Chapter 417: Prescient Commander: White Interlude Part 3

WOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOO

Ares had no idea where this omnipresent siren was blaring from but it was pretty clear to Ares that he was expected to find a bunker to hunker down in lest he get nuked off the face of the planet. At least that would be true under normal circumstances, anyway, but he was in the middle of firing his own equally deadly weapon. His disintegration and white pillar mixed magic comet that was about to burst forth from his throat was not inferior in any way to a nuclear warhead so this was going to be a rather spectacular showdown and demolition exhibition. Who could do the most damage to this planet? The answer to that would soon be made apparent. What interested Ares about this situation, though, was that WMD Deployment sounded as though it was a series of arts and not just some one off... So White probably had a bunch of different warhead type weapons up his sleeve depending on his needs in any given situation. Burning Blizzard was probably just a simple phosphorous nuke that turned a planet white as snow but that was actually a rather fearsome attack in and of itself even despite its simplicity. Just inhaling the helicopters earlier had turned Garmr's insides into mush so an entire planet and atmosphere clogged with burning miasma would be a real problem. If Ares wasn't a revenant he might have actually lost this fight just off the back of this art alone, or be forced to flee into space and give up this planet's foothold at bare minimum, as he'd only really be able to defend himself with disintegration and even that would have its limits.

Ares wielded his pressure to enhance the speed of his magical breath comet and spat out a small ball of black and white mana that grew like a snowball, escalating in severity and intensity as it crashed down towards the planet. What started off as a tennis ball sized threat quickly became house-sized in just a few seconds of flight and it was still growing with every inch it fell. This thing might even be about half the size of this planet by the time it hit White but he was taking his own measures to prevent that. In outer space, slightly beyond this planet's atmosphere, White's magic was gathering at a frightening rate. It was somewhat reminiscent of when Ares used No Fear as the mana drained from the surroundings was both ominous and awe inspiring at the same time because it was indicative of the fact that a truly mythical art was about to take shape and be cast. It was like a nebula of white mana constructing a warhead and a satellite style launch pad that was very nearly ready to fire, all it needed now was a target and there was a very convenient way for White to aim this thing by using his greyscale dimension. Rather than limit the scope of the dimension to his fist like last time, White applied a greyish filter over the entire world and froze time for a few seconds as he got to work picking his targets like some kind of retro turn-based strategy game from the early days of technological advancements in this universe.

White couldn't do much during this time pause, even being able to freeze time like this despite not having an affiliation for the time aspect was pretty crazy, but marking targets was something he was free to do for a good ten seconds if he wished. It gave him time to consider the scenario laid out before him and reconsider his actions but not enough to stay here forever and think through more complex decisions and puzzles. He could very well target multiple objects and / or people if he was firing more than one weapon right now but, as that wasn't the case, he simply marked the incoming white disintegration comet with a target so as to clash the two magics head on. Even White didn't know what would happen next but he wasn't going to back down now and so he resolutely applied the targeting reticle to the very front tip of the comet without blinking or hesitating. Nuke vs comet, there was only way to find out which would come out on top so White dismissed his greyscale map dimension and time resumed, allowing him to cast more magic and ready his defenses while his nuclear weapon was deployed in the behind the scenes up in space. White wasn't foolish enough to take any of this explosive madness head on so he snapped his fingers once more and begun summoning a pile of pure white tanks and a few aircraft carriers. The latter were grounded, due to being created on land, but it was more so about putting as many walls between himself and the incoming catastrophe as was humanly possible. Ares didn't have access to a makeshift bunker but, by weathering the storm out from underneath tons of magic, White effectively did. He was in the depths of the engine room of the largest vehicle he'd summoned, the aircraft carrier, while blimps, tanks, and various other war machines, even older machines like catapults, rams, and even a trojan horse, all wheeled themselves on top of the pile to bolster his hastily thrown together barricade.

