Chapter 327 - The Final Guardian (Patreon)

Zeke panicked as he felt thick, black chains squeezing his abdomen and sucking the life – no, the mana – out of him. Clawing at the chains did no good; they were far too durable for that. As far as he knew, the only thing that could destroy them was the unique blend of opposing attunements he’d learned to weave together. But gripped by surprise and panic, he was momentarily incapable of rational thought. Instead, his hindbrain had taken over, and it demanded that he attack the problem as directly as possible, even if it was completely ineffective.

His panic only lasted a moment. After all, he was a veteran of hundreds, if not thousands, of battles, and he was no stranger to life-and-death scenarios.

“You also seem to get surprised a lot,” Eveline pointed out in his mind. “Very susceptible to the good, old ambush.”

Zeke didn’t even bother to reply, partly because she was right, but mostly because he couldn’t spare the moment it would take to formulate a proper response. Instead, he once again brought his new, more stable braid to the battle. It came together far more smoothly than ever before – almost as if it had become a skill without him knowing it – and Zeke felt a surge of barely contained energy surge through his body and into the chains.

Something screamed, and the chain went wild, bucking around like a particularly angry horse. It whipped Zeke this way and that, disorienting him to such a degree that he was barely able to repeat his previous attack. One of the links cracked with the sound of thunder that briefly overwhelmed the scream, and before Zeke knew what was going on, he was once again flying through the air, having been thrown across the Cathedral of Torment to skip off one of the pillars and crash into the wall. Fortunately, there were no grasping torture victims there, and he slid to the floor to splash down in the pool of blood.

“You didn’t happen to grab those chains before you got…well, I hesitate to say you got manhandled, but I’m struggling to think of a more appropriate word,” Eveline said.

Zeke ignored her as he pushed himself to his feet. In fact, he had not managed to grab the chains, but he suspected that it wouldn’t matter that much. It wasn’t like he’d just be allowed to leave, after all.

“Yeah – not what I’m talking about,” she said. “If you’re going to beat him, you’re going to need that new skill.”

Again, Zeke didn’t respond, but his head did clear enough that he realized he hadn’t even seen his enemy. Though he’d suspected the source, it was still more than a little disturbing when he looked across the Cathedral of Torment to see Dáinn ripping free of the cross. The spikes on his arms, torso, and head remained intact, but his legs were savaged as he tore them free. To Zeke’s horror, the blood surged, wrapping itself around his wounded legs and, when it receded, they were whole. Still thin as sticks, but whole all the same.

“You really need to get on it. If you let him recover, he’ll kill you with a look,” Eveline pointed out.

“And how long –”

“Fast.”

Zeke watched as the dwarf steadied himself. The spikes that had once affixed him to the cross glowed with eerie light as he stumbled forward, dragging the twin lengths of chain behind him. The blood boiled with their passage. But more distressingly, Zeke could feel, even nearly fifty yards away, the energy surging through the chains and into Dáinn’s body. His recovery progressed before Zeke’s eyes, and in only a few seconds, the dwarf’s grey skin had begun to mend.

“A few minutes. Maybe an hour. With all the mana and vital energy in this room…”

“Dammit,” Zeke muttered, focusing his mind. He had a goal, now. A battle to be fought. That was enough to push the worst of his fears into the back of his mind. Blood pounded in his ears as he embraced [Cambion’s Awakening], fueling it with his personal mana. His mind and soul were soothed, and even his body felt a bit better. It would have to do for now; he couldn’t afford to lose control. If he let his demonic attunement take over, he would attack with everything he had. And if Eveline was to be believed, it wouldn’t be enough.

Reaching out with his senses, he found that the three golems were still at half capacity. Maybe a touch more. With his increased control of the braid, Zeke hadn’t completely drained them. A good thing, because he suspected that he would need to use them in the battle ahead.

But not yet.

With his pure mana flowing through him, Zeke tightened his grip on his hammer – how he hadn’t dropped it, he had no idea – and stepped forward. The movement caught the dwarf’s attention, and Zeke felt Dáinn’s gaze fall upon his shoulders with the weight of a mountain.

