Legend of the Empyrean Blacksmith

REIGN OF CHAOS (II)

Hannah sat casually on the edge of a small cliff, eating an apple, while gazing off toward the distance where Lino had begun his slaughter . She had a rather infatuated expression on her face, while the two lying in pools of blood behind her were the exact opposites; terror ran through their spines, and they couldn’t even ascertain who they feared more -- the Empyrean over there obliterating everyone and everything, or the Elysian in front of them, both of whom should have ’cruel’ tattooed on their foreheads .

"Good god, I’m so wet right now . . . " Hannah mumbled, sighing as she glanced back at the two lying behind her . "You two have been awfully quiet . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Eh? What’s with those ’are you an idiot?’ looks you’re giving me?" Hannah pouted . "I even went as far as to fix . . . well, what can be fixed . You know, you two should really be a little grateful . Even after refusing our offer, we still had enough hearts to forgive you . "

" . . . w-what about them?" Litha mumbled, pointing her shaking finger at the distance where Ritton just died .

"Them? Eh, they had it coming," Hannah shrugged . "It’s a war, after all . "

"--then why spare us?" Vyrove questioned . "It’s not as though we are worth much as a bargaining chip . And I very much doubt you’re doing it due to the kindness in your hearts . "

" . . . why is that so hard to believe?" Hannah replied after a short silence, glancing back at them once more, her smile slightly painful . "Just because he’s the Empyrean?"

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Whether you believe me or not, he’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met in my life," she continued, turning her eyes back on Lino . "If you give him your heart and your trust, he will give you the entire world . If you ask him for help, he’ll help you -- though he might decorate it with a slew of insults . What you’re seeing right now is what he has to be . . . not what he wants to be . Ah, but don’t worry . You’ll be spending a lot of time with us for the foreseeable future, so you’ll come to realize it yourselves . Truthfully . . . " Hannah chuckled faintly, taking another bite of the apple . "If he never revealed himself and merely continued to live as another cultivator, he’d have won the whole world over by the time it realized who he was . Don’t be surprised when one day you wake up and realize you’d rather stand by his side than have all the riches the world has to offer . "

Litha and Vyrove remained silent, entirely distrusting of Hannah’s claim; yet, even they couldn’t help but admit that by just watching him from the distance . . . it felt different than they imagined . Certainly there was terror and fear he inspired, the sort that one simply can’t shake; but . . . there was also something more, something purer . Though unwilling to admit it just yet, both had realized why people gathered around him . They, too, felt it -- that just by standing behind him . . . they were shielded, protected from the rest of the world .

The Qi above Lino surged like a tidal wave as over a hundred souls bonded together in externalizing it in mass . Dropping Yennefer’s head, he turned to face them, gripping the [Dragon Slayer] tightly . Enrobed in shadows, he displaced the reality around him and heaved up into the sky where he was suddenly met by a massive flash of light dropping on top of his head; spherical in shape, it was reminiscent of sun .

He cleaved up in a quick fashion, unfurling his wings in the process; the sphere split across the middle in two halves, with him emerging through the opening and fluttering the wings as he cruised above them for a moment before dropping down .

The middle-aged man met him directly, supported by five more people -- two men and three women -- as they danced into a strange-looking formation . The rest retreated slightly while unleashing a barrage of attacks on him . From up and below, from all ends and sights, all Lino saw were attacks directed at him; arrays of light, balls of flame, pillars of void . . . however, rather than retreating, he stepped directly both in the six’s formation as well as the onslaught of the attacks .

Meeting them head-on, he spun forward, withdrawing the wings, and slicing away with the [Dragon Slayer] . He didn’t have much time left on his buffs, but he wasn’t all too worried; after all, everything he was doing at the moment were just mere theatrics . The eighteen blades were yet to position themselves properly . Until then, he just had to survive -- something he knew he wouldn’t have any trouble with .

Angry roars, one after another, exploded toward him, accompanied by the booming sounds of explosions . His body was like a target practice dummy, accepting everything it was thrown at it; yet, seemingly regardless of how much he was hit, he didn’t even flinch . Working through the sky-wide net of attacks, he was slowly approaching the middle-aged man who was currently holding two floating orbs of light in the palms of his hands .

"<Mother’s Blessing>!!" he cried out, crashing the two orbs together . "<Heavenly Domain>!!"

