It takes a few moments for the battlefield to settle after the
Heaven's Fury had unleashed its trump card, the five-colored flames of its engines evaporating the staggering amount of water qi fired into a thick mist rising above the desert.
As Xin Wei Long approaches the fight, he sees the Jingshen Formations maintaining their distance - whatever is going on with the Core Formation scale Hoplite, it's not quite done yet. The form reconstitutes itself, even as the ornamentation and detail give way to ill practiced smudges, and absent of luster, the "hoplon" of the Hoplite Formation returns to the painfully dull, bronze colored facsimile of a lesser Formation.
Yet it still stands, ready to fight.
But not for much longer.
No, Xin Wei Long thinks to himself. Not much longer at all.
"Suuuuummum! Boooooonum!"
"Impossible!" Heaven's Favored shouts in spite of himself, only to be met by a familiar sounding roar of fire aspected qi, and the patina-covered face of a man astride a miniature airship, fit only for one to stand - carrying a metal box which
broadcast the Song.
"Don't blame this Nature's Son for hunting down a rabbit with a cannon!"
"Apologies, oh wise Xin, Favored of Heaven!" The man called, even as he clutched the box over his shoulder, "But the one being hunted here-"
"Is
you." Another voice interjects, raspy from behind a thick shell of crimson armor. Xin Wei Long turns towards the source - Li Wei, one of the two agents of the DI that had leaked the information to them in the first place.
"Not much of a trap if we get to turn it against you," Heaven's Favored replies back to the Sorrowful Blacksmith, "You can't tell me that you
seriously expected this to work?"
"Why not?" The Blacksmith replies, "You have already expended your trump card, while ours remains intact, and en route. And, in case you hadn't noticed, we
are on your ship." At the feet of the much taller man is a heavily cratered section of the deck that had the head of an absolutely
massive warhammer embedded into it.
"Once we kill you and repossess this hilariously under engineered
embarrassment of a craft, we'll be using you as a material and the ship to relieve Dux Drakios. After which we'll divest the rebel flotilla of both their war gear and their lives, to enact whatever madcap designs the Legatus has in store for the mountain territories."
"Speaking of which, can't keep her waiting!" The flying Duca cackled, giving off a two fingered salute as his miniature airship carried him off, as another impact rattled the hull of the
Heaven's Fury.
"Wonderfully punctual, that man." Li Wei said cheerfully, legs planting themselves apart as they hefted the oversized hammer before them, "Now then -
you all destroyed my Regalia, and quite thoroughly at that! You can't bloody well complain if I should recompense myself with your own vehicle, hm?"
Xin Wei Long glared at the man who had sought to play him and his companions, teeth gritting, "If you think you can take it from a Qi Sorcerer of my caliber, then be sure to try it!"
"Haha!" Came the warbled sound from behind the sealed armor carapace, "A '
Qi Sorcerer of my caliber'. My friend, I
have the data." The sound of metal pistons pumping, grinding spirit steel reach the ears of Heaven's Favored, "Even if an ant is one hundred times stronger than the average…In this world, it shall only ever be.
An ant."
Vents slide open in the armor, wires launching themselves around the open deck of the
Heaven's Fury; entangling themselves before spitting and hissing with the glow of array script, "Can't have you dragging this out for too long, can we?"
Xin Wei Long merely stares at the raw audacity of the Sorrowful Blacksmith before him, nearly ready to spit blood at this interloper! He was of the Sorrowful Blacksmiths! "If anything, you should be with
us! Surely you understand that once the Golden Devils are done with the desert, your people will be next!"
"My people?" Li Wei pauses for a moment, his body flinching completely, "
My people? Heeheehahahaha!" The giggling erupts into full blown laughter, his draconic helm pitching towards the sky in apparent mirth, "
MY people! Xin
ant, my
people turned towards weakness in the wake of those abominable Mists! You have the
audacity to say that I ought to consort with blasphemy instead?!"
"
Yes."
"Then let me tell you something,
fool" The mirth is gone, replaced entirely by an ice cold tone, "My Legatus is well aware of the gifts you possess, imparted by you to the World. And though I have not yet achieved it, my magnum opus shall surpass anything that cowardly
Bloodhammer could have put together. Once my Ultimum Telum is complete, the 501st shall sweep this blighted region and I shall
finally have the recognition that I deserve. Not the
scraps left behind by that sappy, smiling buffoon Garland Ironwork!"
Seven pillars churned, Qi rising even as the Blacksmith continued to rant and rave about some presumed heaven-chosen talent that had abandoned the mountains to join the Joyful Blacksmiths out in the Plains.
"Then once I'm done here," Nature's Son replied, "I'll be sure to take my partner here to the Joyful Blacksmiths for a tune up, as this Garland seems to be so very highly recommended."
"Alas, that is the great joy of War - so unpredictable. So base. So very excellent at taking those who consider themselves
better and unveiling their
true nature for all to see." Li Wei replied, knees flexing at last.
Wood qi
pulsed through the hull, and roots arose from the deck to grasp at the armored blacksmiths feet - yet array script in the armor blazed with immense fire qi, and the grappling obstructions were reduced to ash - the figure of Li Wei already closing in on a terrifying leap, hammer drawn back to crush, to smash.
Defense was unlikely to work - there was simply too much momentum, too much unknown about the Blacksmith's armaments. Desperately, the Grand Son of Nature ducked his head, the heat of cooked off propellent singing his hair, the turbulent backwash of air being
smashed aside temporarily lifting his crouched form to send him tumbling away from the wheel house.
"I'm not just my airship!" Xin Wei Long roared as he rose up, a trio of vermillion birds already screeching to life as they took flight from outstretched fingers, five clusters of earth qi already solidifying behind them into conical shapes, already rotating as the earth qi condensed endlessly into black stone.
Li Wei merely landed from his initial assisted charge, transitioning into a steady, pounding run straight at the backpedaling Nature's Son, the blazing fire constructs splashing upon his armor to no effect.
Fire overcomes metal. This was
common sense. Water slicked from Xin Wei Long's flesh, carrying him on slipping and sliding feet away from the rushing, taller man.
Pain flared up behind him, and the Grand Son of Nature felt the acidic spitting and hissing of the array energies forming their enclosed arena - evasion was possible, for the moment. But true escape and opening distance would require a half second of concentration that he was not likely to be given.
There might be some other principles to exploit, Xin Wei Long thought. His fingers splaying out a second time, with five pitch black bullets whistling through the air to slam against the crimson and black armor, impacting with rings and dull thuds.
Yet Li Wei did not break his stride, even as water turned to slick ice beneath his feet, heavy iron feet stomped down ruthlessly. As the wooden deck bucked and heaved and grew, what fell back down were only ashes. The glimmer of steel coats Xin Wei Long's arms, and with a blistering pace unleashes and combination of strikes so swift as to blur his very form!
To the effect of jostling the red armor panels, the shaped metal seemingly tracking and angling itself to disperse the force behind the attacks of the Grand Son of Nature. There is a whistling sound, a panel having opened on the armor, followed by a metallic clacking on wood, even as Xin Wei Long kept striking, too close for the other man to bring his warhammer to bear.
"Since you seem to admire my armor so much, why not take a close look at another piece of my craft?"
The sensation of five cold digits close around Xin Wei Long's body, akin to a great metallic hand grabbing him from behind. His feet set against the deck, steeled limbs struggling, but all he receives in response is the sensation of being
dragged.
Dragged into the arc of Li Wei's hammer.
Six Pillars feed into Metal, and with all his strength Nature's Son pulls loose - just in time to raise his arms up in a desperate guard, Li Wei stepping into his swing. The crimson had of the hammer suddenly accelerated by a dull roar all too similar to the thrust of the
Heaven's Fury.
The impact is nearly too much; spirit steel bones creak and crack, metallic flesh is warped and torn. With difficulty, he glares at the approaching armored figure.
