238 Chapter 238: Three Celestial Guardians

"Even if you say that, it's not as if we can speed up the battle or something," Glen grumbled, but he launched a lightning bolt at Serena, nonetheless. The lithe Assassin dodged his attack, only for Shun Yin to swing his blazing sword at her from behind.

The backstabbing attack might seem dishonorable, but at that moment, they had no choice. The fate of the world was at stake here. They didn't have many options except to take out the enemy as efficiently and quickly as they could.

Serena and Cronus did not begrudge them that. The Assassin couple broke off and fought in their respective divisions. While Shun Yin attempted to close in on her, she spun around and kicked him in the gut, hurling him several meters back.

"Ugh!" he grunted. Glancing up, he saw Serena launch several ominous-looking greenish-black spells at him. They resembled…arms or hands.

Most likely Serena Wright was from the same Umbra Sect as Ying Bu Si, employing similar techniques from the same school. Shun Yin flipped himself upward and gritted his teeth as he readied to defend himself, but a torrent of white flames surged ahead, purifying the dark mana and erasing the spectral hands from existence.

"Thanks," he said as Angelica joined him. She merely nodded silently, and without another word the two of them split up to charge at Serena. Behind them, Glen commanded his White Tiger to lunge at her, lightning pouring out of its gigantic form.

Serena smiled and spread out both of her hands. Behind her, the greenish-black magic warped and transfigured themselves into eight pairs of hands, each equipped with a different weapon. She almost resembled some Buddha or goddess with an almost infinite number of hands and weapons. The three high school students were suddenly forced into the defensive when the elastic, spectral arms shot toward them, slicing and slashing.

"White Tiger!" Glen shouted almost panicking. Electricity exploded from its immense body and shielded him, but he was too far from his allies. Fortunately, Shun Yin and Angelica reacted in time, conjuring twin firewalls of crimson and white to deflect dozens of ghostly weapons. Even as the shadowy armaments battered against the flaming barriers, they righted themselves and withdrew to safety without sustaining much damage.

"That's bloody cheating!" Glen groaned.

"Quit your whining," Angelica told him irritably. Beside her, Shun Yin scanned their opponent, his eyes on the countless writhing arms.

"Any idea how to defeat that lady?" he asked quietly. "You seem to be acquaintances with her."

"I'm afraid I don't know Serena well enough to come up with a solution," Angelica replied reluctantly. "We didn't really interact all that much, and this is the first time I've actually seen her and her husband fight."

As for her husband, he was currently bearing down on the injured Yue Guang. Lionel Stuart intervened as quickly as he could, swinging his sword to cleave the giant before he could attack his longtime friend. However, Cronus merely batted him aside, his silvery aura protecting him from the hundreds of deadly blossoms that danced around them.

"Kuh!"

Lionel grunted as he was thrown back, but he managed to spin himself in midair and land on both feet. Without missing a beat, he immediately unleashed another torrent of lethal flower petals at the enemy, who was forced to twist around and engage him. With a wave of his hand, he caused the petals to shrivel and wither before they reached him.

"Accelerating time, huh?" Lionel clicked his tongue in annoyance. "What a troublesome ability."

Cronus almost seemed to vanish, and appeared right in front of him. Lionel's eyes widened, but he just barely managed to parry a devastating strike from Cronus before he was sent hurtling to the side. He smashed into the wall and crashed downward with a painful bellow.

"My lord!"

Yue Guang forced himself back to his feet and lunged at Cronus, delivering a furious flurry of strikes. However, the Assassin twisted around and dodged his barrage of punches, using his Time Alter (okay, maybe that wasn't the real name of his spell, but who cares, right?) to accelerate his movements and increased his evasive capabilities.

Even so, Yue Guang continued to methodically and relentlessly pummel him.

Cronus was far from defenseless, however. While evading Yue Guang's punches with his Time Alter, he countered with a hook of his own, almost catching his opponent off guard. Yue Guang just barely dodged the vicious fist, but the giant Assassin's knuckles grazed the side of his head, leaving a trickle of blood.

