Act 3: Empire's Stand - Chapter 464: The Struggles At Home

Act 3: Empire's Stand - Chapter 464: The Struggles At Home

The sky was clear. The blue expanse was void of any and all clouds, allowing the long stretch of sand meeting the ocean to bask unfettered in the heat of the two suns. Tremendous waves, the height of city walls, disrupted this peaceful scenery and crashed onto the cliffs behind the beach. Fierce winds turned into tumultuous gales, lashing and carving into the ground. The contradicting chaos chased away all the beasts and animals from their abodes, great flocks of birds rushing away from the waters. The call of thunder struck violently despite the sky remaining clear and blue.

The cause of the disturbance came from the group of Exalts, their Eins forming into spells that violently clashed against each other. On one side stood several people wearing the blue draconic armor of the Brilliant Drake Empire, and the on the other were several garbed in the red griffon armor of the Scarlet Griffon Empire. Further up were the people from the Blue Ocean Pavilion and the Undying Flame Sect in their uniforms, unrelenting in their attacks.

"Damn!" Terry shouted, snapping his head to the side to see a giant molten fist about to reach him. Before it could touch him, a dense barrier of water vortexed between him and the molten fist, protecting him in time for him to move away. It exploded into a cloud of steam and disappeared into the ocean below.

"Nicely done, Susan!" Terry dodged several other spells and raised his hands, expelling a rush of wind that twisted and hit several others with a great impact. He rushed out into the opening he created, winds ferrying his legs along, and stabbed his spear multiple times. The air continuously swirled and grew around his swings.

Susan gripped her mage staff anima and glanced everywhere around the battlefield. Everyone fought fervently up, below, and to her sides, relying on her water-type healing and barriers for support. But the outlook wasn't good. She spun her mage staff multiple times, sending a flood of water to heal their wounds. Her face paled at the sight of one of her companions suffering a severed arm, and she bit her lip, bleeding droplets down her chin. She could only do so much as a Middle Knight Exalt with her grade five core.

'I wish Kelvin were here....' Susan glanced at the ring on her hand and sighed, sending out every bit of her Ein to protect and heal. Her husband was currently stationed elsewhere for the war, and she hadn't seen him for a year. While her mind turned elsewhere, something crashed into her small petite body, knocking her back to her senses.

"Uren!" Susan cried out at Uren's battered body. She quickly healed him, but his injuries ran deep. Uren's eagle anima perched on his shoulder, barely maintaining its shape in the physical world.

"Susan. You have to run." Uren choked through his blood. He stared at the Undying Flame Sect enemy before him. "We're outnumbered and barely holding on. I can't let you die, for Kelvin's sake."

"What about Esther?" Susan gripped his other shoulder and swelled her waters into him to cleanse out the internal injuries. She frowned and gritted her teeth at the devastating wounds on Uren's body. "I can't let you die either. We'll make it out together!"

"Sorry, but we can't allow any of you to leave." The enemy wasted no time, rushed in with his sword raised high, and slashed downward with thunder quaking from its stroke.

Uren raised his mace and coated it in dense earth, stacking layer upon layer. His eagle anima enlarged its stone wings to aid in the defense. Acting without pause, Susan covered the enemy in a water prison to slow his movements and created a barrier of whirlpools for good measure.

He held his sword and took a stance, lightning rippling across his eyes. "I changed my mind. I'll take both of you prisoner. You'll willingly heal our soldiers if your friend is under our care. Your home will be gone soon."

Under the threat of the raging thunder, Susan hunched but remained standing. The swordsman was prepared to act, and her back shivered. However, a strange yet familiar voice interrupted everyone.

"I heard the news about the extent of the war but didn't expect to run into a battle on my way back." A terrifying Ein halted everyone, filling the air with dread.

"Who?" The swordsman gazed up, followed by everyone. A figure stood above them with a strange deer with great antlers on its head, on its back like wings, and on its hooves.

Susan saw the man and widened her eyes, her mouth slightly parting from exhaustion and shock. The man above her was tall, garbed in a long white linen shirt, long black pants, and a black formal vest, and had a bed of black hair and deep obsidian eyes. He wasn't extremely handsome, an average face, but he had an undeniable charm, a strange feeling that this man held a uniqueness to him.

'It can't be....' She couldn't believe her eyes. He was taller and looked a bit older, but everything else was familiar to her. Impossible, she thought while a slight smile lifted from her lips. The man, who was said to be the hero of Ashen Grove, the one who plucked the Divine Essence under everyone's eyes, the one who saved her a long time ago and helped her become useful, should be dead.

He never came out of Ashen Grove. She recalled seeing his friends' distraught and broken expressions when they landed on the airship to go back home. Everyone thought him to be gone forever.

So why was he here now? Susan stammered for a little and said through her weary lips, "Oscar?"

The man heard her and turned to see her. "Isn't that Susan? It's been a long while. Twenty-one years I believe, or twenty-two."

"It's you? How is that possible?" Susan had forgotten where she was, focusing on the impossibility before her.

"We'll talk later. Right now...there are some things that need to be cleaned up." Oscar burst into a strange blue aura surrounding his arms and legs. His strange deer beast beside him transformed into a being of blue metal with bright red flames on its antlers on hooves. He tilted his head and said in the most chilling voice, "Who's going to lose the war?"