Cecile flapped her wings and shot toward the sky with unmatched momentum; one of the thirteen soldiers pushed against the air as if it were floor and descended like a bolt of lightning, the speed terrifying for a 200-meter-tall humanoid.
Cecile's pupils shrunk to dots because of her enemy's speed. With quick maneuvering, she flapped her right wing and dodged sideways, showcasing extreme agility.
With a series of deft rolls and turns, Cecile found herself facing the colossal Heavenly Lightning soldier. Her energy surged, and with a resounding cry, a deluge of freezing feathers cascaded from above, creating white trails in their wake. The white trails made them look like countless beams had just been fired.
The Heavenly Lightning soldier turned and slashed several times a second. Its sword created charred lines wherever it passed, and after blocking the attack, it rushed toward Cecile again at ridiculous speed.
The Phoenix was much less surprised at the instantaneous surge of speed, so instead of dodging, she rushed forward, coating her entire body in a powerful armor-like energy coat.
BOOM!
The collision created a blinding explosion, and from the side, one could see the figure of the giant phoenix descending like a meteor and impacting a distant mountain.
The dust clouds the phoenix's impact created elevated, creating a grayish curtain, but the twelve remaining faceless Heavenly Lightning Soldiers had no mercy or feelings in them.
They were just created to hunt down and take the life of the creature, and so they would.
This time, two of them rushed forward.
The girls looked at the crater with a worried expression, only for their expressions to somewhat relax a moment later.
QYAA!
The figure of the silver Phoenix entered their eyesight again, showing quite a few wounds but nothing debilitating. With the creature's natural regeneration, our girls thought that fighting like she was would be no problem.
Cecile's mind was turning quickly as she thought how to fight these two, and why the other ten didn't descend all at once. 'Is it similar to the usual tribulation where the Heavens can't throw all the lightning bolts at you at once but need to go one by one?'
Her body flashed through the sky in a deadly dance with the two Heavenly Lightning Soldiers. She circled them while shooting several attacks made of Moon and Wind energy, and her developed control with the Space attribute shone in her mobility.
'While these soldiers are all twice as quick as I am, my mobility is still above them. However, their speed is a problem with any barrage-type attack. I need slow yet powerful attacks to make a mark.'
Cecile stopped releasing several attacks per second and started gathering energy inside of her for a few moments. This, however, allowed the two soldiers to move much less burdened, making her enter in a tight chase through the sky.
The Phoenix barrel rolled, made abrupt direction changes, loops, and many more acrobatic moves that managed to shake off the Heavenly Lightning Soldiers.
Even then, she was slower than them, and eventually, she made a mistake. 'Tsk. I turned to early.'
The Heavenly Lightning Soldier's sword was still in position, so after she dodged, instead of following his initial trajectory, the sword descended and curved enough to hit her back.
SLASH!
Blood exploded from her back as her gargantuan body got thrown forward. The two Heavenly Lightning Soldiers didn't lose the opportunity and rushed forward.
But what met them was not an undefended Phoenix, but one that had turned around and was looking at them with terrifying cold eyes.
"[Moon Freezing Catastrophe]."
The falling Moon Phoenix extended her wings, releasing a freezing and devastating storm.
The sky was instantly filled with powerful gales that carried white fire and twisted space, creating very faint cracks along the way.
The two Heavenly Tribulation Lightning Soldiers tried to dodge, but it was too late.
BOOM!
The attack hit true right in the middle of both and expanded without control, swallowing the sky in a terrifying storm of Moon, Wind, and Spatial energies that ripped the two Heavenly Lightning Soldiers to shreds.
"[Void Intent Level 4]."
Cecile's enormous body shifted out of existence for a second and appeared in her initial position, looking up at the sky as she did at first. Indifferent and cold.
RUMBLE!
Four of the soldiers spun their swords once and then locked on her from the sky. 'Now four, huh? This will be a bit more complicated.'
The wound on her back had already closed and stopped bleeding, but that didn't mean that she was completely healed. Heavenly Lightning was much more disruptive than standard energies, making it difficult to recover with the usual means.
Cecile opened her beak, and her chant echoed, harmonizing with the world. "[Moon Phoenix's Lunar Grace]."
A torrent of energy surrounded Cecile's body, and once she flapped her wings, her body felt strangely in tune with the surroundings.
The four Heavenly Lightning Soldiers descended like four meteors, but Cecile dodged all of them with seemingly extreme easy and minimal effort.
What happened next left most of the spectators in awe as the four powerful Heavenly Lightning Soldiers released a torrent of attacks and the Phoenix shifted between all the attacks without being touched as if they were missing on purpose.
Cecile dodged for many seconds straight. Her eyes and spiritual sense were working overtime as her brain became increasingly tired. The number of attacks and trajectories she was keeping up with was frankly terrifying.
'Now.'
Cecile quickly stomped the air with her talons, and as if an invisible platform had appeared below her, the enormous Phoenix shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.
In an instant, she was face to face with the terrifying Heavenly Lightning Soldier, but instead of using a skill, she continued forward while tucking her wings.
The principles of [Moon Shredding Shot] wrapped around her long body, creating a torrent of Wind and Moon energies around her.
BOOM!
Cecile pierced through the Heavenly Lightning Soldier, blasting it into pieces. Yet, she wasn't unhurt herself.
The Heavenly Lightning Soldier had reacted immediately and exploded itself, leaving several visibly charged spots on the Phoenix's body.
Still, as if she didn't see those, the Phoenix continued her fight with the same intensity.
