Chapter 81: The Beginning of An End (4) Ash watched all of this with cold eyes. The moment Kale descended, he had almost stepped in. But then he saw the fire in Nia’s eyes... manic, possessive, beautiful, and he stayed his hand. Because a king does not interrupt his queen when she is writing poetry in someone else’s blood. When the collision finally tore apart, the violet sky peeled back like burning parchment. Nia fell, tricolored hair streaming behind her like a comet’s tail, lightning still crackling violently across her broken body. Yet her lips were curved in the sweetest, most satisfied smile Ash had ever seen. Kale was not much better. One arm gone entirely, Nia’s black flames burned it into nothing but ashes. Thin rivulets of blood traced from his mouth, but his eyes... those arrogant blue eyes were still cold, still defiant. Ash smiled. Then he was simply there, beneath Nia’s falling body. No flash, no sound. One heartbeat she was plummeting; the next she rested in the cradle of his arms, already sliding into the Haven without a single word exchanged. Seeing all of this Ash smiled. He then appeared right under the falling Nia and sent her into the Haven without any words. He looked around at the entire battlefield. Vaeloria had dominated her battle as Seyra stood no chance in trying to counter darkness with darkness. Lyrin didn’t fare well to Seris’s physique talent as she was on her last legs as well. For a full sixty seconds Seris terroized her not giving an inch of breathing. Rhea was perhaps in the best condition of them all compared to her opponent that was. Yonna was riddled with wounds, but so was Rhea and they both were still locked in a battle. Down below very little of the Voss army remained as he saw Caelan and Kael carving through fodder like nothing. All in all he felt very impressed. He then locked eyes towards Kale who was looking at him as if he was an adbomination. Ash tilted his head and smirked. "What... your goddess didn’t mention my divine looks did she?" He joked for split second before the smirk vanished. |Absolute Null Zone| The world forgot how to breathe. Every scrap of mana on the entire battlefield (Voss, Velora, even the lingering Edict) simply ceased. The remaining surviving fodder, those bound to Kale and even Kale himself; all of them plummeted like stones as gravity remembered its job. "You have some nerve," Ash said, voice soft, conversational, "attacking my little Nia." A sword appeared in his hand simple and unadorned. "Now I won’t kill you," he continued, already walking across empty air toward the falling king. "But you will wish I had." He reached Kale before the man hit the ground. SHK! SHK! SHK! 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 SHK! Four limbs parted from torso with wet, precise sounds... with no resistance, no wasted motion, just the quiet song of steel through meat and bone. They spun away through the air like discarded toys. Ash landed beside the limbless ruin with perfect grace, white and rose-gold tails drifting behind him like lazy wings. Then he began the real work. No mana. No skills. Just a sword and patience. He carved. Eyes first... very slow and deliberate, so Kale could watch the blade come. Then ears, nose, tongue. Fingers, one by one. Skin peeled in careful strips. Every cut shallow enough to hurt, deep enough to scar forever. Kale screamed until his voice broke, until only wet clicking sounds remained. The battlefield had gone perfectly silent. Even the wind held its breath. When Ash finally stepped back, Kale was little more than a red, twitching torso gasping its last. Ash turned his head, found Yonna hovering nearby, trembling, eyes wide with something between terror and reverence. "Come now," he said gently. "Accomplish your goal." "H-how-" She wanted to ask how he knew about her path’s goal.... but Ash cut her off. "Don’t ask useless things... just come along now before he dies." He said gesturing to the half dead Kale. Yonna nodded and moved not a second later. Once standing over Kale, she clenched her sword and uttered one word before impaling him. "Parasite..." SHK! The blade punched through his heart with a sound like the world exhaling. The crimson crown above Kale’s ruined head shattered into motes of light, streaked across the sky, and melted into Ash’s own crown like it had always belonged there. A ripple spread outward (soft, invisible, absolute). Every surviving person bound by Kale blinked like chains were breaking in their