Silver Stars, Ch 8: Ancient Battle (Patreon)

The distance closed as Silverguard hurtled toward the Vos’Rekan.

Its form uncurled, slowly taking the shape of the 500-mile long star devourer he’d seen before. It had looked like a dark moon, but now it was a long, scaled beast with a broad, wedge-shaped head and a cavernous mouth full of miles-long fangs that swung toward him.

Silverguard was barely larger than a single one of those fangs, but the size of the enchantments around it made it a match for the beast.

A mountain range of spikes trailed down its back and its four limbs stretched outward in claws that could shred worlds. Silver-scaled dark webbing stretched along its legs and caught the chaos winds like sails.

It was still waking up, but that had never stopped a Vos’Rekan from fighting. 

The dimensional bubble around it expanded in a ripple of voidfire.

As Silverguard approached, the wave crashed into its defenses like an ocean wave against a mountain, but the fortress barely shuddered under the impact. 

Silver lines burned through the Void as the enchantments shattered the edge of dark fire and they tore straight through. 

Chaotic energy exploded around them, twisting the dimensional flux into loops and spirals. Torrents of voidfire crashed against the bright walls and flowed away.

A field of silver stars blazed around Sam as he reached out to the expanding energy and ignited it with Stellar Conversion. 

Silver flames filled the Void, crackling against the voidfire as the two forces warred in the heavens.

There was a massive amount of dimensional energy pouring off the Vos’Rekan and supporting the voidfire, but everywhere around Silverguard, the Void was clear and bright.

Dark flames crackled as they were consumed by starlight. 

The stars tore away the energy and grew larger, which accelerated the process and allowed Stellar Conversion to reach even farther out. 

Droplets of astral quintessence formed in the flames, condensing the energy into a form that Sam could use.

Now was the time.

His grip on his spear was so tight it left dimensional cracks in the Void that burned with silver light. In his eyes, the outcome of this battle was already set.  

The beast would die.

With Keros’s help, he had nearly killed it the last time, but he hadn’t had enough power. 

Now, he did.

The Vos’Rekan was at least three times stronger than him still, but he was not alone, either in allies or artifacts. 

Silverguard had been built by his hands, but it was only a support. His Astral Titan abilities were the foundation of this battle.

The Strength of the First Age was cracking the dimensional energy around him, and the force intensified as he raised his spear. 

The meaning of the ability echoed in his mind, resonating with the ancient memories of the Titans.

Strength of the First Age (50,000 Strength)

Your Strength is infused with the primordial energy of the First Age of the Void, which echoes through time and space. You can shatter space or fuse it together with your steps, and the mark of your hands will endure through time, imprinted with an echo of the force that created it.

Wounds dealt by your hands will not heal until the echo of the First Age leaves them. Your creations share the same durability. Few things can mar your work, much less shatter it. 

It felt like he was standing in a long line of Titans who walked the stars at the dawn of time, each of them raising a spear in sync with him.

Fighting the Vos’Rekan was the foundational conflict of their race, a war to determine who would conquer the Void.

And that wasn’t the only ability he called on for this battle.

His Mind of Primal Chaos attuned him to the laws of the Void, letting him see a path to attack through the haze of energy. 

Mind of Primal Chaos (100,000 Intelligence).

All laws rise from chaos, strands of order imposed on the raw energy of the beginning. You are formed of that same energy, and your mind is as well. You hold an innate understanding of chaos, and so find it easier to understand all that springs from it. 

Your ability to comprehend laws is dramatically improved, whether it is to reduce them from chaos or to return them to their beginning.

The Vos’Rekan’s weaknesses were clear in his sight.

Its head, its stomach, and its spine.

The beast had nothing resembling a heart. Its stomach was a vortex of energy that acted as its essence core and supported its massive form.

Finally, his Aura of Stellar Beginning spread outward with his domain and the Blessing of Silver Stars.

Aura of Stellar Beginning (100,000 Aura).

Your aura is a star shining in the Void, holding fire and force within. You radiate a sense of new potential. Where you walk, the Void begins to bloom. Life flourishes in the aura of a Titan. 

Your aura now has the innate ability to heal, dispel dark energies, and protect those within it. It can also incinerate those who dare to challenge you. Beings within your aura will regenerate at dramatically increased speeds, even from old injuries, and their talents will improve as they practice with them.

His aura sheltered Silverguard and his allies within a protective field, while it also infused his spear with the primordial force of a sun.

