Chapter 71 - Madness and Monster (Patreon)

Echo cloaked his allies with Bulwark and had pre-cast protection Affinity spells on the trio. For Rose, he placed an Umbral Eminence on her so that she would be able to help in the fight and not be blasted instantly and turned to ash. He had limned Fumi and his weapons in every Affinity he could imagine that was not light and were not direct opposites. The prismatic spectrum flickered along their weapons as the crackling Quintessence flowed from them.

Lux flew to meet them in the air. As she approached, hundreds of hardlight duplicates spawned from her, all charging through the sky on wings of radiance against the dark skies above.

FEAST!

Fumi slashed her sword in a horizontal line, activating Spatial Sever which impacted several of the hardlight constructs, chipping them. The spectral hardlight flew off from the sides of their forms. She activated Lava Lashers as several flaming tentacles of magma sprouted from her, and she launched herself into a cluster of the copies. Using Waveblade, she extended her reach, and by flickering Unseen Predator on and off, she was able to weave between them without suffering damage. The magma tentacles whipped back and forth of their own volition, slamming into, and burning the hardlight copies. Her blade sliced up and down, horizontally, and vertically, in all directions as she carved her way to the other side.

Rose fell back behind the other two and channeled her Quintessence into her staff, manifesting the powerful Heat of the Aether Shard, and focusing her will on shaping a desired miracle. “Crush these imposters.” The wave of gravitic energy surged forward and held the hardlight constructs – some of them – in place before crushing them into a glimmering mote that soon flickered out. For each one that fell, Rose felt weakened. She could not maintain the flow of Quintessence required to keep the crushing force active and redirecting it, and she let the miracle fade as several hardlight constructs flew to assault her, their weaponry falling upon her and being absorbed by the flickering shadowy mantle of Echo’s spell.

“Foolish!” All of the hardlight constructs yelled at the same time. A stern, judging, authoritative tinged with insanity voice that left no doubt that the person it came from was unhinged.

Echo poured Quintessence into his Animus Aura and activated the Ability as the crimson sparks mixed with prismatic ones that cascaded out to the horizon. Almost instantly, all but one of the Lux constructs flew at him. He activated his newest Active Ability – Winter’s Grasp. An enormous, clawed talon made of frost and ice swept out an arc around him, freezing the constructs it struck before he followed through with a strike that shattered them.

The hardlight construct’s attention was focused solely on Echo who was able to deflect, block, parry or bear the brunt of their assault. Divine weaponry battered him, shattered his armored plates, and pounded him – but he never let up his own attacks. And more importantly, he preserved his strength for the real fight. Fumi joined in attacking the flanks, and slowly they began to whittle the numbers down.

Lux floated above the fighting copies of herself.

How dare they?

They invaded her Afterlife. They dared to come to her place of power. They dare attack her.

They must die.

Lux raised her hand and channeled her Heat as an enormous spear of light grew in her grip. But, instead of elongating and becoming imbued with more power, it began to shrink and compress. Her eyes were drawn to the floating blob of darkness, and the barely-visible staff poking through the edge of the miasmic cloud.

You!

She sucked the Heat back into herself and at the speed of light – faster than anyone could react or even spot – she swung her flail into the black cloud.

Echo felt his torso crunch inwards as his spell faded on Rose. The absorbing shadows were instantly dispersed, and the Bulwark transferred all the damage to him. He coughed up blood as the hardlight constructs took advantage of his temporary weakness to pierce him with their hardlight weaponry. It seared and burned him with divine radiance, the Domain level of power bypassing his Damage Immunity to light.

“Now!”

He shouted as he activated Enhanced Regeneration and Gori Rage. His silver Quintessence poured out of him as the crimson and prismatic sparks cascaded from the aura. He activated Achronerate and became a blur. Fumi copied his set of Active Abilities, and the two decimated the group of hardlight constructs in mere seconds.

They turned on Lux and rushed her from behind.

Rose smirked. Lux had fallen for their trap.

This is for making me flee my homeland!

She took all the Quintessence she had been stockpiling in her Brightsteel ring, in the staff itself, in her body – all into the Aether Shard. “Be crushed.”

A singularity appeared in Lux’s torso, and her body began to spaghettify.

