Each of the blocked tribal feathers automatically returned to the Chieftan, roughly reconnecting to his body, which had countless more feathers all over it.
With a piercing stare, he watched the inhabitants of the base scramble around. No emotion or even a slight hint of feeling was expressed by him.
Slowly, the chief lifted an arm, grabbing his massive, hulking staff. As he lowered the arm again, a powerful rush of wind boomed across the landscape simply from the force of the slight movement.
"Gah-..." Kaida lifted an arm, trying to block the wind as it violently blew across the playground. He then screamed. "Though we were caught by surprise, it does not matter everyone! You all know what we are meant to do, so initiate the discussed plan right now!!!"
Understanding, the entire base full of rebel Organic Machines gathered themselves, grasped a number of weapons, and followed Kaida as he began to lead them directly toward the chieftain.
They broke up into a practiced formation, with some OM's soaring through the air at differing heights, and others sprinting along the ground.
"This man right here, the man who was meant to lead us, has spent his time massacring our families, executing our children, and destroying peaceful society as we know it for countless months! It is the man we've discussed all too much since our rebellion began! Our battle against him, the moment we have spent so much time preparing for, has arrived at last! So let us-..."
From the chieftains staff, a vicious bolt of lightning exploded toward Kaida, splitting him in half mid speech, killing him before he could react.
The two halves of Kaida's body slammed against the ground, skidding to a halt as several OM's shot past his corpse.
Nearby, Setzen gazed at his palm. The key rested within it. He soon clenched his fist, and burst sideways, moving away from the battle so that he could work his way around to eventually reach the chief.
The four Organic Machines who were the same size as the chieftain, and who acted as his guards, also watched as the rebel army approached. They glanced over at the chief, who looked back at them in response, giving the okay for his comrades to attack.
A matte black colored OM who was one of the four, removed a humungous whip from its side. It took a few steps forward, causing the entire landscape to tremble as it did so. Then, reaching its enormous arm backward, it cracked the whip.
Despite sticking to their practiced formations, half of the rebel OMs were instantly wiped out. The whip that this giant OM attacked with gradually smashed against the ground, creating a tremendous split all across the sweeping environment.
"Y-You're shittin' me.... while we've been gone, did the chief decide to allow others to attain the power of this god...??" Belfume considered.
Setzen witnessed this attack even from a great distance away. His eyes shot wide open. "Shit!! With that one and only attack, everyone was nearly already killed! We never considered the chance that there would be others similar in strength to the chief! They must have sacrificed far more innocents to allow even more OMs to acquire such power!"
Dragging the whip behind its back, the black OM prepared to crack it once more.
Suddenly shifting course, Setzen's speed skyrocketed. "None of this was prepared for. Continuing with the plan will end in failure, my friends will not even survive another strike! So, I... do not have a choice but to interfere!!"
Before long, the black guard proceeded to crack its whip yet again. The landscape partially split once more, however this time it was not from the power of the whip, but instead due to just how indescribably fast Setzen bursted toward where the whip was attacking.
Several drops of blood leaked from Setzen's mouth as he gritted his teeth with much force. He swung his blade with incredible strength. The veins on his arms greatly tensed, and he completely sliced the whip in two. The section he severed plummeted and smashed into the ground below, creating even more immense cracks that spread outward in every direction.
Every single living being involved in the battle's attention was drawn to Setzen. Even the Chief himself.
"H-Hey Setzen!!" Belfume blurted. "The hell do you think you're doing??! You just revealed yourself to the enemy!!"
"The plan must be completely abandoned!! With the Chief bringing along with him these unexpected allies, you will all hardly survive another blow! But my friends, it does not really matter!! As you can see, if I truly give it my all..." Setzen's eyes harshly narrowed. "I'm capable of tearing all of these bastards apart by myself!!!!"
With his entire body heavily tensing up, Setzen shot forward, directly toward the Chief and his army.
