CHAPTER 155: TWO SIDES... ONE BATTLE.

Arthur wore two foam earplugs and showed his brother a thumbs-up. Then, he summoned his shield, which now possessed two gemstones installed on it.

The black one was in the center, and a small vermilion one was at the top edge, installed in an empty socket.

No hesitation, he smashed his shield against the ground and activated his new ultimate ability.

"Heaven’s Breaker Arts: The Last Bulwark!"

The ground shook around the Larson Brothers and the rushing nightcrawlers from every direction. Just as they were merely ten meters away from them, a giant crystallized vermilion fortress emerged around Levi and Arthur!

It was shaped as an octagonal cage with crystallized vermilion walls reaching up to four meters, with a width of half a meter.

Besides the front gate being left wide open under Levi’s request, the rest of the fortress was sealed shut, the wall extending underground, too!

Thud! Thud! Thud!...

The nightcrawlers smashed against the crystallized walls and started clawing at them to no avail, leaving not a single scratch... Only pulses of fading light with each contact, making the fortress resemble a living entity.

As for the rest? Levi awaited them, standing menacingly at the front of the gate. He was holding the center of the staff, leaving the two chained crowns to dangle underneath him.

"Big bro, I leave you the rest."

Arthur leaned against the furthest wall from Levi, knowing that his job was done for now.

His ultimate ability ensured that they wouldn’t be surrounded, forcing the nightcrawlers to gather at the gate. If some dared to climb the walls, it was up to him to shield his brother from their ambush. Besides this, he had to stay away for his safety.

"Death Chime Field."

Levi murmured, tuning out all the surrounding noises, leaving only the ones near the crystallized fortress.

As the field of piercing frequencies was unleashed, it attacked the nightcrawlers’ functional systems, crippling them the instant they entered his field.

Levi relied on his harmonic spine to give him a detailed reading of the scene before him, watching as the nightcrawlers failed to block his Death Chime, getting crippled instantly.

With a cold smile, Levi tightened his grip around the staff’s center and uttered, "Echoforging: Twin Fang Style."

The dangling crowns were decorated with sound blades, each one vibrated intensely, creating a fast rhythm only he could hear.

Then, he moved.

The staff became a blur...twirling, dragging, slicing through the air with perfect control. Every motion triggered delayed arcs of condensed resonance, cleaving through monsters in silent flashes!

Their bodies collapsed in fractured heaps, shredded by invisible blades that struck them out of nowhere.

Yet, the rest of the nightcrawlers continued pushing through, wanting to reach the tree at all costs. Levi didn’t turn them back, waiting until they entered his field before slicing them apart, unbothered by the rain of nasty juices and blood tainting his face and clothes.

He just kept swinging the center of the staff back and forth rapidly, transforming the Judgement’s Chainstaff into a harvesting machine!

When the nightcrawlers’ bodies built up on top of each other, forming a mountain and threatening to drown Levi and Arthur, Vyra flew down to save the day.

She flapped her wings and released powerful gales, which threw the nightcrawlers’ sliced-up corpses, liquids, and fragments away from the entrance, clearing the area for more to come.

Twenty nightcrawlers...Fifty nightcrawlers...Sixty!

The numbers kept rising rapidly, alarming the two rushing golem elites, who couldn’t believe their eyes at the massacre before them.

’What the hell...Is this boy truly a Junior Daywalker?’

’Shit, this could turn bad for us.’

Chills coursed down their energy veins, realizing that Rhy’tha might have underestimated their targets immensely, as no normal junior could do this.

They traded a knowing, serious glance and changed their plan, digging into the ground at once, hiding their presence...They knew an ambush was the best viable option.

In a few moments at best, the two elites found themselves ten meters underneath the crystallized fortress... their spiritual sense picking up on Levi’s and Arthur’s faint auras, yet, they ignored them... their attention stolen by the vermilion walls buried underneath.

As golem-based species, they possessed the most knowledge about all types of rare gemstones, metals, rocks, and whatnot... Once they were this close to the vermilion walls, they couldn’t help but marvel at its beauty even when it was buried underground.

"Is that..."

Nul’veth paused, the thought too heavy even for his stone mind.

’Such smoothness, such beauty... Yet, tougher than steel... Only one crystal material possesses such qualities and color.’ Kre’thex replied, his tone a mixture of awe and solemnness.

