Beyond Gods 62 Spli

"You surprise me yet again," growled King Athelion as his new black corpse body grew larger, veinier and more oppressive, "you are so weak and yet my aura, which would kill most mortals below the divine lord realm only makes you throw up and kneel before me. It must be because my strength has depleted greatly after I abandoned my original body in pursuit of immortality."

"Why are you doing this?," croaked Johan when he had finally stopped throwing up.

Athelion paused, and stared at Johan for a moment in thought.

"Before my death, I created an array to preserve my existence," said Athelion, "I had made a plan to have a valiant return into existence. To become a king among the kings of my kingdom. I planned a return where I would take a crumbling and weakened civilization and remind it of what it meant to be a true warrior people. Make it strong again, conquer, expand and shed the blood of the weak. In order to do that, I wanted to have a strong living body from a peerless genius for my reincarnation," said Athelion, "then with my knowledge, I would make that body stronger than imaginable and recreate and remind all the realms of the great and legendary Athelion kingdom. Unfortunately, only one of the three who pa.s.sed seemed even close to satisfying that criteria that I hoped my trials would bring me ... and then incredibly, he escaped my array."

"But we are weak," said Johan, "if you let us go, we couldn't do anything to you."

"It is about pride," said Athelion, "nothing else ... letting you leave would make others question my array creation skill competence! So die!"

With that Athelion swiped out with his hand, a crackling sound was made as the very fiber of the universe seemed to rip apart revealing stars, and a wave composed of this rip flew at a blindingly fast speed at Rey.

BOOM!

A Shura demon suddenly appeared out of Rey slas.h.i.+ng out at the blow. But in the process, the wave ripped it apart.

Rey was blown back and fainted from the explosion of her Shura demon defending against the attack.

Johan felt the blood drain from his face.

"HA! HA! HA!," laughed Athelion excitedly, "So she was of G.o.d-kind! Weakened, but this answers my questions of how you managed to survive the trials."

Johan realised the danger he was in. If not for Rey's strange ability, she would be dead. Athelion attack was no joke. However, Johan refused to die here. Despite the paralyzing fear brewing in his gut, he gathered his courage and charged toward's Athelion.

[That's my boy!,] yelled JD, [Never give up! We will take down this arrogant murderous fool!]

"I won't let you kill us!," screamed Johan.

Johan let loose a punch at Athelion's corpse like body.

Athelion stared at Johan in humorous disbelief.

BOOM!

CRACK!

Johan felt the bones in his hand break. He felt as if he had just punched a rock.

Athelion smiled at Johan.

"You ...," said Athelion, "did you honestly think that at your level, you could scratch me? Do you not understand the difference in our levels? In my time I was a peerless genius, even G.o.ds that escaped the machine feared me ... you are ridiculous!"

BOOM!

The roof of the castle crashed down around them, taking Athelion's attention away from Johan. Through the hole, Johan saw Genghis Khan flying in the blue sky above them.

CRAs.h.!.+

The doors to the room of the array flew open and there stood Athyne looking into the room. A look of surprise spread through his face as he glancing back and forth from Johan to Athelion and to Genghis in shock.

"JOHAN!? REY!?," asked Athyne surprised. "HOW?"

Athyne glanced back into the room behind him.

Johan looked past Athyne and saw himself still meditating.

"Johan," said Athyne, "how are you there and here?"

There were TWO Johans!

One was in the array and the other was sitting cross legged in a meditating position! Bizarre!

"ATHELION YOU EVIL PIECE OF s.h.i.+T," boomed Genghis Khan. "I'M GOING TO DESTROY YOUR ENTIRE G.o.d d.a.m.n LEGACY!"

"HA! HA! HA!," cackled Athelion, "A blood thirsty battle hungry savage like you calling me evil!? We are no different!"

"I DON'T f.u.c.k MEN!," boomed Genghis Khan, "NOR DO I CONDONE IT! YOUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE IS DISGUSTING AND EVIL!"

With that, Genghis Khan pull a bow off his back and loaded it with an arrow aimed at Athelion. He pulled back the string and unleashed an arrow which turned into a beam of red light.

CRAs.h.!.+

A hole appeared in Athelion's flesh, but it began to mend itself.

Athelion shot bullet's made of black goo back at Genghis.

"HA HA HA HA!," cackled Athelion as he floated up into the air, "You, are the only suitable trial finisher has returned! You **** the women of enemy tribes and kill the men and children who don't surrender to you! Yet, you brand me as being evil because of my in-discrimination between men and women? HA HA HA HA! I will possess your body, and **** billions of strong men!"

With rapid succession, Genghis Khan unleashed a flurry of arrow beam at Athelion.

"Disgusting filth!," boomed Genghis Khan. "You will die today and I will s.h.i.+t on your unmarked corpse!"

Genghis Khan continued firing off a flurry of arrows at Athelion and the castle. Everything around them began getting ripped apart and fires started to spur around the castle.

Genghis glanced out of the corner of his eye looking at Johan.

Johan realised immediately that Genghis Khan was providing a distraction for him to escape.

Johan nodded and hastily dragged Rey and Shaemus out of the array with his unbroken hand towards Athyne.

"Help me Athyne!," hissed Johan. "We have to get out of here, this castle is going to fall apart, that insane King Athelion will kill us all!"

Athnye nodded quickly grasping the danger of the situation and picked up Rey tossing her over his shoulder.

Johan glanced back looking at Athelion who now floated in the air and was flying in front of Genghis Khan. They were intertwined in intense combat with neither falling back. Genghis had tossed his arrows back over his back and was slas.h.i.+ng at Athelion with a glowing sword. Athelion blocked it with blasts of light.

Qi manipulation.

Understanding echoed in Johan's mind.

It was a high level technique for infusing your essence into a object or condensing pure energy into a beam or shape. It was very draining without having a weapon, however, it was also very effective. A skilled Qi manipulator could critically harm an opponent a cultivation level above him. The best way to be able to withstand it was to have tempered a strong body levels above the attacker's cultivation level.

Johan led the way, grabbing his bag glancing at his meditating body.

Cautiously he touched it, and a blinding flash of light emitted from his hand. After Johan could see again he was shocked to see that his meditating self had opened its eyes and had a glazed look in it. But otherwise appeared unmoving.

"h.e.l.lo?," whispered Johan shocked.

His body didn't respond.

He didn't understand quite what this was and it was eerie to see his body sitting there staring back at him.

"I have lots of questions," said Athyne, "but because of the situation, I think I'll save them for later."

[Johan,] said JD, [this is dangerous, we have to get out of here.]

Johan nodded and jumped out of a hole that had been blasted in the castle wall, followed by Athyne, and left his meditating body and the two G.o.dly Monarchs behind. They ran as fast as they could away from the situation, away from the castle and the dangerous fog that was behind it.