Chap 151: The Only Resolution

Black lightning erupted from the core of the vortex. With no chance to even gasp in terror, both Miko and Zod—defying the pain—sprang from their perches on the massive beams. The lethal tips of the lightning bolts scorched the exact spots they had just abandoned, leaving no doubt about their deadly intent.

The resounding clash of dual lightning strikes shattered the once-hushed atmosphere, sending ripples of dread through the air. The cacophony reached even Sade within his protective purple force shield, and the mounting anticipation of another encounter with the ominous vessel ruptured his concentration.

A gust of wind swept down from the fragment suspended high above him, its force accompanied by a deep, reverberating boom. Suddenly, the colossal beams sprang to life, writhing and twisting into sinister shapes. Sinuous, vine-like appendages shot from the towering structures, their barbed tips hammering against Sade’s protective barrier.

Sade’s eyes snapped open as he saw countless vine tips converging menacingly behind his force shield. His focus on deactivating the Sealed Bond wavered, fragile as a single strand. He knew the situation was escalating, but he couldn’t let anything hinder Lilith’s transmission of the Dark Lord’s vital message. Gritting through his waning energy, he pressed on, battling the constricting vines that wrapped around his shield as if trying to smother every inch of it.

Meanwhile, propelled by the force of their leap, Zod and Miko soared away from immediate danger only to have their hopes of landing safely on the beams below instantly dashed. Suspended mid-air, Miko felt a prickling sensation like needles dancing across her back, alerting her to a new threat just outside her sight.

She attempted to summon two swords through her intricate hand motions, but her desperation to escape the danger made her falter, preventing her from completing the summoning. Unbeknownst to her, the mass of black smoke behind her warped into an inky hand tipped with five deadly metal claws.

Before Zod could even draw a full breath to brace for counterattack, another threat hurtled toward him with ruthless speed. Hidden from his view, a five-foot sword materialized within a billowing cloud of ebony smoke, angling to cleave him at the waist. Realizing the lethal danger too late, Zod could only brace himself for the incoming strike.

In the same heart-stopping instant, the malevolent hand lunged, aiming to rake its deadly claws through Miko’s back. But its trajectory faltered as Miko vanished from her position. The forceful swing of the massive hand continued unhindered, releasing a shockwave so powerful it carved deep crevices into the towering beams behind it. The beams splintered and began their cataclysmic descent, collapsing like the crumbling tiers of a multi-level highway.

Zod’s turn of fate was far crueler than Miko’s. The searing lash of a sword’s edge tore across his senses, wrenching an anguished cry from him as he realized he was on the brink of being cleaved in two. Agonizing pain erupted at his waist, obliterating rational thought as he was hurled through the air, slammed into a beam, and sent tumbling in a chaotic roll.

His violent momentum halted just as Miko rematerialized in her new location. His eyelids flickered with dim blue light—an unsteady battle between consciousness and unconsciousness until finally, he went still.

Meanwhile, Miko found herself in unfamiliar surroundings, only to feel a fierce tug at the root of her ponytail, a threat intent on ripping her head clean from her body.

In an instant, she understood—her attacker had seized her by the hair, ready to deliver a fatal strike. Her sword, already summoned, acted the moment she did. With a swift, precise motion, she severed her ponytail.

Though freed from the brutal grip, she had no chance to breathe. Her momentum hurled her through the air until she crashed into a massive beam. A harsh fit of coughing followed, spraying blood as she fought to regain her breath. Still, she forced herself upright, turning fluidly on one knee and raising her dual swords in a poised, ready stance.

In the midst of her tense standoff, Miko’s heartbeat thundered in her ears, blending with a growing, ominous hum rising from somewhere in the distance. The absence of any visible Harbinger opponent only deepened her unease. A faint vibration rippled through the beam beneath her, which she assumed came from the force of her own landing.

Lifting her gaze, she spotted the lower remnants of her braid dangling from a beam overhead. A frown tugged at her brow as she considered the possibility that her hair had snagged on the beam during her teleportation—nearly resulting in her head being torn from her body. If that was the case…did it mean no Harbinger had attacked her at all?

A sharp wave of pain surged through her, forcing her to release her grip on the heavy metal swords and let them rest against the beam. Agony spread through her body in relentless waves, tears springing to her eyes as she realized that was only the beginning of her ordeal. Yet the faint, distant knowledge that she would eventually wake up in the safety of the infirmary offered a fragile sliver of hope.

Zod trembled violently, clutching his waist as though he could physically hold the pain inside him at bay. A fragmented memory intruded. His younger brother shivering beneath blankets during an illness years ago. The desperate wish he once had, to take his brother’s suffering upon himself, resurfaced painfully. But at the moment, under this crushing agony, he would give anything to pass that torment to someone else.

In his ethereal form—a swirling mass of black smoke—Legion observed the mortal’s catastrophic crash and tumbling descent. The sword he had wielded was now nothing more than a jagged stub below the hilt, shattered upon striking the mortal.

