Chapter 416: Prescient Commander: White Interlude Part 2

Other than greyscale, White had an affiliation for the 'white warfare' aspect, which was responsible for his offensive needs and the summoning of his armies, and the 'spurring strategies' aspect which covered morale raising methods, resurrection, and the ability to enhance himself, his followers and allies. He had a good mix of arts that covered almost every single base and even his plain magic was enough to get the job done in most cases because he didn't need to cast an art to raise an army. All he needed to do was...

Click

With a snap of White's fingers, pure white fire came creeping out of the earth as far as the eye could see. The white embers he summoned grew into small piles of fire before growing into tall blazes in the shape of human beings and, sure enough, a few seconds later, there were definably human traits and features on them all. White had summoned a small army, totalling around a thousand soldiers, just like that. He could do way more, and raise even more loyal soldiers, but it was overkill at that point because they wouldn't even be able to crowd around Garmr without bumping into one another. A thousand was already arguably too many but White wasn't commanding them all to run at Garmr as some were being held back for defensive measures. If Garmr broke through the front lines he would be met with even more soldiers and get surrounded but, if he held his ground instead, he would be overrun by the never ending swarm. That was the plan. Of course the soldiers couldn't really hold such a behemoth down or keep it in place for long but the soldiers nearer to White were stronger overall and he could offer them his timely assistance quickly too so he felt comfortable on the back lines. The real issue here was figuring out how he was going to kill this annoying monster. Ideally he would be seated in a chair in outer space right now, remotely watching the fight while commanding all his units from afar and raining down artillery from above. He preferred a comprehensive over-head view than what he had now but he could at least fly up a little to get one without garnering Garmr's attention. If he tried to actually leave the planet he would be exposing himself in the air to Ares, not even Garmr necessarily, which was where he was the weakest.

Not may of White's soldiers or creations could fly so he either needed to be completely grounded or way up in space to have comprehensive protection. He could fend for himself, sure, but not against anyone as powerful as another fundamental champion, that was asking for too much without the aid of his magic. Everyone had weaknesses, even the six champions, and this was currently White's biggest flaw that needed correction. He was working on it, though, and creating more arts that solved his issue. He was also keeping his eye out for any treasures that aided the user during flight and was willing to fight to the death for one if he found such a thing. He was actively using the scouting resources of the entire fundamental organisation to find one, be it in a legacy tomb, sold at an auction, or wherever else one may appear, and it was clear he was incredibly annoyed at himself for not dealing with this problem sooner. It's just that it was never and issue previously because nobody had ever exploited it before. Most people simply couldn't spare the effort, while they were swarmed by an immortal army, so white had all the time in the world to leave the planet uninterrupted. Fundamental champions really punished him for attempting it, though, and his first ever loss was to Havanah who forced him to crash out of the sky with her gravity magic and there was nothing he could do to save himself from being pulled headfirst into the ground at hundreds of miles per hour. Other champions, Black and Sanity, punished him too during spars, even if said punishments didn't outright kill him because he was more cautious after what happened with Havanah, and so it became a sore spot for him and he simply avoided making that mistake entirely around other champions. Fortunately it's not like he was dependant on this overhead view for literally anything other than analysis so his combat strength didn't decrease at all and it was just a matter of personal preference for the most part. It could matter in some situations but was mostly irrelevant against anyone other than fundamental champions... Who were also the only ones stopping him from doing as he pleased! It made it so that White was currently weaker against the strongest people in the universe, and stronger against everyone else, which was a rough tradeoff. He'd obviously rather be strong against everyone. White had no real reason to ever seriously fight the champions but this weakness was still the reason he was only ranked third in terms of strength. He might be a contender for second if this exploitable opening could be fixed, though. Still, it spoke volumes that he had the most egregious weakness of all the champions and yet still came third. He was jsut as problematic as every other champion!

