The Golden Lightning… not a name I heard just recently. She was there too, causing trouble and delaying my plans as much as she could. I never concerned myself with her or the order’s champion, but they’ve surely grown more annoying with the passing years. Unlike the fake champion she seems to worry about the people she is supposed to protect, although she had no issues working for King for a long time, and even after all those years of loyal servitude she was almost sacrificed by her order… it almost makes me laugh.
Now, the order’s champion… quite the character. Aggressive, and extremely arrogant. Nothing I haven’t seen before, but at least he’s got the skill to back up his attitude. He encountered Lionheart and Lucy recently, but allowed them to escape… should I be surprised? Doesn’t matter, he will help me rid of the greatest threat to my existence, and very soon...
Ninigi, or the champion himself… Unlike the other, he’s got not a single aggressive bone in his body. Very childish and naïve for someone like him, though he is someone you would hate meeting on the other end of a battlefield. Thankfully, I had someone capable of standing even against Gladea’s chosen… let’s see how this plays out.
Last but not least… Lionheart. Her progress was quite impressive, though she still needed a little… push, to get all of this in motion. I was shocked to say the least, but then, it was also my idea… and my own influence that made this possible. It was quite the cheeky idea I’ll admit… not something I see myself coming up with, yet… that’s exactly why I did.
Southern Region of the Deadlands: 936, December 31st, Monday, 3:00 AM.
Tearing the skies with a trail of golden lightning, Atalanta bravely met the gigantic beast of steel that threatened the lives of those trapped in the region. Its thick and sturdy carcass protected the dangerous core that rested within it, eager to demonstrate its destructive power to those forced to witness it.
“This shouldn’t be too difficult,” Atalanta whispered as she neared her target.
With mastery over her own speed and abilities as a knight, she managed to reach Lerna in the blink of an eye, and land safely on top of its Cobalt painted steel surface. The blonde knight gently knocked on it with her knuckles, unsure on how to diffuse such a massive weapon safely. Despite her doubts however, Atalanta raised her glaive in the air with every intent on splitting the Lerna open to reach its core, feeling the gears in her head spin aggressively as she questioned her decision.
Her attempts to stop the destructive power of the rocket would not go without resistance however, as an unexpected foe suddenly lunged at her with ravenous ferocity. Its intimidating roars silenced even the rumbling noises of Lerna, forcing The Golden Lightning’s attention to move towards it instead.
“…!” her eyes widened, caught off guard by the gargantuan dragon that emerged from within the crimson fog of the Deadlands.
The blonde knight was quick to respond to the ambush, propelling herself upward while arching her back into a backflip—successfully avoiding the specter’s attack. Her opponent quickly flew passed from under her with a violent bite, smacking its hundreds of serrated teeth together as they have failed to catch their pray.
Luckily for Atalanta, the dragon did not collide with Lerna during its assault, allowing her to focus on the battle without worry. She quickly propelled herself towards the black dragon with a series of powerful kicks—like a jellyfish trying to ascend from under the ocean, causing earsplitting thunders to roar all over the crimson skies of the Deadlands. Her lightning trails followed the flying beast closely, and eventually struck it down with a powerful bolt created by the steel of her glaive.
Atalanta plunged her blade straight into the demon’s back, forcing a painful cry from it as her weight and critical strike forced it to plummet back towards the ground. Though to the knight’s shocking surprise, the battle was far from over still, as the dragon recovered surprisingly quickly from her attack and soared back into the air with a strong swing of its gigantic wings.
“Ngh…” The Golden Lightning clung to its back with one hand, keeping a tight grip on the pole of her weapon as the fast demon rose higher into the crimson sky. “You are wasting my time!”
The beast shook its body around in an attempt to rid of the woman stuck to its back, proceeding to twirl rapidly like a spinning top. The specter’s extremely fast movements began to gather sparks of crimson electricity around its body, crackling and hissing as they crawled their way into the dragon’s glowing chest.
Once every ounce of energy that its body could carry had been gathered, the demon curled itself into a shaking ball of pure crimson energy, trembling by the sheer amount of power inside it.
“Is this…” Atalanta said under breath, immediately pulling back from the creature by ripping her glaive out of its body—allowing gravity to take her back down.
Bursting with power however, her foe was quickly to release all the energy it had gathered in a single ignition. The dragon stretched its wings and back legs with a fearsome roar, causing a violent eruption of power that took form in sparks of crimson lightning. The electric trails created by the beast honed themselves on the falling gladean knight, shaking aggressively in their pursuit of the blonde woman.
Atalanta lowered her brows and narrowed her eyes with an angry frown, watching as the dragon’s own energy chased after her from above. The pride that her title alone brought to the knight was enough to infuriate her mind at the sight of the beast’s attack, feeling the necessity to match its power with her own defining abilities—and demonstrate who the master of lightning truly was.
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“Foolish!” she said while swatting away the specter’s crimson lightning trails in a single strike.
Atalanta clasped the pole of her weapon with determined eyes, proceeding to create golden sparks of divine lightning within her artery network—forcing their overwhelming power to surface through every pore of her skin. Bringing her knees close to her chest in midair, she quickly stretched them back with a powerful kick to catapult herself upwards towards her demonic target—splitting the clouds with her strength alone.
