Chapter -83: A Black Butterfly Flaps Its Wings
It is said that at the end of the world, fire will rain from the sky, cleansing the planet back to it's primal state.
But today the fire did not rain to signal Armageddon, but to stall it's march.
The mages of Ishana flung fireballs from atop the city buildings to assault the Black Beast as it met its destined enemies, the Six Heroes.
Though the beast's hide had holes put into it, it did not seem to care nor oblige these fleas the worth they felt they were earned.
Konoe led the first charge among her peers, keeping to the skies out of reach of the beast's maw.
With just the flick of her wrist she hit a few of the beast's heads with spears of conflagration, dismantling their lower jaw in time to prevent it's bite from striking her comrades.
Valkenhayn was quick and his body seemed to house secrets, as at brief intervals fur emerged from his hands and legs to amplify his strikes.
He could rip the tips of the spires they stood on and impaled them into the beast's eyes, briefly staggering them in time for Jubei to cut cleanly through the neck.
Every head that fell was snatched back up by woven strands of seithr and snapped back into place, and it continued to march on.
Sarajin followed Konoe's example and pelted the beast from afar with lightning, keeping his back pointed at Celica to shield her.
The beast writhed around and started smashing up their footing while the main heads lunged out and tried to swallow the heroes whole.
When it missed it didn't fail to try and leave a mark, opening it's maw quickly to unleash pale white blasts with collapsing azure colors.
Hakumen and Gabriel leaped at the chance and sliced the orbs down the center, causing the halves to fly off into the sky and explode into small gravity wells.
The two samurais held the calmest demeanors of their group. In the face of Hell they were dry of sweat and not a single lump marred their skin.
With blade in hand they reaped the seithr from the beast's neck and could fell multiple heads in just a few well-timed strokes.
Try as it might, the beast struggled to land a hit in retaliation. Before, when it was just it against one, it could overwhelm with no odds in its prey's favor.
Now, it was losing the element of certain victory, as it stood against the determination of the many, united for a single cause.
The frontlines kept being pushed back as the beast continued to smash through the crystals.
Konoe switched off to ice magic, manifesting as a condensed whirlwind blizzard that froze one of the beast's heads against the cliffside.
Sarajin widened his eyes and, inspired by her display, sought to imitate her efforts and managed to succeed in one try with a little concentration.
"Hakumen!" "Gabriel!" The two elemental wielders shouted together.
The swordsmen did not miss a beat and descended upon the frozen heads to smash them to bits with their blades.
The Black Beast roared and staggered back just a tiny bit to regain from it's losses. In the meantime the mages of Ishana fired off a unified volley of fireballs, which Trinity amplified using funnels created by her Nox Nyctores, transforming them all into one unified inferno that swallowed the beast whole.
As the beast seathed in rage, it lashed it's heads free from the flames, three of them twisting together into a triangular arrangement to create a massive, throbbing orb of black and blue energy.
The warriors retreated with a few of them taking a hit from the energy waves lashing out, and a couple of them slicing the footing the mages were standing on.
The remaining heads snapped forward in pursuit to keep the warriors distracted.
Sarajin glanced up at the orb and then turned to Konoe, "Konoe! Can you use lightning?"
Konoe looked up in the sky and saw a large cloud forming over the Black Beast, then slashed her hands out, one conducting fire and the other water, "Don't hold back!"
Sarajin channeled lightning into his blade and then stabbed it towards the cloud while Konoe fired off a massive lightning ball.
The two's combined efforts left the sky rumbling, though it paled in comparison to what the Black Beast was doing.
The cloud absorbed their electricity and grew bigger and darker, letting out an ear-rupturing rumble of thunder before a massive pale purple lightning bolt came down and split the Black Beast's orb apart.
The energy scattered everywhere and fell upon the ground like bombs, forcing the heroes to retreat.
However, Terumi was no coward, and with the heads divided he cackled through the destruction, his body wreathed in a fog of black with a faint green glow, "That's more LIKE IT...GET OVER HERE!"
He then smashed his hands into the crystal and massive serpents of black and green rose from within the seithr to coil the Black Beast's heads and bring them crashing down in front of him.
With a wicked sneer he whispered, "Hello, bitch, daddy's here...!"
Valkenhayn and Jubei charged in quickly, hit the heads with their full might, then pulled away as the beast bit down with it's other heads.
The middle head tied down tried to wiggle free and lunged straight for Terumi with a greater anger than had been on display so far.
