The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  “Stand down.” The minotaur got back on his feet, and his men immediately backed away.

  “Stand down?” Freya chuckled. “You’re going to need all the help you can get to just take me on, let alone me and the Phantom Lord.”

  “We’ll see.” Asterion swiped the air with his finger. He quickly opened his Inventory screen and summoned a weird glass flask. A wispy white liquid stood within, squirming around as if it were alive.

  Freya’s shoulders tensed. “What are you doing?”

  “What I need to.” Asterion smashed the bottle against the ground, and a wraith surged from the shards, screaming and howling as it rose into the air. It flew into him but did not pass through like it would have with me. Instead, the spirit disappeared within the confines of his body. Runes of gray appeared on the minotaur’s skin, and he growled in pain as they pulsed for a few seconds before resting at a shade of dirty silver.

  “There.” Asterion’s voice was deeper now. His eyes glowed with a mild white, and an aura of power now emanated from him. I didn’t need to use Analyze to know that he’d become stronger than either of us were.

  “There are still two of us, you idiot.” Freya charged. She pulled out her blade, and the massive weapon flowed smoothly through the air. She slashed hard, swinging her sword as fast as she could.

  The minotaur threw his hands out, and a shockwave burst from the contact point, sending dust and debris all around us. When it cleared away, the beast stood alive, a smile on his face, with Freya’s blade held tight in between his hands. The elf was trying hard to pull it away from him, but his grip was too strong.

  “How unfortunate.” He swirled around, and his leg smashed into her rib cage. The elf flew into the roof and crunched right through it.

  “Freya!” I charged forward. Two of Asterion’s minions came after me, and their swords swung at my form, but missed me by inches. I stopped, turned around, and thrust my fists into them. They thudded against the back wall, and when they dropped, they were unconscious.

  “Round two.” Asterion smiled, but he wasn’t speaking to me. He glanced at the roof, watching as Freya’s form fell back to the floor. His fingers curled into a fist and he was already swinging up, raring to meet her body once again.

  No! Pushing off the floor, I soared into the air and grabbed her by the waist. We came back down on the other side of the room, and my feet slid across the floor as I brought us to a stop.

  “Are you okay?” I looked at the elf.

  Freya nodded and pulled away from me. Bruises lay over her fair skin, all from just that one kick, and her face didn’t exactly show a painless expression right now either.

  “How bold of you, Zoran,” Asterion chuckled as he walked up to us. “A love affair in the middle of a battle?”

  “Shut up, you monster.” Freya lifted her blade and pointed the weapon at the beast. She thrust it down into the ground, and the floor split, fissuring in one, long crack. The minotaur sidestepped the attack and shot up to us.

  But I was ready this time.

  I charged out in front of Freya, holding my arms up above my face. The minotaur smashed into me, his fist nearly cracking my bones. I quickly pushed his arm away and threw a punch into his chest. The beast flew back and hit the wall with a shattering sound.

  I stood still, my arms still out, my breath heaving.

  “You’re strong, Eternal.” Asterion stepped out of the debris, and for the first time, he hadn’t chuckled. His form flickered, and he disappeared. The next thing I knew, his fist was in my face. I went flying backwards and crunched through the wall before dropping to the floor.

  I stood up, my body shaking. That attack had taken down a good fourth of my health.

  What am I supposed to do? I asked. I can’t take him on alone. I can’t take him on together with Freya either.

  “You don’t have to.” Nyx’s familiar voice showed up again. “Charge him. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  My body instantly moved. I rushed out through the wall to find Freya swinging her sword at the minotaur. The beast was dodging her strikes easily, knocking her blade away with simple swipes of his hand.

  “Freya! Move!” I yelled, and shot toward the beast, running as fast as I could.

  “Get ready, Diablo,” Nyx said. “Put your hand out.”

  My fingers uncurled, and my arm stretched out to my side. The minotaur approached, now just twenty yards ahead. A stream of violet lights came out of nowhere and swirled around my arm. They collected in my hand and expanded into the shape of a blade.

  “Go,” the spirit said.

  I surged across the ground, picking up even more speed. My hand wrapped around the still-forming weapon handle, and I swung hard at the minotaur, faster than he could even blink.

  I slid across the floor after the attack and came to a stop next to the wall. I turned around and saw a deep gash in the minotaur’s side. The big beast stood frozen. His health went down to a measly tenth, and he dropped to the floor, unconscious.

  My fingers trembled, as though I was holding lightning in my hand. I looked down, gazing at the blade of solid black. The weapon looked as though it were woven from the very night itself, and a gemstone of deep violet lay studded where the hilt and the blade met, with light glistening off the jewel in ghastly shades.

  I turned back to the minotaur, just in time to see his minions surround both him and themselves in a white sphere of light.

  “No!” Freya charged to them. She swung at their forms, but just as she was about to connect, they all disappeared, leaving just a flash of light for her to cut through.

  Teleportation, I realized.

  “Damn it!” the elf cursed. She turned to me. “You should have killed that man.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “Let’s just calm down now. Asterion was unconscious. It’ll be a while before he can come after us. And even if he does…” I looked at my sword. I can probably take him down again, I realized.

