12-88. The Price to be Paid
For a fraction of a second, the emergent bolt of lightning froze in space and time as the force of its own momentum warred with the gravitational pull of the imploding ethereal star. Even as that roiling ball of disparate energies collapsed in on itself, Elijah flooded Lightning Rush with ethera.
It was not enough.
By the time it reached the halfway point of its duration, he’d barely traveled an inch. Harnessing every ounce of willpower he possessed, he churned the energy in his core and forced it to respond.
For months, he’d watched as Hu Shui and Benedict plumbed the Labyrinth of Dead gods for magical secrets. They’d both made incredible strides in that arena, pushing the power of their abilities much further than either had thought possible. By comparison, Elijah had stagnated.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t paying attention. He saw everything. He catalogued all the same lessons, even internalizing them to a degree. But as he’d previously established, he would never be an expert in spellcasting. The things they could do with runic formations, rituals, and raw manipulation of ethera baffled him in the same way that complex mathematics left him keenly aware of just how little he understood.
But even with his limitations, he had managed to pick some things up. A few details, here and there. To date, he hadn’t put those to use, instead relying on the expansion of his power through sheer ethereal density applied to each of his abilities. They had reached their limits, though.
Lightning Rush was no different.
If he kept going the way he was going, he couldn’t expect better results. In that moment of pure focus, something within him clicked. It wasn’t understanding. Not really. Rather, it was like he’d finally found that comfort zone with a physical activity. A flow state that he’d only experienced a few times in the boxing ring and never since.
Suddenly, it was easy.
The underlying structure of the ability shifted. Only slightly, and he knew it would return to its former expression the moment that odd union of body, mind, soul, and instinct faded. But for now, the scope of Lightning Rush expanded. Not only did it last longer – a full four seconds instead of its normal duration – but it also reached an unprecedented degree of speed.
It was just enough for him to tear free of the implosion.
But in doing so, something in the world broke. An apocalyptic crack ruptured the air, the accompanying sound loud enough to liquify a mortal’s organs. The rift in reality carved through the atmosphere and into the roiling ball of ethera, but it didn’t stop there. Instead, it went straight through the disc itself and into the abyss beyond.
The ethereal star wobbled, and reality shook with it. Somewhere deep within the folds of time and space, a familiar djinn’s cry of pain and anguish echoed across multiple universes. It rattled Elijah’s very existence, and down to the core of every single cell within his body.
A moment later, Lightning Rush ended, and he found himself briefly suspended in the tranquility of pure nothingness. It was as if he’d traveled back to a time before the big bang, when reality had yet to truly exist.
Then, he fell.
He tried to flap his wings, but they wouldn’t respond to his call. Hu Shui had passed out from the strain, and blood covered his whole body. It was as if he’d experienced a million tiny cuts all at once, and the pain of it had sent him plummeting into unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, Benedict had fared better, but only just. He remained conscious, but as the two passengers tumbled from Elijah’s back, the Warlock very nearly lost his grip on that state.
Elijah re-cast his heals, but his wings were far too damaged to quickly mend. Hu Shui’s wounds healed, but he still didn’t awaken. Benedict recovered more easily, only to find himself falling right alongside Elijah.
Before they hit the surface of the broken disc, a spiderweb of cracks arced out from the original rift. Then, it exploded, sending Elijah and his companions rocketing into the sky. He smashed into the corroded remnants of one of the rings, which impaled him through the ribs. That sent him careening into another tangled clump of twisted rings, which arrested his momentum enough for gravity to reassert itself.
Once again, he fell.
But this time, he did so into a sea of shattered pieces of metal that had once been the disc. Below hovered the gaping maw of the abyss, the horror of its nature exposed for everyone to see.
Tentacles of darkness slithered free, grasping and waving as they hungrily awaited the impending meal. Teeth and eyes stared up from the darkness, accompanied by the chilling screams of a thousand races.
And over it all hovered the completely corrupted form of Etkatiran.
The djinn was barely recognizable. His body bulged with asymmetrical muscle as tendrils of corruption wrapped around his tentacles, then mingled with his torso. Seventy-three arms, each of differing lengths gestured with impending spells.
And behind him hovered a ball of nebulous ethera that would soon become another imploding sun.
