Chapter 52: Arc 4: The Burning Port’s Reaper (19)

Borbonsi looked on from Onren as everything burned.

He looked at the communication in his hand and crushed it. The Lord of Commerce should have expected it would eventually come to this, but he never expected it would be him first on the chopping block. Borbonsi was a  supplier for Etaceh’s future ambition. If anything, the better target would be Maximus who was hated by most of the Lords.

But there wasn’t ‘what if’ for this scenario, the invasion was happening right now, and Borbonsi knew he would triumph.

The Lord in a pleated shirt straightened himself and smiled.

“If you want to play, I will happily oblige, Etaceh!” Borbonsi screamed and opened his Authority to its fullest.

Light of gold shone from his body. It was a declaration of war from the Lord.

…

In the throne room of Hecate, Etaceh witnessed the light of Borbonsi’s defiance. Her sensor detected several artifacts and treasures being summoned in the air.

Etaceh brushed her dark navy hair to the side and refocused her attention.

“Star-port artillery, refocuses the fire to the Onren,” Etaceh expertly commanded the city through her network. “Port artillery, begin intercepting fires.”

…

Around the Onren, various treasures and famed swords launched toward the humongous city towering above Eleanor. Some were intercepted by Mana lasers. Few made their way through the curtain of suppressing fire, but none even scratched the barrier.

The flying city then charged with energy and systematically bombarded the tower of Onren.

The golden shield appeared, and with Borbonsi’s stockpile of faith, blocked the attack.

Not to be outdone, Borbonsi summoned a trident into his hand and threw it at the flying city. The impact caused the barrier to light-up as its shockwave reverberated. Several high-rise buildings even collapsed from the force of Borbonsi’s trident.

But the flying city of Hecate remained undaunted.

Borbonsi smiled with excitement. His body felt alive. Priceless armor of cosmic power enclosed his body in an impenetrable protection. Two pairs of wings, composed of light, emerged from his back. Two spears appeared in both of his hands, joining the Lord of Commerce in the conflict.

With a golden helmet protecting his face, Borbonsi flew to meet the flying city like a meteor, slicing through any flying automatons trying to intercept his meteoric rise.

…

“I can’t do this,” Carolina yelled as her twentieth call failed to get through. “What the hell is wrong with this city?”

As the boss she never met faced Etaceh with his all, Carolina was panicking at the mess she was in.

Everything was crumbling too fast and too hard for her to hold it together. She tried to contact the guard to reorganize the defense and failed to reach most of them. Etaceh had somehow jammed Eleanor’s communication. Although she reached several members of the defensive force, almost every one of them was already bolting.

The truth behind Carolina’s failure was simple. Eleanor was a web of benefit and self-interest that was barely held together. Carolina only ascended to the position of Gold Leader in less than a few weeks. She simply had no time to tame this mess and meet the right people. Worst, most of the fighting power in Eleanor was private military, which meant they had no loyalty to defend the city.

Carolina lacked Hikari’s experience in smoothing over benefit, and the humility to remember and connect with the names required to properly run Eleanor. Had she exercised more patience, aimed for a post like Hikari’s aid, and learned the in and out of the job before she decided to takeover, this problem would never have materialized.

But that was Black Mana’s main weakness; the thirst for power and lack of caution when trying to grab it. Black would gladly take a deal with a devil, but a more self-aware Black would read the fine-print and try to find a catch they could prepare against. Even wiser Black would adopt Blue’s introspection to see why such a catch should exist.

Carolina wasn’t aware of Black’s particular weakness. And she was anything but wise.

Thus, Carolina must find a way out with her own force — the Golden Hand.

The Gold Leader ducked and weaved through the crowd of fleeing merchants and rampaging thugs, trying her hardest to conserve her strength. After what was like an hour, she arrived at her destination.

The tower, which was the home for the Golden Hand had imploded from the battle between Hikari and Carolina. The week of rebuilding had covered the hole and restored the headquarters of the Eleanor’s assassin guild back to a functioning state. There, Carolina hoped to marshal her personal force to salvage the situation.

As she opened the trapdoor to the dull corridors, Carolina’s brain came up with several strategies to accomplish her mission.

…

Carolina shouldn’t bother coming up with those strategies. No one was alive to use it.

The dull corridor of the gloomy dungeon was painted in blood and entrails. Corpses lined the dirt in the compendium of violent death. Some were pristine, with their heads twisted in by a hundred-eighty degrees. Many were downright nasty. One was bisected in half. Another had the right side of his body crushed. A head lopped from the body rolled across the floor. One particularly gruesome body was ripped in half vertically, spilling out blood and organs.

