Luca and Luna ran towards Enkidu like children dearly missing their dad with a spark in their eyes as they did.
"Hey! What did you do??" The pair asked in unison.
Not far behind the two, Reinhardt ran towards him with the same youthful spark in his eyes.
"What was that??" Reinhardt asked as he stopped his body abrubtly, careful not to hit the kids.
"Haah... I don't know...? It's hard to explain..."
Reinhardt caught himself and cleared his throat, composure quickly returning to him.
"That as it may be... I only have one question. You must answer it honestly."
Enkidu cupped his chin with his hand.
"Sure! I can even do a Binding Vow if you so desire!" Enkidu said so innocently.
Reinhardt took a step back apprehensively, a look of surprise and uncertainty in his golden eyes. He turned to look at Reina and his most powerful and faithful servants for help. That look that so painfully gave away a 'What should I do?'...
"Why are you so hesitant? I'm stronger than you. You know as well as anyone that the more power you have the harder the recoil is if you were to break it. Now grab my damn hand!" Enkidu said in a manner very unlike what he showed the group before and after entering the tower.
"Fucking hell... Let's do this." Reinhardt said as he moved towards Enkidu with vigor, grasphing his hand tightly.
Chains of gold and sapphire materialized around the two clasped hands, gripping harder and harder as the seconds passed by. After a minute the chains had sunk into their hands, signifying that it was time for Reinhardt to ask his question.
"Choose your question wisely." Enkidu said with a piercing look more oppressive than Reinhardt's own father.
With a hesitant gulp, Reinhardt launched his question. "Are you our enemy?"
For the longest second there was complete silence between the two. Even the sounds of nature around became wholly muted.
"You're so stupid!" Enkidu as he burst into laughter. "As long as you don't make an enemy out of me, I suppose."
Blood spurted violently from Enkidu's eye sockets, all of the energy in his body leaving him, knees buckling under the pressure of his own power.
Reinhardt's eyes opened about as wide as a human being can open them and with a mighty jump to the back, shielding his people. Right next to his elbow a golden portal materialized, spewing forth golden prana. They were like chilly winds spreading through the land, revitalizing even the most wilted of plants to full health.
What came out of that portal was a long sword. It's handle was wrapped in the most silky black material, adorned with glyphs that seemed to have made to be out of real gold. It's blade was like a refined chunk of golden light. Even look at it for a second was enough to blind Enkidu for the fewest moments.
Enkidu's eyes shifted to Reinhardt's sister, Reina, giving her the quickest glance possible. Using his acute prana sense, all Enkidu needed to do was calculate a set of coordinates and use prana to transport himself there, a type of teleportation that wasn't possible back on Earth.
Enkidu's teleportation was quick but Reinhardt's speed was absolutely rapid, using prana to enhance his body. The moment Enkidu's feet touched the ground, Reinhardt was there to cut him down.
The two accelerated to a nearly imperceptible level but every single person in Reinhardt's squad was able to follow him, even the fucking kids.
The world blurred around the two, warping as they moved faster and faster, dodge after dodge. At some point his slices began to melt into a flurry of attacks that seemed to come from all directions, all at once.
Reinhard't eyes were like a beast's. They were blood shot and opened wide, but there wasn't even the slightest movement Enkidu could do that wouldn't be caught by his insane visual acuity. There wasn't anger or betrayal on his face. There was a single desire written all over his face.
To protect.
❖═══════⛰ Heir of the Heights ⛰═══════❖
I have to start fighting back...
Enkidu willed an army of twenty five orbs of pure prana to gather around him, shooting beams of prana. Each beam was so heavy it put a stop to Reinhardt's movements. To Reinhardt, each one of those beams equaled dozens of tons of weight hitting his blade, that impact traveling through all of his muscles and bones.
"I don't know what to say... I don't even have a prana quality like you and it seems you are having so much trouble deflecting these attacks!" Enkidu said as he placed his hands in his pocket.
A flash of pink lightning danced through the rain of attacks, re-materializing in front of Enkidu as Reina. Her spear glided across the back of her hand as if it was glued on to it. The spear cut the air, creating high pitched sounds as it produced power currents of wind with every swing.
Enkidu had to teleport even faster just to avoid being cut in two by that tall crimson colored spear. It was so slender and so minimalistic in how it was adorned, one could almost mistake it for a sharpened red stick.
