Inside the castle of the city lord, the huge dome of white barrier covered at least half of the main hall. In the barrier, a dozen corpsmen started to back off towards the center of the formation. They left behind the fallen comrades or wounded at the edge of the periphery. No doubt there would be a chance of their remnants remaining from the shockwaves of the blows exchanged. Ubel had done the same, and he was one of the first to do. He was also much closer to the formation circle in the first place, so him being first didn’t bat into anyone’s eyes. Though their actions made Ubel feel ashamed. He didn’t know why, and him escaping at first then blaming the others for doing the same was, he was sure of it, hypocrisy. The shame and degradation did not go away, no matter what the told himself.

Perhaps the feeling directed itself at him, who knew?

And he felt no more excess energy to focus his thoughts on that matter. Instead, he looked over at the city lord with his fancy armor, battling a duo of forsakens with ferocity. Their moves were way too fast for him to react, at the time that he could see of course. Some strikes hit to the ground, or to pillars, or to the ceiling without him even taking note of them. If he was honest with himself, Ubel found it horrifying. The degrees of strength immortals and forsakens could reach frightened him from deep inside his heart. The potential of destruction and death it could, and had, bring wasn’t something Ubel felt willing to acknowledge. How was this possible anyway? How could some random creatures absorb the world’s power and make it their own? To such a degree at that! Well, he had some answers on the first and third questions, but the second one was still a mystery he had to solve.

And another mystery was the existence of forsakens. Their looks were exactly like immortals- except the woman with four silver wings that were flapping in the air. Their speech, their mimics, even the small gestures and reactions they gave when suppressed or alerted were identical. They didn’t seem to act on instinct like animals. They were like immortals- like humans in every aspect. Then why were they called forsakens? He remembered some words from the Love Of Baybur, the same ones he heard from Quan before: To ignore the past...and forsake the future...only people as cruel as forsakens could do that. Did it mean they were cruel? It seemed so, the viciousness of their attacks and the ecstasy on the duo’s face showed no other than joy in fighting.

But, was it all that? Was all that came down as a forsaken was being cruel? Ubel didn’t know. His train of thoughts ended there. Lack of knowledge put him in another dead end, a thing he hated whenever it happened. And not having anything else to focus his attention to, the battle of the city lord and the forsaken duo came in his vision again. He felt uneasy looking at them, at their faces, at the after-effects of their destruction.

For the only collapsing thing wasn’t the castle, but the wills of the people inside it.

*********

Sid jumped over the spear of the forsaken and let the tip scratch the surface of his armor. Then focusing his Qi inside his knuckles, he slammed his fist down to the back of the man. With a bang, the backbone of the forsaken broke into countless pieces, together with his numerous muscles around it. ‘’Fu** off!’’ The forsaken screamed, and his injury healed in an instant. He stabbed his spear towards the Sid above his head. But he only managed to propel the man upwards, letting him reach the angel who started to flap her wings to escape. Sid smirked and bolstered his speed with Qi, then let it blast under his right feet to fly over to the angel forsaken again. Tightening his muscles on his arm, Sid dawned on the forsaken angel and punched with all his might.

Angel forsaken let out a shout of defiance and flapped her wings in a strange way, her energy gathered at the tip of her feathers. Then with a flap, she escaped from the way of the fist and descended to the ground. Sid’s punch, instead of her, pierced through the walls of the castle and cracked a large chunk of it into rubble. He then felt a presence coming over him again.

‘’Wrong move-’’ He said and took out his hand out of the walls, together with it a single, several meters large boulder. Without stop, he hurled it towards the leaping forsaken.

‘’Damn it!’’ Forsaken cursed and the boulder fell on top of him, then he crashed to the ground with it. Angel forsaken also looked over with worry, but with a small smile on her face. She hadn’t realized that- nor did Sid or the other forsaken, who all bore similar expressions.

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Instead, she let go of the spear in her hands and took out two different chains with hooks at their tip. They were bright like steel, and as deadly as a sledgehammer. She let out a shout and flapped her wings.

