Chapter 19: First Thunder

  In a bright flash of light the foolish kings castle disappeared, a large crater remain where it once stood. This appeared to be Jades doing. Along with Caelus and a few others they would set out to strike down Onyx hopefully quickly, as I would like to get back to my kingdom,

“ I would like to thank you again for assisting us in this battle, Aurum,” Jade says. I had only decided to help as it seemed a little too close to my own kingdom, but it seems I wasn’t really needed, and thanks to Caelus and Cass’s combined attack the number of abyssals was cut down significantly. Regardless, there were still a good number of abyssals remaining, meaning I’d be here awhile. One of the council members stayed behind to help clean up the remaining abyssals and the very few chaos minions left standing. Akira, fourth in the ranking of the council strength wise, has an lightning affinity. Though it isn’t clear whether or not she has any relations to the old god of thunder. Her mastery over her affinity was great as she was making light work of remaining Abyssals, including the tougher ones. It seemed during my analysis of the council member, Jade had fallen back. Makes sense, casting a spell on something like that must’ve drained her, but this battle was coming to an end anyway. The bodies of allies and enemies littered the ground, some riddled with bullet holes while others mutilated by the blade, there blood painted both the ground and my armor as I carefully walk around the corpses. In the distance the sound of fighting can be heard, and seen. A group of adventures fighting against one abyssal, this one was different, it was bigger than normal, its fists covered in blood, in one swift move it beheads one adventurer with his bear hand all the while laughing. Just to be safe I summon the blade of absolute light, whoever it was had made light work of the adventurers it was fighting, lodging its blade into the poor guys side before ripping him clean in half. It had turned its attention to me when everyone else around him had fallen, he seemed to be one of the abyssals trump cards, a champion for sure.

“ I wanted to have a go at the one who killed Agrai but I guess you’ll have to do, Aurum!” the champion yells, “ I am Bora, third champion to Onyx, but his most powerful champion!” he seemed rather arrogant. Before either of us could make a move he is launched backward by what seemed to be lightning, the residual energy crackles around Akiras hand as she prepares to launch her next attack, conjuring a sword, which if I had to guess, was able to withstand her full power, she immediately goes in for an attack before the champion can recover. I decided to sit this one out. I was curious to see how one of this kingdoms top fighters would fair, of course if things were to go wrong I’d step in, but only then, for now it seemed Akira has the strength to back her position. The ground beneath me had suddenly grown, patches of grass emerge almost instantaneously, small plants and grasses sprouting from the bodies, as if taking them in as nutrients, just then a large vine bursts forth pushing against Akiras blade, when enough distance was between the two she switches stances. Charging back in Akira applies lightning throughout her entire body and blade, allowing her to effortlessly cut through the vine from before, Bora was still smiling, weird. The battle that seemed to be going in our favor suddenly changed, Akira who had been pressuring Bora until now was suddenly being overwhelmed by multiple large vines coated in what seemed to be darkness energy, enhancing the durability and power forcing Akira to play defense. My involvement was forced when one of the vines shifts focus onto me, even if he coated it with darkness it was far too little to be dangerous, I was still able to cut through it with ease, “ You truly are a strong warrior, it would be wrong to hold back now,” Bora admits. The vine that I had cut regenerates with the severed part withering away, this time the coating was heavier, instead of cutting through it I defend, holding it back long enough for me to send a signal through the ground, a spike of pure alloy to directly attack Bora, if I were to try and destroy the vines this fight would only end with my defeat, considering how these things can regenerate near infinitely, but if I take out the one controlling them they’d all disappear.

“ Well played, severing the head so the rest fall, smart. Unfortunately it wont be so easy,” Bora boasts, the spike drill spinning against the surface of his neck, despite pure alloy being one of the most strongest metals on this planet it seems his skin is tougher, I would need something stronger, something more…brilliant. Just the mere thought of using it made my body ache, I recall the spike and have it pin the vine in place, allowing me to burn through it, the small ignition of white flame was all it took to crisp the plant to ash, Bora’s smiling expression shifted to more of a shocked and confused one, with the snap of my fingers the remaining vines were incinerated. “ Thats impossible! I thought your affinity was metal manipulation, how are you wielding fire?” yells a confused Bora, it seemed Akira already knew why but not how, “ I heard a rumor that some rulers gained the power of two affinities, interesting to know its true,” speaks Akira for the first time since I met her, which was like two or so days ago. But shes right, “ I wield the affinities of metal manipulation, and the brilliant flame which was gifted to me by the First Queen of Light, a long story that I don’t feel like going into right now, but its like you said before. You’re strong, it would be ashame to hold back,” A smile envelopes Aurums face as the flames dance around in her palm, this battle was meeting it end. And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who was holding back, Akira had sheathed the blade, sparks of lightning surrounded her as her appearance has changed, behind her was a wheel like circle constructed purely out of of lightning, only those whom have connections to old gods are capable of such feat, the affinities true form often referred to as true god occurrence. I guess that confirms her connection to the old god, I force the flame to spread down the rest of the vine, each step I take razes the grass, returning it to char. Bora changes his stance and launches himself, sword in hand, clashing with the gauntlets of thunder, the armor worn by Raiden, old god of thunder. Though it was only a partial manifestation, with only the gauntlets and legs, it was more than enough to finish Bora. Akira was overwhelming Bora in speed as she evaded his attacks to cut through his tough skin, my final bit of contribution to this fight would come in the form of a flame spear. The brilliant flame spear pierced off Boras right arm, giving Akira the opportunity to end it,

