Chereads / Light's Edge / Chapter 18 - Fate Cannot Be Changed

Chapter 18 - Fate Cannot Be Changed

An alarm sounded as men jumped down from the wall to attack the creature. To say all hell broke loose was an understatement. Hikari stared at Deb's corpse. He was just talking to him, and then he was gone. He was in shock. Hikari was only awakened from his state of shock by the screams of grown men. When he looked over the edge of the wall, all Hikari saw was a bloodbath. This thing was like a demon. It ripped through everything it came in contact with. It even bit off the top of someone's head. Random arms, legs, and hands lay scattered across the field. A rain of arrows came down from the wall to try and hinder the thing, but It continued to slaughter men left and right. The way it slaughtered the soldiers, you could tell it took satisfaction in every death. All Hikari could think to himself was, "Is this really how I die? To this abomination?" Hikari feels a weight on his chest. In front of such indiscriminate destruction, Hikari feels hopeless about his fate. About his foretold death. "Hikari, we already decided that this wouldn't be the end. However, If you are going to survive this, you'll need to go all out. No holding back. The seal I placed on your eye has already been undone. Kill this thing." Arcadia says in his head. Hikari tries to calm his nerves. Hikari grips the Infinite Azure tightly as more men scream for their mothers before dying. After a few more moments, Hikari's eyes glow blue as he turns on the eye of the sun. Hikari jumps down the side of the wall before the last man is killed. The thing holds the man by his neck, and you can see the man's face turning blue from asphyxiation. "Ah, a powerful one has come. And it even carries a holy mark on its body. I can smell it." The thing holds the man toward Hikari and snaps the man's neck like the most fragile twig It drops the body and begins to walk toward Hikari. "Blessed one, come. Send yourself to your Dea-" Hikari doesn't wait for the creature to finish talking and rushes forward, determined to end its existence. Hikari's eyes were completely blue, and the ground sizzled beneath him. When the two meet in a clash, the creature attempts to bite off Hikari's head. Hikari dodged to the left, kicking its side, sending it flying. The two continued to fight each other, the creature dodging Hikari's attacks and Hikari dodging that thing's attacks. To those that are watching the fight, they can only describe Hikari as a man consumed by fire. It was nothing like the other fights Hikari had ever had. This battle wasn't a dance of skill or power; this was pure combat. Each strike Hikari used had the intent to kill. The creature attacked the same way, this was a battle to the death, and no one on the wall dared to interfere. As the two fought, Hikari slipped a swipe from the creature and kicked its side, launching it away. As they momentarily separated, Hikari summons a barrage of blue fireballs and shoots them at the creature nonstop. The creature dodges these attacks without effort, contorting its body in unnatural ways to slip fireball after fireball. As it rushes back toward Hikari, it lets out a loud shriek before jumping in the air with a shriek. While spinning in the air, random spikes fly out from its body, a few aimed at his throat. Hikari deflects the creature's attempt for his life and counters with a torrent of flames, destroying a portion of the wall. Hikari doesn't let up with his fire, but the creature walks steadily forward with a sick smile. It knees Hikari in the chest when it's standing right in front of him. This attack sends him flying backward with his ribs shattered. The force from the attack keeps him rolling on the ground. When he comes to a stop, blood gushes from his mouth. The world spins around him, and he can hardly stand it. If it were not for his eye of the sun healing him, he'd be dead right now. With a loud war cry, Hikari pulls out his father's sword from seemingly nowhere in a flash of light. After being silent for most of the fight, Arcadia speaks in Hikari's mind. "Hikari, this foe is too great for you. It might be best to retreat. I get that you don't want to let all these people die, but we can't save anyone if you die." As she says this, Arcadia notices something, Hikari never knew void magic. Without void magic, you can summon things from other spaces. So how did he manage to summon his father's sword from the castle? A mix of golden light and blue fire erupts from Hikari in all directions melting everything within a 10-meter radius. The creature steps backward, recoiling from the heat before launching itself forward at Hikari. Hikari meets the creature halfway in a clash of fire and darkness. From here on, Hikari and the creature's movements are so fast that it is hard for even the veterans on the wall to keep track of what is happening. Between the intense heat and the trees bursting into flames, everyone has the same thought, this fight was leagues above them. As the fight moves away from the wall, the creature starts to employ different attacks. Near the middle of the woods, the creature stabs a tree next to Hikari's head, and a spike shoots out of his arm. The attack grazes Hikari's cheek, which makes the creature smiled. Multiple spikes shoot from the creature's body and home in on Hikari, most of which Hikari either dodges or blocks, but a few scraped his torso or legs. When enough distance has been made between them, the creature recalls the spikes back into his body. Both of them are tired. Their labored breath is a testament to this fact."You've lived for long enough! It's not good to play with one's food!" The creature yells in its dry voice. Hikari doesn't reply and only begins to ready his weapons. The creature opens its mouth fully, dislocating its jaw as dark energy begins to gather in the shape of an orb. Hikari begins to gather energy, and the heat around him starts to skyrocket. It's to the point where the clothes on his body are burning away. His hero's mark starts glowing brighter than ever. The trees around him instantly convert to ash as the energy gathered grows even higher than before. In a single moment, they both launch their attacks at each other. The effects of the two attacks coming into contact with each other are so big that it is seen for miles around. The sound ruptures windows in the capital, and people at the wall have to brace themselves from the oncoming air pressure.

