Lord Rhaegal laid in a state of unconsciousness, his body still reeling from the destructive effect of the Heavenly Palm's strike—a blow that would have instantly killed any normal man. It was only the gentle touch of raindrops on his face from a newly formed storm that roused him from his slumber.
Emerging from the depths of oblivion, he found himself engulfed in agony, his vision obscured by the crimson veil of blood seeping from a head injury sustained in his fall. Yet, despite the torment gnawing at his senses, he summoned the strength to rise once again, every movement a testament to his indomitable will.
With trembling hands, he reached for a satchel that contained rejuvenation pills, seeking to mend the damage inflicted upon his soul by the devastating strike. Yet, even as he sought solace in the healing properties of the pills prepared specially for him by his wife, a sense of foreboding washed over him—an intuition of impending danger.
Before long, the valley echoed with the approach of formidable figures—the four War Gods, accompanied by a retinue of their elite disciples. They encircled Lord Rhaegal, their presence a palpable threat.
“What is the meaning of this?” Lord Rhaegal's voice boomed like distant thunder, reverberating through the air with an ominous weight.
“We have come to put an end to your existence, please comply,” Lord Grendel retorted with a sadistic smile, his words laden with malice.
Lord Grendel slowly unfurled his fists, revealing gleaming silver talons that protruded from his fingertips. His gaze fixed upon Lord Rhaegal with a predatory hunger, as if savoring the anticipation of a forthcoming feast.
"Remarkable," Lord Taishen's voice cut through the oppressive silence that filled the valley. "To survive such a devastating strike and still stand... Indeed, you are the epitome of strength”
A chilling laughter erupted from Lord Rhaegal's lips, echoing through the desolate expanse as if fueled by the very depths of his despair.
“Is that why you all chose to conspire against me?” he jeered, his voice tinged with bitterness and disbelief. "Because I dared to excel beyond your reach? Because I dared to aspire to a plateau that surpassed your own?"
His words dripped with the venom of betrayal
"Never have I coveted that which belonged to you," he continued, his tone laced with a sense of wounded pride. "I have stood by your side as a brother, offered my aid in times of need, and yet, this is the reward for my loyalty? Truly, the world is a cesspool of treachery and deceit."
Lord Magnus drifted forward in mid-air, his movements graceful yet charged with an underlying tension as he approached his friend, now turned adversary.
"You possess both strength and wisdom, Rhaegal," Magnus began, his voice measured but tinged with urgency. "Yet, can you not see our perspective? You stand on the precipice of sagehood, a realm where promises hold very little sway. Who's to say what the future holds? A century from now? A millennium? All it takes is a single twist of fate for alliances to crumble and for intentions to sour. Your might could reshape the very fabric of our existence with but a whisper."
Lord Magnus's fist clenched with a silent resolve, his gaze unwavering.
“I cannot in good faith allow such terrible power to come into existence while there is still a means to prevent it” he continued, his voice resonating with determination. "For the strong are destined to dominate the weak, and it falls upon us to ensure balance and order in this world."
“Good, very good,” Lord Rhaegal acknowledged with a smile, his tone laced with chilling resolve.
“You have spoken well and made your case but you all must understand one thing, I am not dead yet, and as long as I still draw breath, there will be ample retribution for your crimes,”
With murderous intent, Lord Rhaegal reached into the depths of a pocket dimension, emerging with his hand clasped around the hilt of his Obsidian blade.
“Finally,” Lord Grendel said as he savagely lunged at Lord Rhaegal, his silvery talons aimed to rend flesh.
With lightning reflexes, Lord Rhaegal deflected the swift assault using his broad sword and then delivered a devastating blow that sent Lord Grendel hurtling into the mountainside with bone-shattering force.
Lord Selene of the Scorching Frost clan stepped into the fray, her presence heralded by the summoning of her glass-like sword.
"I've heard tales of your mastery with that broad sword, Rhaegal," she remarked pointing her sword at the wounded War God, her words laced with challenge. "Let's see if you live up to your reputation."
