157 (III)

Weakness

"I think you should run and save yourself," Shiv suggested. "You got another body somewhere. I'm sure of that. So you won't be dying here, not even after this embarrassment. Gotta say, I hate Roland, but he would have never allowed things to get to this point. He would have killed me three times over by now."

"SILLENNNNNCCCEEE" Sullain shot toward him. He clawed Shiv with a splash of Necromancy, and Shiv felt the final bits of his protection start to fray away. At the same time, he felt his vitality get ripped free from him once more—and he countered that by draining from reality. A rupture formed between him and the Vicar. That interrupted his Vitality Drain Skill. And at the same time, Shiv saw a certain orc leaping over the far horizon.

A large orc holding a broken club.

"I was going to keep you alive," Sullain said, choking on his own words. "I was going to deliver you back to Udraal. But now, but now—"

Psycho-Cartography: Sullain can probably still unleash a great deal of power against you right now, but he has a borderline psycho-sexual need to feel something of a victory against you, no matter how minor. You have broken his faith in himself. You have tapped into his despair. Hurt him more—but do not go too far; keep him hesitant and frustrated, without sending him into a blind rage. Use near-sympathy as a weapon. Hurt him, then confuse him. Delay until Bonk arrives.

"Nothing," Shiv spat at Sullain. The Vicar's body trembled as more pieces broke free from him. "You've done nothing. You failed your people, you got your army killed, and Roland Arrow is still alive. Hells, my Vitae did more to break Blackedge than you and your army. No wonder Valor didn't think anything of you."

Sullain let out a piercing wail. Shiv felt his vitality plunge dangerously. This time, however, he paid attention to what Sullain was doing—the Vicar wasn't draining Shiv's vitality into him; he was channeling Shiv's vitality into that thin membrane protecting existence.

How the hells does that work?

The Deathless blinked as he fought the darkness seeping into his vision. He needed a moment—an opening. "Why did… Why did you hurt yourself so much, Sullain? Why? I almost wish you could have won. That you could have killed Roland. Why did you have to fail?"

Shiv forced as much genuine feeling into his voice as possible.

Sullain actually stopped draining him for a moment. The Vicar choked. "I… I…"

Bonk descended—the orc was only a few hundred meters away. And Sullain seemed utterly ignorant…

Psycho-Cartography 51 > 52

Acting 15 > 16

Silver Tongue 31 > 33

Psycho-Cartography: Now, go gentle. Give him hope. Give him the validation he wants. But remind him that his self-loathing and sorrow are his failing. Give him something true to think about.

"Come on, godsdammit," Shiv breathed. "You're a Legend. Why did you do this to yourself?"

"I didn't!" Sullain cried at Shiv, trying to justify his failures. "You—"

"I'm nothing to you," Shiv hissed. "So what if I can't die? So what if my soul is different? You're the one who's a Legend. You were the one with a mission. Why do you punish yourself with bad decisions? Why do you—"

"BECAUSE I SHOULD HAVE DIED!" Sullain finally screamed. He wrapped his remaining hands around Shiv's Pillar of Orichalcum and shuddered. "BECAUSE I FLED WHEN ARROW RAZED MY CITY AND SLAUGHTERED MY PEOPLE! I RAN! I COULDN'T BEST HIM! AND SO I LEFT THEM TO DIE! MY FAITHFUL… MY FLOCK… MY CHILDREN!"

And the rawness of Sullain's pain gave Shiv pause. He wasn't even faking sympathy for the Vicar anymore—he just felt bad. To some extent. He never thought a Legend could be undone like this.

Then, the Legend was undone physically as his Nemesis-Beloved smashed down on him from behind.

"SULLAIN!" Bonk roared one final time. He struck the remainder of Sullain's physical vessel, and this time, every bit of Sullain broke apart into a shower of metallic shrapnel. They opened up cuts all along Bonk's flesh—but the orc's blood simply combusted in the air, detonating like a chain of increasingly powerful bombs.

Shiv heard the Vicar let out an agonized cry, and he halted time again. Once more, the spiritual manifestation of Sullain came into view. It swatted Bonk from the air and went after him. Shiv couldn't allow that.

He wrapped his gravitic field around the fear-chain connecting him with Sullain and pulled. Sullain was stronger than Shiv—but he was also terrified of the Deathless. Simultaneously, Shiv's Pillar of Orichalcum rooted him in place. As such, the Vicar's spiritual manifestation jerked to a violent halt in midair. The chain cracked but held. Sullain cried out. "NO!"

"Oh, yeah," Shiv growled. He cast himself eleven seconds back in time. Eleven? Shit. How many orcs died for my maximum Chronomancy time to be eleven? It was twelve before.

He remanifested with his pillar weaker but still present. He commanded it to soften as he lashed at Sullain with his Vitaemancy. His strands of Vitae—being physical—traveled through the air in awkward bursts of motion as they struggled against Shiv's overwhelming Toughness. Even so, they managed to touch the Vicar's spirit—and sink deep into him.