Anyway that aside, by now Garmr was already going on a rampage and every lazy swing of a limb resulted in carnage let alone whenever he opted to use his claws for wide swipes. His claws flung out blades of wind with every slash that cleaved through roughly fifty extra soldiers each and every time but this was actually utterly pointless. It was good progress for all of a single second before the shredded fires crawled back up, gradually mounting one another until they reformed the soldiers. What was really tricky here was that Ares didn't have a great way of killing these things permanently without magic so they were actually quite good against Garmr even if he was many many leagues above these soldiers in jsut about every way. Actually Ares could probably ignore them and walk straight at White but he was curious enough to check how his magic fared so he took a deep breath and prepared himself to unleash golden hellfire upon this pocket army. He had a feeling disintegration would do the job and permanently put these soldiers down for the count but annihilation would do it quicker, as it affected a much wider area and spread further, and would hopefully have the same result. Whether annihilation could counter White's resurrection remained to be seen but, though Ares was hopeful, he was also doubtful. Disintegration really was his best tool for dealing with anything non-standard... But, actually, maybe nothingness could also do something here? Ares was going to have to check all three breaths to be certain, although maybe not disintegration as he was basically certain about its effectiveness because it was 100% functional all the time, as he might as well gather data while White was also doing it. Actually, this could be a devastating combo depending on how the magics interacted. White summons his army, Ares indiscriminately bombs everything with annihilation, only White's army lives... Profit? Two champions working together in tandem was definitely overkill but if the situation called for it then why not! White was probably thinking the same thing anyway so Ares didn't need to bring it up. Rather, White had already likely consider all of this before even arriving here... Phostradamus does it again!

Anyway, Aers huffed and he puffed and he blew the soldiers down as golden lava spewed from his open jaw. It was like a fire breath but a little more 'flowy' due to being partially liquid. The fire burned everything it touched until the victim melted down into golden sludge within the overwhelming tide. Ares could freely adjust the properties of his fire breath and he'd picked a liquid form for this attack specifically because it lingered around on the floor! The soldiers that sunk below the waves could maybe be revived but, if they were revived within the fire, would they be able to escape it or was this a viable method to dealing with the infinitely respawning foes? If it was, then these token creatures were far less impressive than Ares initially fought they were. Sure they were highly dangerous, and even a handful of them could take down an average cultivator just by sanding in close proximity, spreading their fire and burning the person to death, but Ares was not an average cultivator! These things would have to come at him in the hundreds with weapons brandished to even pose a small threat to normal Ares, let alone Garmr. If White wanted to impress Ares he was going to have to do better! And better he did because, to Ares' surprise, the soldiers began reconstructing themselves after a short delay in spite of the lava... They appeared to be fire retardant?... No, they definitely weren't normally or else they wouldn't have been melted down by the annihilation lava in the first place...

Is this a holy buff? Ares wasn't familiar enough with how White's aspects worked and so he just assumed this was a support magic of some kind. He was right in that sense, this was supportive magic from the spurring strategies aspect, it just wasn't technically holy pilar magic. This art was called 'Fireproof', and did what it said on the tin, but White was casting his own version of it. It was a copy of the art but its functionality, mana cost, and effectiveness were all vastly superior than the holy pillar version. Cheaper, lasted longer, could be used against a higher degree of heat, and didn't disappear under most circumstances. These were some of the traits White's version possessed the original didn't and was a good example of why holy pillars would be jealous of White. Plus this aspect did more than just copy the holy and support pillar as it had its own unique arts that couldn't be found anywhere else when it wasn't busy plagiarising.

White could make everything white possess special qualities, like his clothes or these soldiers, for dirt cheap on the mana front so using magic to make them fireproof was jsut one of many options. Hell he could probably make them immune to most things really. Cold, heat, curses, physical attacks, darkness magic, etc... Holy and support buffs were very versatile and wide ranging so if White just learnt a crap ton of them he could pile them all on his soldiers freely and become a serious threat with untouchable summons. Normally people couldn't both summon and buff things to the same extent White could, as it required a very specific set of affiliations that were counter intuitive and rarely came bundled together, so this was all very unreasonable. Casting fire immunity of this calibre to this many different entitles at once was pretty unheard of but white could freely spread it all due to, presumably, the distinction in what he was manipulating. Sure he casted a holy art but he was spreading white magic instead, as that was the mana source, which was an important clarification because it was way cheaper. A holy pillar, or support pillar, cultivator simply couldn't pull this trick off ever. This scale was entirely unique to White, as others would have to buff multiple times or expend every drop of mana within them unless they were a heaven sent prodigy, plus he was the only person in existence who could do both the summoning and the buffing on such a massive scale so consistently by himself. He didn't even look bothered after having done all of this so this was still nothing more than a simpler measure in his arsenal that he didn't even need to chant for. He could, whenever he felt like it, imbue his summons with various types of anti-magic without the need for a chant... God only knows what he could do with more powerful arts. Again, fundamental champions were all completely ridiculous and it was wise to remember that when fighting one. Or, better yet, don't fight them in the first place!

