Collide Gamer

“We need help!” Metra shouted as she descended in the room.

“And how the fuck am I supposed to help with that?!” John shouted back.

“You’ll figure something out.” The ancient weapon would have smirked at him had it not been for the helmet. John could feel that same smile die when she looked at his face.

Entropic sludge poured into the room. John could feel the presence of Mother Chaos clearly long before her cacophonic laughter began to fill the medium-sized chamber. It had been perfectly adequate for a fight between humanoids, but the Dragon of Chaos was a whole different matter. The Astrotium spinal column descended through the hole, pushing the enormous head of the goddess ahead of it.

John was knee-deep in sludge within moments. His HP began to decrease drastically instantly, as his skin was burned, chilled and devoured by acid all at the same time as Lorylim spores filled the air. “I declare myself the centre of magic!”

The Particle Skin Overclock was a fairly niche ability. Every time a spell was used around him John got 50% of that spell’s cost as MP. It only lasted 5 minutes, after which he would not have Particle Skin and lost a tenth of his MP Regeneration.

Making it through the next 5 minutes would be a victory in and of itself.

“Did your toys beat you, little Izha?” Tiamat asked, the sludge rising further. Rather than absorb the grounded telepath, she formed a star-dusted limb and gently cradled him on it. John could feel the seething hatred from the walls. It resonated with his own.

John hated Izha. John hated Tiamat even more. Izha, for all that he had done wrong, was ultimately a victim of his circumstances. John could acknowledge that much, even if he planned to kill the man. Tiamat was the entity that had acted on her own agency, she was the creature that had kicked everything off. Even if John’s visceral hatred was aimed at Izha, his rational hatred was reserved for Tiamat.

“You will be united with them soon. All within my garden.” Mother Chaos placed her favourite puppet in the hole that the Disintegration Blast had made earlier, then turned to the rest of them. Chunks of flesh and organs streamed in alongside fully liquified fibres. The ooze was up to their knees now. “Now what interesting little project do you have there?”

While Tiamat had busied herself with her sentimentality, John had turned to Lyndell. With their mental connections still suppressed, he had to rely on her to create a 3D model of where they had entered the tower and where they would currently be.

“Nothing of interest to you, scum of the world,” John returned. He looked at his mana bar. Tiamat’s simple presence regenerated it in seconds even when he fully depleted it. All of her current existence was one massive spell.

“I am blessed unity,” Tiamat answered, her tone so maternal that it made John want to gouge out her eyes. The cosmic swirls within the black orbs focused on him. Her liquid body curled around the outer rim of the chamber, fully boxing them in. The ambient light died, leaving only the entropic sparks from her scales to offer them multi-coloured strobe light. “Come into my embrace already.”

John reached into his inventory and pulled out three vials of the anti-Lorylim concoction. He poured the grey liquid into the sludge around their feet.

Tiamat shuddered. The ooze snapped back. “YOU DARE?!” Tiamat yelled.

Four limbs snapped out of the surrounding sludge. Each grabbed one of them. They all tried to dodge, but the limited space made that a futile effort. Lyndell first, then John, then Ehtra, and finally Metra, they were all caught.

“I am reconsidering my virtuous gift,” the Dragon of Chaos hissed. “You alone do not deserve to be part of my new world, John Newman. You’ve been the lynchpin of my problems since you stepped onto this continent. Yes… yes… your women will be better off without you. I will provide. Mother will provide. Men like you are not needed in my garden.”

Tiamat tilted her head. John felt the reason for the why a moment later. Vibrations gently shook the room, like a distant earthquake. The Gamer met the gaze of the goddess of chaos with his own hate. Particle Skin sparked where the claw grinded against it. “I’m going to kill you – you and Izha both,” he growled.

“What hope do you have?” Tiamat asked, amusedly. “What trick you played on Izha is exhausted. What power you have is insufficient. I am Mother Chaos, the goddess of the new world. I am the garden that will span the globe, as the Lorylim did once before.”

“You are a parasite,” Lyndell hissed.

“Oh, ancient one, the things that you must have forgotten…” Tiamat squeezed tighter. “I will show you again. Disgusting as you will taste, I will still know you reunited with your kin. I am generous, after all.” Another vibration made the room tremble, more clearly this time. “What parlour trick are you playing?”

“I am making it rain arcane projectiles at an angle in an effort to drill into this chamber,” John revealed freely. “Skyfall – a spell I picked up from the son whose skeleton you’re dressing, abomination.”

