Book 5: Chapter 26: The Time Has Come |
David didn’t return to Orhain after killing Zephyr. He spent the next few days consuming the Beast God’s body, expanding his reservoir of Vitae Nihilum once again. At this point, he had 1291 units of Vitae Nihilum at his disposal, and it was still expanding, as his mission to cleanse the Earthen Union was far from over.
After [Bloodlife Echo] evolved to Superior, he could create Echoes with a grand total of 10,000 units of pure Blood. Electra was no longer reliant on his Class Skill, and therefore, she was no longer supplied with pure Blood—except for treats, of course. Instead, David produced 10,000 units of pure Blood to create thousands of Echoes to return life to the dead ocean. Dozens of Void creatures spread through the ocean, leading the restoration effort. They split up whenever they accumulated enough Vitae to sustain two bodies and spread out once more to consume more and more Vitae Nihilum.
Zachariah, Sword Savant, David, and most Chimeras spread across the ocean to kill all the Voidlings that tried to stop the restoration, but that grew more and more difficult. The first few days passed relatively harmlessly. However, as the first two weeks trickled by, the Voidlings grew more and more dangerous. David, Zachariah, and Sword Savant could easily deal with Voidre, as they were strong enough to fight a dozen at a time, but Overlords were still rather problematic to deal with.
Overlords were not as powerful as Major Gods when it came to speed and strength, but they were still stronger than most. It was possible to evade their attacks and block them, yet the moment they hit you, it was over. That was the case until David and Vitae Nihilum were added to the equation. The End’s greatest power, the cosmos’ greatest nemesis, turned into nothing more than a minor nuisance the moment David joined the battle, covering his allies with what appeared to be a replica of the Voidlings’ Void Barrier.
It didn’t block the incoming attacks, but it weakened Nihilum’s potency and seeped into the inflicted wounds, restraining and devouring Nihilum. If aided by enough Might, the wound would knit itself together within seconds—in the worst case, minutes—rather than years.
“We actually defeated an Overlord,” Sword Savant rasped, his body covered in wounds that recovered rapidly as David cast [Transcendent Restoration].
The Savant God looked bewildered and excited at the same time, which was rather amusing.
“We sure did,” David added with a smile, releasing Vitae to consume the Void Overlord’s remains.
“But that’s not enough. One Overlord is nothing. Thousands invaded the cosmos at this point, and more are coming.” Zachariah shook his head, ignoring the happy faces all around him. He turned to David, expression grim. “We need to do more. The Earthen Union is struggling. You can sense that, can’t you?”
David knew that his territory was bursting, as it was one of the few territories no Voidling could touch. Seraphine’s Guardians were powerful, but so were the Champions, Ascendants, and Guardian Idols protecting Kamia and the surrounding regions. Over the course of weeks, David and the others focused on creating a foothold for their forces. They cleared the wastelands around Kamia once most of the ocean had been purified and revived. They expanded rapidly as David’s mastery over the creation of Void creatures increased.
His Void sharks and whales had moved on to the surrounding island states and maritime nations, cleansing them. It helped that the Void creatures split into two once they were bursting with Vitae and nothingness, yet their deadly efficiency was far from enough to remove the root of the problem.
“I know.” The smile on David’s lips cracked, replaced by grim realization. “The Earthen Union is growing weaker, but I am growing stronger. And the stronger I grow, the faster I’ll be able to handle the Voidlings in the future.”
“But what if you are too late?” Zachariah asked for the umpteenth time. “What if you are too slow to prevent the Earthen Union’s demise? You are connected to the Earthen Union, so you know better than anyone; how much time do we have left before the End emerges victorious? Several worlds have already fallen to the End—destroyed when their guardians succumbed to Void Overlords and Monarchs.”
“The Void Monarchs have been forced into a stalemate. They will fall to the Ancients and Old Ones,” the Sword Savant God said, his earlier excitement nowhere to be seen. “Look, Zachariah, I know what you have gone through, yet I cannot fathom the pain and suffering that must be eating at you, but our situation is not as bad as it appears. As long as we can detect and intercept all Overlords using our little weapon over there”—his bladed arms pointed at David—“we stand a very good chance at protecting the Earthen Union, and that is all we need to maintain the Weave’s control over this part of the galaxy. Protecting this planet is all we need to keep the Fissure at bay.”
Zachariah shot a death glare at the Sword Savant God, who didn’t seem to care about the Regressor’s anger.
