Book 3, Chapter 86 - Escalation (1/2)

“Blasphemers, die!”

Black smoke obscured the eye, and the earth trembled. It was no exaggeration to say the scene was cataclysmic; the sky was falling, the pillars of the world seemed to shake.

The old general stood amid the darkness, a golden god of war, bathed in holy light. With the mighty broadsword ablaze in his hands, he lead the troops toward their foes. Ardent fire burned in his eyes, his puissant roars like righteous thunder that were audible even over the clamor of war.

His golden figure crashed into the front lines. Sparks surrounded the general from bullets ringing off his armor, none of which left a mark. Aegir planted his foot into a Dark Atom shapeshifter’s chest which sent it careening across the battlefield. Its hefty body collided with a group of allies with bone-breaking impact.

Aegir didn’t stop. With a triumphant war cry he jumped into the air and further into the fight. Heavy footfalls found purchase on the heads of enemy soldiers as he pushed through, causing them to burst like they’d been struck by a sniper’s bullet.

“Protect our leader!”

Dark Atom soldiers huddled around Wolfblade, trying to shield him from the incoming assault. Meanwhile the self-styled godslayer stood casually in place, easy as a spring breeze, with a gentle smile on his face. Overhead, his mysterious blade hovered as a tempest of blue energy roiled around. The sword was in the process of drinking the energy up.

All of a sudden, there was a flash of radiant blue light!

That demonic weapon – synonymous with death – pointed toward the golden figure charging forward.

A stalwart defensive aura sprang up around the battle-hardened general. He bellowed at Wolfblade, and thrust his own weapon toward the heavens. The beam of light that erupted from it which he used to cleave the peak off of the mountain he trod upon.

Aegir gave the peak a violent kick, which sent it hurtling toward Wolfblade’s position. Shadow blanketed the ground as the tumbling rock blotted out the sun. Then, with a burst of true power from deep within, he swept his sword downward while pedaling through thin air.

Wolfblade was surrounded by an orb of power that crackled with barely contained energy. As it reached peak concentration the ground for meters all around fractured under the strain. Shards of earth rose into midair and were gathering toward the blade, but dissolved into fine sand before they reached it. Dark Atom soldiers nearby, growing pale at the sight, were pushed away from the sheer intensity and had to retreat to avoid being injured.

The inevitable clash of these two men was far beyond their abilities. It was a clash these wastelanders could not survive if they tried to get involved!

The general’s momentum rose as he plummeted like a meteorite. An unprecedented surge of vigor and strength filled him as every ounce of potential was squeezed from inside. Every bit of power from every cell was called upon. His hair, at first a luxurious satin white, turned black as pitch. His stone-like body became hard as iron.

Once Aegir’s sword met the tumbling mountain peak he released all of that pent-up might into it. But while the power he released was enough to shatter the stone into a thousand shards, it didn’t. Instead the blow from his sword left no mark, utilizing his potency to speed up its descent. For a moment it seemed like the hundreds of tons of falling rock were light as a feather, a mere trinket affixed to the golden blade.

It was closing in! At last, Wolfblade thrust both fists toward the peak and the general.

His blue demon blade reacted. The ground around Wolfblade buckled, but not from any excess force or gravity. Rather, the power of the sword as it streaked away was pregnant with the esence of destruction. All reality surrounding it, with the exception of its bearer, was immediately erased – vanished into a mist like water on the surface of the sun.

What would happen when sword and mountain met? Would the sword break? Would the mountain burst?

Neither.

This chunk of mountain, tall as a skyscraper, hung still in the air. At the point of impact it slowly began to disintegrate, inch by inch, vanishing into the wind like smoke. Neither Wolfblade’s sword nor the mountain peak moved, yet the rock continued to dissolve.

The blue light within Wolfblade’s sword softened.

The mountain peak melted away.

Eventually nothing remained of the rock, atomized by the power contained in Wolfblade’s relic. Yet just as it vanished, so too did the blue light fade from the sword.

“He’s blocked me! Advance!”

Aegir’s thunderous voice shouted his next command, while in the moment the mountain peak dissolved he reappeared into view. He charged like a golden bolt of lightning toward his next target, the blue sword itself.

Clang!

Too fast, no one could follow his path.

Wolfblade’s mighty relic was flung four thousand meters away, where it became lodged in the side of a volcano. Cracks appeared and spread out from where it was embedded.

The successive actions seemed to drain the essence out of the old warrior. The black drained from his hair again, leaving it whiter and more brittle than before. Even still the general pushed on, indomitable, unassailable.

Aegir Polaris had studied the blade since he was eight years old.

A child from an offshoot branch of the respected military family, he rose to prominence and became commander of Skycloud’s largest standing army. Yet no matter how much he achieved, he never forget his life as a child, and the vow he made to the gods the first time he picked up a sword.

Through this sword, I will win peace for Skycloud.

Through this sword, I will earn glory for my family!

Through this sword, I will bring a thousand generations of stability!

From tender child to grizzled veteran, fifty years of practice with that sword had transpired. He never forgot those vows. He didn’t care that the sword would eventually cost him his life, his time on earth was promised to wielding this weapon and keeping his promise. Success was in his grasp, he would destroy this Dark Atom commander and bring peace to Skycloud. The fiend wielded the power of demons, but it would not be enough!