The dark and eerie clouds that had appeared in the sky just monts ago were not made of water vapour. They were the man’s sickly aura, leaking out of him in a never-ending torrent.
Vale’s hands were shaking as he stared through the window at the floating man, who resembled a corpse.
Fear—that was what Vale was currently. No... it was sothing worse.
Terror.
Sweat beads rolled down his forehead, crawling over his bare eye, but Vale wouldn’t blink. He knew he was going to die if he blinked; if he even moved that would be the end.
In Vale’s entire life, he had only experienced this feeling once: as a child, when the Cyclops demon destroyed his ho. It was the sa feeling he had when he looked at the being.
A feeling so strong that he forgot to breathe.
Forgot to breathe.
Forgot to...
A hand, with great force, clasped onto Vale’s neck and slamd him into the floorboard of the carriage.
As the intense pain coursed through his veins, his ability to breathe finally returned. With nurous drawn-out gasps, Vale’s body desperately fought for oxygen.
He instinctively tried to sit up, but an immovable forearm stopped him from moving.
"Stay down," Athena said in an authoritative voice.
About to complain, Vale found his words stuck in his throat. In the end, he didn’t say anything, just nodded.
Athena had her knees on the floor, her fingers moving in the air. Strings of mana floated in the air as she kept on weaving; whatever she was doing, Vale wished she would go faster as the screams had started.
He had no way of knowing exactly what was going on, but the sound of at tearing and visceral screams kept echoing around.
More than a few tis, Vale heard them scream out Athena’s na, as if hoping the goddess of war would co to their aid. If they had hoped so, then they were disappointed, as Athena’s focus was entirely on whatever she was weaving.
Then all of a sudden, it all went silent.
No screams, no gore, just an unsettling calm.
Then light footsteps broke it. Vale forgot to breathe again as the footstep sounded again and again.
It soon beca clear that the footsteps were coming in their direction.
Athena’s hands moved at a frantic pace and the distress in her eyes was visible—sothing Vale didn’t expect to ever see.
Then out of nowhere, that distress was replaced with calm, as her expression relaxed. She had a look of... resignation, and Vale desperately hoped he was wrong.
The footsteps halted, and whoever was walking towards them was re inches away.
A light knock resounded on the hardwood of the carriage. It was muffled and nearly audible, but to them it was louder than the ringing of a thousand bells.
Vale watched Athena grab the three-dinsional cage she had woven with mana and also take hold of him. She kicked her feet against the ground with so much force that it propelled both of them through the roof of the vehicle.
With a clear view of the carriage as it moved through the air, Vale watched the carriage get sliced up into large bits.
The old corpse placed his hand on the carriage as it was diced up.
He then looked up and for a split second, he and Vale made eye contact. Luckily, Vale closed his eyes imdiately; with how powerful the guy was, looking into his eyes was the sa as courting death.
Vale even doubted whether he would stand a chance if he fought this old man in his original body.
The old corpse pointed a finger at both of them, still in the air, and imdiately, Athena cursed out loud.
She threw Vale away then rotated her body to face the strike.
A complex and intricate barrier ford in front of her. But, they were like paper decorations before the beam of red light.
It tore straight through them and hit her chest dead centre, exiting from the other side.
But that wasn’t the end. The man flicked his finger up and the beam of red followed suit. It cut straight from her chest and escaped from her shoulder, leaving her almost sliced in half.
But in that sa instant, sothing unexpected happened: the wound, which looked severely fatal, closed, and her shoulder reattached itself.
Even as Vale descended towards the ground, his eyes couldn’t help but widen.
The sickly man frowned, but he brought his finger down nevertheless, this ti aiming to slice her in two.
But Athena had already anticipated this attack; she shifted away from the attack and remained in the air. The man clicked his tongue, then revealed a sinister smile. His gaze turned to Vale who was about to hit the ground.
Athena was strong, but that couldn’t be said for Vale, if he were to attack him, she would dive down to save him.
But he was solely mistaken, as he moved towards Vale, Athena didn’t even bother to look in their direction. She created clones of herself in the sky.
With a loud thud, Vale hit the ground, and the world seed to go blank.
The old man was already close to him and could kill him at any mont, but seeing as Athena was preparing an attack and had no plans of saving him, the old corpse gave up on killing Vale and instead moved towards Athena.
Her clones numbered over ten in the sky, and they ford a circle with the old man at the centre.
He couldn’t let her finish whatever she was planning. At first, he had planned to get rid of them slowly and savour their despair, but this lady was clearly a threat, so he dismissed that idea.
Moving towards her with imnse speed, he stretched out all his ten fingers, shooting crimson beams at what he believed to be the real body.
They never made it to their target. They were all stopped by an invisible barrier.
The man stopped his approach, pausing in front of the barrier. He placed his hand on it then frowned.
Athena took out the cage she had woven, and started compressing it; at the sa ti, the invisible barrier around the man started shrinking. He already knew things were looking bad as he tried to attack and break it, but nothing seed to work.
Each ti he chopped with his hand, he released so sort of sharp red energy that made the barrier shake. But even that wasn’t enough to break it.
Athena’s face showed imnse stress as she used all her strength to compress the cage.
The man’s attack soon beca frantic, but they did nothing to stop the compression. Only when the cage was four tres wide did she stop.
"If I had all my power it would be an easy thing to end your life, child."
His voice was hoarse—unpleasant to the ear. And Athena had no intentions of listening to whatever he had to say.
Vale had just regained consciousness, but he could hardly move. With aching bones, he sat upright and watched the two people in the sky, or rather twelve–if you were counting Athena’s clones.
"You’re a strong kid, why don’t we strike a deal?"
Ignoring his existence, Athena began speaking a chant.
Seeing this, the old man clicked his tongue. "You aren’t strong enough to teleport back to the prison realm, mutant.
"At best your power leaks into the sixth tier. Know your place!"
With that, he raised his hands towards the sky, and a giant beam of red fell from the heavens, piercing through the clouds like a divine spear. It hit the barrier squarely.
Vale imdiately pushed himself behind a rock to avoid the shock wave of such a powerful strike.
His heart was in his throat as he didn’t know if the barrier would hold or not. If it didn’t, then he would be the one to die next. He could only hope that Athena was more powerful than he expected.
[Authors: First paid Chapter. Much thanks to all my faithful readers.]
Reviews
All reviews (0)