Chapter 323 - The Twilight War
Sivis gasped after seeing the three men he reported to be missing stand in front of him. King Leopold, the Raven Justice, and the Holy Crow were glaring at him, disappointment written in their faces.
"How dare you?!" King Leopold yelled. "You ordered people to kidnap us and took advantage of the situation to blow the horns, just so you could have the throne to yourself."
"I didn't do that, your highness," Sivis tried to reason. He kneeled and bowed, begging for forgiveness. "I could never do such a thing."
"Adventurers," the Raven Justice called out. "Spread out and leave Frederick and Alice here with us. The rest can go help the others."
"Right away, sir." Galaxia was the one who replied, bowing slightly before leading the others out of the room.
Meanwhile, Sivis was still kneeling on the ground. He was begging for forgiveness, trying his best for the Trinity to believe him.
"Please believe me," Sivis cried. "I could never do something as horrible as that."
When he felt like the men in front of him lowered their guards, he instantly stood and took a deep breath. His chest widened in an exaggerated manner, making him look like he was a frog. "Scream of Menace–"
Frederick appeared in front of Sivis. He was facing the wall while his arm was facing Sivis. In an instant, Frederick flicked his wrist and hit Sivis's chest. The man looked up, his eyes teared up as he coughed out the air that he inhaled.
"Scum," Frederick whispered. There was a handcuff made of fire that binded Sivis as he fell to the floor. His hands were behind him while Frederick kicked him to the side so he would roll over.
"How dare you filthy barbarian?!" Sivis yelled. "I will not allow something as shameful as this to happen to me!"
When Sivis was about to speak more, the Holy Crow bent right beside him and placed a white cloth in his mouth. "This is blessed with Holy Water. You should he cleaned using this."
"Crow, he's not an evil spirit," the Raven Justice chuckled. "But he's passable, right?"
"He looked like an evil spirit to me," the Holy Crow shrugged. "Now that you have found us, let us clear up the the lies Polschk said."
Frederick glanced at them, "Yeah. I think you have a lot to clear up. Especially to us."
–
As the battle progressed, the side of Elliot's party was losing. Polschk could adapt with anything thrown onto him. He has every counter affinity with their affinity, even for Ed.
There were currently four large flowers blooming around the island Poslchk was standing on. In each flower was a counter affinity for the boys, water, white and black, metal, and the other one was acid.
Even when Connor could produce tremendous flames of high intensity, the water jets that the flower shoots overwhelmed his attacks. Frederick once told him that to counter water, he should have the higher damage output, but he was on the lower side.
For Lance, the dilemma he faced since earlier continued. In the flower that Polschk grew for him, there were two pistils, or the wand-like part of the flower. One was black and the other was white, each capable of high output magic that pars his own.
For Hope, his enhancement affinity was easily countered by the iron beams the flower shoots at him. The iron beams were fast and powerful, attacks that that he takes time to counter.
For Ed, he could have simply nullified any attacks thrown onto him, but when the acid gush out like an endless waterfall, it was hard for him to keep up. The acid would splatter on him right before he counters it, making it harder for him to deal with.
They also tried switching flowers, but the vines where the flowers were attached to would also grow and switch places, finding their target before engaging in battle.
"It's not obvious, but I'm slowly losing hope here," Connor yelled. "We're just running in circles. And it's only a matter of time before we ran out of stamina. We still have the Twilight Bless to deal with."
"Everyone," Lance called out. He returned his swords back in their scabbard and lowered his hands. Lance took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his arms slowly bending up. "Let's use the technique I used against Therese."
"Can we use that?" Ed asked. "I mean, it looked easy for you but we don't know how to do it."
"Just think like you're tearing the fabric of space and time," Lance chuckled. "Just visualize a silk blanket being raised in front of you, and your hand clawing it so it rips in the middle."
Connor had no choice but to nod, "Let's do it."
"I'm in!" Hope cheered. "Anything just so we could defeat this guy. He's so annoying."
"Let's go then," Lance said. He was the first one to brandish his sword and dash towards Polschk in full speed. The other three followed him, all taking out their weapons as they prepared for the attack.
"Realm Domination!" Lance yelled.
"Twilight Zone!"
"Pyre of Ash!"
"Scales from the Skies!"
"Eternal Chaos!"
Four burst of lights lit up from their swords. The light reached everyone in the kingdom, even the ones outside the city of Solaguer.
Everything turned black, then white, then red, gray, and purple all in three seconds. The change of color made everyone pause in shock, all but the followers of Son of Heaven.
While some were in awe, a large grotesque sphere enveloped the island Polschk was on. The sphere had different colors, like a white canvas was dripped with paint and littered all across messily.
"What in the hell?" the Adventurers asked themselves as they watched the grotesque sphere pulsating. The sphere had spikes, bumps, and holes all across its surface that made it loook eerie for most of the ones who looked.
Inside the sphere was a dark and wet place. It was filled with broken columns and ruined altars, all of them stuck on the sphere itself.
"What is this place?" Ed asked. The four of them were standing at the bottom while Polschk was at the top. He twirled his vines around himself, protecting himself from the impending threats.
He knew well what the capabilities of a Realm Domination was. When an opponent is caught by the user, he was already at a disadvantage. The Realm Domination allows its user to control everything inside their realm.
This technique was one of the Restricted techniques. It is not listed as a skill of an Adventurer, but it can be casted by anyone. But with its power, comes with a high cost. Realm Domination would instantly suck out more than half of the mana of the user.
The mana was only used for the casting stage. The mana burned to maintain it wasn't part of that equation.
"What should we do now?" Hope asked. Him and Connor reverted back to their human forms just for the conservation of their mana. Fighting with their morphed form while maintaining the integrity of their Realm Domination will wear them out easily.
"This is our own little realm," Lance grinned. He brandished his sword and nodded slowly. From his gesture, a large column pressed the island of Polschk down, lowering it close to the boys. "We can do whatever we want with it."
The three looked at each other. It seemed like they instantly reached an agreement, grinning at each other while brandishing their swords, "Die Poslchk!"
While the four of them tried to open up the shield Polschk created to defend himself, the seven keys of the Twilight Bless ascended. They moved upwards slowly, entering the hole of the stadium's ground and surfacing into the floor of the stadium.
The altar that contained the Twilight Cocoon wasn't caught inside the Realm Domination. It was still outside, waiting to be unlocked.
The keys slowly moved towards the Twilight Wings' altar. They spun and floated, reaching closer to the sphere that contained the wings which popped when the keys entered the alter.
While everyone was busy fighting, and that no one was paying attention to the wings, the keys merged with the wings one by one, leaving only one key behind.
The merged keys and butterfly glowed with a blinding white light, forming a sphere the size of a fist. The sphere slowly grew larger inside, its light now catching the attention of the Adventurers around them.
Meanwhile inside the Realm Domination, the vines that shielded Polschk was torn down with brute force. It was Lance who used broken iron poles to pierce the shield and split them like paper.
"Too late," Polschk said under his breath. "You're all too late."
Lance walked up to Polschk and lifted him by the collar. "Speak, old man. What do you mean?!"
"The keys," Polschk chuckled. "The keys have merged with the Wings. It won't take long before they unlock the bless and destroy us all."
Lance threw Polschk to the side and placed him inside a coffin he conjured. "Cancel the Realm Domination!"
The other three confusingly nodded, cancelling their skill and was instantly blinded by the light from outside.
"We're too late," Lance gasped.
–
Above the stadium and outside the sphere, the Man was standing in the air and watching the eventa unfold. He was crossing his arms while looking at everyone inside the stadium in skirmish.
"The Twilight War has finally commenced."