Novel Full Chapter 1557: When No.25 joined the dance: Part-4
Chapter 1557: When No.25 joined the dance: Part-4
~SSSSHHHHH~
Both of them flinched as they looked towards Aether and saw him moving in a way that did not seem entirely mortal.
He was swirling his spear at blinding speed in one hand, the weapon carving circles through the air as he leapt from one shattered stone to another. The air itself bent toward him, drawn in as though his presence had become a vortex, and a violent surge rippled outward in expanding waves.
Above him, the clouds began to gather unnaturally fast, folding into one another, thickening, darkening, until the sky resembled a living ocean of clouds about to collapse upon the world.
Adding to that, snowflakes that were still around and moving around like a stary dust in the galaxy… so magnificent!
Rumble~!
Thunder cracked across the heavens.
The clouds churned violently, and within them a hollow spiral began to form, a circular abyss carved by rotating currents of white lightning. Sparks tore through the sky in jagged veins of white and blue, followed by successive bursts of thunder that struck the ground with blinding force.
Crack~
Boom!
Lightning fell close to the kneeling survivors.
Some were still bowed, some barely conscious from blood loss, others trembling in agony from wounds that had not yet stopped bleeding.
When the lightning struck near them, panic flashed across their faces, yet instead of destruction, warmth spread through their bodies.
Spark~
The tiny strands of lightning spread through their bodies, seeping into torn flesh like threads of warm light, stitching flesh, sealing wounds, mending torn muscle.
Everyone gasped in shock as injuries vanished before their eyes, bones aligned, blood dried, and strength slowly returned to trembling limbs.
Crack~
Boom!
Crack~
Boom!
Spark~
Crack~
Boom!
Spark~
More lightning descended, relentless and magnificent, striking the earth again and again.
Not a single bolt harmed them.
Each impact sent radiant ripples across the battlefield, waves of crackling energy that restored rather than destroyed.
The people slowly rose to their feet, disbelief written across their faces as strength returned to their legs.
They began moving toward Aether, not out of command, but out of instinct, drawn to the epicentre of the miracle unfolding before them.
Sera stared at her hands as the deep gash along her forearm sealed itself in layers of glowing white. The pain faded into a dull memory, and sensation returned with startling clarity.
She lifted her gaze toward Helena, whose pure white eyes still radiated faint light. Helena’s body was healing just as swiftly, bruises vanishing and torn fabric settling against unmarred skin.
Confusion tightened their expressions, their minds struggling to grasp what their eyes were witnessing.
How could he possibly do this?
Healing so many at once without arcane energy, without incantation, without visible cost?
Even they need energy from the crystal to heal all… even that needed almost days to finish.
Yet….
Yet..
It no longer felt like a miracle granted by the heavens.
It surpassed that word entirely, stepping into a realm that defied every law they knew.
The hollow in the clouds widened slowly, the thunder shifting its fury upward instead of downward. Lightning no longer struck the ground but coiled into the dark centre above, feeding the growing void.
The violent wind whipped Aether’s long white hair as he took a powerful leap, his body arching backwards with controlled precision, his spine bending until his head nearly brushed the earth.
Muscles tightened, energy spiralled around him, and the spear in his hand vibrated with restrained force.
Srrkkkkk~
The spear continued to spin in his grasp, faster now, its shaft humming with contained energy, lightning coiling along its length like serpents of light desperate to be released.
“Go, Iskha’vel. Tear the heavens and Heal the Ones.”
With a single explosive thrust of his arm and core, he drove the spear forward.
BOOOMMM!!!
The ground beneath him shattered outward in a violent burst of stone and dust. The spear launched upward like a streak of concentrated starlight, piercing the hollow cloud at its centre.
Hmmmffffoooggggg~
The moment it entered, the swirling void swallowed it whole, and a deep, vibrating sound rippled across the sky, a strange resonance that seemed to echo from within the clouds themselves.
Far away, in the Naiadae Empire,
Sandra’s body slammed against cold stone as metallic tentacles coiled tightly around her. One wrapped around her throat, pressing just enough to steal her breath without crushing it completely.
Another bound her remaining wrist, forcing her arm outward at an unnatural angle.
Crack!
The final impact against the wall forced a broken groan from her lips.
“Arrhh… F-Fuck…” she gasped.
The tentacles tightened with a slow mechanical creak, their surface glinting under the dim, broken street light.
Fine fractures began to spider across the stone wall behind her from the pressure of her body being forced against it.
Crrrckk…Crrcckkk..
Sparks burst outward as the metallic tentacles tightened slowly and painfully around her neck.
Sandra’s vision blurred at the edges as her eyes rolled upward, her breath thinning into shallow, desperate pulls of air.
Just then, through blurred vision and fading strength, she noticed the clouds in the sky darkening without warning, strange white lightning spreading wildly within them like veins of living light.
Sandra, who had been groaning moments earlier, suddenly stilled.
