Chapter 638: Anrosh |
The Difference Between Us
Anrosh’s Bearer of Chilling Sorrow was unlike Ryun’s Scorn; it could not change its Essence, couldn’t manifest into any shape he desired or replicate her body. It was completely different. From what Ryun had told her, Scorn possessed a completely separate Cultivation system, both the core and conduits that Ryun could use independently of his own.
Chilling Sorrow when used covered her body in a thin sheet of flowing Metal; on its own, it provided a significant boost to her endurance, nearly doubling it. But all of that was secondary to its primary function; it served as a focus, allowing her to channel all her powers through it and increase their potency by a significant margin.
Looking at the enemy arrayed against her, she pushed all her doubts and fears away, accepting reality. She had to fight a small army, hundreds of flying craft capable of decimating cities, along with their more mobile and powerful Mechanical Armor Platforms.
As the enemy’s frozen missile barrage fell and shattered into pieces on the ground, Anrosh pushed her Unraveling Existence perk through Chilling Sorrow.
The enemy fired missiles again, though far less than the first time. They entered her area of cold and continued going, telling her that these ones were different. Probably intended for use in harsher environments. She raised her shield as they hit. Explosions blossomed all around her, but the moment they did, the cold around her sapped the heat and smothered them. The concussive blasts carried but her armor and Chilling Sorrow made it easy for her to ignore. And about one in ten of the missiles simply smashed into the ground without even detonating, thanks to entering the range of her Unraveling Existence.
The moment the attack was over she moved. She leapt forward, using {Glacial Shaping} to create footing in the air. Quickly she reached one of their single-person flying crafts, about the size of a large carriage, and it attempted to move out of her way but failed to move fast enough. She landed on top of it, dismissed her sword and shield, then punched one arm down into the hull and grabbed on just as its engines flared and it went down into a spin trying to throw her off.
She laid the palm of her other hand on top of the hull and used Frost Reinforcement on it. A sheen of Frost immediately spread over the entire craft. Her aura expanded further, catching more of the enemy craft in its range, frost gathering in every place it could, dropping the temperature of their machines. Pieces of it were made to weather extreme conditions, but everything had a limit. The air itself was freezing, irregular and fragile shapes like ice sculptures formed in the sky as moisture in the air was frozen solid.
She twisted into a handstand on top of the craft, then shaped Qi around her legs freezing a part of the Air and Space itself. Both she and the craft lurched as she suddenly stopped in mid-air. Laser fire pelted her, even hitting their own, but Chilling Sorrow and her armor kept her safe.
It crashed into one and Anrosh triggered Grand Frost Burst. A sound like that of shattering glass echoed across the entire territory. Every Essence that was touched by her Qi, by her power, anything that had low temperature suddenly shattered. Detonating into a cacophony of sound and force. The craft she threw fractured into a thousand pieces flying in all directions. The craft next to it were eviscerated, outright destroyed. Other crafts that had some parts of them frozen suffered anything from surface to critical level damage.
Anrosh freed her legs then fell and shaped another platform beneath her. As the enemy around her died, more of them came at her from beyond her range. Lasers and missiles came and failed to damage her, the last group of enemy attack craft followed by a larger shuttle came in fast, firing everything at her on a collision course that would see them trade their lives for a foolish hope of taking her down with them.
She pointed her arm in their direction and used Absolute Cold Blast. All the heat in the area they occupied was removed; the craft died in an instant. Their momentum carried them forward, but a simple application of her will on the Essence that was now under her command was enough to send them off course and crashing to the ground.
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Two mechs suddenly teleported next to her, one already in the process of swinging one of its four arms at her head. Its hand was a sword with an edge that glowed white. Her threat sense told her of the danger and she reacted immediately. Deny went out of her hand, dispelling all the enemy’s mech’s power.
She summoned her shield and took the enemy’s now powerless blow on it. The mech’s power fizzled out, having it move only based on its momentum, she summoned then sliced it apart with her sword before quickly turning and avoiding the attack from the second one behind her. She shaped new footing then leapt forward at the overextended mech. She smashed against it, stabbing Kagehime deep into its cockpit, but missed the pilot, still with the outer hull pierced she sent a blast of her pure Qi through her sword, not bothering with a technique at all.
