Chapter 612: One Against Seven.
Rullein landed on the grass field and stabbed her swords on the ground before she looked at her trembling hands. Her gown was ruined, the wounds on her body were seeping out black smoke as if she was bleeding. She scoffed in disbelief as she looked around her at the floating colorful orbs around her and celestial beasts on the ground severely injured and wounded that they would turn into orbs soon. She slowly lifted her head and looked up at the sky and there were still dozens of Great Spirits including the ancient ones.
"Anyone else who wants to charge at me?" Rullein smirked as she stretched her fingers and wrists. "No one? Fine, it’s my turn then," she grinned as she gripped onto the swords’ handles.
When Rullein was about to pull her greatswords, she heard the sharp crunchy sound from under her feet. When she looked down the grass rapidly froze and spread across the whole grass field. The whole field had been frozen and slowly cold wind began to replace warm wind as mist began to float above the grass. The swords wouldn’t budge until she used force to break the ice that froze the blades in the soil.
Rullein saw a silhouette of a horse behind the mist that was approaching toward her. When the figure walked through the mist, she saw a celestial beast with a body proportions of a giant white horse but the head was of a wolf with a long mane that reached its legs, and the tail was long almost like a body of a snake but covered in thick white fur. It looked both majestic like a horse but deadly and predatory like a starving alpha wolf.
"Finally, one of the nine Ancient Great Spirits step up for a fight," Rullein swung her swords around, shattering the ice that coated the grass around her. "But ice, huh? You’re giving me a very bad memory. But, yours is nothing compared to Rasmus’," Her expression turned cold as she stared at the celestial beast that was covered in mist like a flowing cloth. The one and only Great Spirit that was associated with ice and snow, Rhys.
Rhys growled as she sneered and revealed her razor sharp all-fangs teeth before she roared and released a wave of cold that frozen everything in front of her in a cone shape. Rullein lifted her left sword to block the wave from hitting her face and in almost an instant, her sword and her body except her head were frozen. Rullein glanced down at her body and casually shrugged it off, shaking off the ice like it was mere sand.
Rullein turned into a puff of black smoke among the mist and reappeared right in front of Rhys as she swung her swords downward. Her attack was blocked by the barrier and the clash was enough to freeze her swords and arms in an instant, but it wasn’t enough to stop her from breaking the barrier. The moment the barrier shattered, Rhys lunged forward, using her fangs to slash Rullein’s body, but Rullein dodged it to the side as she spun around and used the momentum to release another attack toward Rhys’ neck.
Rhys tilted her head and let the mane on her neck crystalize and clashed with Rullein’s greatswords. She could feel the heaviness of Rullein’s attack and the sharpness of her blades that she could hear the crystalized mane crack. She used all her might to push Rullein away from her by swinging her neck.
Rullein got pushed and was quite surprised that she got overwhelmed by Rhys’ strength. As soon as she safely landed, she glanced at her frostbitten hands, realizing that Rhys’ energy could reduce one’s power. It was almost similar to Rasmus’ power, but Rasmus’ power was more dangerous because he could do more than just reduce one’s power but absorb it as well.
"(This is just one of the nine, if I had to fight them all althogether, I wouldn’t be able to win)" Rullein tightened her grip on her swords.
Rullein sighed deeply and released black smoke from her breath, covering her whole body with black smoke until her whole existence turned into nothing but black smoke in a human shape with glowing dark orange eyes. Hywan narrowed his eyes whenever he watched Rullein use that form.
"She’s using it again," Khai crossed his arms, floating in the sky beside Hywan. "Let’s see if Rhys’ power can subdue that kind of power," his gaze fixated on Rhys’ celestial beast form.
All the Great Spirits could only watch the intense fight between Rhys and Rullein. They could see how terrifying Rullein’s abilities were when she could appear and disappear in almost an instant, not only that, every strike left a lingering black smoke on Rhys’ body that slowly gnawed on her power. Rhys was known to be one of the few Great Spirits with an excellent affinity with the world itself, making her almost invincible. Neither Rhys or Rullein could affect another with their powers, the only way to know who would win was based on endurance.
"We don’t have time to spare," Hwyan glanced at the whole island completely obliterated by a single being in the span of hours. "I’m joining the fight, and I suggest that all of you also join me. That being hasn’t even showed her true form this whole time," he revealed as he descended.
Khai and the other four ancients looked at Hywan before they followed him and landed on the icy grass. No other Great Spirits dared to join the fight because they would get affected by Rhys’ power. Only the Ancient Ones that could resist Rhys’ power because they were her peers.