This time, Shiv tore at the Vicar's insides. His lack of Magical Resistance was the least surprising thing Shiv discovered about him. With Omnimancy, what other mage could threaten Sullain?

The answer was a mage unlike any other. A mage who barely knew what he was doing. Shiv poured his skill inside the Vicar and tore at all he could grasp. Sullain briefly drained his vitality—but Shiv triggered his Icon of the Paindrinker. The Vicar curled in on himself thereafter, utterly ruined by the pain he suffered.

Primal triumph exploded inside Shiv. He reached deeper into Sullain, following the ripples inside his enemy's soul as he slipped into what he assumed to be the Vicar's Omnimancy Skill.

Animated Skill Infusion Gained: Omnimancy.

And once Shiv had that, he focused entirely on ripping Sullain in half.

"PLEASE!" Sullain begged, managing to force the word out. "PLEASE, I DON'T DESERVE—"

Shiv's Vitae shattered as brittleness spread through him. He ignored his pain and dragged his Vitae in two directions. But Sullain's soul was like a dense canvas. Hard. Strong. A slight tear formed, but Shiv couldn't rip through the Vicar like he could a Master-Tier orc. So, he adapted. He plunged into the Vicar's Omnimancy Skill again and expanded inside it.

"I DON'T DESERVE—"

The Vicar's final cry came as a desperate scream before his Legendary Skill fully shattered and his spiritual manifestation suddenly winked out of existence.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A dark feeling passed through Shiv as he wondered if Sullain was alive or dead. But something told him it didn't matter.

Psycho-Cartography: Sullain's Legendary Magical Skill Evolution was likely one of the few things keeping him protected. Not only from the world, but his own sense of failure. What you just broke is beyond his own ability to fix. He will need to find an Animancer. And who will help him on the surface or the Abyss after what he just did? Death is waiting for him. By another's hands, or his own.

A shaking breath escaped Shiv. His insides felt raw and exhausted. He fell from the air and looked down. As he did, he choked. A gargantuan wound had been blasted all the way through the landscape, leading into a fathomless stretch of darkness beneath. Sullain and the orcs had traded so many spells that a new entrance to the Abyss had been formed.

And speaking of the orcs, Shiv saw that one was still falling—bound for said Abyss. Shiv launched himself through the air just as his temporal shell was about to crack. But Shiv caught Bonk just before he fell into the darkness and dragged him back up into the sky.

As he rose, he looked down and saw a large gash lining the orc's chest. Shiv brushed the wound away with his Aegis of Assimilation and winced from the torturous sensations of the soul wound pulsing through him.

Bonk blinked and looked up. He saw Shiv holding on to him with a single outstretched hand. The orc's expression was unreadable as he met Shiv's eyes. "I broke him?"

"You broke his body," Shiv corrected. "I had to break the rest."

Bonk just laughed, a wistful melancholy to the noise. "Nine."

"What?"

"Nine bloody swings." The orc let out a sigh. And then sniffled. The orc almost seemed sad. "So. Is he dead, then?"

"His soul's torn up, and his Legendary Skill is broken," Shiv said. "I suspect he won't be around for much longer. The question is just who gets to whatever other body he has first. Or if he wants to finish things himself."

"Ah. Sullain was always a bit too emotional." Bonk shook his head, as if he were talking about an acquaintance with a drinking problem. "I expected more of him."

Shiv squinted as he tried to locate any signs of survivors. "More? Felling shit, Bonk, I'm pretty sure he got literally everyone except you and me."

"Yes, but that was only around fifty thousand orcs," Bonk noted. "He could have done better."

"Fifty thousand?" Shiv groaned. The battle had barely lasted a few minutes. "He killed fifty thousand Master-Tier orcs?"

Bonk's face scrunched up in thought. "Well, at least fifty of the others were Heroes…"

"Broken felling Moon," Shiv whispered. And here he was thinking he'd managed to humiliate the Vicar. Gods, Legends are horrifying. Even the pathetic ones.

Everything, as far as his eyes could see, was utterly destroyed. The parts of the landscape that hadn't collapsed into the Abyss were nothing but smoldering craters, and reality-rending ruptures still spewed out gelatinous mana storms in the distance. Shiv sniffed, and he realized his armor was pretty much destroyed right now. Only a few strips of biomass still clung to his body.

Husk of the Adamantine Voidmantid Condition: Dead (Regenerating)

Well. At least it's not broken like my gauntlet and mask are, Shiv thought.

Just then, Shiv noticed a faint flash of gray in his periphery. He turned, expecting to see another orc, but only saw a disembodied arm rain down.

But his attentive focus was enough to finally push another skill over the edge.

Awareness 50 > 51 (Skill Evolution Reached)

Skill Evolution: Awareness (Initiate) > Farsight (Adept)

Farsight 51 (Adept)

All of a sudden, Shiv found himself able to zoom in on distant objects with his eyes. As he focused at a single spot, he magnified his vision and immediately went from squinting from afar to signaling out particulates in the air.

