The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

All around Convecia City, the fighting intensified. The combined forces of the Alchemist and Fabricator Guilds clashed against Aldric's forces. Many evacuated from the center of the battle, leaving behind everything.

The other forces visiting Convecia watched from the sidelines, not knowing whether they should interfere. Many wanderers also joined the battle, paid off by Helen and Hector's deep pockets to aid in fighting off Aldric's forces. The battle of Convecia City was still well underway, but the outcome would not be determined until the leaders above settled it.

"Are you alright, Hector?" Helen caught Hector's retreating body, the ice on her hands steaming against his roaring furnaces. Magma flowed out of his injuries instead of blood as he gripped the wound and melted the metal to seal it shut. Helen glared at Aldric, uninjured and only slightly melted on some surfaces like bubbles on water. "You'll pay for that, Aldric!"

"I thought the two of you were separated? Did this fight rekindle your lost love for each other, or perhaps the threat of death and the feeling of betrayal make you choose the easy way out." Aldric said without emotion. He raised his broadsword, the roaring of a lion trembling across its sharp edge. Several stakes of platinum white, around the size of grand pillars, formed around him and streaked across the wind, parting the snow and embers in their way.

Helen twirled around her staff, sending out white feathers as hard as icicles. These feathers touched some of the platinum stakes and froze them solid. As more and more touched the frozen pillars, they broke apart into chunks of ice.

Hector raised his hammer, the furnace on it roaring and growing to a great size. Like a hungering mouth of drooling flames, it swallowed the platinum stakes and melted them into flowing lava. Hector returned the melted metal to Aldric, filled to the brim with his Ein.

Before it could even reach Aldric, three golden metal lions, not having any manes, jumped out of his body and clashed against the hot lava. Helen took the chance and rammed several icicles into him, but more lions had come out, gripping and gnawing on the icicles before they could touch him. Some lions got caught by the hard feathers she sent out in between and quickly exited Aldric's body before shattering apart into icy fragments.

Aldric responded with a single slash, swiping his broadsword against the horizon. It struck not once but five times in succession, spreading out like a lion's claw. Helen and Hector defended together with a fiery barrier and a wall of thick ice, and they retreated as the claw strike destroyed their combined defenses.

"Your Meld and Integration are as formidable as always, Adric." Hector spewed out flames from his mouth as he spoke.

The Integration Stage of the anima relied on merging the anima into the user itself, awakening a new power. The Meld wasn't disregarded in this exchange; rather, the Integration complimented the Meld, working in tandem with each other. Using the Integration also utilized the Meld, hence why Aldric's sword still exhibited its Meld powers.

Aldric's golden figure imposed on them. Worried about Hector, she retreated, holding him up. Aldric's Meld allowed his sword strikes to attack like a claw attack. It sounded normal and not at all unique. She knew many swordsmen who accomplished similar feats through their Ein and training—the difference lay in ease of use. None could compete with the sheer amount Aldric could bring forth after a series of swings, while others had to exert great efforts to mimic it.

But the trickiest part was his Integration. A lion never hunted alone, always with its pack. Whether it was defense or close combat, lions sprouted from Aldric's integrated body and joined in, bearing the powers of his element of metal. The crux of his style was a standard offense and defense, elevated by his pack of lions.

"The two of you are disappointing. Or are you stalling?" Aldric asked, glancing around the sky for anyone. "How long will your reinforcements take to come?"

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Helen flew up into the sky and scattered feathers everywhere from her wings. Unlike the feathers from her staff, these features were soft and swayed in the air, surrounding Aldric. She vanished into the flurry of feathers, hidden from Aldric's sight, and reappeared like a mist behind him, lashing out. The feathers on her spear stabbed into the golden lions protecting Aldric and put them to an icy death.