One by one, Cecile pierced through all but the last one with her own body, becoming riddled with burns. She used another [Moon Freezing Catastrophe] for the last one, blasting it out of existence.
The injured silver Phoenix didn't lose her elegance as she floated in the air with an injured body. The aloof and cold face of the creature looked at the remaining six soldiers, clearly waiting to see how many would spin their swords this time.
To no one's surprise, all six tightened their grip on their longswords and spun it around once, getting into position.
Cecile's face remained unchanged, with her heart fully covered in icy calmness as her mind analyzed everything methodically.
Four rushed at her, making Cecile's senses extra alert. 'Only four? What about the other two?'
Cecile didn't know yet, but she used the same tactic she had previously used and began dodging and preparing to find an opportunity to strike back.
However, her face changed as her tiredness started to pile up, and some of the sword swings grazed her, leaving superficial wounds. The hot feeling of the swords slicing through her flesh as the relaxing coolness of her regeneration fought the lingering energy off was not pleasant at all.
Even then, her mind was not influenced.
Cecile's will was extremely solid, and she was trained to react accordingly regardless of the situation. She had become too emotional in the past a few times, and those times led to very undesirable situations. For example, her call during the tournament they fought back in the Sky Continent got Yasenia killed. She could've rushed forward to help, but instead, she shouted because of her convoluted feelings.
'Not anymore.'
Cecile's Phoenix face tightened as her eyes flashed with extreme coldness.
A few moments later, Cecile noticed the two other soldiers suddenly move at ridiculous speed, incomparable to what they'd shown before, and streaking out of her detection range in less than a second. 'What?'
Not wanting to risk it, Cecile released [Moonlight Ash Domain] together with [Spatial Moon Freeze].
A sphere of silvery ash burst outward, clashing against the bodies of the Heavenly Lightning Soldiers and gradually weakening them.
At the same time, the immediate surroundings around Cecile shifted, creating a spatial barrier.
And right after that, a loud collision was heard even before her senses could catch on.
BOOM!
Cecile felt it inside her as the barrier she was supporting took a massive hit. 'They are-'
But she didn't even have time to think, as the second strike fell.
BOOOOM!
CRASH!
Her barrier got obliterated, and danger senses spread all around her body. Using her entire strength, not even minding her energy consumption, Cecile rushed skyward.
Still, the four that were nearby were prepared.
Even with Cecile's proactive defense and rapid response, her spiritual sense detected that the remaining four Heavenly Lightning Soldiers were rushing at her from four different directions and cutting off all her retreat points. 'How!?'
Her energy surged even more powerfully as her face became solemn. [Astral Shift], her teleportation skill, activated.
Yet, the solemn expression of the phoenix changed to one of disbelief.
Right as she activated that skill, the Heavens themselves released an extremely thick pressure from the Tribulation Clouds that solidified space around her to an unbreakable point, at least for Cecile.
Tatyana's, Mirrory's, and Valeria's face changed at once. 'They got her!'
STAB! STAB! STAB! STAB!
Cecile was impaled by four swords, piercing her body and exiting from four different places. Cecile's mind rushed as electrifying pain assaulted all over her. 'I need to-'
But it was too late.
The people below looked on in disbelief as the remaining two soldiers who had been recovering from the impact with Cecile's solid shield moved while Cecile was impaled and pierced her head and heart.
Yasenia's pupils thinned to lines as her heart twisted in pure wrath and grief. She wanted to remain calm and trust in Cecile, but the images from the War Trial in the secret realm flashed in her mind, making her fear the worst. In short, while her mind understood, her body reacted before her mind.
Several dragon scales instantly covered her entire skin as the [Celestial Star Energy] in her Dantian began spinning faster than ever.
Her energy began rotating as her face warped in anger, and her legs tensed like never before, ready to launch herself. Even with the scales covering her skin, all her leg muscles got perfectly highlighted over her usually smooth skin.
Her fangs grew and sharpened, and the aura around her was gathering to explode into a massive torrent of energy like never before.
Still, Tatyana and Valeria shifted positions before Yasenia could release anything at all, striking several acupuncture points on her body and creating a blockage that instantly snuffed out the outburst that was about to happen.
Everything was happening too fast, so Yasenia didn't even have time to ask what they were doing when the six lightning soldiers moved their swords and sliced the Moon Phoenix into several chunks, killing the creature.
Yasenia's expression became blank, looking at the sky as her body fell because of her sealed acupuncture points. The image of the giant phoenix being sliced in several pieces hit her brain like a hammer, making her ears ring.
Nobody spoke as they saw the events unfolding, not believing their eyes.
Cecile had died?
However, those who were the calmest at that moment realized that the Heavenly Lightning Soldiers strangely didn't dissipate.
And there was naturally a reason for that.
BOOOOM!
A profound aura that seemed filled with the desire to swallow the World spread around the entire sky, where the currently dead phoenix fell in a rain of gore.
Then, the firmament and the Phoenix's body parts were devoured by freezing white flames, plunging the world into an atmosphere icy enough to give chills to everyone.
******************************************************
Author Note: Hello, dear~. I have a Patreon page! Patreon.com/mortrexo. I'm uploading the art of the novel, which has 45+ completed images, 110+ sketches, and 15+ chapters compared to the daily. Moreover, it is for both [Heaven, Earth, Me] and [Ascension of the Sylvan cosmos]! Also, there is ZERO AI art. All the art I've uploaded has been hand-drawn.
Much love and hugs,
Mortrexo.