The Gamer Chapter 324 - Rulebreaker (Patreon)

“Rom!” “Romulus!” the twin goddesses cried out as their master’s heart was ripped backwards by four segmented claws in a shower of red. “What...?” the emperor snapped out of his concentrated spell weaving to stare at the monster before him, holding the still convulsing and quivering muscle. The fact that he had no heart didn’t interfere whatsoever with his ability to keep living.

The nuclear explosion was still being contained, but that was all it was, and Romulus couldn’t both fight back and keep the explosion clear. John barely registered; his mind was puzzling together pieces that didn’t make sense in their current configuration. The pain, not numbed by any skills, and undeniable fear made his mind feel like a broken unit, but he needed to solve this.

Then it all snapped into place. “I need to get to her,” he said. A saddened voice reached his barely hearing ears, “Master, that is no longer-“ “I don’t care, Aclysia!” he interrupted her, and for the first time, she didn’t finish her sentence afterwards. “I will save her or die trying. Either we succeed or that thing kills Romulus. I will not go quietly to the other side,” he growled.

He couldn’t let her succeed, not just because of his self-interest in surviving but because he knew exactly how this was going to end. If Thana succeeded, then she would continue to murder everything inside barriers that she could find, growing stronger with each soul she absorbed. She would go on and on until there was no Abyss left, then she would continue in reality and challenge Gaia herself.

John had no idea what her chances were in that match-up, but if she lost, she was dead. That would be the best outcome. Worse would be if she won and eradicated all of mankind, fading, with her purpose fulfilled, and leaving nothing behind but a planet bare of all the wonders humanity managed to build.

Nothing but a lonely, immortal girl, crying in confusion and cursing the sky.

Aclysia looked at him for a few more moments. “What are we waiting for,” Momo said and helped John to his feet by slinging his uninjured arm around her neck; “Let’s get going.” He was afraid it was already too late for that; Thana was already about to attack Romulus a second time.

The emperor clearly wasn’t willing to just leave his people to die even if he himself could survive. Maybe he would even willingly become a martyr so they could see another day. However, Romulus also knew that only he could attempt to stop this unknown monster now.

Luckily, he was given a few short moments to think as the goddess seemed much more interested in devouring his heart for the moment. Her elongated fingers moved the sinewy tissue towards her maw. Then she was suddenly ripped backwards and tossed, angrily screaming as the energy filled heart escaped her grasp.

“I will be taking this,” Particles of arcane power filled the air, the aftermath of a teleportation. “You look like you could use some help, old friend,” an amused voice, inhumanely deep and yet with undertones of a rat’s squealing, spoke as its owner looked at the heart in his hand like Hamlet was often depicted doing with a skull. 

“Muris,” Romulus’ voice ringed with more anger than anything, looking from the Horned Rat over to the one accompanying him; “Is this one of your twisted ploys? You two traitors have a lot of nerve to show your face to me.”

“Halt your empty bravados for later, Rom,” Nathalia growled looking at the cuts in her scaled palms where she had grappled Thana’s tail; “Let’s deal with the situation at hand.” With a savage scream, the goddess of genocide reminded them of her existence, blood foaming out of the gap in her mask like a mange infested beast.

“We will protect you until you diffuse that bomb,” the Horned Rat announced and faced the monster. “Why would you-?” “You were absent-minded for most of what just happened, but in short: this thing eats human souls. Even I am not brazen enough to think I can toy with a mindless, walking apocalypse that has YOUR powers,” the god of dawning calamity spoke; “I saw something coming, but not THIS!”

With that last word, Thana instantly bridged the distance between them. Distant at least to John, whose plans to get closer were now nothing more than a suicide command as Thana and Nathalia clashed.

The earth shook as they locked hands. “I have beaten the girl who you inhibit in a contest of strength before, you won’t be different,” Nathalia growled, pushing against the smaller frame of her foe. The ground itself couldn’t handle the immense force and broke around them, a giant tear splitting first the floor, then the walls of the arena itself.

“Besides, you are going to repay me,” the Horned Rat waved with the heart; “Or rather, you already have. Unbind me!” The god commanded the heart which trembled. “Your stupendously high magic resistance always annoyed me,” Richard growled, “MAKE ME WHOLE AGAIN!” The muscle in his hand trembled, and then, after Romulus willingly let go of his own resistance, it disintegrated.

Thana chittered its teeth, and there was a forced, insectoid clacking sound that weaved into the terrible orchestra that accompanied its every move. It was laughing. Without any humanity left, it still had the capability to find that thought, that Nathalia was stronger than her, funny.

Nathalia’s hands broke with the sound of splintering stone under the genocide’s grip. The dragoness didn’t cry out in pain, simply looking shocked as she was forced to bend backwards. She was going to lose in a contest of raw strength and by a huge margin nonetheless.

Luckily, she wasn’t alone in this fight.

