The seriousness in her voice made everyone feel their bodies shiver from bottom to top. Faller looked around, with no sign of Elisa and Shaphira. He leaned against the stone, trying to remember.
At that moment, while holding the citizens in his arms and carrying them away at an abnormal speed, he tried to search for the presence of the two girls, in every tree, in every corner of Brazilovia. Until, at a certain moment, his body began to feel the shocks becoming more intense. The limit was approaching and mana began to corrode his muscles. Before it was too late, he stopped for a moment and continued what he was doing, the desperation of the situation preventing him from thinking rationally.
Victoria remembered dragging the island with tsunamis, but she could not find them anywhere. So she lowered her head.
Ferinish, seeing everyone's silence, an answer that did not need words, fell to her knees on the ground. For the first time in a very long time, she felt… desperate.
She murmured that she was not able to save them, that she was not fast enough. Aurora, seeing her emotional state, crouched down and tried to comfort her, but Ferinish pushed her away.
She walked toward the view of the sea that had once been Brazilovia, her heart filling with guilt more and more.
The indigenous citizens remained silent out of respect… not before hearing a sound of surprise from Ferinish. The Pillars approached, the helicopters and the ship moved a few meters to see what was happening.
A body, no, a man rose from the sea. Everything regenerated in seconds, he coughed red liquids from his mouth, his nails gripping the stone with such force that they pierced it. It was Slady, alive.
And in his other arms, there they were, safe. Ferinish looked at the scene with wide eyes. No one had words to express what they felt upon seeing it.
Slady, with both of them in his arms, with his body regenerated, turned to everyone and proclaimed, in a loud voice, that none of them were worthy of taking his life, and now, seeing their incompetence, even less worthy of protecting two innocent young girls.
He shouted, his voice not hiding his fury, that if they approached again, he would use the power of Satan to kill everyone.
Aurora, challenged, went to the edge of the stone wall and pointed the finger of her armor at Slady. Everyone thought they would be commanded to attack him, but in reality, she fully took responsibility, saying that if Slady had to vent his fury on someone, that someone should be her.
In an instant, she launched herself at him like a jet, the clash of both creating waves of the sea that rose to the skies. Victoria acted quickly, controlling the water and stabilizing it. Faller, motivated by the courage of his leader, chose to act, but did not avoid giving a look of respect to Slady, recognizing him as someone who still had a bit of humanity. And Ferinish, even accepting her objective of killing him, murmured in gratitude before entering the battle.
The indigenous used their equipment to aim at Slady, and the military used the weapons on their helicopters and ship under the command of the leader of Libretãnhya.
The fight was violent. Slady hid the young girls inside his body so he could use all his hands and forced his skin to create a resistant shell. Not only for his own durability, but for the protection of the girls.
Faller skillfully used his sword to cut him with electric slashes, using short moments to discharge energy, like lightning illuminating the sky. Victoria tried to dominate him, to bind him with water and make the sea pull him inward. Aurora attacked from a distance while flying, firing energy from her armor and striking him with physical blows when possible. Ferinish was the most violent, but also the one who took the most care not to pierce the thick shell of his skin.
Despite receiving many blows, Slady was still formidable in every attack he delivered. His arms shaped the sea into small munitions, stones turned into increasingly unpredictable platforms under his fingers, and the energies, despite the raw damage, were still absorbed and used in his staff.
Suddenly, like a current of wind and a swift sound, Slady saw a familiar spear flying toward him, and when he opened the palm of one of his hands to contain it, it pierced his skin and struck the sea, freezing it instantly. A new arena.
Ferinish also spotted the figure that made her eyes shine with the same familiarity.
Flying with equipment similar to a wooden wing, the figure grabbed her spear and pinned Slady against the icy wall. With his hand on that spear, beginning to shatter it, Slady raised his head, with a smile of recognition forming on his mouth. He said her name, and she, returning the gesture by calling him by name and title, the queen questioned how long it had been since they last saw each other.
Carolina Silver entered the battle.
Her soldiers reached the edge of the wall, one of them hitting him in the head with a long range weapon shot, tearing it off. When he regenerated, Slady replied that it had been more than a decade since he last visited Ice Storm.
With the conversation finished, Slady kicked her in the stomach to push her away and made his skin expel every munition that tried to pierce him, with bullets, arrows, and even spears striking in all directions at high speed, killing soldiers, indigenous people, and military personnel, with helicopters crashing onto some of them.
With his hand entering the wound made by Elisa's sword, Slady squeezed his own corrupted heart, forcing Satan to act within his body.
Inside his mind, Krythos shouted in pure celebration, accepting that Slady would need his power… but he was wrong.
As the shadows escaped his body, Slady used all his mental strength to insert his staff and amplified the effect of all the equipment inside his own body, which revealed themselves at that moment.
The screams of the shadows made everyone freeze. From within him came chains with blades tinged with fire and electricity. Bombs exploded inside his flesh, turning his body into a walking poison. And now, using Renkai Energy and his alchemical body, he deformed the ice arena, opened the sea, crossed land and sand and then… released Medusa.
The serpent emerged from within the portal with a scream that echoed across the entire Earth. Its appearance was modified, brighter, more savage. The beast left its cage.
Slady, taking control of his body, held the chains with some arms, the staff, which became almost like a shadow, with one arm, and leaned on the cane. Panting, with his brain throbbing inside his skull in exhaustion, he commanded the serpent to kill everyone. She was free.
But after her awakening, she turned to Slady, telling him that he was not her master, that she would not only kill everyone, but also command all of humanity.
Then, suddenly, a scream was heard, but it was not just a scorching sound, it was a betrayal. When it revealed itself, climbing the wall, it was Ryoken… or Loren… or both?
The much larger humanoid figure revealed the dead body of Salamandra, with the male voice mixed with the female, praising her for having been an incredible and very helpful wife. And showing the other arm, the children…
Without hesitation, he shoved all the bodies into his enormous expanded mouth and leaped like a thunderous crash to merge with Medusa.
The Pillars could do nothing, stunned by the insanity. The soldiers, military, and the few remaining indigenous had no strength left to fight after such incidents. The leader of Libretãnhya only watched, knowing that no bomb could end all of that, with his hand hidden by the shadows clenching in acceptance of defeat. He would not be able to defeat that being without destroying the world in the process. He entrusted his last hopes to the Pillars.
And Slady, still exhausted, merely witnessed two new heads being born from the serpent, which finally, after centuries of imprisonment, reached its true form.