Nine Paths Of Asura - 60 The Phoenix and Tortoise

As the death Qi was about to hit the walls, Lineir leaped and prayed that he wouldn’t land in too many undead. Red waves of madness streaked across his vision and time slowed as he coldly analyzed that he was going to land in a clump of five undead doing battle with a group of regular soldiers. His bone blades came out, and he prepared to deal with them all, when the death Qi hit the walls behind him and they exploded inward, runic enchantments failing to hold up under this full power immortal blow!

Boom! Rumble Rumble Rumble Pa! Pa! Pa!

All around, what parts of the wall hadn’t simply evaporated under the power rained down as massive chunks of shrapnel, destroying men and dead alike. Lineir, calmly observed the pieces falling and twisted in the air to avoid them before alighting on top of one as it fell unto the undead he had been planning on landing in.

Crunch!

The rock did his work for him, and Lineir stayed on top as it crushed his foes, ignoring the frantic battle around him to stare out the fallen walls at the immortal angel of darkness.

“Ready to come out and play Laightner? Had enough, or should I destroy the foundation of your holy city as well!” Laughing manically, the angel raised his sword and began to gather darkness for another blow.

“Answer me!” He raised his hand for another finishing blow, and when there was no response, laughed,

“Fine, this city is finished!” Down came the sword and the mad waves of death Qi, though this time there were no walls to shield the inhabitants of Lightholme from the blow. Lineir hurriedly looked for cover, despairing his luck to be caught up in this struggle so soon after the events at the pillar.

FFFhhhhhaaaaa!

At that moment however, a blazing blur of vermillion streaked by from the ocean, and slammed into the angel, as simultaneously, a thick wall of translucent purple fog rose up and shielded the city in a bubble. The waves of death Qi spread harmlessly against the walls and dissipated, and the hordes of undead outside could only hammer helplessly against this barrier. Inside, the remaining paladins, priests, and soldiers soon got the situation under control, fighting evenly with the undead now that there were no more undead reinforcements streaming into the city. Lineir backed away from the front lines and carefully observed the events overhead. With his Madness ability, he could make out the figures fighting in the distance.

In front of the city, a huge purple tortoise had appeared, and from it’s shell, on which an indescribably mystical formation was naturally etched, purple fog rose which blocked out the undead. in the skies, a blazing yellow-red haired female had appeared and was doing battle with the angel. Her fiery red sword would clash with his dark blade and sparks would fly down below lighting entire cohorts of undead on fire, as raging wisps of death Qi would fall and skeletons would rise up from the ashes. From this female cultivator’s back, came beautiful wings of pure vermillion flame, the sight of which was like watching the last rays of the setting sun cross the horizon. However, as this female cultivator exchanged blows with the dark angel, the death Qi grew thicker and thicker, and fewer and fewer sparks appeared as the angel seemed to gain the upper hand.

“Hahaha, Phoenix and Tortoise, did you come to die with your old friend? While the pact might not permit me to harm him while this city still stands, you are hardly covered by the Heaven’s ways! But where are your companions? No matter, stay right there tortoise, when I have finished with her, you’re next!” The angel was extremely excited, he had been waiting so long without response from his foe, now to finally be able to fight against an actual opponent, he was actually delighted.

“You, fiend, to prey on mortals and steal their bodies to make such a vile army, we two divine beasts can hardly look away while holding our heads high!” The female cultivator addressed as phoenix suddenly flared up into an orange inferno, her wings expanding and her body encapsulated in fire. Wreathed in flame, she transformed into a true phoenix, leaving behind her human form, her sword expanding into a gleaming beak of fire.

“Burn in hell!”

From the beak of the phoenix swirled a massive orb of molten fire Qi which blasted out in a condensed hooked line. Lineir could see with his Madness ability, that this attack was not only incredibly potent, but profound, in that it condensed the energy into a compact curved line, seemingly passing around the dark angel’s sword and penetrating directly into his bone armor chest-plate. The dark angel fell back dozens of meters in the air, and below, swathes of undead seemed to grow disorientated, pieces of them falling apart as their master lost his grip over their tortured souls.

“Kiddo, that was a pretty nice attack combining the laws of both space and fire, you should remember the technique, it will help your own understanding greatly. It’s a shame that angel has a higher cultivation base then the phoenix. I fear neither the she, nor the tortoise, will be able to handle this threat alone. See how he’s tumbling? That’s bad, if the shot had penetrated his chest-plate, it would have gone straight through and he wouldn’t have been blown back like that. A nice try though.” Mei sighed.

“Damnit, who is this Laightner that he keeps screaming for, I wish he’d come out and fight already so that I can leave this city in peace.” Lineir was a little angry, he had long since connected two and two and associated Laightner with the mysterious voice and presence in the center of the city. As far as he was concerned, he was being roped into someone else’s fight. Above, the dark angel righted himself and smiled wickedly.

“Hahahaha, that was a great attack, the Phoenix Clan’s attacks are always so profound. However, it’s a shame, no matter how long you spend honing your technique, without true strength, you cannot have true power! The power of angels far surpasses your pitiful divine beast’s cultivation! Taste the strength of Heaven for yourself!” The death Qi in his sword spiraled around as he sped through the air and delivered a thunderous blow towards the exhausted phoenix. At the last second however…

PUCHA!

