One second passed, two seconds.. ten.
He clapped with one hand, when that didn't work his mood sank. "What is going on?" A Confused look appeared on the Golden Armored assailants face.
The Ultinian teleported back to where he had fought the soldiers, he had to find out what had happened.
As he looked out of the hole in the wall, there was a winged man standing in the courtyard. In his hands, a violent and extremely bright ball was flickering.
'Nonsense!' The Ultinian felt his eyes were betraying him and that he had not just witnessed the change in affairs, because the Winged man had noticed him while he was receiving a blow that was meant to destroy the area. Not only had he blocked the damage from occurring, he was harnessing, even compressing the energy.
He hands were slowly drawn together from his wide embrace.
Grins appeared on faces the Winged man and his companion, the ball got smaller as the one armed attacker couldn't help but watch from the situation room. The ball got so small that it was the size of a marble. It solidified and fell into the a small box in the winged man's hands.
'Che' Instinctively, the One-armed Ultinian clicked his tongue. The noise echoed in the silent courtyard. It sent Wu Hai into a downward spiral, he had already seen the dead bodies strewn around. As he finally looked over at the hole in the wall, he saw the broken, frozen corpse of his father.
His eyes watered and while he looked to the castle wall above, measuring what had occured, there he saw the figure in gold armor flinch.
Their eyes met and then Wu Hai was missing from the courtyard.
The intruder teleported away instinctively, narrowly missing the Emperor's white blade claws. "What is this guy?" he spoke as he reappeared near the Wooden City portal.
He tried to catch his breath and held his shoulder.
A dark black sphere began to form almost exactly where he had only just arrived, a black ball grew larger near him and a foreboding sense of doom crept up his back. When the portal appeared near the Ultinian and a scout bearing the scent of his dead son hobbled through with the Winged, dark scaled Man.
Dissait collapsed and the Emperor disappeared again.
The Winged Man vanished from One armed man's vision, reappearing next to his wounded shoulder.
Wu Hai's eyes were filled with a brilliant and flickering silver light, he was radiating a murderous aura that wilted the forest around them. Energy poured into his body from all around, a Golden Light surrounded the Emperor and his wings lost their flesh, replaced by an energy that tethered them together. He stabbed the ends into the armor, tearing it off and exposing the one armed man's chest.
Again and again he struck out with the White claws and tips of his wings, when there was nothing left to remove, he started to tear at the Ultinians flesh, cleaving it away.
The Emperor punched down, shattering ribs.
He was too busy to care about the rise in his strength, using his foot, he pinned the other arm and started to stuff small objects into the Ultinian's mouth. He held it shut and slapped him a few times until he swallowed.
When he was done swallowing, Wu Hai tore the other arm from the mans socket and threw it to the side. "You kill my father, injure my daughter and attack my home. Do you have any last words?" Having fed the man enough anti-suicide treasures and pills, there was no escaping for him.
"Who are you?" His voice was intermittent, it seemed like his life force was leaving him and he couldn't escape, he couldn't even sit up to spit in the face of his attacker.
"I am Emperor Zao! Remember that name, in Hell." Wu Hai shot his claw out. Transcendent glows passed along his forearms and ripples of white tore bones from the Ultinian's chest, exposing his heart.
He had expected to ask more questions, so he had prepared all the anti-suicide pills and treasures in his possession. Several stones covered with puppet formations had also been swallowed. However, in that instant, all other thoughts escaped him. Staring at the still beating heart, Wu Hai thought of his father who would never breathe again.
He stared down at his opponent and sent the claw through the throat of the golden armored man, as he gripped at his spinal cord, he heard a slight cracking noise and stored the corpse away. 'Anyone as powerful as that man is bound to have secrets on his body, his heart will be valuable..' Wu Hai collected the dust, bone and blood, anything that looked like a battle had taken place was swept up and teleported back to the Sect.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
In the courtyard, Vira stood surrounded by soldiers, many of them were dead. However, none of them had been slain by her, those that were conscious did not believe their eyes. They held their weapons at the ready, prepared to defend the sect at all cost. A black sphere appeared, the Emperor came back. He was carrying Dissait and passed him off to the guards.
"Take him and everyone here to the Medical building." He picked his head up, clearing his view of the dead that surrounded him. There was one body that needed his personal attention, he gathered his wits and turned to the body of his father.
The expression on his Father's face was frozen, it wasn't one of sadness or panic but determination and resolve, he was smiling at the final moment. Wu Hai's body was experiencing a high volume of emotions, his power ran rampant and shook the City outside of the Castle. "AHH!!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. A door opened, formations came down and Zao Calistown ran out to see her son holding a block of Ice.
When her eyes came into focus, she fainted.
"Anst, are you still alive?" The Emperor stood up to his fathers aide. He slapped Anst a few times to get his attention.
"Yes.. yes. I am still here, I cannot believe what has just happened. He came out of no where, we thought his arrival was actually you. The teleportation didn't come from the pad, instead it was in the situations room." His eyes panned around him and saw huge amounts of corpses, they had been left scattered around the courtyard, quartered in front of the Patriarch as a punishment.
"Why are you still alive?" Wu Hai's anger was un-quenched, there was a lot to be angry at, more angry than he could have expected. He slammed his fist against the wall, collapsing it. "Where were you!"
The Emperors rage could be seen be all eyes, Anst crumbled to the ground. "I was delivering a message for the Patriarch. I had only stepped away after he began transmitting on the communication stones."
