Between the wall of his soldiers and Gida's small cavalry unit, the stone army was harried from multiple flanks. The enemy fought without skill or coordination, and it was their downfall. Only eleven Izveir had died during the entire exchange, a paltry number in comparison to the small horde of golems that had been killed.
Shouts and cheers of joy rose through the ranks of indomitable warriors, Gruffs and Crafters and Watchers alike, but their victory was short lived.
"By Lord Donovan's own name," Antuhr gasped, staring wide eyed at the innumerable Tainted creatures pouring from inside of the castle, "That was only the beginning..."
◆◆◆
"You dare?!" Talokuthrimyr roared, his fury palpable in the air. The great beast was about to charge, but before he could I reached out to the Tainted Shard buried in his throat. I could feel it pulsing in excitement, all but tearing itself free from Talo's throat because of my mere presence in this dark half of the world.
With a simple tug of will, the Tainted Shard shot through the soft flesh of Talo's throat and came screaming through the air toward me. I held up my right hand, practically blazing with dark power, and the Shard came to its new master. A violent gush of blood spurted from Talo, who was frantically holding a scaled paw to the wound in an effort to stem the tide. I doubted it would kill him, but I had definitely earned a few precious minutes of time.
The Tainted Shard shattered against my hand, shoot fragments of inky darkness through the air that slowly melted and coalesced back around my palm. The oily substance burned like liquid nitrogen, freezing and eating away at my flesh as it crawled up my arm. Further, further, further it climbed until my entire arm and part of my shoulder had been eaten away and completely replaced. It was symmetrical with my left half, perfect opposites- it even went so far as to brutally burn through my right eye until it, too, was midnight black.
Warning! Humanity Point(s) dangerously low! 1 Humanity Point(s) remaining!
Who gives a fuck about Humanity Points? I felt great, powerful!
"Finally, I am freed from that wretched, incorrigible beast! A master worthy enough to possess a Shard of Creation has welcomed me!"
"Uh, who the hell are you?"
"Your humble servant in all manners of death and dismemberment, I am a fragment of the Orb of Destruction. Without already possessing power from the White Shard, your body would have been broken down into less than nothing at my very touch. So congratulations on not having died, it truly is quite the accomplishment."
Wait a hot second. So the Tainted Shard wasn't actually just a corrupted version of my original Shard? It was a part of its own god damned artifact?! How in the hell did I not gue-
"Master, I would recommend turning your attention back to the Leviathan."
"Sure, Dark Shard... Just remind me to find you a different name when this is over. It makes you sound like an edgy secondary character. And you'll have to explain what a Leviathan is, too." I said, turning my attention back to Talokuthrimyr. The dragon had all but recovered, and his hate for me had only grown.
How could I tell? Trust me, it wasn't hard to figure out. Jet black flames covered his entire form, shrouding him in an embodiment of his own pure, unadulterated rage. If I thought he was a badass before, now he was downright terrifying.
"Cease your fretting, and listen closely. I will guide you through this fight and your powers, but if you want to survive you must do everything I say. Is that clear?"
"Of course. Just hurry, I think our friend is about to charge."
"Good. Now, direct mana toward your left arm and expand it, as if you were making one of your primitive Force Walls. Don't worry about the amount, just use as much as possible. You are in no danger of running dry while here."
I did as the Dark Shard said, pushing some of my mana into and through my white arm, and watched in awe as a blindingly white shield took form before my very eyes. It was beautiful, flawless even, but lacked much in the way of design so I quickly sculpted it into a basic kite shield that went from my ankles to just under my chin.
Talokuthrimyr was snarling, acidic black spittle flying from his mouth as he charged at me with wild abandon. The space between us vanished in a instant, and I barely had time to raise my new shield before his massive claws sent me flying through the air.
"You must increase the flow of mana to your shield, spare no effort or extermination is the only possible outcome. Trust me, your power is far greater with my assistance than it may seem."
"Fine." I spat, shaking my head to clear it as I stood up. The attack had jarred me enough that I lost control of my shield, but I hadn't been torn in half, so that was good. Still, I knew that Dark Shard was right; I couldn't take too many more hits like that and hope to keep fighting.
I grinned like a madman facing the executioners block, ready to give it all in one last shot at life. "Right, no holds barred." I reached deeply inside myself, dragging as much mana as I could from myself, draining everything I had into the perfect defense... Only, the flow didn't stop. It came out in a torrent, flooding me with so much raw mana that a human, a mere mortal would have drowned in it.
Of course, I was no mere mortal. Not anymore.
Talokuthrimyr unleashed a gout of pitch black fire toward me. I could feel the power behind it, knew that it would have incinerated my previous shield in an instant, but as I held up my left, mana charged arm, it merely split and passed around me.
