Chapter 201: The Sacred (Patreon)

Alpine flowers dotted the rugged volcanic landscape, faintly swaying whenever another frigid gust blew through. They encircled the edge of a vast caldera, leaving a subtle sprinkling of their soft pink petals across its surface that provided a delicate touch to the otherwise harsh landscape.

A handful of stubby dwarf pines, covered in deep brown bark, thick with age and weather, struggled to maintain hold on the outer slopes far beyond the natural tree-line. Dense winding roots carved into the rocky mountain to secure some hint of stability. They vibrated in the wind, creaking in resistance, but they still found a way to cling to life in the precarious and unforgiving environment.

Despite the season and the elevation, snowflakes were conspicuously absent from most of the scene. The only visible evidence of the chill were dustings of snow hidden between the scraggly pine needles of the short trees, but even those examples were not long for the world.

The wind wasn’t only cold. It was also packed with mana that was so dense it was visible to the naked eye, catching the pastel colors of the sunrise and magnifying them across the broad mountain base. The horizon was rapidly evolving as it transitioned from night to day.

The mountain’s peak was hollowed out, forming a wide, deep bowl that revealed its volcanic nature. Contrasting the vegetation dotting the exterior, the interior slopes of the caldera were scoured clean. They had been subjected to heightened levels of elemental forces before the challengers had even arrived, but the violence that came afterwards had erased anything that lingered in the soup of mana. The stark contrast between the heavenly scenes on the outside of the crater, with modest pockets of natural vegetation gently lit beneath a pale cloudless sky, and the hellish desolation on the inside was enough to give almost anyone pause before entering.

Dawn was breaking on the fifth day straight of sieging the towering monster that had made its home in the center of the tallest crater. It stood defiantly, rooted in the exact middle, like a blocky stone automaton protecting an imaginary hockey net. Its smooth armor was pitch black with blood red trim that ran down the back of its pointed arms and rigid body. Its legs were embedded deep into the earth. The faceless stone monstrosity had withstood what Earth’s most powerful fighters threw at it for days, but thus far, it had also failed to repel the invasion on its territory. The lives it claimed had been relatively few, given its foreboding level, higher than even the pinnacle of the leaderboards.

Humanity’s finest warriors had established a base camp beneath the tallest peak of the mountain after three weeks of difficult, incremental progress up to that point. The two previous bosses were defeated in much shorter times, and once the mass of fighters were familiar with the local oddities, progressing through each ring had been a relatively smooth experience so long as they accounted for respawns. There had only been three levels. Hundreds of the brave warriors protected the rear, joining the expedition after being inspired by the presence of the local heroes, while the absolute strongest raided the ultimate challenge of the region, and perhaps the world.

A spectacular winter sunrise provided the backdrop for the final push. The combatants knew this battle would end, one way or another, with the execution of their plan. All those who were present understood that a conclusion was upon them, and they were prepared to receive the consequences of their devotion. None of them hesitated as they entered the barren arena. If they couldn’t walk away from this crater victorious, they had no business continuing on their journey. They were already homeless, unwelcomed wherever they had been for one reason or another, or abandoned and left to hopelessly fend for themselves, spurned by those with relative security and power.

Volcanic rock and scoria, left behind by past eruptions, would be subjected to another equally violent scenario. The people who fought would be tempered like iron and steel or they would be defeated and forgotten while the planet was eventually lost to its alien invaders. They prepared their weapons and abilities, ready to uncover their destiny.

A brisk breeze swirled around the mountainous terrain, reminding the combatants that winter hadn’t lost its grip on the peaks where they fought. The snow may have melted after the heat of sustained battles engulfed the mountain, but the chill the wind brought still bit them to their bones, reminding them of the extremes they were pushing.

