Chapter 11
Zesshi was thrilled to pass through the portal this time and the sight waiting for her seemed almost natural, she was now just starting to really enjoy being here, when the real action would begin, when they had been discussing the origins of the gods she had found it very complex and boring, what did it all matter? The idea of other worlds and being of great power just seemingly popping up out of nowhere was not her field of expertise, but a comforting thought she had was that in some small way, her lineage as a god-kin meant that she and the Sorcerer King now shared something, and for whatever reason it made her feel ever so slightly less afraid of him.
The arena she had been transported to was massive, and the first thing which caught her eye was that the night sky was visible.
'We're outside?'
"Welcome everyone to the sixth floor of The Great Tomb of Nazarick" a cheery and loud voice boomed out, she turned her head to find its source, there was one of the small Elf children she had seen earlier, one of those beings who surpassed her.
As she took the time to look over his features, she saw that she was quite attractive, his small and angular face gave rise to the image of a very handsome man later on in life, as Zesshi connected its strength with the overwhelmingly attractive features, her need to bear strong children rose, and she reasoned to herself that if she got the chance to fight this elf she would immediately.
'If he can defeat me, I would be more than happy to be the mother of his children'
The thought pleased her and she found new vigour to face down the vermin she had to now.
"Very well, we will spectate from the viewing pavilion" [Mass Fly] the Sorcerer King apparently could cast magic over everyone there, and as they all lifted up into the air, only herself and the Elf King remained.
"The rules are simple, you may fight to your heart's content, killing is not the aim, but we will resurrect you if you do fall."
The Sorcerer King's booming voice could be heard by all, and as the group went further towards a massive viewing area, she stood and took the time to take in the arena.
The place was absolutely massive, its entirety stretching out like a small city, the fighting pit was a standard circular sandy pit, which extended as far as the eye could see on every side, the spectator's stands looked extremely well built, they could easily hold hundreds of thousands of people. And as she took in all this she thought where exactly they could be, before she thought of the words the elf had said
'The sixth floor? But are we not outside…. where is this place, how big is this place!?'
The thought was too much for her, and she reasoned she had no time to such things now, now was the time for battle, for blood and sweat and pain, and none of it, she reasoned would be hers.
"You've got some spine to challenge me human"
Her father was already taunting her, and it only fueled her hatred more,
"Don't worry, by the end of this I'll be the only one with a spine left" she shot back, fixing her gaze and lowering her body to ready herself to pounce
"Hooho, strong words, now tell me theocracy dog, do you have the power to stand behind them?"
At his words he released a wave of killing intent, it washed over her and her body reacted in the natural way she had been taught, she focused her mind and prepared for combat, she quickly began by using a martial art, from the feel of his power, she knew she could not mess around too much, and she didn't want to, not until he was grovelling at her feet.
[Reinforce Hide] [Ability Boost] she started off with a few of her more simple arts, she had no need for her more advanced ones yet, she heard her father speak, it seems he was starting off with a few martial arts as well
[Ability Boost] [Greater Ability Boost] [Physical Boost] [Greater Physical Boost] [Reinforce Hide] [Iron Body]
The last one she took note of, other than the already numerous arts he activated he began to lose some lustre as if becoming cold, she had not heard of any art called iron body but she could assume it was one of the body strengthening arts.
"Are you ready yet?' she taunted him
"You'll be sorry brat" he taunted back, before crouching
[Shukuchi]
He closed the distance in an instant, his body low to the ground, his fist bawled
'Does he think I'm an amateur?
She quickly set to swing her scythe in an upward arch,
He spun to avoid the strike, planted his foot and rushed with a raised fist,
She saw her opportunity and swung to meet it
"Fool, I'll take your arm"
[Shikuchi]
He accelerated, towards her, closing the gap instantly
The fist connected before she could defend, it hurt, bad!, and the shock sent her flying
She twisted in midair, landed, quickly finding her footing, she rushed back in the fray
'Looks like this has potential'
[Focus Battle Aura] [Greater Ability Boost] she threw in more arts to compensate, it was time to get serious.
They began fighting in earnest, fist met metal and the ringing could be heard all around.
'What sort of Martial Art is that?'
Zesshi couldn't understand how he was blocking her strikes with his bare hands, his fists would arrive just in time to impede her slashes and he would quickly counter to gain ground, she was starting to get pissed off.
'I don't know his stamina, a war of attrition might not work'
She decided to stop, she quickly settled into a low stance and brought her scythe forward, she rushed in
He tried to counter again
[Heavy Strike]
This time blood danced in between them and a sinister smile fell unto her face
He retreated quickly and stood his ground, looking over the cut, it wasn't bad but it would impede him now she thought.
