Chapter 428 - The Brutal And The Swordsman (Part 2)
"Hello there.." Said the wisp of consciousness with a playful tone.
In the mind of the two grand judges, it sounded that a kid had found a new toy to play with, making them the useless old toys.
After acknowledging the presence of Jerigh, the wisp of consciousness moved towards him in an attempt to enter his body, but before he could come too close, a wave of sword intent washed over him, tearing his presence into shreds.
The two grand judges felt a level of reassurance, but in the face of the Swordsman, all but happiness was present. For thousands of times he had fought against the consciousness of the mindhive, and even when he had been able to destroy it with his odd power, Akkah had been able to come back to life soon after. That, was the difficulty of dealing with overly powerful minds.
Furthermore, the level of threat that he felt towards this specific consciousness was incomparably higher than when he had faced his brother, to a point where he was reminded of the pressure he had felt the time when, just like any other of his brother before, he had tried to attack Iewah during their first encounter.
To the group's surprise, not only did the consciousness reform, but so did the body of the brutal, which emerged intact from the thick surface of blood.
Instead of merging back together, the invader did something that had never been seen before in their native dimension. He injected a portion of his consciousness into the body of the Brutal in order to face both the Swordsman, and the two judges at the same time.
The practice of reanimating a corpse and controlling it with one's mind was what, in the invader's dimension, was called necromancy. A practice drastically different from puppeteering, which required a constant effort of the puppeteer to control his puppet.
A necromancer, on the other hand, could leave a certain amount of consciousness into a dead body, and reanimate it as a spiritless dead thrall. At the same time, one experienced with the power of the mind, would even be able to recall the thrall's own consciousness.
What was injected in this specific thrall, was a copy of the consciousness of the only entity which knew the Brutal's system better than he did. The original Brutal.
"Brother?" Said the Brutal after opening his eyes, and noticing the Swordsman.
Caught by surprise, the two judges ignored the wisp of consciousness, and turned to look at the thrall who, seemingly terrified, had recognized the person whom he was facing.
"You are still alive?" Asked the male judge with shock.
To respond to the judge's question was not the Brutal, but the wisp of consciousness, who said, "Do not worry about this. He is one of my little slaves now. As you will all be soon enough." As he finished speaking, the mental power that he emanated started to take the shape of a humanoid being, and soon after, turned into the exact appearance of the half naked man which had managed to capture Edmund as he involuntarily entered his domain.
Unwilling to let this man prepare for a fight, and with their enemies suddenly doubled, the male grand judge placed one of his hands on his companion's shoulder, and in an instant, injected more than half of his power into her body.
Similarly, all around the universe, the members of the judge's faction felt the connection between their gift and the female judge's thicken, and a small portion of their powers being absorbed.
The entire process took only a few instant, and once completed, it showed its effect on the skin of the female judge, which began to glow with a light that was difficult to observe with the naked eye.
Unfortunately, this process was not without harm for the person who started it, and if one could observe the skin of the judge's body underneath all of that light, they would notice that her skin was starting to crack from the excessive power.
Without wasting any time, the woman unsheathed her sword, and pointed it at the wisp of consciousness. "I do not know who you are, nor do I know where you come from, but today you will be judged." she said with a tone that sent a wave of sound essence which reached millions of kilometers in the distance.
As she finished speaking, the glow that surrounded her body started to dim, and at an inverted pace, the tip of her sword started to shine with an even purer light-gold light. This light did not grow in size, but kept growing in intensity, drawing away every ounce in the judge's body, which went from simple aging, to a mummified state.
Once the glowing at the tip of her sword reached a critical point, from in between her ashy grey lips, came the words, "Judge's Decision."
The moment these two words left her mouth, the small yet intense light shot out in the direction of the now humanoid consciousness.
The invader was shocked by the power that such small ants could muster, and even he could not help but be petrified by this column of light. He was only able to put a couple of words filled with shock together, before the light washed over him, and erased him from existence.
The beam of light was charged with the power of every judge in existence, and was so strong, that whenever it was used, its light would outclass the shine of most stars.
Unfortunately, this attack was not one the judges could use randomly, as shown by the state of the female judge, who compared to the healthy and young state she was when they had departed, she now appeared like a mummy that had been unearthed thousands of years after her burial.
Her life was literally hanging by a thread, and if not for the calm and seemingly useless pearl that was hanging around her neck, her body would have already become cinder destined to drift aimlessly in the infinite space.
