Chapter 1238: Madness Vs Madness: Part-2
The crowd outside the palace surged like ocean waves, their shouts hammering against the soldiers' shields. Yet in an instant, the noise died.
Every throat clamped shut as a wicked pressure pressed down on them…. A killing intent so pure, so monstrous, that even seasoned warriors flinched.
Then—
Crack…
A thunderous split tore through the palace walls.
BOOOOOOM!!!
A pillar of blinding red and searing white ripped the air apart, colliding with such fury that reality itself seemed to recoil. The impact devoured everything in its path. Stone, trees, ground, buildings, and bodies… all erased into nothingness.
Those unfortunate enough to stand near the gates didn't even have time to scream. They were vaporised in the blink of an eye.
Dust rolled out like a storm cloud, and others stared at the carved destruction in horrified faces.
Then came a cough.
Cough... Cough.
From the haze, a white haired figure stepped forward, with a half-mask covering his top face as he casually brushed the dirt from his clothes as if nothing had touched him.
"This is going to little interesting" His grin widened, crooked and wicked, as his eyes locked onto the shattered palace gates.
Through the gaping wound in the palace wall, two silhouettes emerged
Mary…. Morgana.
The sight of Mary's unveiled form was enough to shatter people's minds. Her beauty was not beauty but a weapon. Men's eyes widened, bloodshot, before their sanity caved in... Even women were affected. They collapsed like puppets with strings cut, their bodies twitching, their thoughts swallowed by her impossible allure.
"Don't look at her!!" Galen's roar tore through the chaos. His eyes snapped shut, his hands pressed to his temples. The soldiers obeyed instantly, slamming their eyelids closed.
The two woman raised their hands in eerie unison. "Aether…" Mary's voice sang.
"No…" Morgana smirked wickedly, "Victor."
The masked man's grin stretched further, his aura flaring until the very stones quaked.
"Indeed~" His breath crystallised, then erupted. Ice crawled across his arms, forming monstrous gauntlets jagged with frozen spikes. Purple flames danced between the cracks of the ice, licking outward.
In the next instant, he was upon them.
His fists swung, glaciers shattering as they struck.
BOOM!!!
Mary and Morgana's feet slid back across the scorched marble, sparks crackling beneath them. Their laughter echoed, sharp and mirthless, as they raised their blades, rushing to meet him.
Victor stomped, the ground caving beneath his foot, and launched himself forward like a predator. Their swords arced through the air, gleaming with cursed radiance. But before the steel could taste his flesh—
CRASH!
Victor's bare hands clamped down, shattering the blades into fragments of steel and blood.
Shards of shattered steel rained down around him, clinking against the scorched stones like broken bells. The palace itself groaned under the pressure of their power, cracks racing along its walls as if the building feared what was about to unfold.
Mary's lips curled. With a flick of her wrist, blood dripped from her palm and solidified into a blade… long, thin, almost fragile at a glance. But the crimson steel pulsed with a heartbeat of its own, veins crawling along its surface.
Beside her, Morgana yanked her arms, as two metallic swords slid into her hand… thin, silver, and wickedly sharp.
She twirled them with ease.
Victor tilted his head, "Ahhh… good. Now show me the strength that makes this world tremble." He yanked the cracked ice gauntlet from his hand.
He stomped. The ground screamed, slabs of marble lifting into the air as raw energy tore through the foundation. In his hand, fire gathered, stretching and twisting until it became a flaming halberd, its edge sparking with wind that howled like a storm.
Mary moved first. She vanished, a crimson streak splitting the dust as her blood blade hissed through the air.
Victor swung his halberd to block —
CLANG!
Sparks burst like fireworks. The shockwave rattled through the pillars, reducing carved stone to dust.
Morgana appeared at his flank, twin blades spinning like a cyclone. She slashed, her strikes too fast as she moved around him, cutting his flesh.
Victor roared, releasing a torrent of fire from his mouth like dragon breath. A wave of purple-hot flames surged outward, devouring everything that stood before him!!
BOOOOOOM!
The palace's front hall collapsed, pillars cracking, ceiling crumbling.
Smoke and embers swallowed the sky.
Mary's eyes glowed crimson, her sword slicing through the flames as if drinking them. The blood blade hissed, swelling with heat, veins glowing brighter. With a feral grin, she thrust forward. The blade pierced the shoulder.
"Die~" she whispered.
!~Ding~!
[Blood Poison Purified!!]
Victor laughed. "That's not even enough, dear~"
He released the halberd. In its place, he created another weapon, a jagged spear of ice and lightning, storm clouds swirling above as thunder cracked.
He hurled it, the air itself splitting with a shriek.
Morgana leapt, spinning her twin swords in an X. The clash sent shockwaves rippling outward —
KAA-THOOOOOM!
A hurricane burst across the palace, flinging soldiers like ragdolls. Buildings cracked. The city walls shuddered.
The sky itself seemed to ripple with the force of their collision.
Victor followed, leaping into the storm he had made. His fists ignited, fire and wind spiraling together until they became twin cannons of explosive energy.
He swung down.
Sssshhh!!!
Mary slashed upward. Blood exploded into a crimson barrier, absorbing the strike. But the impact was too much…. the ground cratered beneath her, her body dragged down as molten stone sprayed outward.
CRACK!
BOOMMMMM!!
The Palace was piece by piece breaking down!!
Morgana dashed across the crater's edge as she twisted her body before standing up on the remaining stones, and she leapt towards like a tornado!
Victor growled, frost climbing across his mask. He stomped again, ice bursting from the ground, meeting the silver storm. The two attacks collided, shrieking like tortured metal and breaking ice!