Lino suddenly felt sluggish as the blending darkness disappeared, drowned out in the siege of pure light . Looking around, he realized that all figures had disappeared someplace; chuckling lightly, he merely externalized his Will slightly in concert with the Divine Sense to locate all of them -- one who happened to be just behind Lino . The latter glanced back and met a pair of green eyes who suddenly widened in horror as a hand grasped at the skull .

The sound of the crackling bones exploded out once more with a cry of anguish as brain matter flew up with blood and gore, absorbed by the ethereal shadow that Lino had become .

"<Heaven’s Judgment>!" numerous voices cried out at the same time . "<Hammer of Purification>!!"

Looking up, Lino saw a massive, simple-looking hammer manifest in the sky . Spanning tens of miles, it slowly began descending toward him, carrying with it a massive momentum of wind .

" . . . you still don’t understand," Lino said in a low tone, nocking the [Dragon Slayer] by his waist . "Just what it means to battle an Empyrean . " he bend forward slightly, seemingly tensing his muscles as the hammer descended .

Exploding in a singular burst of speed, he broke well past the speed of light as the massive hammer suddenly exploded into billions of pieces, shattering the Domain of Light in the process . One cry after another bellowed out into the sky as blood and gore mingled with the rain of rubble and ruin that showered the earth down below .

The middle-aged man, alongside several dozen others, suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood as they were shot out of the domain before it collapsed . Everyone glanced up and saw Lino in free fall as he aimed directly at them .

"All our predictions were wrong," the middle-aged man sighed lowly as he suddenly took out a strange-looking piece of dirty cloth . "Truly, you can’t gauge the Empyrean by his age, his level, his realm . . . his anything . They live on an entirely different plane . "

"That-- are you sure?" a woman standing next to him asked, frowning while looking at the piece of cloth .

"We cannot kill him," the man said, throwing the cloth up . "But . . . we can stun his progress . The Mother only needs a little bit longer; we cannot allow him to distract her and break her progress . "

"Very well . . . "

Lino, too, had noticed the cloth; inspecting it, he chuckled bitterly -- truly, if he didn’t have those eighteen blades that seemingly everyone had forgotten about, he would have been screwed . The piece of cloth was rather perverted, exactly akin to something he himself would craft -- if he even knew where he would even begin with .

[Time-tattered Shroud -- Unique Void Artifact]

Uses: 1/3

Special Effect [Ether of Time] -- binds itself to the targeted victim, forcibly preventing them from increasing their strength for a century; cannot be Dispelled, Evaded or Resisted

Note: ???

It was truly a . . . strange item . Hardly meant for harm, it was more of a crippling tool that ought to only ever be used due to pure hatred that cannot be fixed in any way, shape or form .

He suddenly came to a halt, freely accepting the cloth, even holding it in his hand and feeling its rugged texture . He didn’t know whether Ataxia would have been able to repel it, but it was unnecessary; today was his show, his battle, his message to the entire world . Taking his eyes off the cloth, he looked toward the middle-aged man who had a wide smirk plastered on his face .

"Even if this worked," Lino said . "It’s only a hundred years . It took me less than twenty to catch up to you . So . . . in hundred and ten, I would come back and wipe the entire concept of the Holy Grounds from the existence . "

"If it worked?" the man chuckled . "You are underestimating Artifacts, kid . Even with Ataxia’s help, you should only slightly lower the amount of years . By the time you are free of the curse, the world will have moved on without you . "

" . . . you still don’t understand," Lino said, his eyes angling into the smiling position, his voice carrying a slight playfulness . "Or, at least, you do your damn best to forget what it means to fight the Empyrean . "

"Oh, please do tell what we do not understand . " the middle-aged man seemingly humored him .

"Time . . . space . . . life . . . death . . . Chaos reigns supreme over them all," Lino said, looking up at the sky . "You shouldn’t have come here . In your heart of hearts, you knew I wouldn’t spare anyone . Yet, you still came . It must be because you were confident in battling me . So, if I don’t teach the world a lesson, morons like you will keep swarming in, seeking to enrich their glory and name with a title of the Empyrean Slayer . I can’t be bothered to fight each time a swarm of flies comes knocking . "

" . . . "

"At least, if nothing else, you’ll finally understand," Lino said, chuckling . "What it means to fight the Empyrean . -- <Primordial Genesis -- Commence> . " as his voice vanished, so did the world -- everything, anything, everyone . . . became the bearers and the sacrifices to the Genesis .