ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 155 Dispelling Corruption (Patreon)

Chapter 155

Dispelling Corruption

Thanksgiving

Energy flowed within Alexa, calling out to her, filling her with promises of power. Her mind was alive, as she had just seen her first true system message about how unbalanced her primary class was.

Congratulations: Your level in Absorber has increased to level 39.

With the level applied, she took her twenty free attributes and applied them evenly over her non-class related attributes.

Physical   Attributes Rating

Strength 345

Agility 345

Endurance 345

Mental Attributes Rating

Intelligence 345

Perception 930

Willpower 1,320

This feeling, the power gained by leveling was an experience unlike anything Alexa could imagine. She felt warm, deep inside she felt parts of her come to life. She felt the very connection she had to her mana surge. She felt the way her mind could see and experience the world around her expand in ways that were hard to fathom or fully explain. She that for a moment she was alive, part of the universe, and shining brightly like a star. Then just as quickly as the sensation came, it faded, until finally she felt her light dwindle until she was just a regular black speck upon the sea of the universe.

Panting.

That feeling was intense, but it was something she forced herself to see, to experience, to remember. Then once the moment was well and truly over, she moved on with her thoughts. She realized there was something wrong with the fact that her main class leveled, while her secondary class remained the same.

It was odd how only that class rose in level, one would assume that her lower Precursor Sage class would increase far before her Absorber class would, but that was not the case. As for how she managed to increase her Absorber class, that much was easy, she had just gone to the protective magical barrier that seemed to insulate the safehouse from the rest of the forest around her. Then she drained it dry.

The more she drained, the more hidden energies she found. There was a veritable stockpile of Void Essence here, somehow a set of protective runes were created to insulate other elemental forces from interacting with the aspects of the Void that she found.

The minute she felt the Void Essence at the edge of her consciousness, was the minute she realized she would not be leaving any witnesses here. In the back of her mind, she knew that there was no way these people were likely part of the same actioning cell that killed her father in England. Of that she was certain. Still the fact that these people had this component here, out in the woods, far away from other elven settlements proved several things to Alexa’s analytical mind. First, it proved that the elves knew what Void Essence was for, or at the very least what it could do. The fact that they had it out here, hidden behind protective barriers, and away from any major elven population centers proved that at the very least the leaders knew what the substance was for. Then there was the fact that they happened to have a stockpile right here, within proximity to Dawning Light Academy, to the TSI headquarters, and most importantly to the known home base of operations where Judge and Warder used to operate from. With all these details, Alexa was more than certain that this place was set up solely to kill or cripple the supers in this region.

Logically speaking, from an operative’s perspective, this was the equivalent of sneaking into a foreign country, setting up a hidden secret base, filling it with nuclear weapons, then leaving minimal manning at the position to keep the place from ever being found.

Logically speaking, Alexa was impressed with the sheer scale of the operation that had been conducted by these elves. They snuck into her world with weapons that were so dangerous that even the foreign planet identified the danger they posed. Thinking back on it now, the warning that the planet herself provided was also a clue to the scale and severity of this whole operation. The planet, her planet, likely had to deal with the surges of foreign energy, energy that was completely anathema to how life normally conducted itself. Even now, Alexa could feel the wrongness of the material that called out to her, and while she knew for a fact that she could finally withstand such a caustic material, the cost of dealing with such materials would be costly.

From a distance Alexa tried to reach out, with her Tier I control over Void magic, but was only able to tangentially feel the energy. With this level of control, she tried to reach out, to pull the energy towards her, but there was resistance. While the magical wards in the room had been disabled, there were still some protective casings that held back the Void energy and kept if from coming to her. This was no real problem, for Alexa had already come up with the plan to destroy this base and the elves that operated it. This base and what she would do to it, would be a warning to the elves.

Mentally Alexa still had pulses to other elven operatives and safe houses hidden amongst other countries. If she focused her mind, she could get the direction of one such safe house, but they were always far away from her. She got these connections from her battle with Ryelifa Dragon Slayer, when Alexa dueled with her before battling the great dragon, she did two things. First, she eliminated a dagger to the back, while also gaining full control over all the assets held by the Dragon Slayers on this planet. These were of course assets that would also need to be taken care of, but only once she had more time. Despite everything, despite how much power she seemed to have personally, the power was ultimately useless if she could not move quickly enough to stop her enemies.

In her mind, she knew that she had to use her pack, to start delegating missions out. If her pack was to survive what was soon to come, she would need help. People that could at the very least defend certain key areas. Yet, when there was a chance that Luke, or even Gina could be exposed to Void Essence...

Badump, badump.

Just thinking about such thoughts caused Alexa’s heart to race with phantom pain. The pain made her realize more and more just where her priorities in life were, and where she should focus her efforts. Of course, such thoughts were for times of peace, as for now, she had to act.

With her mind made up, she immediately jumped into action.

The first thing she did was create a Clone of herself, one that was nearly identical down to her legendary magical sword. The clone following her mental directions went to the front of the building, while Alexa herself found an empty room away from the two elves who were at the front, only to then see the moment when one changed. The minute the energy level went down, the healthy elf ran to the back and immediately began messing with the Void Essence stones. Realizing this, Alexa sprang into action, linking her mind with her clones.

Knock, knock.

The clone pounded loudly on the front door, while Alexa stabbed inward with her sword into the wall of the makeshift building. With her sword fully in the wall, she began slicing left and down. This created an opening, but the next part would be noisy.

Bang! Bang!

The clone pounded on the door, going so far as to slam the door open. This was perfect as it gave Alexa the time and cover, she needed to barge in through the back wall.

There was a quick battle at the front, where the injured elf went against her clone. As she expected, the clone made quick work.

“Gah!” The injured elf cried out as it was all but mowed down. That is when the Clone made her way inside the building and the pop.