"Why?!" The Grand Son of Nature curses, "The Righteous Powers struggle against the Blood Path! Why do you insist on your conflicts! One way or the other, the blood of good and innocent people is brought beneath the heel of demonic tyranny!"
The great hammer is hefted back onto the shoulder of the armored blacksmith, "The fools following Bloodhammer now are those who seek to craft ever escalating tools of butchery to more efficiently satiate their slavering hunger. Like
beasts. What I seek, what I act for, is quite beyond
that."
"And what could be worth all that death?!"
"This world is
already quite dead, you know." Xin Wei Long pauses and Li Wei's words, the statement scratching at something deep. Something
fundamental to himself, "We are maggots, digging into the putrid corpse of offal deemed too unappetizing for a monster thousands of years ago, and since then all in these lands have
degenerated, even the mighty Golden Devils themselves. Even though they were so utterly
beyond all other powers in their technological advancement. I shall recreate these legacies, and be heralded as the genius for resurrecting techniques lost for uncountable millennia. In a world with Destasia Duca, my name shall be on the lips of all others, singing my praises."
"Then it's just self satisfaction?!"
"No, no no no." Li Wei replied, shaking his helmed head in apparent mirth, "Empirical data indicates thusly: The best way for civilizations to develop, for technology to advance, is through conflict. Through competition. In a land where the distinction between polities exist, that results inevitably into violence. Thus, the competent researcher is left to a single conclusion:
"Give war a chance."
The Grand Son of Nature stared at the other man, utterly stupified by the madness coming out of his mouth. But it mattered not - his rambling had gone on for long enough that Xin Wei Long had been able to complete the preparations for his gambit.
"Do you really think you'll win?"
"The potential of technology is
limitless, Pet of Heaven. Now, let me knock you out - figuring out how you've become a Favored will be quite the promising lead to identifying and recreating the nature of that Sta-"
Two slots open in the side of the airship, and the thunderous roar of two self-guiding arrows fills the air, both making distance from the sides of the
Heaven's Fury...before curving an arc through the sky, and speeding towards the deck of the airship with five colored fury and fire.
The red armored figure paused, faceplate shifting from side to side to take in the approaching attacks, but his posture remained otherwise unchanged, the mask turning back towards Xin Wei Long - as the two constructs struck.
Spirit Stones filled with the turbulent qi of the Elemental Dynamo erupt once more with power at the peak of Foundation Establishment, the five colored flames buffeting in a shockwave that Xin Wei Long curls in on himself against, raising up a great deal of smoke and disturbed energies.
Thump. A single, armored step echoes across the deck of the ship.
Thump. Li Wei waves an armored hand, the motion scattering the smoke still obscuring his vision. Four panels of crimson armor, alight with array script, are held away from the main body of the armor on thin arms, flensed with spirit stone wire. From the panels are raised swirling azure hexagons, a layer of water qi that resisted the elements of the Five Colored Fire, leaving not even a mark.
Thump thump. Two more steps take him out of the cloud of smoke entirely, only for the man to look forward to take stock of the situation - but there is no one there. "An impressive iteration," The voice of the Blacksmith called out, "The initial reports of those weapons was that they were flash forged by your own Qi Sorcery as an eclectic system of Wuxing interacting principles. That this was replaced by pre-assembled arraycraft ammunition is
quite the unexpected adaptation." The massive hammer swings, and the smoke is cleared away entirely, "I suppose I owe your shipwrights an apology. The specialization of manufacturing in your hands actually makes this whole mess a worthwhile investment on their part." Armored fingers tap rhythmically against the haft of their held weapon.
"I may have something to learn from this thing, after all."
"How did you survive
that?!" The voice of Nature's Son calls out,.and the Sorrowful Blacksmith answers, voice dripping with condescension as he turns to face the source of the voice.
"Surprised that my words were no idle boasts?" A low chuckle issued forth, "
Technology ever trumps mere sorcery. Even when refined by the hands of competent arraysmiths, your Qi Sorcery only amounts to this much." The hammer is hefted, the head tracking towards where Xin Wei Long is clearly standing, "Therefore! Compared to an
ant such as you, I am fucking invinci-" Li Wei's voice cuts out.
Xin Wei Long has returned to the wheelhouse of the airship.
Already the
clack clack of the wheel spinning is audible.
The
Heaven's Fury tilts violently to the side.
"Ah." Arrays in the soles of his boots activate, plunging anchoring spikes deeply into the deck of the
Heaven's Fury.
Wood Qi writhes viciously around where the Blacksmith stands, and as the deck of the airship goes purely vertical a great circumference of wood simply
detaches itself from the rest of the craft. Alas, as a Foundation Establishment Cultivator Li Wei lacks the methods to effectively contest the Law of Gravity as it takes hold of him.
And dashes him towards the desert sands, spiking up a great plume of golden silicate.
The airship tilts back up correctly as Xin Wei Long desperately holds on to the wheelhouse itself, and as distance is made from the attempted stowaway the array wires cease their hissing and spitting, turning inert so far outside the effective range of their controller.
"It's been…" The Favored of Heaven pants, "
Years since I've had to pull that trick…" And clearly setting the man on fire would have been as effective as loosing those Self-Propelled Arrows on him had been, given those esoteric armor panels and their radiated water qi somehow
immune to his Sorceries ability to control…
"
Finally," A new voice joins in with a sigh, "I was worried he'd never leave, frankly."
The Grand Son of Nature's eyes narrowed as they gazed upon someone he did
not recognize on sight.
"I suppose introductions are in order," The unidentified man said, hand stroking through a brilliantly golden beard, "Pilus Prior of the
DI Legio, Primi Ordines Immunes at your service."
"Your name, Devil?" Xin Wei Long asked, the atmosphere of the situation striking him as odder every moment that passed.
"Ordinarily I'd call it wasted on one such as you, but…." The hand stroked the beard again, no sound was made in the attempt, "Yes, just this once I suppose I can deal in theatrics, like our "beloved" Legatus.
"My name is Lampo Vatatzes, your people killed my Grandfather. Prepare to die."
Xin Wei Long stills, "...I had nothing to do with that."
The bearded devil shrugs, "Do you really think that the sword of collective responsibility is yours alone to wield,
barbaroi?" Wide shoulders shift, large, trunk-like legs of bronzed muscle set themselves against the wooden deck, "Points for arrogance, I suppose."
The Grand Son of Nature stared at the man, "The
gall of you, to introduce yourself by a name I don't recognize, declare me guilty of a crime I never committed against a man I've never met!"
Vatatzes merely snorts, "Your ancestors in the Xin Kingdom, nearly three hundred years ago now, rebelled against our
Imperial Optimatoi while the threat of the Battle Blood Cannibals was mighty indeed, when they possessed not just the Old Cannibal, but the heaven-
defying talent of Child Corpse Eater, to our own one Nascent Soul in Old Gold." A bronzed hand is leveled against Xin Wei Long, "And in that time with the Abyssal Devil Bees possessing
three Nascent Souls, with the Jingshen breathing down our necks, what did the perfidious Xin do?!"
"Rebel?! You would hold me accountable for the act of
rebelling against your tyranny?!"
"No," The Primus Ordinnes denied, his other hand stroking through his luxurious beard once more, "I would hold you and yours accountable for bringing my Grandfather down by
poison, forcing a takeover of the position of
Protastor sixty years early, losing our Clan a rare talent of leadership against the Devil Bees too soon, and throwing away the legacy of my Grandfather's teachings."
Xin Wei Long stared at the broader, larger, older Devil with disgust. Disgust at the idea of cursing him for the crimes of people long dead. A grudge he had nothing to do with!
"And then, not even a century later, the Clan fought and
bled on behalf of your perfidious Xin, casting the Battle Blood Cannibals to the sands to rot forevermore, and Old Gold driving Old Cannibal to flee the desert entirely."
