Chapter 0281 - Twisted Suns

Wu Hai stepped out of the Pagoda through front door, cleared some space, stored it and teleported away. He hadn't gone far but they were already at a disadvantage, the group had returned to the ruins of the Fire Temple but immediately after Wu Hai arrived, he felt himself getting locked onto from a distance. The three powerful sources of energy were able to track him.

"Shit." Wu Hai expanded the pagoda, let everyone out and then put it away once more. There was a large flat spot where the pagoda had been, it was a great spot to set a formation.

Wu Hai threw out everything he had, more than a thousand spirit stones twisted around him and sank into the dirt. "This isn't going to hold them for long, we've gotta figure something out if we can't fight them on even ground."

They hadn't even engaged the enemy, yet, Wu Hai was already anxious. He hadn't fought many beasts from the third levels or above, all of that was spent running to find the others. For him, it was like he was experiencing his first fight but the stakes were much higher.

Formation lines sank into the soil, even if the three approaching people were idiots, they would know immediately that a formation was present. Wu Hai was forced to stand in the center. "They seem to be able to find me, but they don't know that there are others.. stay hidden until its a good time to strike."

Vector threw out an isolation formation array and layered it again and again, soon, it was hard for him to even see out of and that would help their chances to remain out of sight and out of mind.

From inside the formation, the others were waiting. They had armed themselves and gotten ready well in advance and now, besides running, all they could do was wait. "I don't like this." Vira shook her head, "It feels like we're reacting instead of prepared."

"I don't disagree with you there." Noyuki was still preparing talismans.

Mursayade was waiting patiently, she had wanted to charge her energy levels to be prepared but fluctuations in her energy would give away their position.

"They're here." Vector pointed into the distance.

"I can see them." Kuzunoha pulled the bow from her back and mentally prepared herself.

In the center of the formation, Wu Hai stood there alone. He made no movements other than posturing, three beams stopped just outside of the formation's range.

"Do you really think we would be stupid enough to enter an enemy formation?" Ates threw Fire toward Wu Hai, it vanished into a trail of nothingness, evaporating like a lie. 'Che'

"I never expected you to come in, this is for my protection. Why are you following me?" Wu Hai didn't budge, he stared the three of them down.

With his fingers twisting in front of him, the youngest of the three, Ates spoke like it was fated. "To have our attentions, it is enough to warrant your death. Pity your father for producing you in the first place."

Ates was preparing a larger fireball in his hands, if the fire bolt from before did not make it's destination, perhaps it was just too little.

"LEAVE MY FATHER OUT OF THIS." Wu Hai shouted and drew his weapon. "Why have you chased me?" he asked.

Alou snapped his fingers, it made Ates stop speaking, "Enough of this farce, just kill him, retrieve his corpse and let us go back. This place is beneath us for a reason."

"Me? Beneath you? Hardly. However, you have still not answered my questioning. Why have you come to find me at all?" Wu Hai spread his wings.

"A Demon has no rights, shut your horrid little mouth or I will defile your corpse when your dead." Alou charged toward the formation barrier.

Aguna threw a line of fire and caught him before he entered. "He's well prepared, don't be stupid. Find the formation flags and destroy them." As the Eldest and one in charge, Aguna had zero interest in the other's opinion. He stopped his flight and landed on the ground just outside of the formation. "You have angered the Eclipsing Emperor, through great cost, he has summoned us for a time. All for you, though the 'why' was never explained. Your life was forfeit the moment we descended, surrender and perhaps you'll only be tortured to death."

The three of them searched with their eyes, they looked for the flags but it didn't matter, no matter how hard they looked they wouldn't find them. Wu Hai had sunk them into the soil, the flags themselves were meters underground and no matter of visual inspection would reveal their location.

"You'll never find them. Face it. If you've come to retrieve my corpse, you can forget about it. If you've come for something else, what could it be?" Wu Hai was still probing for information but the three brothers had spread out in a triangle around the formation.

"No matter." A beam spread through the three of them. It spread out into the shape of a pyramid and ignored the formation.

The beams took a while to interlock but after forcing some more energy into it, they combined and began to grow thicker. It was a binding formation for large divine beasts, the pyramid began to get thicker until it started to press down and confine Wu Hai.

With the Crusher Blade in hand, Wu Hai thrust it out. It broke one line of the pyramid and he stepped out of it. "You'll have to do better than that."

"He's being cocky," from behind the isolation formations a few hundred meters away, Vector could see and hear everything that was going on and he sounded more annoyed than nervous. "What are these guys planning to do?"

"THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!" Alou threw out some sort of organ, it flew into the formation and atomized just like the fire had done.

A thick plume of noxious gas that glittered spread out. "Taste the flames of Iasyou"

'Flames?' Wu Hai wondered what sort of flames came in powder form. The Organ had burst into dust like it had long been dried out. As the cloud intermixed with the air, it formed a thick fog of purple and red glittering light. 'This is bad.' Wu Hai pulled out a gas mask and put it on. He was sure that it was a poison or some sort of drug.

Before the fog could completely envelop him, a blast of air current spread out from the center of the formation. It cleared a space and Wu Hai felt like he could move. Almost instantly, the Pyramid was swung across the formation toward Wu Hai's position and it tried to swallow him again.