The attack is later heard about throughout the capital. Some get their information from rumors and second-hand sources. Others through first-hand accounts of the slaughter. As soon as the news reached the king's ears, he had the heroes go out to investigate and help clean up the wall. The blue fires outside of the wall were still fresh when the other heroes arrived. "What the hell happened here?!" Agnimitra yells at one of the captains. The captain hurries over and starts to explain the situation. "So let me get this straight: a creature you'd never seen before showed up and started killing people at the wall, and then Hikari jumped down to fight the creature?" Agnimitra asks."Yes, that's it. Honestly, if he weren't here, we all would've died. Where were you guys?" Agnimitra looks down at the man before looking away. She walks away without answering the man's question and jumps over the edge of the wall. When she lands, she can see Tiki floating in the air. Tiki is surveying the aftermath of the fight. All the blood, charred body parts, and melted parts of the wall. "Hey, Tiki! What you see up there!" Agnimitra shouts at Tiki. Tiki comes down and lands gracefully beside her. Tiki says, "Well, their battle left a path for sure. Honestly, this scene looks worse from above than below." "Well, where does the path leads to?" Agnimitra asks. Tiki pauses for a little before saying, "To a huge crater, a really big crater. It looks to be about fifty miles away from here." Agnimitra goes silent for a little. "Let's check it out, see the damage, and see if Hikari is alive" Tiki nods, and they take off. As they run through the woods, they get a picture of how dangerous this fight was. Piles of ash that were once trees fly away as they run past them. Clouds of Miasma fill the air. Cooled molten pockets of land are everywhere Hikari stepped. After about 10 minutes of running, they arrive at the crater. Agnimitra takes a step back, surprised by how big it was. "How the hell did he do this?" Agnitras whispers. They both look around briefly but see no traces of either of them outside the crater. Tiki is the first one to enter the crater. She glided to the bottom swiftly, but even there, she didn't see any trace of him. "Agnimitra, there doesn't seem to be even a trace of him left. It's almost like-" Agnimtra jumps to the bottom of the crater and stands right beside her. "Tiki, I may not have liked him but do you think he's dead?" Agnimitra says in a low voice. Tiki clenches her fists and turns away. "There are no signs of anyone leaving the center, and there is no trace of anything left. This hole is steep anyway, so the fact there isn't even a corpse." The man in the area starts to become thick as Tiki becomes more upset, her power climbing the longer she thinks. "If only we were here, Mitra! We could've helped him. I know he wasn't here for long, but why? Why did he have to die so soon?" Tiki yells. "I don't know why you are so emotional about his possible death. We only knew for like a week." Agnimitra says to Tiki. Her voice is strong and unwavering. "Only a week? Don't act like this, Mitra! when you first met him, all you did was act like a complete ass! You even insulted his dead dad and or master, Alduin!" Tiki turns around and pushes Agnimitra with her right hand, making Agnimitra stumble backward. "You've got some fucking gall Agnimitra! I've put up with your bullshit for a while now, all because you're stronger than me, but now you can't feel even a little sadness for your passed comrade?" Agnimitra was still shocked that Tiki pushed her, but now a fist was flying at her face. Agnimitra had two options: either let the punch connect or catch it. The fist slammed into her face making her take a few steps backward and take a knee. Tiki had even managed to give Agnimitra a nosebleed. Tiki starts walking away, and Agnimitra jogs to catch up with her. When she is close enough, Agnimitra reaches for Tiki's shoulder, but Tiki jerks her body away from her. "I'll see you back at the palace, Agnimitra," says Tiki before flying off in a random direction. Agnimitra is lost for words, Tiki had never acted like this before. Yeah, she was a strong warrior, but Tiki was a girly girl. She never cursed or instigated a fight. And when did she get so strong? Tiki wasn't even using her mana cloak technique, and she still managed to make her bleed. Agnimitra wipes away her nosebleed and looks back at the middle of the crater. Whatever made this explosion was strong. Strong enough to give Agnimitra a challenge. While Tiki was pissed off somewhere, Agnimitra would be doing some research on creatures strong enough to kill a hero. Something twisted, but cunning enough to speak to humans while taking pleasure in killing. Agnimitra jumped out of the crater and stretched a little, loosening her body up for the run back home. It was time to deliver this news to the king.