BloodStar

Chapter 40: Lightbringer

Xenia stood staring into the distance at the army which had just attacked her. In particular, she was most focused on the three men at the head of the formation.

Without looking back to Nero, she said, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that blast was meant to kill me Nero. Why else would they level a city they seek to conquer?”

Nero agreed, “It seems their secondary goal is conquering these territories. Their primary goal appears to be vanquishing you.”

Nero spoke with disdain in his voice. Anyone seeking to claim Xenia’s life would earn his ire as it was his sworn duty to prevent such an occurrence.

Nero then said, “Allow me to welcome them to the battlefield.”

Xenia raised her hand and said, “Not just yet. Let me set the mood first.”

Xenia gave a crazy laugh as her eyes went red and her vasculature began to glow through her skin with a red hue. Nero instantly recognized she had entered a state of Bloodlust. He had heard the details of this state before but had never seen it in person himself. He took a few steps back to ensure his own safety from a very dangerous state his General had just entered. An acutely dangerous state for foes, and a potentially dangerous state for allies as well if the user hadn’t mastered the state, which Xenia had not.

Xenia surveyed the battlefield noting that three columns of 10,000 soldiers each stood separated by several miles. She focused her ki energy on the left most column. She raised her hands stretching her ki out as far as it could to sense every individual soldier in the formation.

Within the formation, the sound of blood crunching and curdling within the bodies of the soldiers could be heard as it moved in abnormal ways. Fear struck the soldiers as they could not move from Xenia’s bloodbending hold even from such a great distance.

Xenia then gave a loud cry as she muscled all of her energy to commence her true attack. She spared no force and instead of decapitating the soldiers, she lysed each soldier’s entire body releasing their blood for collection instantly as she gathered a massive BloodStar in the sky above her.

The bright sunny day suddenly turned dark as the BloodStar served as an eclipse from the sun leaving a red hued shadow across the battlefield. The remaining 20,000 soldiers looked up in shock and terror at the massive formation of blood swirling in a sphere above them in the sky.

As the Holy Light Empire gazed upon the BloodStar, Xenia then began to form precipitation of blood over the enemy. The blood rain fell upon them in small droplets of blood falling from the sky. The enemy soldiers began to cower as the blood that was only moments ago bringing life to their comrades now rained upon them.

The soldiers knew they could instantly be murdered by their powerful foe at any second. Fear reigned through the ranks.

Xenia called to Nero, “Now you may attack!”

Nero grunted and nodded his head. He then stepped forward and began to gather a massive amount of ki energy around him. While it paled in comparison to Xenia’s Bloodlust state, it was still a spectacle to behold on the battlefield.

He formed two enormous balls of energy and hurled them at the three leaders of the enemy army.

Pope Peter stood at the front weakened and completely defenseless after exerting himself to use Lightbringer at 100%. Archbishop Michael stepped forward with his holy sword and Pope Gregory stepped forward along with him to protect Peter.

Michael met the first energy blast to arrive from Nero. He struck it with his sword sending it flying off at an angle exploding in the distance. Meanwhile, Gregory stood firm and held out a single hand to stop the second energy blast. He then canceled the blast out entirely by neutralizing the ki with his own.

Gregory smirked as he thought to himself, “You can rain blood down on my armies, and you can fire energy blasts. But you are still leagues away from competing against my sons and me.”

Just as Gregory was lost in thought about his family’s superiority, a column of powerful ki struck behind him. He heard a loud gasp for life as he turned to see the column strike Pope Peter directly. Peter crumbled to the ground only barely clinging to his life.

Michael grimaced realizing their failure. They had taken the head on attacks as the enemy intended leaving their rear ranks exposed.

Gregory called for the medics, “Take my son from the battlefield immediately! Take him to safety immediately! Heal him with the Holy Water at once! His death is unacceptable!”

The medics carefully gathered the unconscious Peter with blood and bruises covering his body. They then hurried away to prepare the healing process.

Meanwhile, Nero stood pleased looking on to the enemy. His misdirection and powerful attack had worked perfectly. He shook his head to himself as he thought, “A true warrior would never fall for such a tactic. They may be powerful, but they are not warriors.”

