Chapter 146 ‒ The Blazing Reckoning
Chapter 146 ‒ The Blazing Reckoning
A radiant golden glow began to seep from Tyler’s slumped body, slowly at first, then pulsing outward in expanding waves. The chains that bound him shivered, each link clanging against the next as if straining to hold a star within their coils. A rumble rippled across the scorched plateau, shaking dust and ash into whirling ghosts beneath the moon’s pallid gaze.
Tyler’s fingers twitched. His eyes snapped open, blazing with molten determination — a brilliant gold laced with flickers of crimson. The breath that tore from his throat sounded less like a human gasp and more like the roar of a creature long buried beneath layers of fear and grief.
A sharp crack reverberated as his muscles surged with newfound vigour. His entire form swelled, plates of armour groaning and warping, his legs stretching and widening until he loomed over the battlefield like a living colossus.
[Activated Skill: Gigantify]
The air trembled. Tyler’s massive arms flexed, the golden aura dancing across his veins like rivers of lightning. He slammed his fists downward, the force erupting in concentric shockwaves. The ethereal chains splintered like brittle glass, shattering into luminescent shards that dissolved into the wind.
High above, Yandeon’s eyes widened, his face twisting in a grotesque snarl. “No… no! That’s impossible! You… you were trapped in my [Soul Bind]! How?!”
Tyler slowly shrank back to his normal size, his armour creaking and folding around him with fluid precision. He rotated his shoulders with an almost casual grace and tilted his head upward, a faint smirk curling across his lips.
“What can I say?” he called, his voice carrying effortlessly across the battlefield. “Achieving the impossible… is kind of my specialty.”
The air hissed with sudden menace. Yandeon’s twisted fingers spread wide, summoning forth an eruption of translucent, spectral chains that lunged from the ground like predatory serpents.
[Yandeon Activated Skill: Soul Bind]
The chains tore through the ash, spiralling upward in gleaming arcs, each one poised to wrap around Tyler’s limbs and drag him back into the abyss.
But Tyler was already gone. A golden trail burst across the battlefield as he activated [Dash], his silhouette blurring and reforming in a dozen places at once. The chains snapped and recoiled, slicing through empty air. Tyler spun, golden sparks trailing from his feet, as he reappeared behind Yandeon in an instant.
A roar of frustration split the night. Yandeon’s tentacles flared, lashing in a vicious whirlwind. Tyler’s twin swords gleamed under the moonlight, carving precise, merciless lines through each monstrous limb. Tentacles writhed and collapsed, spraying black ichor that hissed and sizzled against the scarred stone.
Shrieking, Yandeon hurled himself upward, wings of tattered, webbed flesh beating furiously. He soared high into the sky, moonlight turning his grotesque silhouette into a writhing nightmare of teeth and scales.
Tyler’s eyes narrowed. As he activated [Eagle Eye], his pupils contracted to pinpricks, and the world around him sharpened into a razor-edged tapestry of movement and light.
A bright crackle arced along his sword arm.
[Activated Skill: Lightning Bolt]
A streak of crackling white-blue light shot forth, carving a jagged path through the night air. It struck Yandeon squarely in the chest. His entire form convulsed, wings folding awkwardly as if seized by invisible hands. With a strangled scream, he plummeted, crashing into the plateau below in a thunderous explosion of dust and splintered stone.
Yandeon clawed at the ground, limbs twitching. His remaining tentacles writhed as he staggered upright, ichor dripping in black rivers. His voice gurgled out between ragged breaths, “Fine… if this isn’t enough… then…”
[Yandeon Activated Skill: Soul Augmentation]
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A sudden surge of ethereal energy engulfed his body, a storm of violet and sickly green flames tearing at his flesh. Bones cracked and reformed, scales burst across his skin like molten plates. From his hunched back, a grotesque scorpion tail unfurled, its stinger glistening with luminous venom. Two massive moose-like antlers sprouted from his temples, stretching outward in grotesque majesty.
His face writhed and warped — the upper half now elongated, jagged shark teeth protruding in uneven rows. The lower jaw shattered and twisted, replaced by serrated mandibles that clacked and hissed.
A nightmarish laughter echoed across the battlefield, reverberating in Tyler’s skull like a thousand rusted bells.
In that moment of horror, Tyler bolted toward Zephryn. Her wings lay crumpled under ethereal bindings, feathers ragged and soaked in blood. Tyler’s aura flared crimson as he activated [Berserk], each heartbeat pounding through his veins like molten iron. His twin swords blurred, severing the spectral chains that pinned her.
Zephryn’s golden eyes fluttered open in shock. Before she could speak, Tyler’s hand gripped her talon firmly. “Get Vitamin Ape, Kragg, and Nelly out of here! Now!”
