Third Step Mythical Realm, 7th Level

BOOM! BANG! TA- RARARARA~...

WHOOOOOSH!! WHOOOSH!!! "Mf!" Landa reacted upon hearing Heian Ciemnosc chasing after her, getting too close again. She stomped her right foot on a scrap of metal eaten by Elemental Poisoning and rushed away instantly. Heian Ciemnosc followed behind her, avoiding any enemy missile or bullet as she did the same from her side. After a couple minutes of relentlessly chasing her in the 4th line battlefield, she was forced to rush back to the failed blockade.

Veem… veem… Heian Ciemnosc followed her with a 400 meters distance, turning into 1.4 km. He didn’t grow anxious and continued following her at the same speed but looked for platforms he could press his body on and kick to step up his pacing. From metal scraps to other spaceships and even flying missiles or torpedoes, he used anything that could help him boost his speed.

Heian Ciemnosc could form a foothold with dark Neutral Energy, but that would make things much more difficult for him, and the reserves in his Dantian empty after a couple uses. Thus, using his bodily strength became the only way to do so.

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP… Meanwhile, with slightly less than half her Dantian filled, Landa constantly formed footholds in space or exploded with enhanced violet Lightning Energy to rush forwards and escape his grasp.

She had moved towards the center of the battlefield, but she realized she couldn’t continue, or Heian Ciemnosc wouldn’t have it hard catching up since her objective was too far from the empty area they had fought in. Thus, Landa moved to the nearest extreme to the battlefield and re-entered it with Heian Ciemnosc— hot on her heels.

After moving around for a bit and sending thousands of her violet lightning figures towards him so he could be delayed, Landa realized the Lightning Element did less and less substantial damage to Heian Ciemnosc. Her face fell when she saw some of his most extensive wounds, not as large as before. However, the Lightning Energy still pushed him away and cracked open his bones, even breaking most of his ribs and half his forearms as they neared the blockade.

“!!” Landa was tired, but how exhausted and injured was Heian Ciemnosc? His dark Soul's innate Divine Arts didn’t work with her, and each of her attacks worsened his injuries. Yet, he couldn’t let her go away!

… … … …~! Suddenly, Vocón Link appeared and arched towards Landa from her left. She acted quickly and became a tiny violet lightning bolt, flashed, and appeared 100 meters farther to the right. But before Landa knew it, 4 tendrils hit her vertebral column. Her eyes’ contents shrank as she felt paralyzed for 2 seconds, but her mind wasn’t.

ZZZZZEEEEAPP!! The violet figures nearest her imploded everywhere and pushed the dark tendrils away, but she discerned Heian Ciemnosc was moving closer and closer, just about to reach her. She gritted her teeth and swung her arms in the air before gazing at the blockade only a few hundred meters from her location.

‘Dammit, so close…’ Landa mentally sighed softly. The violet lightning figures sacrificed the lightning of their bodies to form a box around her, making Heian Ciemnosc apprehensive. Because if he wanted to break it open, he’d have to use at least a strong attack with dark Neutral Energy. He didn’t have enough for that. He tapped in space once as he was far from another platform and rushed towards the rapidly forming violet lightning box!

WHEEEESH~! FUTOMP- ZZZZZZZZZZZIAP!!!!!~-... PSHIFT! PATAAAH!

Heian Ciemnosc entered the violet lightning box in the last few moments as it closed just behind the soles of his feet. He immediately stopped inside it, as it was 24 square meters big, and saw a diagonal-shaped beam-like pike extend from her right arm, which seemingly disappeared in order to unfold this attack.

“Ha!” Landa thrust her right arm, sending the beam-like pike towards Heian Ciemnosc’s chest, but he twisted his body to the side, yet she didn’t give up there. Her aim changed to his glabella, and she pushed all her strength to reach it!

At the last moment, mere inches from parting his brain into bits, Heian Ciemnosc’s right foot stood in space and lightly tapped as Heian Ciemnosc’s actions became considerably slower. His body was impulsed to the left. He forcefully lowered his stance, and his right fist punched at her collarbone once before immediately creating a dent in her solar plexus.

“Ugh!” Landa felt the second hit much harder than the first, and the first was already body-shaking enough to divert her attention temporarily. She knew a 3-fist-sized dent appeared on her stomach and didn’t dare neglect Heian Ciemnosc’s capabilities.

ZIPPP~~! ZAP! SLASH! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! CRKK CRRKK CRKGRGKK CRGGHHHKK~! ZZZAPPPAPAPAH! SLASH- CRRKKGHHK!...

