Chapter 256: BloodStar Attack |
Nero drudged along the main boulevard heading towards the Sage Palace. The capital city was now awash in a red tint from the ever-growing BloodStar glowing overhead. Nero held his war hammer, Blood Cry, over his shoulder, and he took in a deep breath which invigorated him. This was his first time bathing in the presence of a BloodStar since he had become a BloodStar Immortal, and he felt encompassed with pure energy with it overhead.
After several more minutes of walking, Nero begin to feel the ground rhythmically beat to the steps of soldiers marching, and it wasn’t long before he began to see endless columns of 10,000 soldiers approaching him and blocking his path towards the palace.
Nero continued his own march forward unyielding in the presence of such overwhelming enemy forces until the leader of the soldiers called out to Nero from 50 yards away.
“Gladiator Champion Nero! BloodStar Immortal Nero!” General Kublai of the Sage Empire stood in front of his legion of 10,000 men feeling invincible with such a force under his command. He smirked to himself to find Nero alone and unaccompanied by Xenia.
“You come to our lands! You turn our beautiful blue skies red! You will atone for serving such a vile empress! You will atone with your life!” Kublai then raised his hand giving a signal to his men, and all 10,000 assumed a battle position with a synchronized grunt as they did.
Only a few miles away, Xenia remained in her lotus position in front of the blood waterfall with a smile on her face as she bloodbent into Nero’s mind to watch the battle and address Nero.
“Nero, darling. I’ll be watching. Allow me to set the mood for you. In exchange, please remind them of the power of us BloodStars, especially on a battlefield with a BloodStar looming so largely overhead.” Xenia couldn’t help but smile as she allowed herself to be slightly distracted as she anticipated watching Nero’s carnage.
Nero grunted and responded, “Yes, my empress. I will remind them.”
Nero then felt a drop of blood from the sky. It came as no surprise to him; however, as the single drop turned to a light shower, the opposing Sage Empire soldiers began to look around at the unusual phenomenon.
Nero then raised his war hammer showing off the broad side of the hammer head revealing Erika Sage’s face embedded and petrified within the metal, “Submit to the Empress BloodStar! Kneel at my feet, kiss your dead Master’s face, and I will give you a quick death, General!”
As rain poured down upon the General with blood soaking his hair, running down his face, and trickling into his mouth, he felt a sense of disgust towards the savagery of the BloodStar Empire.
“You dare to rain down the blood of my own people! Dare to have me taste the blood of the ones I love and protect! You die today, Nero!” Kublai then pointed his sword forward, “Attack! Charge!!!”
Kublai stood in place as his men rushed passed him with sword and shield in hand yelling as they rushed into battle.
Nero stood his ground ready to put on a show for his empress. He held his massive war hammer with one hand straight above him. He then used his bloodbending powers to call on the energy above from the BloodStar.
A massive red lightning strike of ki extended from the BloodStar striking Nero’s hammer in a flash of brilliant red light within the storm.
Blood Cry absorbed the energy turning the war hammer into a glowing red weapon, and Nero briefly cried out in agony as the surge of energy burned his palm where he held the hammer’s staff. He then immediately slammed the hammer down onto the ground in front of him and directed the ki from the BloodStar forward towards the charging soldiers.
Just as the lightning had struck in a flash, the hammer dissipated the energy in a flash sending out a spiderweb-like network of tens of thousands of interconnected lightning-like projections shot forth from the hammer.
The lightning-like ki devoured nearly everything in its path only bouncing off the specially equipped shields of the soldiers; however, the sheer number of projections from the massive ki attack overwhelmed the battlefield, striking enemies from all directions as they succumbed one after another despite their special equipment.
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The attack had cleansed the battlefield of 10,000 soldiers in an instant. Neighboring buildings, bridges, and other infrastructure also crumbled from the wide field of effect. Nero gazed upon the decimation as the dead bodies which never even reached him still flickered with electricity-like projections of red ki ravaging their dead bodies.
Xenia felt a surge of pride and pleasure within her seeing Nero embrace the power of the BloodStar overhead. She half-expected him to adhere to his pride in battle using only his own ki.
“You have made me a very proud empress, Nero. Serving me over your pride I might expect on any given day; however, to see such loyalty and dedication to me on the battlefield…” Xenia paused to enjoy the gush of pure pleasure surging within her before softly saying, “Oh my.”
