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The Exalt - Act 4: Fallen Heaven - Chapter 720: Thank You, Santen
🕑 Added 2024-05-30 21:42:47 +0000 UTCAs Ignyres dropped his revelation, Oscar had no time to ponder or continue the conversation. In the distorted world of the Prinstyct, Lelith's true body was catching up to her future images, almost overlapping as she stepped in, almost akin to teleportation. The light glanced off her scythe into thin lines, the blade's edge glinting a few inches from his chest. Oscar jumped, though not fast enough to avoid Lelith's strike. Helping him, Demon and Erden pulled him up, completing his full leap as the scythe struck the empty floor. Individually, he and the others could not avoid her speed, but together, by completing each other's actions, they found a way to dodge.
She flew in pursuit and swung, her scythe vanishing from sight, this time aiming for Erden. Erden pushed in one direction, and Oscar and Demon pulled, adding to the momentum. Her scythe shrieked in thin air, missing its mark once more. Darkness encased her in a shadowy prison, a tight box that held her in place. Avila's arrows gathered, appearing like a wondrous chandelier, the tips shining like crystals. Oscar spread several orbs of flames and platinum orbs of magnetic force. The opposing orbs spun and orbited each other until they collapsed and fused into one. A ten-fold overlap of Volcanic Orb and Magnetic Core through the Line birthed a mighty spell, one he sent flying into the Shadow Box.
Serit's Shadow Box allowed their attacks to phase through and hit Lelith without any obstacles. The Shadow Box could not hold the impact of their spells and disintegrated as an explosion swelled and engulfed half the hall with a thunderous boom. Lelith emerged from the ensuing explosion, soaring straight toward Avila and Avril, who remained in a coma on her back. Erden and Demon had been expecting it and stood by Avila's side. She showed no fear or doubt if she were even capable of such, raising her scythe and wings as cold malice seeped and shuddered the air.
Demon and Erden split and hurried out of her range, ducking and dodging the chains that followed. Dozens of quick slashes in succession sliced the air, diced the face of the statue into pebbles, and reached Avila, her figure crumbling apart into motes of light, a ruse. Her illusion worked well and tricked the Grade Nine for a good moment. Erden landed by Oscar, carrying Avila and Avril on his back. Oscar could sense the exhaustion hidden underneath the sapphire armor, the azure plating creaking and groaning from the suppressed breathing.
'How do we beat a monster like her?' Oscar pondered as Lelith zipped through the air as if the sky was her territory, turning sharp angles that would baffle any normal Exalt in flight. Stuck on the ground, Avila hid behind Oscar and Erden, aiming for Lelith, but her arrows streaked past, hitting nothing but air. Oscar hadn't known the highest peak of his generation until now, and Lelith certainly stood above even that. As she closed in, Oscar raised his shield, pouring Ein into his scarlet-platinum aegis. She landed on a spiderweb of dark threads, wide as bandages, easily cut down by her wings and scythe. However, the stickiness of the webs slowed her for a good second, granting them time to retreat.
The room quaked from her landing, the stomps of her feet caving in the floor. Lelith lowered her arm and sent forth a shower of needles longer than spears and thinner than the finest threads. Clenching his fist, Oscar punched out, expanding a Shattering Wave, shattering the needles into flakes of glinting metal. She gave him no time to think, starting her onslaught.
'Boy, listen.' Ignyres spoke in crackling flames.
'Hurry up!' Oscar dodged her sweeping path with the others, deflecting dozens of slicing scythes that left streaks and cuts along his shield.
'When I fell, my entire being was snuffed out; only my heart and soul remained,m smoldering and keeping the weak flame alive for untold millennia.' Ignyres started to retell a tale. Oscar cursed inwardly, not wanting a long, winding story. The jolt of her blows, all focused on one spot, shook Oscar to the ground, his arms shaking as the crack spread on his shield.
'Others had similar fates, with few remaining alive and whole. However, Metures is different. Parts of him were torn off, an essential part of his existence separated from the whole. That Buckethead is the most stubborn of all. I called it a shard, but really, it's more like an entire mine for you humans. Someone must have uncovered the shard and experimented on it. I suspect they put their blood into it.' Ignyres fumed, volcanos erupting on his shoulder. 'The persistent lingering Ein of Metures must have reacted and formed an embryo–her.'
'If that's true. Why can't Metures just stop her right now?' Oscar asked, enduring a flood of slashes.
'That's the problem. The blood bond might be too strong for him, in his weakened state, to take it back. Or the shard has been separated for so long it's imposing its own will. Or perhaps…' Ignyres paused. 'Perhaps he simply doesn't want to. I wouldn't put it past that bastard.'
