Re: Timeless Apocalypse

"..."

The crimson-robed guardian stood frozen.

They remained so for long moments, their aura wildly fluctuating from chaos to calm, in a loop none seemed able to break. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The air around the leading Guardian shook and suddenly became frigid cold as a veil of rouge mist aura burst from their body, making everything... heavier.

The ground trembled and the air shimmered, and amidst it all, a pair of golden eyes simmered with such fury that even the skies began to darken and rain slowly began to pour.

"...."

The pitter-patter of rain echoed within the guardian’s head, and they closed their eyes, taking a deep breath to calm down.

All the silver-robed guardians surrounding the leader remained silent, their emerald eyes sharp and awaiting new orders.

Though deep within, a flicker of doubt flashed through them all.

Uriel wasn’t a threat in the least; they all knew it. Even his flashy escape and stunt that destroyed the wall left them unimpressed.

In fact, had it not been for their orders, they could’ve killed him the moment he entered the line. The entire core ring was lined by a formation that worked on intent.

Anyone with foul intent would be sensed, then killed.

He’d been found from the very beginning.

But the issue, evidently, was that in the Wildlands, children often as talented and rowdy as he seemed to be were either descendants of powerful clans, or worse, bait meant to set up grander schemes.

What would the Guardian Order do if they struck Uriel down and suddenly found that he was the direct son of a powerful city lord?

The situation became even more complicated when the circumstances of Kael and their ’special’ prisoners were accounted for.

They were at an impasse.

The crimson-robed guardian exhaled just as they reopened their eyes, calm suffused through it all.

"Go and capture the child. I do not want any chaos," they said at last. "As long as the boy breathes, I do not care for his state of health."

They vanished.

"Go."

And in a blink, so did the Silver Robes.

...

Uriel sped across the air, an anxious smile etched across his face as he jumped from one wooden rooftop to the other without looking back.

Eventually, though, he did.

’Huh. Must be a formation.’ The hole in the wall had already been mended, and any trace of the chaos he’d caused had been erased.

It was like none even knew he’d attacked the outpost.

’Can’t say they aren’t efficient.’

His senses quivered, the hounds whispering their truths in his ears, as he felt hundreds of presences suddenly hone in on him.

In a breath’s time, he found himself surrounded by five silver-robed guardians; one falling from above with a vicious swipe of their dagger and the four others pincering his cardinal directions—left, right, forward, and behind.

Uriel’s smile faded, and he focused.

His light aether and uniqueness bloomed in tandem, and instantly, he brought his palms together, forming a dome of intertwined sand and vines around him.

BANG!

Five strikes thundered against the dome he’d formed, and though it shattered almost immediately, it managed to entirely protect him while also rebounding their aether against them.

The five were sent hurling back.

WHOOOSH!

But in the split second Uriel had stopped to block, a dozen more guardians had arrived, each coordinated and attacking to corner him from all sides.

Uriel’s eyes bounced and danced within their sockets, and runes spontaneously sparked around him, forming a complex and layered three-dimensional formation that encased them all.

[Circless: Chaos Echo]

The formation activated, and suddenly, a tide of unstable aether slammed into them all—but that wasn’t all.

It was nothing but a set-up spell.

[Circless: Spatial Ripple]

After spending so much time thrown across portals and strange oddities related to space, Uriel would be an absolute fool if he hadn’t gotten at least one spatial spell from it all.

WHOOOSH!

The chaotic echo of aether that slammed into them suddenly forcefully turned into chaotic space aether, deeply taking root within them.

Then, it warped. But it didn’t teleport them—no, it warped specific points of space within their bodies and...

"Argh!"

...groans of pain rapidly echoed around him, as the falling rain was matched by a sputtering fountain of blood that momentarily replaced it.

Uriel rapidly sped past the incapacitated guardians and made distance.

’Strange. It feels like something is restricting their power.’

Uriel’s eyes widened, and he instantly slid to a stop on one of the wet rooftops he’d just landed on, weaving beneath a blade strike that sundered the air above him, missing him by a hair’s breadth.