’Orryn’s Gemheart... I can’t believe a junior Daywalker is wielding it... I thought species with Orryn’s bloodline had gone extinct?’

’This much Orryn’s Gemheart shouldn’t even exist in one place.’

They both stared in silence.

Legends whispered that the gemstone was part of the nine legendary Gemhearts... The rarest gemstones in the universe, with origin tied to the nine most powerful Golems in history... Known as the Ancient Nineborn.

It was believed that after the Ancient Nineborn had been erased by the brush of time, their crystallized hearts had been shattered and spread out across the realms.

Those shards had turned sentient and gave birth to the Nine Royal Gemheart families... Over time, most of those families had gone extinct, and only some golems or species with their faint ’coreline1’ had remained.

For generations, it was thought that golems from Orryn’s coreline had gone extinct...

’If we caught him alive and brought him to the Lord, we would be awarded immensely.’ This thought crossed their minds simultaneously.

They knew their lord was also a descendant of one of the Nineborn Royal Families...Vaelith’s coreline.

If they brought him Arthur, he might create a new evolutionary path with Orryn’s powers as well.

With this thought in mind, the two golems decided to kill Levi first... seeing that he was too occupied with the massacre to react in time.

They had no idea that the moment they entered Levi’s range, he saw them... every motion etched clearly in his mind.

Yet, Levi showed no reaction... He simply activated Thunder Chant and started building it while simultaneously killing the nightcrawlers.

He waited... until the elites made their move.

As Levi watched them tear through the underground, their arms shifting into sharp, crystalline spikes, he eased his swings and subtly bent his knees.

Then... He jumped.

Timed so perfectly, the two emerging golems could only watch him land on the wall, their sharpened arms failing to touch his clothes.

Alas... Levi gave no one the time to react, not even his little brother.

With two vibrating bladed crowns, Levi somersaulted in their direction, meeting them in mid-air... combining both abilities into a single technique.

Thunder Chant Force + Sound Blades Sharpness = A devastating sharp strike!

"Roaring Fangs!" He shouted coldly.

Each blade landed on a single stunned elite, their bodies sliced from the middle in a straight line...

’Huh?’

The two elites felt a sudden sharp coldness assault them from their energy cores... They felt it, their energy cores were cut.

Yet, they refused to believe it... they couldn’t, their bodies were made out of tough crystals, not as tough as Arthur’s vermilion gemstone, but still...

A Junior Daywalker shouldn’t be able to cut them apart... not like this, not this easy.

Sadly, their bodies were separated into two halves, landing in different locations... Cold, silent, returning to their origin.

A lifeless crystal.

Unbothered, Levi returned to his slaughter, the nightcrawlers managing to walk up a couple more meters near the gate. But that was the full extent of the two tier 3 nightcrawlers’ damage.

"..."

Arthur stared at this entire scene speechlessly.

He was keeping watch on the nightcrawlers attempting to climb the walls, just to find two humanoid golems sliced up and discarded akin to trash near the gate.

That’s when he knew... Levi was keeping guard of the entire fortress, his omnipotent auditory vision covering everything.

’Would I still be here if he didn’t need me to help him recharge his energy tank?’

He chuckled to himself, crossing his arms.

...

Meanwhile, Velmira, Nurah, Jojo, Demetris, and the rest were left stunned at the sight of tens of mangled corpses getting thrown into the skies by Vyra.

Levi and Arthur remained out of sight within the Vermilion Fortress, leaving everyone wondering how they were managing it.

Yet, deep down... they knew, Levi must be the one slaughtering them... How? They left it to their imagination.

Before they could dive deeper, their focus was stolen by Velmira’s shout, "Fire!"

Rhy’tha and his elites had finally gotten into their firing range.

No hesitation, everyone activated their Assault Totems, launching a barrage of searing sunlight in all shapes: Bombs, arrows, spears, blades, and even concentrated beams!

"Summon Light Devouring Abysmal Ghosts!"

Unfortunately, Rhy’tha and his elites were prepared...They pulled out Vile Totems in the shape of twisted ghostly figurines and then uttered their incantation.

The thrown-out figurines shattered at once, releasing an army of pitch-black ghostly entities heading to intercept the sunlight bombardment.

With a single touch, the arrows, lances, bombs, and whatnot were all devoured by the shadowy ghosts, their sizes shrinking with more light eaten...Until they faded at once.

