Book 5: Chapter 22: Death |
David was not confident. If anything, he had no idea if this was going to work or if he had just signed his death warrant. But what was he supposed to do against a Minor? His physique was stronger than the System could calculate, meaning it crossed the boundary of a 3-Star Ascendant.
Maybe he was already as strong as a 4-Star, maybe even a 5-Star Ascendant, but the chasm separating Ascendants with full-fledged divinity was massive. It was not something he could cross easily, even if his Arcanas were incredibly useful.
Zephyr was physically stronger. He was faster, more durable, and he could brute force his way through David’s defenses with ease. Despite that massive disparity in physical strength, David was more concerned with the Poisonous Beast God’s control of Might, his usage of Words of Power, and liquid death.
Might sealed the surrounding space—again—and it would not surprise David if Zephyr continued to lock space until the fight ended. Zephyr’s raw strength and liquid death, on the other hand, inflicted heavy damage on David. He would be dead if not for his immense regeneration.
[The User’s understanding of the Ancient Law, the Law of Unbinding, increased greatly.]
29.19% → 31.01%
31.02%
31.03%
…
David regenerated near-instantaneously. He sacrificed more than two dozen droplets of pure blood and a mountain of raw lifeforce to restore his body. It felt like his bones, veins, flesh, and organs regenerated simultaneously, which was the crux of it.
The Obsidian Blade appeared in his right hand, and David triggered [Phantom Rush] alongside [Herald’s Blessing], then unleashed a mixture of Might and Vitae in his body, forcefully augmenting it. His skin burst open and dark blood pooled out, but David focused only on the Law of Unbinding.
It reached 35% and progressed further, albeit slower than before, and he moved onward. David disappeared in a flash. He appeared beside the Poisonous Beast God, evading his charge by a hair’s breadth, and slashed out. If Zephyr was surprised, he did not show it.
The Beast God stared at David, space rippled, and David knew instinctively Zephyr was about to escape—not today! He slashed the Obsidian Blade out and watched as a thin, milky-white blade of Rend burst forth. It sailed through the air, emitting no presence at all, and struck the Poisonous Beast God before he could move.
No, that was not right. The crescent blade had not been that fast. If Zephyr had wanted to, he would have escaped the incoming attack, yet he did not. Or…was it that he could not escape? Did it only look like he could move when that was not the case? David had no idea. But what he did know was that the energy in his arms left him. He gasped for air, his body drained of energy. It was the first time he had felt like that since he became an Ascendant. He had never been this weak before…but now he was. Regardless, he was satisfied. He had successfully struck the Beast God.
Rend struck and tore through Zephyr’s neck, ripping through scales once thought impenetrable and digging deep into the god’s flesh. He wounded the god—drew blood from a Minor God for the first time! But it was not enough. Zephyr roared aloud in anger and…was that surprise?
He attacked. David tried to close the gap before the Poisonous Beast God could, but Zephyr was already upon him, moving faster and attacking fiercer than before. This time, however, there was a trace of despair in his strikes, transforming them into even deadlier blows, each laced with more than enough liquid death to kill weaker Ascendants within seconds. David was forced into defense once more.
This time it was different than before. Now, all he had to do was survive. Wait for the Law of Unbinding to progress further and strike Zephyr again. The only problem? The Ancient Law’s progress was slow, and Zephyr’s attacks grew fiercer by the minute. Even David’s regeneration, god-like as it was, would fail him sooner rather than later if this continued.
Frustrated, David cast [Sacrifice] again, desiring to accelerate the Ancient Law’s progress. He consumed Scalemore and Serpent Fang, two soulbonded items that had grown to peak Ascendant armaments alongside him, without a second thought.
[The User’s understanding of the Ancient Law, the Law of Unbinding, increased greatly.]
35.21% → 36.79%
37.03%
37.98%
38.70%
39.61%
…
Momentarily, even if it was only for a few seconds, his comprehension of the Ancient Law accelerated. The acceleration was drastic, and the understanding and knowledge forced into his mind tormented him. It strained his compressed brain to an extent that even his natural regeneration could not cover, yet he prevailed.
