an: Contrary to the notes below, I decided to split the chapter into two to give you readers a breather. So this note will stay because the notes below will become contradictory and I’m not editing them.
an: I was on a trip and I do not bring my laptop with me so I couldn’t do the finishing editing, so I delayed it – I write on my phone. But this story will enter the ‘turning point’ because otherwise, it will not go anywhere. Also, Voice?
Voice: Yes, Azhure!?
an: Don’t be annoying, this chapter is not the time for your remarks.
Voice: What…!? Pfft… fine…!
an: p.s. This is the first time uploading on Saturday morning, in my place. I still have more stuff to fit in here.
Voice: Hey, Azhure!
an: What?
Voice: Why do you still use ‘an’ and not your alias!?
an: I did it in the beginning and I don’t feel like changing. I don’t want to change all the ‘an’ to ‘Azhure’.
Voice: Well, you can start now!
Azhure: Eh, sure.
Voice: That’s better!
Geron Yor
Year 1334
Half a day after the Yellow Deity’s army begins their final battle against the Green Deity.
“They lost.” Rose deadpanned. “Even though everything we have prepared had gone all accordingly.”
The Court Wizards transferred to Geron Yor to see the result. There, they saw absolute carnage as mangled bodies of the natives of this world littered all around the rocky territory, painting it red on top of the green the Spawn left behind.
Around the front gate of the fortress, there was one dark-skinned tall man who was without upper armor not clothing so his muscles could be seen, except it was dissolved completely that his half-melted digestive system is exposed. Right arm disconnected with the rest of the body holding a great sword broken in half. Arrows and spears stuck all over his body that it made him a porcupine. His face was skull white, literally – the acid left behind by the Spawn had melted it until there are only bones.
The Court Wizards had transferred to Geron Yor to see the results. There, they saw absolute carnage as mangled acidified bodies of the natives of this world littered all around the rocky territory, painting it red on top of the green the Spawn left behind.
Around the front gate of the fortress, there was one dark-skinned tall man who was without upper armor nor clothing so his muscles could be seen, but it still wasn’t seen as it was dissolved completely that his half-melted organs was exposed. Right arm disconnected with the rest of the body holding a great sword broken in half. Arrows and spears stuck all over his body that it made him a porcupine. His face was skull white, literally – the acid left behind by the Spawn had melted it until the skull was dissolved too.
Alicia had to look away, almost puking. She has seen brutalities on the screen (especially since she got trained for it), but this, and also seeing it in real life, is perhaps the most violent of them all. And they are not in danger of being found out so their emotions are not suppressed.
Even the others aren’t resisted to watch such atrocities. Owen had looked away, and Rin looks really disturbed. Only Rose was facing in front of the carnage, though her crimson pupils are pointing elsewhere.
“My creations.“
PIING
An echo reverberated throughout the stained rocky hills. It came from the fortress. It was so loud that Alicia and Rin had to cover their ears – it could… can definitely mask any other sound.
There was an imposing figure standing on the wall of the fortress where the gate is below. Thrice the size of a human, and two branches stuck out of his head. Its skin color could not be known as its body instead radiated a sickly dark green light so dark that one could mistake it to be black if such person was not looking properly. By its right hand, a huge greatsword emanating a devilish aura of the same color as forestry. By its left hand, the head of a boy with black hair and a horrified expression on his face, lifted high for all to see – though the Court Wizards could not see it.
By the way, it was facing in the direction towards the fortress, where an army of Spawns along their generals are below, in a formation, cheering – a part of the wall was destroyed, so they could be seen, along with more dead bodies. Its bare buttocks were all to be seen by the intruders, though the Court Wizards were more distracted by the aftermath it was witnessing if it had a pair of eyes for each cheek.
“Ever since they brought forth to me here, the feeble Yellow Deity has once again sent his puny army and his so-called champion to defeat me.”
PIING
“They may have pushed us until this last beacon, but that is because I allowed it!”
This guy is definitely trying to make himself look cool!
“And now! They have marched into my domain thinking they could slay me only to despair as they meet their end!
“They may have resorted to petty tactics, but they could never hope to stand a chance against me, the Green Deity!”
Yes, the green figure who was giving a speech to the Spawns is their master, the Green Deity.
“And this puny boy who calls himself a champion!” Shaking the head of one Rei Furuta, the champion. “Was no match for me! Felled by a single stroke of my blade, here in my yard!”
