Chương 349: Final epilogue. Rise

"Report!"

"My Lord!" the silver-ranked elf courier said as he fell to his knees upon the stone floor of the fort, his speed causing him to glide a bit further upon armored knees before coming to a stop.

"My Lord, it is about to manifest."

"What?! The last reports indicated we should have at least two more hours! Have the ritualists double check!"

"They did, my Lord. Three times."

"By the gods… Are there any responses from the Adventure Society?"

"No more than last time, my Lord. They said that someone had been dispatched."

"That was with the last timeframe though. Go and renew communications. I shall head to the walls. We need to finalize preparations." As High Lord Nanting rose from where he had sat overseeing the logistics reports for this crisis, his armor of gold and crystal had already started manifesting, the fluttering cloak of his Scintillating Attire the last to manifest just as he passed outside.

Even as a gold-ranker he had to squint slightly at the bright and flickering rainbow light that filtered in through the active shield of the array; a massive vortex towering towards the skies and reaching the clouds above. Preliminary readings had already confirmed that it was a monster, and given the size and intensity… High Lord Nanting was unsure if the fifteen gold-rankers - including himself - on garrison here at this sea fort would be enough to hold on until help arrived. Or at least hopefully arrived.

Even with the most impressive communications these days, the world was still vast and portal couriers only so many. Especially those able to transport the kind of reinforcements that would be needed.

"Status?" he asked, Lord Xantan rising from where he had been personally inspecting the ritual fading upon the blue stone battlements.

"It's manifesting soon," his second-in-command replied grimly, the leonid's words coming out as a growl through his clenched teeth.

"No doubt about it."

"The arrays?"

"Active."

"The silvers and below?"

"We've already started evacuating, starting with normal-rankers and working our way up. Every portal used means more makes it out."

"The golden guard? `""Ready, my Lord. All of us are making preparations."

"Then may Warrior witness us," High Lord Nanting said grimly, before once more looking out towards the manifestation.

"The gall to manifest right on top of us."

"Indeed, my Lord. The world - and perhaps more - may have changed, yet the constant of monsters remains the same," Lord Xantan agreed, forming many of his shadow gates in preparation even as they spoke. Then came the waiting. The worst part, even when one could use the time to prepare. Then, twelve minutes later, it happened. Bright light followed by a thunderclap to everyone's magical senses. The rainbow light of the manifestation collapsing inwards.

And finally, a shockwave of displaced air as something corporeal had appeared in the world. Rainbow light shifted to bright yellow, burning orange and smoldering reds as wings that could enfold a whole town opened to reveal feathers black as night yet glowing from within with sunfire that also surrounded the being like a blazing corona. Three legs flexed their golden claws while a likewise-gilded beak lifted towards the sky and gave out a shrieking cry of triumph.

"Misfortune must be displeased with us," Lord Xantan stated grimly even as the shield of the arrays started crackling and hissing beneath the intense heat of the being while the rocky landscape of the coast around them started smoldering from the monster's very presence.

"A three-legged crow," High Lord Nanting agreed grimly. Their odds of survival had just dropped. Considerably. Yet they were the Golden Guard: adventurers, soldiers. And they had people to defend, both in the fort and in the lands beyond.

"Ready–" That was all High Lord Nanting had the chance to call before a small sun was born from yet another shriek of the diamond-ranked monster ahead of them, the halo of flickering flames around the orb forming symbols of cursed, primal power. Then several things seemed to happen at once as the blazing star just outside their walls burst while the cursed symbols unwound into streams of dark feathers.

The sudden burst of energies happened with such speed that they looked like nigh-instant effects to even the eyes of High Lord Nanting, the manifestations being there one moment and having burst to impact the arrays of the fort the next. Barriers flared red hot and pillars of flame rose around the fort as the array nodes burst into small infernos from the onslaught.

"Go! Now!" Nanting's howled order was followed by him thrusting out a hand to send beams of golden fury towards the creature, followed by fourteen more gold-rankers unleashing their first prepared waves of attack. Anything to distract the creature further, to keep it from pressuring the arrays any more before they could recover at least a little. An enveloping shroud of cursed sunfire appeared the next moment, devouring each and every one of the attacks and spells.