Roaring, Yue Guang buried his fist in Cronus's chest, almost throwing the guy off his feet, but the Assassin appeared to freeze time to halt his momentum, then spun around to kick Yue Guang. Only his incredible reflexes saved him from getting his head kicked off, the bodyguard instinctively raising his arms to block the powerful foot.

For a moment, Yue Guang appeared to have held his ground, but then his whole body was sent spinning head over heels off the ground and into a nearby wall, disappearing in a pile of debris. Coughing, he tried to dig his way out of the rubble, but Cronus was advancing upon him.

An inferno blasted across the cavern and engulfed Cronus before he could take another step toward Yue Guang, almost reducing him to cinders in a matter of seconds. Michael strode forward, sword in hand.

"Are you all right?" he asked. Yue Guang nodded, still groggy from the devastating impact earlier, and shook his head to clear it.

"I can still fight."

"Good. Because I don't think it'll be over just yet."

As before, Cronus's form appeared to regenerate, the silver aura ripping the inferno apart from within and his ashes glowing hotly before taking a humanoid shape again. Within seconds, Cronus's body was fully restored, despite his figure still steaming and fuming furiously.

Before he could fully recover, a storm of petals bombarded his position, causing him to vanish in a shower of blood. Lionel let out a yell as he unleashed a powerful Stuart swordsmanship technique, attempting to slice Cronus apart before he could reestablish his silvery time aura.

"Huff…"

An arm broke out of the mass of petals, and in an instant, silver mana erupted from within. The flower petals dried up and crumbled to dust almost immediately, even as a snarling Cronus burst out of their dying drifts.

He didn't get very far. Vermillion Phoenix swooped down on him, raking him with its blazing claws and causing his body to combust.

"Leave him to me! You guys should go help the kids."

"I'll leave the big guy to you then." Lionel turned away. "Yue Guang, support Michael Porter. I alone should be more than enough to support the kids."

"Understood."

Even with the gigantic phoenix battering Cronus, the three men knew their victory was far from guaranteed. Whoever Cronus might have been when he was fully human, right now he was a monster.

Yue Guang waited for Cronus to bat the phoenix aside before he charged in and punched the guy in the face. The Assassin staggered, taken by surprise, but he retaliated with his own fist, pummeling Yue Guang. The future security chief desperately defended himself, but the blows sent him skidding backward despite him crossing his arms to shield his face and chest. Even so, it would only be a matter of time before Cronus's onslaught broke through his defense.

Fortunately, Vermillion Phoenix intervened before Cronus could succeed, sending a hail of fiery feathers down upon his position with unerring accuracy – such that, even with Yue Guang right in front of Cronus, none of the fiery feathers struck him by accident.

Back on the other side, both Shun Yin and Angelica were flung away when a shadowy arm bearing a bulky mace smashed through their twin barriers and struck them. The two of them rolled and dodged a series of attacks from the many shadowy arms of Serena, but they were about to be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.

Crack!

A web of lightning blasted and seared across the weaving arms, disintegrating at least a few of them. Bellowing, White Tiger leaped forward, only to be deterred by a whip. As it dodged the whip, a scimitar came swinging by and almost eviscerating it. A sword would have decapitated it if its summoner hadn't deflected it with a lightning bolt.

"Damn it!" Glen cursed. "There's just too many arms!"

"Shun Yin!" Angelica called out. He immediately understood what she was intending and responded, reaching out to grab her hand.

"Resonance!"

The two of them merged their mana together, and while Glen and his White Tiger were still distracting Serena, cast a combined fire spell.

"!!!"

Serena recognized the danger and spun around, her spectral arms all surging toward the couple. However, Glen had managed to buy them enough time to cast their spell, and the two of them unleashed a gigantic fireball that incinerated a few of the arms, causing the shadowy weapons to topple onto the ground.

"That's really powerful. I see…by synchronizing your power, you're able to amplify the effects of your spell by not just double but several times. Impressive. Really impressive. But…"

Her remaining spectral arms reared up, bearing their weapons in an intimidating manner.

"…even with that increased power, you only destroyed a fraction of what I have."

"!!!"