"Impressive, not much gets through my Iron Body, I guess you're worthy to note" she heard him say
"Oh, I'm just getting started" she retorted
[Bane of Uranus] had the ability to multiply its damage output when she drew blood and the more the scythe drank, the thirstier it became, and now she would pound him into the ground and soak this land with his innards.
She gripped her scythe tight and began her assault.
Slyvin had been watching the fight with slight apprehension, he knew that Zesshi was strong, she could easily defeat most of the Black Scripture with no problems, but he had never heard of how the Elf King fights, and his style seemed odd.
He was unarmed, using his hands and feet in quick succession, the way he seemed to glide through the air and attack was like watching a choreographed dance number, with the added possibility of death.
They had been going back and forth for a few minutes, with Zesshi losing ground, but she quickly countered and drew blood,
'She has him'
Slyvin knew well the abilities of her weapon, and what it meant when she started fighting at full strength, part of her issue was she became more powerful as the fight dragged on something not many could compete with, and when her damage capability reached its peak, she could activate the scythe's special ability [Dominion of the Sky].
Zesshi began to press the King, her attacks more fluid, it seemed she found her flow, but the King's dexterity, agility and defensive prowess made it hard for a knockdown strike to occur,
Little by little, he saw that she was drawing more blood, and his defences seemed to weaken, she would win, of that he was sure.
After some impressive blows, she caught him with a heavy slash to his torso, the king spun and created distance using [Shukuchi] he quickly joined his hands and sunk low, there was a rhythmic noise coming from his mouth and quickly his body began to shine a light golden colour.
Slyvin was surprised, he had never seen an art like this before,
Zesshi was chasing to press her attack, the scythe mere seconds from reaching its target,
Just then the King stood, and threw a palmed hand towards her,
The air vibrated as a handprint slammed into Zesshi, pushing her back,
He followed with a punch which she avoided and threw herself to him, as she got close, he noticed the air vibrate again, and he threw his palm out again,
[Flow Acceleration], Zesshi acrobatically avoided the attack and appeared above the king, her weapon in hand, she swung down and caught his shoulder, blood seeping from the wound.
Her weapon began to glow a faint red colour.
'Its time'
"I'd give you the chance to say something, but you don't deserve it, though you can beg if you wish," she said, adding a burst of demented laughter.
The air above them began to shimmer, Slyvin knew what would come next, her next strike would rend anything within her attack radius almost non-existent, [Dominion of the Sky] allowed her to concentrate all the built up damage into one final strike, ignoring most defences, it was an attack which complimented her well.
What happened next surprised him a great deal,
"I concede" the words rang out loud enough for all to hear,
"What!" she said loudly, before attempting to bring her weapon down anyway, just then the voice of that ungodly monster rang through the air.
"Enough, our guest has conceded, the fight is done"
Zesshi was about to speak when she turned and looked at him, while he could not see her face, he knew why she said nothing, she knew his word was final.
She lowered her weapon, calling the king weak and began to walk towards the stands, the Elf King walking diligently towards the opposite side, just then the Blue Sky Dragonlord launched himself from the stands, he landed on the ground with a great racket, dust rising from his impact, he declared
"Come, Sorcerer King, Face Me!"
Jircniv was incredulous,
'Does this fool have a death wish?'
He was very much enjoying the match which was just had, the masked fighter from the Theocracy seemed almost inhumanly strong, but he could hardly believe the arrogance of this Dragonlord, to declare his intention to fight his master.
As expected a wave of killing intent flooded the arena, his guardians were not pleased by this declaration, and he almost felt pity for the dragon.
"Sebas" spoke the Sorcerer King and the butler quickly replied
"Yes, my lord"
Climb had long since been both shocked and awed to see Sebas by the Sorcerer King's side, he had not forgotten his old friend and to learn he was the personal butler to the Sorcerer King had set him aside for quite a while. He had always known Sebas to work for someone, but he had never even considered that his Majesty would be his master, Climb had even considered searching the butler out and asking him to join their effort to try and confront the Sorcerer King before his acquisition of the Re-Estize Kingdom, the thought making him laugh now.
The butler walked with practised grace towards the challenger and stood some distance from him with his hands behind his back, chest out and with a posture that spoke nothing of the power he hid within him, it was proud but servile, the form of the perfect butler.
The dragonlord spoke
"You send a butler to meet me, do you insult me, Sorcerer King?"