Terumi kicked his foot up as high as it would go and then smashed it down on the beast's snout. He then mercilessly stomped into it a dozen times, his laughter growing in intensity.
The other heads were breaking free and were ready to chomp down on Terumi.
Everyone else had retreated to safety, none taking a moment to look back and pry him out of the fire.
Sarajin bit his teeth down and then lashed his hand out, summoning a vine to wrap around Terumi's waist and pull him back.
The vine degraded in the beast's presence until ultimately snapping, forcing Sarajin to whip out another.
Terumi was puzzled upon landing beside Sarajin, aggravated moreso. Sarajin only looked at him long enough to see the cold glare of his hidden eye, then returned focus on the Black Beast.
They all kept climbing up the cliffside until there were no more crystals to stand up, pelting the Black Beast's heads as best they could manage.
"There's too many of them!" Gabriel noted amidst slicing a fang off the beast so he could have an opening when he leaped away, "We won't be able to reach the heart at this rate!"
The beast hammered it's heads into the cliff top to keep them moving. Nirvana picked up Celica and retreated to safety in the streets for now.
Sarajin, Konoe and Trinity took to the skies, with the cheery mage using her wand to create a line of amplifying runes for Sarajin and Konoe to channel their fire through.
They hit the beast with a spiraling pyre of white flames the likes of which even made the two flame conductors sweat.
"I-I had no idea fire could get this hot...!" Sarajin said.
One of the beast's heads opened wide and began eating the fire until it's throat was full and glowing. It then attempted to launch it back...
Jubei threw one of his swords into the beast's nape and the whole head burst open, throwing the blade into the air.
Konoe quickly used her magic to teleport it back into his paw and without pause, the great warrior dashed alongside the peerless Hakumen and patient Gabriel to cut through the beast's heads for a solid minute.
This allowed time for Trinity to create enhancements for Valkenhayn in the form of gauntlets and grieves, which gave his attacks an added magical element.
With this he was able to viciously tear through the beast's heads with a continuous combo of punches and kicks, keeping up the flow his comrades had started while they retreated to catch their breath.
But a few heads slipped out from the sides and started slithering through the ground, breaching the city borders and rising up to dismantle entire buildings in one go.
"Damn it!" Shouted Konoe as she lashed her attention back and combined a heavy amount of fire and a little bit of water magic to summon a massive boulder embedded with gems atop the beast's head.
Trinity followed suit by summoning a giant golden bell to hit the neck, and finally Sarajin created a boulder of onyx to finish the last part.
What took the three of them to do, Hakumen did alone, using cold, wintery energy channeled through his blade to cleave a head down the middle.
Gabriel paid close attention to what he was doing and raised a brow curiously. He then proceeded to mimic Hakumen's stance and channel aura into his blade to perform the same rending slice upon another head.
Hakumen turned his focus away for a moment and the two warrior's eyes met, giving unspoken respect with a nod.
They then pulled their swords back and cut wide against the incoming heads.
As they found themselves at the edge of the city the mages started to flee with runes enhancing their jumps. Some were consumed by the ferocious bites of the beast, where blood and flesh were melted into seithr as their dying screams fed it more.
Konoe and Trinity could only divide their attention so much from the frontlines to help, but it was an unfortunate state of affairs they would have to accept to keep going strong.
Sarajin, however, diverted away for a moment, using his speed to save a few mages from a certain end. He then spun around, dividing one of the heads down the middle with a lightning slash.
That head proceeded to form back together as it pulled back, and grinned, it's eyes burning like a continuous flame.
Two more heads slithered up at it's side with energy at the ready to hit Sarajin point-blank. Sarajin got away fast enough to only suffer the edge of the first blast, with the chain of explosions continuing along to take out multiple buildings.
Sarajin bit his teeth down, his eyes wide in a fury and then dove back at the beast's heads, slicing them up and down while quickly avoiding their snarling teeth.
Gabriel joined in, using the wreckage to leap close enough to deepen Sarajin's cuts and sever the heads off. He then landed on the other side and held his hand out, focusing on Sarajin's blade to give it a veil of aura.
Sarajin nodded his way and then the two worked in tandem, unleashing a unified dance of slashes that lit the area around them until eventually they were close together.
Then they spun around to pull away their blades, and with a deep breath they let out a firm grunt and slashed the reserved aura out together to carve a cross through four different heads.
And from there, Konoe blew the split seithr towards the sea with a large green gale.
