by Elian Tars
“I agree, Sir Senior Disciple!” Omarh cried, shooting one arrow after another.
Dunker said nothing; he maintained a poker face as he hit the enemies with quick strikes. He hit mostly with palms, making any knee and elbow jab, or a roundhouse kick a surprise.
We were much stronger than the enemy, but we still got stuck. There were too many of them, and they were higher levels. It was the levels that were the issue, not their number. They wasted no time hitting us. Their hits hurt us more than ours did them. Not to mention that they had a good amount of mana and upgraded spells.
“You’ll die here!” they cried.
“Damned rebels!”
“You’ll pay for what you’ve done to our city!”
Longera was really badly damaged. Especially in the streets where the Gods were fighting. If any of the Longerians survive this, they would have a hard time rebuilding and returning to their normal lives.
But all that was not important now. The most important thing was that the world would be saved! And for that to happen, we needed to give it a hundred percent and even more.
Should I activate the “Small Avatar” now? Would I be able to hold it for a long time?
No! Not yet…
“Let’s go, warriors!!! Quickly! Let’s help them!! A little bit more! Come on!!! See how many people they’ve killed, and there’s only six of them!” Caer’s voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts and brought me back to reality. I blocked an enemy hammer and glanced over my shoulder. Twenty people at most were hurrying to help us. The Bat was flying over Caer’s head.
“Ken,” Horn said, jumping back and looking at me over his shoulder. His usual joyful expression was gone. He looked uncharacteristically gloomy.
“Kane?” I guessed at once. “But you’re…”
“Run forward,” he interrupted. “The duke and his people will manage. I’ll help them.”
“How?” I asked, dodging a pair of blades and their owner with my trishula.
“You’re not the only special one here.” Horn grinned and a blue, wooden bar appeared in his hands. Jumping back, he pointed it at each member of my elite squad except himself. For a moment, I got scared, which Kane must have noticed because he immediately said: “Exclude!”
And then he sucked in the energy out of the Altar. I could feel the cold, viscous power pouring from the bar into Horn’s body. It was such a nasty feeling that I almost vomited.
I noticed that Caer’s squad stood frozen about half a yard from us. The Bat must’ve ordered them to wait.
I had to dodge an attack of three enemies at once, so I didn’t get to see what Horn was doing. When I looked at him again, he was standing with his arms up, bluish smoke emanating from his body. One look at the energy of death made my blood run cold.
“Breathing of Death,” he hissed.
The smoke spread all over the courtyard, enveloping the enemies.
“What the…?”
“Kaff…”
“Aaaa…”
They wheezed and grimaced. Some collapsed, others clutched at their throats, and one of them even tried to peel the skin off his face.
“Come on! Go to the castle!” Kane roared. “We’ll finish it here.”
“Tiara, Una, Omarh, Dunker! To the castle, quickly!” I shouted, noticing that the duke’s squad was moving in our direction again. “Good luck, Kane, Horn.” Giving him a nod, I rushed to the giant seven-towered palace, emblazoned with spires, terraced gardens, and beautiful statues.
Chapter 32
The King
“I’M TIRED OF WA-A-A-ITING!!!” a deafening cry came from somewhere in the sky. I froze and looked up.
Like a cannon ball, Biergein brought down one of the towers and disappeared out of sight.
“AAAA!!! RHEINGET, COME ON OUT, YOU BASTARD!!!”
“Don’t be afraid, men! This God is on our side!” Caer shouted, calming the soldiers who had been taken aback by Biergein’s wild appearance. After all, only a couple of Disciples knew about him.
I rushed forward, breaking down the oak doors with the trishula
“Can we really trust him?” Una asked without slowing down.
“Yes.”
The castle was empty. The unbelievable size of its halls and corridors made it even more intimidating.
“By Decay!” Omarh cursed when the entire place shuddered. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling.
“Looks like it has started,” Una said, looking up.
“I hope they won’t destroy the castle.” I shook my head. “Let’s move!”