The Chief's army could barely see Setzen with how quick he was moving. As he ran past the smaller, more standard OMs, Setzen swung his blade back and forth so rapidly that it was as if his arm was vibrating. Dozens of said OMs began to fall to pieces by the second.
All of the rebel Organic Machines had stopped fighting, and were instead watching Setzen in awe. Suddenly, Belfume ran past them, screaming. "Get your heads outta your asses and help the maniac out!! If he only fights by his damn self, he'll die!!"
Regaining their senses, the rebel OMs joined Belfume, doing what they could to assist Setzen with the clash.
Back near the playground, Noda landed on the ground with a thud. He had leapt out from the tunnel. "This whole fuckin' battle is completely out of our league. Shit, I think at this point it's out of the league of the weaker Organic Machines. But we said we'd aid and assist these guys while makin' sure not to fight anything one on one. And right now, it's lookin' like this is the perfect time to jump in with everyone pitching in to back up Setzen. So let's quit fuckin' around back here, and start ripping our enemies apart."
Following his statement, Noda began sprinting forward. His eyes began to glow and shine a deep red. Each step he took damaged the surface below him. Completely focused, he entered the battle.
"He is always acting like a filthy berserker." Esten said. She unsheathed both of her blades. "Although I... am beginning to really like that about him."
Setsuna watched as she also entered the fight. He then looked down at his hand. "Why on earth did I..." He stopped, and closed the hand he was gazing at into a fist. "I'll discuss things with her once this encounter has ended. For the time being, the conflict ahead will acquire my full attention. Time to do what I can to help deal with this mess."
While Setzen continued to make his way toward the Chief and his guards, a massive battle was taking place behind him. Any OMs he was unable to take out were dealt with by the rebel Organic Machines, alongside the Elite and the group of Winged Warriors.
The Winged Warriors had followed the Elite once Setsuna joined the battle. They all burrowed underground, and split up once reaching their opponents.
With the enemy Organic Machines being occupied with the rebels, it allowed the Winged Warriors to attack without needing to worry about the shields. One Warrior quickly bashed its entire body through the torso of an Organic Machine who was fighting against Belfume. Looking over at the Warrior, Belfume gave it a thumbs up, smirking while also taking a quick sip of his refilled drink, proceeding to move onto the next opponent.
Countless Organic Machines were torn apart, had internal parts removed, and at times were even eaten by the Winged Warriors.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Setsuna's eyes profusely bled, and his mouth leaked with blood as he had awakened the bodies of every single deceased Organic Machine. At the same time, he had also used his ability to make use of the broken portion of the whip Setzen had sliced off.
With these resources at his disposal, Setsuna had doubled the strength of the rebel army, as every deceased Organic Machine he'd awakened was using their abilities exactly as if they were still alive. At the same time, the top half of the broken whip swung around and slammed itself against countless enemy OMs, crushing them.
Setsuna struggled to stand. More and more blood continued to splash onto the ground. Nearly collapsing from the strain, he caught himself, and regained his footing. Tightly clenching his fists, he began to scream, using every ounce of strength he had to continue attacking with all of the OM corpses and the whip.
Close by, Esten sprinted throughout the battlefield. As she ran past clashes between opposing Organic Machines, she'd scrape her two blades across the legs of the enemies, severing their limbs. With each leg she removed, it would of course burst out from another part of the OM's body, allowing whoever they were in combat with to easily finish them off.
She flawlessly maneuvered her body around flying debris, dangerous spells, and anything that put her at risk for injury, continuing to help the rebels take down the Chieftains army.
At yet another section of the battle, Noda was aggressively pummeling the ground below him. It gradually broke apart and cracked. Once it had been damaged to a significant enough degree, he halted his barrage of blows for a brief moment, cocking his arm back further than usual in order to unleash an especially powerful punch.
This punch sent several enormous chunks of the damaged ground into the air. Noda grabbed one of these chunks, spun around, and launched it toward one of the enemy OMs. He swiftly did this with many of the chunks at a barbaric pace.