The long shadows that expanded within the crater were finally extinguished when an enormous flaming dragon crested the summit, large enough to claim the entire area as a massive nest where it hoarded golden treasures. Its arrival was marked with a wave of warmth, the thin air was consumed by the flames, and a residual layer of turbulent mana swirls followed behind. The stone automaton shifted on its thick cylindrical limbs, anticipating another clash after a brief respite in the cold night.

The dragon’s form smoldered with an ashen skeleton that streamed with incinerating flames; its structure was held together by thickened smoke and willful purpose. The dragon’s wings expanded well over two hundred feet across, leaving bright streaks of fire beneath them, and a long trail of dark sooty smoke that marked its path around the mountain. It crested the lip of the crater, looming above the barren arena with a single flap. Spontaneous outbursts of flames sprung to life as the rocky surfaces inside the crater were heated until they glowed an orange that complimented the smooth pink sky.

When the dragon’s mouth opened, the anticipated challenging roar was accompanied by a gout of flames that formed a dense column of torching heat. The column of condensed fire slammed into the rocky ground, carving a line toward its target while flames cascaded throughout the bowl shaped battlefield, climbing all the way to the edges and reaching the feet of the anticipation-filled warriors before sending plumes of black smoke above the mountain peak. The winter chill they had felt was gone like a lost dream, replaced by beads of sweat spontaneously forming on their skin.

The automaton crossed its thick stone arms in front of its torso and braced to absorb the attack. When the flames struck its defensive stance the massive monster’s feet dragged through the volcanic rock, demonstrating how deep it was rooted, but it stood firm, anchored as it was in the center of the mountain.

The dragon flapped twice more, halting its momentum before dodging the building-sized projectiles that the boss retaliated with before it elevated itself beyond the crater and high into the sky. It circled back around from high above and tucked its wings in. The dragon entered a terminal dive, directed at the stone boss that had withstood its opening blast.

When the two titanic gladiators met, the resulting explosion turned the landscape white with blinding light. A mushroom cloud expanded into the stratosphere, and people a hundred miles away braced for an earthquake. Once the smoke plume was spotted, urgent voices rang out across Tokyo to take shelter. It seemed like Mt. Fuji was erupting.

The combatants at the edge of the crater charged forward into the blast wave of smoke and ember-filled air, led by the blindfolded unnamed recluse, as they sought any advantage they could over the boss monster. A few shouted battlecries, but none of them needed the extra motivation. Instead, the shouts contributed to the charge with enhancing buffs that spread to each fighter and provided last minute attributes for the oncoming fight.

“Mistress!” A girl’s voice shouted in a panic at the edge of the caldera, behind the tail of the charge. She grabbed the arm of the one who had launched the opening strike before she collapsed to the rocky ground.

Hai Yun had fallen to one knee, bleeding from her ears as her magnified flame dragon was annihilated, and her attendants rushed to her aid, ignoring the searing heat that had scorched them all. She cast her gaze to the center of the crater and pressed her lips together as the final boss of the mana well mirrored her stance. It was balanced on one knee, shoulder gouged out, melted stone bleeding down its arm, and a glassy sheen covered the rest of its body, but it was otherwise whole. She didn’t like the way it defiantly stared back with its faceless head, as if it looked down on her.

She forced herself to stand, shaking off the help of her loyal personal attendants to call forth her lightning dragon with a flick of both her wrists that ended with her fingers pressed together, pointing toward the sky. The maw of the dragon manifested beneath the giant stone automaton with even larger teeth, sharpened to needlepoints as they arced with energy. She drained her remaining mana to summon an equally large twin to her fire dragon.

The crystalline lightning dragon shot upwards as if it was being ejected from deep within the dormant volcano. The spiked scales that formed on its translucent skin slammed into the monster, attempting to dislodge it from the point that it had protected ever since they arrived, but the monster refused to be removed, bracing itself while wrapping its enormous arms in a chokehold around the thick neck of the lightning formation, emitting opalescent flashes of light as they struggled with each other.

