Chapter 14: The Whole Armada Empire is in Flames! {Abellion VS Abrellios and Yulen} (12)
The battlefield was a cacophony of destruction, a symphony of steel and magic played out against the backdrop of a burning empire.
-CLANG!
-CLANG!
-CLANG!
The sound of metal colliding with metal rang out like the tolling of a funeral bell, echoing across the shattered courtyard. Abrellios, the Hero of the Empire, gritted his teeth, the muscles in his arms screaming as he intercepted yet another devastating blow.
Abrellios struggle fighting Abellion with his war mace, he thought he could stop him but he was wrong.
For decades, Abrellios had stood as the unshakeable pillar of the Armada Empire. He had felled demon kings, slain dragons, and held the line against endless tides of darkness. But today, fighting the man who wore his son's face, he felt an unfamiliar sensation: he was being overwhelmed.
The weapon in Abellion's hand was a monstrosity of black iron and six blade of it, humming with a dark, malevolent energy that seemed to drink the light around it. Every swing carried the weight of a mountain. Abrellios deflected the strikes with his legendary sword, Aethelred, but the impact sent shockwaves through his bones, rattling his very soul.
Abellion shoved his father back with a casual, almost dismissive kick to the chest plate. He didn't look tired. He didn't look conflicted. He looked bored.
Abellion raise his mace and said a word.
The air pressure dropped instantly. The smell of ozone flooded the battlefield, sharp and metallic. Static electricity caused the debris on the ground to float eerily into the air.
"THUNDER GOD'S JUDGEMENT!"
-BOOOOOMMMM!!!!
The sky tore open. It wasn't just a lightning bolt; it was a pillar of pure, blinding white plasma that descended with the wrath of the heavens. It crashed down directly onto Abrellios, vaporizing the stone beneath his feet.
Many lighting summoned from the sky and it direct toward to Abrellios. The Hero moved on pure instinct, channeling his divine aura into a shield, throwing himself to the side at the last fraction of a second. Abrellios barely dodge it and he could still the effect of the electricity left that lingers on his body. His armor smoked, and his limbs twitched involuntarily as arcs of residual lightning danced across his skin.
Abellion lowered his mace, resting it on his shoulder. He watched his father struggle to stand with a cold, analytical gaze.
"Not gonna lie, i admit it was worth slaying Thor." Abellion look to his father and continue.
The confession hit Abrellios harder than the lightning. Thor, the ancient God of Thunder, a deity thought to be invincible, was dead? And his power now resided in the hands of this dark avenger?
"Tho i admit i did struggle killing him, after all he was the toughest opponent i have killed. Second to none, but Thanatos was the God i struggle the most."
Abellion twisted the ring on his finger—the Ring of End. It pulsed with a chaotic, hungry light. After killing Thor, Abellion devoured his power using the Ring of End, and the same thing happens to his enemies including what happen to Thanatos, to revenge his family.
This was the terrifying reality of the Dark Lord's power. He didn't just kill; he consumed. He was a singularity of vengeance, absorbing the divinity of everything that stood in his path.
Abellion took a step forward, his boots crunching on the glass-like slag created by the lightning strike.
"But you know what father?"
His voice dropped, losing its mocking edge and taking on a heavy, somber tone.
"I successfully killed Thanatos, the one who manipulated both the Prophetess and the Emperor to eradicate the elves race, and."
Abellion paused. He tilted his head back, letting the rain that had begun to fall mix with the soot on his face. Abellion look in the clouds which was raining. He look it not in euphoria but in sorrow and grief.
For a moment, the spikes and the dark armor seemed to fade, leaving only a grieving husband and father.
Abellion then look back to his father and continue. "It was satisfaction that i killed that Evil god who order the Emperor to slaughter the remaining elf which was my wife, and that reason i lost my wife and my twin children."
The memory of that day—the day the Imperial Knights found his hidden sanctuary, the day Olivia died protecting their unborn children—burned in his mind hotter than any hellfire. It was the fuel that kept his engine of destruction running.
"It's your damn fault why did this happen, if you stop that damn Emperor this wouldn't happen y'know."
The accusation cut deep. Abrellios look at his son, he did regret not saving his friend Eberin and didn't try to stop the Emperor even his son Yulen tried to convince him to stop the Emperor from his madness.
The Hero had chosen loyalty to the Crown over loyalty to justice. He had chosen the "greater good" of stability over the lives of his friends. And this monster standing before him was the direct consequence of that cowardice.
"But."
Abellion's eyes narrowed, shifting from sadness to a razor-sharp fury.
"This what Ymir had expected after all."
"What?!" Abrellios look in shocked, on what he just heard. Ymir, the Goddess of the Elves? The deity who supposedly loved her creation?
"You heard me right father, after defeating Ymir and burned that damn tree. She told me the whole truth that it's my damn fate to become the Dark Lord of prophecy and it was necessary for the eradication of her creation to unseal Ancalagon, and."
Abellion laughed, a dry, humorless sound.