'Judge's Decision' was, without a doubt, one of the most powerful single attacks which any of the members of the universal government were capable of, and could only be used by someone in the possession of the 'Pendant of Immortality', the artifact created by the death system, for its owner's use.
This attack was usually used to showcase the prowess of the government, and its sheer existence worked as a form of deterrent against the leaders of the main factions. Legendary entities who, in order to be harmed, needed legendary measures. It was only thanks to this attack that the government had been able to obtain the allegiance of the Deathbringer, who after personally feeling the power of the Judge's Decision on his own body, had realized that the only reason why he hadn't met with death, was because of the very specific powers of his system.
"How are you feeling?" Asked the male judge to his now withered companion. In his voice was an audible worry, which contrasted greatly with the snarky ways the two had treated each other before.
"I'll… live…" said the woman with the tone of someone on the verge of breathing their last breath.
Convinced that this mysterious opponent had died, the two lowered their guard. On the other hand Jerigh and the Swordsman knew that something was wrong, as the Brutal was still standing.
"You all better run.." said the Brutal with unwillingness. It was clear that, despite the typical overbearing character of a children of Iewah, he knew that he was just a pawn of a being which he couldn't hope to defeat. He was a simple slave that could be used, and summoned at will.
Just like the Brutal foretold, a disembodied voice resounded from the area where the invader had been before the attack. "Now that, was impressive. Maybe this dimension is not as backwards as I thought it was." said the invader with newfound respect.
Around the area where the voice was coming from, an invisible mist started to converge into a single area, until finally, only moments later, the humanoid was reformed to the image of the invader.
At this point, the grand judges were starting to feel worried. According to their sources, no children of Iewah would be able to escape death twice in a row. That was why they hadn't used the Judge's Decision against him right away. However, now that the strongest of their attacks had been unsuccessful, and one of them was in no condition to keep on fighting, the two began to feel the pressure.
What was pressuring them was not the fear of death, but the fact that they were supposed to be an undefeatable force, and if they were captured, not only would they fail in their task, but they would be handing over one of the most powerful artifacts of the universe, to a mysterious, and seemingly immortal entity.
Despite the worry, the two quickly came to a tacit agreement.
"Take the kid and leave." Said the male judge before slowly grabbing the gavel that was hanging by his waist.
While not at his full power, contrary to his companion, the male judge was still able to call upon himself the power of the other judges, and even if he was unable to kill this mysterious opponent, he would at least gain enough time for the others to escape, before attempting an escape of his own.
His confidence came from the fact that, despite quietly observing until now, it did not appear that the Swordsman had any intention of fleeing.
The weakened female judge nodded in agreement, but before she could try anything, the invader turned to look at the brutal, and said, "Capture that one, and I'll let you live for a little longer." he then turned to look at Jerigh, and said, "I feel like rabbit meat tonight."
As soon as he gave the order, the skin of the Brutal began to peel off his body, uncovering his muscles and bones, on which numerous spikes quickly started to grow. This form was known as 'The Aspect of Brutality', and was one of the active abilities of the Brutal's system. The sharp and spiky bones at the end of the fingers, elbows, knees, and feet, were a show to the brutality that fighting against him would cause.
"If you do not want to end up a slave, leave now, brother." said the brutal before his back muscles bloated to ten times the size, and his teeth became pointy as swords. Nothing but a monster was left of the normal appearance he once possessed.
The swordsman did not budge. Instead, he grabbed the hilt of his sword, and almost as if feeding off of each other's energy, the veins in both his arm and in the blade of the sword, started to pulse uncontrollably.
Once ready, the two disappeared, and of them, only the noises of sword clashing against bones remained.
The invader quickly noticed the actions of the male judge, who prepared himself to fend him off long enough for Jerigh and his companion to leave, but he had a mission. He was in that dimension for a reason, and had spent months one body to the other, just so that he could find the two people who had offended him.
Jerigh was the first and only connection to Daniel and Edmund, and he was not willing to let them go.. so, faster than a bullet, he shot through empty space in an attempt to infiltrate his body, but just as he reached a distance of twenty meters, he was stopped.
The space in front of him warped, and the empty space in between him and his prey was filled by the metallic color of the judge's gavel, which flattened his incorporeal being before dissipating him into nothingness.
The female judge immediately took notice of the successful blow, and after grabbing Jerigh's arm with her wrinkled and bony hand, she used all of the power she had left to leave as fast as she could.
Unfortunately, what neither of them had noticed, was the invisible wisp of mental power which had attached to the male judge's gavel, and was slowly crawling towards the judge's hand.