48 - Zeal Versus Zealotry (Patreon)

Despite Paul spending much of his time in the air, he didn’t actually possess a flight power to keep him aloft. His Familiar being merged within him did grant him a bit of control when traveling through the air along with a slow fall effect though, so he kept Orebela’s enhancing Boons within him.

This allowed him to use the abilities that gave him short bursts of speed or launched him into a special attack before landing back on the ground or, in this case, the various sides of the mountain ruins and battlefield around them.

However, even with these capabilities, he was still at a disadvantage to the aerial priestess who moved swiftly through the air, launching spheres of fire and metallic feathers in his direction.

The feathers appeared to be some kind of magically constructed weapon regrown directly from her wings before detaching to float in the air for a moment and then being launched like an arrow. They were razor sharp and rained down upon the wrathful paladin with not exactly great accuracy but it was difficult not to get wet in the rain. Many hit their mark, either piercing into him at various points or ricocheting off his conjured armor to form a miniature crater in the rocky terrain around them.

Only once did he use his [Flame Javelin], deciding to wait till more of the lower Caste Adventurers had retreated due to the fact that the Priestess had used a barrier of light to deflect the projectile and send it hurtling towards his allies and enemies alike.

Ability: Flame Javelin

Type: Special Attack (construct, elemental, fire)

Cost: Low mana.

Cooldown: None.

Current Caste: Emerald 10

Crystal Effect: Construct and throw a javelin of flames, inflicting a moderate amount of Fire damage.

Sapphire Effect: Inflicts additional Light damage. Has increased penetration against resistance to Fire and Light. Inflicts an instance of [Sunburned].

Emerald Effect: Can construct additional javelins that will follow the original for an exponential mana cost.

- Sunburned (bane, elemental, magical, fire, light, stacking): Decreased Fire and Light resistance.

Luckily, Neitra seemed entirely focused on taking him down, hopefully, blinded by her hatred for his betrayal of their twisted ideals that were far removed from why he had joined the church in the first place. He had sought to cleanse the land from the corrupting influence of the undead created by Necromancer and his ilk, while his former patron had apparently seen all peoples not of human origin as corrupted beings.

Now, seeing the twisted visage of the Priestess he had once served with, he saw just how corrupt those ideals themselves had become.

His luck seemed to vanish when both Emerald Casters’ attention turned to the moderately sized meteor that appeared above both of them only to hurtle into the side of the mountain where the entrance that had been masking the enemies’ presence was turned to rubble.

The now-irate Priestess went from focusing on him to deciding that stepping on the ants beneath her was a better use of her energy. It proved a good bet as he actually cared about the lives of the people nearby; whereas the priestess seemed to view all of them as mere dirt to be swept off the floor.

The larger fireballs were his bigger concern and really the only thing he could reliably intercept as the feathers were simply too numerous. His counterattacks seemed to help interrupt those, however, so he continued going on the offensive between diverting fireballs.

He continued to swap between using his [Meteor Strike] ability, to hurl himself towards the flying enemy, and using a more combination attack style of moves that chained into one another but allowed him to get nearer to the winged-priestess.

Ability: Wrath From Above

Type: Special Attack (combination, movement)

Cost: Low stamina.

Cooldown: 1 minute.

Current Caste: Emerald 10

Crystal Effect: Leap into the air above a target within range. The next attack deals increased physical damage.

Sapphire Effect: Each subsequent combination attack deals greatly increased damage.

Emerald Effect: Each subsequent combination attack decreases the cooldown of this ability.

Class Ability: Ferocious Assault

Type: Special Attack (boon, combination, magical, dimension)

Cost: Low stamina per second.

Cooldown: None.

Current Caste: Emerald 10

Crystal Effect: Each attack slightly increases your Strength while this ability is active.

Sapphire Effect: Each attack slightly increases your Agility while this ability or another combination ability is active.

Emerald Effect: Each attack inflicts escalating Dimension damage and an instance of [Dimensional Confusion].

- Dimensional Confusion (bane, magical, dimension): Your perception of your surroundings is confused, occasionally mistaking areas for another. Instances are quickly lost over time.

Ability: Accelerating Strikes

Type: Special Attack (combination, purge, elemental, magical, fire, light)

Cost: Low stamina per second.

Cooldown: None.

Current Caste: Emerald 10

Crystal Effect: Each attack slightly increases your attack speed while this ability is active.

Sapphire Effect: Each attack inflicts escalating Fire damage.

Emerald Effect: Each attack inflicts escalating Light damage and an instance of a Magical or Elemental Boon is purged from the target.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the priestess was able to cleanse the Banes he placed on her almost as fast as he was applying them, which wasn’t that much of a surprise for a devotee of the Purifier. Honestly, Paul was the oddity among most of the clergy; with only his aura granting some form of cleansing capability to allies.

