1946 100,000 Souls

The surge of energy exploded and with it the ice barrier had scattered into a thousand pieces, falling onto the ground. For a second, Erin was dumbfounded, she held her demon tier sword by the side of her face and twisted the handle again, switching it from its ice form to its fire form.

The blade glowed slightly red, and once again she slammed it into the ground, activating the third ring. With it a large wall of fire rose up again right in front of all of them.

'It looks like that blood armour that Agent 4 is using is able to block the attacks better than my walls. If worse comes to worse, we are just going to have to buy time for him to block attacks while I figure something out.'

Something that hadn't happened to Erin for a long time, had occured today, and that was hesitancy. She was struggling with what to do, trying to find an answer to winning this fight.

Using her raw power for this one wasn't going to work out. While in the middle of her thoughts, there was one person who had run past her, and it wasn't Agent 4 like she was expecting.

Long black hair could be seen flowing in front of her, and a middle aged man with his hand on the sword in his sheath jumped right through the fire.

'Zero… but what is he doing, how is he going to get through the fire?'

As Zero got close to the fire, without even having to draw his blade, it looked as if something was pulling the fire apart with its bare hands, almost creating an opening looking similar to that of an eye.

Instead of using her eyes to try and figure out what was happening in front of her, Erin resorted to using her ability. In doing so she could see it, it was a strange form of the second stage of Qi.

The Qi that was surrounding Zero, it was immense, powerful, condensed and deadly sharp allowing for Zero to even push the flames apart. The second Zero broke through the flames, he could see Gorgath right there.

Pulling out the sword from his sheath, a large amount of energy erupted at one single point, it was condensed to the tip of the weapon. The fine edge of the katant like blade was lighting up in a slightly bright pink.

"100,000 Soul strike!" Zero shouted.

Gorgath had both of his hands pulled back, ready to throw out a punch, the strange balls on his body were spinning as he was ready to take down the flame wall.

'I never expected them to attack this soon, I thought they were cowering and hiding behind their defenses.' Gorgath thought.

At the same time, the blade coming out of the sheath moved far faster than he expected and it had slashed across his chest. A large line of energy, as long as a mountain, erupted and sent Gorgath hurling back in the other direction.

He skidded across the ground a good few metres before he stopped himself, creating sparks behind his body to slow him down. He rubbed his fingers across his chest and could feel an indent and also blood dripping down from his chest.

"So you are one of these so-called gods, right?" Zero said, as he pointed out his sword. "I know a little bit about you, I have been told a few things you see, from one of you."

Gritting his teeth, Gorgath stood up, but he didn't look in pain, if anything he looked absolutely fine, and still full of energy.

"You, the marking… you are a dedicated follower of Immortui correct? If so, then why are you getting involved in this fight? Do you think because you serve him that I will not harm you?"

Zero hearing this smiled.

"Oh, so you know the one I serve, that is interesting, it seems he is a great person even among the gods like he said. Either way, the power I just used against you, has nothing to do with him, that is all of my own, and there is still a lot where that came from."

Gorgath's eyes widened hearing these words, and he was reconsidering what to do for a second, as he saw all four of them.

'That power, he's right, it hardly had any celestial energy behind it at all, but then how did a human get so strong, and more so, the power that he did use, it didn't completely feel like it was his. The strange energy he summoned… what is it?'

The energy that was somewhat unfamiliar to Gorgath was the Qi that Zero was using, since he hadn't fought earthlings or humans before. Yet he was right about his thoughts.

Although the energy was a part of Zero and had come from his body, it didn't feel connected to or part of him. This was all because of the attack that Zero had used.

The reason why he had called it the 100,000 soul strike, was because that was the amount of Qi energy that Zero had obtained over the course of a 1000 years.

It was the amount of Qi energy he had used in that single strike, and was why it was able to do such a thing to a celestial, even without having celestial energy in the attack.

The celestials got their energies from those that were alive. In a way, Zero was doing the same, but he was taking the energy directly from the lives, and using it this way was far more powerful than the gods could have imagined.

Gorgath lifted his hand up, the others braced themselves as they were ready for an attack. The fist was thrown but not out towards themselves, instead a loud thud was heard and a slight mark could be seen on the side of Gorgath's cheek.

"Since when have I been the type to worry? I don't care who you serve. My orders have come from Mundus, and even Immortui himself would be a fool to try and go against them. Since you stand in my way, I will take out you and every single one."

For a second, Zero thought about moving to the side. If he claimed that he wouldn't get in the celestial's way, there was a good chance that he would even let him and another live.

However, right now Zero had to choose his sides carefully, and in this situation, he was far more interested in Erin, rather than a god like this that could do nothing for him.

Stretching his arms out, a total of four orbs on each of Gorgath's arms started to spin, then the two stationed around his chest and the rest of his body. Sparks continued to flicker off his skin and connect with each of the orbs.

The ground underneath Gorgath's feet had crumbled but from his sheer power, he was still levitating and floating in the same space.

"Shouldn't we attack him now, while he is powering up?" Flora asked.

"Don't worry, I'm ready, whatever comes our way I should be able to block it." Agent 4 claimed, with his hand held out.

Erin wasn't too sure about that. Although she was confident in the blood armour's power, she wasn't in Agent 4 himself. His strength might be strong compared to human standards but here in a battle like this, Agent 4 was quite slow.

One would just have to move faster than the speed it took for him to cast his shield to get through it. Racking her brain, Erin knew this was going to be an annoying fight, unless Zero had any more tricks up his sleeve.

'I can probably pull through this fight if I used everything I had, but that leaves me open… open for another attack. I can't use all of my energy, just in case.'

Finishing this thought, she turned her head, as her ability had latched onto new energies, new energies that were coming their way from the side, and it was ones she had come to recognise quite recently.

'What are those idiots doing here… this situation has just gotten a lot worse.' Erin thought.

****

I am back from my holiday and back in my office. It was a one month trip and was why the chapters dwindled down. Thank you to everyone who continued to support me, and understood that it was my first holiday in three years.

I feel like I have slept for a 1000 years just like Quinn and am re-energized.