Lux was enraged. This mage dared try and destroy her? This undead perversion? She flared her Heat and turned into a beam of light.

What?

The singularity sucked her inwards. She poured her Heat into her form of pure light, and reached a high enough velocity that she was able to escape. Her form reconstituted on the other side of Rose.

“Enough!” She turned and channeled her divine light into the undead monstrosity, turning her to ash in an instant as her staff clattered to the ground. All other possessions were obliterated by the single divine ray.

“Aghh!” She barely turned in time to block the monster’s sword strike.

Lux poured her Heat into her body, accelerating herself to speeds that rivaled and began to exceed the two monsters that carved at her. She blocked and parried with ease, whipping her flail and feeling it crunch into the male monster’s torso. She tried to pull back – but couldn’t. He had pinned it between his torso and his sword arm.

He grinned at her, his eyes darkening as his teeth began to elongate. “Now!”

Lux barely turned her head in time to see the enormous pillar of green Quintessence flaring with crimson sparks as the female monster brought a blade of pure spatial energy crashing down into her. Lux raised her shield just in time to block the impact. She dismissed the light-flail that the male monster was holding onto, and swung a new one around at this annoying Ogo. But the female warrior vanished – teleporting somehow – as the male monster stood in her place, holding his shield up as the flail banged off of it.

“Just die!”

Merciful justice.

Fumi and Echo were pulling off the same routine they had used against Rickard nearly a year past in Crux Omega – one of them would be the distraction whilst the other recuperated. Their Quintessence was not unlimited, though, and Fumi began to tire. But she had done enough. Lux was weaker. Weak enough that Echo could take her on alone. They had planned for this. Fumi and Rose would weaken and cause Lux to burn through her divine Heat, and Echo would face her one on one where she couldn’t draw more power.

It’s time.

Fumi felt her arms shaking. She had to do it now. She activated her teleportation bracelet several times in a row to gain some distance as she cancelled Achronerate and Gori Rage. She held up her hands and channeled her remaining Quintessence into a single, powerful spell. The strongest she could manifest. “Create Space – Dimension Grip!”

A shimmering black portal ringed by green appeared next to Echo and Lux – and both were sucked into the pocket dimension. Her heart fluttered slightly with fear that Echo might die in there with her. But she had hope.

Kill her, my Echo.

Echo kicked off Lux to gain some distance as the two floated in a black emptiness. He deactivated Achronerate and Gori Rage, reaching into his pocket dimension and quaffing down a panacea. At the same time, he touched the Mimic Cube, activating the Artifact.

He had steeled himself for this moment. When he asked Kalinor what the Arbiter of Souls wanted him to do, he had told Echo what he least wanted to hear.

I have to do this for the life I want.

“Make me a monster.”

The Mimic Cube arced with prismatic energy that flowed out of the pocket dimension – consuming all the material within. All the crafting material, all the potions, elixirs, the Sunburst Lantern, every single item stored within that dimension – all except the Mimic Cube itself which stayed put – was melted into the prismatic sludge that coated Echo’s body.

His Quintessence exploded outwards. His body, unchanging due to Body Surety and Eternal Youth, spasmed and evolved repeatedly. He felt his body distort, warp, crack, break, burn, bleed, sizzle, and chill. Every single instance of pain he had experienced from past evolutions would all have been revisited upon him in a single instant.

But he was prepared for this. Selena had taught him how to use his mind Affinity to perform a spell that would block his mind from registering pain. And so he was fully in control.

FEAST!

Lux backed away, raising her flail and shield once more, “Monster! Perversion!” She swung her flail at him.

Echo blocked with his shield as an explosion of prismatic energy cascaded into the air around them. “Transmute Substance,” he turned his Titansteel shield into a bracer as he leaned in, gripping Lux’s shoulder, and pulling back his sword.

She held up her hand under his neck and channeled the full fury of her divinity into him – all but a tiny sliver of her Heat expended in one enormous blast that could destroy anything it touched. A beam of disintegration.

But it bounced from the sludge that coated Echo’s body. He dropped his sword and gripped Lux’s other shoulder, bringing his forehead crunching into her nose. Over and over, he pummeled her face into mush with his skull as she staggered backwards.

FEAST!

She flared with divine light and vanished from his grip, turning into light, and dashing behind him as a hardlight sword manifested in her hands. “Die!”

