Chapter 19: BROTHER!
Year 2000 AGS Underhaven Calendar
"It seems they are trying to outnumber us." Elder Abaddel told himself.
"Outnumbering us?! Haha! Domcreans. Even if they are in the hundreds of thousands, they will still all die by our hands." Elder Sandalphel replied as he looked at the increasing number of armored spirits manifesting.
"My friend, I think I now know why your clan is one of the best in gathering intelligence among us. Your ears. Something might be wrong with True Strength's ears." "What do you mean, True Strength? There is no such thing. It is a gift of mine. Don't pretend that you don't know this already." "Then, I say this, brother. Be careful. They won't fight us unless they have plans to beat us. In the matter of what and how, I don't even know." "I see. I better be careful then."
"Artel! Give me one of your great swords! Since you always carry two anyway." Elder Sandalphel turned back to one of his men and shouted.
"Huh?! Why? You know I like using two great swords when fighting." "Don't whine. Just give it to me!" "Fine. But make sure you don't break it."
Artel then threw one of his great swords to Elder Sandalphel, who was without a weapon and armor like the other two Elder Templars, Gabriel and Abaddel.
"Don't worry. I'll customize a sword just for you if this gets broken." "You serious?! Then do as you please, Elder! Hahaha!" Artel replied merrily.
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"Why are you all even attacking us in this great hall? It would have been better if you all just informed all the leaders of the delegation." James told Aurel.
"Are you insane? We don't even know which ones are Neo-Illumina and enthralled. What if one of those leaders works for or was a member of them?" Aurel replied.
"Stop shaming yourself even further, James," Jr. told James while staring at him sternly.
We are all lucky that our heir is the most talented and rational among all of us siblings. If Jr. were a careless vampire, I really don't know what to do.
"These Neo-Illumina are dangerous. Their arrogance exceeds expectations." "Wouldn't it be better that way? So to make them easier to beat." "Selena, right?" "Yes," I replied to Aurel by nodding silently, expecting a good response from him.
"Let me tell you this, Selena. What is much easier to defeat? The ones who follow patterns, or those who don't?" "Of course, those who follow patterns!" "Then, by this, do you think arrogant and overconfident people follow the status quo?" "Well, I say that they do, but in a different way than those who are not," I told Aurel confidently.
To be honest, I am very happy right now to converse with a Templar my age, even in this situation, because I now feel that we are all safe aside from the soldiers of Neo-Illumina because of Aurel's earlier reassurance.
"Wrong!" Aurel then knocked on my head twice, like knocking on an empty box. This boy!
"Arrogance follows no pattern. The careful ones do because they think too much before they move. They follow the standard tactics. The arrogant ones don't because they think they can win anyway. They rely on instincts. You cannot predict a plan when there is no plan in the first place!" Aurel informed me as if he were looking at a child who has no idea of war. To be fair on my end, I really don't have any battle experience.
"Fair point," Jr. stated. "And at what age did you learn such things?" Jr. further asked Aurel while his hands were clipping his chin.
"At a very early age. The moment when I was able to hold a weapon, I was taught how to use it." "I see. Is this info classified since you are not willing to divulge specifics?" "Well, I don't want to get in trouble later. So even if it's not, I ain't risking it. By the way, I'm eight, just to let you know." "I see. Then I won't pry further." Jr. ended the topic out of respect for Aurel. Then placed his hands on his sides.
"I hope this doesn't get messier than what it currently is," Armann told all of us. His face frowned. Still worried about what would happen, since the great hall is beginning to be filled by the armored souls. The great hall is big. But I, like Armann, don't think it can hold tens of thousands of people.
"Aurel, are you sure---" "Shh. Wait, something's wrong." "What's wrong?" "Be quiet… Are you hearing that?" "Hear what?" "By the Makers, a low-bass humming sound!" Aurel suddenly shouted in surprise, stopped his conversation with me, and sprinted towards his father as I was talking to him.
"Element Compounding!!!" Aurel immediately shouted at his father, Elder Abaddel.
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"Hearing this gurgling really disgusts me." Elder Abaddel commented to himself.
"C'mon, Abaddel, in the future our lesser races will also do these things. Espiritu is now on our side… Wait, someone's shouting your name from afar." Elder Sandalphel shouted at Elder Abaddel because they were somewhat far apart.
"Sigh… Aurel." Elder Abaddel stated, as if his son had come to bother him again.
"Father! Element Compounding!" Aurel screamed, pointing in a direction as he sprinted towards his father.
"Elemen…" Elder Sandalphel was about to finish his word when his eyes widened as he saw something.
