Paladin 4: Chapter 42 (Patreon)

The mountain turned out not to be a mountain at all. This thing had lain dormant for who knew how long, but the presence of Darren and so many Sixth Order gods must have awoken it.

The only time he'd sensed such power was when he was beating Laura at her video games. And even then he'd only experienced her aura for a moment before she got control of herself again. This monster, on the other hand, was making no moves to conceal its tremendous strength.

The first thing Darren did was put some distance between him and whatever it was so that he could use his Absolute Analysis skill on it.

Absolute Analysis: Monster Analysis

Gelatinous, Greater God of Slimes and Oozes (Seventh Order)

Born from a droplet shed from the being known as the Primordial Ooze of Creation, Gelatinous is an ancient being hailing from days before the arrival of humanity. It is a being of tremendous regeneration and high durability against physical and magical attacks.

It is currently afflicted by a powerful hex cast by a being of similar power, and all of its abilities are greatly weakened.

Darren barely had time to pour over the description before the ground beneath him shifted again. Another mountain shifted. And then another, and an other after it. Then one of the mountains started swinging at him.

He barely had time to errect a  bubble of Divine Energy around him. The ooze surrounded him in an instant, and it started breaking down his bubble by squeezing it from the outside with tremendous strength.

Staying trapped within the giant ooze's grip was a loosing strategy. He needed a way to escape.

His mind raced, and all the while he fought desperately to reinforce the Divine Aura barrier that kept the ooze at bay. The monster just beyond squeezed tighter and harder. He needed something. Anything, really.

Then he spotted a light in the distance. There was a glowing blue stone with rounded edges about the size of his head. He recognized it immediately, if only because he'd just stolen something that looked quite similar.

The Spirit Origin Stone in Darren's Inventory was almost identical to the thing on display within the body of this Seventh Order ooze.

Sense Intent: Item Analysis

Spirit Origin Stone (Legendary)

This naturally occuring repository of magic allows the ooze's main core to spread its control over its surroundings and control the flow of aura through its enormous body.

This thing had a Spirit Origin Stone inside of it as well. Darren was surprised, but perhaps he shouldn't have been. So much about the seventh order seemed to be about exerting control over an area. Kalaziel was doing it with the Heavenly Throne. Laura did so with whatever item she used for the same purpose.

And this giant slime thing grew its own Spirit Origin Stones inside itself. To think, he'd flown all the way to Marsa to get a Spirit Origin Stone, and now he'd run into one just outside of Limedeep. Fortune was toying with him yet again.

Tendrils of Divine Aura shot out from the sphere surroudning him, and he pushed himself toward the Spirit Origin Stone within the giant ooze. If this was what allowed the giant ooze to control its body, it stood to reason that stealing it would disable the creature.

His suspicions mounted as the ooze stopped trying to crush him and started trying to push him away from the Spirit Origin Stone within it. Darren swam forward with his tendrils, but the ooze pushed against him. He pushed hard, but within the ooze's own body he just couldn't push hard enough.

Eventually he was thrown out of the giant ooze and back into the air beyond. He failed to grab the second Spirit Origin Stone, but at least he'd gotten free.

But now he had other problems. The gods of Marsa had used the time he was trapped to close the distance between him and them, and now they were on top of him.

"Thief!" The lion-headed god shouted. "How dare you steal our Spirit Origin Stone!"

Darren scowled. "I did not steal it."

The lion god seemed surprised at Darren's reply, but he didn't have the chance to inquire further because the giant ooze monster beneath them turned its attention him.

A massive fleshy tendril reached for the lion god, and the god roared with all his might as he pulled an axe out from behind his belt. A feline roar echoed from his mouth, so loud that people in Limedeep would have heard it loud and clear. But the giant ooze was not deterred or intimidatied.

It slapped him with its goopy tendril, still shrugging off rocks as it rose from where it had lain dormant. The lion god's skin sizzled the moment the tendril made contact, and Darren was glad he'd chosen to surround himself with a shield of Divine Energy Constructs when he was inside that thing.

