Book 4 - Chapter 12 - Buying Time (1/2)

Ravenous Tiger positioned himself before the Elysian defensive shield, his ax glowing brightly. But before he could, a column of light crashed down from overhead, blocking his path. It was a searing beam that, as he watched, began to carve a path in his direction. The ground beneath it split apart.

“Out of my way!”

With a surprising amount of strength from his fat body, Ravenous Tiger heaved his ax at the column, splitting it apart. A second answered, headed right for the top of his head. He hastily used his ax to block it, but the impact nearly wrenched it from his grip.

Quickly engaging his defensive relic, a shield sprang up to shield him from harm. It held.

Selene dropped back to the ground with her white cloak flapping valiantly. She stood before the wastelanders as her crossblade seethed with dim holy light. With her left hand she reached back and drew a second sword.

This one was different from her relic weapon.

The Holy Crossblade was made entirely from holy energy and light, but her second sword was wholly physical. It was beautiful in its construction, a masterwork from hilt to tip. The blade itself was not steel, but a transparent material like glass or crystal. A faint light pulsed within.

Ravenous Tiger’s eyes went wide. He knew this weapon. “Master Baldur’s Transcendence?”

Anyone with a passing education knew of Master Baldur’s three mighty relics: His Sacred Vestments, his Transcendence, and the Holy Crossblade. The crossblade had long ago been bequeathed to Selene, but his Vestments and Transcendence were said to have been lost when he disappeared.

Here she appeared, bearing all three. The daughter stood before her foes with the full inheritance of her father.

Selene brandished the crystalline weapon, a perfunctory motion that immediately shattered Ravenous Tiger’s defenses. An invisible but intense energy lifted him off his feet and threw the former governor several meters away.

The Giants of Hell’s Army gathered around her, together with Blackfiend. They wasted no time in assailing her with their strongest attacks. She stood alone, a spot of peerless white with a blade of light in one hand and one of crystal in the other. She was larger than life, an invincible avatar of divine fury.

Both swords moved. No one dared test their strength. Selene kept five of the enemy’s strongest at bay with nothing but her own power.

Eckard had never met someone so young with so much strength. His face was a map of hideously twisted scars as he frowned. However he quickly saw her flaw; Selene’s attacks were too strong, too overwhelming. She wasn’t holding anything back, so while each strike was deadly they were also draining.

“How long can she keep this up? Don’t fight her now, wait until she tires herself out.”

“Don’t apply ordinary logic to her. Your tactics won’t work,” Natessa warned. “Her Sacred Vestments are among the Cloude family’s strongest relics – made during the Great War. It was given to the founding father of the Cloude family by the gods themselves.”

Eckard paused. “What’s so great about it? It looks ordinary to me!”

“That’s because this relic isn’t offensive or defensive. It looks normal during combat.”

“Neither offensive or defensive? So what the hell does it do?!”

Natessa explained . “The Vestments store mental energy. Put another way, when wearing the armor one’s energy is almost limitless. For every attack Selene does, her Sacred Vestments restore a large portion of it. We can’t wait for her to tire out!”

Eckard was taken by surprise.

Demonhunters were already living war machines. A typical demonhunter could kill Eckard with a direct shot from one of their exorcist bows. Their primary limiting factor was mental energy and how long it took to recover it. In a battle like this it was easy to become exhausted, and once a demonhunter was drained his destructive capabilities were reduced dramatically.

Now there was one who could quickly recover even after using her most powerful attacks. How could she be considered anything but invincible?

Of course, there was no such thing was an invincible foe. The energy stored in Selene’s Vestments represented whatever she poured into them before the fight. Its upper limit was perhaps ten times her typical mental capacity, a process which required days of effort.

In other words, Selene could go from drained to fully recovered maybe ten times, but would be completely spent once the Vestments ran dry. To say they couldn’t wait for her to tire herself out wasn’t entirely true, only the five of them wouldn’t be able to do it on their own.

Strong as they were, under Selene’s relentless assault they were forced to back off.

Seeing her display, Dawn was also stunned. This crazy bitch was that strong?! She had to be on some sort of drugs!

Elsewhere, Wyrmsole and Frost were in the middle of a fierce confrontation.

Frost’s attacks were swift and fierce, with his spear flashing through the air like a hundred angry dragons. Wyrmsole was caught among them, forced to defend himself against it and Rimeshard’s continuous swipes. Each time he deflected Rimeshard with his banner, a thin sheet of ice thickened around it. It was the unique function of Frost’s weapon that it suppressed the power of other relics, thus weakening Wyrmsole.

This was why he told Selene to deal with the others. He knew the sort of power contained in her Sacred Vestments, which would allow her to fend them off. She was well-equipped to battle five enemies weaker than she, but the Vestments were less effective against someone closer to her own strength like Wyrmsole.

On the other hand, Frost carried Rimeshard. With each swing he weakened Wyrmsole’s power and brought the two of them closer to equal. So long as Frost kept up the pressure, Wyrmsole couldn’t split his attention on other parts of the battle to lend aid.