"Yawn…" Someone was walking down the street of Ardoris with his usual clothes. He was going through multiple alleys of the city when he raised his eyes and noticed that some smog was going out of the prison.
'Ahhh… they're already working this much?' As the guard took more steps, he began to hear the sound of something burning. 'Don't tell me that some prisoners have tried to create some mess… it will be annoying to deal with it.'
The moment the human turned the last alley and arrived in front of the prison, he noticed that the whole building had been set on fire, and outside there were multiple bodies of some soldiers and of some robotic guards.
"What happened there?" whispered the guard as he remained with his eyes wide open in front of the building.
"Chud!" said another guard who had just noticed him from the entrance of the prison. Chud, who had just arrived and couldn't believe what was happening, remained still with his eyes locked on the fires spreading and the screams coming from inside the prison.
"The rebels have arrived! They're fighting Ashikunz outside!!" shouted this guard. As Chud heard these words, his eyes opened even wider.
"We're here?!" asked Chud, confused. The other guard looked at him even more confused. "Oh right…" whispered he as he looked at the ground awkwardly. "They're here?!"
"Well, not all of them, only one came as the whole group is busy fighting against Ashikunz outside Ardoris… but we're slowly gaining ground inside!! You should come and help us, too… countless guards were going against Corvinus and the guards that keep believing in Ashikunz," said the guard while next to them, a robotic guard had just been thrown out the window. A prisoner from the window was shouting non-stop, "HAHAHAHA WE'RE FREE!!!"
"A free day from work…" These were the only words that were able to come out of Chud's mouth before he rushed inside the prison.
"AHHHHH!!!! NO MORE WORK!!!!!" shouted he. His whole voice echoed through the whole prison, and some prisoners who were passing in front of him shouted, too, "We're finally free!!! We just need to kick the traitors' asses!!!" shouted all of them with their hands high. Chud let out another huge scream before he joined them, too.
"Wha-What do you mean Therya has fallen?" shouted Liro in fear. "What are you even talking about, Kael?" asked Liro, who couldn't believe his ears, and he took a step back.
"Are you joking, Kael, right?" asked Vane, who couldn't process what was happening.
"Are the people safe?" asked Lily, worried.
"But… the whole city? How is this even possible?!" shouted Darian in surprise.
"Guys… calm down, I can't understand anything…" said Kael as he lowered his head. The other rebels, who weren't understanding what was going on, were all looking equally worried.
"Wait… isn't Therya the city you're all coming from?" asked Orechin. The others nodded with their heads.
"But like, how did it even happe—" Liro tried to speak, but he was interrupted by Tauren's body, which was thrown towards the group. The Alterid remained on the ground in pain with a huge scratch over his chest.
"Tauren, are you alright?" asked Kael as he immediately kneeled next to him.
"Yes, yes… that creature is just… too strong," whispered Tauren as he looked again at Alerya and Ashikunz slashing their weapons at each other over and over, and no one was able to deal actual damage.
"I tried to help Alerya multiple times… but even if I hardened my body, he was still able to deal this much damage…" With that, Tauren turned towards Lara, who was walking towards them, as she had just finished healing Martheel's internal injury.
"I… I've healed him inside… with the bandages around his body, he isn't in danger anymore…" Lara could barely stand on her feet; in fact, blood was dripping out of her skin, her whole vision had turned blurry, and her eyes were black. Soon, she would reach the latest stages, too.
As she could barely stand on her feet, she slowly fell to her knees. "Lara, don't put so much effort! You've done enough!" shouted Kael as he rushed towards Lara to help her stand on her feet.
The rebels from Ardoris were confused, as they had never seen someone in those conditions after using magic only once. "Do you remember when we told you about that spell that lets a person come back from death?" whispered Darian. The confused look disappeared from their faces, and they finally understood who she was and what she had done.
"Kael, you can tell us about it later… but how is the situation in the city?" asked Liro as he kneeled down next to Tauren and began to wrap some bandages around the injury.
"There isn't an actual city anymore… everything has been destroyed…" said Kael as he looked once again at the ground, his expression impossible to read, but there was a lot of regret in his voice.
"Tell me… has Naluri been able to survive?" asked Lily. "What about the other people from Yalemba?" Lily could feel her heart beating extremely fast, as she was scared of the answer she might receive.
"Naluri is doing alright…" Kael finally raised his eyes and looked Lily directly in her eyes. "But the rest of the people from Yalemba… none of them made it."
As Lily heard those words, she fell to the ground and tears began to flow down her eyes. "You… you can't be serious…" Lily, who couldn't take it anymore, began to cry slowly, as the thought of all the people she knew dying gave her a hard hit to swallow.
"Kael… but how many people have survived? With your expression, it feels like not only the whole Yalemba population has been killed…" asked Darian as he had started to shake.
