At the foothills of the castle, Sythris now wielded dual swords. Thoughts were rapidly stirring in her mind as she looked at John. "I have to stop him."
"Is Veer alive ?" She was anxious as she could not see him. But she was barely able to see Veer get thrown into the distance.
"Why? Why did you attack Veer?"
John did not answer.
John's aura was really weird. It felt like the demon. Same as that abominable. His strange sword also gave Sythris pressure.
"So this is Shura's inheritance. John really inherited it."She thought.
"You are going nowhere with this."
John smirked as Sythris felt unfamiliarity. Along with it, she felt something else.
Fear.
"I... is..this fear...I actually fear John. I ...this."
"I need to take this very seriously."
"Wind Gale...."
A thrust of wind appeared all around John as Sythris performed an air strike. John shouted as he swung his sword, which glowed with a yellow flame mist. It changed from his flaming red sword to yellow mixed with a bit of orange-red.
As Sythris looked at it, she faintly remembered her master's teachings.
"Remember, Sythris, if a flaming art is yellow flames with very slight red, it is undoubtedly genuine shura art. It means either the person inherited it from a Shura demon master or they gained it themselves after killing hundreds. They have no compassion in their hearts."
The gale caught flames and dissipated. The wind was being absorbed by flames, which was strange for the people who were watching it. There were mostly a few survivors and blue mages.
"You are as pathetic as ever....Sythris..."John uttered a sentence.
Both moved. A series of clangs sounded all over as they clashed with immense intensity. It was like flowing ice vs flowing flame. It was like a festival of colors illuminating the dark. From an onlooker's perspective, it was like ice vs fire. But Sythris's art was less about ice or freezing but more about space. Few knew about that. It was a deception that worked well.
Sythris took a deep breath after she caught her breath. As she breathed, Sythris was suddenly behind John. It was her top-tier foot technique. She thrusted her swords. Her whole body, as though lit up, covered in slight ice as both swords drove like arrows. She performed multiple slashes with her dual swords and they seemed like ice mist. She shouted, "Void Piercing Glaive."
It was like a natural tornado that swept into John.
John was utterly stunned and screamed as he struck with all his might. He withstood the bursts as he saw another incoming attack. He parried all somehow. In terms of pure skill, Sythris was better than John. Just then, she again had moved backward and was behind him. She made two slashes. It was dangerous. She actually gave it her all. These were the actual critical attacks. The first few were feints. Her shoulders oozed blood as she gritted her teeth.
The two strikes were very different as Sythis thought, "These should critically injure him at least. The first strike will warp his space strangely, which will prevent his Shura arts from protecting his body. The second one will pierce his body."
John's face suddenly became grave as he realised the gravity of the situation."Damn it all."
Suddenly, it seemed like time stopped for a second. John sliced his blade way too fast. Sythris's eyes constricted.
He uttered, "Shura Breaveheart."
As though he somehow accelerated his time for a brief moment, he dodged the first strike but realized something. His defenses were gone completely. So he also decided to make a large attack.
It had multiple layers of concentrated energies. He had essentially slowed time briefly to produce this sort of attack.
The result was a huge collision of unrelated energies.
As though ice and flame collided, John and Sythris were scattered in opposite directions.
At the same time, a large number of armed knights started dropping again from the strange cross.
They were a bit different. They looked like black armored knights with a black flame covering their heads.
John, after the impact, landed near a black flame knight. He stood up only to start convulsing.
"Shit, I have overused my reserves..."
He started coughing and dropped to his knees.
"I need to kill her first."
He got up only to be struck with the huge sword of a nearby knight. They didn't distinguish between anyone. John crashed into the distance near Rhaelle.
Meanwhile, Sythris got up with a groan. She was tired. Now her injuries from earlier were exhausting her body too much. She looked at her shoulder. It was tearing away with yellow flames.
The pain was unimaginable. She gritted as she looked at John's way.
She found that John was quite some distance away, almost at the other end, and she could see a lot of knights there who could stop him, at least including Rio.
