Savage Awakening 246. Final Wave (IV) (Patreon)

Zane had a single wish. 

He wished for destruction. Wished it with all his heart.

His powers responded. 

His hammers rose overhead. Caught fire. Brightening so fast it was like seeing a time lapse—the darkness washing away, night melting to day as two suns rose high in the sky...

The heat beat down in waves. An otherworldly heat. Crackling and searing—beating down in the astral plane as much as the physical, scorching the soul.

Thalrex stared.

The Storm Giant couldn't seem to believe what it was seeing. Couldn’t believe the broken human before it had anything left inside. 

It hissed, raised a fat arm, trying to shield its eyes from the light, the heat, the intensity of it—Thalrex had to turn away.

Zane was barely even conscious anymore.

He just knew he had an enemy. And he knew he had to destroy it. A single want. And the fire in his heart spurred him on. Drove him to finish it.

He let out one last hoarse roar. And unleashed his worst.

The stars fell out of the sky.

Thalrex threw up desperate shields, called in those cloud layers to aid it. But the Stormfire crushed right through. Didn't stop—didn't even slow. Punched through with brutal ease. Lighting it up as it passed. 

Another swirling whirlpool of a shield shot up, trying to stop it—it was no use. There was simply too much momentum, too much heat, too much raw power.

Nothing could have halted Zane then.

Thalrex’s mouth opened wide. Maybe it was about to try one last-ditch blast. Maybe it was screaming. No one would ever know.

Zane’s hammers made landfall for the last time. And whited out the world.

It struck with such ferocity Zane almost went out himself. He staggered back, bracing against the heat of it. He still had just a sliver of consciousness left in him—enough to shield his friends with his soul.

It was a good thing, too.

When the light faded the rest of the realm was hardly recognizable. It was what destruction looked like in its purest form. Leveled utterly flat. Flat far as the eye could see—no more rivers of magma, no more obsidian boulders studding the landscape. Even the Corruption scars have been wiped from the air. Slag on slag on slag...

All that remained were the Gates. Half knocked-over. Broken, smoking, teetering listlessly. Smoldering Stormfire. And the Citadel. Blackened down its whole front face, leaning over so far it seemed on the verge of collapse. Chunks crumbled off the weary stone...

Zane saw no sign of Thalrex. Just the point of impact. The blackest spot in the mess. Above it a great void was slowly knitting back up, swallowing in streams of ash as it did… 

The job was done. At last. 

Essence rushed into him.

Level up! 

Level up! 

Leve—

Zane brushed it aside blearily. One more thing, before he could let himself go. He turned to check up on Reina and Evan and Avery. Made sure they were okay. 

They were. 

Relief was the last thing he remembered. 

He face-planted. 

*** 

Level up! 

Essence Level 290 -> 298 

He woke to the notification. Then to a pale-looking but relieved Reina. 

“We made it,” she said softly, brushing a strand of hair out of his face. “You got it done.” 

Avery was a little exhausted, but in good spirits. 

Evan was still shaking a little though. Scrunched up. 

Zane’s brow creased. “Are you okay?” he rumbled.

“Mhm! Reina healed me up really well,” said Evan. He put on a little wobbly smile. But Zane could still sense a lingering fear in Evan—it spiked and ebbed. Zane frowned, thinking back. 

He wondered how close Evan came to death just then. 

Zane remembered what it felt like to get struck by that lightning. It was horrible—even for him. He had lost a quarter of his life in one go. And Zane, more than anyone, was conditioned to take blows like that. He remembered Evan’s terrified scream… 

Evan was very brave. And Zane felt he had a stronger will than most. But still. Zane could shrug it off. But Evan wasn’t used to taking that kind of punishment. 

Evan was still trying to keep positive, even as he quivered. 

“I’m going to be okay!” he said. 

Zane patted him on the head. “You did really good.” 

Zane felt something in his chest. A tightness. Evan had been making such good progress getting over his nervousness. But that shock had just put some of the fear back in him. It bothered Zane. 

He never wanted to put Evan in that position again. Any of them. They were not meant to get hurt like he was. He turned to Reina. She looked and felt a little guilty about the whole thing. 

Zane thought she was right. If he went all out from the very beginning he might not have even lasted long enough to get off Wish Upon A Star. He would have just keeled over. She had suggested the way to win. That was her job. Zane told her she did the only thing she could. In the end…

He could only blame himself. Taking those hits was his job. He had failed his friends.

He clenched a fist, frowning. 

He had to get stronger.

Reina put a hand on his arm. She said no one was to blame. It was a battle rigged against them—there were things they couldn't control. It happened.

“Mhm!” said Evan.

“You can't be expected to take on the whole world by yourself,” she said.

“Yes,” said Zane stubbornly. 

She just gave him a look, then a kiss, and sighed. “Oh, Zane…”

They moved on.

