The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

His Black Aegis Order stood behind him. Fred and Emily fought by his side. Oscar spearheaded the charge into the enemy, mounting Erden and trampling them under gold and fire. Compared to his Black Aegis Order, the enemy was scattered and stumbling around, not a semblance of organization in their movements. Raising his shield, Oscar released a warcry and rammed his armament into a Knight Exalt, squashing them into a pulp with Shattering Wave.

Up above, through the open ceiling, he could see Charles and the other Marshal Exalts engaging the enemy, violent and devastating Ein quaking the sky and thundering onto the ground, several walls exploding apart. It was getting too dangerous to stay here. Riding around the falling rubble, Erden enlarged his hooves and battered the door down, and Oscar entered a wide hallway, in which, on the other end, a group of Exalts waited. Lined side-by-side, this orderly group of twenty Exalts shouted and stomped into their stances, an impressive formation. Spells of all types surged up into the tall ceiling and arched down in a horrific rain of elements.

"Shieldwall!" Oscar shouted, entering Pseudoguise. In the Meld form, Erden fused his antlers and transformed them into a giant blue shield, scarlet red fire blazing on its smooth surface. Everyone else erected their defenses, layering on Erden's shield with walls of wind, earth, water, and more, and the barrage of enemy spells battered on it. Despite the heavy assault, their defenses held strong, and Oscar marched them down the halls, one step at a time, slowly pushing their shield wall closer.

"Break!" At his command, everyone shifted their defensive spells onto Oscar and Erden, revealing the enemy to be only a third of the prior distance away. Oscar fused Golden Drills into Erden's antlers and wings to form the singular blade that fell Orden. Gold coated his skin and spread to Erden, but his friend stomped heavily and leaped from the floor as the gold completely enveloped him. Like a golden javelin, the two soared straight through the hallway.

Lightning crackled along his golden skin, earth stabbed into Erden from below and broke into dust, flames failed to scorch him, water burst apart, darkness could not contain them and was ripped into shreds, and light bounced off their radiant gold figures.

The enemy responded, putting up their defenses, yet none retreated, true to their duty as guards and soldiers. It wasn't enough to stop him. With Eirin Omnireus, his golden strike, all concentrated on the blade of his and Erden's fusion, blew a hole into their walls and carried on until he rammed into the end of the hallway, a series of bricks and ice tumbling and clattering onto the cold floor. His blade skewered several Exalts, screams of agony or the silence of death rising from their bloodied figures. But soon, all fell silent as the rocks hammered onto their softened heads.

Breaking from his golden shell and the wreckage, Oscar leaped off Erden, targeting the two separated groups. Erden enlarged and rushed headstrong into one group, and Oscar went toward the other. His feet flickered around, guided by the invisible Reis steps, and zipped around the confused enemy. Switching with Demon provided an extra layer of confusion to his movements. But while his enemies certainly had no idea of how he was moving, everything of theirs revealed itself so easily in the sight of his Prinstyct. He could spot each of their future movements and countered.

As his Black Aegis Order attacked from the front, he and Erden started a massacre from the back. He broke apart their bones and flesh, squashed one between the wall and his shield, and showered in their spurting blood, his bright blue uniform drenched in red. His carnage continued until, finally, his allies appeared before him. Halting his fist, he glanced around at the bodies resting on pools of blood and relaxed, unclenching his hands and letting his arms limp down.

"Everyone accounted for?" Oscar wiped his bloody hands on his coat, but it only got more blood on his hands since the coat and uniform were drenched in it. "Not a single one of them had a Meld."

"Five Marshal Exalts, yet not a single competent Knight Exalt to back them up. I feel something's wrong here." Fred also shared Oscar's suspicion and released his hawk anima to scout further ahead. He scrunched his brow, irritation wincing his wrinkles. "The entire place is like a maze. It'll be tough to find the core, and we can't rely on Charles and the rest to hang on forever."