minds. King Tharion dropped to his knees and wept without knowing why. Rhea stared at her blood-soaked hands as though seeing them for the first time in years. Yonna looked up at Ash, tears cutting clean lines through the blood on her cheeks. "Thank you." Ash smiled, small and genuine. "Well... let’s go home." Vaeloria was already there, pressing blood-slick fur against his side, tails curling possessively around his waist as though she had never been covered in someone else’s life. THE VOSS KINGDOM FALLS!!!!! VELORA KINGDOM RISES TO RANK 8,213!!! ----- The sky itself seemed to sigh. Far above, the two kingdoms (once separate, once enemies) began to merge. Crimson towers bled into white marble. Black banners unraveled thread by thread, reweaving themselves into flowing red and white. Floating landmass shifted like lovers turning in sleep, locking together seamlessly until only one nation floated beneath the violet heavens. Hours later, the throne room was quiet again. Ash sat sideways across the throne, one leg thrown over an armrest, crown tilted lazily. Nia was healed, waiting patiently in the Haven. Aside from his closest companions everyone else had scattered to rest, to process, to breathe. Only Fay and Sia remained, translucent and furious. "Now that you’ve finished your little tantrum," Sia said, arms crossed, voice tight with frustration, "isn’t it time you leave? I have an entire new pawn to groom because of you." Ash regarded them for a long moment. "I’m not sure," he said honestly. Then, softer: "You’ve watched me and my companions long enough. Tell me straight: how do we shape up in the real world?" Fay’s eyes flickered. "In terms of raw rank? Weak. S-ranks are common as dirt out there. Mortal tiers barely matter once you leave this artifact. Affinities, talents, soul brands; They won’t matter at all in the face of higher forms of power. Ash’s brow creased. "However," Fay continued, "there are things on you that even we cannot see through. Also, those weird physiques of your companions are not lacking either... You just need to reach SSS-rank, the absolute peak this cage allows and you’ll at least be strong enough to join a proper faction without being instant prey." Ash was quiet for a long time. "Alright," he said at last. "Then I stay until I hit SSS..... No time limit. The moment I break through, I will contact you. Until then... your game is safe from me." The two goddesses vanished without another word. Ash stepped into the Haven. They were waiting... Nia curled in an oversized chair, Vaeloria leaning against a pillar, Thalion standing like a statue, Seris cleaning blood from her daggers, Sonna and Yonna side by side, still dazed. He had already filled them in on the news which caused all their world views to literally crumble. Vaeloria was perhaps the most affected because she had experienced so much more, but her experiences left her with questions as well. He looked at them; these were his group that he’d created for himself.... Seeing them all he smiled. "Ask what you need. I’ll answer what I can. Then we plan what comes next." Nia spoke first, voice small but steady. "Ashy... when we leave... will you bring Mother? And Shia?" She asked and the reason she didn’t mention Caelum and Draven was because... well they were dead. Their bodies were amidst the other cannon fodder, and she didn’t too much care about them anyways. She only asked about the others because she never seen them once. "Hmm..." Ash thought as he remembered the oddity with his mother long ago. Her affection for him was quite high even though she had given him the cold shoulder. And Shia... well he didn’t give a damn about her. "Maybe mother..." He said before looking to the others. Vaeloria’s tails twitched. "If this world is an artifact... then what sealed me for all those years?" The question hung like a blade. Ash exhaled slowly. "Honestly... I don’t know yet. But I will ask those two about it." The others had questions too (where they would go, what they would see, what monsters waited beyond the cage), but none of the answers mattered yet. Ash looked at them, crown catching the Haven’s gentle light, and spoke the only truth that did. "Well... our only goal is to enter the SSS rank. There is no time limit for you guys, as I will leave Elaris the moment I step into the rank. You guys can just let me know when you reach the rank so I can bring you outside the Haven." They nodded, one by one. Then, quietly, purposefully, they scattered to begin.