---------------- Earlier
Lough Freed
We flew as fast as Erentiss could towards Nova.
"What are you going to do when you arrive?" Erentiss asked me. I sat down between ice spikes and replied in a calm and focused tone.
"I'll kill any of the invaders who touch me or anyone I care about."
Erentiss remained silent, and I could sense his concern for me. I pushed it aside and focused my anger on the people I was about to slaughter for attacking my home.
I swear... if they've even touched any of them... I'll reduce them to ashes...
Relax... they'll be fine. You know, as I do, that they're all strong. Orebrul said in an exasperated way.
That's not the point. Imagine if one of them got terminally injured. I snapped back sharply. I felt a twinge of guilt for snapping at Orebrul, the one who had been with me the longest. Sorry... I'm just worried...
It's fine. You gotta relax, I'm sure everyone will be ok, I bet you won't even have to do a thing.
Yeah... perhaps...
I looked over the edge of Erentiss' wing and down into the white clouds. Squinting, I could just make out the soft orange glow of a clump of clouds ahead. Some black gaseous mixture was there as well.
Orebrul... what is that...? I asked tentatively.
Lough... was all he said. It was then that I realised something wasn't right.
"We need to go down!" I shouted over the whipping and howling winds to Erentiss. He complied and glided through and below the clouds. My brown cloak I'd grabbed before leaving was soaked with the water from the clouds, and as we descended through them, I thought I saw Hell itself.
Fires littered the entire city, and patches of ice spikes along with blackened buildings from lightning were just as potent in and around the city. I couldn't believe my eyes.
I saw people in black cloaks with symbols resembling flames, spikes, and thunderbolts. There were pillaging and rampaging through the streets, which helped me take a guess at who the invaders were.
Panic built within me. What is all this?
"I'm going down!" I shouted, and before waiting for a response, I jumped and flew straight towards the floor. I landed perfectly and was surrounded by fleeing residents and the attackers with their black cloaks.
A shard of ice flew towards me, and in a flash, I caught it only inches from my face. My hand tightened around the shard, and it shattered into small glimmering particles before dissolving into the air. I turned and looked at the person who had fired the spell at me.
A skinny man with lazy red eyes and short, scraggy hair. He grunted and sneered at me before manifesting another dozen, or so, ice shards. He hurled them at me with a twitch of his finger, and they hurtled at me with tremendous speed.
But not fast enough.
I flicked two fingers and pointed them up to the sky. As soon as I did that, {Hellfire} activated, and a pillar of burning white flames burst from the ground and incinerated the spell. The man tumbled back with a look of fear as he saw the magnitude of my strength. If he's going to die, at least let me do it instead of running off.
I wasted no time in zipping towards him and impaling his chest with a shard of my own ice. This creation of ice, however, was a blood red colour and blended in nicely with the man's blood as it slowly trickled down the spike jutting out his chest.
"Someone get the apostles!" I heard someone shouting. I whipped around to look for the source of the voice and saw half a dozen enemies trying to run away in different directions.
"Don't think you can piss me off and just leave..." I muttered darkly as I shot towards an enemy woman as a lightning bolt. I arrived beside her with an innocent smile on my face, and her face drained of colour before I shot a beam of pure purple lighting into her sternum. Her torso evaporated and turned to ash, letting her head and remaining limbs tumble idly to the ground. I couldn't let the death of my enemies affect me. Not when I had people that I cared for being attacked by them. I realised I was becoming my past self, but at that point... I didn't care.
In quick and rapid succession, I disposed of all the enemies who tried running away. I felt a gust of cold and sharp air hit me as Erentiss landed beside me.
"Lough... I know you want to protect this place, but... is this..." he stopped as he noticed my look.
"Yes. It's necessary," I replied calmly and coldly. He just nodded and gestured for me to climb back on. I didn't look back at the ashes and corpses as I climbed onto Erentiss' back, hoping everyone I actually wanted to protect were ok. Erentiss ascended back into the sky and began to fly towards Aurora University.
---------------- Present
After having annihilated a group using {Lightning Storm}, I fell through the sky, and as I was falling to the floor, rage seeped into me. You know what... let's do this your way.
I opened the archive, and in a moment of blind rage, I entered the {Conjuration} path and locked in my choice with my final remaining 2 points, and claimed the first two skills:
○ Passive: {Voice Cast}
○ Skill: {Astral Blade}
I landed in the midst of over 50 enemies, and a large grin crossed my lips. I activated the new skill: {Astral Blade}, and a shimmering purple blade with strange runic symbols along the hilt appeared in my hand. Letting my body become lightning, I zipped through each of the enemies one after the other. The blade was weightless. It felt smooth and clean to swing, as if there wasn't anything there at all. I felt as though I could cut anything in the world with this sword. The power was enlightening. A sense of pride and fulfilment spilt over me as I watched the mini army of corpses once stood healthy, now dead, at my feet. My crazed sensation was broken as I heard a familiar voice behind me from a nearby broken building.
I saw her...
I looked at Jess with joy flowing out my heart faster than I could contain it. My heart rate increased even further with happiness as I saw Darius. "Hey... guys..." I said quietly.
They jumped down to me, and Jess ran and jumped straight into me, knocking the wind out of me a little. Darius smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Took quite a lot of them out just now, didn't you? What were those spells?!" He asked with an unsurprised tone.
"It's... complicated... just know that they're very powerful spells," I replied quickly. He laughed and gave a knowing look as he walked away to 'check' for more enemies.
