Chapter 101 - To Be Deemed Worthy (I)

Chapter 101

To Be Deemed Worthy (I)

A’stul sat on the fringes of the roaring, crimson fire, his eyes glazed with the warm glow of the dancing embers. The sky above was dark and fettered with stars, and the world seemed quaint and whimsical–though he looked more an outsider than a part of it, in the end. Even if unmoving, and even if appearing calm, there was fire within him that burned even still, and it burned more scalding than ever before.

They had won–it was a complete victory, and a brutal and a swift one to boot. There were no more humans on Va’zanta, and there shall never be another again. But no matter how many he killed, the void within kept growing rather than contracting. His appetite for death ballooned, thirst almost unquenchable.

Suddenly, his expression shifted, eyes moving northward.

A moment later, he appeared within the Palace of the Sun, at its innermost sanctum, where a vortex was growing until just now–there was a sudden change, and the growth stopped. Its colour, too, shifted.

“It’s normalised…?” he mumbled, realising that the nature of the Tunnel had changed back to its original form. He had no answers, though suspected it had nothing to do with him but with whatever the world the Tunnel connected to. Though disappointed, he didn’t think much of it; after all, it was a nascent world, and though it was populated with humans, most of them hadn’t even Awakened yet, judging by the quality of Mana.

Just as he was about to leave, however, he felt his soul being stirred, pulled by the power beyond him. However, he didn’t resist it–the power wasn’t corrupt or evil. Rather, it was warm and felt familiar.

Ascending from his body, he felt his soul flash through the aeonic destitute of nothingness and arrive in an open field. On all sides, white fog misted the horizon, disallowing a peek beyond the simple, rectangular box that the world was shaped as. After a brief look around, he realised he was not alone. Standing opposite of him, some twenty yards or so away, was a human–though, appearance-wise, one might even be mistaken.

The human’s hair was blood-red to black, medium in length, with a pair of even redder eyes that seemed immune to the everafter of the world. For a human, especially one so young, his soul seemed exceptionally strong and his Mana of depostic quality. However, that was all–while he appeared ever so slightly unique, he was beyond weak, having not even learned the First Law just yet.

Just then, a bundle of information appeared in his head, informing him of what was transpiring. His lips curled up into a faint smile as he looked back at the man with a bit more excitement.

“You are the reason the Tunnel normalised?” he asked.

“A little bit, yeah,” the man replied with a faint smile, though there was more to it beyond that.

“... you recognise me,” A’stul remarked after a moment’s silence, curling his lips into a smile. “You’re a traveller.”

“...”

“No wonder the Tunnel changed,” he said. “You really should have thought things through.”

“Wasn’t me, I’m afraid,” the man shook his head. “There was another.”

“Oh? What happened?”

“I killed her.”

“... yes. Humans killing humans. Tale as old as time.”

“Well, she was holding hostage the last item I needed to revert the Tunnel,” the man said. “I’d rather kill her than have you kill all of us.”

“Oh? So, you are well aware of my intentions?”

“Yeah. You caused quite a headache for quite some time on the last go-around.”

“... from the sounds of it,” A’stul said. “I died.”

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“When you wage a cosmic racial war,” he said. “Death is an inevitability. Especially if that war is against humans. On average, you are despondent, weak, pathetic, dependent, and remarkably dull. But because there are simply so many of you… once in a while, you spawn someone worthy and, over time, that number grows. I imagine I was hunted down by one of the Defenders.”

“... ‘fraid not,” the man said. “A Terror did you in, after our entire race made a deal with it.”

“Hoh? You were moronic enough to make a deal with the Terror? Haah, human stupidity never ceases to amaze me.”

“Well, at least that mistake got undone.”

“No, no, no,” A’stul chuckled faintly as he shook his head, his tattoos flaring up for a moment. “There’s no such thing as undoing a deal made with a Terror. One way or another, you will have to pay up. No amount of travelling will prevent that.”

“Well… that sucks, not gonna lie.”

“Did it at least tell you what it wanted?”

“A future favour.”

“Ouch,” A’stul sucked in cold breath. “You are in for a world of hurt.”

“All the same,” the man said. “Couldn’t have been worse than you.”

