Chapter 297 Reign of Chaos I (1/2)
CHAPTER 297
REIGN OF CHAOS (I)
A moment of stillness passed as the world held its breath. Beneath the eyes jammed up in the sky, all those looking up felt tiny, small, ethereally insignificant. That feeling only grew beyond the bounds of what an ordinary heart could endure as Lino finished his chant. The world disappeared -- or, rather than disappeared, it became true. It reverted back to its origin form, to what it truly was when stripped of all the embellishments.
Everything and nothing... light and dark... life and death... Eighteen Laws of Creation manifested into eighteen gashes of creation far above Lino, surrounding him like claws. There was neither the beginning nor the end to them; they were everything and nothing. Everywhere and nowhere. Laws themselves ceased to matter beneath its nobility; all of creation felt the most primal urge to bow, to kneel, to worship.
Yennefer looked at the sky with a horrid gaze, her expression beyond one of despair. Who... what could ever stand up against this, she wondered. This was no longer the matter of strength or weakness, no longer the question of Law mastery, levels, Qi, mantras and arts. Beneath this, all of that ceased to matter, she realized. Whatever theories they drew up, whatever plans they had prior to the battle... what of them now? Nothing, she knew.
Lino's body relaxed momentarily as he played with the [Dragon Slayer]; the blade was no longer the blade, the sword itself something more. Each one of its movements stirred the world around, banishing reality and replacing it with whatever Lino willed. Fire, frost, water, death, darkness, light... all were within the grasp of his hands. All of creation was right there, right in front of him, ripe for taking.
As the stillness ceased, and the world drowned in absolute entropy, he moved. He stepped but once, yet appeared right in the heart of the army. Others hadn't even realized he was there by the time he swung the sword. It was a casual swing, it was so slow even a child could evade it. Yet, all the same, heads flew, blood spewed, it all happened so quickly that no one even had a chance to cry out.
All the while, the eighteen blades began moving apart from one another, seemingly encircling the entire world bit by bit.
Lino moved yet again, appeared behind Ritton who emptily still stared at where Lino was just a breath ago, convinced he hadn't moved; the latter casually grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and drove the sword straight through his skull, ripping it in half before kicking the body squarely, blowing it into smithereens of blood and gore.
”FUCKING RUN!!!!!” Yennefer screamed from the depth of her lungs, yet her voice turned sluggish by the time it left her lips. Realizing this was the end, she quickly activated her own Avatar Form -- yet, it's an understatement to say it paled in comparison to everything surrounding her. A winged angel appeared behind her back, yet its light was almost immediately snuffed out, its wings clipped, head disintegrated into ash. ”Graah--” she spewed blood from her mouth due to the severe backlash, feeling the very life force which upheld her seeping from her.
By now, Lino had once again moved, returning to the army; from just over 15,000, they were now at 10,000. Once more he swung casually, yet that casual swing ripped open the very concept of space and time, allowing him to pull nearly 5,000 souls into a singular spot before drowning them in cuts from which they could not escape. One after another they fell, yet not even their corpses remained.
Ethena shuddered suddenly, swiftly turning back only to meet a pair of milky-white eyes staring right at her, not even ten centimeters away. She didn't scream or cry out, or even try to defend herself -- not for the lack of trying... but her Will simply wouldn't listen. She was entranced within the chaos, within the distorted world where mountains were not mountains, where rivers were not rivers, and where sky wasn't the sky she knew. The pair of eyes appeared almost holy-like compared to the ruin surrounding them.
Lino extended his arm and grabbed at her head from above, pressing his fingers into her skull and cracking it seemingly with no effort. The sounds of the cracking bones exploded out into ether, echoing throughout the entire vast world. He then spun sideways and threw her body at the army, turning it into a blasting cannonball that took nearly 2,000 lives on its way down.
All turned into nothingness; it would be hard to say how much time had passed since he'd begun the reaping, as time itself ceased to exist within the entropy. Yet, to those standing around and witnessing it all, waiting for their turn, it felt like more than just one eternity. They couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't curse to at the very least let go of some of the grievances they felt toward him... they could do nothing but remain frozen in that single spot, awaiting their doom.
One by one they fell, like flies carried onward by a hurricane, until only Yennefer remained. She was halfway over to the realm of dead, unable to even keep herself afloat -- she knew she wasn't the reason why she still remained in the sky, yet she dared not actually think about who was holding her up.
He soon appeared in front of her, standing right there, within her grasp; all the same, she was unable to do anything. She couldn't even look away, let alone raise her arm. Looking at him once more, she realized he was no longer human-looking; from top to bottom, he was like a creature encased in escaping shadows, his features save for the pair of milky-white eyes indiscernible. More than a human, more than a god, she felt he was akin to something that shouldn't even exist.
The pair of eyes looked at her calmly, seemingly examining the very depths of her soul. She felt starkly naked beneath that gaze, yet also distinctly wounded as the gaze seemed to hold no desire toward her; entirely indifferent, not even cold or harsh, merely as though she was just... air. Empty air of nothingness.