More stones fell behind him and the Emperor's face twisted with grief, tears poured from his eyes. Wu Hai knew the man wasn't to blame, but his father was dead.
There was an unmistakable expression on his face and the Empress rounded the corner. She saw Wu Hai's despair and covered her mouth at the sight in front of her. She had been in hiding with the children, locked away behind formations. Only then, after seeing her awaiting arms was he in a state of relief, some of the measures to protect his family had worked. Darkwing's betrayal had taught them all a dismal lesson, protection is never as deep as you think.
"Beloved. Take care of the Matriarch." He turned to his mother, she was crowded by guards as they checked the survivors and attempted to save whoever they could.
Vira started to move, it irritated Wu Hai. He even considered slapping her for making light or opportunity from the situation. Though, it was well in his expectations of her personality. Though displeased, he didn't speak. Emperor Zao turned to the Guards, "Double the formations, have the Elders triple it if possible, give me the survivors and all the reports. I want to know what the hell happened, how did he find us?"
"He said he could feel the life force of his son, his dead son." One of the crippled guards spoke with a collapsing lung.
Wu Hai threw a potion and blasted it apart, a dense medicinal fog spread out across his chest and with the exeption of his dirty clothes, he quickly seemed refreshed. Bowing softly, he showed his appreciation and spoke again. "He treated us like like toys, we were no match. Its too bad he's gotten away."
Wu Hai put his shoulder on the soldier's back and helped him up, "That being will never breathe again, his body is in my possession."
Immediately, everyone perked up.
"Is this true?" Kuzunoha, who was tending to the Matriarch asked.
Nodding, Wu Hai tried to pull the body out.
A Stone appeared instead.
"What is this?" His expression changed. 'Ahh. I get it.' "Dissait said the child turned into a stone when he died, perhaps it is how the dead from his race take shape. Wu Hai sank his senses into the rock, he could feel an aura radiating from it. "Call Dissait, I want that other Stone." The Emperor had the guards bring him and he asked for the Stone.
Dissait brought it out, for a moment, there was a distinctly different vibration.
"The Rocks each give off their own high pitched vibration, however, after a moment, they both came into sync. This is very strange." Wu Hai spoke to himself, it was somewhat strange after all. "Take this and wait for a moment." He passed it back to Dissait and teleported away. The distance was enough to break the connection, causing the sync to end.
Wu Hai channeled a teleportation circle in his hand and reappeared where he once was.
"Dissait... Dissait..You can give it back." The ground had shaken just moments ago but Dissait couldn't snap out of his trance, he was holding the body of the Ultinian Father. The rock was about the size of a tea pot and oddly shaped, the radiating aura left Dissait in a daze.
Wu Hai took the remains from his hands and then, afterward, Dissait regained his psyche.
"Carry the Patriarch's body to the medical ward and prepare a microphone for the loudspeaker. I have an announcement to make to the Sect." Wu Hai handed an empty ring to another guard, it was difficult for him to even look at the bodies of the dead without boiling in rage. "Collect our dead" The fight against the intruder had taken a lot out of the willpower within him, despite his actions and the overall outcome, he was unsatisfied with the whole matter.
The bad taste in his mouth, it wouldn't disappear. There was something itching at him.
He walked up to Kuzunoha and wrapped his arms and wings around her. Grabbing at her waist, he stepped off the ground and flew to the top of the Castle. "I..I have what I went to find. But now I wonder if the cost is too high. My father.." He crumbled behind a wall, away from prying eyes and mourned for a moment.
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The bodies of the fallen Security Forces had been removed and brought to a resting point before the council. They had given everything for the sect, buying time for the Patriarch to call for aide. As a whole, they had done exactly what they were trained to do under pressure, Ooran included.
He was wrapped in delicate cloths and laid on a table, the cold room kept the body from melting and made the whole matter a little less insufferable. Calistown stood over Ooran and wept, there was a grief stricken atmosphere and the many dangers of the world could never truly prepare anyone for a death in the family. "To lose the one you love, What a cruel fate." She cried, tears of starlight fell.
The door was shut behind them and Wu Hai turned to Vira and Kuzunoha. "We need to leave."
Vira was ready, but Kuzunoha sprout her wings and used them to stop Wu Hai from leaving. "You can't. The Patriarch is Dead. Who will lead the Sect?"
"We have to get Hana and anyone that came into contact with those two away from this place, immediately." He pulled out the stone corpse. "I don't know how they tracked this, it was in storage the whole time. Which means, they can track it when its not in our regular space." he flipped his hands over a few times to signify a hurrying gesture. "It means they came for the radiation these things emit, that or they can track it with some other means. Either way, the longer we stay here, the bigger our chances at bringing destruction to the sect." He spun a circle in his palm. "Grab my shoulder." With a flick, he appeared in Hana's room and pulled her from the tank.
"You're serious? Who's going to lead the sect?" Kuzunoha was puzzled but with one look at her daughter being wrapped into a dry blanket and carried, she abandoned all her other thoughts. For family, she would also forsake nearly anything.
"There won't be a sect if we don't get the hell out of here." The Emperor grabbed a few items from the medical labs, including the tank Hana had been stored inside. Once they had been stored away, he put his hand on Hana and channeled in the other.
A collapse of space followed.
Zao City shook a few more times and the city was teeming with guards preparing for the worst.