“You can teleport to every place in the Earthen Union, isn’t that correct?” The Sword Savant turned to David, who gave a nod. At this point, Passage combined with One With the World, as well as his status as the Earthen Union’s Herald, made it possible to teleport anywhere within the Earthen Union’s atmosphere.
“That’s good.” He retrieved a map that resembled the live-updating one Maja had been using to study the Voidlings’ movements through the expansion of the wastelands, though certain details differed. The Sword Savant’s map displayed the density of Nihilum and nothingness in every region of the Earthen Union as well.
“You can use this map to teleport to hot spots. Alone, you may struggle a little against Overlords, but we can get hold of an Ascendant with decent aptitude for the Law of Space to follow you in time. That way, we can come to help you at all times if an Overlord arrives at a hot spot. In the meantime, we will block the wastelands’ expansion caused by the weaker Voidlings.”
“Or,” Zachariah intercepted, still glaring at the Sword Savant, “you will join me and force those pieces of shites into protecting the Earthen Union together rather than continuing their endless fights while the survival of the damn cosmos is on the line.”
That sounded much better. The idea of rallying their forces and pressuring Ascendants and Minor Gods into working together was sound.
Why aren’t they working together in the first place? Is it because they fear betrayal? It did make sense. Since even Major Gods betrayed the cosmos, why wouldn’t Minor Gods or Ascendants do the same? They might not be on the End’s side; however, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t use any opportunity to get rid of their arch enemies.
“If you think you can do that, go for it,” David said, though he noticed how uncertain he sounded.
“Just you watch!” Zachariah snapped at David for whatever reason. “I will make it happen. You, focus on growing even stronger. I need you as strong as possible for this to work.”
The Regressor had already hinted at some sort of End-extermination-plan which, apparently, required David’s help, but Zachariah had yet to explain anything.
“If you want me to comply, you need to start telling me things,” David responded.
The Regressor offered him a curt nod. “Once these idiots finally understand what’s on the line, I’ll tell you about my plan. Either then or not at all—and I don’t like the sound of the latter.”
That was more than enough. David retrieved the live-updating map and studied it for a good minute. The density of Nihilum was the thickest at the outskirts of the map, hinting at the Earthen Union’s atmosphere and surroundings, but that was only obvious. The betrayal of the gods had forced the Fissure wide open, allowing more and more Voidlings to emerge at once. Dozens of gods had already fallen victim to the Voidlings, strengthening them further. It was only a matter of time before the Fissure transformed into an anchored portal—permanently connecting the End to the cosmos.
That would allow all the creatures of the End to force their way into the cosmos, which was the last thing they wanted. Yet, before they could deal with the Fissure, they had to rescue the Earthen Union.
“See you later. I’ll message you via the communication crystals if I need help,” David called out before teleporting to a dense mass of Nihilum that was just about to infest a flourishing jungle. Thousands upon thousands of Voidlings unraveled beneath David, their insatiable hunger filling the air.
“Do you want to move, or should I?” he asked, all while the Obsidian Blade carved deep into his palm. Dark blood poured out in streams as he activated [Blood Manipulation] to draw enough blood to shape into a hundred tiny needles. He cut himself a few more times, materializing a thousand bloody needles before Electra responded.
We shall fight together! Her voice thundered in David’s head just as his wings and crimson scales retracted. Electra’s head, the size of a coconut, emerged from his chest first. Her head expanded rapidly as she returned to the atmosphere of the Earthen Union, and the rest of her body followed shortly as it popped out of David.
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Clouds gathered in the sky, dimming the vibrant light of the mid-summer afternoon sun, and the first Voidlings turned to them. Too focused on the life beneath, they failed to recognize the mountains of lifeforce appearing above. But once they did, they charged into the sky—if they could.
The winged Voidlings burst upward, led by a dozen Voidre, but David paid them no heed. His attention was locked on the Voidlings on the ground, and he attacked without mercy.
The blood needles shot toward the ground like meteorites. Black trails followed the deadly projectiles as they passed by the winged Voidlings, and they impacted with deadly precision. Hundreds of Fragments died instantly, their Maelstroms shattered, and more followed as the blood needles exploded in those who survived the initial strike. Explosions reverberated throughout the jungle, craters scarred the once-pristine land, spreading death and chaos everywhere.
Damaging the Earthen Union pained him greatly, but he had the means to heal the jungle once all of this was over, which shouldn’t take long. He conjured more needles; this time he forged them from pure Blood laced with Might and Vitae. A needle of that nature didn’t consume much energy, and even a thousand materialized around him without issue. At this point, David had more than enough pure Blood, Might, and Vitae to spare, and he unleashed it upon the enemies who deserved it most.
