The Gamer Chapter 1225 – The Fate of Another Kingdom 11 – Gold Caked in Blood [Eliana POV] (Patreon)

Eliana clenched her teeth under the mask. Blood flowed to her chin, only to be immediately absorbed into the veins that travelled between the plates of her bone exterior. She screamed at the top of her lungs, needles of blood pushing past the jagged rim where the white mask had cracked. She did not think. Thinking was what separated her. Hatred for Jevaine was all that was important. A traitor to humanity. The kind of person to which she owed her accursed existence.

Unlike Arkeidos, Jevaine did not have the presence of mind to force her to consider her station through words and mockery. The Gold Eater was only a mind possessed by power. Laughing, she raised her hand to conjure another arcane attack.

“Get up,” Eliana growled at her ally, extending a hand. She glanced over when it was taken. Nathalia was in a worse state than herself. Lava flowed from several patches where the scales had not yet regenerated. The confines of the battlefield prevented her from using her entire power.

“I will make you suffer when we are out of here, brat,” Nathalia hissed back, while the failed goddess pulled her to her feet. A giant ball of arcane energy formed above Jevaine’s hand. A massive clunk, like a giant lock being turned, echoed through the cave, just as she launched it.

Nathalia beat her wings while Eliana leapt off to the side. Her clothes were already burned to ash, as tended to happen to someone like her who only wore them for decency’s sake. Leaping from one wall to the other to gain more height, only a part of her bone plates was burned. The charred pieces turned back into white so quickly, it could have been mistaken with her reverting time.

Grabbing onto one of the spikes that protruded from the walls of the cracked orb, Eliana pulled herself high up into the air. She sailed past the outer edge, then started to descend. Energy focused in her extended leg accelerated her. The Meteor Fall brought her back down to the ground at supersonic speed.

Yet, Jevaine was still faster. What met Eliana was the golden fist of the irritatingly decorated Ironborn. It slammed into her head. Fragments of her skull and brain matter flew all over the place, only the mask retaining structural integrity.

All senses were lost for a moment. Two seconds of darkness, then her head regenerated fully. Above her was Nathalia, slamming her entire weight into the foot that had been about to crush the failed goddess. The two swiftly retreated, much to Jevaine’s amusement.

“Hahahahahaha,” the Ironborn laughed continuously, causing both of the goddesses to growl and wait for the next attack.

A second, deeper clunk echoed through the cavern. Then, a whole series of smaller, almost unnoticeable sounds reached Eliana’s highly sensitive ears. Like grains of sand in a metal mechanism, grinding inside and damaging the finer pieces of the equipment.

Suddenly the furnaces at both ends of the chasm bellowed. The necromantic green and prismatic fires were overcome by a disruptive flare of arcane purple. For a flash, the original colours returned, spewing them outwards. Then, they dimmed away, just as the connection between the one furnace of Jevaine’s being did. Her laughter stopped.

“And there goes her arrogance,” Nathalia remarked, a sadistic grin on her face.

Eliana’s reaction was less refined. Fully indulging in the mad glee she took in Jevaine’s shock, the failed goddess practically screamed out her amusement. “Hnnnhahaha…hehhih…AHAHAHAAA…AHA…hihihihi….AHAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAAHAAAHAHAAAA!!!” the intensity of her laughter waxed and waned, the pitch went all over the tone ladder, clear was only the insane joy she felt. It doubled in intensity when Jevaine shouted with rage. “COME AT ME, BITCH!” Eliana yelled.

Like a living bulldozer, Jevaine took the invitation. The link was broken, which meant that no new power would refresh what she had. This meant that Nathalia and Eliana now had two objectives: to peter her out and to prevent her from reaching a new source of value when she was about to run out. If she could have effectively utilized the entirety of the spire, Arkeidos would have doubtlessly allowed her to. Still, in a moment of desperation, she may have taken the entirety of it for another five minutes of might.

Eliana, insanely eager as she was to dismantle Jevaine like a tuna can, still remembered the strategy meeting. They were on track so far. All they had to do now was take her far away while the power rush still numbed her mind.

That Jevaine immediately fell for the provocation only made things easier. Eliana leapt from one wall to the other again. This time, when she made it to the upper edge, she kept on moving. The power dynamic had been switched. Previously, leaving the Gold Eater behind to potentially reinforce any other site of battle would have been disastrous. Now that she was acting on borrowed time, it was Eliana and Nathalia that could not be allowed to leave. Whether Jevaine even realized that was doubtful.

