Crisis (2)

Support my main contracted novel and winner of Writing Prompts #26 - The Legendary Mage!

Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn!

https://www.webnovel.com/book/12013957905760805/Desolate-Mage%3A-A-Legend-Reborn!

* * * * *

Without needing discussion, Lucius and Dhrtarastra sped off towards the distant mountain range within the Yore Forest. The duo crossed the dozens of kilometres in a flash, startling and leaving the local monsters along their path cowering in fear.

They stopped at a secluded area in between 2 peaks.

Dhrtarastra made the first move.

Despite his earlier calm act; Dhrtarastra went all-out from the get-go. He began to dance; waving his hands in varying poses and stepping left and right, his mana leaving trails of blue luminance and forming a runic symbol.

Despite the motions being fluid, it looked strange as his joints were locked in place stiffly, making him look like a robot. Then he did a headstand, and began to spin.

Lucius wore an incredulous look; forgetting to maintain a cool battle pose, "…Breakdancing? Looks like despite your holier-than-thou act, you were pretty wild in your younger days…"

"Shut up! You should be honoured to see our most sacred battle dance before you die!" Dhrtarastra's face turned beet red in embarrassment. Why in the world did their strongest battle spells have to be triggered by a foolish dance… He dreaded the next part even more.

He swallowed back his embarrassment, and stood with his 2 arms above his head, forming a big "O" above him. Then he opened his mouth and shouted, "God's descent: Sakra!"

Then he began to sing, "The wheels on the cart go round and round…"

Lucius couldn't take it anymore; he burst out laughing, his hysterical laughter causing him to roll on the floor.

Ignoring his face burning with shame, Dhrtarastra finished the last line of the song, and to Lucius' shock, there was a palpable change in the atmosphere.

A real yet illusory sun appeared above them in the sky, piercing through the clouds – but only lighting up the night sky around them. At the same time, the "O" formed by Dhrtarastra's arms began to shine with a blinding light.

Dhratarastra roared out loud as he offered up all his mana, "God's! Descent! SAKRA!"

Lucius covered his eyes as his vision was swallowed up by omni-directional whiteness. His ears stung as a gong sounded; announcing the imminent arrival of a god. His head spun and he fell to his knees, barely swallowing down a mouthful of blood. He felt as if a thousand years had passed; yet it was also like he had just blinked for a second – he lost his sense of space and time as the divine breached through to the mortal world. Yet he knew it was but an illusion; and in truth, less than a fraction of a second had passed.

As his consciousness returned to reality, he saw a round faced being with a half-shoulder white robe wrapped around his body. There seemed to be the image of a sun radiating from behind his head, yet it was also as if it were a deep night sky devoid of stars. He had his eyes closed, and a serene smile on his face; as if the vicissitudes of the world were but droplets of water in the river of eternity to him.

The dignified image was spoiled as the god burst out laughing, his hysterical laughter causing him to roll on the floor.

At the side, the once-devout follower was kneeling, hiding his face in shame.

Composing himself, Sakra wiped the tears from his eyes. "It's amazing what ridiculous things people will do for power. All you need to do is write it into the Holy Arts and you'll get a comedy show each time…"

"…" the due were left speechless.

Lucius looked at Dhrtarastra, "Was *this* what you wanted to show me…?"

"…"

* * * * *

Sakra was puzzled.

Ages ago, the theory of using electromagnetic waves (waves for short) for cultivating the body was discovered by the ancient peoples; leading to the cultivation path of the knights. Then King Ogyrvan adapted the mana cultivation of the west with waves; and introduced wave emission as a killing move.

Finally King Arthur built on his father-in-law's discoveries and established what became the most popular system of wave cultivation; the Knights of the Round Table with 7 orders of knights, corresponding to the 7 colours of waves they specialised in.

The heads of each order were given a related title – the Crimson Knight for Red, the Dusk Knight for Orange and so on.

However, there were a few individuals who defied the common sense of the colour system; and shook the common understandingof the waves system. These knights reigned as tyrants across the world of Urth; and were known by the iconic colour of their waves.

Silver knight Lucius was one of them. He was truly strong – when compared to mortals. And that was what caused Sakra to have a seed of doubt in his heart – where did Lucius' confidence come from?