There was nothing else for either combatant to do other than wait for the two deadly weapons to collide so with White hunkered down, and Garmr... Well actually Garmr was making no effort to block anything. He was freefalling back down to the ground, behind his comet, and didn't seem all too concerned about any of this... Regardless! With both of the two fundamental champions fully prepared, relative to how much they gave a damn about this, the end of days was free to do its thing and potentially obliterate this entire planet. Or as much of it as it could anyway; there might very well be a chunk of Sheryashka left to fight on afterwards but this collision could also just destroy the entire planet immediately depending on how early the nuke struck the comet. If the collision took place in mid-air the ground might actually survive to some degree! It seemed like that was going to be the case as well as a pure, lengthy white rocket broke through the atmosphere at supersonic speed and homed in on the comet from a 90 degree angle. Interception was an inevitability in three, two, one...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

...

...

How long had it been? What seemed like a mere moment felt like an eternity had passed as the world outside White's bunker was turned into living hell. However long it had been, the worst of the collision had already subsided and it was 'safe' for White to make his way outside without getting blown up at least...

Cough cough cough

White pushed away a hunk of metal that had been flung over to his impromptu fort, and blocked him underneath the rubble of a civilisation long gone, as he cleared his throat and waved aside some burning white mist to try and get a better view of things. As this magic in the air was a combination of both white and disintegration mana it benefitted neither party hidden within it more than the other and was quite toxic for both White and Garmr... Wherever that beast was. It was impossible to see through this white mist and it would slowly kill both parties if they stayed within it for too long... If they were both normal cultivators, that is, but they were both capable of healing themselves at all times and could tough it out until the fight was over even though it was highly unpleasant to effectively be permanently on fire. White was convinced staying here, on this burning planet, was for the best as his White Death Regiment would be at home in this phosphorus laden planet. Meanwhile, Garmr was a beast with excellent tracking and could freely ambush his prey while visibility remained poor for everyone else. This had become cat vs mouse both ways and was stalker vs stalker. One side would be a well co-ordinated and highly tactical group of expert soldiers and the other was a monstrous being with enhanced senses, prowling and ambushing prey one by one. Who would come out on top in this Burning Blizzard, amidst the wreckage and ruins of this planet, and slay their foe? It was unknowable s of right now but White was going to do everything in his power to make sure it was him so he summoned his Regiment who all quietly came through the fog like ghosts as the phosphorus rolled off them, creating a fiery haze around their silhouettes.

White gave out a series of hand signs to order his units to patrol the immediate area, with only a few hanging back to stay by his side in case of an emergency, and then he was ready to set out and hunt a beast. He couldn't view the battlefield from his Regiment's perspective, unfortunately, but he could communicate loosely with them from range and know their location at all times. He'd know what they were up to, if they found anything suspicious, and, more importantly, if they were murdered. All of the above was information fed to him in his brain as a real time report of the action they were embroiled in or witnessing and, although White wanted to one day have them capture footage, this would suffice for now. Still, they were the highest trained soldiers in his entire army, and there was definitely competition amongst some of the other as-of-yet to be seen soldiers types, so the chances of one going down without a fight were low. Each individual soldier was about as capable in combat as an Aejaz equipped with a full auto rifle. If Ares came barreling out of the fog to kill one they would be able to roll out of the way, mag dump, and back up while leading the beast to the rest of the group. If they got the drop on him they could lay traps and take appropriate measures to corner the beast without it detecting them. They were highly intelligent, swift, and brutal in their execution of whatever they decided was a fitting measure in the moment. Throw in White's commands and these lot were natural predators in this sort of high-intensity environment. Usually this phosphorous fog was like a second home to them, ant hat was when they were at their most dangerous, but the disintegration clogging the air had complicated things and so they had to do things here the hard way. They'd been on missions like this before in swamps and across desolated planets so they were quick to spread out as commanded and paced themselves perfectly. They never strayed too far from the group, despite a lack of a visual on their teammates to keep track of their location, nor did they stay too close together to scout efficiently. There was probably only a handful of more impressive tactical squads in the entire universe and there was definitely no summonable-on-demand squad like this at all. Plus they weren't called a 'Regiment' for nothing as plans to expand their numbers had been there from the start. As soon as White could increase his cultivation base he would be sure to work on this art every single time and up the number of combatants. He might even have to rename them from 'Regiment' someday if their numbers became too excessive to keep calling them that.

