I had only gotten a few hundred feet away when I received a massive backlash from Jabo being destroyed. Unfortunately, I had been in the air when it happened and the pain nearly made me blackout, so I fell. I shook off the damage, but not fast enough to prevent myself from crashing into a few trees on my way down, one of which nearly broke my left wing. I still managed to land on my feet, but it was clear that I needed to get back.
I placed Josephine on the ground and created a thick stone dome with an opening around her. My reason for saving her had been simple: Gabriel. He had done a lot of good in Eden working alongside Abby in the hospital and always had a joke when I would swing by, but I could see the sadness in his eyes every time. She may have been an evil, entitled princess to me, but she was still the person that Gabriel had loved for nearly a hundred years.
"Shit, that hurt," I grumbled, taking a moment to heal my wing.
"Why?" a voice croaked from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder at Josephine and sighed, "Because they are tools for ending the world and needed you all gone to pass the trial."
"No... why... save?" she said weakly.
"Gabriel still loves you and he is my friend, but I can't do more than this. Katye is fighting them mostly alone," I replied with a sigh then flapped my wings and leapt into the air before she could respond.
About the time that I made it into the sky, I felt an incredible burst of mana which came from Katye. A hundred or so feet above the palace courtyard, a giant, violet, transparent daisy of pure mana bloomed in the sky with Katye at the center. Petals began to drop towards a fiery dome, but each one carried a frightening amount of volatile mana which they discovered when they attacked the first one. I was forced to agree that if she had the time to prepare, there was a good chance that she really could beat me since I would not be able to shrug off those petals.
"Thanks for joining the fight," Katye yelled over the roar of the storm while still attacking when I neared.
"Sorry, it was Josephine," I explained, reaching to the storm with my mana.
Unlike her, I could not hover in one place so I aimed myself right at the Disciples. Right before I hit the dome, a bolt of crimson lightning struck my body, but it did not hurt. When I made contact with the fiery shield, I found that there was also one of Earth, Wind, and Water, but despite that, the crimson lightning that I had borrowed from the storm exploded with tremendous energy outwards which threw four of the six away, though the Lightning user was able to defend himself and the Yin user at a cost to himself.
No sooner than my feet and hands hit the ground did the Yin user complete her spell which held even more mana than Katye's spell. Black liquid began to rise from the ground, but it was not water rather it was blood; I could tell by the smell. The black liquid took on the shape of a giant ice spider from Nakara and was similar to the spells that we used to summon Ishu, Jabo, and Seluna, but this was two to three times stronger than them. It stood over fifteen feet tall, so its main body hung at eye-level while I was transformed and clacked its mandibles at me menacingly. At the points where its eight legs stabbed into the ground, the dirt and mud were being corroded by the Yin energy, so I knew that even touching the summoned creature would likely hurt.
Katye turned the target of her spell to the Yin summon which drew its attention away from me, but I was still surrounded by the Disciples who had also regained their footing while Artem was charging towards me with his axe raised. I roared, channeling my mana into the storm overhead, and it answered by raining down half a dozen bolts of lightning around me, forcing those around me to move back. With a flap of my wings, I launched myself at the Wind-wielding Disciple who was the closest.
"Cirocco!" Dmitriy shouted while he tried to wrestle the ground under us to attack me.
I kept my Domains retracted to five feet around me to ensure that I could lock down the area around me without expending too much mana for a larger area. Dmitriy might be able to control the ground outside of the area, but I was skilled enough to block his attempts to invade my Domain. Cirocco, as I guess his name was, also tried to manipulate the air around him, but I also had control of the Wind around us and my talent with the element was even stronger than his. Without any hesitation, I stabbed my talons into Cirocco's chest and crushed his heart with no remorse.
Dmitriy screamed with anger and shot multiple stone bullets at me, while the Water user also aimed a thin stream of high-pressured water at me, charged with electricity from the Lightning wielder. Retracting my wings as much as I could, I dodged the water attack and knocked away the stone bullets with my fists. Artem closed in the distance between us with surprising speed and his axe glowing red. I had not made a weapon for myself, since I doubted that anything I could create would be able to trade blows with his without using a lot of mana needlessly. Instead, my plan was to dodge his attacks and try to take him down with my talons, though he would not be as easy to handle as Cirocco had been.