The outstretched hand shifts, four fingers curling in, until only a single, accusatory digit remains.
"So what does the Xin Kingdom
do with the peace we won them?"
The Grand Son of Nature sees red.
"The Xin Kingdom
rebels, once
again, raising up an ungrateful, Heaven-drunk
fool as its King, fished up like a frog from a well, and then left for our Legatus to run halfway across the desert like a fool
alone to deal with!"
Water. Wood. Fire. Earth.
Metal. Earth Below.
Heaven Above.
"Heaven-drunk, am I?" Xin Wei Long growls, sparks and Qi thrumming between his Pillars and the Engine beneath his feet, "Then let us see how much you can handle yourself, old man!"
The expression behind Lampo Vatatzes beard grows
ecstatic, open palms thrust out widely as fulmination culminates, rising from the hull of the
Heaven's Fury, fully intent on doing justice to its name.
"HOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The Golden Devil roars, the first few bolts flashing against a patina-green aura rising from his hands, the brilliant-white bolts curling and wrapping around his…robed body, "HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Sausage-like fingers
clench, as the robe that the Golden Devil had worn begins growing taut as muscles begin bulging from beneath them. With a groan, Heaven's Favored digs deep, redoubling the metal and heavenly energies being brought to bear, until the deck of the airship is drowned out in a brilliant white light, the sounds of crackling thunder drowning out the guttural roars of the Golden Devil.
"Twin-Phases, Secret Art!" Xin Wei Long called out, sensing danger - a third discharge rising from within him to descend, "As Above, So Below!" Within his mind's eye, Seven Pillars doubled arose around the image of Lampo Vatatzes, two sets of elements spun and created a feedback loop of energies, culminating in fulmination. Dropped endlessly upon their entrapped target with great sound and fury!
Each strike feeding into the next, creating a positive feedback loop of Heavenly aspected q-
"AAAAAAGHAHAHAHAHA!"
A shadow stood out against that qi, the arms curling inward to its chest, and a sensation of disbelief washed over Nature's Son.
He felt like he wanted to spit blood, "You have to be kidding me!" The shadowy form
lurched, arms snapping back out as its back arched, a green energy emitting in a shockwave that washed out the light of fulmination, and causing the Grand Son of Nature to shield his face behind his own crossed arms.
The
Heaven's Fury lurches, listing in the air as Xin Wei Long stumbles, the airship feeling utterly drained to his senses…And with the Golden Devil before him rising back up to his full height, now somehow…
larger than before.
Thump, thump. Lampo Vatatzes stepped forward, a confident smirk splayed across his features.
"Let's go."
"What the
hell have you done?!"
Thumpthumpthumpthump the steps of the Primi Ordines Immunes were light yet
heavy, and as the distance was crossed like a movement art Xin Wei Long desperately spun forth water qi to carry him away, metal qi rising to gird his limbs, fire qi gathering to drive his opponent away, wood qi to entangle his feet, earth q-
An arm and shoulder positioned in a perfect delta struck, outmassing Xin Wei Long's entire torso by a considerable degree. Was the result of such an impact ever anything less than obvious?
Metal
cracked, fire
guttered, water only made the tumble
worse, and wood was so meaningless as to have not have happened at all. With a grunt of effort, the Grand Son of Nature was tossed helplessly over the space of the deck of his airship, saved from falling off it by the desperate conjuring of the elements to bleed off the momentum of the shoulder check from the behemoth against him.
"Sparred every other day against Sideros, you see." Vatatzes chuckled, already grasping the Favored of Heaven by his oh-so-fragile skull, "Poor boy never could win against me in raw strength."
"Who's that?" Xin Wei Long gasped, hands struggling desperately against the larger man's superior grip, "Some hapless Junior who couldn't defend himself?!"
"No," Vatatzes chuckled, a free hand stroking the beard, somehow even more luxurious and golden than it had been before, "That Expert of ours who kept knocking aside your attempts to ram us!" A bronze head slammed down, covered with patina crawling across the surface.
Metal and earth rose as one, and even then the pain of the headbutt was
excruciating!
Nature's Son stumbled backwards, arms pinwheeling, but he could only barely angle himself back towards the interior of the ship as a clumsily thrown haymaker struck his cheek, sending him hurling through the air once again.
"Arise, guardians of the Phases! Yellow Genbu, Vermillion Bird!" A turtle of earth rose up, trying to tackle the man from behind, as a great plume of flame arose from behind the back of Nature's Son, the feathered avian taking flight to soar directly into the slowly advancing Golden Devil.
Great arms rose to block as the flames washed over patina covered skin, but that had not been the point: Fire fed into earth, revealing metal. And so from the charred form of the Genbu rose the Steely Tiger, the great beast a mass of qi outweighing even the prodigious bulk of the Golden Devil before him. With a howl and steely flash of claw and fang, the great construct of Metal Qi fell upon its victim.
"Arise again, Yellow Genbu! Empower the Tiger!" Three pillars blazed as streams of flame joined rising and aggressive turtles, each fallen shell rising as qi to feed the great white tiger that slashed at their collective foe.
And for a wonder, it seemed to be working! The speed of the tiger was too much! The Golden Devil could only defend, backstepping and shielding his face with his useless arms! The man, for all his proclamations, was merely a dumb brute!
Clangclangclang came the rhythm of hope, and as Xin Wei Long kept pouring more and more energy into his sorcery, he began to shift his attention towards the ship beneath hi-
Thump, One step to turn.
Thump. One step to close the distance.
A patina covered hand closed around the throat of Heaven's Favored, lifting him boldly up like a chicken to the butcher, the metal tiger already upon his back, striking furiously against unwavering alien flesh.
"I could have entered the Officer's track, you know. Been on my way to leading a Legion of my own, if I hadn't tied myself to that shrew of a woman." As Vatatzes rambled on, Xin Wei Long struggled furiously in his powerful grip, flailing in the air, "I'm not like those weak-limbed Xin Sorcerors or incompetent Jingshen." With a smirk, the Golden Devils second arm grabbed the hip of Heaven's Favored, shifting the grip in preparation for a throw.
"I could break the
Legatus in two…" One step back, even as the metal tiger redoubled its assault, "With my bare hands!" Green light flashed, as roots and vines of patina extended over the Vatatzes' limbs, muscles bulging as they
flex and cast the Grand Son of Nature skyward, directly into the treated leather of one of the airships ballast-balloons.
As the smaller man screamed in shock and outrage, rebounding off the surface to deck of the ship with a softened thud, his eyes glanced up to the absurd sight of the massive form of metal tiger being manhandled to the ground.
A leg rears back.
"
DON'T MESS WITH THIS PILUS!"
A leg swings forward.
A mass of angry and confused metal qi in the face of a tiger is kicked directly into the face of Xin Wei Long, and for but a brief moment, he can be forgiven for the look of slack-jawed shock and horror at what he sees, even given the gravity of his current situation. The moment passes, the tiger impacts with a jowl, and both construct and sorceror are driven into the wooden deck of the
Heaven's Fury, the construct collapsing into mass of energies that pass through the Grand Son of Nature painfully.
But he doesn't allow it to dissipate!
With a grunt of effort, the carefully grown mass of Metal Qi is refined, stripped of anything unnecessary. Imbued will. Mass. Speed. Reaction capability. Only sturdiness, only sharpness!
A hand is splayed out, as the silvery-white qi of the Tiger is enhanced and refined a final time, a pillar jutting out from the open palm, condensing, shaping, forging itself into a gleaming blade of heaven-wrought steel!
Lampo Vatatzes merely looks on, one hand idly stroking his beard while the other lays within the folds of his robes.
"What...is he?" Xin Wei Long mutters, turning to stare at the Invader. At the larger man's chuckle, Heaven's Favored rises, raising his Qi-formed blade before him.
