The army must have known it was coming though, because as the first spear made contact with the protective barrier, a second was already being formed in the air above the army of light.
Chapter Thirty -
Gigantic light spears endlessly began to soar through the air in a barrage against the black barrier.
Kiso and Yuni were at a loss for words.
The scale of fighting happening in the plane below was completely beyond anything they had ever seen before. Thousands of soldiers of light took turns constantly forming those transparent spear attacks one after another.
The men from the Apostles of Death however, seemed to be plotting something. After their first clash against the light spear, they ceased attacking entirely and allowed the defensive formation to do all the work. While they were allowing the defensive formation to protect them, they formed a small circle and joined hands.
If Kiso was close enough to hear them, he would be able to hear them chanting an elaborate incantation.
Spiritual pressure flowed to the center of those five men condensing continuously into one point. Several tens of minutes passed like this. The barrage of light spears finally seemed to slow down as the soldiers of light began to tire. After so many attacks though, how could the barrier remain unscathed?
The leaders of the soldiers of light seemed to notice the dimming barrier and another low pitched horn bellowed through the plane. The moment that horn sounded, the formation of energy in the air above the soldiers of light abruptly changed.
From a gigantic spear, the nature energy instead now formed into a gigantic transparent eagle. The eagle could truly be considered to have a frightening appearance. With golden eyes and feathers as large as trees, each time the eagle flapped its huge wings a massive gale would shower the land below.
The eagle suddenly rapidly flapped its wings, rising quickly into the air.
"Screeeeeeeeech!!!"
The eagle let out a deafening cry as it went into a nose dive towards the circle of men. The strange part was, despite the obvious power of the eagle those men didn't even flinch. They continued to condense their spiritual pressure until the last moment.
The eagle's speed rapidly rose until finally it made contact with the weakened barrier. Rather, the eagle's power was simply too great. It passed through the barrier as if it had never even been there, instantly shattering it.
With the final attack of the army of light homing in on them, the five Apostles of Death simultaneously looked upwards. With cold grins on their faces, the dark ball of death energy condensed between them also took on a beastly shape. A small, pitch black vulture-like shadow let out a screech before becoming a blur as it shot towards the eagle.
Kiso could clearly sense the massive amount of energy condensed into that pitch black vulture.
"So powerful..." He could only helplessly sigh to himself.
The moment the two beast natured spiritual attacks made contact, the resulted were obvious. The black vulture bore directly through the body of the eagle, causing it to let out a shriek before shattering into tens of thousands of tiny dots of light.
The black vulture admittedly had to use a large portion of its power to counter the eagle's attack, but it was still in a position to devastate the army of light.
Staring down at the scattering soldiers, who appeared to begin running for their lives, Kiso felt somewhat at a loss. He really had high hopes for this army of light. He hoped they could weaken the Apostles of Death a bit more before he took action.
Turning to Yuni, Kiso put on an extremely serious face, "Yuni, the defensive formation is destroyed and I imagine the Apostles of Death have used a large portion of their spiritual pressure creating that black vulture. Tell me, do you think we stand a chance? Even if one of those men is at the sixth stage?" Kiso's current goals called for him to take action, but he was unsure of himself. There had been too many close calls recently for his liking.
As Yuni's mouth opened to respond, a voice suddenly rang out in Kiso's mind, "Little human, go. If you cannot even handle those pathetic excuses for cultivators I will not recognize you as my master."
The voice was deep and profound and caused Kiso to nearly fall on his ass in shock.
Kiso frantically looked inwardly towards his core using his inner eye, only to see a pair of golden eyes staring right back at him. The scary part was, those eyes came directly from the center of his core, right in the middle of his spiritual pressure vortex.
"This... You are..." Kiso's mind instantly connected the voice to the spiritual beast passed to him from Koho.
"Correct. My name is Yuansing Eelwing, the spiritual beast residing in your core. I've been awake for several days now observing you, little human. Although you barely meet the mark, I will recognize you as my master if you manage to defeat those men down there.