“Left!” Tiara exclaimed, directing us. We had all memorized the castle’s layout, but she had been here before so she knew the place better than any of us.
The castle kept shuddering, but we managed to reach the second floor.
“Wow,” Una breathed out. “Not bad.”
I didn’t know how the floor looked before, but I supposed it had a roof once. The sky above was filled with bright flashes flying in all directions — bright-green, orange, yellow and light-gray clashed, creating a firework show the likes of which I had never seen. I was too far away to distinguish who was who. The color of their power didn’t help as in Zurtane existed three Gods of Destruction who used powers of nature and they didn’t rely on just one element. The only exception was the water element as it had been “claimed” by the Goddess of Rain.
“Oho, someone has made it this far. Congratulations,” sneered a female voice to the left of us.
“You should be pitying them, Marie, as this is where their road comes to an end,” calmly answered a male voice.
Some of the walls and the ceiling of the throne room were also destroyed, and the giant double-doors have been ripped off its hinges. Three people were watching us with curiosity. The fourth one, seated on the throne behind his loyal bodyguards, observed us with boredom.
His Majesty, King of Longoria, Leor IV
Level 310
HP: 37,850/37,850
Unsurprisingly, Leor looked very much like his patron — he had almost the same glowing armor, shield and sword, and blond, shoulder-length hair.
“How dare you stare at His Majesty, you worm?! You’ll die for such insolence!”
“They will all die, Marie.”
I shifted my gaze at the trio: Marie, a blonde with a bob cut, clad in a bright-orange armor; Dork, a gloomy looking fellow in silver armor with yellow details; and Del-Arh, a bald Ishirian in a leather jacket. Their average level was 160 and HP around 17,000.
Suddenly, I felt a surge of divine energy. I reflexively turned around and lunged forward, grabbing Tiara who was standing beside me. With a rumble, a giant crack appeared in the middle of the castle. By some miracle, I had managed to predict the direction of its spread. Aside Tiara and me, no one else was in danger.
“Thank you,” she blurted out in surprise and got back on her feet.
“The Great Gods are on a rampage,” Marie commented, looking at the sky. “We must hurry before they bring the entire place down. Your Majesty,” turning around, she bowed her head, “may we dispose of the intruders and lead you to safety?”
The king nodded and waved his hand. His gaze seemed relaxed and tender.
Hurry up, boy. We’re exhausted. I’m afraid we won’t last much longer.
Got it, I answered, activating Small Avatar.
Marie whistled in astonishment, looking at the smoke that was flowing out of my body. “Well, since you won’t be holding back, neither will we!”
Bright orange flames enveloped her. Yellow lightning caressed Dork’s clothes, and Del-Arh began to turn to sand.
Damn it… they also have elemental “Avatars”!
The rest of my crew rushed into the fight before I got the chance to order them to do so. Despite their weariness, their patrons were watching after them, giving advices.
“Ken! The king is yours!” Una exclaimed, sending a cloud of sand into Del-Arh’s face.
But I had to do one thing before that�
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I threw my trishula like a spear and pierced Dork’s chest. Coughing, he fell on his knees, unable to finish activating his Avatar form.
Using the opportunity, Tiara gathered Dork’s blood and, having turned it into a sword, cut his head off.
“How dare you?!!!” Marie shouted and sent a wall of fire in my direction. Putting my hand in front of me, I blocked it with smoke, surprised by how weaker they were than me. I supposed that I could defeat them both without much hassle. But there was no need to waste my strength before the fight with Leor.
Sending a wave of bluish energy, Dunker threw Marie aside.
“Ken! The king!” Tiara cried, creating tentacles out of blood and sending them at Marie.
There was no need to tell me twice — I was already on my way to the throne. Having increased my team’s chance of survival, I could get down to business.
Seeing me, Leor smirked. His armor and skin began to glow with bright, golden light. Jumping to his feet, he towered above me. He was a head taller than I was in my Small Avatar form.
