Ethereal Paradigm: A Canvas of Black - Chapter 75 Precipice of Fake Defea

“Their heart grew cold, they let their wings down.”

-Sappho

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“WHAT? YOU CAN DO THAT? BUT YOU GAVE IT WILLINGLY YOU LITTLE SH*T!” Exclaimed the hero with such a facade that glyphs his arrogance slowly deviating from him.

Well, it is understandable. The Gorgon, his chosen Paradigm Shift, his chosen identity, is all except immortal if the Synthesized Angel wishes so. And he knows that the Gorgon would not be as fearful as before if that aspect is to be taken away from it.

“And that’s why I can reclaim it anytime.”, answered the Synthesized Angel still drifting mid-air with her majestic cardinal pair of butterfly wings and her lingering death scythe twice the little girl’s hight.

“TSK! SCREW YOU AND YOUR NEWCOMER LITTLE VESSEL!… EURYALE! FIVE-LAYER NATURAL FULMINATION… ANOTHER!”

Ordered by her master, so to say, the Gorgon then started to once again charge a spheroid following the same process… but this time, the hero desperately does it consecutively none-stop making the established grounds quiver several times, one highlighted aftermaths of the consecutive bursts of energy.

“ANOTHER!”

“ANOTHER!”

“ANOTHEEEERRRRRRR!”

But everything was still ineffective, to the little girl that is, taking the attack like its nothing but teeny weeny ant-bites or even exponentially less. Otherwise stated, not a single damage was inflicted while once again, there were lots of alterations on the landscape. It is now both a treeless plain of burnt grass from the consecutive spheroids’ combustion of compressed natural energy and an extremely shallow lake of blood from the sudden downpour upon the manifestation of the Kurenai.

“DO YOU EVEN HAVE A FRICKING WEAKNESS?” the hero asked with sweat running down his deformed demeanor while his Paradigm Shift pet did not stop the barrage, weakening degree by degree at each attack.

“When you and your puny kingdom held me down and when the primordials who endowed to us with this troublesome and genuine responsibility suddenly abolished us… yes I have. I can’t use offensive paradigms. I am not even allowed to say my concerns in front of your king… but now, it’s different. Now that I am inside this vessel, I am no longer subject to the weaknesses you offered me.” Kurenai answered.

“JUST FRICKING GET BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG! TO OUR CASTLE’S LOVELY CELL YOU BUFFOON!” The hero added as he desperately thrives to use every bit of the Gorgon’s elemental attribute foolishly and finally realizing the impotence of his bombards, he stopped and made the Gorgon est for a bit by behaving in his rear.

“Hmm, I only stated the truth and now you’re referring to me as a Buffon. Such a desperate and assertive low-life… ”

“OF COURSE I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CALL YOU THAT! YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A CIRCLE OF BUFFOONS!”

“Say that again…” The moment Kurenai heard that balderdash which is also an unerasable mantra for the Synthesized Angels themselves, her heart grew a little cold and it’s only a matter of time before a feral exasperation is to breach out in between the impeccable division of anger and rationality. But, Shiro, as though internally calming her down touched her own cheek to somehow pacify Kurenai.

“YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE SAME CIRCLE CONSISTING OF NOTHING… BUT BUFFOONS! IS THAT CLEAR?” The hero repeated his derision undauntedly while completely ignoring the fact that he just set himself at one deep predicament.

“Shiro-san… Gomene…Chotto anata no karada o kari sasete” (English: Shiro… Sorry… Let me borrow your body for a second.”

“Arigatou.” As though the little girl answered her internally, she whispered in a tone that showcases the coalescing of gratitude towards Shiro and her crystal-clear hatred for the mocking hero who does not know how to keep his mouth shut unless in the verge of death.

“Take back what you just said…”With eyes, brimming scarlet-red parading this elevated grudge, Kurenai then glared at him.

“OH-HO??? I’M SO SCARED! JUST COME HERE AND FIGHT ALREADY!” the hero taunted Kurenai into attacking, but unlike him, who let small factors affect his judgment on the battlefield, Kurenai never loses touch with her logic.

“Hmmm… Asking the lady to make the first move is very unchivalrous for a muscle-man like you, don’t you think… But, fine by me.”

Then, at lightning speed, Kurenai then dashed towards the hero with her scythe.., a speed which the hero stands no chance of evasion…

“THAT’S WHAT YOU THOUGHT! EURYALE!”

The Gorgon then attacks once again, but this time without using its natural prowess as it seems to be running low in MP. It then utilized its fangs in an endeavor to bite off the butterfly, but ultimately failed as its size was a major predicament to catch up to that girl whos moving faster than sound.

And quickly foreshadowing that any vigor to dodge is in vain, the hero tried to retaliate the supersonic attack but failed at an unscrupulous state and Kurenai, faking her attack threw the scythe at her other hand and then grabbed him by his thick bundle of hairs and started to drag him around with his face eating the verdant dirt at the speed of sound and with a body inside a broken armor, causing this large cracks on the ground from whence the hero has been scraped facing ‘earthbound’.

Still, with his face scraping the ground, Kurenai then relinquished the land sowing at a point and threw him to a nearby mountain deforming its once perpetual cone-shape, causing a vivid shake on the ground with the hitting point as the epicenter, in a way that half of the mountain’s geography has been flattened out and the hero left to be buried underneath.