The palace was gone now. Nothing remained but rubble, flames, and frozen shards raining like meteors. The battlefield stretched into ruin, every clash painting the city with destruction.
Mary rose from the crater, from below, her blade dripping with her own blood.
Her eyes glowed dangerously at Victor.
!~Ding~!
[Charm Effect Nullified!]
Victor grinned… Mary clicked her tongue before jumping and landing on his same level. Morgana too stood beside Mary.
Victor stood before them, surrounded by a cyclone of elements. Fire, water, air, ice, lightning… all twisted around him, forging weapons.
None of them spoke now.
Words were useless.
The first form flickered into existence: an axe of pure ice, jagged and heavy, its edge radiating frost so sharp it carved cracks into the air.
With a roar, Victor caught it with his bare hands, froze his fingers instantly and swung it down at Mary.
She crossed her blood blade to block.....
BOOOMM!!!
The impact split the ground into a spiderweb of fractures, crimson sparks and frozen shards scattering like rain. Mary's knees bent under the weight, her lips curling into a grin even as blood trickled down her arms.
She shoved upward, shattering the axe in a spray of ice like nothing!!
ShhhhHHH!!
But Victor was already moving. Air compressed, whistling into shape.... a dozen translucent arrows of wind appeared around him. He snapped his fingers.
They fired.
Morgana spun, her twin blades flashing, parrying the invisible barrage. Each arrow sliced steel and flesh alike, drawing crimson lines across her arms and thighs even as she deflected them.
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
Chckk
One arrow slipped through, grazing her cheek. Blood sprayed, caught by the wind, before evaporating into the burning air, and she launched herself forward furiously as her tail wiped the air.
Spark!
Lightning gathered on his palm until it solidified into a blade of living lightning. It screamed with every movement, vibrating the very air. He lunged, closing the distance in a blink, the lightning blade cutting a line of pure light toward Morgana's throat.
She barely crossed her swords in time.
CLANG!
The sound was deafening... not steel against steel, but thunder exploding in their ears. Sparks burst, lightning crawling across her arms, numbing her grip. Her swords glowed red with the heat, hair lifting from the static, her teeth clenched as Victor bore down.
Mary appeared at his side, blood blade stabbing toward his ribs.
Victor smirked and twisted. Fire surged in his hand, spiralling into a spear wreathed in purplish and black flame. He caught her thrust mid-motion, their blades screeching, the collision unleashing a shockwave of molten sparks that set half the ground ablaze.
People fled in droves, trampling over one another as they scrambled to escape the calamity. As much as they loved their empire, none dared remain. Dying here meant more than death. Without their Grace, who knew what awaited them beyond the death?
Oblivion, perhaps... Or worse.
Victor's one hand was clutching Morgana's blade, his lightning-forged edge digging into her flesh, while his other arm restrained Mary, a purplish spear pressed against her throat.
"Come on, sis!"
"He is just a brat!!"
Together, they pressed him.
Mary's crimson blade carved arcs that bled the very air. Morgana's twin swords struck in perfect cadence, weaving into Mary's tempo, their strikes a seamless pattern.
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
Chuucckk!
Tang!
Ting!
Step by step, Victor was forced back... but his expression only twisted tighter, sharper.
He was excited.
Fuck!
His eyes burned with madness as Morgana staggered, panting, blood streaming down her cheek. Mary, though battered, only grinned wider, her wicked charm.
She was thrilled, just like him.
Finally, the moment came.
They struck as one.
Victor's weapons clashed against their blood and steel!
Crack!
All weapons shattered at once... splintering into shards of lightning, fire, blood, and metal.
But it wasn't over.
Not yet.
Mary lunged first, her fist wreathed in bloody fire
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" she screamed, her voice half ecstasy, half rage.
Behind her, a massive crimson magic circle bloomed, covered in twisting blood-etched words.
Ssshhhhh~
Morgana followed, her knuckles igniting with black fire. "THIS TIME, I WILL KILL YOU!" she roared, as a dark magic circle flared behind her, black etchings scarring the very air around it, the void itself trembling at her curse.
Ssshhhhhh~
And Victor…
His gauntlets fused. Ice and flame coiled together, purple fire bleeding through the cracks in the frost. Lightning arced around his body. The air shimmered strongly, a storm roaring around him and...
"Hahaha!!"
"Take it fucker!!"
"Nah~"
THUD.
The three fists collided.
For a single heartbeat, the world turned silent.
Then it broke.
BBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!
The explosion was beyond sound, beyond sight. It was annihilation given form. Light consumed everything.... sky, rubble, mountains, rivers — all swallowed whole.
The shockwave ripped the land in half, splitting rivers into canyons, reducing towers to dust, and sending a quake that raced to the horizon like the wrath of gods.
POOFF!
POOFF!
POOFF!
The three were hurled outward, bodies flung like comets. From the empire's heart, they shot outward in three blazing arcs.... three stars tearing across the land.
Their bodies crashed, skidding uncontrollably across the broken terrain... They tore through forests, cities, and stone alike before finally slamming to a halt.... edge of the Empire.
Meanwhile…
The Void's Cradle.
The black, tar-like ocean that had slept since the creation of this world.... began to ripple due to their fight.
Bubbles rose to the surface as if something was breathing inside.
One popped.
Pop.
From the burst, something emerged.
Grey skin.
Another bubble swelled, ruptured, and released another grey skin..
Not one... Not two... Dozens.
Already they crawled across the surface, dragging themselves from the pitch-black womb. Each fragment joined another, merging, fusing, reshaping into something.