Daimen watched as Solaris came at him, all fury and unrestraint. The man's flame imbued Warhammer roared in with the expectation to crush Daimen to a pulp. He would have said he was elated when he saw the shock on the man's face as he caught the hammer dead on with his palm; but truthfully, he didn't care.
A punch straight to the shocked man's face sent him spinning backward in a howl of wind, and Daimen had to deal with the more than a dozen Spirit lords who suddenly sprang up in his path.
He looked up, even though his senses had already gotten everything around him. Surrounding him were the forms of the Solarian Pillars, with the majority of them being newly ascended. While the ones unfamiliar with him looked at him with varying expressions of confidence, thinking him outnumbered and out of his depths, the old timers were more cautious.
Behind the Spirit lords were the looming shapes of the Command ships, all remaining four of them. They kept a comfortable distance from him. He let them delude themselves into thinking they were safe.
Despite the levels of confidence he saw within everyone arrayed against him, they all pointed every weapon available to them at him. That was a start.
The Solarian Emperor appeared once again, though this time he kept his distance. Daimen raised an eyebrow at the cautious look on the man's face.
"Who are you?"
Daimen cocked his head. "What makes you think I am not who you see?"
Another man drifted forward to float beside the Emperor. "Damien would never do this," he waved at the city below, with a large swath that had now been completely erased. "He would not murder innocent civilians just for a few misunderstandings he has with their leaders."
Daimen turned his attention to the man. "You know nothing of who Damien is."
"I know enough," the man said with great sadness, a sigh coming out. "I admit we might have had our differences, but I understood him enough to know that he would not do this. This... This thing that you are, this is not Damien."
Daimen turned back to Solaris who was still quiet, looking on with confusion.
"Do you have an opinion on this?"
The man's face cleared, his fury returning. "None of this matters. Damien or not, you will die."
Arrayed against him were the forms of fifteen Spirit lords. Daimen had taken to reducing their numbers recently, but what remained was enough to give anyone a pause, even him.
He identified three fire Wielders, two water wielders, two wind Wielders, two shadow, one light, one mist, one mind, one gravity, one life, and two Sunfire's... Interesting.
He vaguely identified one of the fire Wielders as an old timer, a man of gruff looking stature with a bronze armor attuned to the fire affinity. Daimen marked him. The other old timers was a light affinity sword lord of renown. Danor had hated his guts. He recognized the life wielder, a woman of indeterminable years, definitely the work of her affinity. She was clothed in a silky material similar to his —although in a far lesser grade— and held a staff topped with an emerald gem brimming with nature energy. This one, Daimen actually paid careful attention to.
One face did draw his eyes though. Daimen almost rolled his eyes as he effortlessly pierced into the invisible mist that was beginning to saturate the area. He scanned the woman— although not without her knowing—bypassing the attention ward enchantment that had been sewn into her robe. This time, he took satisfaction in the look on her face as all her shrouds were stripped naked. Daimen's rating of her went down significantly as he saw the dumbstruck look she still wore. A proper assassin would have found a way to make themselves scarce. Too bad.
The only other notable figures worth his attention were the Solarian Emperor and his son, Tenral. Samon was included.
Looking at those standing against him, Daimen knew that he wasn't going to win this fight as he was now. No, he needed an edge, something to equalize the playing field.
And for the first time since he came forth, Daimen smiled. "We shall see."
And then he dug deep within himself, into the deepest part of his soul, his existence, finding something that should have never been touched this early. And then he unleashed.
The world trembled as a phenomenon never seen before appeared. Up above him, two massive tears seemed to run through the sky, jagged wrenching tears that screeched in his ears and soul simultaneously. And then they parted to reveal a realm of gold white and ethereal yellow. The power of those places was so incomprehensible that the mere sight of them gave him a debilitating headache so bad he'd have died had he not sensed the danger and quickly averted his eyes. The only reason he wasn't taken advantage of as he recovered was because the others had also gone through the same experience, with some different results.
From those realms descended twin pillars of energy so powerful that their mere presence suppressed all other ambient essences in the areas. Except one.
Like a lost connection now reconnected, they slammed into Daimen's back, their widths —which were individually a thousand times wider than him—contracted until they formed into a pinpoint at the tip, piercing him like twin spears.
