Chapter 298: 298
CHAPTER 298
REIGN OF CHAOS (II)
Hannah sat casually on the edge of a small cliff, eating an apple, while gazing off toward the distance where Lino had begun his slaughter . She had a rather infatuated expression on her face, while the two lying in pools of blood behind her were the exact opposites; terror ran through their spines, and they couldn’t even ascertain who they feared more -- the Empyrean over there obliterating everyone and everything, or the Elysian in front of them, both of whom should have ’cruel’ tattooed on their foreheads .
"Good god, I’m so wet right now . . . " Hannah mumbled, sighing as she glanced back at the two lying behind her . "You two have been awfully quiet . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
"Eh? What’s with those ’are you an idiot?’ looks you’re giving ?" Hannah pouted . "I even went as far as to fix . . . well, what can be fixed . You know, you two should really be a little grateful . Even after refusing our offer, we still had enough hearts to forgive you . "
" . . . w-what about them?" Litha mumbled, pointing her shaking finger at the distance where Ritton just died .
"Them? Eh, they had it coming," Hannah shrugged . "It’s a war, after all . "
"--then why spare us?" Vyrove questioned . "It’s not as though we are worth much as a bargaining chip . And I very much doubt you’re doing it due to the kindness in your hearts . "
" . . . why is that so hard to believe?" Hannah replied after a short silence, glancing back at them once more, her smile slightly painful . "Just because he’s the Empyrean?"
" . . . "
" . . . "
"Whether you believe or not, he’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever t in my life," she continued, turning her eyes back on Lino . "If you give him your heart and your trust, he will give you the entire world . If you ask him for help, he’ll help you -- though he might decorate it with a slew of insults . What you’re seeing right now is what he has to be . . . not what he wants to be . Ah, but don’t worry . You’ll be spending a lot of ti with us for the foreseeable future, so you’ll co to realize it yourselves . Truthfully . . . " Hannah chuckled faintly, taking another bite of the apple . "If he never revealed himself and rely continued to live as another cultivator, he’d have won the whole world over by the ti it realized who he was . Don’t be surprised when one day you wake up and realize you’d rather stand by his side than have all the riches the world has to offer . "
Litha and Vyrove remained silent, entirely distrusting of Hannah’s claim; yet, even they couldn’t help but admit that by just watching him from the distance . . . it felt different than they imagined . Certainly there was terror and fear he inspired, the sort that one simply can’t shake; but . . . there was also sothing more, sothing purer . Though unwilling to admit it just yet, both had realized why people gathered around him . They, too, felt it -- that just by standing behind him . . . they were shielded, protected from the rest of the world .
The Qi above Lino surged like a tidal wave as over a hundred souls bonded together in externalizing it in mass . Dropping Yennefer’s head, he turned to face them, gripping the [Dragon Slayer] tightly . Enrobed in shadows, he displaced the reality around him and heaved up into the sky where he was suddenly t by a massive flash of light dropping on top of his head; spherical in shape, it was reminiscent of sun .
He cleaved up in a quick fashion, unfurling his wings in the process; the sphere split across the middle in two halves, with him erging through the opening and fluttering the wings as he cruised above them for a mont before dropping down .
The middle-aged man t him directly, supported by five more people -- two n and three won -- as they danced into a strange-looking formation . The rest retreated slightly while unleashing a barrage of attacks on him . From up and below, from all ends and sights, all Lino saw were attacks directed at him; arrays of light, balls of fla, pillars of void . . . however, rather than retreating, he stepped directly both in the six’s formation as well as the onslaught of the attacks .
eting them head-on, he spun forward, withdrawing the wings, and slicing away with the [Dragon Slayer] . He didn’t have much ti left on his buffs, but he wasn’t all too worried; after all, everything he was doing at the mont were just re theatrics . The eighteen blades were yet to position themselves properly . Until then, he just had to survive -- sothing he knew he wouldn’t have any trouble with .
Angry roars, one after another, exploded toward him, accompanied by the booming sounds of explosions . His body was like a target practice dummy, accepting everything it was thrown at it; yet, seemingly regardless of how much he was hit, he didn’t even flinch . Working through the sky-wide net of attacks, he was slowly approaching the middle-aged man who was currently holding two floating orbs of light in the palms of his hands .
"!!" he cried out, crashing the two orbs together . "!!"