The rest of Landa’s violet lightning figures were outside, but they quickly rushed towards it and went past the box’s sides instead of colliding with them. They either continued raging towards Heian Ciemnosc or turned into severe violet lightning strikes that immediately stabbed into Heian Ciemnosc’s body and further deepened previous wounds, charring more of his flesh, muscles, bones, and taking away his organs’ size.

While Heian Ciemnosc endured the pain, his fists opened, showing the 8 inches long dark claws in his darkened fingers as his feet were the first to cut at her knees and shins. Landa responded by showcasing a painful expression, but her hands suddenly changed, and Lightning Energy formed dual gladiuses as she brandished them towards him by exchanging 20,000 other violet lightning figures.

While it was something that helped Heian Ciemnosc regarding the ceaseless Fauna, humanoids, and weapons flying at him, these gladiuses weren’t anything not worth noticing. Each of them smoothly opened layers upon layers of his skin and cracked his pale body open, leaving dents on his bones with just the slightest of touches.

Heian Ciemnosc’s already grievous wounds became ghastly, as he could very well become a tender beef roasted grill, and he would be tasty. Landa fervently swung her gladiuses while her violet lightning figures and streaks clashed on Heian Ciemnosc’s body wherever she could not hit him or was blocked.

On the other hand, Landa’s body disappeared little by little. Not out of magic and wonders, but because Heian Ciemnosc’s dark claws re-shaped her body like a sculptor working on a block of ice. Her legs, arms, neck, and torso rapidly lost their volume, but they remained as exotically hot as before, albeit tragically scrapped off.

Even as her body lost volume, and her arms swung less fast, and her legs became heavier but still blocked. She still injured and forced Heian Ciemnosc to back away, but not without forming another claw mark on her body and leveling down the skin of her crystal, metal-like body.

“...” Landa felt her sight nearly falter. Heian Ciemnosc watched as her violet eyes flickered, becoming dull and dark blue for a few moments until they resumed their brightness. Then, slid around her box and opened a gap for her to escape, revealing the failed blockade and a semi-peaceful zone around it.

PEEEEEW!... PO PO- POW- PEEEEEEEEEEEWW~~!!

“?!” Heian Ciemnosc frowned and jolted his head backwards when he saw Landa stop and directly lift her left-handed gladius, aiming her tip at him. Then, the gladius swept forth from her hand like a loose arrow, flying towards Heian Ciemnosc as violet lightning crackled and became more intense as it neared Heian Ciemnosc.

SWEEP! Fwish… baaaaaang… zappp…

Heian Ciemnosc retained his frown as he forcefully formed a circle with his intertwined fingers and sacrificed all layers of his forearms as he spun and forced the lightning-infused gladius to arch and fire into empty space at the side, saving his side some casualties or damage.

“!” But then, Heian Ciemnosc returned to look at Landa, who gently threw her right-handed gladius towards him, colored with pink and violet lightning danced around it despite being made of violet Lightning Energy. Heian Ciemnosc was already not taking this move of hers lightly, but when the sword drew closer, his darkest eyes widened, and he looked at Landa, who was watching this.

She scoffed lightly and turned around before flying towards the broken blockade’s Low Battleships. Seeing this, Heian Ciemnosc bitterly returned his darkest eyes to the incoming gladius’s tip and sighed. “Ai…”

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNGGGGG!!!!!

The gladius exploded 100 meters before him, giving him no time to repress it and deviate it elsewhere. Landa ignored all this and flew towards one of the Low Battleships, still ‘glued’ by the torpedoes’ solid clouds. The Existence’s spaceships had launched hundreds, after all. On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc’s body instantly smacked against the violet box’s side behind him, and the rest of his body was drowned in the defying explosion of Lightning Energy and Lightning element.

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“...” His darkest eyes slightly shrunk but remained calm as he gazed at the incoming plethora of different energy and lightning.

… Landa returned to her Low Battleship, and her emblem also glowed a little when she entered the spaceship’s central command. The young black monster’s spaceships moved around it and formed a blockade around it, but they didn’t attack and only observed the outside. They wouldn’t let anyone interfere in their fight, not even if Heian Ciemnosc was supposedly dead already.

As for whether the young black monster’s people believed he was a goner or not, they trusted him.

“Ahh… oof,” Landa exclaimed, stumbling across the central command and falling to the floor as she leaned to the left, holding her abdomen with her right hand. Her limbs were in a horrible shape. Her hands were more or less alright with some claw marks, but her forearms, upper arm sections, knees, and shins were too thin.