Wary of a trap, Sakra extended his divine sense outwards. The only reaction he sensed in the area was the isolation barrier covering Pari; erected by Lucius to protect the town.

Sakra furrowed his brows inwardly while maintaining his grip around Lucius' throat. The struggle had ended in 2 moves – Lucius' released his trump card, Silver Burst, to which Sakra responded by teleporting behind Lucius and smashing him to the ground.

!!

(It was too easy; don't tell me… )

(Shatter the isolation barrier!)

(My lord…?)

(Do it now!)

Dhrtarastra silently bowed his head and relayed the orders to his team of 5 hunters.

…? Shanzi was not responding? There shouldn't be any individuals who could threaten his team, not with Lucius' isolation barrier in place to ensure everyone stayed asleep...

At the same instant as he sent his commands; Sakra tightened his grip – only to realise that the Silver Waves covering Lucius' neck did not break. Despite exerting 80% of his strength, the reinforcement merely trembled. Then he saw Lucius' smile.

Sakra flung Lucius away and invoked continuous instant-spells; raising layers upon layers of defensive barriers. Lucius landed – then disappeared. No, he was just moving so fast, Dhrtarastra could no longer see him.

Without hesitation, Sakra roared as the image of the sun behind his head solidified; turning opaque and releasing countless rays of majestic flames. Just in time – a gigantic silver wave in the shape of a beasts claw materialised as if out of thin air.

The claw made of silver coloured light clashed with Sakra's divine flames and faltered, seemingly swallowed by the flames. Seeing that he had the advantage, Sakra pointed his finger and fired a concentrated beam of golden light as thick as an arm straight at Lucius.

Only to see the silver claw shine even brighter and extinguish his flames.

"Im… Impossible!" Divine energy could only be overcome by an equally strong divine energy!

The man clad in silver reinforcement charged forward, slipping past the first golden beam, and continued to dodge past the follow-up beams; drawing ever closer to Sakra.

"Insolent!" Sakra raised his right hand – and a pillar of magma and fire gushed forth from where Lucius' foot landed. Losing his balance, Lucius was nearly washed away in the magma – narrowly escaping the flames. Then the magma formed a hand and descended to crush him.

At that moment, Sakra felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

Despite his divine realm sun still shining in the sky, Sakra suddenly felt as though the world grew dark and still.

As if in slow-motion, he saw a blazon of a sword manifest on Lucius' forehead.

Sakra screamed mentally; and desperately tried to move; only to "see" himself barely moving. Yet he could see Lucius moving, as if in a dream.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Lucius elegance made it feel like a dance; one that charmed the viewer in its esoteric mystery.

Four steps, five steps, six steps.

Sakra felt the distance between them shrink, as if the ground contracted and the earth folded inwards on itself.

On the seventh step, Lucius lifted his sword with both hands in front of himself[1]; as if a penitent in worship.

On the eighth step, he lowered his sword in a 2 handed grip below his waist[2] and closed his eyes.

Channeling all his divinity, Sakra tried to break free from this trance-like world of darkness and silence.

There was no ninth step; or perhaps; the ninth step exceeded the realm of Sakra's perception.

When Lucius' eyes opened, the sword had already completed its stroke.

When Sakra's eyes opened, he found himself lying face down on the ground at Lucius' feet. His remaining divinity in this avatar was… less than 1%.

"You… A god?"

Lucius shook his head. His plain sword had returned to its shoddy sheath, and closed his eyes as he spoke, "Gods are shackled beings; subservient to the laws they become," then he opened his eyes; and there was a fervent fanaticism burning in them, "I am but a mortal – one who walks a path other from the way of the Heavens and Immortals - the path of transcendence."

"The Heavenly Fate will never allow this; you are an… An... An aberration! You cannot be permitted to exist!" Sakra's eyes began to burn, turning to lakes of fire. Then the avatar's entire body erupted in flames.

"Ahhhhh!" Dhrtarastra screamed as the divine power bestowed on him as a ghandarva king was drained out of him; swirling in the air before it united with the flames from Sakra's avatar. The two beams of fire united, then rocketed into the sky - channeling into the divine sun hanging in the sky.

And then just beneath the sun, a red line appeared in the skies. 2 titanically large hands burst through, revealing the red line to be a rift in the skies. The hands forcefully tore apart a portal for the owner of the hands to step through.