Daimen arched his back inward at the sheer power flowing into him. His aura soared massively as those pillars flowed into him, through his physical layer, past the Spiritual, and finally into the Soul layer, connecting into something he admittedly couldn't make sense of yet.
After what felt like minutes but actually seconds, the pressure from the pillars lessened as the sources themselves seemed to fade, melding into the ambient energy.
Despite their evident departure, Daimen could still feel their presence. He flexed his palms at the upgraded power raging within him. Raising his head brought him the view of a myriad of frightened expressions.
Instantly, they summoned their astral images, and Daimen was forced backward as he was buffeted with the roiling aura powers of fifteen image-powered lords.
----------------------------------------
The sky rumbled as a golden streak descended on the sea of abominable creatures with a might that shook the earth for miles around. Aelar rose back up as just another streak crashed down in the distance, wiping out another wave of defiled.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He looked towards his son, giving a sign of acknowledgment before he turned back toward the lady hovering behind him.
"What is it, Neriel?"
She gave a brief nod, which Aelar overlooked. They were in the middle of a war.
"As commanded, I found the cause of the anomaly," she said just as Yuseria swept past, her metallic wings spread wide and firing hundreds of dagger-shaped feathers down on the endless swarms of defiled. Her bow came up, a single arrow firing into the sky an instant later. The arrow blazed a smoothed curve over the sky, trailing a green glow as it passed through a dense blue cloud; and when it came out the other side, it was with a thousand more arrows. Their impact leveled the earth for about two miles.
"And...?" he said to Neriel.
"The brother of the calamity, Keilan, was attacked by three hand level assassins."
Aelar's eyebrow rose up. "For a single man, that's... Excessive." He met her eyes, seeing that she wasn't finished. "Continue."
"They weren't just any common hand, but the mad sisters." And now Aelar's surprise went up another notch. Even he would be hard-pressed to deal with those three. "I couldn't get close to them because of the grey eyed calamity. There was something about him that I couldn't place, so I took the precaution to stay away."
Aelar was intrigued, but he wanted to stay on topic. His curiosity was going to have to be sated later. " Get back on topic, What happened to the Stormshredder?"
Aelar's eyes narrowed as he saw Neriel take on an apprehensive look. "I don't understand exactly what happened, but I assume the sisters must have pushed him beyond the breaking point to cause the sort of destruction that I witnessed."
"What happened, Neriel?" Aelar said with irritation.
"He erased the ruined city of Kantac, my lord. He completely erased it... Turned everything to sand." Her eyes widened. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd see a destruction of that caliber caused by a single being..."
Aelar became thoughtful. He would be lying if he said he hadn't thought of approaching the brothers to serve him. Damien had been his first choice, but Keilan hadn't been dismissed either. Their little spat with the false Emperor had been what had drawn his attention. Two newly ascended Spirit lords, appearing out of nowhere with a brazen feat that drew more attention than was intended. The death of the Solarian Northern general had sparked a greater interest that went past the Greensend continent. The result of their first battle with Solaris had then almost persuaded him to approach them himself, forcefully if they refused to see reason. What had stayed his hand was the level of bad karma the Great families had accumulated from the civil war that saw them emancipated from the first Empire.
Their deeds during that war had sown a deep web of negative karma that still saw them paying the price to this day, thousands of years later. Their loss of power and the rise of Solaris was evidence of that.
The city of Kantac had been the previous center of the Greensend continent a century ago. It was a neutral city, a sort of location where all the powers could meet without fear of betrayal. A green zone. The rise of Solaris had seen the city destroyed in the battle of lords.
He ransacked his mind for knowledge of any technique that could cause the level of destruction Neriel described, but came out with nothing. The only beings that could cause a destruction so potent were the Spirit Kings, and he knew that the Stormshredder definitely wasn't one.
"I assume a power like that doesn't come without a price... What happened to him?"
Neriel shook her head. "I don't know... He's alive, but barely. Frankly, I don't think he will survive. However, the Nature priestess has seen to his healing."
"And the brother? What's his reaction to this?"
"I don't know. I kept back for about a mile or two, so I couldn't get a deeper look. But from where I stood, his expression was dead. I don't think he felt anything at all."
Aelar frowned. "Where is he now?"
"He didn't leave with the Stormshredder, so I assume he must have gone somewhere else. Solaria, maybe?"