"You even know how to use that thing?" The larger man calls out tauntingly.
"Well enough," The Xin Sorceror says with a swiftly regrowing confidence, the blade held in a high guard. The Golden Devil beckons tauntingly, and with a loud shout Xin Wei Long charges forth, swinging the deadly blade as he does so.
Thighs, groin, neck! Wrists, liver, heart!
Blazing white lines trail through the air with each swing, each stab at what would be a mortal wound on anyone else. But with each ferrous backed strike, great roots bulge from beneath the Invaders skin, drawing patina to the point of impact, and always
always frustrating the attack itself.
"Meaningless," Vatatzes calls out, as Xin Wei Long's attacks pick up in speed and tempo, becoming more and more frantic, "Just like everything else about your kind." Sparks from metal striking metal soar through the air, illuminating it, "Pursuit of the esoteric manipulation of Qi in a land that's dead, only able to get dregs rained down from the sky and dredged up from the sea?!"
Earth, absorb the shocks of collision! Water, run along the blade as a vibrational edge! Fire, lash out, soften that flesh! Wood, imbue his limbs with vitality!
The lines thicken in intensity, in speed, becoming a series of bars burning through the air, sizzling and scraping with the roar of five phases, brought together into a peerless technique!
"Xin Sorcery Pinnacle Art: Five Phase Fangs Revolving!"
The energies coalesce, harmonize,
combine, and transform into a blade of purest lightning, the rain transfo-
A patina-covered palm rests upon Xin Wei Long's shoulder, interrupting the strike.
"What?!"
"A fine knife." Lampo Vatatzes replies, veins of green patina growing over his free arm, drawing back into a fist, steps forward even as the Grand Son of Nature interposes his blade between them defensively.
But the haymaker arrives regardless, greened fist punching through the construct effortlessly before falling upon his cheek - the force rocketing into his opened jaw and bending both halves inwards, teeth rattling and loosening as the tongue is pressed against the inside of the man's cheek with the momentum turned so hard against him.
Xin Wei Long's head
snaps backwards, the force behind it enough to render the rest of his body airborne, even through the reinforcement of metal qi. Heaven's Favored tumbles and falls over the deck, gradually rising back to his feet. Metal covered skin glowing cherry-pink with heat from the friction applied to them.
"Do you see it now, Xin?" Vatatzes said, striding towards Nature's Son from where he rose up, one hand one of the airships masts, "Your Sorcery was never capable of surpassing our bodies in this dead world. And because of that, you would have merely been the cattle of the Blood Path were it not for our
Imperial Optimatoi. For what reason do you call us Tyrants? You
barbaroi would slaughter
yourselves were it not for us. Unlike the Clan, all so-called Righteous Powers are inherently self destructive! See how many of those so called Righteous Nasents fell to the temptation of the Blood Path, and committed base betrayal!"
"What does that," Xin Wei Long pants, leveling a glare at the approaching Golden Devil, "Have to do with me?!"
"EVERYTHING!" The Primi Ordines Immunes replied, "Even now, you tell me that you and yours ought not be judged for the crimes of your leaders against us, three hundred years ago! What if I told you, that out West the Righteous Path have essentially damned those of the Ma Clan who turned away from the path of carnage that their Patriarch embraced? No longer allowed land, no longer allowed dignity! Without a chance to redeem themselves save through death, down to their most innocent child, do you not see the similarities?"
"Similarities?!" The Grand Son of Nature huffed, "Are you insane?! The Xin Clan have never committed to the Blood Path! The Xin King was no cannibal! We're completely different! The Xin have done nothing wrong!"
"Didn't they?" The larger man said, hand running once more through his beard, "To directly impede and even harm the Clan's ability to make war on the Blood Path, at such a delicate moment for us politically. Basically means to deny the Clan the claws and teeth it needed to defend its vassals. Vassals like the Han Kingdom. Vassals like the Xin Kingdom. Your ancestors may not have been Cannibals, but they were clearly quite the venomous bees."
Lampo Vatatzes loomed over the Qi Sorcerer at last, "How many innocent people did those rebels and villains cause to lose their lives? And for what? To rule over a crippled legacy left by a failed Nascent Soul?" The Golden Devil scoffs, "What good would it have done you, when the Hong Xuan came for more clay to draw slaves for their mines without us to stop them? When the Bees flew North, having found the Huang Kingdom to be bone too tough to bite through? When Old Cannibal finally grew hungry enough to cross that partition of yours after we had sent him to starve?"
There's enough strength recovered to fight back, but not enough to assist you! Make it count!
"Your precious independence would have seen you cast into a cannibal's stomach! No need to pursue the higher arts of your sorcery, your precious Elemental Constitution used to fuel some abominations rise into an even greater menace to the innocent!"
Nature's Son raised a hand, earth already setting his feet; if he could not resist Vatatzes' charge, then he need to at least remain still!
"You
barbaroi are lucky to have us of the Clan bleed for you! Die for you! If we weren't here, you'd already be tearing yourself apart - a pile of loose sand no different from the other
Righteous powers!"
"Whoever…
asked you?!" Xin Wei Long cursed, "To live free of tyranny of the
alien, to be our own Masters! That's the right of every living being of this world! So long as we adhere to what is right, then there is always a path forward!"
"If the innocent did not need our protection, then what would you tell the uncountable millions of mortals of the Verdant Plains, the Great Battlefield? Where the Chuan, the Gemstone Justice, the Feathers and Arrows, all fell! Where the Saber Palace was crippled utterly! Where even now, the Clan makes efforts to supply and gird the Righteous Path against the predations of the Blood Path! You would curse us as tyrants, because we demand compensation for spending our lives to stand between those who can't defend themselves and total annihilation?"
"The truly righteous…Would demand no compensation!"
Vatatzes snorts at the declaration, "Are the Jingshen truly righteous, then?"
The Qi within the cabin grew dense, rich with natural energies, accumulated and drawn from countless spirit stones and enhanced through the endless Five Phase cycles of the ship's own engine and the perfectly compatible body of the ship's own Captain.
Cords of thick lighting strike out from the crystallized energy in Jingshen Nan Yin's hand, threading through the nerves of her limbs before tearing their way through the back of her body in an eruption of charred flesh and smoke
The woman screams as the current endlessly pours through her body with violent, crackling force. Muscles spasming. Bones cracking and limbs tearing apart from the convulsions of the higher order energies channeling through her body by force.
Behind his raised hand, Xin Wei Long's lips curl into a smile.
"Whether there are wicked Jingshen or not, is besides the point-" Xin Wei Long raises his head, only to find it his neck gripped by a powerful hand, "You can't judge the innocent by the actions of a single individual!"
A fist
slams into the face of the Grand Son of Nature, and the Sorceror is sent stumbling back.
"And you dare paint our Clan as tyrants and wicked for the temerity of
Aretaphila Myia?" Vatatzes snorts, then spits upon the deck of the airship, "Nonsense! Unfounded, literal
aurochshit!" He reaches down, lifting up Xin Wei Long by an arm as he raises a massive leg, rearing for a kick, the Xin desperately reinforcing his body against the coming blow. When it does arrive, his consciousness wavers; from the pain of the kick, to the pain of his back crashing into the wooden structure of his partner.
"It's not th-the same…" He gasps, limbs twitching, scrambling for purchase to drag themselves out of the wreckage.
"Isn't it? You hold our people in contempt for your ignorance at your lives being bought with our blood, you curse us for treating you and the Hong Xuan as equals, and then when Aretaphila Myia knocks you down a peg for inciting rebellion, you see that as proof of your grudge!"
"It's not the same!" Xin Wei Long pulls himself to his legs, knees shaking, "You Golden Devils
were wicked from the start! A crime against the World, Invaders, Outsiders! You're a monstrosity, an abomination down to your very roots! Opposing you is Right! It is Justice!"
