Chapter 106: Divine Blade Fate Sealer? Laaaame
Familial Arts, to most spawns, this would be the trump card to turn the tides of any battle. Familial Arts were the pinnacle of magic when they reached their full potential. They are, after all, magic used by the Gods, though there are different types of Familial Arts. The first is an imitation of what the Gods could do, the second more complex.
The spawns of Octavia are a prime example of the latter. The Chthonia, the biological trait of anyone chosen by Octavia. The eyes hold the power to decipher any kind of power, be it magic or not. Then there is the Seraphic Chorus, an ability to summon the divine army that fought under Octavia in all the wars in the age of Gods. This army battled Dragons and Gods alike, their numbers stretched wild, and their individual strength was not insignificant. Though they loathe to be summoned to the mortal realm.
Then, of course, there is the third and final Familial Art, the ability to summon the Goddess Octavia's weapon. Divine Blade Fate Sealer, aptly named seeing as the blade holds the power to influence and alter reality, destiny, and fate itself. A powerful weapon, not to be used lightly with some drawbacks. Of course, a spawn of Octavia was the only one who could utilize the blade, so why was it that he saw this?
Mikoto raised his right hand, palm outstretched. Reality seemed to stutter, the very air shimmering in protest. Cracks snaked their way across the ground, spiderwebbing outwards from Mikoto's hand. The wind died, replaced by a tense silence thick enough to choke on. Then, with a sound like a world shattering, a blade began to coalesce. It wasn't forged from steel or any earthly material. It was pure energy, a tear in the fabric of reality given form. Starlight seemed to condense around the nascent blade, swirling with the colors of a dying supernova. The cracks in the earth widened, glowing with an ethereal light that pulsed in time. Aegraxes' eyes widened in shock.
"The… Divine Blade Fate Sealer?!" he rasped, his voice laced with disbelief. It seemed his stoic façade seemed to disappear ever briefly.
Mikoto scoffed. "Divine Blade Fate Sealer? Sounds like a name a senile dude would come up with." He closed his fist, and the blade solidified with a final, earth-shaking tremor. It was a masterpiece of impossible geometries, its form shifting and shimmering like a mirage in the desert heat. The hilt, if it could be called that, was a swirling vortex of starlight that defied definition. The blade itself, impossibly thin and sharp, pulsed with an inner light that seemed to devour the darkness itself.
"Upon this world, I impose two laws, this blade is dubbed Harbinger of Fate. And this light will expunge any demon it touches from existence." Mikoto raised the blade high above his head with both hands, its otherworldly glow bathing the clearing in an eerie luminescence. The air crackled with raw power, the enormous forest groaning in protest. Aegraxes frowned deeply. He had only ever witnessed such a sight, such blatant defiance of the natural order once before.
Then the blade roared, a sound that echoed through the shattered sky, Mikoto brought the blade crashing down. The world went supernova. A wave of pure, unadulterated light erupted from the point of impact. It wasn't fire, not in the conventional sense. It was the concentrated essence of a thousand suns, a tide of raw power that scoured the earth clean. The decayed trees ignited not with flame, but with a blinding white brilliance before disintegrating into nothingness. The very ground vaporized, leaving behind a crater of molten rock that glowed with an infernal heat. The shockwave, a wall of compressed air and displaced reality, seemed slammed into Aegraxes with the force of a collapsing star.
The wave continued its relentless march, pushing outwards until the entire forest was consumed in a maelstrom of light. The destruction didn't stop there. The wave of annihilation punched upwards, piercing the heavens like a spear. The clouds, caught in its path, simply ceased to exist. The pillar of light continued its relentless ascent, pushing past the atmosphere, past the moon, until it pierced the very fabric of space itself, leaving behind a gaping wound that pulsed with an otherworldly light.
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Hundreds of miles away, on the ship en route to Galadriel, three figures gazed skyward, their faces illuminated by the otherworldly pillar of light.
Lucinda squinted at the spectacle. "By the Gods, what is that?" she gasped, her voice a mixture of familiarity and a hint of fear.
"That's some absurd power," Agatha could not help but murmur.
Mirabella watched the piercing light with her mouth agape. "Holy shit!"
