Timeless Prominence

Sun Sword Sect Elder Jekcen was naturally alarmed by the sudden appearance of Supreme Huhrz. He has heard many unbelievable rumors regarding Huhrz. Supposedly, none ever survived a battle against Huhrz. As for battle competitions? Huhrz never deigned to participate in any. As such, Huhrz was the most mysterious shadow of the Halls.

How had such a dangerous Supreme arrived here so soon and laid an ambush?

Only now did Rekcen sense something to be off. His mind spun through all the possibilities and quickly identified what the Halls might be after.

The Halls must have discovered House Larne to be in possession of minor levels of low grade jade and determined it to be from some distant ancestor no longer tied to the mortal house-- him!

If Jekcen were to be told that Beincen had revealed the existence of that jade from bribing Halls’ officials, he would cough blood in anger.

“The jade mine…” scoffed Jekcen. This was the only possible reason that the Halls would specially target him.

“I have heard the Halls to be calculative. Sensible. Astute. Prudent. The branch you belong to is young. Are you all fools?” Jekcen’s voice was filled with mockery, but his darting eyes betrayed his inner doubt. “The jade mine is located in the thick of the Evergreen Mountains. Even should you gain temporary control of it, you will not be able to maintain your hold, surrounded by us Great Sects.”

“Hah,” Huhrz chortled at Jekcen’s words. “Do you believe that to be the reason for my presence here?”

Jekcen’s squinted his eyes at the regal purple form of Huhrz, his mind attempting to identify other possible explanations. His thoughts repeatedly returned to the jade mine, yet he soon realized his own guess made no sense. There was no way for the Halls to mine the jade within while besieged on all sides by the Great Sects. The Evergreen Mountains is the Great Sects’ turf!

“I’m simply giving the Great Sects a hand,” Huhrz shrugged nonchalantly. “The Great Sects have a clear policy of not having their upper ranks corrupted by noble members, no?”

A ridiculous explanation. Jekcen’s links to House Larne are beyond weak. It is known that the Great Sects always looked the other way when it came to miniscule ties. After all, one could not blame an ancestor for giving some care to their descendents-- as long as said ancestor stands on the Great Sects’ side should the Minhr Nation come into conflict with the Great Sects.

Huhrz simply smiled as he activated his sun-moon revolution art. He placed his two palms against one another, then the two hands began flipping against one another.

Jekcen immediately began his own preparations as well. He controlled his aurae tendrils to form a few dozens of sun swords. As an outer advancer, he controlled these aurae-formed sun swords through those aurae strings. He surged aurae to his eyes and could see that Huhrz similarly controlled the many hovering aurae javelins through such strings-- tendrils given purpose.

He calmed his heart. Since tendrils connected Huhrz to those aurae-formed javelins, that meant his opponent had yet to enter the telekinetic realm. Huhrz may be infamous, but this man should not be that much more powerful-- so he thought. He thought wrong.

Jekcen glanced at Huhrz’s face, and his heart shook as the sun in Huhrz’s right eye along with the moon in Huhrz’s left eye began to revolve around one another, distorting the man’s face in an illusion.

Jekcen blinked his eyes repeatedly, attempting to dispel a sensation of dizziness caused by the two spinning eyes, only to now find Huhrz’s sun and moon eyes stationary in their position.

Huhrz raised his right arm and pointed towards the sky with his index and middle finger. He chopped downwards in execution, and his many aurae javelins drilled through the air towards Jekcen.

Jekcen initially thought this to be a sort of ‘testing the waters’ start to duel, but when he attempted to gesture with his right arm to send his own aurae swords forth, instead of his right arm moving, he discovered that it was his left leg flapping about instead!

Alarmed, Jekcen moved every single one of his limbs-- his control and sensation of his limbs had been completely rewired! As such, he could not control his fiery aurae swords properly to block Huhrz’s javelins! His aurae swords became a chaotic mess in the air, flying in random directions due to Jekcen’s disorientation.

A few of Huhrz’s javelins clashed against swords flying about like headless chickens, and the two aurae projections shattered and showered the air with dispersed many-colored aurae mist.

Jekcen ceased attempting to block the incoming javelins with his chaotic mess of aurae swords, and instead attempted to wrap himself in aurae tendrils, hoping to gain control of his body and move through controlling his body like a puppet, purely using said tendrils. This was of no use.

When he attempted to fly downwards into the tall grass to ‘hide’, he failed. Instead, he floated sideways towards his right as one of Huhrz’s javelins stabbed towards his chest.

Jekcen grunted as his defensive robes’ inscriptions lit up and dissipated much of the strike. His heart pounded in fear along with an ache. The javelin carried an incredible amount of power, and had bruised his insides despite the robe’s protection.

He quickly realized that his survival depended on one single point-- understanding of Huhrz’s unique advancer art.

