Chapter 107 – Messy Event [6]

Meanwhile, inside the realm of the Red Moon, Emrys Stormblessed’s attack had just been unleashed.

The very composition of the air inside the realm shifted — from air to purely, solely golden lightning.

The air itself chattered and crackled. Golden tongues of lightning danced everywhere, jumping from point to point until a complex web of visible lightning nodes was born across the entire space.

Every molecule of the element air had become lightning.

The Children of the Red Moon began to thrash and shriek. The three Tier Five among them — their appearance distinctive for the single horn at their foreheads — watched with wary, blinking eyes.

They moved to attack, but the lightning webs were restricting their movement and burning them simultaneously.

The Heirs’ situation was not much better.

Every heir inside the realm felt their heart skip, their body shuddering, their lungs instinctively refusing to draw in the air around them, sensing death in each breath.

Their barriers and skills were supposed to block Lightning’s Breath from overtaking the element of air near them, buying them breathing room until the effect was exhausted.

But Emrys’s attack was far too powerful for most of them.

Only Jonathan, Jeanne, William and the fat man had managed — not by fending off the attack, but by buying precious seconds to sprint toward the two remaining standing barriers.

Cassius’s, and the one held by Klaus and his childhood friends.

None of them moved toward either, however.

Instead, they lifted their eyes, taking in the harrowing sight of lightning webs binding heirs and monsters alike, and looked at the man standing in the centre of it all.

Emrys’s back was straight as a pillar, his forearms blazing with golden tattoos. Every breath he exhaled was lightning rather than air.

He glanced briefly at his ring finger — dislocated by Cassius’s strike — and noticed his space ring was gone.

His eyes went colder and colder. He felt a kind of anger toward another person he had never felt before.

His Innate activated instinctively, amplifying the potency of his attack just as the true phase of it began.

The other heirs had no reason to fear for their lives. Emrys would not kill any of them.

The attack was aimed at the monsters surrounding them...and at Cassius’s group.

"Esmeray, Anesthesia, protect Meadow!" Cassius ordered before he and Raven both placed their hands on the barrier of crimson fire laced with disintegration essence.

Esmeray obeyed without hesitation and stepped in front of Meadow. Her eyes glowed with translucent essence, and pale wisps began to drift visibly around her.

She seized control of three wandering souls and erected a barrier in front of herself, one only she could see.

Anesthesia stood beside them, her expression now steady. The situation had reached a level where the only option was to act.

Then Emrys’s attack detonated.

The monsters’ screams intensified to deafening heights, then stopped abruptly. The lightning they had unconsciously inhaled had acted, driving straight into their minds and hearts and stopping both.

Their eyes glazed. Death began to grip their souls.

Cassius and Raven had managed to shield their group behind the barrier. But Emrys wasn’t finished.

He turned the lightning webs he had woven through the realm and focused them solely on the monsters and on Cassius’s barrier.

Then he heated the surrounding air until their suits and robes began to melt, before detonating the webs, sending a wave of golden fire accompanied by a horrid shockwave that slammed into both monsters and barrier alike.

The Heirs’ eyes went wide in horror. They stepped back, using their own powers to cover themselves, listening to the monsters popping like balloons around them.

Cassius’s barrier held for only a few seconds before the lightning that had woven itself between his fire and Raven’s disintegration essence and survived...began burning the barrier from within.

It went down. The group of five was exposed to the wave of golden fire rushing toward them.

Anesthesia activated her First Skill instantly, enhancing and elevating herself far beyond her Mortal rank limits.

Raven’s palms were coated in his disintegration skill — capable of breaking down both flesh and energy — ready to counter.

"Just protect yourselves!" Cassius screamed, gripping his cane tighter. "I will handle him!"

Without another word, he planted his feet and drove himself headfirst into the oncoming golden fire, earning gasps of shock from every heir watching.

Shock that became dread when they saw Cassius emerge unharmed from the other side. Golden tongues of flame licked his body and did nothing to his skin, making him look like a man who had walked out of hell itself.

Emrys froze at the sight, but only for a moment. He immediately seized the air in front of him and his golden sword reappeared in his hand.

Behind Cassius, Raven erected a wall of disintegrating energy to intercept the fire, with Anesthesia channelling her enhanced essence into him to increase the potency.

In seconds, Raven’s skill consumed the golden fire and reduced it to nothing.

He staggered, face pale, lips trembling, the essence drain hitting him hard. Anesthesia was the same, cursing under her breath before snapping her attention back to Emrys, her heart hurting at the sight of her lover this furious.

Hurting. And afraid. Because an angry Emrys was never good news.

Esmeray finally released her Soul Manipulation skill, and the entire group drew a collective deep breath now that the air was no longer lethal.

Meadow adjusted her glasses carefully. Her gaze — and the gaze of every heir in the realm — landed on Cassius running toward Emrys.

