Galaxy's First Ruler

"We need to occupy it for a while. It will take a minute for the Skill to work."

Viscount Rayko shouted, looking towards Tomislav. Tomislav wasn't overly familiar with the Ancestral Spirit Summoning. As it was the Skill that one needed to get outside of RECORD. Only Houses that had an ancient history could bestow these types of Skills on their core family members.

Tomislav saw the blurry images of two enormous Roses. He remembered that only at the Rank of Duke could one truly bring out the real Spirit into the material world. He looked at the dying fire tornado following Viscount Ellington's death and could only do one thing to prevent it from running.

"Berb! Blind it."

Tomislav shouted at Berb, but it also attracted the attention of the Devil. Berb didn't wait for it to move and ripped apart his clothes. His entire mummified body had countless tiny holes, covered in slimy juices. A chant came out from Berb's mouth and the entire city buzzed along with his unheard and incomprehensible mutterings.

Buzzzzz!!!

Swarms of insects came rushing towards them from all over the place, and out of Berb's body. Tomislav saw the Devil stretch out her left arm towards Berb. The flesh on the arm churned as a Bow materialized in her hand. In the first look, he felt like he had seen the bow somewhere. The bow didn't have any bowstring, but as she lifted it and aimed at Berb, a blue string made of Mana could be seen on it.

'Shit!'

Tomislav vanished and appeared in front of Berb, who had ordered all the insects to surround the parking lot. The red of fire tornado got replaced by a humongous black-spotted cloud that kept emanating deafening buzzing noise.

Grrrr!

The Devil growled, hearing the buzz, and pulled the Mana-string to its maximum limit. A sizzling blue arrow of Mana got fired towards them as soon as it appeared on the bow.

Shouuu!

Tomislav could sense the strengthless Berb sprawled behind him and he didn't dare to think they could survive the direct impact of this arrow. He put together his arms as if praying to someone, and his blue eyes shined with an emerald glow. Water came pouring down around Tomislav and Berb and covered both of them in a spherical ball-like film. 

Drip! Drip!

Tears of Destitute!

Tomislav knew the Skill could not hold for long against the arrow, but it could be enough for the death in the sky to rain down on Devil. But the next scene brought an immense sense of doom to his heart.

The Mana-arrow, which was about to blast into the water-film, changed its trajectory. As the arrowhead turned to point at unconscious Christin, Tomislav saw the same Mana-string attached to the end of the arrow as of the Bowstring. He immediately came to know why the bow looked familiar, for he had seen a Dreamer with it a long time ago.

"Ha… Ha… Ha…"

Tomislav saw the smiling face of the Devil and her raspy low laugh hit his ears like thunder.

"NO!"

He canceled the Skill but even with his maximum speed, it was nigh impossible to arrive in between the arrow and Christin. The image of Christin hugging him, calling him captain, and tugging at his shirt flashed through his mind. His feet hadn't stopped running, but even his afterimages were lost compared to the darting arrow only meters away from Christin.

"ROSE SUBSTITUTION."

A voice echoed in the surroundings and a rosebud came bursting out from the ground between the arrow and Christin. The Rose instantaneously bloomed and out came Trifon, having a sword in his hand. The sword felt like a stem of Rose with many thorns and leaves. Vibrant green liquid could be seen running on the sword's blade, like veins.

BANG!

The sword slashed at the Mana-arrow and both the arrow and sword burst apart into thousands of pieces. And the impact sent Viscount Trifon and Christin flying back.

"Die! You fucking Devil!"

At the same time Viscount Rayko shouted, and the hovering petals came raining down at the Devil. Among the petals, innumerable tiny thorns were dripping with venom.

GRRRRAWWRRR!

The Devil let out a roar at the rain that seemed like a cloud-burst had happened. She turned to shadow on the ground and dashed towards the wall of insects. Tomislav, now full of rage and hate, was about to dash, but the evil smile on Rayko's face kept him from doing so.

He looked at the red waterfall that seemed high above, but in the next moment blasted the erratically running shadow.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!"

Even the ethereal shadow couldn't remain unscathed from the thorns and razor-sharp petals. The Devil struggled to come out to its original form. Tomislav saw tiny thorns had enshrouded the Devil's body entirely as it howled in pain. The red petals sliced its internals but except for more shadowy vapors, no blood came out of it.

"Now for the closure!"

Tomislav heard Trifon's voice and turned around to look at him. His face was all bloody and his right arm, which had wielded the sword, had a bone protruding out of it. Trifon struggled to raise his left arm and snapped his fingers.

Snap!

Zrrrrr!!!

Tomislav looked up and saw a fissure opening up in the green sky. The two vast Roses hurled and swayed and a thorn, dozens of meters long, came out of the fissure. As the thorn completely left the dark background behind and came into the light, Tomislav saw it covered in millions of venomous green veins.

Without any more sound, the thorn came falling on the Devil, wreathing in pain.

BOOOM!!!

The Everlasting Venomous Roses vanished along with all the petals and the thorns, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

Tomislav and Trifon approached the impact site. But they couldn't see or sense the countless shadow-blobs hidden in dust, sliding towards the distant mountain. Their sight was occupied by the fist-size greenish-black stone on the ground. Tomislav picked it up and faced Trifon before handing it over to him.

"Thank you for saving Christin."

"Humph!"

Trifon snatched the Return-stone and looked at it. But the stone soon fell down from his hands.

Gatcha!

"TOMISLAV!"

Even before Berb's ominous shout reached his ears, he saw a hand bursting apart Trifon's chest. Being just in front of Trifon, the hand didn't spare Tomislav and entered his stomach like a knife going in butter.

UGHH!

Blood came showering out of Trifon's mouth as Tomislav clenched his teeth and looked up.

Standing behind Trifon, the calmness on Viscount Rayko's face couldn't have looked more detestable.