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AGE OF EMPYREAN (VII)

Just as Lino had stepped inside the massive formation, Ella had swiftly turned into a flash of light and vanished toward the edge of the Do’r city . Though she appeared to be rushing, her expression was extremely calm and confident . Even she, after all, couldn’t see the depths of Lino’s strength, and even if he was unable to achieve victory in the end, she doubted they could do much to him to impede him in the long run .

Though in no rush, she still appeared outside the city within less than a minute, coming to a halt immediately . Just as Lino had predicted, they indeed did send out a powerful figure to welcome her -- what startled her, however, was who they sent . She imagined it would be one of the so-called ’Old Monsters’, a generational lingo used to describe people that are at the very least older than the current era, but even in her wildest dreams she wouldn’t have thought they’d send Hound of the East, the oldest Body Cultivator currently alive, the founder of the top-standing Holy Ground, Heaven’s Chosen, and the sole Origin Titular of Body Cultivators, titled rather simply -- Devil Slayer, Y’nn .

Legend has it that, before ascending the steps of cultivation, he’d been an ordinary, human youth whose village was one day invaded by the Hell’s Army, killing everyone and destroying everything . He was saved by a wandering Cultivator and eventually led over a thousand expeditions into Hell, killing hundreds of millions of Demons and Devils . Though Ella couldn’t confirm how much of it was true, his reputation wasn’t empty . She quickly frowned, realizing that Lino truly was right -- that something was terribly wrong . This wasn’t merely putting up a facade -- they truly didn’t want her to break in .

" . . . greetings, Sword Maiden . Or did you change your Title?" the man was tall and wide, and though slightly dwarfed by Eggor when it came to muscles, it was clearly intentional . He wore only shorts and nothing else, a massive spear strapped to his back, as large as he was . He had starkly dark eyes and bushy, silver beard, his hair cut in a ring above his ears, leaving only the top growth tied into a small ponytail at the back .

" . . . why would I change it?" Ella replied with a faint smile . "I’ve earned it . "

"I suppose some feel shame more than others . " the old man commented quaintly, pecking at Ella’s demons .

"I’d rather not hear a Gaia’s slave preach to me of shame," she said, her voice even and calm like his . "Seems quite . . . odd, does it not?"

"I am merely another one of her Children," the man said, seemingly undisturbed by Ella’s words . "And Children ought to respect and obey their parents . Something, unfortunately, you clearly do not understand . "

"Veil yourself in whatever excuses you want, old Hound," Ella said . "Truth of the matter is that you sold everyone who ever looked up to you over to her for the measly Ascension . "

"Measly?" the man’s brows arched faintly as he cracked a slight smile . "Perhaps, in your eyes, it may as well be ’measly’ . But . . . ask that boy, when the time comes, whether it’s ’measly’ or not . "

"Funny," Ella smiled suddenly . "You using those rotted balls of yours to compare yourself to him . His Will alone dwarfs yours, you ancient relic that should have been buried in the sands of time eons ago . You seemed to have forgotten how far deep a hole you had to dig when Eldon claimed your head . "

"Yet, I still live . " the man replied, smiling still .

"Live?" Ella arched her brows suddenly, chuckling . "You’ve ceased living the day you bent over to her . You’re merely undying, a fate far worse than death . "

"Oh? Are you here to liberate me, then, of my cursed fate?"

" . . . " second after second, Ella’s heart kept growing colder and colder; she could sense that he was merely buying time and humoring her . In any other scenario, that would make sense -- as the world around here simply isn’t made to endure the two of them fighting -- but what worried her is that there was no reason to send him of all people out . They could have sent any one of the now-mythical figures . . . and instead chose him specifically . They’ve taken everything into account and sent him out in case she truly was much stronger than they anticipated; even if he couldn’t win, in that case, he would be almost impossibly difficult to kill in a short period of time . Glancing past him and into the cyan sheen surrounding Do’r, she couldn’t help but desire to see past the curtain and peer inside .

"What was it about that boy, Maiden?" the man’s voice jolted her back away from her thoughts . "Nay . . . what is it about him . . . that he causes all to become so blinded?"

"--!!!" Ella’s eyes suddenly widened as she felt the faint seepage of energy and Qi coming from inside the dome . Those six traces . . . were terribly familiar . Her body shook as the man in front of her chuckled .

"As impressive as ever," he said, glancing back . "Not even a formation of such scale can contain their Qi . I’ve still ways to go, it seems . "

" . . . move . " Ella said simply, her voice turning beyond cold and frigid .

"I’m afraid I can’t do that . " the man chuckled, shaking his head .

"I said . . . move . " Ella added, taking out a thin, rapier-like blade and pointing it at him .

" . . . no . " the man said, withdrawing the spear and holding it in front of him . "Think about it carefully, Maiden . If we engage . . . this whole Empire . . . might cease to exist, alongside tens of millions of lives . "

" . . . stand aside," Ella’s Will suddenly bellowed out of her like an overbearing beast, covering the entire sky for over a hundred thousand miles across, her eyes shimmering in deep crimson as winds around her stirred awake, bounding her . "You broken tool . "

" . . . still not enough . " the man said, smiling faintly, clearly enduring her pressure with ease .