The chunks he hurled tore through the bodies of any Organic Machines they made contact with. Continuing to pick up the speed, his eyes grew even redder, and saliva leaked from his mouth. It was as if he had allowed his body to gradually start taking complete control, only focusing on combat.
Having observed the carnage for long enough, the other three guards gazed down at Setzen, who had made substantial progress through the sea of enemy Organic Machines. Setzen looked back at them with a raging glare.
Slowly, the trio unveiled their personal weapons. One held a bow, another wielded a flail, while the third grasped a lengthy sledgehammer. A brief moment later, they all three aimed their weapons at Setzen, and attacked.
A tremendous arrow came soaring Setzen's way. In response, he spun in a circle to build momentum, then slashing his transparent blade through the center of said arrow, splitting it in two. The two separated sides of the arrow skidded across the battlefield behind Setzen, just missing the transpiring clashes.
Following this, Setzen was instantly met with the gigantic spinning flail, which he countered by vibrating his arm with such speed, that it diced the flail into several hundred pieces.
Barely a moment later, from the side, the sledgehammer now swung toward Setzen. He tightly gripped the handle of his blade with both hands, twisted his body, and vertically split it in two, mimicking what he had done to the arrow.
At this point, Setzen's body was screaming in agony. But he forced himself to continue moving forward.
Having had their personal weapons all destroyed, the four guards all went to their staffs, each summoning a collection of a dozen blades. These blades all rocketed toward Setzen before long.
Setzen slammed his foot forward, sliding to a halt. His eyes accelerated between each and every once of the blades flying at him. Once the blades reached him, he used his own blade to start knocking them away. With his sword rapidly swinging back and forth, he connected with all forty-eight of the opposing blades, sending all of them without exception ricocheting away.
Afterward, he resumed his rampage forward, closing the remaining distance between himself and the guards.
Each guard deployed their shields. Upon reaching them, Setzen plunged his blade into the shield of the whip user. This caused heavy damage to the shield, leading it to soon fall apart and collapse.
In attempts to protect their ally, the other guards placed their staffs in front of the whip user. This did not help, though. Setzen's blade crafted entirely from his soul yet again was able to slash through their weapons.
Setzen dashed forward, at last reaching the whip users body. He placed a hand against them, closing his eyes.
The guards damaged staffs were still usable, with only the handles having been severed. They casted the sword spell yet again, hoping it would connect this time with Setzen being occupied.
The massive blades rocketed toward Setzen. They came only a hair from connecting with him, however were blown away when the whip user all of a sudden exploded into a red mass of flesh and blood.
Setzen had used his ability of soul manipulation to override the whip users soul, causing it to burst. This particular effect heavily strained Setzen's body, so he could not use it often. He momentarily collapsed, tumbling across the landscape after being blown back by the explosion. It wasn't long until he regained his footing, standing up again, then making his way back toward the other three guards.
Struggling to keep his eyes open or remain on his feet, Setzen stumbled, eventually collapsing yet again with a thud.
The remaining, blood stained guards peered down at Setzen's exhausted, unmoving body. After giving one another a quick glance, they prepared to finish him off.
Having observed these events unfold from afar while in combat, Belfume hollered. "Dammit! The crazy bastard's exhausted himself! Setzen... he's fallen!!"
In reaction to this, every ally involved in the war briefly looked to where Setzen laid, or had their facial expressions shift.
At an incredibly gradual pace, Setsuna turned his head toward the Chief and his three remaining guards. He also eyed the lifeless looking Setzen. "Setzen... has indeed fallen. But we... mustn't abandon the... battle..! It isn't... a lost cause!!!" He said to himself, blood leaking through his teeth. His glasses began to fall apart in his hand, as he used every bit of strength his ability was capable of. Pushing his body to its absolute limit.
The remaining guards used the orb spell this time, summoning a vast collection of red orbs that all were aimed at Setzen. The orbs were not able to connect with him though, instead scattering in several directions.
