Online In Another World

Each laser moved as light itself, intersecting with others and creating an impossible to dodge formation.

Plunging his blade into the ground, Bastian reacted just as the attack came, summoning forth a wall of illustrious shields around himself in a phalanx formation.

Born of radiant aura, the sturdy shields withstood the array of light, clashing with sparkling explosions that shook the mountaintop valley itself.

…He really is going for the kill. In that case, I won't mess around, Bastian thought.

After enduring the burnt of the laser arrays, a shock wave of majestic mana propelled from within the dome of shields, completely eradicating the entrapment of light and kicking up waves of dust.

Dorada raised his arm to shield himself from the dust, looking forward with his chromatic eyes towards the Seraphheart.

[Current Stage: 5/10 | Divine Sentinel]

Standing beneath a lofty light of holy aura, Bastian was clad in a full-set of gold-and-silver armor with pauldrons on his shoulders forged to resemble roaring lions and a long, flowing cape of illustrious platinum.

On his head, a helmet formed from the light of his Serappheart, forged of holiness with the wings of an avian sculpted onto the sides.

"Hm," Dorado looked forward, "This is the Seraphheart?"

There was no fear or adrenaline that gave off from the Sentinel of the mythical compound; Dorado's inhuman eyes simply discerned what was in front of him before he lowered his stance and bursting forward as a flash of light.

It would be entirely imperceptible by normal means: the shift into light that the silver-haired Sentinel took made even a single step traverse distances in equal time, surpassing the mortal concept of speed as shock wave throttled with every movement made.

Nonetheless, Bastian's eyes looked side-to-side, up-and-down, able to track the movements that flashed around him before he summoned a chain forged of golden light, swinging it to his right and lassoing the right arm of Dorado, snatching him from his trail of light.

"--" Dorado seemed surprised to be caught, though it wasn't worn on his stoic expression.

In an instant, the Sentinel was ripped from the spot he stood by a pull of Bastian's arm, tossing Dorado over and whipping him around in the air.

Just as Bastian opted to slam his foe into the gravelly ground below, Dorado spun around as cosmic light reinforced his legs, kicking through the golden chain like a hot knife through butter.

A small smirk crept on the corner of Dorado's lips as the battle finally began, landing on his feet as a cosmic aura reinforced his body, giving an aura of the swirl of nebulae and the sparkle of stars around the figure.

["The Supreme Mana", not much is known about it outside of the Founders' own knowledge, but it's the core of the Sentinel's power: an alternate, transcendent mana that gives them access to magic outside of perceived boundaries."]

"I'll say it one more time: I'm just here to have a talk with Aelor. I don't know what you believe, but I'm not here for a fight–nor am I an enemy of your beloved 'balance'," Bastian said.

Dorado sighed, slipping his fingers through his hair, "Talk is moot. Aelor's judgment is absolute. Do not fool yourself into thinking your centuries of history have slipped beneath my lord's brow."

"--" Bastian stood there, silent.

"I know of your destructive past, Serappheart. That's why you wander the world, alone and aimless, forever a nomad, eternally without a place to call home: everywhere you go, destruction follows," Dorado said.

Finishing his words, the Sentinel raised his hand, summoning bands of light that encircled his outstretched arm, manifesting ultimately into a sphere of imposing power in front of his palm.

It only took a moment for the attack to charge, unleashing in a beam of light that caused pebbles to vibrate and levitate, burning away in the immediate area of the flash as it shot towards the Seraphheart.

Golden wings manifested on the back of Bastian's armor, allowing him to leap up and take flight as he avoided the beam, though Dorado followed instantaneously as he warped into the air as well.

"I will enact my lord's will," Dorado said.

An array of lights danced through the cloud-filled skies as the Sentinel moved with transcendent speed, flashing around and spinning into a kick that emitted with a sky-cracking shock wave.

CLANG.

Bastion didn't budge, blocking the kick with his armored forearm as he glanced over at the silver-haired man, "As I said, I am not here to fi—"

The Sentinel wasn't reciprocating the conversation as he interrupted the divine clad man with a burst of scathing light.

