Chapter 1668: Judgement of the Bloody
The battle between Copper and Feroxxa was surprisingly even...for the most part.
Due to being judgementally rattled, Feroxxa was unable to bring forth his full power for the first few moments of battle despite having summoned his [Regalia] and [Astra] at the time. As such, Copper was able to attack with abandon and pulverize the man for a bit.
But then, after a few dozen blows in, Feroxxa managed to get his shit together long enough to mount an actual counteroffensive.
Once that occurred, the battle quickly shifted to be more in the veteran priest’s favor.
Copper may have had the raw physical might befitting an Earth-aligned protokaijin, but Feroxxa was a veteran of a hundred battles and it showed.
Heavy blows were masterfully avoided, while attacks of opportunities turned into mistakes of hubris.
Copper started this fight looking a pristine heavy knight clad in polished copper armor, but Feroxxa’s attacks made the protokaijin looked more like beaten tinker toy.
Eventually, this proved to be too much for the Hearth Tender to bear.
She had grown attach to Copper, Silvie and Goldie during their short time together, partially because Serena didn’t really have any friends up until that point.
Well, friends that weren’t looking to abuse her in some political turnabout anyways.
As such, Serena came to Copper’s aide when the knight-like protokaijin was about to lose their head to Feroxxa’s [Heretic’s Reward].
"Hearth Tender?! What are you doing here?!" Feroxxa yelled as he defended himself against an impromptu flaming fist to the face.
"Don’t you fucking play dumb with me, Feroxxa! Or did you not just confess to your crimes a mere five minutes ago?!" Serena shouted back as she smoothly transitioned to a bicycle kick to Feroxxa’s face.
"Fuck!"
Serena made sure to don her [Regalia] before entering the fray, resembling a phoenix-blooded fairy thanks to the Sacred Flame’s influence. As for her [Astra], though, she didn’t need it yet.
The power she received from reuniting the [Hearth Tender Trio] was already more than enough to match Feroxxa’s might.
Evidently, the battle hardened priest only realized this fact after Serena’s foot landed on his face and he felt the surge of power flowing through it.
More specifically, he could feel the energy empowering Serena react negatively to the [Flame of Ambition] that was inside of his soul.
"You...you have the [Hearth Tender Trio]?!" Feroxxa realized with horror on his face. "Why? How?!"
As far as Feroxxa knew, the Kaijin Lord was the guy who had ownership of the lost treasures of the Scared Flame Theocracy. This meant that Serena managed to sneakily steal the aether treasures without the fabled embodiment of natural disaster noticing her movements, or...
"You... you’re working with him? No, you’re working for him?!" Feroxxa accused the woman who was supposed to be his superior. "How could you betray the church like this?!"
The moment this question left his mouth, Serena replied with a withering stare colder than the northernmost parts of the Soaring Griffon continent.
In other words, subzero.
"I betrayed the church? Me? " Serena said, the rage in her voice accompanied by a sharp increase in her aether aura. "I’m sorry, who’s the motherfucker who just confessed to letting my predecessor, my fucking sister, die at the hands of another? Who’s the motherfucker who rolled up to a secret meeting with the Kaijin Lord accompanied by a squad of reanimated corpses of our fallen allies? WHO IS THE FUCKING ASSHAT WHO HAS BEEN WORKING WITH A SENTIENT OFFSHOOT OF THE SACRED FLAME FOR THE PURPOSE OF COORDINATING A COUP?!"
"That-! I-!"
"And now," Serena interjected before Feroxxa could attempt to defend themselves in a flimsy manner that made his name feel like a point of irony. "Copper and I are going to kick your ass in. With me!"
[Yes ma’am!]
Feroxxa didn’t even have the time to comprehend how fucked he was when Serena and Copper began to lay into him.
[Terra Spike Storm!]
First, Copper slammed his mace into the ground and created a whole mess of earthen spikes that he then swung towards Feroxxa.
These spikes were infused with [Chaos], so Feroxxa could sense that attempting to block these spikes would end in disaster.
As such, Feroxxa attempted to leap upwards to avoid the attack. Unfortunately, this led to him leaping directly into Serena’s attack range.
