“—thea!” I heard a deep voice in my ear, but it carried an intermittent buzzing sound. “Althea!”
I quickly opened my eyes after clearly hearing Salrak’s voice. I was in complete darkness all around me; a result of all of the rubble that was piling on top of me. I tried to move my body, but I was pinned in every direction by rocks, and when I forced it, I felt a terrible burning sensation all over my body. It was so much so that it reminded me of Salrak’s Hellfires when I fought with him…
This was the result of that Holy Blast that fell on the building.
“Althea! Can you hear me?!” Salrak shouted once more, and I nodded my head.
“Ugh… Yes…” I said with a gruff voice. “How long was I out?”
“A few seconds. You have to move. Quickly. That Hero of the Holy Gods knows you’re still alive. There’s also emergency responses from all over the city, and they’ll be here soon. You can’t be found here when they arrive,” Salrak quickly said.
I took a deep breath from the dusty air around me, and once I gathered enough of my own power, I finally broke apart the mess of rocks that surrounded me, sending it all flying upwards and to the air.
Once it was cleared, I saw the destruction that was left behind. There was no roof anymore, no glass walls, no helicopter landing pad, and… nobody else alive. The people that I came here to meet were probably all dead if that blast managed to knock me out for a moment.
“The Icon of Darkness yet lives,” a woman’s voice said and I froze. “You must end it now, child.”
I urgently turned my eyes upwards, to the person clad in golden light that was floating in the sky. She was dressed in a combination of a military green uniform with a few metallic pieces of a knight’s armor that were used as boots, gauntlets and shoulder pieces. In her back, she carried a large blade, and in her hands a large rifle.
She was an elf, judging by her long pointy ears and delicate facial features. Her golden hair was arranged in a long braid that was swaying behind her, and her eyes were glowing with golden irises… coldly looking down at me.
Her aura, her powers, the way she was floating in the air, and the voice that I just heard… There was no doubt about it. This girl carried the voice of one of the Holy Gods. It was Altheras, I was certain of it. Just Her command—Her melodic command—it was the same that She had given me many times in the past when I faced my enemies, only that this time… She wasn’t whispering to me.
“I’m amazed that you managed to survive that,” the elven girl said, “It takes quite a bit of Holy Power to create such a spell… You should’ve just let me cleanse you with that. Now things might get a bit painful for you.”
Without waiting for my response, the woman pointed her rifle at me, and I quickly snapped out of my surprise when a beam of golden light was fired from it. I dashed to the side, allowing the beam to strike the place that I was standing on a moment ago, where it exploded with a wave of Holy Power, lifting rubble and sending dirt everywhere.
Her attack didn’t stop with that, as right after, another one followed, and I just kept dashing to the side, trying my best to avoid her beams, but eventually, I ran out of space and one of those shots landed in my path, causing me to fall backwards into another one of those beams.
“Aaaah!” I screamed.
It burned just like the time that the Holy Gods took my Holy Power away from me, and I couldn’t help but scream when it hit me, more from the memory of it happening than the pain of the actual attack.
“Get a hold of yourself,” Salrak calmly said with a buzzing, “You’ve faced far worse. Now’s not the time to crumble.”
I did as he said and focused my mind in the moment. He was right, I was in the middle of combat, and I might just die if I allowed myself to be drowned in my emotions. So with clenched teeth, I endured the burning sensation while keeping the memory of being betrayed to the back of my mind.
Darkness and Hellfire gathered around me, creating a strong shroud of darkness with flares of hellfire that burned around it. After a couple of seconds, I shook off the Holy Power burning me, and cleared my view to see the woman in the sky still aiming her weapon at me.
I retaliated with a Hellfire beam of my own as I pointed my open left palm at her. It crashed with her firing of Holy Shots, and I eventually overpowered hers, my beam going straight to her.