That was all a problem for future White, however, and right now he was more concerned with not getting trampled out of the blue by the monster lurking and snarling in the depths of this nightmare land... As if on queue, one of his Regiment members was confirmed KIA somewhere in the fog... This was worrying because it hadn't reported anything before biting the dust and that should have been impossible... White didn't know much about Garmr but it wasn't exactly the stealthiest creature around, surely?! Perhaps it could just about manage to use the celestial Prisms, which had been reported on in great detail outside the pagoda, to scout out ahead of it... And maybe when combined with its naturally incredible draconic eyesight Garmr could see much further than everyone else, but it ought to be unable to mask its own presence even if it could easily spot and sneak up on everyone. Being able to ambush them easier didn't mean the Regiment soldiers wouldn't be able to at least catch sight of Garmr before he struck them down. Even if he was flicking wind slashes at them from beyond the fog there should have been SOMETHING said about this in the combat report before death...

What on earth was Garmr doing?

...

Another one... White kissed his teeth as another soldier succumbed to death. Garmr must have been disintegrating the bodies too because White couldn't resummon them at all to ask questions... Regiment members were expensive on the mana front and if this kept up White would run out of mana sooner rather than later. Deploying a WMD and his regiment back to back really took it out of White, though it usually won him the fight, so he'd have to be cautious about slinging magic from now on unless it was unquestionably necessary to stay alive... White dredged up every single piece of information he knew about Ares and went through the long list one by one.. There was seemingly nothing in that list that could result in a stealthy Garmr... No, wait a minute, wasn't there also something about a darkness pillar enabler? Though not often mentioned, It hit White like a train that the Prowler was a treasure Ares owned and this was a much worse situation than he initially thought it was... Adepts couldn't use anything other than racial magic normally... But would an enabler circumnavigate that rule? White actually didn't know, because it was such a weird and niche question, but if the answer was 'yes' then there was an invisible, or close to it, Garmr drifting through this fog...

Even if just specifically due to some fundamental champion-related shenanigans, it was better to assume Garmr could use the Nyxian Prowler regardless of whether it was possible for other adepts to do such a thing. Ares was an entirely different beast compared to an average cultivator so making such a thing work wasn't as unreasonable as anything any of the fundamental champions were already doing anyway. There was no such thing as 'impossible' when it came to fundamental champions, only time stood before them and their goals usually. The one upside to all of this was that White specialised in anti-darkness pillar measures and so he couldn't really be attacked by darkness magic at all. Garmr would still have to do in White and his soldiers with other means as they would shrug off anything offensive from that pillar like it was ticklish. Stealth was still a pain in the neck, though, as White couldn't dispel it right now in this place. The fog would block any revealing arts he cast and make it utterly pointless. Plus the disintegration in the air would counter a lot of his weaker magics anyway as there was a lot of the stuff floating about and it was particularly troublesome.

The situation was looking a lot more dire now so White ordered his soldiers to tighten up the formation a bit going forward so that everyone could respond quicker to sudden disappearances and maybe at least spot Garmr while he was attacking a comrade. It was for the best if they stayed separate from one another, though, as clumping up would allow Ares to sneakily transform out of Garmr and just unleash another massive explosion on the entire group, collectively wiping out everyone all at once. Either stay separate and get hunted or join up together and get blown up... Not a great choice but this was where Ares' versatility and numerous advantages came in handy as he could force opponents to make unfavourable choices at every critical junction while also being prepared to punish them for it regardless of what they picked.

Again... White was losing soldiers left and right but there was really nothing to be done about this... Maybe if he...

AWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

TSK! Shit... Just when White was finally on track to working out a solution that damn howl pierced his brain and stunned him stock still. The cry of certain legendary monsters could bewilder and shock weaker creatures and that appeared to be what Garmr was going for. Make everything worse by preventing the strategist from thinking up a countermeasure to the current predicament. Plus Garmr didn't need to be anywhere directly near White to pull this off so it was just a free way to delay him while Garmr kept devouring soldiers on the outskirts of the perimeter set up by White's patrol. That damn howl was still rattling around inside White's head, giving him a headache whenever he tried to think and put things into perspective. It was like trying to stack a tower of bricks, only for the howl to come along like a gust of wind every few seconds and topple all of White's hard work. It lingered like a curse, infesting his brain and constantly threatening him to reduce morale and motivation to fight against Garmr. Thankfully White's soldiers were unaffected by this but it was still a massive inconvenience to say the least. White wanted it gone so he halted everyone's advance and took up a seated position to run white magic through himself and cleanse this obnoxious evil. It took him a few minutes and, by the time he was done, and prepared to prevent such a thing happening again if Garmr howled once more, he'd already lost about two thirds of his Regiment that were standing guard. He wasn't alone but his soldiers, even some of the ones that had been standing beside him, were disappearing at a rate that couldn't be ignored.

"Fire!" White spotted something moving in the mist, something that was definitely not a soldier of his, and the Regiment reacted without skipping a beat and unloaded their ammunition into the fog. After a second or so of concentrated fire every one of the soldiers spread their aim out in different directions to try and pelt Garmr with an extra bullet or two wherever it had gone. This was blind spraying but there were no innocents out there to accidentally hit and the situation was rough enough that expending a bit of extra ammo was worth it even if doing so cost White some more mana to generate it for them. 

"GET DOWN!" White barked an order at his regiment and they all immediately hit the floor upon receiving the command but it really didn't matter much because the Perish Wheel that came flying through the fog wasn't something that could be ducked away from. Had it been a hand grenade then, sure, maybe one of the soldiers' bodies would have blocked the shrapnel... But a Perish Wheel? That was like asking cotton ball to stop a wildfire with its body. White hadn't seen the incoming art before but quickly realised his mistake and tried to rectify the issue by summoning a massive white wall in front of his regiment. It was put together at the very last minute, wasn't even an art, and had to be expanded to protect as many Regiment members as possible, so it was lacking in the quality department considerably. Unsurprisingly the Wheel blew right through the wall, shredding it via the rotary blades on the outer edges, and crashed into the group with a colossal explosion that shook the earth once more.

A golden spiral shot through the fog and blasted the rest of it away, clearing up the nearby area, but White couldn't have known that because he was still stuck inside the merciless explosion battering him and his army. He had to do everything in his power not to die here and that included sacrificing his regiment and absorbing their fires to keep himself healed. He had a ton of ways to regenerate lost body parts and heal himself but it required mana to do so and that was scarce right now. The best he could do was convert mana that already existed, inside his regiment members, into healing to keep himself going through the golden barrage. It was a long and painful endeavour, and his clothes were shredded leaving most of his upper body and legs on display, his hat crooked, and his arms slightly bent, but he was still alive by the end of it and slowly healing up whatever injuries he'd sustained that hadn't' killed him. The fog was gone now too so the disintegration wasn't impeding his healing in any way either... But his Regiment were all gone. He hadn't protected them, he'd forcibly taken their lives for his own sake and that felt terrible to admit but he could apologise to the dead later. If he didn't focus up right now he would be asking for forgiveness in person and somebody had to stay alive to fell this absurd monster... Speaking of which, where was Ares right now anyway? White looked around but couldn't spot him but he actually didn't need to because a massive entity appeared right behind him and he could tell Ares had found him.