That vile back vulture is an insult to all flying spiritual beasts. It is an existence born from evil and such a creation mustn't go unpunished.
Enough. Go quickly, deal with them now. You mustn't hesitate in these moments."
Yuni's hand waved back and forth in front of Kiso's eyes. He was so wrapped up in Yuansing's sudden appearance, he had completely lost himself.
"Umm... Kiso... What's the deal? Are we going or not? If we just sit here, there won't be any soldiers left to save.." Yuni had readily agreed they should go to help, only to be ignored by Kiso. By now, she was losing her patience as the screams of terror were continuously heard echoing from the plane below.
The black vulture made sweep after sweep through the ranks of the soldiers, killing or injuring several tens of them each time.
Snapping back into reality, Kiso's eyes flashed and his face grew determined. He took a deep breath, formulating a strategy in his mind as quickly as possible.
With a nod to himself, he gathered massive amounts of spiritual pressure into his fingers, preparing for several attacks.
"Yuni, I'm going ahead, I'll leave the vulture to you!" Kiso's body flickered, leaving Yuni's confused face behind.
Shaking her head, her lips curved upwards and she shot into the air, descending towards the air above the army of light.
The five Apostles of Death had broken the circle formation and were standing in a line, observing their black vulture wreaking havoc on the army of light. Satisfied smiles painted on their faces, the men towards the middle were even having a merry conversation.
"Elder brother, look! Another six died! It's my win this time, pay up!"
A crooked looking man grinned from ear to ear. He loved to take money from his elder brother. This was because his elder brother was one of the thirteen elders of the clan! Nobody else dared to offend him, yet he had his familial ties which allowed him to do what others dared not.
The elder brother frowned, opening his outstretched palm to drop a few silver coins into his younger brother's cupped hands.
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"If that seventh one had died immediately and not dodged so luckily, it would have been my win..." The elder brother couldn't help but grumble under his breath.
Just as the coins fell into the younger brother's cupped hands, the elder brother quickly jerked his head upwards.
Standing in the sky above was a young man with flowing dark hair, staring down at them.
From the sparking black lightning, coiling around the young man's body, the elder of the Apostles of Death's face became vicious. He had received the report from Hanzi, who had managed to soul transfer into a students body and escape to meet up with him. The young man who controlled black lightning had killed Hanzi's original body.
"Kiso!!!" The elder bellowed as a grimoire appeared in his hand and he ascended into the sky.
After ascending to Kiso's level, the elder of the Apostles of Death glared at Kiso, studying him intently. He had originally thought he would simply kill Kiso on sight after hearing Hanzi's report, but now faced with the young man he hesitated from curiosity.
"Kiso, my name is Zeil Zither, seventh elder of the Apostles of Death. Although you are destined to die here today, I'll tell you my name in exchange for one simple piece of information.
You shouldn't have any reason not to answer me.
Tell me, is that rotten prince Julian still alive?"
Kiso's arms were tensed as he prepared to deploy his strategy for dealing with Zeil. When he heard him actually ask about Julian, he couldn't help but chuckle replying, "Zeil Zither, since you are destined to die here today, I'll allow you an answer. Yes!"
The moment the final word left his mouth, Kiso's body flickered, disappearing.
Zeil was momentarily surprised by Kiso's "speed" but didn't panic. He quickly surrounded his body in a thick coat of his sixth stage spiritual pressure. From Hanzi's report, Kiso should only be at the fifth stage of spiritual pressure. Hanzi could only guess this based on the fact that Kiso had originally turned tail and ran away in their first encounter, then wiped the floor with him in the next. Although it was a guess, it was an accurate one.
Seeing the layer of death natured spiritual pressure surrounding Zeil, Kiso frowned.
He had shadow-stepped behind Zeil, hoping to end the fight with his trademark lightning strike. Yet, how could his fifth stage lightning break through a defensive layer of sixth stage spiritual pressure?