CRACK! HUMM!Dozens of arrows break the sound barrier, unleashing a miniature thunderclap described as sounding like a whip. But this time it was humming.
Elder Sandalphel instinctively twisted his body a little in that short amount of time.
PFFT. PFFT. PFFT.
Humming arrows at the speed of sound came flying from a blind spot riddled with Elder Sandalphel, including his neck.
Elder Abaddel, on the other hand, was able to deflect some with his golden-black flames because he saw the weird mana accumulation using his ocular stigmata in the direction Aurel was pointing. Neither Elder saw them beforehand, as they were hidden among the thousands of armored souls.
"…" Elder Abaddel's eyes widened as he saw Elder Sandalphel's body stiffen, but without any arrow marks.
THUMP. Elder Sandalphel's body suddenly fell limp into the ground. The sound was as if the whole room went silent, and the only sound that was heard was the limp body of Elder Sandalphel falling to the ground. BOOM! The sound of a giant, heavy body hitting the ground.
"…" Elder Abaddel was shocked and silent for a moment.
"HOSPITALLERS! SACRED LIGHT!" Elder Abaddel then immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, almost running out of breath as he ran towards Elder Sandalphel.
"Gabriel. Element Compounding! Alert everyone!" Elder Abaddel shouted in rage, his red flaming eyes now bright and shining in anger.
Gabriel turned to look at Elder Abaddel and Sandalphel and was surprised to see Elder Sandalphel down. He was not able to see them both earlier because he was confident in their abilities and was monitoring the armored souls as they manifested from the hundreds of Neo-Illumina soldiers.
"SACRED LIGHT! Re-surround the area with your mana immediately! Make it thicker!" Elder Gabriel used Divine Presence on every templar in the great hall. His eyes were also full of rage.
Element Compounding is a tactical military method where two or more practitioners simultaneously channel different energy types into a single weapon, resulting in compounding effects on the said weapon.
Secondary elements can compound due to the way elemental physics and energy channels operate. Domcreans, on the other hand, cannot combine multiple elemental energies internally simultaneously due to their biological physics.
Only the primordial elements cannot compound, because the Makers made sure it couldn't, out of fear of a third entity arising from it. Either the light or dark element can be compounded with the secondary element, but both should not be present cause it will cause a resonance clash.
Executing an Element Compounding attack requires years of training together for partners or teams, extraordinary physical discipline, somatic control, and temporal synchronization among all team members.
All practitioners involved in a compound strike must transfer and release their distinct energy frequencies into the shared vector/weapon within a microsecond window of 0.03 to 0.23 seconds. There are 3 phases to it. Pre-casting, during-casting, and post-casting.
As element-compounding practitioners begin drawing energy into their meridians during pre-casting, the surrounding air and bedrock emit a deep, steady, low-bass humming sound, establishing the harmonic baseline before energy is injected into the vector.
During casting, the rapid compression of multi-elemental forces produces a massive, thundering bass sound that reverberates through the air and bedrock, signaling peak power binding.
Post-casting sound is similar to the sound of the elements when released. In arrows with Stormut energy, for example, it sounds like a whip, and if combined with Espiritu, it makes a humming sound.
"Brother! Brother!" Elder Abaddel cried out to Elder Sandalphel as he supported his head with one of his hands; he was unconscious on the ground, groaning.
"He is alive!" He shouted at the 7th Legion Hospitallers of Elder Rafael, who was already beside him. "True Strength, carry him to a secure area. Sacred Light. The arrows might have been coated with Soul Element. Try to cancel out its effects on the nerves. Now GO!" Elder Abaddel shouted in desperation.
In 10,000 years, that was the first time that an Elder Templar was completely down from a Domcrean attack.
Elder Abaddel had never felt this rage before. An immense anger sprang up from his heart. He remembered the anger that he concealed during and after the attack on the Mantle. Now, his closest brother, his best friend, among the Templar Elders, is down. Not knowing what might happen to him after that moment.
"Fucking Neo-Illumina! After this battle, you will all be headless. But before that, you and all your friends here will die a painful death. All of you will shout in agony as you all regret messing with us Templars!" Elder Abaddel shouted as golden-black flames erupted from his body. Slowly enveloping the Great Hall without burning it.
Elder Gabriel saw this and shouted. "Abaddel, calm down! There are significant civilians of Unlighted here!"
But Elder Abaddel could not hear him. He was blinded by his rage at that moment.
Even Templars feel rage. Rage is a bad emotion that even Templars are not immune to. It is short-lived, acute flare-ups of intense anger.
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*End of Chapter