Zero Potential: Chapter 24 (Patreon)

Chapter 24

Hollow, that was the only true emotion Terra could feel right now. Abandoned by the Gods and their blessings, that was the only thing that could explain what she felt. As she clearly felt the halo fall from the heavens and shine on the kingdom she was in.

Terra had read about such accounts from her own childhood. Supposedly a flash just like the one she had seen appeared when she was just eight years old. That was partly why she had been allowed to survive, as everyone had felt the halo effect and had let her live on the off chance that she was to be the chosen one.

This time however it appeared as though time changed. The world apparently saw her final success and rewarded her with a chance to start over without fear of the being of ultimate evil, at least that is what she now felt to be right.

Yet, everywhere she turned, all she saw was corruption. People using power to beget more power. Wealth to come from those who had nothing, and above all else, she still saw the same corruption and coercive tactics that she had turned a blind eye to in her past lives.

All these thoughts went off in her mind in an instant.

Then she heard the words that caused her to finally awaken from her self-pity.

“Found you!” The gravelly voice of the Immortal she had just subdued moments ago cried out.

Hearing the words, Terra at first thought to hide. As her soul was currently cleaned, that she could still receive the blessing of the Gods if she remained pure. Then reality struck as she realized she had been a candidate and had been passed over. For hundreds of years, she had spent her life being pure, being devout, and yet one battle with the Immortal was enough to forever clip her wings.

In one hour, an Immortal had done what the being of ultimate evil could never do. This Immortal had taken her from the path of righteousness and forever wasted her chance at redemption. In her mind, she knew logically that she had been given enough of a chance, too many chances some might say, but she was close, so close, and now it was all ruined.

Suddenly the hollow void within her chest filled with righteous fury, as she instinctively rose to her feet, onyx blade daggers drawn with a graceful ease that should set most on alarm. As she waited, Terra also began practicing her counter plans, as mana began being channeled through the staff on her back and was used to cast a spell far off in the distance. Magic did take time to cast properly, after all.

The Immortal saw the spell and flinched for a second, before realizing that the spell cast had missed. Realizing the mistake, the Immortal smiled. Rows of jagged teeth meant to rip and rend flesh from bone appeared. His eyes glowed a golden color as they began to take on the hue of morning light within them.

Normally an Immortal’s fierce beauty was enough to frighten many seasoned warriors, but for Terra she welcomed the sight. This perceived violence, this moment, had given her new insight into how she wanted to proceed with her life. Right now it was clear that either the being of supreme evil was truly gone, or that she was no longer deemed to be worthy of fighting against the true darkness of the world.

With such a fate chosen for her, all she could do was grit her teeth, smile widely, and execute her revenge.

Shink, swish, slice.

Terra’s dual blades began cutting through the air with a speed and rhythmic cadence that was hard to match.

The Immortal, who had also been smiling a moment before, suddenly paused as they seemingly witnessed the shift in demeanor.

A moment ago, Terra was kneeling dejectedly on the ground. She was weak, and vulnerable. Any predator would have pounced at the sight of her, not because she was weak, but because she was known to be strong and showing a moment of weakness. That was the key, the one that Terra had known all too well. Many times, she had fallen into the same or similar traps with the being of ultimate evil.

Terra had seen many moments when the being of ultimate evil appeared to show moments of doubt, of remorse. Originally, she would feel that she had to strike at that moment, only to be quickly defeated.

At the time Terra didn’t realize the truth of such moments, that when a being is down and their resolve is being tested, that is the moment to fear the truly great ones of the world. For if they are down at rock bottom and rise, they will be unstoppable.

That was what Terra felt now. Yes, life was far from perfect, far from where she wanted or hoped it would be. Yet, she would not break, not from this, not from anything.

Monstrous claws met obsidian blades.

Hiss.

As they did, the Immortal looked first shocked and then frightened by the fact that it had been so easily countered. Normally the claws that extended from their fingertips would be more than enough to break or bend even the strongest of steel. Yet, here she was using her glowing blades that appeared almost purple to the sun’s rising light, and she was winning.

That was when he spoke his second to last words.

“Obsidian blades?” He half hissed, half cried out.

