Chapter 65 - Downpour of Fantasy

Across every kingdom, the angels gazed upward in disbelief at the ocean that now covered the sky. Their wings felt weak, powerless, beneath the sheer weight of something so vast, so unnatural. They whispered among themselves, frightened, praying, weeping at the sight of this impossible phenomenon.

Fifteen thousand meters of the sky had been consumed by the creatures of this invading sea, fish and leviathans swimming aimlessly, unaware of the world they now floated above. The ocean hung suspended five thousand meters above the earth, a usurper of the sky.

Kings trembled. Confusion and fear rippled through their courts as they looked upon the boundless waters stretching beyond comprehension. The sun Igorus had created moments ago was nothing now but fragments of molten stone, suspended within that abyssal sea. Slowly, the upper layers of the water began to freeze, the air thinning to near suffocation. The higher the ocean climbed, the colder and more suffocating it became.

Tarnael stared upward in shock at the sea Thranatis had summoned, watching the aquatic beasts glide beneath the waves that now filled the heavens. He held Kaela in his arms, unconscious, her hair illuminated by the flames still raging below, the lingering fires of Igorus' wrath consuming what little remained of the land.

Igorus looked toward Thranatis, who hovered beneath the slow-churning waves, suspended high above, his body calm and motionless amidst the chaos.

"Surprised, Igorus?" Thranatis sneered. "Does it humble you to realize how powerless you are before me? Water is life. Water can be, death. And what a better way to excecute vengeance to the ones persecuting me there is, to be a vessel of the life's desire for death?"

"You're mistaken, Thranatis," Igorus replied, his expression shifting, from shock and fear to calm, then to a faint, fearless smile.

"Hm?!" Thranatis' eye narrowed.

"In truth," Igorus continued, "it makes me happy. Because now, I can fight you with my full power."

He gripped his sword tightly with both hands, raising it before his face.

"Heh... Let's hope those aren't your last words," Thranatis said, folding his arms, intrigued by what Igorus was about to unveil.

Igorus closed his eyes, focusing deeply. His breathing slowed. The chaos around him faded into stillness as he sank into a self-forged serenity. Then, he opened his eyes, and his blade erupted in blue fire.

All across the ruined kingdom of Saint Zagra, and the fallen realms of Troa, Lucintra, and Berethia, every flame turned blue. The ground began to melt beneath the weight of the new heat, and a light, both chilling and radiant, enveloped the world. The sky and earth mirrored one another: one cold, one blazing, both dyed in the same unearthly azure.

"Wait... he wasn't fighting seriously before?" Aldes whispered, standing among the ruins, the blue flames swirling around him. "Just how much power is this bastard hiding?"

"Hahahahahaha..." Thranatis laughed, the sound echoing across the burning sea and shattered earth. "Now this is interesting, Igorus Friola. Show me everything you've got, here, in this battle... on this day!"

Igorus raised his sword, wreathed in blue flames, toward Thranatis in the sky, his face expressionless, carved in cold resolve. Thranatis extended both his arms forward, palms crossed over one another. Between them, a massive naginata of water took form, its movements slicing through the backward-flowing tides of the sea beneath.

Igorus unfurled his wings, cloaked in blue fire, and soared toward Thranatis. The cherub descended swiftly, wielding his watery naginata, ready for combat. The steel of Igorus's blade clashed with the sharp water of Thranatis' weapon, sending shockwaves of air rippling across the battlefield.

"So that's why you were able to cut through my attacks earlier," said Igorus, pulling back from the impact of their weapons.

"Exactly. The sharpness of water is the deadliest thing of all, especially in the hands of a god like me," Thranatis replied, dissolving his naginata, only to summon dozens more in midair.

With a gesture, he commanded them to strike Igorus from every direction. Igorus darted and weaved between them, slicing through their liquid edges with his flaming sword. But the water's precision was enough to nick the steel of his armor.

"Tch!" he hissed, forced to fly farther and farther away as the naginatas closed in.

"HAAHHHH!!!" Igorus roared, releasing a torrent of blue flames behind him. The fire was so intense it vaporized the pursuing naginatas instantly.

"Heheheh... Hahahahaha!!!" Thranatis laughed ecstatically, summoning even more naginatas to hound Igorus.

But Igorus raised his right arm, and from it emerged a colossal hand of blue fire, reaching to seize Thranatis in its burning grasp.

"Fernia Relica: Third Reveal — The Fiery Grip!" Igorus intoned as the hand surged forward.

Thranatis extended his right hand toward it.

"Drami Skriva — Aprona dro Lobna."

Nothing happened. The blazing hand continued its approach.

"I see... These shackles not only limit my strength, they even prevent me from invoking any Dramyte technique," Thranatis muttered. "Very well, then."

From his left arm, a massive hand of surging sea water took form, twice the size of Igorus's fiery construct, filled with fish and currents trapped within. The watery hand slammed into the flame and extinguished it effortlessly.

"Damn it! Fernia Relica: Second Reveal — Flames of Greed!"

All the naginatas melted instantly under the overwhelming blue fire.

