Chapter 46 - Horde and Animus (Patreon)

I’ve never killed anything or anyone that didn't deserve it.

What was worse though, in Echo’s mind, is that he didn’t care much. About the violence. About death in general. About Fumi killing a man who had clearly been beaten.

In his past life, he would have been appalled. Even before being taken and tortured by Tiberius in this life, he would have tried to find peaceful resolutions to a situation.

But now? Now he didn't care about using violence to solve his problems. Even extreme violence, like what he had done to Rickard back in Crux Omega.

He thought back to all the creatures he had killed, the cannibalism of other monsters he had engaged in – former people.

If I died today and went to Last Light, how would I be judged?

It was then that fear struck Echo. A fear he hadn’t felt since being turned into a monster. Fear of dying again and being judged. And he looked back at his actions with revulsion at the carnage he had wrought.

What would he think of the things I’ve done?

He feared what Kalinor would do if he saw the life Echo had lived in these short few seasons since his reincarnation. It brought back the religious teachings from his past life on Earth. Being taught by the Catholic Church at a young age that he was going to go to Hell if he sinned. And in this new life, he had sinned quite a bit.

But the rules are different here.

He felt some comfort knowing that this world didn’t have just one religion, one God. There were many. And he saw first-hand the Afterlives in the sky above. Not to mention, he met a Goddess in the flesh who supported thieves, brigands, and illicit ‘sinful’ trades.

But the nagging thought remained in him.

“What are you thinking about?” Fumi asked.

Echo took her hands, leaned his head onto her shoulder and whispered, “I'm afraid of judgment. Of Kalinor judging me and condemning me for the violence we've done. The people we’ve eaten."

Fumi held him close in a warm hug, “You don't have to be judged. Neither of us do. You have Eternal Youth, I'm Deathless."

Echo gripped her and kept her in that warm embrace. "I'm still afraid of it. Umbra could have killed us instantly. Any God probably could. I’ve almost died a number of times, despite my Ability."

"Then we have to eat more monsters. Get stronger. Strong enough they can't hurt us."

In that sentiment, Echo agreed.

I need to keep eating monsters so that no one can hurt her.

He had to get stronger – to stay with her. Even if the idea of eating used-to-be-people disgusted him.

“They will acknowledge me now,” Fumi said as she separated from Echo, staring at the warriors. The remaining Gori nodded in deference before resuming their posts.

From further down the wall an Ogo woman approached. She looked like Fumi but was a bit shorter and had blonde hair and piercing, yellow eyes.

She was dressed in a kimono and bowed to the two monsters. “I welcome you, Fumi Medrana Soju. I am Muraoka Xulatar. Representative of the Xulatar Great Clan here at the Gateway.”

Fumi bowed slightly and Echo followed suit. “Thank you,” Echo said.

Muraoka glanced at him, “A human who can speak our language?”

Fumi shook her head, “Address me. I have the right.”

The Ogo woman nodded, “My apologies. Please, allow me to-”

Fumi cut her off, “No. Tell me what is happening.”

“We don’t close the Gateway idly,” Muraoka gestured out to the enormous landscape that stretched before them. With his Far Sight Ability Echo could see the enormous forest and winding rivers that gradually faded into the distance.

“Monsters are roaming unchecked. Every Clan – both Great and Minor – is preparing for a Sanctioned Clan War. And right after, the next Choosing.”

Echo glanced at Fumi, and she quickly explained that every ten years, the Clans would send their strongest three warriors to fight for the title of Warlord, ruling the whole of the Krekyo Dominion, and setting rules for Sanctioned Clan Wars.

Fumi nudged Echo, “Show her the slip.”

Echo reached into his pocket dimension and presented the quest slip with the enormous list of monster sightings.

She handed the slip back to Echo and he swiftly returned it to the pocket dimension. She gave a short bow, “I would recommend traveling to the Xulatar Clan Stronghold. Speak with our Overlord. He knows more about what has happened to the Soju.”