"It was necessary for me to lost my whole damn family. You know that's what i called cruelty of the Gods."
The gods hadn't abandoned them; the gods had orchestrated the tragedy. They viewed mortal lives—the lives of Olivia and his children—as currency to be spent to unlock a bigger game. They created the villain just so they could have a story.
Abellion raised his war mace and point it towards to his father.
"That's why after killing everyone here, i will kill that damn Goddess of Light and destroy this damn cursed world once and for all."
The declaration was absolute. There was no negotiation, no redemption arc. Only total erasure.
Abellion raised his ring finger and utter a word.
The mana in the atmosphere screamed as it was violently displaced.
"FALL!"
The dark clouds above swirled, parting not for sunlight, but for fire.
Many asteroids appeared from the sky.
They were massive, jagged chunks of burning rock, pulled from the void by gravity magic so potent it warped the space around them. They streaked down like the wrath of a dying star, aiming to obliterate the entire capital city.
Abrellios look in the sky and then hurrily jump off the ground.
He ignored the pain in his body. He ignored the heartbreak. He was the Hero, and he had to protect the land, even from his own son. He gripped Aethelred with both hands, the blade glowing with a blinding, holy luminescence.
"Sword Art of the Sword God: Split The Heavens!"
Abrellios swung upward. A beam of pure sword-light, miles long and impossibly sharp, erupted from the ground. It sliced through the air, meeting the descending apocalypse head-on.
-BOOM!-CRASH!
The sound was deafening. Abrellios successfully cut all of the asteroids and look down. The massive rocks shattered into thousands of smaller, harmless fragments, raining down like fiery gravel.
But in the moment of his triumph, he lost sight of his opponent.
but Abellion is nowhere to be found.
-SMASH
-CRACK!
The sound of armor buckling and ribs fracturing echoed sickeningly.
"AAAAAGGGGHHH!!" Abrellios screamed and look to his left side, it was non other than Abellion.
Using the explosion of the asteroids as a distraction, Abellion had closed the distance in an instant, delivering a devastating blow to his father's flank. Abrellios crumpled, falling to one knee, blood spraying from his mouth.
Abellion stood over him, mace raised high, electricity crackling around the spikes.
"THUNDER GOD'S!!!"
Abellion look to his father in fury. "JUDGEMENT!!!"
-BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!
Point-blank range. The blast threw the Hero of the Empire across the battlefield like a ragdoll. Abrellios was thrown away, crashing through three layers of stone walls before coming to a stop in a pile of rubble.
Abellion look on the sky full of the fragments of the asteroids, then the rocks slowly falling to the ground like a rain.
He didn't bother checking if his father was dead. He knew the old man was tough.
'To think he could cut it all, no matter it was one of the weakest ability i used. After all it was a damn distraction.'
His gaze shifted. He looked past the ruin of the courtyard, towards the inner sanctum.
Abellion look on the monsters that are rampaging towards the Small Castle where the Emperor hide of and where her mother Lutiana and the reinforcements busy fighting of.
His army of nightmares was doing its job. The empire was bleeding.
Suddenly, a blur of blue light shot towards him.
-CLANG!
Abellion easily parried the attack. He didn't even take a step back. He simply raised his mace, catching the incoming blade with practiced ease.
Standing there, panting slightly but eyes burning with determination, was a handsome young man with dark hair and blue eyes, wielding a sword that shimmered with the flow of time itself.
"You finally appear."
Abellion sneered.
"Yulen, the chosen Hero of the Dragon of Time."
Yulen look to his brother. "Why are you doing this Abel?! Why?!"
The question was so innocent, so naive. It made Abellion sick.
"As i damn said, this is revenge for what that damn Emperor had done!"
Abellion swung his mace.
-SMASH!-CLANG!
Yulen barely parried it, he knew how strong that attack was and he have no way to take it. He could be killed by that.
Every clash sent tremors through Yulen's arms. He was the Protagonist, the Regressor, the one with the cheat skills, but against Abellion's raw, hate-fueled strength, he felt like a child.
"I know this is for your family Abel because i was there and saw you griefing your dead family, but was this worth it?! Was this worth you commiting a whole massacre to the empire?!"
Abellion pushed Yulen back, locking weapons with him, their faces inches apart.
"Worth it?! Worth it?!"
Abellion roared, the sound echoing with the voices of the ghosts he commanded.
"The whole Armada Empire deserve this Yulen! And don't act you were there, you didn't do anything to stop the Emperor because you and my parents just care about yourselves!"
In the timeline before the genocide, Yulen had the political power. He had the Emperor's ear. He could have staged a coup, could have smuggled the Elves out. But he hesitated. He played by the rules. And because of that, Olivia died.
"You know what i hated the most Yulen?" Abellion look on Yulen in disgust, he is his favorite MC but after reincarnating here, and lost his whole family while his parents and Yulen didn't even do anything, he was disgusted just how Yulen is.
The admiration Johan once held for the character in the book was dead. In reality, Yulen was just an enabler of the status quo.