Realizing that the time for the Shape of the Sky had ended alongside his fractured wings, Elijah shifted into the Shape of Spores, then activated Mycelial Regrowth. As he transformed into the bipedal and be-shelled creature, he continued to fall. However, in the far less delicate shape, he could endure quite a lot more punishment.
Which he needed as Etkatiran pummeled him with a barrage of potent spells. Every element was represented. From shadow blades to spears of ice, Elijah was peppered with so much damage that even his massively boosted regeneration struggled to keep up.
And then, Benedict showed his worth.
The Warlock spread his wings of darkness to reveal a new ability. Or perhaps it was his true form. Whatever the case, his skin had turned blood red, and he’d grown to a height of more than ten feet. His body was festooned with bulging muscles that made him look like a bodybuilder, and most of his clothes had disappeared. The only thing that remained was a skulled loincloth that did only the barest minimum to offer some modicum of decency.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Before Elijah could fully process the man’s appearance, Benedict’s hands flashed with collected dark fire. With a roar, he thrust them forward.
A massive conflagration of destruction erupted from his palms, tearing across the intervening space. Where it went, the scattered debris simply ceased to exist. And when it hit Etkatiran, it carved a vast crater in the djinn’s chest.
But Benedict didn’t stop there.
His hands spun into a complex circle before he once again thrust them forward. Brands seared their way onto Etkatiran’s corrupted flesh, each one pulsing with a vast ocean of malevolence.
The djinn screamed.
Pointedly, he did not die, though.
That was when Elijah hit him in a flying tackle. Even as he did so, he activated Throne of Spores. His fungal tendrils fought the corrupted djinn’s tentacles. They tangled, wrestling with one another. And the djinn’s fleshy appendages won each individual battle. However, while their numbers were finite, Elijah’s were infinitely reproducible. When one was destroyed, another took its place.
And all the while, the air filled with yellow spores.
At the same time, Elijah fought with every natural weapon he had at his disposal. He clawed. He battered the creature with his club-like tail. And he bit, the taste of bile, acid, and ozone filling his mouth as he tore chunks of djinn free.
It was not enough.
Even as his tendrils continued to multiply, they wrapped themselves around Etkatiran’s body and squeezed. The djinn fought back, battering Elijah with his many arms. He threw out hundreds of spells as well, but with Mycelial Regrowth ongoing, whatever damage they caused was nearly instantly healed.
The djinn slowed.
And Elijah began to overwhelm him, bit by bit. In the meantime, Benedict continued to fire spells at the monstrous djinn. None were as destructive as that first beam, but each attack carved a portion of Etkatiran’s corrupted flesh away.
There was a lot of flesh, though.
And Mycelial Regrowth’s duration was quickly winding down. Elijah redoubled his efforts, attacking with a level of fury he’d never before visited. It was not enough.
The ability ended abruptly, and Elijah felt his regeneration plummet. Suddenly, attacks that had been negligible managed to inflict lasting damage. Elijah shunted the pain of it into its own leaf, and he hoped that one day soon, he’d be alive to discard it.
For now, though, that eventuality was far from assured.
That was especially obvious when Throne of Spores finally dissipated. Freed from the restrictions of Elijah’s fungal tendrils, the djinn’s assault reached new levels of destruction. Elijah bore it, dodging where he could, but mostly relying on his outsized endurance and still-inflated regeneration to see him through.
At some point, Hu Shui recovered enough to lend a hand, though his storms of blades were only marginally effective. It was obvious that he simply didn’t have the power to compete with Benedict, much less Elijah.
Still, every little bit helped.
As the fight wore on, Benedict’s spells grew more sporadic. At some point, his transformation had faded, and he’d returned to his normal appearance, though his wings of darkness remained. With that return came a sharp decline in the power of his spells. The fact that he’d kept it up for as long as he had was impressive, though.
Not that Elijah was in any state to appreciate it. Instead, he had his hands full trying and failing to finish the djinn off before the ongoing damage completely outpaced the combination of his regeneration and Wild Resurgence.
In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but worry that even if he managed to win, it wouldn’t be the end of the battle. After all, Etkatiran had proven the ability to reconstitute himself more than once.
Eventually, Elijah realized that his current tactics were not going to work.