"There is no escape." Aguna did his best to slam the formation into Wu Hai's head. When it failed, he disconnected the Pyramid. "This is taking too long, annihilate this space and and lets just take what's left over to the Emperor. This is turning out to be more than he's paying for."

"Yes, Brother." Ates and Alou were in agreement, they spread out and prepared to blast the formation to bits. There wouldn't be a formation if they did it properly, charging their energies, they saw the gas clear form the formation and Wu Hai fly into the air.

"I told you, you're mistaken if you think you'll be leaving with my corpse." A white shield appeared in his hands, it blobbed a little and then surrounded his body. Wu Hai had taken on the shape of a large white ball, it grew little by little until he popped his head out. "Don't say I didn't warn you, I've been wanting to stretch my legs but really, nothing's been up to the task."

Wu Hai's arms and legs extended to the length of a few meters, dazzling white scythes burned with a black fire that kept licks of seven other colors in its center. Like a Krull star, Wu Hai flung himself toward the edge of the formation.

Alou was alarmed at how quickly he had arrived at his location and raised his arms to block the strike.

"IDIOT, YOU SHOULD HAVE DODGED!" Aguna rushed to his brother's aide but it was too late, the blade had cleaved his left arm off past the elbow and another of the scythe blades was already coming in to range to behead him.

Alou grabbed at his severed stump and reappeared tens of meters back. He screamed in pain and watched as one of the other scythes turned into a hand to retrieve his fallen limb like a trophy.

Wu Hai played with it, he used it to wave at the brothers. "Next?" He put the arm away, there was no way that he would ever give it back.

Aguna roared and Ates tended to his brother's wound. He pulled out some sort of pill and a strange herb, the herb was smashed into the wound and the pill was swallowed. The blood stopped flowing and the pain disappeared.

"Alou, just sit there." Aguna stood up and fire lit in both of his eyes. "For that bit of humiliation, you'll pay with your life." Power surged inside of Aguna and he broke the first runs of the formation with his bare hands. "If it costs me an arm to put an end to this shame, then sobeit but you're going to lose everything!!" Aguna yelled non-stop for what felt like minutes but merely seconds had passed.

His fingers slowly penetrated the first rung of the formation.. his fingers were stripped of flash as he continued. When he had pushed through to his wrists, Aguna yelled again, "SEVENTH...SUN!"

'Hey!' The words were stuck in his throat, Wu Hai had seen this attack before. "YOU!"

Fantastic lights bloomed around Wu Hai, his emotions ran wild and his heart raced so quickly that he could not hold back any longer. "ITS YOU! YOU'RE THE BASTARD" Wu Hai swatted the sun away, it crashed into the side of the formation and destroyed half of it.

The formation walls came down and it was extinguished, Wu Hai was stepping through the fire. His eyes were the only distinguishing feature, they glowed an eerie green.

"Brother!" Ates flew to Aguna's side. "He's not as simple as we've been told. This fight is a real one. Perhaps this is even a trap set by that fool of an Emperor."

"He's not that intelligent." Aguna shrugged it off. "For Alou, this bastard must die."

Wu Hai cleared the fire from the Seventh Sun attack and his figure stood straight, unwavered. "I finally figured out why you're chasing me... And like your other brother, I will kill you for having attacked my family." Wu Hai disappeared from view, they looked around and couldn't find a single trace of him anywhere.

When next he appeared, he was wrapping himself around Alou, in the time it took to finish wrapping himself, he had decapitated him and taken the reset of his body as a trophy. The head turned into a spirit stone and fell to the dirt.

"BROTHER!!" Aguna lost all reasoning and flew toward Wu Hai. "SUN BURST"

Bright light flushed out of Aguna's body, he wasn't trying to distract Wu Hai, he was trying to blind him or burn out his eyes before the attack landed. "SEVENTH SEPULTURE!!" An yellow light crept out of the explosive pressure and it sank toward Zao's feet blowing him upward.

Wu Hai flashed to Ates and held the crusher's blade to his throat. "STOP."

"You take my brother prisoner after killing the other and you expect me to stop?" Aguna flared and the ground beneath his feet turned to a molten sludge. "I'd rather lose two brothers than let you escape!" He leapt into the air intent on attacking no matter the cost, he had suffered such a great humiliation. "SOLAR SMASH!" He clasped his hands together and brought them down to the Crusher's edge.

Wu Hai had blocked the strike with the blade and Ates turned to flee. Wu Hai spun in a circle and caught the edge of his leg leg against Ates' waist. Blood spilled from his abdomen and his stomach had been cleaved open.

"BASTARD!" Watching his two brothers falling to surprise attacks, Aguna grit his teeth. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!"

"Me? Why didn't you ask before?" Wu Hai was still holding off Aguna's attack, his foot returned to the shape of a foot and then he kicked out against Ates' face. "I AM ZAO WU HAI!"

Spinning on his heel, Wu Hai cleaved Aguna's left leg from the calf down free of his body. As he was falling down, and with a twist of Wu Hai's wrist, his right hand was split from end to end, the cut ran the length of his forearm and he cried out in pain as the jagged holes in the sword passed through his flesh.

Ates saw his Eldest brother about to be slaughtered, he was already bleeding out like a stuck pig but it would be too much of a loss for the Eclipsing Empire to lose the three of them in a single moment in time. He started to burn his life force to intercept Wu Hai's blade as it was coming down once more.