Terra didn’t speak, for in this moment she was purely focused on striking. The monster before her was faster, but his moves were open and sloppy. He had apparently been stuck at the apex of the world for so long that he seemed to miss the fact that he could still practice and improve. His feet never moved, his hips were still, but his arms and clawed hands lashed out with speed and ferocity that would still be hard to counter. Yet, seeing the movements, Terra struck out.

Splash.

Sizzling blood sprayed out, striking her in the face and instantly began to sizzle once exposed to rays of the sun. Immortal blood, said to give immortality to anyone who consumed enough, but the blood came with a price.

That price was the cost of one’s own soul, or at least the pledging of one’s soul to the god of Corruption. Terra at one point would have been unafraid of this, as her soul had long ago been taken by the Gods of light, protected against such corruptions.

Was she still protected? She didn’t quite know, nor did she care.

At this moment all that mattered was ridding the world of this monster. One who could apparently track her via smell, but then Terra also noticed the unmistakable blue glowing orb coming from his pocket, identifying that he had used an orb to track her more effectively.

Seeing the glowing orb, a slight burst of anger filled her as the Immortal had lied to her. At least that is what she had thought, the only thing she could expect from this exchange.

The monster lashed upwards, fingers and talons extended trying to grab and tear away skin as it rose. Terra deftly moved to the left, having seen the strike coming from nearly a mile away, then holding out her blade to the right, sliced downward at the offending arm.

Slink.

The two opposing forces met, and as expected the obsidian blade won the encounter, easily slicing through the limb of the Immortal.

Spray, sizzle.

More jets of blood sprayed outwards, instantly seeing and then being burnt by the morning light. The light also caused the exposed skin of the shoulder to cauterize and sizzle away, as a giant pulsing black scab filled the pit of the arm.

Hiss.

Wincing in pain, the monster used its remaining good right arm to cover up its now sliced off left and then as expected teleported away, back and to the right.

Yet, the escape was short lived, as Terra never stopped channeling energy into her spell that had missed, at the beginning of the battle.

KABOOM!

The ground shook with violent force as Terra let go the manifesting power of her spell.

Then with the practiced ease of a true master of Spatial Magic, Terra created a rift and strode forward, instantly entering a magical warzone filled with burnt and burning trees.

Aligning herself to the monster that was just now slowly getting up from the ground, Terra smiled. The once magnificent creature was now a burnt and hovelled husk of a burnt black monster. Charred earth and burnt blood mingled on the ground, leaving signs of miasma that would need to be cleansed, if people didn’t want these woods to become poisoned or corrupted. But such thoughts were beyond Terra at this point.

Right now, she cast a second spell, that once again missed, the monster.

The monster at first appeared to be happy that Terra had missed him, when he was so close. He almost wanted to mock her, one final act of defiance before he regained his composure enough to leave, but he couldn’t. Instead, all he did was climb his way up to his wobbly legs.

Terra, realizing that chivalry was dead, charged forward and began striking out at the Immortal who was in the process of trying to grow out a burnt mass of left arm, all while trying to cure the numerous scars and scorch marks that lined his body.

Wobbly, the monster raised up its one good right arm to strike, but Terra had already moved to her right, allowing her to easily dodge the strikes of the incoming arm. Then with a quick horizontal cross-cut left, Terra lashed out. The monster barely had time to register the attack, let alone come up with a counter.

The Immortal monster that had been unbeatable under the cover of darkness was clearly out of its depths in the morning light, where the monster blinded by rage seemed to be fighting against both its curses and Terra.

Slink.

The blade sliced through flesh and bone easily.

Plop.

With that, the head of the beast rolled to the ground. All while the body of the monster just stood there, momentarily frozen.

Terra paused, using the moment to take in a deep gulp of air.

Mockingly, the monster began moving its lips, as if trying to speak. Yet, without any vocal cords, such actions were tough. Yet, Terra had learned how to read lips through her many lifetimes, that was how she managed to make out the words.

“You think this is enough to kill me?” The monster said, with a maniacal grin filling his face.

The monster moved to grab the head, but Terra quickly lunged left, and lashed out with her onyx blades again, striking out the arm.

Slink, slice.

Once again, her blades struck true, cutting through the arm, causing it to fall lifelessly to the ground. The Immortal realizing that it still had a chance at survival, for as long as either its heart or its mind remained intact, it could eventually resurrect itself, the monster paused and began to tense up. Seeing the motion, Terra realized that the monster was once again trying to teleport away.