Heian Ciemnosc’s feral bouts were too much. She had already seen his prowess when facing tens of thousands of violet lightning figures and still rapidly approaching him, kilometer by kilometer, before. When she faced him directly, Landa understood how explicitly dangerous it was to face him. Her limbs didn’t last long before she felt her strength leaving her body.

If it wasn’t for her quick wits at forming those gladiuses and then using them to delay him, the last gladius carrying a third of her blood essence, would she still be here?

“Ah…” Landa struggled to get up, lifted her upper body, and looked at the chair in that isolated spot. Her eyes seemed to see an old, bearded figure sitting on it and telling a tiny Colgova many things about the battle the Low Battleship was part of. Her mind moved, but her crystalline lips silently moved, ‘Papa…’

Step… step, tap… putong.

“...” Landa dragged her body forwards, not ashamed to crawl and move her nearly shin-less legs like an injured puppy. Her arms were even more ruthless to herself as she moved them— akin to a spider, slowly yet heavily dragging her body to that commander’s seat… her commander’s seat.

As she sat atop it after struggling to lift her body, not because of its heaviness but because of her detrimental state, she silenced the welcoming systematical voice and opened her mouth to relieve a noiseless sigh. Landa faced the ceiling and reclined her seat backwards to lay on it nearly as flat as possible.

“I did it, see…? I just… can’t continue anymore,” Landa’s voice softly sounded. Her violet eyes continued to flash, and her violet lightning continued fluctuating like beautiful hair around her head. She smiled lightly, and her breathing heaved up a notch.

Crack. A purposeful noise echoed before Landa’s commander’s seat. Landa lowered her eyes to look at a half-skeleton Heian Ciemnosc with dark blood seeping out of his exposed heart and with only one of his lungs remaining. Most of his face remained. But on his jaw’s left, skin and bone were missing.

Step, step, step, step… tap, thud, tap, tap…

“...” Heian Ciemnosc silently walked forward. He lifted his bony hands, but his darkened fingers and dark claws still existed, unlike the rest of his palms. Where there weren’t only bones showing, nothing remained. Once he stood with his bony knees against the commander’s seat’s edge, he tapped around it to move his body to stand beside it.

Landa looked at him without emotion, but the moment of tenderness ended, and her eyes were solid steel before him. Heian Ciemnosc looked down at her as his face was 3 heads away from her chest and lifted his right elbow, missing a few critical pieces. Then, he calmly, quietly, and softly declared.

“You fought well. As someone like you, you became unique in this world full of history and unprecedented marvels. When the future names the Special Bodies, you can only be a special mention, and after today, many books about your past will be known… But there will be only one about your future.” Heian Ciemnosc finished speaking and looked directly at her as his dark claws aimed at her body.

“Like them… will you… torture and… kill me?” Landa spoke in an utterly weak, hollow voice. Looking up at Heian Ciemnosc, his face didn’t change, and she felt that no-longer-strange comfort from before return as her gaze turned pleasant.

“...” Heian Ciemnosc shook his head, letting her see his closed, pale eyelids for 2 seconds. She frowned and coughed inside her throat, jolting her body slightly upwards before hearing his words again. “You do not deserve it.”

“Let me send you off,” Heian Ciemnosc said, slowly penetrating her stomach and equally drawing it out of her body. She would still not die with just this, and a few pills would allow her to cultivate and recuperate. Then, he moved his right claw to her chest and added, “It was an honor fighting against you. Go rest.”

PHHSHK~!

“...” - “...” Heian Ciemnosc stabbed her heart, but he didn’t do it like with the other 2, and he also caused her no damage when he created that tiny dark object in her body between her Dantian and heart. They looked at each other, and her gaze turned warm before looking up, seemingly finding a whole new sight to behold, and she lightly smiled.

Tud~.

Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes didn’t leave hers until their violet faded, and her body thoroughly lay… resting on her commander’s seat. But before her eyes could go back to a dark blue, they became fully pitch black.

Heian Ciemnosc gently closed his eyes before drawing his right claw out of her body. Flashes passed past his pale eyelids for a few seconds with ‘pfwuh pfwuh’ sounds before it all became quiet and obscure in the central command.

Everything turned dark after the Low Battleship determined the commander had died and that no other survivors remained to grant this role. Heian Ciemnosc looked at the commander’s seat and respectfully kept silent before turning around and flying out of the Low Battleship. When he came out, an isolated zone of 8,000 kilometers was made, and the rest circled around it to continue the battle.

