12-83. Paying Attention
The air disappeared.
Elijah fell to his knees, gasping ineffectually as his lungs rapidly expanded, then burst. Panicked, he pushed every ounce of ethera he could manage into his Mantle of Authority. It scorched its way through the branches of his soul, blisteringly hot as it erupted from his body.
The mantle went to war against the pervasive domain of nothingness. For long seconds, the two forces fought to a standstill until, at last, Elijah’s side won out. Even as he broke what had to be Etkatiran’s domain, he spread his branch-like wings and let out a roar. Along with that came a deluge of shining locusts, their call a herald of pestilence. Millions of them swarmed, searching for something to latch onto, but they found nothing.
The problem was clear.
Without a body, the djinn’s diffuse consciousness was unassailable through physical means. That meant Elijah’s Eternal Plague had nothing to attack.
“The discs!” shouted Benedict, having recovered from the domain more quickly than Hu Shui, who remained kneeling on the ground. Elijah cast his healing spells, hoping to provide some relief. “We need to cut off the flow!”
Elijah didn’t need any other prompting. He raced across the silver disc, not slowing down until he reached the edge. Without hesitation, he leaped free, spreading his wings. Before he went ten feet, he was hit by a massive beam of ethera that very nearly sheered one of his wings off.
Fortunately, Benedict was right there with him, his own wings beating against open air as he steadied Elijah’s flight.
He didn’t have a chance to utter a thanks before he saw that a trio of massive automatons – each as large as the prime versions from Sanctuary – shimmered into being. They loomed large between Elijah and his destination.
“I’m not holding back anymore,” he said, directing the massive swarm to attack the nearest creature. “Try to keep up.”
Elijah embraced both Savage Might and Heart of the Tempest as he pushed himself to top speed. When he hit the first automaton, he did so with the force of a comet. In fact, he hit so hard that his sturdy legs broke from the force, though the damage was healed only a second later by a Nature’s Bloom he’d kept charging within.
Even as he was enveloped by a massive cocoon of nearly solid vitality, Elijah tore into the already dented automaton’s chest. The sound of wrenching metal filled the atmosphere as his claws, enhanced by the massive influx of strength, ripped through the metal casing. Soon enough, he ripped through and was seared by boiling ethera for his trouble.
He didn’t care.
He wouldn’t stop.
He plunged ahead, and now that his attacks had produced a gap, he had no issues ripping it apart like a tin can. That exposed the cubic core. The thing was still incredibly dangerous – enough so that attacking it would melt his scales.
Thankfully, Elijah wasn’t alone.
“I’ve got this!” shouted Benedict. “Give me one second!”
Elijah did, and he was rewarded when Benedict suddenly disappeared, only to have Vesimath appear in his palce. The powerful minion didn’t hesitate as he raced up Elijah’s arched back and leaped into the core. Inside the chest cavity, red light flashed and the sound of the knight’s axe smashing into the core echoed through the air.
Elijah knew enough not to stick around.
He pushed away from the automaton, and just in time, too. A massive explosion on par with the detonation of a nuclear device came on his heels, and he barely managed to outpace it. Still, it was only because he reached the disc, which acted as a barrier against the eruption, that he survived intact.
By that point, Hu Shui had recovered.
He didn’t need an invitation to leap upon Elijah’s back, and together with Benedict, they flew toward the second automaton. The creature fired a thousand ethereal beams in their direction, each one blistering through the air with enough power to destroy Elijah. He danced through the air, using Cloud Step to rapidly change directions, until the barrage slowed.
That was when they hit the thing’s chest.
This time, Benedict took the lead. He leaped free of Elijah’s back, spread his wings, and hovered in place. Ethera gathered around his hand, building in intensity until he thrust it forward. A beam of pure destruction erupted from his outstretched fingers before slamming into the automaton’s chest.
And the chest plate disintegrated. Not all at once, but bit by bit until the core was exposed. That gave Hu Shui a chance to teleport inside, wrench it free, and send it miles away. It all happened in less than an instant, but when he reappeared on Elijah’s back, he was badly burned.
Elijah cast his heals, hoping that it would be enough.
But he couldn’t take the time to do it properly, because the resulting explosion sent him and his companions cartwheeling through the air. Elijah was the first to regain his balance, and after righting himself, he grabbed the other two with his claws.
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There was still one automaton left, though, and it was already bristling with defenders.
Knowing he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, Elijah dropped Benedict and Hu Shui off on the main disc, then tore off for the final monster. Like with the other two prime automatons, Elijah hit with enough force to not only dent the chest plate. But in addition to that, the shockwave sent the other, smaller automatons crashing backward.
Elijah used that brief moment to take on the Shape of Embers.
By the time that transformation completed, the automatons had recovered and were bearing down on him. He welcomed them with open arms. Over the next few moments, he built one charge of Seed of Ashes after another until he’d compiled more than a hundred.
He kept going, mostly dodging but weaving a few attacks into the mix as well. Without his scythe, he was reduced to using his fists and feet, though he knew good and well that he was no true martial artist. The only reason he was effective at all was because of his long-honed battle instincts combined with his massive advantage in reaction speed. Otherwise, he’d have never lasted.
But he made it all the way to two hundred charges and released Flames of Renewal.
