Primordial Conquest

Chapter 67: Resolve

"Cut some more!"

"C'mon, just budge!" Arbus roared as he wrenched his body against his bindings, forcing the thick metal to carve deeper into the ancient tree's bark.

Dried tears streaked his face as he gritted his teeth while swallowing back screams of agony.

His blood flowed freely down his arms where the aTer chains had carved deep grooves into his flesh.

Over the past few minutes, he had seen several flashes of light coming from the village.

Most of them resembled the eerie dark light that was usually emitted from Arora's ability.

He wasn't sure what was going on.

But he was sure he wouldn't just wait here and hope for the best.

The old tree groaned under his continuous struggle as Arbus twisted and jerked relentlessly, forcing the restraints to bite deeper and deeper into the tree on the opposite side.

After what felt like an eternity of agony, his eyes shone as the carved groove finally reached a level where the chains were too loose to bind him anymore.

He pressed his back against the tree and pushed himself upright, finding it easy to escape the chain's ironclad hold.

His hands trembled violently as waves of pain shot through his mangled arms.

'It hurts so much,' he thought, barely able to move his fingers.

His gaze snapped toward the village as he forced his hands into fists, ignoring the blood that seeped from his wounds.

He wasn't going to let something like this stop him.

He said nothing as he began running towards the village with as much speed as his wounded body could muster.

He couldn't leap across the trees like he usually did, so he just ran, doing his best not to stop.

'i'm coming, Arora!'

_______________________

"What in the world is happening!? I thought the crisis had already been averted!" Tino shouted in disbelief as he noticed the dark light that lit up the evening skies, emanating from the crater that had formed in the northern part of the village.

Tino and Kyun had just returned from their hunt when they had encountered waves of panicked Tarokians fleeing toward the village outskirts.

They also noticed as the Mornans and other species who had come for the crowning of kings tournament ran to their spacecrafts and flew away. Unlike the Tarokians, they didn't have to stay here to face whatever outcome came of the human's attack.

They had found out shortly after that another reincarnator had appeared in the village. The news had naturally frightened them.

They still vividly remembered the last one Joren had faced when he personally protected the two of them.

Thankfully, the elders had appeared from their dwellings in the Tarokian stadium walls, and quickly informed them that the Commander stationed above Tarok was on his way. That had calmed the commotion down quite a bit.

After that, the elders had headed towards the crater themselves.

Several moments ago, the peaceful atmosphere they had began to feel suddenly vanished, as a dome of black energy engulfed the crater in the distance once more.

They felt the wind lashing violently around them as it rushed to fill up the space where air had been erased.

"L-look! Above the crater!" Kyun suddenly shouted in a panic.

All the Tarokians were capable of seeing vast distances, so it was easy for them to spot what had shocked Kyun so much.

High above the crater, the Commander twisted through the air in desperate maneuvers as he clutched onto his Heart spear tightly. Countless powerful beams of pure destruction chased him closely across the sky.

The Reincarnator danced around in the air with a terrifying smile on her face as she fired at the commander in rapid succession.

She seemed relatively unharmed.

While the commander, was already missing a limb.

"T-the Commander... Is running" Tino whispered, a horrified expression appearing on his face.

His heart sank as his gaze dropped to the crater below . The elders had gone towards the center of the commotion to meet the Commander.

Their best warriors had also been there as well, stalling her.

"Wait... no way!!"

"....The elders! the elders are dead!" One of the Tarokians screamed in anguish.

A moment later, panic spread like wildfire through the crowd. Even seasoned warriors like Tino and Kyun stood frozen in terror, unsure of what to do next.

A female Tarokian sobbed as she clutched her child closely.

"Is this the end of Hai?"

The crowd continued watching the battle in the sky in dread.

___________________

Norman streaked through the sky in erratic bursts, his movements growing more desperate as Arora's beams of annihilation pursued him relentlessly.

'Her soul is burning up even faster. Soon enough she'll be too strong for my negation to affect at all.' he thought grimly as he continued to observe her.

Suddenly her gaze met his as she charged up another large ball of destruction.

She focused the energy at the tip of her fingers, before spreading her arms wide. Then she swung them closer together at insane speeds. Twin walls of pure destruction closed in on Norman from both sides, cutting off all his escape route.

His eyes narrowed as he immediately activated his ability again. "Sagittarius: quickdraw!"

Suddenly, multiple ethereal arrows burst from the crimson aura surrounding him, each one shooting in a different direction at lightning fast speeds. This technique sacrificed Sagittarius's unbelievable range for raw speed, allowing him to choose whatever route he wanted to take while confusing his enemies. He teleported to one of the arrows just as Arora's attack erased the very air where he had been floating.

After he reappeared, he hovered motionlessly as he studied her soul even more. his breathing was still steady, despite everything that had happened so far.

Finally, he decided to try it one last time to ease his conscience.

"Human child. Stop this madness now!"

"Your actions have already cost so many innocents their lives! Don't let this continue any further!"

Arora remained still as well, partially turning off interitus to listen to his desperate words. She said nothing back as her dark eyes devoid of color watched him with a deadpan expression.

Norman pressed on, undeterred by her silence.

"You don't have to destroy yourself! Your soul is burning away with every second you feed that power. Soon there'll be nothing left of who you really are!"

Storm clouds gathered over them as sounds of thunder filled the silence.

Arora's expression shifted slightly as she examined herself.

She felt more powerful than she had ever felt before. She felt like nothing in this universe could stop her anymore.

Not the commander, not the other Reincarnators and not even the Renegades.

She felt the furthest thing from weakness.

And yet at the same time, she could sense the commander was right. She could feel the emotions that her newfound self and the original Reincarnated version of her felt slipping away slowly.

She was starting to resemble herself right before her death.

She didn't want that.

But she couldn't stop.

Her gaze returned to Norman.

"Is that so, Commander."

"Then tell me... what choice do I have?"

"Will you simply let me leave so this can end?"

Norman's jaw tightened as he weighed her words silently for several moments.

"That's not possible. Not after what you've done. What you could still do."

"....How unfortunate." Arora said, smiling somberly. "Then I suppose this was always inevitable."

A moment later her interitus reactivated completely.

Norman sighed deeply for a moment. Then, his expression changed as he hardened his resolve.

The Heart spear in his hand suddenly lit up brightly for the first time in this fight.

"I suppose it was."

He would no longer hold anything back.

The only option left was to kill Arora.

Before it was too late.