Within a minute, the woods surrounding Wilsden were obliterated by the continuous blasts. The Darkness-infused dome conjured by Leiu was cracking like glass, soon about to shatter.
Flames soared up in the sky, the flora was burnt and incinerated, the ground blackened, and the wild life was all but eradicated.
Eliminator was firing indiscriminately, turning this once small and peaceful region into a desolate land.
A distance away from Wilsden, when the rainbow-colored rainbow faded, Feylord immediately left the cabin and bore witness to the enormous spaceship floating in the sky.
The area around him was completely destroyed, including half of the cabin. Before he could collect himself and try to figure out what was happening, he saw several flying silhouettes shooting across the canopy.
Alas, by the time he tried to hide, it was too late as two of them shot towards him. Instinctively, he let out the Phoenix flames and protected himself from multiple white beams.
When the machines got closer, Feylord was horrified by their nightmarish appearances. He screamed and let out fiery blasts, which missed their targets and served only as a fuel to burn even more of the already incinerated forest.
With a speed too fast for him to react to, one of the machines closed in on him and struck out with its scissor-like ‘arms’.
“Agggh!”
A shout of pure agony escaped his lips as he was stabbed into the chest and abdomen, causing blood to gush out. Shocked by the extreme physical pain, Feylord momentarily blacked out, his body feeling weakened and unable to resist.
The second machine descended upon him, the spikes protruding from its back growing longer and arching towards him, however, before they could hit him, they suddenly stopped.
In fact, the two machines were both frozen, seemingly malfunctioning or bound by something.
A small figure crawled from what little was left of the nearby basement.
Ferendia was holding onto a very small metallic cube that had a couple of flashing golden lines.
She kept the hand holding the cube raised as she approached Feylord and used all of her strength to pull him backwards, thus removing the blade-like arms lodged into his chest and abdomen.
His body, too hot to the touch, glowed and then was covered in flames, which, in turn, healed his wounds.
“Ah…ah…”
Gasping for breath, Feylord looked at his body and then at the frozen machines.
“They’re going to break free! W-we need to go!”
Ferendia grabbed his arms again and urged him to leave.
“We need to go to the city!”
“No..” Feylord shook his head, “I saw more of them head North.”
Wilsden. The safest place is near the anomaly. Lure ‘them’ there.
Again, his mother’s figure appeared and gave him a course of action, one which he didn’t trust at all.
Ferendia was panicking a lot, and even though he refused to go to Gold city, she didn’t argue with him.
“Come on! Hurry!”
Finally, the two sprung into a mad sprint, getting as far away from the machines as possible. Alas, the cube in Ferendia’s hand soon broke apart. Frightening screeches echoed from behind them, signalling that the machines were still after them.
“D-do something! You’re the Phoenix!”
Both Ferendia and Feylord’s sprinting speed were laughable, so much so that the distance they had crossed was covered by the machines within a couple of breaths.
Upon seeing the massive figures charging at them, Feylord pushed away, raised his arms and concentrated.
Fire lit up, enveloping his body and then cascading forward like an unstoppable wave. The two machines leapt to the left and right, but they were still hit by the flames, which did damage, though not enough to slow them down, much less defeat them.
“You do something! Stop them like before!”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
While protecting himself and Ferendia, who clung into him, with flames, Feylord poured as much of the Phoenix’ fire as possible. He didn’t feel exhausted and the pain from earlier was gone.
Earlier, he had been caught off-guard and nearly killed, but even now, all he could do was slow them down while staying still.
No matter how many blasts he launched at them, they’d either use their high-mobility to avoid or simply counter it with their seemingly infinite reserve of laser beams.
“That was a Sound Disruptor! It letS out high frequency sound waves. I-I don’t have another one!”
Feylord inwardly cursed as he pushed Ferendia and then rolled to the side, barely avoiding a barrage of beams.
‘Come on… think! Think!’
Feylord saw one of the machines descend on him with its pincer-like legs, so, in retaliation, he extended his left hand towards it while shooting a massive fireball.
Naturally, such a pitiful attempt didn’t stop the machine. Even when the flames hit it, melting parts of its body, it still successfully struck Feylord, who chose to sacrifice his arm.
The sharp tip of the machine’s limb cut through skin and bones, mangling Feylord’s entire arm and making him scream in agony.