Eliana took several leaps, Jevaine giving chase and Nathalia flying after them as fast as she could. More and more, the dragoness fell behind, despite her ability to fly. Jevaine gained ground. A scream of rage and frustration caused the failed goddess to take a moment to turn and grin. With crossed arms, she stood on one of the rune covered bridges between the pillars.

A mistake, she knew before she even stopped, and she did it anyway. The form it took was surprising, however. Jevaine pulled a hand back and conjured a whip of arcane energy. It was a glowing manifestation of raw energy, as unrefined as her other spells and as terribly powerful.

The whip wrapped around Eliana’s waist, pulling her backwards and right into an uppercut. She cut through the air, the ceiling of the cave, and the floor of some side room in the Eternal Fortress. The dark red stone accentuated a fantastically decorated chamber, complete with a bathtub and a large oil painting of Reetha.

Eliana grinned when the room was destroyed by Jevaine’s arrival. The Ironborn’s much larger form widened the hole that had been created. A swinging kick connected squarely with Jevaine, smashing her through a neighbouring wall. The rubble was still falling when she charged back at Eliana.

The two slammed fists into each other repeatedly, wreaking havoc on the building as they progressed. Unlike the largely useless attacks Eliana had landed before, every hit counted now. Every bit of damage sustained, every attack survived depleted Jevaine’s borrowed power further. The question in a vacuum was what would win out: the value she had absorbed or Eliana’s absurd regenerative abilities.

They were not fighting in a vacuum, so Eliana did not have to take that bet.

A massive punch was coming her way and Eliana deliberately leaned into it so it would strike her chest rather than her lower abdomen. Ribs and lungs were combined into one mass before she was launched through several more walls. Fleeting images of luxury passed her by in a blur, until the stagnant air of the inside was suddenly replaced with the dusty air of the life-leeched outside.

Bloodburn’s wings fanned out with a violin-esque scream. Their appearance was just for show, they didn’t even allow her to glide. Martial arts were what allowed her to take a single step on the air. It catapulted her further upwards, away from Jevaine who started to fall.

They were at one of the corners of the fortress, the star-fort esque protrusion. Their scuffle had left a sizable hole in the side of it. A hole that leaked fire.

The entirety of that corner of the Eternal Fortress, itself several kilometres across and hundreds of metres high, began to glow with heat. Jevaine was unaware of this, pulling her arm back to conjure another arcane whip. Cackling in anticipation of what was about to happen, Eliana just waited.

“ENOUGH OF ALL OF THIS!” The cataclysmic roar boomed through the landscape, as a living mountain range burst out of the Eternal Fortress. Molten rock, dust and ash were catapulted into the air in a phenomenal explosion. Amidst the cloud, Nathalia uncurled.

Her form was too massive to make sense of it at first. Jagged obsidian formed the long, serpentine body of a dragon. Underneath the volcanic glass, the pulsing of magma through river-like veins was visible. The ridges on her back were the crest of a volcano. Her wings skeletal frames filled with cascading, molten rock. Her tail, a devastating force that slammed into the rising building behind her. Her head was the three-horned tip of a living mountain, the jaw a cleft with obsidian needles forced into the form of a maw. Her eyes burned deep red like smouldering coal. Her claws were hands that could have torn asunder islands.

The goddess of volcanoes slammed her hand down on Jevaine, catching her, cracking the earth on impact like a meteorite. Fire rose within, tinting her entire being red with the cascading heat. An inhale so powerful it created a draft that Eliana could feel it where she was. Then Nathalia opened her maw wide, revealing a tongue of half-solidified magma, before the ocean of flame within her was unleashed.

Bellowing down on the crater she had just created, Nathalia covered the lifeless landscape in fire and molten rock. Both came seemingly endlessly from within. The flames could be seen streaming up her serpentine neck. Chunks of lava were mixed in, droplets taken by scale. The breath attack only intensified. For hundreds of metres around, the inferno sprawled, breaking on the floor, as a new mountain was piled up by the aggression of the Flame of Destruction.

An arcane sphere slammed into Nathalia’s head, throwing it off to the side. An annoyed, animalistic growl echoed through the plains and Nathalia reared her head. A simple gesture that allowed Eliana to land on top of it.

The failed goddess disregarded the heat burning her bone-clad soles and started running. She leapt off the head just in time to see Jevaine’s fist slam into its side. The living mountain was thrown off to the side, while Eliana aimed another Meteor Fall. She caught Jevaine by surprise, and together they slammed back down into the earth.

The ground broke underneath them, much of the earth tumbling into the caverns below. Eliana and Jevaine were too fast to be caught alongside the rocks. The two of them ran, crossing paths and fists several times as they retreated to steady ground. Covered in ash and soot, the Gold Eater was no longer the disgustingly golden obstacle she used to be.