All the gruesome collective had one thing in common. They wore a golden mask — the proof of the Golden Hand’s membership.

Carolina heard footsteps tapping on the puddles of blood. She knew who it was that single-handedly massacred the members of Golden Hand gathering in this place. Despite her appearance and behavior, only she had the incentives and raw power to make Carolina suffer.

“Well, I never expect you are going to break my toys by a bloodbath,” Carolina said to the woman walking out of the shadow. “Seriously, is Hikari worth this much to you, Miss Dragon Maiden?”

Out of the shadows was Nuan Yulong. She was no longer dressed in a colorful kimono, but a sleeveless black-overall. Nuan still had her highlight and bun plait, but it was the crazed look in her eyes that was scaring the crap off Carolina. Nuan’s eyes were normally hidden by her distracting hyperactivity. But in this slow built up of terror, Carolina finally saw the eyes of terror itself.

Nuan’s eyes were golden  — with the slit pupils of a ravenous dragon.

To further creep the life out of Carolina, Nuan lifted her blood-soak hand and licked it.

“Taste terrible,” Nuan said joylessly. “Seriously, your minions fight like they are malnourished. I'm quite disappointed.”

A NecroBall dropped into Carolina’s hand.

“Is this all for Hikari?” Carolina gulped. If there was any doubt that toppling Hikari was a mistake, Nuan the Terminator dispelled it.

“Who else is it for then?” Nuan said with absolute venom. “These trash dare to betray her after she treated them so well.” She flicked the blood off her hand. “Now they won’t be betraying anyone else.”

“What the hell did Hikari give you?” Carolina stretched out her piano-wires, preparing for combat.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Nuan disappeared and reemerged before Carolina could mount a defense.

Carolina strengthened herself with Aura, but Nuan’s kick hit with the weight of an elephant, blasting her into the ceiling. Carolina fell from the top into a waiting hand of Nuan. The grab was followed by a punch that blasted her skidding across the corridor.

But Carolina didn’t allow herself to get lag-dolled for nothing.

A NecroBall rolled by the feet of the unamused Yulong’s Dragon Maiden and released a giant bear with acidic squid tentacles and armor plating.

Nuan was less than amused.

…

Carolina crawled from the trapdoor and into the sun, groaning like she lost years of her lifespan. She was lucky Nuan’s punch carried her to the hideout’s entrance for a quick escape.

What the hell was that? Her speed. Her strength. Everything about Nuan was insane. Was this the girl who got pushed around by Hikari?

Not a moment later, the ground behind her exploded.

Nuan Yulong walked out with no injury. She lifted the decapitated head of Carolina's zombie and smashed it like a water-balloon in her hand without flinching at the blood splattering on her face.

Carolina got up from her knee and staggered. Those opening exchanges made the gap between their skill with Aura clear. It wasn’t even close. In the raw proficiency of Mana, Nuan was more than talented. She was nigh unstoppable.

Nuan’s newly revealed threat level brought only more questions to Carolina. What could Hikari give someone so powerful to earn such loyalty?

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Carolina didn’t even have time to blink when her opponent arrived in a flying round-house kick.

…

The biggest question of Carolina’s life was answered a long while ago in the land of Yulong.

The Emperor had many sons and daughters. Many of them were prodigies. All were talented.

Then there is Nuan Yulong.

At six, she was praised as a master of Aura.

She fought in the front line at eight.

By the age of ten, she put down rebellions.

By the age of eleven, she defeated most of her siblings; in a death match.

By her thirteenth birthday, she became the youngest ambassador in the history of Yulong, respected as an accomplished general.

Before she hit puberty, all her royal teachers in the martial path agreed that Nuan had learned everything she could from them. They declared she had the potential to be the strongest creature alive.

It was a given that Nuan Yulong would become Martial Queen, reigning above the rest of the planet. Some even said she could surpass the Emperor himself one day.

And Nuan Yulong hated everyone.

She didn’t know how she ended this way. It was innocent at first. A childish little punch. The fire to improve. To spread her wings and see how far she could fly. Little Nuan sneaked in to watch every lecture, spending youthful nights sparring against an imaginary opponent. She begged to be taught. The girl saw something awesome and wanted to learn how to do it too.

Little did she know she was asking to quit childhood early.

Her innocent and reckless experimenting, chasing after the mastery of her new toy called Aura, shocked her mentor. They called her a master, genius, unparalleled prodigy. Nuan ate it all up like candy.

