Chapter 147: Chapter 147 - Domineering
"Don’t force my hand, boy," Ashreth muttered.
"It’s you who forced mine, little birdie." Lucien replied in a mocking tone.
Ashreth’s aura flared and heat rippled through the air. His voice rang out, loud enough for all to hear.
"I see. Since King Midas refuses to surrender the criminal, I will act myself!"
The crowd stirred. But before King Midas could move, Edric and Maxim stepped close to him and whispered something.
The king’s eyes gleamed as he listened then he rose.
"Ashreth Vulcan," King Midas’ voice cut through the uproar. "You parade yourself as the virtuous defender of truth yet you trample upon our honor as if our kingdom were your stage. If you truly believe Marquis Lucien is guilty of the crimes you claim... then let the skies be our witness. Face him in single combat. Let proof be written not in words or false visions but in steel and fire. If he falls, your accusations stand justified. But if he prevails..."
Midas’ gaze sharpened.
"...then the world will know who among us deals in lies."
A hush swept the world.
The king’s judgment was unprecedented.
How could a young marquis hope to defeat the Federation’s strongest? Many thought Midas had lost his mind. To them, Lucien’s fate was sealed.
Ashreth pressed a hand to his chest, feigning reluctant sorrow. "If that is the king’s will... then I shall show everyone what justice is."
Lucien smirked. "Can you stop talking? You sound ridiculous. Birdbrain suits you... Oh wait, you really do have one."
The blatant insult made Ashreth’s eyes burn with fury.
King Midas allowed himself a thin smile. The stage was set. Now it was Lucien’s turn.
The king descended with Edric and Maxim, ready to shield his people from stray blows. Meanwhile... Ashreth’s servants quietly melted into the crowd’s edges and shoot off towards the horizon.
Suddenly...
The sky above the capital was sent ablaze.
As a phoenix, Ashreth commanded fire itself. Yet the mortal vessel he wore carried the Light attribute as well. Two powers fused within him, heat and radiance twisting together.
He struck without a word. One sweeping arm sent a tidal wave of flame crashing downward. The capital quaked beneath the sudden furnace.
Lucien blurred into motion. Morphis shifted into twin blades. He cut through the firestorm as he slipped between collapsing walls of flame. Every movement was a precise stroke of survival.
Wings of fire appeared on Ashreth’s back. He shot forward like a comet. His fist blazed with light magic.
Lucien twisted Morphis into a shield and met the blow head-on.. The force blasted shockwaves across the sky.
But Lucien wasn’t pushed back. He pivoted, spinning behind Ashreth. The shield turned into a whip that lashed around the Ashreth’s body. With a pull, he yanked Ashreth down and slashed with a curved scimitar...
Flames exploded outward, devouring the blade... But Lucien was already gone. He is always adapting.
Ashreth was fast. But so was he.
"Your tricks won’t save you, little bridie," Lucien growled. "I’ll show the people who you truly are."
He shot skyward. Morphis stretched into a longbow as a string of divine energy formed between his fingers. He whispered words only an elf of his 5th life would know.
Arrows of condensed energy filled the sky. Each one glowed with explosive force.
Ashreth snarled. His wings flared, trying to burn them away... but Lucien released his blow.
The arrows rained down like a meteor shower, detonating around him in bursts of light and fire.
For a moment, Ashreth disappeared in the storm.
Then.... he erupted outward, unscathed. His body looks like a living inferno.
"You think tricks will kill me?!" he roared.
Lucien’s grip tightened. Morphis reshaped once more. This time it shifted into a greatsword heavy as a mountain. His aura surged.
"No tricks," Lucien answered coldly. "Only what I’ve learned."
He charged, cleaving through fire and light alike. He poured divine energy into the blade. The sword itself vibrated with power. Each pulse made the greatsword hum like a storm about to break.
"Forty-seventh life. Goliath’s Heaven-Splitting Strike!"
Morphis hummed. It created a sound that tore at the fabric of the sky. Space itself quivered, ripping open before its edge.
Ashreth raised his arms. His flames spiraled to shield him...
But—
"Ghh—!"
The greatsword carved through Ashreth’s body in a single, perfect arc.
Fire scattered. Blood sprayed.
Ashreth’s body split apart, falling in two.
Gasps erupted from below as people in the capital looked up. The "most virtuous man of the continent" was split... His blood sprayed across the heavens.
For a moment... silence reigned.
Lucien held his stance. His eyes fell on the corpse.
It couldn’t end this easily.
Not with a phoenix.
Ashreth wore a human vessel. His full power was still caged.
And Lucien was right.
Just then—
Ashreth’s corpse ignited.
Golden-red flames roared outward, consuming the two pieces of Ashreth’s body. Instead of turning to ash, the fire pulled the halves together. It fused the flesh, bone, and soul in a blazing conflagration.
Morphis vibrated in Lucien’s grip as he watched the inferno take shape.
The flames curved into vast wings.
From their heart rose a cry not heard for an age.
High and piercing.
A phoenix’s call.
Below, the crowd staggered in awe and terror.
