Chapter 232: Small Sacrifices
Coop was fixated on the palms of his hands as he waited for his vibrating vision to fully return to normal. The ambient mana within the settlement had undergone a rapid collapse before replenishing itself with a flood that left him feeling like he was back in the deep ocean, struggling to keep his head above water, and ultimately at the mercy of an unfamiliar elemental force. The settlement territory had completely withdrawn and the rush had surged directly through everything, including him, like gusts of wind uninhibited by tangible material. His fingers were still trembling in instinctive fear and awe. The end had been uncomfortably close.
He was lying flat against crumbled stone at the top of Chakyum’s temple, gracelessly pressed down like a wet leaf caught in a storm. The gales that had crushed the temple had been brief, but there was no denying their strength. He had experienced weaker gusts in the middle of category five hurricanes. The winds had been strong enough to transform the monumental tomb into a mound of riprap better used to armor shorelines than to honor a leader. If he hadn’t already drained his mana going all out with Inheritance of the Mists, he was pretty sure his own resources would have been affected by the shard’s implosion as well. He was happy to remain ignorant toward what the result would have been.
He consciously calmed his ragged breathing, reassuring himself of his vitality with deep breaths that filled his lungs. First, the Deep Dweller had reduced the perception of his individual existence into irrelevance, then the destruction of a shard revealed just how integrated mana was into reality. It felt a bit like experiencing the start of the assimilation for the first time all over again, given how out of his own depth he was feeling.
The sounds of battle in the distance helped him focus, confirming that the battle between Jaguar Sun and the remnants of the Cult continued. He hoped they didn’t need any more of his help, because he wasn’t sure if he had anything left to give. Without Chakyum’s presence or the civilization shard, the uprising had lost several of their objectives, but the minions of the Lich had numbers that wouldn’t be quelled so easily. He really wasn’t in any shape to continue fighting, but the actual war wasn’t even close to done. The Cultists had undergone a forced transformation, but they weren’t so easily dismissed.
His mana was naturally regenerating, but it would be a while before he could do much of anything. Instead of his mana pool refilling, the new mana was being absorbed by his depleted Spectral-Infused Under Armor. The legendary item had the Regenerative Durability trait that allowed it to recharge itself while within Ghost Reef’s territory or from his own resources. He breathed a small sigh of relief that it hadn’t been truly destroyed, but for the moment it was absent.
He watched the sky while his most basic armor reformed, searching for more dramatic entrances from whatever faction or entity that had something else to say. It seemed like an appropriate time for an Icon of Mana to appear and finish him off, but the implosion had ended with the reverse of what normally preceded their summons. When only the first stars of the incoming night twinkled at him, he hummed to himself, believing the coast was clear.
Another thought occurred to him as the colors of his vision returned to normal. “What the heck happened to Lyriel?” The self-proclaimed Avatar of the System had all but promised she would be back, though she claimed it would take more mana each time. An update on Earth’s status would be nice, but she seemed to be staying away. He mentally shrugged to himself, considering the possibility that she was visiting others on Earth or even in other assimilations instead.
Once his Under Armor had recovered enough to protect his decency, Coop slowly forced himself back to his own feet with a series of groans. Getting up had become a multi-step process. Slowly rolling over, he rocked himself up from one knee, tenderly moving as pain radiated throughout his body without a specific source. It felt like he was on the verge of death.
A quick check of his health confirmed that he was indeed, but it was mostly a result of his flirtation with power beyond his means rather than the Lich’s final gambit. The buffs and debuffs reminded him of the dangers presented by Inheritance of the Mists, but the lesson was undermined by the fact that he hadn’t passed out in the aftermath of his possession this time around. The forceful withdrawal of the Apparition had prevented him from being pushed beyond his limit, though with only slightly more than 1,000 health remaining after the mana storm, it was close enough. It seemed like it was relatively rare for the winner of a fight to actually be pushed to the brink of their health pools, but the power of the Lich had forced him to the edge.
Fifty stacks of the Haunted debuff lingered on his mana pool, reducing it by half, though it was empty anyway. The Delusion debuff was in place, preventing another cast of Inheritance of the Mists from being accepted, but both the Overburdened and Soul Burn buffs were already fading. Mental Transcendence, the buff that indicated he was possessed by something beyond his capacity, had disappeared, cleared by the fluctuations in mana.
Gazing across the landscape, the Yucatan settlement could have been confused for a modern day warzone after a series of bombing runs. The nearest smaller pyramids had been scattered to white and gray dust after the implosion, and there were leveled buildings throughout the grid of streets that had been unable to withstand the gusts. Fires burned here and there, sending smoke into the darkening sky and lights flashed where combat continued, completely encompassing the former settlement.
The main temple only remained due to its bulk. Rather than an organized monument to the Cult of Chakyum, it was merely a pile of stones, almost as though they were hastily dumped in the middle of the lake. If anything, it had grown larger after the implosion. Coop meandered his way across the lopsided surfaces, making his way toward the center with the help of his hands whenever he found a slab too steep to stumble across.