Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Chapter 589: DLXXXIX. The Dark Arrow

The arrow was wrapped in a purple gas, which condensed and became filiform dark matter, that continued to float around its wooden bar without ever touching it.

Soon after, the enemy raised his hand and stuck his middle finger under his thumb, loading a shot in the direction of the castle's tallest tower.

"Fuck!" Reidar thought, who as soon as he sensed the next shot would be directed at him, put both of his feet on the balcony railing.

The Xis snapped the two fingers with the palm of his hand facing down, and the arrow rotated so quickly on itself that it was instantly wrapped by the purple gas.

Faster than a bullet, it was fired at great speed towards Reidar and left behind a shockwave that consumed the floor under the feet of the Xis, who was obviously unharmed.

The arrow traveled through the air at four times the speed of a pistol bullet and centered the access door to the balcony: once inside, in less than a second, a giant explosion overwhelmed the upper floors of the castle, causing the entire structure to wobble.

The explosion generated by the impact released a large amount of dark matter, which expanded into the air in the form of huge tentacles that enveloped the rubble just created by the destroyed pieces of the tower.

As if they were weightless bodies, the huge pieces of wall, including the tower's interior rooms and all the objects contained therein, were completely enveloped by the dark tentacles, which closed in on themselves and compressed into nothingness, engulfing almost half of Klorr's castle in darkness.

From the dust and pieces of walls that kept falling from the upper end of the building, amid the rubble, Reidar fell down at great speed, holding himself with one arm to a rope tied who knows where and holding the Failnaught into the other.

The archer continued to fall under the force of gravity until the rope of the grappling hook that was attached somewhere on the tower broke away.

About ten meters separated him from the ground and just when Reidar believed the fall would break his leg bones, a column of ice rose towards him and someone grabbed him by the abdomen, blocking his fall.

Amazed to be safe and sound, he realized that Kranus, the Giants Of Ymir's Commander, was the creator of that ice structure and had just saved his life, without even knowing him.

When they both got off the ground, the ice mage let Reidar go and he stepped back, holding the Failnaught tight and looking upwards, realizing that the entire upper end of the castle had vanished into nothingness and that if he hadn't jumped off the balcony, he would probably have been swallowed up with it.

"Th... thank you..." he said, with his voice still flickering because of the adrenaline of that gesture, unable to believe he was unharmed.

"You're a good friend, young archer... you dared to do what we old Masters couldn't do. I'm sure your friend knows he has a valuable ally like you" Kranus replied, who after falling to the ground, turned to the Xis, trying to figure out if that being was going to launch another attack.

"The castle... my family's castle! It was almost completely destroyed by a simple arrow... that white-skinned man wiped out the tower with a single blow! Grrr... he can't get away with it... he can't survive after what he did!" Bloodfang screamed with tears in his eyes, being sure that after the war he had just fought, the castle of his childhood would remain intact.

Meanwhile, under the rubble, Dag began breathing again, after being almost unconscious for a few seconds.

"Where... what... I'm alive! I just got hit by that Xis and he made me fly away... my head is spinning, but... I heard the screams of Reidar and Bloodfang and a big explosion made the ground vibrate. I can't give up, I can still defeat him... the Giantbane, where's my axe?!" Dag thought, putting his thoughts back in order and trying to reconstruct what happened. 

His divine weapon, unlike Magni's hammer, still tightened in his right hand, was not near him, but had ended up somewhere under the rubble. 

On Dag's chest, there was a huge boulder that compressed his rib cage, preventing him from any movement, and on his leg, there was a piece of the stone arch that constituted the porch of the square.

The young Earthly warrior continued to breathe more and more intensely, coughing up the dust that had entered his lungs and resuming his motor functions, realizing that, if he had gained a few seconds to recover, it was only thanks to some of his allies who had helped him distract the enemy.

"Despite your inferiority, you are incredibly attached to life, as if you did not have the awareness of death. Many individuals are trying to protect you, 813666, you managed to subdue each of them... this is thanks to your modified genes, which make you a true leader in the eyes of your fellow human beings" the Xis continued, who after destroying half a palace with a meager movement of his fingers, turned again to Dag's position as if everyone else suddenly ceased to exist or did not pose a threat.

Dag stood up and pushed away the large boulder that weighed on him, helping himself with his arm and a twist of his chest, managing to free himself.

Then he did the same with his leg and slowly managed to get back on his feet, completely dirty with blood and white dust, resulting from the rock on which he had landed.

His face was full of blood, most of which came from a cut on his forehead and one on his cheek.

"I don't know where my axe is, but if I started looking for it now, that bastard would catch up with me in a second and try to activate my powers again... I can't use the Giantbane, and I can't use the dark matter either... what do I do now?!" Dag thought, who despite being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, tried to keep the lucidity useful to think of an action plan.