Instantly locking blades with Lord Rhaegal, she unleashed a rapid onslaught of strikes, each delivered with such swiftness and precision that they seemed to blur to the naked eye. Yet, within the fluidity of her movements laid murderous intent, as every strike was meticulously aimed to deliver a fatal blow.
Lord Rhaegal however matched her blows with unwavering resolve, relying on sheer strength and the weight of his blade to parry her assaults and drive her back time and again. Frustration soon flickered across Lord Selene's features as her attempts to breach his defenses were thwarted at every turn, leaving her unable to land a decisive blow.
Casting a glance at her allies, who had yet to join the fray, she addressed them with a mixture of urgency and visible unease “It's pretty clear that defeating him will require more than just my efforts alone, so what are you both waiting for?!”
In an instant, Lord Taishen and Magnus advanced, their hands weaving intricate signs to evoke potent offensive formations, directed squarely at the lord of the Void Clan
Lord Taishen, swift in his craft, completed his summoning incantation first, birthing forth a legion of wraiths. With a commanding gesture, he unleashed the spectral host upon Lord Rhaegal, directing the tide of undead with purposeful intent.
“You all think I’m the prey here but you are sadly mistaken,” Lord Rhaegal declared defiantly, moments before the oncoming horde of undead threatened to overwhelm him. With a surge of willpower, he summoned the Void Dragon once more, instilling a profound sense of dread in the hearts of the War Gods.
The Void Dragon surged forward, its primal fury unleashed upon the encroaching wraiths, tearing through their spectral forms and devouring their essence before they could lay a hand on Lord Rhaegal. Seizing the opportunity, Rhaegal lunged at Lord Taishen with his sword, his movements so swift, they betrayed no hint of the injuries he had sustained mere minutes before. In a heartbeat, he had closed the distance between himself and Lord Taishen.
Yet, just as Rhaegal's blade threatened to find its mark, Magnus completed his incantation with a single word, "Open," summoning a colossal eye that hovered above his head. The gaze of the eye bore down upon Rhaegal, freezing him in his tracks, his movements halted by an unseen force.
With a gasp, Lord Taishen stumbled backward holding his own neck having narrowly evaded Rhaegal's lethal strike, the blade slicing through the air where his neck had been moments before.
In a heartbeat, Lord Rhaegal composed himself, though a veil of disappointment shadowed his features. "How did you evade that blow?" he inquired, leveling his blade at Lord Taishen.
"My artifact—the Auryn's Eye—possesses the ability to indefinitely halt the motion of any object at my command," Lord Magnus explained, meeting Rhaegal's gaze. "Yet, you somehow managed to defy its spatial constraints in the span of a mere heartbeat," Lord Magnus marveled.
“That trinket won’t be enough to stop me from separating your head from your body,” Rhaegal declared to Lord Magnus, his voice laced with determination as he braced himself for another assault, this time with the Void Dragon at his side.
In the blink of an eye, Lord Rhaegal sprang toward Selene, catching her off guard with his assault. It was a calculated move on his part, a maneuver to engage and ultimately eliminate her, capitalizing on how far away she was from the other War Gods. Simultaneously, the void dragon descended upon Magnus, who attempted to thwart the creature's advance with his Auryn’s Eye. However, before the artifact could manifest its powers, the dragon cleverly slipped through a portal, reemerging behind Magnus, and immediately unleashed a vicious beam of energy at his blind side.
In a desperate bid to shield Magnus from the impending onslaught, Lord Taishen conjured a protective barrier, intercepting a substantial portion of the dragon's lethal energy beam. Nevertheless, Magnus couldn't evade unscathed; a fragment of the beam found its mark, obliterating his right arm and eliciting a cry of anguish from him.
In the midst of the ensuing chaos, Rhaegal had inflicted numerous devastating strikes upon Selene, forcing her to her knees amidst a torrent of blood but In the crucial moment before Rhaegal could deliver the fatal blow, an intense sensation seized him, prompting a swift evasion.
Casting a glance over his shoulder, he saw an otherworldly monster that had the head of a lion, the wings of a bat, and a snake for a tail. With a dawning recognition, Rhaegal identified the creature as none other than Grendel.