He survived and…he faltered. His comprehension of the Ancient Law decelerated once again. This time, it progressed even more slowly than before.
Did I make a mistake? Was that foolish?
His confident front crumbled for a moment. His sacrifice might have been a little rushed. It was probably foolish too, but it was the best move he could think of. As soon as his understanding of the Law of Unbinding increased further, he could use his final ace and kill Zephyr. He was sure it would work as long as the Ancient Law progressed a little bit more. Just a tiny bit!
Then, it happened. As the Law progressed, nearing the state he needed, something within him changed. The infinite lifeforce of the Fountain of Life, as it turned out, was not as infinite as expected. It was finite and strained beyond measure. Although still active, flooding David with lifeforce, the Fountain of Life failed to provide him with the mountains of lifeforce he needed to survive. His healing slowed down. The [Healing Sphere]s vanished from one moment to the next, and the only reason David was still alive was his remaining abilities. His Arcanas were still active, but they barely kept him alive. Both Fountain of Life and Titanblood were close to leveling up again, yet the damage inflicted by the Poisonous Beast God would be the end of him before the Arcanas reached the next level—if this continued.
David was uneasy. The fight was wearing on him, and he couldn’t do anything about it. He had no mouth to utter Words of Power; the Corrupted Divine Heart had been mangled to the point where it was increasingly difficult to wield Vitae Nihilum, and his senses were failing him.
Is this how I’m going to die? Was it a mistake to face Zephyr?
But what else could he have done?
David felt a subtle shift. First, the lock in space disappeared. He tried to use Passage, but the Arcana failed him. Next, something entered his perception. Multiple presences. Then the world around him grew darker. The Poisonous Beast God stopped striking him with physical attacks. Instead, something wet coated his body, tearing through his natural regeneration, forcing his recovery to screech to a halt.
He sensed the water around him and felt the force of the Earthen Union’s gravity pulling him deeper.
Coated in a deadly liquid that tried to end him, David was unable to use his Arcanas. He failed to shatter the coat of liquid death or move. He…couldn’t do anything as gravity pulled him to the bed of the ocean. However, Zephyr was no longer upon him. At the same time, the Corrupted Divine Heart stirred. It twisted and pulsed, releasing Vitae Nihilum into the mangled mess of his body. The process was slow and painful, but at least Vitae moved.
At the same time, the world around David grew darker. He tried to move, to do something, but he couldn’t. His body had already failed him, and now his mind did the same. He couldn’t come up with any proper thoughts. All failsafes had failed him, and his mind shut down as he drifted to the depths of the ocean.
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The last thing David could think about was the safety of his people—of Maja. He had failed them. He…had failed himself.
Am I really going to die like this? Fuck that shit! He tried to roar in defiance as lifeforce and Vitae poured out of him.
The ocean had swallowed him, and he was powerless against it. He had failed. He…had been too weak.
***
A few minutes earlier.
Zephyr knew he had won. He hadn’t expected the Healer to emerge victorious in the first place. Still, the Healer had been a lot more problematic than anticipated. It was truly mind-boggling how much damage the Healer endured. His regeneration and healing abilities were monstrous, to say the least. Even the Minor God of Survival couldn’t ensure a Mid Ascendant would survive this long against a Minor God. The God of Survival would have failed where the Healer succeeded.
But no matter how powerful the Healer’s abilities were, he was only an Ascendant. His physical strength and endurance were great, pushing him to the verge of a Peak Ascendant, but that was still not enough.
Zephyr inspected the gash in his scales where the Healer had hit him when the fight started, and he was angry, to say the least. He’d used a considerable amount of energy, redirected his lifeforce, and used enough Might to restore his scales, yet the gash was still there. It was almost like the Healer had used something that prevented him from healing…except that there was no remnant of an Arcana like Incurable or Irreversible Calamity.
