Flat-Brim Samurai Chapter 145 - Palund
Apollo slowly approached the door in front of him, it was massive, hundreds of meters tall. It would have been frightening if it weren't for his very exhausted mental and physical state at the moment. He approached the door and placed his one hand and stump on either side of the door. On the other side of this door was a big room that was circular, it had pillars all around a center raised platform with an artifact on it of some kind, it was too bright to make out. He walked closer and closer until he realized someone else was walking towards that same platform. A man in a red cloak and red armor walked towards the platform, it was Palund!
Apollo spoke ,"Is it you that's governing this castle?"
Palund smiled ,"Yes it is, my very own kingdom I created under the watchful eyes of our king. It's a gift that he gives to his priests of fate."
Apollo thought (King?)
Apollo summoned Akarui and stepped towards the man in front of him, the man summoned an axe, black and red in color.
Palund spoke ,"You grew pretty strong, but I don't think it'll be enough."
Apollo clenched his teeth and darted across the room just to get blocked TONK. Apollo was shoved away FWOOM. Apollo kept his stance, his fighting capabilities greatly increased, both in strength and technique. The priest raised his axe and shortened space in front of him to jump to him FWOOMP. Palund dropped the axe, space distorted and the ground shattered beneath him KABOOM. Apollo luckily dodged to the side in time and attempted landing a blow of his own TINK. He was blocked by the handle of the axe. The axe head then dropped on his left trapezius, embedding itself within STIK. Then he felt something start to corrupt his soul, it was like his soul itself was being infected with some disease.
Apollo broke free, checked up on his trap, absorbed the foreign energy and healed the physical damage. BADUMP Again he felt panging in his body, it made him want to curl up into a ball on the ground, but he wouldn't, not here. His pain tolerance drastically increased and he could still fight. Palund ran over and Apollo deflected the axe strikes that were growing increasingly stronger TINK TINK TONK TONK TONK. He was getting driven into a corner. He created water below his feet and slid across the ground in an attempt to run but Palund was keeping close to Apollo.
Apollo then had a Spiritual weapon protrude from his body and stab that man in a spot between the armor on his shoulder STIK. He then gathered the water on the ground and created Water Spikes which cracked the man's armor CRUNCH. He gathered the energy that he was leaching off of the clashes that he had with the man and channeled it into one attack and pierced it straight through the man's chest.
Palund was shocked ,"I've never been hit with my own power before…"
Apollo was breathing heavily, his soul was feeling heavy as he pulled his sword away from the man. He summoned a Spiritual weapon from the stump in his hand and attempted to swipe at the man but it didn't work, he was moving too slowly.
Palund smiled ,"It looks like Soul Wither is working."
Pallund Struck Apollo on his side and Apollo barely blocked the attack BOOM, a chip in his sword formed. He was breathing heavier and heavier. Apollo tried striking at the man but he barely raised his arm up to strike him.
Apollo fell to the ground, his eyes were glazing over as Palund watched over him. Palund reached his hand out and attempted to activate an Art but at that moment the door to the room reverberated again, more people entered. Cias looked at Apollo and instantly darted across the room with Evan. Evan called upon Ice Swords and rained them down from the ceiling, Palund dodged every single one of them with relative ease. Cias came in with flames that scorched almost anything it touched FWOOSH. He swung at Palund, Palund blocked the oncoming stab by redirecting the blade elsewhere whilst also rearing up the axe again to attack Evan. Palund sent out a red Quison Wave.
Evan barely sidestepped the wave, it cut halfway through part of his ear. Evan then looked at where Apollo was and his condition was getting worse and worse. Evan breathed heavily as he darted in the direction of the priest and lined up sword art after sword art. They all were trained directly at the priest and converged. One after another was destroyed until they started coming through TITIITITITITISTSTSTSTSTAB. Behind the priest, Evan formed again after using Teleport, he gathered massive amounts of energy and formed a steel glove around his hand and punched Palund right on the spine BOOM CRACCK.
Cias walked over to Apollo and tried to hear his breath that was faint and growing fainter, his emotions welled up and he tried his best to help but he couldn't understand why nothing was working. Not even his Soul Reconstruction was working. His soul was being eaten away quickly, second by second it grew fainter and fainter. Cias screamed and dashed across the room to meet Palund in the air. He slashed at his stomach SLASH, and with the excess of energy used Palund was sent flying into a pillar across the room. Cias followed but at that moment there was a similar sound to a gong. The priest completely rejuvenated his energy and even emitted a stronger wavelength. He grabbed his axe. His form had completely changed.
Cias thought ,"He must've completely combined himself with a spirit."
Palund grew massive wings made of darkness and horns made of that same darkness. At that moment, Cias's heart freaked out, this wasn't a spirit, it was a demon!
The axe must've been from a demon. Space and time converged onto the demon, obeying him completely. The demon's axe grew in size and slashed to the side, slicing Cias in half. Cias didn't have enough time to recover and was kicked with the full force of a high 4th dimensional Cosmic class entity. His soul seemed to rupture, but Onyx and Cias grabbed hold of their conjoined soul and stitched it back together, he used telekinesis to move his legs back up to his body, the remaining soul essence was stuck back and conjoined with the whole.
Evan regained the attention of the demon as he started to engage in combat with it. He backed away and summoned gravitational wells that sucked in all the light around it. He added a Tracking feature to the attack and the black holes were sent to Palund's location. He dodged them by interweaving in between the pillars of the walls. Palund turned around to deal with the black holes as more came around the back of him KABOOM.
Amidst the dust, Palund stood there above the ground on condensed space, smirking with a devilish grin. Suddenly, everyone in the room felt a wavelength, a powerful one, a heartbeat came along with it.