Chapter 218 Birth of an Exalted I (2/2)
He immediately activated the Wings' shield effect, pushing away the beam for a moment before using the <Sword of Chaos> to replace the reality of his own. No longer was he in the path of the beam, but right above the mouth, bloodied and bruised and maddened, grasping at the sword with both his arms and shoving it right down through the mount's center.
A magnificent cry spanning the whole sky caused even him to momentarily freeze in place, blood in his veins freezing. The cry seemed to have called forth even more shadows and abominations; glancing down, Lino saw a beyond-blinding ocean of darkness swelling toward him. He found that it was even impossible to count them altogether with Divine Sense, let alone with his own eyes.
Just as he was about to activate <Berserk> despite the unwillingness, he felt something snuggle into his armor and through his chest, the small head popping out of the opening. Looking down, Lino saw the holy light blaring like a gem, quickly recognizing the source.
”... Ashta? What are you doing out?”
”...” the little creature glanced at him for a moment and even seemed to have grinned.
The very next moment, it slithered through the reality itself and entered the sword in his right hand. Lino found himself nearly pulled down from the sky due to the new-found increase in weight; he glanced at the sword and saw that its previous, dimmed shine was gone, instead replaced entirely by light that kept growing and growing, seemingly unwilling to stop.
Soon enough the blade of light spanned for nearly five miles altogether in the sky, entirely dispensing the darkness around. Lino grinned in pride despite the fact that it was hardly his effort, veering away from the blade onto the ocean of darkness down below. Grunting lowly, he used every fiber of his strength, pushing the Singularity further, to swing the sword in a downward arc.
It fell slowly, yet beyond quickly, tearing apart the world itself and casting magnificent light over the reality. It splintered into hundreds of thousands, millions and even billions of arrowheads, tearing away through it all at the speed of light, quickly falling upon the ocean of darkness.
Hole after hole was spawned in the blanket, cry after cry blending in the symphony of the hellish agony; light slowly, but surely, consumed everything, even Lino's capacity of belief. Though he'd always suspected that Ashta was far beyond a simple Primal Spirit, he never expected her to be this strong -- strong to the point that his attack right then almost rivaled the one he used to kill the God-Devil Variant.
What's perhaps even more depressing that for the latter one, Lino had literally used everything he could and was entirely spent following that attack. He crushed both his armor and the wings, and sacrificed his best weapon in the process, just to barely execute one of the techniques within the <Sword of Chaos> scripture. While it is true that the attack he unleashed can't even qualify properly to be called <Birth of Light>, he was still quite proud of it regardless. Yet, it was nearly toppled by a simple Primal Spirit, without any build up or a massive sacrifice.
Abomination after abomination fell, shadowed arms crumbling into bones and ash, blood and gore, clearing away the stream almost entirely. Glancing down, Lino saw that Ashta had returned to his bosom, the light surrounding her slightly dimmer than before.
”... holy shit...” he mumbled in disbelief. ”That was so badass!! When did you learn to do that?! Damn, you're a really sneaky one, aren't you?!”
”... he he, I did well?”
”...”
”...”
”Y-you can talk?!” Lino exclaimed dubiously, picking up the small ball of light and stretching it over the palm of his hand. ”Just how many surprises you hide?”
”...”
”Yeah, yeah, you did well,” Lino quickly realized that he had a long way to go open up this bubble of shyness, which is why he didn't push. ”Go rest now and leave the rest to me, alright?”
”Okay!” the little Spirit exclaimed before vanishing directly into Lino. The latter slowly gazed down at the magnificent hole that she'd created; yet, even now, that hole was slowly being filled up with darkness yet again. For the first time he truly realized how terrifying Umbra was -- if her intent was to spread throughout the continent, he knew no one stood a chance of stopping her. He once again realized just how naive he was, especially when it came to things he knew little about. Swearing inwardly he'd know better the next time, he once again grasped at his weapons tightly and readied himself for round two.