Chapter 1108: Last Salvation
Chapter 1108: Last Salvation
Everyone was panting.
Everyone was bleeding.
Eaniss had a part of her neck gouged out and she was trying to heal it, which wasn't too difficult with the flaring of her power still ongoing.
The Bishop had just revived after using her Cathedral for the third time, and her underling, the Ardent Curse, Hope, had lost most of his arms, his wands and nearly a third of his body.
Pherdanta, Baddan and Grim were panting exhaustedly. They had nothing left in the tank, and were just heaving in deep breaths while trying to make sure that their efforts had borne some fruit.
The key players in this battle against the rest of Actuass' undead and the Transcendent Eobald-Minobu, were none other than Yuyui and Benzard.
The sudden disappearance of Vohnvolt and Actuass had only stunned everyone for a moment before they continued their assault. The fate of those two would hardly matter if the struggle left here persisted, and thus, while hoping for the best, everyone had soldiered on.
The Transcendent Undead Eobald-Minobu was rather vicious. He led the charge of exploding undead against the ten who remained, and he done some incredible damage.
Only the expulsion of the Bishop's and Eaniss' Territories had finally smothered his options while giving Yagrina and Bassbion the chance to beat the ever unliving essence out of him. That hadn't been enough though. It seemed Actuass hadn't cut corners when making this strange variant of undead with his Rule.
The body in which Eobald's consciousness thrived in belonged to one of Fulgardt's Chosen after all. It wouldn't break even under the absolute cold Jerthrax had conjured, much less hundreds of heavy physical blows.
Thus, in the end, the two Spirit guardians had ended up restraining him while Yuyui and Benzard dealt a lethal blow.
Right now, Eobald-Minobu was kneeling before Benzard who had a crushed eye and a torn lip. Benzard had his sword at the undead's chest, but only half an inch of it had managed to dig in, and even then, it hadn't broken into his skin.
This was enough though, because his sword featured an icy blue eye with dark sclera along its flat length.
The Eye of Dispersal.
This was one of Yuyui's eyes, capable of dispersing supernatural effects. Though this eye was capable of resisting even Jerthrax's Heraldly presence, it wasn't all powerful. It was not something that could defy Rules and the highest echelon of the powers in the world. It couldn't undo the perfect merge between Eobald and Minobu's body, but it could dispel the immense reserves of Divine energy protecting his soul!
This allowed Bassbion and Yagrina to subdue said soul. Finally.
Yuyui stood beside Benzard with a golden, detail-less sword.
Using the Eye of Moving, she could move her other eyes onto different bodies and have those bodies carry the eyes' special effects. She was glad that this ended up working, but she was at her limit. Blood kept pouring from her eyes and nose and she felt dizzy. She soldiered on still, though, to keep the Eye of Dispersal active.
There was a reason why Yagrina and Bassbion had yet to extract Eobald's soul and end this madness.
It was because of Benzard. Through his one eye, Yuyui saw a look of hesitation and pain. "He must have meant a lot to you," she said.
Benzard took a deep breath, his hands, closed tight around his sword's hilt twitching slightly. "He did. I trusted him. I fought him. I hated him. Seeing his corpse back then filled me with rage. I had wanted to talk to him some more before deciding what sentence he deserved. To ask him why he had even joined this band of necromancers. Now I have that chance, but..." Benzard scowled.
He had hoped there would be some way to talk to Eobald, but his soul, much like his body was under Actuass' spell. He was not himself.
It pained Benzard to know that Eobald, whom he thought to have already passed, had not known peace. He had been preserved as a card to use by the masked man all along.
"Look at him. He used to be beloved. He lacked nothing once. He could have lived as a valiant hero!" Benzard growled and gnashed his teeth.
But there was nothing for it.
He looked to Yagrina and Bassbion and nodded stiffly.
"I'm sorry," Yuyui said solemnly.
"Don't apologise. It's because of you that he's able to be saved once more. Hopefully."
Right then, the two Spirits drew on Eobald's soul. They had expected some resistance, given that Actuass had shown himself to be a master at manipulating souls, but it turned out to be easy. Did this mean the masked man didn't have a hold over this soul anymore, even remotely?
