Aldrich slammed Isaac to the ground, raising his sword to pierce through him for a fatal strike when Asher appeared in the corner of his eyes, catching his attention. Asher, with his hulking frame emitting mist from his mouth, charged forward.
Aldrich quickly turned his sword to parry Asher’s horizontal slash, but the sheer force sent him flying backward.
He rolled, rose up to his feet again, only to be met with Asher’s knee slamming his chin, followed by an upward slash.
Euodias could only leave sparks against Aldrich’s armor but failed to cut through. Seizing Asher’s momentary shock, Aldrich clenched his fist, preparing to throw a punch.
Lightning crackled around his fist—
But before he could unleash it, Isaac’s sword plunged through a gap in Aldrich’s shoulder armor.
He then let go of the sword hilt and gathered and compressed air into an arrowhead before firing it at Aldrich’s back.
It pierced clean through and emerged from the front!
All of this happened in less than a second!
Aldrich’s eyes trembled. ‘I… I didn’t see him.’
Ice surged from the ground, sealing Aldrich in place.
“You boys think you can kill me?!”
Rumble!
Lightning crashed from the sky, meeting the surging lightning that erupted from his body. Twin bolts, thick as arms, connected in a blinding explosion as the lightning from the sky and his body met.
The battlefield brightened as the flames exploded outward, carving a crater that was 300 feet wide!
Only the ground under which he knelt remained intact.
He rose up, sword in hand, gaze locking onto Asher, who had covered himself with his ice in time, but it was also covered in burn marks.
His once regal white mane and locks were now blackened, with some patches burnt off!
What remained of his ice armor were ice shards littered everywhere.
On the other hand, Isaac was in a worse state.
His wings were in a battered state, burn wounds could be seen on his face, chest, hands and legs.
He was on his knee, holding onto his single-edged sword for support.
“Carnage.”
Aldrich’s voice was barely above a whisper, yet the sky answered. Another bolt descended from the sky, but to his shock, the bolt hit an unseen glass-like barrier above!
His eyes widened.
The lightning’s glow let him notice a winged woman hovering above, like a celestial entity against the storm.
More bolts of lightning rained down, but the barrier remained strong. Aldrich’s brows knitted together.
Boom!
Asher reappeared before him, his claws inches away from his face. Aldrich barely evaded the attack, retaliating with a swing of his sword.
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But out of nowhere, another barrier stopped the sword, allowing Asher to claw open a gash on the armor!
Aldrich, pissed off and frustrated, growled and kicked Asher with such force that Asher tumbled for 200 yards!
Yet, he rose up, shook his mane and closed the gap once again but it wasn’t only him this time, Isaac closed in simultaneously.
Both of them struck at the same time, but Aldrich unleashed another lightning blast. This time, the barrier blocked the lightning and pushed inward—just enough for Asher’s claws to pierce Aldrich’s chest and Isaac’s sword to plunge into Aldrich’s thigh!
A deep grunt escaped Aldrich’s lips. Lighting and thunder, more concentrated than the last, erupted from every part of his body, and a colossal bolt, as thick as a pillar, descended from the heavens.
Sapphira fortified her barrier, but under all the power, it couldn’t hold much!
The barrier shattered like glass.
And in that split second, when no word could be uttered, a name echoed from her depths.
‘…Asher!’
Sapphira’s gaze dropped and her expression changed as she watched in horror that Asher and Isaac were both grabbed by Aldrich.
All three of them were in the blast!
In that instant, it seemed as if the night itself had been erased.
The heat alone pulverised thousands of soldiers—humans, Dothanites and Edomites alike!
It was like a nuke. The explosion was so powerful that the shockwave alone ruptured the eardrunks, leaving the soldiers deafened by its force.
As the explosion died down, crimson flames billowed out from a being that looked barely alive.
Seeing him heavily burned to the extent there wasn’t a semblance to what he once was, tears fell from Sapphira’s eyes of their own accord.
Then… he moved.
With his eyes filled with rage and pure white, Asher drove his foot into Aldrich’s chest, forcing him to stagger backward.
“H…how did you survive an ancient’s full force?” Aldrich’s voice wavered; he just couldn’t believe his eyes.
Even his armor had liquified under that heat. The land itself had been scorched barren. Yet, somehow, this man still stood. Though it seemed like he would die at any second, he was standing nonetheless.
“You!”
Multiple voices echoed from Asher’s mouth. “You cannot stop us!”
Ice erupted from the ground, piercing through Aldrich from all directions. Wind coiled, forming a Sphere around Asher, lifting him into the air.
“I can hear your second heart.” Although various voices came out of Asher’s mouth, Ariel’s voice was prominent.
Aldrich’s eyes widened.
Asher clenched his fist, and the next instant, blood spurted out of Aldrich’s mouth; his eyes widened to the limit as his body convulsed.
A sword out of ice materialized in Asher’s grip. And with one clean slice, he severed Aldrich’s head. Frost began to spread instantly, encasing the general’s entire body in ice, frozen in a state of eternal shock.
The battlefield fell into stunned silence.
Asher looked at the thousands of Edomites and Dothanites who stood frozen, unable to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
Asher’s burning white eyes turned to them, his murderous intent radiating like a storm.
He could almost imagine rising hundreds of ice spikes to wipe a huge portion of them in an instant, yet in this almost uncontrollable state of anger and the fury of his predecessors, his eyes drifted to Sapphira.
She was just a few meters away.
Clearly, she was so much worried that she had forgotten that he was dangerous in this state.
Memories of when he had massacred everyone kept playing in his head. The reasons why he should do it were everywhere.
Right now, he bore the pain of his predecessors, more than the great four. Their failures, their pains, their regrets, all fueled into this pure, unbridled rage.
Not even an ancient-ranked knight could last under such wrath.
“S…” Asher ground his teeth, his hands trembling heavily, but he kept his eyes on Sapphira.
If he looked away, maybe he might succumb to the urge and massacre every last one of his foes.
“Surrender or… D…IE”
The words tore from his throat, raw and unstable.
Then, his eyes became normal almost immediately, and his control over his air element slipped, and he began to fall.
Sapphira caught him. She trembled as she watched his burnt flesh heal while they descended.
Without a word, the Dothanites and Edomites dropped their weapons and fell on their knees while the human soldiers stepped forward.
In the face of absolute power, no one could think of anything else but submission.
[Host, you have advanced to the imperial rank by forcing your body and mind to endure pain, hard decisions and near death. You have also chosen to build beyond the boundaries of humans.]
[Reward: ???]