The stone arms savaged the elemental dragon, squeezing while dazzling sparks popped into life around the two giants, but Hai Yun’s summon wasn’t meant to last long. Like its fiery twin, it also exploded with a massive burst of energy, following the lead of her flame dragon. Vivid blue and white lightning clawed into the boss, burning veins into its surface that were blacker than its shell and smoldered with the incomprehensible intensity that only came from extremely high voltages.

Lighting arced into the lingering mushroom cloud, creating a brilliant display that expanded far beyond the battlefield. Anyone within a thousand miles that happened to be looking in the right direction would have wondered what caused the dazzling flashes that burst across the atmosphere.

Hai Yun had done everything that she could to set her allies up for victory against the final boss, fulfilling her role in the plan. She was just as motivated to defeat the monster as anyone who resided in the area, considering how closely the setup mirrored her own failures. This was a mana well situated on the top of a mountain, near enough to pressure a neighboring settlement. It was all eerily similar to her family’s ancient mountain city and the pressure that led to their collapse. She couldn’t help but be personally invested in conquering the open world dungeon for what it represented for her own destroyed home.

There were plenty of differences, but they were irrelevant to her. The Japanese mountain physically lacked the sheer cliffs and jagged peaks that marked her own familiar home, the mountain range was nothing at all like the familiar environment, and the mana well had failed to empower the local Primal Constructs thanks to the mega settlement that dominated the region with its territory. All of the dedicated local defenders made sure to tame the nearby wilds before they grew out of control, lacking the open internal conflict that distracted her own defenders. The situation wasn’t the same, but Hai Yun needed to prove to herself that it was possible to conquer the mana well, for the sake of her own waning confidence.

At this point, she had given up on finding a place to belong. Every settlement turned her away, unwilling to welcome her or her followers while they recuperated. Their mere presence was an affront to the precarious balance found anywhere on Earth. Her mission to find a home and recover and regroup, especially for those who had gambled their lives on her leadership, was hopeless. Everywhere they had gone, instead of finding relief, they just found more people that had been thrust into similarly difficult positions, abandoned or forced away for a variety of reasons. Those comfortable with their security had no desire to share. It was a risk to take them in, one that no one would trouble themselves with. Hai Yun had come to understand a hard truth; the success of settlements was based on control.

Her caravan of bodyguards, attendants, and their families had been bolstered by the abandoned, the exiled, and the lost. Over the course of her journey since she fled from her mountain home she had been forced to adjust her purpose. She watched as new and old companions charged down the sides of the crater, united in the need to prove that even the discarded would not be cornered and eventually slaughtered by the invading forces. If they survived, they would continue on. They would only be able to count on themselves, and they needed to prove that they were worthy of living. Hai Yun was already feeling the desire to give up, but first she desperately sought to right her previous misjudgments.

Irina was near the front of the pack, already transformed into the demon that seemed to live inside the innocent girl. Her long black hair trailed behind her, obscuring some of the monstrous features, but there was no mistaking the sharp teeth and claws when they gleamed in the pink light of the sunrise, seeming just a bit too crimson. Irina fought to establish that she was still human despite using abilities that were truly monstrous. She felt as though she had been tricked into accepting a bargain that was against her interests, and though she resisted, she was shunned by everyone who discovered her abilities.

The Korean squads that followed behind Irina fought in order to prove they weren’t weak any longer. They had joined Hai Yun’s convoy when she fled the peninsula, chased out in the same manner as her people by settlements unwilling to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. The mana well had empowered them as they drove through the rings that represented the levels of escalating monsters, and they sought to prove their ability so that they wouldn’t have to consider retreat their only option whenever faced with new challenges.

Local Japanese villagers fought to avoid losing their homes like so many others already had, and others traveled from the city to put themselves in danger for those that were threatened. Some of them had already been fighting, long before the outsiders challenged the mountain, but most had been protected, finding safety among their brethren and ignorant of the nearby struggles. It was only when rumors that their heroes had been cast out that they sought to join them in their endeavor, choosing the side that inspired them rather than the one that promised security.