26.2 ®
The needles poured down upon the Earthen Union at a blinding speed. Thousands of Voidlings tried to escape, their insatiable hunger replaced by a semblance of fear, but David didn’t care. The needles pierced into the Voidlings, unleashing highly potent Vitae into their bodies, which devoured them within seconds. In the meantime, the smell of burned flesh filled the sky.
A cacophony of explosions and thunderous noises echoed, and David turned to see the winged Voidlings plummet to the ground. The Voidre, burned and mangled, were torn apart by fangs coated in liquid death and Vitae. They didn’t stay idle, but they stood no chance against Electra.
David chose to help a bit. He released spheres of highly condensed Vitae at the Voidre, which were too focused on Electra to notice them in time. The spheres reached the Voidre in an instant, and they consumed them alive.
“You can finish them off,” he told Electra, his attention turning to the jungle and the expanding wastelands. His expression hardened, and he descended upon the jungle, triggering Fountain of Life to return life to the once-pristine lands. At the same time, he released a dozen Void creatures into the wastelands, halting its forceful expansion. Then, the Void creatures did what they did best, whether made of Vitae or Nihilum—they consumed.
More and more life poured out of David, reinvigorating the jungle first and the dead wastelands next. It would take some time before the wastelands would recover, but the borders were freed of all nothingness. It was the start of something new, and David was far from done. As the spheres of Vitae returned and Electra fused with him once more, David checked the surroundings one last time. When there was nothing more to do, space around David warped, and he rushed to the next hotspot.
David and Electra had a lot to do. Time was not on their side. But they had the luxury of power and near-inexhaustible energy at their disposal. That should amount to something.
***
Zachariah joined forces with David again two weeks later. A severely beaten Minor God followed him, using the Law of Space to follow the distortion left behind by Passage. That, however, was all he did.
The God of Space didn’t fight. He just watched and shivered as the Regressor and David, with Electra of course, fought against the masses of Voidlings, tearing through them as if they were nothing to worry about. Not even dozens of Voidre stood a chance against the trio.
“I guess everything worked out just fine?” David asked Zachariah, whose attacks were fiercer than usual.
“Nothing worked out!” he cursed, his humming blade carving through a Voidre’s neck, beheading the creature. “I had to beat those idiots into submission. That worked for a day or two before they were tired of listening to my orders. Instead of fighting those forsaken Voidlings, they rallied their forces to fight me.” Hatred burned in his eyes as he glanced over to the Space God. “Their greed forced me to use [Lifeline]. If not for that, I’d probably be dead.”
David remembered one of Zachariah’s Ancient Powers. He had no idea where Zachariah had acquired the Ancient Power from, and Zachariah never really talked about it either. All he knew was that [Lifeline] drained Zachariah’s lifeforce and essence rapidly. It was also a power he could only unleash when he was on the brink of death. Using it granted him unforeseen power, as it turned out, but it also drained him for an extended period. David spent most of the day, and enough lifeforce to reinvigorate wastelands spanning several countries, to fix the Regressor’s mess of a body, but it was more than worth it.
“Most Voidre have been taken care of,” David informed Zachariah as he checked the live-updating map for the third time. “The borders are no longer expanding either. If anything, they’re shrinking.”
The Void creatures were doing much better than he could have hoped for. As long as their efficacy didn’t diminish, the Earthen Union would be cleansed of most of its wastelands. IF—and that was a big one—the Voidlings didn’t initiate a counterattack.
Suddenly, eyes still locked on the map, something shifted. Several masses of Nihilum appeared on the live-updating map right at their location. David took a moment to take in the intel and looked up to see a series of pitch-black meteorites descending upon them. They came from outside the Earthen Union, breached the outermost layer of the atmosphere with ease, and ignored the Weave’s restraints as they accelerated.
“Incoming Overlords. Four of them!” David shouted at the top of his lungs, right before a towering figure emerged amidst the descending Overlords. The Weave burst forth to restrain the figure, which disregarded it all the same. A shockwave of Might burst out from the creature as it extended ten arms outward. The arms moved so fast, they left behind an afterimage. More and more arms, shimmering in bright silver and golden hues, formed around the figure.
The arms moved simultaneously and lunged at the Overlords. Fingertips moving several times faster than the speed of sound ripped through two Overlords, eradicating their threat instantaneously, while a third was severely wounded. The fourth escaped the towering being’s grasp and shot toward the surface of the Earthen Union, where the Weave’s restraints were the strongest. The being—was it an Ancient, maybe even an Old One?—snorted and released a golden beam that shot through the atmosphere, demolishing several layers of space and obliterating the third Overlord.