Shun Yin and Angelica continued to link their hands, this time casting a firewall spell. Even as the shadowy arms and weapons surged toward them, they conjured a combined crimson and white firewall. Glen tried to help, but a few of the arms snaked away to attack him and his White Tiger, forcing the summoner and his Soul Beast to keep their distance.

A hammer and a mace slammed into the firewall in unison, but the reinforced barrier held. Strengthened by Resonance, the two's combined spell would withstand whatever attacks Serena threw at them for a while.

"You kids did well to hold out this long."

"?!"

The three of them turned and spotted Lionel diving down, his sword flashing. A trail of flower petals followed, and he ripped the shadowy arms into shreds. Serena recoiled as the backlash of her spell struck her, but she managed to conjure a fresh batch of armed…arms.

"You…!" she hissed.

Lionel ignored her. Instead, he raised his sword. A green dragon coiled around his blade, intensifying the swirl of flower petals around him. Serena raised an eye when she saw the green dragon curl about the sword and snarl at her, and then she lifted her gaze to Glen's White Tiger before finally settling on Michael's Vermillion Phoenix.

"Amazing. I never thought I would see three of the four Celestial Guardians appear in one place. The only one that is missing is Black Tortoise."

"Don't worry. One day my adopted son will be able to summon all four Celestial Guardians! No, five, maybe!" Shun Yin proclaimed proudly. Everyone stared at him.

"Your adopted son, eh?" Lionel chuckled. "If he really achieves that, I'll marry my daughter off to him."

"Hey! Not fair! If Shun Yin's adopted son were to marry anybody, it should be my daughter!" Glen shouted. "We're best friends!"

"I don't remember being best friends with you, and neither of you have any daughters yet," Shun Yin muttered under his breath.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Serena screeched as she launched her mass of spectral arms at them. Lionel returned his attention to her and swung his sword.

Dozens of vines whipped out from the ground and ensnared the shadow arms. They curled around the spectral appendages, coiling around them and restraining them. The vines also lunged at Serena, but her Assassin's instinct told her to leap away and avoid them at all costs. A few vines managed to catch her right arm and left leg, tangling her up and tripping her over.

"That's…?!"

"Hundred-Colored Flowers," Lionel intoned. The spectral arms began shrinking and wilting as their mana were being sucked and drawn into the vines, where flowers of myriad colors began blooming as they drew upon the enemy's power for nourishment. He didn't elaborate – only a fool or a manga character would explain his spells to an enemy.

Serena swiftly cut away several of the vines with her short swords, but it was clear that she was severely weakened, a huge chunk of her mana drained out of her. Her spectral arms faded away – without the mana to sustain them, she could no longer maintain their existence.

"Time to finish you off," Lionel declared as he stepped forward and slashed at her, but Serena barely managed to parry his blow.

A terrifying screech diverted his attention away from her. Cronus had managed to bury a fist in the Vermillion Phoenix's belly, and seemed to be doing something to it.

"You!" Michael's face contorted in fury and he lunged at the time spirit Assassin, swinging his flaming sword in order to free his Soul Beast. Cronus casually spun around, using the Vermillion Phoenix as a shield and forcing its summoner to stop for fear of hitting it accidentally. The moment Michael hesitated, Cronus ruthlessly whirled around and kicked him, sending him flying.

"Gah!"

"Mike!"

"Brother!"

However, Glen and Angelica's attention was captured by the fate of the Vermillion Phoenix. Silver mana was building up inside its body. The Vermillion Phoenix thrashed about and flailed, ripping chunks of flesh and muscle off Cronus's body. However, the huge Assassin held on stubbornly, probably confident in the fact that he could later reverse time to heal himself…or make it as if the injuries had never happened.

"Not good!" Lionel's face twisted, and he spun away from the downed Serena to dive at the two who were locked in combat. Yue Guang followed suit, but both men were too late.

Vermillion Phoenix ceased to exist, the silver mana surrounding its form and then crushing it into an orb before fading out of time.

"Even if it's Vermillion Phoenix, it's still not immune to the ravages of time," Serena remarked sinisterly, even as she continued to lay on the ground.