Chapter 260: Chapter 260: Ocean of Blood [7]
Chapter 260 – Ocean of Blood [7]
Mayari stood there, weightless, as she faced two beings. One was the young blond man who had threatened her, called Levi, and the other was the elder Cylin Tori, the one who had gone toward the Warborn only to find nothing but a barren territory, drought-stricken of human flesh.
All around them purple lightning flickered and struck down continuously, as though the wrath of a god was descending upon mortals.
The distinct stench of burning lingered in the air.
Beneath them, war was still raging. Spells painted the sky, turning it into a cornucopia of destruction that made every common man close enough to hear believe the world was collapsing. And little by little, the river of blood was swelling into an ocean of blood.
Mayari knew well that more than half of that blood belonged to the members of her family.
She clenched her fist tightly until it cracked with a sound like thunder splitting the heavens. Her eyes spat dense purple lightning as she glared at Levi and Cylin before her.
"There is no need to look at us like that," Levi said, lips curling upward, eyes filled with a condescending gleam. "We have warned you, Matriarch Elamin."
"But instead of wholeheartedly accepting our offer," he snickered, "you chose to go against us. What a foolish and disappointing decision."
Cylin smiled, her teeth stark white despite her age. "The Cerveau will be the new absolute rulers of Waverith."
Her voice carried an unreasonable confidence.
"And we will not kill you. We will beat you near to death and bring you to him. There..." she whispered as if afraid the gods themselves might hear her blasphemy,
"there we will make you... us. Your mind will be controlled. Your body will no longer be yours. Your whole life will belong to him. You will be the puppet of Lord Brain, his messenger inside the new world he will build." Her words dripped with fanaticism.
Not only her voice, but even her eyes were glazed, blank, and utterly eerie. Levi’s were the same.
Mayari’s skin crawled in disgust. Her brows knitted together, lips pressed into a thin line.
"You will not win," she grunted.
"You cannot go against the two of us. We are at the Epithet Realm like you," Levi said. "Accept fate. Accept destiny."
He spread his arms wide, eyes narrowing in glee. "Can you not see how your soldiers die like worthless, wretched pigs? Can you not see how this ocean of blood exists only because of them?"
"How does that feel, Mayari? How?"
He shouted, and the soldiers beneath heard him. They stopped, their eyes filling with fear, with despair.
"Your soldiers could live another day, pursue their dreams, even develop new ones with your decision."
Cylin cut in. "By submitting yourself, you will save the lives of these soldiers who swore allegiance to you, who were ready to die for you." She turned to the army. Some of the soldiers had hope flickering in their eyes as they looked at Mayari.
They didn’t want to die. Hell, they didn’t even know why they were fighting this war. They had been living their lives quietly before being ordered to march to inevitable doom.
They didn’t want this. They were afraid. And so they begged Mayari. They shouted for her to surrender, to accept the proposal and end what they believed were needless deaths.
Their will had already been weak, and with hope of survival dangled before them, they seized it without hesitation.
And just then, as if by fate, the armies of Caelion appeared on the battlefield. Their heads framed in red like a forest on fire, their emerald eyes glinting, they marched slowly with a man eerily resembling Zaki astride a fine red horse crowned in gold.
He appeared beside the enemy’s army and stood there silently, looking at Mayari with a neutral expression.
The Caelion had betrayed the Elamin.
That much was clear.
Also, the timing of their arrival was too perfect, too deliberate with Levi and Cylin’s words. This betrayal was premeditated.
And now, with Caelion joining as enemies, hundreds of armed fighters, the Elamin soldiers slowly lowered their weapons and fell to their knees in the ocean of blood.
They surrendered.
"YOU! TRAHISON! YOU DARE?" one of the Elamin commanders shouted, his voice trembling despite the rage behind it. But that was all he could manage. Shock silenced him.
How could they surrender so easily? Just because more enemies appeared?
It was only in moments like this that one understood the terror of the Warborn. For had it been them, not one would have yielded.
The few Elamin soldiers still holding their weapons felt shame and anger gnaw at their hearts.
Mayari looked at it all with her usual stern gaze. If she was disappointed or enraged, none of it showed. She fixed her eyes on Landry Caelion.
"You betrayed me?" she asked evenly, not bothering to question the soldiers who had given up.
Landry shrugged. "They paid more."
Mayari smiled, but frost edged her words. "I hope it was enough to organize a sumptuous funeral."
The sky immediately darkened, light swallowed by storm clouds brimming with calamitous purple lightning that flickered with such oppressive power that all who looked up felt their bodies shiver.
"You said you two are also at the Epithet Realm?" Mayari’s voice was lightning itself. She was not speaking, the lightning around her was speaking for her.
Her intent was doing everything.
"You must be fools to think we are equals just because of that. I am Mayari Elamin..."
CRACKLE—!
The heavens coughed lightning as the Elamin territory itself became a cocoon of suppression woven from endless bolts.
"I am the one Blessed by Lightning, the one who obtained the Seed of Lightning, the one who seized the Throne of Lightning and became its Queen. I am..."
Mayari’s body transformed into pure purple lightning. From head to toe, from her hair to her organs and heart, she became lightning incarnate.
She was no longer human.
Her eyes blazed in the shape of bolts as she glared at Levi and Cylin.
"I am Lightning."
"And all of you will die today. Traitors, cowards, slaves... all of you..."
Her words thundered, and in an instant she flickered, appearing directly before Landry Caelion. Her speed surpassed thought. Her afterimage still hovered in the sky facing Levi and Cylin.
Her hand coiled around Landry’s neck like a serpent, and...
"...you are the first, traitor."
CRACKLE—!
"ARGHHHHHHH!!!" Landry shrieked as Mayari’s lightning burned him from the inside out, reducing him to dust that scattered into the turbulent wind.
All were shocked.
But Mayari’s wrath was not quenched. The heavens poured lightning like cataracts, slaughtering traitors and enemies alike in one strike each.
Mayari herself moved again, appearing behind Levi and striking. Her speed was too fast for comprehension, but Levi’s golden body blocked the blow — only to be hurled down like a rag doll, crashing through ranks of soldiers, smashing them into mangled meat.
Cylin snarled, bones erupting from her body in waves, but they passed through Mayari as though she were nothing.
Mayari didn’t budge. She merely clicked her fingers, and a bolt plummeted from the sky, striking Cylin before she could react.
Now Mayari stood alone in the heavens, surrounded by lightning on all sides like a Goddess of Wrath. Her lightning-shaped eyes glared at the two on the ground as they struggled to rise, bodies scorched and battered.
Their faces were solemn.
"Go on," Mayari said. The sky rumbled, and men collapsed as the sound alone fried their minds.
"Activate your Domains. Activate your Epithets’ Aspects."
"You think we won’t?" Levi sneered, his golden body shining like a sun. But within Mayari’s lightning field, it looked no more than metal waiting to be melted.
Still, they did not hesitate.
"Domain Activation — Bone Tomb."
"Domain Activation — City of Gold."
The battlefield shifted as their domains expanded, but...
Mayari raised a finger to the sky, her gaze fixed upon them, her voice thundering like the heavens themselves.
"Judgment of the Heavens."
She lowered her finger.
The world paused.
Above, a colossal womanly finger with a sharp nail, forged from purple lightning that writhed violently, descended from the heavens. Its speed was paradoxical...too slow to be real, too fast to comprehend.
Levi, Cylin, and their armies stood frozen as the finger fell, horror dawning as they realized this was only Mayari’s intent, not even her domain, not even her Epithet.
Their hearts stopped.
"Lord Heavens... what kind of monst—!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!
—End of Chapter 260—