She was caught off guard, as her eyebrows raised and she quickly flew to the side, but I did as she did to me and turned my Hellfire Beam in the direction she dodged. The woman stopped holding the rifle with her left hand, keeping it to the side with the other, and quickly created a Holy Barrier, where my Hellfire Beam crashed and spread in every direction around her.
There was a moment of hesitation from her. She probably never expected anyone to actually counter her with Godly powers as well, so I launched myself from where I was standing while keeping my Hellfire Beam on her, and readied my sword to strike her once I was close.
And she indeed didn’t expect me to attack, as once I was just a couple of steps away from her, I stopped my Hellfire Beam and slashed at her Holy Barrier and surprised face. The barrier was able to withstand my blow, and her expression turned serious once more.
“That was… You’re really not normal… But you’re not strong enough to stand up to the powers of—”
I interrupted her by empowering my blade with as much of my own power as I could. The blade flared in dark and blood-red energies, and the Holy Barrier protecting her quickly cracked. Her eyes widened slightly, and instead of running away, she simply let go of the rifle and quickly reached for the blade strapped on her back.
Stolen novel; please report.
A second later, the barrier completely shattered and my sword fell on her, where it was stopped by her own blade. It was quite the strange blade, as it seemed more like a sable, where the tip of the blade was larger than the rest, and the handle didn’t have a crossguard separating it from the blade, making it look more like a large knife than an actual sword.
She answered to my power by doing the same with her blade, covering it with as much Holy Power as I had done to mine, but… when the powers of our blades touched each other, something that I had experienced many times before happened once more. The powers exploded, creating a wave of both Darkness and Holy Powers that spread in every direction.
And yet, despite being ready for it, my strength was already so lowered from fighting with Luo Jin and getting hit by that Holy Power preemptive strike, that I couldn't keep myself in the air from that explosion, causing me to crash again on the remains of the top floor of the building.
That burning sensation once more spread through my body, but I brushed it aside as I brought myself out of the rubble and looked back up to the woman that was floating in the air a long distance away from where we clashed. She wasn’t moving, and as I strained my eyes to see why that was, all I saw was her holding on to the blade with a frown and her eyes fixed on it.
“Child…” I heard Altheras voice once more, causing me to freeze once more, even if Her voice was slightly more distant this time, “This isn’t the time to be remembering the past… You must deal with evil.”
From hearing the Goddess’ voice, it was easy to know that she was dazed by something, similar to me… I couldn’t possibly know what that was, but thanks to Her words, I realized that it was a perfect opportunity to strike her. With my body empowered once more, I burst out to the sky and to her.
Unfortunately, the woman managed to snap out of it before I hit her as she turned her attention to me, where she readied the blade to slash back at me by raising it high up over her head. But right before our weapons met, she let go of the weapon, where it fell to her back as she ‘crouched’ in the air. She quickly jabbed at my side with a fist full of Holy Power, and I couldn’t help but be sent to the side.
It was far too fast for me in my weakened state to react to it, especially when I was expecting her to fight with the blade. Still, I recovered myself from the strike and returned a pulse of darkness to push her away. She covered herself with her Holy Power-covered arms, and then harshly cleared it away as she dashed to me.
She was relentless in her assault, and all of her combat movements reminded me of Reeta. She wasn’t a warrior from my world… She was trained in this one. The only thing I could use against her was my experience with Godly Powers. So I poured everything I had from my Darkness and Hellfire and mixed it with my mana.
A dark wall of earthen rock appeared in the air, stopping her in her tracks as she crashed with it; Hellfire burned from all around me, creating rings of fire that spun like the rings of a planet called Saturn; a dark cloud formed all around me with smoke that could choke anyone that took it in; while on the inside, red lightning streaked all over.
The elf girl stopped; be it from surprise, confusion, or just another moment of hesitation; it didn’t matter. I took that opening and burst through the black wall that I created, turning the rocks to molten rocks of Hellfire that were pointed at her.
