Angel Monarch-Chapter 439: The War for Antarctica (9)

Slayer couldn’t help but feel threatened when staring into Bea’s glowing, golden eyes. As if some slumbering beast gazed through the magnificent woman, ready to devour him whole.

He, of course, didn’t show the growing distress in his heart. Instead, his smile widened, and without another word, the madman attacked.

Bea also sprang forward, moving her body and blade with incredible speed and precision.

She thrust her longsword, aiming at Slayer’s heart. However, with his new curved bone sword, he didn’t need to evade Bea’s blow; he could just block it!

The magnificent woman moved with such fluidity, like it was a move rehearsed thousands of times, engrained in her very essence.

As the swords connected, Bea turned her blade, changing its angle. The bone sword moved along the wooden blade until the handguard halted it.

Slayer stood wide open, with no way to defend against Bea’s approaching sword tip. It went straight through his glowing blood-red eye into his brain.

The madman blinked once and changed his attack mid-swing. Instead of blocking Bea’s sword and ending up dead, he parried her blade.

However, this maneuver also ended in failure. Bea pushed her handguard in the way of Slayer’s sword, obstructing its movements. She then stepped closer, while keeping perfect control over his enemy. Her sword moved forward straight through Slayer’s throat.

He checked dozens, nearly a hundred different futures, but most ended the same tragic way. Eventually, when he prepared to abandon the attack, he glimpsed into the future once again... His smile soon widened. He found the last vision satisfactory...

With a quick step, he moved closer and reached under Bea’s sword with his own blade. He stabbed the tip upward, pushing the magnificent woman’s weapon away.

Her glowing golden eyes widened in surprise. This wasn’t a move she expected, since no normal human would think to make such an idiotic attack.

Slayer used Bea’s moment of shock to step under her sword and slash forward with the bone blade. Her red dress did nothing to stop his weapon. He cut through fabric, skin, muscle and bone with ease.

He cut Bea into two pieces and believed the fight was over. However, when he glanced back to see his dead prey, the magnificent woman was very much alive, and pissed!

Before her upper half could’ve topple over, vines grew from her lower half. They grasped her upper body and connected the two halves. Moments later, her gravest wounds healed, including her dress.

"I guess Xinya wasn’t kidding about your regeneration. It’s truly monstrous. Even Stellars can’t heal that fast!"

Bea just smirked upon hearing Slayer’s words. It was always fun when your opponent underestimated you.

What Slayer hadn’t realized yet was that Bea had used none of her abilities. Even her regeneration wasn’t an ability, just her passive constitution as a World Tree.

"Let me tell you, if you think my regeneration is amazing, you’ve seen nothing yet!"

For a moment, Bea closed her eyes and let her mind control the Tree of Light growing below the city.

Unlike Castleburg, where her tree connected with the shield above the city, here in the Antarctican capital, she grew the tree underground. However, now she revealed her creation to the world!

The ground exploded below the battlefield, sending both soldiers and debris flying. From the earth that was once a military compound, grew a gigantic tree.

The Aegis System provided a few kilometers high bubble of shielding, which the tree easily reached. Above the shield, the Stellars fought each other, so their unbearable power couldn’t destroy the capital below.

The Tree of Light was supplying the Aegis System, so it could withstand the heavy blows. However, now Bea used it as an offensive tool!

The wind began dying down; the temperature turned warmer; the fog dissipated. While outside the shields, the lightning storm still raged; inside everything stayed perfect.

Blood-red and golden seven-petalled flowers bloomed along the gigantic branches. Specks of pollen danced along the gentle breeze, falling from the red flowers. The golden ones glowed with bright light, illuminating the turbulent battlefield.

The fighting stopped momentarily as everyone glanced around in confusion. People kept pouring in through the portals, which meant that the battle between Vicky and Xinya hadn’t reached its conclusion.

Bea’s greenish-gold eyes also opened. They searched for Slayer, but the madman seemed to disappear somewhere.

She scoffed while glancing around. "What a coward. I expected more from someone with his fighting prowess. Truly disappointing!"

The battle continued in the skies, and soon the battlefield on the ground resumed as well.

For a second, Bea watched as the specks of pollen fell from the branches high above. They still needed a few more minutes to reach the ground and end this foolish battle.