If whatever acid it was made of could eat away at the flesh of a god, there was likely little it couldn't destroy.

The lion god lashed out with his axe, and though the blow tore a chunk out of the tendril, the ooze's liquid appendage restored itself within moments. The lion god attacked again and again, but it soon became clear that he lacked any sort of skill to free himself.

His companions hadn't arrived. The only person close enough to save the lion god's life was Darren.

Darren was pretty sure he could save him. After all, he'd managed to save himself from the creature once already. All it would take was using his Divine Aura to pull the god free.

But until moments ago this man had been chasing Darren all the way back to just south of Limedeep. If he truly had to fight the gods of Marsa, he would be wise to let one of their members perish before the battle even began.

But Darren remembered Sasha. She'd originally been an enemy on the side of the Order of the Rod. He told her where she was wrong, and she changed her ways and now stood as one of his closest allies.

Morgana had also abandoned her former evil ways and joined his side. Perhaps this lion god could be the same.

So Darren extended a helping hand. He cleaved through the ooze's arm and severed it just beyond the lion god's reach. Then, he grabbed the lion god's empty arm and pulled him free.

"You... you saved me?" The lion god panted in confusion.

"I did," Darren replied.

A strange look passed between the lion god's eyes, and he looked like he was about to speak again when the giant ooze moved to strike again.

"Look out!" The lion god shouted in warning.

He and Darren split, and the tendril swept harmlessly where they'd been hovering a moment before.

The two of them ducked found themselves running back together again as quickly as they fled. The lion god lashed out with a deadly swing of his axe while Darren guarded from a retalitory strike using his Divine Energy Constructs.

"You're not half bad!" The lion god chuckled. "That pet of Sobek's told us you were only Fifth Order, but between your speed and defensive abilities you'd be a tough foe. Why did you turn to petty theft with your talents?"

Darren grimaced. "Not a thief."

"Astarte said you were an infamous con artist known throughout the Sacred Seas!" The lion god frowned, eyes watching the broiling puddle of ooze as he waited for another attack.

"Astarte lies."

The lion god ran a hand through his mane. "It seems there is more to the story than I was led to believe. As thanks for saving me there, I will make sure the others hear you out."

While Darren and the lion god struggled against the giant ooze, the other deities of Marsa had arrived.

The wounded eagle god was there. Beside him stood Sobek. The shark god was there as well, though he had a damp towel wrapped around his aquatic head, and looked very uncomfortable flying on a large square platform another god was piloting.

That other god was a woman with a tiger's head. Beside her was a particularly disturbing god who had an entire scarab beetle where his own head should have been. Beside him was a man with a dog's head, and another with the head of a frog.

It looked like the entire pantheon of Marsa had come chasing after Darren.

"Thief!" shouted the tiger headed woman. She pointed a finger at Darren, and a bolt of orange energy shot from her arm at Darren's chest.

Darren motioned to block the attack, but the lion god jumped in front of him and took the energy blast on his chest.

"Peace, sister! There has been a misunderstanding!"

"Rokor, why do you defend this thief?" the tiger headed woman demanded.

"We have been taken for fools. I think brother Sobek knows more to this story than he let on," Rokor the lion headed god replied. He turned to the ooze. "I would explain further, but I think we have bigger problems. Our presence here has awoken the great beast of the western wilds."

"By the Underworld..." the tiger goddess sucked in a hushed breath. "We need to call on the Lord of Light from the Sacred Seas, or the Omniscient Codex to the west. We need a Seventh Order to deal with this! Letting it roam free is a danger to all mortals in the area!"

Darren jotted down the name of the Omniscient Codex to ask Laura about later.

"I thought that thing was supposed to be under a curse that would put it down for good." The scarab-headed god hissed.

"It seems even the Omniscient Codex can underestimate the powers of unique beings like this one," the tiger goddess replied.

"Its still wounded from the curse. If it was at full strength we'd already be dead. Now may be the only chance we have to put it down. We don't have time to contact a Seventh Order," said the scarab-headed god.

"Rokor promised a truce, then we would talk," Darren said.