But that strange monster with many arms, what was that? She seemed familiar. But now was not the time.
"I need to find him ..Veer."
She was unsure where Veer was. But she could roughly guess the direction based on the last attack.
As she stood up with a groan, Lythria caught up with her. Sythris took a glance at her. She reigned in her thoughts for a moment.
"So this is the girl from Mythria...one of Mythria's princesses?"
"Lady Sythris....he Veer... let go in that direction...", Sythris looked at her as she nodded.
Both went that way.
As they went, a few others also joined. It was Temur and Revel.
Temur said in a heavy voice, "I ..I can't even comprehend what is happening anymore..."
Revel in tears said, "It's all that John guy's fault. And that strange man Sebastian is there."
"I am still getting chill from his smiles."
Temur said, "Let's find Veer. Then we go to Lord Kerin."
Revel nodded.
Sythris asked, "What are they saying, Lythria? All is John's fault ?"
Lythria said in a wistful voice, "You were not there, Lady Sythris. It was him. John confessed in a fit of rage. "
"What?" Sythris said as she looked forward.
"That he is behind all of something."
"It was his plan .... to deal with Veer. He said something about Noelle, Prince Erin's strange shadow, and others that I didn't understand."
Sythris's hands started trembling as she was reminded of that strange memory. John's very strange look.
"Lady Sythris..."
"Ahh, yes..."
"Let's find Veer first...."
Sythris and Lythria eventually reached the boundary as Sythris said, "He should be here, but there is no sign of him."
"So, where is he?"
Lythia said, surprised, "This...let's go on ahead...but... no matter how detestable and powerful John is..."
"I doubt he can send Veer this far already."
As she was going there, Sythris thought, "John used much of his force already... huh...But why did Veer land so far..."
Soon, around them, they found trees and buildings collapsed. But this was the knight's quarters. Especially where Veer lived.
It seemed Veer actually landed right where he lived. That was as far as John could throw him.
"Is it another anomaly around him...", Sythirs sighed.
....
Moments ago...
Sebastian was locked in a dodging the strikes of the woman. The woman who was deemed as Kerin's mother by Veer. Just as John started confessing while punching Veer, he pressed his hat as he laughed, "Wonderful, wonderful... so even the chess ascended....how wonderful..."
"But to what?"
"A row, bishop, or a knight?"
"Matriarch....do you see that?" He asked the lady.
The lady gritted her teeth as she spoke, "I don't know what you're talking about."
She swung her light sword. It was light as a feather. It was very intricately designed. It had a faint blue light that was blurry fast. Every time she attacked, it lit up with runes. In fact, the whole sword was encoded with runes.
"This sword, matriarch, was it from her....your dear friend, haha..."
"I believe it is the famous light runed sword."
"Don't call her name with that shitty mouth of yours, bastard..."
He dodged as he put his hands to his hat, pressing. He looked around as he tsked.
"This is becoming a nuisance."
He snapped his fingers.
The huge cross reacted as dozens of those black flame knights started appearing.
"Oh, matriarch .. I forgot something....you didn't greet your student just now..."
"Even though you were carried in the arms of her lover..."
"Wonderful..."
Another cross slash, but Sebastian dodged again and moved near the castle gates.
....
Marvis gritted his teeth as he said, "Oye, princess, why did you kill one of your own that time?"
The princess answered with no emotion, "Because of her."
"Her?"
"Yes, the puppet master. I was kind of controlled. Also, she is the master of that strange creature Noelle transformed into."
"Hmm, that's why the blind lady killed him, my friend..."
"You mean Canthia?"
"Are you mocking me?"
"Hahh. From as far as I know...we needed Sythris. Canthia was for that purpose, but I guess it's all messed up. I don't know why she killed him."
Marvis looked at John, who was flying as he muttered, "Great. That bastard deserves that."
"Let me batter him up.Bastard."
The princess said something that made Marvis frown."He might be a bastard, but a bastard royalty."
Marvis said, going towards John."I am going after him. Don't try anything funny."