  DING!

  The Analyze screen for the weapon came up.

  Equipment Title

  Dawnbreaker, The Void Blade

  Damage

  12K – 16K ATK

  Special Effects

  +100% attack

  +100% chance of critical hits

  +100% resistance to all magic

  +50% Accuracy

  +100% Agility

  +100% Dexterity

  +10% health recovery

  Notes:

  Weapon ATK increases with level of user

  Weapon draws 15% Mana every second

  Grade

  Seven Stars

  Durability

  Unbreakable

  Rarity

  Legendary

  Value

  Priceless

  Holy hell! My hands shook. This thing is ridiculously overpowered.

  Freya leaned over. “Oh my God!” She freaked out immediately, yelling louder than I ever would have. “This is amazing!”

  I quickly opened my Inventory menu. The inventory has been updated, I recalled. I quickly navigated to the screen, and as I’d expected, there was indeed another new item in my boxlike grid—the icon of a piece of armor. I tapped on it.

  Equipment Title

  Berserker Armor

  Defense

  18K – 21K DEF

  Special Effects

  +100% Defense

  +100% resistance to all magic

  +50% chance of evasion

  +10% Health recovery

  +10% Stamina recovery

  +10% Mana recovery

  +4% rebound damage on receiving attack

  Notes:

  Weapon DEF increases with level of user

  Weapon draws 15% Mana every second

  Grade

  Seven Stars

  Durability

  Unbreakable

  Rarity

  Legendary

  Value

  Priceless

  This one was so good I didn’t really know how to
react. I immediately tapped on the Equip button.

  DING!

  Would you like to switch out your armor and equip the Berserker Armor instead?

  I tapped Yes and the screen disappeared. A stream of light came out of nowhere and swirled around my body. When it stopped, an armor of horrifying black had formed over me, with a few streaks of silver highlighting its form.

  The metal was woven into sharp angles and sharper points, and covered everything but my head. Cuts and layers sat within it, allowing me to move more freely than I’d expected. The solid pieces of metal hung from my limbs, but where they should have been weighing me down, they did not. Instead, it almost felt like I was…lighter.

  Maybe the sword’s Agility boost makes it seem that way, I thought.

  “You got a really good bounty.” Freya smiled. “First a sword, now armor.”

  “Perks of being a Phantom Lord,” I chuckled.

  “Indeed,” she said. “Do you have anything else in your inventory?”

  I took a quick glance, but everything else was pretty much the same. I shook my head.

  “Intriguing,” she said. “Maybe you got just these items since you broke only one part of your seal.”

  “Maybe.”

  DING!

  Warning!

  Your Mana levels have gone below 50%

  What? I blinked, and then it hit me.

  My weapons were consuming a ton of Mana. I quickly opened my Stats menu and tapped on my Mana option. My Mana Regeneration screen came up.

  Mana Regeneration

  16% per second

  Damn, I cursed. My Mana Regeneration rate wasn’t enough to let me use both my sword and my armor at the same time.

  Oh well. I sighed and quickly shifted into my Equipment Inventory menu, sending back my Berserker Armor. The piece of equipment glowed bright white and disintegrated into a stream of lights before disappearing into the air.

  “What happened?” Freya blinked.

  “Can’t use both at the same time,” I said. “They consume Mana at a greater rate than I can replenish.”

  “Wait, they consume Mana?” She blinked. “Weapons can do that?”

  “Well, apparently mine can.”

  “Interesting.”

  I looked around me at the ruins we were in. I’d come in here looking for answers, but now I wasn’t sure I wanted to be anywhere close to this place anymore.

  “We should probably leave,” Nyx said. “Do not dwell on your thoughts too much, Diablo. They will do you no good at this stage of time.”

  I know, I said, even though I’d end up thinking about it anyway. One didn’t turn into the Phantom Lord all of a sudden and just not think about it. What did bother me, however, was that I still had no memory of being the Phantom Lord himself.

  “That is to be expected,” Nyx said. “You’ll have to break through more than one part of the Soul Seal before you start getting significant memories back I believe.”

  That’s annoying, I grunted. I stepped forward and looked around.

  “We’re going to have to go back the way we came in.” Freya walked up to me, still in her demon form.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “It’s the easiest solution.”

  “Fine, then,” I said. We traced our steps back and made our way to the pile of dead bodies in the rooms. We made a quick jump onto the floor above us, which with our strength was not that hard to do. Wraiths of ghastly white appeared a second later, just like they had before, but this time they didn’t even look at us.

  “A wraith, even a tortured one, would never dare go next to the Phantom Lord,” Nyx said.

  “I guess Demon Elves can chase away wraiths,” Freya mumbled.

  “I guess.” I smiled.

  We quickly made our way back to the wide field of broken rock and marble, all shrouded in darkness. A hiss echoed and I immediately froze up. The Desert Snake, I thought. Red eyes emerged out of nowhere and the beast lunged at us.

  “Shut up.” Freya swung her sword and sliced the beast in half. Its body split cleanly into two and it dropped to the floor, lifeless.

