Prison Break - Part two
It became apparent that Al had overlooked crucial information: the fact that the female cultivators were orchestrating an attack from within the prison.
As lifeless bodies of these women lay strewn across the floor, Al surmised that they had not foreseen the bishop's intervention or the emergence of the fearsome light lion.
Among the remaining female cultivators, a scene unfolded before Al's eyes. One of the women, positioned at the forefront, spotted Al's approach, "she must be Tamara," Al thought. In an instant, the majestic Lion parted its jaws, releasing a potent beam of luminescence aimed directly at Tamara.
Swift to react, she employed a piece of string, hurling it toward one of her fallen comrades. As the string made contact, an instantaneous exchange occurred, and they traded places. The light beam bore down on the switched body, eradicating it in an instant.
Unperturbed, the Lion pressed forward, heedless of the result, its momentum unbroken as it bore down upon the most injured of its opponents which was Kesha.
However, Al wasted no time. With unwavering determination, he shot toward the bishop who was deeply engrossed in fervent prayer. The yellow glowing lion, tinted with a surprising air of curiosity, watched as Al raced past, yet it continued its relentless assault, closing in on Kesha with unrelenting vigor.
In the crucial moment when Al was poised to end the bishop's prayers with a swift strike of his twisted knife, an irresistible force collided with him. The lion's powerful tail struck him with an unrelenting impact, crushing his insides into a mangled mess.
Al's vision succumbed to darkness, swiftly followed by a surge of excruciating pain. Eventually, he managed to pry his eyes open, only to find himself flung against a wall dozens of feet away. Gritting his teeth, he turned his gaze toward Kesha, realizing that her injuries had worsened further.
As a Stubborn Will cultivator Al's strength and usefulness was based on his ability to continue undeterred.
With unyielding determination, he propelled himself once again toward the bishop. Yet, the lion remained indifferent, showing no concern as it swatted its massive tail toward Al once more.
This time, however, Al was prepared. He leaped over the lion's sweeping tail, narrowly dodging the attack. Recognizing that Al posed a significant threat to the bishop, the lion swiftly shifted into action.
With a speed surpassing expectation, it lunged toward Al. In a devastating motion, the lion's colossal paw crashed down upon him, reducing him to a gruesome mess of blood and gore. With its other paw it pushed the bishop away.
While the bishop was conscious of the cultivators' attempts to assail him, he remained oblivious and blind to the invisible force—which he perceived as the holy spirit of his God.
This intangible presence urged him to depart. Devout in his faith, he heeded the "spirit's" call and promptly left the scene. To Kesha's astonishment, the lion seemed to function independently, unaffected by the bishop's presence or prayers, defying everyone's assumption.
While the lion had its backed turned towards them, the three women harnessed their formidable powers, conjuring three distinct spells.
The first materialized as a line of verdant wheels, suffused with luminous energy. Alongside it, a torrent of yellowish particles formed, resembling a dusty substance. However, swifter than both, a delicate string of silk demonstrated a curious autonomy. With an uncanny intelligence, the string latched onto the lion's tail, and whirled around with abrupt precision. This maneuver granted Al a crucial window of opportunity—a chance to regenerate anew through the strength of his Stubborn Will.
The majestic beast, its power undeniable, sensed the oncoming attack and turned around to and with a single swipe of its paw obliterated the two incoming spells with ease.
Yet, as it did so, an agonizing pain surged from its severed tail, triggering a fearsome roar that reverberated through the air. The soundwaves momentarily incapacitated those within its radius, causing their heads to throb as if they might explode.
Amid its roar, the lion pivoted, its gaze fixed on the severed stump where its tail had once been. A clean cut nearly removed it from the base.
In the midst of the chaos, Al emerged from the disorienting aftermath, clutching his twisted knife.
The lion's eyes locked onto him, and an unmistakable loathing radiated from its gaze. It despised this seemingly insignificant adversary that, against all odds, returned repeatedly to challenge its dominance.
Determined to put an end to Al once and for all, the lion unleashed its devastating spell—the same powerful light beam that had attempted strike down the woman whom Al believed to be Kesha's teacher, Tamara Amadori.
Al, recovering from the crippling effects of the lion's roar, found himself with no time to react as the potent beam of light bore down upon him.