“That guy’s right,” Hanz said, looking down on the scope of his rifle. “Found the rest of his body, a single slash on his neck, the rest of his body’s just roughed up from earlier fighting. His ‘holy sword’ couldn’t stand up to the Green Deity’s blade.” Sighing, loading his rifle. “It’s another bust despite all of our preparations the champion still couldn’t beat him,” he continued with an annoyed tone.
“True,” Rose interjected. “We will have to hope for the next champion to finish it.”
“Eeh!?” A scream came from Rin, the emotion suppression is still not activated meaning the Spawns did not hear her scream. “What do you mean by that? Are we just leaving!?” She then turned to Hanz and Crea. “And also, when did you get here?” she continued.
That is true, when did they transfer? And they are not wearing the robe.
“We transferred a minute ago,” the soldier explained, “in the middle of that deity’s speech. His loud voice probably masked the sound.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because that brat is here.”
“Who?”
“Oh my, the Wanderer, not this again…” Rose sighed. “And you both are not wearing it again…”
She’s upset about that!?
Well Voice, you would be disappointed if the uniform you carefully designed was never worn in the end.
“The robe’s too baggy.” Hanz marched to the cliff, shrugging the other Court Wizards aside. “Excuse us,” Crea stated and followed suit and then…
ECHO
TZANG
TZANG
ECHO
…They launched themselves to the air. Crea ordered [Shield] around them mid-air. The echoes of the Green Deity’s nonstop speech had rendered the sound of it (and any other sound of combat that will come later) almost unhearable, so the Green Deity and the Spawns wouldn’t hear it.
“Rose, who is this Wanderer that Hanz was agitated?” Alicia asked. Rin also wonders with a “yeah.”
“You will see very soon…” The vampire said grimly.
“Alicia, Rin,” Owen called. “Stay back, it’ll be dangerous.”
Despite being close to proximity to the fortress and wherever the other two Court Wizards are [Eject]ing to, they are relatively fine as evidenced by their not lacking expression.
“The Wanderer is over there.” Rose pointed as she looked into her binoculars. Crea had left behind four of them for use.
Alicia moved the gaze of her binoculars to that general direction and seen it.
The Wanderer was a lone figure clad in a white cape with splotches of dark red and covering top to bottom, it looked like it was not cleaned for years (or never to begin with). By his hands, a small crescent, with pure light in the middle, and two long elongated blades attached to each end of the crescent, making a beautiful shining white bow.
From the way Alicia sees it, this Wanderer suddenly shimmered itself, appearing out of thin air a mere moments ago at a nearby opening. Then, the Wanderer assessed its situation and started to pull its strings to release a long-white arrow, that manifested the moment the bow was pulled, aiming straight for the Green Deity. But he was interrupted by Hanz’s shout.
ECHO
TZANG
ECHO
“Wanderer!” Hanz howled (though it was barely heard as it pales in comparison to the Green Deity’s large voice) as he fired his rifle which missed. Then, he switched his sniper rifle in favor of an SMG similar to a P90, which was glowing with all sorts of colors. It was familiar to when Voice went berserk after the emotion suppression failed to press down her master’s fear. This Wanderer must have ground his gears far too much.
Floating beside his left and right, two more similar sub-machine guns materialized in a red halo moving seemingly autonomously, following Hanz.
And Hanz opened fire, while still flying (falling in style) in midair. The floating machine guns did the same.
ECHO
RATATA RATATA
RATATA
TWANG
ECHO
However, the gunfire did not stop the Wanderer from letting loose of the arrow, which split into five shorter arrows when it passed the light on the crescent and each shorter arrow split into even shorter arrows as it flew with a trajectory of its own – as if it could turn to an unrealistic direction to reach its target.
Besides, Hanz was aiming for the arrows.
ECHO
TINGTINGTINGRINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTINGTING
ECHO
Even though there were too many arrows to shoot down, Hanz’s SMG had gained a higher fire rate and firepower due to no suppression of his emotions, not to mention that there were three of them. Soon, Hanz managed to shoot down every last arrow and redirected his fire to the Wanderer.
ECHO
RATATA RATATA
RATATA
ECHO
The Wanderer sidestepped avoiding the colorful bullets of fire maneg coming at it. The Wanderer then quickly pulled his bow and released the arrows to Hanz.