I hit his shield with the trishula. The clash produced a ring of golden-black energy that destroyed the walls. I felt a sudden increase in Leor’s power but the system said nothing about it. Unfortunately for me, this meant that he wasn’t using any buff and that his strength was equal to that of the Gods.
“I never thought that there would ever be someone with such power,” he said, deflecting my trishula with his shield. “That makes it even more surprising that you fight against us. You have a chance to get even more power. Well, you had a chance. After what you’ve done to my city, I won’t let you live”.
I thought how it would’ve been interesting to talk to Leor, as Rheingeit had obviously shared a lot of information with him. Had we met under different circumstances, he would’ve been a powerful ally.
Breathing out slowly, I reached to the energy surrounding me and began to suck it into my body.
“What are you doing?” Leor asked, surprised. “Hey…!”
There wasn’t much energy in the walls. In order to get what little of it was there, I had to destroy the stone itself. Turning my head around, I noticed that the walls were crumbling away. Leor must’ve reacted to that. I hadn’t been aware of what I was doing when I reached for the energy at the beginning.
I didn’t know if I should stop or not. Would we survive if the whole thing went down? If I stopped now, I wouldn’t have enough strength to fight Leor.
Luckily, Leor made my choice for me. In a flash, he appeared next to me and hit me with his sword from above with all his strength. I managed to block with the shaft of my trishula, but the attack was so strong that it pushed me back.
If I took the fight outside, Leor would follow me. But he could kill Tiara and the others if they got in his way…
A tentacle of black smoke rushed from under the hem of my cloak and wrapped itself around Leor’s ankle. The speed of my attacks slowed down, but not too much. Having made another hole in the wall, I flew outside, pulling Leor with me.
Turning in the air, he cut off the tentacle and freed himself. We both landed on our feet, scaring the soldiers and interrupting their battle.
“So many people,” Leor said, looking around. “A good place for your execution, you spawn of Darkness!” he cried, raising his golden sword toward the sky. “People of Longoria, your king is talking to you! Today, with you and our God as my witness, I’ll cleanse this place of traitors and rebels! And—”
A Clot interrupted his speech. Leor tried to deflect it with his shield, but failed. I put too much energy into it.
The blast threw the soldiers across the courtyard. I couldn’t see how much damage I had dealt to Leor as he was covered in smoke.
Launching forward, I closed the distance between us and swung the trishula at him. The prongs and the shield clashed producing a wave of energy.
He swung his sword in retaliation. I dodged with an effort. I felt him concentrating his power, sucking it from somewhere in the sky, probably directly from Rheingeit.
The smoke dissolved in the golden glow. Leor began to shine brightly. I instinctively covered my eyes with my hand but almost immediately jumped back as I felt his sword approaching me.
Leor attacked again. Swinging his sword diagonally from the bottom up, he cut the air, sending a wave of gold toward me.
The light blinded me. If I couldn’t feel the energy, I would have died right there. Realizing that I wouldn’t be able to dodge or block, I decided to meet the attack straight on, despite the danger.
“Aaaa!!!” I cried as the light burned through the Darkness enveloping my body.
And although it hurt, I endured it. The energy that was pouring into my body from the environment saved me from being cut in half.
“People of Longoria!” Leor suddenly shouted. “This beast is consuming life! Look what he has done to the yard!”
Breathing heavily, I looked around. Everything around me had turned into dust, and the soldiers, who had completely forgotten about the battle, were looking at me with fear.
“So what?!” Caer exclaimed. “My dear son-in-law is doing everything to defeat you! You are the traitor! Your God abets the Decay! And you’re doing nothing to stop him!”
I praised the Heavens for Caer’s interruption. It had bought me enough time to think of a plan.
Putting my hand in front of me, I sent a cloud of smoke at Leor and immediately rushed forward, closing the distance between us.
He blocked an upward strike and counter-attacked. I dodged, and attacked from the side, but he parried and attacked back. I deflected his sword and countered, increasing the tempo. He sped up, too.