Fumi turned to the nearby warriors and growled, a guttural, feral sound that Echo had only heard during their violent bedroom activities. But there was no hint of remorse in this growl she let out unlike every other time he had heard it.

It was pure intimidation distilled into noise.

The surrounding warriors stood stock-still at their posts as Fumi leaped over the side of the wall. Echo followed suit.

Oddly enough, there were fortifications on this side of the gate – trenches were dug on either side of the main road, spiked wooden barriers were erected, and old blood stains decorated both. There was a charred pile of humanoid corpses off in the distance, a decent way away from the wall to prevent the smell from wafting over.

Fumi looked over at Echo, “While we are in my homeland, you defer conversation to me. You don’t speak to another Gori or Ogo unless spoken to. You are my servant.” She smirked, “My bed-servant.”

Echo chuckled, “Okay.”

He froze as instinct pulsed through him.

Kill…

Consume…

Evolve…

But the instinct wasn’t just aimed towards Fumi or a singular entity in a specific direction. He could feel the impulse all around him.

The urge to kill was not directed in one location – but dozens – hundreds – thousands…all coming from the forest on the horizon.

Fumi had the same expression of shock on her face.

There’s never been this many.

Tiberius chuckled as he crouched near an illusory panel.

You two finally arrived.

Every Clan may have been holed up to, as they put it, ‘preserve their strength.’ But the truth Tiberius knew is that they had all holed up to escape the ravening hordes he had unleashed. His monsters had roamed and obtained every single Gori or Ogo that ventured out of their cities.

And they’ve been waiting for you.

Tiberius laughed, cackling with glee. He looked at the Mimic Cube and grinned, “Finally, my lost, wayward creations will feed.”

He gripped the Cube and tucked it into his robe, heading to the entrance of the Soju Clan’s mountain stronghold. Staring out across the vast, empty city, he felt a sense of satisfaction.

Soon, Malvir, you will see – my interpretation of your will is right.

Raising the Mimic Cube in front of him, he uttered a single word, picturing the locations in his mind’s eye.

“Converge.”

A horde of horrific amalgamated monsters emerged from the tree line. Not dozens, not hundreds – tens of thousands.

Echo opened the pocket dimension, “Rose! Get out here!”

Rose clambered through the opening and straightened her robes. “What is it?”

Echo and Fumi pulled weapons and shield out. Rose saw the slavering horde and tutted, “Tsk. That’s inconvenient.”

The horde charged.

The monsters that charged at the party were once Gori and Ogo. Each composed of two or more corpses that had been stitched and sewn together, giving them several pairs of arms – each holding a variety of weaponry, and many legs that rapidly propelled them across the expanse from the Xulatar Forest on the horizon.

They were covered in armored, chitinous plates instead of traditional protection, and bristled with spikes that jutted between the armored plates. They had maws that took after various wildlife – wolves, alligators, lampreys. And the sound they emitted was a horrific wail combined with screaming that rended the air asunder.

Echo and Fumi activated Alacrity as Rose began to channel Quintessence. “I can do an army killer spell, but it will take time.”

Fumi grinned, “We can buy time.”

Echo nodded and put shield-hand to the ground, “Transmute Earth – Worldbreaker!”

The battlefield in between the Gateway and the Xulatar Forest became a nigh-impassable field of razor-sharp rocks and deep crevasses – in addition to the cavalry spikes already present. All paths were hazardous, save for the main road in the center…and to Echo’s satisfaction, the monstrous forms began to go down the channel. A few risked the more hazardous paths, but their progress was slowed greatly.

“All hands to siege weapons!” Echo heard in Gori/Japanese from the Gateway behind and above. Glancing back, he observed several ballistae and catapults being loaded and preparing for a salvo.

He turned back to face the front.

I’ve never fought an army except those undead.

Those were mindless minions. These were once proud warriors. And he was sure they were more powerful despite being smaller sized than the undead horde.

As this thought hit him, he frowned with the realization that the army of monsters that was closing had activated so many Abilities that he could not make out singular creatures with Detect Abilities.

And, for the first time, he could see monsters casting spells.

“Fumi! Rose! They have mages!”

