154 (IV)

Weapon

"Got any ideas?" Shiv asked. "Because I think we can't stay here much longer."

And as soon as he said that, he felt a wave of Hydromancy spear through Adam's watery barrier. Through the cleft came the Hydromancer of Shiv's golem had tackled earlier. They lashed out with their whips, and Shiv swung out with his flail, smashing into the blows before they could strike Adam—only to find the tendrils sharp enough to cut clean through the tissues sustaining his flail.

He assimilated his flail and adapted, shaping it into a dense, cancerous shield before him. This time, the whips were slowed.

But not stopped.

Holes emerged from the cancer shield. But Shiv parried each of the whips with a swipe of his Skysplitter. They were deflected downward—but new breaches shot out from them, striking him in his throat and left eye respectively. Shiv felt his eyeball burst inside his socket. He snarled with annoyance more than pain—but that turned to a gurgle as the enemy managed to slit his throat open as well. Then, a dryness spread through his body. The enemy Hydromancer was ripping the moisture out of his flesh.

Shiv pitted his feeble Hydromancy against his foe, but it wasn't enough. His field tore in half immediately—but it still gave him just a second to recover. Shiv smashed through the whips with his Magebreaker. His gauntlet sang with a screaming pitch. Shiv fed his new wounds into his aegis and started his Song of the Vigilant.

Aegis of Assimilation 107 > 109

Adam responded thereafter. The Gate Lord fired an arrow. It emerged from a rift and crashed against the Hydromancer's head just as they rose above Shiv's cancer-shield. The Deathless lashed out at them with Vitae, Biomancy, and a growing Skysplitter. The enemy Pathbearer turned into a spray of water and avoided each of his strikes.

Their presence grew so faint that Shiv lost track of them.

But Adam didn't. The Gate Lord drew back on his Spellstring, and a surge of Hydromancy infused his newest Veilpiercer as he let it fly. He struck the Hydromancer again, and they went tumbling back into existence.

Shiv activated Outside Context Problem and accelerated forward. They didn't see him coming—they had no chance to see him. Not until he drove both his thumbs through the gaps in their visor where he assumed their eyes to be. The Hydromancer screamed, and Shiv twisted their neck back, ending his enemy's bellow with a sickening snap. Just to be sure, he swung his Skysplitter across their neck, beheading them. He then assimilated the body with his Biomancy.

The cancer flail must be fed, Shiv joked with himself.

Outside Context Problem 65 > 66

The victory was short-lived, as he felt his Chronomancy shudder once more.

"I can't shake these bastard dragons," Shiv snarled. "Adam. Chronomancers. Get in my cape."

The Gate Lord said nothing as he waved his wand, and he, too, turned into water. He splashed down into Shiv's cape, and the Deathless blinked. Huh. Effective.

Shiv manifested his temporal shell. Time stopped. And he felt the turbulence pressing against his Chronomancy field grow stronger. He followed that sensation and looked upward—where he saw six time dragons coming right at him, bathed by the light of the rising dawn.

He felt another pulse of resonance pass over his field. And then there was a seventh dragon coming in at a higher angle.

Great. The more the merrier. Shiv triggered Outside Context Problem immediately, and he felt the coldness lick his core again. Not going to be able to sustain this for long. He accelerated through Adam's fading oceanic barrier and climbed higher. He faced the dragons with Skysplitter in hand and Biomancy lashing out.

Shiv eyed his adversaries, trying to come up with a strategy to eliminate them in one fell swoop. Whatever he did, he needed to disable their Necromancy projectors on their backs. He couldn't risk getting hit by that.

Just then, he saw the seventh dragon dip low. Shiv frowned and used his Compound Ocular Network to zoom in on the stray monster. He saw that it didn't have a rider, nor any weapons on its back. And then, he noticed how it was looking directly at where he used to be.

Wait? Uva? His frown turned to a wide smile. Oh, these poor bastards aren't going to know what hit them.

Uva plunged, aiming at the rear of the time dragon attack wing. Shiv timed his own attack in accordance. He cast his mana hydra out and made a question mark around the dragons. He manifested his flail once more and swept it over the wing. Bursts of crimson mana spilled through the air, enveloping everything. Shiv's cancer flail tangled wings and caused the time dragons to tumble through the air. As chaos swept through their ranks, Shiv spiked himself blade-first into the head of the first dragon. He stabbed the monster in the eye, but the dragon let out a roar, and his blow bounced off.

Adamantine Adaption, Shiv snarled internally. Son of a bitch.

He was beginning to realize how annoying it was to fight someone like him.

