Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 945: Surviving The Siege

Miki’s spear danced across the battlefield, cleaving the sky open while any unfortunate beast who got in the way was torn apart as collateral.

Flames twisted, transforming into a raging dragon as it rampaged through the horde.

No fear, no hesitation. The man in front of her was simply treating this as a daily occurrence, something not worth fighting to the death for.

Her hands tightened around the spear.

She lunged, drawing a burning arc through the fog while the Hero stepped to the side and smacked the spear with the back of his fist, diverting its path.

A light kick aimed to the back of the knee looking to break her balance.

But Miki was prepared for such a move and adjusted her footwork early, threatening to pierce her spearhead through his foot.

Taking a few casual steps back, the smiled looking at the burn mark on the back of his hand.

Even though he took the precautions to reinforce it, her spear still broke through his defences.

’How you’ve grown.’ He nodded in appreciation.

Unfortunately...

The leash of the city was coiled tightly around her neck.

Clapping his hands together, a pulse of energy burst out, freezing Miki mid jump.

Then, from his own vault, he pulled out a single treasured blade. It wasn’t anything fancy, no ridiculous embellishments across the face of the blade or the guard.

Simple in design with the only thing setting it apart from other weapons being the pommel.

A single crest and attached to it, a red tassel.

The weapon gifted to him by her father.

*SHATTER!!!

The sight of that weapon gave Miki another boost of adrenaline as she forcefully shattered the bindings around her, tossing the spear like a javelin.

*BANG!!!

Parrying the spear with his blade, he grabbed the spear out of the air, ignoring the damage he was taking for holding this weapon.

"I don’t know how many times I must say it, but I never meant to cut down teacher that day." He sighed, casually tossing the spear back to Miki.

Before she could catch the weapon, he lunged with a slash.

Miki twisted her body, slamming her fist to the face of the blade in order to change its course.

The same move he used to divert her spear.

"Even now, I wish things could’ve gone differently. If I made my decision sooner, he would be next to you condemning my actions right now instead of you being here alone." He pulled a face of remorse.

"F*ck you. You had plenty of time to stop but you still went through it." Miki hissed as she aimed a jab at his throat that was parried.

An exchange of strikes and slashes with small cuts beginning to appear around Miki’s body.

She was keeping up thanks to her Sigil power enhancing her sight but even that had its limitations.

The boundary of physical power couldn’t be crossed so easily.

"Yes... I had plenty of time to stop but I didn’t." He took a deep breath while flicking his wrist.

A diagonal slash faster than anything he released thus far.

"!!!"

The blade cut deep into Miki’s chest as her pupils constricted. Pain tore through her mind but she quickly tossed a pill into her mouth as the wound stitched itself together.

"I didn’t stop because that was my resolve. My choice. Had I stopped in that moment, I would’ve been forever chained down by the city. I made my stance clear and unfortunately, teacher died for it."

There was a look of liberation on his face. Of freedom.

How could someone who killed her father despite respecting him look so happy in this moment?

Miki couldn’t understand it.

"Tell me this, had I not purged the city of the trash that day, would it still function as it is doing now?" He asked, a grin appearing on his face as he clashed weapons with Miki, causing her to fly backwards from the shock.

"Would the people who gained power through the Nightmare be scared of what might happen if you turned as well?" He asked again, intercepting her flight and slammed his foot into her back, sending her into the sky.

"Would you have the peace maintained by a common goal you have now?!

"The trash that didn’t deserve this peace, I cleared them out. I won’t say you’re wrong. Because the world is never black and white. People like you and teacher are needed. However..." He trailed off.

"A purge is necessary to root out the garbage. Otherwise, the rot will spread. Teacher was a necessary sacrifice. For me, for the city. It was for me to step on this path of no return and for the city to have a wake up call."

Gritting her teeth, Miki unfurled a set of flaming wings and raised her spear.

Fire intersected as countless flaming spears manifested in the air.