The dragon swung its enormous wings forward in an attempt to throw itself back and avoid Atalanta’s attack, though before the force of its motion could aid its escape, the sharp steel of Atalanta’s glaive easily teared them apart from its body in a single attack. The beast roared in pain at the sudden lost of its limbs, a shrilling sound that was quickly silenced by The Golden Lightning as she met its startled crimson eyes with her glowing azures.
“Begone!” she roared, crossing her right arm over the left shoulder before slicing the demon’s head off with a swift and elegant swing of her glaive.
Her blade, enhanced by the powers she’d developed over the decades, tore through the sturdy armor of the demon with relative ease, separating it head from its body in an instant. The sparks of golden lightning created by her strike wasted no time in taking over the beast, crawling their way into its chest, and shattering its large core into tiny shards of glass—ending the battle, and the dragon’s life.
“Hmph!” scoffed the blonde knight, moving her eyes back towards the flying rocket that she’d left behind. “There better not be more…” she muttered with both frustration and worry.
However, to The Golden Lightning’s great fortune, no more specters decided to show their faces in order to interfere with her objective. She quickly reached Lerna for a second time by kicking her way through the sky, landing back on its Cobalt steel surface.
“I’ll stop you here…” she calmly talked to the rocket. “If it has some sort of trigger, then I should be able to defuse whatever is inside… worst case scenario, my powers might be able to contain its explosion inside a safe vacuum.” Atalanta nodded to herself with a little hum, determined to stop the Lerna. “Then—”
“A brilliant plan, Golden Lightning.” A strange voice suddenly reached her ears, yet its origin was unknown to the blonde knight.
“What the…” she looked around in search for the man that had just spoken to her, finding nothing around but the crimson clouds and fog of the Deadlands. His distorted voice had a shrilling tone that mocked her efforts, drawing a furious frown in her face. “Reveal yourself now!”
“No can do, knight. Though you might want to hurry… that thing looks dangerous.”
“Tch! Just another trick from the Deadlands…” The Golden Lightning claimed, bringing her attention back to the Lerna. “…!”
The pupils in her beautiful azure eyes constricted with horror at the sight of the monster she now rode across the hellish zone, lips half parted and breaths growing intensely by the second. Atalanta’s confident mind was quickly thrown into uncertainty by the familiar looks the Lerna now exhibited, as the outcome of her next decision had become unclear, yet the consequences remained just as damaging, if not more detrimental than ever.
She stared deeply into the black armored structure of the rocket, a stream of crimson energy flowing freely through its veins. The sudden intervention from the deceased dragon became clear as her eyes could not move away from the devastating weapon, transformed to become a simple tool for the god to rid of her once and for all, or eliminate those who dared venture too deep into his domain.
“What’s stopping you, Golden Lightning?” mocked the same distorted voice. “Go on, split its carcass in half.”
“Tsk…” Atalanta gritted her teeth with crinkled nose, unsure on how to proceed.
“You better hurry before it hits the ground. Well, who knows? You might be met by a… bigger… surprise than you were expecting before.”
“You…” The blonde knight’s fist shook with both anger and anxiety. “Ninigi thought you could be redeemed… if only I found you first… I would’ve sliced your head clean off the moment I saw you.” Her voice grew intensely, yet she managed to keep a moderate tone.
“Clock’s ticking, Golden Lightning…”
Ignoring the voice in her head, Atalanta tightened the grip in her weapon while aiming its blade directly at Lerna. She gulped down with a twitching brow, sensing the overwhelming power that emanated from within the demonic rocket, seeping through its fissures with uncontainable rage—a bomb just waiting to burst, and devastate everything within range. Although her hand trembled, the thought of those who could be affected by her hesitation was something she simply could not ignore.
“Ninigi…” she whispered with furrowed brows. “I guess I shouldn’t worry much about him, but… Gal, Maulik… mister Benneth and his people… how far will this go? What if reaches the walls, or even beyond… I must stop it… I must…”
Southern Region of the Deadlands: 936, December 31st, Monday, 3:00 AM.
On their way back towards the walls of Heildin, going against every order given to them by the head of Hydra, Benneth and his troops carried the wounded in their armored trucks and drove away to safety. Fear and disappear had mostly vanished from all the men and women wearing the cobalt uniform, as the thought of the gorgeous blonde knight they encountered was still fresh in their minds.
Their hearts palpitated with a mix of relief and anxiety, eager to leave the Deadlands and finally see the blue sky of the outside world. Many wondered how Cerberus could operate in such a hell for so long, though their occupied minds would quickly overflow with fear and uncertainty once again.
It started as a minor tremble that could not be felt by the soldiers in their vehicles, but its enormous energy quickly grew into a powerful earthquake that shook the region with a horrifying rumbling sound. Many trucks from Hydra crashed with one another as their drivers lost control of the wheel, forcing Benneth’s forces to put an abrupt halt to their retreat as the zone continued to shake aggressively.
The sudden shock kept the officers distracted for merely half a minute, unaware of how worse their situation had become. Their jaws dropped, their eyes widened and minds broke as the terrifying sounds of the distant eruption that reached their ears from afar. The crimson fog and dark atmosphere of the Deadlands prevented them from noticing the explosion, but the rumbling sounds and violent earthquake still caused their hearts to sink.
The Lerna was once again in everybody’s minds.
END OF CHAPTER