Veeeem~! A spaceship came for him, seemingly in a hurry. Heian Ciemnosc boarded it and saw Sakura and 3 of her wives inside. One was pretty injured but smiled and silently greeted him before the other 2 continued healing her. Sitting on the co-pilot’s seat, Heian Ciemnosc sighed out slightly.

“Thank you for letting me join another battle midway before,” Sakura looked at him and said, putting on a light, warm smile and clenching his left bony hand. Little flesh remained, but she held it as she closed the cabin and immediately attained maximum speed to depart.

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Heian Ciemnosc responded, lightly shaking his head as he felt Sakura’s warm emotions through his left hand. It hurt still, but now it felt nice.

Before, as Heian Ciemnosc chased Landa, Sakura had sent him a communication alert that one of her women was in danger. Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t answer but immediately gave her the green light call and allowed her out of the battlefield. Other than that, Elena semi-led his force with the other Battleship commanders.

“I’ll call it in,” Heian Ciemnosc notified Sakura as she nodded and looked back at the damaged Battleships they’d already scrapped but left all ammunition and hidden toys inside. Heian Ciemnosc grabbed his crimson-black medallion and lifted it to his pale red lips, feeling his consciousness slipping away…

“Targets, Sword Majestic Pavilion Core Members, Chosen Ernesto, and Chosen Schlank, eliminated. Target Sword Majestic Pavilion Core Member, Holy Daughter Landa… eliminated.” Heian Ciemnosc emitted his words before his head slowly rested on his seat, falling unconscious.

But before his senses went off and Sakura placed some pills in his mouth, he could hear several voices speak before finally losing it.

“Here commander Amidala… The enemy’s 3rd ring’s supreme commander has been annihilated! Targets are still alive, but only some! This war’s almost over!!” - “Pilot Mo Yun… key target Core Believer Santiago… destroyed-!! BOOOM- kggghhh-” - “Here’s 4th ring supreme commander, Core Disciple Pera. All targets have been killed, and the enemy's 4th ring supreme leader will soon follow. Key target across all the other younger generation, Holy Daughter, has been confirmed dead!”

. . .

2 hours later, inside Heian Ciemnosc’s Low Battleship. Within one of the top-notch VIP cultivation modules.

This module was enough for 10,000 to sit and cultivate, meditate, and even practice their Arts a little. For now, only Heian Ciemnosc was there. He sat cross-legged as even though his Spirit Sense shut the noise, his hearing sense still allowed him to listen to the war echoing outside.

It wasn’t like before, where the sounds were overlapped and nonstop. There were slight stops and constant ups and downs in the consistency of firepower from his side, while the enemy was barely audible.

Heian Ciemnosc’s body was still madly wounded, and bones showed everywhere. But, at this moment, something seemed stranger than anything else Heian Ciemnosc had gone through in his life. Electric currents came out of his body as if he were attacked by a Lightning elemental poison from within.

At the same time, after consuming some pills, the pure energy everywhere condensed towards him like moths to the flame, but a thousand times more intense. Heian Ciemnosc’s furrows knitted when a ‘WVOMP!!’ sounded, and Calisneia suddenly appeared behind him. She landed her right palm on his left shoulder and spoke in a cold tone gently, “Continue, I will watch over you. I’ve moved your spaceship to another corner of the Existence. Breakthrough.”

Heian Ciemnosc didn’t move or respond to her and eased up. The pure energy around him increased its intensity with fury. Pure energy surged into his body as more and more dark sparks emanated from it. Just as his mind clicked, and he felt something tremendous within his inner universe, Linked Dantian and Psychogenic, and his power sources, Heian Ciemnosc mentally thanked the world. ‘Thank you, miss Landa… This was just what I needed.’

PSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTT~~~~~~~~...

Heian Ciemnosc’s body started darkening as his inner pure, endless darkness swirled in euphoric delight. His body trembled, and before he knew it, it started cracking open as if it were the world itself using knives and utensils to separate his torn body apart. Everything was squished and pushed out of his skeleton, muscle, organs, dark blood, and even the pure energy trying to sip in uninvited.

Then, his bones had begun… being peeled off, but the more they lost volume, they became dark…

Before long, Heian Ciemnosc’s dark bones became slightly —just slightly so— and floated in the open as if they were pulled from above or pushed up from below.

“!!!” Calisneia’s pale white, golden eyes’ contents indefinitely shrunk. At this moment, Heian Ciemnosc’s flesh, overly pale skin, muscles, organs, and a mighty bodily strength source started simply forming from… nothing! From nothing between all his bones!!

…