Chapter 1099: Sunflower
Evan reappeared beside Arthur, tossing a severed devil arm to the ground and wiping his sword clean of blood.
"Nice one."
Arthur raised his hand, and Evan matched it with a high-five as the two of them watched the mushroom clouds billow across the sky.
Smoke and fire engulfed the forest as the Devils’ formations fell into disarray, their plans once again forced to change, and under the growing pressure, they deployed their hidden reserves earlier than planned.
Among these reinforcements, one of their three Commanders finally emerged—Jegunul.
He led the charge alongside the red and ash dragons that had attacked Arthur and Evan weeks prior, though several of them were absent.
Jegunul locked his sights on Caeril, the Head Elder of Tír Síorghlas, immediately identifying him as the greatest threat.
Just as Jegunul lunged, the Head Elder of Nature’s Dwelling and two other Elders quickly disengaged from their opponents and charged at him.
Mid-flight, they roused their auras, revealing that they too were at the Superior Stage of Transcendence.
While Jegunul, currently above Level 990, could easily handle each of these newly minted Superior Stages on their own, things were different when their combined strength was added to that of the Level 980 Caeril.
Even for him, this would not be a simple fight.
The sky flashed with a spectrum of colours as the Transcendents collided, each clash sending shockwaves that reshaped the terrain below.
Meanwhile, Arthur’s eyes locked onto the dragons circling overhead, the same ones that had unleashed their breath attacks on him and Evan.
"I’d take the Transcendents."
Hearing him, Evan nodded, assuming his half-dragon form. Horns emerged from his head, wings unfurled from his back, and a spiked tail extended from his lower back.
"I’d deal with anything below."
With that, the two launched themselves from the ground, charging straight at Vonun’s dragons.
Evan blitzed through the air like a missile, energy erupting from his body as three skills activated in rapid succession.
’BoD: Second Activation. Limit Break. World Sunder.’
The Unforged, wreathed in destructive energy, cleaved downward in a sweeping arc. A single, elongated slash tore through the sky, severing the necks of two nearby dragons in one stroke.
Using their falling corpses as springboards, Evan kicked off the first, then the second, launching himself toward a new cluster of dragons. His sword pulled back, he unleashed Vortex, the spiralling mass of energy engulfing them mid-roar.
Thanks to Blessing of Corrosion, the prismatic flames clung to their bodies, burning through scale and flesh alike as the dragons shrieked in agony and fell to the ground.
Moments later, several dragon Vanguards of Triffid attacked him, but Evan dealt with them the same way, turning them into dragon-shaped firewood.
Then, a thunderous explosion echoed in the distance, and Evan turned his gaze up to see the battle of Transcendents raging high above.
Arthur teleported beside him, eyes also on the sky as he spoke.
"Wow, that’s... flaaashy."
"Veeeeryflaaashy..."
Evan replied in the same drawn-out tone, both of them staring at the bursts of kaleidoscopic colour flashing beyond the clouds where the Transcendents fought.
"Hey, Evan."
"Yeah?"
"If you were to use your Orange Flames on the Elder Spirits... how much can you buff them?"
At the question, Evan pondered for a moment, then placed a hand on Arthur’s shoulder.
"Mesarthim; Orange: Burned Ally."
Arthur was instantly engulfed in flames, becoming a human torch, but the Progenitor didn’t seem bothered. He simply flexed his fingers, testing the sensation.
"I see. It scales off the user’s original stats and consumes their own energy. That’s good."
He spoke calmly, observing the flames for a moment before shifting his gaze back to the sky filled with flashing light.
"Jegunul is stronger than he’s showing. The Spirits won’t bring him down easily; they’re risking casualties at this rate."
Unlike Evan, Arthur’s kinetic vision allowed him to track the hypersonic movements above. And from just a minute of observation, it was clear the Archdevil had yet to reveal his full strength.
"If I’m going to step in, I’ll need the right moment."
With a burst of magic, Arthur used gravity to crush the swarm of Vanguards closing in on them. Then, drawing in his divinity, he infused it into his semi-transparent sword, Celestia.
Pressing the blade against his palm, he spoke quietly.
"Everything began from nothing, and to nothing, they eventually return.
My destruction only accelerates this natural process."
With that, he sliced his palm, letting his silver, divinity-rich blood coat Celestia’s edge.
"Evan, when you see the Signal, use your Orange flames."
"Got it," the Rogue Hero replied.
Arthur then turned his full attention to the battle above, eyes locked on every movement.
Jegunul was tearing through the Spirits’ attacks, cutting through fire, water, earth, and wind. The elements collided around him, but he pressed forward, his blade rising for a devastating strike.
Just as it was about to fall, Arthur teleported, and time froze.
’?!’
Even from the ground, Evan could almost feel the Archdevil’s shock as Arthur appeared behind the frozen figure and drove a blade straight through his chest.
’Hmm? That should’ve hit his heart, shouldn’t it?’
Evan pondered, but the furious burst of energy Jegunul released right after didn’t look like it came from someone on the verge of death.
Arthur pulled his sword free and kicked off Jegunul’s back, putting some distance between them, right as Evan activated Mesarthim.
The Elder Spirits engulfed by his orange flames and launched themselves at Jegunul. But the Archdevil, consumed by fury, ignored them completely and zeroed in on the one who’d stabbed him.