"You should be dead! No mortal can withstand my flames!" Talo snarled in anger when he saw that I was still in one piece. He was positively fuming with anger, so much so that the flames surrounding him grew with such intensity that he was completely engulfed by them.
"Time to hit back. If you ch-"
"It's fine, I think I can take it from here." I said. Talo leapt toward me with impossible speed, but with my newfound power I managed to jump to the side before he could land a decent hit.
I poured tens of thousands of mana points into my black arm. The destructive power gushed from me into a massive, single bladed axe longer than I was tall. The back end was tipped with an evil looking spike the size of my forearm. Beautifully scripted white glyphs inscribed themselves into the weapon, spiralling up its shaft.
"Forged in the heart of a plane untethered to existence by a fledgling God, Hope's Shadow stands as a reminder that even the brightest days have their darkest hour."
I could feel the power behind those words, sealing the weapon to my soul. The process repeated with my shield, forming a perfect circle over its center.
"Predecessor to Hope's Shadow, the impervious defense of Shadow's Bane is a beacon of light for the lost and forgotten. Together, these weapons symbolize the eternal balance of light and dark. They are Creation and Destruction incarnate."
All confidence that Talokuthrimyr had possessed fled at the sight of my weapons, extinguishing the dark flames as it left. "The utter impossibility of your power baffles me. I- as much as I loathe to admit defeat, I cannot hope to best you. And yet, even at my impending doom the hate inside me lusts for battle. One of us must die before we leave this place, with the other's soul as our prize." Talo sounded almost regretful as he spoke, but even now I could hear the anger in his words. His soul drive, the very purpose he had been born was to be a creature of rage. It was as miserable a fate as anything I could imagine. As soon as he said those words, I knew that this would be a mercy killing instead of an actual fight.
The emotional side of Talo suddenly disappeared, leaving only his usual mask of hatred. I sprinted toward him, ramping up Inner Channeling to well over a thousand mana per second. Talokuthrimyr's claws swung at me in slow motion, providing an easy path up his body.
I jumped onto his forelimb, stabbing down with the pointed haft of Hope's Shadow to help keep my balance. He roared, an ear splitting noise that would have deafened me had I not recently ascended to what was apparently godhood.
"First time feeling pain in a while, eh Talo?" I taunted, wrenching my axe free of his fl
esh and continuing my journey to his head. He breathed an impressive jet of fire toward me, enough that I could feel the heat even through Shadow's Bane. I trudged forward through the onslaught, slowly but surely making my way to his shoulder joint.
I was almost thirty feet in the air at this point, a height that filled me with vertigo even though I knew I could survive the fall with ease. As I rounded his shoulder, straddling his back, Talo suddenly rolled to the ground.
"Jump, before the Leviathan crushes you!"
"Nah, I've got this." I said, taking a deep breath and readying myself for the stupidity of what I was about to do. As Talojuthrimyr's back neared the ground, I stabbed Hope's Shadow down through the thick bone of his spine and braced myself against its haft. Resting Shadow's bane against the axe and Talo's back, forming a triangle, I created a wedge that would both protect me and impale the great beast with his own weight.
"I do believe I understand what you are aiming to achieve. Truly well done, I applaud your ingeniousness. Together, we shall achieve great things as overlords of the known universe."
"Let's just wor-" I started, but was cut off as my shield hit the ground in a bone-jarring collision that almost made me pass out. It was painful, but the pressure was quickly released as Talo rolled fully over and onto his side. He was twitching and shaking uncontrollably, like an animal on death's door after being hit by a car.
I stood up and ripped Hope's Shadow from Talokuthrimyr's back with a wet squelch, then started hobbling toward the dragon's head using the weapon as a crutch. He was frothing at the mouth, eyes bouncing wildly around. "He was resurrected with power from another Shard of Destruction. Can you absorb it?"
"No, the power was spent solely on bringing him back. It did not alter or corrupt him in any way, so the energy is spent."
Hmm. Guess you can't win them all I guess, and I think godhood was a pretty damn good reward anyway. "Goodbye, Talokuthrimyr the Unyielding." I activated the Aura of Dominance as I spoke, empowering it with godly mana. My voice boomed with what could only be described as a note of finality, an echo of my newfound power.
Then, raising Hope's Shadow like an executioner's blade, I severed Talo's head from his shoulders. I had barely enough time to stuff his head into my Inventory before an explosion of power rocked the entire black and white world, blowing it into nothingness. Like the end of days, the void flooded in with an inescapable, crushing grasp and everything went black.
◆◆◆
I don't know how long it took for me to come back to consciousness, lost in the eternal darkness of a space that shouldn't have existed- probably never even had existed until Talo's death. Wake I did though, lying on the cold, damp floor of the crystalline cave where Talokuthrimyr was resurrected. The portal was still intact, but I hoped that I wouldn't have to use it anymore.
"Dark Shard, how exactly does a god go about teleporting?"