After looking around a bit more, she spotted Henry lying on the ground. Chang stood above him, aiming his gatling rifle right at the Prince’s head.

Without thinking, Bea sprinted towards the boy, but it seemed he had the situation under control.

A tremble went through Chang’s body, and the cowboy soon fell to his knees. His arms kept shaking, as if his rifle had suddenly become too heavy to hold.

"W-what?... What’s happening? My body feels tired... And weak... What’ve you done to me?!"

Chang’s words turned more slurred and after another few seconds, the rifle fell from his hand.

Bea looked at him with curiosity. With just a single glance, she could immediately tell what was happening.

"Huh? You let Henry cut you? Pretty stupid mistake!"

He didn’t react to Bea’s words. His usual weird clothing covered most of his body, but Bea could clearly see his face as it withered.

The cowboy’s entire body began aging at a rapid rate until he couldn’t even think straight. His death would’ve been slow and painful, but Bea didn’t let him suffer.

With a clean slash, she sent his head flying, ending the cowboy’s life on the spot. Afterward, Bea knelt down next to Henry and healed all of his superficial wounds.

"Have you seen Vicky or Xinya?" She asked while green energy flooded from her hand into Henry’s broken body.

The Prince shook his head once, while his face contorted in pain. His bones cracked and ground against each other, creating an agonizing melody.

"After the fog... settled. I lost sight of them... I think... They teleported away while fighting... Where did that scary guy go? You managed to kill him?"

Henry’s speech returned to normal as his body healed. After a few more painful seconds, all his wounds and broken parts returned to normal. However, his mental capacity didn’t get better... He felt exhausted...

Bea reached down and lifted the Prince onto his feet. His vision turned hazy for a moment, but it soon returned to normal.

He gazed down onto the battlefield, at the thousands of corpses and the rivers of blood. People continued their massacre without regard for the fallen.

Death surrounded them on every side, yet nobody cared. They continued this pointless fight, which seemed never to reach its end.

"Let’s find Vicky and Xinya so we can finally end this battle!"

With that, both Bea and Henry walked away from Chang’s corpse. However, they barely made a few steps before a large portal opened a few hundred meters in the air...

Vicky and Xinya fell through it fast, engaged in close combat. They held onto each other, trying to overpower their opponent.

Seconds later they both hit the ground, raising a cloud of dust and debris into the air. Both Bea and Henry rushed through the rubble, trying to reach Vicky as fast as possible!

...

The Princess and Xinya kept exchanging blows, yet neither could pierce the other’s defense. They were both excellent duelists, but while falling from the sky, neither could overwhelm their enemy.

Vicky kept throwing daggers at the Asian woman. However, her sword took care of them with ease.

After close to a minute of falling, Vicky decided to fight a battle of attrition. There was one ability, which she hadn’t used in years... Life Steal!

The ability proved a useful tool for quick essence increase, but became pretty much useless compared to her other abilities. In a fight against Transcended beings, it acted too slowly, which made it inefficient.

With a bit of gravity manipulation, Vicky gradually decreased their fall speed. The longer they spent in the air, the better the outcome would be!

She then activated Life Steal, but not at full power. This way, Xinya couldn’t sense the constant drain on her essence and soul.

They kept fighting through the air, but the Princess became a bit more passive. She defended perfectly against Xinya’s every blow, but she wasn’t as offensive anymore, her attacks less frequent and half-hearted.

Xinya also noticed this change in the Princess. However, she didn’t care and instead of overthinking, she became much more aggressive.

Their fall continued. The storm clouds were only a kilometer below them and fast approaching. The sound of Stellars fighting echoed with the near constant thunder, yet neither paid attention.

The lightning storm and terrifying Stellar battle came and went. They fell through the clouds without issue. Somehow, every attack from outside missed their relatively small-scale battle.

Below them, the Antarctican capital burned brightly. With its shields active, it kept out all the storm and the deadly fight of higher Rank beings.

Vicky closed in the distance when they reached the Aegis System’s border. With one arm, she caught Xinya’s waist and pulled her through a portal, so they wouldn’t hit the shield.

Their fall continued on the other side until eventually they plunged into the debris at terminal velocity.