Rose cursed and glanced at Ingrid, “Do you have any spell protection?”

Echo smirked, “I can make some up.” He quickly went through the steps of crafting a spell, tapping into his yet-unused protection Affinity. “Spell Deflect.”

A silver nimbus surrounded the group, crackling with red sparks, before molding to their bodies. It would cause spells to bounce away. “Bulwark,” Echo muttered, further redirecting any damage that the group would suffer.

Fumi charged and Echo followed, headlong, towards the advancing army. Fumi sliced her sword horizontally and yelled out “Spatial Sever!”

The black line of sliced reality arced forward and into the line of foes that closed in. But it stopped abruptly, bouncing off several spells that formed barriers over some of the monster’s forms.

As Echo got closer and closer, he could feel his blood pumping and his Evolution Instinct driving him onwards.

Kill…

He crashed into the line. No matter where he swung his sword, it found purchase and carved through the chitinous shell. Blows rained down on him from all sides. Blade, club, tooth, claw, nail, axe, hammer – all manner of weaponry both manmade and natural assaulted him. And, thanks to his Perfect Defense, he deflected or blocked them all.

Kill.

He carved his way through the army, slashing in all directions, becoming a tornado that tore through the ranks of the monsters. Spells impacted him – all manner of elemental blasts of energy that cascaded and splashed off the barriers surrounding him or were blocked with his shield.

KILL!

He laughed, exhilarated at the power coursing through him, his strength, his speed, his nigh invincibility.

For the first time since being in this world, he was what he had designed himself to be – a tank. The best frontline combatant possible.

Untouchable.

Rose cursed as the two monsters lost themselves in a battle frenzy.

I didn’t think it would happen that fast.

She squinted as her Quintessence continued to gather. There was an enormous light at the rear of the army.

Are they casting a ritual?

A ritual was a particularly large spell, which took time to cast, and multiple mages could contribute to the array and Quintessence required. It was a way for less powerful mages to accomplish large spells.

That’s not good. I should divert my focus to that.

But, as the thought went through her mind, she saw several monsters approaching her.

Fumi crashed into the line at the same time as Echo had – and nearly immediately had lost sight of him in the tumult of bodies.

But she wasn’t worried. She was thrilled.

Fear the Maven.

She spun around – a graceful pirouette of calamity – and carved her way through the monsters rushing around her. She had taken a more careful approach, not wanting Echo to suffer overt damage from her reckless fighting.

Kill…

He’ll be fine. He’s strong.

She lessened her guard and focused on offense, feeling the wild bloodlust of her people rise in her. She carved sinew, bone, muscle, and cleanly through chitinous shells as her devastatingly sharp blade carved a path in front of her. She activated Waveblade as her katana’s length extended to the point it was more akin to an odachi.

Kill.

She laughed, battle-crazed, as she fought with reckless abandon, activating her Abilities with abandon – Rift Strike followed by Resonating Thrust followed by Spatial Sever.

As many Ability uses as often as she could.

Reality was torn asunder as space distorted; monsters dying in the thousands with each Ability used that shook the firmament of local reality.

And she was heedless of the blows she was suffering.

KILL!

Echo felt pain erupt along his right leg, causing him to come out of the violent trance of carnage.

I wasn’t hit. Who is being hit?

He slammed his hand to the ground, “Transmute Substance - Pillar!” and ascended above the fray. He saw Fumi, seemingly carving her way through the army with reckless abandon, firing off Abilities that flashed across and distorted the battlefield.

But she was being hit.

A lot.

Spells continued to pelt him, but he raised his shield and blocked the impacts, his Magic Resistance high enough to shake the effects off entirely or negate most of the effect to the point that it was a nuisance and not a danger. What his passive Magic Resistance did not protect against, the Spell Deflect handled – but he felt his Quintessence slowly draining.

What he felt was what Fumi suffered. Every impact that she was struck by. She was crazed, in a frenzy. In a rage.

Damnit, Fumi!

Fumi growled, swinging left and right. She charged into a mob and carved through the ranks with potent strikes.

