4 Renewal

"「O sacred water, fluid of infinite shapes and forms, I calleth upon thee. I seek the pure spring within I might drinketh deep of power. Burst forth and wash hence mine own enemies futile life as thee inscribe in this pitiful earth the terror of thy true might... Iham Maia! 」"

Lianzhi Shang's aura exploded in a beautiful denim blue, brightening the dark night before transforming in a ravaging watery wave, destroying everything in its path.

Yakov's eyes widened in the face of this spell, knowing very well that it couldn't be below the fifth tier. Meanwhile, Shalom had plenty of time to react, crushing his huge hammer to the ground before shouting :

"Sorcery Artifact..「Ard Jidar」!"

Many runes shone with an intense golden glow along the weapon before releasing a powerful aura of the same color. It planted itself in the ground, before emerging an imposing rock wall in front of the water wave, deviating the latter on the sides.

Yakov took advantage of the huge rocky obstacle to escape his enemy's visual field, propelling himself to the right to merge with the veil of darkness the dark night offered. However, he was intercepted on his first jump by one of the four surviving bandits. The mercenary threw his great sword on Yakov's skull, trying to finish him with one blow. The young man lifted his unsheathed blade, easily parrying the offensive of his opponent.

As a sorcerer with an aura of「Nature」type, he had a great sensitivity towards earth vibrations, making him a very difficult prey to take by surprise.

When the bandit responded with another attack, malachite runes glittered along Yakov's sword, releasing a powerful greenish aura.

"Sorcery Artifact..「Shajar Lahiq」"

The longsword took the appearance of a tree bark before twisting, following a sinuous path while winding the limbs of the bandit, like a snake. The sorcerer only had to squeeze the handle of his sword so that the newly formed root strengthens its embrace, breaking the bones of its victim and killing him instantly.

Yakov turned his gaze to a second presence approaching quickly. It appeared to be a second bandit, wielding a two-handed sword while charging in his direction. The young warrior brought his armed hand forward, guiding the root that replaced the blade of his sword in the manner of a whip to send it to the approaching foe. The vegetal whip snaked between the limbs of its new prey, gripping it to death.

On the other side, Shalom was facing the last two bandits at the same time. His huge hammer was shaking their arms with every impact, pushing them several steps behind every time he waved his weapon. At the end of the third exchange, a different line of runes shone along Shalom's hammer, releasing for the second time the oppressive golden aura.

"Sorcery Artifact..「Ard Rafas」"

The earth began to shake, spitting from its depths many rocky plates that stuck to the giant warrior's weapon. In a fraction of a second, the hammer's head had a gigantic rocky extension that fell like a meteorite over the two shocked bandits, crushing them like insects. The impact shook the whole plain, destroying a large part of the ground while forming an immense crater where two puddles of blood and flesh lay, the only remains of the poor men.

Shalom looked up after his double kill, trying to see if there were other enemies in sight. However, he didn't even have the time to catch his breath as a whistle of air reached his ears, signaling the imminent arrival of a projectile. Produced by his extraordinary hearing, this gift saved the life of the muscular giant who instinctively shifted his head to his right, letting the weapon graze his left cheek where she inscribed a shallow wound.

While turning his gaze to it, Shalom noticed that the projectile was just a knife with a golden handle hanging on a greenish wire. The latter stood up at once, seemingly pulled by someone behind the warrior. He shifted his body to the right while pivoting in the same movement, wanting to face the approaching danger.

Immediately, he saw a blurred figure propelling itself towards him at incredible speed, being none other than that of Jie Wen. The imperial figure retracted the wire attached to his weapon during the assault, grabbing his gold-handled knife while attempting to stab the muscular giant with its blade. The mercenary retaliated without delay, bringing back his imposing hammer in front of him before delivering a powerful circular blow.

"Too slow.."

Jie wen murmured these words before lowering himself with a knee bend in order to pass below the blow.

"Huh? So easily?!"

Shalom's eyes widened as he watched the imperial figure dodge his offensive like it was nothing, his movements reminding him of a snake.