At least he knew the need to keep cleansing would slow down her assault on the lower Caste people below. He was slightly relieved when he saw a barrier of water appear to protect the retreat that had already begun through his Protégé’s portal and he was further relieved when he noticed another portal appear next to the first; a Sapphire Caste extractor had apparently been called in to help the retreat proceed faster.

Paul could sense that the new portalist was lower level within the Caste so he didn’t hold his breath for the talkative Cleric to arrive any time soon to help team up against the Emerald enemy. Not that he would ever admit to the man that he would have appreciated the assistance, somehow believing that might fuel the voxen’s conniving ego further.

As he focused on guarding the retreat, the priestess seemed to grow further incensed at his interventions as she yelled, “You are a disgrace, Wayland! The infamous Blade of Pure Wrath is nothing but a firefly desperate to be noticed. Is this truly what remains of the once zealous paladin?” the priestess patronized him, taunting him from above.

“I perform my duties with zeal but I am not a blind zealot like you,” he shouted back disdainfully, “You would side with invaders that taint the very souls we swore to protect and keep pure. You would burn the world to ashes just to see it purged of whatever you deem unworthy, Neitra!”

“THEY DESERVE TO BURN!” The now furious priestess screamed as she seemed to trigger another ability and a massive cloud of glinting feathers, at least ten times more than what she had conjured in bursts previously, appeared as a swarm in the air behind her.

“Bela!” he shouted aloud, unable to think silently as he became hyper-aware of not just the retreating Adventurers on the ground behind him but that among the crowd stood the stubborn woman he now saw as his daughter and the loyal man who was slowly becoming like a son.

The golden plate on his forehead vanished as his Familiar appeared high in the air between the Emerald enemy and the Adventurers on the ground. Her malleable and slightly feminine form –which was seemingly made of liquid gold– was freely levitating as she stretched her arms out to either side. Directly before her, a shimmering golden barrier appeared and quickly spread out in a rectangular shape as the expensive ability was triggered.

Flashes of light and flickering flames appeared as the metallic feathers bombarded against it, combusting on impact and either becoming bits of shrapnel or melting against the magical shield. For a moment, he thought it would be enough to protect everyone, hoping the long cooldown wouldn’t be needed again before the retreat was completed, but the size of the shield apparently hadn’t covered the same range as the raining projectiles when some made their way past it to cause more devastation below.

Paul’s heart sank as the slightly glowing blue dome of water burst like a bubble against the Emerald Caste attack –having reached the limits of what it could absorb– and more people lost limbs or fell dead to the ground.

Only a few people remain alive now, mostly near the retreat point, the rest having either departed or stayed staining the ground. He didn’t have to search long to spot the red and purple hair that stood out from the crowd of survivors near the portals that, luckily, still stood as beacons for the remaining few to escape through.

A lump formed in his throat when he saw the young gemite had moved to shield their portalist and a hole the size of his head was punched through the man’s shoulder from a stray feather, utterly ignoring the Crystal Caste armor and attributes.

Paul knew he couldn’t do anything at that moment, needing to trust their Healer to get them through the damn portal and to safety. His job right now was to kill this evil infection posing as a pure priestess and protect not only his city and home but also the people who relied on him more than anyone else in this world; his kids.

A curse was shouted into her ear as Phoenix was shoved to the ground suddenly from behind and explosions rang out around her. That was quickly followed by the physical feeling of water raining down upon her along with the more magical feeling of every remaining [Starlight Companion] getting destroyed in the attempt to block projectiles. When she looked up into the sky, the dome that had been there a moment ago was nowhere to be seen.

What she did see was her party leader slumping to his knees before her with a gaping hole punched through his left shoulder and definitely a chunk of lung based on the size of it and his ragged labored breathing.

“Dazien!” she shouted in her panic, scrambling forward but not sure touching the gaping wound was the best action, “Don’t you even think about dying!” she scolded as she settled for placing a hand on his sternum and reciting the Severe cost of her [A New Dawn Rises] spell, “As surely as the sun will rise again, let life shine brightly from within, and you will see the dawn of tomorrow.”

As the flesh began to knit back together, she shouted both aloud and over their communication link, “Saiya! I need you to help him!” Then she released the stored-up [Starlight Qi] Tala had been accumulating in an explosion of sparkling blue and purple that both regenerated their mana and stamina while highlighting their allies that still lived with their own inner light as the Boon latched on.

Not only the Healer but the rest of her party was soon beside her as they heard another crash like thunder when the Emerald Casters collided once more in the distance.

Saiya began giving orders in Dazien’s stead as the woman channeled her own [Heal Life] spell into the grievously wounded man and instructed, “We need to get him to Cleric Starlark. Rayna, grab as many remaining as you can and go through the portal. Uriel, there’s no more enemy to fight so you go on through too. Help carry Dazien to the clinic as quickly as we can.”