“Cute. You believe you can penetrate deep enough into the tower to save you lot?” Tiamat’s laughter accompanied one of the hands moving Ehtra towards her maw.

“Skyfall isn’t meant to reach here, only to light the way.”

Walls hidden by Tiamat’s viscous mass suddenly crumbled. The Dragon of Chaos roared in renewed anger as she and the rest of them plunged down into a chamber below. Arcane stars hammered against the opening above, creating shockwaves that loosened Tiamat’s grip. Lyndell wove a spell with her roots, an explosion of anti-magic that dazed John and turned the claw around him into pliable slime. Chapters fırst released on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝•𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝘯𝘦𝘵

He ripped himself free, then took a Magus Step over to Ehtra. The grey angel took hold of him, slowing his fall. Metra and Lyndell had their own solutions to the long drop through the vertical chamber.

As soon as they had broken out of the mass of slime that was Tiamat, John managed to take stock of the situation. “HANDS OFF MY FUCKING MAN, YOU MOULDY DRAGON HAG!” Eliana screamed. Her legs were bloody from repeated uses of Seismic Step. That had been what had ravaged its way through the tower.

Regeneration knit flesh and bone plating back together. Tiamat, similarly, consolidated into the form of a black-scaled dragon too gorgeous to behold to be genuine. The Dragon of Chaos’ claw met the Martial Art infused kick of the goddess of genocide.

Eliana was flung into a nearby wall, her wings of burning blood nearly extinguishing from the force of the impact. The enormous body of the goddess of chaos blocked John’s view of his broken angel. “I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HATE YOU PROPERLY BEFORE I RECLAIM MY EHTRA!” Tiamat roared and went on pursuit.

A sonic boom filled the chamber. Tiamat was upon John and Ehtra near instantly. Her jaws parted in its disgusting layers, an alien lifeform from the deepest parts of the Abyss. Fungal tendrils squirmed within the undulating, black flesh of her throat.

Metra teleported next to Tiamat’s head, slamming Rex Magnar into it. The Fusional weapon stopped against the Astrotium skull. There was just enough force to delay Tiamat until Ehtra and John hit the ground.

Immediately, they parted. Ehtra took back to the air, while John teleported backwards. At the edges of his mind, Izha continued to laugh. The sound echoed in the air all around them, mouths and eyes tearing open, ruining any splendour the walls of Tiamat’s tower had. The much larger chamber they had dropped into rapidly turned into a picture of biblical hell, painted in greyscale.

‘You can’t do it. You can’t do it. You can’t do it,’ Izha mocked him in a multitude of voices. Brenda’s voice, Benjamin’s voice, Mark’s voice, Rodaclam’s voice, Jackal’s voice, Sigmund’s voice, every last victim, friend or foe, that the actions of the Latebloomer had taken. ‘Die. Die. Die. Die, you arrogant failure.’

Tiamat set her sights on Ehtra first. It really did appear that she cared first and foremost to further bring about her manifestation. Every bit of the parts she absorbed from her wayward children, even those whose materials no longer included those of the Dragon of Chaos, allowed her to concentrate more of her eldritch might into this singular vessel. John still had no clue what kind of power he was looking at, he could only estimate from the ease with which Tiamat turned space into her plaything.

Bringing up her claws, Tiamat sliced downwards. The entirety of the limb disappeared into a portal, slamming into Ehtra from above. The First of Hatred collided with the ground, ready to be snatched up by Tiamat’s jaw.

Aclysia’s Aid Skill brought the black dragon maid in position to hinder Tiamat’s efforts. Even with True Block and Juggernaut, Aclysia would have been devoured in Ehtra’s stead, had it not been for the supportive descent of Beatrice. On wings of lighting, she crashed into Tiamat’s serpentine neck, then turned into electricity in her entirety.

“MEDDLESOME CREATURES!” Tiamat screeched. Her wings flared in size. Eyes of many colours opened on the membranes. Their manifestation caused an entropic shockwave that flash-froze everyone in space.

Everyone but Eliana. The failed goddess had just enough power of her own to resist the effect and plunged down. One of the mightiest entities in the Abyss entered melee combat once again and all she could do was use her Martial Arts defensively. Energy redirection allowed her to ‘push’ Tiamat’s claws aside.

Eyes on wings widened, chaos swallowed reason, and a segment of space in the room suddenly collapsed. A dying star pulled everything in the room into its vortex, ripping the people locked in position into a gravitational well. John, Aclysia, Beatrice, Eliana, Ehtra, Metra and Lyndell, all of them found themselves collapsing into that one spot and then flung across the room in an explosion of incomprehensible magic.

Tiamat coiled up like a cat ready to pounce on its prey, only to suddenly stop. “Oh, I can feel your confusion, little one,” she gloated and turned her head.

John was unharmed, a final boon of the Particle Skin buff that, in that moment, had finally run its course. He recovered swiftly, to see Nahoa, her expression baffled, standing in the shadow of Tiamat’s tail. Her dagger was plunged into the dragon. The sight filled John with the same dread that slowly settled on Nahoa’s feature. Her dagger was supposed to tear stolen power out of entities. It did nothing to Tiamat besides stab her.

“I can read the enchantment like a book,” the Dragon of Chaos giggled. “My sons and daughters know their place. My flesh is my own.”

“…No…” Ehtra muttered. “…Seminaris was…”

“Never alone in her conviction,” Tiamat completed the First of Hatred’s sentence. “Come home to mother, Ehtra.”

“KEEP FIGHTING!” John ordered, much to Izha’s renewed amusement. The incessant laughter grinded against John’s willpower. He saw what remained of the nihilist’s body hang from the wall, carried by hands that his greater will in the hivemind had formed from the walls.

“As you wish,” Tiamat hissed, amusedly, and sent Nahoa flying with a kick of her hindleg. The impact was partly absorbed by two layers of white shields. Simultaneously, a whole host of creatures poured through the hole in the ceiling, led by the vampire maid herself.

Tiamat sliced the air above her head. The claw marks left arching tears in their path, which collapsed into a massive shockwave. Claire’s household was suddenly torn apart, the familiars turning into Bloodrivers that returned to their origin. Claire barely managed to turn herself into a swarm of bats, escaping the event horizon of a stillborn star collapsing above.

“Get a hold of yourself!” Momo shouted, after landing next to John.

“I am in control!” the Gamer shouted back. The words felt like a lie on his tongue and he denied that feeling with all his heart. “We are going to win!”

Rising on her hindlegs, Tiamat raised her arms upwards. Gravity ceased to be. Novas blossomed all over the room, their individual gravities pulling the closest combatants towards them.

“[Rejection].”

Nia arrived on the scene with a singular word, carving itself into the mind of everyone present through an absence of sound. The spell Tiamat had begun to weave simply ended. Everyone dropped back to the floor. Dreadfully faded, Nia remained at the edge of the field, concentrating on remaining in this realm.

Fresh mana poured into a restarting of the spell. A pyroclastic explosion filled the chamber with sudden heat. Tiamat met Nathalia’s breath attack by bellowing out an entropic stream of her own. Rock and fire were swallowed up by the concept of energy dispersion, turning the force into sparkling dust.

Nathalia descended through the gap, two humanoid shapes behind her. One was surrounded by a cloud of metal scrap, the other rode on a particularly large piece of metal. Red hair fluttered in the wind of motion. Scarlett’s wrists locked together, joining the energy circuits of both arms. A lance of electric energy shot over Nathalia’s head, striking Tiamat in the shoulder. Lydia’s hail of metal followed immediately after.

Most of the scrap simply fell to the ground, the magical control diminished to nothing by the presence of the goddess of chaos. What made it through pierced her scales, only to be ejected immediately afterwards by her regeneration. Scarlett’s laser turned Lorylim matter into frothing liquid, but the high-intensity laser could only be sustained for so long.

It was long enough that the entire harem managed to charge forwards. Tiamat found herself the centre of a storm of attacks. Eliana and Nathalia came in first, their immense physical power enough to pummel the Dragon of Chaos, forcing her back on all four legs. Aclysia tossed Nahao into the engagement, the plaguexolotl landing on Tiamat’s back sending her purple slime into the streaming saltwater.

Tiamat contorted to throw off Nahoa. As she did so, she noticed a black-red nail hovering above her head. The true nature of that remained obscured to the Dragon of Chaos for now. John launched two Arc Lances at her eyes. One spell struck true, the miss of the other was made unimportant by Beatrice stabbing the eye out with her pronged tail.

More eyes sprouted all over Tiamat’s body to compensate. She moved with devastating power. Scarlett and Lydia pelted her with ranged attacks, right up until two pillars of green jade descended from above. “The Empress comes from the heavens!” the imperial tomboy declared her entrance. The construct of her magic slammed into Tiamat’s shoulders.

