EG Book 7 Chapter 31 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

So, today I got to play a massive game of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy (or just Heresy as most people call it). We had ten people, five on each side, with a 3000 point list for each of us. It was a ton of fun, and just what I needed after a pretty stressful week at work. Tomorrow, I’m going to start the edits for draft two. I’m also working on updating the blurb to Azyl Academy, see if I can get more people buying into it.

Anyway, you’ll be getting the last chapters of Homecoming, what I’ve decided to call book 7, this week!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

I jumped, turning towards the stairs and hesitating.

“Well, come on down. Let me see you before I kill you,” the voice said.

I took a deep breath, then covered myself in my (stealth) technique and started to slip down the stairs. “Sia, are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes. I am getting tired, but I can fight for an hour or more still,” he said.

“Be ready to send Fire into the second level from the top of the keep. I might need help soon,” I told him, and felt his affirmation.

Unlike the stairs to the top, these ones extended multiple leveled down. The feeling of the staff was on this floor, so I knew it was the correct one. I stored my left trisula in my belt, shaking my head as it nearly came off, before pulling a hand held mirror out of my ring. I extended it at the very bottom of the doorway to look beyond, keeping my stealth technique running full blast to try and hide from whatever made that horrible laughter.

Through the mirror, I saw a sitting room with an open door leading into a larger area. The staff was floating in mid-air through the doorway, glowing in a deeper gray than the Death Aether I’d been seeing. A crystal just like the one we’d cracked in the Dungeon was connected to the top of the staff, giving off the same light that made my stomach turn. It was worse, a combination of Corruption, Death, and Chaos, trying to change everything around into a facsimile of life, corrupting where death stood in the cycle of life. The part of me that held the blessing of Darkness seemed to roar at me, ‘Destroy it!’

A shadow moved through the gray light, only to resolve into someone that could have been Spirit’s twin, if Spirit had not ever eaten anything and had no eyeballs. The lich, for it could be nothing else, laughed again. “Come, now, speak with me.”

I saw a window behind it, and grinned. At least Sia is a trump card in this fight, I thought, before forming a Lightning Bolt and throwing it at the lich. A shield of gray-green Aether (Disease) appeared in front of my attack and blocked it. My Fireball was deflected by a plane of dim-purple Aether (Stillness) though which the explosion didn’t progress.

“Really, I did say I wanted to speak first,” the undead elf said, staring at where I stood with weapons raised.

“You also said you were going to kill me,” I said.

“Well, of course,” the lich said, grinning a terrible grin. “You are worthy to be like me, and the first step is to die. Death is not the end. You could gain immense power by joining me.”

“And let you kill and enslave everyone on my world? Join with Chaos in destroying the order which Life requires?” I demanded.

“Bah, if a weakling could not resist my change, why should you care about it?” The lich asked.

“Not everything has to be about strength,” I said. “The strong protect and raise up the weak. By doing so, society is improved and more people will become strong.”

“But you are still ruled by the strong,” they said. “Is your emperor not the strongest being in your nation? What if I could make you stronger than they are, right now?”

“The king rules because it was he who brought our people to safety,” I said. “He protected everyone weaker than him, and created a society where he could grow stronger as well. His children are protected, not just because he is the strongest, but because he created a society where people do not prey on each other.” Aether flared through my body, the Elemental Enhancement Technique massively increasing my capabilities, as I channeled Aether to the tip of both of my trisula, one getting a Metal Spike and the other a Lightning Bolt. “Now, my friends are fighting Ghouls right now, preventing the influx of dangerous beings into my world. Give me the staff, teach me how to shut down the portal, or die, again.” The last part I growled, releasing my aura and concentrating it around the lich.

“How rude,” they said, then they obliterated my aura with their own. They were stronger than I was, at least at Foundation if not Constructed Core. They weren’t at Perfect Core, I knew, or else I’d already be dead. “I guess I will just have to ask my questions once I have captured your soul.”

I threw the Spike at them, mentally guiding it to go for their leg, assuming that they would defend less against a lower attack than one against their center of mass. I pushed on my aura, trying to force it to pierce theirs, only to feel like I just threw my face against a wall. The Metal Spike was blocked by a shield, piercing into the ground only a few centimeters from their foot, so I blasted the Lightning Bolt into it, trying to get it to arc to them.

“Ow,” the lich said, a frown forming on their skeletal face. “Congratulations, you have hurt me. That makes you the first in a century to do so.”

“That’s kinda pathetic,” I said, dodging a beam of Disease Aether, what I’d finally realized the gray-green Aether was, though I had the feeling they were playing with me. “I’m only fifteen years old, and nearly strong enough to defeat you. How old are you? How pathetic is your gathering capability? Shouldn’t you have opened your soul by now?”

“And I will, with access to your world and its untainted Aether supply,” the lich said, its face stretching into a facsimile of a grin.

“Nope,” I said, then released a pulse of Force Aether. The lich was knocked backwards, its body still frail with the absence of flesh. “Now Sia, this one!” I told Sia, creating a flash of light to signal which window. I threw two more Lightning Bolts at the undead elf, trying to hold its attention. It worked, as two more shields appeared to block my attacks and they glared at me behind their techniques.

