Chapter 19: The Goddess of War, P6
~19.6~
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As the two descended into the battlefield, everyone that was engaged with the monstrous demon beast scattered. All of them had sensed the surge above when Luma and Allison awakened their weapons. Everyone who had been fighting joined forces to build a barrier between the beast and the city.
"Seijin Shichi."
"Yes," came a distinctly female voice. "It has been a while since we have had a proper battle. I am ready. Shall we?"
"Let's go."
With one in hand and seven floating around her, Allison plunged from the sky, her blades glowing with her brilliant silvery blue mana. In a simple downward cut performed with eight blades, she crippled the beast instantly, shredding its arms and leaving a deep gash across its chest.
Behind her, a large barrier rose to protect the city from the battle. Luma shook her head, "That's not enough for this. Good thing I'm playing defense. <<Divine Aegis>>!" A second barrier several times as powerful overlapped the first. Luma confidently floated in front of the barrier, on the side of the battle.
The beast was gravely injured, but Allison knew that wouldn't be enough to kill the beast. Swinging her main blade to her right, the other seven merged with it, and she prepared a singular massive attack. Something she had been practicing for the past few years, ever since Alethea first began using it in the battle over the city four years prior, was wielding spatial spells in combat. None could compare to Aliana's expertise in void magic, but a skilled enough fighter could still do some real damage.
"<<Severance>>." With the swing of her blade, a massive crescent shaped blast of spatial aether rocketed forward. It sliced through the demon beast as if it wasn't even there, and continued on, through the lake and mountains behind it. It left nothing in its wake. Everything the blast touched was erased. The blast continued off into the distance and ascended into the sky, where it slowly faded away.
Despite having its arms shredded and its body bifurcated, the beast was far from dead. Its self-regeneration was every bit as monstrous as its size.
When it began to regenerate, Allison started her next move. She wanted to move the beast away from the city and used wind magic to do the trick. "<<Tempest Burst>>." The beast wasn't able to respond to the attack while regenerating, so it went for a ride. Allison's spell flung it over the partially destroyed mountain behind it and into the sea beyond.
"Nice," Luma said.
Layla and James teleported next to Luma, and James said, "Where the hell did that come from?"
With a dry smile, Layla said, "Allison is... she's absurdly strong. But this..."
"This is what a battle with an Athas immortal looks like. You are watching the reincarnation of the King's Mentor, Seris Athas. To be honest, I'm a bit surprised to see her sling spatial magic like that... that was void magic, actually."
With the monster pushed further away from the city, Allison shifted her tactics. She didn't want to use big spells and skills too close to the city, but with it in the sea on the other side of the mountains, she felt safer about it.
She flew through the gap in the mountain she had created with Severance and was met with a blast of raw mana. The beast had recovered and launched a powerful beam of concentrated mana from its mouth. Allison reacted quickly. Having already split her weapon back into several, she pulled the seven floaters in front of her and whizzed them in a circle. "<<Rune of Reversal>>."
A large complex rune appeared in front of the spinning cluster of swords and blocked the beast's attack, coalescing the mana into a core until it was over, then launching it back all at once. Now a densely packed ball of mana, the return attack flew forward and burst through the beast's chest. As it was about to exit the beast's back, Allison triggered the mana and it exploded. One could be forgiven for mistaking the counter with a cast of Detonation.
"<<Niflheim>>!" Allison held her sword toward the sky. Light, icy clouds formed and completely blocked out the sun. The temperature dropped rapidly under the clouds. The sea below quickly froze over as far as the eye could see, as did the lake between the city and the mountains. The beast's movements were slowed dramatically. It could no longer take a step, its feet frozen within the couple hundred feet of sea water it had been standing in.
Despite its lack of mobility, the beast didn't let Allison attack unfettered. It launched beam after beam of concentrated mana, but none of them ever reached her. The floating blades of Seijin Shichi blocked everything while Allison casted her spells.
"Mistilteinn!" Next, she released a ton of her radiant mana into the surrounding air that coalesced into icy longswords. Hundreds of swords formed every second, and she launched just as many at the beast. The frozen blades shredded the beast's body but could not do any lasting damage. She didn't expect the frozen blades to be too effective, but even she was surprised that they did virtually nothing.
"Spread out. I'm going to rewrite the map here a bit."
"You really should try not to go so overboard."
"You know as well as I do that this monster requires extreme methods."
"Yes, yes, fine. I'll do it."
The seven floating blades shot out in different directions. As they got into position, Allison casted her next spell. "<<Muspelheim>>!" The icy clouds evaporated as the heat rose. The sea below melted in the general vicinity. Muspelheim was much more focused than Niflheim and thus didn't affect as wide of an area.
The beast, now free from the ice, flung magic at Allison. Raw magic, purple and blue, the colors of arcane. It roared loudly and several magic circles popped up all over the place, shooting beams of arcane magic everywhere.
Allison deftly dodged and continued her own attack. "<<Hand of Surtr: Twilight Blade>>!" From the high atmosphere, an enormous red-black flaming sword fell and pierced the beast, burning and melting it as it quickly regenerated. The Twilight Blade couldn't kill it, but it could keep it busy for a short time.
Next, Allison clasped her hands together and began casting her trump card. "Come together. Seven are one. Separate, we are weak. As one, we are invincible." A magic circle formed on the surface of the sea, starting from the seven floating swords, and a seven-pointed star was formed. A line of mana shot between each sword as the circle filled in. "I am Xana, Goddess of War. By my command, you shall be freed."
She unclasped her hands and held them flat, facing each other with her right hand over her left. Between them, a radiant silvery blue core of mana formed. A copy of the magic circle appeared on each hand, and another large circle identical to them appeared high in the sky. It was as though she held the very world in her hands. "May you be granted mercy, lost one. I release you now. <<Rune of Annihilation>>!"
None could see what happened next. Everything was engulfed in a bright blue light for hundreds of miles.
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Revision: 2024-7-9