Shit. This is useful. It's got nothing on Adam's Hypersense, but still useful.

"Well." Bonk sighed, looking around. "At least it was fun. I think I will miss Sullain and his loud, over-emotional wailing whenever I mocked him. Now, I must find a new Nemesis-Beloved." And that's when his eyes lingered on Shiv for a while too long.

"Sorry, I already have a favorite asshole," Shiv grumbled. "His name is Adam."

"Ah. I thought you were referring to Stormsoil 812."

"Stormsoil…" Shiv scoffed. "No. The moment I get the chance, I'm killing him for good. Bastard sold me out to Hawgrave."

Bonk frowned. "Considering he has a Quest to kill you, how does that constitute a betrayal?"

Shiv considered the logic—and he decided he didn't want to be logical.

Psycho-Cartography: Bonk is genuinely confused as to why you're taking this so personally. It's not like you didn't know 812 was coming for you.

"It doesn't," Shiv mumbled in admission. "I'm still going to kill him for good, because I'm not putting up with fighting him for centuries—or even decades."

"Ah. That makes more sense. Would you put up with—"

"Bonk. Do you want me to start fighting you right now? Because we still have a Tarrasque waiting for us."

And at the mention of that, something flashed in the distance. Shiv blinked as a stratosphere-high wall of fire accelerated toward him and Bonk. More blasts rattled the world. A deafening roar shook the skies.

"Ah, yes," Bonk breathed as he licked his lips. "The Tarrasque. Well. I'm glad to see the others haven't killed it yet. Looks like we might get to taste the Quest rewards after all."

And that reminded Shiv of something. He checked the original quest that set him on this path—the one pertaining to Blackedge.

Quest Gained: Break Vicar Sullain's siege of Blackedge and stop another war between the surface and the Abyss before it can begin.

Success: Evolve an [Existing Skill] to Legendary Tier.

Failure: The Abyss rises, consuming all surface territory of Lost Angeles.

The Deathless frowned. "Why the hells isn't this Quest over?"

"Which one, Insul?" Bonk asked. "The Quest that has you save Blackedge? Why would it end with Sullain dead?"

Shiv read the quest requirements again. The siege was—well, Hawgrave had Blackedge now, and the Inquisition was fighting the Descenders Union and the orcs. "Shit. A war might be about to start instead of being prevented. Godsdammit. Getting the Quest reward here would have let me evolve a skill to Legendary."

Bonk hummed. "It will still be wise for you to resolve that Quest first. I suggest murdering all the Inquisitors aside from the Legend first. Do it while she's occupied with the beast, then make sure she takes the most wounds while fighting the Tarrasque, and simply steal the town back from her thereafter."

"My town's in her felling sword," Shiv said. "So are the rest of my friends."

Bonk grinned. "And that might be the safest place for them right now, wouldn't you agree?"

Shiv just frowned at the orc. "Bonk, you remember what Tarrasque did to all of us earlier, right?"

"Did to you, mostly," Bonk corrected.

Shiv closed his eyes and used his Psycho-Cartography skill to convince himself not to punch the orc in the head.

"To me, yeah. So, with my first-hand experience dying over and over again at the hands of that giant bullshit monster, I think we're going to need everyone to keep its attention and finally kill it. That," Shiv let out a sigh, "and I need to figure out how to deal with all that Vitae keeping it alive. It spends a little bit of vitality every time it resurrects, but a little bit is not going to cut it. I need to do what Sullain did to me just now."

The Deathless thought back to how the Vicar had ripped Shiv's vitality out of him by shifting it into that thin membrane, infusing the world with it.

How the hell does that work? Shiv thought to himself again.

Bonk tutted chidingly. "You must be more ambitious, Insul. Sometimes, we can have a pound of flesh and eat it too."

"What do you mean?" Shiv asked.

"I mean that it's going to be awfully hard for you to contend with the Tarrasque as barely a True Hero. That Legendary skill would matter a great deal. So…" The orc smiled as he let his words trail off. "I think that many things can happen at the same time."

Shiv thought for a second, considering their options. "A heist?"

"Yes," Bonk said. "We should recruit a Dimensionalist. If I can find a living orc Dimensionalist, great. If I can't…" He licked his lips. "Well, that's the reason why we should visit the inquisitors' flying fortress first. That surfacer Legend won't suspect them. And they are going to be a problem sooner or later. Best we spend them against the Tarrasque."

Shiv let out a grunt of agreement. "Yeah. Alright. Fine, Bonk: I'm listening."

"First, you may want to help us survive that massive wave of fire."

And just then, Shiv noticed how close the destructive tidal wave sweeping the world was getting. Shiv magnified his vision into the approaching mess and snorted with derision. "Yeah. Alright."

Then Shiv began accelerating toward certain death.

Bonk looked at him. "What are you..."

"Relax, Bonk," Shiv said, as he prepared to manifest his pillar. "Just keep talking about your plan to free everyone and get me that Legendary Skill…"

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