299. A Blazing Apocalypse

299. A Blazing Apocalypse

The sound barrier broke. Particles of light exploded from the White Wing’s fingertips as her pale spear – the replica Spear of Annihilation – collided with Sinder’s chest. An invisible barrier only appearing to block the spear protected his heart, causing shreds of flaming pages to burst as he was flung hundreds of meters backwards.

“I didn’t expect you to reemerge so soon as a Faux Angel again SINDER!” The White Wing’s complexion burst with emotion. Her voice was accompanied by a maniacal chuckle. She clicked a button on her pocket watch as she lunged forward, disappearing before Carpalis’ very eyes.

}{ Spatial Entanglement }{

The sound barrier broke multiple times over, creating shockwaves that sifted the leveled remnants of the city like the waves of a sea. An artificial cityscape soon began to rise from the earth, painted in a permanent hue of green. Carpalis’ Faustian Bargain collided with Frost, swatting him like a miniscule bug as she rapidly grew to a colossal scale.

|| The Dealer of Hands ||UppTodated from nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)/m

Carpalis’ Zone of Influence clashed with... Sinder’s.

It became clear that the prevailing identity that overruled Frost was not her own, but of a previous iteration. One that carried the combined woes of both, brought back into the realm of the living as a living embodiment of an apocalypse.

When two Corrupted Zones clashed one did not dominate over the other. In short, both existed at the same time. Apocalypse-classed Corrupted were beings of such might, and woven by existential nightmares that only Beholders could stand toe to toe with them.

Frost had become such one entity.

But more than that, this was a Corrupted born directly from Frost.

< “It all returns to ashes...” >

Sinder muttered in his deeply distorted, masculine voice.

“You’re the first Faux Angel born from whatever broken dreams you allowed to eat at you! When we thought those created by the Advent of Wrath were bad, you conjured something none of us could deal with! I know you can hear me in there, SINDER!” The White Wing carried a personal vendetta against it.

She appeared as quickly as she disappeared right in front of Sinder – the Crowned – as she punched the false Spear of Annihilation into his chest, as if hoping it would pierce his heart. It caused the Golden Hand behind to buckle. An Angel like the White Wing was on par, if not stronger than an ordinary Beholder.

The force caused the barrier and the tip of the spear to erupt with fireworks in the form of colorful sparks. The embers set the top of buildings alight before the White Wing clasped onto the spear as hundreds of falling feathers pointed at Sinder and began to riddle his body like knives before she grabbed him by the throat.

“No doubt you’re the real thing. That Primordial Factor can’t be touched with a fake apparatus like this. Like Elysia, you need to be eliminated, Sinder. This world is not yours to destroy again!” The White Wing then threw him downwards, her feathers dragging him along as she clicked her pocket watch again and again, clashing his fists.

They were like bolts of lightning, shredding all that stood in their path as glass shattered as far as a kilometer away by the sheer force of their combat. The White Wing possessed a power reminiscent of the Hyperlinks, allowing her to teleport at will.

However, this was only possible so long as she was able to click a certain button along her rapidly ticking pocket watch.

“It was supposed to happen much later! To think those subterranean hearts took the initiative! To spin your inevitable defeat into a prophecy that would bring them all TOGETHER!”

With each consecutive clash, Sinder took more and more damage. It reached a point where he had lost over 100,000 million HP in the mere span of a single minute.

Crowned | HP: 400,000,000

However, as she prepared ahead of a time a dome of feathers which were primed to converge into a Frost who collided with the Faustian Bargain –

– A flaming explosion rendered these feathers down to a molecular level.

< [What Doesn’t Kill You...] >

< ... further bellows the flames in one’s heart! >

They became a molten slag. All three of her tails, which were formed along her back like a second wing, caught alight as she backed off from what was akin to an erupting volcano. A shell of flames surrounded Frost as Carpalis rapidly retracted her hands up beyond the clouds, watching the buildings melt like candlesticks to a bonfire.

Not even Carpalis’ closed eyelids could stop the light from entering her eyes. It was an explosion of flames that lathered liquid fire into the world. One droplet landed on the arm of the White Wing and it left behind a blackened mark.

A shield made of multiple layers of her feathers was erected as she backed off instinctively, gripping the watch in one hand like her life depended on it. The immediate 10-kilometer vicinity was hit with a severe heatwave, enough to cook one’s lungs from the inside out if the air was breathed.

Thankfully, from their knowledge, no one was present to have to endure such a fate.

*Click*

*Click*

She pulled out her pocket watch, clicking rapidly until the hands began to move again. At the very last possible second, she teleported out of the 5 kilometer kill zone that was Carpalis’ hand, watching the very foundation of the earth shift downwards as fissures ran into the distance.

Sinder | HP: 410,000,000

Silence suddenly prevailed. Carpalis scrapped her hand in a circular motion, maximizing the damage as the White Wing could have sworn that she noticed abnormal movement in the corner of her eye. She thought she saw healers but dismissed it entirely as she focused solely on the situation that would dictate the fate of the Nex Megalopolis.

“50 minutes left. I can already see movement in the distance.”

Indeed. If one looked closely, they could see the vaporized outline of something huge approaching. In the meantime, small, very faint strands of light began to shoot overhead like shooting stars.

< [What Doesn’t Kill You...] >

Crowned

HP : 550,000,000 ATT DEF : 10,000 MAG DEF : 10,000

“You’re persistent...” The White Wing scoffed before another violent eruption threw Carpalis’ hand back into the air.

“Painful!” Carpalis cried, retracting her hand as the blue coloration fell like deadly hail.

Within the handprint-shaped chasms was an unharmed Sinder, whose enraged breathing became audible despite the immense distance. Their wings expanded and took them to the skies, the wingbeats sending flaming disks in all directions, shaping the land to his whims.

He never spoke a word.

Instead, he showed his flaming fists and directed them to the White Wing, for they would speak all the words in his mind for him.

< [Violence on Violence Action] >

< We shall settle our differences the same way it was always supposed to be done >

And before Carpalis could recover, the two collided fist to fist.

But this time, the White Wing was struck backwards. She was flung like a bullet through several dozen buildings as Sinder gave chase, his wings slicing through the same buildings like a hot knife through butter.

Suddenly, the White Wing found herself on the denfesive, all the while the diamond crystal floating above Sinder’s shoulder began to emit a dangerous glow.

//////// < WARNING > ////////

< UNAVOIDABLE ATTACK >

< [Clubs of the Voiceless] >

< I pretend to not hear them, because I could never live to be faced with such guilt >

And paired with it was another attack, which caused a quarter of the now 15-kilometer city to glow a vibrant green as club-shaped crystals took to the skies.

< [Immortalized Woe – Clubs] >

As if the battle wasn’t hard enough, each and every single one of the crystals began to emit a high-pitched cry.

It mimicked the cries of countless thousands – the many Sinder and Frost had discarded.