Nellisa stumbled toward them, her cloak singed and her hands trembling, blackened with burns. “We… we can still help…!”
Tyler grasped her scorched hands, his thumb brushing over cracked skin. “No,” he said, his voice like steel wrapped in warmth. “You’ve all done enough. It’s my turn to protect you now. Trust me.”
Shindeon’s thunderous voice cut through the night. “Hey! Foolish mortal! If you have time to chatter, why don’t you free me from these wretched bindings first?!”
Tyler turned to Zephryn and gave her a resolute nod. Zephryn’s gaze softened, an unspoken understanding passing between them. With a fierce beat of her battered wings, she swept up Vitamin Ape, Kragg, and Nellisa, launching into the darkened sky.
Tyler exhaled, turning his attention to Shindeon. “Brace yourself!”
In the next heartbeat, Tyler lunged forward, blades shimmering with feral intent. Just before he could cut the final chain, a burst of acidic spit exploded from Yandeon, splattering the ground and melting entire slabs of rock into noxious sludge.
Tyler leaped back, narrowly avoiding the searing splash. Some droplets splattered onto the ethereal chains around Shindeon, burning them away like wet parchment.
Shindeon roared, molten eyes blazing as he tore the weakened chains apart with a final, savage thrust of his arms. “At last! You dare to bind me, worm?!”
Tyler called out, breathless but resolute. “Shindeon — you can leave if you want… but I could really use your help.”
A low, guttural growl shook the plateau. Shindeon flexed his claws, a searing heat coiling in his throat. “Finally… you acknowledge my might. Hmph! I shall aid you. But know this — I obey no one. Get in my way, and I will turn you to ash.”
With a mighty leap, Shindeon launched himself toward Yandeon. Acidic spit sprayed from Yandeon’s gaping jaws, but Shindeon met it with a roaring conflagration, his [Firestorm] burning through the corrosive torrent.
“You dare spit on me?!” Shindeon bellowed, eyes incandescent. “I will burn your very soul to cinders!”
Shindeon’s sword cleaved through the toxic haze, but Yandeon’s tentacles snatched at the blade, coiling like serpents around its edge.
Tyler dashed forward, his figure flickering like a phantom.
[Activated Skill: Ink Cloud]
A dense black mist swallowed them both, swirling in chaotic spirals. In the confusion, Tyler’s blades gleamed in brief flashes as he sliced through the gripping tentacles. Shindeon’s sword slipped free. With a guttural roar, he swung it wide, slicing into Yandeon’s mutated face. Flesh and bone split apart in a grotesque, wet spray.
The cloud dissipated, revealing Shindeon coiled for another attack. He lunged forward, delivering a double kick that sent Yandeon crashing across the plateau, gouging a massive trench through the ashen earth.
Shindeon roared in triumph, fangs glinting like molten daggers. “I do not need your assistance to crush vermin like this!”
As Yandeon’s twisted form tumbled to a stop, Tyler gathered crackling energy along his blade.
[Activated Skill: Lightning Bolt]
The thunderous strike slammed into Yandeon’s side, tearing flesh and scales, and sending spasms through his entire frame.
Yandeon writhed, his monstrous tentacles now torn and bleeding, his body riddled with deep gashes. Black, putrid ichor flowed like oil, hissing where it met the scorched ground. His face was an unrecognizable mass of shredded scales and jagged bone — one mandible gone, revealing a gaping, bubbling maw beneath.
Yet even so, Yandeon laughed, a hideous, rattling sound that seemed to echo from every shadow.
“These meagre attacks… cannot kill me,” he croaked, his head jerking erratically. “I am immortal! I am Yandeon, eternal heir to the void! You will all kneel before me! Writhe… and die! Hahahaha!”
[Yandeon Activated Skill: Soul Augmentation]
As his laughter grew, a blinding surge of ethereal energy flooded from his twisted core. His back exploded outward in violent spasms. Three grotesque pairs of wings burst free — one insectoid and iridescent, another feathered and black as midnight, the last a rotted membrane oozing violet slime.
From his sides, dozens of appendages sprouted — claws, talons, hooked limbs, jagged blades of bone, and even tentacles bristling with barbed tips. His neck lengthened like a twisted serpent’s, and his head contorted, eyes multiplying across his face until it was a chaotic mosaic of unblinking, milky orbs. His jaw cracked open sideways, splitting into twin alligator-like maws filled with rows of interlocking teeth.
Tyler’s breath caught as a system window flashed violently before him.
[Enemy Identified: ????] [Species: ????]
[Level: ????] [HP: 9999 / 9999]