As the winds continued to revolve at high speeds, the roars of the hurricane started becoming ear-shattering as the wind's power was confined into a football field-sized space. Jin then proceeded to shout as he continued to vomit blood.
"Arthur, it's now or never; I can only hold it for ten more seconds!"
Without missing a beat, the voice of the blond swordsman echoed from behind them.
"It is enough. I will handle the rest. Ultimate skill [CHÍLIOI THÁNATO]!"
At that moment, golden shades left Cain's body to manifest clones of the blond swordsman. After about 2 seconds, 1000 clones of the cool-headed leader simultaneously raised their swords as they roared.
"Arthur Fourreau Codename Cain, Die for me!"
One thousand golden-haired swordsmen then jumped in the air and joined the hurricane; the blood bath that followed was nothing short of brutal.
Using the winds and the walls, the 1000 swordsmen stabbed, sliced, cut, and eviscerated any they came across in the whirling winds. The fierce momentum only added to the strength of their strikes. The swordsman moved faster than the winds as they killed and moved on to the next target.
By the 1st second, only 600 of the Gremlings were still moving. By the 2nd, they were all dead, and the 1000-man army was already assaulting the Gremlords. By the 5th second, only heaps of dismembered limbs and corpses were being spun around as the blood of the monsters continued to bathe the ones inside the tornado of death.
Feeling the absence of Demonic energy, Jin canceled the force he supplied to his skill ending the hurricane. As Cain was falling, together with both blood, guts, and body parts of the demons, he remembered the 1st time he felt the presence of force when he was only ten years old.
The young man was living in a quaint little town in the suburbs of Canada with his parents and little sister when the sky shattered. When it did, entire plots of land were pulled from the ground and floated up to the sky at breakneck speeds, while some lands were torn apart as the Earth split in two.
Arthur was on his way home with his sister when she and the land she was on violently began floating above the ground. While he and the earth half a kilometer behind him were shoved further away from her as if pushed by an invisible force. The land, trees, and buildings were thrown around depending on the area.
As chaos ensued, the warrior started hearing cries for help and shouts from the people around him. The flying debris crushed some; others were thrown into the air, while the genuinely unlucky were slammed onto standing buildings. As the older brother looked around, he felt a fire light up inside him. Then, as tears fell from his eyes, he cried out.
"I must find a way to save these people! But I also must save my sister! There has got to be a way!"
When he was a child, Arthur exhibited an enhanced situational awareness. During this situation, other children might have only been crying and looking for their parents, but the young hero was already thinking of ways to save them. Force erupted from his body in a bloody red glow at that moment.
In desperation, as he looked around the remains of the once peaceful town, the young boy's desire to split himself into a thousand bodies manifested. His clones began performing inhuman feats of strength, evolving himself directly to 4-Stars at such a young age had given his body strength ten times that of an average human.
Not limited to strength, the body's skin, muscles, and bones became incredibly more durable, capable of withstanding impacts that would otherwise kill normal humans. Lastly, Arthur's mind had a sudden increase in intelligence, and he somehow comprehended a sixth sense that told him what was happening to his surroundings.
The powerful bodies of his clones started smashing the flying debris; They were also saving the people falling and being thrown around due to the winds, all while avoiding the former. The young boys each lifted tons of broken buildings helping multitudes of people before dashing to the next people in need at the highest speed he could muster.
He felt the energy inside him diminishing rapidly and quickly grasped that he was on borrowed time. The young boy understood that his multiple bodies had a more significant than average strength.
The young boy didn't know yet why he suddenly had powers, but Arthur knew that he needed to use the remaining time to save as many people as possible. So, rushing even harder, he gave his all, overexerting his clones to the absolute limit.
His main body was fervently jumping through stones flying in the air, chasing after his flesh and blood.