A low, thunderous growl vibrated from Legion, his irritation palpable. The mortal should have been split cleanly in two. Still, with the mortal lying motionless, the moment was ripe for Riven to strike before drawing closer.

Yet Riven used its telepathic link to relay a crucial warning to Legion. The mortal’s iridescent blue eyes were glowing, a sign of immense Ultramana energy—enough to incinerate Riven if it attempted possession. 

Even so, Legion’s patience had evaporated. His temper was spent, and he advanced with unwavering intent, determined to ensure the mortal’s demise himself.

Amid the unfolding chaos, Lilith’s pallid claws conveyed another stark truth. The mortal girl had escaped her grasp. Her ebony smoke form trembled with a piercing shriek that echoed across the vast void. If only she had anticipated such a twist… if only she had acted with greater speed than the mortal.

“What was that?” Saeda asked, bewildered by the sudden, disquieting disturbance.

The steady trickle of blood down Kie’s head became unmistakable once her glowing gaze settled on him. He remained motionless, transfixed by the eerie shrill reverberating from afar. 

Realizing the mortal girl was no longer in sight and recalling her higher mission, Lilith recalibrated her approach. Drifting through the void in her ethereal black smoke form, she followed the trail of dark energy. Perhaps striking down the Sentinels outright was unnecessary when a wiser strategy existed—wait for the vessel to complete its calling. An event that would eliminate the remaining Sentinels all on its own.

A jolt of excruciating pain rippled through Miko’s body, stirring a foreboding certainty that a battle was imminent. Scanning her surroundings, she confirmed the absence of both Zod and any Harbingers. The question lingered…

How far had her teleportation flung her?

The faint blue luminescence still tinting her vision reminded her that her eyes continued to glow. Suddenly, a powerful tremor shook the beam beneath her, igniting a surge of fear. Snatching up her telecom, she transmitted urgently, “Guys, the Harbingers are here!”

Zod, who had initially dismissed Miko’s earlier warning, heard her voice ring through his telecom. Yet his concentration remained locked on simply enduring his torment, leaving no space to strategize. Kie and Saeda, abandoning their contemplation of the distant, eerie shriek, leapt into action.

Clutching his head with one hand as blood streamed from a fresh wound, Kie gasped, “We need to move.”

Saeda, supporting Tee from the opposite side, took reassurance in the strength behind his voice, shelving her earlier questions. Her gaze dropped to the unconscious Tee.

“I knew the Harbingers were here,” she said. “They’re the ones that blasted us just now. We should stay sharp. One could be lurking close.”

Kie released his hold on Tee, shifting the burden to Saeda as he activated his holomap and zoomed in to an extreme degree to determine the best direction to head.

“If Miko said the Harbingers are here, then they must be near her,” he said.

Without delay, he resumed helping Saeda support Tee.

“I can manage on my own, but she’s of no use to us in battle,” he said flatly.

“Her telecom’s gone, so how do we teleport without her?” Saeda pointed out, eyeing Kie’s battered condition despite Tee’s absent crimson glow. “Our task to eliminate a Harbinger may already be busted. We might need to leave through the elders.”

“No, we can still teleport. That’s how I did it back at the park.” His voice sharpened. “And we’re not leaving until I see Legion’s ugly face separated from his body,” Kie fumed.

“Then it’s settled,” Saeda said, shifting the full weight of carrying Tee onto him. “You can carry Tee.”

Without waiting for a response from her telecom, Miko’s focus shifted. Her fear of the Harbingers ebbed away, replaced by a more immediate concern—finding her way through this unfamiliar expanse.

Activating her holomap, Miko gauged the distance separating her from Zod and aligned herself in the correct direction. Steeling her nerves, she braced to move.

A sudden gust of wind, rising from an unseen source, reminded her of the absence of her once-lengthy braid. At the same time, vine-like protrusions erupted from the beams around her. Without hesitation, she summoned her twin swords and slashed through the encroaching tendrils.

Gradually, the open space between the beams transformed into a tangled lattice of obsidian strands. Stranger still, the beams themselves began a bizarre trembling dance, vibrating with a rhythm she felt through the intermittent contact of her boots. The quiet atmosphere fractured—something significant was coming.

Legion’s smoke form condensed into a physical figure—a towering being draped in darkness, two fiery eyes burning beneath a lowered hood. Gravity seized him, pulling him downward toward the beam where the weakened mortal lay. Four elongated spikes burst from his waist, merging into an arrow-shaped formation aimed to impale his prey.

Sensing imminent danger, Zod reacted instinctively. He rolled off the beam’s edge just in time. 

Legion struck the beam with cataclysmic force, shattering it and sending Zod flying from the blast.

Legion enjoyed a good chase—but that prey needed to stay still. 

Mid-fall, Zod’s wide eyes caught sight of a slimmer form of Legion emerging from the fading cloud of debris. A swarm of spectral shadows rushed alongside him, their discordant, piercing shrieks adding yet another layer of darkness to the unfolding nightmare.

