Chapter 68: Swallow your words
Hazen’s body convulsed one last time before Roger threw him from the heights like a worthless, tattered rag, his body plummeting downward.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the Valkyrie fighters shone with a cold, aggressive white light toward Roger, who had murdered one of their comrades with such indifference, directing their gazes, filled with malice and promises of vengeance... toward Roger, who floated in the air before them with complete confidence and steadiness... as if he did not acknowledge their existence at all.
There was no time to retreat now for them.
They had arrived slightly late because Roger had been conscious enough that there was a saving amulet that summoned support when the person was damaged, but it seems he also did not know exactly where it was, so he could not avoid breaking it.
The explosion Roger had caused in the Monster Taming Guild tower building and Hazen’s wretched condition were proof that the time for peaceful talks was over, and they had no choice left but to fight until death.
"Holy Cage Formation! Release Soul Mana!"
The Valkyrie commander, a woman with heavy silver armor and a severe appearance named Sylvia, who is considered one of the elites who had recently surpassed the ordinary Noble Level and were on the threshold of the power grades that are at the peak of the Noble Level, screamed.
In mere seconds, dozens of fighters began circling to perform the formation around Roger with speed and smooth movement in the air using their wings, leaving lines behind them of Soul Mana and auras of yellowish-white energy that intertwined in the atmosphere to create a massive, tight magic network, its center was Roger in the exact middle. This ethereal network possessed a terrifying characteristic. It began sweeping the Mana and draining it from the surrounding space inside it, preventing him from summoning powerful star magic or communicating with the energy of the stars in the sky.
Roger laughed in a low voice, its frightening echo resonating through the areas of the sky like a silent storm, and said with disdain: "You are truly fools... Who told you that star magic can be suppressed by primitive and simple tricks like these?"
Roger’s hand moved with movements that were extremely complex and fast to draw a complicated magic circle. In a flash, a violent, deep blue aura exploded from the depths of his body, its intensity causing the atmospheric pressure around him to rise. He pressed his foot heavily in the air as if he were resting on solid rocky ground, then loosed his shout:
[The Lone Star: Mini Supernova Explosion]!
An extremely minute point of light, resembling a needle, appeared right before his chest. In a fraction of a millisecond, that point expanded to become a destructive and sweeping ball of flame of which he was the center. The explosive wave flew in all directions without discrimination, shredding the Holy Network and cutting the Soul Mana lines as if they were spider silk, and transforming the bodies of half of the Valkyrie fighters into fine white ash that flew and vanished with the severe winds.
That strike loosed by the Minister of Stars Roger was not simple or ordinary; for it erased everything in its path and destroyed the surrounding landmarks. At that exact moment, the peak of the Monster Taming Guild tower was entirely erased, and the towering roof turned to nothingness!
His destructive strike lit up the entire capital’s sky for moments, until it appeared to the city’s residents, who awoke in terror, as if a new sun had been created in the hollow of the night.
As for Commander Sylvia, her white wings had been heavily damaged due to the explosion, and she is trying to flap heavily and resist the violent recoil to prevent herself from distancing and plummeting toward the bottom. Sylvia bled blood from her mouth as she gnashed her teeth, while her powerful wings became flapping with weakness and ignominy as she tries to lift her heavy body again.
She tried to instill courage in whoever remained of her forces, so she screamed with a shaking voice: "O my warriors, do not despair!.. The rest of the support will come now!.."
But it seems the Minister of Stars did not have any intention to grant them a chance to catch their breaths; his facial expressions were cold and devoid of any human emotions. Before Sylvia’s terrified eyes, and without a shred of mercy or hesitation, he cut the throats of all remaining fighters without pity with sharp blades of star magic, pursuing them in the air with extreme precision until it حزّت (severed) their necks, while he was standing in his place with all calmness and coldness as if he were conducting a stroll.
When Sylvia looked into the eyes of this man standing before her, which appeared in that moment as if they were a miniature star burning her soul with its cold جبروت (majesty/might), she suddenly felt a shiver of terror run behind her back, and became certain that death is knocking at her door.
She turned with very great speed to defend herself, but it was too late; for she saw a shining blade of star energy already heading with supernatural speed to cut her throat and separate her head from her body.
But in that critical moment... a wave of gray energy launched from nothingness, and a dense gray shield resembling a fortified cocoon surrounded Sylvia’s body in less than a fraction of a second, causing the star magic blade to collide with it and scatter in the air, vanishing like sparks.
"It seems we must summon more people to deal with this maniac..." an enigmatic voice echoed from the heights.
The dark clouds in the sky suddenly parted, and three new figures appeared, descending with heavy weight. It was truly a spectacular and majestic appearance, but this overwhelming presence represented nothing to Roger, and not an eyelash wavered for him.
Roger’s eyes were searing, glowing with the color silver as they pierced the bodies of the newcomers, and only one question occupied him, which he screamed with madness: "Where did my Master go?!"
The massive-statured man, who was wearing heavy armor made of black volcanic stone and carrying an extremely massive sword on his back, stepped forward, and a mocking smile was etched on his face as he spoke in a sarcastic tone: "Your Master? Heh... are you joking, you scoundrel here? Has not that ancient Empire ended? Were you not the ones who killed your Master with your own hands in the past? It seems the stupid Minister of this Empire has gone entirely mad and lost his senile mind!"
As soon as this volcanic commander uttered his words, the air completely froze, as if those words were a great sin that must never be uttered.
"My Master... alive!.. You damned scum!.."
Roger’s voice emerged like a terrifying farraginous hiss, and the aura surrounding him suddenly transformed; the silver and blue star element energy that emanates from his body became ascending and swelling in a mad and unprecedented manner, surpassing all safe boundaries of Mana.
Affected by this legendary pressure, Roger’s human skin began peeling and cracking violently, and the layer of his inner flesh appeared from beneath it, which transformed into a dark black form resembling the depths of space, and covered with shining and shimmering points that mimic the movement of real stars and galaxies!
At the same time, his eyes went entirely white and their pupils vanished, and they began emitting extremely dangerous glows and radiations, a terrifying aura and suppressive جبروت (majesty/might) that made the tyrants and commanders present of the Prince Level tremble with terror and their knees knock together!