“I see you have finally embraced what you truly are - no more than a savage beast,” Lord Rhaegal remarked, assuming a guarded stance with his obsidian blade in hand.
Grendel's laughter echoed eerily. "In my Demon Chimera form, my strength surges tenfold," he proclaimed, jabbing a menacing finger toward Rhaegal. "I’m going to enjoy tearing you apart, piece by piece."
“Your words hold little weight—show me what you can do," Rhaegal retorted, bracing himself for Grendel's onslaught.
With startling velocity, Grendel closed the gap between them, catching Rhaegal off guard. The sheer force of Grendel's assault shattered Rhaegal's defenses, driving the lord several meters back into the mountainside, the crackling sound of breaking stone echoing in the air.
Trapped beneath Grendel's overwhelming strength, Rhaegal found himself devoid of any opportunity to gather his wits.
In a desperate bid for escape, Lord Rhaegal summoned his teleportation ability, whisking himself away from the confines of his rocky prison. Yet, as he materialized once more, he found himself ensnared by the unyielding gaze of Auryn's eye, frozen in a momentary suspension.
In that vulnerable instant, Grendel seized the opportunity and lunged at Rhaegal- A mere second was all the time he needed to close in, his serpentine tail striking with deadly precision, sinking its fangs into Rhaegal's neck.
Reacting with instinctive swiftness, Lord Rhaegal severed the appendage, yet the damage had been done. The insidious venom from the snake had already begun its deadly journey through his veins, its lethal effects irreversible.
“Your fate is sealed,” Lord Grendel declared, a twisted grin playing upon his lips as he inspected his recently amputated tail “The venom coursing through your veins ensures your death in no more than ten breaths,”
Grendel laughed as Rhaegal's fingers instinctively closed around his own neck, his once-sharp senses now dulled, and his body contorting with agony as the venom surged through his veins, swiftly and mercilessly wreaking havoc.
"Take pride in this," Grendel jeered, his voice tinged with malice. "I prepared this venom especially for you."
Rhaegal's gaze swept the battlefield in search of his battle companion, the Void Dragon, only to find it ensnared within a soul cage fashioned by Lord Taishen. The dragon writhed and roared in futile defiance, its essence drained by the soul cage with each passing moment.
Sinking to his knees as pain seared through his body, Lord Rhaegal felt time slow to a crawl. In those fleeting moments before oblivion claimed him, a kaleidoscope of memories flooded his mind. He saw his beloved wife, her smile a beacon of warmth and solace in the darkest of times. He saw his children, their laughter like distant echoes of joy amidst the chaos of battle.
Drawing a ragged breath, Lord Rhaegal cast his gaze upwards toward the heavens. "Your actions are born of fear," he proclaimed, his voice strained yet resolute. "Yet I fear the consequences the world will suffer under your reign."
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Lord Taishen retorted dismissively.
“But I do,” Rhaegal countered, his words carrying the weight of conviction as he struggled to rise to his feet. "If people like me fail to protect the weak and defenseless, monsters such as yourselves will trample them beneath your heel."
Grendel interjected with a sinister tone, “And what do you think you can do to alter that fate, dead man?”
"Probably not much," Lord Rhaegal retorted, his voice tinged with grim determination, "but I can ensure none of you leave this valley alive." With swift precision, he wove a complex series of hand signs, invoking a powerful black hole that was intent on consuming everything in its proximity.
In a desperate bid to save their masters, the disciples of the War Gods who had so far stayed in the background united their powers, erecting a formidable barrier that momentarily contained the cosmic abyss, granting the wounded War Gods a chance to retreat to safety.
“You may have survived today," Rhaegal proclaimed with grim determination, his words echoing across the battlefield. "But know this: our reckoning is far from finished. Someday, I will return, and none of you shall escape my vengeance."
With those ominous words, uttered on his final breath as he sank into the black abyss of destruction, his voice carried across the land for miles, a chilling testament to the resolve of a warrior unwilling to yield even in death.
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Void Immortal is a story being written weekly by Ogechineke Elenwo and I've been permitted to share it here on Hive. It is currently not available anywhere else.
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