from their previous battle… but it was evident that he got back to top form already, unlike Che.
"You survived." Laupa agreed, throwing a simple glance at her, making Kyaranin fume even more.
"I just lost centuries' worth of energy because of you!"
"Why did you take such a big, useless, slow form up then?" Laupa countered and dodged a slap heading toward his face.
"Why did you enter his energy field, you idiot?! Asking the stupid questions! If not for my knowledge about his element of light, he would have kept us blinded! Think!"
"You should think too!" Che interjected, ignoring the two. "You should not be angry at us; you perfectly bogged him down… even though he escaped, he should have injuries now. We will recover and keep searching!"
"Don't use me as something that can be sacrificed!" She warned Che with an icy voice, slowly returning to her adult form. "Or I will kill you myself!"
"You are alive, no?" Their leader snorted, turning around and leaving. The clouds became increasingly 'upset' because of their clash, and a widespread energy storm was brewing. Their battle instigated the combined elements present in them, and they were now in an imbalance, resulting in all the eight elements starting to manifest themselves and clash against each other.
"We should follow him," Laupa argued, flying at the back, looking towards where the elemental storm grew in vehemence at every passing second.
"Useless endevour. We know he is here; we can trap him here! We will monitor from the outside while we recover and wait for him to show himself! Don't forget! These clouds can't be consumed; he can't heal up! He would have to come out first! The idiot thought it was so safe for him to hide in here… now it will become his prison and execution ground!"
With a grim laugh, Che sped up, exiting the primordial mess they left behind, already tasting victory in his mouth.
…
….
……
Lia was floating around the clouds of pure energy while feeling out her surroundings. She could pinpoint where Erias and the others were clashing, and soon, she also felt the end of their battle. It was brief but devastating as it sent ripples through the raw energy concentrated inside the nucleus of their Realm.
She felt as if the clouds all reacted differently as the wild energies disrupted their natural form. Some got their fire element bolstered, literally going up in flames, burning like no fire she had ever seen before. Others had broken down into multiple components as lightning crossed through the fire and suddenly appeared water clashed against it, instantly turning into vapor.
A sudden epiphany hit her, watching them appear one after another: light, darkness, earth, or wind. Seeing it happen in front of her eyes was different than hearing it from Arcus. It was nothing like listening to the Golden Claw's teachings and theories… it was happening right before her. She was feeling it. She knew that, at that moment, she understood something essential. She wouldn't be able to tell it to Erias as it was a feeling as natural as breathing… yet it clicked into place in her brain, taking root deep within.
"Erias!" Lia exclaimed, seeing him appear a bit pale, battered but otherwise unharmed.
"We need to leave quickly!"
"Where to?" She asked, catching up and flying with him, still battling with her newfound revelation. She wanted to bring it up, but seeing his expression, there was no time for it.
"Outside! While the chaos in here blinds them!"
"But… exiting… wouldn't that reveal us?"
"Not with this!" Erias grinned and held up his hand. Lia saw two greenish swirls of energy contained within a golden prison held between his fingers. "I nicked it from that bitch! It's her own miasma and part of her soul! I already purified it so she won't recognize it or feel it… but it is the perfect disguise for us!"
"Are we going to dress up as Soulbound cultivators?" Lia asked, quickly catching onto her ancestor's plans.
"Exactly! One for you, one for me! Don't consume it, just… hold onto it! It should mask our true presence and origin, and we would look like disciples of that whore!"
"And we can infiltrate their ranks!"
"That is the plan!" He grinned, letting the ball of miasma sink into his chest as he took a deep breath, and his hair turned white, his eyes green.
"Creepy…" Lia whispered, taking a deep breath.
"It is." He agreed, looking back at her, "But it was a flash of inspiration! When she exploded, shedding so much of her energy, it dawned on me! I was racking my brain on how to get into their core base… and now the opportunity just presented itself!"
"I'm in!" She nodded and copied Erias, letting the ball sink into her soul, and soon her hair was white, and her mismatched eyes turned green… although the left had a darker shade than the right. "Don't you need… rest? You look exhausted!"
"It is even better!" He explained as they sped up, and Lia could barely keep up, "We get out and play it off that we were injured! I will masquerade as that woman's direct disciple, and you are going to be mine! We are heading back to recuperate~! By the time they realize we are not here, I may have just finished and summoned the Rock of Judgement!"
"Heh…" Lia grinned, looking at Erias with one eye, "You are more optimistic than my mother!"
"Has to be. I had centuries to brood, and my life was consumed by depression until my final years. I was paranoid and angry at everything… I was not a good man to be around after our initial victory." As he was telling it, he couldn't help but shake his head, honest regret echoing from behind his words, "But I saw the light. And now?" He winked at Lia, "I can feel it, too! Let's go; we have a Soulbound Sect to infiltrate!"
Three Supreme Elders. Something that Erias had never faced before, but at that moment, he felt fired up. For the first time since giving up his life and venturing into No-Space and beyond, he finally caught a glimpse of the finish line. After countless years of consistently working, planning, and hoping it would work out, he now felt like it was within arm's reach. Just a little more, and he would bring down the hammer of justice on the Undead.