She quickly reacted to brush away the Hellfire Rocks, and then covered herself in a bright aura of golden light, after which the red lightnings started hitting her. I followed it up by slashing my blade, trying to cover any space that the lightning didn’t hit, and while I was getting closer, the rings of fire around me dug into her own armored uniform.
The blade on her back was pulled back out once more, and she desperately tried to fight back against me, the lightning that was striking and burning pieces of her armor, the rocks that kept pelting her, and the fire that was slowly consuming her aura. It was just a matter of time before I got to her… But that same time was ticking for me, since such a strain of power was already taking me to my limit, causing me to heavily heave with each passing moment.
“Altheras! Lend me your strength!” she shouted, and I felt a concentration of Holy Power fall down on her.
It was pure and bright, but it gave me a burning sensation instead of the blissful one that I used to feel when it was handed to me. The girl closed her eyes and her expression turned calm despite everything that I was landing on her, and after a second, she fiercely glared at me with her eyes glowing completely golden.
Her body exploded in a powerful Holy Wave, destroying everything I created to attack her, and sending me crashing back once more to the rubbles of the building, where I was left watching with my heaving breath as the girl glowed more and more with golden light.
“This is all I can give you for now, child. End that evil thing,” I heard the Goddess voice once more, sounding just as it did whenever She talked to me, but it was as if…
My thoughts were cut short as the girl lifted her hand, and from the sky, Holy Power was gathered, illuminating the night sky like a bright sun. Golden particles started appearing once more on top of me, gathering just as they gathered before she came here. She was going to blast me again… but this time, I didn’t have enough power to stop her.
Still, that didn’t mean that I could give up, so with struggling movements, I stood back up to my feet, and braced myself for what was about to fall down on me. If I was lucky, I might survive this one, but I feared that this girl wasn’t going to let me go even if I did…
Just as I felt the power about to strike, the rubble from behind me suddenly exploded in a fiery torrent, sending it flying everywhere. I quickly turned to look at what happened, only to find Nicole and James flying this way.
“Althea!” she shouted, her hands at the front as a Fire Barrier formed on top of us.
James followed up after Nicole, creating a Holy Barrier of his own on top of Nicole’s as the two of them gathered to my sides with their hands raised up to the barrier.
“Oh fu—”
Was all that James could exclaim, as right after, the Holy Blast fell down upon us. James’ barrier resisted for only a moment, after which it shattered under the strike, but Nicole’s barrier somehow managed to withstand it for a while longer. That moment, however, wasn’t going to be enough, so I pushed myself just as they were and joined my power to theirs.
Nicole’s barrier gained a darker color, while the barrier that James was trying to build instead exploded outwards in a mess of Darkness and Holy Magic, going in opposition to the Holy Blast.
After a few seconds of struggling to keep it up, the Holy Blast finally ended, and the shields from both James and Nicole crumbled, leaving a mix of fiery, dark, and golden particles floating in the air, while the air itself felt like it was on fire.
A short distance away from us, floating in the same spot while surrounded by that golden light was the girl, fiercely glaring down on us. We might’ve survived her attack, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t going to be a follow up.
“Shit, that woman is strong,” James said, “Her control of Holy Magic seems way higher than any other knight I’ve met.”
I fell to my knees after James said, and I nearly fell face first to the ground from the exhaustion of my powers. But I was grabbed by Nicole. “Hey!”
“A traitorous Holy Knight and a foolish mage that doesn’t understand the dangers of the darkness… Surrender now, and turn back to the light, or be ready to have your souls damned,” the girl proclaimed while giving a cold look down to us.
“Hah! If you think I’m going to join with crazies like you, then you’re as stupid as Althea,” James replied, placing his spear on his shoulder. “Besides, I don’t care about your religion. I’d rather see how well your Holy Magic fares against mine.”
Nicole on the other hand looked up at the girl with a frown on her face. “I’m not going to leave Althea behind.”
The girl shook her head. “So be it…” She readied her stance once more, and both Nicole and James did the same. “I shall pray for your souls.”