They moved to comply, Uriel careful to not further injure his partner as they made their way through her portal, consuming the remaining magic in the process. Saiya turned back to her and asked, “Can you cast another soon?”

“At least another three minutes,” Phoenix replied with a grimace as she watched Rayna grab four others to drag through the Sapphire Caster’s portal that had joined them a while ago to assist in the retreat.

Luckily, that portalist had survived as well, in a similar fashion to the Wayfarer’s own survival, when the Defender woman who had shielded him lay dead on the ground beside him and his portal, her body rent in two at the waist from an ill-angled blow.

The other portalist had not come out completely unscathed like she had, however, as the cinderen man clutched at his side, having merely been grazed by the projectile that had gone through his companion. Saiya and she took a mental count of the remaining survivors and both came to the same conclusion as their eyes met.

“I’ll get them back,” Phoenix stated, not leaving room for the voxen to argue with her, “You get that other portalist back to the camp. His skills are too precious to lose.”

“So are yours,” her friend stated, the gentle voice full of concern.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied with a dismissive wave, “I survived a maniac researcher's creepy lab dungeon, remember?”

“You implied Lord Wayland was the one who rescued you from that,” Saiya reminded her with a pointed look as they moved toward the other portal.

“I’ll explain when we get back home. Now let's both do our jobs and get everyone else out of here,” the Supporter diverted and helped prop the injured portalist onto the Healer’s back as the twin tails grabbed another groaning body nearby and moved them through the portal.

She wasn’t exactly certain how much juice that one had left, considering she only knew it was somewhere in the low Sapphire Caste range based on the portalist’s aura. The Astromancer tried to help those who could still walk by grabbing those who couldn’t, but who were still alive, and assisting them in their retreat while Paul seemed to keep the enemy at bay.

There was only one more Sapphire Caster and a quartet of Crystals left when the Sapphire portal flickered out of existence and she grimaced at the math. At Crystal 7 that was exactly how many she could fit through the portal that she conjured once her cooldown elapsed. The sheet of night wrapped in a ring of silver offered the hope of survival to the others as they walked through but not to her as it winked out of existence.

She was left alone among the bodies of the fallen littering the ground around her. The flashes of light from the conflict –followed by the thunder they produced– drew her attention skyward and she could see the battle wasn’t as far away as it had been before.

Phoenix felt conflicted.

She knew Paul and Dazien would be angry if she tried to help instead of being an obedient child and waiting patiently for her portal cooldown to be done in another five minutes; but she was getting tired of the people in her life trying to tell her what she couldn’t do, despite knowing that it came from good intentions.

Her entire existence had been an endless parade of people telling her what she couldn’t do. What she wasn’t capable of with the body she was born into. Telling her that she was limited.

She was done with accepting that.

The Wayfarer wouldn’t let other people’s beliefs weigh her down anymore and, in this moment, Phoenix was determined not to risk losing the only man who had ever bothered to try being a father to her.

Without further hesitation, the Supporter began moving towards her mentor. Triggering her mana tattoo once more, she also pulled out a pair of potions in preparation for her next attempt at taunting death. They were both one of the precious few she had managed to craft with her cousins-to-be and that she hadn’t expected to need again so soon.

Phoenix focused on the relationship between her feet and the ground and pushed with her [Ruler of Relativity] ability as much as she could to fling herself high into the air.

The Wayfarer grinned for a brief moment; feeling like a kid pretending to fly as she moved higher into the air than she had ever gone before. As she hung in the air at the apex of her magic-assisted jump, she whispered, “To infinity and the great beyond,” then she focused on her target and initiated her plan as the Emerald Caste priestess ignored the inconsequential Crystal Caster who wasn’t even wearing armor or wielding a weapon.

She didn’t need a weapon or armor for her plan, however. She just needed to be strong enough to hold the enemy still and let Paul finish off what she was about to start.

Phoenix triggered [Pull] again to have herself rocket towards the faux angel whose higher Caste made it harder to move, but the Astromancer did; moving like a homing missile as her ability dragged the two targets together.

Her next part of the plan was the riskiest as she quickly downed both potions –one right after the other– despite knowing it would make her survival even less likely. However, at this point, Phoenix knew death would be the cost she would have to pay to have any impact at all in a fight that was two Castes above her.

Warning: You have consumed multiple [Magi Fortune Booster] potions in tandem causing an exponential effect. You have been temporarily enhanced beyond current Caste levels. The ensuing recoil will result in reducing attributes below current Caste levels and inflict mana poisoning.

“Well that doesn’t sound good,” Phoenix thought at the message but didn’t have time to ponder on it more as she began chanting her next spell before actually reaching her target, since it was one of the longest incantations she had, rivaling that of her Familiar summoning ritual, “As this star begins to dim, a final burst of light.”