A crooked smirk touched her blood-dripping lips despite the crushing grip at her throat.
“You… Fucked!” she rasped.
The metallic tentacle tightened further, the final torque preparing to snap her neck.
Crack~
Boom!
Thud!
Crrrkk—
A blinding flash tore through the broken city, followed by a sharp metallic crack.
The pressure around her throat vanished instantly.
Thud!
Sandra collapsed to the stone floor, coughing violently as air rushed back into her lungs. She rolled onto her side, clutching her neck while gasping for breath.
Her vision cleared just enough to see a spear embedded deep into the metallic tentacles in front of her, its shaft humming faintly with white energy. The severed tentacles writhed briefly before dissolving into black smoke that evaporated into nothing.
Sandra blinked in stunned disbelief as she slowly lifted her head toward the sky.
“Fuck… you’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered under her breath.
The heavens had opened.
The sky above the empire had transformed into something impossible. Within those newly formed dark clouds… Thousands upon thousands of spears were pouring down from the heavens like a storm forged from spear and lightning.
They descended with terrifying precision, streaking downward in synchronised arcs that tore through the air with thunderous force.
Not just above her empire.
Across every empire.
Every sky was covered in an endless rain of spears, their white glow illuminating cities, battlefields, and burning streets.
People screamed in fear, many dropped to their knees and convinced this was the final judgment, the end of the world descending in radiant fury.
Some screamed while others covered their heads, bracing for death.
Yet…. when the spears struck, they did not impale the innocent.
Each one curved mid-descent with impossible control, redirecting at the last instant toward the metallic figures scattered across the lands.
The spears pierced them cleanly, pinning their mechanical bodies to the ground before detonating in bursts of white energy.
Nothing else was touched.
Not a single civilian was harmed. Not a single building collapsed.
Only the metallic invaders were struck, their forms convulsing violently before dissolving into thick plumes of black smoke.
Crack~
Boom!
Thud!
Crack~
Boom!
Thud!
Thunder rolled repeatedly across the skies as spear after spear struck its target.
The ground trembled under the synchronised impacts, and brilliant flashes reflected in wide, stunned eyes everywhere.
One by one, the metallic figures were eradicated.
Silence slowly replaced chaos.
The people looked toward the sky in trembling awe, searching for a divine silhouette, a figure descending from the heavens. Yet there was nothing there except heavy clouds slowly dispersing, their fury fading as if nothing had happened.
Even so, people kneeled, some trembling, some whispering prayers.
Sandra let out a breath that trembled somewhere between laughter and exhaustion.
“That motherfucker,” she muttered, letting herself fall back against the cold floor. Her body ached, but her lips curved faintly upward as she watched the final spears descend.
Seeing them stirred something unexpected within her.
The fear that had clawed at her chest moments ago loosened its grip. The anger that had burned in her veins dimmed. Even the worry she refused to admit softened into something steadier.
Sssnngg~
One of the spears near her vibrated softly, emitting a low humming resonance. Fine white lightning sparks began to leak from its surface, drifting through the air like glowing dust.
Wherever they touched, bruises faded, and torn flesh sealed rapidly. The pain in her throat dulled into warmth, then vanished entirely.
She blinked slowly, feeling the rapid healing as disbelief mixed with reluctant admiration.
“What else are you hiding from us…” she murmured, shaking her head with mild annoyance that failed to conceal her quiet satisfaction.
In the Pyra Empire, flames still licked across shattered towers and molten cracks split the battlefield like glowing scars.
Hundreds of towering metallic figures stood impaled into the scorched earth, massive spears driven clean through their armoured cores, pinning them upright like trophies claimed by the sky.
“Finally!!” Nightfire clenched her fists before dropping to one knee, exhaustion catching up to her as embers drifted around her shoulders. She lifted her gaze toward the clouds, already knowing whose hand had carved this judgment without a single word needing to be spoken.
“Took you sweet time, Pervert~”
Her smirk carried heat, pride, and something dangerously fond beneath the irritation.
In the Zephyra Empire, icy winds howled between floating spires as the last metallic body crashed into the ground.
“Mastterrr~~~” Snowflake hissed violently, her serpentine tail whipping across a stabbed metallic figure, shattering its helmet into fragments.
Nearby, Maelona stood beside one of the embedded spears, her wounds sealing as white lightning sparks travelled across her skin.
She reached out hesitantly, fingers brushing the shaft of the weapon.
“Is this… Aether’s magic?” she whispered.
***
… Even in the Void Empire, in the middle of a battlefield.
“Sis, we have eliminated most of the mech-suits, but our side has suffered major losses,” Morgana said, clad in dark armour etched with glowing sigils. She stood before Mary, whose gaze remained fixed upon the carnage unfolding below.
This battlefield was worse than any other empire’s.
Though the soldiers here possessed formidable powers, the metallic figures invading their land were entirely different. Their designs were heavier, their movements sharper, their weapons devastating.