“Fuel,” the dwarf’s voice echoed. Then, he threw his arms forward, and the chains whipped through the air. The energy within them crackled with unspent menace, but Zeke didn’t cower. Nor did he retreat. Instead, he charged forward with a roar, leaving a wake of blood in his path.

The first chain reached him, and Zeke slapped it aside with a quick jab of his hammer. The second came in soon after, and he barely managed to duck beneath it. However, he couldn’t completely avoid contact, and when it touched him – barely a graze – it sent a spike of pain coursing through his shoulder. More, Zeke could feel a bit of vital energy and mana leave his body.

“Conduit, remember?” Eveline helpfully explained.

“Great,” was his mental reply.

Zeke’s feet thundered against the floor, splashing blood along the way. The skinned people trapped in the columns moaned and groaned, and the sound of rattling chains filled the air. He ignored the distractions, pushing himself faster than he’d ever run before. Dáinn seemed to welcome him, spreading his arms wide. The spikes glowed with menace, and the chains continued to whip around. As Zeke drew closer, he saw that the dwarf’s eyes were wild, tainted by insanity, fury, and a fair bit of confusion.

A dangerous combination in the best of circumstances, but given the power wafting off the dwarf, Zeke knew they’d left the ideal scenario far, far behind.

Zeke lowered his shoulder as if to tackle the still-emaciated dwarf to the floor.  Dáinn was an experienced enough combatant that he recognized the rudimentary tactic for what it was, and he braced for impact. However, for once, Zeke’s goal was not a collision. Instead, when he was only a dozen feet away, he did four things in quick succession.

First, he used [Weight of Two Worlds], increasing the gravity exponentially. Meanwhile, he decreased his own weight. As he felt his body lighten, Zeke unleashed a second skill: [Center of Gravity], taking the dwarf by surprise. The combination of the two was more than enough to pull Dáinn from his feet and send him flying forward. Finally, Zeke leaped, propelling himself with as much strength as he could manage.

The result was explosive.

Zeke surged from the floor, twisting to avoid the chains. In mid-air, he swung his hammer, knocking one aside, before his leap reached its apex of nearly a hundred feet. As he flew, his momentum took him well past the dwarf, and after his descent, he rolled through the blood and found his feet. A few steps later, he reached his destination – the cracked coffin.

Or more accurately, the remnants of the chains that had been wrapped around it.

Reaching down, Zeke grabbed the links and commanded them into his spatial storage. The moment they disappeared, he felt, rather than saw, the notification denoting the completion of his quest. A new rune seared itself across his chest, snaking through his abdomen and twisting around his limbs. His back arched, and his arms went wide of their own volition as he tilted his head to the ceiling and let out a primal scream of shock, pain, and exultation.

Then, the chains caught up, wrapping themselves around him and creating a cocoon of black adamantine. Instantly, Zeke felt his energy – or essence, maybe – flow out of him. All the while, the dwarf cackled in apparent glee.

Without even reading the description of his new skill, Zeke embraced it. The rune hadn’t even finished forming before he flooded it with mana, so it took a little longer than it should have for [Colossus] to activate. But when it did, Zeke felt a shift in reality as well as his perception.

In an instant, the drain ceased, and the cackling dwarf went silent. Zeke had no idea what to expect – something like his corrupted skill back in the Radiant Isles, perhaps – so he was taken by complete surprise when reality, as well as his perception, shifted.

He grew.

At a little over six feet tall, and with broad shoulders as well as a muscular physique, Zeke had always been a big man. However, under the effects of [Colossus], his height nearly tripled, and his body thickened to proportions more appropriate to one of the hulking ogres he’d seen back in the mines. If that was all, it would have been impressive, but that was only the beginning.

Even as Zeke grew, his body became encased in metal. Some of it was clearly blood mithril, but there was just as much black adamantite. And it was all trimmed with black crystal spikes that must’ve been the purified form of netherite.

The sound of metal screeching against metal filled the air as the chains warred with Zeke’s new, metal skin – and it was his skin; he felt everything, though not as keenly as he should have.

