Chapter 96: Wrath vs. Envy vs. Pride (Part 2)

Across Arcadia’s millennia of history, even before men developed the means to control magic—unique individuals gifted with godlike strength, speed, resilience and regeneration abilities occasionally appeared—always achieving legendary feats. The most prominent of them all emerged in the second emperor’s reign and came from a large warrior tribe whose language vastly differed from today’s Arcadians.

His personal name isn’t recorded in history, but the world remembers him for being the only genuine threat to von Skoll rule across 3,000 years. Alone he waged a bloody war against the imperial family and nearly succeeded in slaughtering them to the last. To celebrate his unrivaled strength and achievements, his tribesmen named him Mahana, or “grand noble” in their tongue.

 

However, though unequaled in might, Mahana lacked a strategic mind, and each time he assaulted the empire, his vulnerable tribe suffered the brutality of the imperial forces.

 

While they could have directly wiped them out, the von Skolls took care to kill a few and abuse the many, making resentment against Mahana grow at his back. The then High Priest of the Dark Eden Society conducted a grand sabbat to summon Adramelech and borrow the Anathema from his hands.

 

Still, while the Anathema could slash through everything, few could get close enough to put it to use. The Dark Eden Society negotiated the secret surrender of Mahana’s tribe, and the second emperor bestowed the blade upon his daughter, promising to spare the tribe and make her his empress after her father’s death. Mahana was then murdered by the one he trusted most.

But while his daughter did become empress, she couldn’t endure the resentment devoured by the Anathema, killed her tribesmen, and committed suicide. The blade then returned to Adramelech, and while the imperial family attempted to erase all records of the warlord’s abilities, too many eyes bore witness. Since then, whenever such superhumans appeared, arcane scholars dubbed them mahanas, and despite their varying physical prowesses and skills, they all possessed the same trait: magic couldn’t harm them, and they couldn’t use it, either. In his second life, Kilian was one such individual.But using his Six-Wheels Throne Heart, Klaus devised a way to suppress and alter the mahana gene so that on the one hand Kilian could learn magic, while on the other, the duke could nullify his son’s anti-magic skills at any time.

As the name implied, all members of the Technocracy’s Mahana Department were mahanas. However, only 1% were born so. The rest possessed a close enough genome that the technocrats could turn them into quasi-mahanas. Still, even as Tamara’s sweeping kick hurtled at her temple, Lena’s eyes showed no dread. 

“Third Circle Spell: Sound Breaking Step!” Willing two orange circles, Lena gathered her dra in her feet and let it all explode in one propulsion. The sonic boom of supersonic speed thundered as Lena outpaced Tamara’s kick and barreled into her.

Breaking Tamara’s momentum, Lena smashed into the mahana’s armored chest with an elbow strike, but before the move sent her shooting across the sky, Lena whirled into Tamara’s back, and battered her skull with her healthy knee. The mahana’s skull cracked, fresh blood stained Lena’s knee, but even as Tamara’s consciousness faded, the hellhound choked her with a back neck-lock.

“Thank you for telling me what worked on you and what didn’t. Thank you for looking down on me and giving me such a gracious opportunity. Otherwise, the fight would have been a hell of a lot more troublesome,” Lena whispered in Tamara’s ears, bared her fangs, and with one bite tore through her carotid.

Tamara’s blood gushed forth and splattered Lena’s face before her inert body collapsed on the ground—or so it should have been. Dropping on her hands instead, Tamara averted her fall and threw a back kick at Lena’s chest.

Too late to avoid it, she blocked the kick with her crossed arms and used the collision to fly out of the bleeding Tamara’s range.

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“You can even keep fighting with a ripped carotid? Impressive,” the hellhound commented as she regained her footing. By now, her broken knee had already healed. But likewise, Tamara’s ripped artery wouldn’t take over three minutes for a full recovery. Holding her gashed neck, Tamara spun to face Lena with gritted teeth and burning rage.

“What? Don’t tell me that you also resent me for defending myself. Am I supposed to spread out my arms and kiss you while you beat me to death? Come on,” Lena stretched out her hands and chided to lure Tamara into more mistakes.

However, this time Tamara didn’t let conceit get over her head, cooled her wrath, and as her gaze hardened, the chain mails covering her chimed like church bells. Silver light burst from the mails, coiling around Tamara to cover her in a skintight, muscle fiber armor.

But while the change seemed to come from the chain mail, Lena suspected that it only served as a vector, that just like her master, those mahanas could summon power armors to make their fighting skills skyrocket. She was right, and this ability made all the difference between true and quasi-mahanas.

With a step, Tamara lunged at Lena, but despite moving faster than the speed of sound, she left no sonic boom behind. Her right hand turned into a sharp blade, and she hacked at her past friend’s neck without an ounce of hesitation. Although the Technocracy’s brainwashing dulled some of her abilities, they made up for it by turning her into a bellicose killing machine, a weapon that lived to slay her family’s and the Technocracy’s enemies.

Knowing that the tiniest mistake could cost her life, Lena unleashed her true form. Her skin turned jet-black, with fur sprouting at various parts of her body. Her teeth became fangs, her nails massive claws, a tail emerged from her back, and as she morphed into a true hellhound, her sclera turned red.

Releasing a guttural howl, Lena summoned a shroud of hellfire that further enhanced her skull-breaking skills. However, the flickering dark-purple flames did nothing to deter Tamara, and her move went on unimpeded.

This time, Lena neither blocked nor evaded, directly countering with a sweeping claw at Tamra’s neck.

The fastest would decide the fight. But as the moves neared their targets…

Slash.

Lena and Tamara’s right arms flew into the air, and their blood poured like water jets.

Wracked by pain and thrown off balance, they rushed past one another and collapsed on the ground.

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Author's note: I tried to upload the Character Sheet, but it's over the word limit for sh. I will try to think of something.

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