Deville uses his crystal to glow brightly, which ends up blinding some of the human soldiers around him. Then he jumps off the top of the beast and runs away while screaming.
-ZARCOOOOOOOO!!!
On the top of the creature remained his companions, a young man with long dark hair who wore strangely modern armor with an air filter-equipped mask. Beside him was a girl wearing a sweatshirt that was too big for her size, in addition to several leather straps around her arms and one with a padlock on her neck, lastly, a masked woman, her outfit was similar to that of a circus ringmaster, but she didn't give a friendly impression, this was due to her creepy mask that appeared to be broken, with a piece missing and in its place, there was only a shadowy vortex with a strange and faint light in the middle of it.
The long-haired young man yells at his companion.
-Wait Deville!
The girl continues
-And there he goes again...
The woman interrupts them
-We don't have time for that, the crystal is right there!
The humans are surprised to see their leader being thrown into the air like a doll, each one reacts differently to the scene, the closest ones split to go help him, others continue attacking the fugitive angels, but a few notice the crystal and run towards it.
The masked woman looks directly at the fallen crystal, suddenly, the light in the black vortex of her mask intensifies and a huge flaming serpent emerges from it and goes to the crystal, the humans run terrified from the flames, when reaching the crystal the serpent explodes, releasing so much fire that it reach the skies and scare the soldiers even more, but none of them get hurt.
The long-haired young man says to her
-'Naice', Gabriele, 'naice'.
He continues
-Hey Elisa, go ahead with that beast.
The young woman in the sweatshirt responds as she holds a fishing rod with what appears to be a huge fruit on the end.
-It's hard to control this thing!
The monster starts to run wild while trying to jump to reach the “fruit”
The long-haired young man
-No! Not this way!
After yelling that, he falls off the beast while it keeps advancing, but not towards the crystal, instead, it ends up running over the human troops that get trampled by it, the humans start to despair in the midst of chaos and attack the creature, seeing that, the guy that fell raises himself again and advances against human soldiers to protect their comrades.
Zarco and Caelum look at the scene from a distance, Zarco opens a huge smile.
Caelum
-Let's go-
Before Caelum can finish speaking, Zarco bolts away.
-OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!
Caelum
-What?! WAIT FOR ME!
Zarco
-THE CRYSTAL! MY PRECIOUS! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Deville some feet away
-This voice?
He turns around and sees a figure dressed in blue running clumsily from a pile of rubble towards the crystal.
Deville bolts like a bull when he sees that blue blur.
-OOOOOOOHHHHHH!
The two of them run directly towards each other, the crystal lying between them, both of them going as fast as they could.
Deville
-Finally, we meet again, you traitor! Now I will end you! Get ready for an epic clash-
Deville gets a stone in the face.
Zarco keeps throwing pebbles and anything he could pick up off the ground as he runs.
Deville
-Coward! FIGHT LIKE A-
One of the rocks falls into Deville's mouth.
Deville
- Argh!
Deville chokes on the stone and desperately tries to get it out, his glowing fades away.
Zarco
-YEAH!
Zarco jumps on top of the crystal, stretching out his hand.
-IT IS MINE!
Strangely, his hand is not able to reach the crystal, as he seems to be distancing himself from the crystal, by going not only forward with the jump momentum but upwards as well.
Zarco starts to struggle as he is lifted into the air as if he was being thrown.
-What?! What?! What?! What?! What?! What?! What?! What?!
And just like a regular throw when reaching its apex he starts to fall, Zarco then puts his arms against his face to protect himself from the impact, his forearms impact against the ground and "slides" a little while dragging against the ground, supporting his body forward his legs go upwards making his body form an "I", after that he throws his feet forward and he lands on his feet with his back bent forward, his spine looking like a fishhook, and when he straightened up and stood up again he hears a crack and screams.
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-ARGH! MY BACK!
He then puts his hand on his back and turns to see the crystal, but something else catches his eye, a four-winged angel that descended to get the crystal.
Basilius lands and kneels to pick up the crystal, suddenly, he stops for a moment and turns his face forward and his eyes light up again.
Ahead of him was Caelum, who was approaching in the middle of an attack, sliding across the ground with her leg extended going against Basilius, but strangely, she started to rise through the air. Caelum still tries to spin in the air to at least hit Basilius with her heel but her attack goes straight over the king without even scratching him.
Basilius' eyes stop shining and he reaches for the jewel in front of him.
Basilius thought
-With this... I can save everyone!
For a brief moment, Basilius smiles. But his joy is broken when the crystal flies away when hit by a rock, then several small pebbles begin to hit his back and wings.
The king turns in fury and screams
-WHO DARE TO OPPOSE THE KING OF ANGELS?
Zarco
-I! THE KING OF PEBBLES!
Caelum comes flying towards Zarco, seeing her flying towards him, Zarco quickly drops all the pebbles he picked up and prepares to catch her.
Caelum stretches her arms still in the air.
Zarco then grabs Caelum by her forearms and begins to spin around before releasing her, tossing her back towards Basilius.
Zarco
-FLY LAMP HEAD!
Caelum
-WHAT?!