Dense flames erupted from his body, scorching through the automaton’s chest plate before Elijah exploded. The core was immediately vaporized, killing the creature and any other automatons it had spawned. Meanwhile, Elijah turned to ash, where he drifted through the air before settling on the floating husk of the automaton.
A disconnected forest bloomed from the aftermath, growing until it covered every inch of the creature’s metallic body. Only then did Elijah reform, his mantle of ash flowing in a nonexistent wind.
He blinked away the contentment that came in the wake of Flames of Renewal. Then, without further hesitation, he shifted into Shape of the Sky and flew back to the central disc.
There, he found both Hu Shui and Benedict, who’d been fighting a battle of their own.
Hundreds of beasts had descended upon the disc, obviously originating with the subordinate disc connected to the altar of nature. And the beasts weren’t the only creatures around, either. More were on their way from the other planes. Great, mountainous golems, shadowy tentacle creatures, and ice behemoths were just the beginning, and it only took a second for Elijah to recognize the reality of their situation.
If they kept fighting the way they were fighting, they would be overwhelmed.
Even if he managed to survive, the others would not.
They needed to change the paradigm, and fast. So, after clearing a small area, Elijah shouted his intentions. “We need to destroy the other discs!”
That had been the original plan, but that was before the automatons had shown up. That kind of thing had a way of sidetracking even the most dedicated.
With that, the pair leaped onto Elijah’s back, and they once again took to the sky. It was only a few seconds before they landed on the nearest platform. The second they did, Elijah felt the humidity spike until it almost felt like he was underwater. A moment later, a giant shark appeared out of nowhere.
Elijah, having retaken his human form, punched it in the nose.
It crumpled as blood spurted from ruptured skin, but he was already moving. The other two followed, and it was a good thing because a massive school of fist-sized piranha swooped in a few seconds later. Benedict spread his wings and threw himself upward. That was a mistake, because another school of predatory fish took that as an invitation for attack.
They ripped into his bat-like wings, and he plummeted to the ground. Elijah resisted the urge to say something like, “There’s a reason I wasn’t flying, idiot. Pay attention.”
But that wouldn’t do any good.
For the next few minutes, they fought their way across the platform, slaying dozens of varieties of mutated and enlarged sea life along the way. Finally, they reached the altar and embarked upon the familiar task of deactivating it.
“We really need to hurry!” Elijah urged when it took longer than normal. He slammed his fist into an eel the size of a boa constrictor. It flexed with the blow, but it remained stunned long enough for him to grab hold of its slippery flesh and rip it in two. “Tick tock!”
“We’re going as fast as we can!” spat Benedict. “It’s more complex than the other ones.”
As they worked, Elijah continued to defend. All the while, he wished he had a dozen more people to help out. But that just wasn’t the case. There was only him, and he threw himself into the role.
Finally, after Elijah had slain countless sea creatures, Hu Shui announced that he’d finished the deactivation sequence. Benedict chimed in a moment later, saying that the containment ritual was similarly complete.
By that point, they all knew what would come next. Elijah shifted into the Shape of the Scourge, and the others leaped upon his back. He took off at a sprint, pushing himself as hard as he ever had. The form responded, but even so, he was forced to dodge multiple creatures as he sprinted across the disc.
Thankfully, Hu Shui had taken travel time into account, so the altar didn’t explode until Elijah had leaped free of the edge. With both of his companions still clinging to his back, he shifted into the Shape of the Sky and attempted to outrun the eruption.
He was not successful.
However, he did manage to ride the shockwave to the next disc in line. A host of mountainous golems awaited their arrival.
Elijah shifted into his most massive form – the Shape of the Sea – then tucked his head as close to his torso as he could. He hit the nearest golem like only a plummeting, blue whale-sized turtle could – with explosive results. The golem shattered into pebbles, and Elijah shifted back into a more mobile form.
Meanwhile, his allies leaped free and got to work carving their way across the disc. Neither were particularly adept at fighting such enduring creatures, but they’d already had a trial run to determine what worked best. So, they managed well enough.
For his part, Elijah met strength with dexterity. Back in the Shape of the Scourge, he danced between the thirty-foot-tall creatures, inflicting his afflictions upon them at will. They wouldn’t soon die, but it wasn’t long before the effects of Spreading Plague and Ethereal Sepsis slowed them to a crawl.
That gave the trio a free path to the altar, where Benedict and Hu Shui once again set up shop while Elijah defended them.
In this case, it was much easier for Elijah because he’d already laid the groundwork for victory. Now, he only needed to finish the golems off – which he did, and without hesitation.
Soon enough, the other two had finished with their task, and they repeated their escape plan, moving to the next disc. That one – representing the ice plane of Pruina – fell as well, and they moved on.
One after another, they destroyed the altars until, at last, they’d finished.
It was in the wake of that final explosion that Elijah remembered something troubling. Since arriving, they’d not seen the gate to the abyss. With an explosion of corruption, it announced its arrival. And when the proverbial dust settled, Elijah saw something he hoped to never see again.
Etkatiran had already been an imposing figure teeming with power. But in his place now hovered a truly eldritch being that looked like a fusion the djin’s former body and the abyssal monsters he’d fought in the Broken Crown.
What’s more, he didn’t need a system notification to tell him what needed to be done. His instincts screamed at him to end the abomination, and he was more than willing to comply.