At the last possible moment, Arthur summoned his black sword and crossed it with Celestia in front of his chest, barely managing to block the incoming punch.
Even so, the impact hurled him down into the forest like a meteor, the force of it making Evan shake his head.
"That’s gotta hurt."
He was just about to head in Arthur’s direction when Danger Sense screamed a warning, prompting Evan to summon the Gazebind Aegis without hesitation, a mere second before the petals of the massive, unnatural sunflower that had suddenly appeared on Triffid’s oak-like trunk bloomed, revealing a fiery core that fired a blazing beam straight at him.
The attack slammed into his shield, knocking him back dozens of metres as the beam split in two, annihilating everything to his left and right.
Fortunately, it was a single burst, with all its power packed into that one shot, and it dissipated moments later.
Evan looked up and spotted a second sunflower, but this one was pointed in a different direction.
’That’s where Arthur landed, isn’t it?’
Unfurling his wings, he took flight, weaving through the trees and decapitating two Vanguards in his path.
"Hey, I just got hit by a sunflower beam!" he called out. Then, noticing the scorched earth on either side of Arthur, he added, "So you got hit by a sunflower beam too."
"Yep."
Just after Arthur replied, space distorted, and Artemisia, Beatrix, Crim, and Hibiki teleported in.
As if reacting to the newly arrived presences, more of Triffid’s Vanguards began to emerge from the surrounding forest, and with them came several devils, each marked by small flowers blooming between their horns.
"Oh, those are Vonun’s cronies," Evan said, and upon seeing them, Arthur nodded.
"As I thought. That guy’s inside Triffid. No, he’s probably the one controlling the tree now."
Why had Vonun been missing these past nine weeks? Most likely, he’d been attempting to fuse with Triffid, and Jegunul had been guarding him during the process since he would’ve been vulnerable.
That was the conclusion Arthur, Evan, and Charisse had come to.
But now, Jegunul’s protection was no longer necessary; hence, the Archdevil stepped up to fight.
"I doubt he has finished the fusion," Arthur said.
He could sense a strong power from Triffid, but not to the level of a Superior Transcendent. Vonun was still in the process of fusing with the tree.
’Besides, there’s still Vonun’s Black Dragon. Maybe the Dragon is protecting him now?
Oh well, the Spirits said they have a plan to handle that one. Maybe they’d use one of their soul seals on it?’
Pushing those thoughts aside, the boy refocused on the enemies currently coming for him.
Arthur, Evan, Artemisia, Beatrix, Crim, and Hibiki fought in unison, each unleashing their unique powers to tear through waves of enemies.
Gravity, fire, lightning, space, blood, and illusions worked seamlessly together. However, amid the chaos, Beatrix abruptly stopped, sensing something was wrong as she scanned the battlefield.
"Guys, we’re drifting too far from the main forces."
When Beatrix said this, the others quickly glanced around, their expressions mirroring her concern. In the heat of combat, they had pushed too deep into the forest.
For hundreds of metres around them, the ground bore the scars of their onslaught, burnt, torn, and scorched, and just beyond that, the dense woods shifted unnaturally.
They had gone too far and ended up isolated, without any backup.
"Alright, everyone, we’re getting out of here."
Arthur spoke as he surrounded each of them with his gravity law energy, lifting them into the air.
As they rose, he threw a massive Time Bomb to the forest floor, the resulting explosion erupting with a shockwave that cleared the area and created a brief window for escape.
Locking onto Charisse’s coordinates toward the main battlefield, Arthur activated his teleportation magic, a glowing circle forming beneath them.
But just as it formed, a voice echoed through the woods, cold and threatening.
[You’re not going anywhere.]
The sky split apart as a massive wooden spear descended at hypersonic speed, piercing the teleportation circle with a thunderous crack and obliterating it in a violent flash of light.
The backlash from the interrupted spell hit Arthur hard, and the spear’s impact sent all six of them flying in separate directions, scattering them as the forest was plunged into chaos once again.
Triffid’s Vanguards poured in immediately, swarming the area, but the six quickly recovered, springing to their feet and unleashing their powers to counterattack.
Beatrix snapped her fingers, space magic tearing open portals that erased the Vanguards within seconds. Artemisia lifted her hand, lightning crashing down in waves that incinerated their enemies.
Crim shaped the surrounding blood into spikes and writhing tendrils that lashed out, while Hibiki shifted tactics and turned to Infernal magic, incinerating as many as she could.
With the immediate swarm dealt with, they turned their eyes upward, a growing dread sinking into their chests.
Descending slowly from the spot where the wooden spear had struck, they saw him, tall and lean, his dirty blond hair tousled by the breeze.
His greyish skin gave him a sickly pallor, made worse by the dark eyebags beneath his flower-patterned irises.
A faint stubble outlined his sharp jaw, and from his head rose two prominent, upward-curving horns. A long, sharp-tipped tail extended from his lower back, curling down and piercing the ground beneath him.
Arthur and Evan recognised him at once. They’d seen him up close during the volcanic dungeon ambush, after all.
"VONUN!"
The name escaped their lips, and as if in response, the Archdevil spread his wings wide. The sky darkened, and the earth trembled as massive wooden tendrils burst up around them, twisting violently and ready to strike.
And with that, the real battle began.