Chapter 22 - Intense battle ensues
"I don't know how many have arrived in this world, but we would try to seek them out and destroy everyone of them." Aerracles said while Ethena agreeably nodded her head.
"But how are we going to find them?" Ethena asked with a deeply puzzled look appearing in her face.
She then said further, "There are lots of cities in many regions of this world. How are we going to find them all before they can cause further destruction?"
"I can do something." Aerracles said with a contemplative look in his face.
He then looked at her and said, "Please, give me your hand."
"Okay." Ethena said with the slight nod of her head and then stretched out a hand at him.
Aerracles then grabbed it and said, "I will do something now. Then after that, you can try to scream out to the Immortals to draw them all towards us."
"Oh. Alright." Ethena said with the nod of her head. However, she was thinking deeply of what Aerracles planned to do.
Aerracles then closed his eyes. Then when he opened it a few seconds later, what could be seen in them were some abstruse golden symbols.
Immediately these indecipherable symbols appeared in his eyes, a sphere of intense golden light suddenly erupted from his entire body and engulfed Ethena who floated beside him.
The moment the sphere surfaced and looked like am actual membrane from within, Ethena began to hear millions of unique sounds from within the sphere. However, despite millions of peculiar sounds being heard at once, they surprisingly weren't discordant. Instead, they were perfectly harmonious to form a great music that felt like countless numbers of people were playing all sorts of musical instruments at once and in great harmony.
Then if one were to take a closer look at the golden, membrane-like sphere that enclosed both Aerracles and Ethena within, one will see dozens of enigmatic patterns engraved on it outside surface.
"Alright. Do what I told you to do next." Aerracles said with a whisper that however sounded so loud outside the sphere and basically cleared the numerous large clouds around them like it were a super-sized tsunami of both vibrations and energy.
Seeing what had just occurred, Ethena nodded her head in awe with an expression of great shock written all over her face.
'This guy is actually so powerful? Wow! I guess he has been hiding his powers and abilities all these while from me. Anyways, when everything has come to an end, I will make sure he tells me who he actually is. And Heavens help him that he is Xerpheus, I am going to do a lot of things to him for not revealing his true identity to me.' Ethena said inwardly with great determination in her heart.
Besides, at the moment, she was beginning to fume inwardly that Aerracles who was asking for a relationship with her, could actually hide things from her. Then she was with the thought that he could probably be hiding many other things from her too.
But placing those thoughts that had blossomed in her heart at the back of her mind, she proceeded to do as Aerracles had instructed, "Immortals from the Fire God Hall, I guess you are searching for me, right? Well, follow this sound to its source and you will find me there, waiting to exterminate you ugly and arrogant, murderous vile spawns!"
Although she said that with only a small scream within the sphere, by the time the scream will leave the sphere to travel into the distance and in all directions, it was instantly permeated with a type of mystifying power that abruptly turned it into a deafeningly loud voice that seemed to come from a particularly large deity, like a deity as massive as the World of Mortals itself.
So, the mystically-augmented scream that emitted from the golden membranous sphere, echoed loudly and discernibly across the entire World of Mortals, drawing all shocked eyes and tingling ears towards it.
"She has finally come out. Hahaha!" An outlawed Immortal said with a pleased look in his face and laughed delightedly.
He then said further with the darkly smile in his face getting wider, "But amazing! What power. This girl is truly powerful. What a shame to kill her. Well, since you have chosen to offend the unforgiving Fire God Hall, you should be prepared for your imminent gruesome death. Hehehe."
Then very quickly, he traced the thunderously resounding echoes to the place that it originated from.
As soon as this particular Immortal left, others too that heard the echoes that somehow sounded all over the world in a seemingly unending manner, also shot at great speeds to the place that the echoes came from with stifling, murderous auras beginning to emanate from their powerful-looking and well-built towering bodies.
A few seconds after Ethena had produced that scream, the massive golden sphere that enveloped their figures disappeared, while the golden profound symbols in his eyes faded away with his eyes immediately reverting to normal.
He then gently let go of Ethena's hand and said with a worried expression appearing in his face, "I don't know how many are raging toward us at the moment, but please be careful and observant when you are engaging anyone of them in battle. I will as well look out for you. I won't let anything happen to you."
Ethena looked at him with a smirk in her face and asked, "Does it look like I can't handle myself in battles? I am a world-class warrior myself and a supreme combatant in case you do not know that. And I am absolutely sure that I have been in more wars and battles than you have ever been, dear Aerracles."
Haha!
Aerracles produced only a small cackle.
"I know that, actually. It's just that I don't want anything to happen to you, Ethena. Or I will never forgive myself. So please be careful." Aerracles said while Ethena shook her head and shyly pouted at him.
Although she didn't like the way Aerracles was too protective of her like she was some weak and delicate princess that hadn't seen the true color of the world outside her small castle, she was however glad that Aerracles really cared for her like she was the rarest flower in the world, and was totally obsessed about protecting her from harm, irregardless of his own safety.
Huuu!
She inhaled deeply with a beautiful entrancing smile crawling up her small and attractive, bright pink lips.
"Alright. I will. And you too, Aerracles. Make sure nothing happens to you. Or I won't also forgive myself." Ethena said, reciprocating back the care and worry that Aerracles genuinely showed her.
"Well, nothing can happen to me. I am astonishingly tough and durable. Recall that you said so yourself." Aerracles said in a rather boasting manner. But he was serious and really meant it.
"It's your vexing arrogance for me, dear. Anyways, just be careful for my sake. Okay?" Ethena asked with a certain expression in her face that made Aerracles give her the only response that she really wanted to hear.
"Definitely." Aerracles said and nodded his head with a smile appearing in his face.
"Good!" Ethena said.
She then waited with Aerracles beside her for the outlawed Immortals to arrive before them.
Not quite long, a few minutes to be precise, the outlawed Immortals began to arrive one after the other from the random places that they had initially flown to too wreak unbridled havoc in their quest to find Ethena and slay her, as assigned by the Fire God Hall anyways.
Then when they saw Aerracles who stood fearlessly and solidly like a towering pillar beside Ethena who seemed calm and even somewhat happy to see them, they couldn't help but furrow their brows in both amazement and perplexity.
"Hmm. So, you have an Angel companion to help you out? That's really nice to know." Ubre said with his eyes shining.
He then said looking at Aerracles who simply stared dead at him, "Angel, if you are wise, you will immediately leave here. I believe you must have understood by now that this is a fight between Immortals. So, go far away from here if you don't want the nauseous and strongly choking aura of death to also engulf you."
"Haha. What a dumb Immortal. You just said yourself that she has an Angel companion. But even after saying that, you want me to leave her and go far away like she truly means nothing to me. You are the dumbest of Immortals that I have ever come across and slayed in battle." Aerracles said while Ethena broke a smile in her face because of the scathing words Aerracles hurtled boldly at Ubre.
"I see you are the sharp-mouthed type. Since you won't leave, then be prepared to die." Ubre said and suddenly shot towards Aerracles who also bolted towards him like a fired cannonball.
BANG!!
Immediately their superhumanly powerful fists struck one another in the air, a deafening bang sound immediately rang out with a particularly powerful wave which possessed immense destructive power, immediately manifesting and rushing out from the point of impact into the far distance.
Then like that, a battle that caused the sky to seemingly shake and gave the feeling that it could collapse to the ground anytime soon, immediately erupted with no side holding back or being reserved. Everyone basically went all out in this battle that could determine their life or death.