  Poor thing, I thought. It had probably been so confused about what had just happened. Then again, so am I. I smiled. Well, to a certain extent.

  I looked up, at the broken ends of the bridge above us. “Guess we jump from here,” I said.

  Freya crouched, recoiling her muscles. She surged upwards, sending dust and mud at my face as she shot into the air.

  “Hey, wait up!” I yelled. I launched myself up as well, cracking the ground beneath me as I jumped.

  The elf gracefully timed her leap and landed herself right on the edge of the bridge. I, on the other hand, was the opposite of graceful. I’d jumped up too hard and almost went straight into the roof with my uncontrolled leap. Freya caught me by my waist and pulled me down next to her.

  “Thanks.” My voice was quiet.

  “Sure,” she chuckled.

  We climbed up the staircase before us and walked back to the entrance of the ruins.

  “Ah.” I stretched my arms as I stepped out. “Fresh air once—”

  A small army stood around us, no more than a hundred yards away. Armor of white shone brightly under the desert sun, and the symbol of a silver Pegasus glistened in the morning light. A horse stood next to us, and atop it sat a young woman in a white cloak, an oak-brown staff in her hand.

  My eyes widened. I opened my mouth.

  But the words refused to come out.

  Viola looked at me. “Hello, Zoran.”

  ***

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Why did everything have to get complicated all the time? Couldn’t they just stay simple for once?

  So far, the answer to those questions had been a brutal yes.

  I stared into the brown eyes of the woman in front of me. I could hear the words and sentences hidden within her gaze—of the trust that she’d once had for me, of the trust I had now broken.

  “Viola, I—”

  She held up her hand. “Save it, Phantom Lord,” she said. “I am giving you a chance to end this peacefully. Come with us quietly, or face the might of the Alliance of Light against you.”

  This is the whole power of the Alliance of Light? I looked at the army, and then at her. The filters in my mind dissolved away, and my thoughts translated directly to words.

  “You do realize how strong I am, right?” I said. “I should be the one giving you a chance to leave this place alive.”

  Her eyes widened, and a vein in her forehead throbbed. She thrust her staff forward, and a blast of light shot out of it.

  I stood still, and the attack thudded into my body. I turned to my health bar. Didn’t even go down, I noticed. I looked at her. “You have no chance.”

  “Oh yes, she does.”

  A kick thudded into my head, throwing me a few feet through the air and onto the ground. My muscles tightened. A stronger opponent was here. I picked myself up and looked ahead of me.

  A woman stood there, red hair falling over armor of pristine white. A sword hung at her side, but she did not reach out for it, choosing instead to bare her fists. Chanting echoed around me, with many voices speaking in unison.

  A mass spell, I cursed.

  “I can’t tell what they’re trying to cast on you,” Nyx said. “But it would be best to avoid it.”

  I threw my hands into the air. “Iktar!”

  A blast of wind shot out of my body and expanded in a circle, throwing everyone off their feet. The chanting stopped for a moment, but that wasn’t good enough. The red-haired woman charged at me, and this time, a few more men and women followed her.

  “Level 400s,” Nyx said. “I did not know the Alliance of Light had such powerful warriors.”

  “Tch.” I clicked my tongue. I lowered my body and went into a defensive stance. I didn’t lift my sword up this time. I knew what would happen if I did. I’d end up killing them, and that was just going to make me look worse in every
one’s eyes.

  My Phantom Lord title already came along with a free murderer tag as it was. Aggravating that opinion of me would just complicate things a lot more.

  Punches and kicks thudded into my body as the warriors attacked me. Their strikes landed hard on my hands and legs, and I began to feel sore all over. Nevertheless, I centered myself, maintaining my position. The lady surged at me and kicked me in the chest. I went flying back and rolled over the ground a couple of times before coming to a stop.

  “Hey!” Freya came out of nowhere and punched right into the woman. The redhead shot through the air, and she crashed into her own men, knocking down plenty of them before coming to a stop.

  “You need to watch your back.” Freya gave me a hand and lifted me back onto my feet.

  I looked at everyone around me. The mages had all gotten back up, and the 400 level warriors had us surrounded in a tight circle. They had all pulled out their weapons this time and brandished swords and blades of various shapes and sizes.

  All of them spelled trouble.

  My fists clenched. I didn’t want to take out Dawnbreaker yet, but I’d be forced to if the enemy attacked me like this.

  “Do it,” Nyx said. “If you’re worried about killing them, then just defend. There are other ways to defeat them than to drive a blade through their body.”

  Maybe, I said. A sharp sound echoed behind me. I glanced back to see Freya’s blade in front of her face, blocking the strikes of three men against her.

  The ones in front of me held their weapons up and converged on my position.

  “Fine,” I muttered, and my hand reached down to my sheath. “You asked for it.”

  Dawnbreaker hummed as I gripped its handle and pulled my blade out. A chill went through the air, and the light of the sky dimmed down as well. The Knights around me backed away, lowering their weapons. The 400 level warriors shook, but they stood their ground, unwilling to back down.