"I assure you, I will be more than enough" replied Sebas
Climb ventured a look at the delegation from the Argland Council State, the rest of the dragonlords looked both pensive and apologetic, it was clear to him that the Blue SKy Dragonlord was prideful and only issued the challenge to fill prove something, to himself only most likely.
'You're going to regret that' thought climb as he watched the beginning of the match.
"Do not worry, I won't hurt you too badly"
The dragonlord quickly closed the gap, his form disappearing and reappearing with great speed, he was arching for Sebas with a lightning fast fist, aiming straight for his chest.
A small shockwave could be heard, within the span of a second, no, much faster than even Climb could think, Sebas had entered a low fighting stance and shot a counter, a simple punch it seemed, and the dragonlord flew backwards like a cannonball, his Dragonoid body unable to even hold itself upright as he hit the ground and tumbled multiple times, before coming to a rest a few hundred meters away.
It was a complete victory, and the silence which followed was deafening,
"SUVERIA!" howled one of the dragonlords.
A moment later the Blue Sky Dragonlord began collecting himself from the ground, rising to his feet.
"I'm fine!" he coughed out.
It was a lie and he was clearly very angry,
The Blue Sky Dragonlord recollected himself, clearly, he was badly hurt, and it seemed he could not believe it himself. He made to crouch, his form moving, the air around him seemed to contract as he grew taller and muscular scaled wings sprouted from his back. Seabs for his part had returned to a natural and calm pose, simply waiting as the change continued, until the dragon was the equivalent of a reasonable mansion, his large head alone the size of a wagon, closing the distance slowly he looked down upon Sebas.
"Time to die butler"
The Dragonlord released his breath weapon, and a torrent of razor sharp wind made its way towards Sebas, the butler quickly threw himself to the side, avoiding the attack, the strong winds throwing a massive amount of dust into the air, a crater remaining where Sebas once stood.
"Please mind my clothes, I would rather not look unpresentable before my master,"
The comment enraged the dragon, with a surprising speed he whipped his body around and threw his tail towards Sebas, the latter simply dodging backwards before the attack could connect, when Sebas landed he launched himself towards the dragon, taking the offensive.
The Dragonlord flapped his massive wings and attempted to take to the air before he could escape, Sebas caught his retreating tail, and what followed next could only be compared to a parent disciplining a child.
Everyone was dumbfounded as the seemingly ordinary butler threw the dragon unto the ground, plucking it out of the air like one would a fly, and he did not stop,
Still holding the tail he again thrashed the Dragonlord against the other side of the ground, repeating the process as if working a ragdoll, once the shock had registered, two of the dragonlords quickly pounced to go relieve their comrade.
The Platinum Dragonlord was shocked to see how easily the fight went, and not to their favour, this butler seemingly made child's play of a full sized Dragonlord, the sight terrified him. As he thought this, two flashes of light flew past him, before he could protest the twins were making their way towards the area floor, towards this clear beatdown.
'Damned brats'
He considered yelling after them, but as they began to take on their true forms he knew it would not help, he began to stand before a voice called to him,
"Stop, Tsaindorcus, do not interfere yet" the Worm Dragonlord had held his hand out to stop him,
"Those idiots are going to get killed" he responded
"You heard the Sorcerer King, they can be resurrected should that happened, besides, Suveria needs this, he's far too arrogant for his own good."
He knew of his fellow's temper, he believed himself to be above many things, a mark of a dragon who would not be long for this world,
"Damn, if those three can't do it together, then I will intervene" he spat back before reluctantly taking his seat.
He shot a look to the Sorcerer King, and found that he wasn't even truly paying attention to the fight, seemingly chatting with the Dragon Queen,
"Three Dragonlords and this doesn't even register as an actual fight to him, he's not worried about his subordinate at all'" he heard the old man say softly,
"indeed…. "
Time passed,
The fight was going worse than he could have hoped, the three dragons were frantic, attacking one after the other, flanking from either side, using their breathes and all manner of tactics, yet the butler seemed too fast, too fluid, too strong for all of them combined,
'Damn it, I need to do something'
Before he could act, all three began to release their magics, seemingly desperate to win, they began to press the butler somewhat, and it relieved Tsa, he watched as they quickly found themselves surrounding the being. While no attack was connecting fully, they could dodge and apply pressure, the fight was no longer simply one-sided, as it continued they quickly regained their footing, though he knew the use of wild magic would come at a cost later on.
"Sebas, you are permitted to do what you wish to win." the owner of that voice spoke it in a very sure fashion, and as the butler dodged a ground swipe, he turned bowed and replied.