"Damned Vile Totems."

Velmira cursed under her breath at the sight of her sunlight bombardment minimized to a controlled threat, allowing Rhy’tha’s elites to evade it easily.

She knew that Vile Totems were rarer than Solar Totems and didn’t expect Rhy’tha to have this many on him.

This made her understand that Rhy’tha was handed the necessary resources to make this ambush work at all costs.

"Toxin Tide!"

After dealing with the assault, Rhy’tha’s lips curled coldly and slammed his palms on the ground, releasing a massive tidal poisonous wave in his enemy’s direction!

The tidal wave was dark purple with an acidic stench and a sticky feeling to it... its nasty stench reaching Nurah and the others first, wrinkling their noses.

"Not on my watch."

Velmira neither told them to evade nor use protective measures against it. She dropped in front of the tidal wave and tapped on her mirror-like necklace.

The small mirror detached from the necklace and hovered in front of her, its size increasing rapidly until it was ten meters long and wide!

Then, she waved her finger from left to right, slicing up the mirror into two halves: top and bottom!

As the tidal poisonous wave was about to override the bottom mirror, she did nothing but utter, "Glassway Arts: Reflection."

The bottom mirror rippled once, and then it gorged on the dark purplish tide, disappearing inside without leaving a single crack on its smooth surface!

Before Rhy’tha and the others could react, the tidal wave reappeared, gushing with the same force from the top mirror...It headed toward the rushing Rhy’tha and his elites, shocking them straight.

"Block it!!" Rhy’tha shouted in dread while hiding behind his golem elites.

They stepped forth and formed a wall, unafraid of the poison...Their hard rock bodies were made out of stones or crystals.

One by one, they manifested thick walls to block the tidal wave, chaining them to cover a wide distance.

Splash!!

The tidal wave crashed into the walls, sending toxic, purplish water splashing in every direction and flooding the battlefield into a noxious swamp.

Undeterred, the elites launched their counterattack, driving their fists into the stone and crystalline barriers with relentless force.

Phew phew! Phew!...

The walls broke apart into a rain of projectiles...Still, Velmira had her squad’s back.

"Take cover behind me!"

She kicked the bottom mirror with the tip of her black heels, shattering it into hundreds of smaller fragments.

Then, she controlled them spiritually to fly around Rhy’tha and his elites while the top mirror was transformed into a circular flowery design.

The barrage of crystals and stones bombarded the entire battlefield, but once they touched the circular mirror, they were gone.

It was like the mirror could not be broken unless it was Velmira... In a sense, it was more complex than this.

Her signature weapon was a simple mirror connected to a dimension, where mirrors and perception rule the place...Her powers or Aspect were Mirrors/Glass.

She got to decide whether to activate the connection or not, which in turn shifted her mirror between a breakable or an invincible portal.

Velmira showed the best demonstration to Melissa and the rest, leaving them awed at the sight of the shattered mirror fragments blitzing Rhy’tha and his elites with their own projectiles from every possible direction...Their speed at least tripled!

"What is this f*cking Aspect?"

Rhy’tha cursed angrily as he shielded himself with a poisonous, thick liquid barrier.

He was forced to keep reinforcing the barrier to avoid having it pierced. His elites also took cover behind hand-held shields, knowing that their projectiles could break them too.

Velmira turned around and handed Nurah a small mirror fragment. Then, she requested with a solemn tone, "I will be going now...Protect the mirror, it’s my only way out here...Also, don’t worry about me and prioritize your survival."

Nurah nodded with a stern expression and watched as Velmira turned the circular mirror around and stepped inside, disappearing at once.

But none seemed worried as their dazed eyes were affixed on a newly created long mirror next to Rhy’tha...built from the fragments, which were hidden amidst the bombardment!!

Before Rhy’tha could act on his tingling senses, the mirror slid rapidly to the side, kidnapping him under the shocked eyes of his elites.

Then, it landed on the ground, shattering into sparkly dust, leaving the elites and Classroom C2 students to gaze at each other in still silence...

Suddenly, Nurah’s playful teasing voice resounded, "If you want your leader back, come get it."

The elites’ crystallized eyes turned cold at the sight of Nurah flipping a small mirror fragment in her hand, the only piece remaining on the entire battlefield.

Coreline = Bloodline.

It’s a term used to describe the ancestral tree of Golem species and races by them since they have no blood nor flesh.