The tiger goddess didn't seem happy with that, but when the giant ooze started moving again she nodded. "Very well. You have my word we shall hear you out."

A sour look passed across Sobek's face, but it passed a moment later as the gods of Marsa turned on the giant ooze monster.

Darren had always fought his toughest battles alone. Any time he had his allies with him, it was because there there were many weaker enemies to face that he just couldn't deal with.

Never before had he been one small part of a host of warriors at his own level. But he did not hesitate to throw his lot in with the gods of Marsa, who'd been his enemies until moments before.

The gods of Marsa gathered around the writhing form of Gelatinous the ooze, but even with their combined powers, they struggled to contain the creature's rampaging tentacles.

The eagle headed god raised a staff and called forth a blast of blue and violot arcane energy that blasted the giant ooze, but Gelatinous simply absorbed the attack, taking everything the eagle headed god could throw at it. Not only was it unwounded, but the giant ooze seemed to absorb the energy from the attack and grow larger for devouring it.

The scarab-headed god summoned a cyclone of swirling sand and dust. He flung his hands forward and the swirling storm nipped and tore at Gelatinous' goopy flesh, taking chunks out of its side. That brought the monster's size back to where it had been moments before, but it was like chipping pebbles away from a mountanside. It would take years of such storms to make a dent in the monsterous heaving bulk that was Gelatinous.

"We can't hurt it with our powers!" The tiger headed goddess shouted. "We need to empower the Omniscent Codex's curse! Only that has the power to put down something like this!"

Darren could senese the curse that the tiger headed goddes spoke of. Now that she pointed it out, he could see the unnatural flow of Divine Aura flowing through the beast's body.

And it was almost entirely Divine Aura. Whoever this Omniscient Codex was, they used it almost exclusively. That was to Darren's benefit though, since he had far greater control over Divine Aura than demonic aura.

Absolute Analysis: Skill Analysis

Curse of Entropy (Legendary)

The Curse of Entropy, an original spell created by the Omniscient Codex, seeks to bring all matter to its resting state by releasing all energy within a given system. When completed, the targeted matter becomes completely innert and incapable of reacting further.

It can be empowered by injecting more Divine Aura into the spell or by disabling the counter curse structures naturally formed by Gelatinous in order to resist the curse.

Gelatinous primarily uses Demonic-aligned aura, which is connected by magical bonds between aura and physical matter.

"Give the curse power or attack those areas!" Darren shouted as his analysis skill displayed the weaknesses of the monster before him.

The tiger headed goddess nodded. "You heard him!" Attack!

The tiger headed goddess pressed her palms together. When they came apart, trails of orange light followed her movements as she traced intricate patterns in the air. Sobek charged forward with his jaws agape, and a beam of dark light accumulated between his jaws.

The gods of Marsa launched one attack after another, some meant to wound the giant ooze, and others meant to charge the curse. Now that they knew where to attack, their attacks were doing more damage.

But they were also attracting the full fury of the ooze, and a thousand lashing tendrils threw themselves in their direction. Soon the gods of Marsa were spending as much time dodging attacks as they were fighting back.

"We need a miracle here! Call the Omniscient Codex now!" the scarab-headed god hissed.

"I already did," the tiger goddess replied. "I sent it a message the moment I saw that thing awake!"

Darren, meanwhile, had been thinking through the weaknesses his skill told him about. The fact that this beast used mostly Demonic Aura was a bonus to him. He could either attack the ooze with his purification ability, or hope his passive bonuses against demons would do some heavy lifting. Melancholy would be more effective than most swords.

He tried all three against a tendril, flying around it in circles as he took chunks out of it. He slashed straight through the tendril, but before long it reformed just as it had been.

He was beginning to run out of options until he thought to try Innevitability. The sword cut through Gelatinous' flesh like it was made for that purpose. The giant ooze simply fell apart as the blade's edge passed through it.

Innevitability was made to sever magical bonds. Gelatinous was made of magical bonds. It was no wonder his new legendary sword could cut through the monster's flesh so easily.

