Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 187: Veiled Warrior

The moment Uriel touched the gate and accepted the weight of the runic lock’s wills, he was teleported into the strange memory.

A memory of his execution.

He watched it all unfold and then, he was pulled elsewhere.

...

SHOO!

A body dropped onto cold stone floors, the sound heavy and echoing across the large, cavernous space around.

"...argh..."

Uriel, thanks to his ridiculous amount of body enhancements, was entirely fine.

If he’d survived a fall from the skies as a G-Ranker, such a fall wouldn’t be anything able to harm him.

Still, sprawled on the floor, he groaned in pain, one hand holding his head, which thumped with deep agony, while the other held his bleeding chest, where a deep burn mark could be seen.

Where his runic scar had once been, and now, wasn’t.

’Damn it!’

Emrys followed after Uriel moments later, dropping from a portal above and deftly landing beside him. Instantly smelling the blood on Uriel and seeing his state, he stood on guard.

A low growl escaped his maw as he protectively wrapped his tails around Uriel, scanning the surroundings to find any threat.

But when he didn’t, he looked back at Uriel, as confused as he was worried.

What the hell had happened?

"I-I’m fine." Uriel pushed himself off the ground and stood to his feet, staggering and nearly falling to a knee. But he managed to hold himself.

He didn’t know what it was, but something deep within him ached. Whatever it was, he ignored it.

He didn’t have his runic scar anymore, but it wouldn’t matter. His Resonant Dominance bloomed, and he infused his will into a spectral wave that dug across all layers of his body and mind.

He used his will to force his body and mind to calm and ignore the pain. Rapidly, the ache lessened until it became manageable, and finally, he exhaled.

"By the gods." Uriel was soaked in sweat, blood, and dust, his breath laboured and face pale, but beyond that, most of his aspects were intact.

"Kih?" Emrys got closer, rubbing his snout on Uriel’s chest.

Uriel smiled and caressed the little guy’s head, then—

WHOOOSH!

A blade, appearing from seemingly thin air, tore into his back. Or at least, it tried to. The blade rebounded against his body, and the attacker fell back.

Both Uriel and Emrys vanished, the latter blinking away and the former moving as swiftly as light to create distance.

Dozens of meters back, they reappeared, Uriel holding his glaive and Emrys already grown to his full form, arcs of lightning dancing around him.

Uriel laid eyes on the attacker, and his gaze narrowed.

It was a veiled figure wearing dark grey robes covering everything except their eyes, which shone with a deep and almost unnatural emerald hue, like burning green stars.

The figure was tall, lean, and wielded a long, sharp dagger coated in a form of aether Uriel could only call poison aether.

He’d never seen such a thing.

’Where the hell am I...’

He rapidly scanned his surroundings.

He’d fallen into a gigantic tunnel stretching far and deep forward and back, the ground of old grey stone, moss standing between each rock, and the walls jagged and rough, of a dark blue colour, rising high to form a dome-like cavernous ceiling from which blue light poured down.

What was strange, though, was that across the tunnel, large boulders of crimson crystal could be seen, standing in the hundreds and thousands, littering the tunnel’s path.

’Am I under the desert?’

Uriel barely had the thought when, suddenly, the attacker he’d been carefully observing for the last few seconds simply... vanished.

And then, the veiled warrior reappeared from a dark corner of his vision, swiping his dagger upwards as they rose, aiming for his neck.

Uriel, though surprised, reacted in time.

Carefully sidestepping the attack, he dove forward, grabbing the warrior’s robes, then pulling him forward and off his feet, slinging him over his shoulders and—

WHOOSH!

The warrior vanished again and—

"Argh!"

A kick slammed into Uriel’s chest, specifically aimed at his bloody burn mark. Pain echoed deeply across his body, weakening his legs as they buckled and he fell to his knees.

His lowering body met with the warrior’s rising knee, hammering into his jaw. It didn’t cause much damage, but it filled Uriel with fury.

"RAHH!"

Uriel could hear Emrys battling with another veiled warrior not far away. It seemed the little fox wasn’t faring any better.

Uriel let his mind slow, taking a deep breath in, then calming down. He didn’t have the magical ability to reach absolute states of focus anymore, but he could do without it.

’Tranquility.’

Uriel let his Divine Root of Chaos talent unfurl, and suddenly, it was as if he’d become a vessel of something greater, every part of himself guided and steered by an ancient and primordial will.

The Wills of the Hounds overflowed within his mind.

BANG! 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Uriel sprang to his feet, slapping the warrior’s knee away. His glaive spun within his palm and he slashed down, meeting nothing but air as the warrior vanished.

But as if he’d expected it, Uriel instantly ducked and weaved beneath a blade that laterally slashed the air from behind him.

As he did so, he pivoted and stepped back, his slashing blade rounding through the air to continue and flow into a thrust aimed at the warrior.

The warrior vanished again.

’So there doesn’t seem to be any form of cooldown. That means he isn’t teleporting.’

Uriel crossed his pole across his body, blocking in perfect fashion a falling hack that came for his chest. He pushed against the dagger hard and broke the warrior’s balance.

But just as the warrior was about to vanish once more, Uriel unleashed an echo of chaotic aether, disrupting all energy in the surroundings.

The warrior vanished, still.

’Hm. So it isn’t an aether-based ability either. So it has to be physical in nature.’

Light aether infused across his body, and Uriel became just as elusive and blurry as the warrior. He let his instincts be guided by the root, and he surged toward an empty spot.

He cleaved down just as the warrior reappeared in his sight. An echo of darkness exploded from him, stripping all senses away from the warrior just as vines tore out of the ground to wrap around them.

SHU!

Blood jetted into the air, and a body was cut in two.

Uriel spat a dollop of blood to the side, slicking his hair back as he exhaled a steaming breath. He threw Emrys a glance and, noticing the fox was also finishing his battle, nodded to himself.

’Now let’s see where—’

The Divine Root resonated with his mind, and a roar filled his thoughts.

It warned of danger.

"...!"

The body Uriel had just cut in two shook and shuddered, the warrior’s ruby-red blood glowing and turning into crystal worms that crawled towards one another.

In a blink, the warrior’s body mended, but it was clear their body was still extremely weakened, the emerald radiance of their gaze pale and waning.

’An immortal body?’

Just as Uriel expected the battle to continue once more, the warrior turned and began to run toward the boulder closest to them.

Using their dagger, the warrior cut their palm open, swinging their hand forward and splattering their blood across the boulder.

Then, the warrior’s body collapsed once more, falling into two halves, its regeneration seemingly having only been momentary.

Uriel stared at the boulder with widened eyes as he began to feel a monstrous tide of aether rise from it.

RUMBLE!

The tunnel shook, and a guttural roar peeled across the air.