Just like a balloon, her clone made up of magic and interwoven threads of will burst from existence. The sensation was a bit jarring, as it was something Alexa had never experienced before. Trying to understand, Alexa mentally played back the last few impulses she got from her Clone. The clone had killed the elf, then charged into the open room, then there was a flash and burst of light, and then the clone ceased to exist.

Moving silently, Alexa peaked her head out from the side room she was in.

Flash.

The moment she popped her head out from the side room, she felt a surge of energy flash outwards, towards her, the light was so intense that it burnt her face. At least that is what the sensation felt like.

In an instant, she realized that the flash of light was a form of energy, one that she had never experienced before. The burning sensation she felt had directly targeted her magically constructed clothing. Even now she could feel the way her class was greedily absorbing the energy, but it was an odd texture to this energy. She paused for a second, trying to understand what was happening, then it hit her, this was likely some type of secondary magical suppression technique meant as a fail safe in case the main power goes down to the safehouse, if that happened, then this thing would activate and Dispel all magic in the area. That was the only thing that made sense, and the only thing that seemed to fit with what was happening. The giant crystal orb at the center of the room was able to somehow cast Dispel magic. This magic had been believed to be possible, though no one had ever heard of such a thing. A few Supers claimed to have had it, but they all died quick deaths at the hands of Supers with bullets and other weapons less magical weapons. When asked, the Elves and Orcs both denied such magics or abilities were even possible, but this clearly shows those statements to be false. The more Alexa seemed to realize about her world, the more she realized she was just scratching the surface. Everything she knew, or everything that was assumed to be the case was clearly off.

What was the strangest thing about this whole situation was the fact that the magical device that fired off beams of magic didn’t stand out to her enhanced senses in any real way. At least not until it fired off its beams of disintegrating magic. At least from her point of view the magic should be considered disintegration magic, as it had burnt away her uniform that she had created. Either her weaving and tier skills were not strong enough to resist the effects of this Dispelling magic, or there was something else at play. Still Alexa decided not to waste any more time. Her target was across the hallway and was clearly doing something with the Void Essence. From a quick glance it appeared as though the elf was somehow mentally absorbing the energy, causing it to do something to her. Even from so far away, Alexa could see and feel the way the Void Essence was altering the elf down to her very core. Realizing that she couldn’t worry about the disintegration rays that were firing at her from the center of the hut, Alexa did what she always did, she improvised.

Grabbing the door, Alexa used her now system enhanced strength and pulled the door free of its hinges.

Groan.

The metal made a quick groaning sound, one that was easily heard in the small confines of the hut, as the elf suddenly startled, paused their energy absorption process, only to hesitate and cry out in pain.

“Gah!”

Crash, shatter.

All types of sounds were coming from the other room, as the elf sounded both frantic and in pain. That was Alexa’s cue to charge. Taking the now loose door, Alexa angled the door at a 60-degree angle, so that it could easily slide through the two doorways. Then moving quickly, Alexa charged forward, even as she felt the burst and sudden burning of the magical clothing covering her body to be burnt away.

Still, despite the pain, Alexa charged forward, as her gloves, and her clothing from the knees down began to burn away, leaving her with her bare feet running against the ground. Then the next second she was across the hall, into the room with the Void Essence crystals. In the same room as the last elf who had botched her absorption process and was now in the process of changing into a horrific monster.

Had this been her first time seeing such a creature Alexa likely would have paused, would have hesitated, would have wanted to see the transition. Yet, Alexa had already seen this type of monster, she had seen what a monster like this could evolve into, if given enough time. Seeing the beast before her, Alexa sprung into action, first slamming the door she was carrying down onto the back of the elf that was crying out as her body looked like it was melting and being reformed before her eyes.

Wham!

The door crashed down and instantly broke in two across the beast’s back. Then Alexa unsheathed her sword from her back that had been protected by the door. Well mostly protected, as it seemed the blade was a half inch shorter than previously. The magic at the end of the blade was wild and chaotically unwinding, but that didn’t matter, at least not yet.

For now, Alexa took the sharpened blade, and slammed it down and into the creature.

Whoosh!

The blade struck down with ruthless proficiency through the back of the creature, pinning the beast in place.

Slime movement.

The moment the blade carved through; Alexa could feel the way the skin broke off around the sword and began to flow around the blade like it was some form of jello that she had the audacity to try to skewer with a knife.

“Grah!” The gelatinous creature cried out, as it spun around with torque and movements that could only be made possible by something with either highly flexible bones, or something that had lost all semblance to the bony structure it once had to begin with.

Wham!

Flash!

With a mighty blow, Alexa was hurled back through the wall, into and through the hallway, where she was once again hit by a beam of the disintegration ray that was that stupid dispelling orb at the center of the open room that stood for the main gathering area for this safehouse.

Intense burning.

The magical items on her sides were being burnt away slowly. Fortunately, Alexa had remembered to wear real sportswear undergarments, otherwise this battle would soon spiral out of control. As it was, she stood up and instantly felt the right side of her uniform begin to shift ever so slightly, as it was no longer held tightly in place by the other half of her skintight, yet breathable uniform. For a moment, she had a mental flash of her father, and how he had to take down Buggatron with his own boxers showing for the world.

“Like father, like daughter.” Alexa said, as she realized there was no going back, no time outs to change her wardrobe. All she could do was finish this battle as quickly and efficiently as possible and just be thankful that this wasn’t in a high traffic area where videos of this battle would be live streamed to social media like her father had to go through.

Shaking her head, she charged forward and once again began entering combat with the slimy creature. This time she used her fists, and her exposed feet.

Still as she charged forward, all she could think about was all the lessons her mother always pounded into her head about always wearing underwear underneath the suit.