"Fernia Relica: First Reveal — The Reincarnation of Ankostra!" Igorus invoked, and Ankostra returned to the battlefield, this time reborn from blue flames, clad in molten-black armor that shimmered like flowing magma.

"Interesting, Igorus. But whatever you can do, I can do better," said Thranatis, creating several copies of Ankostra from the sea itself. They spread their liquid wings and dove toward Igorus' fiery warrior.

Ankostra raised a titanic sword, its blade glowing with lava and blue fire. She unfurled her wings and charged toward the watery Ankostras. Igorus stood above her head, launching spheres of blue flame that exploded against the enemy clones. His Ankostra sliced through them relentlessly, but as time passed, her molten sword began to cool.

The water-born Ankostras formed bows and rained arrows of pressurized water from afar, bombarding the fiery titan.

"No!" Igorus shouted, breaking away just before his Ankostra was engulfed in a barrage of watery arrows.

"Is that all you've got, Igorus?" Thranatis taunted, flying directly at him.

Igorus looked up, seeing Thranatis dive down like a meteor, and narrowly evaded the devastating punch that followed. The blow carved a crater deep into the scorched land below.

Thranatis rose slowly, stepping from the sea of blue flames, his eyes filled with cold amusement. Igorus wiped the blood from his lips and glared back, defiant.

"Fernia Relica: Fourth Reveal — The Flaming Blades!"

Dozens of swords made of blue fire appeared around Igorus, waiting to sear anything that came near.

Thranatis emerged through the storm of flames, his body burned but unfazed.

"These flames are far too cold for me," he said, before punching Igorus in the face with incomprehensible speed and strength. The blow sent him flying hundreds of meters back. Igorus slammed into the ground, stopping only when he drove his sword into the earth to slow himself. He spat out two broken teeth and watched as Thranatis strode out of the fire like a god of vengeance.

Igorus wiped his mouth again and launched himself into the air. Thranatis raised both hands, summoning razor-sharp torrents of water that tore through Igorus' body, only for it to dissolve into a clone made of blue fire.

"Heh," Thranatis chuckled, impressed, as his water streams sliced everything around him in half, ruins, corpses, even the air itself.

But then Igorus appeared high above, beneath the ocean that blanketed the sky.

"Fernia Relica: Second Reveal — The Rebellion of Prometheus!"

Thousands of meteors wreathed in blue flames rained down upon Thranatis. It was a spectacle beyond imagination, the inverted sea above, and from beneath it, fiery stars descending upon the world below.

"Quite the spectacle, Igorus," Thranatis said calmly, raising his left hand toward the falling inferno.

One by one, the meteors were cleaved in half by his water blades, sharp enough to cut through the heavens themselves.

"You still haven't learned, have you, Igorus? The sharpness of my water surpasses the heat of your flames. You'll die a miserable, lonely death if you keep wasting your power in such futile displays," Thranatis mocked, his voice echoing through the burning world.

"Who said I'm alone?" Igorus asked calmly, his voice echoing through the burning air.

"What?" Thranatis turned, bewildered.

"I'm here too," came a voice from behind him, Aldes' voice.

"You!? What are you—KHAAHK!" Thranatis choked as a crimson hand, with a sword tip embedded in its palm, impaled his throat.

"KHOOHKK! KHAAHK!" Blood poured from his mouth as he coughed violently, taken completely off guard.

"Don't think I'm done with you yet! HAAHH!" Aldes roared. Dozens of crimson hands tore through Thranatis' body in the same way, their number multiplying by the second, ripping his flesh apart beyond any mortal limit.

Eventually, there were so many hands that they formed a massive, writhing red mass, with Thranatis trapped at its core, his body reduced to a grotesque collection of impaled organs and shattered bones. Blood streamed from the heap like a dark fountain, dripping down in a ghastly rhythm. At the center of the crimson cluster, a giant green eye formed, its iris a void of darkness.

"HAAHHH!" Aldes screamed, forcing the monstrous mass, now with its glaring eye, to shoot upward into the sky with incredible speed.

"Igorus!" Aldes shouted.

"Leave the rest to me," Igorus replied, watching as the crimson mass pierced through the ocean that blanketed the heavens.

He dove in after it, propelling the red cluster upward with sheer, godlike strength. His wings carved through the dense celestial sea, killing every marine creature unfortunate enough to cross his path. Hundreds of meters vanished beneath him every second as he ascended with unstoppable momentum. The temperature dropped sharply, but Igorus was unfazed. Neither the crushing pressure nor the raging currents of the heavenly ocean could hinder him.

In less than forty seconds, he reached the ocean's peak, twenty thousand meters above the earth.

"Fernia Relica: Second Reveal — The Fiery Fist!" Igorus declared, his arm bursting into flames, blue fire intertwined with streaks of red.

Grasping the massive cluster of crimson hands with his blazing fist, he hurled it toward Ladnoria's moons with all his might. The object accelerated to near-light speed, igniting as it broke free from the world's boundaries. The outer barrier of the realm sparked violently with electricity as Thranatis' imprisoned form tore through it, sealing his fate.