"Fighting clowns should be easy!" He chuckled, and then his figure distorted, losing all of its color… no. The world was losing its rosiness.
The trio of Che felt the change immediately, heading straight towards it. Without hesitation, he split from the other two, heading to the left while Kyaranin took a sharp turn to the right, leaving Laupa to head straight into it. Unlike the other two, he was aiming not to dodge but to break through, whatever this… Erias fellow had planned to do.
Laupa himself never faced off against him, and when previously Che couldn't capture or finish him off, he felt nothing about it. He only thought that the so-called 'number one' of the Supreme Elders was nothing unique. In his eyes, anyone who reached the rank stood at the same level, and he didn't feel endangered by someone who came from the outside. Someone who wasn't privy to the techniques and unimaginable power of the soul. It was a mistake, and he realized it the moment his body crossed the boundary of Erias's spell.
The second he passed the invisible line, all sensations left his being without a warning. Be it sound, smell, or the feeling of the energy clouds brushing against his soul… everything was gone in a snap. All turned into a uniform of grey, and he could no longer establish a connection with the other two lingering on the outside. He was cut off from everything.
"Tricks," Laupa grunted, making his essence resonate and vibrate increasingly high and higher, trying to dispel Erias's spell without success.
Yet no matter how much miasma he pushed out of his soul, trying to surround himself with it, the moment it left his core, it turned from green to grey and got frozen in mid-air. Laupa couldn't determine how did it happen or if it happened at all. Was it an illusion, or was their enemy capable of manipulating time? No. That can't be. Time is not something anyone can bend to their will.
What he didn't realize was that his body was already burning, set ablaze, yet he felt nothing. As all of his senses were muted, and everything looked grey, he failed to grasp the insidious nature of Erias's trap. Laupa's miasma was not really frozen; he just didn't feel his connection with it. Neither did he consider being gradually eaten up. With a mixing of his four elements, the zone under his control was a place where his will was law, overriding anything that came under its influence.
While Laupa was trying to figure out how to move forward, missing that he was standing in place, doing nothing, and letting the colorless fire burn his essence, the other two launched a joined attack. Holding their hands forward, two beams of greenish-black light penetrated the spell, finally disrupting it by overflowing it with energy from their souls.
When its effect broke, and Laupa finally regained his senses, he hurriedly flew back, escaping the shrinking influence of Erias. As color returned to his world, he finally saw the golden fire around his soul, starting to put it out, releasing his energy from within, this time with complete control over it. By now, he realized the force they were facing and that it was something on par with theirs, if not higher.
"You will not escape now, Erias!" Che shouted as the greyness dissipated, revealing him smiling with hands behind his back.
"It was not I who escaped previously if my memories are accurate."
"They are not!" Che snorted, flying towards him, but then Erias exploded with the opposite of his previous move. The trio was suddenly blinded by a golden light so intense that it hurt to look at. Their souls started to smoke, and the sheer force behind it pushed them backward.
With an otherworldly roar, Kyaranin's form changed, and she morphed into a four-winged, unique-looking dragon. With a deep breath, she started to siphon away Erias's light, slowly revealing the man who was looking at her with a grim expression. The form she showed was known to him… and it infuriated him.
It was the true form of Erias's first real love and wife, the princess of the Nerifits, the woman whom he cherished, even after breaking up with her. When her children died, he mourned them as his own, and when she died… he mourned her as a husband would have done it. Seeing Kyaranin desecrating her memory filled Erias with righteous rage, as it could only mean her soul never entered reincarnation.
"I'm going to end you. Remember that, wretch."
Erias's words echoed far and wide as he shot at Kyaranin, ignoring the other two or the fact it opened him up to their attacks. With the speed of light, he was flying past Kyaranin's now enormous body, landing on her back, between the joint of the four wings. Without giving time for Kyaranin to react, Erias concentrated all of his powers into his right hand and punched down.
His arm was surrounded by black and gold fire that flowed around it like water as the punch made contact with Kyaranin's soul. The shockwave made the surrounding orange clouds partially split while Kyaranin echoed a low grunt, still in the process of dispelling her attacker's previous spell. Worse, Laupa and Che weren't holding back and capitalizing on the opening; they were also firing their spells, aiming at Erias on her back.
"Bastard!"
With a painful grunt, Kyaranin let her form explode, throwing Erias off her back. Like a shooting star, a child-like version of herself blasted off to the distance, disappearing amongst the clouds before the joined attack of the Supreme Elders arrived, hitting Erias, who was in no place to dodge.
With another blast, a second tremor swept through the chaotic fields, disrupting its relative peace and creating an energy storm that obstructed everything for multiple minutes. All eight elements suddenly showed themselves from nowhere, clashing, merging, and exploding. When it finally settled, none of them could find Erias, who disappeared under the chaos, but they were sure he was injured at least.
