Chapter 59: Declaration of War

During the calm before the storm, the Yanese censors barged in Wei's office, in an outrage.

"What is the meaning of this Wei!? The Shadow guards are being hunted down by Leithanien and Kazimierz! Why did you give them access to the city!?" One of them screamed in rage.

"Lungmen is a city of Yan! How dare they roam around here and make trouble here! They are courting death!" The woman was fuming.

"Hah..." Wei just sighed, making them more angry. He pointed at the television in his office and played the flicks in how Deliverance were dismantling their shadow guards that were supposed to kill the infected.

"Simple, they're breathing down on our neck. And they could do so, I am sure that they will break down the gates of Lungmen and destroy the mobile city if their demands aren't met." Wei tried explaining.

"This is unacceptable! They will have to know the greatness of Yan! We will teach them the difference of heaven and earth!" Wei winced at their screaming.

The censors almost puked blood due to the offense to Yan and they stormed off to god knows where.

"This isn't my problem anymore..." Wei snorted as he hit his pipe. Yan would now handle this according to the censors' reactions. And it was glorious, he just needed to capitalize on the aftereffects.

He took out his phone and gave Margaret a message. The censors will be doing something drastic. And Wei would be waiting patiently to see what the hell will happen.

Wei then almost fell from his seat, the building he was on tilted and he saw something in the west district. It was a fortress of ice, and fire was raining from above.

"Fuck me, why did this had to happen in my city?" Wei ignored it, he had no more cards to play except to order an evacuation from the area near the west.

And at the said location, Hoshiguma planted her shield in front of her while Ch'en hid behind the Oni.

"Fuck! Are they insane!? They'll destroy the whole west district!" Hoshiguma shouted anxiously. They watched the surroundings turn orange from the heat of Talulah's arts.

While their side turned white, diamond dust floating in the air as ice and fire clashed against each other. Creating steam explosions from the massive temperature differences.

"You are unsafe here, find a place to hide and wait for the right timing." Patriot instructed. He just watched Yelena fight her counterpart in arts.

Yelena made a silver blade of ice. It emitted such coldness that the very ground it was pointed on froze and crumbled into dust.

Silvery lances of ice orbited her from behind and she squinted her eyes towards Talulah. The Draco brandished her sword. Superheating it to the point where the vicinity around her turned into molten rock.

Without a second longer, they both ran at each other and their blades clashed. A shockwave made of fire and deathly cold air escaped from the combatants.

The city block they were fighting in melted and froze in two halves. Talulah's eyes widened as Yelena's orbiting lances suddenly pointed at her and launched themselves towards the Draco with sonic booms.

A bright red shield formed in front of Talulah and beams made of pure heat tried to skewer the Cautus.

She parried them without any problems and they circled around each other. Sizing up one another, waiting for the other to make a move.

"Flowing blade-like flame." Talulah concentrated on her sword imbuing it with her arts. Releasing her energy onto it seriously. Yelena is her match, and it would be foolish to not take her seriously.

Ch'en and Hoshiguma immediately dropped down in their hiding spot. A heat wave encompassed the entire district and temperatures continued to rise. Blistering heat created a haze and Yelena snorted.

"Frozen heaven." Yelena closed her eyes and the skies of Lungmen started forming clouds. Snow began to fall and it quickly ramped up, turning into a blizzard that concentrated on the west district.

The very ground beneath Yelena sprouted ice. Hail falling from the skies, creating steam as their arts oppose each other. Vying for hegemony over the battlefield.

Pure white encroached on the battlefield. Deathly cold creeping all over. While on the other side, pure heat began to melt the surroundings. Water that came from Yelena's melted began boiling and superheated steam created a haze on Talulah's form.

"Torch!" Talulah pointed her blade at Yelena. Dense flames blew everything in its path. Lighting anything that could be lit ablaze.

"Vacuum ice blade." With a swing of her sword, Yelena released crescent shaped energy blades that sundered the earth.

The two attacks crashed into each other and exploded. Scattering super cold air and explosive fireballs all over the place.

Yelena then pressed the attack and used slippery ice to slide. Spears tried to skewer Talulah, she clicked her tongue and jumped backwards from the relentless assault.

She waited patiently and saw her chance when Yelena was airborne. Titanic pillars of flames enclosed her inside a prison.

Talulah then threw a barrage of fireballs to enter the prison and explode into a fiery blaze.

Like an ordnance bombing, a sphere of flames exploded and a flash of light was seen. Shockwaves destroyed windows and made the buildings crumble.

Before she could look for the damage she did, cold air seeped into the concrete and the onlookers saw a silvery sphere of ice, encasing the Cautus safely.

"It's my turn then, Talulah." Ice coated her like natural armor. Jagged shards of it on Yelena's body.

She erected a wall and she jumped. With immaculate control, Yelena willed pillars of ice to hit her soles and launch her to Talulah at breakneck speeds.

