Chapter 54 - The Burning Bush

Sylas found himself in a worsening situation, due to the continuous attacks of the Qi Centurions. On the other hand, although he tried to make different attacks on the centurions, Sub-Commander Saul managed to stop each and every one of them with his Voluntas.

Saul's Unbeatable Monocle was one of the best known manifestations of will in the realm, because although he was no more than a Qi Monarch, his defensive power was almost unparalleled. Not to mention the fact that Saul was an expert strategist, a great tactician in the art of war and battle, and above all, the fact that Sylas was wounded from his previous confrontation with Maikal.

Finally, Sylas seemed to lose his patience, and clasping his hands together, the 8 spider legs extending from his back were fully extended. From the 8 tips of the legs a powerful focus of Qi began to form and lines quickly extended from them forming a web that threatened to engulf all of Ansem's warriors.

.

Saul, when the web began to form had already ordered his men to stand in formation, and the five centurions bit their tongues and spat some blood forward, then joining hands they extended their Qi towards the blood, forming a circle of power in which Saul was wrapped. This circle allowed Warriors of the army to merge their powers for a short period of time, donating it to another. The recipient could use all of the merged power, advancing his or her power level. With this, even for a short period of time, Saul could use attacks with the level of a Qi Emperor.

Standing half-sideways, Saul extended his arm towards Sylas. An unbridled Qi surrounded his body at this moment, the result of using the Qi Fusion Circle, one of the secret techniques of Ansem's army. Saul's monocle materialised in front of him, and it had changed slightly, with a silver-coloured frame around it, and runic letters inscribed on it. Suddenly the monocle transformed into a mirror, and began to reflect the attack Sylas was using against Saul and his soldiers.

An attack identical to Sylas' attack formed on Saul's Voluntas and both webs collided with each other. There was no great explosion or anything similar, but a resounding silence. Where both webs passed, however, everything was eroded, as if a very powerful toxin was destroying the very existence of matter in the cave.

Eventually the attacks ended. Between Sylas and the others a large rift formed, which was filled with a distinctly toxic miasma, the product of the encounter between the two techniques. For the miasma to dissipate would require a long period of time. Sylas was clearly exhausted, however, his objective was already accomplished, given that at this point none of Ansem's soldiers would be able to pursue him in a short period of time. So looking at Maikal and Saul with a grudge, Sylas left at full speed, hoping to meet up with Roland before anything else happened.

...

By this time, Roland had managed to flee from the pursuing Ansem soldiers, and having left the cave, he set off at full speed towards Rhodnius, in the direction of the Lorca Valley. Near the Valley, there was a small detachment of elite Rhodnian soldiers who were loyal to the Great Tribe of Sacar, and were waiting under the orders of Roland and Sylas. Sylas in particular, had ordered them to wait for either of them to be escorted under top priority back to the Tribe.

Roland arrived in the Valley having used his top speed, without worrying about being followed. Mentally, he was relaxed, for he never considered the possibility of being obstructed in the Prairie of Rhodnius. On the one hand, it was close to the border and he was one of the commanders in charge of defending it. On the other hand, while there was some quarrelling and fighting between the Great Tribes, cases of murder were rare enough, and besides, no one apart from his men and his uncle knew of the material Roland had obtained from Sagat.

Therefore, the priority was to reach out to the Great Tribe of Sacar. He knew that he would have made a huge contribution, delivering the Fruit of the Mountain God, and in the foreseeable future, many resources and materials would be given to him. It was possible that the Tribe would support him to regain his former position and why not, if he obtained some of the Fruit for himself, it was not crazy to think that he could reach the rank of a Qi Emperor in the close prospect. Roland was allowing himself to dream of his future glory, when he saw a soldier with his back turned waiting at the entrance to the small camp belonging to his Tribe.

Roland relaxed when he saw the soldier and was about to greet him, when suddenly, he noticed something strange. The camp was incredibly quiet. So quiet that not even the sound of insects and other bugs in the vicinity could be heard. The soldier, for his part, had not saluted him, but seemed still as if he were a statue. Roland stopped and in a moment the soldier in front of him fell. The soldier's face showed horror and despair. There was a large wound in his abdomen, with all his entrails exposed to the air. The time of death seemed to have been not long, but mere minutes. Roland then noticed a great smell of blood that seemed to have been concealed in such a way that it was not possible for it to leave the confines of the camp.

When Roland saw inside the camp, every hair on his body stood on end. There was a mountain of corpses in front of him. Roland recognised many of them, dozens of Praetorians and at least 3 Centurions, who were his personal soldiers, the ones he had left in charge of the camp before heading to meet Sagat. Roland was about to flee in reverse to meet his uncle, when suddenly, a female lark-like voice was heard above the mountain of corpses. The voice was sweet and capable of awakening any man's basest desires.

"Wow. For a minute there, I thought you were never going to make it. But infiltrating your camp when you were not present, and you had silenced all news of your movements on the border, away from the other detachments of the Great Tribes, was much easier than I expected. Admittedly, your plan was a good one, but it had one major flaw. If anyone found out about it, it would be very easy to get rid of you before you could get support. How hasty you are, not to say stupid. Your lust for glory and regaining your honour blinded you to the dangers of your operation. Eight years ago you did the same thing and Senior Brother Armand gave you what you deserved. It seems you didn't learn your lesson then. Now it's too late, I'm afraid".

