The towers were just a hundred yards ahead of us now. I grinned. I pity them too.
“Irmeia,” I turned around, “stay here. Acnologia will bring you down when the time’s right.”
“Understood,” she nodded. “What are you going to be doing?”
I swung my leg over the dragon. “Something fun.”
I dropped from Acnologia, timing myself so that I fell close to the inner towers. I scanned the surface. Perfect. I was right on course.
I pulled back my fist, and let all of my anger seep into it. Well, all the anger I could fit into one punch. I twisted my body, and smashed into the tower roof as I came down. The surface broke and I went crashing, breaking down multiple floors as I crushed through the structure.
I stood at the very bottom. “Ahhh.” I shook some rubble off my clothes. “That was good.”
Bricks and walls crashed down all around me, peeling out the side. In a mere five seconds, I’d pierced through the entire tower and brought it all crumbling down. Blood and bones scattered between the rubble, and I didn’t recall the faces of any of those people.
Battle cries echoed around me. Knights in white armor all charged in, with spears and swords rushing up to my body. I smiled. That won’t be enough.
I thrust my hand forward. “Tritus Oceanus!” I yelled.
A blast of water surged out, crushing into the men, and throwing them against the walls. I kept the attack going and rushed forward, towards the taller tower. I hunched down for a second, taking an extra step, and propelled myself into the skies. I directed my hand down, and used the rebounding force of the water Arts spell to lift myself up even higher.
I cut the attack off a second before I hit the peak of my jumping arc and then smashed into the tower, just like I had the last time I’d been here. The wall crumbled apart, at the exact same spot I’d broken through a day or so ago, and I landed comfortably inside the chamber.
“Are you kidding me?!” a voice yelled. “We just had that fixed too.”
The council was in there just as before, sitting atop their circular arc of six seats. I walked to the center, and looked at them all. Well, at the four that remained now.
I smiled. “Hello there.”
The voices were silent. Sage Gorias sat to my right, and I gave him a customary sly grin before speaking.
“So, it seems you people have tricked me.”
“Nonsense!” one of them yelled. “How dare you accuse us of such a thing. The Alliance of light upholds all allies. We did not—”
“Oskis!” A blast of fire surged from my palm and into the man, singeing him with flames. His body burned before his companions, and he collapsed to the floor, going from man to pieces of burnt meat in just a few seconds.
The others all turned to me. I blew the smoke off my fingertip. “As I said. It seems you tricked me.”
“Zoran, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sage Gorias said. “We had an agreement. That in order for us to be allies you had to refrain from killing any members of the Alliance of Light.”
“We’re Allies?” I shot to the nearest council member, an old man, and grabbed his hand before he could even flinch. “Iglacier.”
His body froze, turning into an ice sculpture in an instant. I punched through his chest and the statue broke, shattering to pieces and spilling onto the council floor.
“What are you doing, Diablo!” another man yelled.
“The Phantom Heart.”
Two remaining men froze, and they stared at me with wide eyes.
I sighed. “So, you did know about it,” I said. “You knew about it all along.”
“What are you talking about?” one man said. “Silence proves nothing.”
“Is that how you want to play things?” I lifted my finger up, summoning a flame.
“Diablo,” Sage Gorias said. “We really don’t know anything about this Phantom Heart.”
A low growl sounded inside the chamber. Acnologia and Irmeia entered, coming through the hole I’d blasted through the wall.
“Wonderful,” I said. “Keep an eye on these people for a minute.” I sat down, crossing my legs and closing my eyes.
I focused hard, directing my energy into my mind. Doing this got quicker and easier the more I tried it out. In a second or so, a wave of light surged out of my head, going through the air, and through the lands.
A powerful burst of waves, much harsher than before, came back from right beneath me, but beneath by quite a bit. At least a mile or so down from where I was. I opened my eyes. Interesting.
“Isn’t this tower only half a mile high?”
Exactly, I smiled. “Well then.” I strode to the remaining men. “It seems our alliance has come to an end.”
Sage Gorias stiffened. “What are you talking about?”
I shot forward, slamming into the other man with my fist. I cracked his neck, and his health went down in a flash. Sage Gorias now trembled in his seat, his hands gripping the armrests.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked.
“Tch tch.” I shook my head. “Still pretending you don’t know anything about the Phantom Heart.”
“We…we don’t know anything!” he yelled.
I leaned in. “I don’t like people who lie to me, old man.” My hand impaled his chest, and he went limp where he sat. I pulled out, flicking the blood onto his dead body and then walking away from him.
Irmeia stood shivering when I walked past her. Even Eternals are afraid of me.
“It’s not just Eternals.”
I frowned. What’s that supposed to mean?
“Exactly what you think it does.”
“Where to, Diablo?” Acnologia asked.
“Both of you get off this tower,” I said. I stepped out the entrance and looked down to the ground. Men of the Alliance of Light crowded at the base.
Annoying. I dropped down, and slammed into the surface, sending a shockwave that killed a lot of them. I made a few punches through flesh and bone, killing more, and scaring off the rest. Whether they were going to get reinforcements or not, I wasn’t sure. But I had a few extra seconds now, and that was all I needed.