"Your affinity will clash with Rhys and ours, are you sure it’s the best option?" A man asked, his gray messy hair and glowing blue eyes stared at Hywan.
"I’m not going to release my form, my job is to weaken her and harmonize your power. You don’t have to worry, Bai," Hywan answered as he read Rullein’s movements, he had been observing her ever since she arrived and caused chaos into the sacred land. "Ashu, Bai, Simu, Frin, remember what Garuma said, Rullein is a being that is nothing like us Great Spirits, she’s worse those Great Spirits the humans called as Evil Gods," he warned.
Khai turned into his true form, a deer horse creature similar to the hippocervus with brown skin and thick fur with antlers and scales made of bronze from his forehead down to his back and tail. His glowing yellow eyes focused on Rullein, looking for a chance to pay back for what she had done to him earlier.
Ashu, a long bearded large dark-skinned man, a being that many Khan Empire worshiped turned into a huge turtle with a dragon head as his tail. His presence was enough to take Rullein’s attention because of how big he was.
Bai turned into a white tiger with its mane and the end of his tail burning bright blue flames. His flame was enough to vaporize the snow in an instant, creating thick steam around him, hiding his presence and only leaving his glowing blue eyes that fixated on every Rullein’s movement.
Simu, a woman with fair skin, glowing blue eyes, and orange hair slowly ripped off her light blue gown and transformed herself into a creature with the front half of a white fox and the back half of a pheasant. She spread her wings, the left wing had a bright orange color and the right wing had a light blue color, her tail was a mix of the two. She looked magnificent but beneath her magnificent, her claws and fangs weren’t inferior to Rhys’ fangs.
Frin, a man hidden underneath the white robe and hood, showing only a glimpse of his white eyes and white brows slowly turned into a pure white griffin. Instead of wings that were attached to the back, his wings were attached to his front legs. The wings weren’t made of feathers but they were made of metal that reflected light flawlessly.
Rullein who was about to dominate the fight suddenly stopped charging at Rhys when she felt Bai’s presence hidden in the mist behind Rhys. She glanced around her and realized she had been surrounded by the six Ancient Great Spirits. Before she could do anything, she felt that sensation again, a faint out of breath and dizziness that forced her to turn back to her human form. She glanced at Hywan, the only one that hadn’t shown his true form
"(Rasmus, I’m borrowing your power now)" Rullein said as she stabbed her swords to the ground.
Rasmus glanced out the window toward the northeast.
"(Go for it)" Rasmus responded as he closed his eyes and felt something inside him leaving like the air in his lungs being sucked out forcefully. "(I trust you)".
Rullein smirked as she closed her eyes and in an instant she became black smoke once again, but something was different from before. At the top of the smoke, Hywan and the other could see the smoke turned gray and then became white. Rhys who had exchanged a lot of strikes with Rullein suddenly felt chills down her spine.
"One against seven? This is what I have been waiting for," Rullein’s voice distorted and when she opened her eyes, her eyes became heterochromatic, one dark orange and the other bright blue. "I hope all of you won’t succumb to this power," she chuckled eerily as wings began to form on her back and it grew bigger and bigger until the moment she spread them widely, revealing the magnificent ice wings that were covered in both mist and black smoke.
The heavy blizzard suddenly stopped, not in the way of disappearing but the blizzard was frozen in time. Everyone could see the snow and the crystal frozen still in the air until Rullein suddenly flapped her wings and floated above the ground, switching the current of the blizzard outward and she became the center of it. An ice tail appeared and touched the ground that turned the icy grass into a solid ice field.
The cold that Rullein released was way superior and more threatening than Rhys could ever do. Rhys was frostbitten by the cold, and that meant the other would get affected by the cold far worse than her. Hywan who knew how dangerous it was, he finally revealed his true form, a radiating phoenix that immediately lessened the effect of the coldness by harmonizing and redistributing the coldness into a wide area.
The Great Spirits that were watching from the sky could see the rapid spread of the cold across the whole island until finally the water around the island became frozen. They were utterly shocked, and they had no choice but to fly even higher and further from the island to keep themselves safe.
"I don’t accept surrender..." Rullein’s eyes glared at Hwyan as icy horns appeared from the smoke. "If you don’t fight..." She paused as the ice sword handle formed from her smoke hands and turned into two ice greatswords. "You’ll cease to exist..." She giggled as she swung her swords and released a shockwave of cold wind across the whole island.
