NOVEL NEXT Chapter 436: The Unwinnable Fight
Snow whipped in furious spirals as the first of Yggdrasil's warriors struck the earth.
They fell like meteors, golden light streaking behind them, before slamming into the mountainside with concussive force.
Snow exploded in geysers, shards of ice scattering like broken glass across the battlefield.
When the haze cleared, the shapes rose.
They were massive, each one shaped like a man but clearly no man.
Bark formed their torsos, twisted roots their sinew, and vines coiled as muscles along their limbs.
Leaves sprouted and withered with every movement, dropping green flakes into the snow.
Their faces were hollow knots of wood, save for the eyes, which were twin orbs of molten gold that blazed with unnatural intelligence.
Dozens landed, then hundreds. Each impact cracked stone, and soon the air itself trembled beneath their arrival.
The Blurred Man tilted his head back to the widening sky, and then down again, his wavering outline rippling around him.
"Here we are," he said in amusement. "The weed sends its agents. This'll be fun."
The Forgotten moved beside him, her veils lifting in a wind that didn't exist.
She said nothing, only raised one hand.
A scythe of black steel, curved like a crescent moon dipped in ink, formed across her palm.
It was not summoned. It was remembered from nothing.
The warriors attacked.
Roots speared forward, and bark fists hammered down. A forest of limbs and vine-lashes closed around the two figures.
The Blurred Man strolled forward as if he was on a quiet walk through a park.
His body blurred whenever a blow neared him.
An arm of bark passed through his body, smearing it upon reality like ink, and his body reformed with no damage.
Each time he reached out lazily, brushing a vine or tapping the chest of a wooden giant.
Wherever his hand touched, form unraveled.
Bark softened into a blur, vines dissolved into haze, and their golden eyes flickered and went out.
Besides him, whole warriors collapsed into heaps of wilted plants, forgotten even by their own bodies.
The Forgotten swept her scythe in slow arcs. Each motion looked less like battle and more like pruning.
A single cut, and a warrior ceased to exist. Not death, but erasure.
They were unremembered, excised from reality, never planted in the first place.
Where her blade fell, gaps opened in the army, warriors disappearing, leaving only disturbed snow and the faint smell of sap.
Together they moved like dancers in a garden of giants.
The Blurred Man blurred and unmade, laughing, his distortions warping the battlefield.
The Forgotten scythed and erased, her presence quiet, and each swing perfect.
Then the sky cracked wider.
The sound was like mountains splitting. The tear in the heavens stretched, glowing veins of gold ripping across the firmament.
From its edges, larger shapes began to fall.
Titans.
The giant warrior class of Yggdrasil.
The Blurred Man threw his arms wide, his laughter echoing strangely, carrying in overlapping voices.
"Yes! Yes!" His warped silhouette flared as he turned to the Forgotten. "Now this! This will be a fun exercise!"
The first titan silhouette tore through the clouds, falling like the judgment of gods.
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"Dario."
The name left Ren's lips before he even realized he'd spoken it.
The man at the far end of the hall lifted his head, and sure enough, that familiar straw hat tilted back.
Beneath it, the same careless grin stretched across the older man's face, like this was nothing more than a casual meeting on a sunny street.
This was the man that had guided them through the Arondale mountain range when they'd first arrived. Lady Luna's most trusted guide.
"Ren. Lilith," Dario greeted, voice warm, almost friendly. "Didn't expect to see you here."
He tapped the brim of his hat once, then sighed. "Turn back. This hall isn't for you. I'm guarding this entrance. You won't pass."
Ren and Lilith exchanged a glance.
They remembered what he was. What he carried.
Indomitable.
That was the name of his Divine Gift. It was a simple name, a simple idea, yet the most terrifying.
Indomitable meant he could not be defeated.
No matter how strong the opponent. No matter the power unleashed against him.
His body, his will, his very existence denied the concept of loss.
He would stand. Always.
And worse, neither of them had any idea what his Bloodbinding could do.
A secret he'd never revealed, one he'd never needed to. Because with Indomitable alone, every fight he'd ever entered had been a foregone conclusion.
Ren clenched his fists. 'A battle we literally can't win.'
Still, he stepped forward. "I can't turn back, Dario. There's something I need beyond that door."
Dario's grin didn't flicker, though his eyes narrowed faintly under the brim of his hat.
"Knew you'd say that." He tilted his head, straw hat swaying.
"Truth is, I like you both. Always have. But," he exhaled, almost regretful, "it's a shame I'll have to kill you."
Lilith's knives snapped into her hands, and Ren's Vine Armor crawled across his skin.
Then they moved.
Lilith blurred forward first, knives gleaming.
She hurled three in rapid succession, each curving midair with Pull resonance to strike from impossible angles.
Ren followed, Pushing off the floor with explosive force, streaking in with his swords raised.
Dario didn't even shift his footing. His hands rose lazily, batting Lilith's knives out of the air with the back of his wrist.
Ren's first attack came down on his shoulder. The metal screeched against skin that didn't break.
Ren's eyes widened. He twisted, vines lashing from his arms, aiming for Dario's throat.
Dario caught them with one hand, pulled, and swung Ren sideways like a sack of grain, slamming him into a column. The stone cracked.
Lilith darted in, knives flashing. She slashed across his chest, drove a blade for his neck, another for his ribs.
Each strike met flesh that simply refused to part. Not even a drop of blood.
Dario pivoted, elbow snapping out to knock her back.
Ren reappeared with a Push, slamming into Dario's back.
The impact shook the floor, dust raining from the ceiling.
Dario slid half a step, boots grinding against stone, then straightened as if the blow had never happened.
He swung once. Just a single fist, casually aimed for Ren's chest.
Ren crossed his swords to block, vines coiling to reinforce.
The punch landed, and Ren's arms went numb.
The vines shredded, his blades bent inward under the pressure, and the attack hurled him backwards across the hall.
Lilith met him in midair, steadying him, before hurling her knives again.
They spun with almost impossible speed, curving like silver serpents.
Dario weaved between them, not with technique, but with simple steps and shrugs, as if the world itself moved him away from harm.
Lilith darted to his blindside, her knives snapping back into her palms for a thrust to the gut.
Ren shot forward low, aiming for his knees with a sweeping blade.
Dario dropped his hand. One open palm caught Lilith's knife. His knee snapped up, knocking Ren's blade aside.
Then his elbow lashed back in a blur, aimed in a killing blow for Lilith's skull.
"Lilith!" Ren roared.
He Pushed.
The force slammed into Lilith's side, flinging her out of range just as the elbow smashed through the space where her head had been.
Ren surged under Dario's foot, rolling towards Lilith.
They slid across the floor, before stopping near a column.
Both of them straightened, gasping for breath.
Dario rolled his shoulders once, straw hat tilting forward again.
His grin had thinned, losing some of its warmth. "You two… you fight well. But I don't have the patience to keep playing."
His hands lifted.
"Sorry. I'll have to use my Bloodbinding."
Red lightning crackled into existence, branching across his arms, crawling over his skin like veins made of fire.
The hall darkened, shadows bending as the storm gathered.
Ren's eyes widened. Lilith's grip tightened on her knives.
Dario spoke, his voice dark. "Apologies."