371 Sacrifice
Vangel moved away a bit, and then his sword began to glow while it was harnessing a shit ton of mana. It didn't take long for him to have enough to blast away, and the entire city and Aion wanted to ask where the hell he was getting so much energy.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think about that because the metallic men began to attack him… they were fifty copies… fifty copies of that annoying guy who caused Aion a lot of trouble just by running around. All of them began to punch Aion's barrier while his fists had been enhanced by magic. Thanks to it, Aion's mana was being drained at an alarming rate.
The mermaid and the other enemies that Aion didn't have time to analyze jumped away and completed an almost perfect encirclement to make sure that Aion won't have the chance to escape… they had a lot of time to prepare for that moment, and Aion truly was in a bad spot since he didn't ever consider that the past and the future would unite together to get rid of him.
Aion began to use a lot of mana orbs to explode everything around. Still, the mermaid's voice got stronger, and so did the fists of the metallic men… that combination was annoying since Aion's mana began to be drained even faster… basically, he was losing three thousand points of mana per second just by defending himself.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"I can't win this…" Aion thought while biting his lips. "I need to move away from here and then think of a plan… I can't let my anger and pride get the better of me now.
Aion decided to return to the present… even if they were still outnumbered, Fenhair and Celion would be able to help Aion more than a little bit. Also, if he contacts Sauros and his family, they will have a decent force, a lot better than nothing.
Aion processed all the mana orbs that he had to get all that mana back and then flew away from the throne room… the enemies decided to attack him all at once in a period of time in which they knew that they could defeat him. Still, they probably didn't know about all of Aion's techniques.
Although Aion found it suspicious that the metallic men didn't chase him, he ignored that and kept blasting away the walls of the castle… until a massive beam of golden light was fired toward him. Aion didn't have the time to notice it, much less dodge it. The attack was that fast.
While Aion still had some mana, the attack completely ignored the defenses of Mana Shield and engulfed him. It was only natural since the Mana Shield could only take so much damage per second. At least Aion didn't have time to feel any pain, and he was immediately knocked down unconscious.
When Aion woke up, he was in the middle of a dark place while feeling himself being crushed by a lot of things. He moved his head a little and then felt the weight of some rocks hitting his forehead… The pain woke him up completely, and then he coughed a mouthful of blood.
"You are terribly outmatched this time, Aion," Arc suddenly said. "You can't win against them now… you need to escape, but even in your current condition, you will have a hard time doing that by yourself."
Aion didn't have time to say anything, nor the chance. His body was aching all over, to the point that he couldn't even move his arms or legs or even feel them. He healed himself, and that improved things a bit… but his arms and legs bones weren't healing at all.
"Son of bitches… you will pay for this…" Aion said once he realized that he had lost his arms and legs.
His torso barely endured, thanks to the armor that Aion always wore… but that armor had turned into dust now. Another attack and he will be killed, and he couldn't even fight in that condition… Still, he forced himself to use a blast of wind to move from that pile of debris and then used an earth platform to float while he summoned the relics.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"They will follow you, and we can't let that happen…" Arc said. "You have some skeletons with you. Summon them now!"
Aion didn't know how a bunch of skeletons could help him in that situation, but Arc had a point and decided to listen to his grandpa. He had stored five hundred of them in his inventory and unleashed them all.
"Use ten thousand souls to enhance them. Hurry," Arc declared. "If you use your grandmother and me first, the others will quickly follow your commands."
"... What?" Aion furrowed his eyebrows.
"Just do it! You don't have enough energy left, and we already realized that our mana can't restore yours like usual," Arc replied. "Still, if we burn our souls with all of our might and at the same time, we should be able to cause enough damage to them that will delay them for a while. They shouldn't be wary of our existence."
"Self-sacrifice isn't something that I would like to do, but it can't be helped in this situation," Annalee added. "Besides, I hate when cowards gang up on a single common enemy like worms… it wasn't for long, Aion, but I believe that meeting you wasn't so bad considering how softly Artemisia raised you. She probably won't believe this, but tell her that… it was good to see her grow up."
"Shut up. I am not going to sacrifice souls," Aion said. "As if I would need help against the likes of those assholes."
"Seriously… what a troublesome child," Annalee said and then sighed. "You heard him, everyone. Let's just put the plan into action."
In the next moment, Aion began to receive a lot of experience, but then his body began to heat up for some reason. At the same time, it was being overflowed with mana…