We fought staying practically at one place. Each clash of our weapons produced waves of black and gold energy that spread in all directions. I had no time to look around, but I kept hearing some rumble and felt that we were slowly sinking. It took me a while to realize that our rampage had made a small crater around us.
At first, we seemed equal, but my body grew heavier as the battle went on. As a result, I was the first to back away. Finding strength to increase the speed of his attack, he used the chance to rush at me.
I didn’t counter-attack anymore. I could only defend myself. Damn it, how much strength is Rheingeit pouring into him?! Damn you, Rheingeit, you’re twiddling your thumbs while everyone else is doing the work for you! Stop using Leor like your puppet and fight! The Old Man had advised me to save my best skill for a real pinch, but I wouldn’t follow his advice now. We didn’t have time to waste. I had to defeat Leor quickly. I had to endure the pain and exhaustion.
“Activate the Amulet of Righteousness.”
The Amulet gave me protection, but didn’t increase my attacks, so there had been no point in using it at the beginning of the fight. But we were both tired and the smallest error could cost us our lives. Which was why we were desperate enough to attack with whatever we had left.
I deflected Leor’s sword with my bare hand. For a moment, he faltered, surprised by my bold move, and failed to parry my trishula. It sank into his chest, crushing his armor and bones. Leor wheezed. His eyes rolled back.
Breathing heavily, I yanked out the trishula. My left fist got covered with the black smoke. Hitting him in the face, I knocked him out.
Having had put everything I had in the last two strikes, I hoped that this was the end.
“His Majesty…” the soldiers whispered.
“His Majesty lost!”
“How can it be?! How’s this possible?”
“Yeah!!! Senior Disciple won!!!”
“Hooray!!!”
Breathing heavily, I leaned against the trishula, concentrating on the fluctuations of the energy around me.
He’s here...
My body was trembling and burning. I wanted to lie down and pass out, wake up a decade or two later, feeling refreshed and reborn.
But the pain got only worse. It took me great effort not to shout
“I�
�m impressed,” Rheingeit said, hovering over his defeated Disciple and crushing me with his Aura. “You have defeated Leor… Maybe you’ll finish him off and take his place?”
Chapter 33
Zurtarn
I didn’t get a chance to answer. The ring that the Old Man had given me turned red-hot; out of it emerged a balding God with round glasses, clad in a beautiful camisole, and carrying a backpack with wooden wings attached to it. Having tested the hang-glider during the fight, Glozeysk seemed to have decided to test another toy of his.
“You?” Rheingeit asked in surprise.
Instead of answering him, Glozeysk grabbed him by the wrist. Staring him down arrogantly, Rheingeit didn’t even think about moving away.
But when a chain with a wooden ring shot out of the sleeve of Glozeysk’s camisole, Rheingeit’s arrogance disappeared completely. Before he could react, the ring split, resembling a maw of a wild beast, and closed around his wrist. Steam belched out of the backpack, carrying the Gods into the sky
“Let me go!!!” Rheingeit demanded angrily. “Don’t let them reassemble Zurtarn!!!”
Time seemed to speed up. Grabbing Leor by the collar, I pushed off the ground with all my might. I didn’t know whether I had accumulated some energy, or if the Old Man had shared some of his with me. Whatever the case, I was sure that one jump would be enough to get back into the throne room.
Meanwhile, Gods began to appear in the courtyard. Our Gods, much to our dismay, looked more battered than their opponents. To prevent the enemy Gods from attacking us mortals, Mavia, who now had the upper hand as the ground was soaked with blood, created a barrier topped with a dome, separating us and the castle from the divine opponents.
While that was going on, I observed as Tiara’s blood tentacles, much bigger than before, attacked Marie, who was struggling to get out of the range of Una’s sand. Marie hadn’t yet reached the God-like level of her Avatar form, which made her easier to deal with.
Since she was barely standing on her feet, all it took were three hits with the trishula to finish her off. We watched the flames die down as her body fell onto the cold floor. Not wasting any more time, Una walked over to her at once and slit her throat. I looked around.