The crimson mass hurtled into space, colliding with the moon Pulega, carving a colossal crater upon impact.

Igorus descended back down, slipping through the ocean of the sky as streaks of blue fire trailed behind him.

On the ground below, Aldes collapsed, drained of power. His demonic form dissolved, leaving him as he was before. A few meters away, Igorus crashed down as well, exhausted from the battle that had sent Thranatis to another world.

"Heh... heh... heh..." Igorus panted, catching his breath. Aldes, too, lay sprawled across the ground, breathing heavily. Above them, the remnants of Igorus' meteors fell harmlessly, their flames long extinguished.

"What... what was that you just did?" Igorus asked, still gasping.

"The Punishment of a God. That's the name of the card, the strongest one I possess," Aldes explained weakly. "Whoever you are, if you bear the energy of a god, those hands will punish you the same way."

"That's... terrifying," Igorus said with a tired laugh. "I'm glad you didn't use it on me."

"He must've been quite the opponent, to give even you such a hard time, General," Aldes replied with a faint smile.

"Have you seen Atbara anywhere?" Igorus asked.

"I'm afraid she's dead," Aldes said somberly.

The wind blew softly between them, and silence reclaimed the battlefield.

"We didn't manage to retrieve the spheres," Igorus murmured. "That means we failed."

"I wonder what Queen Kaliga will say when we report this," Aldes said. "I doubt she'll be pleased with our performance."

"At least we're still alive. That's what matters," Igorus replied. "I'm lucky to have survived that strange angel. Honestly, I can say without hesitation, he's the strongest opponent I've ever faced. And I have the feeling he wasn't even using half of his power. Something was holding him back... those shackles, perhaps. Why was he bound? And who is he, really?" Igorus wondered aloud, lost in thought.

"We got rid of him. That's all that matters," Aldes said, glancing upward at the sea suspended above.

Far away, Tarnael stood frozen, his expression twisted in disbelief as he watched.

"I... I can't believe it. He's been defeated. Someone that powerful, defeated like that," he muttered, staring at the inverted ocean above.

"Shouldn't the sea have fallen by now?" Aldes asked. "I mean, it'd be a terrifying sight, sure, but... if he's gone, why is the ocean still hanging up there?"

"To tell you the truth," Igorus said quietly, "I don't know. I have no idea how he managed to manipulate such an enormous mass of water and keep it suspended that high in the sky."

"What in the?!" shouted Tarnael, his eyes fixed on the sea.

A massive whirlpool formed within the lower waves of the ocean, a sudden eruption, a newborn abyss rising from the deep. Behind Aldes and Igorus, an explosion shook the air, as if something had descended from the farthest heights of the heavens. Aldes turned and saw Thranatis standing menacingly amid the smoke his arrival had generated.

"How dare you..."

His three voices echoed as one, each dripping with unthinkable hatred.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME!? A GOD!? HOW DARE YOU, YOU FILTHY AEGNID!!!" roared Thranatis, his voices shaking the entire war-torn battlefield.

"ALDES!!!" screamed Igorus desperately, rushing to protect his comrade, but Aldes only gave him a faint smile in that final moment. Thranatis struck, and in an instant, Aldes was torn apart into hundreds of pieces until not a single trace of him remained in this world. Igorus froze, his hands trembling, still wet with Aldes' blood.

"I had never felt the vacuum of space before. Truly a terrifying experience. I almost died there... though I suppose I should be thankful I can manipulate not only water, but all kinds of fluids," said Thranatis with a grin.

Igorus turned his frightened eyes toward the Cherub.

"Look," Thranatis said as he sliced his own hand with a claw. The wound healed instantly.

"Our bodies are composed largely of fluids. What I did was manipulate the liquids within myself to withstand the vacuum of space more efficiently. Impressive, isn't it? I thought it was worth mentioning before I kill you, Igorus Friola. I must admit, I truly enjoyed our battle. I will never forget your name," Thranatis said as he raised his hand toward Igorus.

"Any last words?" he asked, voice filled with cold finality.

Igorus had none. He never thought Aldes' death would hit him so deeply, so suddenly. Sometimes in life, we fail to realize the importance of someone, even if they share our blood. Yet death has a strange way of revealing that bond, striking harder than we ever expect.

But then, a portal suddenly opened beneath Igorus.

"What?!" exclaimed Thranatis, startled.

Igorus appeared beside Tarnael.

"What? Where am I?" he muttered weakly, disoriented but alive.

"I just saved your life. I think that deserves a thank-you," said Tarnael, avoiding his gaze.

"W-Why did you save me? I'm your enemy," Igorus replied.

"Don't be an idiot. We have a common enemy now; Thranatis Mandr'Ghana, the youngest son of the Seraph, Lord Edin'Borghia Mandr'Ghana. You know the saying: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." You've done enough. I'll handle this from here," said Tarnael as dozens of massive portals opened around Thranatis. From them poured legions of angelic soldiers, tens of thousands emerging from every gateway, ready for war.

"More insects for me to crush," muttered Thranatis to himself, as over fifty thousand angelic warriors surrounded him from every side...