The Beginning After The End 08

by Turtle Me

  Regis scouted ahead, flying back to me every several yards to relay what he could see.

  As I took a sip from my water sack, I saw the black will-o-wisp coming back out of the corner of my eye. I picked up my pace, treading lightly on the ground, hoping to hear something other than “more rocks” from my companion.

  ‘There’s something up ahead,’ Regis stated quietly after flying into my chest.

  If you make the “rocks” joke one more time, I am going to hit you, I replied.

  ‘Just go.’ My companion sighed before floating back out to lead the way.

  The tunnel split into two paths, but Regis directed me to the slightly wider one on the left side. It was wider in diameter, and also brighter. It only took a few minutes to reach what Regis wanted me to see.

  Strewn all over the ground were clusters of crystals… aether crystals.

  ‘See?’ Regis said eagerly. ‘More rocks!’

  I stifled a groan, afraid any sound might draw the giant aether beast.

  Go scout ahead, would you?

  Regis bobbed out of my body and floated away, shaking with quiet laughter.

  My brows furrowed in confusion as I inspected the glowing purple crystals, littered in front of me like trash. I quietly picked up a fist-sized crystal and consumed the essence from it until the purple glow subsided.

  Not as potent as the fruit from earlier, but still fairly concentrated, I noted.

  After consuming one more fist-sized crystal to top off my aether core, I stored a couple smaller crystals in my pockets before moving forward. I could always come back for the rest after my fight was over.

  As we continued deeper into the millipede’s territory, the tunnel gradually became brighter until a brilliant purple light shone at the very end, so bright that I couldn’t make out the room beyond.

  Regis and I exchanged a tense glance before continuing. My heart pounded against my chest and my palms grew clammy at the thought of fighting against the giant millipede. Being this close to the aether beast in its own home, my body could sense the pressure radiating from it.

  Taking deep, calming breaths and steadying my gait, I walked forward, stepping into the blinding purple light.

  Let’s do this.

  I tensed, alert for any sudden movements, but it took several rapid beats of my heart for the glare to subside. The tunnel opened into a massive cavern with a domed ceiling. The entire expanse was bathed in a sea of purple emanating from the mountains of glimmering crystals piled upon one another.

  Despite practically salivating over the scores of aether crystals—some larger than my entire body—my attention was forced onto something a little more immediate: the giant millipede.

  Instinctually, I stepped back and raised my arms to guard against what was to come. Even Regis cowered behind my shoulder as we gazed upon the towering figure of the aether beast.

  It was hunched over in a tall arch while its entire body convulsed. Then, just as I was beginning to think it might explode, a waterfall of aether crystals gushed out the back end to form a small hill alongside the other mountains of crystals.

  It was like a scene straight out of a fairytale—except instead of a giant dragon guarding its mountain of treasure, it was a millipede guarding its mountains of… excrement?

  “Pfft!” Regis stifled a laugh that echoed throughout the giant cavern, drawing my attention and—to our horror—the attention of the giant millipede.

  “Move!” I roared, abandoning all thoughts of stealth as the creature spun with horrifying speed and charged across the cavern, its scythe-like mandibles snapping hungrily.

  I dashed right. Regis flew to the left.

  “I’m sorry, Arthur, but you basically ate this bug’s crap!” Regis guffawed. His voice echoed around the cave: “Crap! Crap. Crap…”

  I rolled my eyes. Fortunately for me, my companion’s shouting was also drawing the attention of the millipede, which gave me time to position myself toward its flank.

  Releasing aether from my core, I pushed myself off the ground with such strength that a crater formed beneath my feet, closing the distance to the millipede in an instant. I smashed my aether-clad fist into its side with a resounding thud.

  The millipede buckled from the impact, but the wave of pain that surged up my arm suggested I might have done as much damage to myself as to my target.

  Landing deftly back on the ground, I crossed the span of the cavern in a sprint as the millipede turned away from Regis and chased after me instead.