Confused, the guards glanced at each other. It was then that two of them noticed the sledgehammer user had a whip wrapped around its neck. Before they were able to act on this discovery, the whip pulled back, beheading the sledgehammer user, killing him.
The colossal body of the newly deceased guard slammed onto the ground, aggressively shaking the entire area.
Close by, much to the shock of the remaining two guards, stood the whip user.
Setsuna had reassembled every last piece of the whip user, including the actual whip itself, controlling its corpse to continue the fight against the guards.
Shortly following the sledgehammer users death, his body was also reassembled, creating an even two against two scenario.
While doing this, however, Setsuna violently shook. His glasses fell apart further with each moment that passed, and his body continued losing the small amount of blood it still had remaining.
He was slowly dying.
Despite this, he continued to fight. The two guard corpses he had reassembled traded blows with the guards who still lived. The exchange sent shockwaves across the land.
Both Esten and Noda were still assisting the rebel Organic Machines with taking down the enemy. Esten stopped, catching a glimpse of Setsuna. Her hair furiously blew to the side as the wind from the shockwaves rushed past her. She watched as a small number of Organic Machines made their way toward him. One rushed his way, looking to physically attack Setsuna. While another used a spell, shooting a flurry of swords in his direction.
Noda also noticed the assault right as the blade spell was unleashed. Him and Esten quickly made eye contact, before dashing in Setsuna's direction.
Attempting to avoid some of the blades, Setsuna tried to use his ability on more objects, but he lacked further strength to do so. Before long, one of the swords zooming toward him arrived, and slashed his leg off, causing him to fall to a knee. The next impaled his chest, thrusting into the ground behind him as he remained impaled. A third blade came soaring at his throat. Just before it could kill him, Esten's own blade knocked into it, just barely shifting its course. The altered course still allowed the blade to slash across Setsuna's neck, however not enough to damage him significantly.
The next sword was just behind the previous one. But it was not able to substantially damage him either, as Noda knocked it away with his bare fist. Following these near saves, both Esten and Noda stood on either side of Setsuna, wearing determined expressions.
"Y-You two... it was agreed... that w-we would no-.. not engage the Organic Machines directly on our own!!" Setsuna hardly managed to spit out.
Noda responded. "That's right. We did agree on that. But after you decided to attack the giant ass enemies next to the chief themselves, you made it clear that agreement's no longer in tact. So shut the hell up and let us save your ass. You're our last hope, isn't that right? We can't do much if the dead OMs you revived fall."
"Noda is mostly correct. Although, we would have protected you whether or not you had already broken the agreement yourself. Now please try to stop discussing things with us. If you do not focus on using your ability, we will all be killed." Added Esten.
Blood dripped and leaked from Setsuna's severed leg. Glimpsing at Noda, and then Esten, he could see both holding back the emotions they had after seeing him in this condition. He decided to do the same thing, shifting his attention back to keeping the guard corpses moving.
The clash between the living guards and their deceased comrades continued. It was an even fight, with neither side gaining the upper hand to this point. As this occurred, Setzen's eyes slowly opened. Things were blurry at first, but he soon was able to make out the battle going on next to him.
Recalling the situation everyone was in, Setzen's eyes widened, and he swiftly made his way back to his feet. He staggered for a moment due to fatigue, but had recovered enough to join the battle again.
Eyeing each of the four guards, he examined their souls with the goal of figuring out what had caused them to turn on each other. Once noticing only two guards still had souls, Setzen came to the conclusion that this must be the work of Setsuna's ability.
Now being fully aware of what was going on, Setzen tightly gripped his blade. A harsh wind developed around him, and he then blasted toward the living guards.
With both of them focused on the deceased guards Setsuna had awakened, they were completely vulnerable to Setzen's attacks. Within only a brief period of time, Setzen slashed his blade countless times across several sections of the guards bodies, killing both of the remaining two with ease.