Stars burned around him and the silver rays around Silverguard flared higher as he gathered his strength.

Then he launched the spear.

It was a golden and silver bolt against the Void.

His Intelligence and Aura were over 121,000, and with 20 avatars supporting him, it was like an entire army of Titans was attacking together 

By the time the spear reached the Vos’Rekan, it was ten miles long and half a mile wide. 

Even for the 500-mile-long beast, it was a threat it couldn’t ignore.

The beast tried to open its mouth to devour the attack, but it turned too slowly. Its fangs closed in the air as the spear tore past them with miles to spare. 

The spear tore through the edge of the beast’s shoulder and buried itself in its abdomen, stabbing toward its stomach. Stone flesh melted in its path and bones warped as a chasm that could hold a mountain range was torn open.

A massive gash appeared along the beast’s body, stretching two hundred miles long and thirty deep.

The Vos’Rekan howled in pain as an explosion of dark essence ripped out from the wound, fountaining into the Void like a volcanic eruption. A wave of voidfire followed. It was mixed with molten rubble and bone.

Stunned eyes turned toward Sam, staring at him and then across the distance at the massive beast, as the scale of the battle that they had just joined was finally driven home to the emissaries.

“Almost,” Sam rumbled as another spear appeared in hand. “Let’s try that again.”

The attack had ripped through the beast, but it hadn’t ruptured its stomach. If it had, the explosion would have been a hundred times larger.

That just meant he’d have to try harder.

Whispers and shocked mutters flowed across the fortress, boosted by the communication spell imbued into Silverguard’s wards. 

It was followed by a familiar naga’s hiss.

“For the Silver Lord! Rise to battle!” Sleset’s voice boomed out across the ranks of the Silver Nagas. “Today is the day you earn your silver scales!”

There were a few scattered Level 399s from Aster Fall still on Silverguard as well, but most of them were frozen like statues as they looked into the distance and realized the truth of the Void.

“Silver Lord, Silver Lord, Silver Lord!” 

The chant of the nagas rose into the Void as they hammered their hands against their chest. With four hands beating against armored scales, the sound was a rolling thunder that accelerated the heart and made the blood flow faster in every listener.

“This is what it means to fight beside the Silver Lord!” Sleset shouted. “To be a part of the Silver Army! We follow him to fight demons and slay gods, fearing nothing, and all will give way before us! Their heads will adorn our walls! We hunt as no naga has ever hunted before!”

“This is what it is to fight beside a Titan!” Keros’s voice joined the call. He saw the moment to strike and he took it, encouraging the young emissaries to rise to battle. 

“Walk in the footsteps of your ancestors! Rise to defend your world!”

“For Aster Fall!” The lone call of one of the Level 399s rose into the air with a plaintive force, followed by a half-familiar figure shooting upward as they prepared a spell. 

Sam gave them a glance and nodded in agreement, but he was too busy to do more. Streams of astral energy flowed to him from his avatars and the astral quintessence that he was converting from the Void.

That strike had taken a lot of essence out of him, and he was swiftly gathering more to do it again. 

It was a devastating wound, but it hadn’t killed the thing. 

Vos’Rekan did not die easily.

“Attack, before it gathers itself.” His words rang out across Silverguard, urging them all to move. His next command came immediately.

At his command, the two wings of golems surged forward, followed by the Silver Army.

The golems swiftly formed into two blades that teleported ahead. They reappeared above Vos’Rekan’s neck, just behind its skull, where they took up a formation that looked like two curving wings.

As they flew, blades of force descended from their formation and sliced into the beast’s neck, tearing apart stone in a fountain of explosive force.

The Silver Army followed, flying forward in a silver crescent as they accelerated toward the beast.

The Vos’Rekan began to thrash and a wave of dimensional energy surged outward from it, tearing rifts in space all around that threatened the golems and the approaching army.

They were miniature holes in the Void and the depths glimmered with devouring force, leading back to the beast’s stomach.

It was one of the beast’s abilities that it hadn’t used before, a way of defending itself and killing enemies at close range. It was even more powerful than voidfire.

Unless Sam intervened, those holes would begin swallowing his golems and the Silver Nagas.

“Silverguard, activate a dimensional lock on the Vos’Rekan,” he said as his attention was locked on the beast. “Suppress its ability to control the dimensional space around it.”

Commands to the fortress and to those around him flowed through his mind and back as he organized the battle.