A wall of Flame entered from behind the lich, catching it by surprise. It screamed, turning around and blasting a series of techniques out the window. I used the distraction to rush forward, realizing I probably wouldn't be able to defeat the lich, so I grabbed the staff. It burned me, trying to prevent me from taking hold of it, but I ignored the damage.

It pulsed with Aether, and the lich growled, turning back towards me. I was only a meter away from it, though, and slid underneath the attack it tried to shoot at me. A Forceful Punch blew my enemy out of my way, even though it blocked all of the actual damage of the technique.

I dove out of the window, screaming, “Sia, catch me!” As I fell. Behind me, I channeled as much Lightning, Fire, and Air Aether as I could, filling the window with a barrage of attacks to keep the lich’s head down.

The staff continued to burn me, throwing its Aether against mine. My aura shut it down, though, as it wasn’t able to resist the willpower I sent at it. The thing had a personality, but no true will behind its attempts to force me to drop it. “Back to the portal,” I shouted. “As fast as you can. Do not spare Aether!”

“Refill,” Sia said, and I connected my meridians to his, throwing all of my Aether into him. As I ran low, my meridians screaming in protest, I chugged down another eight refill pills and a gathering powder. I could feel the impurities the pills were leaving in me, and knew I would have to either take special pills to clean them out, or waste extra time gathering to purge the damage they created. It was better to pollute my system than to die, though, so I threw down another set when it wasn’t enough.

My Senses screamed in warning, and Sia must have felt the same as he shunted himself sideways with Air and Water. I threw the strongest Air Shield I could behind us, and wrapped Sia and myself with Iron Bones, Granite Skin. Our connection allowed me to use my own enhancement and defense techniques as if we were one body. Sia himself covered both of us with Flameskin, which would burn away Aether attacking us.

All together, our techniques were barely enough to save us, as a pillar of Disease and Corruption Aether smashed down on the canyon. The attack utterly obliterated every single Ghoul and Warg visible. The shockwaves from the impact were enhanced with Aether, shattering both of our shields and sending Sia into a barrel roll as he tried to control himself.

We were only a few hundred meters from the portal, but the way back was now partially covered in shattered stone and dirt. At least that gives the others a good break, I thought.

The Aether cylinder was still present when Sia finally righted himself. Just as he was steadying out, the pillar grew thinner, but spikes formed along the entire side pointing towards us. “Die!” The lich screamed, their voice echoing with Sound Aether and something else. I could see it, but the color seemed off. It was a pale purple, but washed out, dingy, and twisted in a way that made my stomach turn.

The Sound pounded on our Aether Shields, while the pale Aether almost tried to worm its way into our minds, focusing on our heads. I pulsed out Plasma Aether, burning away the attack, only for Sia to dive towards the ground as the spikes of Disease and Corruption exploded out of the pillar. They curved in the sky, arcing towards us.

I quickly formed a dozen Fireballs, commanding them forward mentally to explode while near the spikes. Each explosion wiped out at least four spikes, but there were hundreds still coming. “Clear a spot here,” Sia told me, picturing a location up and to the left.

I nodded, then threw out another set of Fireballs while stuffing another set of refill pills into my mouth. My attack wiped away the spikes in the area Sia wanted, while also blowing away a few from behind and to our right. Sia curved upward, pulling on my Air Aether extensively to throw himself through the gap created in the encirclement.

The lich screamed in anger, and the spikes exploded. Disease Aether splashed over us, only for Sia to burn it away. I could feel he was starting to flag and was running low on Aether even as I fed mine into him. “Just go for the portal. Straight shot, we can take a single hit if needed,” I shouted. “Jamila and Vaya will fix us up.”

“Last gasp,” Sia said. Fire, Lightning, and Metal enveloped us, and I felt him use the knowledge of magnetic fields I’d told everyone about to accelerate us towards the portal.

A straight line was predictable, and the lich, who even with their power was still too slow to catch us, used it to send a beam of Corruption five meters in diameter.

I covered us with a series of Aether Shields, Air, Water, Metal, Wood, Earth, Ice, Fire, and lastly Lightning. My Geist gushed out, quickly enough that I would run out in only seconds as my Aether dumped as fast as I could possibly use it. My projection meridians burned and my skin flaked off as I overloaded all three skin meridians.

The cleanest Essence in my center gushed out as well, flowing into the Shields. Some of the corrupted Essence did as well, and it hurt in a deeper way than I could express. Thoughts of abandoning Sia and leaping ahead tried to worm themselves into my brain, but I rejected them categorically.

The beam of Corruption hit and burned through my Shields, one after another, but the impact threw us even faster through the portal. The last Shield shattered just as we crossed the line, and I shoved Aether into the staff and slashed it at the portal.

The Corruption burned, sloughing off the skin and muscle of my right arm, only to be cut off as the portal snapped shut. Sia slammed into and through the stone wall that the others had reinforced in front of the portal, and I went spinning off him as I struggled to hold onto consciousness.