While they had a moment to chat, Konoe frantically asked the two, "Have either of you seen Celica?!"
Gabriel perked up and remarked, "I'll seek her out, you worry about the Black Beast."
He then leaped down into the streets, right in time to stab one of the heads into the pavement. Konoe breathed a sigh of relief, and in that brief reprieve another head lunged out and had it's mouth halfway towards consuming her.
"Konoe!" Sarajin shouted, leaping into the maw of the beast and it's foul, weathered stench to deliver a flaming slash down the throat.
This bought Konoe enough time to turn around and fire off a large combustion spell to rip the throat apart and allow them to escape out the back.
The two then flew around, weaving around the heads tangling together in a mad desperation to feast.
Their way forward was being closed off and soon their only way back would be blocked off by one last head that blotted the sky alight with twilight.
As it's seithr dripped fangs prepared to chomp down, the final head froze silent, the two caught off-guard by the sound of a clean slice, and Jubei appearing mid-leap in front of them.
He sheathed his blades and the head was split apart by a hundred cuts, with a large gray wolf finishing the job with a spiral, rending tackle.
The wolf was revealed to be Valkenhayn, who proceeded to grab hold of Sarajin and kick their way out of the entangled mass, while Jubei was caught by Konoe, both showing a bit of tender embarrassment.
Konoe then extended the size of her levitation seal and stood back to back with the feline warrior as the heads reassembled.
Valkenhayn meanwhile brought Sarajin to safety atop a half-broken building and then turned to face one straggling pursuer.
With thickened, furry legs and his claws sharpened, Valkenhayn braced himself against the unstable ground and shouted to his ally, "Get out of here!"
Sarajin then took off right as the head impacted with the beastial man. Valkenhayn grabbed hold of it's titanic maw by the fangs and held on to prevent it from opening.
He was carried through multiple buildings, his clean garb battered and brutalized against the torn gravel, but his resolve...undying!
Sarajin had to pick and choose between coming to his aid or going off and helping the mages retreat.
He ultimately picked the mages and hurried to their side, unable to keep his gaze off of Valkenhayn's grueling battle.
They kept being pushed back when they should be pressing forward. Was this due to the beast's increased strength, or was this struggle always meant to be?
He was helping as best he could, but it didn't feel like it had been enough to turn the tides back in history's favor.
After helping the mages get to safety he kept pushing forward against the onslaught of heads, attacking them with towering flame slashes and spears of lightning.
But it felt as though the heads were growing more numerous and the effort to prevail past them was making him tired and sweaty.
When push came to shove though, he felt relaxed by a calming presence. Without uttering a word, the darkness in his path was cut down by a blade of white, and Hakumen stood before him, a towering example of what a true warrior should strive to be.
As his hair swayed in these winds of ill omen, he uttered his first words directly towards Sarajin, "Your breaths are too unsteady. Calm yourself, and focus on attacking a single point at a time."
Sarajin realized now that he was having trouble holding onto his blade and his chest felt dry. He steadied himself and took a deep breath, then muttered aloud to the white warrior, "I-I should be doing better than this, but I...I don't feel I'm doing enough to help. People are dying, and I-"
"More people will die if we fail," Hakumen stated, not out of coldness but rather, it sounded like an experience born of tragedy, "That...is sometimes the price you must accept once you've taken on the weight of a blade."
He stood as the shield barring the beast's path, as it relentlessly sent it's heads his way. He summoned a red rune shield before his body and every time a head connected it froze, allowing him to slice it down. He kept this rhythm going while Sarajin gathered his strength back, inspired by the man's words.
Once he no longer felt uncertain about holding this blade he walked up beside Hakumen and smiled, "You're right. I don't wield this blade to hurt others..."
He then drew it back and breathed deep, seeing only the way forward he needed to reach beyond the beast's heads, "But to give people a chance to see tomorrow!"
He cleaved a concentrated wave of fire down through the beast's head, nearly striking at the wiggling mass that held them all together at the necks.
The two then leaped away as a few heads came crashing through the buildings at their sides. They combined their slices to cut down their pursuers, and then hopped up safely on one of the higher buildings.
There they saw the black mass of seithr had already devoured the shoreline whole and spread its essence through the streets, causing them to manifest as misshaped creatures of nightmares.
Two mages similar to Konoe, one wielding two metal cylinders that fired projectiles, while the other held a blade that could create ice, worked together to cull the herd and help push any survivors up towards the castle.