That had to devour some mana even for a diamond-ranked being, but not enough.

"Aga–" That was all High Lord Nanting had the time to shout before the three-legged crow shrieked again. Then came the next small sun. And in the next moment, it had once more burst, this time into an ocean of liquid fire that washed towards the fort. The arrays could handle only one more of these. Perhaps two. Not good. Disastrous. They had to hold. They had to– Then in the next instant, a line of small shimmering panes of force had suddenly appeared in the air leading in from the ocean to the south.

They ran like a trail through the air not unlike footsteps before seeming to disappear into the oncoming inferno as a tiny star of blue cracks was born in the fiery depths. They spread outward in another blink of the eyes, consuming the wave of flames while also seeming to subvert them as the mana devoured itself to only leave a tsunami of transcendent light in its wake as what might have been the doom of the fort reversed direction.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. For a brief moment, High Lord Nanting could glimpse a small figure sharply contrasted against the gold, silver and blue light, ringed staff having just finished a swing.

Then the world outside seemed to rupture as pillars of fire burst from the ground even as the three-legged crow shrieked in actual pain, multiple infernos converging upon the lone figure like the tentacles of an incandescent kraken only for another series of flashes to leave them shattered and broken even as smaller circular barriers started appearing all across the array shields of the fort to shield it from the torrents of boulders displaced by the titanic forces unleashed upon the world in such short order.

Another moment passed and a trio of now-black claws filled the whole landscape with vicious, cursed slashes that were deflected by a rotating, three-dimensional cascade of force walls. In the next, these barriers soon formed a path which left the three-legged crow reeling from a strike that seemed to consume part of its body, mana and all.

Then the world seemed to ignite again as the very mana of the air burned and focused inward before a sphere perhaps ten steps across was carved from its midst as the lone figure held off the fury of the corrupted sun. All that and more flashed before the eyes of High Lord Nanting and the Golden Guard, almost too fast for even their gold-ranked eyes to properly take in. But that mattered little, because their reinforcements had arrived. A diamond-ranker.

"Troublesome one, aren't you," Kite muttered to himself as four sets of spectral arms projected attacks to once more tear apart subtle cursed symbols forming in the shadows cast by the sunbursts of the three-legged crow. The spells of the being were as spectacular as they were insidious, and he had to constantly shift his will and attention around as he did his best to manipulate what he could of the local time to ward them all off and prevent them from putting too much pressure on him and the city.

This was still an art that was way beyond him in all but the most rudimentary of means, but Kite hoped he would learn more in time. He had somehow gained an eternity, after all. However, an eternity meant little without a world and people to anchor that time to. And this manifested monster of cursed sunlight and malicious fury was a clear threat in that regard. Nothing compared to some of the calamities and happenings of the century past, at least not on the grander scale of things.

But this was the now, and the now would belong to Kite. His path allowed for little else as he tore the monster's flames apart, shattering its mana and detonating parts of its body from inside. The flames singed his skin and the curses threatened to encroach upon the outer layers of his soul, yet Kite kept his steady momentum that felt slow and methodical to him even as he knew that the outside world could only see faint glimpses of it among the cataclysm that currently tore up the landscape.

Slowly but steadily though, Kite's path was seizing hold of this battle as it had dominated so many others. Another corrupted sun was torn apart and subverted, popping like a balloon as the feedback was transferred to the monster even as Kite's spectral arms carved apart multitudes of malevolent feathers that started falling from the air all over like a cursed snowfall.

Kite stepped through the air to his own rhythm, refusing to let his movements be dictated by the lashing will and aura of his foe as he instead imposed his own truths upon this encounter with spell and strike. That was, at least, until his foe suddenly seemed to have had enough. Two dark wings burst into light as they spread wide, conjuring not one but nine small suns around themselves in a circle.

Then those suns condensed into eggs of obsidian which in turn burst apart a mere moment later, turning one three-legged crow into ten.

"Oh sweet heavens. Most troublesome indeed." The heat in the air increased manyfold as the ten crows spread out around him, none quite as powerful as the original yet their combined power was enough to set the land beneath aflame for many leagues as stone started melting, while any greenery had long since been reduced to less than ash.

