It took but a few minutes for the angels to reach the city walls, a desperate sight appearing before them. The walls had incurred several breaches that were now spilling blood serpents of various sizes and shapes through like an unending stream pushing through a hole in a dam. There were almost no defenders that could slow down, let alone stop and push back the incoming endless wave of monsters. A few corpses in a rather expensive looking gear rags were lying broken and bleeding at the walls of several buildings, and there was even a battered priestess in a half naked state, getting draged away towards one of the breaches. The serpent in question no doubt had some other nefarious plans for the still breathing, though unconscious woman, and the angels could not abide by that, even if there were more than just a few S class entities among the snakes.
It was as the angel group charged towards the unconscious woman that the leader felt deadly chill run down his spine and in response he immediatly pivoted to the side and flapped his wings, both forcestopping himself and regaining a notable amount of elevation. at the same time screaming an order towards his brothers.
"RETREAT!"
Unfortunattely, his order either too late, or was not heard by his brothers, did not save the rest of the angles from what was meant to happen. A flash of red was all that this squad saw before their heads rolled off their bodies, signaling the end of their line, being return to the side of their creator god.
"I cant have you do that." a chilling voice came from the cause of his brothers deaths, and he looked towards his assailant to be. The angels body screamed danger, his every insticnt called for him to retreat, no path towards victory in his sight, But he could not, his mission was to defend the city, or die shile doing so, and angels were rather simple minded creatures. Whatever was on their list, it would be done to perfection, or the angel would die trying. And so he too, was taking his last stand, giving his all towards his task.
A burst of light flared from the angel, his sword drawn and ready, his shield in his other hand protecting his front from any sudden strikes, then with a flap of his wings he dove down to clash with his opponent. A flash of light, and the angels blade met his oponents mid air, the ally of the serpents having crossed the larger path of the distance between them,sparks flying everywhere as the two blades fought for the dominance in this duel of theirs. Swing after swing, but the angel felt no fatigue, only righteous wrath burning deep within him, calling for the death of the enemy in front of him. Each of the angels swings was getting heavier and heavier, sharper and sharper. Each with the determination of a man with one foot in the grave, fighting for the last of his kln to survive.
And yet, no matter how hard he struck, how fast he rotated and switched his plans, the opponents blade was always there, intercepting, redirecting and finding new flaws and holes in his art time and time again. Both his sword strikes as well as his attempts to bash his enemy with his shield, attaining even the slightest of openings failed, his opponent showing proficiency like the angel had never seen before. He had encoutered a trully worty opponent, even if felt no joy in the encounter.
The enemy before him blocked his path, denying the angel the ability to attain his purpose, before his very eyes the city below was slowly torn asunder, as more and more bloody serpents breached the walls and destroyed the city, one house at a time. Screams resounded all around, as the defenders fell in droves, their bodies scattering to dust leaving nothing but mangled equipment in the wake of the enemy's savagery. There was no mercy, no hesitation in the strikes and bites of invading horde, again and again ending life after life of the city defenders, all the while the man in front of the angel managed to keep him at bay.
The angel was frustrated, none of his plans coming to fruition, each and every step on the way towards his goals the enemy was always there, just a little stronger, just a little faster and just a little bit smarter. And so, the angel grabbed onto his last remaining hope, as he began to burn up his incredibly vigorous lifespan. To fuel the technique he was about to unleash, he was willing to burn away not only the time he was supposed to spend here on this plane, but also his immortality, something a pure being of light like him was born with.
His enemy stopped in his tracks, as if waiting for the technique to be unleashed, his black eyes radiating curiosity, if the angel was asked to describe it. What was worse though was the feeling of being seen through entirely, as if his technique was being disected right then and there, displaying the essence and profoundness of it right then and there. The angel shaked his head as the ability was fully charged, elevating his power temporarily from initial level SS class to high, and yet, the opponent just stood there, and once teh angle was entirely ready and about to charge, the enemy sighed and shook his head in dissapointment.
"And here I thought it would be something interesting. What kind of retard came up with a technique that not only damages ones own being, but culls potential and tallent as well? And all of that for barely a few minor stage increase? Pathetic."
The angel could not understand, whether the statement enraged it so due to the indirect insult flung towards his master, or the fact that a two minor realm increase of a SS class entity was considered 'pathetic'. Regardless, with newfound power bursting through its veins the angel renewed it assault, striking at the human enemy with ferocity and zeal never before seen. It would make its own sacrifice worth it. It would end the threat that it was facing, both right in front of it, and in the city below.
