The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Ignyres crackled out laughter, swatting away several guards, their spells burning into ashes like dry weeds, a few embers catching fire on their clothes, but their bodies unharmed. The Ancient of Fire seemed quite pleased as the endless cackling rang in Demon's head, a single swipe of his hand creating a molten divide in the wall. Lava poured into a slow, fiery river that seeped into Ignyres's feet, his figure swelling to greater sizes. His blazing form rampaged around the open atrium, setting the entire place on fire. 'It's been so long since I've fought. Puny whelps, forgive me…or not! Hahaha!'

In his Duality body, Demon sidestepped several flanking guards, their fearlessness despite knowing his strength was the pinnacle of lunacy. Their lives meant nothing to him. The surrounding flames reflected bright light off the platinum sheen of his upgraded Platinum Impaler. Plunging the spell into a guard, he eviscerated the innards, guts dangling from his impaler and dripping blood that sizzled on the heated floor. A wild shout thundered from the side, and Demon turned and impaled a man with a twisted, crying face. Two bodies now hung from his impaler before he tossed them aside. The flames consumed their flesh, its crackling matching the cries of the onlookers around him.

'What are you doing?' Ignyres asked, but he ignored it.

Staring at his armored hand, soaked in scarlet blood, Demon watched the involuntary twitching in his fingers. They jerked and trembled erratically. Was it Oscar? Clenching the quivering hand into a hardened fist, Demon charged toward several attendants and guests, starting his massacre. Their screams fell silent, never reaching him but perhaps reaching Oscar. As the trembling intensified, his fist wildly shaking while crushing another guard's head into a pulping splotch on the wall, Demon looked at the bodies sprawled around him.

Ignyres's flames, not powerful enough to kill them, were enough to contain the various stronger Marshal Exalts. He prevented the stronger foes from reaching Demon by containing them in a maze of fire, their efforts reduced to a sizzling puff of smoke on the flaming walls. Demon killed off several more guards and guests, rejecting their pleas for mercy and peace, adding them to the burning pile.

'Look, Oscar. Wake up.' He stomped on the head of another, the unsettling sound of a skull being crushed underfoot inducing several more cries from the frightened gallery. They couldn't move away as their legs failed them at this crucial moment, tears running down while some hugged each other. A mother apologized profusely for taking her son here, and a father stood on trembling legs to protect his family, unwilling to let him through. Raising his hand, Demon scoffed at their last moments. 'Wake up, Oscar. Stop me. Why are you not answering? Stop me, you idiot. Or else they'll die.'

No response came. Useless. Before his hand could swing down like an executioner's blade, Demon felt the air run colder, a frost forming on his robes. Feathers of snow floated down from above, slightly quelling the flames and allowing the others to unleash their attacks on Ignyres. Putting up a platinum shield, he backed away before a powerful slash sliced it apart, his real body bolting in between, wielding the white sword. Erden, controlling the real body, mimicked his swordsmanship and brought his sword straight down.

Dodging, Demon concentrated and intended to swap with Erden, but strangely, he still gazed upon his real body hacking away at him, forcing him to retreat. His moment of confusion cost him. A flaming punch landed on his chest, driving him into the wall with a loud boom, cracks spreading until it collapsed, burying him in the rubble. Freeing himself from the pile of marble and steel, he locked gazes with Erden in his body, a great fire blazing as the armored figure walked, leaving a burning trail of footprints.

'What is it?' Demon asked, sighing since he already knew the answer.

'You've gone too far. This senseless massacre won't help anyone.' Erden growled, raising his sword. Clearly, the beast had been training to use a human body, perhaps preparing for the human form used by King Exalt Beasts.

'The hate will go onto me, and no one will know we were behind it. The target of their revenge and hate will go onto another. It's not senseless.' Demon brushed the dust and pebbles off his shoulder, matching Erden's pace as they neared each other. 'Why can't I retake my body? You have no authority.'

'But he does.' Erden said.

'Impossible. He doesn't stir.' Demon rechecked Oscar's condition. The same lifeless soul greeted him, eyes still blank and dull.

'It must be instinct. The soul might have gone beyond our reach, but the instincts and beliefs that formed it will never perish, never fade. Oscar is not awake, but his will still reaches us.' Erden stopped, a foot separating them.

'Is that so? Then, if I kill everyone else, will he finally wake up and cast me out?' Two silent warriors met in the center of the scorched floor, everyone scurrying away from the two tall figures. A few glanced back and cheered for Erden to win, annoying gnats buzzing around. Clenching his fists, Demon said, "Stop me."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"I intend to," Erden replied in his voice. Metal screeched against the roaring fire, the impaler sparked against the sharp blade, and the floor caved in as the pillars tumbled down in burning pieces.

…….

