Along with the loud sound of breaking glass, the sky burst into flames. Even after Vermeil's fire pillar faded, the clouds and the sky itself continued to burn.
The three god tamers didn't even pay attention to the members of Zodiac, clumped together, who somehow managed to survive with only small burns all over them.
"""..."""
Everyone stopped in place and looked up. Even Zeshion and Agor were forced to halt their fierce exchange. Cold sweat was falling down their backs.
There, from the burning crack in space, something came out. A beautiful monster with red skin and gold eyes, looking down on them with extreme apathy. Her obsidian batlike wings spread wide, keeping her in place up in the sky.
Her every gesture was captivating to the viewers. She slowly closed her eyes and stretched her neck around; the long, curved horns on her head started burning with a faint pink flame as she did. When she returned her gaze to the group, her pupils dilating before turning into slits, a frown emerged on her face.
She crossed her arms before her and forcefully bent backward. At this moment, Zeshion felt danger. He quickly moved to the side of Vermeil and Ajax, cast a barrier to protect the two with him, and braced himself.
*SCREEEEEEEEEECH!*
A powerful shockwave was released, clearing the entire forest at once. The demon tamers, unable to guard on time, were sent crashing down the ground like small meteors.
Zeshion's barrier held strong, but it started cracking after a few seconds of endurance. Before it completely broke, a golden barrier covered them, as if to replace Zeshion's flimsy defense. Blanc slowly made her way to the others, fighting against the strong force of the shockwaves that didn't show signs of fading.
After ten seconds passed, the screech finally ended. The forest around them became barren, with the trees completely wiped out and sent rolling further away. Even the destruction that Zeshion and Agor caused was overwritten; not a single trace of it was left.
"What in God's name is that?"
Blanc muttered under her breath as she panted heavily. Not only did she endure Vermeil's fire pillar, but she was also forced to protect them while moving and protecting herself. It was a grueling process, making her feel mentally and physically tired.
"I don't know..."
Zeshion muttered while staring upward with a deep frown.
"But I know that it's f*cking dangerous."
Just a single screech from it, not even powered by skills or anything, was enough to wipe a whole forest clean. They could only imagine how powerful it may be when it uses the almost unfathomable amount of energy it has to attack.
"Blue! Are you alright?!"
At this moment, a crack in space appeared beside Zeshion, from where Zeta popped out with an extremely worried expression. She then sighed in relief after seeing that Zeshion wasn't injured before looking upward with fear.
"That's definitely not something we can fight against..."
She muttered in despair.
"But we must."
Zeshion stood up straight, waving the saber in his hands, the Sky Rending Blade, and pointing it towards the red figure.
Particles of light gathered around the saber as it began to release a faint blue glow. Vermeil, too, started gathering a fiery blaze around her body as she prepared to fly up.
The two charged at the same time, rushing toward the monster. They were like blue and red meteors that shot straight upward, a striking sight from afar. However, before they could even come close, they were blocked by a powerful force and were swatted back down twice as fast as their ascent.
"Ugh!"
"Hagh!"
Zeshion managed to land on his knees, lessening the damage to him, but Vermeil ended up crashing on her back. She felt breathless for a while before managing to recover, wheezing for air. Blanc quickly went to her side and patted her back gently, soothing her pain.
"What... Was that…? We couldn't even get close!"
Vermeil remarked as she watched her shaking legs. The moment she got near the beautiful monster in the air, she felt like all the powers she had vanished. She fell down with nothing but her own human body to rely on. Zeshion was the same, but since he was a swordsman, he managed to at least recover his stance before landing.
But with this, they now knew that coming close to the monster would, for some reason, lock their powers away. They felt a headache coming just trying to think of ways to prevent it from leaving this place and wreaking havoc somewhere else.
"Zeta! Call backup from the kingdom immediately! Tell them that an enemy more powerful than a god-level appeared!"
Zeshion quickly threw all pretenses out the window and ordered Zeta. Although dissatisfied with their powerlessness in this situation, she quickly nodded her head before vanishing.
If tamers approaching would end up with them losing powers, what about tamed monsters? Zeshion thought as he called for one of his tamed monsters, the God of Water, Gamma.
An old man wearing a black coat appeared. A small monocle hung over his nose, covering his blue-colored left eye. He brushed up his white hair with his left hand before wearing a fedora cap over it. He then briefly looked at Zeshion before turning upward toward the intimidating enemy.
"What a fearsome lady."
Gamma muttered as he sighed. He had already been ordered by Zeshion even before coming, so he quickly moved to attack. He rushed upwards while dragging all the moisture in the air around them. Then, when he reached the area where the powerful force started blocking him, he threw all the water he managed to collect, shaping it like hundreds of spears.
However, just like Zeshion, he was flicked down by the mysterious power. Even the water that he sent forward turned to regular water as soon as it passed a certain distance.
"Hup!"
The old man landed on his feet elegantly, not even ruffling his coat. He adjusted his cap slightly as he looked over to Zeshion, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, but I can't."
He said before vanishing like the mist.
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