Drops of blood and flickering flame dripped down from the skies.

“Go! You can rein…” The tortoise from below had leapt up and taken the blow for the phoenix, which had reverted into a beautiful red haired woman. The purple haze which had been obstructing the undead fell as the sword imbued with death Qi pierced the tortoises’ shell and continued on to slash a vicious wound into the phoenix’s’ chest. The tortoise, sagged and exploded into a blast of purple Qi, shoving the wounded woman towards the city and pushing the angel back. Just like that, the tortoise was gone. The mysterious voice rang out once more,

“Oh you black sheep, to kill my friends, you will pay. Enjoy your empty victory today, but one day, horned goat, the dragon and tiger will come for you if you bleat so loud!”

Ting! Ting! Ting!

A tinkling noise came as uncountable chains broke. From the center of the city, an incomparably glorious pillar of light shot up, and inside, Lineir just barely made the image of a sleeping angel.

“Laightner you dare run! You show your true colors! Very well, I’ll take your city and the souls of all inside as compensation for your cowardice! Enjoy little mortals, you see now the folly of following Laightner!” The dark angel leaned back and angrily waved his hands, urging the undead onward to the city. Inside, Lineir’s eye’s paled.

“How the heck am I supposed to sneak out with an immortal watching! If I go out and start slaughtering undead, he’s bound to take notice!”

“Sorry kiddo, looks like you’re out of luck. I was hoping this Laightner would defend his city, but angels are never trustworthy. Make for the ocean, just stay away from that angel for as long as you can.” Mei was worried now. Her last resort wouldn’t work now. She could only hope for a miracle. As Lineir turned, he was suddenly smacked in the back, and sent sprawling under a heavy hot weight.

“What the…?!!” Lineir turned and lifted himself up as a beautiful female body slid off of him. Weak flames seemed to lick around a terrible gash in her pristine chest.

“The phoenix? She’s alive?” Lineir was about to finally dislodge himself from under her, when her eye’s snapped open and a glowing flame streaked across her brow like a crown.

“Mei, what’s happening!” Lineir frantically tried to back away, but the woman had somehow in an instant, locked her legs around him and begun to burn. In seconds, her body began to fade away, replaced by whirling pieces of orange ash. From below, her feet, legs, body and arms all disappeared into the flames. Before her head disappeared, she leaned in and delivered a blazing hot kiss onto Lineir’s lips before disappearing altogether. Dumbfounded, Lineir could only stand there and receive this flaming touch in shock. In his mouth, sizzling specks of ash sent a torrent of warm fire Qi into his body, quickly surging into his Second Heart. There, the darkness and lightning seemed to welcome the specks of ash and merge with them, a roaring flame began to build.

ROARRR!!

The burning feeling in his shoulder blades from earlier sped up, as the familiar madness transformed the visage, not into a flaming landscape of destruction. Flames wreathed his eyes, and his shoulder blade itched like they would combust into ashes as well. A boiling desire to destroy spread in his blood, and he felt ready to do something… His eye’s snapped up in a murderous rage at the angel lazily waving on his undead army in the sky. He felt the desire to kill this angel!

Suddenly the dark angel, enjoying his victory above, felt an intense murderous desire, in direct defiance of the Heavens. Below, he saw a mere mortal, staring up at him from the ruined, abandoned city, and sneered. A mere human dared to challenge an immortal? He laughed at the thought, and returned to urging his troops on, a little embarrassed to have even lowered his gaze.

Lineir, terrified, was tensing every muscle, and holding himself rigidly upright as his neck seemed to move beyond his control. A smooth but angry female voice came into his head.

“Mortal boy, it seems you have some ability, to be capable of serving as a vessel for my reincarnation! I regret having to use your body as fuel, you will have to blame that one up there for forcing me to take such drastic measures!” Suddenly, flames seemed to sear through Lineir’s entire being. As the flames spread to one of his shoulders, suddenly they met resistance and he heard a familiar petulant voice,

“Who the hell dare’s touch my mate!” However, the words quickly cut off as the flames spread even deeper into his being. Then, as they burned away everything of his in pure fire, the flames tried to leave his body and condense. However….

“You have an excellent body young mortal, most would have burned up long ago, excellent fuel for my rebirth!” The phoenix crowed in his mind, only for a sudden shriek and a squawk of dismay to appear.

“You… what are you… you were a practitioner! How are you so powerful!” From deep inside his Second Heart, a raging pull came. The spinning vortex of darkness, lightning, and the mysterious turbulent red, grabbed the orange flames which were trying to leave with Lineir’s life force, and forcefully intertwined with them, yanking them back inside and weaving them into his cultivation base instead!

“You think you can contain a divine beast! Without an outlet for my flame, no human below the level of immortal can hold me and not be burnt!” A furious female voice raged endlessly, and the flames spinning in his core expanded, only to be drawn to Lineir’s back. From his shoulder blades, glowing orange wings binded by chains of lightning and darkness appeared. Mei suddenly chuckled,

“Phoenixes can reincarnate, this one must have thought to have used you, an unsuspecting mortal, as food for its rebirth. However… the eagle grabbed onto the worm only to realize the worm was a snake! She can only blame her own destiny as her cultivation and ancestral techniques are absorbed by your Second Heart!”