The person speaking was a woman in a blue uniform that accentuated her magnificent curves, with hair as red as fire, and a gaze that seemed to want to see the whole world in chaos. There were no medals on her uniform, and at her side was a spear, eight feet long, with a foot-long flattened metal head, on which were inscribed hundreds of runes that inspired solemnity and power. The shaft of the spear, meanwhile, had several natural grooves that facilitated its grip and gave it a natural aesthetic, which also facilitated the passage and use of Qi.

This weapon could be considered legendary across the continent, one of the most powerful spears in existence, of rank 9 and made for a Legend level Warrior. Its name was Einlanzer.

Although the woman sat atop a mountain of corpses, the image did not seem macabre, but added fierceness, heroics and a certain savage air to her aura. It was as if this was the lady's natural aspect, as if she and all that she stood for were the very representation of violence and the pure art of war. This, in fact, was not a misconception, but was part of the materialisation and extension of the woman's Will. As a high-level Warrior, the influence she could wield in the natural world was part of her powers, effectively part of her Will Domain.

"Elizabeth Marion Dai Baruna, do you really want to cause a war between Rhodnius and Ansem?" asked Roland with an imperceptible tremble and fear on his lips.

"A war? I really wonder if you're truly an idiot. Has the war between Rhodnius and Ansem ever stopped? If you don't have any other silly questions to ask, then you can go see EON and ask for forgiveness."

Roland didn't want to give up, so using all his power he materialised his Voluntas, a silver Snake that began to grow wildly, with a powerful Qi manifesting around it. Roland was stimulating all his Qi, so that his Voluntas would take on a gigantic form, so that he could use even more power than usual. This was a secret technique of the Rhodnians, in which the Warriors would put their potential into overdrive, and sacrifice part of their lifespan to obtain a power greater than their own for use in times of desperation.

The snake seemed to turn into a desolate animal, reaching a height of about 30 metres, looking at Elizabeth as if it were a real creature and analysing its next prey. Yet Elizabeth barely glanced at the snake out of the corner of her eye, as she said, "Noisy. Have I given you permission to get up?".

As these words left Elizabeth's mouth, several gigantic spears of silver-coloured Qi materialised in the air and before the Snake could even react the snake was pinned to the ground by the spears, as if it were an animal ripe for dissection. At that moment however, the Serpent seemed to roll its eyes and then exploded in a welter of icy stakes that came crashing down from all sides, blocking the view and attacking indiscriminately.

The Backlash of Roland's Voluntas' destruction was not long in coming and he began to cough up blood voluminously. However, he tried to use the attack to buy time and flee, because he knew his chance of winning against Elizabeth was nil. All he could do was turn back, trying to meet his uncle to save his life.

However, as soon as Roland turned around he came to a screeching halt and his face became the spitting image of despair as the beautiful Elizabeth gazed playfully at him a few feet in front of him. The spear in Elizabeth's hands had pierced Roland's chest and the Qi in it was quickly spreading through Roland's body, shredding his viscera and lungs. Roland's eyes lost focus and life and he passed away without being able to achieve his longed-for dream.

Elizabeth stared at Roland's body for a brief moment and taking the space ring from Roland's hands and examining its contents, she finally closed her eyes for a moment. 'One less enemy, Senior Brother Armand. That massacre caused by this idiot is at least partially settled'.

Finally, Elizabeth disappeared from the scene of the battle, silently returning to Ansem's territory. While she might have tried to ambush Sylas, it was very likely that the fight would not be a short one, and by then new variables could appear, such as new Rhodnius Warriors and even nearby Commanders and Generals. Besides, Elizabeth had gained an immense reward, not only because she was able to get rid of Roland, who had wreaked havoc on Ansem's territory in the past, but also because of the pieces of the Fruit of the Mountain God in the ring. These were a significant windfall.

The Lorca Valley fell silent after Elizabeth's departure. Soon after her departure, a cry of anger, rage and despair was heard in the Valley, spreading to almost the entire Border between the Territories. Some time later, rumours were heard that Sylas, the Spider, the sixth elder of the Great Tribe of Sacar wept tears of blood when he found the corpse of his nephew.

...

Nerun awoke in the vast darkness of the void. His senses seemed scattered, and he struggled to his feet. Although everything around Nerun was monochrome, black and without any light, there seemed to be a floor beneath his feet, although before he seemed to be floating.

"Hello," Nerun shouted into space, but silence was his only response. Nerun's mind felt a distant echo, but even the sound of his own voice was strange to him, as if it wasn't him speaking.

'Where am I? What happened? I thought I had attacked Sagat and managed to stop him long enough for Sister Arbak to finish him. Did I die? But I don't feel dead.'

Nerun didn't understand what was happening, and couldn't help but wander a little. Eventually he came to a decision and began to walk without a clear direction. Nerun walked for an indefinite period of time, not knowing whether it had been too long or too short. Nerun thought that the path he had chosen had no end and the space he was in did not seem to change if Nerun went one way or the other. Indeed, at times Nerun thought he was walking in the air, and at others into the "ground" he had previously walked on, as if the directions themselves were also undefined.

As Nerun was getting tired, he finally noticed something different in the Void. He saw what appeared to be a very faint light in the distance. The light was almost like that of a firefly, but in the vast darkness that surrounded Nerun, that light was brighter than any star. Without wasting any time he ran towards it, and when he was close he was chocked, as he noticed that the light was a bush that was burning with a relentless fire, but it did not burn or exhaust the bush.