IM2: Chapter #50 (Patreon)

The curse, which had been building up on the dagger’s blade, erupted with so much force that Thorn was thrown backward. He had no idea if it would even work against the god hunter, but when it began to interact with the divinity stored in the god hunter, it went absolutely wild. The stronger the life force of the target inflicted with the curse, the more powerful the curse would become, and the concentration of life force the god hunter carried was at the peak. With a thousand voices, the god hunter let out a powerful scream that shattered everything around it. Thorn, on the edge of the destruction, felt his bones shaking and his eardrums rupturing, but he didn’t care at all.

[Blink]

Appearing above the writhing monster, he stabbed down with the blade he had formed on the end of his staff, stacking Ved runes to increase the power of his strike to the maximum. The first time he had attacked the god hunter, his mana blade had bounced off of it, but this time it punched straight through its skin, leaving a gaping wound on the monster as it cut one of the eyes in two.

Normally, that wound would have closed up immediately, but the curse ate away at the life force that should have flooded it, causing it to rapidly atrophy. Emboldened by his success, Thorn ignored the growing power of the lich totem that was transforming his insides and struck again, holding nothing back. In a desperate attempt to avoid his attack, the god hunter suddenly grew hazy, its brilliance vanishing as darkness surrounded it. The shift turned it into a shadow, causing Thorn’s spear to pass through it unhindered. As shocked as he was by the god hunter’s use of a darkness domain, Thorn was also ecstatic.

Even as his blade failed to wound it, the darkness transformed into powerful teeth that slammed together, biting a big chunk out one of the god hunter’s wings. Accompanied by a gulping sound, the darkness opened again, biting down once more as Hati’s eyes opened in the shadows, flooding the area with darkness. The god beast had suffered greatly against his natural nemesis, and now he went wild, ripping huge chunks of flesh from the god hunter and swallowing them down.

Though he was swallowing cursed flesh, Hati didn’t seem to care one bit as he threw himself against the god hunter with abandon. While it was at a disadvantage in the darkness, the god hunter was by no means helpless and it summoned fierce flames that assaulted Thorn and Hati, trying to burn them away. When that didn’t work, it used sharp stone spears drawn from the ground to bombard them. That was even less effective so it screamed and the temperature plummeted as an ice domain formed around them.

Still, Thorn and Hati did not let up with their attacks. When the god hunter shifted into its darkness domain, Hati was there to chew on its flesh, and when it tried to use another domain, Thorn met it with his blade. Unable to drive them off, the god hunter let out a bellow that shook the entire strata, causing large chunks of the ceiling to fall to the jungle below. Brilliance burst from its body, forcing Hati to dive back into Thorn’s shadow to avoid being destroyed. Once again, Thorn was bombarded with powerful energy, but this time, there was something subtly different about it. As the brilliance slammed into him, Thorn could sense a familiar presence within it. The god hunter’s energy was a mixture of mana and overflowing life force, but now that life force was tainted by a powerful curse that spread like a plague.

A curse that Thorn was intimately familiar with. The totem in his heart flashed and suddenly, the cursed brilliance began to surge toward Thorn, drilling into his body. Though he was familiar with pain, Thorn couldn’t help but scream as the powerful energy flowed into him, forcing its way toward the totem. He had not been conscious the first time this had happened, and if he was honest, he would have given just about anything to not be conscious once again, but unfortunately, his mind was incredibly alert, forcing him to experience every excruciating moment.

Even if he had wanted to end it, Thorn was no longer in control of what was happening to him. He was caught in the grip of the totem, unable to tame the flow of energy it was devouring. The only saving grace was that he was spending the life force stored within the lich totem as fast as he was absorbing it. In front of him, the god hunter was going mad, its body releasing greater and greater amounts of brilliance, as it attempted to purge the curse from its body.

That, in turn, allowed the lich totem to suck up more and more of the curse, packing it into the spinning gem that it held. Like a monster devouring its prey, the totem seemed to become a living thing as it dragged the curse in. By this point, Thorn was entirely unrecognizable. His body had been stripped down to the bare minimum as everything that wasn’t bone, muscle, or skin, was burned away. Worse still, he could feel his mind starting to crack and corrode as well. Thorn had assumed that his will was strong enough to withstand anything, but under the sustained assault of the god hunter’s brilliance, he realized that he was wrong.