  As the millipede got closer, I held my right hand over my head and clenched it into a fist—a signal that Regis and I had devised to confuse the sound-sensitive aether beast.

  Immediately, Regis screamed out, “Over here, you crystal-sharding bug!”

  The millipede slid to a stop and whirled around toward the source of the noise. With the beast distracted, I wrapped my body in a thick layer of aether and went back on the offensive, hoping for a different outcome from this attack.

  My surroundings blurred as I approached the millipede. Its pincers snapped at the air as it tried to devour the will-o-wisp that dipped and bobbed around its head. I aimed for the joints where one of its many legs was attached to its body, and this time there was a satisfying crunch as my fist dug into its leg.

  The giant leg snapped off and fell on the ground, and a gel-like fluid, tinted in purple, gushed out from the injury. The aether beast let out a shrill cry before turning its attention back to me.

  I raised my fist again and Regis let out another cry to get its attention. The millipede hesitated, its many legs stamping in place like an angry child throwing a tantrum, then it shot off after Regis, giving me some time to absorb more aether from the abundant crystals scattered all around us.

  “How does that crap taste, Arthur?” Regis teased as he zigzagged through the air, the millipede snaking back and forth to follow him.

  I raised my hand again, sticking up a specific finger. This one wasn’t a signal.

  The gears in my brain spun as I refilled my aether core. I had developed my core enough that I could use Gauntlet Form three times, but Regis hadn’t been able to strengthen himself fast enough to match me, and wasn’t able to withstand the burden of three uses. We had decided to test the beast’s defenses without resorting to using Gauntlet Form, just to make sure we didn’t waste our shot.

  I continued to search for weaknesses while Regis frantically avoided the millipede’s snapping jaws. Even after I managed to break off two more of its countless legs and delivered several powerful strikes to the open wounds where the legs were attached to its body, I hadn’t managed to do any lasting damage.

  If anything, the millipede just seemed to be getting angrier and more vicious.

  While my supply of aether was abundant thanks to the crystals hoarded in this cavern, my stamina was slowly diminishing.

  I guess we have no choice.

  Inflicting damage to the millipede’s body hardly did anything to slow it down, so the only option was to aim for its head. The problem was that its head was where the serrated pincers were, and it also seemed to be the area most heavily armored by its translucent purple exoskeleton.

  I knew I’d need to land two attacks using Gauntlet Form in the same spot if there was any hope of cracking the millipede’s dense exoskeleton, which meant I couldn’t afford to miss.

  Leaping off of one of its legs, I landed on the millipede’s back and began running up the smooth flesh toward its head. Getting onto its back wasn’t a challenge, but staying on as it reeled like a wild stallion proved to be much more difficult.

  I danced and weaved around the giant millipede’s contorting trunk as it used its legs to try and skewer me or knock me off. Its attention was still focused on trying to catch Regis, however, and I was able to avoid the sharp legs that stabbed at me from both sides.

  The uneven terrain from the countless tergites that segmented the beast’s trunk, combine
d with the rolling, bucking motion as the millipede tried to fling me off, provided me with a challenge I hadn’t faced in a while.

  I missed flying.

  As I neared the millipede’s head, a layer of aether flowed over my body like a purple shell. Holding my right arm up, I clenched and unclenched my hand into a fist: the signal for Regis to fly back to me.

  Regis let out another yell to catch the millipede’s attention before narrowly avoiding the beast’s mandibles and flying up into my hand.

  The aether spread throughout my body was immediately pulled toward my dominant hand. To further strengthen the blow, I opened my core and let the aether stored there swirl out and be pulled through me by Regis’s gravitational effect.

  Rushing forward while doing my best to maintain what little control I had over the flow of aether, I reached the joint where its head connected to its trunk.

  Gauntlet Form, I recited to Regis.