I put my hand on the lower sections of the tower walls, and traced an imaginary circle on its surface.
“We’re out,” Acnologia said.
Took you long enough. I grinned.
I pulled my arm back and smashed my hand into the wall, palm outstretched. The section collapsed, and about a twenty-yard tall part just gave away. The tower stumbled and then fell towards me.
I took a step out of the way and watched as brick and stone came crashing down before me, breaking through many more towers all around. Rubble filled the streets, but I didn’t as much as glance at the chaos.
The ground underneath the tower was completely hollowed out now. I leaned in. A dark pit sat there, with not a single speck of light showing within. A gentle mental pressure perturbed my mind.
I grinned. Interesting. I stepped off the edge of the pit and dropped inside. The wind rushed past me, yelling in my ears. This should be around half a mile to the ground I think.
“I think so too,” Nyx said.
The floor emerged nearly thirty seconds later—a stone structure of pristine white. The color disgusted me, and I crashed into it, cratering half the side. The floor was a large circle, with a smaller circle of black, about five yards wide, traced inside it.
I knelt before the smaller one and touched the surface. A shock pricked my skin, and a gentle glow soon emerged atop it, a light that was woven into an intricate design.
A rune.
“Seems like a shield,” Nyx said.
“And not that good a one,” Acnologia added.
Lend me your strength.
I closed my eyes and concentrated, filling my mind with energy. Bursts of power injected into me, from Nyx and from Acnologia. I concentrated all the energy we had and pushed it out in one shot, sending a thin, dense beam right into the rune.
&n
bsp; A crack sounded, and tone echoed through the darkness. I opened my eyes, just in time to see the writings lift off the circle, the light rise up from the surface and dissolve away. The floor rumbled, and I hunched low, steadying myself.
The part of floor within the circle shifted and rose up, stopping when it’s top was at my height. The stone sides of the structure fell off, revealing an object within.
I smiled.
A roughly-cut crystal stone hovered inside the pillar. Streaks of ethereal purple glowed brightly with in, and pulsated every second. A gentle hum entered my mind, weaving through my thoughts, and surrounding my existence.
My heart thumped loudly, and excitement built up inside me. There was no doubt in my mind. This was it.
This was the Phantom Heart.
***
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
My body tingled.
The presence of the crystal artifact was enough to get my heart rate racing. Beams of purple light fell into my eyes, and I stared at them without a single blink. My gaze pierced through them, catching sight of the crystal chassis they came from.
I smiled. “So, it actually exists.”
“Wait,” Nyx said. “You came this far without knowing whether this exists or not?!”
“I believed it did exist. But I knew I could have been wrong.”
“Well, I’m glad you weren’t. Too much effort went into this thing for it to end up a red herring.”
My chest clenched and eased in sync with the pulsing light. I stepped to the small cylindrical chamber of translucent light the artifact was inside. The thin wall glimmered, expanding between the pillar’s rocky top and bottom.
I touched the surface, and felt an unexpectedly smooth sensation under my skin. My finger traced lines over it. What do I do?
I gently increased the pressure of my hand, but the translucent wall didn’t budge. Tch. I clicked my tongue. When things don’t work out, just use force. I pulled my arm back and thudded it back in.
A shockwave struck from the impact point, and surged through the tunnel depths. A few loose rocks detached from the chamber’s walls and fell to the surface. The translucent walls however, stayed intact. There wasn’t even a single scratch on them.
The air in here turned murky, and felt heavier than it was before. What the heck? My chest constricted. I struggled to breathe fully, and so I took in quick, short breaths instead. My heart rate went even higher, and I felt the thumps in my chest.
What’s going on with the air in here?
“It could be the shockwave stirred up some minerals in these walls,” Nyx said. “That could be causing them to spill into the air.”
I looked back at the crystal artifact. The Phantom Heart. It was what I’d come here for, and it was the only thing I was trying to take away. The translucent wall around it, though, held strong, and for once, I wasn’t sure how exactly I was supposed to break it.
Brute force usually worked, but that didn’t seem the case here.
Maybe if I had my swords. I grit my teeth. A memory of that event wasn’t helpful.
“What if the wall isn’t what you need to break?” Acnologia spoke.
I frowned. What do you mean the wall isn’t—
And then I froze.
“Yes.”
Brilliant, I grinned. “Meteor Fist!” I thrust forward again, only this time I aimed for the top of the pillar. My fist cracked into the stone and the structure shattered apart. The translucent wall flickered for a moment and then died away. Whatever was making the Phantom Heart hover in the chamber disappeared too, and the crystal artifact dropped.
I pushed my hand through the falling debris and grasped onto the stone. My fingers wrapped around a smooth, cold surface and I pulled my arm out.
A crystal artifact laid within my palm, with the purple light glowing between my fingers. A gentle warmth seeped into my skin, coming from just the light. The surface of the crystal, however, was chill and laced that temperature onto my skin.
Like the clouds in the sky, I smiled.
A spark jumped between my fingers and a sharp feeling rose into my hand, like electricity coursing my nerves. I gripped the crystal hard, unwilling to let go.