And once again it lunged at the enemy before it, a flurry of slashes, stabs and cuts, each and every one aimed at a vital point, or a feint for yet another lethal strike. The enemy however, avoided every single one of the unreasonably powerfull and precise strikes and the longer their confrontation went, the more desperate it became. Just what was teh human in front of it? What drove it to such lenghts to come here with the aim of destroying the city? With such power at his fingertips the man could no doubt achieve no small amount recognition or whatever else he might desire.
"Why?" The question escaped its lips eventually, not being able to come to a reasonable explanation on its own. In its frustration it did the only reasonable action that made sense at the moment. Seeing the opponent doing neothing else but tilting his head sideways, clearly indicating confusion, the angel elaborated, the desire to know bloodming in its core, as well as iritating it.
"With all that power, why attack a simple city? You could have done so much more."
The man snorted a single laugh, then pointed towards his black eyes.
"Because they brought it upon themselves. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Genocide for a genocide. Simple right?"
Then the man lifted his hand and indicated for the angel to continiue. "Come, your skill will soon end, Give me your best shot, I doubt you will reverse to your base strenght once it is over."
Of course, It knew it as well, but teh fact the enemy was aware of the fact too grated it. Gritting its teeth, it charged once again, unwilling to go down like this, having failed its task, knowing that once it falls nothing here would be able to stop the blood tide and the man in front of him. Grief and shame, for failing his father and brothers came over him as he swung his blade desperatly, hoping to at the very least injure his enemy, but no such luck was on its side.
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Then the power boost finaly left its body, it fell to the ground, as if a doll with its strings cut. It crashed into the ground, creating a small crater with its body, out of the corner of its blurring vision it saw the enemy landing near it as well. As if having picked up the grief and shame of the angel the man spoke in a rather calm, but chilling manner.
"Dont beat yourself too much over this. Its not like you alone will share the burden of failiure. If my guess is correct, and guardians like you are in every capital of the duchies, as well as the seat of power for the Echlisiarchy, you will sooon meet your brothers. Worry not, I as sure your sould will last that long at the very least. And who knows, you might even brag about being the very first among your group to encounter me and lose. For that is what each and every one of your kind will do. LOSE."
With those words spoken the mans hand blurred, and the angels eyes went dark, releasing its sould from the confines of its temporary flesh and bringing its sould back to the domain of its father creator.
X--------------------X
"Not too bad, I suppose." Rex spoke to himself as he drained what he could from the dissipating form of the angel, increasing his own power in the process. He must admit, the angel was much more challenging opponent that he would have expected. Sure, Rex was stronger, faster and smarter, but the sheer experience and instincts of the angel equalized them greatly. And while the angel could deliver any damaging blow to Rex, the same could be said in reverse, with Rex failing to find any flaws in the heavenly warriors movements. Only when the angel went for the desperation play of activating its 'trump card' and eventually exausting itself to collapse, could Rex finally end it, proving the need for him to keep going further, get stronger and hone himself in battle more and more.
The 'trump card' of the angel however was trully a waste of time. The moment it started to activate it, Rex looked with interest, dissecting the technique, hoping to learn something amazing, only to immediatly discard the skill the moment he saw the cost of its activation. It was so bad that not only Rex discard any notion of working with it, he did as much as lock it away in his memory, only keeping around the understanding that it it a horribly bad technique that destroys your own foundation and future prosepects for a small and insignificant temporary boost.
Shaking his head onc again in dissapontment, he returned to the task at hand, his blood serpents still in full swing of their invasion and slaughter. An event that would last for a couple of days at the very least, acording to his current estimates. So, having quite a bit of time on his hands, Rex moved to accompany Arana as his sister was having her own fun, unloading more of her anger and frustration on the poor residents of the city. She had gone quite the way towrds full recovery, much of her trauma having been pacified and cleansed by both Rex's constant presence, the love and companionship Rex girls shared with Arana, or the countless sessions where she unloaded her anger on the people of the nation that had scarred her so. Not physically mind you, but mentaly.
Most of the evening, night and the next day Rex spent by Aranas side, watching as she unloaded her anger and resentment, sometimes joining in and giving her a hand with a particularily unrully or unorthodox situation, ensuring that his sister was always safe, while not taking away the struggle and some controlled danger from the encounters his sister had. he even had to force Arana to stop and take a quick rest, her body getting exausted as she was relentlessly taking down her targets.