Her attendants and bodyguards fought on her behalf and for the same reasons as she did, for a home lost too early, and because the assimilation had been a constant series of fight or die events. Perhaps they still hoped to return to home, but Hai Yun had moved on from the very idea of home. Life would be a struggle to stay one step ahead of death. Nothing more.

The charge down the slopes of the crater was led by a blind man they had found alone in the outskirts of a mountainside village, living by himself within the first level of the mana well. He had been fighting the creatures of the mana well ever since the first day of the assimilation and stubbornly refused to give in and evacuate. He had established himself as the symbol of their challenge.

As the momentum built behind the surging warriors, the blind man’s gnarled walking staff had a thick cloud of swirling wind developing behind as if empowered by the entire crowd. Power was accumulating in his attack, building with the momentum of the charge. When he finally swung his weapon, mere feet away from the gargantuan automaton, the blast of wind smashed forward, carrying with it the frustration of countless battles already fought.

The boss’s injured arm was torn clean off by the blind man’s attack, carried away in the sweeping cloud of cool green wind mana that continued on as if it was finally set free. When the wind reached the opposite side of the crater, an enormous chunk was blown out of the side, and they suddenly had an uninterrupted view of the sky and the traditional villages that dotted the landscape alongside lakes and pink blossoming trees all the way to the horizon, serene in spite of the mana apocalypse.

The boss stood like an immovable pillar as the wave of warriors crashed into it. Individuals leapt into their attacks and projectiles reached the rising titan’s head, but they were swept away when slow, deliberate counter attacks reached them. Hai Yun sent her remaining attendants to aid in the melee and was left alone at the edge of the crater, drained of mana and clinging to what little confidence she had remaining. She had fulfilled her role, but she still felt inadequate. A poor leader, weak, and lacking in judgment. The assimilation felt like a futile struggle, but she continued anyway. Why must they suffer so much?

Hai Yun stewed in her frustration, letting the negative thoughts swirl in her head, but keeping her face the practiced mask of tranquility that would never openly break. The battle raged on. If her mana recovered quickly enough, she might have an opportunity to add to her contribution. She started to believe one of her dragons would make another short appearance when afternoon approached, but the overhead sunlight, already filtered through the drifting mushroom cloud, started to dim even further and she knew the final phase of their plan was being enacted. She would witness the result.

The melee transitioned as the warriors split in half, dragging the wounded out of the way as they recognized the signal. The dimming of the light continued until it was as though night would fall upon the mountain. The all-encompassing shift subtly absorbed the battlefield as if an eerie twilight was skipping the normal order of day and night, taking its turn prematurely. Every shadow stretched until they bled together and combined.

The sky transformed into a profoundly deep and beautifully rich shade of dark blue, not quite inky enough to represent a true night, but fully encompassing all the same. Rather than a transformative skill, Hai Yun believed it was a sort of mass hallucination as they were brought into the caster’s domain. She wondered what it looked like from the foot of the mountain, if it could be seen at all.

A new sliver of light suddenly shone amidst the deep blue, not high enough in the air to actually be a celestial body, and yet, it was clearly the dark moon demonstrating the very last phase of its cycle with a waning crescent shape on its edge. The silver curve shone bright, reflecting light like a spotlight in the darkness as an oversized sword followed its contour. The sharp steel streaked across the sky with too much speed to track. Even the sound was delayed, but a flash of energy blasted through the boss, cleaving it from injured shoulder to frozen hip. When the sound finally reached Hai Yun’s ears, she could only imagine the girl’s oversized sword being sheathed with a perfectly controlled motion.

The boss finally fell, but its upper half caught itself against the ground with one good arm and forced its head to remain upright. The featureless face stared at the one who had attacked it. Reina Kitawa and her Gaze of the Waning Moon had finally put them on the verge of victory. Her job had been to deliver the coup de grace at the signal of their tactician. She stood before the titan, calmly staring back after her blade struck a devastating blow. The gathered forces waited with baited breath to see if they had won.