ECHO
TWANG
ECHO
But Hanz was unperturbed as Crea’s [Shield] around him was impenetrable to such divine looking arrows.
ECHO
PHSA PHSA PHSA
ECHO
The arrows simply disintegrated into white motes of light and faded.
ECHO
THUD
THUD
ECHO
As soon as he touched the ground, Hanz switched his SMG into an assault rifle with a bayonet, the rifle was an AK47. Similarly, two more assault rifles appeared by his sides, hovering midair. He also said something the Crea.
As Crea landed too, she nodded to Hanz and began to do something. Soon, the [Shield] around Hanz was removed, but a bigger done of loyal lightning maneg was formed to entrap both Hanz and the Wanderer – Hanz intended to duel the Wanderer. The [Shield] was transparent enough for Alicia to see inside.
Fixing the bayonet, Hanz charged while firing his rifle. The Wanderer puts his bow inside of his cape and pulled out a sword with a beautiful golden hilt. The Wanderer charged straight into Hanz’s hailstorm of bullets and actually deflected every last one of them!
“Whoa… So cool!” Rin squealed, forgetting the situation there. “Did you see that? That sword looks cool too! It’s like a holy sword!”
Yeah! Very awesome!
Then they clashed. It was very brief as it was merely the Wanderer swinging his ‘holy sword,’ as Rin called it, upward and broke Hanz’s bayonet. However, the two autonomous assault rifles moved to aim at the Wanderer’s left flank and front, forcing the Wanderer to backstep by shooting.
Not wasting any time, the soldier switched his broken rifle for a handgun similar to a Glock 19. Then he materialized a combat knife. Switching the hands of his gun and knife, he charged forward. His adversary followed.
Next is the most intense fighting Alicia has ever seen. Each combatant skillfully handled their weapons, clashing and parrying strikes whilst moving around the whole arena like flies – Hanz with [Eject] and the Wanderer with something similar. The former shoots his gun at every given chance and the latter deflecting it. The Wanderer had more leg work as the still two floating sub-machine guns flown around the arena shooting his blind spots at every given moment, causing him to either dodge or deflect the bullets while Hanz kept the pressure on him.
Throughout the fight, Hanz was shouting something to the Wanderer.
It looked like it could drag on forever until…
“…!” Alicia gasped.
For Hanz was stabbed in the gut by the ‘holy sword’ and the Wanderer was met with a bullet to its head in retaliation.
But then, the extraordinary happened.
Think the whole fight was a recording and that recording it played backward, that is what describes the phenomenon. To be more specific, the air shimmers around not just Hanz and the Wanderer but extending to the [Shield] and Crea as well, and time was reversed in that area. Every swing, clashes, and shots were undone. The opening duel of sword deflecting charging bullets no longer happened. And finally, the formation of the [Shield] around them.
Hanz clicked his tongue as he and Crea made a soft landing to the ground, the reversal of time stopped around when both were about to land. “Alright, round two!” he exclaimed, pumping a shotgun – the Cherished Armament he used this time was the first practical pump-action shotgun made in ‘Earth,’ the Spencer Model 1882.
“WHO GOES THERE!?”
However, the Green Deity had just finished his speech and turned around to spot the little intruders outside the fortress.
“AH… SOUL WEAVERS, SO IT WAS YOUR LOT WHO-“
BOOM
“Don’t. Call us that!” Hanz growled, his shoulder resting a fired Bazooka which blew off the Green Deity’s face. Crea also looked pissed. Well, every Court Wizards in Geron Yor are, except Rin who is slightly annoyed.
‘Soul Weaver’ was the old name of those who use maneg, long before the formation of the Otherworldly Court. There were many other names but around seven hundred years ago, the term was used and became popular, so it became stuck. That name has been sullied so great that the first Guardians renounce the name completely in favor of the name today.
Furthermore, it became a taboo name and Court Wizards are told to blast anyone uttering that name with whatever, hence the soldier blasting the Green Deity with a rocket launcher – the Maneg Soul also helped giving its vessel the mood to do so.
The Green Deity quickly regenerated his blown look and shouted, “INSOLENT SWINE! MY CREATION, KILL THEM!”
“Everybody,” Rose announced. “We are leaving this place. We do not need to fight the Green Deity.”
“DO NOT THINK I DID NOT SEE YOU!”
“Run.”
