Chapter 357 - Divinity (Patreon)

Zeke was freezing. His extremities were numb. And he felt more sluggish than he’d ever felt in the middle of battle. But still, he pushed on, even as the blizzard swirled around him. He was the biggest and most obvious target, and so, he was where the storm of ice mana had been concentrated. As such, he got the worst of it as the storm of ice mana tried to slow him down.

It didn’t work.

Or rather, it definitely did what it was supposed to do. Even opposed by the combination of Zeke’s high resistances, inflated endurance, and Jasper’s song, the storm was powerful enough to cut right through his resistances and threatened to freeze the very blood in his veins.

But Zeke had another card to play, and much to Eveline’s giggling delight, he was forced to do so by embracing the demonic mana in his core – there was none to speak of in the environment – and transformed [Triune Colossus] into its corrupted form. The stout, plodding, and stalwart earth-attuned version slimmed down, the rough rock smoothing into abyssal metal as the crystals grew angrier and more jagged. In only an instant, he’d changed from a walking mountain into a demonic, armored predator.

More importantly, the ice in his veins melted the moment he sent the fiery power of the demon realm coursing through his body. Hellfire, it seemed, was even more opposed to ice-attuned mana than its more mundane counterpart.

“Technically, you don’t have access to Hellfire,” Eveline pointed out. “I know a lot of demons that would kill you for trying to rise above your station. Oh – you’re ignoring me again. Great. I guess I’ll just pretend I don’t exist like you like.”

Zeke had neither the time nor the inclination to deal with her, so he focused on the battle before him. Arrayed against him was a troop of at least a hundred goblins, each of whom was mounted on a shard wolf. Looming behind them were a handful of white-furred yetis.

But Zeke didn’t really care about any of them. With [Triune Colossus] he could easily stand up to them. Instead, he focused on a point well behind even the yetis. He could barely feel it, but it was just enough for him to recognize that the ice mana that drove the furious blizzard originated back there.

And he knew that if they were going to win the battle, he would have to do his job, which was to deal with the threats his army couldn’t. That was the deal. They would fight the minions while he targeted the leaders.

Inevitably, some of his people would die, but that was how battle worked. Neither side would emerge unscathed. However, he was enough of a strategist to recognize that if he didn’t deal with the most powerful enemies, his army would be laid to waste. So, with that task in mind, he rocketed forward. Born by the explosive strength of his demonic form, Zeke barreled through the goblins, shattering shard wolves and the little ice-armored humanoids as he tore through their ranks. He didn’t use any skills other than [Triune Colossus], but he didn’t need to, either.

The shard wolves were but a shadow of the ones he’d fought before, and the goblins were only really useful against less protected people who couldn’t deal with their auras. That included the bulk of his own army, but with demonic fire raging through him, as well as his resistances and endurance, he only found it uncomfortable.

So, he made it through the goblin ranks without any issue. When he reached the yetis, though, things changed. The hulking brutes were even bigger than his earthen colossal form, so they towered over the demonic version of the skill. And they had the strength to back it up, as Zeke found when he took a glancing blow from a club that looked like the femur of some gargantuan beast. Even getting clipped sent him twisting around before he lost his balance and skidded across the snow-covered ground.

“You know you have a finite amount of demonic mana in you, right?” said Eveline. “Probably best if you didn’t mess around with the underlings.”

Zeke groaned. He certainly hadn’t intended to get hit, but he’d been duped by the monster’s lazy-looking swing that looked like it was coming a lot more slowly than it really had been. An optical illusion that came from the thing’s massive size, no doubt.

The yeti roared after its successful attack, then attempted to follow up with an overhand blow that would have crushed even Zeke’s naturally armored form. He rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the attack, but it hit the ground with enough force to send a shockwave spreading in every direction. The roiling ground spoiled any attempt to rise to his feet, and by the time Zeke recovered, another handful of yetis had closed in on him.

Suddenly surrounded, Zeke felt his anger rising. Fueled by demonic mana as much as his own annoyance, his fury quickly mounted until he let out a roar and leaped into an attack that crushed a yeti’s ribcage. The monster was so heavy that it only stumbled back a couple of yards, but with a  caved-in chest, it didn’t remain on its feet for long. That provided even more fuel for Zeke’s mounting fury.

Continuing to roar, he sank into his anger as he dashed toward another yeti. This time, he aimed for a leg, and when Voromir connected, it did so with the always-satisfying crunch of shattered bones. The yeti, clearly unused to pain – after all, it was a huge, strong monster that was probably never challenged – howled in agony, but Zeke ended its suffering an instant later when he kicked its other leg out from under it, then leaped atop its fallen form and pummeled it with a pair of overhand blows that destroyed its simian head.