The chains lost.

With a roar, Zeke threw his arms out wide, and the already weakened chain shattered into two halves. The second chain retreated, uncoiling in an instant, leaving Zeke his freedom.

The dwarf looked at him like he’d suddenly sprouted a pair of horns, and a joyful Eveline said, “Well, you kind of have. It looks good on you, though. Very dashing.”

As the dwarf stared at him, Zeke reached up to feel his head, and he was unsurprised to find that he had, indeed, sprouted a couple of long, sweeping horns reminiscent of the demons he’d fought so often. Then, his fingers found his face, and he was a bit shocked to find that it was little more than an expressionless mask. Not dissimilar from his golems.

But as shocking as his transformation was, Zeke latched onto one disparity to anchor his disbelief. His hammer, which had always been big enough for two-handed use, had also grown quite a bit larger. In fact, it had experienced even more growth than his body, and proportionally, it was much bigger than it had ever been before. More than that, though, its appearance had also changed. The bone haft remained unchanged, but the head was even broader and more aggressive than it had been before, with a wicked spike on the opposite side.

With the dwarf taking a step back, Zeke took a moment to look at his skill’s description:

[Triune Colossus] (D) – Normally a creature of earth, the colossus is a fearsome and unstoppable force of destruction. Due to twin attunements, the skill has been upgraded to include demonic elements. Maintain the balance, lest you leave your remaining humanity behind. Transform into a hulking behemoth of demonic metal, significantly increasing strength, endurance, and resistances. Channel earth mana to further increase endurance, demonic mana to augment strength, and pure mana to significantly increase resistances. Upgradeable.

It was the longest description Zeke had seen so far, which fit, because it seemed like an incredibly complex skill – at least in terms of what it could do. But in practice, it sounded simple enough. More importantly, it was exactly what Zeke needed.

“Told you so,” said Eveline. “You should learn to trust me more. I only want what’s best for you. And me. Mostly me. But you’re a close second!”

“Not the time,” Zeke rumbled aloud. Even his voice had changed, and it sounded like an avalanche come to life – which was a little disturbing. If he was a more introspective person, he might’ve wondered about his slow transformation further away from his humanity. Even his skill had cautioned against it. But he just pushed those thoughts to the crowded part of his mind where he’d routinely shoved everything he didn’t want to think about. He’d address it later. Maybe. For now, he needed to focus on the regenerating dwarf across the Cathedral of Torment.

Rolling his shoulders, Zeke heard the sound of metal scraping against metal. It wasn’t loud. But it was noticeable. Just one more thing to think about later.

He stepped forward, and the ground rumbled. With his increased size, he felt ponderous. Uncoordinated. But that was kind of the point of the skill, he expected. He wasn’t some nimble, agility-focused combatant. Instead, he was supposed to be a force of nature given humanoid form.

Unstoppable.

Impervious.

Relentless.

Inexorable.

Zeke took another step. Then another. After that, each step propelled him forward quicker than the last, and he accelerated to a ground-eating sprint. In only a second, his long legs had closed the distance.

Dáinn hadn’t remained idle, and the crown of spikes lit up with purple energy as the chains swirled around him like a pair of protective serpents. His haunted eyes glowed with manic glee as the sound of his cackling laughter returned. His face contorting with glee, he shouted, “Give me your essence, demon!”

Zeke didn’t answer. Instead, he swung his massive hammer. Its passage came with a slight whistle of disturbed air, and Zeke half-expected the air to ignite. When it hit, it did so with enough force to level a small hill. The much smaller dwarf, still emaciated and weighing as much as a child, took the hit on crossed arms.

And to Zeke’s surprise, he only skidded back a couple of feet. Meanwhile, the spikes erupted into the fiery light of a shield, protecting Dáinn.

“Come, demon! Your essence will fuel my –”

Zeke hit him again, interrupting his monologue. And thus, the battle between two titans – one giant, and the other barely bigger than a child – began. Zeke could only hope that his new skill would give him the edge he needed to defeat the dwarf before he completed his recovery.