Blessing of the War God

Underneath the boundless sky of night, I was about to witness another battle for the second time in a row. The whispering of the breeze made the grass around me dance back and forth.

As Melyeze used her blade to cut free me from my bandage, I could feel the comforting embrace of the midnight wind. It was my only respite, but my heart wasn’t able to settle down.

I knew with absolute certainty that there was no way Melyeze could defeat Remus.

“Melyeze, we have to run. He is not someone that you can beat!”

“Even if you are one of the Seven Heroes, I am not afraid of you!”

Melyeze ignored my advice, opting to point her sword and provoke Remus instead. Her eyes irradiated the grassy plains brightly in a mixture of yellow and blue hues.

Her enemy stood tall on top of the rubble, only dwarfed by the gigantic earthen spike protruding out of the ground.

“Oh? Are you psychin’ yourself up, or do you actually have a plan, girl?

Remus hopped off the wreckage, landing in front of the building’s remains. He stood a fair distance away, probably around twenty-five to thirty paces.

“Even if you can regenerate from your wounds, without Diphaxia, you’re not the immortal you once were! All I need to do is to crush you until there’s not a single piece of you left!”

Wait, his huge white axe made him immortal? He no longer has it? Even if this were the case, Melyeze was too confident. This wouldn’t end well.

“Heh, that ain’t a plan, a girl. Still, feel free to c’mere and crush me—”

Out of thin air, the revolver that I kicked away manifested in Remus’s hand!

“—if you can!”

Immediately, Melyeze ducked as a wall of stone erected itself in front of us. A series of deafening gunshots followed. Some of the bullets hit the sides of the wall, nicking off chunks at a time.

“Listen, Evan. Whatever you do, stay behind this wall. His Blessing of the War God not only grants him inhuman regeneration, he could summon whatever weapon he wielded before at any time. Stay put and you won’t get shot.”

Blessing?

I recalled how Remus was able to pull out his oversized axe back in the Memory Dive seemingly out of nowhere. So it seemed like Blessings were basically cheat abilities, huh.

Regardless, I hoped what she said about staying put was true, because parts of the stone wall were getting vaporised from the shooting!

“W-What are you gonna do?”

Melyeze smiled at me, before answering:

“My job.”

Melyeze slammed her palms against each other as her right eye flashed brilliantly. At the same time, the earth started to rumble. The terrain at the corner of my eyes started to rise like two tidal waves.

Melyeze vaulted over the wall. I peeked over it to see what was transpiring.

Remus was sandwiched right between the two encroaching mountains! The only thing stopping him from being flattened was his arms, which were holding off the two terraformed mounds from closing in.

“Whoah, this is pretty useful! Hey girl, can I hire you to do some landscapin’?”

Melyeze responded to her potential employer by summoning another large stone spike. This spike erupted from the ground right in front of Remus, poised to impale him through the chest.

Without anywhere to go, I was expecting him to get skewered. However, the two blobs of earth beside him and the stone spike were instantly cut in half. Two greatswords sliced through the land like paddy. The force of the slash was so tremendous, my hair fluttered from the air pressure alone.

It was as if he pulled them right out of the two cliff faces that were trying to flatten him. Both blades were as large as Remus himself, yet he swung them like they were twigs.

What surprised me more was his speed.

The earthen structures erected by Melyeze barely even started their collapse when he pounced at her like a tiger!

I didn’t blame her for being unable to dodge. If I had to guess, his speed matched that of Sereya’s.

Melyeze’s only option was to brace the impact of the strike with her weapon. Two pillars of steel slammed into her sword, their size made the latter look like a toy in comparison. Still, being able to take that hit was a testament to the quality of her sword.

But while her weapon absorbed the blow perfectly, I couldn’t say the same about the wielder. Her knees started to buckle. Even The ground beneath her cracked from the impact.

In this deadlock, one of Remus’s swords vanished into thin air. While the greatsword in his other hand exerted pressure on Melyeze from above, he materialised a glaive into his free hand as he swung it horizontally at her.

It was over.

Or it would have been, if she didn’t conjure a stone column underneath Remus’s feet, sending him high into the sky.

