Julicious glanced at him for a second, then turned his head forward and continued towards Xenthiour's impact location. Although Julicious's look was brief, Zaren was frozen just like before, and as expected, his strength also began to wane.
"What's going on?" Zaren shouted, but there was no reply. After a moment, a voice echoed in his mind, and his expression changed. He stabbed his chest with his sword, and blood covered the blade, turning black with a red, unmixed pattern.
Zaren took a pitch-black vial and drank it, spreading some on his blade.
As expected, his body began to overflow with energy, his strength returned, and his anger started to turn his eyes blood red. He stood his ground, faced Julicious, and shouted his name. "Stop right there, Julicious!" Julicious stopped and turned his head to see who had called him, seeing Zaren covered in a thick, black energy substance.
Julicious grabbed a blade from a fallen Neothalyan soldier from a distance and prepared for battle.
"If you want to fight, make it quick. I have to kill Xenthiour," Julicious said, pointing the blade towards Zaren. "Okay, let's see whether you can survive this."
Zaren rushed towards Julicious, who waited for the attack. Clink – both blades deflected each other. Clink – Zaren quickly made another strike, which was swiftly deflected by Julicious. Clink, clink, clink – the area was soon filled with the same clinking sound.
"Now this is my turn," Julicious said in disappointment and began striking Zaren. Clink, clink. "I am not weak either," Zaren said, but soon realized something was wrong. Julicious simply muttered, "Okay," as he didn't want to waste his time talking to him at all.
Julicious easily began to overpower Zaren. Click, clink, swish – that was all anyone could hear in that area. Zaren was pushed back with each strike. "Let's end this," Julicious said and began charging his attack. Milky white, translucent energy started to gather around Julicious's blade.
Zaren moved five to ten meters back, turned, and saw he wasn't far from the crack he had created. "I will kill you this time, Julicious!" Zaren began to charge his attack, recalling an earlier thought: "Zaren, don't hold back. Kill Julicious now." The voice had echoed in his head when he was praying for Julicious's safety.
Zaren's blade grew to several kilometers in height. Zaren smiled and condensed it into a few meters long blade. The condensed energy caused explosions in the air around it. Zaren smiled and prepared to attack.
"I guess you need more time, but sorry, I can't do that." Zaren used his remaining energy to explode with strength and rushed towards Julicious in a fraction of a second.
Zaren struck Julicious, and a huge shockwave rushed outwards. In an instant, a large part of the ground was transformed into dust and eroded by the force of the wind that followed. Zaren's smile suddenly faded as he heard a voice that fueled his anger. "Pathetic. This won't work at all."
Julicious cleared the dust cloud in front of him with a wave of his hand and, with a single strike, cut Zaren diagonally from his lower waist to his shoulder. Zaren couldn't comprehend what had happened and was still speaking to Julicious, "No, no, this cannot have happened. I will recover and kill you. Wait, wait just a bit." But nothing happened, and Julicious didn't wait for anything to happen.
Zaren looked down at his severed body, which wasn't healing at all. He tried to reconnect his torso, but suddenly his vision began to blur. He started to cough up blood, and then his body turned motionless on the ground. The dust began to settle on his lifeless form, and Julicious simply moved forward.
* Meanwhile, this battle had already ended, but in another part of Acroniya, a battle had just begun.
In the east region of Acroniya,
Everyone was looking towards that bluish energy. No one spoke, but calmly watched that strange energy, which felt strangely refreshing.
As time flew by, neither side showed any sign of hostility and stood still on their ground.
"What's going on?" children began to ask their parents, guardians, and family members who remained with them. The rest remained silent, hoping someone would tell them what was happening, but nothing did. No one muttered a word and continued to look towards that strange energy with the same expressions as before.
The beasts' eyes were locked on that strange energy. After a few minutes of stillness, they made their move. The area roared with bestial voices as thousands of creatures began their deadly march towards the survivors. "Everyone move! We will hold them!" Carciyan said, clenching his fists.
"You are not alone, Carciyan," Tlenion said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Carciyan saw Tlenion and the remaining people ready to fight, their eyes filled with determination and a desire to survive, yet also with powerlessness. Some of them had second thoughts, some were shaking, and some were running towards others.
"We shall all die, so be it!" the serious and aged ones roared. Their voices were so powerful that people froze in mid-air. "I don't want to... please let me go... please, body, I want to run," some of them began to cry, but their bodies weren't ready to move even a step.
Carciyan and Tlenion exchanged a look and nodded. "CHARGE!" everyone began running towards the approaching beasts. The beasts were numerous and far more powerful than mere humans, but those running in the front were not afraid of death.
"Don't hesitate, don't turn back, don't look back. Charge to death, FORWARD!" Carciyan roared.
As they moved forward, suddenly a deafening sound exploded in the area. Each and every Yava Viskan stumbled back a few steps from the impact. Strong winds began to whip dust and debris into their eyes.
"What is going on?" "I can't see a thing!" "Fall back!" "No, we must move forward!" "Charge!" people began to shout in desperation but were unable to do anything.
The wind pressure was so strong that some of them were thrown several meters and crashed to the ground. The remaining were pushed back between a few to fifteen meters. Carciyan and Tlenion tried to move forward, but the wind pressure sent them flying.
"What's going on? I can't see a thing," Carciyan said, trying to see what was happening on the other side. "What is this?" Tlenion said, and then his voice stopped. "What happened, Tlenion? What's going on? Are you okay? Where are you?" Carciyan grew afraid and worried as time passed.
He crawled on his knees, "TLENION!" and shouted his name. Suddenly, a voice reached his ears through the strong wind gusts, and he tried to find the source. "I am fine but stuck for a moment, okay I think I got the hang of it." Soon, the voice fell silent once again. Carciyan tried to locate the source of that sound and began shouting, "Tlenion! Tlenion, is that really you?"
Carciyan tried to find his friend but found something else instead. "What is this?" He tried to pull his hand, which was holding an object, and found a rusted old relic. "What's this?" he thought for a second and then turned to find Tlenion. A bluish-violet spark appeared on the relic but quickly faded away.
"Tlenion!" A strong wind gust moved towards Carciyan. He barely dodged it and saw Tlenion standing there. He rushed towards Tlenion and hugged him. "I... I was so worried, what happened, what's going on?" Tlenion's eyes were glowing with a light bluish energy, the same glow they had both shared earlier, but it felt different this time.
"Control your emotion, Carciyan. Channel it into the weapon and make yourself ready to embrace death. CARCIYAN!" he shouted.
Tlenion rushed towards the horde of beasts, piercing the wind curtain. "Wait... wait... w..." Carciyan could only shout, but nothing happened. He slowly tried to stand on his legs but fell. "Pathetic, why are you so pathetic? You are the one who put him in danger, now WHY?" he roared.
His relic began to vibrate, and his eyes were covered in the same determination. "Even if I am going to die, I am happy to die on this side, TLENION, I am coming!"
His relic started to shake, and then everything turned silent. "Where am I? What's this pl..." "What was that?" Carciyan looked towards his hand holding that ancient relic. "What is this? Okay, now, now. Now we can fight."
Next time:
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"We are descendants of proud Yava Viskan. How can we let you die, little one?"
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