In that perilous instant, Al's twisted knife resonated with him in a strangely familiar way. Without a trace of fear, he leaped toward the oncoming attack, his knife raised high.
The room was engulfed in a blinding brilliance as the formidable beam met its target, only to vanish entirely, swallowed by the embrace of Al's etheric shell.
Yet, this astonishing feat went unseen, as the lion, indifferent to the outcome of its attack, had abruptly turned away, launching into a relentless assault against the surrounding cultivators with an unbridled frenzy.
As the seconds ticked by, Al contemplated whether he should join the battle unfolding before him or bide his time. The lion directed its wrath toward the remaining cultivators. It sent Tamara, the cultivator with the string as her etheric shell, hurtling toward the yards after inflicting severe wounds upon her.
Then, with a savage lunge, the lion descended upon the cultivator who had conjured the spell of green wheels, consuming her whole and reducing her to pieces before expelling her remains in a gruesome spectacle of violence.
The remaining cultivator desperately called out to Kesha and the others, who were clearly still within the Physical Domain of the Mortal Chasm, urging them to escape. They did as she said and she summoned a flurry of yellow dust, extracting it from the surrounding rocks but predominantly from the lifeless bodies scattered about.
The yellow particles converged, launching a relentless assault upon the lion's formidable frame. The impact was accompanied by a sizzling sound, and a thick gray smoke billowed forth.
Despite this furious assault, the lion remained unyielding, its relentless advance toward the defenseless cultivator showing no sign of hesitation.
However, just as it seemed the lion would reach its target, the room was once again bathed in a blinding, even more intense light. At this crucial moment, the lion appeared to recollect that it had never sensed its initial attack make contact with Al.
In a fraction of a second, a colossal slash of light, nearly matching the lion's size, collided with it. The sheer force and incredible speed of the impact caused the lion's eyes to bulge. For the first time, Al witnessed his counter strike failing to reduce its target to ashes. Instead, the lion was propelled out into the yard, thrown back by the immense force of the retaliatory attack.
Viktor's mouth hung open in utter disbelief as a colossal slash of light, rivaling the lion's massive form, sliced through the air in a daring attempt to cleave into the formidable beast. The spectacle of this audacious assault left him dumbfounded.
Alongside him, Avilius, though concealing his surprise, felt a ripple of astonishment course through him. He was keenly aware of Tamara's and her disciples' Wills, and he knew that none of them possessed the capability to accomplish such a remarkable feat.
In the aftermath of this extraordinary display, Avilius recalled Al's cultivation being within the Physical Domain—an unexpected revelation that could only lead to one conclusion: Al's Will had had to be in the extreme category.
As the pieces began to fall into place, a specific face sprung to his mind, and the implications of this realization only deepened his shock.
Among the cultivators, the one who had conjured the yellow dust cast her gaze toward Al, gratitude and awe evident in her eyes. Al had undoubtedly saved her life with his timely intervention.
Though the lion swiftly recuperated from the impact, a conspicuous red mark remained, testament to the power of the earlier strike. Consumed by fury, the lion unleashed a relentless barrage of four spells, targeting the wounded Tamara and the cultivators present in the yard.
Seeing the dire threat looming over Tamara, Avilius surged forward, his intention to intervene clear. However, his movement did not go unnoticed by the lion, which recognized the formidable cultivator responsible for thinning the Dawn-keepers' ranks.
With a sense of urgency, Avilius summoned the five drops of red liquid at his disposal and launched them toward the lion. In response, the lion unleashed its fearsome beam of light, creating a dramatic confrontation between their two formidable spells.
The resulting explosion was colossal, and the two powers appeared evenly matched, cancelling each other out in a spectacular display of force. Avilius, however, was acutely aware that his reduced state as an immortal spirit-imposed limitations on both his magical spells and his Will.
Seizing the opportunity presented by Avilius's vulnerability, the lion, quick as lightning, lunged towards him with the intent of vanquishing his Immortal spirit in a single devastating attack.
Avilius found himself caught off guard by the blinding speed at which the massive creature moved. In his final moments, a whisper escaped his lips, "we were so close my sweet Tamara."
Yet, just as the lion's brilliant claws descended upon him, a deafening 'BAMM!' echoed through the air. To everyone's astonishment, the lion's claw was deflected with such incredible force that the colossal creature was hurled backward.