Even though the Phoenix’ power was quickly regenerating the fatal wound, he still felt like he was dying.
Not unlike him, Ferendia was targeted by the other enemy, which crashed down on her and used its ‘arms’ to pierce her body.
She screamed and tried to break free but the machine was bigger, heavier, and significantly stronger than hers. Moreover, it executed its commands swiftly and precisely, leaving the targets no room for any kind of defensive manoeuvres.
Feeling unimaginable power surge within him, Feylord gave in to despair and chose not to resit the Phoenix’ power regardless of the eventual consequences of it.
His body shone brilliantly with a vermillion light: A wave of extreme heat burst forth, blasting the two machines away.
Two magnificent yet incomplete fiery wings appeared on Feylord’s back. He dashed towards Ferendia, picking her up before soaring to the sky. His speed wasn’t particularly fast, and the machines were still flying after him while shooting their deadly projectiles.
Noticing that the enemies were steering clear of the Darkness of the dome surrounding the entire region, Feylord flew closer to the ceiling of the dome and set his eyes on Wilsden, which was half-destroyed and burning.
It wasn’t that far to begin with, and since he was flying, he was able to cover the distance very quickly, though the problem of the pursuing machines still remained. Furthermore, he saw many other machines in the town, some scattered around the edges and many surrounding the Baron’s manor.
Strangely enough, they didn’t charge into it, instead choosing to attack from a distance.
Feylord even saw the Baron’s knights positioned near the manor’s entrance, forming small defensive lines and keeping their big shields raised.
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A couple hundred meters South of Wilsden, somewhere in the burning woods, Elyna was leaning against a tree. She was grievously injured, especially around the right upper-part of her chest.
In addition to a nasty slash wound, she was stabbed twice in the back, making her condition quite bad. Her maid clothes were covered in blood and her face was deathly pale, however, she was still conscious and even capable of maintaining a barrier that protected her from all directions.
Everywhere she looked, there was only fire and smoke. In fact, the barrier was the only thing keeping her alive, but keeping up the barrier active was impossible due to how seriously wounded she was.
While gritting her teeth, Elyna used as much of her newfound demonic power, trying her best to expand the barrier’s range.
While the flames weren’t able to damage the barrier, Elyna could still hear the constant deafening explosions as well as the gigantic spaceship.
The plan had been to lure Rein out of the town and then kill him, however, she had severely underestimated him. He counterattacked her and even nearly succeeded in killing her.
‘N-no… I can’t die… ugh…’
Elyna has been in the same spot for hours and the probability of someone coming to save her was low, if not zero. Plus, apart from Julie’s butler, Razim, no one knew she was here.
Her tries of staying conscious notwithstanding, Elyna’s body finally reached its limits. From the excessive bleeding to the overexertion of her ability, she was literally at death’s door.
In retrospect, she had been overconfident in her ability, taking nary a precaution against a Holy Knight.
As Elyna’s vision was turning dark, she caught a glimpse of a silhouette cutting through the smoke and fire. At first, she felt hopeful, but when the silhouette became clearer, she instinctively tried to scream.
The jet-black machine shattered her barrier with a swing of its scissor-like legs, however, it didn’t kill her. Surprisingly, it approached her and stood there, silent for a couple of seconds.
After that, one of the spikes on its back moved at lightning-fast speed, becoming elastic and wrapping around Elyna’s body.”
“Let me… g-go..”
With slow and weak movement, she attempted to resist, but the machine knocked her unconscious and then soared toward the spaceship.
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Inside the Baron’s manor.
Near the gaping hole in the basement, Aerin was anxiously pacing around while the entire place kept shaking non-stop.
After a short while, a portal appeared and from within came the Undead Jester.
“I can’t find him.”
“...”
“I really can’t!”
Aerin solemnly nodded before dashing toward the stairs.
“Wait! Aerin!”
Besides Leiu, the safest bet to fend off Eliminator was to find the missing Mort. Unfortunately, not even the Undead Jester could find him.
For now, Eliminator refrained from sending its weaponized machines into the manor proper, probably because it sensed the strange anomaly.
“Help me get through them.”
“I can just take you away.” Retorted the Undead Jester, but Aerin refused.
“No, It is after me. If I’m gone, it will kill everyone here. If I run away from the town, I can divert its focus, if even for a little bit.”