by Aaron Oster
“Shit,” Beatrice muttered. “No wonder she didn’t even bother bringing it up. Is the mountain that unstable?”
“After Morgan’s battle, it is,” Hilda replied. “Add to that the constant attacks, and we may as well be digging ourselves into a hill of sand and hoping it doesn’t come sliding down around us.”
The bunker shook again, and Katherine began limping over to the back wall.
“I’ll take a five percent chance over zero any day,” she said, summoning her Reality Blade. “Just tell me where to cut, and we’ll begin excavating.”
“What about supports?” Beatrice asked. “I don’t know much about tunneling, but I know that those will give us a better chance.”
“There’s no time for that, I’m afraid,” Hilda said, already moving to join Katherine now that they were committed. “You wrap Elyssa up as best you can and prepare her for the trip. Either way, we’re getting out of here tonight.”
Beatrice nodded, then moved back to start getting Elyssa as ready as she could. Traveling with someone that critical would be risky, but right now, there was no safe path.
Katherine swung her Reality Blade, slicing great chunks of stone from the wall, while Hilda dug her fingers in and pulled them away, crowding the already small space even more. There was a single upside to what they were doing, though — they were adding more space between them and the enemy.
She began to sweat almost immediately, despite this not being extremely hard work. With all her injuries, though, it was a miracle Katherine could even swing a blade. More stone was carved up, even as the bunker began to crumble around them. Cracks appeared on the walls, ceiling, and even the ground as the barrage continued.
Within ten minutes, the room was filled with stone, and they were in the small tunnel. They were now well and truly committed to their course of action, but with every blast, Katherine felt herself grinding her teeth.
They were under a literal mountains’ worth of stone, and while Hilda and Beatrice might make it out eventually, neither she nor Elyssa would survive such a collapse. Not in their current conditions.
Still, she continued working as quickly as she could, slicing into the stone and having Hilda rip them from the walls. Beatrice was also helping, breaking them down into smaller pieces and shifting them to close up the tunnel entrance and hopefully keep anyone from following.
The hope right now was that when the forces broke through, they would see a room full of rubble and assume they’d been buried alive. Seeing as they had them trapped in the bunker, they were also hoping that no other guards had been placed to guard for potential exits in other spots and that once they made it through the mountain, it would be a short run to escape the spatial lockdown.
All they needed was a single portal to any of their capital cities, and they’d be safe. Because of that, Katherine refused to give up, no matter how much she hurt and no matter how difficult the work was. If Elyssa had managed to hold out for nearly two weeks on her own, holding the bunker together and keeping them alive, then she could remain conscious and keep fighting through the pain to get them the rest of the way.
The entire tunnel shook as another blast rocked the bunker, and cracks began spreading across the ceiling above them.
“Well, that’s not good,” Beatrice groaned.
“Try and seal it up,” Katherine said, slicing another section of stone for Hilda to remove.
“I’ll do my best, but I can’t cool anything once it’s been heated up. Plus, it’ll take up more of our oxygen.”
Katherine silently cursed, then decided against that course of action.
“Leave it then. We’re getting little enough air as is, and, in her condition, we can’t risk losing any more.”
Katherine didn’t bother mentioning her own injuries, continuing to cut away at the stone without pause. The worst thing about this trip was not knowing. They had no way of navigating through the mountain, so they could be digging for hours on end before finding a way out. Still, she continued slicing away at the stone, tireless in her efforts to get them through as quickly as she could.
Every minute spent in here, every blast that shook their tunnel and every crack that formed scared her. The noise and trembling made her think that the tunnel was going to come crashing down around them. But, as they continued moving, she began to hope that maybe, just maybe, they’d make it out of here alright.
Another blast rocked their tunnel as Katherine pulled back for another swing, and the ground began to rumble. A loud, shrieking, crumbling sound echoed back to them, and at that moment, she knew that the bunker had finally collapsed.
But the rumbling didn’t stop. Cracks began spreading rapidly across the ceiling of their small tunnel, the walls shaking and long lines appearing in the stone all around them.
“Dig faster!” Beatrice yelled as Katherine began frantically slashing at the wall in front of her, but no matter how fast she dug, it wasn’t faster than the spread of the cracks, nor the ever-increasing shaking.
A sound like thunder shook the room then, and everything stopped.
They all froze, looking around their small, enclosed space. There were about ten feet between Katherine at one end of the tunnel and Beatrice at the other end. They’d been digging a space that got narrower and narrower as they progressed, and now, the tunnel was barely three feet across. They’d only kept it this wide to pass back stone so that they could continue. The hope was that the smaller the hole was, the less risk was involved.
“I think we might be okay,” Beatrice said after several long moments of silence.
Then, the tunnel collapsed, burying them all under thousands of tons of stone.
51
“You want me to just call him out?” Morgan asked, staring at Gold incredulously.
“Yup!” Gold replied. “Go on, then. Call him out.”
“You do realize what will happen if I do that, right?” Morgan asked again.
