Act 4: Fallen Heaven - Chapter 724: How Is The Taste Of Your Own Fear?

Act 4: Fallen Heaven - Chapter 724: How Is The Taste Of Your Own Fear?

Her enraged roar echoed to his side of the battle, and Oscar couldn't help but smile, gladdened to hear her so lively and well. Surely, she suffered for far longer than he had under the influence of Lelith's spell, but her invigorated cry dispelled all of his unease. At last, the final piece toward their victory had been placed on the board. Lelith closed in, crossing her scythes in full swing with her wings jabbing forward. Oscar firmed his footing, unwilling to back down, and punched, linking with Demon's burning thrust and Erden's brutish charge, their attacks merging in a devastating whole.

He felt a warm touch, a slight tap that pushed and spurred him onward, on his back. Ein gushed in and surged toward his dwindling reserves, a joyous cry resounding from his spinning core. From the corner of his eyes, he spotted two pages of shining parchment unfurling on Demon's and Erden's backs, surging a bright Ein in them that gave them a slight glow. Their merged attack swelled and pushed on, carrying the burst of Ein supplied by Avril. Lelith's hands slowly pulled back, giving in inch by inch as her knees began to buckle. It was working.

The ground, laden with the deep scars of their previous exchanges, shuddered, the cracks spreading past the edges and joining the ones damaging the walls. A ripple of dust and stone expanded, and everything began to sink, starting from the center. Oscar lifted off and retreated up, facing an avalanche of rocks as the walls closed in, falling apart. It all fell to the floor below, piling atop one another in a mountain of ruins, chunks of crystals, gems, and gold glittering in the dust. Somewhere in there, Lelith was buried, but he breathed in and took a moment to recover some Ein, a rare opportunity he couldn't squander.

A radiant figure floated beside him, grabbing his hand. Oscar turned and stiffened, stunned by Avril's new appearance, owing to her forceful yet successful complete Integration. She wore a fine dress of woven parchments of scrolls as if someone had unfurled one lengthy scroll and sewn it into the shape of a dress. It reached up to her shoulders and down her arms, ending in long, wide sleeves, her hand gripping the white staff on which a scroll adorned the tip. It was a fair dress for a fair lady, not an inch of skin shown. His eyes fixated on the long rolls of parchment extending from her back, resembling a pair of wings. Words scribbled and filled the spaces of every visible parchment in neat and small handwriting, her handwriting.

What worried him most was how she glowered at the rubble with a cold gaze, the same kind he had seen on her multiple times in the past, as if a sudden shift occurred in her mind and a strange cruelness remained. Before, she had torn an enemy apart limb by limb and carved his entrails out. While he considered snapping her out of this state as he had always done before, he decided against it today. Simply put, it wasn't right. He shouldn't be the only one enraged, feeling like tearing the heart out of his enemies. If anyone could share the violence and emotion surging in his heart, it was her.

An eerie ring chirped out, a sharp glint crossing the mountain of rubble, followed by a cacophony of these rings and the sparkling of dozens more glints. He realized it was Lelith cutting her way out, and soon enough, the rubble clattered down in the size of pebbles, cut finely in uniform shapes. Lelith floated out of the easy pile and bobbed her head to the sides as if shaking off the dust out of her ears. Her indifferent gaze brushed past Serit, Oscar, and Avila and landed on Avril.

"Slave. What are you doing? Be a good girl and stay back. Disobedience is not tolerated in my house." Lelith wagged her finger, beckoning Avril to comply. It was a motion that Avila described to him earlier, one that made Avril behave oddly and follow Lelith's whims. Oscar smirked and didn't look at Avril, trusting in the will that broke herself free of the foul spell.

"I am Avril Terr. Not Slave. Not Pet. Not Plaything. I am not yours, nor will I ever be. Today...you will die." Avril replied in a chilling tone and raised her staff, the words on the unfurling scroll glowing as did the ones on her dress. Branches, roots, and vines grew and entangled, intertwining like rope and forming shapes. Before long, a giant of brambles roared and dove straight down. Clad in thick bark, the giant reached for Lelith, exposing the thorns on every inch of its palms, and breathed out clouds of purple pollen, covering the bottom half of the now-combined halls. It bore a single word on its forehead: Giant.

