Tyrant of the Ruined Sun - Chapter 226

Chapter 226: The Taste of War 3

What was snow if not water in solid form, a tiny truth that most never thought twice about, yet that ordinarily inconsequential, almost miniscule distinction between the two, was a great fissure’s difference when spoken in terms of a mage’s ability to control them; for each element of nature and it’s many forms demanded it’s own school of spell craft and many years to master.

Yet my brother seems to have decided to bridge that gap of fundamental law through some ludicrous little trick.

My darling little brother. I always knew him to be intelligent, calm, loving, protective, loyal, diligent, and if not slightly clumsy and bashful at times, especially when it comes to matters of the heart, be it in this life or the last.

Yet now it seems I need to update this impression of him I’ve had, for I had apparently missed another descriptive of his that I’ve never noticed, for I now knew him to be mad as well.

‘A damned mad genius!’ I thought in a booming voice in my mind.

And it was a madness that elicited from me such a laugh, that I could never hope to contain, as it thundered in a muffled echo of skin prickling insanity, tinged uncomfortably with amused glee from beneath my bloody helm as I beheld him, looking back at my startled men, as I proclaimed “Continue the mission, and decimate their forces across the wall, and all their other defences, I will leave you all for a moment.”

“Wait, my liege…!” They screamed almost all at once, but I instantly interrupted them.

“Silence.” I coldly snapped. “Accomplish you orders, and then you may join me.” I said, before I then assured them, to assuage the unwilling grimaces upon their pale faces “Besides, I will not be going alone.”

“Sire?” They echoed, their faces regaining some of it’s colour, as they looked to me with hope, maybe thinking that I would allow some of them to remain with me.

But where I was headed would be beyond their current skills, so I instead empowered my voice with the full weight of my aura, as I roared out “ABRAHAM!”

“My emperor?!” A moment later, a flash of gold appeared beside me, his features slightly frantic, as he most definitely thought me in danger, and my call not an ordinary summons, but a call of aid.

“Come, we have a task of utmost priority we must do.” I told the quickly calming captain of my guard.

“Task, sire?” He parroted, not understanding my sudden command.

I do not answer him with words, but merely raise my halberd to eye-level, pointing directly towards the central most building of the city, a vast complex of intertwined towers that come to complete the mesmerising image of a tall castle, made from the twelve frozen carcases of giant serpents, entangled in a beautiful struggle.

“We are to bring down that eyesore.” I smilingly said, as I quickly leapt from the walls, and began to skid across the burning, crumbling, soot, blood and ash encrusted roofs of the once immaculately snow ladened city.

Abraham as always, was instantly a step behind “My liege, why are we suddenly targeting the central castle?”

“It’s not the central castle we are specifically after.” I told him. “We are demolishing all their defences situated on the mountain peak’s side, particularly everything tall and cumbersome.”

He seemed utterly confused by my odd words, but decided to simply abide by what he was told for now believing our actions to be a necessary component for a more complete victory, knowing that I rarely ever destroyed for destruction’s sake.

And so we continued our blind dash, until we were half way to the castle’s walls. They were lesser than the one’s we’d just assailed, a mere half the hight and a quarter of the width, yet it seemed to maintain just as many bristling weapons as the other, with the three glaring differences between them being the sheer number of rudimentary cannons upon it’s battlements being well over double that of the city’s curtain walls, as well as the utter absence of archers in the midst of their defenders, being solely composed of mages of mostly the ice, wind and water variety.

But it was the third difference that really troubled us, and it wasn’t a matter of equipment or personnel, but of mindset, as these men were far more bloodthirsty and vicious than their counterparts we’d just faced.

For they unleashed the full firepower of their mighty defences upon us the moment we trespassed upon their bombards range, raining down on us a maelstrom of cannon balls, that rent the air and the surrounding city’s infrastructure alike, sending brick and wooden shards like mismatched blades in every direction, indiscriminately shredding everything in a wide area that even we had to sometimes dodge, as several buildings we were upon keeled over in a spray of death. A hefty price to pay for our lives, as I recognized that all those upon the defences held only one flag, proclaiming them as none other than the true owners of the city they were currently decimating.

Yet their brutality was not so easily capped, as they then unleashed their spells as one, sending typhoons of razor winds, glaciers the weight and size of buildings and water so pressurized it cut stone like a well honed axe cleaves lumber.

Yet even this did not stop us, as we continued towards them like a loosed pair of a black and golden arrows, and we finally reached the last building nearest to them, and he and I launched ourselves from it’s roof, and onto the battlements.

They again launched another wave of magic at us, but far less organized than the first, desperately trying to kill us before we landed on their walls, for they had already seen how that would play out.