“Oh, don’t be so sure. I may want your race to go extinct, but that’s about the extent of it. Terrors… Terrors are different, you see. Those in want of that kind of power are twisted, vile, a far-gone product of a mind bent beyond recognition. All they have left is sadism that fills up the depraved desires that lurk within their souls.”

“Comforting.”

“Indeed. So, you have to defeat me… otherwise, you will forever kiss goodbye to those powers of yours. Why did you accept it? A smart person would send in a volunteer as there is no chance of death.”

“Yeah, well, turns out I’m not that smart,” the man sighed, rubbing his head. “And a bit prouder than I thought of myself. Besides, why do you make it sound like it’s already a concluded story?”

“Oh? Are you confident in defeating me?”

“Well, a weakened version of you. Very weakened version of you.”

“Even so, the current you is not enough, I’m afraid. Your past life included.”

“Perhaps,” the man shrugged indifferently. “If I fail… well, I suppose it was just never meant to be.”

“... for a human,” A’stul said, his eyes glazed in a complex sheen. “You aren’t beyond repulsive.”

“Oh, wow, stop, you’re making me embarrassed.”

“What is your name, human?”

“... Ethan.”

“I am A’stul, the last of my kin, and the bearer of our eternal hatred. Don’t despise me for what I am about to do–the wheel of life simply spun this way.”

Fire burst out like an upward rain from A’stul’s body as he burst forth, appearing in front of Ethan within the blink of an eye. The latter, however, had already cleaved the sword upward, blood erupting to mirror the fire, diving the world into two extremes. The fire burned the blood, but vanished itself as the two men clashed–one using his clawed fists and the other a sword, metallic sparks dancing in the midst of the roaring flames.

Ethan was pushed back several paces, overwhelmed by the raw physical strength; even decidedly weakened, some things stayed the same. For better or worse, A’stul’s race was far more empowering–in more ways than one, humans had the weakest bodies and often required undergoing years of metamorphosis to reach even the baseline of some other races.

He ignored it, though–he was already aware that this would be an uphill battle from the start. A’stul was still holding back, playing with him, dancing for his own amusement.

The two clashed once more, resulting in the same outcome–Ethan was pushed back and A’stul pursued relentlessly, his body’s coating of fire growing thicker and brighter in hue.

Ethan felt it–it was elusive, like an invisible thread wrapping slowly around his ankles, the First Law. It was vague and ephemeral, and the only reason he could even fathom those sensations was because he felt them before. Every time the fires exulted, tiny parts of them, the infinitesimally small embers, would escape into the invisible realm of primordial, and build up a force that, bit by bit, was beginning to restrict him.

It took him a few moments to realise he had about five minutes before his entire body would be chained down wholly by the invisible flames–but he had no means of actually defeating A’stul in five minutes. The creature had well over 80,000 Health, an insane amount that reflected a raid boss rather than a one-on-one duel, and even though Ethan could eat the damage and live through it, eventually, it would become too much.

Going in, really, he knew he only stood a chance because of one ability that he’d acquired recently–Invoke, Ghuun.

[Invoke, G’huun <Core> – invoke the wrath of G’huun, the Blade of Blood-God, suffusing the ancient spirit within. For 30 seconds, gain access to the ‘First Law’ and 2 of the G’huun’s abilities:

<Blood Storm> – surge in a circle and unleash a tormenting torrent of blood, dealing 12,000 + 3*Vitality damage to everything within 30 yards per second for 4 seconds, leeching 35% of the damage dealt. At the end, explode in the shower of blood that scatters across 120 yards, inflicting ‘Lethal Bleed’ effect to everything. Costs 80% of current Health.

<Umbral Blade> – summon a 20 foot long blade of shadow-suffused blood and wield it with your mind for 15 seconds. The blade is incorporeal, and ignores defence while passing through all targets. Upon killing a foe, ‘Umbral Blade’ consumes it, granting you 20% of its stats for 10 seconds. Further kills reset the duration as well as grant additional stats. Stats cannot go above 30 times your base stats.

Upon the ability’s expiration, unleash an invisible torrent of energy around and knock back everything 30 yards. Furthermore, you will be inflicted by ‘Lethal Bleed’ debuff and enter a weakened state for a human body was never meant to inherit the Unspoken.]