The reality hit home when the other kids were too afraid to play with her. The illusion of what she became was cleared at her first battle in the front line.

The eight-years-old girl walked out from the carnage, leaving her innocence behind.

With her hand tainted in blood, the girl endured. Every curse of the defeated enemy. The torrent of ambition she crushed. The cries of injustice directed at her. Every battle she fought — every liberty she denied — cost a piece of her soul. The girl who started out with happiness and passion was left staring at the mountain of corpses she created.

Her hand was heavier than lead. She was only ten.

But the destruction of Nuan Yulong wasn’t complete. It didn’t even reach the climax.

The cherry of her misery was the first time her fist went through her brother's chest.

Nuan didn’t know what happened when her fist crushed his heart. That day was a blur. The brother who had laughed with her since she was a little girl challenged her to a duel to the death. Has her rise been that alarming? Could it be that he couldn't tolerate his jealousy anymore? Whatever it is, it didn't matter. She didn’t remember how she got on the dueling stage. The signal to start didn’t register. Her reflex took over at a threat to her life.

Nuan’s fist was penetrating through her brother's back. With it, another part of her disappeared when she barely turned eleven. She remembered that day — the wetness of his blood — in her nightmares.

The girl never asked for her talent. She never begged to have such dangerous potential, nor to live up to it. Everyone around treated her like a second-coming of a messiah. The siblings she wanted to love treated her either like a weapon or a threat. The scene on that stage repeated time after time. The cowering of the mass and the courtiers only grew.

The loneliness and stress weighed too much. Nuan desperately tried to deal with it. She put on the goofy face and a fake energy she didn’t have. Yulong Empire’s greatest warrior tried her damn hardest to bring back the childhood that left her too soon.

It didn’t work.

No matter where she went, her fearsome reputation preceded her. No one saw her as an innocent, childish kid with an annoying personality. They saw the version of her that Nuan wanted to forget — the fearsome general, the invincible warrior… the kin-slayer.

No one was there for her. Her father was like an oppressive shadow. Her sibling? Wolves and knives. She never knew her mother. Her mentor? They raised her up to the cloud of an alien peak where there was no one to talk to.

At the moment of despair, a small salvation arrived.

…

Yes, Nuan still remembered the day she arrived in Eleanor.

“Come on, I’m the almighty Nuan Yulong of the Empire. Tell Borbonsi I want a meeting. Maybe throw a party. Let it be the best party ever!”

The girl in a manservant uniform turned toward Nuan Yulong and sighed like she couldn’t be bothered to handle the kid.

“Sorry, Miss Yulong,” Hikari replied. “I don’t have a budget to do that. Here, how about I give you candy?”

Nuan blinked. She wasn’t used to people not cowering in fear before of her, but the surprise then turned into joy.

“What flavor is the candy?” She leapt at the manservant in a bear hug. “What is your name? Where do you live? Do you want to be right-hand-woman?”

“Please get off me!” Hikari said, trying to boot Nuan off her.

“Tell me your name first!” Nuan was genuinely smiling. It was the first genuine smile on her face since six.

“It’s Hikari,” Hikari said beneath the bear-hug.

“Hikari, huh,” Nuan let the girl go. “I will remember that. Thank you.”

…

That day, like it or not, Hikari became the closest thing Nuan Yulong ever had to an only friend.

…

Carolina’s body bounced across the street and crashed into the wall.

From the layer of dust and broken bricks, Carolina crawled from the hole her body made. That was one of the hardest kick she ever took in her life. In her career, Carolina had plenty of close-call. Death was a familiar neighbor. She wasn’t afraid of it.

Why should she be afraid of the release when she recognized the process of dying could be much more violent?

Nuan strode from the dust, cracking her finger like the act of punting Carolina around was just light exercise.

“You know,” Nuan said. “I bet you never saw this coming. Maybe a bit of road-bumps, sure, but you probably think things will be chummy after you steal Hikari’s position.”

Carolina’s heart nearly stopped. The weight of Aura pressing on her was like a mountain.

“You pick the wrong prey, bitch,” Nuan’s golden eyes glowed with bloodlust. “Get your adorable army out, Carolina.” Nuan wagged her fingers. “It’s worth nothing to humiliate you as a half-dead wimp. Come on. Empty that bag of tricks. Stand and fight like a warrior. Show me the tactic you use against her, so that I can properly crush every grain of your pathetic little pride.”

Carolina groaned.

There were no maybe anymore. She picked the wrong target.

To be fair, who expected the goofball to be the terminator?

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