"Follow me!" Enkidu shouted with a thrilled almost manic smile on his face.
Blue and pink lights danced in the jungle as they each dodged faster and more lethal attacks whose intensity increased by the second. If cutting didn't work, piercing was up next. Her body turned into a crimson shaded blur as she swapped between cutting and piercing, throwing in devious feints.
Countless cuts appeared on the areas where Enkidu showed skin, it wasn't that those cuts were too shallow, no, Reina's prana quality was perfectly matched to her fighting style, amplifying the effect of a wound hundreds of times over, it was just that Enkidu's rate of healing was monstrous.
But... well... it should be expected of someone that doesn't have a core.
A chill that could have frozen his feet in half a second flat spread into the jungle, turning everything that those chilly winds touched into thick chunks of ice. A blade as white as ice nearly sliced off his neck right before he managed to teleport, although he felt an unnatural weight on his feet as he landed.
When he looked down, it was the ground beneath him that had turned to ice. It seemed that he had teleported it along with himself. She wasn't as fast as the two, but that kid, wielding a greatsword appropriate for her size had immense talent with ice. Her eyes still had that childish spark inside of them, however her iris now became as white as the ice coating her blade.
The two started to work together, Reina baiting Enkidu into dodging her most powerful attacks, leaving him vulnerable to get cut down by Luna. The combination of numbing effects that electricity and cold brought, allowed Luca to jump in as if he materialized out of nowhere swinging his fire coated greatsword with the intent to incinerate his opponent. They managed to open a large gash running along the entire width of his chest before barely managing to teleport away.
"This ain't quite fair, now is it?!" Enkidu said in gasps between thrilled laughter. "What's next? What are you going to do now?!"
The world around seemed to darken, as if some omnipotent being turned off the switch for the sun that was blazing it's heat and light into the thick jungle.
"Me." Reinhardt said as he swung his sword down.
His blade was like the sun, Reinhardt's face barely visible as a vague outline behind that immense source of light.
Hahahahaha... Yes... Yes...
"Yes!! That's exactly what I want to see!! Looks like Maelet didn't praise you just because you were his children, huh?!?!"
Those were his last words before a bright flash of deep royal blue flooded their fields of vision. When their visions reverted back to normal, the man disappeared.
They found themselves on a plateau, a large open area that all of the paths in the jungle seemed to converge at.
"Stay hidden!" Reinhardt shouted. "You guys aren't strong enough to even breathe in the same battlefield as him... looks like we all need to get stronger!"
The four scanned all around, their heads moving like chickens in a coop.
A wave of sinister energy spewed forth from the center, or to be more precise from underneath the ground.
All of them knew what they had to do.
"Jump!" The four shouted in unison in a hope to alert the other before it was too late.
A creature similar in appearance with the one they had fought off with the help of Enkidu emerged from the ground.
It wasn't a colossus nor did it carry enormous weight... on the contrary!
It looked... humanoid. It was as if they were looking at a male mannequin made out of ceramic. In the middle of his chest floated a single small crystal, wholly different from the chunk of stone supplying energy to the creature before.
The four landed and the creature seemed to not move a muscle as they did. In the deepest corners of their minds, they felt compelled to get closer, to see if it was actually an enemy or just an objective that was must be fulfilled in order to ascend...
"Stop!" That familiar voice Reinhardt grew to dislike sounded like a roar from afar. "That's one of the tower's enforcers, you could say. Well... that's what they told me anyway. It is incomplete however." Enkidu said as he emerged from Reinhardt's shadow.
"So that's where you were, you fucking bastard..." Reinhardt said through clenched teeth.
"Look... you can cuss me out as much as you want, but we have to kill this angel. It's the way to ascend to the second floor."
Reinhardt and Reina let out a shocked gasp at the same time.
"How do you know?!" Reinhardt shouted, his patience audibly wearing thin.
"I'll tell you that after... What I can tell you right now is that if you take one more step..." Enkidu's voice trailed off.
"There is no coming back." Reina said.
Maybe it was because they were all fighting junkies, lunatics. Maybe it was because they had such a great fight, but at once, all of them flipped the switches in their mind.
With a long step taken in unison, the head of the angel moved like it was motorized, staring at Enkidu.
Sinister crimson energy spewed out of it's core and in no more than a second, painted the world around them in a thick shade of crimson.