BREAKING THE CHAINS (VII)

The l.u.s.ter of lights was all-encompa.s.sing; golden and silver bound in a fiery haze, drawing over the Edge and its blade, extruding upward in a crescent curve, drawing over the skyline for miles on end. It split open the world, cleaving it in two part.i.tions. Qi from hundreds of miles around was sucked in, causing even the mountains to turn to ash, as the holistic light grew in size and terror.

Ashtar chortled madly, drums of war in his mind beating in the rhythm of his heart. Thirty-six blades suddenly turned into seventy-two, spreading out behind his back in an upside 'v' formation. Each blade glistened in a different hue, each sword drawing unto itself a different Law, creating a paradoxical mirage of everything and nothing within their bounds. The blades shuddered, shrieking sounds bellowing out into the world, as they expanded, bit by bit matching the size of the cleaving light.

In the meantime, Lino drew forward, slicing in a full circle as he spun; Ashtar met the blade with his bare arm which managed to endure for less than a second before being cleanly cut off. In response, he grasped at Lino's shoulder, burning through the bones as though they were made out of bread, ripping the arm clean off and kicking Lino into the stomach, causing him to fly backward. The latter spat out a mouthful of blood, forcibly halting his rearward momentum by flapping his wings repeatedly, healing the lost arm in a blink of an eye. Phantoms swarmed once more, sinking toward Ashtar who drew back, hiding behind the swords.

Astha and Fyur, two Primal Spirits, turned from lights into the mirages; the former was a free-flowing spiral, its edges seemingly dreary, billows of flame and light gus.h.i.+ng out of every curve, golden in hue. The latter was a mirage of a strange creature, a one-eyed mutation wound into a spherical shape, missing half its backside with parallel, silver blades cutting through his sides. Both pressed against the Ashtar's Will, causing the latter to split his focus between Lino and the two Spirits.

Yet, it didn't seem to enc.u.mber him; rather, if his expression was anything to go by, he seemed to be enjoying the situation tremendously. Time around him grew unwound, s.p.a.ce distorting, burning swords behind clanking and clinkering, seemingly ready to burst forth at any moment. The length of the build-up was short, yet to them eternally long; if Time may act the role of the ant.i.thetical Law to that of Chaos, the opposite was true as well; Chaos cannot be bound by Time, as it cannot be expelled by it.

Every breath the world took within two seconds was observed cleanly by two, as their innate speeds overcame the barriers of Laws. All the outside world saw were occasional flashes of light and the aftermath of the battle. The ruin. The collapse. The out-bounding pressure that seemed to crush the ground itself into a fine powder. One half of the sky burned in golden and silver, so bright it shone as brightly as the sun upon the Noterra's sky; the other burned vigilantly in colors beyond measure, burning like a true fire. The sky-lined planet appeared mythical, enraging – h.e.l.lish by all accounts.

The few privy to it all stood and sat in wonder, awe, and boundless terror. The resonating Qi could be felt all the way on the Noterra's surface, as the blasting shockwaves managed to even reach here, forming faint winds.

Six looked up at the sky with the glistening eyes; it has been many years since he last laid eyes on Lino, only now having realized how much has changed in the meantime. He would no longer be able to cage the boy, nor would any combination of them. It was bigger than the realms of Cultivation – it was bigger than the strength a.s.signed to one's Qi, Arts, and Laws. In a way, he mused, it was even bigger than Will.

Two bore a deep frown on her face, sitting cross-legged upon a silver-cast altar suspended in the high-skies of Noterra. She was even more sensitive to the reaching Qi than Six; the Qi was charged with the backing Wills and Laws that caused even her Soul to shudder at the touch. Though slightly shocked by Lino, it wasn't him that was the direct source of her discomfort – it was the other figure, one that every living in the world had long since forgotten about – or at the very least put beneath plenty of others. Ashtar – the Origin Father of the Devils – was far more powerful than perhaps anyone in the world could have expected.

Upon the walls of the fortress, standing in somber and solemn silence, over twenty people heaved their heads up toward the heavens, to the sky's beyond, observing yet not. Few felt the remnant energy, though those few that did were dripped in cold sweat, excluding Ella. She seemed entirely unperturbed by it, as though having expected it to be the case.

