Toga limped out of the building. He glared at Shue who returned it with his own. The way he looked at him was filled with loathsome and utter disappointment. Toga grit his teeth in both pain and anger. He fell to his knees panting from the beating he took.
Out of nowhere, Shue was grabbed from behind, enveloped by huge boulder like arms in a bear hug. "I knew it! I knew you came here to deliver death!" Harrow said as he tried to squeeze the very life out of Shue.
"And yet you treated us anyway. Face it. There was no preparation you could have done to stop me," Shue said.
Although he struggled against Harrow's grip, He appeared unconcerned. The only strain on his face was barely enough there to keep himself from being crushed to death.
"AAaaaaghhhhhh!" There were high pitched screams coming from all around as people now realized what was going on.
"Save you're prattling! I'm going to snap you like a twig!" Harrow threatened. He increased his strength. More veins began bulging through his arms.
Toga tried to find some support to lean on. At this rate however, Harrow was doing fine on his own
With the limited space Shue had, he maneuvered his wrist to where he could point his middle and index finger at Harrow's abdomen.
"You'll learn the difference between an overpowered human, and a priest actually willing to use their powers on you," Shue said. "Fire Artes: Point Blank Blast!"
Like a pressure valve, a stream of fire came shooting out his fingers and straight through the stomach of Harrow. "Arrgghhh…" Harrow fell backwards. He held is side in excruciating pain.
Shue turned around. "Don't take this personal old man. To be honest, I don't think you're bad people. You guys just create bad outcomes,"
He took his axe and swung it upwards above himself. Not only did he block Toga's attack coming from above, he swung with enough force to send him launching high into the air. Toga crashed into the ceiling putting noticeable cracks into it before plummeting all the way back into the ground.
{I can't win against him!}
The fall was long and silent. Toga could do nothing as every part of his muscles screamed for him not to move. Almost willed against it. All he could feel at that moment was the wind rushing past him before a resounding crash was heard. Despite all of that, he was still conscious of everything going on around him.
"No… Don't do it," Toga begged. His voice was haggard
These people were sitting ducks down here. The only escape was the elevator. He glanced over at it. Shue was standing right between the village and the path towards it. Who was going to get out in this situation?
Shue followed his line of sight. "Oh yeah… that,"
He pulled his axe back over his shoulder with one arm and threw it in the direction of the elevator. There was another crash sound signaling it hit its target.
BOOM!
The sound that followed quickly engulfed the elevator in a burning fire. Toga widened his eyes. Let alone him killing everyone down here, he truly trapped everybody including himself.
"SHUE!" Toga yelled.
Shue merely gave him a glance before turning back to Harrow. "Harrow Valech. By crimes committed against the safety and integrity of the Loil region. By order of the High Edicts, I hereby sentence you to death,"
Harrow was still grabbing onto his side. "Bite me you asshole," He growled.
"There will be no more last words," He placed a hand on to Harrow's chest. "Fire Artes: Funeral Pyre"
Harrow combusted into fire so hot, it burned green for a second before turning back towards the orange glow. He burned so fast, there was not any time to scream. His clothes, skin, muscle, even blood was gone in mere seconds seeing nothing more than charred and blackened bones.
Trisha Valech who had just rounded the corner, seen the tail end of everything that happened. Her grandfather, right before her eyes, was just murdered in one of the most brutal executions she'd ever think she'd ever witness.
Her hands shook. Her eyes widened with extreme panic and levels of fear unimaginable. She began hyperventilating. "AAAARRGGGHHHHHHH!" She screamed. She tried to cover her face with her hands but failing miserably.
Shue crouched down and dashed at her with blinding speed. Before the girl could even process the information before her, her head was removed from her body. Her body fell limp. Seeing the now lifeless young girl, he dug his hand down the bodies cleavage and pulled out the silver necklace. Her blood was all over him and the chain of her necklace. He looked at the odd out-of-place weapons attached to it. His eyes looked at it with both shock and a hint of urgency.
Toga didn't get what about that necklace got him to stop and evaluate it but that didn't matter. "You monster! Why'd you have to go and kill her!?" Toga asked. He was too much in pain to shout. It managed to shake Shue out of his stupor.
"I'm not a monster. I did it so she didn't have to process the reality in front of her. She didn't feel a thing and her fear was brief," Shue said.
He looked around at the rest of the people in the town who were all panicking. "Sadly, that's a mercy I'm no longer able to grant the rest of the individuals here,"
Everything was starting to get blurry from Toga's perspective. "Goodbye young Toga. We'll see each other soon,"
Toga lost consciousness. Everything went dark and he was soon caressed by the sweet sight of darkness. He saw nothing, he felt nothing. He couldn't get a sense on how much time had passed or is passing. All he could do was replay those failing moments in his head.
"Arghh!" Toga woke with a cry after forcing himself up. That's right… he had to stop Shue before he causes more damage.
Though he thought that, the scene before him remained unchanged… no… it was even worse. Charred skeletal remains were still there. A headless body. Now the town looked completely destroyed. There were bodies of people everywhere
He stood up. His body felt lighter now and he could move again. Toga looked around. Far as he could tell, there wasn't a soul left alive down here.
"HELLO!" He waited for some type of response. "IS ANYBODY LEFT DOWN HERE!" Any type of response. Let there be something.
He began searching through wrecked buildings and wreckage. There were children here as young as four. This man spared nobody.
It took him hours to conclude that he wasn't going to find anybody. If he were, they would have called out to him by now.
Toga slammed his fist into a building, knocking it down. "What was the point of this massacre? SHUE YOTSUKAAAAAAAAAA!" Hearing no reply back Toga was resigned to leave.
He began heading back towards the elevator. For as much as he wanted, he could've begun a funeral pyre for the rest of the villagers to pay respect. He thought about it and decided against it. They were in an enclosed space. The smoke inhalation could kill him. The best thing he could do was to bury this place once he got out.
He got to the elevator and looked up. It was a long way up and he didn't have the skill level to fly with his Fire Artes. No other choice. It was either climb out of here or starve to death down here.
He stuck his greatsword into the wall and used it has a foothold for him to stand on. With it being a vertical wall up, he was going to have to create his footholds. He balanced himself on the backside of his greatsword.
"Fire Artes: Heated Fist"
He punched ledges into the side of the wall for him to stand on. Once on there, he stuck his weapon into the wall again. He rinsed and repeated the method going higher every time. He supposed he could just climb out the normal way, but if he ever did that and fell, he'd have to start all the way over. At least this way it'd be quicker getting back to where he was.
This process went on for at least four hours before he finally made it to the top. He was covered in dirt and some of his clothes got torn along the way. He sighed pulling himself one last time. That took extreme levels of willpower. It was something Toga had in droves.
When he looked around, there was even more bodies. He opened the door to the house and saw Shue left him a nice little trail. He gritted his teeth once more. This didn't have to happen.
Toga looked up at the sky, specifically in the direction of the Central Skyland where the Edicts resided. He knew exactly where Shue Yotsuka was heading towards. If this were a mission given by the Edicts, he'd be there.