Everyone had a role to play in this fight, no matter how significant. And in light of this, Sarajin didn't feel as terrible about how he was doing, only that he needed to keep trying.
Hakumen threw one more quick glance at Sarajin, who looked back puzzled, before jumping straight back at the Black Beast, joining alongside Jubei and eventually, having Terumi catch up to them while he sprung around with his snakes.
"What's the hold up, 'Hakumen'? Getting cold feet?!" Terumi taunted with his hands tucked into his pockets.
"Is now really the time for this, Terumi?" Jubei muttered, his voice muffled by the blade in his mouth.
"I'm juuuust sayin', this shitbag'd be dead already if I still had my armor!"
"And the world along with it." Hakumen noted bluntly.
"Eh, collateral, whatcha gonna do?" As Terumi played along coyly, he coiled a metallic snake around his fist and charged straight for the nearest head, stabbing said fist into the beast's forehead.
"EEH HEE HEHEHE!" He cackled in mad delight as green energy pulsed out of his fist and corrupted the beast's seithr like a series of veins.
He then threw his fist back with incredible strength and ripped the head right off, where Hakumen cut it down and then dove straight for Terumi.
Terumi swerved out of the way in the nick of time and turned his back to the beast, only peering over his shoulder when a few of the beast's heads knocked Hakumen away while thrashing about.
"Oops." He said, hardly holding back his chuckles.
While Sarajin was busy scaling the buildings to fend off the beast's heads, its morbid collection of monstrosities began scaling the sides to take him on.
He diverted his attention away for a little while but eventually their presence warranted an intervention. And thus in came Valkenhayn, worn down but standing as tall and spry as a young man.
With a sweeping kick he launched half the horde into the sky and simultaneously knocked one of the beast's heads up.
"For my lady!" He then turned his whole body into a standing wolf man and lunged his right claw into the beast's neck like an uppercut, continuing to slash harder and harder upward until the streaks of bloody energy slashed out the back upon reaching the neck.
He then turned back to normal, save for one leg, and plummeted down the beast's neck without a shred of fear to join the battle on the ground.
"Sarajin!" Gabriel chimed out from atop a parallel rooftop.
He turned to find the samurai had found Celica and was now bringing her along behind him with Nirvana's help. The beast's head seemed to have been relentless in hunting him down, as his body was hung over with sweat and his eyes were beginning to close.
Sarajin joined in and helped cut the heads down, giving Celica breathing room to infuse some of her healing magic into Gabriel to ease his fatigue.
"Thank you," He whispered over his shoulder, "It takes real courage to stand here today, young lady."
Celica's smile was like a sunflower, and Gabriel smiled back at her.
He then stood beside Sarajin and continued to attack the beast's heads.
"Do you have any ideas, Gabriel?" Sarajin shouted.
"I've never faced a foe like this before," Gabriel let out a tense grunt as one of the beast's rammed down into his sword to try and break the footing beneath him, "But perhaps if we could force all the heads together...!"
Sarajin's eyes widened with inspirement, "Then we could create a large enough opening to attack the main body!"
"But how?" Gabriel was left pondering.
"I got an idea, keep Celica away for now!" Sarajin left her in his ally's care and then flew off to try and intercept Konoe, who was busy incinerating large swathes of the beast's onslaught while her fatigue was clearly showing on her face.
"Konoe, the Black Beast has enough sense to think, right?"
"Yes, but why?!" She said, swinging one hand equal of wind and fire to create a phantom mirror that reflected one of the Black Beast's projectiles back at it.
"I was thinking of drawing the heads' attention to one place and then cutting them down to give an opening for Celica!"
"That may very well work! But-" Konoe's mirror kept being bombarded until it was weak enough for the head to lash down and shatter it.
She staggered out of her levitation and went flying down. Sarajin dove to keep her from hitting the swarm of beasts below, but to his surprise she was snatched out of the air by a metallic snake head and brought down to a nearby building.
Terumi was twitching and scowling and Nine smirked at him menacingly.
"You goddamn bitch." Terumi growled.
Sarajin landed in front of them and didn't have time to question this strange interaction before he had to fend off the horde of monsters alongside Konoe.
Terumi tried to turn tail and run, his feet instead freezing solid and causing him to yell, "Ugh, FINE!"
He then drew out his snake-headed weapons and slung them around as whips of energy to keep the monsters away.
