Burning Soul

…

“Argh! I’m here to take you home little sister!

What are you doing with these filths!

You have better things to do!”

Arlo spoke to Naomi completely ignoring everyone else.

Theo was standing beside Ember with a shocked expression,

“How dare you do that?”

He started boiling up as shock transformed into anger,

After all, he had shot Ember mercilessly!

“Did you say something!

Ah!

That fly wasn’t worth playing with, so I shot it down for better, no interference!

You see now why kid?

Naomi! Father asked for you,

let’s go!”

His words were too dominating for Naomi that she was shaking as she stood.

She took a step further only to hear Theo,

“I ain’t letting you go that easily!”

…

‘Accel!’ a speedup spell and he was running towards him frantically with his grip firm on both of his daggers.

A cold light flashed from his eyes as he ran frantically in that forest!

“No! Don’t!”

Naomi screamed with all her might,

but her call was ignored by Theo as he had no plan to slow down!

Looking at the charging on himself so fast Arlo gave off a smile,

“Looks like you want an arrow through your heart as well!

Hmm, I will fulfill that wish of yours kid.” Saying this he pulled his bow and chanted something, an arrow appeared on it and was glowing.

It imitated power, it was as if a god had descended himself to slay!

Correcting his aim, he let go of that arrow!

The arrow was lightning fast and there was no way Theo could have dodged it from so up close! He closed his eyes as a reflex, not to mention Naomi also closed her eyes as she knew what that arrow was capable of!

...

‘Clang!’

A sharp sound of metal hitting each other echoed through the forest!

Theo felt the shockwave as he was quite close to the point of impact! He opened his eyes to see what happened,

to his surprise, a sturdy figure had taken the arrow head-on on his sword!

He was no other than Aeneas!

“Care to explain?

Where did you get that weapon?” His tone was too serious, even Theo was baffled.

He even had his head lowered and as he spoke, his grip on the sword tightened.

“Oh, this!

I dug up a filthy grave to get this!

Damn it was tough to get it but. it’s worth a shot!

Aren’t you same, grave robber!”

His words made everyone go silent. Aeneas was standing still, yet he hadn’t loosened up his grip a bit!

A black fog was being poured in the surroundings; the atmosphere turned dark for some reason even though it was a bright morning just a while ago!

Theo stepped back as he felt a push from his front. Naomi was also standing speechless as she had never seen anyone taking Arlo’s hit and live to speak!

Aeneas was an Ace and she believed in him yet for what she knew, Arlo was no normal human either!

He had been training ten folds harder than her and was the youngest legend rank holder she knew!

His weapon ‘Vijaya’, an artifact about which no one had a clear clue as he had named the weapon himself after revoking its older name with some forbidden ritual a little later their mother fell sick! Its origins were not clear and thus no one could really tell how frightening this duo was!

As for Aeneas, he was holding onto his Excalibur!

A holy artifact is known widely as a weapon of a leader of Ace’s!

Seeing them facing each other, the scene was quite different than that of from last time when Aeneas fought off with Laimus, an ace of heavy weapons!

…

The darkness was covering the surroundings and no one dared to move even an inch. Theodore went back to where Naomi was along with Ember who was now conscious enough to understand what was going on.

“This is bad, a lot of negative energy is being poured in here!”

Ember warned them as she felt the flow of magic nearby.

Luna also hid in the arms of Ember!

From where they were, they could see a creepy shadow emerging from the ground below Aeneas, and yet he didn’t move.

“Aeneas!”

Theo tried calling out for him but to no avail.

That creepy shadow leeched itself on the back of Aeneas!

The atmosphere had changed drastically, they could feel the pressure in the air. Arlo also was no fool to not notice the change!

“Ah! That seemed to have ticked you off, thieve!

Don’t worry I’ll relieve you of your guilt so you can rest in ‘peace’!”

His mocking angered Aeneas as he looked up at him and a wave of chill ran through Arlo’s nerves.

He had never felt such intimidation ever as everyone he fought was way weaker than him, but he had run into an Ace!

A freaking Ace!

And more importantly, he had angered him to the limits.

Aeneas’s eyes turned teal blue and were glowing in the dark, this time they looked empty!

Using brute force was a mindless play in this situation as he was fighting off a Legendary weapon and a Bow at that!

Arlo was first to make a move, as he shot an arrow, same as before. That lightning-fast arrow was mercilessly moving towards Aeneas!

But this time as well he slashed that arrow with his sword!

He didn’t even move and just waved his sword to hit that arrow. This time his movements were different than ever.

He was fast and nimbler!

After dealing with that arrow, he pounced on Arlo with frightening speed,

‘Accel Boost’ Upon using both increases physical attributes by 25% for a certain duration.

He appeared just a little further from Arlo!

This sudden boost in his ability startled Theo and Naomi as they’ve never felt this before!

It was as if they were watching a completely different person right now!