Driven by sheer terror, Zod’s survival instincts surged to life, guiding him into a desperate landing on his feet. His frame struck a massive beam with a jarring thud. Tilting his head upward, he could do nothing but stare at the horrific spectacle unfolding above him. The moment felt so grave, so inevitable, that it seemed to demand a chilling, otherworldly chorus to herald his doom.

From Legion’s corporeal form, an inky torrent of spirits poured forth, spreading like tendrils of black ink into the void. Those very spirits remembered their past encounter with that same mortal—how they had once trapped him within a domed enclosure, only to be met by a devastating surge of Ultramana that came dangerously close to annihilating them. Their retreat had been one of desperation, yet Legion had regarded it as a trivial, passing whim.

Now fate had positioned Legion perfectly. The mortal lay before him, unprotected and exposed. Yet the advantage carried a price. In this true, unmasked form, Legion could not regenerate. Any injury he sustained would not heal without nourishment.

For the first time, Legion shed his customary hood. Beneath it emerged a skull-like head of ghostly white. His once-human body crumbled away into obsidian ash, revealing an imposing skeletal entity, all jagged edges and malevolent presence.

Caught in the gravity of the transformation, Zod’s senses faltered. His frightened gaze registered only fragments of Legion’s metamorphosis before the colossal abomination launched itself downward.

Zod’s eyes widened to their limits as death itself seemed to descend upon him. In those fleeting seconds, he noticed the encircling swarm of dark spirits forming a domed perimeter around them. The idea of leaping away evaporated instantly. Any attempt to flee would result in him being ripped apart by those malevolent entities.

Faced with almost no time to strategize, Zod extended a trembling hand toward the advancing curtain of bone-edged cloak. The energy inside him coalesced into a minuscule sphere in his palm—so small compared to the immense threat before him that it broke his heart. Yet instead of firing outward, the energy burst in all directions, spreading into an unexpected barrier.

With a resounding impact that shook the air, the colossal entity slammed into Zod’s newly formed energy field, producing a thunderous smack. His heartbeat spiked in realization—his desperate maneuver had created an energy construct, confirmed by the force of the collision.

As the creature’s multitude of spiked limbs closed in, Zod’s energy construct expanded, enveloping him in a pulsating protective orb.

His outstretched hand blocked his view of the skeletal monstrosity—once Legion—and that suited him just fine. He preferred not to look at the grotesque thing descending upon him. 

Beyond the orb, only abyssal darkness stretched out, swallowing all light. Countless bone tips hammered the outside of his cocoon, each one a reminder of how futile his efforts might be.

A surge of overwhelming force slammed against the orb, flinging Zod into its inner surface. The exterior remained pitch-black, but within, he was tossed violently in every direction as blow after blow struck the sphere. Each impact rang through his skull, a relentless symphony of agony.

Blue luminescence traced the inner surface of the orb, smeared and streaked with rivulets of his own blood, creating a grim, vivid contrast. It felt like being trapped in a high-speed, nightmarish game of ping-pong.

Then, suddenly, everything went still.

A suffocating calm settled, shrouding the surroundings in utter darkness. Inside the orb, Zod crouched defensively, eyes lifting to the web of fissures snaking across the barrier. And then he saw them—two immense, fiery eyes glaring at him through the cracks.

His jaw fell open in silent horror, but the scream clawing at his throat never made it out.

An intuitive sensation warned Zod of two distinct points of contact pressing against the orb's outer surface. The fiery gaze remained fixed on him, a malevolent scrutiny hidden within the darkness. He felt like a specimen under the relentless study of an unseen observer, held aloft by an ethereal grip.

The thought pulled up memories of his earlier ambitions—to be a scientist rather than follow his father’s dream of him becoming a lawyer. In that strange moment, Zod felt as though he were on trial. Yet Miko’s happy face drifted into his mind, making him wonder what it would’ve been like to be a chef instead. Even there, trapped in the dark, he allowed himself a small smile.

Curiously, Legion’s usual sharp, witty remarks were missing. That silence was jarring, breaking away from Legion’s predictable pattern. It made Zod realize that the earlier transformation had awakened another side of him. The slender form had revealed something different—something that reminded Zod of his mother’s own dual nature, a truth he never wanted to confront.

A violent strike slammed into Zod’s energy orb, deepening the cracks spreading across its surface. More stabs followed, each one echoing with an ominous rhythm and the terrible sound of fracturing. With every breath, weakness coiled tighter around him, worsened by the shivering tremors that shook his body. Still, he clung to the fading hope of keeping his failing orb intact.

The persistent sting at his waist forced sharp gasps from him. A constant reminder of Legion’s lethal intent. Another deafening crack echoed through him, and his thoughts flicked to his teammates and their places in this deadly conflict. The weight of their opposing goals—his team against the Harbingers—settled heavily in his chest.

Was a battle to the death the only resolution?