XVI | THE SHATTERING

Aegis stood still, his breaths slow and steady, his white eyes narrowed and calm, his broad shoulders and lean body pale against the storm of fire and thunder. He did not know the tongue of the Conqueror Akashic, who spoke with fury, but he knew the intent behind his words.

For an instant their eyes held, then wind swept where they once stood, two might met with great destruction and a flash of lightning, the ground burst asunder and smoke rose. Aegis was flung into the air fifty paces, he came down on his feet and slid to a standstill. He strode forth with his right leg, as his left arm swung in a wide arc and a towering peak of ice sprang up to the raging heavens, he advanced with his left leg and his right arm traced a similar path and another lofty mountain of ice arose from the earth.

Aegis sees and feels the heat rising.

All around them the land was ablaze and the mighty ice was melting in blood, Aegis lifted his hands aloft as lightning converged, he stretched both arms as it shaped into a javelin, he poised to hurl and the fiery onslaught of Conqueror Akashic was checked in explosion.

The wind swept over Aegis like a tide and his long dark hair in static flew about, a golden fire in the distant raging sky spun in the air, and fell like a star. Aegis cast forth spikes of ice as he braced with a shielding arm, the ground burst forth, as Aegis stood firm but slid back the earth thirty strides.

The smoke cleared as Zhenyuan, a dim golden armored, with four arms wielding saber and a ring of light appeared with fists clenched. Aegis matched the golden fist with his own as he felt his own arms shatter, he whirled on impact and striked Zhenyuan in the ribs with a spinning shin blow that let out sparks of lightning.

Zhenyuan felt his entrails burst within his armor, as he was stricken by lightning for a brief span. Aegis reached the ground, he sprang back twice in succession as Conqueror Akashic alighted with a tremor of both legs and a double dashing slash of fiery clutches.

Zhenyuan sprang up behind Aegis, both hands raised for a downward cut, Conqueror Akashic rushed forth to face Aegis and met him in a backward leaping stance. White eyes gazed the Akashic as all around a mile was studded with colossal spires of Ice, both demigods were stilled for three beats of time enough for Aegis to set both feet in the Ice, and mend the broken arm.

Aegis stood, his stance broad and straight, he lifted his left arm in the endless flicker of light above and gazed at the palm as Conqueror Ashic crawled under the ice.

Conqueror Akashic bellowed in the frenzy of doom and fire, as leagues of earth were steaming, all things were dissolving in his wrath.

The Ice was thawing into thick fog as they both burst forth. Aegis looked Akashic in a condescending eye as he twitched the fingers of the lifted hand.

RAIN DOWN HELL

And lightning fell all about, the spark running through the heavy mists.

Both howled in agony and writhed in madness as their skin dissolved in the lightning and was seared without end.

Zhenyuan cried out in veins of fury, as Akashic kindled his fire of hell that even the dense cloud of fog was consumed but that did not cease, the endless roars of the heavens, that they could scarcely hear aught else.

Zhenyuan bellowed as the divine ring at his back grew and enveloped them all from crackles of death. Akashic sprang forth at once with a cry of flame and swelling fists that rent the ground in tremors.

Aegis was hurled back thirty strides, he spun in the air and landed in a crouch. He rose and leapt backwards as Akashic descended upon him that carved abyss as ice ate his lower limbs, but Aegis’s arms were already lifted to the raging skies, black hair rose in a static crown, as if a god wielding bolts of lightning to sunder men.

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In this case, it was not men, he would shatter demigods.

Akashic’s fiery pain of cries was lost in the stormy heavens, as Zhenyuan sprang before Aegis with a swelling fist that drove him through the clouds. Both unfurled their wings together as they pursued Aegis in the air.

The three were now aloft above the earth and on the raging tempest. They fought with their might as lightning smote the land and thunder rocked the world.

