“Knowing my luck, Eric’s probably fighting that thing. Ancestors forbid.”
He jogged forward, hoping that his fears were misplaced.
The air stank of both freshly grown life and decaying organic waste, and thus clearly of chaotic origins. It changed colors and whirled about as if it had a life of its own. Spires of violently mutated rock defined the zone's boundaries and dotted in random places within the circle. Creatures looking half-plant and half-animal prowled between them, eating and being eaten by creatures even more bizarre. Misshaped trees, spontaneously grown, opened their trunks to bite him as he passed and wriggling new grass released chocolate perfume when he stepped on it. Formerly silent rocks sang nonsense through a plethora of mouths.
A brand new microcosm had sprung in the wake of the explosion and created a “Chaotic Zone.” These were dangerous areas of original life, inexplicable terrain, and it was still changing, still mutating, still growing, and still seeking to add sapients to its food chain. None of this shook the hardened veteran because he'd seen chaotic zones in the past and this one was no different.
A roar of pain heralded a monstrous something’s approach.
It was humanoid and its skin appeared to be some kind of metal, but beyond that, Basilard couldn’t make out its body. The Fog contributed to this, but even when it stumbled within arm’s reach, the exact details of its appearance remained a mystery. It could anything between a metallic human, a dragon walking upright, or something else. He stared directly at it, but his eyes couldn’t translate what they saw into an image his brain could interpret.
A voice whispered in his ear, “Boss fight: The Plight of Familicide-Grendel!”
The monster attacked and Basilard parried with BloodDrinker. They engaged in a fierce battle. The Grendel’s blood poisoned the life all around while Basilard's blood catalyzed its growth. Their struggle demolished much of the new life in the zone; creation to extinction within half an hour. The most state-of-the-art Ceihan gun didn't wield a tenth of the power that these two threw against each other. At last, Basilard found an opening and cut the beast’s right arm off. It howled and clutched the stomp as it stumbled backwards. Basilard pressed his advantage, but then it vanished.
He looked this way and that with all six senses, but discovered nothing. Then, something heavy and metallic caught him in the face and he went down hard. Had he been anyone else, his face would have caved in. Then a foot punted him fourteen feet and he landed at the base of a carnivorous tree. It swallowed his left arm and began chewing.
“Bladi Combat Skill: Severed Limb Poison!”
The blood in that arm became poison and the tree quickly wilted. Basilard pulled his broken arm loose and regained his footing. Grendel appeared just long enough to taunt him, its lips separated into a grin, then it vanished again. Nothing Basilard did could detect him and he suffered blow after blow until he was bloody all over.
Basilard was soon faint from blood loss and unsteady on his feet. Grendel sensed his weakness. It was time for the kill. It clapped its hands around Basilard and pinned his arms down. Something in its mind remembered something about brains being nutritious, so it decided to bite off the head first.
“Bladi Combat Skill: Retribution!”
All the blood on his body turned at once into power. It scalded every surface it touched and infiltrated through the burn wounds to cause more pain. Its focus broken, Grendel released Basilard and the Shadow Cloak disappeared. Basilard fell to one knee and gasped.
“Ancestors, give me strength.”
The sword sent power coursing through his veins and kept him conscious. A quick and deep breath of Fog enabled him to stand up strong. He looked down in pity at the terribly burned Grendel.
“A freshly created monster who is nondescript, wields darkness power, and executes unarmed combos. I suppose that Personality Transformation idea has substance after all.”
Grendel started to recover, so Basilard put his still bloody hand on his chest and sent more lances of pain through his body. Then he raised BloodDrinker above its head.
“Forgive me, Eric, but I have to put you down.”
Chapter 16 Return To Me
A giant’s head fell to the ground as its body collapsed. Both of them disintegrated seconds later. Neuro landed and held his scythe out to the side. With his free hand, he cast a minor necromancy spell at a man-sized serpent and it withered into dust like the giant. Then he used the stolen kon to mend a critical injury in Nolien’s chest.