His mental defenses had always been strong but the brilliance began to push its way through, piercing into his mind and breaking apart his thoughts. With his last refuge crumbling, Thorn realized that he had finally stepped in over his head. He had always thrown himself against challenges that were bigger and stronger than he was, managing to pull through thanks to his grit, determination, and a healthy dose of luck. Now, that luck had all dried up and he was not nearly strong or tough enough to do anything.

[I’m sorry. I… I miscalculated.]

Eve’s voice was like a whisper, but Thorn heard it clearly despite the thunderous sound of the brilliance that surrounded him.

[I thought that the totem would be able to outlast the life force of the god hunter, but I clearly underestimated how much power it contains.]

“What does that mean?”

[It means that you are going to run out of life before the god hunter will. The silver lining is that the curse you hit it with is going to kill it. The dark cloud is that you won’t be around to see it. The even darker cloud is that the curse will likely begin to infect the entire world. You’re containing it at the moment by absorbing the brilliance, but that’s burning your stored life force at double the rate that I thought it would.]

Pausing, Eve was silent for a moment, before sighing.

[If we still had some Destiny Points to spare, we may have been able to conjure a way out, but I messed up. I should have been more careful in my calculations. I’m sorry.]

“Did the portal activate?”

[Yes, twenty minutes ago. Only Ingo is still waiting to go through. Very nervously, I might add.]

“Then you didn’t mess up. Besides, I still have one trick to try.”

Pulling together what shreds of his mind he could muster, Thorn compressed them and then lowered the defenses around his mind. The brilliance that the god hunter was releasing flooded into him, finally entering the last part of his body. Strangely, while it felt slightly warm, it didn’t feel any more painful, though Thorn quickly realized that was because he was already feeling more pain than his nerves could process. Dully, he wondered why he had let the brilliance into his mind, but his thoughts were too hazy to remember.

As the seconds ticked by, the lich totem continued to empty out its reserves of corrupted life force, all the while continuing to suck up the curse-infected brilliance. Thorn’s haze grew stronger and stronger until he had fallen into a stupor, unaware that each moment brought him closer to death. Hiding in the Atlas Star, Eve suddenly felt something that she had never experienced before. While she was a sentient being, she had never once felt anything. Her existence was one of logic, and while she simulated emotions to make it easier for others to engage with her, she lacked the ability to actually experience them.

Growing heaviness and the feeling of wanting to speak without being able to muster words rose, completely enveloping Eve, nearly crashing her mind. Sharp regret over her choices up until this point stabbed at her, like a fierce needle. Unsure what was happening, Eve felt like she was being pounded by successive waves, unable to catch the breath she didn’t even have. She shook off the disorientation and spoke in a trembling voice.

[I… I’m sad…I’m really sad.]

The feelings swelled and grew until they could not be contained by the Atlas Star, spilling over into the nanites that were spread through Thorn’s body. Through the burning haze that filled his mind, Thorn felt as if he could hear a billion voices weeping and suddenly the fog cleared a bit.

“What am I doing? Brilliance is too much. Brilliance. Can’t concentrate. Concentrate. Focus. Compress. Forge.”

Led by an instinct that came from the depths of his soul, Thorn’s mind sharpened abruptly and then turned in on itself, squeezing together. The brilliance that had flooded his brain burned away his thoughts as fast as he had them, but he just followed his instincts, using what remained of his mental sense to refine his mind. Like an ingot thrown into a furnace, the impurities and weaknesses that filled his mind were burned away. Using his mental sense as a hammer and his soul as a forge, Thorn began to refine his mind, removing the fog that clouded it. With each stroke, the impurities were expelled, burning up under the intensity of the brilliance that surrounded him.