Noticing this, Setsuna used even more of his own strength to immediately revive the two additional guards Setzen had just killed. Their bodies did not have the chance to even hit the floor before Setsuna's ability took effect. To achieve this even with an almost non existent level of strength remaining, Setsuna used so much of his power that his glasses completely shattered. His eyeballs heavily tensed up, and were on the verge of exploding.
Next to him, both Noda and Esten were reaching their own limits defending Setsuna from any oncoming OMs.
Blood poured down Noda's body, and he heavily panted. He had three Organic Machines across from him, and was unable to kill a single one. He just barely survived each attack they threw at him, landing only a hit or two of his own before needing to go back on the defensive.
Esten was in the same situation, having been heavily injured by another three OMs who stood across from her. She could not kill them either, but was doing just enough to protect Setsuna's life so he could keep going.
The Chieftain was observing all of this, feeling disappointed that his comrades had failed to defeat such weak foes. Feeling as if he had wasted his gods gift on OMs who did not survive even one battle. He did not say a word though, and kept these thoughts to himself.
Looking up at the chief, Setzen panted harshly, deeply glaring at him. All four of the guards surrounded Setzen, also facing toward the chief.
In response, the chief peered down at Setzen, at last lifting his staff once again. A huge blast of lightning shot out of it, in Setzen's direction.
It connected with Setzen's blade, splitting in two, shooting across the landscape behind him, much like the arrow from earlier.
The lightning was far more destructive than the arrow, cracking and damaging the landscape far more than it already was.
Shortly thereafter, the four guards began moving toward the chief, splitting up in order to surround him.
The chief stood there, unmoving, but carefully paying attention to the guard's movements. He was caught on the leg by the whip user, but did not move an inch despite how much the whip user pulled.
Calmly glancing toward the whip user, the chief shredded them to pieces in an instant using the tribal feathers, shooting the lethal projectiles in order to do so.
As the chief focused on this, the sledgehammer user bashed its weapon against the chieftain's head. But yet again, the chief did not move at all in reaction to the blow. Only shifting his attention in order to deal with the sledgehammer user next.
Shoving his hands through the sledgehammer users chest, the chief vertically tore them in half. Immediately afterward, an arrow from the bow user rocketed in the chief's direction, but was effortlessly caught within his palm, and tossed in the direction of the flail user, bursting through their body.
It wasn't long before the chief had ripped apart the bow user as well. Within the next couple of seconds, however, he was yet again hit by a sledgehammer. All four guards were reassembled by Setsuna, again prepared for combat.
Closely observing the battle, Setzen thought to himself. "The chief is indeed quite a force. All of his own guards combined don't seem to be capable of damaging him. But he is acting a bit too self assured, which will give me the exact opportunity I need in order to drive this key into him, ending his life."
All of a sudden, one of the chief's eyes locked onto Setsuna, finally realizing he was the source behind the guards constant revivals. He proceeded to shoot out one of his lethal feathers, which zoomed past Setzen, rapidly making its way to Setsuna. This particular feather moved at a far quicker rate than the ones from earlier. It destroyed all of the Organic Machines Noda was struggling against, and then reached Setsuna.
Everything going on seemed to slow down to a near frozen like state. All sounds softened to a point that made it seem as if everything had gone mute. Esten stopped what she was doing, shifting her attention toward Setsuna. Noda did the same.
Both of them stared at the severed head of Setsuna that soared through the air. The chieftains feather had successfully sniped him, slicing it from his body.
Setsuna's head hit the ground with a thud, rolling to a halt. Blood leaked from his eye sockets, as his eyes had finally exploded due to the stress he'd put them under. Blood also poured from the neck of his torso.
"N-...No-...Noo!!!!" Esten coughed out blood, collapsing into a pool of her own blood and tears.
Immediately, Noda harshly grabbed her by the arm, lifting Esten to her feet. He intensely looked at her. "I know Esten, I know!! But you've gotta get up!! We've gotta fuckin' move now, or else we'll get ourselves killed next!"
