The blinding flash of dark light caused the spectators to look away instinctively.
While everyone was temporarily blinded, Marcus started hightailing in a blur of dark light.
“Crap!”
Lei Wang and Pelosi are still processing Marcus transmogrification. Delayed by a few beats, they also channeled magic in a timely fashion to give chase. But, Wu Yan was the quickest of them all.
“You think I am going to let history repeat itself?!”
He recalled how the Beast King got away from him last time and his eyes flashed with killing intent.
He teleported into the sky and he trained his vision on the retreating dark light. Instead of using teleportation to catch the assailant, he breathed in deeply.
Ring
Red and golden ripples in space started expanding behind Wu Yan. In the blink of an eye, it looks like a grand gate of opulence housing all the treasures of the world.
When the Gate of Babylon opened up, he turned frosty and he withdrew a weapon out of the portal closest to his right hand.
The weapon he withdrew is an exquisite bow made of black crystals. While the manifestation looked slow, Wu Yan nonetheless pulled it out elegantly, and with haste, the portal spat out the bow just enough that Wu Yan can grab it with his right hand.
“Meteor Shower.”
His gaze was like the arrow that tagged Marcus. He looked at the figure which was fast disappearing in his vision and he trained the bow’s aim on Marcus.
Then, he tugged at where the bowstring would be…
“That’s…”
Hinagiku, Mikoto, Shokuhou Misaki, and the others were gasping in astonishment. Kurumi, Tohka, Yoshino, and Kotori who didn’t get to see the bow in action were looking with confused gazes. The girls in the know looked at Ikaros.
“Ikaros!”
Ikaros’ eyes lit up with red analytical codes. Then, hexagonal plates of light expanded around them.
“Hmm?”
Marcus who was running for his life suddenly felt very threatened. He slowed his pace down to turn his head and look in the direction where this ominous feeling was coming from. What he saw made his scales stand on their ends and his ugly face to distort with fear.
Like a pair of wings made of black crystals, the bow and its arrow started shining with beautiful astral light that looked like he was drawing power from the night. The bow and its breathtaking beauty outshone the surrounding darkness.
Starlight gathered and streamed into the arrow like bees returning to their hives. With sounds that pleased the ears very much, the starlight energy charged up Meteor Shower, further materializing the nocked energy arrow.
That energy arrow was made with silvery starlight and sprinkled with astral light, it was placed between his tab hand and the bow.
The bow was pointed in the direction of Marcus who continued running for his life.
Drawn in by the magnificence of the arrow and its bow, the crowd couldn’t return to their senses. Wu Yan who basked in astral light looked like the God of the Night who descended from his heavenly throne to strike down his foe. Between heaven and earth, it looked like he was the only existence here.
Meanwhile, Marcus’ dark dou qi started rampaging out of control
The dark power within him sensed the incoming danger.
His sweat fell along with his blood, Marcus’s heart got covered in trepidation as he immediately threw energy conservation to the wind, without caring for his wounds or energy consumption, he used every ounce of power within him to run faster. He did this so he can get himself out of the bow’s range.
“Argh!”
There were bulging veins that didn’t belong on his inhuman scales, his seven eyes were darting all around frantically as he groaned under his immense exertion. He has no idea what’s coming for him but he continued running as if he can outrun death.
His futile action only served to delay his time on this mortal plane by just a few seconds.
His golden eyes were lit up by the strong astral light of the bow and arrow. He steadied his breathing with closed eyes and then he shot his eyes wide open as he let loose…
Swish
The arrow of Starlight flew across the night like a meteor.
True to its name, the meteoric arrow sang its beautiful tune across the sky as the stars themselves seemed to support the arrow’s flight. Then, under everyone’s attentive eyes, the arrow caught up with Marcus.
“NOOOOO!!!”
Feeling the presence of death and danger behind him, Marcus cried out in despair.
Then, the meteor struck him true…
Splish
An explosion and the sound of something blasted heavily came from afar. The sound echoed throughout the land.
“GARGHH!!!”
The space around Marcus collapsed as fissures in space spread around him. At the center of this attack, Marcus howled in pain as the arrow left a bloody and gaping hole in his already mutilated body, then, under the baptism of starlight, he was erased from existence…
Fwoom
A spatial ripple reverberated outwards, carrying bits of starlight with it. The remnant power scattered into nothingness as it disappeared from everyone’s view.
After that, heaven and the earth returned to their peaceful state as if nothing had happened. Marcus’ erased life signature and Wu Yan’s bow which was still brilliantly lit told everyone what just happened.
The more astute of the bunch noticed someone putting up barriers around the vicinity where Marcus was struck by the Meteor Shower arrow. The barrier stayed in place until Marcus was freed from his mortal coil when it was dispelled by its owner.
Ikaros’ eyes returned to their passive state. Evidently, she was the one who did that handy work.
Without her Aegis to mitigate the impact, the aftermath of Meteor Shower would have swept the base up in the ensuing shockwave. After all, the duration of the Walking Church had already elapsed…
The people inside the base were still captivated by the scene of that beautiful marksmanship. It would be quite some time before they returned to reality.
He tossed Meteor Shower back into the Gate of Babylon as his eyes turned deep red once more. With a satisfied smile, he looked at his handiwork. However, his grin collapsed when he noticed something. He looked in the direction where Marcus got destroyed and he narrowed his eyes. With a consternating look, he focused on something small there.
A wisp of black light came out of the unstable space and it quickly flew away with rapid velocity.
Wu Yan’s blood raged once more when he saw that black wisp of light. It’s the same reaction as when he first laid eyes on Marcus, that was the source of the dark and corrupt power.
His blood was telling Wu Yan to get that black light before it escapes!
Balling his palms into fists, he yelled at Shokuhou Misaki and Kotori after pausing in hesitation.
“Misaki-chan! Kotori! I am leaving things here to you two!”
Without giving them any further explanation, he disappeared from the spot by using a teleport spell.
“Yan!”
The girls cried out too late. Wu Yan was gone and they realized he must have found something. They looked silently in the direction Wu Yan disappeared from…