Is he in an illusion? Jekcen recalled the spinning sun and moon eyes. There are two common ways to break illusions. Identify something odd within an illusion and use that point of weakness to break said illusion, or forcibly erase the enemy’s magic with an overwhelming surge of aurae.

The latter is, of course, not possible for Jekcen. He would have to be realms above Huhrz to forcibly overwrite Huhrz’s art-- if it is an illusory art.

Jekcen now attempted to move towards his right. If his attempt to move downwards sent him right, perhaps moving right would send him down. So he thought.

He was wrong once again. He actually did move right this time, as another aurae javelin clashed against his defensive robes. Once again, his robes’ inscriptions lit up and defended him.

Jekcen attempted to steady his heart as he tried to find a potential weak point, believing it to be an illusion. He couldn’t accurately control where his head turned and where his eyes looked, but of what his gaze scanned, he found nothing suspicious.

Jekcen's heart began to sink ever lower. Try as he might, he could not understand the basis of Huhrz’s magic. Then-- an epiphany. He recalled how his combined humongous aurae sword had shattered at the start of the battle, when he was ambushed. Perhaps said clash provided the contact that allowed Huhrz to infiltrate his body.

His lack of control over his body led to another three of Huhrz’s aurae javelins striking his figure at the same time. The inscriptions on his robes lit up again, yet this time, it flickered like a dying flame, barely protecting Jekcen. Jekcen realized he would have to begin pouring his own aurae reserves to keep the robe’s defensive qualities active.

Jekcen began examining his body, thinking that if he could identify some foreign presence in his body, he could remove it and be free of Huhrz’s debilitating magical art. He frustratingly found nothing!

Huhrz pointed his index and middle finger to the sky again as more aurae javelins formed. Another few aurae javelins dove toward Jekcen, as others javelins jabbed elsewhere to remove his remaining aurae swords headlessly charging around in the air above.

A number of javelins crashed into a number of swords, their forms shattering and showering the area above the grassland with another cloud formed from specks of aurae.

Jekcen cursed Huhrz in his heart. This man was simply too meticulous! Jekcen had hoped that if he could figure out the nature of Huhrz’s art, he’d be able to regain deft control of his aurae swords and mount a counterattack.

Huhrz’s care in removing Jekcen’s aurae swords effectively depressed the Sun Sword Sect elder’s heart further. It would require much aurae to reform said swords, and he was already being drained by the constant demand of the defensive inscriptions upon his robes.

Rein and Wilo had ceased their escape, desiring to observe the battle between Jekcen and Huhrz

Rein could not fully understand the battle before his eyes. All he could see was Jekcen seemingly unable to move properly, swinging his limbs erratically and floating around, even dodging into the path of Huhrz’s javelins as if attempting to inflict injuries upon himself.

All he could conclude was that Jekcen seemingly was unable control his body, and was under siege by the aurae javelins-- once an outer advancer concentrated his aurae into a concentrated form, even those below the outer realm would be able to perceive  said aurae weapons.

Still, observation of this battle further opened Rein’s eyes. Dragonknight Zelli’s words were proven correct. There are many unique magics in the world, and learning to not over-rely on or expose an origin ability is wise.

At this moment in time, another group arrived-- the forms of Malak, Yidahr and four other Sun Sword Sect disciples appeared at the edge of the tall grasslands.

Malak’s lips curled and he exploded off his feet with his physical prowess and vanished into the distance before the Jekcen could even make an attempt to order the Sun Sword Sect disciples to imprison this man.

Though Jekcen never fully trusted Malak, he also never suspected that the Halls had him in their sights, and thus paid little mind to Malak. Not that Jekcen could punish Malak in the current conditions. Huhrz was about to take his life!

Yidahr and his fellow disciples did not pursue Malak, despite having put two and two together after seeing their elder in trouble.

They, instead, took notice of Rein and Wilo,and chose to target the two.

Five opponents in the shell realm? That was simply too much for Rein and Wilo. The two turned their heels and continued to flee. Rein was confident he could face one shell advancer, but not more.

“Follow me,” Wilo beckoned urgently. The two exitted the grassland and entered an area of sparsely-spaced number of trees, the beginnings of a lush forest.

Rein’s eyes widened as he noticed rows upon rows of demon beasts in the distant west, barely visible through the loose rows of trees.

Demon beast waves. He recalled that the Halls had mentioned that such an attack was coming. At least, that was the reason provided as to why the recruits of his cohort were sent to the Western Wilderness in an accelerated fashion.

This might also be the reason as to why they did not encounter a demon beast yet during their escape from the Endless Mountains. The demon beasts had begun to gather under the summons of whoever their leader may be.

Luckily, Wilo’s target location was right before them. Wilo led Rein to the front of an inconspicuous tree trunk and pressed the side of her head against the tree as she chanted soft murmurings indecipherable to Rein’s ears.