  Reeling back my smoky-black fist, I slammed it down into the beast. The deafening crash of thunder resounded throughout the cavern, shaking loose several piles of the aether-infused rocks, which tumbled across the floor beneath the millipede’s stamping feet. Its head crashed down into the ground to form a crater the size of a small house.

  A network of lightning-patterned cracks branched out from where my fist connected, and the entire top of the millipede’s head caved in from the force, but I wasn’t entirely confident it’d been enough.

  Regis wobbled out of my hand, his expression strained and his flames flickering weakly.

  I unleashed another wave of aether throughout my body. Experience spanning two lifetimes and countless battles taught me…

  Confirm the kill.

  My body erupted in a veil of purple as I struck down at the epicenter of the shattered crater atop the millipede’s head. Another splintering crack echoed through the cavern, and the millipede’s body jerked and went limp.

  Even with aether coating my hand, my right fist was a bloodied mess as I pulled it out from the millipede’s head.

  My breath was coming in short, ragged gasps as I stood over the beast and contemplated whether to hit it one more time. The millipede remained lifeless on its belly, its head resting in the crater created by the impact of my attack.

  “Is it… dead?” Regis asked, his voice hoarse.

  As I turned to my companion to answer, the surface beneath my feet was swept from under me, and I was flung off the giant beast. Tumbling through the air, I watched helplessly as the serrated mandibles snapped shut over Regis.

  The black orb vanished down the millipede’s enormous gullet. My companion was gone.

  Quickly reorienting myself, I landed on my feet and immediately swiveled on my heel—barely managing to avoid a barrage of sharp legs raining down from above.

  The millipede reared up, towering over me, and unleashed a torrent of strikes using its hundreds of legs. Each time it stabbed down, a foot-long hole was left in the ground, but despite the dire situation, I couldn’t help but divide my concentration between dodging its legs and looking out for Regis.

  Regis was incorporeal, capable of going through most objects, but I couldn’t see my companion at all. My panic deepened as I continued to dart between the millipede’s legs with no sign of the black will-o-wisp.

  In my distraction, a sweeping swing of a scythe-like leg struck me in the shoulder, throwing me across the room. My feet skidded over the uneven stone, and I nearly fell when my heel came down on a small, glowing rock, but I kept my balance and reoriented myself to defend against the next attack.

  From the new angle, I was finally able to make out the dark form of my companion drifting through the millipede’s insides, exactly like I’d seen the two-tailed monkeys through its transparent body. His flames had dimmed, and he looked extremely grumpy.

  Damn it.

  I needed Regis to launch an attack strong enough to kill this giant bug. Without him, would I be able to win?

  A sharp pain jolted through me as one of the millipede’s sharp legs left a long gash on my arm. This sobered me enough to collect myself.

  Even without my arsenal of elemental magic, I had not only trained with the sword extensively in my previous life, but I had trained in combat with asuras.

  I forced myself to remember my many battles against Kordri—the oppressive aura that he emanated so casually, the movements that seemed both slow and fast.

  Asuras. They were my opponents.

  If I needed to rely on Regis for every strong opponent I faced, I wouldn’t even be able to beat the Scythes, let alone the asuras behind them.

  Letting out a sharp breath, I thought back to Kordri’s words. He had said that hand-to-hand combat was the most versatile and adaptive form of fighting. Much of our training together had been designed to work around the limitations of my human body.

  But I wasn’t so human anymore.

  My legs blurred as I continuously danced around the piercing strikes of the millipede’s legs, my focus heightened so that all I saw, all I thought about, was my opponent, and how I was going to beat it.

  I had to accept that I wasn’t human anymore, and that I was no longer limited by a lesser body. If I was going to escape this place, if I was going to go toe-to-toe with the most powerful beings in this world, I needed to push myself to my utmost limit.

  And then I needed to push even further.

  The more I continued dodging, the more unnecessary movements I began to shave off. My body began remembering the asura’s lessons, too many of which I had cast aside over the years—relying on mana instead.

