YM778.TV Chapter 39: Burn the Heavens down
"This is not my blood," Sol answered her question before she even uttered it. "It is the blood of those that tried stealing Ikaris away, excuse me, we have to speak to the general," Sol extended his arm behind himself, and Ikaris swiftly took his hand and together they walked past Eris.
Even though the woman was visibly surprised, she was only shaken for a moment before she swiftly walked over to her teacher and attendant again and began helping the wounded wherever she could.
"You all saw them too, right?" Dina asked, but to her surprise nobody seemed to know what she was talking about.
"Sol, I mean," She clarified herself with an awkward clearing of her throat.
"Sol has brown eyes, he has always had brown eyes, but his eyes just now were clearly-"
"-Blue." Bruce finished her explanation with a nod, smacking his palm with his fist. "His magic must still be in full swing, could it be that he hasn\'t rested since last night?"
"He said someone tried stealing Ikaris away, so while we were here fighting, before everyone suddenly died, Vestic must have been fighting those people on his own, we\'ve all seen how he gets when she\'s even looked at..." Han Clarified according to his own understanding.
"So Ikaris was the target from the start is what I\'m getting from what he just said, we weren\'t targeted we weren\'t singled out, but she was kidnapped?" Han balled his fists and walked after them. "I can\'t imagine he took that lightly,"
"Where is he going?" Usami started following him.
"I want to know what happened too, the demon subjugation army is supposed to be the most powerful force on Arkadia aside from the demon horde itself, obviously this was a small fraction of the overall army, but we were completely overrun by an unknown enemy, and while we were here fighting for our lives Sol managed to kill the ones that came after Ikaris, so I\'m curious too."
"Is something happening?" Eris motioned to the others after witnessing them leave one after the other behind Sol and Ikaris.
"Go, I can handle things here, you have already reconstructed anyone who had a pulse and a missing limb so leave the cleanup to us," Idria gave her a pat on the shoulder after removing her cloves. "You did remarkably, Eris, use this as a break and return when you are rested, if it is something of importance you can tell me all about it afterwards."
"Are you sure?" Eris asked, looking at the long line of wounded soldiers.
"Take a break, kid, you have earned it." The elf smiled and helped Eris to her feet while she removed her gloves as well.
"General," Sol called the man\'s attention from another report he had been recieving, and he let out a sigh when he saw Ikaris who had gone missing in the chaos standing behind him.
"Report to me afterwards," Grim nodded to the man and then turned to them when he saw the others approaching from further behind. "Have you already seen the medic units?" He asked, looking at Sol\'s physical state, but Sol shrugged off his concern and gestured to Ikaris.
"I think it\'s better if you explained this," He informed her and she nodded and stepped forward.
"The attack last night was not carried out by purely human aggressors." Ikaris stated matter-of-factly, and the general gave her his undivided attention at that revelation.
"The enemies appear to all be much more than just human, though," He argued.
"Well, most of them were wielding divine weapons, and the vast majority were using borrowed divine magic," Lyra approached after witnessing their arrival and Sol\'s attitude of urgency. "There was an abundance of divine magic in the air until sunrise, what happened last night?"
"I was ambushed in my sleep and placed under layers of paralysis magic, and then I was taken away before they even started the attack, the entire attack was their way of erasing their footprints to make away undetected,"
"In your sleep, so Sol Vestic was not with you?" Grim raised a brow, but Sol narrowed his eyes in return.
"Master has always periodically left my side to test his strength in private, Sara is testament to that fact -you are free to ask her whenever she is present, but last night was different, master was lured away as a part of their plan, it was his discovery of said plan that led to my rescue, otherwise..." Ikaris trailed off and placed her hand over her breast on the section of her blouse that had been torn, revealing a bit of her bust.
"I do not know what would have happened."
"Did you find out who did it?" Grim asked, looking at Sol\'s appearance again, especially his eyes, he was pissed, his entire attitude was rigid and cold, as if he could explode into violence at any moment.
It was the complete reverse of the man he had come to expect when seeing or thinking of the name Sol."
"Diablos," Sol seethed, and at the mention, Arla raised her head, Grim\'s eyes bulged, Lyra gasped, and Sir Morn choked on air. "That, sick scheming cowardly bastard, Diablos!" Sol ground his teeth, but was quieted by Ikaris leaning against him and taking his hand again, holding it firmly before he could take off in search of what remained of Diablos.
[The goddess of war expresses her condolences]
[The god of destruction promises that nothing of the sort will ever happen again]
[The pantheon is in unrest at the betrayal of the former god of dragons]
"Are we thinking about the same being here?" Grim asked Sol as a trickle of sweat rolled down his chin into his beard.
"That very same one!" Sol snapped once more. "Diablos; the god of dragons, employed Arkadian mercenaries from Argom to seal Ikaris away while luring me into what was supposed to be my grave," His eyes flashed white and the air around him hummed and vibrated violently.
"Master, calm down," Ikaris squeezed his hand causing the crest in her palm under her skin to illuminate as their contract started summoning magic from her home dimension to soothe his raging heart.
"The god of dragons?" Han asked shocked. "You met one of the gods, and survived that encounter?"
"Diablos only appeared shortly before the gods themselves intervened, he had employed the aid of a nobleman from Argom to carry out his will, Sol was to be killed, my magic would have been sealed, and I would likely have become that Nobleman\'s plaything," Ikaris closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"The attack on the camp was supposed to be a diversion and a means to cover their tracks, but thanks to master\'s quick intervention, they failed-"
"Did you find out who it was?" Arla asked seriously.
"Sol, Ikaris, where have the two of you been?"
Sir Kane Angelman, Han\'s teacher of the sword came walking toward them.
"Kane, we have dreadful news-" Grim turned to meet his friend, but the moment Sol laid eyes on the man his head was already two metres in the air. "Ah!" Grim raised his spear and aimed it at Sol when his eyes adjusted to Sol\'s form standing next to the decapitated swordmaster while his sword shimmered with evanescent magic.
"It was this son of a bitch," Sol\'s eyes widened with putrid hate and disgust as he grabbed Kane\'s hand before his body could even hit the ground and tore his shirt and armour off with one yank, revealing a crimson crest on his right shoulder.
"That crest!" Eris held her mouth in shock while Han turned and threw up from seeing someone he knew and respected getting their head mercilessly removed from their shoulders.
"It\'s on those other headless enemies... Right?" Sol looked around at her. "It\'s the mark of Diablos," He gestured to the red crest that resembled a coiled up dragon.
"I never imagined that it was someone that was this close who would do it, my impression must have been too much of a pushover if this is how they planned to steal my woman from right under my nose, so let me issue my last warning in clear sight of everyone!" Sol threw the headless body to the ground and stepped in the back causing it to explode into chunks of gore and blood around him.
"Don\'t fuck around with Ikaris, so help me, I\'ll kill you all, and raze this world flat, demons or humans, whatever your race, I\'ll fucking murder everything!"
Sol held his eyes to the ground with his threat to the skies.
"She\'s sworn to me, she\'s obedient to me, she\'s loyal to me, the only beings she is allowed to harm are those invading demonkin, that is the oath she made to me, so by Blood, Soul and Bone I swear it; if anyone ever dares to try after her again..." Sol slowly raised his eyes to the skies emitting so much magical power that the air began ringing loudly.
[Devil\'s Wrath has been passively activated]
[The gods are silent]
[The pantheon is quieted]
"The heavens will burn!"