“Hey, on the bright side—we’re alive!” said Avery. “Huzzah! Anyone want a s’more?”

Mostly they were tired. But it was true—they’d survived, and it was a big weight off all their shoulders. And it seemed they'd cleared the realm too. Right in the middle of the Citadel, on the very first floor, glowed a yellow dot. The staircase.

Leading down to the next floor.

They wouldn't go just yet, they decided. They would take a breather here. They all needed it. 

*** 

“Quick!” bellowed the Barbarian Sage. “We’ve got to swap out the gift—before it's too late! Can we even do that?!”

“Err—” said an assistant.

The Barbarian Sage grabbed him by the shoulders, started shaking him about.

“Speak, damn you! My boy’s about to hit Nascent Soul! Even I hadn’t thought he’d get there this fast—we’ve got to get it to him by then!”

“I—I suppose we can give it a try, if we could get the Grand Artificer on it—”

“Go. Now! And tell him the Barbarian Sage sent you!”

The assistant scampered off. 

The Head Scout looked frazzled. “Is Zane really about to manage it? Heavens…” 

“Has there ever been such a thing?” chuckled the Barbarian Sage. “Nascent Soul, mid-Integration?”

“I’ve heard the Buddha did it. And the Stone Monkey Sage. But that’s the stuff of legend...” 

The Scout said all this in a stunned faraway voice. “No one’s really sure it even happened. Certainly not this Chaos Cycle.” 

“His’ll be a hell of a Soul too,” harrumphed the Barbarian Sage. He rubbed his hands eagerly. “Did you see how many Monsters he had to slay to get him there? The foundation of it, that Core—it’s well past ready. And he’s prepped his body well too. If my gift arrives in time there’s no telling what grade he’ll condense!” 

He shook his fist at the ceiling. “Damn that Chained bastard—but I’ll bet it didn’t expect this, did it?” He barked a laugh. 

“Yes, Grand Elder,” said the Head Scout helplessly. 

“Tell you what. If he manages a high-grade soul too—Sky, perhaps even Heaven—I expect not much’ll stand up to him in those lower floors,” said the Sage. “Unless that Chained bastard finds some truly ridiculous loophole… he’s going all the way!”

*** 

Evergreen Grove 

World Tree Faction

Lan Arandor watched the whole thing. Pale as a corpse.

He was silent after he finished. Then—

“Taele?” he said softly. The only other elf in the room. His chief Inquisitor. 

“Yes.”

“Zane Walker must die.”

“…Yes.”

“So, too, must the Mistress Maker. If the two of them survive…” he shuddered. “I did not wish to take this risk. But in the end… I fear it could be the only way.”

Taele’s head swiveled to look at his master, pupil-less eyes blinking. He moved like an owl; his body stayed put. There was something off-putting about the elf, something not-quite-there. “Do you mean…” he said slowly.

Lan nodded. All stiff. But his jaw was set. 

The Nine Great Factions couldn’t influence anything directly. They could only send in objects from the outside as gifts—that was all. The only way to exert the sort of influence they needed was to collude with someone on the inside.

“Send a signal,” said Lan. “And be discreet about it. Tell that—that thing… Lan Arandor has a proposal.”

Taele’s licked his lips. “I shall.”

*** 

It had become a bit of a tradition to stop before they reached the next floor and take in their winnings.

Not long after Zane woke, a yellow pool popped up on the mini-map. A treasure area spawned right in front of them. When they stepped within—

System has detected internal tampering

Participants have been subjected to unfair challenges

Restoring balance…

Calibrating compensation…

Evan and Avery both got Vials with 10 droplets of Bloodline, amounting to Earth S-rank treasures. They would help boost their skills a great deal. At least two rarity levels. 

Evan’s Signature was already enough to wound a Nascent Monster Grand Knight once he charged it up. Zane suspected after the next upgrade, even he would have to respect Evan’s charged-up shots.  

Avery could already deflect lots of Thalrex’s strikes even though she was a whole grade of power below. She’d get a strong boost too.  

Reina, meanwhile, got a Law treasure perfectly tailored toward her next Concept, Regrowth. A Mid-Tier Concept. If she managed it, it’d be a massive leap in her already strong buffing Skills. She could boost their regenerations sky-high.  

They were all becoming pretty remarkable in their own right. 

As for Zane—he got just one vat of essence. It dropped out the sky and sank a good foot into the ashy ground. A big old drum of it, like something you would use for crude oil.

Drum of Essence [Earth (S)]  

You could feel just how much densely packed essence lay inside—aura wafted off it like heat waves in the Astral Plane… 

The System knew exactly what he needed. At Level 298 he had just two more Levels to go.  

He grabbed the Spirit Steel cover, ripped it straight off. And started drinking straight from the drum.  

And a river of pure dense essence poured in.