"Your eyes are the key to spatial travel, simply visualise where you would like to be while supplying mana to both of your eyes. Simple."
First thing's first, I had to check on the attack force I sent to the castle. They were the most likely to be in danger, and should be close enough that I could try teleporting without too much difficulty. I closed my eyes, concentrating on the area where I had killed the two demons prior to entering the castle. The pillars they had come from instantly sprang to mind, their tops now empty and flat. Flooding mana to my eyes, I envisioned myself standing atop one of the pillars, back in the open air.
With a pop that made my ears ring and a sudden sense of motion, I found myself perched above a massive battlefield. I could see my Izveir down below, fighting with a brutal efficiency and unison that made me beam with pride. They were losing though, outnumbered damn near twenty to one by a variety of Tainted Creatures.
"I got rid of the corruption, and Niko left this world, so why are they still here?" I mused, sending tendrils of power forward through my dark arm toward the Tainted army. I could feel dark threads pulsing through them, tendrils of lifeforce bound to their souls and connected to the Shard of Destruction.
"Hmph." I summoned Hope's Shadow and severed as many bonds as I could with its curved edge. Hundreds of the Tainted fighters fell instantly, twitching for a moment before lying still. Another sweep of my oversized axe dropped hundreds more, until only a few of them remained. The survivors were quickly picked off by Izveir soldiers. As the bonds snapped, I felt the power within them flow back into me. It was barely anything compared to the power I had unlocked facing Talokuthrimyr, but it would have easily quadrupled the power I had before the battle.
My people were standing there, too stunned to move as I teleported down to them. I smiled, and their jaws dropped. "L-Lord Donovan. You- You're amazing!" Gida stammered in awe as she made her way forward, blood marring her otherwise pleasant face. It was a strange thing to notice in the moment, something I had never really considered before. I had made her- and all of my people for that matter- to be exceptionally beautiful, despite their immense killing potential.Even Antuhr, one of the original Izveir, a mere Gruff that had grown into so much more, would have likely been considered handsome back on earth if not for his many limbs.
Or maybe I really had fried my brain along the way.
I looked at Gida, one of my four loyal Advisors, and the first of the Watchers to have been created; The people that would someday, if my hopes came to fruition, uphold peace and prosperity throughout my lands. Everything I saw in her brought me pride. "Gida," I said, reaching out to put my left palm over her heart, ignoring the inherent awkwardness of the placement, "I grant you a portion of my power over Creation, with the hope that you use your abilities to help lead the Izveir and accept a position as head of my Royal Guard- the armor that shall protect our empire in the years to come."
She was silent for a moment, dumbfounded as she searched for an answer. Then her eyes hardened like steel, and she replied with confidence, "Of course, Lord Donovan. I accept!" As her words rang across the now silent battlefield, I forced a surge of mana down through my arm and directly into her heart. She stiffened suddenly, clearly in pain, but did not cry out or weep.
I nodded once, showing my approval, then suddenly vanished as I teleported to Haven Clearing. The place was a mass of churning flesh and blood, all concentrated on a thorn covered dome in the Clearing's center. I watched as the vines grew, only on such a miniscule scale that I knew human eyes could never perceive it. Even in my peripherals, I noticed the agonizingly slow growth of what little untrodden plant life was left in Haven Clearing.
My eyes also gave me a perfect view of the ravaged bodies strewn about. There were many dead, but if my people had managed to create a barrier like that then at least some were still alive. I searched for the threads of life that had connected to the other Tainted creatures, but when I found them they did not carry the same evil that the other Lifethreads had. They were abominations, just not ones created by the Shard of Destruction. Still, Hope's Shadow severed them just the same. They fell in droves, thousands of them in mere instants until none remained.
I almost started walking toward the thorny dome, but simply teleported to it instead. I dropped my axe, letting it dissolve into nothingness. With my newly freed right arm, I focused a pinprick of mana into the tip of my finger and touched the living barrier. It crumbled away instantly, falling to the ground in blackened hunks.
Several Izveir lunged forward at the same time, swinging their weapons with the wild abandon of those facing death. I teleported back a few steps to avoid the attack. God or no, there were better ways to test my physical resilience. "Don't worry, it's only me." I said to my bewildered people. They were just now realizing that it was me they had attacked.
They just stared at the mound of dead creatures around me, not speaking. "Is anyone injured?" I asked, more to break the awkward silence than anything. I could see that they were all hurt in one way or another. They still didn't respond. I couldn't really blame them though, as they were all pr
obably in shock from their close brush with death. I couldn't help but smile as I reached out for their Lifethreads, using my white arm to grab hold of them instead of the black one. Likewise, I fed power into them instead of severing it. Their threads, which had been a hearty red before, were tinged with a faint golden hue as I healed them.
Lord of Creation Page 22