Yet something was wrong, moving quickly Terra lashed out with the pommel of her right dagger, using it to strike the now completely unarmed body of the Immortal slightly on its upper right shoulder. The effect wasn’t much. No blade was used, meaning that there was no additional damage to blood or bone. Instead, all it did was cause the beast to stagger slightly.

That staggering was enough, as Terra realized the moment the mind was able to enact its control over its body. There was a clenching of every muscle, and then a slight vibration, then the monster was gone, back and to the right.

The moment the monster’s body went away, a slight look of pride filled the monster’s face, as it had once again escaped. Despite being decapitated, there was a reason beasts like him were called Immortals, and that had to do with the fact that they were nearly indestructible. Even when facing off against monsters like Terra, there was little one could do, when the body would regenerate from any damage, so long as it was nighttime out and either the head or heart remained.

The look of relief was short lived however, as the monster who could still hear and see everything was shocked, when he heard another distant explosion.

FWABOOM!

With that the monster who had been rather smug began to roll its eyes back in pain, as its jaws distended showing rows of jagged teeth.

Even from this distance, Terra could see the burning husk of the Immortal’s body being set ablaze to the near inferno of power that Terra kept slowly charging thanks to her channeling energy through her staff.

Terra watched the skull go, until its once perfect skin began to wither and rot, a sign that it had lost contact with most of its power. Now, the skull was little more than overgrown hair, on a rotting skull.

Smiling maliciously, Terra grabbed the skull by its long greasy hair and stared into the eyes of the monster. Where once brilliantly blue irises stared at her were now filled with white cataract filled eyes. Still, Terra knew that the monster could still see her.

“Tell your God I said hi.” Terra said, then with a quick flick of her wrist, she threw the skull high in the air. Then as it came down, Terra lashed out with both blades striking the skull and splitting open the contents in the morning light.

Sizzle.

Instantly the chunks that remained were caught by the sun and began burning away instantly. Seeing the sun doing its part, Terra decided to help, by channeling a bit of extra flames to ensure the monster was completely gone.

Finally, after a long time she realized her task was over, as she received a message from the Heavens. While this was a welcome reprieve, it did not mean that she was once again chosen by the Gods, as the Gods could talk to everyone in this way.

You have slain an Immortal of Corruption, the Gods of Light are pleased.

You have slain an Immortal of Corruption, the God of Corruption is angered.

This was to be expected, as the Gods of Light often fought with the different gods of darkness.

The God of Corruption has cursed your soul.

Error: You do not have a soul to corrupt.

The God of Corruption has blessed you with Immortality.

Immortality: You will never grow old, you will never age, you will never die unless your mind and your heart both are destroyed.

The God of Corruption has Cursed you with Obedience to the Darkness.

The Gods of Light have removed your curse of Obedience to the Darkness.

The God of Corruption has Cursed you with Blood Sustenance.

The Gods of Light have removed your curse of Blood Sustenance.

With that Terra felt that there was a minor war, where the God of Corruption and the Gods of Light warred with each other. Each trying to weaken the other’s hold over Terra.

Finally, the curses and removal of curses ended, with Terra just having the one curse from the God of Corruption.

Apparently, it was okay for Terra to remain Immortal, but it was not okay for her to be corrupted in the same way as the other Immortals under Corruption’s purview were.

Then just as Terra thought that everything was over, she was met with one last message.

The God of Corruption has grown interested with you. The God of Corruption waits to see you again.

Not wants, not will wait, but is waiting, as if it expects their meeting to be inevitable.

“No.” Terra said, defiantly, then preparing to move, she took one step, then felt an intense throbbing in her head, then in her heart as well. Still this was only pain, having gone through much worse in her past lives, Terra decided to strive forward.

One step, then another.

Mentally she felt the moment when it felt like her heart stopped pumping, as her blood felt like it was suddenly turned to sludge within her veins, still she forced her body to move, all while casting magic upon her heart.

Instantly, the healing magic she cast on her chest alleviated the pain for a moment, before she felt the energy getting siphoned into her. Then she felt it, the grinding of mud to blood, at least something resembling blood within her body.

“The curse of Immortality.” Terra said, clutching at her chest, right over her heart, as she tried to deal with the sudden pain of her body slowly being changed by the curse of Immortality.