Zeke wheeled around, panting in excitement as he searched for another opponent. The yetis, though, were smart enough to recognize a losing battle when they saw one. So, as one, they wheeled around and lumbered toward more vulnerable opponents. Zeke was having none of that, and one-by-one, he used [Center of Gravity] on the remaining yetis, reversing their course so he could finish them off.

Not because he wanted to protect his companions or the population that depended on him. Sure – that might’ve been in the back of his mind, and later, he would cling to that justification. However, that wasn’t the true impetus behind his decision. In fact, he wasn’t thinking at all. Rather, he only felt the fury of battle and annoyance that his chosen targets were getting away.

So, with the anger – and demonic mana coursing through him – Zeke dispatched the yetis with brutal efficiency. And soon enough, the strongest members of the opposing horde were dead, leaving Zeke the chance to face off against the instigator.

Of course, the goblins weren’t going to let that happen without having their own say, and Zeke was forced to carve a path through an ocean of the little, blue humanoids in order to reach his intended destination. Scores of the creatures fell before his sweeping hammer strikes, and for the first time ever, Zeke began to feel a connection with his chosen weapon.

It wasn’t as if the thing spoke to him. And there was every chance that it was all in his head. But as he killed one goblin after another, Zeke could have sworn that he heard a vicious growl coming from the weapon. Did the weapon have a spirit? Or was it simply echoing his own emotional state?

Zeke had no idea. In fact, he didn’t even know what was possible. But whatever the case, that was a worry for another day.

For now, he needed to reach the person behind the army at his doorstep. So, he forged ahead through the blizzard, and predictably, it grew more intense with each step. Then, suddenly, there were a handful of crystalline statues in his way. Made of jagged ice and radiating intense cold, they looked down on him – an oddity in itself, given that he was over twelve feet tall – with frozen fury writ large on their implacable faces.

Or maybe it was the synchronized attack they sent his way that clued him into their collective anger.

Using a burst of demonic mana – which came close to draining his stores – Zeke barely managed to dodge a wave of icy lances. At the same time, a ringing and melodic laugh assailed his ears.

“Oh, you like my pets, do you? It took me years and years to gather the perfect materials – you’d think it would be easy to find ice elementals on a tundra, but no! They’re exceedingly rare, except among the oldest glaciers where even I don’t dare to tread. And then it took ages to get the right look. At first, they were just hunks of ice – boring! Now, they’re beautiful! And deadly, too! A perfect combination!”

Zeke tried to ignore the voice, but it was difficult to do so when it was loud enough to overwhelm the collective sound of Jasper’s song, the clash of battle, and the roaring blizzard. In any case, Zeke knew precisely how to counter the ice golems.

After all, he had minions of his own.

With a flick of his mind, he dragged earth mana from the ground. It wasn’t nearly as easy as it was back in the caves, but that was expected, given the prevalence of ice-attuned mana on the tundra. Regardless, it was plenty to fuel the activation of [Colossal Legion]. A vertical line split the air, spread open to reveal a portal, and a trio of massive, featureless bronze golems stepped out.

Each one was armed with a different weapon – taken from his cellar – but even if they lost those, they could summon their own bronze cudgels.

The golems weren’t the result of just any skill. Nor were they simply runecrafted creations. Instead, they were a combination of Zeke’s path, the skillful enchanting skill of the dwarves at their peak, and the flexibility of his class. As such, they were much more powerful than the ice golems the leader of the goblin horde had created.

When Zeke added his own personal power to the fight, it became a massacre.

Soon after, Zeke found himself striding between mounds of shattered ice.

However, the fight had taken the last bits of his demonic mana, and he knew that it wouldn’t be long before he was forced to switch [Triune Colossus] to one of his other forms. So, either he needed to end the fight quickly, or he’d have to somehow endure the escalating intensity of the blizzard while fighting the woman who’d brought an army of goblins to face him and his people.

Behind him, Zeke knew that people were dying. The goblins weren’t individually strong, but collectively, they were a horrifying opponent with seemingly endless numbers. At first, he’d estimated that there were thousands of the little creatures, but he’d begun to suspect that his guess was woefully inaccurate. Could his people win? Certainly. But not without incurring a significant cost. So, they were dependent on him to end the battle before the casualties got out of hand.

Which meant he only really had one choice.