“I never know that plowing the land with a Tarragon’s face would feel this good,” Kurenai exclaimed stretching Shiro’s back with a satisfied smile in her face seeing how far the hero has been sent flying. A thing which she can never do before in her frail body.

The Gorgon was left on the battlefield… and not feeling the hero’s presence, it just stood there, waiting for orders to come out but there was none. It then tried to once again return underground from where it appeared prior, as though it received signal to do so from his currently buried master or something…

“No, you’re not escaping. You still have something which I own…” Kurenai then threw her scythe right in the tip of its scaly tale piercing it through and on the ground preventing the Gorgon’s hasty subterranean escapade who still owes her its pre-known ‘immortality’.

“Shiro-san… Shall we save oni-chama now”

“Hai!” (English: Yes!)

“Ryōkai” (English: Roger that”)

Conveying that, sounding like an ongoing act of monologue from someone else’s perception, Kurenai, utilizing the blood wings, enveloped the Gorgon whole as if eaten by a red predator alive, and inside the dome of blood, the Gorgon went, not being able to move that much due to the cramped space and there…a requited skull session unprecedentedly lit up.

“I thank you, Euryale… And I’m so sorry for calling you at that time, I can’t think of anyone else strong to held that vast army and in the end, I still need to reclaim my power. Sorry.”

The Gorgon then calmed down as the Synthesized Angel touched its forehead, and then

“Please… Kill me.” In some sort of telekinesis, the Gorgon speaks in a voice that is clearly in the embrace of suffering and the wanton desire to be set free that caused shock in Kurenai’s countenance…

“Why?” Asked the Synthesized Angel.

“The moment he tamed me, I think of nothing but going on a rampage… I’ve killed a million now.”

“We are practically standing in the same thin ice. I feel the same as they exploited me and from merely seeing my counterparts used as some sort of a personal belonging as well” Kurenai shared with practically a saddened demeanor, but the Gorgon’s resolve is whole and unshakeable.

“Yes… But unlike you, I have no chance to redeem myself. I failed to save my sister, Medusa from drowning in her own power and now she’s dead. The only reason for me to continue thriving, now…dead. Truth be told, I was happy when you summoned me right in front of that battlefield. Thoughts like ‘I’m finally gonna be killed’ crossed my mind… but unexpectedly you gave me a portion of your exemplary healing ability.”

“Sorry” Kurenai bowed her head with some sort of regret tainting her majestic countenance.

“No… I understand. If you had not done it than you could have failed the escape. Now, Please take my life as retribution for all of the wrongs that I have had done, and please consider that time when you summoned me to divert your enemies the final remission of my many sins. Take my immortality. A power that I did not ask nor deserve and then please behead me…I’m ready to meet Lord Hades. Perhaps he is more tolerable than that assertive hero.”

“Is this what you wish?”

“Yes.”

“I understand”

“Thank you…”

“Oh and Euryale,

“What?”

“I’ll make sure I will avenge you,” Kurenai claimed with a very chivalrous expression.

“Thank you…” So the Gorgon said, with a very satisfied look in her still-stressed facade while leaving little words all of which are scambled in one deterrent message…

“That man, he is not dead yet. A thousand of the Kingdom’s soldier is also approaching, including the king himself. Please take heed. But, there’s no need to worry about that hero. He just have great vitality but his paradigm is not that strong, especially without my aid. All you need to worry about is that priest who can cancel out paradigms… and also King Aurelius himself… Oh and, you all better live. I’ve heard that these humans we’re transported here for warfare. I’ll be rooting for you and for the little girl’s triumph… Synthesized Angel, Kurenai… Now then, please do proceed.”

“Yes… Thank you and… Goodbye” Kurenai then raised her scythe and beheaded the Gorgon in a way that made her head float on air matching perfectly with the exotic red atmosphere and then blood started to ooze out from the main body… blood that’s slowly becoming one with the girl’s majestic cardinal wings, symbolizing that once again, she got a portion of her power back.”

“Let’s meet again someday, Euryale.” She said while looking up…Then, the Gorgon’s warning filled her ecstatic thoughts…

“The King huh…” Fixing her sight from afar she exclaimed in the adrenaline of re-meeting with her sworn-nemesis who wishes to keep her as a material for battle.

“Shiro… It’s almost time for your limit right?”

“Ahahaha… Are you okay with that Violation though? Another hour in this form, in exchange for four month-sleep and hibernation?.”

“Oh, oni-chan… Right.”

She then relinquished the big dome of blood, leaving with a much more majestic pair of wings, and then she approached the Iron Maiden where Jaiden has been sealed, to keep her part of the bargain of saving Jaiden…

She then stood in front of it and made her bloody wings touch the tiny and rusty openings of which a liter of blood passed through and inside will mutate with Jaiden for a reason unknown.

“He’s safe for now, Shiro-san”

“Now then, let us deal with the king, shall we? They always like to fake defeat… Now its time for a retaliation…with oni-chama of course.”

And then, it was not yonder that the footsteps of a wide array of approaching armies began to be heard echoing through the air… and the buried herolike a risen dead slowly standing up again from the heavy mountain debris that engulfed him, but now a broken pride in his face,…

“Here they all come… Shiro-san. The very reason why I suffered, and the very reason that explains as to how I meet you all… The Corrupt Kingdom of Aurelius.”