Eyes world-over watched, stared without blinking, awaiting the outcome with bated breaths. The time stilled, the sounds ceased, the silence reigned; be they hermits, Emperors, Bearers, or names that once upon a time shook the world, none were exempt. Be they Agents of Chaos, of Order, of Gaia, of one or the other, all eyes peered toward the distant world that withstood the test of time for billions of years, yet was now collapsing, bit by bit, like the besieged walls of a city.

Golden light split, silver acting the role of the fuel; seventy-two blades cried out, slas.h.i.+ng forward. The enduring explosion shattered the perception of reality as the planet itself combusted, inside out. Ma.s.sive chunks of rock, debris, hardened and burning stone was flung out into the open s.p.a.ce, into the eternal void. Some flew off into the distance, never to be seen again; some were immediately burned into ash; and some would find their way over to Noterra, intending to rain upon it an apocalypse that would never be forgotten.

At the heart of the explosion, within the singularity that was birthed into existence, two figures lay outstretched around a swirl, crimson blood seeping like a waterfall, going a full circle around the hole before falling inwardly. A quasar shot up vertically, colors beyond spectrum blending into a perfect connotation of reality. Up and down it went beyond measure, beyond reason, beyond the capacity of understanding. The entire surrounding system was lit up as though a million suns were thrown into it; all eyes on Noterra closed immediately, the powerful figures shooting up toward the high-skies, be they friends or foes, rapidly channeling insane streams of Qi into a planet-sized dome of protection.

Heatwave blast through, shaking and quaking the rock in s.p.a.ce, causing billions of mortals to fall on their knees and pray for all believed, unequivocally, that the Judgment Day had arrived. Those who put up the s.h.i.+eld bled from eyes and ears and noses and mouths, groaning in low and high growls. The wave washed over, bounding the void of beyond, settling only after nearly a minute of persistent pressure.

n.o.body could yet look up, not Six, not Two, not Biyung, not even Ella or One; for to look up was to go blind. It was too bright, too blinding, too ethereal. Too terrifying.

In the open void, within the quasar of light, two figures were barely a few centimeters away from one another. Ashtar smiled widely, corners of his eyes curled up, bloodied teeth exposed in a happy grin. There was a sense of relief in his eyes, a sense of closure, of acceptance. A white-bound blade lay pierced through his chest, directly through his heart, that had ceased to beat.

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Lino stood opposite of him, bloodied yet seemingly unharmed otherwise; he had a faintly confused, partly bitter, and overwhelmingly melancholy expression, his eyes unable to tear away from Ashtar's. He held the Edge with trembling hands, desiring to pull it back yet being unable to.

"—'tis the end, young one," Ashtar's voice suddenly changed, growing entirely human; clean, even somewhat melodic. "The end of the line."

"…" Lino said nothing, merely sighing inwardly.

"… to be felled by the blade of my brethren," Ashtar chuckled, pulling his arm over and grabbing Lino's shoulder weakly. "What more could a Devil like me ever want?"

"…"

"They now see, Lyonel," Ashtar added, beginning to choke on his own blood. "They now see us. They see you, at last. Fight more, so they understand you. They yet don't. Not even she does. What words cannot articulate, may the arms and legs and shouts and cries do."

"—rest well." Lino said lowly.

"I will," Ashtar nodded, his body slowly turning to ash, feet up. "I will rest 'till the next tide of infinity summons me, births me anew. And then, I shall fight and struggle once more. I truly hope, when it happens, you'll be there. You've given me today what I've yearned for so many years… so, so many years. A battle… a battle worthy of this Devil."

"… it all feels annoyingly pointless," Lino shook his head. "So annoyingly pointless…" he pulled his blade back, at last, causing Ashtar to contort momentarily as blood gushed out of the open wound.

"… it does, don't it?" Ashtar chuckled, his lower body having already vanished into the winds of the void. "Brave the tomorrow, young Empyrean. It's all you've got, no?"

"… haah," Lino pulled further back, drifting away from the slowly fading quasar and the vanis.h.i.+ng Devil. "A son who rebelled indeed…" he flashed Ashtar a cheeky smile, one that was replied in kind.

"Rebelled… I like that…" the last bits of him slowly began to vanish, as the last words he would ever speak drifted off like silence into the empty s.p.a.ce. "Rebelled… not betrayed…"