At this point, Zephyr was tired of holding back. He had to study the Healer to consume him and the End’s power properly, or he would suffer the same fate as Kelos. He would not fall to the End’s power, and he would make it his with enough safety measures. For that, he needed the Healer.
However, a ripple in the Weave forced him to change his mind. It was no more than a faint fluctuation, a minuscule tear in the Weave. He had full control of the Weave in the proximity, except for the tiny tear that escaped his dominion. Then the Healer attacked. He recovered suddenly and appeared beside Zephyr, and he struck the Beast God’s neck with a milky-white beam-blade. It resembled the earlier attack, but it couldn’t have been more different—more potent.
Zephyr was almost too late to react. He activated his full defensive potential, unleashed Ouroboros’ Fortress, his greatest Arcana, and redirected his lifeforce and Might to bolster his defense. That was his greatest fortune, and the sole reason he survived.
The Healer’s attack struck him, nearly killing the Minor God. The slightest mistake would have killed Zephyr. He…would have been killed.
How is that possible? What in the Great Beast’s name is that? How can a mere Ascendant carry this much power? That’s impossible!
The worst part? That wasn’t even the End’s power. Zephyr made sure to crush the vessel carrying the Healer’s greatest power. He ignored the Source and ensured the Healer wouldn’t be able to call upon the End’s power. Control slipped out of his grasp now and then, courtesy of the End’s potency, but Zephyr took no longer than a quarter of a second to regain it. The Healer had not even the slightest chance at wielding the End’s power in the fight.
Zephyr shuddered as blood poured out of him. He had been wounded, and he could no longer take any risks. He steadied himself and redoubled his efforts. This time, however, he attacked for real.
The Healer was pummeled around, his body no more than a heap of unrecognizable flesh. Then, as the Healer’s regeneration slowed down at last, he released liquid death and forced the Healer’s regeneration to a grinding halt.
Yet, as the Healer’s regeneration slowed, Zephyr sensed something else. A pair of presences, to be precise. The pressure coming from his opponent was increasing rapidly. Something about the Healer was changing, and Zephyr felt a sense of threat for the first time since the battle started. He…was threatened by a mere Ascendant. That was not possible.
Neither was the sudden appearance of several fast-moving figures from space and the surroundings. The Poisonous Beast God recognized them immediately, and he cursed out loud. A hiss resounded across the ocean, but there was no denying it. The End’s cretins had found them.
Zephyr wanted to consume the Healer and disappear, yet he couldn’t risk it. The parts of the Healer’s body which he’d consumed earlier were still wreaking havoc within him. He’d coated them in liquid death to break the body down and digest tiny parts of it later, but that was harder than expected. Zephyr could only do that once he regained the power he’d been forced to use to beat the Healer.
Forced to make a quick decision, Zephyr coated the Healer in more liquid death once it was clear that he would die sooner rather than later, and he pushed him into the ocean. The Healer dropped into the water and sank deeper and deeper as liquid death seeped into him, tearing the Healer apart from the inside out.
His regeneration had stopped entirely. He was dead, or as good as dead anyway.
Only a few seconds later, the first figures appeared—Voidlings. Powerful ones. The weakest Voidlings were a group of Voidre. The strongest, on the other hand, were…
“Fuck the Great Beast.” Fury bloomed from the bottom of Zephyr’s heart. He was so, so angry, but he was too weak to fight. Too exhausted from fighting this extensively for the first time in decades. And the newcomers? They were fast. Dangerously so. Even worse? More creatures appeared.
Fortunately, not all were Voidlings. Some were allies, others were…not-exactly-allies. But there were also enemies.
Anyway, they weren’t Voidlings.
“Truce?”
A towering Giant snorted at the Poisonous Beast God but turned to a Void Overlord anyway.
That was good enough for Zephyr, whose eyes traced the ocean and the mass of liquid death that sank to the bottom of the ocean.
Once we get rid of them, I will get back to you. Don’t worry and sleep for a moment!!