White took in the scenery ahead of him before turning around because he had a feeling this fight was over. He looked forward and surveyed the utter destruction beyond the horizon... Rather, there was nothing left of this planet at all... He and Ares were the only two people left on this small chunk of simulated Sheryashka floating through Vraizon... White thought he was navigating through the fog across a ravaged planet but all he was doing was treading from one side of a small rock to another. How grand his little adventure seemed when he knew no better and how pathetic and pointless it all felt now. He'd been trapped on a small cage with nowhere to run or hide from the monster behind him. Ares had turned back into Garmr for whatever reason and was casting a considerably-sized shadow over White but there was no point in feeling sorry for himself and it was for the best if he jsut faced his fate head on.

White clicked his shoulders into place and turned around to face the music. He looked up at the creature with a slight frown and disdain in his eyes but couldn't completely hide the shock at what he was seeing. Garmr had evidently been hit harder by the initial explosion, that kicked this all off, than White thought he had been. Half of Garmr's face was nothing more than brain ooze and sludge. This thing should have been dead but it was walking around through that fog with half a head, missing chunks of flesh across its entire body, and was leaking golden blood through every pore. It looked like an undead monster now more than some prideful beast and was quite the ugly sight. No wonder Ares turned back into Garmr after throwing the Wheel, he needed Garmr's toughness to survive missing half his head. It must have hurt momentarily when he turned back into a human to throw his art but he'd powered through the agony to make sure he won the fight and White had to give it to Ares because the guy clearly just wanted the win more than he himself did. Garmr had been partially liquified by the explosion and the lingering phosphorous and was still able to keep going... Also, sure enough, the Nyxian Prowler was clenched between Garmr's broken mouth. What remained of his skull was being used to jam the knife into a place it wouldn't slip from as he ran around hunting the Regiment soldiers earlier. 

White sighed to himself, mustered all his energy, grimaced, and yelled a fierce, wordless battle cry as he swung his fist at this larger than life zombie wolf. He'd avoided a punch-off with the creature before but he was annoyed and had no options left so he was, if nothing else, going to leave his mark before meeting his maker. This felt like a terrible loss, with many mistakes made, to White... But that was an excuse. Ares likely made jsut as many mistakes, and had tricks up his sleeve yet to be used jsut like White as well, so a loss was a loss and White couldn't deny it. First Havanah and now this? White was going to need to do a lot of reflecting on where he was going wrong to have lost these fights. He gave Ares credit obviously, but he was more focused on improving himself than complaining about the ridiculousness of Garmr, for instance... Although there were definitely a lot of valid complaints he could make.

Regardless, White's fist sunk into Garmr's cheek but barely managed to shove the head an inch to the side. Garmr simply growled, stretched open its unhinged and dislocated maw, and the last thing White saw was Garmr's gnarled teeth sink into his skull and bite his head off. Next thing he knew, White was outside the pagoda and feeling spry as ever like he'd just been through a bad dream that didn't really happen. All his fatigue from moments ago was gone and his injuries were no longer causing him any grief. He sighed to himself, looked back at the pagoda, and then left wordlessly never to return while ignoring all the journalists pestering him for answers. He'd learnt enough for now and didn't want to demoralise himself by losing any further to this person. White knew what he needed to and, though there was more he could maybe gleam from repeated encounters, he figured it was best to just check whatever notes Oliver had made after his own run-in with Ares as they would no doubt be extensive. White's mind was unclouded by his loss and so he made the decision that was most efficient without losing him any vital information that he could ponder over regarding how best to utilise Ares ona battlefield. White could go back to whatever he was working on previously without needing to sink more time into this pagoda so staying here wasn't worth his time. There would come a day when he met Ares again, and for real at that, and that would be more than enough meeting and greeting. As such, White was the first of the fundamental champions to leave the pagoda and he didn't bother waiting for anyone else to leave with him. When it came right down to it, he still preferred to work alone... Though, then again, with teammates like these, maybe it was worth reconsidering that attitude. The things he could do if he worked alongside these other champions was pretty great and its not like he didn't have his own goals... Co-operation could be established for mutual benefit... So long as Ares didn't come anywhere near him in Garmr form ever again anyway. Getting eaten by a comrade in arms was not the best way to get to know someone and it had certainly left a rather... Sharp, impression.