Though this wasn’t enough to startle Arlo!

He stepped back a bit and raised his bow and began chanting something!

Seeing this Aeneas froze where he was at the moment, it was as if he saw some ghost.

“You can’t be serious!” He uttered those words with a very deep and frightening voice.

Just as his chant finished a golden light came down piercing the thick black fog and struck the bow!

The light then engulfed the Bow and under its effect, the bow started to change its shape.

It turned into a sword! Just as identical as the one Aeneas was carrying on his back, his second sword!

“Perfect Weapon Control!

I, thy advent of this vessel commands you!

Come forth!

Zulfiqar!”

He chanted those words out loud as his bow transformed!

Not only that his bow was transformed but his appearance also changed as it all happened!

After the light, which was engulfing him, disappeared, he walked out with golden armor and a blue cape at its back.

It was as if he was some sort of god and in comparison, to Aeneas, he really looked like a god!

This form of him seemed to have pissed Aeneas even more! He was shaking with anger and was barely holding in his strength.

…

A very frightening war about to begin, something that no one had witnessed there!

Aeneas wasn’t in his usual self is what Theo and Naomi could tell!

His gaze didn’t change, those heart-piercing blue eyes were shining in that dark fog,

so empty,

so lonely they felt!

But no one knew what pain they were hiding behind them!

He drew his other sword, the one he never drew ever before!

Deep black colored sword, with a shining flame covering its blade! It looked like a sword made for redemption!

No one expected this as he had never used any of these swords, the one he always relied on was a rusty, old-looking, worn-out sword with a wooden helm.

That sword was no longer in his waist!

But he wasn’t using any of his usual weapons!

He held that black sword close to his forehead and chanted something in a different language that Theo couldn’t understand!

“This is bad!

He’s chanting in the demonic language!

How does he know that!”

Naomi, who was a little familiar with the language, pointed it out!

As his chant finished the creepy black shadow on his back engulfed him in its flames!

As the flames extinguished his appearance was totally changed!

His hairs had turned white and his clothes were replaced by that shadow which seemed to be able to change shapes.

He didn’t wait for others to take a look at him and pounced with even greater speed towards him! In a second, he was already throwing a slash on Arlo who was also a bit surprised by his sudden growth in power and speed!

‘Aeneas was no longer what he looked and seemed!’

Every hit he threw was so heavy it shacked the near-by ground, sometimes the slashes even chopped nearby trees! And the frightening thing was that his blade won’t even touch those trees! But all his effort was to no avail as his opponent seemed to have a staggering amount of strength as well!

Arlo was taking his hits head-on not to mention he was fighting back with him at a relatively good pace.

His blows were heavier and each slash he used was a recalculated move.

It was as if he was able to read his moves!

Maybe he was!

But that didn’t waver off Aeneas as he didn’t lower his strength at any blow he hit!

He was screaming on each blow as if it hurt him to hit Arlo!

Aeneas had lost his composure and now was just hitting blindly, he was charging on Arlo like a mad wild dog!

“What happened! Is that all you got?

Looks like you have only this much to show me! Let me put up an end to your misery!

Legendary Ace!”

Saying so he stepped back a bit and raised the sword to land a slash on him, for some reason Aeneas froze right where he was!

Theo couldn’t help but call out his name while charging in to stop him from getting hit!

‘No! Stop him! He’ll slash down Theo!’ Luna warned Ember, but even she lacked strength to just jump in and stop him from getting hurt.

Naomi instinctively jumped in to stop him as well!

…

“Stop this madness you insolent fools!”

A sudden burst of light pierced the fog and covered the entire area with its radiance!

There was a portal up in the sky and a man walked out of it!

He was the most charming man anyone had ever seen!

Duvrion,

The overseer of Arnor was that guy!

“Damn you fool!

You dare interfere with my personal business?

Have this!” Arlo out of anger threw the slash he was preparing for Aeneas onto him!

It was an extremely fast spell and the slash traveled to him in less than a second.

‘Swoosh!’

It hit Duvrion!

“Huh! How does that feel!” Arlo was proud of his strength!

“Hmm! Interesting!

But you’ll need more to put up even a scratch on me kid!” A voice broke his pride as Duvrion walked out unscathed!

Others were frozen right where they were!

Theo could barely even move his finger!

This was the pressure of that Plane Guardian!

After all, he was the strongest of them all!

He just waved his hand and Arlo was forcibly teleported away in a sec! That frightening maniac was gone just like that!

He then looked at others and noticed Aeneas who was still not himself! Aeneas turned his attention towards him and was about to pounce on him when he saw the other party of them walking in handcuffed as well!

…

“It’s alright dear!”

A soft voice tore all malice around him!

…

“Hina!”

He spoke in his broken voice as a tear slipped from his eye.

“Get them all to my castle!

These intruders face the judgment there!”

Duvrion commanded his sentinels before walking through the Portal!