He was fairly fast, but with my Lightning mana still channeled through my body, I was faster. He tried to deliver an overhead chop, but I managed to twist my body out of the course of the swing. When his axe hit the ground, a large chuck of dirt and rock exploded. I used that moment to stab a hand towards his heart and, while he dodged a direct hit, my talons easily sliced through his armor and cut a thick gash across his chest. He stumbled back, but before I could press my advantage, a high-pressure stream of water shot out over Artem's shoulder, aimed at my face.
I dodged the attack, but it was followed by a stone spear. The spear could not hurt me, but it managed to push me back a couple of steps. Following that, snakes of electricity came biting at me, courtesy of the Lightning user, which forced me to use my own to combat his attack. These attacks, one after another, kept me stalled long enough for Artem to recover and prepare an attack of his own.
He swung his axe horizontally, but despite dodging the blade, a crimson streak chased me. I was forced to teleport right before the energy band could hit me. I reappeared behind him, but also with my back to him. I spun on my heel and used my long tail like a heavy whip, swatting him to the side. Artem was thrown several feet away, yet before I could chase after him, I was struck by attacks of the other three. Electricity coursed through my body while stone bullets tore apart the membrane of my wings and water forced its way between my scales, stinging like hundreds of ants trying to bite through skin.
I let out a roar of pain and the storm above seemed to respond to me, despite not being connected to it at the moment. Half a dozen crimson bolts of lightning struck the ground around me and very close to my opponents, which injured all of them and gave me some breathing room. I took the chance to look over at Katye to see that she was having no easier time than I was.
The giant spider did not rely only on its physical body to attack and could spit out globs of blood and Yin energy, similar to how Seluna could fire Yin arrows. Katye had taken a hit from one of these attacks which had forced her to the ground as it had damaged her two wings on her left side, but with Lexi's memories and her speed, she was still deadly with her blades.
While transformed into her fairy Dusa form, her twin swords took on the look of scimitars that were no longer than her forearms. Aside from the Yin user and her monster, Katye was also facing the Fire user. Unlike me, she could not shrug off the blasts of fire despite the heavy rain weakening his attacks. She seemed reluctant to use her swords to block the attacks of the summoned monster, always dodging. The Yin and Fire users tried to stay away from her and pepper her with attacks, but she would occasionally teleport to one of their sides and counterattack.
We were at a stalemate against the Disciples. Although Katye and I were stronger, the teamwork of the Disciples could cover up for that weakness. We needed something to break it and we had it, waiting in the Shadows.
My sudden return had made them forget about Ishu and Seluna. Ishu emerged from the Shadow Realm behind the Water user and, although she and the Lightning user had reacted in time to dodge his initial attack, Seluna fired an arrow with chilling accuracy. The Lightning user's heart was pierced from behind and he dropped to his knees then fell face first into the mud. Before the Water user could cry for her companion, Ishu lashed out again with his daggers and delivered a number of shallow cuts to her using the same Shadow Limb spell that I had learned after defeating him.
A stone wall was raised out of the ground to block Ishu from any more attacks and Dmitriy shouted, "Tzila! We need to retreat!"
The Yin user looked our way and saw the two dead members of their group. She grabbed a dagger from her belt and slashed her palm. Whatever she was doing was bound to be bad for us, so I tried to rush her while Seluna fired several arrows, one after another.
Artem crashed into my side with his shoulder, knocking me off course. The Fire user created three walls of fire around the Yin user which blocked Seluna's arrows, but only barely. Ishu had not retreated into the Shadows, but instead of continuing his assault against the Water user, he rushed towards Dmitriy. He tried to stop him with earthen walls, but Ishu leapt overhead and slashed his daggers at him, grazing Dmitriy.
"This won't end how Cadogan wants. You must know that," I growled, knocking Artem's axe to the side while dodging the mana slice that went along with his attack.
"It will, once we kill you two," he snarled back.
"I count three dead... your numbers are dwindling," I taunted.
He yelled with anger, exciting the mana in his body, and he started swinging his axe wildly. Each swipe carried a thin band of crimson mana that extended only six inches from his blade, but they were coming far faster than any of his previous attacks. Even with Lightning mana infused in my body, I could barely keep up with his movements and my arms were quickly filling up with cuts.
