Across the vast estate ground turned battlefield, fires and explosions tore through the night as two opposing forces clashed with everything they had. The violent exchange of abilities tore through lives like lambs to the slaughter.
It was an all-out, chaotic battle.
The Intergalactic Council's forces held nothing back, going all in at the very start. Their ground forces quickly broke through the Soren clan's defenses, invading the main estate.
Everyone they met on their path were cut down without mercy, their agonising cries and pleas of mercy falling on deaf ears. Blood and gore spread everywhere, painting the halls and ground crimson.
The Soren clan's forces fought back, claiming as many lives as they could. But they were overwhelmed. The Intergalactic Council's forces outnumbered them two-to-one.
"Raymond!"
As the battle raged on, the first of the Soren Elders lost his life, caught off guard when he got distracted. All it took was a surprised energy blade through the chest.
"You bastards! Die…!"
Battling across the night skies, the elders struggled to hold their own. But they too were outnumbered. The Intergalactic Council had come exceptionally prepared.
They had been caught with their pants down.
Many were their elders and forces off planet, tasked with protecting the clan's interest across the conquered galaxies. They would never make it back in time.
But could they?
As the battle raged on, more lives were ruthlessly snuffed out. Many from the Soren clan tried to change sides, claiming they condoned the head's actions.
But nothing worked.
The Intergalactic Council's forces were hellbent on wiping out the Soren clan. Assets worth trillions were reduced to rubble fields.
Nothing was going to be left standing.
Higher above than the elders and ground forces, Orion and Kennedy exchanged devastating strikes without rest. Their armoured figures streaked across the night at incredible speeds.
Every move left afterimages.
Their weapons clashed several times in a second, every impact resulting in an energy explosion, the shockwaves superimposing until one could not tell where one began and the other ended.
"I'll admit, Orion! You're strong!"
Kennedy found himself pushed back more and more. Orion's sword strikes proved too overbearing to absorb and dispel completely. But defeating him was not the goal.
Not yet, at least.
"But defeating me won't be that easy!"
His job was to hold Orion back as long as possible. The hidden Soren experts watching from the shadows could not interfere. The moment they tried, those on his side would act without hesitation.
And the best part was they outnumbered the Soren clan on every front.
Orion, on the other hand, had no interest in exchanging words with Kennedy. Anxiety and unease gripped his heart like a vice. His people were dying, his ancestral home was being desecrated, and he was powerless to stop it.
He pushed and kept pushing, but Kennedy was like a cockroach.
The bastard refused to engage him fully, retreating when he tried ending the fight and advancing when he tried descending to help the others.
Frustratingly too, he wouldn't shut up.
Orion realised this fight would drag on if he kept holding back. At this realization, he made the choice to completely let go.
Employing one of the clan's main sword techniques, Orion momentarily sheathed his sword and took a iaijutsu stance.
"Getting serious, are we?!" Kennedy laughed like some cheap villain, preparing his own counter.
Orion ignored his taunts and focused his essence. And for a brief moment, the world seemed to hold its breath.
Light itself seemed to grow dim.
Then… he unleashed a devastating strike, the sword cry echoing across the skies like thunderclap. Almost instantaneously, the sword light closed in on Kennedy.
The Council's Enforcer managed to fend off the strike at the last second, but was forced to take several steps back.
"As expected from a Transcendent like yourself! Keep it coming!"
Kennedy roared, sounding excited. The halberd in his hand trembled as he eventually broke the strike's momentum.
Suddenly, however, the carefree air around him changed. Something about Orion had changed the moment he unleashed that sword technique.
"Finally…!"
Rather than sound agitated, Kennedy laughed like a maniac.
Orion found the Enforcer's behaviour strange and uncharacteristically out of place. But he didn't have time to waste pondering.
He had succeeded in buying the time he needed for his next move, and he would be damned if he didn't take it.
Abruptly, the air around him shifted ominously. From his body, an explosion of an intensely vivid and electric green essence flared. A faint roar of a beast echoed right after.
Storm clouds gathered out of nowhere, distant crackles of lightning breaking through the chaos of the night.
The power to influence the surroundings was an ability those at or above the Transcendent realm possessed.
But it was a power most power houses rarely employed, as it served as a trump card. It demanded more than half the user's essence, leaving them weakened for a while.
It was a desperate gamble, but Orion had little choice. He needed to end this fight as fast as possible.
All pretenses had been thrown out the window already. There was only the intent to kill.
"Come on, Orion. Show me your ultimate move!"
Kennedy's halberd flashed as he closed the distance almost instantly, his weapon descending onto Orion like an executioner's axe.
Orion's visor flashed with a deadly green light. Kennedy's move was poorly judged.
There was no way the bastard could have known what his ultimate move was. Recklessly closing the distance was foolish and dangerous.
Right when Kennedy's halberd was inches away from viciously cleaving Orion in half, time seemed to slow to crawl.
'Realm of Chronos: Timelessness.'
A tyrannical and oppressive aura suddenly descended around the two, the overwhelming weight of its power pressing down on those below.
"Pull back!"
The warning came out of nowhere, but it was a timely one. Nothing good ever came from being present in a domain's vicinity.
Right on cue, a sphere of darkness blacker than night, expanded from Orion's figure, covering more than one kilometer in diameter.
Inside the warped space of the domain, Kennedy seemed to be frozen in a starless void, barely able to move.
His target, Orion, had disappeared right before his eyes. His internal clock still functioned, but he could not move.
He could not speak.
He cursed his brashness and arrogance. But it was too late for regrets.
"!"
A sudden chill came out of nowhere. It locked onto him from the back, overwhelming his senses. His instincts screamed at him to get out of the way!
Then a cold voice echoed across the dark void like a death sentence, heavy, absolute.
"Timeless Sword Arts: Past and Present."
BOOM…!