Chapter 310: Reckless
Coop took his place back on the hazy beach, alone with nothing but his shield, spear, and ethereal armor. He kept his eyes on the rippling rift as it hovered just above the surface of the water, off in the distance. The flat plane of light was steadily growing brighter while bursts of white sparks surged to life all around it, creating tiny rainbow flashes as they drifted away.
A steady flow of energy was being sucked into the disc, seemingly from all directions and Coop found himself squinting as his eyes watered while he observed the flow. He rubbed his eyes, feeling like he had when he had activated Vaporform within the Underlayer. The ley lines had been an avalanche of mana that were difficult to look at, and he felt a similar discomfort after his extended battle with the Omega Construct even when he was outside of the mists. He did his best to ignore the migraine-like sensation behind his eyes.
The rift sent streaks of illumination into the depths of the sea or floating off into the clouds, lighting up the darkness with flashes of heavenly pillars as it absorbed concentrated mana from the region. The color of the light reminded him of the spotlights granted by the system whenever he gained a level, but as it faded, it bled into all the colors of the rainbow instead of simply dimming to nothingness.
Without a doubt, he knew it would be a portal that would hail another Icon of Mana, though it didn’t seem to represent one of the three he was already acquainted with. If he wasn’t already familiar with the process, he would have doubts, as it wasn’t nearly as ominous as the others, but knowing what he did about the Eradication Protocol put him on high alert.
The first Icon that appeared after the defeat of the first Siege Boss, Irrevocable Condemnation, was a parasitic creature of black oozing corruption; the white heavenly colors he was witnessing this time didn’t fit its profile. Monolithic Destiny was the second that appeared after the blood curse siphon to cure Jones, and it was a massive demon of stone and blood, much too large to fit through this disc of light. The third was Inevitable Conclusion that had been summoned by the ritual initiated by the Avatar of Huracan, and it was a monster of sand and manipulation, but not the smooth colors that were dancing around this portal. Whatever this one was, Coop intended to welcome it to Earth as he had all the others: with a firm rejection of its presence.
He took a deep breath, fully prepared to continue fighting. The Omega Construct had managed to hold him off for days with a steady barrage of powerful enemies while being a tank itself, but it hadn’t truly weakened him in any way. His Reaper title was too much of an effective counter to any powerful enemies that incorporated minions into their strategies.
Even in terms of fatigue, it was nothing compared to what he had experienced in the weeks spent in the Underlayer. The Primal Constructs had long been relegated to fertilizer for his development. Even the Region Boss had only managed to temporarily slow him down. This Icon would be meeting Coop at his best, immediately after he was satisfied by an appetizer consisting of the strongest enemy the world had ever seen.
His resummoned shield and spear had already recovered their equilibrium as well. They were expelling reassuring wisps of ghostly spectral mana as well as bits of the blackened abyssal energy in equal measure, in what had become a natural balance. He found the harmony between affinities comforting.
During the time he spent wielding primarily abyssal affinity in his manifestations, he had felt a change within himself, or if not a change, it had been a revelation of something that had been shifting over time being exposed by the temporary imbalance. The yin and yang of Spectral and Abyssal affinities had broken.
Coop squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get his vision to return to normal, to no avail. He spared a glance at the palm of his hand, feeling like the subsumption of his spectral mists had been wrong. He didn’t know exactly why he felt that way, but the whole situation reminded him of the tickle in his brain when he had first experienced the flavor of eldritch power that came with the abyss. The painful transformation he had undergone in order to defeat the Lich had been initiated by a similar invasive wrongness. It was like something had been growing inside of him, and it made him both nervous and uncomfortable to recognize such a possibility, as if it threatened to fundamentally change him in ways that abandoned his previous progress. He shivered at the thought.
A quick assessment of his level 500 skill choices offered the same series of Dedications he had seen almost a dozen times before, but the one specific to the Deep Dweller was highlighted and practically jumped out of his vision. Even though he already knew his choice, something about the eagerness of the normally standard text put him off even more than the uncanny feeling in his gut. It was like multiple warning lights were flickering on and off in the back of his mind. At this point, he knew better than to completely ignore them, even if he ended up plowing through the alarms to reach the next echelon of strength in the future.
However, selecting what promised to be such a transformative skill immediately before another fight just seemed like a bad idea in a way that was different than in the past. Even then, he didn’t like making such commitments without the peace to imagine as many possibilities as he could.