Caelum arrives flying towards Basilius who tries to get the crystal but is interrupted and has to quickly spread his wings and fly to escape the attack.
Basilius then attacks with his scythe, Caelum reacts by raising her leg, with a quick movement she blocks the scythe snath and then manages to grapple the weapon, using the back of her knee pressing the scythe snath against her thigh and calf. Basilius then drops his hand further down on the scythe and twists it and then pulls it, which causes the scythe to split in two revealing a secret blade, the king then steps forward to stab Caelum.
Caelum tries to recover and return to a battle position but it was too late, Basilius's blade pierces her abdomen, Caelum reacts by punching the king straight in the nose, Basilius falls back with his nose bleeding and drops his weapon that is left stuck in Caelum's abdomen.
Caelum looks down and sees a huge bloodstain on her clothing.
Basilius glares at Caelum and is filled with immense rage as he recognizes her.
-You! Child of the Volare, how dare you! You traitor!
Caelum finally realizes who her opponent was and thinks to herself.
-King? Did I just… punch the king?
Caelum starts to smile to herself.
Basilius continues to stare at her with hatred in his eyes.
Zarco tries to run towards the two, but soon realizes that he was stuck to the ground, strangely his shoes had merged with the ground.
Zarco thought
-That power!
Zarco turns around and yells
-FARAWAY!
Turning around, Zarco sees Faraway, the long-haired young man doing the Heimlich maneuver on Deville.
Zarco starts taking off his shoes.
But suddenly, ahead of him, he sees a huge boulder flying in his direction.
To dodge the boulder, Caelum throws herself onto his back as Basilius spreads wings and flies.
Zarco, on the other hand, keeps advancing, when the boulder was about to hit him he closes his eyes.
Zarco crosses through the boulder in full motion, as if it was not even there.
Zarco
-Yes! I knew it!
The masked woman appears in front of him.
Zarco
-Get out of my way Gabriele! Your illusions don't work on me!
Zarco waves his arm to the side hitting Gabriele's illusion.
Gabriele
-I see you're still a fool...
Zarco steps forward but steps on something that was "invisible" to him.
He jumps in pain as he screams
-Bastard!
Some sort of mist starts to dissipate along with the image of flat terrain to reveal spiky debris.
Zarco with his injured foot, starts to jump on one leg towards the crystal.
Basilius hovers in the air, feeling foolish as he realizes that the attack was nothing more than an illusion, although he was still a little surprised, he was beginning to accept that with multiple crystals gathered in one place anything was possible. Filled with determination, he advances towards the crystal dropped on the battlefield.
During his movement he feels something pierce his cheek, using his tongue he feels a tiny prickly thorn, then he feels his joints aching, when he realizes what was happening, it was already too late, Basilius was full of barbs that hit his wings and the openings of his armor.
He looked to the side to see his attacker, it was Potentia, who was mounted on top of the Capelobo, a hideous creature with an anteater's face, huge claws, and a humanoid body covered in thick fur, and on her shoulder was a tiny archer, Caruara, an insect-like being using a bow and thorns to attack.
Basilius
- Damned inferiors!
Basilius starts to have difficulty flapping his wings, seeing that he was going to fall he decides to throw himself on top of the crystal, he goes to the ground, lying with the crystal right in front of him. He then reaches out with a trembling hand to pick it up but a tiny splinter hits the crystal, which slowly rolls out of his grasp. Despair fills his face as he sees his last hope slipping out of reach, despair that he soon banishes from his mind as he pushes himself to the limit, Basilius digs his other hand into the earth and uses it to pull his body forward, unfortunately for him other splinters hit the crystal and it rolls further away.
Basilius slams his hand against the ground and screams, his eyes glow in a golden hue as the crystal in front of him begins to rise along the ground, part of the scythe and himself.
The soldiers stop when they see a pillar of earth starting to rise.
Capelobo who was approaching quickly also stops when he sees the ground in front of him rising.
Fallen on the ground, Caelum gathers all her strength and begins to rise, with extreme difficulty trying not to increase the cut on her belly even more, in great pain she rises, her clothes bathed in red.
Barely standing Caelum watches a hopping Zarco passing by her on one leg.
Zarco stops for a moment and looks disturbed at the wound and the blood dripping from her, he stays still and feels a strong shiver running through his whole body at the sight of so much blood, both of them exchange looks, and at that exact moment, someone passes by them and slaps each one on the arm.
Zarco looks forward in surprise and sees Faraway on a piggyback ride on Deville's back, who runs by them.
Zarco
-What the hell?!
Zarco then advances trying to run even with his injured foot but something pulls his arm.
He turns back to see what was holding him, but all he sees is Caelum standing some feet away with her right arm outstretched.
Zarco then moves his arm and sees Caelum being pulled forward.
-Huh?
Zarco feels a sharp pain in his stomach.
Zarco thought
-What is this pain, and what anger is this?
Caelum thought
-My foot and my back started to hurt… and what is this anxiety and despair?
Zarco and Caelum look at each other and see each other's specific injuries and then realize what was happening.
The two then have the same reaction when noticing each other's feelings.
Zarco
-She's a mess!
Caelum
-He's a mess!
END OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER.