Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2

by Brian Wilkerson

  “What do you want, 15? I’m busy with a Bubonic Brew.”

  The exile’s voice was even, but his knees knocked slightly.

  “I have something better: the latest Trickster’s Choice.”

  “Really? Those are always good for destruction. Even when they create, they destroy.” He heaved his scythe over his shoulder. “Where is he?”

  “He’s right over…”

  Eric was gone.

  “He’s turned invisible. One moment, please.”

  Mr.15 snapped his fingers and activated the Genocide of Darkness a fourth time. The room flooded with high-powered light energy and returned to normal just as quickly. All of it was funneling to a single spot behind a vat. Mr.15 Chameleon Flashed to its location just as the sound of wood on rock thudded in his ears. A wave of light washed over him and blinded him. A second later, he saw dozens of Erics. As one, they pulled down their eyelids and stuck their tongues out at him.

  Reno Grade chuckled at sight of the grown man dispelling the illusions, only for them to respawn like trick candles and continue mocking him. Not even a blade sticking itself into his side could disrupt his merriment, for what weapon forged by mortals could harm death itself? Then he felt faint, like a human during blood loss. Eric stood behind him with the soiléir deep in his back.

  Kasile said I needed a divinity catalyst and this will do perfectly!

  The golden-brown light at the tip penetrated the reaper’s physical presence and reached for the inner, astral, essence. The intense grey light shined in glee and mixed with the ethereal black it drained from the reaper. Otherworldly substance flowed from his soul’s proxy to his soul itself. Eric’s eyes widened and emitted the same light. His smile split his face.

  “Now I've got your power!”

  Reno Grade took a swing at him, but he vanished. He reappeared five steps away and did moose ears at him. The reaper pointed at Eric and a beam of death energy fired along the finger’s direction. This energy was invisible to mortals and traveled differently than mana. It was impossible to block and impossible to dodge. The mortal would become dust instantly. Decay was the unavoidable fate of all mortals. Such was the power of Death, matched only by Lady Chaos herself.

  Eric brought up his staff and blocked with the crystal. Scowling, Reno Grade fired again, but with all five fingers this time. Eric sidestepped around each one and the beams passed by harmlessly. Reno Grade fired a wave and it broke over Eric’s barrier like the invincible wall of Constantinople. Enraged, the reaper crossed reality and clapped his hands to either side of Eric’s head. Even then, he failed. Eric’s eyes and smile shone with naked conceit.

  “I stole your authority over death. Your powers don't work on me.”

  He passed his staff to his left hand and punched Reno Grade square on the chin with his right. The divine being went down and Eric plunged his crystal back into him to steal more essence, but the crystal passed through his chest and clattered on the stone.

  Reno Grade escaped to the astral plane. Eric looked everywhere for the reaper, but his enlightenment did not extend to this realm. Thus, he was caught unaware when Reno Grade appeared right in front of him and grasped his neck. The reaper lifted him off the ground while remaining partially in the astral plane, and thus immune to any attack save the crystal. Eric couldn’t touch his fingers, let alone pry them off his neck.

  “I am a god and you are only human.” He tightened his transparent grip. “Even with my senescence authority, you remain a mortal soul in a meat bag. Tasio, do you mind if I kill him?”

  Tasio shrugged. “I have another choice on this planet. Go right ahead.” He disappeared and reappeared curled around the blank-eyed Zettai. “No one here has the power to stop you…” he whispered in her ear. “…and save his life.”

  Zettai gasped and light returned to her eyes. What she saw made tears come to them. A reaper was choking her savior! Without thinking about it, she knew what to do.

  She pulled off the glove on her right hand, revealing the diseased and bloodied flesh underneath. Picking up her skirts, she ran to a vat and pushed her hand against it. Her blood splattered on its surface and created a runic circle. She tried to speak the spell, but nothing came out. Then the choker gleamed and a shock of pain rocked her body.

  “I warned you,” Mr.15 said. He didn’t avert his eyes from the choking. “You are enchanted to die if you betray me. I wonder who will reach the Abyss first.”