Immediately, they turned at each other. One, two, they exchanged blows. Then Nathalia’s burning claw descended, narrowly missing the tiny target. The shockwave created the opportunity for Eliana to land another blow. The Impact Punch connected, the bone clad fist slamming a dent into the outer layers of the armour.

Jevaine just barely remained standing, and retaliated by smashing her fist into Eliana’s side. The failed goddess felt a flash of pain. The exoskeleton cracked. The flesh and bone underneath, however, stayed largely intact. She recovered two hundred metres away, witnessing Jevaine’s realization that her power was diminishing.

Immediately, the Gold Eater headed towards the hole in the ground. By whatever means, she had to acquire value. The target was clear: the spire of Eternal Iron underground. Whether that was enough energy to defeat the two goddesses didn’t matter as much as the time they would have to sacrifice if Jevaine got there.

Titanic jaws descended, catching Jevaine mid leap into the hole. Jevaine had her hand caught in the maw of the living mountain. An ant by relative size, the Gold Eater was about to be ripped back, lacking aerial manoeuvres. A light blue, purplish whip manifested once again, slinging down the hole and evidently connecting with something. The entirety of Nathalia was pulled along as Jevaine forced her way down.

Eliana leapt on top of Nathalia’s nearby foot and climbed rapidly. Repeatedly, the dragoness shook and was pulled further along by Jevaine. Bit for bit, the head of the dragoness disappeared. The hole grew larger from her weight and the energy of her moving form.

Once on her back, Eliana stormed as fast as she could, burning all the mana she had with her aura and Bloodburn, preparing herself for one decisive attack. The daylight, largely blocked by the ash cloud they had created, vanished completely when she stormed down Nathalia’s neck and down into the tunnel. A clear outline of magma was visible where the goddess’ jaw was about to tear off from the repeated strain.

A leap brought her to Nathalia’s head once again. Eliana swerved around the horn that extended from her snout, then jumped one last time and landed on top of Jevaine’s broad shoulders. The Gold Eater looked up, one hand holding the conjured whip, the other stuck in Nathalia’s maw, her feet dangling over the abyss of the gargantuan cavity.

With pure, gleeful menace in her eyes, Eliana raised her left foot. It dangled loosely from the ankle while she pulled her knee up to hip height. A delighted squeal escaped the pretty little psycho. Nathalia’s jaw opened, letting go off Jevaine. At the exact same moment, Eliana brought down her foot – heel and sole planting themselves firmly on the Ironborn’s head.

The Seismic Step was taken entirely by their bodies. Eliana’s leg burst, muscle fibres rupturing and some of her little remaining blood bursting past the carapace. Jevaine the Gold Eater turned into a projectile that descended and broke the sound barrier instantly.

Nathalia gave her ally one moment to climb on before setting after. Even with her titanic body in mind, the cavern was enormous. Spreading her wings, she slowed her descent enough to make a graceful landing on top of Jevaine. The Gold Eater was clearly weakened, having not yet fully stood up.

There were markers of civilization around them, buildings that had been absolutely smashed by the shockwave of the impact, but they were few and whatever people lived here had to be accepted as collateral.

Bloodburn and her aura fizzled away as Eliana felt the necessary resources dwindle. The mask fell off her face, revealing her mad grin, while Nathalia pulled her head back. Heat rose once again. Jevaine attempted to get away.

The cone of fire and magma covered her form. Even with Eliana’s absurd senses, it was difficult to keep track of her. All she could see was a layered outline, like a heatmap.

At first the Gold Eater struggled. One step, two steps, three steps, all towards the fire breathing, titanic maw of the volcano goddess. Gradually, visibly, the advance slowed. Then, a step backwards. A stumble. A fall. A desperate attempt to stand up ending up on her knees. The remaining value Jevaine had absorbed fleeted slowly. The outer areas of her armour turned liquid, the gemstones ripped from their sockets. Desperately, Jevaine raised one hand and shot one last arcane blast. Pitifully, it broke on Nathalia’s jagged scales.

The flames abated, leaving the half-molten Ironborn in her kneeling position. Amidst a sea of glowing rock, her golden colour seemed mundane. Fused to the ground, she could barely move. Eliana jumped down. “Didst thou learneth not to beeth a cunt?” she asked mockingly. Before an answer could be uttered, she rammed her fist through the barely existent chest plate and crushed the Gold Eater’s core where it was socketed.

Eliana wasted no further time on her and immediately returned to Nathalia.

The two of them took off towards the shaft that had originally brought them down here.