“Rah!” She obliterated waves of foes, her weapon rising and falling in a rhythmic slaughter that left oceans of blood and rivers of viscera in her wake. Like a Leviathan she descended upon these helpless, lesser warriors. Her enormous, water-limned blade tore through the ranks in front of her.

Rose cursed as the monsters continued to approach.

Why don’t you have the same instinct against those two?

That’s when she caught it. A glimpse of brown covering the eyes of a creature closing in.

“Tiberius.”

Tiberius cackled as he held the Mimic Cube, using the artifact to control his monstrosities against their Evolution Instinct.

“Time to die, White Rose. For the last time.”

She took all the Quintessence she had been channeling for a massive, army-destroying spell.

“Ceaseless winter guard me, Armor of Ice – Absolute Zero.”

The world around her exploded into a frozen hellscape. Even the air itself froze as the temperature reached the coldest possible in existence, save for the slight bubble surrounding her.

The monsters flash-froze before falling over, clattering uselessly as their vitality was drained and sapped by the frigid cold.

Rose looked back up and saw the glow of magic lighting the sky.

The ritual!

Echo ignored the monsters climbing the pillar towards him, and the wounds being redirected from Fumi. Instead, the bright, crimson glow drew his gaze.

That can’t be good.

He ran down the pillar and briefly activated Overcharge, zipping past all the monsters without a chance for them to attack him.

Hidden at the back of this army, there were several hundred mage-monsters who were channeling their various colored Quintessence into a large, arcane circle on the ground. The light of crackling crimson illuminated everything around.

I can’t do an area of effect spell and protect everyone.

One of his regrets from character creation back when he first arrived – not finding some type of taunt or aggro ability to really get foes to focus on him.

But then, an idea came to him.

What if I used an Ability instead of an Affinity?

He reasoned, both being fueled by Quintessence, he should be able to take an Ability and amplify it, rather than create a new one.

First, tap into the Quintessence.

He drew the energy stored in the Brightsteel into his body.

Next, envision the effect.

He wanted all the monsters to focus on him.

Determine an Affinity.

He chose not to channel the Quintessence through his Affinity (as if making a spell), or through his stats (as if inventing a new Ability) but instead using his Evolution Instinct as the base.

Name the Ability or spell.

“Animus Aura!”

A shockwave of crimson sparks exploded out from Echo, rippling through the whole battlefield – easily kilometers in diameter as the sphere expanded before fading.

The mage-monsters stopped their spells, all turning at him, screeching as they charged – abandoning all sense of using magic against him in favor of ripping him to shreds.

And the army turned on him as well.

Perfect.

Fumi saw the crimson pulse and heard Echo shout in the distance.

She felt the Evolution Instinct trigger.

More potent than ever before.

KILL! CONSUME! EVOLVE!

She activated Overcharge, her mind leaving her, as she charged to Echo.

Her prey.

Rose shook her head as the crimson sparkle shockwave emanated out from the middle of the battlefield and the horde that had rushed past wheeled around and ran by yet again, returning to the main brawl.

“Good job, Echo. Now I can focus on killing this army.” She canceled her Armor of Ice and began to channel the Quintessence in her once more.

Tiberius screamed in rage.

“No! You can’t kill each other!”

He poured more of his prodigious amounts of Quintessence into the Mimic Cube, the Heat radiating in response to his will.

Prevent Fumi from ever being affected by that Ability.

The brown wave pulsed from the silver artifact.

“You both need to survive for this plan to work.”

Echo cursed and activated his Alacrity’s Overcharge as Fumi joined the forces assaulting him.

“What are you doing!”

But her eyes were no longer the gorgeous green he had come to adore. They were naught but pitch black, and her green Quintessence sparked more heavily with crimson than ever before as she continued to assault him, the aura bleeding out from her in waves just like atop the wall, blending with the multi-hued spectrum of the other monsters assaulting him.

Thanks to their extensive sparring, he was able to keep her at bay; but combined with the army, it was just too much. He began to suffer damage. A lot of it. Bashing, bruising, crushing, piercing.