Jie Wen pushed himself forward after his dodge, leaving no time for his opponent to resume his defensive stance. He squeezed the golden handle of his knife, wrapping its blade with a sharp layer of wind before beginning his murderous dance. A greenish line passed through Shalom's wrists, slashing them at the pressure points to make him drop his weapon. The same slash, representing the extremely quick movements of the knife, described a crescent at the torso of the muscular warrior. The blow went past his armor and opened a deep wound through his flesh before he even realized it. But as Jie Wen pulled his knife back to the giant's throat for the final blow, the shrill sound of metal rubbing rang; Yakov landed at an incredible speed between the two fighters, brandishing his longsword. Shalom backed off hurriedly to catch his breath and examine his wounds while a bewildering exchange took place between the two sorcerers in front of him.

Like a snake, Jie Wen's blows were fast and precise, but not enough to override Yakov's defense, who parried the offensives with difficulty. After a few seconds, the two fighters had already exchanged twenty hits, it's only after the parrying of the twenty-first offensive that the young mercenary decided to counterattack, transforming the blade of his sword into a thick root that snaked between Jie Wen's limbs, trying to embrace him. Without even showing an ounce of anxiety, the imperial sorcerer executed a magnificent movement; his knife turned into a greenish slash that cut the root into pieces before lodging in Yakov's shoulder. The latter hadn't even been able to react, the movement has been too fast.

"Your swordplay is boorish. It took me only a few exchanges to break your defense."

Jie Wen started at him with his greenish irides, a cold smile on his lips.

"Now, let's see if your friend will take to bait.."

The whispers of the imperial sorcerer were followed by the appearance of a second presence a few meters away from them: Lianzhi Shang. From a distance, the sorcerers could feel the activity of her aura, she was chanting a spell.

"Yakov! I'm coming!"

Shalom panicked at the sight of his companion being stabbed, throwing himself into the battle a second time with the hope of saving him.

"No! Stay away!" yelled Yakov while being held in place by Jie Wen.

"...「Saqih Jamd」!"

As she finished her incantation, the imperial princess lifted both her arms before her aura, which turned from blue denim to cyan, illuminated the plain. A meander of ice pikes rose from under Shalom's feet, piercing him from all sides while lifting his body above a newly formed gigantic tree of icy protuberances.

"SHALOM!"

Yakov squeezed the handle of his destroyed sword, awakening the runes inscribed in what was left of it.

"Sorcery Artifact..「Shajar Abadi」!"

The young sorcerer gave Jie Wen a strong headbutt, taking him by surprise to escape his embrace. A fraction of a second later, an enormous wave of gigantic roots swept away from the handle of his sword, pushing the imperial sorcerer even further through a section of the forest. Yakov then turned to the imperial princess, running towards her. The huge meander of roots followed him closely during his frenetic run.

"What a courageous little boy. You dare to attack me head on... Don't you value your life?"

Lianzhi smirked, hastily hiding her smile with her uchiwa. Yakov ignored her, not even bothering to hide his murderous urge. He brought the handle of his sword before him, guiding the huge band of roots toward the sorceress. In an instant, the latter was already enveloped on all sides by the vegetal embraces, preventing her from making any movement.

"I will kill you!" Yakov propelled himself toward the immobilized body of the princess. He then pulled a dagger from his belt, intending to cut her limbs one by one before killing her.

However, by the time he arrived in front of her, a quick blue denim slash cut out the roots imprisoning Lianzhi. Yakov, not having been able to follow the movement, only laid down his gaze to the source of the powerful aura he was feeling right now. He saw at once Lianzhi's uchiwa, bathed in her powerful life energy. The aura quickly turned into a limpid watery mass before compressing itself into a gigantic and majestic blue sword.

"You chose death the moment you tried to attack me, peasant. Let the sword of the Sea's God end your pitiful life... Sorcery Artifact,「Seief Maia」!"

In a movement almost invisible to the naked eye, Lianzhi pulled up her sword, cutting Yakov's body into two symmetrical parts. The young sorcerer didn't even realize what had happened, falling into an eternal void in a split second.

The water composing the mighty sword slowly disappeared, taking the form of a blue denim aura before retracting inside the uchiwa, the runes inscribed in it still shining.

"Jie Wen! Stop this masquerade and reveal yourself."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Jie Wen calmly stepped out of the shadows, with no scratches.

