Chapter 1223 – The Fate of Another Kingdom 9 – Sacred Brutality [Metra POV]
The moment the platform started to move, Metra charged at Arkeidos’ earth incarnation. Brutal swings smashed against the bulky, brown plate. Gargantuan digging claws intercepted Rex Magnar’s trajectory. The halberd was caught between two of them and slid down to their base at the widened wrist of the tyrant. Had it not been completely rigid Terrium, it would have appeared like a broad sleeve.
The hand underneath those claws was oversized, compensating for the girth of the limb it extended from. All of this simulacrum’s limbs were drastically larger than normal for human proportions. Of all of the tyrant’s doubles, this one looked the most solid. A rock of a humanoid.
Metra grinned madly under her armour as she let go of her halberd. Drum beats spurred her on, the weapon approving of and fully indulging in the violence. She leapt up to the horn of her enemy. She grabbed onto the collar. Two curves met in the middle, rising to a sharp point that would have cut anyone not covered in Astrotium. The back of the collar was similar, but the thorn there was much broader, rose higher, and was bent forwards. Together with the large horn on the helmet, it gave Arkeidos a look akin to a stag beetle.
A form that allowed for similar strategies. Metra let go of the collar when the Emperor attempted to pin her between the horns. In the air, Rex Magnar appeared back in her hand with a shredding sound. Metra tore open the world and dropped through a portal.
For a second, she was in a confused space. All around her was bizarre, stretched images of the scene from which she had left the regular dimension and the location at which she aimed to re-emerge. Swiftly, the drop was over. Now behind Arkeidos, she brought the thorn of her halberd down on her opponent.
The back plate visibly rippled, the seemingly solid form of the armour bursting open into individual segments that roughly described the form of musculature and bones. Nothing further was realized by the attack and Arkeidos turned around, arm swiping.
Metra was catapulted off to the side by the impact. Stabilizing in her flight for just long enough to toss Rex Magnar, she found herself once more in the twisted space in-between, before emerging next to it. It stuck in the floor; she grabbed onto it just quick enough to halt her own momentum. No respite was given. One of the many boulders that accompanied the statues on the platform smashed right into her.
It was a mere distraction, preventing her from seeing Arkeidos until his hand shattered what of the rock hadn’t broken on her Astrotium armour in impact and grabbed her by the torso, massive fingers clasping. The larger, more powerful tyrant carried her towards the edge of the battlefield and rammed her into the wall.
She ploughed through the rock, while the enchantments carried them through the tunnel. Astrotium broke stone with no spark ever flying off her form. Arkeidos ripped her away and threw her back into the main battlefield.
Metra landed on her back and groaned as she got back on her feet. The fortress had taken more damage than her, but it had been disorienting. She took her time standing up, calmly dusted off her arms, and kept her eyes on Arkeidos. The Emperor was walking a large curve around her.
“Is that all you are? A sturdy ragdoll?” he asked, clearly disappointed.
“We’ll fight as equals when I decide we do,” Metra responded jovially. Tapping her shoulder with the shaft of her weapon, she listened to the excited notes the halberd produced. “Let’s keep this violent!”
Metra thrust her left arm forwards. It appeared in front of Arkeidos’ horn. She ripped it back, the force and surprise hitting the Emperor strong enough that he was pulled off balance. An opening that the First of Wrath swiftly exploited. Accelerating, partly leveraging the pull she had just executed, she bridged the gap and then swung sideways. The attack was blocked at the last moment, axe-blade smashing against one of the four digging claws.
On the sliding battlefield, they exchanged their blows. Metra let no shame nor rage at being knocked around by the Emperor bother her. Those emotions were not yet useful. Studying her opponent’s moves, the First of Wrath relied on her defences. Terrium was the hardest of the elemental extreme metals, so this was a difficult fight even with her weapon and armour.
Both of them swung at each other with all their might. Metra’s arm was swept aside by the force, leaving her wide open. Advancing immediately, Arkeidos brought his second arm up from a deep angle. The central two of the four claws rammed into her chest, punching through the segmented Astrotium armour and into weaker, fleshy materials underneath.
Pain surged through Metra, a dull, rare sensation. She embraced it with a cackle, grabbed her halberd with both hands, and thrust the spear tip against Arkeidos’ chest. The impact let her shove off the claw.@@@@
Back on the ground, she turned into a whirlwind of attacks. Pieces of the floor were folding up around her. Again and again, Rex Magnar shattered the stone. In a small opening, she smashed the axe blade straight into the ground. Earth Ravager, one of her weapon’s enchantments, turned the impact into a directed crack that travelled up to Arkeidos. Temporarily turning his attention to this advancing chasm, the Emperor sealed it with his earth magic. From the small opening, Metra had created a larger one, just big enough for her to toss Rex Magnar.