Its essence was of an ascendant mana; the cosmic light worked to shatter constructs both physical and ethereal through an assault of hyper-powerful rays.

The low blow was successful in shattering part of Bastian's armor, though the man himself was unharmed, now clearly annoyed as he summoned an onslaught of golden chains from various angles in the sky.

"So be it. If this is how you're acting, it seems my talk with Aelor is more important than I believed," Bastian said.

Before Dorado could attempt to evade as he shifted to light, the heavenly chains shot out from every angle, chasing the Sentinel and ensnaring his limbs swiftly.

"Nnrgh…!" Dorado struggled.

Though the subordinate of Aelor attempted to summon his cosmic radiance, only sparse particles came in response.

Bastian held the end of the chains, "Don't waste your energy. My 'Seraph Chains' suppress the mana of whoever is grasped in them. I've got a tight hold of you, so sit tight."

There was a surprising lack of worry on the Sentinel's expression as his chromatic irises stared confidently at the Serappheart, despite his precarious position.

"--Hm?"

Just as Bastian realized what was going on, the chain he used to bind Dorado was severed swiftly by an arrow of light, severing the golden material in a blink.

Another, Bastian thought.

Looking up, he confirmed it with his own eyes: another figure with silver hair, though long and kept neatly in a ponytail, wearing a similar, all-white uniform to Dorado. The man hovered above the battleground, standing on air with a bow of cosmic light held in his hand.

"Dorado," the newly-arrived Sentinel said, "Try not to get captured by the enemy, alright? I'd have to report something like this to our lord."

Breaking free from the hold of the mana-suppressing chains, Dorado huffed, leaping back and manifesting his sword made completely of transcendent mana.

"I was perfectly fine, Orion!...Let's deal with this," Dorado said.

Standing there and analyzing the battlefield before him, Bastian Serappheart glanced at the bowman hovering in the air and the sword-wielder standing across from him, knowing it was a less-than-optimal situation.

Two Sentinels is troublesome, even more so when it's a range and close-quarters combination. I'll need to take this a stage further, he thought.

With a hum of divine radiance, the illustrious force within Bastian shined outward, rumbling the valley as the air spiraled around him, reforging his current armor and upgrading it through denser plating and black streaks, manifesting a lion-faced shield in his right arm and a massive, golden greatsword in his left.

[Current Stage: 6/10 | Divine Tyrant]

An immediate usage of the shield was needed as he looked upward, finding the sky pitched in darkness before brightened by hundreds, if not thousands of twinkling stars that rapidly approached.

It wasn't stars that descended, but the destructive, majestic arrows summoned by a pull of the ethereal bow that Orion wielded.

The sky itself became blinding in the overwhelming shine that inhabited it; the endless arrows pierced through the clouds, dispersing them in the way of the Sentinel's wish.

"Fall and pierce my target, Star Shower," Orion said.

The supremacy of the attack was indescribable by one even as experienced as Bastian; in an instant, thousands of light arrows befell the battlefield, causing Dorado to shield himself with light.

Bastian knelt down, lifting his heavy shield over his head before the downpour of ascendent arrows began, pelting the valley around him and the shield itself in a volatile glory.

It was a weight unlike anything else; not 'heavy' in the traditional sense, but a gravity of supreme power, raining down from above with constant, multiplying explosions that kept Bastian knelt.

"You will be dealt with," Orion whispered, "For Lord Aelor."

While the downpour of celestial arrows befell the valley and the lion-faced shield, cracking the ground which the Serappheart knelt and pressuring him, Orion conjured a colossal arrow, pulling it behind the ethereal string of his bow.

Though this was just the moment that Bastian waited for as he watched from beneath his cover, slamming his gauntlet against the ground as golden light manifested through the cracks in the summit's land.

"--!" Orion and Dorado witnessed the unknown retaliation.

The bright, lavish light rippled through the land, beginning to repel the endless arrows as the golden shine built upon itself from just a glow into something tangible, of physical shape, rising from the ground and surrounding Bastian himself.

["Divine Fortress of The Impervious Protector"]