"I share your sentiment," Lucinda remarked, staring at the intense light, "What kind of monster could be responsible for that?"
"Hmm, Mikoto?" Agatha suggested, and the two whipped their heads to her with slight confusion. "He is quite the absurd boy, I would not put such a feat past him, seeing as Galadriel is n that direction.."
"Tch, I wouldn't be surprised if it was that guy," Mirabella remarked, "That guy is all kinds of crazy powerful."
Lucinda stayed silent, there was something about that light. Something familiar that reminded her of the Divine Blade Fa-#$*/^ Harbinger of Fate. But that would be absurd, right?
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On the grounds of the Luminare Academy, nestled amongst rolling green hills far from the ravaged forest, pandemonium reigned. Students, young and old, spilled out of the safety of their dormitories and classrooms, their faces etched with disbelief as they witnessed the pillar of light erupt from the distance.
"Did you see that?!"
"What in the world…?"
"Is that…"
"T-that....what is that!?"
"It erased the entire forest!"
Professor Eudora stared at the pillar of light with shock. "That....how...."
"Quite the absurd firepower, I'd imagine even without my curse I'd fail to replicate such pure destruction," Aleister leisurely muttered beside her.
"But...but who is responsible for that? The Chaosmaw's?" She questioned, and the headmaster shook his head.
"No, someone who's about to be far more valuable than even Lucinda."
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Meanwhile, back in the ravaged forest, amidst the smoldering remains of what was once a majestic ecosystem, Mikoto stood slightly panting. He had only had the blade manifested for a few minutes, yet he was already down to 30% of his mana reserves, though that was still a much larger reserve than anyone else. The Divine Blade – no, the Harbinger of fate, as he'd christened it – pulsed in his right hand. He brought it up to examine, it looked different from Lucinda's. It was powerful but it had its own restrictions. He had tried to use it to return home, but some higher power had blocked him. Octavia, no doubt. Arcane Ascendance was also not easily achieved. Whenever he had placed new laws that would benefit him in returning home, they were broken down by an unseen party. So he had to learn Arcane Ascendance the long way, though that was neither here nor there. He stared at the blade, annoyed.
"You're quite the fraud, huh?" He addressed the blade. "Those two got away, I destroyed the forest for no reason! I should rename you the Divine Blade of Fraud." The blade pulsed intensely, and Mikoto looked at it annoyed. "How's it my fault?" It pulsed once more. "I should've erased teleportation magic briefly to prevent them from escaping? You're stupid, that would mess with the laws of the world in general." An annoyed tongue click escaped Mikoto as the blade protested. "I'm the stupid one? And what do you mean you don't like your new name. Fate Sealer was so lame, though I actually wanted to call you Excalibur." With another pulse, Mikoto continued. "Huh? You like that one more, well, it's taken. Huh!? What do you mean you want to go back already, I'm way better than Octavia!" With another pulse, Mikoto's eye twitched. "Tch, well tell that bitch to send me home or I'll use you to make Octavia the God of perverts, or something. Yeah, yeah, screw you too." Mikoto dismissed the blade, and it vanished into particles of light that disappeared in the air.
("Hmm, it would be so much easier if I could just use Harbinger to get back home. But there's a restriction on it, placed by Octavia no doubt. I can't use it to get back home or just smoothly achieve Arcane Ascendance, she put a rule down no doubt. And I can't overrule her.") Mikoto exhaled sharply.
"This sucks! Fucking Octavia and her getting in my way all the time, tch." Mikoto clicked his tongue once more for good measure. Getting back home was going to take a while. "But it's the first of August, so only twenty-five days left till the festival so I can observe the Inheritors, but still..." He would be turning sixteen soon. From what Fiona told him on their way back to Galadriel, he would go through something called a phase, and it was not puberty.
("Apparently Octavia had lost a lover, the former God of navigation, to some ploy by the twin trickster Gods, new Gods I recall. Octavia grew vengeful, yet she could not take vengeance. However, I recall saying her God buddies forced her to wait sixteen winters and summers so her anger could be lessened. I've read some history text on past spawns of Octavia, they seem to go crazy when they hit sixteen, the same with Lucinda. And it's already affecting me as the days go by, killing should never come this easy yet I've had no problem with it thus far, what a pain.")