" . . . pathetic," she said slowly . "All of you . Simply pathetic . "

" . . . "

"Now I see why they sent you here," the man’s brows slowly scrounged up as the pressure on him continued increasing, over and over . "But . . . you’ve all miscalculated . Don’t you know the tale as old as time, Slayer?"

" . . . . "

"You never . . . ever . . . " space around Ella suddenly exploded upon itself, ripped apart from inside out, expanding across like the cracking glass . "Stand between a mother and her son . "

The man suddenly found himself blasted backward as he crashed against the shielding dome looming the city, sending quakes throughout its entire surface . Rapidly recovering, he wiped the corners of his mouth and swung the spear upwards, meeting Ella’s direct strike .

What followed was a flurry of attacks that could not be reasonably quantified inside a timeline; within a second, spacetime around the two ceased to exist; within two, they vanished inside a gaping storm bounding the void; within three, space around bubbled up like blisters, counting in thousands; within four, they all exploded in a shower of invisible Qi, sending shockwaves that toppled the trees over hundreds of miles away; within five, there only was a massive, truly gigantic, gaping hole well above the city of Do’r . Stars alight surrounded nebulae, faint, disk-shaped galaxies shimmering in the fast distance .

Within the scope of cosmos, the two shimmering dots at the center of ripping appeared enormously insignificant . . . yet their battle hardly was .

The man quickly realized something was wrong; he was completely put on a defensive position -- but not at his own pace . He was not allowed to run or dodge, he had to block every single strike, otherwise, it would mean a loss of a limb or, in the worst case, his own life .

Yet, with each passing second, the speed, precision, lethality and cruelty of her attacks only seemed to grow . Her Will, if compared to a storm previously, was now an ever-consuming hurricane, slowly evolving even further .

Just as the pressure became too much to bear with his body alone, she stopped and withdrew . They’d long since transferred their battle outside Noterra, to the so-called Expanse of Heaven . A massive, spherical ball drifted across the dark void beneath the two, yet they hardly paid attention to it, staring into each other’s eyes .

" . . . he won’t die . " the man said, taking a moment to recover his breath . "He will hardly even be harmed . I know, in your heart, you aren’t fighting for Ataxia, but for him -- I give you my word, nothing will happen to him . "

" . . . you’re right," Ella said, her black hair suddenly growing golden and then ethereally white, like the birth of first light in the universe, her wrinkled face reforging into a masked one with only two holes for eyes, her voice turning deep and choral . "I’m not fighting for Ataxia . But, he is . And his fights are my fights . Though I can’t kill you, Slayer, if I go all out, I will cripple you until the end of your days . You will never again see the sight of the bounding sky, nor will you ever again feel the warm touch of Qi . And, if I cripple you, your Sect will come undone . It will be devoured . The entire fabric of the world will change . In your heart of hearts, do you believe she will help you?" by now, the man was only capable of staring, stunned in silence . She, in front of his eyes . . . changed . Not into her Avatar form or the like . . . but changed . . . completely . Twenty-four white, feathered wings hung off her back, beyond beautiful to behold, each over two hundred meters long . Upon her head lay a golden tiara with a white gem embedded at the center, a gem so bright he was unable to look directly at it . Two holes for eyes turned into six, three on each side, her ordinary-looking dress transforming into a silver-cast body armor .

Half a meter above her head rested a gold-cast halo, cleaved up front where a small, spherical blurb of light rotated around itself at the speed he couldn’t perceive .

Her single sword split into two, each cast in a blazing fire, extending to over a meter and a half in length .

And further behind her back, behind the gigantic wings, was a ring of fire spinning in a circle, seven gems of different colors embedded on its surface .

Slayer stared in awe and terror, tongue-tied . Her appearance had transcended the realms of beauty and holiness and grace; it was, he was certain, not of this world .

" . . . w-who . . . who are you?" he mumbled lowly, week in knees . Certainly, if there was ground beneath him, he’d have knelt down . "No . . . what are you?"

" . . . I can’t stay like this much longer," her voice had turned low and warm, wrapping around his whole being and calming him down . Just right then, the barrier that held him back from progressing any further in his Cultivation broke down as light surged from the depths of his soul . "Make a choice, Slayer . "

" . . . thank you," he mumbled as he suddenly stood to the left, bowing his head lowly . "My withdrawal would cause too many drifts in the immediate future; but, your call to arms . . . I shall answer . "

"It won’t be mine," the last trace of her whisper pierced through his ears as he looked up, meeting her smiling eyes . "But his . " she vanished, leaving behind only a faint trace of beyond-holy light that had showered him in warmth . He would stand there for days and months, part of his mind stabilizing his progression . . . and the other part ensuring he would never, till his dying breath, forget what he had just witnessed .

He had a faint idea of who she might be, though he would never voice aloud . It was too reality-shattering, something the world as it was could in no way, shape or form handle . Perhaps in the distant future, he might share; though, for a time, he settled his heart on being the one who knows . One of the few, probably, who knows .