"You let him escape on purpose, isn't it? You wanted me to kill him with my own hands."

"I would never dare to do such a thing, Your Highness. After all, your security is my absolute priority."

The imperial sorcerer took advantage of the lack of visibility to display a cryptic smile, knowing very well that his mistress had seen clearly through his game. The princess did not bother to continue this conversation, raising instead her gaze to the cloud nebula that composed the cumulonimbus, seeing that it was scattering. The lunar light immediately illuminated the destroyed plain, making visible the multiple corpses that adorned it. Lianzhi took the time to admire the magnificent moon before lowering her head, noticing a new presence right in front of her.

She saw four masked men completely dressed in white. Their mask was composed of a simple whitish cloth connected to their keffiyeh. Their long immaculate robes were perfectly similar and the only thing that differentiated them was the number of creepers that made up the crown of thorns they wore above their heads.

"These men see that the princess Lianzhi Shang accomplished her mission, so these men came to fulfill their promise."

Speaking with a cryptic and almost robotic voice, one of them stepped forward, holding in his hand a small blackish box with silver inscriptions, resembling ancient runes. He handed it to Lianzhi who accepted it at once, taking the time to admire the mystic writing that adorned this artifact.

"These men gave the princess the promised artifact, so these men will now leave."

"Wait."

Lianzhi stopped them, a suspicious look on her face.

"Why did you agree to give me such a powerful artifact in exchange for the life of these weak creatures? I don't understand at all."

"When the pure becomes impure, and the sane becomes insane, the specter of destiny shall appear with two faces, that of the tormentor of the lost souls and that of the master of the celestial vault. He will then reverse the time's path and the splendor of the quadrumvirate shall be worshiped again.."

As he enunciated his riddle, the man gradually disappeared with his three other companions until completely vanishing, as if they had never existed.

"Hmpf... What does this mean, Jie Wen?"

"I have no idea... Your Highness."

Not dwelling too much on the rumblings of the four men, the two imperial figures turned back, vanishing in their turn in the darkness of the night.

Livshe, who was dragging herself slowly from the other side of the forest, finally arrived in the ravaged plain. An uncomfortable feeling stung her heart as she advanced among the corpses, fearing to meet one of her friends.

Passing by a headless body, the young sorceress saw a familiar armor; Meir's armor. Anguish shot back to her throat, threatening to strangle her... For a few moments, she felt like she could not breathe. She then collapsed to the ground. The woman no longer had enough strength to stand on her feet.

"Meir.. and Isk-... Yakov?! Shalom?!"

For a brief moment, Livshe had a frightful vision showing Iska's death, but she immediately dismissed that thought. She tried to focus all her concern on the rest of the group, trying desperately to keep her heart in one piece as she felt like it could crumble at any moment.

The blonde sorceress pulled herself by the mere force of her arms from one point to the other of the plain, seeking her companions. She noticed the presence of a gigantic ice tree, however, covered with coagulated blood. Only by raising her head to the highest icy protuberance did she notice Shalom's pierced body. Tears slid down her cheeks as she restrained herself from crying, continuing her way to the other side of the plain, hoping to find one of her friends alive.

After a while, the familiar shine of Yakov's armor caught her eye. Livshe's immediately gathered all her courage and crawled with all her strength to the source of this brilliance. The scene that greeted her was forever etched in her memory; the corpse of the young sorcerer was cut into two parts and bathed in a putrefied blood pool while his organs lay all around like ornaments.

Livshe felt her gastric acid go up to her throat, vomiting all she had eaten. In fact, she even felt that her organs were thrown along with the vomit. An intense pain appeared in her heart, adding itself to the unpleasant feeling of deep sadness and despair that overwhelmed her, making this unforgettable night an eternal scar in her memory.

The shock prevented her from expressing her sorrow, explaining why Livshe was silently staring at Yakov's corpse as her tears flowed in abundance.

After a while, the young woman was pulled from the meanders of her dark thoughts by a pain in the back of her skull. Someone seemed to be pulling her by her hair, but she couldn't move, or, more precisely, she couldn't find a reason to move.

"A nice catch this time, Yorn. I can't wait to fuck her."

"Me first, Jaren. I'm the one who convinced that imperial whore to let us have her."

