Solflare: The Painter's Secret

Chapter 268: Vaelith vs Leon II: The Edict of Wither

Memories of Wu Ze flared into Leon’s vision when he shifted his gaze to the ground filled with his blood, while the red glow entwined around him as if learning Leon’s true essence.

"This is what we need. It can help us locate the Starfire Opal we were tasked to come for."

He remembered the wide smile that appeared on Wu Ze’s face when the words came out of her mouth.

Leon’s chest heaved while a cunning laughter dashed out of him like a running turbine when he saw the mixture of red-gold fire dancing on the blades of the Hi-no-Kami. "I promised to keep all of them alive."

He threw a sharp gaze at Vaelith, then grinned. "But you killed them and made me watch each one, like a movie I didn’t plan to watch in my entire life."

The red-gold cloth unraveled itself from Leon’s neck, while sharp air bounced off Leon’s boots when his body leaped in the air without the help of the drift shield. "I WILL MAKE YOUR SOUL BURN, VAELITH!"

A concussive blast of red-gold fire flared out of Leon and tore out countless feathers from Vaelith, but that only made Vaelith smile harder.

"That’s the true self I want you to have, Leon Storm!" Vaelith’s wings blasted the dust and his torn feathers from the ground when he leaped higher into the skies.

The blue skull glows seeping out of him increased while the tips of his feathers sharpened into the texture of unbreakable steel. "Come on! Show me you’re your father’s son!"

Countless soul skulls surged forward when Vaelith slapped his hardened wings together. Sharp, air-splitting hisses lanced through the air as hundreds of feathers sliced through the space like Poseidon’s trident.

"YOUR FEATHERS HAVE NO EFFECT ON ME, VAELITH!" A scream tore out of Leon as he cut through the flying sharp feathers like a leaf and watched each one pass by his ear with a lethal whistle.

Metal clashing sounds echoed as he slammed the katanas in countless directions. Some of the clashed feathers crashed deep into the earth with shattered tips but bounced back to Leon when the blue soul skulls swirled around them once.

The moment two of the feathers that had regained their strength from the blue soul skulls streaked around Leon’s cheeks and drew blood from him, the Deathblight tattoo on Vaelith’s left shoulder began to dissipate from him.

"Give me your all, Leon Storm." Vaelith screamed and hurled countless sharp feathers at Leon like an angry rain, while the blue glow in his eyes began to hum, as if dying.

Sharp air flew out of Leon when he felt his upper left shoulder skin burning, but he didn’t stop blasting the feathers out of his way, even when half of his body became a graveyard for the soul-powered feathers.

The moment he bounced three of the soul-powered feathers to his left side, he blinked once when he heard Liu Yan’s laughter gushing through the feathers as they withered onto the ground.

’Liu Yan.’ His mind went numb in a second while his attention drifted toward the withering feather. Blood gushed out of his mouth, nose, and ears when the sharp feather he had left to play pierced through him, burying him in the air and turning him into a macabre statue of glowing blue feathers.

"This is what we call real power, Leon Storm; cherish it and thank me later." Vaelith screamed and laughed in a devilish tone while the blue glow in his eyes and body began to ascend from him.

The glow transformed into a huge blue skull and danced in the air at Vaelith’s front.

Two drops of tears trailed down Vaelith’s face when he saw himself as the blue skull. "Go."

The glowing blue soul skull dashed through the air like a shooting star. Just as it reached Leon, now a graveyard of sharp feathers, the soul skull turned into countless pieces and pierced through Leon’s body like needles.

A dying, breathless sigh escaped Leon when he felt a new wave tearing through his veins. The red-gold glow in his eyes began to blink as if welcoming the blue glow that was threading through his God heart with the word Wither.

The moment the last letter vanished into the gold heart, every form of strength, including the vitality and purity in Leon, dissipated from him.

His eyes went dead dark. The Hi-no-Kamis flew out of his fists when his fingers went numb and cut through the cries of medieval souls that were escaping from the earth itself and entering Leon’s body as their new host.

"Leon, Leon, LEON!" Voices of the sentinels, the lizard lady, the old woman, Lieutenant Prince, Wu Ze, An Lang, and Liu Yan blasted his very soul apart. "We are one with you now. GO MAKE US PROUD!"

When the voices faded, Leon’s body lunged like an electrocuted person, while sharp air flew into his lungs. His dead dark vision transformed into three layers, gold at the right, red at the left, and a faint pulsing blue glow at the top, as if wanting to blend itself with the two.

Each one of the glows gave Vaelith a new form when Leon shifted his gaze toward his direction. Leon saw the golden Serakel in the right gaze, the Syrs at the left, and a creature he hadn’t yet met laughing in the pulsing blue glow.

"AURELIAN!" A deafening scream tore out of him as he pushed himself through the sharp feathers. "I will end you!"

Aurelian stood there in his godlike Vaelith form and laughed, while shaking his head in joy. "My domain does not block your strength, Leon Storm; it consumes it."

He sidestepped while cunning laughter echoed out of him when Leon dashed forward without holding his sword, but instead with a red-gold-blue glow around his bare fist.

Every strike sent two feathers off Vaelith, but that even gave him a new transformation, instead of fearing the waiting death. "The more fury you project outward, the more fuel you give my law to rot your flesh."

He ducked and watched a fist fly right at his face, then inhaled the heat around the fist. "To fight me, you must learn the inward technique."

The moment he turned to leap away from Leon’s fist, Leon slammed his right knee into Vaelith’s chest and a spray of dark ichor erupted from his lips as his body curled around Leon’s leg.

The impact hurled him flying up into the air, but he caught himself and brushed his chest as if the blood hadn’t even come out of his very self. "Compress your soul."

A grim grin lanced on his feathered face and he dashed toward Leon like a blade. "Seal your fire entirely inside your heart where my law cannot grasp it."