Lino suddenly felt sluggish as the blending darkness disappeared, drowned out in the siege of pure light . Looking around, he realized that all figures had disappeared soplace; chuckling lightly, he rely externalized his Will slightly in concert with the Divine Sense to locate all of them -- one who happened to be just behind Lino . The latter glanced back and t a pair of green eyes who suddenly widened in horror as a hand grasped at the skull .
The sound of the crackling bones exploded out once more with a cry of anguish as brain matter flew up with blood and gore, absorbed by the ethereal shadow that Lino had beco .
"!" nurous voices cried out at the sa ti . "!!"
Looking up, Lino saw a massive, simple-looking hamr manifest in the sky . Spanning tens of miles, it slowly began descending toward him, carrying with it a massive montum of wind .
" . . . you still don’t understand," Lino said in a low tone, nocking the [Dragon Slayer] by his waist . "Just what it ans to battle an Empyrean . " he bend forward slightly, seemingly tensing his muscles as the hamr descended .
Exploding in a singular burst of speed, he broke well past the speed of light as the massive hamr suddenly exploded into billions of pieces, shattering the Domain of Light in the process . One cry after another bellowed out into the sky as blood and gore mingled with the rain of rubble and ruin that showered the earth down below .
The middle-aged man, alongside several dozen others, suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood as they were shot out of the domain before it collapsed . Everyone glanced up and saw Lino in free fall as he aid directly at them .
"All our predictions were wrong," the middle-aged man sighed lowly as he suddenly took out a strange-looking piece of dirty cloth . "Truly, you can’t gauge the Empyrean by his age, his level, his realm . . . his anything . They live on an entirely different plane . "
"That-- are you sure?" a woman standing next to him asked, frowning while looking at the piece of cloth .
"We cannot kill him," the man said, throwing the cloth up . "But . . . we can stun his progress . The Mother only needs a little bit longer; we cannot allow him to distract her and break her progress . "
"Very well . . . "
Lino, too, had noticed the cloth; inspecting it, he chuckled bitterly -- truly, if he didn’t have those eighteen blades that seemingly everyone had forgotten about, he would have been screwed . The piece of cloth was rather perverted, exactly akin to sothing he himself would craft -- if he even knew where he would even begin with .
[Ti-tattered Shroud -- Unique Void Artifact]
Uses: 1/3
Special Effect [Ether of Ti] -- binds itself to the targeted victim, forcibly preventing them from increasing their strength for a century; cannot be Dispelled, Evaded or Resisted
Note: ???
It was truly a . . . strange item . Hardly ant for harm, it was more of a crippling tool that ought to only ever be used due to pure hatred that cannot be fixed in any way, shape or form .
He suddenly ca to a halt, freely accepting the cloth, even holding it in his hand and feeling its rugged texture . He didn’t know whether Ataxia would have been able to repel it, but it was unnecessary; today was his show, his battle, his ssage to the entire world . Taking his eyes off the cloth, he looked toward the middle-aged man who had a wide smirk plastered on his face .
"Even if this worked," Lino said . "It’s only a hundred years . It took less than twenty to catch up to you . So . . . in hundred and ten, I would co back and wipe the entire concept of the Holy Grounds from the existence . "
"If it worked?" the man chuckled . "You are underestimating Artifacts, kid . Even with Ataxia’s help, you should only slightly lower the amount of years . By the ti you are free of the curse, the world will have moved on without you . "
" . . . you still don’t understand," Lino said, his eyes angling into the smiling position, his voice carrying a slight playfulness . "Or, at least, you do your damn best to forget what it ans to fight the Empyrean . "
"Oh, please do tell what we do not understand . " the middle-aged man seemingly humored him .
"Ti . . . space . . . life . . . death . . . Chaos reigns supre over them all," Lino said, looking up at the sky . "You shouldn’t have co here . In your heart of hearts, you knew I wouldn’t spare anyone . Yet, you still ca . It must be because you were confident in battling . So, if I don’t teach the world a lesson, morons like you will keep swarming in, seeking to enrich their glory and na with a title of the Empyrean Slayer . I can’t be bothered to fight each ti a swarm of flies cos knocking . "
" . . . "
"At least, if nothing else, you’ll finally understand," Lino said, chuckling . "What it ans to fight the Empyrean . -- . " as his voice vanished, so did the world -- everything, anything, everyone . . . beca the bearers and the sacrifices to the Genesis .
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