My eyes almost didn't want to look at what was next to me. They lingered on Darius' back as he walked away, and for a moment, I didn't want to say anything, in case it might ruin the moment.
"Not gonna say anything then?" She finally asked. I looked down at Jess, who was staring up at me with teary eyes. With the back of my finger, I wiped away her tears and gave her a wry smile.
"I'm sorry... that it took me so long to come back..." I mumbled. It was a fact that I could have returned months ago, but doing so would have made me miss a once in a lifetime opportunity to get stronger. To train with the three Dragonlords of Nuhevom. Another true fact was that, had I returned, I wouldn't have been strong enough anyway to protect them all and would only have caused everyone to be in more danger.
"I'm not mad about you not coming back... I thought you were dead!" She cried out. I felt the physical pain in my heart. I'd ignored everyone while training. Closed my heart to the world and expected it to function properly with me gone for half a year. How wrong I'd been. I hadn't considered how the people close to me would feel about my near-death experience.
"Sorry," was all I could muster out of my broken throat.
"I want a date after this is cleared up. You got that?" She demanded, and I gave her a surprised look. "What? Can't I at least ask that much after I thought that you were dead?"
I was dumbfounded. How could she ask for just a date after I'd basically ignored my duty to protect her. Duty? The fuck am I on about? I'm not a soldier anymore.
"Yeah... I promise, just let me deal with this first, ok?" I replied gently. She nodded and let go of me and stepped back a little.
My hand crept along my body and paused at my missing arm. Remember your limits...
Yes, that would be a good idea, or do you disagree? I heard in my head from Orebrul. Smiling, I rolled my eyes and leapt up to the top of the broken building I'd seen Jess and Darius at. Whatever... I'll be fine.
You say that, and then you'll go and nearly kill yourself against some big shot. He answered back.
That won't happen... well... I hope not...
Orebrul laughed, and I smiled. I'd missed this.
I traversed across the ruined city and disposed of enemy after enemy. No mercy was given. No feelings were exchanged. Words were minimal. For every person I killed, I could feel myself regressing back towards my state during the war. It didn't please me.
As I jumped across a large gap, an attack consisting of a large fireball, a sharp icicle, and a fast bolt of electricity all hit me at once. I increased my flow of mana to help protect myself, and I threw up a shield using {Blizzard}. However, the strength of my spell wasn't enough to dampen the impact strength, and I was sent crashing downwards into a pile of charred rubble.
I could feel the aura of three extremely powerful individuals. Who are these guys?
The rubble fell apart as I pulled myself out and stood opposite the three men opposite me.
The first had red and baggy trousers on, tied with a rope. His chest was bare, and I could see the physical strength and confidence he exuded. His muscles were defined, and his long white hair fell down to his waist, much like my own hair. The blue eyes in his head were challenging and respectful at the same time.
Beside him, the second man had a cold glare. His blond hair was short, and his brown eyes seemed to have a clear killing intent. The way he carried himself spelt 'noble' to me, and his posture was elegant and practised to perfection. The suit he was wearing was a deep blue with a white shirt underneath. His cuffs were black and had a royalty-like look to them.
The final man was a tall and skinny individual. Glasses rounded his eyes, and they peered at me with curiosity more than hatred. But, his aura was nothing to be laughed at. It seemed his power was equal to, if not more powerful, than the other two members beside him. This man was wearing a black shirt and a black waistcoat. His trousers were a perfect fit for his waist and his leg length, and the waistcoat had no folds or creases.
"Want your asses handed back to you like your followers?" I asked calmly.
The noble-looking man scoffed and looked at his peers. "What is this idiot talking about? Didn't Ohm say that he was a weakling?"
"Lucius... do not forget that that incident was over 6 months ago..." growled the skinny man with the glasses. Lucius scowled at him.
"He's a weakling, look! He's missing an arm! How do Ohm and Tempris expect us to waste our..." he immediately stopped talking as the bare-chested man released an aura of overwhelming magnitude.
"You dare speak of their names as though they are beneath us?! You need correcting... Lucius," he retorted before the skinny man could interject.
"Hey, hey. Look, Lysander... I'm sorry..." Lucius said in a worried tone as he backed up slightly. I rolled my eyes as I watched this idiotic display of a hierarchy. Or whatever form of one there was.
I conjured my purple sword again, the two straight and infinitely sharp edges gleamed with power, and the hilt's runes glowed with an unknown and hidden strength. Kicking off with one foot, I rushed at them while they were distracted and swung my weightless blade.
Lucius, the posh one, looked at me with distaste. "Do you mind?! Filthy mongrel!" He flicked his wrist, and a giant wall of ice appeared and rebounded my blade. My face turned to shock as it deflected my blade like it was nothing. It turned even more worried and strained as spikes of glistening ice thrusted out of the wall and towards me with an alarming speed.
I spun and dodged, after which I leapt away to a safe distance.
"We can discuss this later... first, kill him... then, we can go to the Gods and see about your divine punishment," Lydander said maliciously.
The Gods? Wait a minute...
"Hey! Muscles... Lysander... I don't know, I don't care either. Did you just say the Gods?" I asked with a bubbling feeling of dread. He grinned at me, and I saw red flames flicker at the tips of his fingertips and the corners of his eyes.
"I did... is there something you'd like to say?"
"Not at all, well, maybe one thing."
"And that is?"
I dispelled my sword and brought my storage of spells to life. "Just that you won't be seeing those bosses of yours again... since I'll reduce you to nothing... right here."
I said as I tapped my foot on the floor where I was stood. "So come on then. I'm waiting."
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