Anywho, Ares was forced to give up Annihilation but next up was nothingness! White wasn't summoning new soldiers to replace the old ones, he was just bringing them back from their invincible ashes every time they were felled... But that raised the question of what happened if the ashes disappeared entirely? Disintegration could obviously wipe them all out the simple way but what if nothingness just... Shifted them away? Into the depths of space where White couldn't find them? Would White have to summon more? Forcing him to run out of mana was one way to go about beating him because summoning an army repeatedly would eventually get quite draining. Ares had some mana issues before he got the Converter, and plenty before he invented Grim Cessation, but White must have had it way worse. He seemed to have a larger well of mana reserves than most but there were limits to how much he could store, that couldn't be avoided because there was only one person in the universe with infinite mana and it wasn't him, and so Ares checked how things would go with his nothingness breath.

Unlike the annihilation lava earlier, Ares blew out a soft, misty fog that grew thick whenever it passed by a burning soldier, hiding them from view. Once they were sufficiently buried within the fog it would cease being opaque and the soldier that was once within had pulled a magic trick and disappeared completely. No more lingering fires, no more ashes to resurrect, it was just all gone entirely from top to bottom, chucked into the vastness of space hundreds of miles away. This hazardous fog swept through the ranks of the soldiers and blitzed the immediate area before directing itself towards the next large group. This fire was less impactful, and wouldn't be able to Shift anything stronger than a basic soldier, but it was nimble, hit multiple foes at once, and could seek out new prey whenever it was done tormenting the old prey. This fog would continue spreading for as long as Ares could keep his breath active and, considering his lung size and Garmr's mythical talents, that was a considerable amount of time. In his current state, doing this for at least an hour two was well within his limits. Ares could probably cover this entire planet in Shifting gas and remove any and all lifeforms from it that he deemed unacceptable. Actually, with his anti friendly-fire mutation from Enyo, he could hunt down anyone no matter where they were hiding with this trick as he just needed to flood the planet with this fog and only have it affect whoever he was after. They couldn't possibly hide and he would Shift them right into his grasp before biting their cowardly heads off. Garmr couldn't use arts in this form, aside from revenant specific ones that he didn't currently know... But that was really proving to not be an issue given how many tools, and variations of said tools, he possessed. His breaths alone were sufficient to fill basically whatever gap he had from losing his arts... Well almost, he couldn't Voidwalk as Garmr, for instance, and that was absolutely a tragic truth that hurt Ares' soul. It would be completely unfair and nonsensical for Garmr to start teleporting at will. That was like strapping a shark to a tiger's back, giving them wings and laser beam eyes, and then putting armour on them for good measure. There was a point where even Ares had to admit his whacky ideas were becoming overkill for anything he could ever possibly need!

White was troubled by the disappearance of his soldiers so he changed things up a bit and summoned fire in the skies instead. The clouds were ablaze but didn't melt as the fires seeped off them and trickled down like rain. Suddenly they froze and hovered in the air before snapping towards one another and clinging to each other like building blocks forming a shape that Ares was unfamiliar with. He didn't know vehicles other than boats and carriages all too well due to his upbringing in a lower domain so he had no idea that what he was looking at was a helicopter! Not any old helicopter either, an Apache loaded with all manner of weapons. The upside to using magic to create these was that they could have some pretty unreasonable and gnarly weapons loaded onto them like plasma cannons or, in some cases, a bottom-mounted salvo launcher. To hell with physics, magic was the way to go! The launchers were all weightless so it's not like gravity mattered here!... Actually, it very well might do if Havanah were the one fighting White as salvo launchers not being heavy was an impossibility and would be exploitable via her rule and logic magic. It being magic was the only reason this sight made any sense so Havanah could wipe those helicopters out of existence or give them actual weight and make them crash on the spot. As for Ares, who didn't have such magic, he could only stop spreading his nothingness breath, swap to disintegration, and jet out a steady laser stream of black, compact fire. This version of his flame breath lacked width but made up for it in length, speed, and the potency of the fire. It was very much like the disintegration beam art real Ares wanted to learn how to fire off but way bigger in exchange for being way slower. It was still very fast but a beam was going to be near instant in comparison to a flamethrower style attack without a doubt. Still, Garmr couldn't use arts so this was as good as it was going to get.