Next, the Wayfarer collided and grappled the woman, momentarily boosted to levels of Strength and Agility that rivaled the Emerald Caster’s own, “As my life begins to wane, a final shout of triumph.”

She managed to grab hold of the wings themselves, causing the enemy to cry out as she pulled at them as though trying to rip them from the priestess’s back. Finally, she triggered the ability she was warned to never use as the collateral damage to her surroundings would be just as brutal as the danger to herself, “In a supernova sacrifice, I offer the hope of victory.”

Class Ability: Supernova

Type: Execute (recoil, elemental, magical, arcane, fire, light)

Cost: Severe health, mana, and stamina.

Cooldown: 6 hours.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (0%)

Crystal Effect: Create an explosion of magic centered on you, inflicting Arcane, Fire, and Light damage to nearby enemies and the surrounding environment. Enemies within and near the blast are inflicted with [Burning]. When this effect ends, you are temporarily unable to cast spells. Damage is scaled based on the amount of health missing from the target.

- Burning (bane, elemental, fire): Inflicts ongoing Fire damage.

Warning: The selected ability, [Supernova], combined with the double instances of [Magi Fortune Booster], has resulted in an excellent compatibility match for increased effectiveness. You have been temporarily enhanced two Caste levels beyond your current. The ensuing recoil will result in death.

“Whelp, there goes that bonus reward,” she thought with a bit of dark humor in the split second between the message and her ability going off. Though the spell didn’t deal damage to allies, the cost was immense for her, as she felt the mana explode from the very center of her being to consume and destroy everything around her in a swirling blue and gold conflagration. The sheer force drowned out the scream she could feel the priestess trying to produce as a massive amount of damage rippled through the fallen angel over the next few seconds.

She couldn’t see how injured the priestess truly was from the blast, as her chest was currently pressed against the woman’s back, still trying to pin the white wings. There was no way the Wayfarer was going to risk the enemy making a last-minute escape when she would be dying soon anyway and Phoenix hoped that Paul would capitalize on the opportunity she had provided him.

The redhead grinned almost maniacally as the large golden sword glowed with a brilliant swirl of Radiant rainbow light that easily sliced through the priestess’ body at an angle and managed to barely miss her own when it lightly brushed against her side as Paul demonstrated his own skill with a sword.

She idly thought that his careful attempt at not injuring her was wasted. It didn’t even matter that her back was a pin-cushion of metallic feathers embedded in the flesh reinforced by her boosted Fortitude; she had already sealed her fate before the attack had even landed.

The only thing that made her feel slightly better about the whole doomed situation she now found herself in was that, due to her temporarily increased attributes, the evil priestess died first and both of her quests completed simultaneously.

Quest: Tulimeir Traitors

Objective complete: Reclaimed the Reality Rift.

Bonus Objective complete: Stayed alive.

Objective reward increased from rare to epic.

[Shifting Twilight] has been added to your collection.

Quest completed.

10 [Emerald Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.

Quest: Pure Zealotry

Objective complete: Defeated the Renseres.

[Crystal Caster Party Pack] has been added to your collection.

Quest completed.

50 [Sapphire Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.

Hidden Objective complete: Defeated High Priestess Nandi Neitra.

Bonus Reward: [Elixir of Divine Cleansing] has been added to your collection.

New Title: Martyr

Your aura has been slightly modified by your accomplishment. The desire to save others at the cost of yourself can be sensed within it. Your aura has slightly increased effects when low on health.

Phoenix gave a wan smile as she began to fall through the air after releasing the dead enemy that was slowly disintegrating into green ash. Smiling at the thought of loot helped distract her from the effect of the potions beginning to fade. She didn’t strike the ground, however, as strong arms wrapped around her body and braced her as they landed among the craggy rocks of the massive crater her boosted ability had created.

“That was foolish and insane,” Paul’s voice came as a mixture of annoyance and panic, “I told you to never use that. The price is too high normally and taking another of those cursed potions...”

“I took two,” she managed to cough out as she felt blood on her lips and her vision became tinted red, “It caused mana poisoning,” another cough interrupted as it felt like her blood was beginning to boil, “Which I can only guess is causing the burning.”

Paul cursed loudly, his voice cracking slightly as he asked, “Why? I know you can come back but why would you risk it in this place? We don’t know if your ability works across dimensional barriers like the Rift.”

She wasn’t about to admit to him that she hadn’t thought about that potential interference but instead gave a weak shrug as she muttered, “I didn’t want to lose you. I wanted to help.”

She could barely make out his golden hair shaking as he gave a weak laugh, “You did, young one. You're still grounded when I see you again.”

Phoenix gave him a weak smirk, “I’m a stubborn child. You’ll probably ground me a lot,” she said, then coughed one final time and died with a final cheeky mutter, “See you back at our home.”

A few moments later, only white ashes remained in Paul’s arms.

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