Answering the call of its wielder, Rex Magnar appeared in her hand. She aimed it downwards, one foot on the thorn, as she fell towards Arkeidos.
Crossing his claws, the Emperor created a mesh that caught the tip of the weapon between it. His arms were forced down from the impact. His chest was etched by the battle hungry halberd. With one massive effort, he forced the super-heavy weapon back into the air and Metra with it.
Immediately, Metra activated the Extreme Plasma Burst. Fire and lightning exploded out of the thorn opposite of the axe blade. It was extremely difficult to move the weapon in such a way that the energy did not send her flying off to the side. A wielder of all weapons, an ancient berserker, Metra pulled it off. Guiding the energy, she circled once around her axis and slammed Rex Magnar back down at the tyrant.
Arkeidos caught the weapon in his palm. The impact rippled up the entirety of the limb, scattering out the magically cohesive fragments. A cascade of brown-black mist exploded out of the new gaps. “THIS IS WAR!” the Emperor screamed ecstatically. The arm kept trembling, pushing against the unleashed enchantment. Metra could do nothing but keep it steady and watch as Arkeidos forced his way on his knees, then on one foot, finally on both.
The plasma was still flying, igniting the air, when Arkeidos drew his arm back and slammed his claws into her side. It was a sloppy punch, failing to penetrate her armour. She was sent flying back, turning once with the remaining energy of her attack, before the enchantment finally sputtered out. Her feet and left hand shattered the stone, before she came to a halt.
Immediately she charged again. Arkeidos blocked her overhead strike with his right, keeping his dispersed left back while the segments of the limb drifted back together. “It’s just you and me,” Metra growled, her tone betraying a grin her current mouth was incapable of having. “All those other fights you are having – they have no influence on this one.”
“We are all one, sharing memories, but my simulacrums are created with their own part of my growing soul,” Arkeidos confirmed for her. “What do you do with this knowledge, breaker of armies?”
Words that she had thought she would never say again, words that required salt water when it was a borrowed power, words of extreme power crossed her teeth, “Terrible, mother chaos...”
Arkeidos reacted instantly to the beginning of the incantation. The arm he had held back to regenerate came forwards, a swipe accompanied by a torrent of nearby rock.
Letting go of her weapon, Metra jumped backwards, narrowly escaping both. “...fallen, broken, twisted you are...” The words continued to flow, the syllables chosen by the power formed by them. Metra slammed her foot down, shattering the floor underneath her as it started to rise.
Grabbing Rex Magnar, Arkeidos prompted a discordant series of notes from the weapon. It disappeared from his hand before he could do anything with it, instead lying in Metra’s right once again. In its stead, the Emperor grabbed two boulders and threw them at the First of Wrath. This time he meant it. The first she managed to destroy, the second slammed into her and sent her flying on her back. Her concentration remained.
“...and I still carry all your wrath!” The air all around began to shimmer and waver, as if it was affected by strong heat. In her periphery, Metra saw stone and dunes warp and bend. Her focus lay on Arkeidos, who charged at her, both arms lowered.
The first claw swiped at her from the left. She jumped over it, then used Rip to pull herself ahead. The other arm of the Emperor cut through the air behind her. His horn came forwards and slammed against Rex Magnar’s grip. The exchange had gathered her enough Rage to execute a short teleport. She dropped through, re-emerged from a tear in space a few metres behind her opponent.
Arkeidos took a heavy step backwards. A cone of earthen spikes extended towards her. Metra slammed her weapon down, cracking the ground before the attack could reach her. “To your nature I deliver...” she continued. Each further word increased the flickering effect in the world around them. The noxious green tinge of the light was replaced with ambient light of an inexplicable origin.
Facing her, Arkeidos slammed his hands together. The impact boomed and shattered the spikes. Points aiming at Metra, the storm of rocks flew at her. Reinforced with his magic, the cascade of stones gradually diminished her health, but she continued on unabated.
“...this loathsome sinner...” The penultimate line spoken, Metra took a moment to break out of the storm of attacks. Another Rip catapulted her towards Arkeidos. Rather than attack him, she used the arm he raised in defence as a springboard to fly up in the air. He did not chase after her, only watched her land twenty metres away. Metra knew the look in those glowing spheres in his helmet. He wished to know how this would end. “...And drag him down to hell!”
Entropy swallowed the arena.