ushernet Act 3: Empire's Stand - Chapter 587: Saul's Irritation
Act 3: Empire's Stand - Chapter 587: Saul's Irritation
Act 3: Empire's Stand - Chapter 587: Saul's Irritation
Floating above the deep, bottomless chasm, Saul lifted his saggy cheeks into a small grin as a crown manifested above his head. The base was made from silver Ein, flowing eternally around itself and resembling a halo. Above it, three silver spikes stuck out, also made from his silver Ein but crystalized into a solid form, the sign of his realm and power, the Tricrown King Exalt. A slight groove rested in each spike, marking the crown incomplete since they waited for gems to be embedded in them.
'It's been a while. When was the last time I fought?' He grew excited at the possibility of gaining three new King Exalt corpses. In response to his rising Ein and the manifestation of his Crown, the other three King Exalts' Crowns materialized, a natural and autonomous response based on instinct. Glancing at the black, green, and gold crowns of one and two spikes, the same imperfection in their missing gems, Saul manifested his anima for the first time in years, and the world trembled as his golden Ein formed into a golden spider, clad in a metal carapace.
The golden spider anima skittered along the air and leaped into him. A loud clanging echoed deep into the chasm from the golden plates shifting on his body. A spider's body grew from his lower body, and his legs disappeared, replaced by eight creaking spider legs, a dangerous glint of sunlight shining from the sharp ends and limbs. Saul drew a long bow, the Meld changing it into one that contained eight curved shafts, identical to spider legs, and in the center, a maw of fangs opened. His hand pulled on the string, nocking a giant adamantium sword created by his spell, which stretched out and thinned to the width of an arrow but longer than a spear.
Saul eyed the others, having watched them enter their Integration during his own. He loosened his grip and parted the air itself into tumultuous tempests, the arrow bolting toward Draven, the weakest of the three. Unsurprisingly, the Warden ate the space around him and teleported to another location, an easy prediction. Saul already saw through it in his Prinstyct and curved the arrow using the metal string attached to its end. It flashed across to the Warden's new location, already a hair's length away from piercing the forehead. However, his target disappeared again, returning to his former location.
'The element of time. Incredible as always.' Saul cut the metal string off and let the arrow fall into a faraway forest, rumbling in a soft landing that toppled hundreds of trees and erupted the earth into massive landslides. He admired the power of time that Remulus showed, recalling Draven past to his previous position a second ago, dodging his fast arrow. The sounds of clocks ticking reached him. The Pavilion Master wielded a staff that held a large clock at its end, the hands ticking exactly to the passing of time, and his figure resembled a humanoid green golem with five clocks embedded in its eyes, chest, shoulder, and forehead.Ne/w novel chapters are p/u/blished on e wielders were said to have a clock anima, no matter who it was. Saul wanted to observe the mysteries of the time element longer, but a dragon's roar bellowed from above. Prepared for the ambush, he fired another quick arrow, this one condensed from the adamantium prison spell, and sent it soaring up at Caires. Oddly, his arrow slowed, and in the blink of an eye, Caires appeared before him and swung a broadsword with a dragon's maw as its hilt, gleaming in golden fury.
'This combination....' Saul realized he failed to catch even a strand of their hair. Dodging another chakram that came from the void, he felt his body stagger, returning to its location half a second ago, allowing the chakram to slice into his face. A bellowing Kraken's maw gnawed on his metallic skin as black-armored tentacles lashed their sharp fangs, whipping onto him. That damned time element even affected him. Though his superior Ein resisted the full effects, they fought while compensating for that delay.
'It's strange....' Saul blocked and countered, even swinging his bow at close encounters. Their attacks mixed the fluidity of time with the erraticness of space, along with the pressure from Caires. Draven's spatial spells varied their attacks, allowing them to advance from any direction and tricking him at times with weapons coming from nowhere, forcing awkward defenses from him. The spatial spells also helped them avoid danger from his retaliations. However, the most bothersome was Remulus's time spells, speeding up their attacks while slowing down his own, recalling them from being killed while blinking them forward for the killing stroke.
Sweeping his gaze across the three, Saul endured their strikes, his mastery of Prinstyct helping him to avoid even the slightest injury. Still, their efforts were admirable. Caires's Meld allowed his blade to induce the dragon's pressure on whatever it slashed, lowering their reactions and reducing the resistance, but the Integration released the dragon's pressure all around him and intensified as the fight prolonged. Saul felt a slight numbness increasing in his limbs.
The young Warden's Meld condensed the Kraken into the chakrams, and the Integration contained the Kraken's might in Draven. At first, it seemed so simple, but simple was enough. The brutality behind these Vis, or Eirin as the boy loved to proclaim, blows containing the destructive force of space forced even Saul to lose his balance. And the speed of the Kraken's tendrils from the concentrated form was nothing to scoff at.
Glaring at Remulus, Saul considered him the most dangerous and first to kill. Remulus's Meld, the clock staff, allowed him to recall everyone he wished for to a certain point in time he marked. That was what saved the Warden and his arm. The stopped hands on the clock staff and one of the clocks on Remulus's mechanical figure revealed the truth of his powers. It seemed Remulus could use the lifesaving recall four more times.
'But it doesn't explain how they're attacking and defending so well....' Saul spun around, his sharp legs slicing apart their cohesion as he fired arrows in all directions, mostly targeting Remulus to disrupt his concentration. However, the King Exalts easily rebounded, moving to ideal positions to defend and counter, and the onslaught of space, time, and light battered on his carapace. It didn't hurt, but it confused Saul.
They seemed to move perfectly, not a single step wasted. Without any communication or a simple glance, they fended Saul off and combined their spells to devastating effects, supporting each other. The Warden's punch, coiled by black-armored tentacles, drove itself into the metal carapace of his spider body, denting it slightly. Gnashing his few teeth, Saul pondered the mystery. A gleam of enlightenment glinted from his eyes, a look of shock replacing the previous calm, and he said, "Resonance? Between the three of you?"