《Refining the Heavens》B2, Chapter 66: The Ghost Maw Incident (Part 6)
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The word 'heavenly' of the title of this stage of sword mastery did not come from divine origins, but actually the root word for heaven. Atmosphere.
Those who achieves this stage would not only be able to control their sword Ki they unleashed to be reabsorbed, they would also affect the energies in the heaven, the atmosphere, around.
A true sword master strikes not only with the full force of man but also the very power of nature. The heavenly energies in the air would come to their aid as if delivering the wrath of heaven itself.
Jones' attack: The Heavenly Sword, started with a soft murmur from the blade fragments that drifted over with the wind, then the countless shards began to shake in the air with a hum before finally turning into a loud shrill.
As the volume raised, the shards started gathering into a long edge, slightly above the heads of the soldiers. The heavenly energies in the area wrapped themselves around the sword forming in mid-air, becoming a giant blade without a handle.
It is different from Jones' secret art, World Sword that was made solely by his own power tuned to the highest output.
This is a martial art worthy to be deemed a tier higher. A noble art.
After forming, the heavenly sword released a large pressure that easily brushed aside the guards that were attempting to reform the defensive lines. Then it sped towards the princess with sudden acceleration.
The speed of the attack was so quickly that none could react, and in this critical time, the princess could only stare as death comes towards her. However, even so, she only smiled as if it wasn't her that is in danger.
Then with pearly white teeth, and a voice that seemed to make angels envy, she whispered softly under the loud hurricane of whipping wind and sharp sword screech, "I don't care if you die. Stop that blade for me, stupid mutt."
A person wearing ragged clothes that no one noticed before, suddenly jumped out of her shadow. He crawled about the floor, more alike a dog than a human, and then stared at the Heavenly Sword coming towards them with an intense beastly gaze. At the very last moment before impact, he jumped up and bit the Ki blade with a mouthful of yellowing teeth. The sword, empowered by the energy in the atmosphere did not crack nor give way, but it writhes with effort as it tries to wrestle itself away.
This man is the princess' personal guard, an S ranker given to her by her father, the Emperor. He used to be a proud practitioner as well as a humble man beloved by his wife and children. But under the princess' cruel 'reformation', he had slowly turned into this abomination that could hardly be called human. When Emperor Axtaius saw what happened to the loyal retainer of his, he felt completely revolted. What's more, the reason that his daughter gave him is a poorly created excuse that the man had gone mad during one of her runic experiments turning awry.
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The emperor, a leader of an entire country, thinks himself of having at least a discerning eye towards lies. But in the end, he looked the other way because Axtalia is after all his only daughter. Though after this incident, he no longer enjoyed gifting any more powerful practitioners to her.
Therefore, she sought out her targets on her own. Most of the guards in the palace quickly became aware of this nauseating hobby that their princess has, but because of a hush order from her, they did not dare to breathe a word on it. The tortures those who defied her underwent were enough to frighten anyone who knew the truth. However, it wasn't that she feared being found out by the others that she gave the hush order. Instead, she actually enjoyed knowing that others are frightened by her. However, if her true nature reaches the ears of her brother, then she could no longer toy with him as she pleased.
The princess herself has no illusion that the excuse she gave has hoodwinked her father, but somehow, Emperor Axtaius still did nothing to advise the crown prince on how she really is. And thus, her façade continued.
The reason for the emperor's silence is simple. The crown prince is after all destined to inherit his empire, but the boy seemed too straightforward and honest for his own good. Therefore, the emperor planned to let his son discover the truth on his own. And if he failed to do so in the end, then he will help.
Unknown to them all, Princess Axtalia believed herself to be a poorly misunderstood damsel. Looking at the loyal bodyguard mindlessly protecting her with his life, she thought wilfully once again, "If only royal father could see this fight, he would definitely agree to give me more toys."
Even as he frothed and bled, the dog-like man, refused to let go of the blade. The Ki from the attack alone tear at his lips and cut at his tongue, but the man only howled through clenched teeth and started flailing his arms about to fearlessly beat barehanded against the powerful Ki sword. It is an unreasonable method of fighting which harmed oneself almost as much as the thing he struck, but the man is clearly too insane to notice.
The power of Jones' noble art, is already far above his soul-infused cultivation at Entry B, because of the high-level of the Heavenly Sword technique, plus the combination of his mastery over the sword to the 5th stage. By these two factors alone, the noble art could exceed its rank and cut down an Entry A practitioner. When, the heavenly energies fusing with his noble art, is added to the mix, it quickly strengthened to the attack to the level of defeating a Peak A ranker.
Yet, even such strength, the Heavenly Sword should not be able to stop an S ranker like what it is doing right now, and Kairos' team stared in surprise as they observed how the princess' personal guard continued struggling in vain with the writhing blade.
