He opted for the offensive, coming to a stop in an area with older growth trees that were tall and widely spaced. One by one he attacked the things, each issuing the standard, inhuman scream as he did so.
He fired waves of the powerful sparks at the enemy, slicing them down with ease as the big guns approached in the distance. All around him, silver streaks told him the enemy was massing, attempting to flank him and close the vice. The time for the next level was at hand.
He drove one of the short swords into the ground and unleashed what he could of his considerable talent into the effort. Blue energy coursed out in forceful waves like ripples in a pond. Just as a lightning rod sent energy into the ground, the Power flowed outward from the point of the sword’s impact in a circular spreading spider web, obliterating every target like they had stepped on hot lava that melted and eroded each one. All around him the screams sounded and were silenced as the Power pulsed outward. Even units hiding in the trees couldn’t escape as the blue energy ran through the large trunks and dropped the ambushers to the ground.
With only a minimum of effort on his part, the attack ceased. Soon he could no longer hear any more approaching, and he turned his attention to what he should do next.
For an Embracer like himself, it was just that simple.
Was it Izuku who had done this? That seemed the most likely, but as he had just hatched his plan to turn Izuku’s laziness against him, he didn’t know what had triggered this assault. The likeliest answer was that Izuku had planned it all along and had waited for the mission to be complete.
If all Izuku could do now was throw lifeless bots at him, he might make it out of this in one piece, though he doubted Izuku was so short sighted.
An insight that was, naturally, completely correct.
Before he could leave, the dappled silhouette came into the woods, following the path where the destroyed vehicles were littered. How anything had escaped Sharp’s Power was a mystery.
When it stepped into the old growth clearing, the answer became perfectly clear. Sharp could now see that he had been slated to die all along.
Before him stood another robotic creation, but not like the others. Instead of silver, this one was black, with a mother-of-pearl shimmer coming from wherever the sun touched it through the trees. It stood like the others, with tall legs and a body similar to a normal human, complete with the arms, neck, and head. The head was more lifelike than the Heralds, which had no real face to speak of other than eye slits. This one had a fully operational mouth, with spinning blue eyes like its inferior, lower-grade relatives.
In its hand was what something Boroha Sharp instantly feared. A broadsword with ornate images etched into the blade from tip to hilt, the handle wrapped in soft leather.
If the weapon had a name, he did not know it. He assumed it did. Ones like this always did. He didn’t know its previous owners or who had made it, but once his eyes took it in completely, he saw it, and what he saw was very unsettling.
Sharp was old. Very old. But, there were older and more powerful Embracers out there throughout history. One of these unseen faces of history had created this weapon, and that person was older and more powerful than Boroha Sharp was this day. How it had got the weapon was not his concern. What concerned him was that it wasn’t just the sword that spoke to him. It seemed to be the whole damn machine. Izuku had done it. The rumors were true.
This was Eleotherios Duo #0901, and before it came at him with its weapon of Power at the ready, Sharp had two thoughts. First: just how powerful was Izuku that he could complete this monster? And second: how glad he was that he sent those four off with weapons in hand and a plan in their heads. Should this confrontation go as he anticipated it would, that small act of indifferent defiance would likely be his last gift to the world.
When their swords clashed and the machine was able to overpower him after only the briefest of skirmishes, he knew his assumption on the outcome would be correct.
Chapter 19
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The Dragon Awakens
Crystal knew that she didn’t need to do much to break down Aryu’s preconceived notions of the Power, reminding him that technology getting out of hand had destroyed the world twice, the Power only once (“That’s fifty percent less!” she giggled demurely), and of all the Power Embracers in history. One crazy man wasn’t quite enough to label the whole collection of people with these abilities.
The only things really holding back Aryu’s mind on the subject were his fear of the beast named Nixon Ash and the simple fact that, despite some dealings with it on a very abstract level, Aryu still was terrified of the Power. A deep part of him believed that mankind simply wasn’t made to hold that kind of ability.
“Is the Power Divine?” Aryu asked.
Crystal shook her head. “No, not really. Science and divinity are so close to one another it’s frightening. The Power is deeper than that. Faith has always sprung from the Power, not the other way around. Look at Sho and I. Science enfeebled us, not faith.”
“And Nixon?”
“Nixon is an extreme who proves the rule. A person born entirely of the Power. Science can’t take away his Power because he is the Power. There’s nothing human about him to take the Power from