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Oscar agreed and wasted no time, rallying everyone to delve deeper into the palace. As Fred mentioned, the entire interior of the palace was like a maze. Stairs that appeared to go down somewhere led upward, staring down at where they previously were. Sometimes, they ran afoul of small groups of enemy Exalts, all easily defeated by his and Erden's initial rush.

'Oscar, stop.' Erden communicated internally and started to sniff around. Oscar halted and raised his hand for the others to stay still. Even with his senses enhanced by the Blood Transmutation, his senses paled in comparison to a true Mythical Beast. Erden snapped his head down one of the hallways in this intersection. 'It's faint, but I smell something rotting, not the ones we killed.'

"This way!" Oscar believed in Erden's instincts and senses and led everyone down until they reached a set of steel doors covered in ice, the sturdiest out of all the doors he had passed through so far. Something had to be behind it. He was sure of it. Oscar dashed ahead and bashed the doors with an Eirin Shattering Wave.

The frost-covered doors could not withstand their combined strength and shattered apart like ice. Inside the room, full of crystalline ice along the walls and countless icicles hanging from the ceiling, was not what Oscar expected. Several people were bound in icy-blue chains that pierced into their wrists and ankles, their blood long since frozen black. Their condition wasn't good. The thick beast pelts around them failed to hide their stick-like figures. They reacted to Oscar's arrival, chains rattling on the bricks of ice, dark sunken eyes widening with a spark of excitement on their bony faces.

"Who are you?" Oscar asked. These men had to have been starved and kept here for a long time to have this appearance.

One of the malnourished men let out a raspy groan, rose to his feet, and took a step closer, standing as tall as Oscar. His slightly curly, gray hair ran past his shoulders down to the same length as his full-grown long, gray beard. Thanks to the ice echoing his whispers, Oscar could hear him say, "I am Brigg Snowfen, proud warrior of the Frostwind Clan. Are you with them?"

"Them?" Oscar gestured for some men to watch the doors for any attackers.

"The ones in black. The outsiders. They must die." Brigg growled, clenching his yellow teeth.

"No. We are not with them. Rather, they are our enemies as well." Oscar pointed to his blue uniform. He drew closer to Brigg, careful to maintain some distance in case of an unexpected attack. Brigg's bloodshot glare dug into him, studying him. "They have done something here that is affecting our world outside. It's a huge core. Do you know where it is?"

Brigg mumbled silently to himself, no words, only his lips moving. He was certainly in mental distress from the unknown number of years imprisoned here. "Yes. That accursed thing! Imprisoned here because of it. We know where it lies. Free us. Free us, and we will help."

"Is anyone chasing after us?" Oscar turned to Fred, who had his hawk anima searching around the area. Seeing Fred shake his head, he turned back to Brigg and offered a deal, "I can't trust you yet. Tell me why you are chained up here. Who exactly are you people?"

Brigg puffed his scrawny chest, a proud look across his face. "We are Frostwind given a divine purpose to live in this realm. For countless years, Frostwind lived in our small realm. Purpose drives us. For countless years, we lived in peace. But outsiders arrived and sought to corrupt our purpose."

"You lived in this realm for years? The weather isn't favorable, so why stay?" Oscar asked, raising an eyebrow, confused at what drove them to stay here with the zealousness shown in Brigg's fervent gaze.

"To wait. Until the one arrives, that is our purpose. Outsiders offered Frostwind a journey to the world outside. That betrays the purpose. Some Frostwinds joined them. Traitors!" Brigg shouted, yanking on his chains and spurting out fresh blood from his wrists and ankles. "They defied the Frostwind creed and joined the outsiders. We, here, still believe and fight for our history. But we lost and now are imprisoned. Let us go. We must right our wrongs. We must cleanse the realm."

"And the core?" Oscar rushed to the main goal. Brigg's strange, rough way of speaking started to irritate him.

"I can lead you there. Outsiders built it in our home. No one knows this place better than Frostwind." Brigg smiled widely.

"Are we sure these fellows are trustworthy?" Alec, the ever-skeptic, asked.

Oscar shrugged, but he swiped his hand over Brigg, breaking the chains. "Right now, they're our only way through this palace."

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