Yelena quickly arrived towards Talulah and they entered a clash of blades. And every explosive hit they swung at each other, Talulah noticed her flames losing heat.

A wall of ice erupted behind her and Yelena silently swung her silvery blade. Talulah had to block it full force and she widened her eyes.

"What's the matter? Getting cold feet?" Yelena squinted her eyes. Talulah's sword was slowly turning white at their blades' contact point. It was getting frozen over.

Talulah inhaled the cold air around her, not minding the biting frost. With a roar, she released a torrent of flames that were aimed right at Yelena's face.

They backed off each other and Talulah raged. "I will show you hell fire Yelena." A dazzling light emerged from Talulah's blade and fire erupted from it.

"Everything in the universe, turn to ashes." She stabbed the sword on to the ground and a tsunami of flames threatened to swallow Lungmen.

The torrential flames crashed onto the titanic ice wall Yelena created and it seemed like it was hell on earth.

Yelena was quick to act and she launched herself to the skies. "Let us take this seriously then. Subjugation of the heavens!"

A wave of cold air seemed to make everything stagnant. Talulah's flames even seemed to freeze and fall down as hail and snow.

Their powers made the western district's support beams creak. Thermal fractures appearing on the massive metal base of Lungmen.

And while the two natural disasters clashed with their terrible arts. Someone stirred, feeling the nearby collosal energy signatures.

Ash opened his eyes, his slitted pupils narrowing even further. He immediately sat up and he released a low growl.

Paradiso shook and the dark clouds in the sky crackled. A storm of black lightning cutting through the air ominously.

"Talulah... Where's Talulah!?" He shouted and the building almost imploded. Ash might have been unconscious, but his brain still gathered information.

Nian and Kjera immediately entered his room and Kjera froze him in a block of ice while Nian tied him up with steel beams.

"Calm down Ash! Talulah's fighting Yelena right now, she'll apprehend her." Kjera floated towards his face and put her hands on his cheeks.

"He's about to blow Kjera..." Nian was reinforcing his bindings, but he was too strong. She could feel it. The beams were screaming from his strength. And he didn't even have any leverage.

"Move!" Ash growled and violet flames erupted from his body. Kjera and Nian were unable to do anything and he cracked his neck.

Ash jumped right through the roof and he flew to Lungmen in a heartbeat.

"Shit, I can't do anything to him in Lungmen Kjera, go!" Nian winced as Yan would definitely use their artifacts on her to take her out of the battle.

The Sui regulators of course has an arsenal of artifacts against the siblings. The true Lung from ancient times mandated its creation to prevent the siblings on going on a rampage.

Kjera immediately flew to Lungmen in her dragon form and followed his destination.

Patriot who was shielding Ch'en and Hoshiguma from Yelena and Talulah's arts could feel the ominous change in the surroundings.

"I have a bad feeling about this." His red eyes looked at the sky and black lightning was crackling in the clouds that loomed over Lungmen.

Yelena and Talulah were having an intense sword fight and every swing they give resulted in disastrous amounts of flames and cold ravaging the district.

Talulah was having a problem too, her prosthetics from kidnapped Azazel doctors were failing her. She was protecting them with her arts. But they're almost non-functional now.

So she started to get desperate and black tendrils escaped from her back. Her silver gray hair received an orange tint and her voice changed, seemingly overlapping with another.

"It does not matter anymore even if this vessel burns to ashes. My plan is on its way, war against Yan will start. Kazimierz and Leithanien will join. And a world wide war will begin, just like all those years ago." She smirked and laughed.

Yelena furrowed her brows. "Who are you? You are not Talulah." The Cautus reached for her pager and gave a signal.

"The deathless black snake. It's a shame really, Talulah has been the best vessel I could ask for. But now, she's outlived her usefulness." She scoffed and looked at the prosthetics that didn't want to move anymore.

"So how about I use you?" She licked her lips and Yelena widened her eyes. Not Talulah suddenly gained a large amount of speed.

Her arts skyrocketing in power as she released jets behind her to propulse herself. A torrent of flames robbed the Cautus of her vision and she defended.

But what came next after she opened her eyes were the black tentacles moving in at breakneck speeds.

Before Yelena could get hit though, Patriot arrived and smacked Talulah with his made. Sending her flying through an entire city block. His mace coated with his arts. Inhuman screaming resounding from it.

"As I thought... Kaschey, you did something to young Talulah. I've had my suspicions, but you are the deathless black snake that the rumors talk about..." Patriot squinted his eyes warily.

"What was she trying to do?" Yelena's face scrunched up, thankful for his support.

"Based on what I've heard, Kaschey can fracture his soul and insert it into other people. It was a technique that was developed by the confessarius. This matter concerns Kazdel as well." Patriot bristled in anger.

The confessarius weren't really a known group. But to the higher ups, their experiments and techniques concerning souls were familiar to the likes of Patriot.

And their inhumane, immoral arts seemed to be passed on to others.

"We got to take her down, now." Patriot charged through the bright flames like it was just warm air. His resistance against arts was almost at the realm of unnatural.