The fourth was still descending, but the Weave’s pressure continued to grow. David felt its weight heavily on the towering being and swallowed hard.
That would kill me. No…that would kill any Minor God, yet he was standing there, looking at me? David met the being’s golden eyes and froze. The being stood there for a second, then turned around to return to space where more Overlords and Monarchs were waiting for it to fight.
“Fuck,” Zachariah cursed. “This is bad. Really, really bad.”
David turned to the Regressor, a deep frown plastered on his face. “Why is that bad? He just saved us.”
Zachariah sighed exasperatedly and pointed where the god had just killed four Overlords.
“That was one of the Old Ones,” he said as if that explained everything. Fortunately, the Regressor noticed that wasn’t the case. “Old Ones do not move except when shit is going down. In the last Cycle, most of them didn’t bother with us until the very end. What does that mean?”
The last bit sounded a bit too snappy for David’s taste, but he understood the meaning behind Zachariah’s words.
“That we’re at the end of the Cycle,” David muttered. “Or that the Old Ones moved out earlier because the situation is more dangerous than it was in the last Cycle.”
Either way, the appearance of an Old One spelled trouble.
“We don’t have much time left.” Zachariah threw the same look at David as he had every so often in the last few months.
“If this is about your grand plan to solve the Voidling problem, you better tell me—” A terrifying roar interrupted David. He grimaced and turned to the Overlord who’d survived the descent upon the Earthen Union. “Once we get rid of this thing.”
The Void Overlord looked like a mighty dragon. It was massive, its body exceeding one kilometer in length. That was the largest Voidling David had fought until now, but he smiled calmly at it.
If he’d learned one thing about Voidlings, it was that the larger ones were stronger, that their bodies were overflowing with Nihilum. However, it was the smallest Voidlings that posed the greatest threat. The smallest Overlords had been a nuisance, their control over Nihilum as delicate as it was deadly. As for the gargantuan Voidlings…well, they relied on brute force most of the time.
A flame of seemingly eternal darkness descended upon David and the others. The Space God disappeared in a blink, while Electra fused with David. Zachariah flickered and turned into a flash, his body emitting the power of the Sword God he had once been. He slashed at the flames and severed through them, while David used Passage. He appeared above the Overlord, the Divine Artifact—the Obsidian Blade—in his hands.
Words of Power rolled from his tongue and a fountain of Vitae surged out of him and toward the sword, which expanded even as David slashed down. The Void Dragon turned to David to attack, but it was already too late. The Old One’s forced entry into the Earthen Union’s atmosphere was all he needed to know; the time for playing around was over.
The Ancient Law merged with the blade as it carved through the Void Dragon’s wings. David felt resistance, but it required far more than brute force to stop him now. An ocean of Vitae poured out of the blade and into the Void Dragon’s barrier, breaking it down without restraint. He no longer blocked Vitae’s hunger, even if it would cost him dearly.
Instantly, he lost several dozen units of Vitae, destroyed in the head-on battle against the Void Barrier, which shattered helplessly, giving way to the blade and the Law of Unbinding. Rend tore through the wing, severing it as simply as that, while Vitae poured into the wing and the body, devouring it like a starving beast.
The Overlord’s neck elongated and it lunged at David, but gravity, coupled with a sprinkle of Might pressing down on the Void Dragon, was enough to push it away from him. Not that he needed it, but the Space God seemed to deem it necessary. It was the first time he stepped onto the battlefield, and he couldn’t have looked angrier than before.
“Peace was never an option, was it?” He gnashed his teeth, flames of pure hatred blazing in his eyes. “Then war there will be!”
Are you seriously trying to sound tough right now? For amplifying gravity a little bit? Seriously?! David snickered inwardly but went along. He flapped his wings and charged at the Voidling as it crashed heavily into the ground. Augmented gravity took hold of him and accelerated his speed as he kicked off compressed air. He emerged above the Void Dragon’s chest just as Zachariah reached its neck and rammed the Divine Artifact deep inside, straining his Source to unleash a second burst of Rend.
Zachariah shimmered silver, changed, as his blade carved through the Void Dragon’s neck, severing it.
Times had changed. This was not just one of many Cycles. It was the cosmos’s last attempt, and they had to make it right or they would all die.
“So…” David turned to Zachariah as the Overlord slumped dead to the ground. “What is your grand plan?”