All this took a while to describe; but it happened in less than a second.

As the portal widened, the trees and plants were incinerated; while the surface of the mountains began to crystallise; turning blue as even the chemical structure of the rocks transformed.

And then in twinkle of the eye, Sakra's true body shot out of the portal.

Unable to react, Lucius was flung away like a kite with its strings cut, crashing deep into one of the peaks. Sakra had not even triggered his divine abilities – he had merely swatted Lucius away with a casual swipe of his palm. Without hesitation, Sakra took a deep breath and spat out a pillar of flaming energy at the mountain peak, disintegrating it and erasing the portion of forest behind it.

Sakra concentrated his divine sense; searching for traces of Lucius' dead body. Surprisingly, there were no signs of Lucius. Could he have been vapourised along with the mountain…?

"Silver sword."

Once more, light disappeared from Sakra's eyes. Unbelievably, he felt his true divine body slow to a crawl. His eyes widened in disbelief; and as if in a nightmare, Lucius began to move gracefully.

Once again, the steps began.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Sakra's heart was bursting in terror, struggling to ignite his god's blood with no regard to the injuries it would cause.

Four steps, five steps, six steps.

His desperation rising, Sakra surrendered more of his soul to the chains of Heavenly Fate in exchange for more divinity; he felt his mind slipping away, losing independence.

On the seventh step, Sakra could move like a snail. Decisively, he offered up more than half his soul, resulting in a burst of rainbow light around him - but it was still swallowed by the darkness.

On the eighth step, one of his two hearts ruptured as he recklessly absorbed as much power as he could.

(He could finally move!)

The ninth step – he could see the ninth step!

Sakra roared triumphantly, launching a maniacal explosion of flames at Lucius who had just taken a step forward with his left foot.

Then Lucius disappeared.

* * * * *

Dhrtarastra coughed.

He felt dizzy. He realised he was lying on the ground, surrounded by rubble.

He sprang to his feet – or least he tried to. He struggled to get up, propping himself up with his arms. He balanced himself – and finally got up to his feet; albeit shakily.

(Where are they…?)

It was quiet around him. The aftermath of a heavy battle could be seen; Sakra's true body's descent caused one peak to collapse, while the other peak crumbled after he sent Lucius crashing into it.

Perhaps their battle had brought them far away…?

Climbing up onto the rubble behind him, Dhrtarastra felt as weak as when before he began cultivation.

(Still, I'm far stronger than the ant-like humans), he comforted himself.

Looking at his hands; he knew he had lost the blessing of youth that came with Sakra's divine bestowal; and with it, much of his strength. His divine blessing should have been consumed by Sakra's avatar; he would have to pledge new merits and offerings to receive the blessings anew.

Reaching the top of the heap of stones; Dhrtarastra spread his mental senses out to survey his surroundings in search of traces of the combatants.

And then he fell down, tumbling to the bottom where he had been lying earlier. Only this time, he couldn't – no, he lost the will to rise again.

Beyond the mountainous region, around a hundred kilometres to the south was a great grassland; and south beyond that another few hundred kilometres was the coastline and the Middlesea.

And yet, if one were to peer down from the mountains to south; one would see a smooth, steep decline ending at a sudden coastline. The sea that was meant to be three to four hundred kilmoteres away had traveled overnight to the middle of the Yore Forest.

And yet, to the east and west; beyond the ~40km stretch of sea, the coastline formed 2 smooth lines on either side; as far as the eye could see. And on the coastline, the Yore Forest began immediately, as if nothing had happened.

It was as if the land, mountains and forest had been deleted.

Lying on the coastline was a giant, the white robes still pristine and untouched. It was just that, his upper half was missing; as if though erased from the world.

Dhrtarastra sobbed. The age of the gandharva was over.

* * * * *

"Daddy, what's that…?" A young child was sitting by the window and studying, when she saw dozens of comets streaking through the sky. They seemed very distant.

His daddy finished the last line of writing, then looked up from his accounts books. He blinked a few times, surprised, "Looks like a sudden comet shower, dear."

Despite being at a distance of thousands of kilometres from land; all of Urth could see and feel the tremors and tsunamis caused as the floating continent of the gandharva crashed into the sea.