The immense throne room echoed with the resonance of his words. The silence that followed was more terrible than any war cry.
Shade exhaled slowly, his red eyes scanning the formation of seven saints standing before him. Each one would be a formidable enemy, possessing years of experience in combat against terrifying nightmare creatures.
Far from feeling fear, Shade began to feel excitement for this battle. He had killed things stronger than himself since he was a Sleeper. He had killed impossible things as a mere Ascended, and now he had killed things far stronger than what a mere saint could only dream of eliminating.
'Seven against one is unfair... for them,' he thought confidently. Even if they limited themselves to using only their essence and not their aspect, the outcome of the fight was already decided.
Behind him, Cronos and Ananke kept their distance, watching the encounter that would take place at any moment. A battle between saints would be devastating and incredibly short due to the speeds at which they would move. Although he was currently a simple Ascended, he was already working towards reaching Transcendence.
He needed to become a Transcendent before taking the challenge and achieving Supremacy.
"Are you really going to fight all of them?" Ananke murmured in surprise. Even she, a Transcendent, found fighting seven saints impossible.
Cronos looked at Ananke for a few moments.
"Just watch. What you are about to see, you may only witness a few times in your life," he advised, his voice resonating with the weight of time behind him.
Before Ananke could respond, the battle began.
---
Shade watched as the first saint attacked. He summoned a bow and arrow in an instant, firing four swift arrows at sonic speed, each one enough to kill a corrupted beast in an instant.
The first aimed for his heart, the second for his throat, the third and fourth directed at his eyes.
Shade didn't dodge, didn't even react. Instead, his armor moved, releasing darkness in the form of a shield that trapped the arrows before they could reach him.
The arrows were shattered by the darkness, dissipating into small motes of light.
"You'll need more than mere arrows to even scratch me," Shade advised.
"How arrogant you are," said a saint who wielded daggers.
"Yes, I suppose I am," Shade replied with a slight smile.
This time, three saints moved simultaneously. The first, the one with the daggers, lunged at Shade, unleashing a rain of attacks. Shade raised his sword, ready to block, when his instinct screamed at him. He quickly jumped back, his eyes narrowed, looking at where he had been standing. Deep, profound marks were gouged into the floor.
'Be careful. It seems his attacks ignore distance and obstacles,' Uriel said.
'I noticed,' Shade replied mentally.
The saint wasn't surprised by this. The other two saints reached Shade's position. The first wielded a longsword, and the second carried a spear.
Shade swung his sword, beginning a fierce clash against the two saints in a close-quarters weapon fight.
Their weapons clashed constantly, filling the hall with a metallic din. The air pressure from the impacts was like violent storms of destruction. But even with those attacks, which would have destroyed any normal environment, the throne room barely suffered any damage.
On the throne, Daeron watched the battle with interest.
Shade felt something approaching. Using [Shape Shift] from his Void Hand, he created a sphere around himself, followed by elongated spikes that extended in all directions.
The object heading for him crashed against the sphere, cracking it.
Shade emerged from the sphere, only to be met by the remaining four Transcendents: the archer, another who used a sword and shield, another who wielded an axe, and another who wielded a hammer.
Shade smiled widely.
He activated another enchantment of his armor.
[Curse]
The Transcendents felt their vision blur, their bodies grow heavy, their senses dull, and an unimaginable pain seized their entire bodies.
Shade changed his armor's shape again, creating two enormous, robust arms of darkness. He threw a punch that sent the Transcendents, afflicted by various Curses, flying dozens of meters back.
Smiling, he clashed his fists together, and the two enormous arms above him did the same.
The Transcendents got up, sore from taking the full impact.
'It seems one of them has an aspect that nullifies my curses... but which one?' he thought, observing the now-recovered Transcendents.
To win, he needed to eliminate whoever was blocking his curses. Given that there weren't enough shadows and he couldn't create a sea of darkness due to forbidding himself from using his aspect, he couldn't heal as quickly as he wanted.
His essence was now limited. He had used his minions to reach the destroyed battlefield safely after fighting against great creatures. Although he had killed several, some had managed to escape, massacring thousands of his troops.
The Transcendents, after the first exchange, realized that the Transcendent before them was not a normal one. He was one with great combat experience, as much as or more than them.
If they wanted to win, they needed to attack simultaneously and overwhelm him with power.
Shade raised an eyebrow. He felt something in the atmosphere change, growing heavier.
Immediately, his entire world spun, leaving him completely disoriented.
Shade knelt, closing his eyes instantly.