The helicopters swerved to avoid the fire but some had their rotors clipped and they crashed like meteors off in the distance beyond the walls of Red Sun. A towering white smoke pillar was all that was left of these magical contraptions after they exploded upon hitting the ground in a messy landing. These smoke pillars dotted the horizon for a short while but White was quick to resurrect them and they took off shortly after to rejoin the fight. Ares hadn't hit them square on with the disintegration so they only lost small chunks of their total mass which just wasn't going to cut it if he wanted more permanent results. Furthermore, to make matters worse, White had given them extra haste with his magic to massively increase their speed. They were like obnoxious mosquitos buzzing around in the sky above and peppering Ares with tiny bullet streams of blazing gatling fire. Being pelted like this, by burning lead, without any way to fight back was grinding on Ares' gears because he was being bullied by such trifling opponents! Unacceptable! Garmr, losing to teeny-weeny magical machines in the sky?! The audacity to even attempt to win in such a manner was deserving of death a thousands times over! Garmr could withstand the small arms on these helicopters basically forever but, instead of taking the fight to White, he chose not to ignore these things and take them out for good because they were being so damn insufferable and needed to be put in their place. Garmr stomped his foot into the earth and bent down, placing so much pressure on the planet that the bottom half of it, compared to where Garmr was currently, cracked off into space. An entire half of a planet just got blasted to smithereens thanks to a single stomp and all Garmr was doing was prepping himself for a large leap. It was evident he was pissed off and the magic machines up in the sky began scrambling out of fear without being commanded to do as such. The magic had an innate fear of this monster and went AWOL in response, leaving White bewildered that such at thing was even possible. This was a good learning experience but also a massive gut punch as he'd been betrayed by his army! Not that it mattered whether the helicopters tried to flee or not as it was irrelevant. Garmr was fed up with them and he wasn't going to let them fly off into the sunset and live happily ever after given what they'd been doing to him all this while!

BANG

Garmr shot up into the air like reverse lightning and was reaching the apex of his jump within the blink of an eye. He'd calculated how much force he needed to exert to wind up exactly where he wanted, a short distance underneath the fleeing helicopter brigade, and jumped accordingly. Next came a simple but effective attack... Inhalation! Ares had shown off his exhalation before with the fire breaths but his lungs were capable of doing the opposite too! Garmr opened his mouth and breathed in deeply, creating a small vortex that dragged in everything within range like a windy black hole. Ares didn't have gravitational magic like Havanah but he could have fooled anyone who was none the wiser if they saw this sight. Clouds, the helicopters, even small smudges of reality were being sucked in and couldn't resist. The sheer power of this inhale was such that Garmr could actually keep himself afloat, preventing him from falling back down to earth, as every inch of reality resisting the pull above him was supporting his entire weight. It was like doing a never-ending pull up with your lungs in mid air... Only Garmr...

Speaking of things only Garmr could do, inhaling White's burning phosphorous magic was a terrible idea! The second a single helicopter lost its shape due to the irresistible pull from Garmr breaking is form, as soon as it became a became a disfigured burning cloud and was sucked into Garmr's gut, the skin and fur of the giant monster began turning bright white! He was being burned alive form the inside and his innards were all melting. Garmr could fell an inferno raging within him, and this was the worst case of heartburn he'd ever experienced, but his regeneration was fighting back and keeping him in the fight by counteracting the burn. With every helicopter Garmr absorbed he became whiter and whiter while parts of his body began to turn into melted sludge. His hairs were burning and he'd become a fiery pincushion, set ablaze under the sun, and looked like a beacon or a flare in the sky. Still he continued inhaling the magic regardless as the pain was actually rather minimal and definitely tolerable. Garmr could take it! He didn't jsut hit hard, he took hits for days too and so what if parts of his body were literally dripping off him like melted ice cream?! If he was alive, he wasn't dead! That was all that mattered! This stubbornness paid off and, about ten seconds later, he'd swallowed every single helicopter and now the gallons of phosphorus churning inside him were fully contained. Not for long though because Garmr wasn't going to just digest these flames, he had other plans! By channeling those flames, as well as his own mana, he became a mixologist producing only the highest quality magic cocktail that combined phosphorous and disintegration into one black and white swirling entity reminiscent of the harmony between yin and yang. Garmr's inhalation ceased and the air around him sighed in relief as he spun his body around to face White beneath him. His chest enlarged as the concoction he brew came rising through his body and it was clear he was going to be spitting out something incredibly potent that White was going to have to deal with the hard way... Though White hadn't willingly participated in this nonsense, this was till going to be a combination magic between destruction and the white pillar so he knew the rough level of chaos he would be facing off against. There was no choice for him but to match firepower with firepower here and pray for the best. As such, he was bringing out his most destructive, non-apotheosis related art.

"WMD DEPLOYMENT: BURNING WINTER!"