When he finally caught sight of his opponent, Zeke hesitated. Like most elves, she was beautiful, albeit in a slightly alien way. To Zeke, she seemed more like a masterful painting or a well-made statue – a work of art, but in an impersonal way.

“A demon?” she said from forty yards away, her voice riding the blizzard so that he could easily hear it. However, he got the feeling that no one else could. “How novel. Tell me, how did you get here? Did those ridiculous dwarves finally do it? Did they summon a powerful archdemon into this realm? Are you his lackey?”

“I’m not a demon,” Zeke said, not bothering to raise his own voice. If she wanted to hear him, Zeke suspected that she could do just that without any issue.

“What? Of course…wait…demonkin, perhaps? Are you the result of some fel ritual where your mother was given to a –”

Zeke didn’t extend the conversation any further. Instead, he embraced his most powerful skill, [Unleash Momentum]. At the same time, he enforced his Will on the world, summoning forth the power of pure destruction. It was the fusion of his previous paths, but with something else added in. It was part hunger – a need to consume and obliterate – but it was restrained by something Zeke couldn’t quite identify. Something noble. Something –

“It’s divinity. Just a spark, but it’s there,” said Eveline. “And don’t get a big head or anything. Anyone who approaches the next realm has it. In some, it’s stronger than others, but…well, I will say that you achieved it far sooner than anyone else I’ve heard about. So…I suppose you should celebrate. Kudos.”

Divinity.

What did that word even mean? Was it just another source of power? Or was it something else? Eveline didn’t know; she’d only heard stories about divine might. However, Zeke could feel that it was incredibly potent. Even a spark – a drop of water amidst the ocean of his path – was enough to corral the hunger inherent in his path of destruction.

That was scary.

But like everything else he’d encountered since being reborn, he would use it to progress.

He released [Unleash Momentum], and the force of a thousand swings ripped across the space between him and the elven woman. She raised a barrier of ice – a thick wall that could have stopped a rampaging giant – but his skill was laced with the power of destruction. It obliterated the wall of ice, shattering it into motes of mana.

To her credit, the elven woman managed to raise another wall. Then another. And another after that. But the power of Zeke’s skill was undeniable. The might of his path was indomitable.

Inescapable.

Inexorable.

In a brief flash of power, the frost elf encased herself in a cocoon of thick ice that saved her life. However, even that shattered before Zeke’s skill.  Blue blood and similarly hued flesh misted into the air as she was thrown hundreds of yards away, carried forth by the sheer momentum of Zeke’s strike.

But Zeke hadn’t escaped the use of his own power unscathed. His flesh was rent, splattering blood all over the icy ground. More, his mind felt on the verge of bursting from the sheer weight of his own path. But because of [Bulwark of the Triumvirate], he managed to maintain consciousness. It wasn’t just good for protecting his mind from outside intrusion; it shielded him from his own power as well. However, it could through a tiny portion of the divine might he’d used, but it was enough to keep him conscious.

He staggered forward, embracing [Cambion’s Awakening] to heal his body with a burst of demonic mana. It was the last of his reserves, so after his body mended, he was forced to shift [Triune Colossus] to its unattuned form. And even though that exposed him to the storm, it also served the purpose of soothing his still-ravaged body and mind.

So, when Zeke reached the fallen elf, his head was clear, and his body was in good enough shape to end her. So, hefting his hammer, he did just that.

“Wow,” came Eveline’s voice. “You just went right for it, didn’t you? No hesitation.”

“Should I have? Hesitated, I mean.”

“No…”

“Then what?” he demanded, finally looking back at the battle. The storm had begun to clear the moment he’d hit the elf with [Unleash Momentum], but with her death, it had faded away entirely. And in its absence, the remnants of the horde scattered. The battle was won, though Zeke knew the cost was high.

“I don’t know. It’s just that most men would have…I guess they would have paused for a second before hitting a girl.”

“She wasn’t a girl. She was probably hundreds of years old,” Zeke said. “And she was the enemy. Gender has nothing to do with it.”

“Oh, no – I agree. It’s just that I expected something else.”

“You might be able to read my mind from time to time, but that doesn’t mean you know me,” Zeke said. Once, he might have hesitated just as Eveline had expected. No – he certainly would have. He might’ve even refused. But he’d seen too many powerful women to let gender enter into the calculation of whether or not he should kill someone.

Instead, he had to think about the survival of his people. And with the frost elf, her death had saved hundreds of lives. That was enough to banish any hesitation from his mind.

“Noted,” Eveline said, her voice for once reserved.