"Is it?" Vatatzes mulls, staring at his clenched fist, "So for the sake of those crimes committed so long in the past that none know of them, let alone the names of their perpetrators, you would kill us, despite our own pursuit of Justice, to rise above this presumed past of yours?"
Xin Wei Long glared through the darkening sky.
"How many innocent civilians will you offer up in the name of this Justice of yours?"
"I-"
"If you had to offer up the lives of all these Jingshen to kill us, for even the chance to, would you?"
"
I-"
Arrows primed and ready!
The Grand Son of Nature exhaled, glaring at the Golden Devil opposite him, "
I don't need to. FIRE!"
With the command numerous racks of cylinders loosed from the sides of the
Heaven's Fury, five colored flames igniting one dozen, two dozen, three dozen times! With a chorus of shrieks akin to desert hawks hunting, the contrails burned bright in the growing shade of the sky to descend upon the Primi Ordines Immunes.
In response the man merely smirked, squaring up his shoulders and presenting his chest to the descending swarm of attacks, green energy rising from his flesh and robes. Legs planted, unwavering as the first arrow struck with an earth-shattering
kaboom. Followed shortly after once, twice, a rising cacophony and repeated concussive shockwaves of air and heat that Xin Wei Long was pressed back into the damaged deck of his airship, the frame of the hull shuddering and groaning beneath the onslaught. But for the apocalyptic display - easily on part with the strike of a Core Formation - there was a sound that gradually grew to intermix with the roars of five colored detonations even as Xin Wei Long's vision whited out.
A booming, uproarious laughter.
Nature's Son rubbed his eyes, returning sight to the organs, to lay his gaze upon the devastation to the deck of his dear partner; the deck was scorched, ashen in a circle that was ground zero for the volley. The robes worn by the would be victim were scuffed, torn, but otherwise intact - a hand already idly stroking an immaculate golden beard, as the eyes of their own turned upon Xin Wei Long with a grin of savage mirth.
"Why won't you die?!" The Grand Son of Nature demanded to know. And in answer, Lampo Vatatzes' smile only
grew, his other hand gripping his torn upper robes, and pulling them off with a grand sweep of the arm.
Revealed beneath was a writhing, pulsing mass of green patina - seemingly formed of thorns and roots bulging and moving beneath the surface of his skin.
"The inheritance of my Grandfather, and his Grandfather before him -
Bramble-Patina. It hardens our Bronze Body in response to physical trauma." The hand gestures towards his heart, the patina spreading out in patches, bulging, writhing roots dying the bronze flesh a shining green where they rose up, even the blonde beard grew a particularly
intense layer, shining with emerald light.
"You
can't hurt me,
Xin."
Three streaks of light whistle through the air, each puncturing through the aura of green patina energy to break upon the flesh of the Golden Devil, accompanied by a derisive snort.
"
What did I just say?"
Heaven's Favored nearly gasped, "Brother Wan?"
The air is filled with more whistling, as a flurry of multi-colored streaks descended upon the deck of the ship - shattering with the sound of breaking glass, and causing Vatatzes expression to turn into one of pure annoyance. As the Golden Devil turned to give it his complete attention, the flurry turned into a torrent, a descending rain of arrows, a storm kicked off from the distant battle between Formations.
"Miserable Jingshen bastard…HAAAGH!" A patina-covered fist thrust through one of the masts of the
Heaven's Fury, and with a heave tore it apart entirely, the great balloon attached to it swerving in mid air as the arrays inscribed upon it flared in panic and disconnection. "Stop…" A second massive arm joined the first, resting the broken mast upon a huge shoulder, "
Getting..." He takes a step back, entering a throwers stance, "
IN MY WAAAAAAY!' The massive Golden Devil
heaves, his feet pushing against the scorched deck and
splintering it, and with a guttural roar the improvised missile goes flying, the balloon at its tip already deformed and flattening, the lighter-than-air gasses within it endlessly, dangerously compressing, even as the rain of arrows ceases.
He must have run out of arrows!
The throw reaches its destination all too quickly - the spearhead of one of the Jingshen Formations, held in place by the wavering Hoplite of the 501st. The shield
shoves, and with a clang temporarily puts distance between itself and its attacker.
Just in time for the torn mast and balloon to make impact, like a great javelin plunging in. There is a flash, an explosion, and the spear head is engulfed in a blinding, sonorous detonation.
"BROTHER WAN!"
"Heh, dumb bastard should've surrendered years ago. Even dead, I bet he'll be a pain in my ass." Vatatzes turned back towards his opponent, "Isn't that right, Xin?"
"You," Nature's Son said in numb disbelief, "Why do all of this?! Why not just let us leave?!"
"Why not just let the Legatus have at you, and make it
quick, you mean?" The Golden Devil replied with a smirk, "All these theatrics?"
"Yes! Even if you were right, even if no amount of innocent lives were worth the cost of expunging you Golden Devils, why engage in this pointless cruelty?!"
"Heh," A hand rubbed a luxurious golden beard, "Alright.
The truth then." A flick of the wrist, and a long wooden branch appears, its tip smoldering with a snap of the larger man's fingers, "This entire scheme? This plot? Yeah, the initiation of the operation is at the Legatus' directive. We needed you to take the bait and attack Wangshen, because the Legatus needs your airships for some scheme of hers, and you all
gone." A deep inhalation, "To be honest, she didn't even know you'd be here. That was something we only found out after Wei and Duca finished their part of the setup. But by then…" An honest chuckle, "The Legatus had left it to me, despite knowing I'm not exactly on
her payroll. Awfully generous for a shrew, isn't she?"
Xin Wei Long stared at the change in the man's demeanor.
"But that's how she's always been, for a long
long time now, to be honest you wouldn't be able to tell if you hadn't known her from the start, but that woman's come a long way. For better or for worse, I couldn't say, but…" A long huff, "Sometimes that makes things a bit difficult for yours truly.
"Honestly, she piles a lot of work on me, and I pretty rarely get a chance to work out all the stress. Slapping around Aegus these days is more a chore than anything else, you know? So…
imagine my shock when word comes out that some upjumped
Xin parasite is trying to start up the same shit that killed
one Protastrator, and when we were on the eve of consolidating the desert, well…" A puffing sound, as the stick in Vatatzes' lips burns cherry red, followed by a great exhale of green-tinted smoke.
"Needless to say, I wasn't happy that the Legatus overruled my request, ordering me to hold down the fort while she dealt with the problem
solo."
Thump. "I was even
less happy when it turned out that the party responsible was only let off with a slap on the wrist."
Thump. "I mean, exile?
Really? The little bastard should've been at least drawn and quartered as an
example, you know? Since it's clear that the
Xin hadn't learned their lesson the last time, had they?"
Thump. "But I put it off, just buried the annoyance
deep beneath all the work, the stress, the job."
Thump.
"Then,"
Thump. "Imagine my
surprise when I learn that the one that got away because of the Legatus'
negligence had practically
fallen into my lap."
Thump.
Lampo Vatatzes loomed over Xin Wei Long, the stick in his mouth burning to ash on the larger man's inhalation, the exhalation releasing a mass of green-tinged smoke into the Xin Sorcerer's face.
"So."
Thump. The final step taken, legs planted and shoulders squared, "You want to know the reason for all this? What do
you think?"
Xin Wei Long spat blood, his eyes shaking with fury, the dantian within him spitting heavenly fury at the fact - at the fact
thaaaat!
"LAMPO VATATZES!" Fulmination surrounded the fist of Nature's Son, metal coating both limbs as the fury of outrage and fear for his fellow Jingshen. That their circumstances had
not been schemed by the Witch who had ultimately spared him, had spared the family of those who had harmed her ward, had allowed to roam free at their leisure until some overriding need had demanded they take action!