Nero grunted in response before saying, “As a BloodStar Immortal, I serve your every whim empress. My pride is nothing in the face of my loyalty.”
Nero then grimaced as he looked on to the battlefield, “Forgive me, empress. It seems the job is not quite finished.”
Xenia already knowing as much laughed, “Make it painful, please.”
Nero slowly began to walk through the carnage of his attack on the battlefield as he approached the far end of his destruction where a dome-like structure of interconnected shields stood.
As he approached it, he surmised that General Kublai and several soldiers had constructed it to keep the General safe. Standing near the dome, Nero called out, “You are the leader of these dead men surrounding me! Why did you not lead them!?”
Kublai called out from within, “Our mission is one of sacrifice, BloodStar Immortal. Not one for victory.”
“What do you mean, sacrifice?” Nero furrowed his brow.
“We don’t intend to defeat the empress. We are sent here to buy time for your demise. And let me tell you Nero, our mission is a success. You are too late. Every second is a victory for us.”
Nero stood in silence for a moment thinking on Kublai’s words until he finally smiled and said, “You mean Heraklinos? Jarek?”
Nero couldn’t help but smile with amusement, “Your desperation has blinded you. Empress Xenia BloodStar would welcome a challenge from the Heraklinos Empire whether it be seconds from now or years from now.”
Kublai responded swiftly, “Xenia may welcome such a challenge, but she may also regret it.”
Both men paused for a moment on two opposite sides of a layer of shields separating them until Kublai spoke again, “Ten of my men and I remain alive on the battlefield. Your empress must be disappointed, Nero. I welcome you to waste time further attacking us. It will be futile.”
“I have more than several ways to pry you out of your cage of desperation, General. However, my empress wishes to see you die a slow and painful death, and so you and your men will have one.”
Nero looked at the palm of his hand from where the staff of his war hammer had burned him from the surge of energy from the BloodStar lightning strike. As he stood in the blood rain, he looked up to the BloodStar once more, and raised his ki.
He backed up ten yards from the shield dome and held his hammer out in front of him targeting the dome. Then, he called down multiple successive lightning strikes upon the dome. With each strike of ki, Nero bloodbent the energy to dissipate inward towards the shields rather than dissipating outward.
Although the dome of shields protected from direct ki strikes, it did absorb the heat of the attacks just as Nero’s palm had been burned from the sudden and uncontrolled surge. Nero took this opportunity to practice both controlling such a large transfer of energy to prevent future burns to himself and also to practice directing attacks from the BloodStar overhead.
The shields stood strong as Nero began to call down multiple lightning strikes at a time now as the red lightning streaked through the storm of blood falling from the sky.
Within the dome, the temperature had steadily risen owing to the lighting strikes and their massive surges of ki…90 degrees Fahrenheit… 130… 200…
Nero could hear the screams of the people within as their skin, fat, and connective tissue began to slowly melt off their bodies.
…300… 500… lighting strikes of ki began to accumulate quickly upon the shields sending the temperatures within the dome skyrocketing… 1000… 2000… 3000… 5000…
The cries abated as the dome now glowed with a red hue not from the ki but from the accumulated thermal energy gathered within the metal of the shields which themselves had begun to melt.
Nero finally stopped. He took his hammer and swung the piercing points of the hammer head down on the dome piercing it with ease owing to the void material built into the pointed striking aspects.
A rush of hot vapor escaped, and as the vapor cleared, Nero looked within to see a molten pool of what used to be the flesh and bone of the humans within.
Xenia having watched the entire process, was overwhelmed with joy, “Nero. Mmm. Nero. If that was foreplay, you’ve made me wet. I’ve never been hotter for you. Was that for me? Tell me it was.”
Xenia bit her lip with pleasure anticipating his response as she used every ounce of energy within her to keep from pausing her BloodStar growth to go fuck him immediately.
“Yes, that was for you, empress. And once I am finished taking the Sage Palace, I am returning to you to finish what I’ve just started between the two of us.”
Xenia gasped with a welcomed shock as she thought to herself only, “Since when does Nero talk dirty to me? That news with Constance must have really stirred him. Oh I love this!”
She then responded to him, “You feel it too, Nero? Finish what you must, but I will be coming to you at the palace. I refuse to wait any longer than I must.”
Nero looked to the Sage Palace and responded, “I see the other legion in the distance. A Heraklinos legion. Foreplay isn’t over just yet, my empress.”