Chapter 21: Hear My Grief

Zadkiel waved his hand and dashed away the roaring orange flames.

He was surprised when, even with his power failed to suffocate all of the flames at once. The ones farthest from him still burned with an unnatural intensity.

“Patriarch!”

“What is happening!?”

Zadkiel’s children surrounded him with aura blades already drawn.

Uriel had been badly burned and crawled behind his family for safety.

Another roar shook the destroyed ballroom.

The destruction swordsman clan could no longer ignore the source of the explosion itself and turned their heads to it’s form in objective horror.

“Listen to me, you idiotic fucking snobs…”

Raizel struggled to get to his feet as he held his badly broken arm. His years-long disguise of pleasantries and civility had long fled him.

“Do not try to fight him like he is now. The safest thing to do is jump out the window and aim for the water. Stay out of his fucking way so that he can calm down!”

One of Raizel’s brothers shoved him hard. “That’s your lowborn blood talking! The true blood of the destruction swordsman does not run from battle!”

Raizel watched his brother raise his qi blade in the air.

“Knights of Olethros! With me!”

The unsheathing of metal could be heard all throughout the ballroom.

Raizel’s brother, Michael, ran forward to charge the threat in the room.

It was a towering monster in the form of a knight. But this thing, this creature, was no knight.

It was the furthest thing from it.

Standing tall within a sea of flame, a roaring, 7’6 behemoth made from pitch-black metal held it’s face in it’s hands.

The creature’s chest and the back of his hands were filled with organic, bright orange eyes that looked in different directions all at once.

The horns that curled out of the top of it’s helmet were egregiously large and pointed to the heavens like a great bull.

It lowered it’s hands and revealed a sleek helmet complemented by even more glowing eyes. An unnatural eight in all.

A deep, guttural growl escaped it’s throat as Michael charged at it.

He raised his sword arm to the sky.

“Ninth Wing: Angel’s Tears!”

A blue aura covered the knight’s arm as he buried his blade into the center of the behemoth’s chest.

Not a moment later, multiple other holes began appearing in the metal giant’s torso and head.

But nothing was gained from it.

There was no scream of pain. No cry of anger at being impaled.

It was as if the creature hadn’t been inconvenienced at all.

And seconds later, the reason why was clear. It’s flesh and the armor covering it, all started to grow back at once.

Michael was horrified and baffled.

“Y-You’re-”

A wet explosion occurred as the behemoth smashed Michael’s head between his two fists.

As the body crumpled to the floor, the behemoth turned his head to the ceiling and roared again.

“BLOOOOODDDDDD!!!!”

Sufficiently provoked, the behemoth went on the offensive.

He held out his right hand and summoned a deep black greatsword longer than two men put together.

However, its size, nor the size of it’s wielder, inhibited the two of them from displaying terrible speed.

Moving as a blur, the behemoth began massacring the approaching knights with wild, imprecise swings packed with enough power to generate devastating wind pressure.

Zadkiel discarded his cloak and stepped forward with his hand on the pommel of his sword.

Raizel grabbed his father’s arm hard before he could do something stupid.

“Listen to me, you arrogant bastard! The angrier you make him, the more powerful he’ll get! I promise you, shooting out fire is the very least of our fucking concerns! Do you want to be the reason everyone here die-”

Zadkiel smacked his son hard for such insubordination.

“How dare you touch me. How dare you lecture me after bringing this calamity into our house! I should have had you tossed out with your mother when-”

“Solomon! Control yourself, cadet!!” A single voice arose among the panic.

Among the charred and dissected bodies, there was a miraculous sight.

Emmanuel was holding onto Solomon by the waist and attempting to hold him in place.

It was a near-herculean feat of strength.

“This isn’t you, kid! You’re too disciplined to lose control like this! I don’t know where you’ve pulled this scary ass armor from, but take it off! Don’t you start thinking that since you’re taller than me now, you don’t have to listen to what I say!”

By some miracle, Solomon had actually stopped attacking.

The edge of his sword rested on the ground as he stared down at the little man holding onto him for dear life.

Emmanuel let out a laugh full of anxiety.

He patted Solomon on his lower stomach in the same way one would after trying to tame a lion.

“That’s right, kid… we’re good… we’re all good here.” Emmanuel bit his lip unconsciously. “I’m sorry I didn’t know about Rena… I-I wish I could have given you some kind of manly advice. Taught you about contraceptives and… y’know, real educational stuff.”

Solomon, in all of his new monstrosity, was not being swallowed by his madness and simply stared at Emmanuel with a look of anguish beneath his mask.

Dumbfounded, he spoke in something that was not a dreadful cry or a hateful yell.

Instead, it was a haunting, broken, whisper.

“It… hurts…”

Emmanuel nodded frantically. “I’m sure it does, kid, but don’t you worry, we can get you patched up quick. You just need to take things down a notch and maybe try to take that armor off. Start with that helmet.”

“…I…”

The world seemed to change so quickly.

At one moment, Solomon was upright and trying to put together his psyche through a dense fog.

But in the very next second, his top half was sliding away from his lower half and falling to the floor.

To make matters worse, whatever had cut him didn’t appear to have come from behind.

And with Solomon cut at the waistline, that meant Emmanuel’s neck was in the way.

Solomon blinked as he slid to the ground.

His only perspective was that of Zadkiel’s boots standing in front of him. Proud and unsullied by the night’s havoc.

For a moment, his vision failed him completely as Zadkiel cut him into dozens of cubes within just ten seconds.

However, his mind was not unresponsive.

His psyche sank further into his madness; causing a surge of emotion to flood and overpower him.

And the entire island shook terribly as a result of his rage.

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