The Horned Rat conjured a series of arcane chains that flew at Thana in attempt to bind her. Without even attempting to dodge, it took the attack and simply ignored the bindings as it continued to push Nathalia to the floor.

The volcano goddess had materialized most of her draconic features, from wings to tail, by now in an attempt to free more of her true power. Still, she was barely even able to hold enough pressure against Thana to not just be completely at its mercy.

“If that isn’t working,” the Horned Rat bellowed and ran close. The moment he got angle and distance correct, a sword of pure energy appeared around his right, and he took a swipe at their foe with the Mana Blade.

It was smaller than what John could produce with Purgatory but yet seemed immensely more powerful. It cut through the monster’s exoskeleton and, indeed, sliced through it’s whole body, exiting on the other side of its stomach where the blade vanished before hurting Nathalia.

But it changed nothing. The wound at the entrance point was already gone before the spell had been halfway through its form. Tail whipping around, Thana sent the Horned Rat flying while slashing over his furred chest.

Then the abomination decided that it finally had enough of this little strength contest and pulled Nathalia up. In a quick succession of movements, she slammed the dragoness on the floor over and over again like a dusty rug, each impact causing parts of the already damaged colosseum to break down further.

It left the dragoness lying there and started its march towards Romulus again. Ignoring the bolt of magic flying past her, it continued walking, disinterested in anything but her goal, until a shadow and immense heat fell over it.

With the sound of a roar brewing inside her chest, the obsidian dragon that was Nathalia closed her bleeding and broken claw around the goddess of genocide. It stemmed against the claws as it was raised to the sky. “To have a shrinking spell used on me,” Nathalia roared; “SUCH DISGRACE!”

Fire spewed forth out of her maw. Pure heat, engulfing her raised claw and rising up to the dimensional gap in the Protected Space in the sky. Red, blue, finally white, the fire became hotter and hotter. Then the dragoness felt her grip being pried open, and Thana fell towards her.

The impact of the punch shook her whole being, head being forced towards the floor on her snake-like neck. It crashed and her outer layers splintered. With a desperate shake of her head, she managed to lose the overpowering pest, who flew through the air and landed on all fours.

Thirteen arcane circles overlapped around the bone-clad monster, each a different colour and shade. Portals opened all around, forming a twelve-sided prison. “Have fun with this,” the Horned Rat declared and unleashed a barrage of spells into there.

The goddess of genocide dodged the initial attacks easefully, but instead of just dissipating, they flew into one of the portals and then continued their path from a different direction. Slowly but surely, the space between the portal became a melting pot of raw mana fusing in hundreds of different small spells all hitting the same target.

Using up most of his power, the Horned Rat conjured one last ball of highly condensed energy. White, cold light crackled through the gaps in the cage as Richard, breathing heavily from the assault while flying above, took a moment to recover mana.

And just a moment was all the time Thana needed. Souls, blood and liquid bone streamed out through the gaps and formed a blade that then darted straight upwards. It was an estimated shot only, and the Horned Rat managed to dodge, but, in the process, he lost his grip at the imprisoning spell.

Nathalia’s maw snapped at the now free foe before it could do anything dangerous. The goddess of genocide jumped backwards to escape the teeth; the dragoness tried a second time. With her feet planted firmly on the ground, Thana caught the jaws closing down on her from left and right.

Bony claws dug into the impossibly hard volcanic glass, shattering it and causing lava to spew forth as she pulled with terrible force. Thana screamed as it used more and more power and finally felt something give and ripped the lower jaw out of the dragon goddess.

Nathalia was freed in the process but in immense pain. Stumbling backwards, her instincts screamed at her to bring some distance between herself and Thana. Cackling by clicking its teeth, the white and blue haired monster threw the enormous jaw at its original owner and sending both of them flying into the arena wall.

“I am complete! I feel GREAT!” the Horned Rat sounded so incredibly happy that it didn’t fit at all into the dire battlefield. A fact that he also realized when Thana came for him. It took step for step towards him while he showered her in spells.

A sheer endless wave of destructive patterns, fireballs, ice lances, arcane explosions and mana condensed into the size of a marble, all of them flew at Thana. All of them were useless. To the nightmarish abomination they were only chinks in its armour. They did deal some damage, yes, but it just healed them.

If he had brought 10 of himself, that would have achieved something, but like that, the goddess of genocide just stepped closer as the Horned Rat tried to step away and keep the barrage going. Then it was up close and grabbed his spell flinging arms, tearing them straight off.

They turned into a writhing mass of rats, insects and crows, quickly fleeing as Thana discarded them without further care. Breaking the legs of the god, it made him kneel and then severed the name-giving skull from its shoulders.

“This is a very unfortunate turn of events,” the head spoke as its body did as it arms had and broke down into all the critters that were linked to bad omens. The arena was basked in darkness as Thana readied herself to break the skull and with it end the Horned Rat once and for all.

Darkness that was caused by the sun in the middle of the arena finally vanishing.