The Vos’Rekan was adept at locking down space, which allowed it to toy with its enemies, but with Silverguard here, he would turn that ability against it.

Arcs of silver enchantment rose up from Silverguard and shot out across the system, sinking anchors into the dimensional space nearby. 

At the same time, Sam fused his own ability for Astral Binding into the enchantment to support it and share the burden. The fortress’s ability was based on Astral Binding, but it wasn’t as complex.

As the dimensional seal spread out, lines of silver light appeared across the Vos’Rekan’s body like a web. They were invisible to all but Sam’s eyes, but as soon as they were in place, the beast began to thrash.

Massive claws that were dozens of miles long tore through the darkness. They were outlined in shimmering voidfire as they tried to rip away at the webbing and break the binding, but they had no effect.

The impact of the force shuddered against Sam’s essence and the core of Silverguard, but an instant later it rebounded.   

The Vos’Rekan was strong, but it wasn’t strong enough to break that seal.

But that didn’t mean it was dead yet.

“This time, you will not escape,” Sam said as he raised his spear. 

The Vos’Rekan tried to shift its body, but with its dimensional bubble disabled and its abilities suppressed by Silverguard, it wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the assault golems. 

Silverbeak was at their head as they blurred into silver streaks and teleported away from its attacks, using their mobility against it.

Then wings rippled as waves of astral energy descended in Meteor Strikes, the blades of Stellar Wings, and the twisting force of Astral Tempests. 

Alone, they wouldn’t have been able to do much, but with a thousand of them together, the forces were a saw around the beast’s neck.

The beast curled around to try and protect itself, its massive body twisting in the Void. It looked upward at the small things that dared to attack it. It opened its mouth with a roar and a devouring vortex began to swell in the depths of its jaws. 

The dimensional lock was preventing some of its abilities, but not all of them.

Arcs of pure force scythed outward from its mouth, stretching out into a field of destruction that swept across the area. 

Golems shattered by the dozens as they were hit. Their wings and cores crumpled under the force. Shattered bits of astral metal and ice exploded away from them and were pulled into the wave of the attack, until their mangled forms were completely torn apart.

A wave of devouring energy followed the attack, pulling in everything the beast had just broken. A stream of broken golems flowed into its jaws and down into the vortex at the center.

The vortex quickly grew in size as the force expanded from it, and another dozen of golems that were closest disappeared into the depths, where they were instantly torn into miniscule parts.

The beast’s roar continued, spreading outward in concentric waves that broke space and pulled everything back in a cascade toward its mouth. 

Even for the golems farther out, the force reached them in an instant. They tried to teleport away and most of them made it, but shattered wings and silver feathers disintegrated in their wake.

A quarter of them were destroyed in that single attack.

The Vos’Rekan continued turning, its claws slashing through Void as it twisted back around to stare at Sam. Its single yellow eye locked onto him, the pupil at the center glowing with enmity.

It knew who the true enemy was.

The vortex in its mouth swelled as it looked straight at him.

Then the Void between them shattered as a ray of dark energy blasted forward.

It was a pure expression of violence and destruction that was formed from dimensional energy mixed with voidfire and raw elemental power.

It closed the distance in an eyeblink, a ray powerful enough to pierce through the heart of a world and tear it apart.

Sam raised the spear in his hand and the entire force of Silverguard’s defenses moved with him as he stabbed outward.

A golden spear met the dark ray in the Void and space shattered.

A wave of chaos exploded outward and crashed against Silverguard’s defenses. The fortress shuddered, but the walls glowed with starlight and held.

Where the spear and the ray met, a silver and black sun shone in the darkness, one that was still churning.

It wouldn’t disappear quickly.

The shockwave continued to ripple outward, slamming against the defenses in a ceaseless wave.

Sam seized the entire fortress in his domain and an instant later they disappeared along the astral paths. They reappeared on the far side of the beast, where the space was calmer.

Ahead of him, the Silver Army reappeared as well, now flying toward the Vos’Rekan from this direction.

Some eddies of force reached them here as well, along with the pull of the beast’s devouring that it was trying to use on the golems, which was still spreading outward.

It was the beast’s most basic instinct, one that had served it well for all these ages.

Silverguard shuddered and the enchantments around it flared with power, but as the Vos’Rekan’s pull reached the walls, it was reduced to a wild breeze. The dark energy was drawn away by the silver flames and the beast found little to devour. 

The silver flames burned brighter, consuming the energy the beast was sending against them, and with each moment, the strength of the wards increased.

