Chapter 846 846 - Why wouldn't I?
The confessor halted in her steps after immediately recognising what was happening. "Impossible!" she cursed, shocked, face twisted in fury. "How?!" she roared.
A hundred meters in front of her, a curved sigil barrier was rising rapidly. One turn of her body told her she was inside a quickly forming sigil dome with a radius of about one football field (100m), encompassing herself and several thousand first- and second-ranked Arcanists near her.
Despite her shock, she didn't wait to act. Roaring, she jumped back into a sprint towards the edge. Using her sprint to gather speed, she soon flexed her legs and jumped into the air like a cannonball. With a furious cry, she balled herself up and gripped her two hookswords.
Icy-crimson light flashed, and her sword began glowing in that same, harsh red light. As her body tumbled through the air, the edges of her twin swords would align with the ground once per turn. Whenever they did, they'd release a crimson crescent moon blade, propelling her forward and slicing apart what unfortunate Arcanists were panicking directly beneath her.
Yet, cruelty aside, her tactic was working. As the dome continued to form from the ground up, she was heading straight for a high point that wasn't covered yet, and it was looking like she'd make it before it would be.
Unfortunately for her, it wouldn't be that easy to get out of this.
"Not so fast," an amused, deep voice suddenly resounded.
Next, a howling and laughing, black and white form jumped from a golden disc and surged straight at the rising confessor.
"Wha—" is all she could utter before they collided and crashed back down to earth together.
Boom
A massive cloud of earth, ash, and plant remains surged into the air when the confessor slammed into the ground, killing several more of her own Arcanists. Meanwhile, the other form landed more gracefully by skidding on its armoured, hock-kneed legs. Several weak Arcanist bodies simply exploded along their path.
Naturally, after the dust settled, the second form turned out to be a transformed, armoured Erik. A hundred meters across, the confessor was on her feet as well, looking none the worse for wear.
She gripped her swords tightly, and her face was twisted in fury, yet she remained surprisingly calm. Her long black hair magically arranged itself into a long braid interwoven with crimson threads of aetherium.
Around them, the surviving Arcanists trapped with them inside this dome quickly scrambled to get as far away from them as possible. They were well aware that they could do nothing to Erik, and that neither of these third rankers cared if they lived or died. Most clung closely to the barrier and even tried breaking it to no avail.
The confessor slowly looked around at the dome with a scowl on her face. Erik got the idea she was more surprised by the appearance of this dome than his.
"I guess you made it here after all…" she scoffed disdainfully, before swivelling her gaze in his direction specifically. "The Primarch estimated the chance for some kind of teleportation method at forty per cent. Looks like you beat the odds, very impressive for an upright beast."
Unbothered by her insults, Erik smirked and shrugged. "I live to impress, you know? Though I'm actually surprised Imogene decided to send you here on a 40-60 chance. Are you the disposable one among your peers?"
The confessor narrowed her eyes as her rage rose to another level. Yet, not for the reason Erik first assumed. "You dare take utter their name from your unworthy lips?!" she roared, fanaticism seeping into her voice. Her fingers clenched around the hilts of her twin hook swords, but she didn't step forward.
Erik looked at her curiously. Truthfully, he was surprised by her restraint. Neither Gabriel nor Lilith showed such restraint. Perhaps the palanquin confessor would have, but their meeting was too short to be sure—though he did seem the type to have none.
"Why wouldn't I?" he smirked, before spitting on the ashy ground. "She's a delusional bitch, and I'll grind her under my boot someday."
With a suspicion of why she restrained herself like this, Erik felt like seeing exactly how far this woman's restraint went.
The confessor snarled and finally took a step forward… but immediately scoffed, averted her gaze, and stopped herself.
"Pah! I know you're trying to provoke me, but it's no use!" she growled, before looking at him once more. An arrogant, prideful grin stretched across her full, crimson lips. "I wasn't sent here because I'm disposable, but because I can actually keep my cool, unlike most of those other idiots."
She shifted one of her swords to the other hand to hold them both there and waved her now-free hand to pull a sigil stone out of some storage space. "Since you're here, that means it's time for me to return and confirm your ability to teleport between here and Maghreb."
Erik watched her movements with interest, but didn't seem intent on interfering. His inaction appeared to convince the confessor to say a little more.
"I don't know how you managed to sneak this sigil barrier past our detection, but it was a pointless effort!" she snarled arrogantly. "You can take these warriors as a little gift before your inevitable end!"
Snap
With a twist of her fingers, the sigil stone broke apart, and the woman disappeared, leaving all the Humanitas Sangh troops to be slaughtered by Erik and his warriors.
"I guess they really don't care about numbers," Erik muttered to himself, seemingly unconcerned. "Although, I guess if they've even got East-Asian confessors, then perhaps the Humanitas Sangh is even larger than we expected. On the other hand… perhaps they also have more fronts than just us and the Europeans?"
Suddenly, the air started to flicker a little, and Erik smirked as he waved his hand. "Well, whatever," he chuckled as the shaft of his hammer started to materialise between his fingers. "If all goes according to plan, we should be finding out a whole lot of things sometime soon."
Fizzling and crackling flowed through the sigil dome Erik was in… until a dark-blue flash appeared right where the confessor just disappeared from. Instantly, Erik charged forward, hammer raised as icy-lighting sparked all around him.