  Zettai sank to her knees as her body shut down. Her head fell against the vat and her tears slid onto her rune diagram. She traced patterns in the mixture in a desperate attempt to write the spell before she fell over the verge of death. Her hand dropped just as the structure shined brilliantly.

  The liquid mana within exploded upwards as a being of stark black light ascended to this world. It landed next to Zettai and took the form of a humanoid in a black shroud. At the end of one sleeve was a black scythe with a gold blade and at the end of another was empty space.

  “A Bladi convert killed by a death spell targeting the spirit? Where they joking or being stupid?”

  He looked around and saw a fellow reaper strangling a mortal while The Trickster looked on anxiously. He pointed at the reaper with his free hand. Reno Grade let go and Eric, whose spirit was just about to flee his body, gasped for breath. Then he ripped the choker off Zettai’s neck and she too revived. Then she shook violently as another power surge rumbled through her.

  “Death would have been merciful, but humans rarely understand such mercy.”

  The new reaper calmly floated to Reno Grade as the other shouted, “How dare you! This is my…” He trailed off when he noticed the golden blade. “…jurisdiction.”

  Chains shot from the scythe’s shaft head and bound Reno Grade hand and foot. A final one wrapped around his neck and forced him to kowtow at the new reaper’s feet. His own scythe disappeared. This reaper brought out a scroll and examined it.

  “Let’s see…Reno Grade…Trainee Reaper Third Class. Currently working off fifty years death-debt and also on probation for granting unauthorized necrocraft. Now I see you breaking probation and fighting with a trickster.” He looked up from his scroll. “You are in a lot of trouble, son.”

  “He stole one of my authorities! That’s a crime!”

  “If that is the case, pending an investigation, then the proper response would be to recruit him, not kill him. Clearly, you need a refresher course on the Book of Death. With good behavior, you’ll make parole in a couple local centuries.”

  “Are you going to replace me?”

  “No. That decision will be made by Samael or Lord Death himself. As of right now, this district is no one’s jurisdiction.”

  Reno Grade smirked. “A reaper out of his jurisdiction summoned by a walking sacrilege that was created by someone using unauthorized necrocraft. That is more than enough for my gift to work.”

  He clenched his right hand and it radiated eldritch light. It formed a sphere around him identical to the ones that Nulso used. The ethereal chains binding him disintegrated and his scythe reformed with the power of Order.

  “I suppose the Trickster’s Choice stealing one of my authorities would have been enough for an Order administrator, but I wanted to see that look on your face. Your prestigious golden blade is nothing to me now!”

  He flew away and escaped to the astral plane. The reaper sighed and pointed his golden blade. Again, ethereal chains shot from the end of the shaft and followed Reno Grade.

  “Who the abyss are you?” Eric asked.

  “I am Modil Pera, Senior Reaper First Class, in service to His Eternalness Lord Death, co-lord of the Abyss you speak of.”

  The chains snapped back to his scythe empty. His expression didn’t change, but when he turned his eyes on Eric, the boy felt a similar dread as when Reno Grade first arrived.

  “His right hand, Samael, will pay you a visit to discuss your theft in the near future.”

  “Theft!?”

  Tasio flo
ated between Modil and Eric. “What happened to ‘The Trickster’s Choice’ immunity?”

  “Lord Death repealed it.”

  “Eric, kill the exile. I’ll take care of this and explain later.”

  While the celestial beings argued laws and jurisdiction, Mr.15 marched over to the girl still kneeling by the vat and his eyes burned with anger. She gaped and rose to her feet only for him to smack her back down. She tried to crawl away, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. She struggled in his grip, but a blast of Evil Eye made her compliant.

  Eric bit back nasty words and wrapped himself in his Shadow Cloak. Step by step, he crept up on Mr.15. He didn’t even breathe. The man was wholly unaware of the boy raising a spear behind him. Then it was too late and the blade plunged into his back.

  “Forget about me, did you? Fatal mistake.”

  Inside the crystal, a compressed bolt discharged into his lung cavity and exploded. Pieces of Mr.15 were scattered to every corner of the room and the imitation BloodDrinker shattered into as many pieces. The blast also pushed Zettai to the ground and triggered another surge.