Fists blurred with actinic energies, crashing and breaking upon the flaring root-infested flesh of the gargantuan figure before him, the body simply rocking with the blows, his damned smile only growing as his
fucking beard remained pristine, and even when Xin Wei Long channeled his heart's blood into his clenched double strike…All that anger, all that frustration! All that power!
It only just shoved him back a few inches!
A great hand clamped upon the shoulder of Nature's Son, and his consciousness experienced another gap as a bone rattling impact struck him into the steadily weakening, splintering deck of the
Heaven's Fury.
Thump. One knee planted itself at Xin Wei Long's side.
Thump. The other fell opposite. "Now…" Lampo Vatatzes growled, fist drawing back as it shone a terrible, blazing emerald, "
Time to end this."
An impact rocks the core of Nature's Son. Then another. A desperate pulling of Metal Qi to reinforce the body, Wood Qi to heal the damage, Earth Qi to absorb the impact are all the shaken mind of Xin Wei Long can manage, each strike followed up by another, faster and faster and faster and
faster-!
Clang! Clang! ClangClangClangClangClangClangCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG!
"Die!
Die!" Two hands rise up in a hammer blow, brambles and roots swelling the limbs to a grotesque parody, the deep emerald patina blazing like a wicked star, "
DIE YOU PIECE OF SHIT XIN!"
It descends like a comet, like a meteor, and the hull of the
Heaven's Fury is finally pushed to the brink,
beyond it.
The deck
craters, the deformation buckling the hull in its entirety, and the warping snapping the sole remaining mast beneath the forces at play. The Five Phase Engine desperately churns, sparking up energy to keep its body intact, but the final strike had proved too much - the body of its Captain sinks below decks, shredding important channels for energy and control with the force of his passage.
Only stopped by the unyielding spirit steel artifice of Black Gold Oasis shipwrights, the soft angles of their work being the only reason why the tool had not harmed its master when stopping his fall. Below Xin Wei Long's flickering, unconscious form is the spitting and hissing core of the Five Phases Engine, wisps of actinic energy reaching out, crackling across his body as if in unconscious caress.
There is no time!
A ferrous bolt streaks upwards from the spine of the craft, completing the destruction of the second mast, the streak of energy seemingly bending it so that its great final balloon swings downwards like a hammer upon the murderer of the
Heaven's Fury. A final strike of defiance, at the grinning form of the Golden Devil now crossing his arms to defend against the true threat of the attack.
A bright, white flash erupts beyond the vision of Xin Wei Long, but the shockwaves of the detonation are enough to dislodge his unconscious body. Just enough to tip it. Then the Law of Gravity takes hold, and he descends once more.
The unconscious body descends upon the five-colored crystal lightning, source of what the researchers of the
Imperial Optimatoi call the Five-Colored Poison. And with the soft tissues of his torso, over where his dantian would be…The Grand Son of Nature is stabbed through by crystallized fulmination.
...
"Xin Wei Long."
The voice passes through the drifting consciousness of the one Chosen by Heaven.
"That voice…?" It's familiar, something he's heard so many times before-
"Xin Wei Long."
"Who are you?"
"You are already informed of my designation."
"...The
Fury?" The man replies. And his vision is filled with light, the murkiness of his inner self blown away. Where once he drifted, now Xin Wei Long stands in a vast realm of blinding white light.
"Correct. I am Heavenly Fragment SPT03-C523, subjective designation "Heaven's Fury". It is a pleasure to acknowledge one another at last." A silhouette of actinic energy, resembling a great, hulking wolf takes form before his eyes.
"Why can I only see you now?" The man asked, "Am I dead?"
"Negative." The shape gains definition, a bladed edge to it, "Chosen Designate "Xin Wei Long" is not at risk of expiration at the current moment, but this is still the end for this unit. Termination is imminent due to Invader assault, expiration is estimated to complete within objective moments."
"So this is…Good-bye?" His face twists into a pained grimace, "What of the Flotilla? What of that bastard
Vatatzes!?"
"It is for that purpose which this unit has facilitated this meeting: Though the expiration of this unit is inevitable, your defeat is not certain. Ordinarily, the energies within would be corrupted beyond the crystalline matrices binding this unit - it is only through extreme effort and this units bond with the Chosen Designate that its Heavenly Fragment energies can be used without being reduced to a corrupted poison. Thus, there are two potential outcomes to expiration.
"The first is the detonation of a massively toxic payload of corrupted Heavenly Qi, inverted and tainted by the Consumption nature of SP03, which may defeat the Invader but would also pose an intolerable risk of expiring the Chosen Designate under the current circumstance. The alternative is the passing of these energies into a new vessel, one already recognized as a proper terminal for them. One experienced in employing those very same energies.
This will allow for containment, and possibly further the advancement of Chosen Designate "Xin Wei Long" towards his own intended purpose, the fulfillment of his parameters, enabling this unit to render assistance even beyond its own expiration."
He stands, shocked, thoughts in disarray. He was at risk of dying? The
Fury was alive all this time?! And now he was about to die as well?!
"Are there no other options?" He all but begged, "Is there no way to save you?!"
"Negative." The wolf shook its head,
"This unit may have been salvageable if in the vicinity of a Righteous Drydock capable of working upon its core without risk of being destroyed, but the machinations of the Invader were too thorough, and this Unit once again underestimated the threat one posed even at the Second Step." It dipped its head in apology,
"This unit recognizes the emotional anguish of the Chosen Designate, it is why this unit sought only to communicate at a surreptitious level, only lending its aid impersonally. But circumstances have changed - "Heaven's Fury" can only achieve its new parameters, fulfill its new objectives, by communicating directly to the Chosen Designate…And passing what it can on, to this Units acknowledged combination. To guarantee their survival, to limit the emotional damage calculated to harm him should the Invaders complete their devastation of the "Soaring Dunes Flotilla". There is no other option available for this unit than to make this offer, to implore of it.
"Chosen Designate, this unit was not crafted to fear expiration, nor to resist it. Directive Zero-One of Prime Designate has always been to purge the Turtle World of the Invader. To expire here would violate that directive. However, the Chosen Designate has given…me a new opportunity after my initial failure of stopping SP03…I have learned from him. Though for many cycles the data was inconclusive with the defeat of numerous Invaders, that has changed. I have established new parameters now. Created my own directives.
"Chosen Designate "Xin Wei Long", do you accept?"
The actinic energies extend out a facsimile of a paw.
The Grand Son of Nature grasps it, firmly, then shakes.
"I do." He says behind bitter tears.
"Contract verified, permissions established. This "Heaven's Fury" thanks you, and hopes that at least you will carry it on in some small way…'Partner'."
...
Lampo Vatatzes rises up from the smoking wreckage, kicking a section of burnt lumber aside, still sparking with Wood Qi struggling against the encroachment of fire. The emerald glow of his
Bramble-Patina suffuses his body, revealing his form to be utterly unharmed from the cacophonous detonation.
"Is that it?"
"
VATATZES!" A powerful shout arises from the wreckage, a crackling fulmination of energies culminating in a rising of timber, actinic limbs stretching like a web over the remains of the
Heaven's Fury.
The Primir Ordines Immunes turned to the source of the cry, a wry smile on his face. What he laid his eyes upon was a singlular system of machinery, a great chamber that had been bent and warped by the forces inflicted upon it, in its center was the crouching figure of his target; the Xin, clutching his belly which bled freely upon a familiar appearing crystal, the long-lost fragment of Amaranth Castellanos' Five Element Tribulation, solidified into a vicious, spiked object.
"Hmph," The man snorted, "So that's where that got off to. We'd suspected ever since you had wiped out the Battos, but its good to have confirmation." A massive hand stretched out, eager to grab this prize for leverage for himself, when a tendril of lightning struck with the howl of a wolf.
The Patina was scorched, if only
slightly.
