He even started to fly down to do the honors- he would place the King"s head on a pike to quell the crowd below. Even as images of these glorious things to come filled his mind, his vision started to clear, and that…was when he finally saw that something was wrong.
Where…was that smell of burning flesh coming from?
The Hawk would only pierce its opponent, so it didn"t make sense.
Slowly, the center of the Artefact given by the Church began to become clear, and as he gazed at that spot, Vohler stopped in his tracks.
His eyes lost focus, and his mind fell in disarray, as what he was seeing…just didn"t make sense.
The hawk had fallen to the ground with its head cut off, and as he watched, that head materialized into the main Hero whose insights into the G.o.dbeast had been giving it form.
Although his body looked unharmed, his eyes were burned out, with nothing but two smoking holes present where they were supposed to be.
Almost unwillingly, Vohler once again turned his gaze to the figure in front of the Hawk.
There stood the King, with one hand aloft. He had changed into a figure that stood at least 10 feet tall, with hands and legs made of armor which, on closer examination, revealed themselves to be the Heroes which had made up the dome until now.
He also had sparkling wings of many colors on his back which spread resplendently behind him, and even as one stared in awe at his magnificent figure, they would not be able to stop themselves from recognizing all the clues regarding what exactly had led him to choose this form.
The wings were that of the Black Raven, the swift and mighty G.o.dbeast that had once been the king of the skies.
His left leg was that of a Divine Jaguar"s, whose one leap was supposed to be enough to propel it across a quarter of the continent.
His right leg was that of a Holy Bison, whose charge was unstoppable by any and all who stood in front of it.
In the place of his left hand was the invincible paw of a G.o.dlion, and his chest had armor made of Heroes that was in the form of the head of a Dragon.
All of these were impressive, but his right hand eclipsed all of them in terms of grandeur and power.
It was simply the hand of a human, but in it was held…a gigantic sword whose cross guard was made up of a pair of brilliant eyes.
It was pearly white in color, almost looking like it was made of crystal, and although it ended at a point, its hilt and base were so large that it looked like a weapon made for giants.
The enlarged King was barely able to hold it, and as he slowly began to lower it, the source of that smell from earlier finally revealed itself.
For a brief moment, the spell, or formation, or whatever it was that was allowing him to use his Heroes to enlarge himself failed, showing a hundred figures arrayed much like in the dome, before, with their bodies locked together perfectly.
The only exception was one of the bodies making up the hand that held the sword.
It…was on fire.
The entire continent watched, agape, as that Hero fell to the ground, twitching.
His hood fell off to show the grotesque sight of a body burning up from the inside.
It was as if someone had lit a fire within him which was eating its way out, but there was an even stranger thing attached to the situation: the sword…was breathing.
It was breathing in all of the smoke, ash and burned flesh of the Hero, and with each second, it seemed to be growing bigger.
As the Heroes in the Hawk started to rouse themselves, they all began to race back to Vohler, who had regained enough of his senses to use the Artefact given by the Church to create a defensive barrier around him.
In a blink, the attackers had turned into the ones running for safety, but there were no victorious shouts all over Angaria.
And that…was because everyone could tell that something was wrong.
If the sword was really powerful enough to kill a Hero in one attack, then the King would definitely have used it on all of those in the Hawk, who had been lying defencelessly just a few meters from him.
Yet, he hadn"t moved, and no Angarian needed long to figure out the reason behind this.
The King"s entire body was shaking, with even his face fixed in an expression of great effort while he focused his eyes on the sword in his hands.
It was obvious that it was all he could do it lift it up, and given the way it looked, this might seem, to a few, like how it was supposed to be.
However, anyone who knew anything about magic and power could tell that the King had definitely adopted a form whose strength probably knew no bounds known to them. Hence, it should be no trouble lifting something many times his weight, so if that wasn"t the case…then the sword must definitely be somehow special.
It was only a second later that he finally managed to stop his body from shaking, and right after that, he spoke while looking straight into Vohler"s eyes, while the body of the Hero burned into nothingness.
"Artefacts? Oh, I have one, too! The Emperor made it to slay his strongest foes, but he got a little too heavy handed- so much so that it became too strong to control, unless there was a large enough sacrifice of power. All this while, it has been meekly binding Heroes to keep them in line, but finally, it is time for it to wake up. Awake, arise, Angelica, oh lady of burning rightfulness, for it is time to slay the foes of our Homeland!"