In that critical moment, four individuals materialized seemingly out of thin air. Among them was Cesar, accompanied by his Phantom Seed, while Ellie's mirror had played the crucial role in deflecting the lion's attack and saving Avilius.
The shock of this sudden appearance left Avilius stunned, as he realized that these four individuals, their cultivation clearly in the Mental Domain, had remained entirely unnoticed by him until this point.
Without a moment's hesitation, Cesar harnessed the power of his Wind Will, infusing it into his majestic spear. With a swift, fluid motion, he propelled the spear forward at astonishing speed. The spear's trajectory intersected with that of three colossal lion-like forms constructed from light—manifestations of one of the lion's spells.
The impact was ferocious, obliterating these luminous beasts and, in doing so, rescuing Tamara from imminent danger.
Meanwhile, Jin swiftly invoked his etheric shell's capabilities, channeling a thick river of lightning from his beautiful steel gauntlet that adorned his right hand. The lightning surged forth, striking like a bolt of judgment. Its target was a spinning disk of brilliant light, a deadly spell conjured by the lion's power, intended to cleave Kesha in two.
While Jin's attack wasn't mighty enough to eradicate the lion's spell, it succeeded in diverting the disk's trajectory and saved Kesha from being cut in two.
For the other cultivators present, the scope of their influence was limited, leaving them with little recourse beyond watching as a relentless barrage of ethereal swords materialized from light, impaling one of Tamara's disciples and extinguishing her life in an instant.
In tandem, another of the lion's conjured spells, a colossal eye seething with power, unleashed a beam of light akin to the one wielded by the massive lion itself. This formidable beam bore down on another of Tamara's disciples, leaving behind a fist-sized cavity through the cultivator's heart ending her life.
In the blink of an eye, Tamara's group dwindled from 7 to 4, and a critical moment of opportunity emerged. Avilius seized this chance, capitalizing on the opening created by Ellie's deflection of the lion's attack.
With swift and practiced movements, Avilius delved his hand into his etheric shell—a well-worn pouch that held the terrifying red liquid within. As his right hand emerged, it dripped with the crimson liquid, a single drop of which possessed the power to reduce a Dawn-keeper to ashes.
All of these events unfolded in the span of time so fleeting that a falling strand of hair could scarcely touch the ground.
Before the lion could fully regain its composure, Avilius launched himself towards the beast, his outstretched hand aiming directly for its throat. The lion exhibited remarkable speed, managing to counter Avilius's advance by swiping its colossal claw.
In an instant, the sky was ablaze with a dazzling fusion of yellow and red, and Avilius was forcibly propelled backward, colliding with an onslaught of Dawn-keepers that had descended upon him.
Concurrently, the lion's paw, which had come into contact with Avilius's red liquid, began a process of disintegration. It began to burn through the very light that constituted the lion's corporeal form.
Witnessing this sudden and drastic shift in the tide of battle, the lion transformed into a radiant sphere of light and made its escape. However, with the swarm of Dawn-keepers aggressively engaging, no one was able to pursue the fleeing entity.
Agnethe, grew to a towering 120 feet, harnessing her Titan's Will to unleash a spell that caused the innards of a Dawn-keeper to rapidly expand, tearing the unfortunate creature apart from the inside.
Ellie's mirror, reflecting the visage of a Dawn-keeper, split into multiple copies that descended upon the enemy forces, momentarily confounding them until they realized they were mere illusions.
This brief respite allowed the rest of the cultivators, including Cesar who retrieved his spear, and Avilius, who launched a relentless offensive, to obliterate multiple Dawn-keepers, reducing their numbers. However, Tamara and Kesha, both grievously wounded, were unable to participate fully.
In the span of a minute, their combined efforts drastically diminished the Dawn-keepers' numbers, leaving only three who desperately attempted to flee, only to meet their inevitable demise at the hand of Avilius.
Just as they began to believe that the ordeal had reached its conclusion, an earth-shattering boom echoed across the island of Mt. kali, a deafening sound that seemed to resonate throughout the entire world.
The sky itself transformed into a surreal screen, displaying a familiar place, it left Al, Cesar, Ellie, Jin, and Agnethe staring in disbelief.