***
The End was looking for the enemy. He was young, clearly not strong enough to eliminate an Overlord, yet he did it—he succeeded where even the strongest creatures of the Otherside had failed. He had to be removed, once and for all.
The enemy was nearby, somewhere near that dark blue vessel of liquid. The Voidlings sensed traces of the enemy’s power. Of Nihilum, modified and ripped out of the End’s control. However, all they found was a serpent. It was long and possessed enough power, be it lifeforce or divine energy, to act as a snack for one, maybe two Overlords. But there were many more.
Four Overlords had been ordered to remove the nuisance. To get rid of the enemy.
A snack…was just that. It was not a necessity, and it was not what the Overlords had come for. Yet there was something about the serpent that attracted their attention even as more figures with the power to become snacks arrived in the surroundings. Space rippled, and a pair of beasts appeared, meal-sized rather than mere snacks. Still, the Voidlings stared at the serpent, their senses tingling. There was something in the ocean—deep underground, engulfed in a power that felt like the serpent’s.
Focusing on the serpent, they could feel the End’s power that had been ripped out of its grasp. They stared at the serpent, ripped through space, and appeared before it, Nihilum pouring out of their bodies. Darkness surged through the air and forced its way through a small gash in the serpent’s neck, and…they could sense it. The power they were looking for…it was inside the serpent, coated in a mass of liquid that smelled like death.
More snacks emerged, followed by ant-like creatures, but the Voidlings didn’t care. Their eyes locked onto the serpent and they struck out.
Nihilum suffused into the Weave, tearing it in places, depriving the gods of the cosmos of their greatest power. Unable to wield and shape the Weave freely, the gods were weakened. However, the gods were many. Some hated each other enough to attack and kill one another if they had encountered each other under normal circumstances, but not now. Now was not the time for in-fighting.
Their Nemesis emerged from the darkness of the Fissure, and they were ready to fight it—together.
As a massive battle unfolded above the ocean of the Earthen Union, David sank to its bottom blissfully unaware. He sank deeper and deeper, but it was no longer the gravitational pull doing all the work—it was something else. A power much greater than a Minor Law worked its wonder, and it pulled David deep into a gorge at the bottom of the ocean. It pulled him further and further underground, bringing him closer to the planet’s core, guided by none other than his planetary bond.
Several notifications popped up around David, but he couldn’t see anything. He was not even awake. Even if he was, he wouldn’t be able to see anything in the darkest depths of the Earthen Union. Liquid death was still trying to get to him, killing him, but the Poisonous Beast God’s power had grown weaker. It no longer endangered his life, not that it mattered.
He was no more than a mass of flesh. Calling him alive was a gross overstatement; he was more dead than alive. But that was the very reason he would survive. To survive, David had to die in the great depths, where he was the closest to the Earthen Union.
[Congratulations, Ascendant! You have been chosen…]
The notifications flashed, moved around erratically, and disappeared. Even if David was still alive, his body intact, and his mind at its peak, he would struggle to read everything. Only one message was clear.
[You have fallen. Your mortal shell lies broken, but your essence endures. You are no longer bound by flesh—you are one with your World. You are its herald, its fury, its eternal will. Through you, its power flows. Through you, its strength awakens. As long as your World survives, so shall you. You are the Guardian of the Earthen Union, sworn nemesis of the Void. Now rest, for the battle is not yet done. When your allies are ready, and your strength recovered, rise once more—and ERADICATE THEM.]
David could not see the message, but he could feel something within. Darkness made way for a ray of life—bright, vigorous, pristine. Something clung to his body, and it was not Electra, for the Sacred Beast had returned to the Beast Core, which lay in shambles. It was reassembling, just like his body, as he was dragged deeper into the ground, consumed by the very world itself.
He was recovering. It was a slow process, much slower than he was used to, but it worked. As time passed, whether seconds, minutes, or weeks, David gained strength. The planetary bond grew firmer than ever, his Arcanas flared up and worked their wonders, and the power of a world pumped through his restructuring veins.
David…was not yet dead. He was just getting started.