He moved towards John.
As he moved, he gritted as he thought, "That girl still has something in her sleeves. Better to keep some distance."
.....
Moments after Lythria asked in a somewhat stiff voice, "Lady, should we go there?"
Sythris nodded.
Lythria and Sythris, followed by Revel and Temur, went there.
It was complete rubble. The whole area. A lot of blood seemed to stain the broken walls as Sythris and Lythria's faces drowned in fear. Fear of losing Veer.
"Veer..he should at least be alive, Lady Sythris?"
Sythris said in an absentminded voice, "Yes... please...."
She started to clear the rubble.
They had many questions.
Why was he so far? Why was there so much blood? Even if he crashed, would everything just collapse?
.....
Meanwhile, Veer felt peaceful. Very peaceful as though he was complete.
He almost forgot everything. He was basking in something he called ecstasy.
Suddenly, though, he remembered faintly.
"Ahh, where was I.... yes John....I ..I need to ask him why he attacked me..."
"But let me sleep first.."
"I feel sleepy."
He fell into deep unconsciousness among the pile of rubble. He saw a dream.
....
Dream....
Veer was floating. This time, it seemed he just observed. It was the huge Drudar castle in the far North. He seemed to be near the puppet bazaar. In front of him was himself, but caught under the puppet master.
She was gouging out his head with her hands. Veer was screaming. The projection Veer just gazed at the scene and then looked somewhere far.
As though his vision shifted, a few men clad in black shadows struck the ground. Something lit up.
A huge magic circle spread all across the kingdom. It was arranged in heavily designed runes that lit up. Then something started to stack on the magic circles. Hundreds and hundreds of magic circles converged and stacked up to the sky.
Veer gazed at the scene. Suddenly, he felt something. Something was inviting him. He saw it then.
Himself.
It was familiar. It was a strange scene. There were three versions of himself. One is getting tortured. On floating and looking all around, and the third was the weirdest. He didn't match the other Veer's hair color. His hair was long and white.
....
In the real world, Sythris finally found Veer. His body was especially fine despite injuries and blood all over.
She quickly checked his pulse, but just as she touched his pulse, she felt a shock. Her head spun as she heard Lythria screaming.
She went back to her dream for a moment. Where it broke and among the broken pieces of glass, she caught something horrifying. Hundreds and hundreds of magic circles stacked to the sky.
Just then, she noticed someone staring at her. It was Veer. But...his demeanor was different. He looked mature and older. He was sharper and composed. But something was deeply unsettling. His hair was white, and it was very long. He was in a traditional dress standing there.
It was him. The same Veer that was summoned. The same that had powers to obliterate even someone like Clayren.
She made a shout as her vision shattered, and she was outside in the real world.
Lythria shouted, "What happened? Is he okay?"
"Yes, he is just unconscious."
"And you ?"
"I... I am fine, probably just exhausted."
Sythris said, "Let's take him to a nearby resting place."
Sythris gently took him in her arms.
As they started walking, Lythria said, as though relieved, "Lady Sythris, since he is fine, I will go search for Eryssa. Lady Eleana and knight Kerin had already gone, but just after that, we heard a huge explosion."
Sythris's face became grave as she nodded, "I will come as soon as he is awake."
"Okay."
....
Just across the forests, Veer landed sometime ago. There was a hill. Near a tree, a man sat. He had a flute in his hand. He looked across the vast Drudar as he saw to the far south the scattering of Rylagh's and Clayren's powers.
"Huh, separation of eternal lovers..."
He looked to the west.
To the west, two babies were fighting in the air. One was howling, and the other was smiling.
"Battle of the wills ?"
He looked towards the North.
The castle to the north is burning in flames. A huge cross could be seen from here.
"So he has started...wonder what part is going on..."
He put his flute back as it transformed into a long, rune-studded stick that he kept on his shoulders.
The staff had run letters that lit briefly. His hair fluttered as a voice echoed in the surroundings, "The price of playing with destiny.....behold it....Eralion, say how do you feel ?..."