The two men casually chatted while dragging Livshe with them deeper into the plain, moving away from the corpses. They then tore the clothes of the young woman, taking turns to rape her.

Livshe did not resist, instead, she stared at the night sky, her eyes empty of emotions. For the first time in her life, she came to hate his world, her helplessness, and her fate. The pain in her pelvis was growing, but she paid it no attention, reliving in her head the strange dream she made the night before.

Soon, two new voices were audible in her head; the first begged her to abandon herself to death, freeing her from these torments, while the second encouraged her to rebel, to curse that destiny and to change it, even if it meant destroying that of others. Gradually, the second voice gained more power and intensity, smothering the first and activating a psychological defense mechanism in the young woman.

A second personality was formed in Livshe.

With the awakening of that personality, a drastic change occurred in her life energy. An extremely rare event was born during this sad scene, dyeing the pure and whitish aura of the sorceress with a deep black representing the insanity of the primordial chaos.

While the two men were having fun with Livshe's body, the woman noticed a moving figure in the night sky. A strange looking creature appeared in the sorceress' eyes, seeming invisible to Yorn and Jaren. Its long and huge misty body was moving like a snake as it descended from the sky. The azure glaze of its eyes illuminated its demon-like features, sporting two large horns above its skull. However, its appearance did not scare Livshe.. on the contrary, the aura that emanated from this being attracted her strangely.

"A spirit.." she murmured in an almost inaudible voice, slowly raising her right arm.

As if it reacted to her action, the spiritual creature materialized an arm seemingly composed of darkness from her foggy body, touching Livshe's outstretched hand.

The moment the contact took place, the world seemed to become gray. A harmless wave was generated from both hands, crossing in a few moments the various continents of this world.

"Finally... The moment has finally come!"

"Segon's miasma..."

"Glory to Segon! Glory to Segon!"

The released wave made the sorcerers around the world react, giving hope to some while plunging others into a deep fear of the future.

At that moment, the two rapists began to smell a strange odor, a nauseating smell that can only remind them of one thing: death. Trying to deduce the origin of this scent, Yorn dropped Livshe's bare legs, raising his head while sniffing the air. However, as he gazed at her face, he saw an appalling expression; a sibylline smile so terrifying that he shivered. Livshe, sporting this frightful expression, raised the upper part of her body at once, seizing the skull of the bandit with her two pale hands.

Suddenly, Yorn's skin in contact with the sorceress' palms began to darken visibly, entering a necrotic phase and inflicting him an indescribable pain. He didn't have time to scream that the necrosis reached his brain, killing him instantly. The body of the man fell to the ground, inert, like a puppet whose strings were cut. The sound of his fall alerted Jaren, who immediately turned his gaze to them, seeing for himself the unfolding scene.

"You bitch!"

He grabbed Livshe's throat with his right hand, lifting her with the sheer force of his arm as he tried to strangle her. Nevertheless, nothing he could do managed to extinguish the terrifying smile that the young woman displayed.

"Die!"

The moment the bandit tried to break her neck, he felt a certain pressure on his ankle. Suddenly, something kicked his foot, destabilizing him and making him fall to the ground. This quick interruption forced him to let go of Livshe's throat, who, having no strength in her legs, only collapsed on her knees.

She then watched the scene unfold before her, an indescribable pleasure invading her as she stared at Jaren.

The bandit looked at the person who made him fall, only to find that it was none other than his dead companion, Yorn. His face was blackened by a horrible necrosis and his hair had fallen, making him bald. His eyes were empty and showed no trace of life, and in addition, the miasma of death filled every portion of his being, threatening to burn Jaren's nostrils.

An aura of deep black enveloped Yorn, imprisoning his tortured soul in the cruel jail that was his decaying body and thus subjecting him to Livshe's will.

Without delay, the enslaved bandit opened his mouth, revealing his sharp teeth. He tore off a huge piece of flesh from his companion's throat who was paralyzed with terror. Jaren's scream of pain immediately invaded the forest, but unfortunately for him, no one was there to hear it.

Meanwhile, Livshe lost herself in a mad laugh as she watched this gruesome torture.

Indeed, that night, she had lost something that was precious to her.. Her humanity.