Amazingly, the roots of said tree lifted up and a tunnel sloping underground opened. Rein, though bewildered, followed Wilo in, and the tree lowered its roots again to perfectly enclose this underground area.

“What is this place?” Rein suspiciously questioned Wilo.

“I have a unique affinity with the element of wood. So I came to know of this place.” Wilo explained as if it was very normal for her to be aware of this hiding spot.

Rein furrowed his brows and began exploring around. The tunnel seemed to extend deeper towards the west endlessly. He dared not follow it, uncertain of where it may lead, or the potential dangers of the tunnel itself.

Then, their surroundings began to rumble, a force oscillating in Rein’s ears from above. It felt like a million horses were galloping overhead.

Cold sweat rolled down Rein’s back. He understood very well that the demon beast wave had just been launched towards the Minhr Nation. And he had narrowly avoided it. He initially thought himself lucky, only to recall that it was the mysterious Wilo who had led him here.

He turned his head to find Wilo placing her head next to a thick tree root that closed over their entrance, as if she was listening to something.

Should he question this woman? Though Rein had the urge to, he ultimately decided against it. After all, Wilo did save his life with that golden needle.

When the earth finally ceased its quaking, the roots opened up. Rein and Wilo returned to the surface, and discovered the skeletal remains of five humans, with some flesh still stuck to the bones. Tattered bits of cloth here and there identified these as the Sun Sword Sect’s disciples.

Rein’s suspicions of Wilo were certainly heightened, but once again, he found himself unwilling to confront the woman. Wilo also cared not to explain herself.

“So… how do we get back?” Rein wondered as he sighed. A demon beast army now stood between them and the Minhr Nation. They would have to avoid this army on their return, but whether they could was another matter.

____________________________________________________________________________

An aurae javelin pierced Jekcen’s dull robes and stabbed through his left abdomen. Meanwhile, another aurae javelin clashed with one of his aurae swords in the air and further added to the thick cloud of aurae formed by their shattered aurae projections.

Jekcen had failed. He could not identify the nature of Huhrz’s advancer art, try as he might. He had examined himself repeatedly, as well as Huhrz’s control of his aurae. Nothing suggested there to be an illusion, or that Huhrz had somehow infiltrated his body.

All Jekcen knew was that he could not control his body properly. He began to believe that Jekcen must have used some mental-based attack to confuse his mind. Yet that should not be possible until the telekinetic realm. Or perhaps. An origin ability?

Regardless, without understanding how Huhrz was manipulating his senses, he had little control of his body, and was repeatedly and viciously struck by every single one of Huhrz’s attacks.

That was not all. Jekcen was also about to exhaust his aurae reserves. Huhrz, however, appeared perfectly fine, as if he was still in his peak condition.

The result was that Jekcen could no longer maintain his pride, and his body slumped down onto the ground, flattening a patch of tall grass.

He heard footsteps approaching, and expected Huhrz to appear before his face to further humiliate him before delivering a final blow.

Yet instead, a mature and seductive woman in heavy and vibrant makeup, thick lips and curled dark locks peered down at his face, her lips wrapped around an exquisite smoking pipe. In her right hand were four bottles pinched between each of her fingers and thumb.

The corks of these four bottles opened up and the woman blew a smoke cloud from her enchanting lips. This smoke cloud traveled into each of these bottles to mix with the vibrant liquid within each, before flying towards Jekcen’s mouth.

Jekcen wished to have one final struggle, but then he realized that it was pointless. He was aware of this woman. Supreme Yaor. A seductress and expert alchemist of the Halls. Even if he had put up a better fight against Supreme Huhrz, he would have similarly fallen if this second supreme was forced to enter the fray. Jekcen was doomed from the start.

Soon after.

“Do you have the location?” Huhrz asked seriously .

“Of course,” Yaor coquettishly giggled as she swayed her wide hips under a tight clinging violet dress and sauntered towards the stoic Huhrz.

“Behave yourself,” Huhrz ordered.

“Give me a kiss and I’ll tell you~” Yaor blinked repeatedly as she made this request like an unruly child.

Huhrz sometimes wondered whether this woman was more suited to be a devil with this type of demeanor. Her nature would certainly be compatible with many devilish arts.

A flick of his sleeves and ten aurae javelins surrounded Supreme Yoar’s voluptuous body.

“Stop playing around,” Supreme Huhrz sighed with exasperation. He had been dealing with Yaor’s antics for many years. “The demon beast waves have begun. Now is the time to strike at the Great Sects’ jade mine.”

“Promise me that I'll be rewarded,” Yaor whined.

“Fine. Fine.” Huhrz relented. He could feel through his aurae connection to the environment, the demon beasts’ march. They do not have much time to prepare.

Supreme Yaor smirked and the two flickered and vanished. They cared not of Rein’s fate. As far as they were concerned, Rein was but the reliable bait to lure out Rekcen.