Spectral arms worked overtime to ward off another renewed flurry of incoming flames and curses while Kite's senses told an uncomfortable truth: that these were no mere summons for him to dispel, but part of the true essence of the creature. They were one, yet many, and definitely purposeful in how they started weaving their own inescapable cataclysm of doom around Kite that kept pressing inward.

That might even have held true if Kite had been alone, but as the apocalyptic monsters would soon find out, that was not the case. The fort where the three-legged crow had manifested bordered the great ocean beyond which waited a continent riddled with diamond-ranked beasts. While that was no doubt a terrifying place of untold horror and trial, any observer would probably have been more concerned with how that vast ocean was currently rising into the air. At least as far as the eye could see.

"Witness me, as perfection descends!" Those words were spoken in a majestic feminine voice that echoed out of the vast curtain of rising waters. Then the waters parted to reveal the gargantuan shimmering form of a serpentine dragon, pearlescent pink scales covered in a small sea of glittering jewels. Whatever her will dictated, the water would obey. And at this moment, quenching the annoying flames that harried her bond was what Heavenly Star Glinting in the River of Fate wished for.

The vast swathes of water glowed blue as they sped up, splitting into ten tendrils that descended from above in mighty arcs before plunging the calamitous crows into their suffocating embrace. Each still glowed fiercely from within the restraining waters, yet Glint was not done as karmic starlight spread throughout all the ocean water within sight to turn their magical might against her captives.

"My thanks, Little Beauty. Impeccable timing," Kite said as he freed himself from the last constraining flames with a few swings of his weapons before shifting to beginning his counterattacks. Stream upon stream of void-laced strikes painted an ever-growing web outwards from his position while barriers shifted to press inward and bunch the monsters closer together. That they were now many was, as always, a problem.

Even diamond rank hadn't completely been able to compensate for that flaw in Kite's path as he himself lacked the area damage to effectively dispatch them. This would be a marathon, not a sprint, but as Kite managed a final surge of mana that left all of the ten sun-beasts pressed together in their watery restraints, he deemed it time.

"Now, Sage!" The words had barely left his mouth before the ashen clouds above were suddenly parted as a massive beam of transcendent light descended, much like a star had suddenly been ripped from the skies and flung upon the captured monsters. It tore through their forms and muted shrieks escaped the waters even as Glint's karmic magic enhanced the destructive energies further.

Through the hole briefly left in the ash cover above, Kite could glimpse the sprawling mass of symbols that was Sage covering the sky like a foreign celestial object before the familiar was once more obstructed from view. Down below, all ten of the monstrous crows had turned into flaming streaks that finally burst from the pillars of water, only to converge once more into one single whole.

Another shriek bellowed in challenge, golden marks now having sprung into being across the whole three-legged crow as its power grew once again even as more corrupted suns started springing into being. Kite was already mid-swing even as Glint arrived at his side, karmic heavenly retribution gathering between her jaws. His life had been long, and - Fortune be willing - would be longer still. He still had the token of that particular Goddess tucked away beneath his armor, unsure if it would ever be spent and how.

If it even could be. That was not too important, however. This was but one more step. Out there in the world, his children, grandchildren and all the generations that had followed learned, fought, loved and lived. Dragonfly was among them, closing in on Kite. Whether it would be in a year, ten or fifty, Kite trusted his wife.

She would endure, both the trials of understanding and insight that awaited her, as well as the final threshold required as one gazed upon the cosmos and acquired perspective beyond anything one could have previously imagined. Perhaps they would both join Will and Laevyeth among the stars and whatever awaited out there in the vast beyond some day, traveling between universes and learning of tapestries of fate and intent much greater than any one of them could dream of. That was not this day, however.

This was Kite's world, its people forming the foundation of what he still aspired to protect and nurture. A foundation of bonds reaching back well over a century, threads connecting people to one another that brought strength. Solidity. Potential. Unity was a concept easily fractured, yet despite that Kite had only grown more certain with age that it was something to keep aspiring towards in these troubled times.

Be it beings like the three-legged crow or forces from beyond their world, they would all find Kite waiting. They were his trial and tribulation both; what had allowed him to come this far. And they would also be what allowed him to continue his ascent. His rise.