Chapter 35: Despair part 1

Ryan used a series of movement to vault around the massive spikes coming in his direction, swinging his fist to destroy the ones that got too close for comfort

They both stopped afterwards to size eachother up

The pressure released by both Ryan and Karlon had cleared up the battlefield, both sides had fallen, some already dead

They were both mid level ascendants, karl at the 5th stage, the other, Ryan, at the 6th stage, but even with the difference in levels, Karlon wasn't losing out or backing down

"No matter how many times I see it Karl, your power never ceases to amaze me"

Ryan muttered as he got into stance

"It's a shame it's going to end this way"

Karl didn't utter a single word before dozens of magic scripts begun floating around him, an illusory viel covered the whole town

He had activated his domain

'Outer belt'

Asteroids appeared in the air, floating around in the sky, magic scripts dotted the area

Karlon's position was on an asteroid, up in the sky

"Ryan, you'd pay for everything"

A volley of rocks shot towards the still Ryan from above, a huge asteroid steadily picking up speed and shooting towards his direction

Ryan body this time caught aflame before he shot into the air, his speed too fast for the eye to follow, he had blasted apart the volley coming towards him with just the sheer pressure of his movement

Spinning in mid air, he position himself and kicked at that massive asteroid that was coming in his direction, flames running across it surface before it crumbled, before he kicked out and shot towards Karl

Ryan and completed this series of movements and attacks and was shooting across the vast sky towards Karl before the sound of his first attack sounded.

This was how ascendants fought when the went all out, a single low level ascendant was enough to wipe out a city, a mid level one a kingdom

If they both weren't consciously minimizing their damage to the surroundings, Gamora and the forest would have been long gone

The scripts floating in the air all materialized massive spikes and rods that shot towards the now airborne Ryan, the asteroids in space too all accelerating towards him

Whether Ryan evaded or destroyed them, there was bound to be a clash of epic proportions and Karl noticing this raised the lower edge of his domain, kicking out the town from it

"Even in this you're still trying to protect a dead town Karl, hahaha, this is one thing about you I'll never get"

Ryan taunted Karl as he manuevered in the air, it took a combination of attack and aerial movements to get through everything Karl threw at him

Sometimes he vaulted in the air, using the rocky constructs as footholds, other times he just punched out and blasted them apart

The attacks on Karl's side seemed to be unending yet he hadn't not landed a single successful hit on Ryan.

Karl's domain was a very high leveled one in terms of both attack and support, the range, accuracy and control he exhibited was way beyond his limit and as a 5th stage ascendant but his opponent was beyond the norm too

Ryan was a whole stage ahead of him and was an ascendant of the body route, the route that had the highest reaction speeds of all route, so while dealing with the attacks coming at him from all angles was a pain, it wasn't impossible

If it was any other body ascendant in Ryan's level and position, they wouldn't have been able to react so beautifully, they would have been hit multiple times if not outrightly defeated.

Ryan hadn't even unleased his true elemental state yet he was able to do all this

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Diara opened her eyes 

She was in discomfort, the seal on her back was burning causing her great pain, she tried rousing her energy reserves to repress the effects of the curse ingrained on her back she couldn't feel it

The commander sensed the changes in the woman he was tasked to protect, while it went against his others of wiping out the whole town and leaving not a single one alive, he couldn't do anything against the orders of the heir to the dukedom

"I wouldn't move if I were you"

He said startling the woman, she opened her eyes to find herself in a different location from her office, Ryan was nowhere to be found, instead in his place was a man dressed in a similar attire 

"Your energy has been sealed, your body movement has been reduced to the nearest minimum too, even if you somehow managed to get up afterwards it'd be in your best opinion to remain seated, for both our sakes"

'So they finally did it huhn, those old bastards just couldn't keep their hands of this place, and Ryan'

Diara flexed her muscles, trying to get her body under control, she raised her body up before sitting in a lotus position

She sensed the bracelet on her left hand had a part to play in her current condition but she wasn't all that worried.

The chosen ones as they were called ran on a different system than the rest of the world.

This and their seclusion is why no one had ever understood how the order of faith operated and how the power works.

If other awakeners and practitioners ran on the elemental based aether, the chosen one ran on the void based ether, one of the origins

Ether was something that every ascendant would eventually be exposed to on reaching the 7th stage, but only a few in history had been able to grasp it and make conscious use of it.

Diara could be likened to a fifth stage ascendant, the chosen had no distinct paths like the aether users, as the system of the void could be likened to chaos

She was a time user, that was how she was able to restore Ryan's arm in the past (after Noah froze it)

While the bracelet did a good job sealing her source, it couldn't affect her energy channels so she could still manipulate the ether in the surroundings like an awakened

Of course the effects wouldn't be as powerful as when powered by her source, but with her experience and control, it was enough for her escape

As she sat in the lotus position, using the ether in the surroundings, she froze the time around her, before she broke the bracelet on her arm and walked away from the clearing, her destination the town

When time flowed back to normal, the commander was left speechless, one minute the woman he was tasked to protect was Infront of him, the next moment, she had vanished into thin air

After he went to the chair to confirm what he was wasn't an illusion, he broke into a wild chase, his destination, the town

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Noah was just a little distance away from town now, but something was wrong

Granted he arrived late at night and it would normal for everywhere to be dark so why was there a huge fire coming from the director of town

He broke into a sprint, this time storing the small bag he carried for appearance sake inside his pendant, intent on helping out, even a little

But nothing could prepare him for the sight he was about to witness

He took a roundabout path he had Valdor had discovered in the past because he wanted to surprise Ryan and the rest of the townsfolk but now that decision was starting to bite him

The path was rocky and very dangerous, actually there was no path, it was just his memory and the trail.left behind by him and Valdor in the last constantly using this place, even when going at his fastest speed, he stumbled over and had to be delayed at multiple points before he finally arrived at the edge of the village, near the temple

He first dashed towards the temple quarters to check if anyone was there, but all the rooms were empty

'They must have gone to help out with the fire'

He thought, but decided to check the temple just to be sure

As he walked into the temple hall, he saw a silhouette bowing before the altar

He hastened his steps, approaching the figure, trying to inquire about what was going on

'Must be Serah, perhaps she's praying'

While the order of faith could be called a religion, it was way more complicated than that

"Sorry to disturb you Serah but I think something is wrong"

Noah placed his hands on her shoulder trying to rouse her up but the minute he touched her, the body fell to the side like a puppet with its strings cut, there was no resistance

His hand was wet with some liquid, it was dark but Noah had been injured enough times to tell what that liquid was just from it's texture and smell

"Please tell me this is all a joke"

Noah said as his body started trembling

He reached out to the body on the floor, trying to figure out what state it was in, taking out a lamp from his pendant he lit it up and a gruesome sight was awaiting him

*Takk*

The lamp fell to the ground