While Rex was spending his time alongside Arana, the Zeke family head along his advisors and family were in a daze for quite a while. They had just witnessed the death of an SS class angel, and the oponent did had gone through said ordeal without suffering debilitating, or even heavy injusries himself. Worse still, they did not see any actual damage on the mans form, pushing them into a rather desperate state.
Some of the advisors who came out of the stupor sooner, no doubt due to their cunning and backstabbing nature, silently slipped away from the room, clearly trying their best to escape the rather obvious death trap the city had become. Unfortunately for them, Rex was eyeing near very corner of the city, especially so when it came to the castle. There were quite a few nobles there that were on his special shit list, having earned a one way trip to Mr. Hans torture land. Quick death was way too good for them.
Once Arana had unloaded her rage, Rex brought her a bit away from the city, opening the gate to Elysion and allowing his sister to retire and spend more time with his girls. Something Arana was more than willing to do, especially now that she had two magnificent women to spoil. How could she not? She would become and aunt within a year or so, and thus most of her attention was indeed focused on Izumi and Rashuun, though she spent penty of time with the rest of the girls as well. Rex was just glad that the misguided feelings Arana had innitially shown towards him had all but evaporated, replaced with a proper familal love and whatnot. A bullet dodged he supposed, reminding himself the iron clad rule on the matter. "Incest is wincest, as long as it is not your family."
Since the city was quite large, larger than any other city in Echlisiarchy he had laid to waste before, the mental processing power he attained by draining countless people was increasing accordingly, allowing for more and more blood constructs to be created and controlled, once again speeding up the overall progress of the purge. Rex also finally summoned forth his Svergi friends, having secured a foothold in the city and with most high profile enemies dead after a couple days of fighting. Svergi did not need to be ordered or baybysat, and they went to work the moment they started to cross over to this side.
Jirgen stood by Rex, a shit eating grin on his face. "I take it the tow are coming along fine with their pregnancies, seeing as you cant seem to contain that grin of yours?" Rex asked the son of the Svergi chielf.
"Yes Warcaller. Mother says they are in perfect health. Both mothers and the children. Can you blame me for being the way I am?"
"No, I suppose I cant." Rex just shrugged. "You know what to do. I will go and deal with the leadership. Got quite a few gifts for Mr. Han."
"Sheesh. You are quite cruel, if I may say. I saw the workshop of the man once. I still have shivers running down my spine whneever the memory comes up." Jirgen shivered, the memory being brought up by Rex.
"Well that is the whole point of it. If you are shivering just from the thought, how do you think the guests are feeling in there?" Rex replied with a grin of his own. "Besides, after all I have witnesed through my spies, that is the least every one of them deserves."
With that said, Rex turned arouond and left the place, leaving Jirgen to his own devices and work. In no time whatsoever, Rex was at the inner castle walls, his constructs already hard at work, flooding over said walls and slaughtering any defenders that appeared in their way. Screams resounded through the air, not only from the surrounding locations, but now the inner castle as well. Bright flashes sparked and dissapeared, as multiple mages did their best to stymy the incoming tide. Yet no matter how many of the serpenst were somewhat taken down, more just came, tearing apart teh mana exausted mages once teh constructs reached them, even with the desperate attempts to protect them.
Rex and his horde was both relentless and ruthless, leaving no life unreaped behind, save the occasional cute priestess, but those were few and far in between, thus creating yet another ghost town in process. Rashuun had brought a decent number of extra succubi in from her homeland, her daughter recieving a few S class monsters branded by Rex in return. A deal that the new succubi matriarch came out heavily ahead, but Rex had no gripes with it. The succubi lands were ruled by family after all. Rashuuns, but seeing as she was his in her entirety, Rex had no qualms in showing quite a bit of preferential treatment.
Rex could not help as a smirk spread across his face, quite the sight appearing before his eyes as he looked down on the city from a birds eye view. The city was slowly burning in a few places as a giant tide of blood was swallowing the rest of it slowly but surely. Right now, even the inner castle was drowning in said tide, bringing ever closer the inevitable demise of the Echlisiarchy. And while Rex was almost hundred percent sure that this nation was guaranteed to end, he still could not wait to see what other capital cities had in store for him in regards to the angels and superior fighters. Still, his next big target was right over in the next barrier. He would finally deal with the oracles. That was why he had the succubi brought in in a timely manner.