Instead, he needed to take a chance. After crawling across Etkatiran’s torso and to his back, he took on the Shape of the Scourge. Without hesitation, he tore into the monster with every weapon boasted by the scourgedrake form. His tail lashed out like the needle of a sewing machine, and each time it pierced the djinn’s flesh, it imparted both Ethereal Sepsis and Spreading Blight. The same could be said for each time his claws raked through the djinn’s back, or when his teeth pierced its muscle.
Of course, that didn’t come without a cost.
Shape of the Scourge lacked any enhancement to constitution, and boasted only a tiny boost to regeneration. As a result, it was almost as vulnerable as Shape of the Sky. So, when the djinn responded, the damage tended to bite deep.
Elijah took it for as long as he could, inflicting a hundred or more instances of his afflictions upon the creature. But eventually, he just couldn’t take it anymore and shifted into his dragon form so he could cast all three of his healing spells to mend the damage.
While his dragon form’s attributes were no different than they were as a base human, their expression was far outsized due to the draconic nature. The only problem was that he became a much bigger target.
And despite his best efforts, the djinn managed to throw him free. Thankfully, his wings had healed while under the influence of Mycelial Regrowth, so he quickly banked and dove, hitting the creature with the force of a speeding bullet train.
At last, the weakened djinn reacted to all the wounds he’d taken. He lost altitude, plummeting briefly before casting a spell that kept him aloft. But that gave Elijah a chance to unleash Eternal Plague, piling even more ongoing damage onto the load carried by Etkatiran.
However, Elijah paid the price for his continued attacks when, during the ensuing melee, the corrupted djinn wrapped a trio of misshapen tentacles around his wing and flexed. It snapped under the pressure, sending a note of pain arcing through Elijah’s shoulders. He ignored it, continuing his assault and adding Nature’s Claim to the mix.
The djinn fell again, only to reassert his mastery over the environment. Benedict rammed him, stabbing him repeatedly with his ritual dagger. Blue blood misted into the air, and the Warlock harnessed it to trace a complex series of glyphs in the air. Elijah bit and clawed as Benedict worked to complete the runic circle.
Then, at last, it came together.
It flared to life, though at that very moment, the djinn grabbed hold of the Warlock. Elijah felt Benedict’s bones breaking under the pressure.
Hu Shui flashed in, slicing a couple of hands free. But there were more to replace them. And Hu Shui’s lack of power showed itself when he didn’t see a tentacle before it slapped him away. Elijah couldn’t afford the attention necessary to see where he’d ended up. Instead, he continued his attack, sensing that the djinn was on its last legs.
He did weave a cast of Wild Resurgence into his rotation so that Benedict might have a chance of survival.
The djinn plummeted again. He screamed in agony as the cascade of venom and fungal rot pulsed inside him. It was the moment Elijah had been waiting on.
He flared his Mantle of Authority, pushing it to cleanse the abyssal corruption that had taken over the djinn’s body.
Etkatiran’s scream reached new heights, echoing through time and space in an eternal loop. Elijah’s eardrums burst, only to reform a second later. He ignored the pain. He shut everything else but his Mantle of Authority out, forcing its power to ascend well past his previous limits.
The flow state had returned.
The corruption within the djinn dissolved.
Then, suddenly, the screams stopped.
The world once again froze.
And for a brief second, Elijah locked eyes with Etkatiran. In that moment, dragon beheld djinn, and the djinn nodded in appreciation as well as respect. Then, he surrendered. Without the corruption slowing its pace, Elijah’s afflictions surged. And at last, Etkatiran died.
For the first time since they’d descended into the space, Elijah relaxed. A notification briefly flashed before his eyes before the reigning silence shattered.
A massive tentacle snapped out from the portal to the abyss, wrapped itself around the corpse of the djinn, and yanked.
He tried to leap free, but he was already past the threshold of the abyssal maw. And the hungry creatures inside could finally reach him. A thousand tentacles and slender claws reached out and dragged him into the abyss.
In the brief moment before Elijah disappeared, he locked eyes with Hu Shui, who’d managed to grab hold of a man-sized piece of the floating disc. He held on, if only barely.
And then, everything was gone, swallowed by eldritch darkness.