A guardian stood in front of him, but they seemed different. Within their emerald eyes, tinges of gold could be seen.

WHOOSH!

Having missed their horizontal slash, the guardian didn’t waste any motion and returned with a backhand slash angled down, aiming to cut Uriel in half.

Uriel’s face tightened, and all he could do was block with a forearm, hoping his iron body and shells would be enough.

CLANK!

Metal against metal echoed, and sparks went flying as the guardian’s blade pushed against his unbreakable body.

But still, despite his successful block, Uriel’s eyes widened.

’Poison aether?’

Before he could react, he suddenly felt half his body freeze and fall out of his grasp. A powerful kick dug into his gut, lifting him airborne.

The guardian grabbed his leg before he could soar into the skies, then flung him across, sending his body flying and skidding across rooftops.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Uriel’s body burst through dozens of chimneys and windows alike until his back slammed into a tall metallic wiring box situated atop a house.

The guardian seemed to flash-step toward him and immediately continued with another attack.

Uriel was deathly calm, though, even as a blade threatened to pierce into his eyes.

’Quite vicious.’

He already knew how to deal with foreign aether invading his body; he’d learned it in the desert.

Chaotic natal aether cycled through his veins and shattered the poison aether within them—but just as he prepared to dodge, his body froze once more, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Beneath their hood, the guardian sneered. "Idiot."

In what world would their sacred poison aether be so easily dealt with?

SHURRR!

The guardian’s blade rebounded against a wall of vines that easily blocked the strike.

Uriel, even while bloody and paralysed, suddenly grinned.

SHAH!

All houses in a five-hundred-meter radius shook, infused with Uriel’s wood aether as suddenly, thousands of structures broke and shattered, parts of their frames splintering off to form sharp spears.

SHOOH!

Light aether ignited across each wooden spear, and immediately, they began to tear across the air, guided by Uriel’s domain.

The guardian wanted to react, but a wave of dark aether slammed into them, depriving them of all their senses.

Just as Uriel expected to see despair in the guardian’s eyes, all he saw was mockery.

"Idiot."

His body swapped positions with the guardian.

"Damn it—!"

Thousands of spears pelted across Uriel’s body so fast he couldn’t react, and though none shattered past his shells, his body now stood covered in deep purple bruises.

Worse still, Uriel had infused a great deal of his will into his neutral aether, hoping to up the lethality of his strikes—only for it to be turned against him.

"...!"

He staggered back, his head ringing and heart beating out of his chest as his broken runic scar began to burn and sting.

It was almost laughable—for his first challenge he imposed onto himself to begin and end so soon, and in such a humiliating fashion.

He’d wanted to be so great all those weeks ago, crying to a heaven that remained indifferent to his pleas. And since, he’d been given every tool he’d asked for: power, knowledge, experience, growth, mastery—everything.

And yet, he was still just as pathetic as the lamb set for death on that stage, so useless that all he’d been able to do was crumple to his knees and beg for the gods to save him.

In the end, he was still the same useless cripple.

Uriel’s jaw tightened as foul thoughts, born from the broken spiritual law, began to make their way in. They festered across the fabric of his thoughts and seeped deep into his heart.

’Quiet!’

Uriel’s Simple Domain exploded in size, fueled by all his cores as he burned every single last bit of energy he had.

His domain shattered past the usual small half meter it could expand to and soared into the hundreds of meters, through which his resonant dominance bloomed like no other.

Madness and rage flickered across Uriel’s Will as he roared out once more.

"QUIET!"

All within his domain fell to their knees.

From rushing guardians to civilians, to warriors, to flows of energy, to cores—everything fell to his mad fury.

More importantly, the warrior in front of him seemed hit the hardest, blood sputtering from every single one of their orifices as they dropped to a knee.

But before they could fully collapse, a hand shot forward and tightly clamped around their neck.

The young guardian’s emerald-gold pupils met Uriel’s swirling rose-ivory gaze, and through it all, they could feel the sheer weight of his heart.

It felt like they were staring into an abyss of pure crimson.

It felt like they were staring into Hell.