The True Holder of the Excalibur Galatine
1604 Words
A yellow amorphous light materializes on Sol's palm, undulating for a fleeting moment, and then shaped into a sword.
Morde, the giant obsidian knight, brandished his heavy-looking mace and charged forward.
The ground shook for each step he took, Sol remained steady, open, and defenseless. As if taunting him to come straight at him.
He didn't even lift his fingers and was just staring at the vile creature charging over to him.
As Morde got in front of him, he swung his menacing mace with a head the size just of a two-meter rock and crashed to Sol's left side.
The earth trembled from the shock Morde delivered. Any man would've been liquefied if they were to receive a direct attack from Morde's mace. However, the man he just struck didn't even bulge even for a millimeter.
"What?" Morde let out a shocked gasp.
Sol smirked.
"Stop smirking like that!"
Morde, infuriated by the mocking smile of Sol unleashed a barrage of strikes against Sol, hitting him from above, the side, and below with his mace.
With each strike, the earth trembles, with each strike, the ground shatters, with each strike, dust billows.
Hammering him down relentlessly, Morde anticipated his victory as he imagined Sol's body turning into a pulp.
However—-
At his thirty-seventh strike, the hammer suddenly stopped. Not by Morde's hand but by Sol's hand.
"This is futile, with this power, I can't even take you on seriously—"
"You!"
Muscles bulged deep within his obsidian armor as he tries to take the control of his mace back to him. A Demon Lord being taken lightly by an Empyrean Lord is insulting him and by pompously declaring that he can't even take him seriously made him want to crush his face along with its annoying smug look.
Yet—he can't have it back. Just how strong is this Empyrean Lord? He was standing right there not doing anything other than gripping on his mace.
"This power, green aura clad around the head of your mace, it's kind of similar to the one that killed my students. Is it perhaps that you're the one who took their lives?" asked Sol as he scanned the properties of the obsidian mace.
"Hmmph, your students? I see this is interesting! Yes, I killed your students because their existence disgust me. You've been just talking ever since I started slamming, when do you plan to fight back huh?"
"Provoking me will only lead to your demise."
"Then let me have a taste of your divine power! I've been waiting here for almost a minute—."
Morde stopped his words midway as he noticed something strange.
"Wha–what is that?!"
He sputtered and observed the flame flickering on Sol's palm. It was gathering a huge amount of magical energy enough to send chills down to his spine.
The flame undulating on his hands formed a miniature sun the size of a ball.
Seconds later, he gazed at Morde with a sharp look and threw it at his sternum.
"--Gah!!!"
Morde, receiving the attack, suddenly found himself flying into the sky as the small sphere lifted him off the ground.
He doesn't know how long it has been since Sol attacked him but he can tell that he is tens of kilometers away from the ground.
"This—power! Too ridiculous?!" He groaned in pain as the temperature in the mesosphere started freezing his armor, ice forming on the surface and crept throughout gradually.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Sol gazed his head upward, following the trail of light his spell produced. Judging the distance is far enough to cause damage on the surface. Sol snapped his finger.
In an instant, a sun the size of a small turned into a majestic globe. Its size and its radiant color illuminated above the skies, turning the dark sky to crimson.
With the sudden change of size, Morde's body was instantly engulfed by it, becoming one with the miniature sun.
Extending his hand upwards—mouthed a word. "Sun's Prominence." clenching his hand, the sun above erupted in a massive red explosion.
An explosion on a degree like that would definitely level up the surface, extinguishing all living and non-living beings.
Despite getting detonated in the sky, a powerful shockwave descended to earth, sending a blast of wind strong enough to uproot trees.
"One down, two to go," Sol said as he glanced onto his next opponent. Resya.
Resya who was watching the scene unfolding above the sky became dumbfounded. In a fleeting scenario, she forgets that she has an enemy coming menacingly towards her.
Realizing it, she snapped back to reality, accepting the fate of Morde, and sprang her hands.
[Chains of Corruption]
Dark chains emitting an ominous aura appeared before Resya and shoot towards Sol.
As the black chains hound towards him in a zigzag pattern—the tip suddenly vanished.