Gritting his teeth, Kiso threw hesitation into the wind.
"I can only try it!" Kiso was rather curious anyway.
Could his fifth stage spiritual pressure have any affect on Zeil's?
Bzzzzzzzzzt!!!
A streak of buzzing lightning flashed across the sky. It struck directly against the defensive spiritual pressure surrounding Zeil's head.
When the lightning diminished, Zeil's head remained. Clearly Kiso had failed to damage him.
"Not even a scratch..." Kiso's face slightly changed, becoming slightly apprehensive.
Zeil turned to face Kiso, his brows slightly furrowed. He rubbed the back of his head, then said, "Little brat.. That actually kind of hurt!"
Zeil's evil eyes flashed and the pages of his grimoire rapidly fluttered for a second before snapping to a certain one. His dark black hair flowing in sky's wind, he made a strange seal with his hands as he chanted a short incantation over and over.
From the seal on his hand, a deathly black aura began to emanate out of it. The moment the aura came out, Zeil opened his fingers wide and shouted, "DIE!!!"
A fierce veil of shadowy death energy rapidly spread out from Zeil's open palm, enveloping the entire space in front of Kiso.
Kiso had hesitated in such a situation before, it wouldn't happen again. Rather then attempting to forcefully counter the attack, he shadow-stepped back a few hundred meters. Having grown, Kiso knew his advantage was in his ability to teleport at any time.
From far away now, Kiso could see the dark black aura create a giant deathly looking skull. The air inside it rapidly aged any life trapped within. If Kiso had stood within that dark aura, he would have aged twenty years every second.
"Little human, use the same attack you used a moment ago, I'll lend you a hand." Yuansing's ancient grumbling voice rang in his head.
Kiso's lips curved upwards as he secretly thought to himself, "It seems this spiritual beast in me has good intentions after all.."
After the giant skull faded away, Zeil's figure could be seen flying towards Kiso. Although he was surprised at Kiso's quick decision to flee, he recovered quickly, preparing to attack again.
This time, he intended to use the same technique, but only after Kiso disappears. He had to gamble that Kiso would teleport and attack from behind again.
Staring at Zeil's approaching figure, Kiso could only smile, he was bringing himself to his own death.
Contrary to Zeil's guess, the moment he came within Kiso's range, a black flash of light replaced his vision.
Kiso didn't hesitate, immediately urging a bolt of lightning at Zeil's face. As the lightning left his fingertips, Kiso's face changed. This was because he could clearly sense a strand of spiritual pressure coming directly from the center of his core, flowing into his attack.
Looking closely, one would be able to see a thin blue line through the center of Kiso's black lightning.
Zeil was confident in his defensive spiritual pressure, so he figured he could simply fly over towards Kiso and provoke him to attack. Provoke he did, but Kiso's attack didn't stop at his defensive layer this time. A tiny point in the middle of Kiso's lightning directly shattered his defense, leaving his body vulnerable to Kiso's lightning.
Without the protection of his spiritual pressure, how could Zeil withstand the intense heat of Kiso's lightning?
Without even a scream of terror or pain, Zeil's body was completely charred black. He died just like that.
Kiso was slightly disappointed though, he expected Zeil to turn to ash and scatter in the wind like the rest of his victims had. The body of a sixth stage spiritual pressure cultivator was on an entirely different level though. The fact that Kiso was able to end his life in one attack would cause the rest of the cultivating world to be endlessly shocked.
"Not bad." Even Yuansing gave his nod of approval.
Kiso relished in his victory for a moment, then turned his gaze downwards, scanning the ground below.
Seeing their elder become a stiff black charred corpse and fall from the sky greatly startled the remaining four Apostles of Death. The exchanged knowing glances, then immediately made the decision to flee!
However, right as they willed their bodies to move, they found an invisible force holding them in place.
Fear painted all over their faces, they moved their eyes to look up at Kiso's slowly descending body.
To Be Continued!