The First Hearth Tender positioned herself in the air in such a way that she could land a heavy forward punch that was both accelerated and empowered by the [Sacred Flame] that was embedded in her soul. Combined with the buff from the [Hearth Tender Trio], this simple punch had enough power to rival a intermediate grade Ethereal aether art!
BANG!
"GRK!"
The force of the punch was strong enough to cave in Feroxxa’s [Regalia] for the briefest of moments as the warrior was sent flying backwards.
If they were fighting in a normal circus tent, the attack would’ve sent the man flying out into the open air where they would have the opportunity to correct themselves and prepare for a counterattack.
Unfortunately, they were fighting inside of a fucked-up fun house room made in the [Library of Nowhere], done to Springerdermain’s specifications.
And the spring-limbed magician enjoyed using elasticity to his advantage.
Which is why he stopped Copper and Serena from chasing after Feroxxa as the man was sent flying backwards.
"Huh? I thought the Kaijin Lord was you wouldn’t interfere unless —"
[Not interfering,] Springerdermain quickly corrected. [Just watch and have Copper get ready to swing.]
[Huh?]
Feroxxa impacted the sides of the tent, but he didn’t pierce through it.
Instead, the sides of the tent that caught Feroxxa began to stretch and bend like a sheet of latex before snapping back into position and sending the man flying towards Copper and Serena.
[Oh.]
It didn’t take that much brainpower for Copper to realize what he had to do next.
[Batter up!]
Taking his mace into both hands, Copper swung at Feroxxa like he was a baseball and smashed the heavy weapon into them with enough force to cause a small scale sonic boom.
[Oops.]
Copper’s aim was to smack Feroxxa with just enough force to bunt them and send them tumbling to the ground. At which point, he and Serena would follow shortly after to literally and figuratively curb stomp the man into oblivion.
Unfortunately, Copper didn’t understand his own strength.
His swing ended up sending Feroxxa crashing into the ground instead, several dozen feet away from his and Serena’s position. Surprisingly, though, he didn’t get cratered.
The man actually skipped across the ground for a bit until sliding to a stop.
This wasn’t an impossible distance to cross, but it was far enough that a crew seconds could make the difference between a full recovery or a partial recovery.
As such, Serena understood that closing the distance to further attack was just asking for trouble. Which is why she opted to simply pepper the man with a long distance one.
[Sacred Ember Swarm!]
With a wave of her hand, Serena released a swarm of burning embers that quickly took on the form of burning birds.
The birds ripped through the air with the sole purpose of turning Feroxxa into a pile of slag and ash.
Unfortunately, the attack was just slow enough for Feroxxa to not only recover from the bouncing, but he also had enough time to pull out the trump card that every Aether King kept up their sleeve.
[Icon, appear!]
"FUCK!"
A symbol representing Feroxxa’s [Ideals] soon appeared out of thin air and blocked the incoming attack, seconds before it embedded itself into the priest’s chest.
A surge of aether washed over Feroxxa in that instant, wiping away all of the damage and fatigue that Feroxxa had accumulated during this battle.
Not only that, but the aether provided by the [Icon] made Feroxxa’s [Regalia] tougher and his [Astra] even deadlier.
In other words, Feroxxa now has the power and majesty of a true king of the world.
"You know, I realized something while you and your monster over there started wailing on me," Feroxxa said in a strange voice that sounded unnatural to Serena’s ears. "Just because I confessed me crimes to you, it doesn’t mean I’m guilty."
"...come again?"
"History is written by the victors," Feroxxa continued, "Meaninging even the most vicious and hated warlords in history can be remembered as beloved paragons as long as they keep winning. Why, the same could be said about justice."
Feroxxa paused as he leveled his blade in Serena’s direction. From his perspective, the blade was perfectly aligned with her neck.
"I just need to kill you, here and now, and that would wipe away whatever crimes I may or may not have committed. By becoming the victor, I will be forgiven."
After making this statement, Feroxxa disappeared before reappearing right next to Serena. His blade was in the process of being swung against her neck.
"So do me a favor, and wash away my sins with your blood!"