Incubus Ascension

The sky fractured, torn asunder by a pillar of obsidian light that pulsed with a malice so thick it felt like oil coating the lungs.

It rose from the center of the academy, an inverted waterfall of pure darkness that drowned out the afternoon sun.

Liam stared, his blood running cold.

This wasn’t just magic; it was a scar on reality itself.

He knew, with an instinctual dread, that the situation had shifted from a skirmish to a catastrophe.

"Gather up!" he shouted, his voice cracking with urgency.

He gripped his weapon, turning to his companions.

"Simon isn’t just lurking, he’s at the academy. And he’s doing something catastrophic."

The group didn’t need convincing.

They sprinted toward the campus grounds, their footsteps thudding against the pavement.

Before they even broke through the main gates, a sound cut through the air, a jagged, hysterical laugh that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

They skidded to a halt at the edge of the central courtyard.

There, kneeling in the dirt, was Simon.

But he wasn’t alone.

Towering before him was a woman draped in a dress of living shadow, her silhouette shifting like smoke.

Her beauty was terrifying, sharp and absolute.

As she drifted, freed from the seal that had held her, her voice resonated, not just in the air, but directly inside their skulls.

"My name is Nyx. Goddess of Darkness."

Liam felt a sudden, violent lurch in his chest.

It wasn’t love, nor was it admiration.

A wave of illogical, irresistible desire crashed over him, pulling at his very marrow.

It was as if his body was being hijacked by an instinct to bow, to touch, to belong to her.

He dug his nails into his palms, forcing his will to remain his own.

It was a suffocating, unnatural presence that eclipsed everything else.

Simon, seemingly immune to her charm, remained focused on his prize.

He stayed on his knees, his eyes gleaming with greed.

"Master. I freed you. You promised me a reward. Where is it?"

Nyx glanced down at him, her expression one of bored contempt.

"Oh. You’re that incessant little gnat who kept pestering me."

With a casual, almost mocking flick of her finger, she tapped Simon’s forehead.

"Take your gift and begone."

The reaction was instantaneous.

Simon’s body seized, his skin curdling into a charred, obsidian black.

He shrank, his flesh sloughing away to reveal the white, rattling bones of a skeleton.

He clutched his skull, letting out a roar of agony that sent a shockwave of force rippling through the courtyard.

"Silence," Nyx commanded.

An invisible force clamped over Simon’s jaw, locking it shut instantly.

"Check your level, worm."

Simon scrambled, his hollow sockets burning with a frantic, desperate light as he checked his status window.

A moment later, his confusion vanished, replaced by a shrill, ecstatic cackle.

He’d broken the level 150 barrier.

He was level 172.

"Why... why only this much?" Simon croaked, still trembling from the transformation.

Nyx didn’t even deign to look at him as she tore a rift in space, creating a swirling portal of void.

"That is the absolute limit of your meager potential. I didn’t waste any talent, you simply had nothing more to give."

She paused, her gaze drifting toward the group, lingering on Liam with an icy, knowing weight.

She stepped toward him, blurring across the distance in a blink.

The air grew frigid.

She leaned in, her lips brushing his ear, and whispered, "You owe me for helping you earlier."

The world tilted.

Liam trembled, the realization dawning on him, she was the one who had intervened before.

Before he could process it, she stepped backward and dissolved into the portal, her voice echoing one last time.

"Do not call on me again for trifles, or I will extinguish you."

The moment the portal collapsed, Simon surged to his feet, his new strength radiating off him in suffocating waves.

He let out a savage laugh.

"That bitch! She finally gave me what I wanted."

He clenched a blackened fist, turning his gaze toward the group.

Sylvia, the strongest among them, looked pale and bloodied, her level 166 aura flickering weakly against his oppressive pressure.

"You fucking assholes," Simon hissed, his voice grating like grinding stones.

"You’re going to pay for every second I wasted."

Liam gritted his teeth, his mind racing.

He was being crushed by Simon’s aura, but beneath it, he sensed something else, a constant, rhythmic vibration of dark energy.

He concentrated, forcing his own internal energy to coat his eyes.

The world shifted.

Above the approaching horde of monsters flooding the academy gates, he saw it: jagged, black threads of energy, each one tethered directly to Simon’s hands.

’He’s not just commanding them,’ Liam realized, his heart hammering against his ribs.

’He’s puppeteering them with her energy.’

He turned to his companions, his voice firm despite his fear.

"Guys, listen to me! I need time. Protect me, I’m going to sever his control over these things!"

They didn’t hesitate.

They formed a defensive circle around him as the monsters surged forward, a tidal wave of teeth and claws.

Liam squeezed his eyes shut, reaching out with his own energy, trying to grasp the ethereal threads.

It was like trying to catch smoke in a gale, exhausting and maddeningly difficult.

Simon’s laughter boomed, narcissistic and cruel.

"You think you’re worthy of fighting me? My pets are more than enough to tear you apart."

He twisted his wrist, and the horde accelerated, a sea of carnage descending upon them.

Liam poured everything he had into the task, his forehead slick with sweat.

He finally snagged a thread, molding his own energy into a sharp, obsidian needle.

With a grunt of exertion, he shot it forward.

The connection severed.

The monsters in the vanguard faltered, then turned.

In a flurry of confusion, they swarmed back toward Simon.

The skeleton-mage’s jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Did that woman... did she betray me?"

Liam didn’t offer an explanation.

He watched as the monsters descended on their former master.

Simon was strong, a meat-slicing machine, his blade weaving through the horde with terrifying speed.

But the numbers were staggering.

He began to tire, his HP bar dropping steadily until it dipped below half.

"Weaken him!" Liam commanded, his voice tight.

"Sylvia, Emelia, now!"

The girls lunged into the fray, forcing Simon into a defensive posture.

Liam snatched the scroll Simon had discarded earlier, his strongest attack from when he was level 160.

He surged it with the dark energy he had mastered.

The scroll glowed, its power output tripling.

He waited for the opening.

Simon took a step back, distracted by a clawing ghoul.

Liam unleashed the scroll.

The blast hit with the force of a falling star, shearing off Simon’s arm and obliterating a chunk of his skull.

The skeleton crumbled to one knee, panting, his frame battered.

"Do you think," Simon roared, his voice distorted and metallic,

"that I would fall so easily to the likes of you?"

He slammed his remaining hand into the ground.

"Domain Expansion: Nether World."

The world stripped of color, rendered in stark, oppressive monochrome.

The movement of the monsters, the wind, even the air itself locked in place.

Everything stopped.

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

He could move.

He watched in horror as Simon lunged, his movements unhindered, aimed directly at him.

’Why isn’t his special skill working on me?’ Liam wondered, the dark energy in his hand thrumming in response to the domain.

He glanced at the frozen figures of his group, realizing with a sick jolt of relief that he had been the primary target, if Simon had attacked the others first, they would have been helpless.

He gulped, bracing himself.

Simon stood less than ten feet away, his HP bar hovering at less than a quarter, but he looked more dangerous than ever.

’This,’ Liam thought, shifting into a desperate fighting stance,

’is going to be a nightmare.’