As he exploded out from his Outside Context state, the other dragons were too disoriented to respond immediately. Their disorientation only grew when Uva slammed into one of them from the back. She bit down on another dragon's throat and began to tear. At the same time, Shiv extended tendrils of Vitae while swinging his Skysplitter with his other hand. He drained vitality and hammered the dragon from the sky. He continued spearing his Biomancy—and flail—into the other dragons as well.

Several were launched out of place, while one took a swipe at him as it passed by. His temporal shell cracked. So did the golden mana lining the dragon. He cast himself back in time and slammed elbow-first against its head. The dragon's head snapped back. But it was disoriented, not dead. Then came his flail. It struck the back dragon's back and crushed its rider's cockpit. Shiv spiraled in the air, turning himself as he held on to its neck. The dragon didn't respond in time—its rider was slain; the telepathic connection was broken. And soon, so was its neck as Shiv caught it in a death roll.

He cast the dragon's limp body aside after a few moments, its neck knotted in tangled cords. He swept through its body as it fell with a mana hydra, and grunted as he felt a magical strain build within himself. His Aegis of Assimilation was potent, but it increased how much weight was levied upon his spirit as well.

I need to keep my mana load light.

As he prepared to face the other dragons, he found that they all had golden arrows lodged in their skulls and were dropping limply from the sky. An entire wing had been butchered in an instant. Shiv blinked. Fuck me, Roland. And then he looked up to see another arrow coming straight down.

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At Uva.

No! Shit!

He spiked himself up into the air to intercept the blow. But it proved unnecessary—the arrow halted before it hit him, and he cast a thought into it. "FRIENDLY! THAT DRAGON'S FRIENDLY!"

In an instant, the arrow tore off into another direction. Shiv let out a sigh. As he followed its path, he watched it pierce clean through an unseen enemy along the way, and past that point, he saw a few hundred golden threads punching through the weapon hanging over Blackedge. The massive inverted anvil shuddered in the sky, spewing Necromancy and Animacy into the air. Its Necromantic veil had faded. And the cage surrounding Blackedge was gone.

The Town Lord was free.

All around Lost Angeles, massive, illusory towers of brightness stood tall, and from them soared an endless stream of burning hawks that bombarded the land even when time was frozen.

Roland Arrow… this is absolute bullshit, Shiv growled internally. All the Town Lord needed to turn things around was an opening. It was impressive, but the prospects of Shiv punching him in the face were moving further and further away in his mind.

Uva shot up into the air, and she made eye contact with him as she let out a pitched roar. Choki pumped a fist, and Shiv responded in turn. Both of their temporal shells were cracked, and they were going to return to baseline time at any second. "Nice flying—"

A crushing force slammed into his back. The world blurred past him as he was carried up into the air. Shiv's Adamantine Adaption struggled against the impact as something twisted against him, drilling through his armor, biting into flesh, and kissing his backbone.

Adamantine Adaption 174 > 175

Shiv wrapped a mana hydra around himself and pulled, tearing himself off the projectile, and he saw a strange geometric shape blast past him. It resembled a spike with a series of hooks at the end. Its tip was infused with both Dynamancy and Dimensionality, and Shiv noticed a chunk of his flesh still floating within the projectile.

Another thing he noticed was just how far he had been displaced across the world in mere moments. He was hovering high up in the air now, so far above the world that he could barely make out even the damaged weapon floating above Blackedge. But he didn't get to fall for long. A concentration of shadowy energy collapsed around him. Shiv grunted as he felt a shapeless but impossibly strong grip collapse around his body. Shiv's temporal shell shattered first, then his armor began to crack as well.

Husk of the Adamantine Voidmantid

Condition: Wounded

Before Shiv even had a chance to think, the vast, skeletal visage of Vicar Sullain emerged before his eyes, like an oasis born from a shifting desert mirage.

A blinding downpour of Roland's arrows instantly shot down from the edge of the atmosphere to strike the Legendary Mage, but Sullain formed a veil of Animancy around himself and Shiv.

"And so you return to me, Undying One," the Vicar said, sounding absolutely jubilant. Despite this, his voice was softer—weaker. His long, serpentine body chittered, and the many hands along its length clasped together. "Just as I hoped you would when I began this attack."

Shiv spiked his gravitic field and discharged his inertial sheath. The gravity field holding him at bay parted slightly, but Sullain crushed his efforts with a wave of telekinesis. He brought a skeletal hand up and down like a parent smacking a misbehaving child. Shiv snarled and hissed as Sullain broke his body. His ribs shattered. His kidneys were punctured. One of his lungs collapsed. His skull caved in quickly, and his stomach was ruptured.