"They’ve been taking things for granted for far too long. Sacrifices are inevitable in battle. Yet they lose themselves in their dreams thinking nothing of the deaths that occur on the frontline.

"For them, it’s just another statistic. Just another person they have no connection to.

"They didn’t see the horrors, they didn’t fight without knowing when their lives will end. All they do is sit in the back and talk with that mouth of theirs. When our brothers and sisters on the frontline died, they didn’t think of the great sacrifice.

"No, the pigs inside the walls only thought about how incompetent they were to die. Blame was the only thing hanging on their mouths as they laughed at our misery." He lost his smile at this point, the anger he buried in his heart surging forth.

"We had to die for people like these?! They don’t deserve it!"

Energy erupted from his blade, a swirl of nightmare energy that dwarfed the horde as a fake crimson moon appeared overhead.

Twisting his body, he unleashed a single slash that split the sky while Miki sent her spears towards him.

As the two attacks clashed, the skies was dyed in a deep crimson as though it was the end of days.

Under the fake crimson moon, the horde gained a surge of energy as they let out a ferocious howl and charged towards the city without care.

Crimson light poured down from the sky like blood from an open wound, staining everything in red. The fog surged forth and even Suyin’s cannons started to lose their effectiveness as the fog acted as a barrier.

Everything caught within was subjected to the rules of the Nightmare.

Alice narrowed her eyes.

A natural barrier against the other sources of energy similar to what she seen when they were gathering their numbers.

[With the way the rules are being shaped within the fog, it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s being influenced by that man along with the fear of the people in the city right now.] Cayla spoke up.

[Like the three Sigil resonance, this fog is mimicking the authority of a God’s domain. Setting rules that the outside world cannot interact with. Their own world.] She narrowed her eyes.

’Anything we can do about it? Or do we have to gamble with the flames like before?’ Alyss asked.

The reason why it was a gamble was because her flames seemed to directly attack whatever was at the core of the fog. Without knowing anything... They could be provoking something far beyond their capabilities with this decision.

One that would doom this city.

"So far the fog is being held back by the barrier. We can’t pierce the veil but it can’t forcefully devour every defence we’ve worked up either.

"Since that’s the case, let’s stall things out for now. Miki might not like it but I’m making a move."

Activating her Sigils, Alice stomped her foot down as a pool of blood erupted beneath her.

From this pool, countless strands shot through the blood mirrors, stretching to every corner of this city, every battlefield.

Then, before the fog could envelop their soldiers, Alice snapped her finger.

*RUMBLE!!!

Pillars of metal erupted from the blood as energy surged. A trinity of Abyssal, Eldritch and Void connected and a blood veil was draped over the city’s barrier.

A thin blood mirror that gained the adaptive properties of Eldritch energy.

Should this fog try to forge it’s way through, it’ll have to contend with three sets of laws and not just the laws of the surface.

Laws of the Abyssal energy, the Void that sits between and the Eldritch that adapts and mutates.

As expected, due to the nature of the fog, it was struggling to bypass the veil. While their attacks couldn’t harm it, the energy they used became a ’solid’ against this fog.

It prevented the beasts from crossing over.

The moment they do, they lose the protective veil and will be cut down without hesitation.

They knew this as well, resulting in a temporary stalemate. The soldiers stared at the beasts while the beasts stared back.

The only thing separating the two were two sets of defensive barriers.

"Howl all you want, you’re not getting through." Alice yawned because narrowed her eyes at the approaching figure.

A man carrying Miki’s heavily wounded body on the other side of the barrier.

"She’ll live." He spoke calmly.

Alice wanted to make a move but he was being protected by the fog.

"I had expected to cultivate more fear today but... I hadn’t accounted for a variable like you to protect this city. I look forward to our next meeting." He smiled, placing Miki on the ground.

Turning around, he walked away as the fog and beasts disappeared into the horizon.