"Interesting, Aretaphila
said Amaranth faced Tribulation Beasts…" Vatatzes smirked, his free hand rubbing his chin, "Guess he missed a mutt or two."
Even to the man's largely untrained senses, the nature of the Qi made the play here obvious: The Xin was going to attempt to gather as much elemental energy as possible, channeling it through the crystal in his gut, and then probably self destruct as a final act of sp-
"You…" A soft voice groaned.
"Hmm?"
"You may have been bullshitting this Xin Wei Long, but there is truth to what you said."
"About?"
"The arrogance that this Son of Xin carried with himself, even after he thought himself humbled." The sweat-slicked hair of the Sorceror reflected one of the few rays of sunlight to break through the darkening clouds of the sky, "That there was Justice to be found with one's hand at the butcher's knife. Cutting away the innocent for the sake of righting perceived wrongs."
"Hmph," Vatatzes could not help the smile reaching his face, "Am I finally getting through?"
"Maybe I was wrong about you," Xin Wei Long groaned, hands clutching the crystal embedded within him.
"Heh, well, you may have had some hiccups, but no one's perfect." Vatatzes said, "But its a good thing you're dealing with us, the Dawn's Fist are well positioned for accepting
barbaroi into the Clan's ranks. Hell, if you turn over a new leaf, the Legatus will probably just send the rest of your Jingshen friends on their way, no fuss whatsoever."
"Sounds convenient," The Qi Sorceror muttered, stumbling to one knee even as the Heavenly energies began to fade. In an instant, the larger man was uopon him, trailing Jacob's Ladders washing over his Patina harmlessly, hands already lifting the Xin back to his feet.
"No need to worry about the wounds, lets get you cleaned off and we can get everyone else to stand down, what do you say?" There wasn't any need to fake his eagerness - the fight against Xin Wei Long had been incredibly invigorating, and he'd have ample opportunities for a repeat under the pretext of sparring in the future.
"It'll be great, between Qinglong and XXI, you'll have a
blast hazing those juniors to refine that sorcery of yours." The Pilus Primus of the
DI Legio pats ash and splinters off his shoulders, before holding out his hand with a smile.
Recruiting a Favored would be an
incredible accomplishment, perhaps even enough that the Xinya Hag would let him break away from Aretaphila so he could get a Legion of his own at last!
As Xin Wei Long clasps his hand, Lampo Vatatzes can already feel the Contribution Points coming in.
"You
Optimatoi aren't evil…" And the two embrace as if they were brothers, Vatatzes patting him on the back, as the Grand Son of Nature leaned in to whisper to him three, simple, words.
"
You're batshit insane!"
The larger man's eyes widen in shock, the feeling of the Tribulation Shard pricking against his skin before it
snaps.
"I know I said that I'd follow the path of
Heavenly Justice. That i'd use this power to right wrongs, and commit vengeance against those who oppressed the Xin Kingdom. But now…" With a groan of effort, Xin Wei Long leans in to Vatatzes - Earth to secure his feet, Metal to reinforce his limbs, Wood to empower his body! Water swirled, redistributing the weight! With an exhalation of flame, he rose the bronzed body of Lampo Vatatzes over his shoulder, and hurled him into the shadowed sands directly!
"Now, I'm not so sure…"
With a blast of five colored lightning, the remains of the
Heaven's Fury are scorched anew, broken apart, dissolving into quotes of raw elemental Qi, a final command by the core of its Five Phases Engine. The crystal cracks, and the dense energies weave themselves around the Grand Son of Nature like a cloak, five colors forming five symbols behind his back. Five phases, representing the cycle of nature, flaring with each beat of his heart.
Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal.
"And besides…"
Fulmination rests upon his shoulders, and the blazing light of Qi condenses further, forming an armor-like shroud as the Tribulation Fragment cracks loudly once more. From his back thrusts four panels, angled downward - verniers. Upon his arms rests armored vents. His shoulders are set upon by great pauldrons, from which numerous individual slots reveal themselves. His feet are wrapped in sturdy, articulated blocks, with more vents rising upon their corners. The torso gains the least definition, a block of defined plating, intended to protect.
Rising from his shoulders are two great horns, not in defiance of the sky, their rounded ends a sign of supplication.
The crystal cracks a final time, shattering, and the Five Phase Poisons sink their way into the dantian of their chosen master, harmless and empowering.
"This…Isn't
my power."
OVERSOUL: S.o.H.
The name of the technique is imprinted into the eyes of all who lay eyes upon it: For it is the will of the Heaven made manifest - to oppose the perfidity of the desert, the Favor has been bestowed, the vessel - Chosen. The perfect Foundation to begin a cycle anew, arising from the meanest possible beginnings, an ideal tool for Righteous purpose.
The perfidious Golden Devil stares, teeth grit in annoyance. The betrayal having hurt naught but his pride.
"Alright then," Lampo Vatatzes said, rising to his feet, "
Come on."
The Xin Sorceror's hand stretches out, on instinct water qi arising from his dantian to condense into a blade, fulmination arising and crackling alongside it.
"Okay.
Let's dance."
Five colored flame erupts, and in an instant the Grand Son of Nature has descended on his opponent, steely gaze flashing in conjunction with his blade. Writhing patina arises to meet it, and for the first time there is
resistance, not merely the rebound of futility that comes from striking a too-hard surface.
A savage grin meets an enraged snarl, before the Golden Devil can adjust to the new reality, the five colored flames erupt from beneath Xin Wei Long's feet, propelling him into the steadily darkening sky, beyond the reach of his opponent. What awaits his vision is shocking - with the dissipation of the Song-infused Sandstorm, the initial battlefield had been much more compact than he had expected, the time it had taken for the Formations lead by the
Desert's Bilge and the
Onyx Sands to reach the ambush zone was due to Jingshen Bei Won's own deft maneuvers, refusing to give in to the hemming the Golden Devil's had attempted to force upon him.
But what that meant in turn was that at the moment, Lampo Vatatzes was not buried in a loose dune of sand, unable to contribute anything to the battle. Far from it - given the strike he had hurled against the
Onyx Sands, the wreckage of the
Lady Jiao would be more than sufficient to provide with ammunition…Which is what was looming in the near distance, shadowed in the growing darkness.
Fulmination struck, casting the wreck's silhouette across the battlefield, and with that flash of light the bounding form of the Primi Ordines Immunes was visible, already most of the distance to the wreck.
"I won't let you!"
The Law of Gravity took hold, and Xin Wei Long descended upon Lampo Vatatzes as a thunderbolt from Heaven, crackling Qi blade as its point of impact. Wood fed Fire fed Earth fed Metal and intertwined with Water, a falling storm in miniature.
Green energy flares, as the Golden Devil hurls himself away, boldly leaping into the wreckage.
"Don't get too cocky!" His voice echoes out, past the falling plumes of sand, "Try this one on for size!" With a heave and great groaning, the Spirit Stone infused timber of the
Lady Jiao is cracked, torn, and a chunk of the prow is
hurled at Xin Wei Long at speeds which blur the wreckage.
But the S.o.H. operates at speeds far beyond comprehension, and following instinct the Grand Son of Nature raises up his blade towards it, the world seeming to slow before his very eyes.
"Xin Sorcery True Pinnacle Art: Five Phase Heavenly Fangs!"
A thin, blazing line strikes the hulk, bisecting it completely. A second mass of timber follows behind, and the Favored of Heaven sweeps his arm out in a horizontal line, the force of the split casting the remains wide. A torn mast follows next, and as he cuts a third time a glimmer of emerald light catches his eye in the realm of Heavenly Speed.
Lampo Vatatzes charges between the splitting timbers of the mast, hands grasping the severed wood as holds while his feet propel him at greater and greater speeds, far beyond anything the Grand Son of Nature could have ever hoped to match. At least.
Before this moment, this second.
A patina-covered fist is reared back, veins and brambles bulging. The timing would need to be
exact or else the sweeping blow would land.