Sid did not respond to her. He leaped down to the ground and slammed both of his fists onto the boulder the forsaken struggled to get out. His strike fell on the stone and turned both it and the surrounding ground into dust. Forsaken grumbled, his head and chest both pastes of meat, and reached out with his hand.

Sid raised his arms again and sent another punch.

Yet, the angel forsaken came at the right time. Her chains slithered like a snake and covered his raised arm, then an amazing pulling force raised Sid to the air and flung him around.

His head hit the walls and the ceiling and cracked wherever it touched. The angel forsaken continued to revolve around together with him and continued to smash him to the walls. Fissures appeared and splinters flew, but the barrier deflected them all.

Then the other forsaken, now healed, stood up from his place and made a grasping motion towards his spear not far from him. The spear, like a child who saw his/her father, flew into his hand with joy.

But forsaken did not care about that. He raised his arm holding the spear, aimed towards the Sid scraping the walls with his head, and with a ‘’Ho!’’ flung it towards his chest.

Sid felt the danger at that time and grasped the chains with his free left arm. He then headbutted the walls. The force propelled him back and the spear missed. Not letting go of the advantage, his grasp on the chains tightened and he pulled back the angel forsaken.

The force proved much larger than she expected as she reached next to Sid’s feet, and received a strong fist to her belly. But her wings acted again. She used her incredible flexibility and reaction speed as an angel pretty well.

Her wings flapped and she slid right between Sid’s legs, still planted on the walls, and chained his left leg. She tugged both of them at the same time and the balance of the Sid got broken.

Then without stopping her hands acted, and she flung the Sid, now like a boar on a campfire, to the ceiling. His body crashed with a boom like a missile and both the windows and the chandeliers turned into pieces of wood and glass. They dripped like water, and angel forsaken threw one of her chains towards the other forsaken.

The forsaken received both his spear and the hooked end of the chain together. He looked at his junior, then understood what to do.

They both started to rush to opposite sites from each other. Sid, feeling anxious, tried to shake off the chains but to no avail. The material was way too strong, and the constant tugging stretched his other limbs, making it impossible to reach them to crush with brute force.

Then the duo of forsakens reached to the far ends of the castle and placed the hooks. Angel forsaken put her hook on the ceiling, her senior put the other at the far ground to make it stable.

Then they both turned to face the Sid, hung like a beast waiting for its death in the hands of the butcher.

They both smiled, then rushed over to him at the same time.

*********

Yuan Shu opened his mouth, and a mouthful of blood escaped. He had been fighting for over an hour now and, in no time in the past, had he ever fought for this long.

Wasn’t battles among immortals supposed to last short?

It had to, but he said it. This battle wasn’t between two immortals. It was a fight with an immortal and a forsaken. And forsakens were the most troublesome when it came to a fight of attrition.

He tried to evade another strike, but his leg failed him. His knees sunk a bit as he stepped on a dent on the walls and his balance broke. The spear brushed past his stomach and tore open a large gash. Blood rained over both the spear and on to the wall.

‘’This became boring-’’ The forsaken said as he retracted his spear. The right half of his face had no skin or muscle, only the skeleton and the brain visible behind it. He stopped regenerating at some point, but Yuan Shu couldn’t remember when. All that was inside his mind was to get out of here alive. But he had to kill this guy before. And even if he killed this guy, his comrades wouldn’t let him off. But he couldn’t escape without killing this guy- but, but, but, but...he was looking for some excuses right now.

Getting out of here without using the vial was impossible. He realized that, he knew that. But he was reluctant to use it. It wasn’t his power, after all, and it would take his power away. He lost his cultivation two or three times by now and losing it again wasn’t something he would consider without assessing the value of both sides.

And his life was definitely worth more than a few years wasted on cultivating again. He reached out towards his belt, towards the spatial pouch, and grasped it.

‘’-seniors, how should I kill him?’’ Forsaken continued at that time and turned to look at his comrades.

Yuan Shu made up his mind at that time.

‘’Why don’t you make him eat some stone?’’ One commented.

‘’Yeah, that would be fun to watch!’’ Other agreed.

Then Yuan Shu opened his spatial pouch as the forsaken turned to face him again.

‘’Alright then! Here I go!’’