The purple light brightened, and my body swayed. Dark shadows convulsed inside the chamber, over on the walls, down on the surface. And before I knew it, I’d stumbled to the floor, and fallen into the darkness.
I sunk through the lake of black. The sounds around me silenced, and my body went numb. All my senses were taken from me. No sight, no smell, no touch, no feel. I was a simple existence floating in the darkness.
A bright light flashed from way beneath me. I blinked. Was that real? The darkness had returned too fast for me to be able to tell. I moved my hands, or at least I thought I did, and reached out to the source.
Another flash of white came from beneath. Definitely real.
The darkness shifted, and in an instant I found myself in a twister of black. The force tugged down, pulling me towards the deeper depths of this space. My body sank like a rock in the ocean, and flashes of light summoned beneath me, turning into strobing lights that spiked my vision.
Black and white interchanged between my surroundings, and then everything collapsed. Winds swirled, running amok underneath my clothes. The outer walls of rock peeled back, revealing more darkness behind them.
A flash of light, brighter than the ones from before, surged through the black.
And then everything changed.
Damp sands laced my skin, and warm winds kissed my face. I arched my head up and blinked. Trees and shrubs stood all around me, covering the landscape. The leaves were a perfect green, as though someone had gone over and painted each one of them.
Specks of the blue sky shone through the gaps in the canopy, as did the sunlight. I glanced at my hand, but it was empty. The Phantom Heart?
“It doesn’t seem like you’ve got it with you,” Nyx said.
“Thank god you’re here,” I sighed and then stood myself up. “Where are we?”
“No idea.”
I glanced around, but trees and more trees were all I could see. Does my map give you anything?
“Nope,” Nyx said. “In fact, it’s just showing up blank.”
This must be my Spirit Space then.
“Who would have forced you into your Spirit Space?”
Not who. I looked at my palm. What.
“The Phantom Heart?”
I nodded. I felt a reaction from it right before this happened. Seems plausible.
“Maybe.”
I walked forwards, crunching dry sand beneath my boots with each step. A few dry leaves lay on the ground, many of them half-eaten. An empty scent filled the air, as though nothing was inside it.
I turned around, looking at everything. This looks familiar.
“Yeah,” Nyx said. “I feel the same way.”
I walked through. A few seconds in, the line of trees cut off, and a large field emerged instead.
My eyes widened. “No.”
“What?”
“We need to go.” I ran back into the forest, treading through the damp ground, with fast steps. Leaves blew into my face, but I charged through them, staring at what was ahead.
Don’t be too late. My shoulder’s tightened. I can’t be too late. Not again.
I shot through the forest, with the trees turning into a blur of green and brown around me. I cracked through a few of them as I ran through, with my limbs accidentally smacking into a few barks and snapping them in half.
Forms of darkness emerged before me, and I hastened past them. Why was this happening again? Why was I watching this when I hadn’t even tried to?
I stepped into a small clearing. Two shadowy forms stood in the center, with a black haze covering up their features. Where’s the third guy?
“Diablo,” Figure one said. “Where did you go?”
He’s here? I blinked, scanning the forest in my immediate vicinity.
“Hey, D
iablo!” Figure two snapped his fingers in front of my face.
Their bodies shifted, and I froze. This hadn’t happened before. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
I blinked. I’m the third form?
I glanced down at my body. No dark haze consumed me. I was in my regular clothes. And now these men were looking at me.
“Oye.” Figure one stepped up. “Say something.”
“H-hi?” I asked.
He cocked his head. “I guess that’s better than nothing,” he chuckled.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Figure two asked. “You’re more jittery than usual.”
A roar exploded through the skies, and a blast of fire surged from ahead of us. “Dammit,” Figure one muttered. He thrust his hand up and a shield of light emerged around us, deflecting the blast away.
The leaves and barks around us caught the flames, and the fire spurred onto the branches in an instant. Heat rose up all around us, parching my skin. The red flames filled the canopy, burning through everything in there.
“It’s here,” Figure one muttered.
Eh? I blinked. He’s never said that in this memory before.
“Diablo!” He dived at me, pushing me to the ground. A blast of fire surged through where I had stood, singeing the floor and burning the barks.
A Dragon emerged from within the forest—a creature of dark green, with eyes of bright red. Its wings were folded up at its sides, and its long body broke through the burning trunks as it made its way forward.
There it is. I thrust my hand up. “Tritus Oceanus!” I yelled. A blast of water surged from my palms, sinking into the Dragon in an instant. The beast went thudding against the forest trees, breaking through a few of them before coming to a stop.
“Didn’t know you used the Water Arts too,” Figure two chuckled. “Interesting.”
Is that a bad thing?
I walked up to the Dragon. It laid collapsed on the ground, huffing. Its health was down to just 20%. It’d die from another attack for sure.
This is where I had asked them to leave it alone, this is when I’d asked them to abandon the Dragon and let it live.
But I wasn’t making that mistake again.
Images of the near future surged into my mind, of the Time Lord killing my companions, of his jade-green blade cutting into their bodies, twisting within their hearts. Heat poured into my blood, and rose up into my head.
The Eternal: Hellbringer - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 5) Page 20