Whatever it was that the Yin user was trying to do, she finished and threw out a globe of black blood. It flew straight into the summoned creature and merged with its body. Suddenly, the whole thing started to ripple and then it started to swell in size. The amount of mana now contained within the monster was more than Katye and I combined, but it was unstable and would only be able to last for a few minutes.
Although it was more powerful, I could not understand what she had hoped to achieve until I saw the creature lash out at Katye. She did not even have the time to brace herself for the attack and was thrown backwards over a dozen feet. The creature chased after her and was ready to stab a leg into her gut, but I was not about to let that happen, teleporting myself between her and the creature. I tried to catch the leg with my talons, but even using my Elemental Domination to 'freeze' the Yin energy only caused the blood that made up its body to crash onto me.
It was cold. It was draining. I could feel the Yin energy seeping into my body and, while I could control some of it with Elemental Domination, there was a lot more that I could not stop, and the creature was not done.
I managed to break the leg that had tried to stab Katye, but the creature still had seven more. The next leg came swinging at us sideways and I acted without thinking, harnessing the Chaos energy within me. Silvery clouds of mana tinted with crimson and violet poured out of my hands, creating a wall that was able to block the leg of the summoned creature entirely. Using that energy, I twisted it and pushed the creature back, keeping it at bay, but the Disciples took that time to flee.
"Seluna! Chase them!" Katye yelled, finally managing to get to her feet.
"You too, Ishu!" I added.
"Give me just a few seconds," Katye said to me, tracing out glyphs in the air.
I could only grunt in response. I was exhausted, physically, mentally, and spiritually, but I was not about to roll over and die here. The Chaos mana was attuned to my soul, far more than any element that I had learned to control, so I barely needed to do anything other than release it and focus on what I wanted to do.
With a wave of my hand, the clouds of Chaos lashed out at the monster and pushed it back. It swung a leg at me, but I ducked under it and reached out for it. Instead of grabbing it with my hand, the cloud condensed into a gaseous clawed hand and closed around the leg then shattered it. Although it was able to regenerate this limb, Katye had finished her spell.
Three violet diamonds of pure mana formed around her then shot out at the creature with a point of her finger. They held more power than the petals of her large spell and they hit the creature in perfect unison. The multiple explosions rocked the creature's body and then it erupted as the spell collapsed. I whipped the silver clouds over us to protect us from any of the corrupted blood touching us.
The moment I released my connection to the Chaos cloud and undid my Dusa form, I fell to my knees. My arms were bleeding as was my back. I let out a mouthful of blood and could tell that more was dripping from my eyes and nose. Katye knelt down beside me, still transformed, and I leaned into her, fighting the urge to pass out.
"We can't stop now... If they go to Skyring..." Katye started to say.
"I know," I sighed as I tried to pull myself up.
"Ge smak daun," Katye said, offering a hand. (Get knocked down.)
With a sigh, I took it and replied, "Gyon op nodotaim." (Get back up.)
Katye pulled me to my feet and helped me walk towards the Anomaly Stone. The storm raging overhead was not helping us anymore, but I had no energy to dispel it. We had to trudge through the wind, rain, and mud, and it was not a short walk back, but about halfway there, Seluna returned.
"They used an artifact to disappear through emerald fire," Seluna reported.
"Sounds like the Anomaly Stone... Why wouldn't they just use the anomaly?" I asked.
"Because, unless they are you, that thing feels like it will disintegrate you with the slightest touch. Now, the question is did they go to Skyring to recover quickly, or Bardo to fortify their position?" Katye retorted.
"It doesn't matter which... neither of us are ready for another fight against them. Skyring is 'our' only option, right now," I said weakly.
Katye sighed, "You're right."
A/N: Official caught up to where I was on Webnovel. There will be a chapter released tomorrow and I'll try to figure out the schedule in reference to this site then post it.
A/N: I would like to ask for those of you who are enjoying the story to leave a review on the story if you haven't already since we are getting near the end goal of 100 chapters!
A/N: If you would like to support me and get early access to the story, join my Pat reon - Azazii6181?fan_landing=true.