  The battle was long and drawn out, but I fell into a pattern, treating it more like a training session than a life-and-death encounter. I stepped and hacked, stepped and hacked, making each motion precise and effortless. Each blow broke one of the sharp legs or cracked the thick exoskeleton until the millipede began to slow, its remaining legs no longer able to support swift movement of its massive bulk.

  Without being able to control the flow of aether, I couldn’t do enough damage with my bare hands to land a killing blow to the millipede. Instead, I decided to use the same method I had used against the chimeras.

  Let’s hope this works.

  Because the millipede’s legs were too large for me to hold as a weapon, I had to break the sharp tip from one for me to be able to use it.

  The millipede let out a shrill wail, a screeching noise like the whistle of a train crossed with the chirping of a cricket, and clamored awkwardly toward me on its remaining legs.

  Wielding the translucent purple leg like a lance, I tested out my new weapon. Its aetheric conductivity wasn’t as strong as the chimeras’ weapons, but it would be sufficient. It had to be.

  Dodging the serrated mandibles, I waited and looked for an opening.

  I had to land a clean hit on the wound at the back of its head where I had struck with Gauntlet Form, but that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. The beast flailed its head like a deranged bull, only lowering it to try and snap me in two.

  Twice I missed my target, scraping the exterior shell of its head as it struck at me like a snake. Without Regis to draw its attention, it was constantly attentive to my location, rhythmically thumping its remaining legs on the ground to find my location.

  How do I get it to stop? I pondered, running circles around it as I absorbed more aether from the crystals lying about.

  My mind spun until the memory of when the chimeras had first fused together popped into my head. It had been able to release a concussive aura that threw Regis and me across the hall, nearly knocking me unconscious.

  I wasn’t uncertain if I could replicate its effects, but I was running out of time—and aether—and my options were limited.

  Gauging the amount of aether I had left in my core, I guessed that I could spend about seventy percent on trying to stun the beast, and the rest on landing the killing blow.

  “Please, let this work,” I mumb
led as I began releasing the aether from my core. My aura flared purple at the sudden discharge of aether, but I didn’t stop there. I allowed the aether within me to tear through the thin threshold that was my body, unleashing itself in a translucent dome of purple energy.

  Immediately, my legs felt heavy from the exertion, but the effect was more than I had hoped for.

  In contrast to the concussive force that the fused chimera had released, my attack felt more like the manifestation of an aura—similar to Kordri’s King’s Force. Even I wasn’t completely unaffected as the very air grew heavy around me.

  The millipede stiffened from the effects of my attack and slumped to the ground. Tightening my grip around the impromptu weapon in my hand, I rushed forward, holding tightly to the remaining sliver of aether left within me.

  Veering right to avoid the millipede’s sluggish attempt at pincering me, I used its own mandibles as a foothold to launch myself high up into the air.

  Combining the speed of my fall with the force of my swing, I drove the makeshift lance deep into the epicenter of the crater created by my Gauntlet Form attack, right on the back of the aether beast’s head. The satisfying crunch of the millipede’s exoskeleton shattering was followed by the sensation of penetrating flesh.

  The giant millipede let out a pained roar, a noise so guttural and raw that it made my ears ring, and its body crashed onto the ground.

  After taking a crystal from my pocket and consuming its aether, I struck the broken end of the millipede’s leg once more, driving it deeper into the aether beast’s head.

  My body felt like lead and my core ached, totally depleted. But I felt good—better than I had in a long time.

  “Stay down,” I huffed, collapsing on top of the giant beast.

  265

  Purge

  “Ugh, what is this? What happened?” Regis groaned as he slithered out from the backside of the millipede corpse covered in translucent ooze.

  I stifled a laugh. “I didn’t know millipede feces could talk.”

  Regis’s expression darkened as he looked at where he came from. “Oh crap…”