Prism Academy 5- Chapter 38 (Patreon)

Chapter 37- A Touch of Void

A massive dome of swirling darkness sprung up around the creature. It looked like a tornado of shadow energy and kept swirling around as it sucked up the ruins of buildings around it. Whatever was inside of that was the final effort of the shadow and I had to end it sooner rather than later.

I dove into the swirling dome of darkness, steeling myself for the confrontation that awaited me. As I plunged deeper into the impenetrable blackness, I could feel the immense weight of the shadow pressing in on me from all sides.

Light’s Judgment pulsed around me. It was the only thing that shielded me from the shredding forces of darkness. My senses strained to their limit; I detected a palpable malevolence emanating from the center of this abyss. This was by far the densest concentration of shadow energy which I’d ever detected.

Finally, I emerged into a center of the dome. It was still and there, standing in the middle of the space, was the creature I had come to face. It was a monstrous being, twelve feet tall and emaciated to the point of near-skeletal thinness. Its body was composed of jet-black shadow stuff. Sense Energy told me this was a temporary physical manifestation of the shadow energy that had plagued our world for nearly two centuries. Serrated spikes jutted from its body at odd angles, while armored plates provided it with a sinister and formidable defense.

My enhanced senses as well as Hyper Accuracy were already looking for weak spots and calculating my best options. It was all happening so quickly that I realized the new power I’d appropriated from Tess was working to help me see the best options.

Seemingly hovering in the air next to the creature, I saw a small rip in the fabric of space itself, just six inches long. I could feel the insatiable hunger of the void as it pulled at the energy surrounding it, threatening to grow larger and swallow everything in its path.

The shadow creature turned its gaze upon me, its eyes burning with a hatred so intense that it seemed to pierce my very soul. The weight of its gaze was almost physical. Up to this point some of the shadow creatures who spoke had threatened me or taunted me but they all clearly looked down on me. Some even tried to get me to join them.

This one was different. As it spoke, its voice was a guttural growl that echoed through the inside of the dome. “You… this is your fault.”

I wanted to laugh in its face. “I’m not the one who went to someone else’s home, picked a fight, stole their food, and killed their dog. You and all the shadow deserve everything that’s about to happen to you.”

“Oh, big words for a bag of flesh and bones. Once I open a way for the void, all of your world will be consumed while me and mine will flee to another world. This time, hopefully, without the shackles of our cousins. That much, at least I can thank humanity for. As a race, you so easily give in to despair. You’ve provided a buffet to make my kind strong while starving those fools who live off of positive emotions.”

My heart raced as I tried to reason with the creature, even as it continued to work on widening the portal. "You don't have to do this. We can find another way, a way that doesn't involve destroying everything we hold dear." It pained me to ask anything of this creature, but everything I’d seen and heard about the void told me we did not want it to come here.

"Have to? Who said anything about having to? I’m doing this because I want to. I despise all corporeal beings. You are so much less. You, I despise most of all. Let the void bring Annihilation to all of you. It will be my final victory.”

“You may be strong, but so am I. There’s nothing to say that you’ll survive a battle between us. What good does it do you to destroy the Earth if you are destroyed as well?”

The shadow creature sneered, its resolve unshakable. "If the shadow cannot claim this world, then no one shall. I will open this portal fully and allow the void to consume all that you know."

With those chilling words, I knew that there was no more room for diplomacy. I charged at the creature, my body transformed into an inferno of fire as I sought to vanquish the darkness once and for all. But as bolts of Light’s Judgment blasted from my hands, I quickly discovered that this shadow was unlike any I had faced before. Its dense, shadowy form refused to yield to my powers, forcing me to break it down piece by piece.

The creature fought back with a ferocity that matched my own, its powerful limbs striking with incredible speed and strength. It was nearly as strong and fast as I was, and for every blow I landed, it retaliated in kind. The inside of the dome was filled with the sounds of our titanic struggle, as we traded blows in a brutal dance of light and shadow.

Beyond my immense power, all of the bonds I had formed had lifted my capacity to a level far beyond that of any super before me. I could keep going forever, but each time it got close to the rip in space, the shroud around the Earth weakened just a bit more.

Still, the creature's near-invulnerability was forcing me to expend far more energy than I had anticipated, and I knew I could not keep this up for long. I had to rely on my other abilities, phasing out to avoid its blows and then increasing the mass of my fist just as I landed a punch. Some of the blows I was throwing around had enough kinetic force to flatten multiple city blocks.  Little by little I was overpowering it, but I had to remember it wasn’t just a single entity I was fighting, but the combined power of all that remained of its race.