As if to prove them correct, Eobald's soul, once divorced from its body, streaked upward and vanished towards a trajectory that the two Spirits recognized.
Yagrina turned to Benzard.
"He's free. He's headed towards the Yormuness," she said reassuringly.
Benzard smiled bitterly and watched as Eobald's body turned limp and dropped. He caught it.
"It's waning," a voice suddenly said behind the five. They turned.
Eaniss was looking at her hands curiously, as though she had never seen them before. She then took a deep breath and felt deep within.
"I don't feel as if my soul is swollen anymore," she said.
"Me neither," the Bishop confirmed.
The two were free from Actuass' unusual power to strengthen his enemies!
Yuyui noticed the same right then. She had been too focused on her task to note this change
before.
They were right!
"I think something happened to the necromancer," Yagrina said.
"And maybe to master of yours too," Bassbi
na off to Yuyui who frow
Just when the lime haired girl was about to chastise her subordinate for saying such a thing, the groan of a large vessel was heard as it pushed against the ebony waters.
It was one of the vessels given by the Emissary.
Everyone looked at it curiously, wondering who could be riding it.
When it drew closer, a figure popped up on its bowsprit. A large figure, nearly three meters
tall, glinting and glistening with a myriad of shimmering colours.
It was a large suit of armour with a strangely vibrant force of life.
It looked to exist somewhere between the boundary of solid and ethereal, radiating an
ominous type of beauty. A Mage stood at its side, one that Pherdanta, Grim and most of all
Baddan, found familiar.
Eaniss was the first to identify the arrivals.
"Em-Sul?" she said with a raised brow.
The suit of armour gave an odd, clanky laugh before speaking.
"In the steel."
Indeed, it was Em-Sul.
Perhaps because no one gave him the type of reaction he desired, Em-Sul laughed some more
and looked at Pherdanta, Grim and Baddan before boasting.
"You almost succeeding in having me part with that gem before I could use it as I desired. I
commend you. However, nothing you could have done could have stopped me from starting on my journey to a life unhindered by mortal limits," he said as he raised his thick hand, which was a magnificent gauntlet. "My soul is bonded to this artefact and just from binding these two elements my strength has reached a new level. I dare say, in terms of physical properties, I might have already surpassed the limits of the Incandescent Stage!"
Indeed.
Em-Sul had been keeping the Harmonic Ember on his person so that he could siphon out his soul slowly and safely until the time was ripe for him to merge with the vessel he had found.
By the time Allora had risked her life to snatch it from him, it had been too late. Pherdanta balled her hands into fists.
Her face turned red with rage. If Allora hadn't been deathly injured in their battle against Em- Sul, she could have been revived like she had when Actuass killed her! Thus, she couldn't look at Actuass with anything less than vicious hatred and guilt.
Grim patted her shoulder when he saw that she had been about to lunge at the Faction Leader.
Em-Sul saw the aggression and scoffed.
"We could have used this newfound strength of yours, you know?" Eaniss said exasperatedly.
Em-Sul laughed.
"You did fine on your own, didn't you?" he said, brushing off Eaniss' comment. He turned back to Pherdanta. "I seem to recall that you had a person of interest in Warding Pride's camp.
Sadly, I recognise that she is no longer among us. But well, she left-"
A sudden flash of yellowish red lightning cut Em-Sul off in his speech.
It was so bright and so loud that everyone was forced to grimace and squint.
However, these superficial details paled in comparison to what came next.
A gargantuan set of arched double doors suddenly appeared a fair distance away from the
group.
Their size staggered everyone and left them all slack-jawed.
Whether up, left or right, none could see where they ended!
On top of this, the odd, complex design of them was rather chilling, especially the massive
tusks protruding from them!
The doors' appearance caused the ebony seas to turn restless, however, their opening to
reveal a furious blast of sweet gale and a pulse of soft white light turned the waters chaotic!
Things only seemed to begin to relax when the figures of three individuals came out from the small gap between the doors, all of them unusual, yet also domineering.