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By Kairos' estimations, that man is at least of Mid S rank. Even if Jones had poured all the soul energy he had left to power this move, it would barely raise the heavenly sword's level to Entry S. Still one grade underwhelming.
He looked questioningly at his brother, the most talented practitioner that he knows of in the whole of Saint Empire. Jones looked back, grinned, and then pointed at his shoulder. The area where he pointed, suddenly filled by his contract beast, the million years snow stoat.
"Oh," he simply replied. Kairos did not know that the powerful vitality of the divine beast could be shared with its owner. A special ability belonging to the mysterious Deific Snow Tyrant race.
"Just an 'oh'?" Jones stared at Kairos. He was quite pleased with himself of his last-moment of quick thinking, but his brother is obviously unimpressed.
"It's not enough" Kairos was secretly impressed, but he still purposefully rained on Jones' parade, then with a grin said, "Watch me."
He pointed a finger at the man still fighting off the noble art, then with all the soul energy he could muster, he unleashed his only far-ranged martial art.
"Self-made immolation finger!" Jones exclaimed.
"Y...you don't have to declare that 'self-made' part..." Kairos rolled his eyes as his attack flew forward with lightning speed at the man. It struck the S rank right in the middle of his chest, and a runic symbol immediately appeared on the retainer's Ki barrier, quite alike the fire rune symbol on his weapon.
However, the runic lines which indicate the energy input did not designate the user's Ki as the supply but was instead altered into a symbol of 'conversation'.
When Kairos made created the skill, he had in mind to draw power from the target itself, forming a great gravity pool which would collapse the strike location into itself with high heat.
The S ranker's Ki barrier immediately got sucked away by the gravity pool of Kairos' technique, until finally the attack-rune is filled to the brim.
It began to pull at him, tearing a shred of skin and flesh away from his torso as the collapse being. But at this moment, either by the instinct of self-preservation or by a shred of human conscious still remaining within his mind, the insane retainer unleashed all of his power to overload the rune. Filling it and ending the gravity pull quicker than it should.
Then, a great implosion of air triggered right in front of him, followed by a powerful outward blast of hot air and sending the S ranked practitioner called stupid mutt flying far into the forest away from them.
"HEH," Kairos looked at Jones with a proud look in his eyes.
"Stealer of limelight" He replied with a 'pfft.'
Though a lot had happened, the entire sequence of attacks from beginning till now, lasted merely a minute. Even the soldiers around had not expected the attempt on their princess' life would be so maddened and aggressive.
All of them had thought, at first, that their foes merely planned to divert away attention by threatening the princess, but never truly wanted her life. However, after experiencing how fearsome each of their attacks came, they finally changed their thoughts.
The second in command gave a meaningful glance towards their struggling captain, then shouted for everyone to fall back towards the princess. A few of the troops catching his hint, went forward to help the captain remove the water sphere from his head, while the rest dashed towards Axtalia to guard her.
Unfortunately, their assault had not yet ended.
With a smirk, Vouno unleashed the final technique stored in his repertoire. Syriong's unnamed technique, the thin purple crystal sword.
It appeared out of thin air above Vouno, made from Ki rather than of actual crystals. Then, the double S ranking attack disappeared from sight as it flew at high-speed towards the princess.
The suddenness of the attack is too fast for a B ranker like her to react against. But, as the princess, she is given quite a few treasures that could save her life even if she did not lift a finger. When it came close to her, several automatic defensive talismans activated, creating multiple layers of barriers and enveloping her with a protective bubble.
Unfortunately, none of the barriers lasted even a moment against the crystal sword, and it easily pierced the princess directly in her heart, then explode within her body into a myriad of crystal fragments.
There is no doubt that the princess is already beyond saving. The damage within her body is impossible even for the best doctors.
The princess herself did not expect to fall here, much less from the attack of their own guardian. The ceaseless attempt on her life seemed so unreasonable at this point, and she soundlessly mouthed, 'why?'
Then a voice appeared within her mind. Aisa's sweet and girlish voice.
Kairos said you ought to know before you go away, that this is revenge for what you did to Jones. Okay, umm, bye bye then
With the end of Aisa's declaration, Axtalia was left with a deafening silence as she faded into the darkness. Her wish to talk to Kairos, never fulfil in the end.
The tone of the voice that delivered the last words she would hear seemed to indicate that her death is less than worthless.
Within the pocket of Kairos' robes, Aisa had already promptly returned to her sleep after 'sending' Princess Axtalia off.
The Princess never closed her eyes as she drew her last shuddering breath, her discontentment could be seen reflected from her lifeless irises.
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