The Exalt Cultivation Fantasy

Act 3: Empire's Stand - Chapter 579: The Earth's Rage

Orden had abandoned it all. He threw away his honor, something Oscar once respected. He sided with the New Dawn and became a tool, a puppet of their deranged experiments. But above all, he cast aside his humanity. Inside the deep chasm, the light illuminating a circle in the dark underground, Oscar stared at the former man standing under his shadow, the haunting monster that remained as Orden departed, presumably dead.

'Farewell, Oscar.' He finally understood what Orden meant. Surely, the human known as Orden no longer existed in the transformed monster. The brown, hostile gaze directed at him showed the singular drive remaining inside the monster, the purpose for which it existed: to kill Oscar. Flying to the surface, he created some distance away, but the ground rumbled under his feet, and Orden's large stone hand, clad in stone hammers, enlarged to match his size and clenched shut, almost catching him.

Orden's groan grew louder, and he burst out of the slate, retracting the arm, which had extended a hundred feet. It rested at his normal length. Strangely, cracks formed on its surface, but they recovered quickly. Fast regeneration, extension of limbs, and made entirely of an element. It matched Quinn's capabilities. Oscar leaped off Erden, nodding to both him and Demon as they split off in different directions, forming a triangle around Orden. The monster looked around, eyeing each of them before raising a large bellow, the earthen maw opening to fire spikes of earth, all containing Eirin and a fearsome seismic force.

'I can't see through the beast's eidolon. He truly has lost all of his humanity.' Oscar observed inside the distorted world of the Prinstyct. A dark shadow veiled Orden's figure, unmoving before his piercing gaze, forever shrouding its movements and Ein to Oscar. Transforming his antlers into flaming, sapphire shields, Erden blocked the powerful spikes and ran into a trampling charge. Oscar and Demon used the Line to form powerful shields of crystalized flames and joined the rush.

Oscar raised his hand, a golden cage encasing Orden, and Demon's crystalized chains of searing flames coiled around the behemoth, the links rattling as red, glowing burns hissed on the stone body. He could not allow Orden a moment to retaliate. Following Orden's burst of strength, the chains and cage crumbled into powder as the Integration granted Orden the multiplication factor on all parts of his being.

Erden came at the most opportune moment, bashing the antlers, transformed into shields, into Orden, knocking the monster back. Oscar lunged for the legs while Demon aimed for the head. Like a wheel, Orden spun around, and Erden smashed down onto him with his hooves, the ground recoiling him back up, letting Oscar and Demon cut in from below, normal, flaming Shattering Waves peeling away more and more of the stone.

'Where is the core?' Oscar scanned the rubble of Orden's body, trying to identify the core that controlled him. Quinn's weakness was the core inside his ashen body, which Avril stuck a solution. Destroying it would destroy Orden. However, the longer he searched, he found nothing, not even the three Reis cores, seemingly vanishing. Before Oscar could continue his relentless assault, Orden's pieces rotated like Kinetic Cores. They rammed themselves into him and the other two, the fifty-multiplied shockwaves and Eirin-empowered spells wracking pain throughout his bones.

Oscar skidded down the slate plains and coughed out dirt. Orden didn't have that much power when they clashed initially. Staring at the sheer Eirin overflowing from his foe, he realized it had increased significantly since the start of this battle. Was he growing stronger the longer they fought? Oscar spit out a mix of blood and dirt, stumbling on his feet. His horror grew at the sight of Orden's body reforming together and the hammer swinging his way. His shield raised high, crystalized flames coating the diamond sheen. Clad in Indestructible Gold, formed by the Line, his body was flung away, skipping along the ground like a rock on water.

Pieces by piece, skip by skip, the gold chipped off until he came to a stop, halted by Demon and Erden. He had diverted much of the power away by going along with the flow of the strike, but his body still cried out in agony from the immense pain striking every inch of his flesh and bone. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Oscar rose to his feet, blood dripping down from his head, and his vision blurred.

Orden roared again, pounding his hammer on the ground wildly. Spikes of earth protruded from the ground, the terrain quickly shifting into a land of spikes. The wave neared Oscar, and Demon and Erden destroyed many spikes, letting none touch Oscar. The Eirin surged again from Orden, more powerful than before. The monster was gaining more strength.

'What a beast. He's still a Greater Knight Exalt, but Quinn pales in comparison to him.' Oscar groaned, the pain still reverberating in him.

'He instantly recovered even from the attacks that melted him.' Erden lifted his hooves, a force dragging the fur down. 'The gravity around him is slowing us down.'

'The core isn't there, either. The only way to defeat him may be to destroy his body all at once. Leave not a scrap of him behind to reform.' Demon fired several Scarletgold Blades. Some stabbed into Orden, melting the areas into bubbling molten lava that flowed down the earthen body, but they were choked out by devouring earth and became pieces of obsidian that shattered apart.

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Oscar had an idea, and the others received his thoughts instantly. He said to them in their mental connection, 'Buy me all the time you can get.' Demon and Erden set out, coordinating their movements. They flowed like streams of water, gracefully avoiding Orden's strikes. Whenever one would be struck, they were saved by the other, and in attacks, they interchanged their blows, focused on staggering and tripping Orden. Oscar focused an immense amount of Eirin into his hands, forming an orb.