Life energy entered Nolien’s body through its gaping hole and mingled with the Fog swirling there. Organs, bones, nerves, flesh; all of them regrew and knitted together until the wound was gone. The boy slowly regained consciousness and Tiza’s face lit up with relief. She hugged Neuro about his neck and pushed their cheeks together in glee.
“Thank you so much! That was amazing!”
“I-it was n-nothing, r-really!” Neuro insisted. “It ju…ah… wasn’t h-his t-time to die yet.”
Nolien sat up, annoyed, and bit his own cheek to prevent something rude from escaping his mouth. Instead, he took a calming breath. Then, with noble poise, he said, “Yes, thank you for that impressive display of healing.”
Neuro shook his head. “I merely directed life energy to the place of need. You remain the superior healer.”
The priest’s tone was polite, but Nolien heard a sneer. Deferential compliments were always a sneer. Seeing Tiza, dressed up and hanging off him, Nolien imagined someone else in Neuro’s place. This person praised his “honorable elder brother” while the noble girl they both strove to impress clutched his arm and leaned into him. Their mocking laughter echoed in his ear and he bit hard enough to draw blood.
“Mr. Heleti, you were saying?” Vaya asked. “About how you found the entrance?”
The artificially created human with the pilfered soul still walked the earth. Basilard explained the nature of his promise and Neuro agreed to abide by that promise in return for his help in arresting the true criminal. When the Bladi man saw an abomination to his own religion, Neuro was tempted to shout “hypocrite,” but this was not the time nor the place for insults.
“Ah yes.” Nolien composed himself and resumed his exposition. “Neuro’s necrocraft located the general location of the lair, but failed to find an entrance. I suggested examining rocks for runes that would indicate movement or teleportation.”
Tiza let go of Neuro and resumed her place by Nolien. He stood a little taller and continued, “It took us hours to find an entrance. Unfortunately, it was old and decommissioned, and thus couldn’t be opened. So we looked for another one.”
Nolien carefully walked down a mountain path. Ahead of him was a rocky outcropping and although most weren't smart enough, there were monsters capable of grasping the concept of “ambush.” The uneven ground could make for a difficult fight. He didn't dare try a float spell in this mess: it would either burn his heels, work too well and shoot him up like a rocket, or worst of all, destabilize the Fog and cause an explosion. The two mercenaries along with the priest approached with caution, ready to strike a hiding monster. Nothing was behind the rock except for more rocks.
Nolien tightened the scarf wrapped around his nose and mouth. It, much like everything else he carried, possessed special properties. It would protect him from the side effects of breathing in the fog. As a healer, he understood these better than the rest, and certainly better than Neuro. Disorientation, confusion, intoxication, paranoia, and, worst of all, mana mutation; he was confident in his ability to cure all but the last, but the second rule of healing dictated “prevention before cure.”
“After the third false entrance, Tiza wanted to create an entrance, and I had to talk her out of it.”
Tiza smacked his shoulder.
Since departing from Basilard, they only encountered small problems. Neuro killed the monsters they couldn’t escape from at the cost of years off his life per shot and he cured the grievous injuries suffered by his companions
in the meantime. When inside a forbidden zone, these counted as small problems. The Death priest kept a running tally of how many times the other four would have died if not for his assistance. It was currently fifteen each.
“How can you be so powerful at your age? You don’t look older than us,” Nolien said.
“I was born to serve Death and I contemplate it in my every moment. Earthly distractions have no hold on me. Thus, I am a Razor Spirit empowered by a fundamental aspect of reality. I am not a dust mind with mundane magecraft.”
“Dust mind?”
“As the Book of Death states, ‘Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return.’ In brief, a dust mind is one concerned with worldly desires and bodily urges. I am removed from such things.”
Tiza joined their discussion by bumping his shoulder.
“So that’s why pretty girls can fluster you so easily.”
Neuro blushed, fumbled his scythe, and stepped aside. “I’m still a teenager.”