But before he reached the grinning Draco. Something crashed between them that made Lungmen tilt to the west due to the immense force.

Yelena and Patriot were sent flying and the city experienced a tremor that made the remaining buildings there crumble.

"Patriot, Yelena! Are you fine?" Ch'en and Hoshiguma went to them after they recovered their footing.

"We're good... Is that Ash?" Yelena blinked and they saw his gray skin that looked like tarnished metal. His horns were glowing and leaking energy that felt like pure evil.

And on his hand, was Talulah's neck. "Oh well... Krgh, it seems this is the end of the line. But you will be seeing more of me." Talulah chuckled as she choked on his tightening grip.

"Ash, wait!" Patriot shouted. Ash put a hand on Talulah's head and he manipulated her soul. Shining already taught it to him and it was morbidly, the best way of torture or gaining information.

He squinted his eyes and prevented himself from crushing her instantly with his large hand. But he felt something awry.

There were two souls inside of her. And the invader was a man with silver hair, looking like a pale vampire that wasn't handsome. Unlike the stories of the blood suckers.

Ash quickly pried off the parasite and he held a foggy object on his hand. "So you're the cause of all this." He stated as a matter of fact and didn't let it wiggle around any longer.

He opened his mouth wide and the peanut gallery winced, seeing his terrifying set of teeth. He then chomped on it and they heard a scream of horrible pain.

Ash made short work of the soul and he went quiet for a second. "Ursus..." His inhuman voice growled out as if he learned of something.

The audience then got spooked by the shadow that appeared above them which was because of Kjera.

"A... A dragon." Patriot couldn't believe it. They were just mere legends from Yan. But there was one above them, just hovering around and observing.

"Do I have to fight you Ash?" Kjera's booming voice was heard all over Lungmen and he looked at the unconscious Talulah.

He picked her up and threw her like a ragdoll towards Kjera. "Lock her up..." He said bitterly and didn't knew what to feel. His rage was still sweltering, but his logic prevented him from going on a rampage.

Ursus is the culprit, Adele was taken by a duke from there. And his analytical mind told him that they were the ones who will receive his burning vengeance.

But his emotions told him otherwise. That Talulah let herself get taken over. It was due to her weakness that Adele died. Which was true, but most of the fault did not lie with her.

Ash sat down on the ruined ground and tried to breathe. His urge to annihilate everything in his path rising.

His aura was unapproachable and the four witnesses just let him be.

Yelena immediately messaged Margaret and the others that Ash was in Lungmen. That he was currently in their location.

Kjera returned to Paradiso with Talulah and he just sat there. Simmering in his thoughts with a scowl on his face.

Three people in red coats arrived, they were observing what was happening earlier and was nearby the west already.

"You dare trick one of the gods!? They all rightfully reside in Yan!" The tall one pointed at him in anger.

"Oh no." Patriot didn't stop them, wondering who they were. But he saw their insignia and they were the censorate from Yan. The equivalent of the inquisition in Iberia.

Ash just looked at them with an unamused gaze. "Noble censors! Please let it go!" Ch'en remembered their uniform from their previous inspections.

"Silence! This enmity will be paid back by Yan tenfold!" The smaller man used arts and shot lightning at him, Ash's skin smoking from the hit. But he just stared at them.

"Impossible! My heaven defying arts is unparalleled!" The man was shocked and his comrades were too.

Ash sneered and he squinted his eyes. "Heaven defying?" Ash willed the heavens to strike him down and a black flash blinded everyone. A vicious thunderclap almost rupturing their eardrums.

When they opened their eyes, black crackles of electricity remained on the ground and the man was gone, reduced to ashes.

"I... I have eyes, yet I wasn't able to recognize mt. Tai." The large man shivered in fear. Ash looked at him and he was yapping like a dog earlier, so he raised his hand and he flew right to him.

He then pulled his soul out and ate it right then and there. Bloodcurdling screams being slowly drowned out as he chewed something ethereal.

Ch'en and Hoshiguma gulped. They didn't understand what he just did. And the two didn't want to know.

"T-the difference is like the clouds and mud..." The last censor stepped back fearfully.

Ash walked up to the censor and his looming physique made her freeze in place.

"P-please spare this worthless life young master!" The woman kowtowed and he raised a brow.

He picked her up and took off her hood. Ash inspected him for a bit and she shivered like a leaf. His eyes felt like they were staring right through her soul. (pic)

"Tell Yan that you attacked the emperor of Leithanien. We will march towards your cities. Your friend said it the best. This enmity will be paid back tenfold." Ash dropped her to the ground and he looked at the direction where Margaret seemed to be.

"This isn't good at all." Patriot sighed with Yelena. Ch'en and Hoshiguma got anxious and they ran towards Wei's office to report.

War was coming and they'll be right at the crossfire of it. Lungmen was between Yan and Leithanien. And the censors attacked him unprovoked.

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Thank you for reading everyone, ciao.