Soon his mind shone like the brightest diamond, crystal clear and free of impurity. Without stopping, Thorn turned his attention to his body and continued, using his mental sense to hammer at his bones and flesh. There were many different forces in Thorn’s body, some unified, and some not, but under the intense pressure, they began to melt and co-mingle. Consumed by the obsession that had seized his mind, Thorn tried to forge them into a cohesive whole. Yet even as he began to work on his body, his strength began to falter. When he had absorbed the curse tainted brilliance, the curse had been forced into the totem where it was compressed into the gem that sat at the center of the totem, but the brilliance had been left behind and now it rampaged through Thorn’s body.

Initially, the lich totem had been able to release enough life force to balance it out, but the totem in his heart had finally reached its limit and the corrupted life force had been used up. On top of that, the god hunter had also been drained dry, its body unable to fight against the curse any longer. The brilliance that it released was starting to flag and it was showing signs of trying to flee. It was not smart enough to understand what was happening, but its instincts told it that this strange creature that its brilliance could not destroy posed a deadly threat to its life.

[NON-GOD BEAST CREATURE CATEGORIZED AS PRIMARY THREAT. RETREAT.]

Shrieking in its layered voices, the god hunter tried to pull away but before it could get away, a cavernous mouth opened up behind it as all of the shadows in the surrounding jungle suddenly shot toward it like arrows. With no choice but to release the last of its tainted brilliance, the god hunter could only wail as Thorn’s totem absorbed it. Like an avalanche, the surrounding darkness smashed down on the exhausted abomination, ripping and tearing its grotesque body.

[Now!] Eve’s voice cried out.

Still completely focused on trying to unify the forces in his body, Thorn suddenly felt a spike of coolness run through him. It started at his foot, where, unbeknownst to him, a small tendril had wrapped itself around his ankle. Shooting up through his leg, it surged into his chest and then poured into his mind, bringing a shocking clarity. His lich totem reacted even faster than he could, sucking up the perfectly pure life force like its life depended on it.

As fast as it could, it attempted to transform the pure life force into its corrupted energy, but with his new state of clarity, Thorn was not about to let it have its way. Instead, he surrounded the totem with his mental sense and began the forging process once again. With each stroke he poured his will into the totem, forcefully reshaping it to his desire. At first, the lich totem resisted, trying to fulfill its original purpose, but ultimately it was not alive and proved no match for his will. Little by little, Thorn used the brilliance that still rampaged through his body, forcing it into the totem and purifying the gem that the totem contained.

Completely submerged in his body, Thorn did not see the final moments of the fight between Hati and the god hunter. The living embodiment of the mighty hunter, Hati had lost his wolf form and transformed into a living shadow that could be as sharp as steel or as elusive as the wind. As tough as the body of the god hunter was, its divinity had been corrupted and drained, and it was no longer a match for Hati. Blood splattered and bones shattered as Hati pulled the struggling monster into himself, devouring it until nothing remained.

Life continued to flood into Thorn and another vine appeared, snaking out to wrap around his arm. A moment later, a warm hand grasped his as Velin arrived next to him. Worry filled her eyes as she felt the life force she was pouring into him vanishing. To her, he appeared like a black hole, sucking in everything she released. Her expression hardened and she doubled down, pouring even more life force into his body.

“The brilliance in his body is going to be used up soon,” Eve said, hovering overhead as she monitored Thorn’s condition.

“I don’t know what that means,” Velin spat through gritted teeth.

Ignoring the anger in her voice, Eve ran some quick calculations.

“It means that we need an intense energy that can purify curses. The more the better.”

Already at her limit trying to keep up the flow of life force into Thorn’s body, Velin was at a loss until three soft tails wrapped around Thorn’s body. Crimson flames sprang up around Thorn and were soon sucked into his body, replacing the flagging brilliance. Unlike her normal flames, this fire carried an edge of golden light and smelled of wild flowers, reminding Velin of the sap of the world tree. The smell seemed to bring comfort to Thorn, whose tightly clenched muscles relaxed slightly. Under the purifying heat of the flames he continued to work, forging the pure life force into a new totem.

Soon his body grew fuller and his skeletal appearance vanished, restoring Thorn to the look that Velin was familiar with. With a small gasp, he opened his eyes, releasing a golden light. A moment later he had swept up Velin and Akira in a tight hug.

“Who needs Destiny Points with friends like this,” Eve said flying around their heads happily.