It was as though each empire had been studied, calculated, and assigned its own executioners.
Massive orcs roared as they charged, only to be forced back by colossal mechanical suits fitted with enormous cannons mounted on their shoulders. Explosions tore through the ground, sending debris and bodies flying as beams of concentrated energy erased entire formations in seconds.
“I shouldn’t have trusted that human’s word,” Mary muttered coldly, watching the battlefield before she issued her command.
“Not a single one of those pathetic metals leaves this land alive… got it?”
CReeckk!
With a violent yank of her arm, beside her, the rotating saw embedded in a sneaking mech-suit twisted unnaturally. The machine screeched as the saw reversed direction, slicing clean through its torso before the upper half was flung away by the sheer force of her yank.
BOOOMM!
Morgana nodded firmly. “Okay.”
She drew her sword again, ready to finish these remaining ones when,
“Wait? How are… You doing that?” Mary suddenly asked with a curious tone.
“Doing what?” Morgana asked, genuinely confused as she looked back at her sister.
Mary stepped closer, her eyes narrowing.
“Your eyes…. Why are they so white?”
Morgana blinked, “White? What are you talking about?”
“Yup. They’re white… soooo white. I’ve never seen them like this before,” Mary murmured, leaning in curiously.
Morgana felt no difference… No change in sensation. Just as she moved to retrieve a broken shard of mirror from the ground to check her reflection, the earth trembled.
A colossal mech-suit emerged from the smoke behind Mary, its blade arm raised high, targeting her exposed back.
“Sis!”
Mary did not even turn fully. She simply raised her right fist slightly behind her, ready to shatter the incoming attack with a single casual strike.
Even now, her full attention lingered on Morgana’s strange pure white eyes.
Just as her fist was about to connect to the humming blade arm, when,
Crack~
Boom!
Morgana’s eyes widened in shock.
Mary blinked.
Her fist hovered barely an inch from the descending blade of the mech-suit, yet the machine had stopped.
She turned her head.
A colossal spear pierced straight through the mech suit’s chest in a single, perfect strike. The weapon had embedded itself deep into the earth beneath, pinning the enormous construct in place as cracks of white energy spread from the point of impact.
“Hmm…” Mary tilted her head cutely, as if trying to decide whether she had imagined what just happened or if the sky itself had interfered with her battle. “What was that?”
“S Sis… look at that,” Morgana said, her voice tightening as she raised a trembling finger toward the sky.
Mary followed her gesture.
The entire sky turned dark cloudly and in it thousands of spears protruding out, each one descending rapidly with furious white sparks racing along their shafts.
Furious white sparks wrapped around their shafts, lightning coiling along their edges as they launched downward like divine verdicts carved from light.
“What in the…”
Before either of them could fully process what they were seeing, the first wave struck.
Crack~
Boom!
Thud!
Crack~
Boom!
Thud!
Crack~
Boom!
….
…
The battlefield shook violently as spear after spear embedded itself into the ground, into mech-suits, into armoured torsos of towering machines.
The impacts came so fast that the sound merged into a continuous roar, white flashes blinding the horizon.
Void soldiers dropped instinctively, covering their heads, expecting impalement.
Yet none of the spears struck them.
Not a single one.
Just like other empires, each weapon adjusted mid-fall with impossible precision, curving slightly before piercing only metallic bodies.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The giant mech-suits were nailed into the earth, their systems short-circuiting as white lightning burst from the impact points. Within seconds, their reinforced armour blackened and began dissolving into smoke.
Mary and Morgana stood upright amid the storm of falling weapons, wind whipping around their armor while spears crashed all around them.
The ground vibrated under their boots, but neither flinched.
When the last few impacts echoed away, the battlefield was no longer chaotic.
It was a forest of spears.
Metallic corpses were pinned upright or crushed beneath embedded shafts. Smoke curled upward in dark spirals.
Mary stepped forward slowly, examining one of the spears lodged before her. White energy still flickered along its surface, humming faintly like a living thing.
“Interesting…” she murmured.
Her gaze shifted sideways toward Morgana.
The pure white in Morgana’s eyes was fading gradually, colour returning like ink spreading back into water.
Morgana, however, was not watching the sky.
She stared at the spear nearest to her with a blank, distant expression.
Something deep within her stirred uneasily… The shape, the vibration in the air around it… It felt familiar.
She did not know why.
’Something feels wrong here… this almost looks like… his?’ she thought, her brows knitting together.
For a split second, an image flickered across her mind.
A black spear.
Not white.
Black, edged in something darker than shadow.
Her breath caught violently in her throat. Her knees buckled as a crushing weight pressed against her chest, forcing her instinctively toward the ground.
Her body leaned forward as though compelled to kneel before the weapon embedded in the earth.
“Ha… ha…” Morgana panted, clutching her chest tightly as pain radiated through her ribs.
Her heart pounded erratically, each beat echoing against that fleeting image.
Mary stared at her sister in silence.