"Hypocrites like you. You guys act kind and act like heroes and saviors but you guys are cowards and selfish bastards."
Abellion shoved Yulen away and glanced at the shining blade in his brother's hand.
Abellion then look to the sword that Yulen hold on. 'I didn't think he got the Legendary sword, Navarium.'
Navarium, the Sword of Ages. The ultimate weapon of the protagonist.
"But not gonna lie, i admit you are strong enough to the get that Legendary sword Navarium but."
Abellion spun his mace, the black metal screaming as it sliced the air.
-CLANG!
"Would it survive on my war mace which was forge in Mount Styx?"
Mount Styx was the entrance to the Underworld. The mace wasn't just metal; it was hardened death.
Yulen then hurrily dodge Abellion's war mace. The weapon smashed into the ground where Yulen had been standing a microsecond before, creating a crater ten feet deep.
Abellion didn't pursue. He stood tall, the rain slicking his dark armor.
Abellion then raise his ring finger again, the Ring of End shone the whole area in purplish black.
The atmosphere grew heavy, crushing. Gravity itself seemed to bend around him.
"FALL!"
The a big square like shape appear above on Yulen's head, it was non other than a Dark Cube that could destroy a whole continent.
It was a cube of compressed gravitational force, a singularity trapped in a geometric shape. If it touched the ground, it would grind everything beneath it into atomic dust.
Yulen struggle to lift the cube back. "AAGGGHHH!!" Yulen's blue eyes glow more and.
He channeled the power of the Dragon of Time, accelerating his own timeframe to move faster than physics should allow.
-BOOM!
Yulen barely sliced that Dark Cube. The sword Navarium cut through the gravity field, dissipating the cube into harmless purple mist. Yulen fell to his knees, gasping for breath. That one move had taken half his mana.
Abellion tilted his head, unimpressed.
Abellion then utter the same word.
"I admit i thought that could kill you but, how about a hundreds of it."
Yulen's eyes widened in horror.
Abellion gesture his two fingers and then summon 300 dark cubes.
The sky turned black. Not from clouds, but from hundreds of massive, rotating cubes of destruction filling the horizon. It was an extinction-level event.
"Parhelion." A portal emerge on Abellion's back.
It was a swirl of chaotic colors, a gateway to the void. Abellion turned his back on his brother.
"See ya Yulen, i hope you will enjoy on those." Abellion pointed the dark cubes.
He didn't need to watch. No one survived this.
"Dark Cubes that i gifted for you."
Abellion then go inside of the portal and then the portal closed before Yulen could follow him.
'Shit!' Yulen thought.
He looked up at the descending wall of black gravity. It wasn't just about him anymore. If he didn't hurrily arrived to the castle where the reinforcements, his mother and the Emperor was. It would be too late for him to save them.
He gripped his sword, preparing to die.
But suddenly, a streak of white light tore across the sky.
Before he could slash the dark cubes, the cubes were slice half, all of it.
It was a slash of impossible speed and power, cutting through the fabric of the gravity magic itself. The cubes shattered, dissolving into the rain.
Then a silhouette of a man appear on the smoke.
"Is that you father?" Yulen ask.
The smoke cleared. Abrellios finally appeared, his left side of the armor has cracks and his face is and his head are full in blood. He was barely standing, leaning heavily on Aethelred. He had taken the full force of a Thunder God's Judgement and lived.
"HUFF, HUFF!"
He spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Let's go now hurry Yulen, let's save your mother and."
Abrellios grabbed Yulen's shoulder, his grip shaking but firm.
Abrellios look to Yulen. "Save your brother."
Even after everything—after the betrayal, the lightning, the asteroids—Abrellios still saw the lost boy inside the monster.
Yulen nod and then hurrily now towards the small castle.
They turned to run, to regroup, to save the Saintess.
But before they could arrive.
The ground didn't just shake; it liquefied. A pressure, heavier than the Dark Cubes, heavier than the sky itself, descended upon them. It was a fear so primal it froze the blood in their veins.
-ROOOOOAAAAARRR!!!!
A roar that shattered the remaining windows of the palace. A roar that stopped the hearts of the lesser soldiers instantly.
Ancalagon arrived infront of them, but this time he is in his Hybrid form.
The massive, 35,000-foot dragon had condensed his power. He stood now as a humanoid figure, twelve feet tall, covered in scales of obsidian armor that seemed to absorb the world. Wings of shadow and starlight unfurled from his back, blocking out the sun. His face was a nightmare of dragon and man, with burning amber eyes that held the malice of eons.
"I'm your enemy you should face of."
His voice sounded like grinding tectonic plates.
"Hero of the Empire and." Ancalagon pointed his claw to Yulen.
The claw was long, jagged, and dripping with void energy.
Ancalagon tilt his head. "Chosen one of that damn Goddess of Light!" Ancalagon growl in anger.
The final boss had entered the game. The Empire wasn't just in flames; it was in the presence of the End.