Aegis felt his bones shatter and his tendons tear, as he smote Zhenyuan in the belly with a knee blow and his arm was seized by Akashic. Aegis was hurled and rolled in the air, he felt his flesh sear from within and the breath in his chest turned to fire.

Aegis saw his right arm dangling broken and crushed, his flesh was rent and the skin was scorched, yet it was healed in a flash.

But Aegis could not soar, as his form was humankind, so he began to fall as he slid down an arched spiral of ice, they left the flatlands of destruction in the innermost city and slid down into a broad intersection of the outer city’s ways as both demigods landed before and afar him with quakes.

He looked to Zhenyuan, who was changed from before. He was more than thrice his stature of dim radiant gold armor. There was a glowing nimbus crown above his head and the ring of light at his back was added with a triangle.

Two pairs of wings as the newly were the hue of jade and he sprouted hair on his helm which was dark grey. His four arms, which were once lifted with fists, now bore a fiery blade, a golden silver, a bow of glimmering silver and a ring of edged light.

Zhenyuan had now familiarized wielding Immortal Guan Yu.

Aegis and both held their gaze amid the thunder, a flash of light as they vanished from where they stood. Aegis evaded Zhenyuan and his weapons, while Zhenyuan’s hands were crushed and his sides were split by lightning.

Aegis felt his skin dissolve and his entrails sear as he was smitten by Akashic, whose roar of flame was like hell the and his crimson clutches like doom.

They were blasted and carved destruction into roads and roads as it was full of rubble flying all about. Aegis dodged a fist, as he rose inches on the ground, spun his torso and a spinning roundhouse landed cleanly with sparks on Akashic’s Eye on his breast. Air rippled as Akashic was hurled to a courtyard and stones of ruin fell, he rose, and he saw lightning smite the courtyard and it was shattered to debris.

Aegis sprang back to a wall and scaled it as arrows of light followed his every move. He felt someone behind him as he was smitten and sent soaring into the air, all wounds mended as he slid down sideways on a sixth story structure, he halted as he seized a roof beam. He was high above sideways on a wall, left arm holding a pole, and he could see the whole great outer city that was lit by above.

Again, Aegis sees every structure scorching as five of them was erected from the ground. Akashic began to smite the towering houses with flame, as they were hurled at Aegis. Akashic grasped a burning tower as he bore it as a club and flew to the air, battering Aegis with explosions who was ever evading arrows of Zhenyuan.

The outer city was now aflame and smoky, another pair of two structures were flung at Aegis that upon falling, would make a very great blast sending winds flying.

All at once, Zhenyuan who was shooting arrows and had just alighted on a two story rooftop felt fear as his face was seized in a grievous grip by Aegis. He felt the winds shift as he was whirled in the air and hauled and battered upon Akashic who was bearing aflame towering structures with lightness.

Their colossal shapes collided with destruction and were stunned for a brief while before a globe of lightning was made in Aegis’s hand and was thrust in both their bodies. Both spat blood as they broke a wall of stone, a house, an archway of a canal bridge, and fell in a road with a quake, they rose with gaping chests, but it was too late as showers of lightning fell without cease.

Zhenyuan bellowed in fiery anguish as his divine ring was crumbling under endless lightning.

The three were frozen, Aegis was the first to act as his left arm flew up and his hand closed. Akashic felt a chill at his throat while ice devoured everything in mere sight. He was lifted in the air, his windpipe crushed as he felt the hold tighten.

Zhenyuan sprang forward with a bellow, and a circle of light erupted from his back, as he brandished a blade that was on fire. Aegis felt his flesh burn and his heart burst, he let go of his hold as he was cut by the edge, and his blood was sprayed.

Zhenyuan dropped to the earth, time was stilled, they had not moved, a dazzling flash for an instant as Zhenyuan was smitten by a broad arc of lightning that hewed his armor and body in twain. Akashic stirred but was too late, as the upper trunk of Zhenyuan was shattered, as blood spewed all around.