  Eric removed his cloak and said, “Sorry, are you okay?” Zettai leaned up, smiled, and glomped him. “Owowowowowow!” She jumped aside and bowed her head repeatedly by way of apology. Then her eyes widened in fear and she pointed urgently behind Eric.

  Bones gathered into one place and connected, body tissue flew back into place over it, and skin returned to cover it up. Before their eyes, Mr.15 reconstituted himself down to the mask on his face. Despite seeing monstrous wolves regrow limbs, the sight still made Eric's skin crawl. He waved Zettai away and she obeyed, picking up her skirts and hiding behind a vat.

  He wrapped himself in his Shadow Cloak and whispered the words of his next spell. Mr.15 activated the Genocide of Darkness once again and it scorched both the cloak and Eric himself, but with heroic focus and his stolen divinity, he kept himself hidden. Mr.15 kept the light running and spoke of his plans for Eric’s friends: he would use Tiza for breeding stock, Nolien as raw materials, and Basilard as a punching bag. Then he detailed the many invasive and demeaning experiments he had planned for a certain elf girl once Nulso finally captured her. All the while, the overhead crystal filled the room with light energy that burned Eric’s mind and soul.

  He did not rise to Mr.15’s bait. He kept his breathing steady, his feet silent, and his mouth working on the spells he needed to end this fight. When one was finished, he sent it into position and began the next one. Almost there…Just a little more…

  “I suppose you don’t know what we have planned for your beloved queen, do you? Her reign is finished and there will be a new king in town. I imagine it’s happening right now. When it’s over, she’ll be lucky to eat out of Nulso’s hand.”

  “MAGE RENDAN!”

  Six Wind Hand spells fired from their locations around Mr.15. Eric had spent the last couple minutes generating and arranging them. The first one rushed from underneath Mr.15 and punched him in the nuts. A second pocket of air formed into a fist and nailed his chest. He was too stunned to dodge and it knocked the air clean out of his lungs. Two more struck him from either side of his head and then a fifth under his chin. A final one lifted him up and tossed him into a vat.

  Liquid mana splashed as he sank to the bottom. Immediately, it began to mutate him. His last sight before it corrupted his brain was a clone of Haru.

  “Nice combo,” Tasio said. He was floating above Eric’s head. “It’s poetic.”

  “I was trying to wash away the necrocraft regeneration. Anyway, you were no help.”

  “Oh woe is me! I am eternally unappreciated!”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Zettai left her hiding place and ran to Eric. She stopped at his feet, clasped her hands at her chest, and looked up adoringly at him.

  “I don’t remember you being this popular on Threa…”

  “Shut up, you useless bystander.”

  Zettai winced as another spark lit up her left arm. Eric put his own around her and smiled comfortingly. She pressed against him as he led her to the exit.

  “Time for round two,” Tasio said.

  Eric stopped. “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t you know? The final boss of a dungeon always has more than one form, and this is especially likely when it’s guarding a princess or some other important lady.”

  Inside the vat, Mr.15’s body quadrupled in size with the force of a cannon. Liquid mana flew everywhere as the vat exploded. Eric tightened his grip on Zettai and wind-jumped to avoid the tide. Then he put an Air Disk between them and the exploding and/or moving floor. Over one hundred cubic units of liquid mana repeatedly mutated it. Zettai clung to him and he leveled his staff at the creature.

  Although Mr.15's mind was now in chaos, there was a strange uniformity about his body. Its legs were strong enough to support its frame and long enough for deep strides. The arms were just as thick and muscular with a chest great enough to support such a system. It was covered all over with a blue pelt whose hairs twisted and squirmed. Out of its back, sides and neck grew a dozen dripping tentacles and each one terminated in a claw. It leered through stalk eyeballs hanging out of its head.

  The stalks swept the room while the tentacles and arms rotated. A chaotic spark swept it from head to toe and it threw out all its limbs, roaring with its three mouths. Zettai squeezed Eric for security while he himself lost control of his bowels. The stalks centered on them and the mouths drooled. Tasio played a brief tune on an ocarina, then shouted, “BOSS FIGHT! The Crimson Killer – Kierdos!”

