But Atticus wasn't alone.
"Bond!"
"Kuu!"
Ozeroth and the soulkin responded immediately, and in the next breath, the Will cloaking Atticus blazed even brighter and more violently, surging into the point of impact.
Crack.
The sound was soft, almost casual, like glass breaking, but to those present, it was anything but normal.
The eyes of Whisker and the Gardener both shot open in shock.
In the same instant, they realized the truth…
The attack had cracked the Gardener's Will.
While the Gardener stood frozen in the midst of an existential crisis, Whisker's wide eyes sharpened into focus.
This was a chance, and he had no intention of letting it slip.
His Will collapsed violently around his body, condensing into a singular surge of force as he blasted forward.
His fist tore through the air like a comet.
The terror stricken Gardener scarcely managed to raise his arms to guard before the attack slammed into him.
A violent flash of blue and green tore across the skies and for the first time since the battle began, the Gardener felt an overwhelming force tearing through his body.
He was sent hurtling backward at inhuman speed, crashing through the skies like a broken meteor.
Atticus and Whisker's gazes met.
The former's eyes still blazed fiercely, fierce and calm.
Whisker, on the other hand, wore a wide, wild grin, as though he wanted to hug the boy right then and there.
But now wasn't the time.
Their heads snapped to the side in unison, their cold gazes locking onto the hurtling figure of Solren.
Without hesitation, they blurred, vanishing from the skies.
Atticus appeared above, his katana flashing high above his head.
Without hesitation, they blurred, vanishing from the skies.
Atticus appeared above, his katana flashing high above his head.
The world seemed to pause.
During the month they had been trapped within the Aegis Shield, Atticus had trained relentlessly, experimenting, refining the katana arts he had acquired.
Through that, he had created countless combinations.
But among them, the most powerful was the fusion of the Third and Fourth Katana Arts.
His blade suddenly began leaving blazing white purple streaks in the air.
And then…
He split.
Countless echoes of himself appeared, blotting the sky, each one moving in perfect tandem with the original.
Then, the echoes moved without hesitation, unleashing slash after slash, each stroke converging in front of them to form an uncountable number of brilliant, burning crescents in the air.
But that wasn't all.
The true Atticus, at the center of it all, suddenly spoke:
"Sundering Storm."
In that moment, a spiral of violent energy erupted from his form.
A massive storm surged outward, drawing in all of the crescent slashes created by his echoes.
The echoes dispersed, their energy feeding the growing storm, until it raged furiously around Atticus, a maelstrom filled with countless whirling crescent blades.
Atticus' eyes blazed as he pulled it all inward, collapsing the spiraling storm into his katana, the weapon now appearing like a colossal, howling vortex of concentrated destruction surging toward the heavens.
Without a single hesitation, he unleashed it.
The storm infused slash roared downward like an executioner's blade, hurtling straight toward the falling Gardener.
Through all the chaos, the Gardener's mind was grappling with the events.
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