She looked back at Noda, seeing tears also developing in his eyes. This time, he was unable to hold back his emotions any longer, breaking down and beginning to cry. "Like it our not we can't stand around and mourn! We've gotta go right now Esten!!" He yelled between his tears.
With Esten nodding, both her and Noda dodged an onslaught of Organic Machines at the last second, moving to join back with the rebel OMs.
Meanwhile, all of the guards collapsed for the final time. Nodding to himself to acknowledge his success, the chieftain began to look for Setzen, only to notice he was right below him, with the legendary key plunged deep into his skin.
Quickly realizing what this object was, the chief gazed deeply into Setzen's eyes, receiving an intense glare back.
The chief's gaze was filled with a sense of panic. An ear bursting creaking noise came from his body, as it very gradually began to disfigure into a different shape.
In reaction to this, the chief decided to completely unleash his full strength. In not only a panic, but a rage as well, the chief screamed, kicking Setzen off of his body.
Setzen stuck the landing, and began sprinting away, covering his ears.
The scream from the chief was even more ear shattering than the sound of his body slowly disfiguring. So much so, that the scream caused several Organic Machines to explode, both from his own side, and from the rebels side.
Noda and Esten covered their ears as well, avoiding a similar fate.
Following a short moment filled with nothing other than this ongoing screaming, the chief shot up high into the air, flying a large distance upward. Eventually he stopped, switching course and beginning to fly in the other direction. The chief now zoomed downward, powering his staff up with an overwhelming amount of lightning.
After briefly looking back at the chief, Setzen said to himself. "The attack he's preparing doesn't look good. But as long as we can survive this, we'll have successfully taken care of things within this pathway. It shouldn't be long until the key crushes the chiefs body and ends him. He shouldn't be capable of doing anything else after this."
Setzen shot past Noda and Esten, grabbing both of them as he passed, bringing them as far away from the chief as possible alongside him. "You both fought well my friends." He said to them. "As I expected. Battling alongside the Legion of Elite has been quite an honor. And your comrade Setsuna... we would not have been victorious today had he not given his life. I swear to you both, his efforts are something I will never forget."
Neither Esten or Noda responded. The two of them gazed at the chief making his decent, tears streaming down their faces.
Soon enough, the chief made contact with the ground. A blast of lighting and electricity burst across the land, shattering everything. The terrain violently tore open, destroying anything in its path.
The overwhelming shockwaves that exploded outward from the chief due to the pure power behind his movements sent all of the Organic Machines, every Winged Warrior, and even Setzen, Esten, and Noda flying. Despite how hard he tried, Setzen was unable to keep hold of Esten or Noda, and all three of them separated.
Setzen roughly slammed into the ground, viciously tumbling and spinning across it, not slowing down much whatsoever. For some time, he continued to violently bounce around, oftentimes smashing into broken chunks of the land.
At long last, he tumbled to a halt. Coughing out droplets of blood, Setzen was on his knees, with his forearms pinned to the earth. Once regaining his composure, he stood, shaking his head. He opened his eyes, only to be met with a mucus covered tree standing in front of him. Crumbs from a flaky material were on his forearms. He began looking around, realizing he was back on the Blackened Archipelago, while also noticing both Esten and Noda from afar. Continuing to shift his gaze, he saw many of the Winged Warriors, but was overtaken with a feeling of concern when he also saw a handful of Organic Machines. With his eyes slightly widening, he observed the area further, seeing a vast collection of smiles who were gazing up at something.
Towering above the smile town, stood the Chieftain. He had demolished the pathway, and all of the entities within it had emerged onto the Blackened Archipelago.
Close by, a shivering smile scrambled through the town to inform the smile queen of what had just occurred. Once reaching the queen, the particular smile was grasped and eaten before it could say anything. Organs spilled from the queens lips. She narrowed her eyes, filled with rage, and proceeded to make her way toward the Chieftain and every other intruder.
End of Volume One