All of them watched with disbelief, silently asking themselves if their eyes were deceiving them.

Was Cassius simply immune to fire?

The question hung unspoken. But it would quickly become the least important one.

Cassius’s red eyes were fixed on Emrys, then shifted to sweep the realm.

The Tier Six Children of the Red Moon were all dead, Emrys’s skill far too overwhelming for them.

Of the three Tier Five that had stood among the group, one was dead. The remaining two were still standing — barely — swaying, their bodies heavily wounded.

Cassius’s eyes locked onto one of them. Without hesitation, he pivoted and drove himself toward the wounded Tier Five monster.

Concentrating his essence beneath his feet, he activated his skill.

Fire spluttered, then erupted, launching him toward the creature like a released arrow.

"Over my dead body!" Emrys screamed, reading Cassius’s intent instantly. He activated his First Skill: Lightning Body, applied only to his legs.

He blurred, streaking past Cassius in two seconds, only three away from the monster.

Cassius smiled. "Fool!"

He backflipped in the air, legs blazing with fire, and twisted his body toward the other Tier Five monster who was the more heavily wounded one, having already lost its right arm.

Emrys cursed in fury.

With his legs above him, Cassius raised his arms, conjured a fire arrow and released it straight toward the monster’s single eye.

At the same time, he bellowed, "Wind!"

"Hahahahah!" Klaus cackled and immediately sent a tunnel of wind toward Cassius using Windy, his Spirit.

Cassius used the wind to both amplify the arrow’s power and propel himself faster toward the monster, letting the wind feed his fire.

The level of control required for that was staggering. The heirs gasped.

The arrow reached first. The monster blocked with its remaining arm, suffering only a deep burn. Its eye pulsed, and a concentrated crimson laser erupted from it — searing through the air on a direct path toward Cassius, burning the very atmosphere on its trail.

A spontaneous burst of fire from his right threw him left. Cassius evaded the laser and reached the monster.

He grinned wildly, his eyes blazing bright, sword in his right hand and staff-sheath in his left, both coated in his fire essence.

He spun like a tornado of flame and struck the monster’s neck.

The staff-sheath landed first, burning the flesh, cracking the bones. The sword followed in immediate succession, searing hot and razor-sharp, driving through the neck in one clean swing.

The head came free.

But the Tier Five monster had been faster, managing one final attack in the instant before decapitation.

At this range, Cassius couldn’t evade cleanly. Instead, he twisted into an agonising acrobatic movement that cracked his back and positioned his staff-sheath — coated in fire — directly in front of the laser.

The crimson starlight laser met the staff-sheath. It shuddered, driving Cassius two steps backward, blood trickling from his lips from the impact rattling his insides.

There was a brief resistance before the weapon was pierced through and destroyed by the laser.

But that small moment — bought by his weapon — was enough for Cassius to wrench his body clear of the lethal beam, escaping with nothing but a scratch along the side of his stomach.

The Tier Five monster’s body dropped.

[You have killed a Tier 5 Child of the Red Moon.]

[Your body is being strengthened.]

[You have obtained...]

Cassius managed a smile, knowing something had been gained from killing a Tier Five.

But he set the notification aside for now and looked at the wound instead.

It was just a scratch, but the flesh was burning with a red starlight glow, widening slowly, the edges darkening to black.

His eyes narrowed. Above his head, a Snake Loop appeared.

[Poison.] Ananke said, her voice laced with worry. [You have been poisoned, Cassius. You need to drink a Tier Five Healing Potion!]

Cassius smiled wryly. ’I wish, Queen.’

He lifted his head and looked at Emrys, whose wrathful golden eyes were locked on him.

"Is this really who you are?" Emrys said, his voice dripping with disdain, his body sheathed in searing lightning. "Dishonourable. Dishonest. A thief." He spat. "I let you off last time, Desdemona. Not today."

He said nothing more and instantly lunged, eyes carrying clear intent: not to kill, but to wound him deeply.

All around, the other heirs watched with trepidation. Most had no intention of stepping in.

Those who did — Raven, Esmeray, Meadow and Cassius’s childhood friends — were stopped by the look on Cassius’s face.

He was smiling. As if he was genuinely enjoying every second of this wretched situation.

’How long do I have?’ He asked inwardly, settling into his stance.

[With your constitution, around five minutes before it becomes critical.] Ananke said, then glanced at the newly formed Snake Loop. [But your Innate should push that further.]

’Well, Queen, that is more than enough to get a taste of the Chosen One.’ He answered, smiling even wider as Emrys closed the last few paces between them.

"Come on then!" He shouted, tossing aside the broken staff-sheath and raising his sword just as Emrys arrived.

The Chosen One lifted his golden sword — crackling with power, eyes cold and merciless — and brought it down without hesitation.

The two swords clashed.

Fire and lightning bloomed through the realm, shaking it to its very core.

—End of Chapter 107—