"He...he’s not human," a noble whispered.
"The Supreme Leader...he’s a phoenix?!" another shouted.
Out of the fire stepped Ashreth. He was whole once more. His eyes burned molten gold and the righteous mask was gone.
A cruel smile cut across his face as the flames curled around him like a living crown.
"So now you see it," Ashreth said. "I am eternal. I am the flame that cannot be extinguished."
Lucien tightened his grip on Morphis. "Then I’ll be the one to smother that flame."
Lucien blurred forward.
But Ashreth’s next words stopped him cold. It was spoken low enough for Lucien to hear alone.
"Ha! Ignorant human. By now your territory must have already fallen to the beastman tribes. I ensured their arrival."
Lucien went still.
He still hasn’t caught a signal from Vivian. If there’s anything wrong, he would be notified via his Split Body.
A slow smile curved his lips.
Ashreth frowned. He was feeling unsettled.
"You... you don’t even care about your own land?"
Lucien’s smile widened. "Idiot. If you’d tried this months ago, maybe I’d have worried. But now? Even an entire nation wouldn’t be enough to shake my territory."
The phoenix felt it then. A flicker of unease. It was foreign and unwelcome.
Something in him stirred and it was uncomfortable.
•••
Back in Lootwell...
The army stood ready under Lukas’s command. Peek and Aboo had already reported the suspicious movement to Elunara and Cielius had sensed the intruders long before they reached the walls. Orders were given and formations were set.
Then—
The city gates thundered open.
The Beastman Tribes surged forward led by their supreme chief, Leo. His golden mane bristled and his eyes burned with wrath.
But what awaited them was no frightened rabble.
Instead, an army stood in perfect formation. Their discipline was sharp as steel and their morale blazed like fire. Behind them, the banners of Lootwell snapped against the wind.
The beastmen halted. For a heartbeat... silence hung heavy.
Then Leo’s expression twisted into rage.
"Ashreth, you bastard! You’ve tricked us into this!"
Before anyone could blink, Leo vanished.
...
In an instant, Leo’s world bent. The space itself warped.
Leo reappeared in a vast open space. His opponent stood calmly at the center.
Cielius.
The Worldroot Staff pulsed faintly in his hand like a fragment of the earth’s soul. Through it, he can borrow mana straight from the world. It’s like a well without bottom. Every spell he cast would strike with doubled force too.
Leo bared his fangs. His voice rumbled like thunder.
"Are you the leader of the humans here? I came here for one reason. Return our Guardian Deity to us... or this place burns to the ground!"
He unleashed his aura. The might of a peak Tier 9 shook the world.
But the old man before him did not even flinch. His eyes were steady and his presence was serene as if he was part of the world itself.
And in that moment... For the first time in centuries, Leo’s instincts screamed danger. Not even Ashreth had ever made his blood run cold like this.
Snarling, Leo cast away hesitation.
His muscles swelled. His veins blazed red. And his eyes became pools of blood.
Berserk.
The ground cracked under his step as his power doubled.
"Then I’ll rip it out of you!"
Leo blurred. He vanished in a streak of force and appeared before Cielius with a strike that could shatter mountains.
But Cielius simply raised his staff. The space rippled.
Leo’s blow struck only an afterimage.
The lion chief whirled. His roundhouse kick tore through the air... yet time itself warped, slowing his movement just enough for Cielius to slip away.
Then came the storm.
Fire bloomed. The roaring dragons of flame snapped at Leo’s heels.
Ice lances erupted. They were sharp enough to pierce iron.
Winds howled. They cut like invisible blades.
The earth itself shifted. Roots wrapped around Leo’s legs before he tore free with brute force.
Cielius’s voice was calm.
"Strength without balance is nothing but noise."
Leo roared, breaking through spell after spell. But... each swipe of his claws shattered only shimmering barriers.
He was fast and relentless. A predator at his peak.
But Cielius was more than a simple mage.
Right now, he wielded not just the four elements. He now commanded all known attributes. Every spell chained seamlessly into the next. The battlefield itself bent to his will.
It was raw savagery against perfected sorcery.
And the world trembled beneath their clash.
...
Meanwhile, beyond their duel... The armies clashed.
Yet it was no battle at all.
Lootwell’s forces fought with unnatural coordination. They overwhelmed the beastmen who relied on instinct and scattered strength. The difference in unity was crushing.
Their hierarchy betrayed them. Without a chief to direct the charge, instinct was all they had.
Just as defeat loomed...
A deafening roar split the sky.
From deep within Lootwell padded a large white tiger wreathed in pale light.
Byakko.
Every beastman froze. Their knees buckled. Their heads bowed. Their tears fell.
Their guardian deity... had appeared.
Confusion rippled through the human ranks as the battlefield stilled.
"Guardian Deity–sama!" the beastmen cried in one trembling voice.
The white tiger tilted its head, blinking in daze.
"...Meow?"
A silence fell so heavy it rang.
One Lootwell soldier scratched his helmet.
"...Wait. Meow? Isn’t it... a tiger?"
The tension shattered into chaos.