Sam’s gaze was hard as he checked on the status of Silverguard and reinforced the wards in a dozen locations. They were holding strong and becoming more powerful by the moment.

This was why he had developed Stellar Conversion.

The Vos’Rekan’s devouring ability was its greatest advantage. He had designed his Fourth Evolution to destroy it.

So far, it was working.

Astral quintessence was flooding through the silver stars as he drew strength away from the Vos’Rekan’s domain, consuming its voidfire and dimensional energy.

It was a war between the two of them as they each pulled energy from the area, leaving the Void between them clear.

In that space, his allies attacked.

The Silver Army was first. 

They adjusted quickly to their new orientation in space and their weapons shone with starlight as they joined together to create their joint attack, the Armament of the Stars. 

Rays of starlight shot out from them as they cut toward the beast’s head, aiming for its single yellow eye. 

The Vos’Rekan’s eye was one of the best targets, but it was the one closest to the beast’s mouth. Most warriors would have chosen a softer target, like the beast’s back or belly, but the nagas charged straight for the most dangerous and vulnerable area. 

Despite their initial surprise, the reinforcements from the settled galaxy didn’t hesitate either.

Keros was at their head as they leapt forward.

A massive crystalline formation appeared in the Void above the Vos’Rekan, its lines flaming with sapphire light. It was a very familiar sight to Sam, both for the crystal flame that made it up and from his last battle with the beast.

Keros was showing off his ability as the Lord of Crystal Spells.

Behind him, Rohne and the others attacked as well. 

The Dragon Spirit shifted into his draconic form and flew toward the beast, but his size was only a fraction of the Vos’Rekan.

Behind him, Tenal’s form blurred into the image of a massive white eagle that flew forward as well.

Solis followed Keros, releasing a storm of crystalline flames that headed for the beast’s head, while Berim chanted a strange cadence of words that formed into swirling violet runes that danced in the Void.

Jesra summoned an icy wind filled with swirling snow, each of which was a cutting blade. Altogether, it was a tempest that could shred metal and stone.

They looked capable, but Sam didn’t dwell on their attacks. He pulled his attention away from them to focus on his own work.

They might be able to fight the beast to some degree, but he was the one who needed to kill it.

A new spear appeared in his hand as he gathered astral energy to fuel his attack.

The elaborate abilities had already taken shape, and now the battle was down to the essence of the Void.

Strength versus strength.

He tracked the beast’s movements within the Void, every trace of its energy outlined in his mind’s eye as he traced its laws and the way it would move.

Energy gathered around the spear he held, condensing into a brilliant star at the point.

Then he leapt off the peak of Silverguard and ran through the Void, with the spear held in his hand. Runes trailed from its haft, floating through the Void as they released a thunderous echo.

Memories of Caerlon fighting the Vos’Rekan rose up in Sam’s memory, of the day the ancient Titan had learned the runes. His movements changed to match that vision, flowing into the old style of the Titans as they fought for survival.

It was an instinct, a power that channeled into the spear in his hand and strained his muscles to condense all the energy he could gather.

His Battle Aura raged around him as his Strength increased, rising from its current 69,000 to pass 190,000. It was enough strength to crush mountains and divide continents. Magic and strength merged together into one attack. 

All of that force was concentrated on his spear. The Void bent around his steps and runes shone in the air where he had stepped. 

Between one moment and the next, he crossed the distance. 

He stood over 1200 feet tall, and compared to the Vos’Rekan, he wasn’t even as large as its eye, but as he reached it, the essence around him swelled outward in a silver wave that mixed with his aura, and his form took on a starlight outline of a much larger Titan.

The spear rose in his hand and he stabbed forward.

It tore through the beast’s shoulder and drove down into its abdomen, ripping open a line of molten stone that was a mile wide.

The Vos’Rekan roared, its head whipping around toward him as massive fangs tried to close on his position. They were like a mountain range closing on his head.

But between one instant and the next, Sam disappeared, his steps fusing into the silver threads of the Void. 

When he reappeared, a bloody gash tore open the muscles along his left shoulder, but his spear rose again.

And he launched another attack.

In the darkness, the ancient beast and the Titan ripped at one another, their bodies outlined in dark light and stars.

Around them, smaller beings charged forward and around, flowing through their own attacks, but they were fireflies around those two, who danced to a different music.

One that thundered with essence and the primordial force of the Void.

Only one of them would leave this field alive.