Chapter 28 - Blue Star

Boosting himself forward to meet the onslaught of hexes that over-saturated the room, Sargon had a fighting smile under his helmet. Despite his situation, fighting against true evil will never garner a response that isn't a grin or a smile. Fighting true evil is believed to be one the most honorable and glorious acts he could do as a knight according to his thinking.

Using boost, maxing out his astra circulation, invisibility, flight, and astral shields, Sargon evaded and blocked most attacks. The ones that got through left a scratch on his armor at most before the scratch was repaired automatically. His armor may feel indistinguishable from his own skin now, but it is still full-plated knight armor. Sargon immediately began to counter-attack with materialized astral swords along with his own strikes. With his improved astral sense, he was able to cut down all the weaker cultists within 15 seconds. The remaining foes were the 10 archmages and the peak-archmage leader.

His astral swords were ineffective against their weird movement abilities where they dissipated into tar and reformed nearly instantaneously elsewhere to dodge the attacks. The foes were fond of using black lighting to attack Sargon. He used boost and astral shield to defend and evade the attacks. He counter-attacked by boosted while, emitting a blinding flash of light, towards a trio and striking the one in the middle of the two with a downward slash. The move used was named blinding strike. The attack was blocked though, the two archmages on the side were not so lucky as their bodies were bisected.

Sargon had practiced using astral slashes without swinging his sword. The fruits of his training allowed him to send an astral slash to the two archmages while they were blinded and careless since they initially thought they were not being targeted. They had already used their tar movement ability prematurely, so they did not have enough time to dodge once again with the attack in their faces already. Their attempt at putting up a shield, resulted in a weak shield that was broken, resulting in their bisection.

"2 down, 9 to go..."

Focusing on the archmage in front of him, he focused his attacks on him. His weirdly transparent black goo shield was holding up. Sargon was defending his back from black lighting attacks while attacking the archmage. Deciding to take a different approach, he imbued star fire into his attacks instead of just starlight. Now the shield seemed to dry up, it then cracked and broke soon after. The archmage tried one last-ditch attack by casting a tar hex meant to entrap and poison Sargon. It was burned away by his shield when it collided with it. Sargon's sword then reached its mark. Now dodging again he said, "Guess star fire is the way to go to deal with the tar and goo."

Now using star fire against the remaining archmages besides Ire Jundam who is just watching, he has gotten the advantage. The closed underground room, despite its large size, negatively impacted the cultists much more than Sargon. Sargon is able to block, dodge, and disappear during the fight at high speeds. The cultists do not share his ability to move at high speeds without their tar movement hex. Hence they can't gain distance from him, and filling the room with hexes has proven useless against Sargon. Now with the introduction of star fire in the fight, their hexes are being burned away along with the starlight, which was already troublesome.

Sargon has been boosting to attack them quickly while switching targets. He was using his invisibility, flying, and boost to keep them all hyper-alert so they can't relax. Mental strain will cause mistakes, mistakes Sargon can exploit. The cultist's reserves of tainted mana were not nearly as plentiful as Sargon's reserves of astra. After, 20 minutes of fighting constantly in a stalemate, one of the archmages made a slip. She made a mistake constructing a powerful black lighting spell meant to track, restrain, paralyze, and shock. After using star fire for 20 minutes, Sargon has gotten quite adept at manipulating it. He moved on to the imperfection within the spell to disrupt it with star fire. A disruption is different from an erasure since it results in a backfire unto the caster. Hence the cultist received the backfire and was completely defenseless when Sargon separated her lower body from her upper body with a horizontal astral slash.

The pressure that was on him from the combined attacks was now lessened to a degree where it allows substantially more movement for Sargon. The cultists were not able to shift aggro as well, and as a result, they started to sustain injuries to his various strikes. Another fell to blinding strike, one after that to Phantom flurry. Phantom flurry is an attack where multiple astral slashes materialize in completely different attack vectors to his physical strike with his sword.

"Haha, 5 more heretics to go!"

Four more archmages fell swiftly to Sargon's relentless onslaught of fast, strong, and effective attacks that never waned in ferocity or strength. Ire Jundan is now the last man standing.

"Well done Starlight Knight, bravo, bravo...Do not be sure of your victo..." Before Ire could finish speaking, Sargon interrupting him mid-sentence once again. Sargon's attack was blocked by a dome shield around the altar that made its cloudy black surface visible after being struck.

"MMmmeeeheehehahahaahahaha, of course, I took the time bought by my fellows to erect this shield around the altar of my goddess. Since it has come to this, I have no choice but to use extreme measures to ensure that our objective is completed. Tonight, Fereldyn will be no more! Tonight, the sacrifices offered to Heilgrash will ensure the creation of her avatar on this mortal world!

Ire Jundan, whose face is now twisted in crazed fanaticism, pierced his own heart with the sacrificial dagger. He fell upon the altar, and all the blood within the room was sucked into the altar. Then the altar exploded and vile energy began to ascend through the ground. Sargon immediately exited the room by bursting through the rubble to find Pharis and Dexaril gone with the prisoners.

"They must've decided to take the prisoners out.", he said to himself quietly.

He rushed to the surface to find tar creeping out from orifices in wood and stone. The air had a black fog and any water has turned into black goo. He saw a huge dome shield of ghastly black clouds had formed around the city, preventing escape. The environment was quickly becoming toxic to all life. The people around were starting to die. Within his mind racing, trying to figure out what to do. He took his own advice and looked to stars barely visible through the dome.

He fell into his mind suddenly and heard the choir of stars singing again. This time they said actual words. They sang, "Newborn star who shines brightly blue, may your light, brightest among stars, blind the darkness and guide those new out of the ever-encroaching dark. We sing for you young star to celebrate your birth and vibrant life, O Blue Star, sing with us to illuminate the beauty of creation."

Images of a Blue Star rushing to his head that burns stronger than all others. Whose light will shine brighter than all others and spread throughout creation. Sargon snapped back to reality realizing what he must do. He has never used this ability before, but he knew he has always known it, "Blue Star Ignition!"

Upon using this ability, his body became enveloped in blue light and starting to radiate blue astra in all directions. He ignited his astra within his body to activate this ability. The radiated astral energy was burning and erasing the tar, goo, and fog throughout Fereldyn. It revitalized the previously dying people, Burst through the barrier, and saturated the city with the radiance of a star. Perhaps not surprisingly, the radiated energy made ethereal sounds that were musical if listened to closely. that It had only been 15 seconds, but Sargon had finished destroying the mass sacrifice hex and after burning all the astra in his body from the action, he fell limp on his back.

Looking into the night sky, he closed his eyes after saying briefly, "I told you I'll win, he...."