Xenia stood ready to annihilate another column of soldiers. She clenched her fists after surveying the next 10,000 soldiers. Every soldier in the column suddenly felt an indescribable force upon their body. A chorus of synchronous screams was heard before the bodies exploded sending bones, organs, skin, and brain flying.

She carefully collected their blood into the existing BloodStar above. She then began to feel the lust for more blood. She looked to the third column and licked her lips. She said aloud to herself, “The deaths of the next 10,000 shall not be so painless and merciful!”

She moved her hands to form thousands of blood spears from the BloodStar above. The spears rained down on the third column of soldiers piercing them in the limbs, chest, and head. Some unlucky soldiers found a spear of blood through their eye socket while others found themselves pinned to the ground with a blood spear through their leg.

She then began to explode one soldier after another at random. The soldiers saw their friends and comrades explode before their eyes at random causing fear to run rampant among their ranks as each soldier ran from the prospect of being the next one to experience such a gruesome death.

Nero shouted to Xenia, “Enough thinning of their ranks. Focus on Gregory and Michael. They are preparing another attack!”

However, his words fell on deaf ears as Xenia continued to seek absolute destruction of the soldiers. She was drawn to how many she could kill rather than focusing on one or two powerful opponents. Her lust had overtaken her.

5,000 soldiers remained within the ranks. She could’ve killed them all instantly; however, instead, she began to kill them one by one in drawn out, painful deaths. She laughed and moaned with pleasure as she killed each one.

Gregory looked on to the scene and said to Michael, “The Blood Demon has lost her focus. Protect me, Archbishop. I am about to cleanse the world of this filth.”

Gregory raised his hands into the air gathering a massive aura around him.

Nero once again yelled, “Xenia! Focus!”

However, she continued to have a crazed look of pleasure and insanity as her red eyes glowed with the satisfaction of killing the soldiers one by one still.

Pope Gregory then yelled across the battlefield for all to hear, “Lightbringer! 100%!”

The dark red sky suddenly found streaks of yellow shining through as Gregory’s attack transferred to the skies above. Then a focused attack of dense ki came bursting through the BloodStar shattering it into a million smaller droplets of blood.

Xenia finally looked up to see her BloodStar destroyed as a pillar of light crashed into her face. She was caught completely off guard owing to her Bloodlust. The power to destroy an entire city slammed into Xenia as a focused blast. Gregory’s Lightbringer attack consisted of magnitudes more energy than Peter’s, and Xenia felt the full brunt of it.

As she took the full hit, no excess energy spread to the surroundings area, and Nero came rushing to her fallen body.

He looked upon her. She was still alive but struggling. Her legs were completely absent. One hand was missing. Her abdomen appeared as if a large shark had taken a bite from her side. And she was missing one eye.

What was left of her body squirmed in pain on the ground relentlessly. Her healing powers were working at full speed; however, something was amiss. Xenia’s body had taken the full hit of the blast, and massive amounts of residual ki remained from Pope Gregory’s attack. Her body was currently both being healed and being eaten alive by the remaining ki from the attack.

The two forces continued to battle one another as Xenia lay at the brink of death in a state of perpetual pain and suffering.

Nero could do nothing for her. He knew Xenia’s battle now lay with her own body and her own powers. He knew his duty now fell to protecting her to give her the chance to rise once again should she overcome the battle within her.

Pope Gregory strained his eyes from afar and said aloud to Michael with an incredulous tone, “She’s still alive?”

Michael was in disbelief as well, “Yes. But only just barely. She seems to have absorbed the attack to save her fellow warrior. Her body is now battling the excess energy she absorbed.”

Gregory paused before saying, “Good. Then it is only a matter of time before she succumbs to her injuries.”

Michael shook his head, “Her healing powers are immensely powerful father.”

Gregory looked to his son Archbishop Michael and said, “Then we shall finish this here today. We shall take her small glimpse of hope.”

Michael stood with his sword in hand and looked to his father. Gregory then said, “Permission to use Lightbringer Archbishop. Permission to strike at 100%.”