Echo turned and raised his forearm – the Titansteel bracer deflecting the blade of hardlight. He knelt with the power of the blow, turning to the side as the blade crashed downwards. He grabbed his sword off of the ground, “Transmute Substance,” and the blade turned into a punch dagger in his grip. He leaped at her and stabbed wildly into her neck and chest, grappling to the tall woman’s torso as he eviscerated her body.

“I…am…light!” Lux exploded with divine energy that pushed the sludge from Echo’s form.

He felt the searing heat burning into him. But that didn’t stop him as his Enhanced Regeneration quickly patched over the wounds, “Choking Smog.” He cast a spell using his poison Affinity that sent a stream of silvery smoke down Lux’s throat, the caustic substance burning her from the inside. She managed to get her hands in between them and threw him backwards as her body slowly mended itself.

“You will notsurvive!” She screamed in rage as she gripped her pendant and ripped it off, biting down on it.

Shit, that’s an Aether Shard!

Echo had not noticed it in the slightest – too caught up with the instinct to eat the Artificial Goddess and lost in his rage against her. He palmed the punching dagger and held out his hand towards her, “Volcanic Burst!” A stream of lava sprayed out of his hand, and Lux screamed in pain and anger as the bludgeoning heat spewed over her form.

She flared with holy, divine, white light and the lava stream was diverted as she blasted Echo with a beam of divine, white light. “Burn in cleansing light!”

Echo used his training from the tunnels so many seasons ago and held up his other hand, activating Achronerate for an instant to shut off the lava spell and switch Affinities. “Rift Counter.” Space exploded in front of him and fragmented, redirecting Lux’s beam attack.

She screamed and poured more power into the blast with a renewed sense of fury. But the light continued to refract and bounce from the various surfaces. “Why won’t you die!”

Echo walked forward. An inexorable, inevitable end. He gripped the punch dagger as he stood in front of Lux, her face screwed up in anger and disheveled. “I’m going to eat you now.”

Lux’s eyes went wide, “You dare?! I am Lux! Lightbringer! I made Heimfold!”

Echo growled and deactivated the spell, taking the full brunt of the holy energy for a moment as he cast the spell, he started this journey with. Moving forward, he grabbed her wrist as his skin seared and regenerated. “Transmute Substance!” His silver Quintessence flowed over Lux’s form as the prismatic and crimson sparks scattered across her form. Lux shrieked as her body softened, becoming a bubbling mass.

“I’m…” her words were lost as her body began to liquify and she melted. The Aether Shards composing her being scattered out in a pile in front of Echo.

FEAST!

Echo knelt down and shoveled the shards into his hungering maw.

Vythin felt it – the instant Lux died. He could assert control. Fumi was sitting nearby, fiddling with some grass as she watched the place where she banished Echo and Lux to.

“She is dead,” Vythin rumbled.

Fumi looked up, “Really?”

Vythin nodded, “I thank you, Maven. You can let him out in a moment. But first…” He roared once more and exerted his Heat into a powerful miracle. “This realm is mine!”

The Sun warped and flashed with brilliant golden light as it flared – brightening the whole galaxy in an enormous surge of warmth – before setting into a soft, golden glow. The fields that were once dull grey turned into warm gold, and his Heat suffused the Afterlife. He took ownership of Lux’s miracles, maintaining and persisting Heimfold as it was.

“Now, all of you angels,” His voice echoed out into all of creation, resonating with every former servant of Lux. “You move on, or you serve me. Make your choice. But we are not committing mass suicide. Got it?”

The mass of angels possessing people scattered – either returning to The Sun and giving worship to Vythin, suffusing him with more Quintessence – or going to see Kalinor to join the queues waiting for judgement.

Finally. She is gone. And The Sun is mine.

Fumi opened the pocket dimension. Echo flew down to her, and they embraced. “It’s finally over,” Echo said as he brushed Fumi’s hair back. He leaned forward, kissing her deeply.

Fumi giggled and held him close, feeling elation and pure joy for the first time. “We aren’t going to be hunted anymore.” She could travel the world with Echo. Set up the school for warriors she wanted. Live her eternity with him.

Thank you.

She gave a silent prayer to The Arbiter of Souls. The one who brought Echo into this world. Her soul mate.

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