"Yes, my lord"
The deceleration came as a surprise to Tsa, he did not fully know what the Sorcerer King meant by those words, from what he could tell, the butler was a brawler, using his fists and no weapons.
'Does he have some sort of weapon he can manifest?'
He thought of how some of the Kings could manifest weapons seemingly out of thin air, and dreaded that this butler could do the same, what happened next, however, made him wish that was the case.
Dominic had been watching the fights with careful intent, he was very proud when he saw that Zesshi had defeated the Elf King, and the information they gathered from her fight was sufficient to allow her not killing him, Dominic was also very angry with the rest of his peers.
From the moment they had stepped foot into this place, no even before when they had been in the city he had seen the underlying evil, how the people were oppressed here, those massive undead monsters lurking in each corner of the place, threatening the civilians, these people needed to be saved and yet only a few could see that the others we so mesmerized by this bastard of an undead that they couldn't see it, but he could and he had a way to save them all.
He had once held pity for the butler, believing that he was a victim being compelled by that undead monster to obey its commands, but as he saw how it was battling three dragonlords at once, he understood that this creature was not human at all.
'This is a land of the unclean'
Dominic had devised a plan to ensure they would be safe, he had done his research to make sure that nothing would bring harm to his beloved Theocracy or the rest of the world, even those stupid demi-humans he pitied, and he would save them as well.
Dominic had spent the preparation portion of this summit experimenting on how to fight this undead, he needed a means of defeating him, and that was when an idea came to mind.
He knew he could not use the sacred treasures of the gods, only special people born with their blood, or awakened god-kin could use the holiest items, often the process would kill those who tried and failed, but he also knew that he wouldn't get another chance like this, to be so close to this pit of evil and have a chance to destroy it.
In secret, he and the Cardinal of Light had called for trials to be done with potential candidates for the sacred treasure [Downfall of Castle and Country] and after some worthy sacrifices, they learned that there were people who could use the treasure a few times before succumbing to death or insanity. And when they had made to leave for this place his group had hidden one of those members within the escorts they had brought, he was very careful to ensure that the traitor Raymond was not in the know. And while not discussing it over with the rest was a breach of decorum, he knew it was for the betterment of humanity, he needed to end this threat, to end this Sorcerer King once and for all.
'For all the living'
As he was patiently waiting for an opportunity, he sat watching the fight, the dragons were now trying to even the fight, and the numbers seemed to start to help, they were finally looking to make a counter attack when the damn undead called out and spoke something about permission.
The butler replied in a stoic manner and suddenly, a great gust of wind pulsed out pushing even the dragons back, and in the centre of it the butler stood, seeming to wait for something, a silence descended upon the crowd and a pale blue light erupted around the butler, he was engulfed in it, and as this occurred the Platinum Dragonlord threw himself towards the fray, stopping before the other dragons and waiting pensively for whatever was to follow.
Even Dominic had to admit the sight was surprising to him, as the light reached into the heavens, he saw the Butler begin to shift, his black suit seemingly seeking into him, and as the light intensified, his form completely disappeared.
Then a roar reverberated throughout the entire arena, the light expanded within and from the depths he saw a massive arm reach out, it was clad in silver scales, the scales were a brilliant silver with the very edges dipped in red, the sight making it look as if the blood was lining the beast, a leg peered from the light before two massive draconic wings followed, Dominic leaned with his heart in his throat as the light faded, stranded in place of the butler was a Dragonoid the like so which he had never seen. Its size was massive almost 3 meters tall from where he was standing, every corner of the beast exude power, its chest was decorated in the same scales and a red gem was fixed directly in its centre, he had been completely side smacked before his mind raced into overdrive.
'Opportunity!'
He quickly made for the escort, and reached out to her, while everyone was awestruck staring at this new form the butler had wrought, he made to use this for his own means, he quickly accessed where the Sorcerer King was and found that his escort would have enough distance for the weapon,
"Use it" he instructed,
She quickly jumped from her position, using the spectacle as a distraction before she threw off her cloak, her garments resembled a long flowing dress of pure white, a massive dragon latching itself unto the dress, and as she activated the item, the dragon glowed before coming to life.
Just than people began to notice the commotion, he saw Raymond turn and look at him before realizing what was happening, his smile betrayed his intentions as the dragon began to dance and make its way towards the Sorcerer King, engulfing him completely, right where he sat.
'NOOOOOO!" yelled Raymond
'It's too late'
Dominic thought, now laughing like a madman, tears streaming down his face.
'I've saved us all'