When Sullain was finished, Shiv vomited another mouthful of blood out through the broken visor of his helmet. He was getting used to coughing up blood; it was practically becoming a daily occurrence. And worse yet, he was starting to get a liking for the coppery taste.

Adamantine Adaption 175 > 176

"Will you listen now, child, or do I still need to hurt you unnecessarily?" Sullain asked.

Shiv snorted. "I could do with a little more Toughness. Give him a harder—"

Sullain made a flicking gesture with one of his many hands. Shiv felt all his limbs snap backward. His feet ended up pressed against the front of his hips, and his arms were folded over his elbows. Pain washed through him, but Shiv just let out a slight growl. "Oh, you absolute piece of shit."

"You requested, so I obliged," Sullain said. "Here. Some more."

Shiv tried to trigger Outside Context Problem—only to howl with agony as Sullain started ripping the vitality out of his person, shattering his focus. "You are not very versed in the art of draining vitality. It is a far more potent power than you realize. A shame. But one that will be corrected soon. I will teach you."

The Deathless shook as he felt himself on the precipice of oblivion. "F-fuck—" He couldn't finish the words. It hurt too much to exist right then. Still, he gritted his teeth in defiance. "The Inquisition is coming for you! This isn't gonna work anymore. They got a Legend with them. You—you're done here. You're finished!"

"Oh, do they?" Sullain muttered. He sounded… tired. "Now, that is truly dreadful. I do not think I will be facing them."

Shiv narrowed his eyes. "So, what? You're leaving? Gonna fuck off now?"

"Leaving? Yes. After my task is done."

"Task done, how?" Shiv asked. "Your weapon's broken. The sun is up. You're out of time." Shiv looked down, but he couldn't see through the veil of Animancy caging him and Sullain.

"Shiv," Valor said suddenly—that was when Shiv realized he was still connected to the others. "Do not agitate him further."

"I have a plan," Adam added. "It might work. You remember my special arrow earlier? Just stall. Try to make an opening somehow. Don't—don't let him kill you either."

"Oh, that was not the weapon," Sullain said dismissively. And there was a smile hidden in his words. "That was simply the receptacle I used to incubate it."

"Incubate it," Shiv whispered. "What do you mean?"

"Ah, it is fitting for you to be the first to bear witness. After all, it is your essence that powers it. That essence which fuels your soul, Undying One. And thanks to you," Sullain paused, "thanks to you, my retribution is assured. But words are cheap and weak. I think I will show you instead."

Sullain held up a single finger with his uppermost hand, and a portal flashed open above him. It was wider than the Vicar was tall, and a sickly, murky miasma spilled out from within.

On the other side of the portal, in an alien place choked with ash and desolation, a dark shape loomed.

Shiv thought it was a mountain that had crumbled in on itself for a moment, but before his eyes could make sense of what they were seeing, Sullain cast him up and through the portal with a gesture. Shiv tumbled across the ground, kicking up shattered bones and debris as he went, before coming to a rest atop a mass grave. Skeletal remains littered the ground upon which he lay, stretching beyond sight.

Shiv barely managed to sweep his Biomancy through himself and consume his wounds. Even so, he was drained. Barely any vitality left. Holding himself up was a feat beyond feats, and as he lifted his head, his heart stopped.

Barely visible through the unceasing curtain of ash falling from the sky, a dark, mountainous shadow loomed over him. Then, two orbs of light made themselves known as the creature cracked open its eyes. One was a pure, pale white, and the other blood-red. Both were fixed on Shiv.

His Vitae pulsed out instinctively in recognition of its kin, and it traced out a jagged, alien form some five kilometers wide and twice again as long.

"No…" Valor whispered in Shiv's mind. Cold, heart-clenching dread spilled over from the Legendary Pathbearer.

"I was originally saving this one for Marikos. I intended for it to safeguard the original weapon. But I know now that Valor's work, the Animancy Core, was a crude thing. And your Vitae is life. I thank Udraal for bequeathing me his notes—and giving me insight into what to do with you." As the Vicar finished his words, he laughed softly. "But this act of creation has left me spent. And so I retreat to enact my work through another. Struggle vainly, Undying One. Struggle, Deathless, and feed my Beast of the Undying Apocalypse…"

The titanic monster took a step forward. The world trembled. And as its body emerged from the ashes, Valor's terror only grew. "That… How did he…"

"...Feed my Deathless Tarrasque."

And before Shiv could respond, the monster moved, faster than he could perceive, and he was torn out from the portal along with it, carried away from the realm of ash, and down…

Down from the boundary of the world.

Down toward Blackedge.

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