Chapter 23: Realm Of Madness [19] No Will Or Free Will?
Leonidas woke up with a gasp. He felt like he had seen the worst nightmare in existence, one full of horrors unnad. But there wasn’t so much as a drop of cold sweat on his back, nor was his heart beating crazily.
His condition was the sa as before the vision, arm raised, eyes cold and burning with the fla of carnage. His mind, too, was the sa, other than the newly added information that is.
The visions worked in weird ways; he could not think during them, he could not move, nor could he talk. It was more like he saw what had happened after he woke, rather than during the process.
He glanced forward at Caw Caws, noticing that they were about to descend upon him like a harrowing spear of annihilation, utter and complete. The birds were in a spearhead formation, the damned bird that dodged his attacks at the front, and the rest trailing behind it in a diagonal line.
As much as Leonidas wanted to process the whole vision—A heretical man, Peace’s talk with the man, his forcing the man to reject peace, and the whole burial process—he had no ti.
Only a single thought went through his mind as he focused on activating his Edict.
Seems like even gods are hypocrites. They are the sa as us.
The Labyrinth had claid that Peace was unbiased, but Leonidas saw otherwise.
He exhaled loudly, smoky mist trailing from his lips, and finally activated the first enchantnt of his Edict.
Peace is biased, and I am its herald...
His left eye worked in the imaginative world, making crude limbs of transparent material, basically invisible to all but him. He imagined them shooting outwards, and poured his drying reserves of Insenium.
[Wisdom Of The Lamb] — [No Will]
The effect was almost instantaneous. Waves of will-killing beams shot from Leonidas’s body, visible only to him. The tentacle-like appendages wrapped around the birds, slowing them down and breaking their formation. A Caw Caw on the far back of the, the one that was the most injured, just flew away, breaking the formation and leaving as if it had lost its will to fight.
Still, the rest had slowed down, not stopped; they would soon be upon Leonidas, and even if his chances of winning were increased heavily, he knew the chance of death was still high.
As such, he activated his first Edict.
His left eye shone with the dangerous light of Insenium, which he could now call instinctively, instead of actively grabbing on floating pieces—he knew it was there, and as such, he didn’t even need to actively look at them.
He could simply will the Insenium towards his body, a body that had already felt the energy more tis than he could count.
Instead of using it the sa way he did last ti—making giant hands and grabbing Fog’s true form—Leonidas instead imagined his body being the power of [Free Will] and wrapped himself around each individual tentacle.
[Gleam And Glow] — [Free Will]
Ironic, isn’t it? Free will, working together with no will, to form a will suppressing power.
He suppressed a chuckle and poured Insenium again. If previously he was dropping a few droplets every second, now it had turned into a steady stream, thin and everlasting.
It was not enough to cripple his reserves imdiately; he still had enough to last him for a few minutes, but it was enough that he felt himself running out with each mont.
The invisible limbs thickened and wrapped harder around the birds, the previous light of intelligence snuffed out, slowly dying like embers of a once great fire.
The pea-brained birds broke formation and scattered in different directions, so flying high in the air, probably to dive bomb and kill him with themselves, while the others scattered in different directions.
They had essentially given up the only advantage they had against Leonidas. Numbers.
And they did it voluntarily too, haha, stupid birdshits.
Of course, they didn’t, but thinking they did made Leonidas feel better, and so he did.
He dashed forward to et the two remaining birds, the one that had dodged his attacks and another one. They seed to have retained the most intelligence, even if it was heavily dimd.
He swung Blush, the blade moving forward as if it craved blood. The horizontal path was made to carve through both birds, but like always, the smartest Caw Caw escaped.
Thick, inky blood exploded from the first wingless peabrain like an malfunctioning geyser. The smart bird still didn’t manage to get away unscathed. Its movents were slower than normal, much slower, as such Leonidas had managed to kick it in its underside, right on the intertwining runes.
The bird collided with another, sending them both crashing down. Another attacked from behind, but Leonidas quickly sidestepped and slashed at it. Its neck was cleanly detached, and it too fell to the ground.
Seven remaining. Two are incapacitated for the ti being. Which leaves five. I can do this.
He jumped up, eting a bird that was circling above him like a vulture looking for prey. Unfortunately, Leonidas couldn’t co near it as it was flying too high; still, it mattered not.
His left eye had never left the imaginative world, and Leonidas ford a quick rose of ruby crystal. He manifested it in reality, and sent the flower flying towards the bird, spinning like a blade of death.
The sharp petals stabbed into its furry body, shredding it into ribbons of flesh. On his way downwards, Leonidas changed his grip on Blush’s hilt and grabbed it in a ’reverse grip’, a hold used mostly for daggers, mostly for quick slashing or throwing knives.
As if it were a spear, Leonidas threw Blush, breaking the sound barrier with a massive boom. The sword tore through the air so fast that Leonidas couldn’t even track it. One second it was in front of him, the next it wasn’t.
Obviously, the recall hit him. His body twisted and turned mid-air, the sharp air stabbing into his skin...more specifically, his shoulders.
I hate pain.
He truly did, but pain was the only constant that had followed him all the way from childhood...other than Seridius, that is.
Leonidas adjusted his body, hand at his side, legs straight, and aid his head at the nearest Caw Caw. It was about to et an unfortunate fate, one devised by Leonidas’s own choices.
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