As I continued to struggle against the relentless onslaught, I felt the familiar presence of my bonds joining the fray. The dome of darkness around us was cracking and their Angel of Light attacks were winning out. While they couldn’t yet make it through the dome, they could attack from a distance. They fired beams of pure light into the chamber, their combined power further weakening the shadow monster. It roared in pain and fury, its body flickering as the light pierced its defenses.

With renewed determination, I pressed my advantage, my fists hammering into the creature's form with devastating force. The power of Light's Judgment surged through me, and I unleashed a torrent of progenitor energy upon the shadow. It screamed in agony, its form beginning to fracture and splinter under the onslaught of my powers.

The creature, however, was far from defeated. In a desperate attempt to ensure its victory, it managed to widen the portal just a little more. The void's pull on the energy around us intensified, and I could feel the relentless hunger of the void threatening to devour everything in its path. It was that horrible emptiness which existed in the place we rescued Priska from. The sensation was one which could drive a person mad.

The creature roared in triumph, believing that it had sealed our fate. It renewed its attack with a terrible fury, and I knew that I had to end this battle before it was too late. It threw itself at me and I blocked both its claws with a telekinetic shield. The wall of force trapped its arms high and exposed its body.

My body shifted into Magma Form and I pulled in as much mass as I could. With all that weight behind it, I drove my fist straight into its body at center mass. The hide cracked and chucks fell away and its body doubled over before being flung backwards and shattered the rest of the dome which had been above us.

I streaked across the ground and landed my next blow almost as soon as it came to a stop. We fought with every bit of our remaining power, our blows shaking the very foundations of the world around us. As the void's influence continued to grow, the stakes had never been higher. The battle raged on, each of us refusing to yield, locked in a struggle that would determine the fate of our world.

My body ached with every movement, my reserves of energy dwindling. It wasn’t the effort of the battle, but the drain of the void which was undoing me. But I couldn't afford to falter. I knew that the moment I showed any sign of weakness, the shadow creature would seize the opportunity to strike a fatal blow. Phasing and teleporting didn’t do it for me, as the creature seemed to be able to sense my movements.

The shadow creature, though battered and weakened, fought on with a single-minded determination. It seemed as though it would not rest until it had achieved its goal of annihilation. But as we continued our brutal dance of light and shadow, I could see that it too was beginning to falter. The constant barrage of light from my bonds was taking its toll, its once-impenetrable defenses now riddled with cracks.

With a final burst of strength, I unleashed a torrent of Light's Judgment, the raw progenitor energy pouring forth with a fury that could not be contained. The shadow creature, in a last-ditch effort to avoid its fate, tried to use the void to shield itself from the onslaught. But it was too late.

The light pierced its defenses, shattering its form into countless shards of darkness. The creature let out a pained, guttural scream as it was torn apart, its essence dissolving into nothingness. For a moment, I fell to my knees. It was almost impossible to imagine that Earth’s trial, which had gone on for nearly two centuries might be finally at an end.

The tear in space which opened a way to the void was rippling. Black lightning erupted out of it. Even with the shadow defeated, the Earth could still be doomed if I couldn’t manage to close that. I raced over to it. The power of annihilation lashed out at me and cut right through my shield and skin alike, searing me to the bone.

It had been a while since I’d felt so vulnerable, but I couldn’t give in. I didn’t know what I could do to the void, but I did know that shadow energy had been used to create this opening. I hoped that if I dispelled that energy then it would be enough. I pushed more power into Sense Energy, trying to discover the weak spots.

I saw spots where the shadow energy was like a hook pulling back the fabric of reality, but much of what I saw defied any understanding of science which I had. There was also a swirling mess of essence which was far more jumbled than anything I’d seen before.

I strained trying to force the portal shut, but even when I destroyed the last of the shadow hooks, it only shut about halfway. Enough energy was flowing into the wound in the world now that it was sustaining itself. That couldn’t be good. I was on my knees in front of it. My power was regenerating, but the combination of the fight and the sucking drain of the void was sapping all my strength.

One by one each of my bonds fell next to me. Their capacity was being drained. Eve landed by me and I thought we might be saved, but she too started to slow as her energy reserves were drained.

It was horrifying to think that we’d beat the shadow but then would go out like this.

Then I heard a rough voice that I’d only heard once before. “You probably should close that. It isn’t a good idea to have portals to the void, even tiny ones like that popping up and whatever was done to it seems to be pulling energy in at a phenomenal rate. Oh, or perhaps you can’t close it, mortal. Then, I guess you could ask me to.”