Aldric slashed across, blocking her hard feathers, but the soft ones placed all over her wings gathered around and swayed along his blade and arms, slowing him down. Her Meld created hard feathers on her staff that froze anything it touched, and her Integration created soft feathers that enveloped a large field, giving her a space to move in obscurity and clump up on the enemy to slow them down. Not wanting to face retaliation, Helen unleashed an icy storm to slow him down further, sticking more hard feathers into his endless stream of lions.

Facing his unknown gaze, Helen frowned and pointed up. Aldric tilted his frozen, feather-covered neck up to see Hector diving straight down. Flames covered Hector like a blazing meteor as he heroically charged into Aldric. His Meld hammer ate several golden lions and platinum stakes, rendering them into lava, lava that fed into the furnaces around his body. As a result, his fires burned brighter and stronger. Aldric was overwhelmed by the flames and suffered a volcanic explosion shaking the city below.

"Not yet!" Helen willed all of her soft feathers, mixing in the hard feathers, to Aldric's feet. She poured her Ein to force a fearsome blizzard on Aldric's legs. From above, Hector showed his coordination by painting the sky red with flames, drawing in all the clouds into his furnaces. The flames swelled up into a great cataclysmic wave that burned Aldric from above.

The tundra below with flames above, two bipolar forces coming as one. Helen smiled briefly, recalling the good times she shared with Hector—the times when they fought as one. The clouds of ice and fire began to settle down, and from within, a figure emerged. Shaken to the core, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was impossible. Not even the combined efforts of her and Hector's powers brought Aldric down. His battered armor and sounds of heavy breathing were no consolation. He wasn't critically wounded anywhere, standing as stalwart as ever.

"Truly nostalgic. It's a shame that it wasn't enough." Aldric vanished, a mix of the strange invisible movements and Platinum Steps bringing him right before Helen.

His broadsword slashed through. Its edges became serrated, platinum white in color. It tore through Helen like a blade into the sand, four other streaks of cuts forming along her body at the same time. Aldric turned to Hector, who roared above and lifted his pommel toward him. The pommel hit a platinum stake that instantly flew up, piercing Hector's chest.

"How strange. Is this illusion both of your doing? I recall the illusion combination of your mirage flames and mirror ice stumped many opponents. But!" Aldric slashed everywhere, sent out golden lions, and barraged the place with several platinum spears, stakes, and more.

Helen cursed and formed a defense with Hector. They withstood the onslaught and retreated farther down. She shut her wounds, freezing them in ice, and held hands with Hector, facing the lofty Aldric above.

The fiery warmth from the scruff-bearded idiot's hand put her at ease. It was a long time since they were together like this. Helen gripped Hector's hand tighter and said, "Don't falter, you dunce."

"Are you going to lecture me now? Seriously?" Hector laughed through his wounds, his chest contracting strangely as black smoke puffed out of his furnaces. His helmet tilted up, the furnace flames burning within. "This strength is unnatural, Aldric….But you also seem to be tired."

Aldric breathed heavily. His golden armor was now cracked at the legs and charred at the top. His lion claw hands lifted the blade toward them. "Strength is strength. It doesn't matter how it was acquired. What matters is the results. Look at both of you. Even with your powers combined, you fail to bring me down."

"Is that so?" Hector and Helen said together. She raised her spear as Hector lifted his furnace hammer and hit them together. A strange reaction formed as a constant cycle of ice and fire froze and burned, waxing and waning from freezing ice to eviscerating flames.

'It really has been a while.' Helen smiled at the resulting combination, a purple fire that flaked and flickered, embers and snow spewing from its body. Aldric appeared alarmed and took a defensive stance. Turning to Hector, she nodded, and they unleashed their combined powers.

…….

Back in the prison, Avril rushed out, covered in blood, and punched down another door with Shattering Wave. She stared down the groups of Elite Exalts and a few Lower Knight Exalts in the strange lab room, anger filling her vision red at the sight of the people tied on tables.

"Where is my husband?!" Avril shouted, trees and roots growing around her.

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