He roared in anger, dropping all of his spells and building up his Quintessence as it blazed off of him in a silver and crimson torrent, piercing the sky. “Firestorm!”

The world exploded with silver fire that raced through the army – charring all within a hundred-meter radius to cinder and crisp husks.

The wave passed harmlessly over Fumi due to her Blessing of the Flames, and her eyes returned to normal, the green iris reappearing as her mind became her own once more.

KILL!

Kill.

Kill…

…

The Evolution Instinct faded rapidly.

“What did I do?” Fumi whispered, remembering in flashes the overwhelming impulse to attack and eat Echo. Her love standing in front of her, panting with exertion and covered in wounds from her attacks.

She collapsed to her knees, her blade dropping at her side.

“I…I…I’m…sorry...”

She curled up into the fetal position and wept. The crushing devastation of what she had just attempted to do overwhelmed her like a tidal wave.

Rose finished channeling her spell and, to her delight, saw the enormous mob of monsters had gathered around a single point, before that single point exploded in silver flames.

An army killer spell?

No, Echo’s Magic Potency wasn’t high enough. He must have been overwhelmed and just needed to buy some time. The horde continued to converge on him as the silver flames reached the end of their travel.

She was not the only one who had noticed the opportunity, as a fullisade of rocks and ballistae bolts flew overhead and slammed into the army. They did some damage to the gathered foes, but not nearly as much as she was about to inflict.

She raised her scepter, “The skies split before the cold – Rime Rain!”

The sky turned icy blue as enormous shards of ice – meteoric in size – shattered all around the battlefield, decimating the monstrous army with titanic, overwhelming, magical force.

Good thing those two are immune to the cold.

Echo breathed a sigh of relief as the cold air settled around him and the gargantuan chunks of ice impacted the battlefield – crushing, piercing, or freezing the monsters.

Consume...

He knelt next to Fumi and put a hand on her, “You okay now?”

His beloved looked up with a tear-streaked face and shook her head. “…I’m sorry.”

Evolve...

“Eat first, talk later.”

This caused Fumi to tense up and she jolted upright, driven by their shared instinct.

They were surrounded by an enormous field of monster corpses.

He raised his hands and channeled his Quintessence into a massive spell. “Transmute Substance.”

All the corpses compressed towards each other, forming a cube of compressed bodies, bones, blood, and sinew.

Save for the hearts. Those were piled next to the cube thanks to Echo’s razor-sharp focus on eating them.

The two monsters greedily devoured, heedless of the undeniable fact that these were people once.

Rose smiled as she approached the two monsters who were akin to the flesh-eating ghouls she used to spend fine evenings alongside. They were covered in viscera and dripping gore as they ripped hearts apart and shared the grisly feast.

“I was not expecting to face an army of Tiberius’ monsters. I thought he would spread them out.”

Echo and Fumi either didn’t notice or didn’t care as they continued to gorge themselves on the hearts of the fallen.

She turned to the pile of flesh and scanned the corpses.

Thank you for making this convenient.

Raising her scepter, she uttered an incantation with glee. “Improve upon my form, Siphon Strength.”

The bodies withered into dust, and Rose felt vitality rush through her.

Looking back at the two monsters she grinned.

Coming along with these two has proven quite useful.

Tiberius cackled. “Perfectly according to plan.”

They would grow massively from their feast. Empowered to even greater heights. The thought sent chills down Tiberius’ spine as he knew they were approaching the point where they could pose a risk to him.

But that, too, was part of his plan. He had reached the limits of his potential in this lifetime. The only way to gain more power was to become a monster like them – and that was out of the question.

He had no Ability to keep his form and mind. Despite searching for hundreds of years for a way to do it. Only sheer luck or being reincarnated provided for those unique Abilities.

Those two haven’t even come close to reaching their limits.

He grinned as he returned to his lair, ensuring that their next meal was going to be even more filling.

After all, they had only eaten half of the Soju Great Clan.

And the others had even more time to feel the effects of the Mimic Cube.

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