She pushed herself off and back flipped in the air as the enemy inside froze to death and died. Another teleport next to her made her raise her shield, but this time it wasn’t mechs. Two bombs arrived and detonated. The explosions turned the world white. She was thrown out of the air and toward the ground.
As soon as she crashed against the ground, a new teleport above her deposited something that sent her threat sense haywire, but another thing blazed inside her mind too. Absolute Calm expanded out of her, hitting the bomb. With all of her will and power she focused, channeling it all through Chilling Sorrow.
In an instant she was frozen, as was everything else around her. The world came to a stop. The small Reaction Engine stopped in a moment before it activated. Now she reached for her other Qi, the one she gained from Ryun.
She pushed End Qi through Chilling Sorrow and her Aura. It spread out of her frozen form, and everything around her started to End. The ground withered and turned to dust, leaving her floating in a crater. The Air itself thinned and vanished; Light and Sound died. And the enemy bomb collapsed and turned to ash. More attacks were coming at her but now all of them Ended before reaching her.
Now she was in a bit of a predicament. Nothing could reach her, but neither could she move. She grimaced, then let her Absolute Calm go, and instead used her Evolved Form.
A moment later, a giant wolf stood in her place. Instead of her usual red fur streaked with white, she was still fully covered by Chilling Sorrow. She leapt forward through the air, heading toward the remaining enemy. She used Wolves of the End, summoning two spectral wolves that ran through the air with her. She covered the distance in a short time, all the while tanking the enemy attacks. Her armor, adapted to cover her body, was damaged from the explosions and the constant attacks from multiple angles. It wouldn’t last much longer. She used Enduring Chill to increase her endurance and survive. As soon as she was close enough to the enemy, she triggered her Domain.
Fragment of the Last Forest came into being, and all the enemy mechs and the handful remaining craft were suddenly on the ground, in a forest filled with bare trees and an endlessly dark sky.
Three wolves ran and hunted.
She stalked a mech that was standing among the trees, probably confused—she didn’t know what this place would do to their sensors, and she didn’t wait to find out. She leapt and her jaws closed on top of it, crushing it between them.
She heard fire and explosions all around her as her two spectral wolves did the same. She leapt from tree to tree, claws ripping and jaws tearing, destroying everything in her way. Until there was only one left. It stood with a tree on its back, all four arms raised and scanning the darkness that surrounded it. The mech was different from the others, and she immediately recognized it as that of the Herald of the Machine. The great leader of the Exalted Empire, now alone surrounded by his dead people.
Anrosh felt the threads of Authority of the End, Ryun’s authority, his will. She could feel it in her bones, this was the Herald of the Machine’s End. She walked out of the treeline and into his vision. He attacked immediately, a barrage of attacks that could level mountains. Her armor was peeled away and destroyed in seconds, but the Chilling Sorrow and her own body endured.
She only walked. His attacks slowed, then tapered off, and she stopped just a step away from the mech. She looked down at the machine that was the pinnacle of destructive power. And felt no awe or fear.
Her vibration sense skill caught him speaking inside of his mech, not transmitting through the speakers for all to hear, but she heard him anyway.
“Was this what you needed from me?” He said.
She didn’t know what he meant or who he was talking to; it didn’t matter anymore. She pulled the Chilling Sorrow back and triggered the active part of the Herald of the End perk.
Her red fur turned black, and her form grew in size. She felt closer to the End and the forest around her. She felt the Essence of the End come fully under her authority, as close to her as any part of her body. She had only to think and it would do as she wished.
Through her eyes she now saw a life reaching its End.
In that moment she realized what Ryun had been trying to tell her. She had advanced in step with him; she had tied herself to his greatness and in turn became great herself. But she hadn’t truly understood until now.
“This is the difference between us,” she said to herself, looking down at the silent mech, finally understanding.
There was no response from the defeated man inside. With barely an effort of will she gathered the Essence of the End, and just like that, it was over.