Suddenly, he jumped backward and swung his scythe as if to block something. That something bore down on him. Zettai cowered behind him. Neuro sacrificed another year of his life to keep her safe from her attacker.
“Reaper! Why do you attack a fellow of the scythe?”
Black light shined in the air and became Reno Grade’s, but this form was more fearsome than the one revealed to Eric. His hands and face were skeletal, and everything below his waist was black mist. Nothing decorated his robe and the robe itself better resembled the darkness of a tomb than cloth. The empty pits of his eye sockets burned with a hatred of life. This form put the Universal Dread into everyone, except Neuro. He held his scythe against the god with all his power.
“That girl should have died. Necrocraft killed her. I saw it happen.”
Reno Grade forced him aside with the power of his divine spirit and raised his scythe again.
“I will make it happen!”
Something weighed down his weapon and he turned to see that Tiza had grabbed the shaft. Now she was trying to wrench it out of his hands. He let her try.
Contact with the symbol of his office had an amusing effect on mortals. It revealed to them the nature of the Abyss and dust minds couldn’t handle such knowledge. The inevitable result was shock followed by catatonia or madness. Her eyes unfocused, her spirit flared, and her hands fell. He yanked it out of her hands, and by then, Zettai had run away with Nolien.
He flew after her and Neuro used his distraction as an opportunity to sneak attack. He lunged with perfect form and execution, but his scythe passed through the reaper’s form. The blade was empowered by Reno Grade’s own divinity and thus useless against him. Instead of cutting his foe in half, Neuro simply bumped into him and was back-fisted for his efforts. He landed in a patch of red-orange fungi. Reno Grade continued his pursuit.
Zettai and Nolien ran as fast as they could, but it was impossible to outrun death. After a look over his shoulder, Nolien spun on his heels and threw a barrier in his path. Reno Grade flew through it and him like neither existed. It made Nolien shiver as if he had hypothermia. The reaper drew back his scythe for another try and flew straight into a monster.
A cylinder-alligator-shaped beast colored in shades of purple from nearly white to nearly black. It had a primate arm, a bird wing, a lizard leg, and a fish fin. With these, it beat up the god that crashed into it. After the first five blows, Reno Grade punched its main body into the distance, but by then, Zettai had escaped again.
“It’s useless to hide from me, girl.”
In a heartbeat, he was directly overhead. She dove behind a rock.
“You were ‘killed’ by necrocraft and thus highlighted in my divine vision.”
The rock crumpled into sand under the force of his punch and she jumped away. Tripping over her own feet, she sprawled across the ground. She turned to face him and shouted, “G-Go jump in the Sea of Chaos!”
He grabbed her by the throat with his right hand and lifted her four feet up from the ground. Coldness filled her from head to toe and despair filled her mind and soul.
“I just might have to because of you. Modil knows that I violated my parole. Your selfish actions ruined my operation!”
“You know, for a divine being, you think a lot like a mortal.”
“What?”
“You abuse your power, pick on those weaker than yourself, and blame others for your own problems. A minute ago, I was scared of you because you looked like this unstoppable force of nature, but now, all I see is my dad taking out his anger on me because he’s too scared to confront its true source. You’re not a god; you’re a worm on a power trip.”
Reno Grade ripped her soul out of her body and held in his left hand. She shuddered but otherwise was unaffected.
“That felt…funky.” She shook her head and noticed her soul. “So that’s what they look like. Does this count as an out-of-body experience? Can I talk to myself like this?”
For once in his afterlife, Reno Grade was at a loss for words.
“Why…How…What?”
She smirked. “The so-called god is asking a puny human for revelations?”
Reno Grade glared. He would age her into dust for such an insult, but that other mortal stole his authority over senescence. If he went back for it, Tasio would no doubt find him and his trump card could not help him. Then another idea came to him. Although his face remained skeletal, Zettai got the impression that he was leering at her.