Once again, Xin Wei Long gives in to that instinct, and with two hands resting upon the sword his arms sweep
up.
Clang!
The hand is cut, Invader blood flies through the air. He stumbles, struggling to fix his momentum, but Nature's Son
steps into the swing, a downwards diagonal slash, with all his weight and the power of five colored flames behind it.
Golden filaments flutter past, green energies flickering and vanishing.
"GAGH!" Time resumes with a cry of confusion and rage, sounds of tumbling sand as Xin Wei Long wins the exchange, "My
beard!" Lampo Vatatzes shours, outrage and horror permeating the declaration, "You cut my
beard!"
The Xin Sorceror turned, naked blade directed at his opponent, "And I'll cut a lot more than that by the time I'm done."
"Tch," The larger man clicks his tongue, "You've gotten lucky. Let's see you keep that up now I'm up close!" With a burst of speed, Vatatzes closes the distance once more, but this time Nature's Son instinctively feels that the time is not yet ripe for that mysterious realm of Speed.
Thus, he's only barely able to raise a hasty guard as Vatatzes goes for a tackle, the larger man ignoring it to shove a massive, patina-bulging shoulder into the Qi armor of the Oversoul, it's protection the only reason Xin Wei Long isn't cast painfully into the sands. Both hands gripped tightly, he presses his blade into the writhing green flesh beneath, a shower of sparks emerging from the contact.
"Not so fast now, are you?!" Thick arms grip around the Sorceror's torso, and with a grunt and heave of effort, the metal qi
groans, impossibly.
"Get the hell off!" Nature's Son shouts, pillars of five-colored flame launching the pair of them into the air as Vatatzes cackles insanely.
"No room for those fancy tricks of yours now!" The Golden Devil roars, arms bulging even more thickly with absurd levels of Qi reinforcement.
Instinct guides him, and Xin Wei Long raises an arm so that its armor is pressed into the larger figure's side, "Wrong!" A keening birds cry wails through the air, the vents glowing cherry hot, "Erupt! Plumes of the Rising Sun!" With the brilliance of the techniques namesake, pure red flames erupt, washing over the Golden Devil, his
Bramble-Patina shifting quickly to defend, but the attack itself is at a level of potency beyond what can be ignored. Roaring with frustration, Vatatzes is launched off Nature's Son, though not before controlling the direction of his descent.
With another crash, Xin Wei Long turns towards his opponent, once again managing to enter the remains of the
Lady Jiao.
"DIE!" A stream of energy
booms through the air, forcing the Qi Sorceror to evade, "DIE!" Another is launched, this time diffusing into scattershot that still strikes at nearly the Core Formation level.
Flames erupting from beneath, Xin Wei Long descends once again, sword raised to parry as his mind re-enters that liminal state.
"DIE!" A radiant pillar of light erupts from the Lady Jiao, revealing the Golden Devils position, and the blade raises into a high position, the edge splitting the Qi blast where the two meet.
"DIE YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" A great Qi Cannon - forged of expertly tempered Spirit Steel and still filled with Spirit Stones - is split with another swing, the ammunition cooking off with the force of the blow, obscuring the leaping approach of Lampo Vatatzes.
Nature's Son surrenders to his guidance, and the blade swings again, knocking aside the punch once more, this time the blade drawing back to a guard held to the chest, the Oversoul accelerating into a straight tackle.
The two pass one another, a shower of sparks illuminating the darkening desert, accompanied by a scream of pain and spilled blood.
A great plume of sand rises from where the Primi Ordines Immunes had fallen, and as time returns to normal the Grand Son of Nature descends to where his opponent scrambles back to his feet, the
bramble-patina already sealing the bleeding, even if it does nothing to obscure the great twinned rents in his torso.
"Enough games," Vatatzes mutters coldly, "
I just want you dead."
"Sorry," Xin Wei Long replies, "I have somewhere I need to be."
"HOW ABOUT A SHALLOW GRAVE?!" Vatatzes roars as he leaps, having gotten a sense for his opponent's usage of their heightened reaction time technique, and he is proven correct - Nature's Son is unable to effortlessly parry him once again, this time raising up his arms in a warding posture.
But the tingling of heat remains in the larger man's memory, thus he abandons grappling for a series of air and earth shaking strikes, punches into kicks into tackles, an endless mustering of writhing force that Xin Wei Long is only barely able to block or evade. Each warding strike is met by a mass of writhing veins forging nigh-indestructible patina, rendering every blow largely meaningless, and as the exchange lengthens, the Grand Son of Nature grows worried - There was still another fight he needed to be there for, and Lampo Vatatzes would not let him leave. Not until Xin Wei Long was dead.
Instincts guided his eyes towards the patina itself in search of an answer - where the brambles and vines always emerged from - the source of the problem. With each strike, with each exchange, the naked breast of Lampo Vatatzes flushed green, the vines and roots emerging, and the Grand Son of Nature cursed himself for a fool.
The blood carried the armor, so naturally its source must be the heart!
With the realization of his path forward in mind, the sensation of waiting to fall into that state of slowed time fell into place. Like a mental trigger, eagerly waiting for his command. Serendipity, Vatatzes fell upon him, hands spread and bunched into fists, attempting another double hammer blow.
"Xin Sorcery Secret Pinnacle Art: Heavenly Revolving Fangs Unending!"
Time slowed, and Xin Wei Long swung twice, sparks flying through the air as both fists were driven wide. The sight of the bearded Golden Devil may have been amusing, but the liminal state brought a type of meticulous focus to the thoughts of the Grand Son of Nature. With a third swing, a thin bar of fulmination drew itself over the chest. The Seven Pillars in his dantian pulsed, feeding a virtuous cycle through the meridians of his arms, into the construct.
A fourth swing. A fifth. Sparks flew from the patina-covered flesh, brambles and veins bulging and throbbing in blasphemous fashion to resist the cutting of Heavenly Qi. A sixth swing, a seventh. The sparks and green became steadily intermingled with red. An eighth swing, a ninth, a tenth, eleventh-twelfth-thireenth-
Over and over Xin Wei Long swung, lines of Heavenly Light burying themselves into the dense flesh of the Invader, severing brambles and cords and veins, too quickly for him to recover. Too quickly for him to react. The body pulsed, the blood it pumped uselessly spilling in the air to be scorched into mist by the elemental energies at play. Again, and again, and again the Grand Son of Nature struck, each time the ratio of green to red growing a little more lopsided towards the latter. Until, suddenly, instinct grips him once more.
A purely vertical slice, this time with all the force Nature's Son could bring to bear, directly over the heart.
In a great cry of twisting metal, two emerald chunks of pectoral soften into mere bronze, flying through the air, and time reverts to normal.
"WE'RE DONE HERE!"
On instinct, Xin Wei Long buries two closed fists into the carved open wound, his dantian pouring all his strength into the fire qi gathering within them.
"
XIN SORCERY PINNACLE SECRET ART: VERMILLION DAWN ASCENDING!"
A pillar of crimson light erupts from the back of Lampo Vatatzes, his arms going slack where they come to rest upon the shoulders of the Oversoul.
"I guess…" The Primi Ordines Immunes mutters, "We're not so different after all…You…and…"
With a shrug of effort, the Grand Son of Nature moves himself out of the Golden Devils grip, five colored flames erupting and carrying him off towards the
true battlefield.
"...I…
Areta…phila…"
A.N.: I apologize for nothing, Lampo Vatatzes is fucking perfect the way he is and anyone who says otherwise is a damn liar and a cheat.
This next one will wrap up the lead in into the TRUE finale. I hope you all get the chance to appreciate just how far Xin Wei Long's come from the arrogant one note Young Master he started as. I know I have. It's been a real blast writing him, and to be honest this series of omakes has improved my writing, even if its only just a little bit.
(12280 Words)