Extending his spatial awareness, he sensed the Transcendents moving.
The spearman lunged with a thrust that [Living Shadow] blocked.
The other, who wielded a sword, attacked from another angle, but it was also blocked, as was a volley of exploding arrows.
Two Transcendents, the one with the axe and the one with the hammer, took advantage of the opening to attack.
The seventh had stayed back.
'So it's you,' Shade thought.
Using his armor's [Shape Shift], he gave it the form of several lances and fired them at the Transcendents, forcing them to block.
Getting to his feet, still with his eyes closed, he ran straight for the seventh Transcendent.
The spearman and swordsman attacked, but Shade evaded them with great skill. Rolling past them, he dodged several arrows before creating a darkness shield on the boots of his armor.
The arrows exploded, propelling him into the air as he intended. Changing his armor's shape, he created two enormous Asura arms and threw a punch at the Transcendent who had manipulated his senses.
The Transcendent's eyes widened for a moment, but his companion, the one with the shield and sword, raised his shield, blocking the attack completely.
The shield released a great surge of light that dispelled the darkness. Shade frowned.
The Transcendent swung his sword, unleashing a brilliant slash that Shade allowed to hit his body.
The cut was deep, opening a large wound. By intentionally removing the plates of the Supreme armor in that area, he allowed himself to take the full brunt of the damage to activate his seventh enchantment.
In one moment, he had a horrific wound; the next, he was without any injury. In contrast, the sword-and-shield Transcendent spat blood, falling to the ground from the effect of his own attack.
This broke the Transcendents' coordination, something Shade exploited.
Creating the Asura arms again, he threw a punch that crashed violently against the Transcendents, opening deep cracks in the floor.
'Two down.' Feeling the effects of his disorientation and altered senses return to normal, he saw a massive white tiger with blue stripes, moments away from ripping him open.
Shade extended his hands forward, creating a massive shield that took the claw swipe, sending him crashing into the ground at full speed.
Reforming his armor, he took the impact against the floor, opening a large crater but suffering no serious injuries.
Immediately, he activated the Curse on the tiger, weakening it and dulling its senses.
The tiger staggered for a moment. Shade, still holding his sword, lunged at the tiger, unleashing a quick, precise slash that cut the tiger cleanly through. A huge gash descended from its neck down its back, from which a great jet of blood sprayed. Using the Asura arms, he grabbed the multi-ton tiger, lifted it, and hurled it towards the other four Transcendents, who had to avoid the massive body as it crashed against the wall.
'Three down. Four remain.'
Shade looked at the four remaining Transcendents: the archer, the dagger-wielder, the hammer-wielder, and the axe-wielder.
The dagger-wielder lunged, making several cuts that ignored space and obstacles. Shade avoided them completely. Throwing himself at the Transcendent, he fused the armor on his arm with the hilt of his sword, forming a chain which he then used.
He threw his sword; the Transcendent dodged it.
The latter observed the chain for a moment. Shade retracted the chain with a slight flick of his wrist, changing the angle.
The sword returned like a sharp boomerang, and the Transcendent ducked to avoid losing his head.
This was what Shade wanted.
As his sword returned, he used the [Shape Shift] enchantment of his armor, transforming it into a massive hammer that descended upon the Transcendent. Or so it would have, if the hammer-wielding Transcendent, who had used his transformation, hadn't stopped it.
His transformation was that of an enormous gorilla, at least 20 meters tall. But he wasn't the only one.
The archer transformed into a massive dragonfly with multiple wings, wrapped in armor-like shell.
The axe-wielding Transcendent had transformed into a giant whose size was ridiculous; to fit inside, he had to stay crouched.
Finally, the dagger-wielder used his transformation. He turned into a kind of large lizard. He possessed two arms ending in sharp claws. His head was like that of a reptile, protected by white bone. His torso lacked scales, being tougher skin. Finally, he possessed a long, snake-like tail ending in a sharp point.
The four Transcendents, in their Transcendent forms, fixed their eyes on Shade, who smiled somewhat nervously.
'Do you still think you can win?' Uriel asked within Shade's mind, amused.
'Hey, you stay calm. We can win. We have an ace up our sleeve.'
'Are you talking about using our darkness creatures?'
'No, they're still recovering from the fight, and several are evolving. I plan to simply drop a bomb on them and bomb them to death.'
Uriel opened his mouth to respond, then closed it again.
Shade had a pretty good point.
'Alright, go and bomb them, then.'
Shade smiled. A smile full of emotion and madness that confused everyone present.
'Oh, that will be a pleasure.'