“Unleashed from you as a tether, he’ll probably attack you outright, then try absorbing your consciousness into his own. Should he succeed, he’ll evolve to the Pinnacle of his power, and this world will have a disaster the likes of which it hasn’t seen since the Tyrant King’s war,” Gold said, but in such a casual tone that Morgan had to wonder if he’d lost his mind since the last time they’d seen one another.
“And you want me to let him out? Physically let him out?” Morgan asked again.
He’d dealt with the Beast King before, but always within the safety of his own mind. Even if he’d lost a battle of wills, he’d still have been around to try and wrestle control of his body back. What Gold was talking about was complete and utter domination, the absorption of one party into another.
If he succeeded, the Beast King would be gone forever, absorbed into his soul and completing his transformation. But, if the opposite were to occur, not only would he be gone for good, but Sarah would never be able to return.
“This is the only way,” Gold said. “Right now, your soul is fragmented, the two halves of yourself warring against one another. Now, I realize that you haven’t had the best relationship with each other, but to reach the Pinnacle of power, you have no choice. If you want, you can keep him locked up in your mind forever, avoid the risk of having to unleash him, and potentially create something even more dangerous than the World Beasts.
“But, if you do that, you won’t have the power you need to defeat a god, even with that spear. A weapon is only as powerful as its wielder, after all. And, even if by some miracle of divine intervention, you manage to succeed in killing the original Sarah, you won’t be able to harvest her Essence, which would defeat the entire purpose.”
Morgan rubbed at his temples, trying to dismiss a headache that should have been impossible for him to have. Somehow, the impossible always seemed to happen around Gold, so he didn’t question it.
“How long do I have?” he asked.
Gold looked down at his wrist – where Morgan could see absolutely nothi
ng – then gave him the time.
“You have exactly twenty-seven hours to absorb your other half and defeat the other Sarah. At that point, you’ll be needed at the Convergence point, where the rulers of Faeland will be meeting. I can’t go telling you why just yet, but trust me, you’re going to want to be there.”
Morgan nodded, then looked around at the massive tree once more. He’d never seen or felt anything quite like it before. It simultaneously gave him great comfort and made him feel extreme unease, and he couldn’t feel his way out of here, which was quite odd.
“How will I leave once I win?” he asked, already realizing that he was committed to this course of action.
“At the Pinnacle, you will be able to leave on your own,” Gold said, already turning to leave. “Oh, and one last thing before I go. Drop the spear. It’ll only get in your way.”
Then, he was gone, stepping through space and vanishing to parts unknown. Morgan felt the briefest flash of something hot, then he was alone, floating before the strange not-tree and feeling as though the air was suddenly very heavy.
“You can do it,” Sarah said as he pulled the spear from his back.
“You sound so certain,” he replied, staring at its shining length and imagining he could see her face there.
“I am,” she replied. “I’m sure you will succeed because of what’s on the line. You won’t lose. Of that, I am certain.”
She went silent then, leaving him to stare at the shining length of Godsteel and wonder if this was the last time he’d be speaking with her. Then, letting out a long breath, he forced his fingers to unclench, allowing the weapon to go spinning to the ground below.
He pulled his legs up into a folded position and slammed his fists together, aligning his channels and opening his core wide. There was no time to waste. This would not be an easy or pleasant experience, and stalling would help no one. Deep down, he’d known this day would eventually come, and he’d been dreading it ever since.
Breathing out slowly, Morgan reached into his mind, to the space of consciousness where the Beast King lay in wait. He could feel his eagerness to get out and the inevitability of what was about to occur.
Purple light flared up around him, and when Morgan opened his eyes, they also shone a bright violet. A powerful wind began to kick up, and the tree's massive branches began to slowly sway in response.
The purple light continued to flow around him, slowly moving outward and collecting into a humanoid mass before him. The Beast King’s body solidified, mirroring his position, and when he opened his eyes, they shone a solid black.
He looked exactly as Morgan pictured him. He was a perfect copy of himself, with only a few small but noticeable differences. For one, the Beast King’s hair was much wilder and shone a bright gold instead of Morgan’s brown, and his eyes were solid black, unlike Morgan’s golden ones.
Unlike Morgan’s hands, which appeared mostly human, the Beast King’s were very obviously not. Dark scales traced up his arms, all the way to the elbows, looking like polished glass as they reflected the soft light of their surroundings.
A tail also whipped around in the air behind him, matching the scaled arms. His canines were also a fair bit larger than Morgan’s, and when the black light faded, Morgan could see that the pupils, which were an even darker shade of black, had contracted to slits.
The only other difference, aside from those small cosmetic ones, was in the feeling of their auras. Where his was calm, controlled, and even, like the ocean tides, the Beast King’s was wild, untamed, and savage, like that of a wildfire. He grinned as he looked down at himself, slowly flexing his fingers and uncurling from the meditative position Morgan had taken to call him out.
“It feels good to be out and about again,” he said, stretching his arms high overhead. “Though, this time, I don’t think I’ll be going back into storage. I like this body, and I don’t plan on giving it up.”
“Well, I’m not going to give you a choice,” Morgan said, unfurling from his position as well. “You’re going away for good, and this time, I’ll finally be rid of you.”