  All the many tentacles reared back and shot forward, but only one reached Eric. The others went above, below, backwards, left, right, and even into itself. Monsanity made it clumsy. So many new limbs and a shift in sensory input would drive an intelligent creature to confusion, let alone one only possessing base instincts. These instincts told him fresh meat was directly ahead of him, so it lumbered in that direction.

  Hopefully, the liquid mana washed away the necrocraft.

  Eric dipped his staff into the liquid mana, absorbed a teaspoon’s worth, and fired it as a single mana bolt. The recoil was greater than any spell he’d ever cast, knocking him of his feet. It caught Kierdos in the chest and knocked him over, but four of the tentacles balanced him. The other eight grasped for Eric and Zettai.

  Eric jumped around to avoid them and used the vats for cover. The tentacles smashed them, dumping more liquid mana on the floor and mutating themselves in the process. Zettai stumbled over the edge of the Air Disk and Eric steadied her. This gave the tentacles an opportunity. Four of them grabbed his limbs and pulled him spread-eagle while the other four pounded every surface of his body.

  Zettai wasted no time watching in horror. She scooped up some of the liquid mana, drank it, and let loose a mana beam from her corpse-like arms. It severed the tendrils and freed Eric. He dropped from the air black and blue while she sank with fatigue and winced as another surge passed. He cast a second Air Disk for her to stand on and she moved to it.

  “Get out of here now!”

  She looked at him with sad eyes.

  He projected his barrier to keep the tentacles at bay, but it cracked by the fifth strike. He grimaced, then released the mana in his crystal as a mana barrage and they retreated to the main body.

  “I'll be fine. I promise.”

  She bunched up her skirts, removed her heels, and threw them at the monster. It paused and its eyes tracked their path in the air all the way to the base of the stalks. It wailed in pain.

  “Nice shot.”

  Zettai blushed and shrugged.

  “Now go.”

  Suddenly hesitant, she wavered back and forth until the monster screeched. She made up her mind, leaned up, and pecked his cheek. Then she hiked up her skirts and ran toward the exit.

  The wail changed pitch and, suddenly, every clone jumped out of its vat regardless of its state of development. Most of them surrounded Eric, but others tar
geted Zettai. They blocked the exit and moved behind her to cut off retreat. They raised their weapons and prepared spells. Tasio floated above it all and munched popcorn.

  Eric dashed his staff across the floor, held it over his head, and released it as a mana barrage. Countless bolts pelted the clone army; blowing holes in chests, knocking heads off, dismembering. The least developed of the clones fell right away, followed by their stronger counterparts, until only the best remained. It was a slaughter. Faced with so many dead bodies, the Kierdos did what any monster would do and ate them one at a time. Eric and Zettai were forgotten.

  One look was all it took for the clones to break ranks. As soon as they saw their monster of a father eating them, every single one of them ran away. Like the monster, they ignored Eric and Zettai in favor of the exit. Eric lifted both Air Disks so they wouldn’t be trampled by the stampede of mutating humanoids. She waved him forward, beseeching him to leave with her. Eric looked back to the monster.

  “If it was anyone else, I'd leave him be.” He walked forward. “He’s nothing but a mindless monster now and thus no threat to anyone.”

  As if to prove this point, the beast stuck its head into a vat like a farm animal at a trough.

  “However, I can't risk him waking up from this. He’s too dangerous to Basilard, Kasile, Annala, this forsaken country, and me.”

  He gathered liquid mana into his staff's crystal and compressed it.

  “So I'm going to kill it.”

  Even directly in front of the Kierdos, it did not notice him, so he stuck his staff into its upper mouth as it ate. Then he released the compressed bolt and made its head explode. With a flick of his arm, Eric flung the gore off his staff.

  He made it five steps before the beast stirred and stood up. He looked over his shoulder. Its head had reconstituted into a new shape; a mixture between human, wolf, and zebra. It snarled.

  “I'm gonna need more firepower.”

  The monster roared and knocked Eric off his feet with its fury. Then it pounced. Eric blocked with his barrier, but the monster’s head sailed through it as if it weren't there. The only reason its two sets of teeth didn't snap shut over his neck was its confusion over the neck disappearing.