But their mostly fifth and sixth rank magical power was still below that of me and Abraham, as we both parried their blows with his ninth rank aura and my own seventh rank power that was further augmented by my divine empowered physique.

We landed with a sickening thud upon the walls, as both he and eye crushed one of them beneath our heals as we made landfall, since they were so congested together there was no where else to place a foot on the battlements.

They rushed to hurl more of their magic towards us, even if it meant that they would be in each other’s crossfire, even if it meant more of theirs would die at their own hands, as their eyes now became tinged in a blinding burn of tear strained, venomous hate, as they saw us there, legs halfway through their comrade’s torsos.

Abraham was as always, faster, twisting his glaive in a decapitating motion that severed the heads of a dozen mages before their tongues even had time to utter the first syllable of their reckless chant.

While I attacked with far less elegance, kicking the one closest to me with enough force to catapult his insides through his back, as I then swung my halberd in my right hand, killing three others, while my free hand roughly grabbed cylindrical form of the canon next to me, with such force that the scolding metal bent around my armoured fingers as I wrenched it from the wall, and hurled it towards those before me.

I crushed half a dozen and crippled another mounted cannon, before it’s momentum was finally stopped by the combined effort of several other mages, creating a wall of ice before them, as the wind pushed against it’s barrelling momentum.

Yet instead of finding us where we once were, or a step away from them, ready to strike again, they found us gone instead, as though we were never there.

It took them several confused seconds to notice where our rampant aura was still radiating from, and they found us both, atop the two of the castle many towers, before we then began to attack the vast building, as Abraham became a whirlwind of golden slashes and I finally drew Dark Majesty from it’s hilt.

My sabre arts were lesser than my halberd ones, as the aura covering the blade of my ancestors was only at the fifth rank, not seventh, but it mattered not, as I willed my hellfire to once again materialize itself just a breath distance away from it’s edge.

The whole castle was covered in a thin layer of magical ice, created to better defend it, most probably conjured by the lord protector of this clan himself, who happened to be a ninth rank mage, which is why Abraham had yet to bring this entire structure crumbling down, yet what was ice before a divine flame.

The ice seemed to hiss in agony when the black fire touched it as it then quickly melted away, looking as though it was running away on scurrying steam jets, revealing the unprotected stone below, which also screeched an unnatural sound as it burned into nothing.

It took us half a minute’s time to utterly destroy the grand edifice that housed the masters of this once magnificent metropolis, it’s gargantuan building blocks crushing all that once stood and breathed around it.

But yet again, we did not stay to marvel at our job well done, as we charged to our next and last target, the city’s walls that face the mountain’s peak, without looking back.

Within moments we are there, all the while noticing several hundred Murathicus soldiers scampering to avoid our path, but I can start to feel the mountain rumbling, my brother is almost done.

Abraham and I don’t bother with fancy footwork and wonderous attacks, we smash upon the wall, making projectiles of our very bodies, when our aura slashes did not completely destroy the entire, far less defended battlements of the city.

We again strike, cleaving great swathes of stone from it, like wolves tearing chunks of their stubborn prey’s sides.

Yet we are not fast enough, I hear the expected rumbling of the mountain.

“We must escape!” I yell to Abraham, as he and I quickly abandon the wounded wall, hoping it would be enough to not too severely weaken my brother’s masterstroke.

A cacophonous boom sounds out behind us, and only when we have passed the ruined remains of the central castle do I dare take a moment to look behind me to see a vision of pure pale destruction, a wave of white devouring all before it, the high wall built specifically for such disasters clearly swept away after our brief meddling, as it’s roiling waves belching out houses and mangled bodies like javelins every now and then.

Half the city is buried in ice and snow by the time the avalanche wanes.

I look to the mastermind of this then, only to find him slumped exhaustedly over his chimera’s broad back, with his guards trying make sure he doesn’t fall in his slumber.

“Brother!” I hear then a familiar voice.

“Cyrus.” I call me brother, as he ran to my side.

“Brother?! What was…” He begins to frantically ask, but Interrupt him.

“You and your guards are to immediately depart from this battle and escort Nizam back to camp.”

“He was hurt?!” All other thoughts are instantly banished from him, as he asks in shock and concern.

“No, just exhausted.” I quickly explained, easing his worry.

“B-But what about the battle…” He wants to argue, understanding he still wants to help me, but I again interrupt him.

“I will handle the rest of it.” I said, before I laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You two have already done more than enough.”

He didn’t seem convinced so I asked “How many did you kill?”

“S-Seven.” The number seems to surprise even him for a moment.

“More than enough.” I nod. “Now off with you. Our brothers comfort is more important.” I finish with a tone that makes it clear I will refuse to humour any further argument, as I turn my attention back to the momentarily halted battle around, that has once again restarted with renewed ferocity.