“There are a number of things I did to little girls when I was mortal. If you’re so sure I think like one, then perhaps I should do those things to you.”
Zettai kicked his arm, squirmed in his grip, and shouted, “Creep!” but he only leered more. With his prey in both hands, he flew up and out of the mountain’s Fog Cloud. He set his sights on the other mountain because her soul retained a positive impression of it and he wanted to change that. He flew unhindered and unaware that he was on someone’s radar.
A divinity such the resident reaper was higher in standing than a planetary avatar, thus, someone that tracked avatars would easily be able to detect him. This was especially the case when he had just exited a Fog Cloud because it would have obscured his presence. The blip startled Emily and she asked Kallen what to do. Kallen replied, “Press the Smite Gods button.”
“Uh, Boss, is that really the smart thing to –”
“Emily, push the button right now.”
“Yes, Boss.”
The button activated a complex mechanism within the airship. First, the radar determined the nature and distance of the targeted deity. Second, the weapon system accessed the ship’s on-board archives to find the most effective method of combating this particular one. Third, the weapon system connected to the engine to re-route energy from the crystal and/or the mana drive to power the method, and calculated how much energy could be taken without crashing the ship. Fourth, it drew on the appropriate element from the lights for this method. Fifth, the targeting system created support runes for guidance and maximum impact. Sixth, all the data, energy and elemental power was focused at the airship’s griffin mouth. Seventh, the interface confirmed the action with the commander.
“Campione Cannon, fire!”
A radiant double helix of white and grey soared from the airship’s griffin mouth on a direct course for the reaper. It had a fair distance to go, so Reno Grade reached the halfway point between the two mountains before it struck him. Blind-sided, he fell like a stone.
“Boss, why do you like aggravating death gods?”
“Because I don’t like them, and I plan to become a being greater than their boss.”
Emily shook her head but didn’t reply.
Reno Grade lay in a crater, unmoving. His physical form flickered and the strength of his divinity diminished. A dragon flying overhead laughed at him on her way.
Zettai stood over him and outside it. The blast was specially calibrated to hurt reapers and so its effect on a Bladi was minimal. When it knocked him out,
his grip went slack and Zettai used his arm to climb on top of him. Just before he crashed, she jumped off and rolled across the ground. She was banged up for certain, but it wasn’t as painful as what her parents regularly did to her. In any case, she didn’t take as bad a hit as Reno Grade.
Carefully stepping into the crater, she used his hand to place her soul next to her body. Based on her talks with Eric, she assumed that the transfer of souls was one of a reaper’s authorities and so she couldn’t simply grab it herself and press it against her chest. Nothing happened. Her soul lay against her body, hovering inside it like oil in water.
The thought that she’d be soul-less forever crossed her mind, and then Basilard’s reaction joined it. Cold fear worse than the reaper crept in. He already thought she was an abomination. If he found her like this…She shook her head and focused on the Third Law of Magecraft. With all her might, she wished for her soul to return to her and, with all her strength, she pressed it against herself. Soon she felt warm again and sighed with relief. Then Reno Grade stirred.
Zettai gasped and ran away, but Reno Grade was already in front of her. She turned and he was there. Again, he grabbed her by the throat.
“Now where were we?”
A second anti-reaper beam smashed into him, and this one truly destroyed his physical form. When he re-spawned in the Abyss, he’d have a great deal of explaining to do.
“Boss, we’re gonna run out of fuel at this rate.”
“I am the fuel and I say it was a legitimate use of myself.”
“Whatever you say, Boss. Do we have time to pick up the girl?”
“No. Continue to the destination indicated by the spirit light.”
Their destination was Mount Heios, where Tiza, Nolien, and Vaya were running for their lives.
Monsters everywhere were eating each other. They were slashing, biting, smashing, pounding, and melting each other. The tussle between a reaper and a Bladi drove then into a frenzy. Every monster without a meal looked to the small, insignificant-looking creatures and deemed them an easy target.
Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 Page 44