The moment was ruined as snickering broke the silence. The deep blue domain started to fade, turning to a murky gray instead. The waning moon completed its phase, turning fully black. Rain started to fall, but even in the darkness it was clear that the droplets were blood red and failed to leave any dampness where they splashed against armor and stone. The black moon started to absorb the color of the rain and after a few seconds an enormous blood moon had taken over the scene, many times the size of the more elegant waning moon.

A series of glowing slashes, crimson in color, carved through the back of the boss monster with curving flourishes, brutally debasing the artful strike that Reina had delivered with their savagery. They combined to form dozens of petals until a gigantic bloody flower appeared, one that Hai Yun could only imagine emerging from piles of corpses left in a battlefield. Nonetheless, a rift tore through the head of the monster, behind the blooming flower, and their enemy finally fell to the ground, dissolving into scattered motes of black stone that bounced and skittered throughout the battlefield. The crater was washed in calming white light and the domain was released.

The warriors had all leveled with the defeat of The Sacred, the final boss of the mana well. Their celebration was subdued, despite the victory. Rather than unadulterated excitement, they were just relieved that they had been able to rise to the occasion.

The poofy pink pigtails of Akari Kitawa bounced as she continued to laugh at her sister, boasting that she had ultimately proven the superiority of her Blossoming Blood Moon. Reina gave the younger sister no reaction whatsoever, content to play her role as necessary and not desiring the accolades that inevitably followed. Akari only stopped interacting with her older sister to ogle the massive gem that the boss had been protecting, hidden beneath the surface of the caldera. She tried to dislodge it by wrapping both arms around it and using her legs for leverage before giving up after heaving just once and putting her hands on her hips. It appeared to be the seed of the entire well, and it wouldn’t go anywhere.

Hai Yun approached the one who had distributed their forces to optimize the success of their plan. He had only received his Tactician class the day before they entered the mana well, but he had easily proven his value. “Congratulations.” She offered, but he was frowning as he stared off into space.

He ignored her offering, focused on something else that was clearly bothering him. “Did you see the title? It says we were the second group to defeat a Siege Boss… The second group? That’s impossible. Is it a mistake?” Seki Kitawa pondered, pulling up an invisible display and tapping at it with his fingertips. “I am sure you and your dragons are the most powerful on the entire planet, though my sisters aren’t far behind. There’s no way anyone else could have found and beat one of these guys.” He trailed off as he tried to figure out what happened while mumbling that he hadn’t even realized the boss had a special designation, that it was unheard of, and that no one else could have won against a foe that powerful even if they entire rest of the planet was aligned with the person at the top of the leaderboards.

Hai Yun checked her own notifications, not sure if she agreed with the younger brother’s assessment of her own strength. She was surprised to find so many notices waiting for her attention. She had received four levels from the final boss, but also two titles. The first was for defeating a Siege Boss, offering tangible benefits, and the other was for clearing the mana well after Akari handled the seed, which appeared to be for prestige only, like it belonged to them after clearing it.

However, the main revelation in her notifications was a global announcement that the first mana well had been conquered and another event was triggered. A countdown had begun.

They would have enough time to move on to the next place, but they would have to quickly decide what their destination would be. A majority of the local forces who had fought within the mana well intended to stay, becoming the keepers of the mountain. The blind recluse would be their leader, though he had no interest in the role, planning on living in his shack, watering his vegetables, and feeding the cats without the monsters disturbing him. Instead of monsters, Hai Yun expected him to have a regular rotation of custodians.

The rest would be packing onto her ancient ships or following along with their own vessels as they journeyed to the next settlement. She wouldn’t ask for safety again, but they would offer the locals some temporary help in exchange for safe harbor before they moved on. Wandering the world and facing dangers until they succumbed seemed to be their ultimate fate.