Maximus held out his palm, a low thrum echoed throughout Fluxara as his palm was covered in blue.
A saber in the depths of the Augustine Manor flashed alive for the first time in thousands of years, and suddenly, it exploded forward.
If one looked carefully enough, they would've seen a breathtakingly sharp line being torn into the fabric of spacetime as a line drew itself from the Augustine Manor to Maximus, becoming more and more prominent as it got closer to the outstretched hand.
Suddenly, a gorgeous matte black sabre slammed into Maximus's hand, killing intent tore through the tension in the air as he slashed.
CLANG!
Yet all it met was a spear.
The ringing of the metal seemed to be the final straw, the catalyst of armageddon on Fluxara.
As the clashes of Maximus and the lead invader rang throughout Fluxara, the group of men that had appeared while Maximus and the invader talked arrived. With only a single glance at the invaders, the family heads had divided the enemy amongst them. Diego and Estelle directly engaged 20, the rest of the family heads each took on 5, with the only exception being Isadora, who clashed with 10. Immediately, the group of 45 was locked in battle.
Higher in the sky was Maximus and the leader of the invaders, exchanging countless strikes in seconds. The air boomed with their strength as heavy winds enveloped the sitting arrangement below.
Maximus disengaged, standing across his opponent as a flurry of thoughts ran through his mind: 'The kids.' 'How'd they find us so quickly?' 'Do I have enough time?'
'I have to end this quickly, reinforcements should be coming.'
Maximus's figure blurred as the fight took a drastic turn. He started disappearing and reappearing around his opponent, his strikes aiming to cleave and erase the leader. His sabre grew brighter with each exchange, his advantage only increasing.
As Maximus grew closer to the end of his fight, right below him, Isadora erupted with violet shadows as the world around her grew darker. Violet shadows danced across her fair skin, akin to a raging inferno.
A scythe appeared in her hands, and two horns grew from her head, one as black as the deepest of black holes, and one as white as the purest snow.
Suddenly, she disappeared, reappearing from the shadow of one of her opponents, her scythe slicing through the neck of the invader. The first head had fallen.
The head flew straight towards the ground, hitting the ground with enough force to leave a small crater as it bounced a couple of times before rolling to a stop. Normally, any flesh falling from such a distance would become nothing but paste; the mere fact that it wasn't destroyed spoke volumes about the level of the enemies above.
Valerio and the heirs had barely recovered from the shock of the planet turning to chaos and their parents fighting when a decapitated head with shocked eyes rolled in front of them.
'Run.'
This simple thought was the only thing the heirs could think about as their bodies went into fight or flight. Even the more experienced heirs, such as Lucius and Oliver, had never participated in war, let alone seen such a horrified expression on a bodiless head.
"EVERYONE TO THE MANOR!" Valerio shouted as he looked over his childhood friends, his eyes stilling for just a second on Aurora. No more words were needed, no matter how little their life and death experiences were, they had all been trained ever since they could walk. Oliver erupted in flames, arrangements of runes formed beneath everyone's soles with the effort of Felix and Lucy. Light Lu covered the entire group as they sprinted past the now-demolished arena and towards the Augustine manor.
Valerio briefly glanced behind him as he felt another hurricane-like wind assault the ground. He saw his dad with a sabre in hand, fighting against the lead invader. He couldn't make up anything; they were moving too fast. Valerio pushed down all doubts and negative emotions into the depths of his being as he chose to believe in his dad, like he always had.
Aurora grabbed Valerio's wrist, and a stream of Light Lu entered his body as he accelerated forwards again. The group had almost made it to the manor, but it shouldn't have taken them so long, as his presence had slowed the group. Valerio didn't lament on it; self-pity was the last thing that was going to help them at the moment. He knew they could enter the training grounds at the bottom of the manor; it was the safest place he knew of; the Void Ore covering the training grounds and mansion was the strongest material he knew of. Valerio took one last look at his parents and grandparents, a hint of worry appearing on his face. He knew he couldn't do anything and forced himself to look away, guiding the heirs underground. As he took the first steps in the mansion, he swore to himself that he would never be so weak again.
Amidst the chaotic skies, Diego breathed in as he completed a slash, a head flew to the skies as a body plummeted down. Diego glanced down, and he saw the kids getting further and further away from the battlefield, a confident smile on his face. His spiritual sense burst out from him, enveloping the entirety of Fluxara as he assessed the situation while parrying strike after strike.
The panicked guests had already started flying towards their ships; the journey wouldn't take long with their cultivation, however, even that short timeframe could amount to anything in a battle between experts.
As soon as the children had retreated inside the manor, an earth-shattering aura broke out from Maximus, his cultivation soaring from the 4th Plane to the 5th.
His matte-black saber flashed with an ominous glint as a tornado of Lu appeared around him, felling his opponent across the sky.
Yet his momentum didn't stop, as soon as he reached the peak of the 5th Plane, another explosion of Lu took place, invigorating his being.
His aura was clear for all to see, peak 6th Plane.