The glowing Ancestral Mark on her forehead, the visage of a runic crown, vanished. Oscar delved in and gritted his teeth. The moment he had been waiting. His scrutinizing gaze, honed by years of forging weaponry and great armaments, noticed the slight, barely counting as a change, wane in the sharp gleam along the edges of Lelith's scythes, dress, and wings. Serit somehow reached the bottom a while ago and dashed, circling Lelith at the farthest distance. His traps of darkness sprang forth, wreaking chaos around her. Dark shrouds shuffled in and out in a confusing, distracting manner, and swamps of darkness bubbled under her feet.

'Give in. Give in. Give in!' Oscar roared in the violent seas of his thoughts. Parts of his armor flaked off and dispersed back into flimsy Eirin. His time limit was fast approaching, and he hadn't broken through Lelith's defense. She had not moved a single step, only turning to block the next attack. A sharp light cleaved past Erden and parted an antler off his helmet. Luckily, his beast was in human form; if not for that, his neck in Prielapos form might have been sliced through. Was it desperation? Oscar felt Lelith's attacks get faster and heavier. No, he knew his power waned. The four shared senses between Avril, Oscar, Demon, and Erden via Resonance kept them in the fight.

'We exhausted ourselves far too much just to tear off her Ancestral Mark. After that, we had been fighting a genuine Grade Nine with her full original Ein, barely a fifth of ours remaining. She's wasting time, waiting for us to drop first.' Demon said calmly, as if unbothered, but his words failed to reciprocate the sentiment. '...we might die here.'

'No. There is a way. One way. Something she would never expect.' Avril rushed in and covered her long staff in a giant wooden shield, given form by her Integration. Her golden pupils stared dead at Lelith but flashed a hint of apology at Oscar, a small smile gracing her lips. He widened his eyes as the link of Resonance passed on her determination and the 'way' she spoke of. Part of him wanted to stop her, but he had no other idea, his limit approaching in a matter of seconds.

Oscar, Demon, and Erden poured in the remaining of their Eirin and rampaged, battering all they could muster on the steely fort that was Lelith. Avila and Serit seemed to pick up on their frantic use of Ein and redoubled their efforts, using up their reserves. Avril strode past and stomped her foot down, swinging the wooden shield that covered her twice over. Lelith disregarded her strike and casually swung her scythe to block it. Oscar clenched his teeth and fists and readied for the final strike, knowing the opportunity would come.

Through the Resonance, he felt Avril's pain as the Reis coursed past her weak heart and gathered into Eirin on the hull of her shield, bashing on Lelith's casual swing. He shed a few tears as Lelith staggered, knocked off balance, the indifferent eyes of the cruel master slightly widening and snapping to Oscar. Demon became nearly transparent, his sword pushing one wing. Erden rammed against the other, holding it in place. Her other hand, still a reach away, gripped tightly and motioned the scythe in place to swing down. However, Oscar and the others moved in perfect tandem, matching the timing to the exact moment of Avril's attack.

Oscar risked it all on that, shedding tears of blood at the agony his wife suffered from the backlash of Reis. Lelith probably never expected such a heavy blow; in fact, each of her strikes, no matter against the weak or powerful, matched them perfectly as if she played a great symphony of precision, conserving power at every moment. Well, his wife had a tendency to be the one that tore apart the expectations of others. Off-balance, spells cut and burned, the one free arm too far to counter in that instant, she had no more cards.

He reached her first, his fist already closing in on the one weakness, the chink in the armor that Santen sacrificed himself to open in Lelith's defenses. Avril paved the way with a risky blow, and Santen planted the target where his fist drove in. Lelith shuddered as Oscar pushed his fist into her neck, green blood gushing out of the widening wound. Her eyes darted in a frenzy between her hand and Oscar's, an unexpected reaction.

"Ah, so you can feel fear. Welcome to the fear of death." In the end, she showed emotion. Oscar spun his hip and pushed onward with a great roar, letting out his rage at the pain Avril had suffered in the past and now. His fist forced itself through the hardened flesh of Meture's shard and tore off half her neck, green blood flooding the gap. The armor on his arm shattered, and he dropped to his knees. Demon disappeared, the white sword clattering to the floor. Stripped of his armor, Erden fell to the floor, bearing deep cuts on his body. Lelith gurgled and held her neck, leaking blood. Oscar smiled and gave her one final look, "How is it? The taste of your own fear?"U//ppTodated fr/o/m nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)\/m