'What now?' Oscar skidded backward, panting as his shoes had been burned off. Small pieces of precious metal chipped off his shield.
'Thanks to being born from the shard, she's tougher, stronger, and faster. I daresay she'd be the strongest Grade Nine in all of existence, except for Volten.' Ignyres declared. 'I don't know if even using the full power of my primordial flames will help.'
'Any good ideas?' Oscar gritted his teeth.
'Up to you. If you want to use my primordial flames, go for it. Pour every fiber of your being, every flicker of her roaring flames, all for the short time you have.' Ignyres almost sounded as if he was enjoying it.
While in his Guise, Oscar could handle the strain of the full might of primordial flames, but it severely limited his time limit. He assumed she could be killed by all of them together, but that was a naive thought. With that, it was settled, his idle thoughts and doubts thrown away. At the edges of the blue Eirin surrounding his body, rainbow flames sprouted and mingled. The intense heat forced his veins to push up, and his eyes gleamed with a deadly blue glare. Demon and Erden shared his primordial flame and became wreathed in the rainbow fire.
'I still can't see further ahead…' Oscar was disappointed his Prinstyct hadn't improved. He strode forward, his footsteps sunk deep in trails of lava. He sent forth a tide of flames. All of Lelith's chains, needles, and threads melted and dissipated away. Avila's arrows couldn't escape the range of his burning presence and burst apart. Against the full force of primordial flames, not even spells could maintain their form; all burned and melted as if it were their inevitable fate. The surfaces of the statues softened and bubbled, bursts of lava seeping out as if the arrogant Caerulumen lost their bearing before the might of an Ancient.
Erden took the initiative and rammed straight onto Lelith, bending her metallic wings, the sharp scythes unable to cut his rainbow-flaming antlers. Oscar rushed in while Erden pushed her toward him. She expanded her other wing and sought to carve him into pieces, her head snapping to Demon, who held her strike back with a rainbow-flaming sword. Oscar roared as he closed in, receiving a baptism of quick and numerous swings of her scythe.
'Shave it off.' Oscar sped up, deflecting one. He took in the Reis from her heavy first strike and spun with the flow, speeding to block the next, carrying on the flow. With all of her strikes dealt with, Oscar stomped into a stance, a pool of lava forming under his feet, and thrust a platinum lance wreathed in rainbow flames. The primordial flames were of a higher quality. The flame disdained to mix with his common metal spells, but it was fine wrapping around them. Pouring in all of his strength, Oscar concentrated an Eirin Omnireus, engulfing Lelith and everything behind her in a colorful inferno.
'Are you kidding me?' Oscar saw a metal orb crafted from many sharp scythes. The orb unfurled, revealed to be her wings and showed Lelith mostly unharmed except for the few scorch marks on her face. There, in the midst of the burning inferno of the greatest flames known to Talos, she waltzed with a scythe resting on her shoulder. Ignyres warned him that the primordial flames might not aid in his victory; they helped him fight better, but he was still a far cry from reaching her.
'Huh? Look….' Oscar, Demon, and Erden locked onto her neck where green liquid flowed from a deep wound. He didn't notice it before due to threads wrapping around it, but that should have been his first priority. Why else would she wrap anything in threads other than for torture? 'That didn't come any of our strikes. Who could have done it?' One face surfaced, a long, flat face with fish-like eyes and a shrub of green hair, Santen. Many questions raced across his mind: Did Santen fight her? Did he manage to injure her? But one sank his heart.
"Is Santen dead?" Oscar asked.
"Santen?" Lelith tapped her chin and looked up in contemplation. She snapped her fingers and said, "The strange man of long arms? He was indeed strange. He withstood so many of my attacks and managed to wound me." She rubbed her wound and flicked her wrist, spraying green blood that hissed and bubbled into smoke. "I crushed his brain and heart. A weird creature, he was."
"Ah, is that so?" Oscar exhaled flames and glared at Lelith. "I'll avenge his death."
'See that, boy? That is her weakness. She can't recover her wounds quickly. They linger on her rotten form like a curse. Your strange follower gave his life, but he provided an opening.' Ignyres said.
'Santen….' Oscar shed a tear, and the flames consumed it. He had ordered Santen to live on, but it ended horribly. Still, not a pang of regret struck him, nor did the loss burden his heavy heart. No, he felt grateful for all Santen had done, protecting Avril in the forest, leading the defenses, sharing a meal at the table, and striking a wound on this invincible woman. His Guise enflamed as if spurred by Santen's sacrifice. In the end, Santen had died well. Oscar smiled and took an offensive stance, vowing to finish this woman off.