Even though changing his elevation gave her a brief breathing room, I was the one who sighed in relief. It was only a short moment, because I soon noticed a sparkle in the night.

It wasn’t a star—it was the reflection of Remus’s revolver, its sights primed at Melyeze as he flipped over her high in the air.

“Above you!”

I yelled to alert her. She raised her blade over her head just in time as bullets bounced off the flat of her weapon. One of the bullets hit her in the elbow!

Her arm flailed back as I saw blood splattering. While I am grateful, it wasn’t her sword arm, it still looked extremely painful. Her expression did not reflect that, however. She only looked annoyed that her left arm was out of commission.

Remus landed on the grass, the revolver no longer in his hand.

“That armour’s really somethin’, huh? Usually, it’ll just blow the limb straight off.”

Melyeze looked down at her wound, before flashing an ominous smile at him.

“But it got you to look, right?”

It was then that I realised, in every direction around Remus, stone bullets were already formed in the air, their razor-sharp tips locked onto him!

He stood there, looking around him as he admired the hundreds of miniature spikes floating in the air.

“You summoned all this in my blind spot when I was in the air. You got talent, I’d give you that.”

The rocky missiles flew at Remus all at once. It was the same scene that I saw in Sereya’s duel all over again.

Remus opted to stand there casually, almost as if he didn’t care that he was about to be turned into a pincushion.

As the projectiles were inches away from his face, I finally understood why he didn’t bother to move.

It happened instantaneously.

A huge arm, scales of dark purple with patches of green, sheltered him from Melyeze’s offensive. It belonged to an enormous beast—the claws at the tips of its fingers were proof of that.

Only when I saw the other end did I realise that that was just the severed forearm of a titanic creature. Blood was still oozing out of the gaping wound. If I had to estimate, the entire size of the creature was probably that of a large fortress.

Even this arm was considered a weapon that could be summoned by Remus’s Blessing? He was using it as a meat shield!

The arm shielded Remus from the top, where the majority of the spikes were concentrated, and his flanks. The spikes that approached from behind were deflected by a machete wielded in his other hand.

Melyeze charged at him from the front, her blade thirsty for his neck as her eyes gleamed brighter than ever. With both of his arms occupied in protecting him from the stone bullets, he didn’t have a way out anymore!

She was finally able to land a hit.

It was hard to see but Melyeze’s sword slashed Remus’s arm that was holding up the monstrous limb. Blood spewed from the Hero as serrated metal tore into his flesh.

Until it didn’t.

Her sword was jammed halfway into his forearm. As the last projectile was warded off, Remus dematerialised both the huge arm and his machete.

Melyeze struggled to remove her blade from his skin, his taut muscles preventing her from dislodging the weapon.

That was when I saw an iron mace crashing into her side, sending her flying in my direction. My mind thought of the worst, seeing her body bent into an unnatural shape.

“Melyeze!”

I rushed to her side, desperately praying that the young knight was still alive.

Part of her armour was completely dented in as blood flowed from the hinges. Her eyes no longer had her magical glow. Instead, they were the eyes of a girl struggling to stay conscious.

“Melyeze! Don’t you dare fall asleep!”

As I knelt beside her, I felt glad that she was able to make eye contact with me.

“Run—”

She was only able to say one word before coughing up blood.

“Hey girl, your sword is pretty nice!”

I turned around and saw that Remus was casually walking towards us as he pulled her weapon out of his forearm. The gashing wound closed up immediately as he inspected the weapon.

“C’mon! Don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got? I haven’t even warmed up yet! C’mon, keep dancin’ with me!”

He tossed the blade over in our direction, landing right in front of Melyeze.

Worst of all, she propped herself back up and wanted to grab her weapon back! I stopped her, only for her to shove me aside.

“I said run!”

She yelled at me, bleeding out as she pointed her sword at Remus.

It was all for nought as I saw her sword disappear into thin air before materialising itself into Remus’s grasp.

“Just kidding. My business is with the kid. At least I’ll give you the knight’s honour of being killed by your own weapon! Hahaha!”

I was petrified. Why must the War God be so cruel to give Remus his blessing?

What could I possibly do?