"What?!"
Resya doesn't know how but the more she observes it, she realizes that the moment it gets to a certain distance, it'll vanish. No, it was melting.
She prepared to cast another spell, this time, a more powerful one. A one that would hurt even the Gods.
But before she could attempt to do so, she found Sol in front of her, his eyes gleaming coldly.
It was fast, she didn't perceive it. The next thing she knows is her neck was being roughly gripped by Sol's hand.
Choking him, Resya let out a stifled cry.
"Resya, before I kill you, care to answer one of my questions? What is the Demon Lord doing in this place, what is your objective? Do so and I will kill you in a way that you won't feel you died."
"Answer me!" Sol shouted.
"Ghaghh…"
"What? Ah, I see." Sol removed her from his grasp.
Resya coughed and gasped for air. She looked at Sol with teary eyes and answered him.
"I will not tell you. Our goal is too important for you to interfere."
"I expected you would say that." Sol raised his sword above.
Demon Lords have seven cores, which represent their lives. To kill one, one must destroy all of it. But for an Empyrean Lord, with their godly powers, a simple beheading will suffice.
Just as he was about to do that, one trepidation occurred. Ominous and massive energy coming down at incredible speed.
Sol looked to the source of the mana and saw a green light trailing down like a comet.
His eyes widened as he figured out its identity.
"Danger—Shield!"
A light spiraled around him and a shield formed in his left arm. He raised it and hairbreadth later, an object with a force of meteor slammed into it. The strong and powerful Empyrean Lord was sent flying miles away, crashing into the face of a nearby mountain.
The object that slammed onto Sol's shield was no other than Morde. His obsidian armor became spiky and diabolic, his form surrounded by green light, and hammer pulsating like a being.
"Morde?!" Resya exclaimed. "Don't tell me…you used…"
"Lady Resya, are you okay?"
"I'm fine…but that form."
"Ah…you mean the Avatar of Death? I was lucky to activate it before Sol's magic could disintegrate me. If it happened a second later, I would definitely be in real trouble."
Avatar of Death, a skill exclusive to Morde. Converting all of his magical power to physical power, tremendously increased his power hundredfold.
Physical power translates to high defense, if it hadn't for it, Morde would've died.
But using this power requires tremendous power, he can't stay in this form for too long.
"Lady Resya, I think it's time to retreat."
"But how about the princess?"
"We can just have to report to the One that an Empyrean Lord interfered, he'd know what we meant."
"But—"
—Boom.
A deafening explosion rocked the earth. The two looked to the source and saw a wondrous being with golden wings clad in golden armor.
"Oh…shit…"
"This is bad…"
"This overwhelming power…it's higher than Him!" Resya remarked.
"Lady Resya we have to—"
"Open the gate!" Resya shouted, her voice carrying fear.
"Understood!"
Morde returned to his original form and used his remaining power to open up a gate.
Meanwhile, Resya watched Sol. "Such…power…So this is the true form of an Empyrean Lord?"
It's a sight to witness one but dead men tell no tales. It was an enemy they couldn't possibly defeat, even dreaming of it.
"Lady Resya, the gate is ready!"
Sol, realizing what they are about to do, descends from the heavens with overwhelming might.
Resya clicked her tongue, Sol won't let them get away. So in order for them to retreat successfully, she'll have to stall.
Gathering all of her magic, she formed a huge magic circle before her. Then fired a beam of an intense ray.
Sol met it head-on and parted the beam of destruction with his divine sword, diverging it.
"I-I-Impossible! It was my strongest spell!"
"Lady Resya!"
In the middle of her channeling, Resya was grabbed abruptly from behind and was thrown into the gate, interrupting her spell.
Morde, who just saved her life, closed the gate and successfully retreated.
Sol who was just seconds away from stopping them stopped his tracks. Flapping his wings, hovering in the air, he gritted his teeth in irritation.
On a tranquil night, the sound of sword clashing can be heard from a distance.
Sol realized there's an ongoing battle in the Forest of Kuff.
He retracted back into his normal form and headed there quickly to assist.
- Writer