“ IMPOSSIBLE! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED HERE!” yells Bora, it seemed as his final desperate move he was going to unleash abyssal energy into the surrounding area, killing and infecting everyone unable to withstand it, the wheel on Akiras back had begun to spin as more lightning beings to crackle around her, almost as if her entire being had become one with the electricity she channels all that energy into a single bolt, charring Bora and incinerating the abyssal energy Bora had gathered. Akira drops to the ground exhausted, but before I too can sit down, a resonating ambiance echoes through the field, as it did when the Chaos structure first arrived, only this time the structure had squeezed itself tightly into a humanoid shape, forcefully making an emissary, only this one had eyes, bright blues eyes that reminded me of another blue eyed idiot. This one was stronger than the one found in the dungeon, how would I know? Its appearance. The more features it has means the deeper of a connection to chaos it holds, this one has eyes meaning its connection would be somewhat more pure. Akira was already standing with her blade drawn and both thunder gauntlets equipped, a partially formed horn sat above her right eye. But instead of engaging either one of us it places itself in the middle of the adventurers, massacring them almost as quickly. Without another moment to lose I command the pure alloy to force the emissary on the move to prevent it from doing any more damage, Akira was able to launch a series of attacks that would get close to hitting but not quite. I hesitate for a second when it came to calling upon the brilliant flame after rearing my hand back, and without any other second thoughts I bring it back. This time I would run my hand along the base of the blade all the way to the tip, coating the pure light sword and waited for the right moment to strike. Akira had noticed this and forced the emissary more in my direction, I lunge forward when the distance was close enough the blade cuts through the emissaries arm, despite this it swings almost immediately forcing me to block, the force of the swing pushes me back. The emissary was able to reattach its limb before Akira had reached it, she had resummoned the thunder wheel making her strikes more fierce. The force of the two clashing would force everyone to fall all the way back to the camp site to avoid getting hit by stray elements, the grass that Bora had grown had been fully incinerated. The emissary would being to ramp up its output as each swing pushes Akira further back, forcing her onto defense, in which it would find boring and immediately switch onto me, this thing truly is the embodiment of evil. Thanks to the combination of the pure light sword and the absolute flame I was able to time my attacks carefully and strike back, making good use of my metal control Im able to make use of frontal assault and in-direct attacks, it seemed I had the upper hand which lasted not very long as the emissary backs next to Boras body. It thrusts its hand into his head, its hand bashed into his skull rather easily, from the point of contact Boras body begins to melt into the emissaries arm all weirdly. I’m blind sided by one of Boras vines, except it wasn’t Bora controlling it, it was the Emissary, wonderful. Im not a big fan of yelling so I hope Akira can pick up on what im going for, while keeping my distance I attempt to surround the emissary using spikes of metal in which I can, and thankfully Akira understood and directs a mass of lighting onto the Emissary, the metal acting as conductors forcing the bolts to make direct contact, this allowed Akira to ramp her manifestation to what I assume is at least 70%. Her face resembling that of the old thunder god, what was even more surprising than the high level of manifestation was that she was able to wield the gods original weapon with seemingly no present drawback. When someone with a connection to the old gods manifests a level higher than 70% they have the option call upon the weapon they used, however if they aren’t ready to use it it’ll put them under tremendous strain. Its said that Raiden forged a katana from a powerful bolt of lighting, its said this blade was capable of piercing the very heavens, one of the eight weapons of old, The blade of first thunder was its name. With each strike Akira was pushing the emissary further back, lighting struck down any vine that got too close to Akira, as if Raiden himself were present in this battle. To further back her up I use the absolute flame as a coating onto first thunder and Akira herself, and much like last time the emissaries actions became frantic, like an animal whos lost its head. It seems the ascender has abandoned this one as well, it seemed quick to abandon its emissaries, even if they dont have a consciouness of their its strange. Taking stance Akira prepares her final move, the drum wheel spinning faster than before, patches of flesh on her face breaking apart to reveal a layer of blood red skin, the horn fully formed and connected to the rest of her head. She spoke as the voice of Raiden overlapped her own, echoing through the land, “ First thunder technique, to slash the heavens” they would say in a calm voice, the arc produced by the sword would split the emissary in two, effectively killing it, resheething the blade before letting it dematerialize along side the rest of the thunder god. We both drop to the floor exhausted, despite not having used the brilliant flame affinity a whole lot it still consumed a lot of my stamina which is why I avoid using it unless absolutely necessary, I would’ve used it against the other Chaos emissary if I hadn’t been restrained, and if the absolute greatsword hadn’t killed it. However after having fought against two of the ascenders emissaries made me realize that I need to prepare myself better for when the real thing shows. “ It was an honor to be able to fight along side a ruler, especially someone of your caliber, Queen Aurum,” Akira admitted, having witnessed the fourth strongest council member who was able to fight almost on par with an emissary made me even more curious to see how much stronger the top three are, all I knew was that Cass was somewhere within the 3, anyway that wrapped up the fighting on my end, after getting some rest I’ll head back, hopefully those four on the castle can end this war.