'Counter Impact.' He approached Orden and spread the space that rendered all Reis null. The Eirin expelling from Orden's strikes continually dissipated and was absorbed into the zone of Counter Impact. The heavy blows became slightly lighter, the gravity pressuring them lightened up, and the Eirin-empowered spells devolved to ordinary levels. Though the Reis was cut off to Oscar, Demon, and Erden, and Orden still had his Integration powers, they could buy all the needed time. Orden, a mindless monster, kept fueling the Eirin without a thought.

The Eirin collected nicely in great droves. Oscar pulled back, focusing on reining the Eirin from imploding his zone. Too much, and he might suffer the backlash. Orden roared, and the Eirin stopped flowing, a shocking action that unnerved Oscar. The cursed monster still held some instincts despite its apparently immortal body and mindless carnage, somehow understanding not to use Eirin anymore. No matter. Oscar didn't fret since he had collected enough.

"Now!" Oscar shouted. Demon and Erden used spell after spell, bombarding Orden while chains of flames and cages of gold kept forming to halt him in place. Oscar jumped up, reaching above Orden. All of the Eirin from the zone condensed into his palm, loud screeching of tumultuous power striking his ears, and he winced once from the power threatening to break his bones, a crack splitting off one of the plating on his artificial arm. He unleashed the Counter Impact, and Orden vanished instantly, only a deep crater, hundreds of feet wide, remaining, a bottomless hole gaping in the center.

Was it over? Oscar fell on the edge of the crater. Demon and Erden came to his side. They stared intently at the deep hole, unable to see Orden.

…….

"Oh, what a specimen he was!" Faust wiped his glasses and put them on. He reviewed the notes from the experiment that took eight years to complete. A warm smile curled from his lips as he gazed fondly at the results in the paper. "His natural physique was a wonder to behold. The blood provided several answers to my questions, but as a deal, I let him go to complete his revenge against Oscar."

"If Sirsi hears about your actions, she will be enraged. Be careful not to trip on yourself." Aiden stated indifferently from the side.

"Then that's Oscar's fate. An immortal body of earth, evergrowing Vis(Eirin), that Integration, and the sheer adaptability engraved in his fighting spirit. Oscar has no chance. And the time limit will not be his friend. He will die before Orden reaches his limits." Faust smiled. "I wish I could observe what's going on in there. I should have placed a recording spell on him. It's a shame they become uncontrollable and die out soon after. They would be the perfect soldiers if done right."

…….

It was too much to hope for. Eirin shook the world itself, and Oscar stood up, heightening his senses to feel for Orden's approach. He flew above and avoided another ambush from below. It was a large boulder, spinning to a blur and emanating Eirin. Several more erupted from the slate, and some more, and even more, until they dotted a large area of the sky. Like meteors, they fell with tremendous speed, aimed at Oscar and the others.

He created several Scarletgold Maws, two on his arms and two on Demon's. They chomped down and crunched on the meteors, leaking drools of lava that turned a portion of the slate ground into a molten lake. Erden enlarged to a hundred feet long and stomped on the meteors, kicking them away as they crumbled apart. His hooves cracked, and the sapphire armor on his legs shattered apart. Oscar gritted his teeth and punched the last few meteors since his spells could not handle them anymore.

Another roar greeted them. Orden appeared between them, transformed even more. Three stone faces rested on his head, each one looking in a different direction, covering all angles. Three pairs of arms extended from its body, matching the direction of the face it correlated with. Each pair of arms gripped a mighty hammer, one being Orden's armament, while the other two were created from stone. They swung, the gravity dragging Oscar and the others down, and bashed into them.

Shaken by the ringing in his head, the seismic shockwaves carrying deadly pulses of gravity pushing against his strength, Oscar grunted and shouted, driving his feet into the dirt. He could not withstand the might of Orden's strike, nor could the other two, as they flew uncontrollably in separate directions. The monster beat its hammers on the ground and roared triumphantly.

'Everyone. Are you still there?' One of his blue antlers cracked and shattered apart. Blood rushed up his throat and poured onto the ground, muddying the dirt. Oscar heaved and gasped for air, clenching his ribs and forcing the fractures back into place, a groan of pain escaping his lips. Orden's power was too much for him to handle, and he knew there was no escaping him as his Guise would certainly run out first.

'I'm still alive. One of my wings is broken.' Erden replied.

'The Duality body is stronger thanks to the use of the Line, but I'm near my limits.' Demon coughed, his voice still indifferent despite the daunting predicament.

'How can we beat him?' Oscar closed his eyes, seeing Orden approach.

'Child. Your flames have grown stronger, strong enough for some of your fires to burn past his defenses, but it's not enough.' Ignyres spoke from within. Unlike before, he sounded quite calm and clear, contrary to the wild nature he exhibited normally. 'There is one option that remains.'

'Which is?' Oscar asked.

'I will share my primordial flame with you. It is the essence of fire. Use it to defeat the beast.'