They would have been shrugged off, had it not been for the arrival of the massive, black-armoured warrior. The Cardinal Chosen of the Black Turtle extended its reach with hammers of black water, still liquid and yet magically solid enough to deliver a perfectly coordinated, plunging double strike to the pillars, driving them into Tiamat’s flesh like nails.

Finally, fist-blazing with multi-coloured light, the first of the haremettes and last to arrive entered the field. Rave leapt down, pulling behind her a ray of hope. “…let our world’s collide!”

She finished the Babel Phrase just as she collided with the Dragon of Chaos. That same inexplicable spike of power she had portrayed during their last clash with Tiamat now resonated with her incantation. Rather than five slashes of light, all of that energy was bundled into a singular, hyper-speed punch.

Tiamat was struck down. Such was the force that her head slammed into the ground and her whole body rebounded upwards, held down only by the jade pillars. Heat incinerated Lorylim spores in the air. Izha’s unending laughter was overpowered by the creaking and cracking of Tiamat’s skeleton.

“Now,” John said to Claire.

The vampire maid did his bidding without question. The Death Nail that had hovered about Tiamat descended, driving down with a percentage of all of the damage Tiamat had taken since the spell had been applied. Lorylim mattered was driven outwards beneath the scales.

Ehtra and Metra descended, one flying, one leaping. Rex Magnar and the Astrotium blade of the First of Hatred came down on the neck of Tiamat simultaneously. The grounded Dragon of Chaos was helpless.

So John had hoped.

The draconic form of Tiamat broke. The pretension of her past glory was undone, the sludge that had been driven from inside her turning into a myriad of squirming limbs. Tendrils, hands, eye stalks, and mouths, all of them moving around. They caught the weapons of the two Metracanas, shoved away the stakes that had been driven into a body that owed nothing to conventional biology. Her flesh simply parted around the obstructions. The stream of wings on her back transformed into a stream of everything. Teeth, claws, tails, tentacles, all kinds of absurdist and practical limbs were born and devoured by the form of Mother Chaos.

As the damage she had taken by the onslaught of attacks was repaired, the chamber around them turned from a slice of hell into a land of plain stone. The energy of the Lorylim that had seeped into the construction was drawn into Tiamat. The arms that had held Izha’s body turned into nothing, the corporeal remains of the nihilist dropping to the ground.

Tiamat stood tall on one end of the chamber, the harem, joined by Lyndell and the Black Turtle, on the other. Enough power remained in the walls for Izha to form an eye beneath the ceiling. “Can you do that ten thousand more times?” Tiamat asked mockingly, before inhaling deeply.

The Dragon of Chaos bellowed from a multitude of mouths. Liquid, solid, gaseous, plasmatic, the energy of entropy itself mixed with a cascade of exhaled spores, creating a rapidly advancing carpet of eldritch horrors and energy. Nathalia, Lu Zhi and Lydia weaved together an improvised defence from magma, metal and jade. The wall blocked Tiamat herself from their vision.

A goddess, an empress, and a sovereign that was both – even the three of them together strained to keep up the blockade. “We can’t win like this!” Momo shouted at John.

“She is bluffing,” John insisted. “We won everything before, we can win this, we can-“

The storm of entropy ended. Something worse filled the air.

“Mother Chaos, Tiamat my name,” The wall was torn down. Everyone, without thinking, stormed forwards. There was only one focus: not to let that incantation be concluded. “I eat my tail and wings, it is all the same.” Slashing the air, Tiamat distorted space, causing the ranged attacks aimed at her to all miss her. “The truth remains, all is mine.” Eliana was the first to arrive. Her attacks, like those of all that followed, could not cut through the storm of limbs that stretched from Tiamat’s ass to stop them. “ALL WILL BE ONE!”

John did not know what happened next. All of his senses were mixed together into a singular something. A fragment of his willpower pushed against this lack of distinctions. Without a hierarchy to order his thoughts, it was just one force amongst many. An order that would need time to assert itself.

Instead, he came back to Tiamat’s claw piercing his chest.

“…Ti--- a--- mat,” he pressed out with the last of his air. He gazed up at Mother Chaos. There was nothing but hate in his heart, staring back at the creature that had ruined everything. In the corner of his vision, his HP dropped and dropped and dropped.

“That’s enough from you.” Tiamat pulled her claw back. The frozen women all around snapped out of their daze in one instant, all of them turning to see John Newman drop to the ground. The wound in his chest did not close.

His HP had hit 0.

In the blackness that followed, Gaia asked, “Are you satisfied with that?”