Aelar had already turned his attention elsewhere. He raised his right hand to the sky, which then darkened and rumbled with thunder and flashes of golden lightning. His hand slowly squeezed into a fist as the power in the sky built up, increasing to the extent the atmosphere turned cold and electrifying... And then he brought it down.
For over ten miles, the earth was dislodged as a rain of lightning descended. Every defiled in the technique radius was reduced to ash and broken skeletons. He let the lightning continue on for a minute before he let go. And when he was done, he turned his attention to the crowd of lords gathered around him.
"Destructive much?" Yuseria raised an eyebrow.
"There's no longer time for this, we have to get to Xeris."
"What happened?" Halar stepped moved forward with his brother trailing behind, as usual.
"I don't have time to ex—" he was interrupted as a sensation pricked his mind, a sensation that made the hairs on his body rise.
"What was that?" Someone whispered.
Aelar didn't know, but he hoped to find out soon. "The rest of you, get back to work. Yuseria, Halar, I'd advise you, but I assume you're already prepared for what we might face?" He didn't get an answer, but their silence was enough.
----------------------------------------
Aelar appeared over an active battlefield brimming with untold power. The city of Xeris was a significantly lesser version of its former self. A huge portion of the city was just... Gone, eradicated like it had never existed. The only evidence of what had once been there was the mountain level ash that occupied the hole in the center of the city.
"Oh my..." Yuseria gasped. Even Halar, the mad king, as he was nicknamed for his love for battle, looked grim. It wasn't the destroyed city that has caused such expression, but the level by which it had been accomplished. No Spirit lord should have such potent destructive capabilities.
Space tore again and another person stepped out. He was a diminutive figure attired in a metallic armor that flowed around him in a liquid-like state. There were so many runes enchanted into the armor that Aelar found had to keep track of.
"Grimnar." He nodded in respect at the head of house of Bareken. "I thought you weren't going to take part in this war?"
The dwarf spat to the side. "This has gone past what I envisioned."
They all turned their attention on the battle raging in the distance. A battle of such intensity that Aelar had never in his life dreamt of. A single Spirit lord facing off against sixteen others and two command ships. To say he was facing of was an understatement, Damien Elason was dominating the battle.
The boy waved his hands, unraveling half a dozen techniques aimed at him. His spear came up in a devastating blow that blew off the upper half of a fire wielder, killing her instantly.
Aelar watched with intense eyes as the concept of space seemed to disappear, blocking passage to the light wielder that had been about to flash past.
The atmosphere flash crimson as Solaris descended with his flaming hammer, and with a force that would have seen Aelar forced to dodge, he struck. The world vibrated as Solaris's hammer struck something beyond the physical, an occurrence that wasn't meant to be possible.
"He's physically wielding concepts..." Halar commented with a calmness lacked by the rest of them.
Aelar grunted. The amount of impossibilities he had seen possible these last few seconds was about to see him questioning everything he had ever known.
He was forced to heighten his senses as Solaris came back for another hit, this one successful. The Elason boy's entire arm was blown clean off in a conflagration of gore, bones, and flame. Aelar was just about to retreat, thinking this battle lost, when two things happened in quick succession. He flinched backwards as a colorless ripple swept outwards. Horror then settled in as he realized that that thing hadn't touched him physically, or spiritually. It had bypassed all his innate and artificial protections to touch into his soul. If this had been an attack, he would have died.
Everyone staggering backwards in fear seemed to have granted the Elason boy the reprieve he needed, because with another shocking surprise, grey light flashed out, and with a speed only granted to a few, his destroyed arm grew back in a flash, constructed out of an essence that was certainly not destruction.
"That was life." Yuseria said with shock. "I don't know how he tainted the essence that made it out like that but I can swear on my life that that energy was life. Not nature, life."
Two great affinities... What is happening?
"If you all keep gawking here like fools, then fools you'll eventually be." Grimnar said into their minds. His famous staff appeared in his left hand in all its metallic glory. "This is an opportunity to permanently remove Solaris from this board. I won't waste it. When he's taken care of, we can turn out eyes to the Elason boy. I don't know about you, but I certainly do not want someone with that kind of power on the same planet as me."
Aelar nodded in agreement. Allies they might be, but that was only for the sake of Solaris. Once he was gone, they didn't need another upstart challenging them. The Fyre's would surely agree.