"BIG BROTHER, I'M SCARED!!! BIG BROTHER!!! BIG BROTHER!!! DON'T LEAVE ME!! WWWAAHHH"
"LUCIA! STAY DOWN!! WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP HOLDING THE GROUND!!! DON'T STAND UP!! I'LL BE THERE SOON. I WON'T LEAVE YOU ALONE!! I'M COMING TO YOU NOW!!"
The younger sister was crying and kept calling for her older brother. She was only five years old but somehow understood his words. She kept her body on the ground as she became quiet, her head starting to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen due to the sudden rise in altitude.
"LUCIA!! LUCIA!!! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!! ANSWER ME!!"
However, as he neared the platform Lucia was on, the energy driving him up suddenly vanished. At the exact moment dissolving all the clones that were moving around. The objects or people they were carrying fell to the ground as they disappeared.
"OH NO!!! NO! NO! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! LUCIAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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"CAIN! CAIN!!!!! CAIN!!!!! Thank God you are okay! Are you alright?"
Cain slowly opened his eyes as he heard a high-pitched feminine voice. He felt disoriented and tried to regain his bearings and saw that he was currently falling to the ground, embraced by someone.
A beautiful woman with short black hair and gorgeous blue eyes looked at him in worry. Her white alabaster-like skin glistened with sweat as she arrived in a hurry. The warrior's entire body felt heavy as lead, and all his muscles were on fire.
The downside to his skill was that all damage received by his clones would be returned to him when the skill ended. It could be considered a double-edged sword; if multiple clones were destroyed in battle, he would probably die from shock when the damage rebound.
This was on top of all the fatigue his clones had to endure from overexertion, as the skill duration was incredibly short, so he usually pushed them to the limit.
"Can you move? I cannot fly yet, but we should be able to glide for a bit if I blast air below us."
As they fell, a sphere of energy kept the blood and guts away from them; El brought up her right hand and pointed it to the ground without waiting for his confirmation. The gem in the mage's glove glowed a faint green light.
"[Venti horizontis akoúste tin ékklisí mou Jiāng wǒ de dírén qiè chéng liǎng bàn Yáng qǐ wǒ de chìbǎng óso psilá boroún na pane Et dirige directionem meam] {Furious Gale}!"
WHOOSH!!!!!
Fierce winds shrieked below the two awakeners as their momentum slowed down significantly. The gales continued pushing the pair upwards as gravity slowly started pulling them down. El canceled the magic as the ground came nearer when they were just above the ground by 2 meters. She embraced his body upon arriving and maneuvered their bodies so that her back would hit the ground 1st.
SLAM!!!!!
They quickly landed with a loud thud and rolled a few meters more; they were intertwined in each other's arms. Upon landing, El quickly checked if Cain had any additional injuries from falling and was about to use her magic to heal him when someone in a very annoying voice said,
"See what I mean? El, for the love of all that is good, that bastard is a 3-Moon grade swordsman. Falling from 5 meters would crush the ground with him being wonderful. Look, I know you worry when he uses that skill, but you are too overprotective."
Hearing this with anger clouding her small and heart-shaped face, El quickly left Cain's arms and marched towards Abel while shouting heightened emotions.
"I can't help it! You weren't there when he used that horrible skill during the Shattering! His limbs exploded in blood! He bled from his mouth, nose, ears, and even eyes! He would have died if I didn't catch him when he fell! And you know the best part? No one even thanked him for everything that he did!"
"They chained him to a tree in the middle of a demon forest Abel! After saving most of the town, he wasn't given time to rest! They blamed a 10-year-old boy for all the people that died! I will never be able to forget the hypocrisy of the weak!"
Noticing the almost hysterical response of the mage, the black-haired shielder could only keep silent. Everyone still alive by this point had skeletons in their closet, himself included. And it was considered the utmost taboo to dig into another person's story until they opened up about it first.
The Shattering took too much from them. The people who grew up in peace and comfort were long gone and what was left were the awakened who were very familiar with death, loss, and suffering.
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Proofread By: Pearl_Wang, ThePotatoKing
Edited By: WorthyAdversary