"Do you remember how we were around nineteen thousand after the people from Yalemba arrived in our city?" asked Tyel. All the people coming from Therya nodded with their heads. "Only a thousand were able to survive… the rest were all crushed by the weight of the rocks…"
"And you've said that Naluri is doing alright?" asked Liro. Kael nodded with his head. "Just like all the remaining survivors… we're all at Skar-Zhul outside the walls… we've been able to create a small camp outside the walls… but the situation isn't easy."
"And I believe that Allocen is currently with Naluri helping the other people?" asked Liro, as he hadn't realized that Allocen wasn't there helping the others.
Kael looked at the ground, and as he shook his head, the moment his head moved, a small tear flowed down his face. "Hey, Kael… he's somewhere around, right? He will appear behind Ashikunz with his golem as he's still underground?" asked Darian, as his whole body, just like those of the Veilguards who didn't know this news, began to shake uncontrollably.
"He… he couldn't do it…" With that, Kael couldn't control his tears anymore and he began to cry. "From what we knew, he was helping some people and Naluri before some debris from the cave fell on top of him… we couldn't do anything." With that, Kael smashed his fist in anger on the ground.
"But it's Allocen we're talking about, no? The one who can control the ground… he can't be dead…" whispered Lara next to Kael as she tried to resist her tears.
"Hasn't he reached you outside?" asked Vane, but Kael shook his head. "We waited for him… but he never arrived…"
"AND COULDN'T YOU SEARCH FOR HIM?" shouted Liro. Kael, while gritting his teeth and with some tears flowing down his eyes, tried to speak.
"We had many injured people… we had to go away and find a safe place…" With that, Kael was finally able to stop crying and he looked at the group. "And that was when Bianca arrived in the city… she hadn't explained the whole situation to us yet… but we Veilguards, realizing that it was something serious, understood immediately that something huge was going on."
"And that is why it took all of you so long to arrive here…" whispered Darian.
"Then something had actually happened… I had said it only as a joke…" said Lily as she clearly remembered what she had said before they entered the secret laboratories.
"Kael… can you explain everything in detail? With how they attacked and how things evolved?" asked Darian with a serious look. Kael finally took a deep breath, and before explaining, a scream was heard from the battlefield.
"It's just the two of us now," said Ashikunz as he had just kicked Tauren away before creating a huge scratch over his back. Both of the people were breathing heavily, as both of them had used a lot of their strength. Alerya, by keeping the red wire active, had begun to bleed, while Ashikunz was breathing deeply as his stamina had gradually lowered.
'My stamina is only at forty-five percent… I… I can't make this fight last for much longer.' With that, Ashikunz rushed once again towards Alerya.
'Using this much blood hurts… but… after what happened with Therya… we can't allow ourselves to back down anymore.' With this thought, Alerya rushed once again towards Ashikunz and the two blades crashed against each other once again.
Alerya tried to move her knife directly to Ashikunz's side, but the Krukin was ready and the spear went directly to block the hit of the knife.
'Now!' With that, some blood that was dripping from Alerya's body hardened, and it arrived directly between the spear and the knife.
'More blood…' thought Ashikunz as he saw the blood positioning between the spear and the knife. With just a little more strength, he was able to slice the blood in half and block the attack of the knife.
"Ritual of the black roses!!" shouted Alerya. Suddenly, the blood became roses, and before they exploded, Alerya jumped with her feet on top of the object, and as she did a backflip mid-air, she left behind a huge explosion.
Ashikunz was sent flying a few meters away, and as he stopped on the ground with his spear, he looked at Alerya, who was breathing deeply, too. 'We both can't take it anymore… but…' Ashikunz noticed that Alerya could now barely stand on her feet; in fact, she fell to her knee.
"I'LL END YOU NOW!" Ashikunz made a clean rush directly at Alerya, and as he sliced his spear, the ex-princess was able to block the attack with her knife once again.
Some blood dripped from her body and it rushed directly towards Ashikunz's legs. 'What?' thought the emperor as he realized that some blood was blocking his feet.
"Not now!" With that, Ashikunz executed a huge jump and landed directly behind Alerya. "Sorry... but you just weren't enough for me." With that, Ashikunz slashed his spear behind Alerya's back and a huge scream was heard.
"The strongest opponent I've fought since I've gained this armor… but you just weren't enough for my power." With that, Ashikunz turned to the humans, who were all looking directly at him.
'They don't seem scared? Maybe they think they stand a chance against me?' Annoyed, Ashikunz began to walk towards the group. 'She has drained a lot of my stamina… it's only at forty percent now… but what do they even want to do?'
"Imperial blood…" These were the only words that came out of Alerya's mouth before the sand around her started to get pushed away.