Soon Darren came to the end of the tendril he'd been fighting and he reached the base of the giant ooze's heaving bulk. With a grimace, Darren formed another shield of Divine Energy Constructs around himself.

While the gods of Marsa kept this beast distracted, Darren had another goal in mind. Peering through Gelationous' semi-transparent flesh, he could almost see its light from within.

Like a miner with a pickaxe, Darren carved a tunnel right through Gelatinous' body. He took its extra mass into his Inventory after he removed it so the ooze had no chance of reforming.

He reiforced the walls of his tunnel with walls of Divine Energy Constructs. Under normal circumstances, the giant ooze could probably crush his constructs since they were spread so long and thin, but engauged in pitched battle against the gods of Marsa it was too distracted to waste its time on him.

He crawled onward and upward, through sticky goopy slime. Occasionally he ran into the bones of long-dead people and creatures. Some were sized large enough to belong to a paladin. Others looked to be demon bones. But most of them were from strange giant monsters just as unknown to Darren as the ooze he was fighting.

Eventually, he saw the Spirit Origin Stone within the giant ooze. Reinvigorated by the sight of it, he started tearing through the slime even faster than before.

Soon enough, he was wrapping his hands around this Spirit Origin Stone. It was larger than the one he'd taken from from Marsa, and from the fight this giant ooze was putting up, Darren figured this thing was quite a bit stronger than whatever the gods of Marsa had killed to get the original Spirit Origin Stone.

He took it gladly, and as he did so all the gelatinous flesh around Darren shuddered and liquified. Without its Spirit Origin Stone, Gelatinous couldn't control its vast body anywhere near as well. Bits and pieces of it started falling apart, and Darren raced to cut his way free before the sticky acidic flesh fell on top of his head.

When he emerged, a cheer came up from among the gods of Marsa.

"I don't know what you did," Rokor said, "but do it again!"

Darren grinned back at the lion god. There was only one Spirit Origin Stone to take, but the fact that it wounded Gelatinous as much as he hoped it would was a welcome relief.

But the giant ooze was not a Seventh Order monster for nothing. Cursed, outnumbered, and heavily wounded, the thing still would not die.

The gods of Marsa channeled their combined their powers, all their energy into empowering the curse. The lingering curse grew larger and greater until, and as it did so Gelatinous' movements slowed. It was like the ooze was freezing over from the inside.

The scarab-headed god summoned another whirlwind of sand, and this time it scraped off twice as much mass as it had before. The eagle headed god summoned another blast of bright purple power, and this time Gelatinous couldn't absorb it.

Sobek followed suit with a blast of his own, and the other gods joined in with more attacks of their own. Darren charged into the fray with Innevitability in his hand, slicing neat cubes of jelly from the giant monster's body.

For a moment, it seemed like they were on the verge of winning. But then the hardened crust of still ooze most affected by the curse cracked and fell. Beneath it lay undamaged ooze and a much weakened curse. Somehow, Geleatinous had found a way to force most of the curse into its outermost layer, which it then shed and discarded like an insects old carapace.

The body that resulted was considerably smaller, but it was even faster than it had been when they started fighting it.

Unused to fighting out of the water, the shark headed god got caught by a tendril unware. One moment he was there, and the next he was sucked right into the giant ooze's body. The other gods of Marsa looked on in horror as he let out a silent scream. His flesh dissolved in the span of a few agonizing heartbeats, and before anyone could even attempt a rescue, he was nothing but another skeleton drifting within the monster.

"No!" The tiger headed goddes shouted in a mixture of sadness and anger.

"We have to retreat!" Sobek shouted. "It's too strong for us."

The tiger headed goddess grimaced. "It looks like we slowed it down at least. Fall back!"

The gods of Marsa retreated, and Darren trailed after them. He wondered if this was the time to make his escape and slip away, but the tiger headed goddess and Rokor had both promised to hear him out. Leaving now might cause problems for him in the future, so he decided to at least say his piece.

They must have expected the same, for as soon as they were clear of the giant ooze, the tiger headed goddess whirled on him. "So, now explain why you stole our Spirit Origin Stone!"