Konoe unleashed a spell combining wind and water magic that summoned a red and violet energy cross to wall off the monsters for a bit, turning her attention back to Sarajin for a moment.
"The beast is hellbent on absolute destruction! I can't imagine it'd care about one singlular thing!"
Terumi whipped his hands towards the ground to set traps that chained the monsters up, allowing him to then snatch them with the knives on his shoes and fling them into the heads behind them.
"Oh, but I might know of something! Or rather...someone." He said with a snicker only he could enjoy.
"Tsk, figures." Konoe grumbled, nearly having her hand bitten off by a bipedal monster, and then repaying it in kind by freezing it solid and smashing it with a solid kick.
"Who is it, Terumi?" Sarajin wondered.
"Eheheh! I'm not gonna te-ell!" For his sharp tongue, Terumi received what appeared to be a painful shock to his body that made him heel.
Terumi then pierced his gaze in Konoe's direction and shouted, "Will you CUT it OUT?!"
Terumi then broke into a heavy swift as it looked like his mouth was being pulled open by an invisible force, "I-It's Bloodedge! That DAMN experiment is OBSESSED with him!"
Sarajin was stunned with a puzzled look while he kept fighting off the beast, "Wait, isn't that the guy who is fighting the heart? How are we-"
He let his guard down to nearly get chomped down by a head, only for Jubei to fly by and perform a save, he too, suffering from damage to his armor.
Konoe then drew the beast's attention upon her by firing off multiple conflagration spells at once and shouted, "Find Trinity! She'll know what to do!"
One massive head came crashing down atop their building and forced the three to split in different directions. Fortunately, Jubei was there to get Konoe out of the thick of it and Terumi, well, was good at slipping out of trouble.
Sarajin then flew off to try and find Trinity amidst the chaos.
Hakumen and Valkenhayn were collaborating on shoving the heads back into the beast's body and making progress bit by bit. But then the flood of smaller beasts came crashing down to shove them away.
They could handle themselves, and were doing so quickly.
Sarajin kept flying around for the lady's distinct hair color, and eventually found her closer to the castle, helping the mages funnel lightning energy to smite the approaching horde of heads.
The beast's heads could match the peak of the castle at full height, and used this advantage to spam energy blasts that fractured the structure.
Some of the mages split off to shield the walls, but their protection was nothing compared to what Konoe could accomplish and crumbled easily.
Trinity held her wand with conviction and rallied her comrades with a voice of surprising strength for one so fragile in looks, "Do not let up! We WILL win this!"
"Trinity!" Sarajin forewarned her of his approach ahead of time.
She was still a tiny bit spooky, "Sarajin!"
He then swung his fist up by his chest and declared, "I have an idea! Would you be able to use that wand of yours to create a copy of Bloodedge as a distraction?"
Trinity kept up her magic aid while sounding confident in what would soon be certain denial, "Creating other people is...difficult."
Sarajin pulled back a little and remarked, "Right, if you could do it, we could have an army of Six Heroes..."
Trinity nevertheless wore a pondering smile which slowly curled up with a slight hint of mischievous intent, "Hoooowever, what we could do is..."
She diverted her wand towards Sarajin and with a twirl of the red jewel, a flash of magic surrounded him.
He was left wearing a red coat with one sleeve off and hanging by the hip. His right arm was wrapped up in black bandages and a bunch of white hair was put on top of his hair, with it looking a little spiky.
"There, that ought to get the Black Beast's attention for a bit. Good luck!" She said, cheerfully and knowingly send Sarajin on what could wind up being a suicide mission.
Sarajin trembled a bit at her terrifying smile and then swallowed his fears to dive back into the battlefield.
"HEY!" He shouted as loud as he could. At first the beast had no reason to treat him as anything more than the fly it kept swatting at.
"IT'S ME! BLOODEDGE! COME AND GET ME!" When Sarajin committed to the bit, however, the Black Beast's many heads took pause and drew their attention downward at this speck.
And the intended result was achieved: More than 70% of the beast's heads were barreling straight at him with such a sharp charge it could only have been fueled by outrage.
Sarajin shook as the beast's rage came crashing down. Fortunately the agile Jubei came flying in, picking him up under his paw and letting out a little chuckle, "Heh, not a bad plan kid. The hair looks good on ya too."
Of course the Black Beast's pursuit was ripping through large chunks of the city, but at this point most of the survivors had been safely evacuated into the castle.