"Oh, you're still ali—" Ashikunz turned back to look at Alerya, but that was when he noticed that the woman was covered in a totally different aura. Countless blades were rushing around her; for someone who wasn't used to looking at them, or did not have a good eye, they seemed like they were still.
"What happened?" asked Tyel, as he wasn't understanding what was going on. The Veilguards had told Orechin and Tyel to have a smirk on their faces, but neither of them understood why.
"The blades aren't still… they're moving," said Kael as he stood on his feet with a huge smirk on his face.
"They… they're moving? How is that possible?!" shouted Ashikunz as he took a step back. 'No, no, he's right… now that I look at it… it just feels like they're standing still… but in reality, they're moving at a speed…' Ashikunz let out a gulp of fear as he positioned himself once again in an attacking stance.
"YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MORE CHANCES!" With that, Alerya rushed towards Ashikunz. 'I'll just have to block these knives… nothing too hard.' Ashikunz positioned his spear between these knives, but that was when he noticed that the blades were slowly, in his eyes, piercing the spear and destroying it.
"THE SPEAR!" shouted Ashikunz as he was able to remove the spear just in time, before it would get sliced in half by the blades, and with a huge jump he landed far from Alerya.
"You won't escape!" shouted Alerya as she rushed once again.
'Let's think… they were cracking my spear? It can't be possible…' As Alerya rushed towards him, Ashikunz focused his glance at the blades and realized that all the molecules arriving towards her were slowly getting sliced in half, except for only one type.
'You can't be serious…' Right before Alerya could actually arrive, Ashikunz let out a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. 'She is rushing at me unlike all the other times… and it feels like she's in a rush…' Ashikunz noticed that Alerya had almost reached him.
'There isn't that red wire between us anymore… but still…' thought Ashikunz, and right before Alerya could rush at him and pierce the Krukin with the knives around her, Ashikunz opened his eyes and shouted:
"IT HAS GOT A TIME LIMIT!" With that, Ashikunz slashed his spear forward and was able to give a small touch to the blades, blocking one of them for a single moment. As the blade and the spear crashed against each other, a huge explosion appeared between them; this explosion reached even the others.
"He's blocking her attacks?" thought Kael as he positioned his right hand over his hat, which was flying away.
"But that can't be possible… Alerya's blades can cut everything," shouted Liro.
"Let's say that they've got the lowest speed needed to cut a molecule… the blades are moving at around thirty thousand meters per second!!" shouted Darian.
"And the fact that Ashikunz is blocking them… or at least parrying them… it means he's moving at least at the same speed or more!!" Darian fell to his knees as he couldn't believe it. "And if he happens to pass through them… he would be moving at the speed of light!"
"It isn't possible… a body can't reach the speed of light, right?!!!" shouted Liro, who couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Hypothetically, yeah… but with that armor, everything is possible," answered Darian, worried.
The air shatters with the violent roar of a sonic boom as Ashikunz launches his assault.
Alerya stands at the center of a terrifying vortex, enveloped by a blur of crimson blades humming with terrifying precision. They orbit her body at a blinding 30,000 meters per second, moving at the absolute minimum speed required to sever chemical bonds, reducing every molecule that dares to approach to a cloud of dissolved atoms. To any ordinary warrior, her defense is an absolute, impenetrable wall of death.
But Ashikunz is no ordinary warrior.
With a surge of hypersonic velocity, Ashikunz thrusts his spear forward at a shattering 31,000 meters per second. He isn't aiming to overpower the barrier, nor is he trying to pierce it frontally. He is aiming for the impossible: a perfect, sub-millisecond parry against a quantum meatgrinder.
Time seems to dilate. The tip of Ashikunz's spear enters the outer perimeter of the defense. If his angle is off by even a fraction of a millimeter, the molecular integrity of his weapon will vanish instantly.
Just as a deadly crimson edge swings downward to atomize the intruder, Ashikunz executes a flawless, lateral flick of his wrist.
It is not a head-on collision, but a devastatingly precise, parallel graze. The flank of Ashikunz's spear slaps against the flat side of Alerya's crimson blade. The contact lasts for a mere fraction of a femtosecond, but the kinetic redirection is absolute. Instead of cutting through, the crimson blade is forcibly deflected, skidding off course by a matter of inches with a blinding flash of subatomic sparks and a screeching, metallic wail that echoes like tearing reality.
The sheer pressure of the deflected energy carves a deep trench into the earth beneath them, yet Ashikunz stands millimetrically unscathed, his spear vibrating violently from the impact, having successfully turned Alerya's absolute defense against itself.
'It hurts…' thought Alerya in pain.
'It hurts…' thought Ashikunz, as he was in pain, too. Both of them were fighting against the physics of their own biological limits, and the pain was hitting them directly in their bodies.