A few minutes before, Avila peeked her head out of the door, leaving behind a drunken man tied up and tossed onto a corner of the room, his eyes rolling around deliriously. She had fed him a numbing elixir that halted his Ein for an hour. What a disgusting pig. That was her thought as she exited the room and carefully closed the door while glancing around for patrols. Checking the key in her hand, she no longer pretended to be drunk and strode gracefully like a noble to her destination.

An attendant blinked and fluttered her eyelashes several times, giving her a set of instructions, and Avila turned left, frowning at the guards flanking the doors. Was she too early? Right before she could glance at the clock above, the guards fell limply to the carpet, a new figure standing between them. He wore a fine black suit and an eyemask that revealed a pair of fake gold eyes matching her real ones. He had his black hair slicked back and sipped from a glass.

"Fine wine, my dear Avila." The man gave a charming smile that would have enamored many. His voice sounded gentle and deep, a magnetic tone that drew others in. He was a natural charmer.

"Don't play with the timing, Serit. They were supposed to be down before they saw me." Avila ignored Serit's gentle gaze and studied the door. According to the plans, the door contained several latches hidden behind various formations that needed to be cracked. First, she placed the key in the keyhole and turned slowly, the metal gears within grinding and rumbling. Runes and circles shone on the surface, and Serit quickly placed a mold of a fingerprint onto the center circle, letters circling it.

"You have the Ein signature, right?" Avila sweated as she dragged five runes together to form a single larger rune, the lines forming a groove in the metal door that sank inside and flipped to reveal a blank slate with a sigil of a blooming flame.

"Come now, my dear. You underestimate me." Serit unfolded a piece of paper, an Ein burning on a stamp of the same blooming flame sigil. He brought it to the sigil on the door, and the Ein surged, flowing to all corners of the door, a charming grin facing her to which she scoffed and waved him off.

"How many women have you seduced to get close to obtain it?" Avila opened the door and revealed an empty room, large and wide as a town. She took out a pouch and scattered a powder around the room, revealing walls of invisible Ein that formed a complicated maze, the entrance and exit known only to the higher-ups.

"My darling. You stab my heart with your words. I only have you in it. I promise nothing happened. Though, I am worried about the man you brought into the room." Serit hugged her from behind, whispering gently into her ear, and her face went hot, flushing red. Avila knocked her head back, staggering him from the blow to his nose, and cupped his cheeks before pecking him on the lips. Why, out of all the people, did she fall in love with this lovable idiot? She retreated from his second attempt to embrace her and smiled gently.

"Hurry up. We have little time." Avila steeled herself and entered the maze, followed by Serit, who hummed softly, the same lullaby he always brought up in her darkest days when she left her dead mother and wandered endlessly to find her sister. 'Avril…' The elder had warned her not to believe everything the stranger told her, but it was the first news she had in a long while of her little sister. Avila felt her heart warm up when she remembered the small child who clung to her along the village streets. It couldn't be dismissed. The man's emotions were surprisingly invisible, but she believed the words.

"Serit. Can you investigate the man, and if you find my sister…can you tell me first without telling the elder?" Avila turned several corners, the maze contents memorized in her mind.

"I can. But that man was unsettling to be near. Even with my dagger near his heart, I didn't hear a single beat out of step." Serit held her hand. "I know you're excited, but we can't be careless around him. But why don't you want the elder to know?"

"If the man's words are true, my sister is happy and married with a loving husband. I can agree with the man on keeping her out of danger. I don't have to meet her. It's enough for me to know she is alive and to watch her from afar. I have to fight for her peace." Avila suddenly felt arms wrap around her in a loving embrace. Her anger flared up, and she pinched an arm. "Miscreant!"

"Ok! Ok! I couldn't help it." Serit smirked and ran forward. They exited the maze and arrived at last at the vault doors. Tracing her hands over the obstruction, she scoffed. Behind this door were the goods that would have been taken out for the auction.

…….

'Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.' Restel apologized over and over again to the woman named Avila. She didn't want to be here, but Lord Draven had given her this task, and she couldn't disappoint him. From the shadow, she saw Avila unlock the vault, easily opened by forceful pull. Inside the vault rested a neatly organized pile of boxes, each one tagged and marked. Her chance was here!

'Sorry!' Restel wriggled slightly, the shadow squirming, and tossed out several vials of elixirs that shattered upon dropping. Avila and Serit yelped out in shock, eyes wide before a clingy smoke and fog erupted in the vault. Moving at this moment, Restel expanded her shadowy body and engulfed the treasures that sank into the darkness.

"Who is it?!" As the smoke cleared, Serit and Avila shouted to the empty vault. Restel clammed her mouth shut in the shadow, fearing the piercing eyes of the woman the boss mentioned had a special Prinstyct that could expose her. Thankfully, she never stared directly down, or it would have been worse. Avila stomped her foot, cracking the floor, and shouted more akin to a roar, "BASTARD!"

'Sorry! I'm sorry! Where's Kragg? I'm scared!' Restel wriggled deeper into Avila's shadow and huddled, begging Kragg to come.

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