It was very narrow-minded in its approach to the point that it was blind to Hakumen, Gabriel and Valkenhayn leaping straight for the back of it's many necks.
Together, combining their strength with Gabriel's aura, they dropped down and slashed the seithr apart, leaving three towering gashes in the air, each tailored to their unique styles.
The heads continued to writhe through the ground and gnash their jaws, independent of the body.
Konoe then swung herself back and yelled at the top of her lungs, "Celica!"
The girl sprung to attention at the castle's base, coated by Nirvana's steel arms.
Though battered and worn down, Konoe propped herself upright and threw all her caring and faith into one sentence, "Tell Bloodedge...TO GIVE THIS BEAST HELL!"
"Sis...!" Celica smiled and then swung her pointer finger straight ahead, "Let's go, Nirvana!"
The doll obeyed and leaped through hundreds of feet in a single bound.
Jubei then suddenly dropped Sarajin close to the edge of the forest and spun around, whipping out his blades and remarking in a somewhat apologetic tone, "Sorry kid. Now's my turn!"
He then slashed through a few of the heads to make headway for the vulnerable body.
Sarajin didn't back down, and clenched his sword with all his strength. Instead of attacking the heads straight-on, he whipped back around and cut down dozens of trees, then focused his attention on each and every one to pile them down atop the heads.
He was then free to return to the battlefield while the seithr dispersed and tried to return to the body.
Jubei and Celica were about to meet up, upon which Jubei sheathed his swords and reached into his armor, pulling out a strange, orange cube with red lines running around infinitely.
"He's all yers Celica!" Jubei shouted, as the cube formed into a blade shaped like that which he was comfortable with. And in one mighty slash, he rended a massive crevice into the beast's heart.
The shadows of seithr and the dead roared free and tried to assail the two like a hurricane. But Celica's powers shielded her, and she ironed her gaze with bravery before plunging straight inside, right as the crevice sealed shut.
Jubei retreated as the heads screamed back to life and went to immediately retaliate, raining balls of pure seithr upon the castle.
The mages focused their efforts into shielding while Konoe flew towards the castle while shouting, "Ten Sages! We wait for the beast to writhe...and then send it to its grave!"
Now it was just a matter of time and patience, with the remaining heroes, Sarajin and Gabriel too, combining forces to keep the heads from distracting the grand mages as they prepared to lay their final trap.
They had been fighting for hours straight and, sans Hakumen and Terumi, were all toeing the line of physical exhaustion.
But they saw the path to victory approaching. They had to hold out just a little bit longer.
Every second counted. Until that very moment...
"RAAAAGGHH!" Where the beast began to change behavior.
It slammed its heads repeatedly upon the ground and its body was bubbling all over. It wildly swung around, trying to shake off some intense pain.
The warriors retreated to the base of the castle and looked on with disbelief.
"It's working. Unbelievable." Gabriel commented.
Sarajin was more awed over this spectacle, "With everyone working together like this, they could make their Devil fall..."
"NOW!" Screamed Konoe, as her and the other grand mages cast a spell in an unknowable tongue, surrounding the base of the titanic Black Beast in a seal with ten layers.
The layers rose to surround it one at a time until it was completely caged, and all its heads forced skyward.
Everyone had a rapid heartbeat as magical energies surged from the seals and began pulling the Black Beast away to what would be its final resting place...
And then, it spoke.
Through growls of intense and targeted rage, the panicked cries of a woman dominated them all, struggling to find coherency in a body of madness, "R-Rag...na...!"
"What?!" Valkenhayn uttered in shock.
"The beast...can talk?" Gabriel noted.
Hakumen growled quietly, Terumi was all smiles.
"Humans...humans...humans...hateful, stupid, wasteful HUMANS...! Destroy...you will not take this away from me...DESTROY...! WE WILL DESTROY..." And with one sky-piercing wail, the island was rocked by the seals shattering, and the beast's declaration of Armageddon, "EVEEEEERYYYYTHIIIIIIING!"
The Ten Sages were flung back, Konoe slamming against the castle walls and collapsing atop an outlook.
Sarajin's expression turned blank, as the shards of their last hope now rained down with the weight of despair...
This was the moment.
The moment where strength triumphed over predetermined events.
Everything else beforehand was just a show.
Now...the Black Beast could break time. Break history. And in its wake, there would be nothing but darkness and destruction...
"What do we do now...?" Was all Sarajin's thoughts empty out...
Next Time: A Light in the Final Despair