“Come now,” the Beast King said, placing his hands on his hips and puffing out his bare chest. “You’ll never be completely rid of me. Haven’t you been listening? We’re the same, you and I—two halves of a greater whole. I am you, and you are me. How else do you think something like this would even be possible?”
Morgan was honestly a bit surprised about how willing the Beast King was to talk, instead of attacking him outright. But he didn’t trust it. He was sure the Beast King was plotting something, and he wasn’t going to fall for it.
“The fact that we have two separate forms is proof enough that we are not the same.”
“And yet, despite the monstrous appearance your consciousness has lent me, we are. Why don’t you have a look and see?” he said, spreading his arms wide. “I won’t hide anything.”
Morgan’s eyes narrowed, wondering just what sort of game this beast was playing. Did he really want Morgan to use his Aura Sense on him and see everything he had to hide? He’d lose any advantage that he would have had in this fight.
Well, if the Beast King was offering, who was he to refuse? Concentrating on the creature before him, Morgan used his Aura Sense to call up the status.
Name: Morgan
Advanced Supermage: Rank - 80
Energy to Next Rank - 0/600,000,000
Ability Advancement - 15,000,000/15,000,000 (Max.)
Ability - Natural Disaster
RP - 9,020/9,020 (Regen - 90.2 per second)
Strength - 874
Agility - 1,230
Constitution - 1,000
Intelligence - 902
Wisdom - 902
Skills - Hypersonic Flight, Maximum Increase, Maximum Stormforge, Earthen Shift, Nature’s Wrath, Compression, Maximum Gravity Rift, Sunblast, Sand Cyclone, Frenzy
Traits - Dense Body Max., Recovery Max., Aura Sense (inherited), Aura Flare (inherited), Perfect Self, Soul Stealer, Suppression (inherited), Eternal Youth
Extra - Gravity Breaker (10th category), Collapsing Star (HyperNova), Shooting Star (Inferno), Massive Meteor (2nd category), Continental Crush, Soulstream
“What the hell?” Morgan asked as he read over the status.
It was Morgan’s status, and not some simile of the Beast King’s. It was exactly the same, down to his name, skills, traits, and everything else.
“What did I tell you?” the Beast King gloated, his grin growing even wider. “We are one and the same, you and I, and as soon as you stop denying it, we can become one.”
“And why the hell would you care either way?” Morgan snapped. “You just want to absorb me into yourself. So why would you need me to believe that?”
“Because it’ll make the transition process that much easier!” the Beast King yelled mid-vanishing, appearing before him and throwing a punch directly into his jaw.
Morgan reacted the instant the Beast King vanished, his own fist moving in a mirror of his counterpart’s, and when the Beast King’s fist connected, so did his.
But instead of the dull pain of the impact and the recoil Morgan expected them both to feel, something else happened. It was something that Morgan could not have seen coming.
The glade containing the massive tree vanished, and he found himself standing in a very familiar room that had dozens of tall glass tanks and people dressed in white coats.
“Ooh, what a delightful trip down memory lane!”
Morgan turned and nearly jumped as he saw the Beast King standing next to him, his arms held behind his back as he stared around at the people who couldn’t seem to be able to see the two of them.
“What the hell did you do?” Morgan demanded.
“Me? I didn’t do anything,” the Beast King replied.
“Well, what the hell happened to our fight then?”
“What, did you think our battle of wills was going to be a slugfest?” the Beast King asked with a grin. “No, w
e won’t have anything that cliché decide our fate. The fight for our consciousness to become dominant will take place in here.”
“What happened to our bodies?” Morgan asked, feeling a small pit of worry forming in his stomach.
“Oh, they’re still out there,” the Beast King said. “The moment our bodies made contact with one another, the process was started.”
His grin widened just a bit further, betraying his non-humanity, as it stretched far too wide for a normal human.
“Here is where we will decide together who should go on, and who should take a permanent back seat.”
52
Morgan whirled, pivoting on his back leg and throwing a powerful punch right into the Beast King’s smug face. Except, instead of breaking his nose and knocking him out cold as he’d intended, his fist passed straight through his head, leaving Morgan to stagger forward.
“Which part of no violence didn’t you understand?” the Beast King asked, shaking his head.
“Why can’t I touch you?” Morgan asked, swiping out at the other man’s head, and once again, passing straight through him.
“Because we’re technically not here,” the Beast King replied. “Can’t you feel it? We are the same person, after all. Which, by the way, should be a strike in my favor, seeing as you’re so overly emotional all the time. I really think I would do a much better job driving the body from now on.”
Morgan growled at the man but refrained from trying to hit him again. After all, there was no point in swinging at something he couldn’t hit. There was very little that actually made him angry, especially in his day-to-day life, but the Beast King just had a special way of getting under his skin, and he was doing a very good job of it right now.
Still, the Beast King had a point, and when Morgan concentrated, he could feel the connection of their bodies in the outside world. They were locked in place, each with a fist planted against the other’s jaw while purple light crept around their bodies, intertwining them in a sort of death-grip that only one of them would come out of.