"You pricks!" Kyaranin returned, looking like a twelve-year-old, growing up before their eyes, aging a year at every minute that passed.
"Whine less!" Che snorted, angry that his prey had escaped once again. He didn't expect him to manage to erect such a strong shield and do it so quickly. He should still be injured from their previous battle… but it was evident that he got back to top form already, unlike Che.
"You survived." Laupa agreed, throwing a simple glance at her, making Kyaranin fume even more.
"I just lost centuries' worth of energy because of you!"
"Why did you take such a big, useless, slow form up then?" Laupa countered and dodged a slap heading toward his face.
"Why did you enter his energy field, you idiot?! Asking the stupid questions! If not for my knowledge about his element of light, he would have kept us blinded! Think!"
"You should think too!" Che interjected, ignoring the two. "You should not be angry at us; you perfectly bogged him down… even though he escaped, he should have injuries now. We will recover and keep searching!"
"Don't use me as something that can be sacrificed!" She warned Che with an icy voice, slowly returning to her adult form. "Or I will kill you myself!"
"You are alive, no?" Their leader snorted, turning around and leaving. The clouds became increasingly 'upset' because of their clash, and a widespread energy storm was brewing. Their battle instigated the combined elements present in them, and they were now in an imbalance, resulting in all the eight elements starting to manifest themselves and clash against each other.
"We should follow him," Laupa argued, flying at the back, looking towards where the elemental storm grew in vehemence at every passing second.
"Useless endevour. We know he is here; we can trap him here! We will monitor from the outside while we recover and wait for him to show himself! Don't forget! These clouds can't be consumed; he can't heal up! He would have to come out first! The idiot thought it was so safe for him to hide in here… now it will become his prison and execution ground!"
With a grim laugh, Che sped up, exiting the primordial mess they left behind, already tasting victory in his mouth.
…
….
……
Lia was floating around the clouds of pure energy while feeling out her surroundings. She could pinpoint where Erias and the others were clashing, and soon, she also felt the end of their battle. It was brief but devastating as it sent ripples through the raw energy concentrated inside the nucleus of their Realm.
She felt as if the clouds all reacted differently as the wild energies disrupted their natural form. Some got their fire element bolstered, literally going up in flames, burning like no fire she had ever seen before. Others had broken down into multiple components as lightning crossed through the fire and suddenly appeared water clashed against it, instantly turning into vapor.
A sudden epiphany hit her, watching them appear one after another: light, darkness, earth, or wind. Seeing it happen in front of her eyes was different than hearing it from Arcus. It was nothing like listening to the Golden Claw's teachings and theories… it was happening right before her. She was feeling it. She knew that, at that moment, she understood something essential. She wouldn't be able to tell it to Erias as it was a feeling as natural as breathing… yet it clicked into place in her brain, taking root deep within.
"Erias!" Lia exclaimed, seeing him appear a bit pale, battered but otherwise unharmed.
"We need to leave quickly!"
"Where to?" She asked, catching up and flying with him, still battling with her newfound revelation. She wanted to bring it up, but seeing his expression, there was no time for it.
"Outside! While the chaos in here blinds them!"
"But… exiting… wouldn't that reveal us?"
"Not with this!" Erias grinned and held up his hand. Lia saw two greenish swirls of energy contained within a golden prison held between his fingers. "I nicked it from that bitch! It's her own miasma and part of her soul! I already purified it so she won't recognize it or feel it… but it is the perfect disguise for us!"
"Are we going to dress up as Soulbound cultivators?" Lia asked, quickly catching onto her ancestor's plans.
"Exactly! One for you, one for me! Don't consume it, just… hold onto it! It should mask our true presence and origin, and we would look like disciples of that whore!"
"And we can infiltrate their ranks!"
"That is the plan!" He grinned, letting the ball of miasma sink into his chest as he took a deep breath, and his hair turned white, his eyes green.
"Creepy…" Lia whispered, taking a deep breath.
"It is." He agreed, looking back at her, "But it was a flash of inspiration! When she exploded, shedding so much of her energy, it dawned on me! I was racking my brain on how to get into their core base… and now the opportunity just presented itself!"
"I'm in!" She nodded and copied Erias, letting the ball sink into her soul, and soon her hair was white, and her mismatched eyes turned green… although the left had a darker shade than the right. "Don't you need… rest? You look exhausted!"
"It is even better!" He explained as they sped up, and Lia could barely keep up, "We get out and play it off that we were injured! I will masquerade as that woman's direct disciple, and you are going to be mine! We are heading back to recuperate~! By the time they realize we are not here, I may have just finished and summoned the Rock of Judgement!"
"Heh…" Lia grinned, looking at Erias with one eye, "You are more optimistic than my mother!"
"Has to be. I had centuries to brood, and my life was consumed by depression until my final years. I was paranoid and angry at everything… I was not a good man to be around after our initial victory." As he was telling it, he couldn't help but shake his head, honest regret echoing from behind his words, "But I saw the light. And now?" He winked at Lia, "I can feel it, too! Let's go; we have a Soulbound Sect to infiltrate!"
