Amdirlain's PoV - Hades - Tartarus

Lava streamed off the figure as they rose higher in the volcano's central pool. His stony brow alone was three hundred metres across while beneath his eye ridges pits of molten lava seethed in his eyes socket.

[Name: Ekdikésis

Species: Earth-Born Primordial

Defence: 122,772

Health: 109,344,268

Magic: 123,842

Melee Attack Power: 123,234

Combat Skills: Tartarus Bellow [G] (333), Eruption [G] (128), Pyroclastic Surge [G] (214), Volcanic Strike [G] (102), Lava Blast [G] (453)

Details: This Earth-born embodies Echidna's dying rage. He had started gestating in the volcano before they arrived and awakened once Hades died.

Note: It's not the size that matters, right? He's not even out of entry-level tier 4. Your ridiculously high Willpower lets you punch above your weight, but you won't like him grabbing you.]

His name means vengeance, justice, and retribution, but the way he looks, rage monster seems to sum him up. No natures listed, so he's a static Primordial?

His jaw dropped, and a bellowing roar erupted from his cavernous maw; the volcano beneath them rumbled as the ongoing cry battered and tormented Amdirlain's flesh.

Amdirlain calmly smiled. "I don't suppose we can talk this out? I'm not one of the bad guys."

The second bellow unleashed a furious hurricane that turned the surface of the lava into a storm-tossed sea.

A second hand breached the surface of the lava and snatched at her, fingers closing on the smoke left by Phoenix's Trail. Amdirlain sprinted along his forearm and seized a quick reading of his body. She found no soft flesh to sink barbs into, nor even the concept of a nervous system to take advantage of within him.

You can't inspire something that a person has never felt. Do I keep running or be one with the lifting heat?

The first hand tried to grab her, and Amdirlain ran up his smoking arm and flung herself off his shoulder. Though immune to fire, the streams of energised lava flowing over his flesh ripped protests from her skin.

Precognition screamed that vanquishing the baby Primordial was her goal for this trial, and it was equally clear that she was in trouble.

I don't want to kill him, but I'm also not looking to die. I can throw out the trick I played with Aetos Kaukasios, it's got zero chance of working.

In freefall off his back, she scanned the far side of the volcano and sped for the closest gaps. The tunnel turned out to be a second vent and as she raced along, clusters of raw diamonds skipped away to signal her path. A massive fist smashed hard into the volcano's side above her path, the rubble cascading harmlessly through her smokey form.

Can I blow this place up? How much water would I need to hit the magma? Would that even hurt him? I need to at least get him out of the lava.

Amdirlain raced through the vent while Ekdikésis pried and ripped at the side of the volcano, tearing it apart to reach her. She anchored watery spells with every step, and as he breached the vent's sides, she sprinted up a finger and across his knuckles. When his gaze found her, she turned on the spot. Ki Movement swooped her up his forearm, successfully drawing his attention from the broken vent. Tentacles extended from her sides, and she lashed out with fireballs seeded with Destruction. Each Spell impacted with a surge of force that broke through his skin, but the cracks filled in with a fresh flow of lava. As she reached his shoulder, she threw another cascade of spells at his chest and slid down his back. The healing surge that washed through him came from the volcanic depths.

If I keep hammering him, I'll only help him gain resistance to different affinities.

Expanding her sigil through flesh, Ki Flight took her towards the volcano's lip only for Ekdikésis to spin and snatch at her. Before his fingers hit, she reverted to Ki Movement, her smoky form plummeting into the wind storm created by the motion of his massive hand. The updraft threw her aloft, and he tried to snatch her again; instead of latching on, he propelled her insubstantial form further. As the momentum of the second gust ended, she was well above his head, but slowing in an arc that would take her towards the volcano wall. She flipped back to Ki Flight and boosted her speed before she could curve downwards again.

Surrounding the volcano was a rugged landscape of cracked hills stretching for thousands of kilometres before a hint of a plain beyond. While some gullies between the hills were gentle slopes, others seemed brutal gorges caused by seismic faults. Cooled magma flows extended in all directions, and there was no evidence of the material being worn down by the wind or rain.

Ekdikésis rose in the lava until it was a wading pool around his feet. Still, Amdirlain left him behind, spinning a circuit along the volcano's lip, keeping ahead of the vast reach of his twenty-kilometre-high form. His every motion created brutal wind shears winds around his limbs, yet she read their play across her skin and utilised them to help her evasions.

Can I get a cut-scene on a critical hit to chop a quarter of his health away? Do I use my True Song or spells? I'll have to push my spells hard to overcome his magic rating.

He thrust a hand forward, and a mass of lava blasted from his palm. Amdirlain dove over the lip of the caldera and reversed direction along the outside. Metres behind her, the blast ripped open the rim, and lava rushed down the rock slope. A scream rang out from inside the volcano, and a shift in temperature prompted Amdirlain to flee. A massive ash cloud rose from the volcano, the air igniting at her heels as it raced after her. She swerved and dodged among smaller molten chunks, blasting aside a house-sized mass that would land in front of her from the sky. With it handled, she expanded her sigil to the limits of her flesh and pushed faster amid the whistling boulders and the ash of the leading edge of the cloud. Energised matter scoured at her existing protections, and wisps of smoke rose from her clothing as the ash burrowed into her flesh. Though she'd added the self-repair enchantment she'd gained at the East Wind's Court, she absorbed the outfit and reformed her skin into segmented armour. Her healing pushed back on the attack; regeneration outpaced the assault and dispersed the burning material from her shifting flesh. When she reached beyond the cloud, ash obscured vast tracts of rocky slope behind her and billowed in the sky above, but ultimately lost momentum twenty kilometres from the base.

Analysis confirmed the still-glowing ash that had melted the existing rock was from a Pyroclastic Surge, and Amdirlain whistled softly.

Did he fart in his bath to unleash that? What tier of power was that to push at my protections? No notes, but I don't need Gideon to point out I'm effectively tangling with a Demi-God on his home turf. Ekdikésis would fit right in on the Abyss's Furnace Plane.

"Thirty days to figure out a solution," muttered Amdirlain. "Ekdikésis, I don't suppose you'd like a bigger place to call home?"

The only sound was the hissing and popping of cooling rocks.

She landed and set her hands on the ground to extend her senses toward the volcano, but hissing static overwhelmed her perceptions.

The song of a distinct being is one thing, but whether it's air or rock, the material belongs to the Domain. Oh well, it was worth a shot. I'll have to test some options. First, I need him out of that lava to see if he heals just as fast away from it. If he can unleash that ash explosion outside the volcano, I might have to resort to True Song, but I don't know what that will trigger with its closeness to Primordial Will. Well, I'm about to get lots of casting practice. It's time to put Mana Font to work. I want his local environment to be as minimal as possible for this fun.

The upper tiers of Earth Law offered spells for earthquakes and destroying sections of ground, and though she'd learnt them, they weren't spells Amdirlain had indulged in using. It also provided spells for rock walls and transforming rock and metals. When steam stopped rising from the ash, Amdirlain blurred forward and spun around the volcano's lower slopes. Detection spells delved into the ground, looking for magma tubes and the edges of the main chamber. Within a half dozen laps, thousands of spells had mapped out the scope of the volcano.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

More laps followed, and with the mental clock ticking in her ear, she leaned into Ki Flight hard. Amid the blurred loops, melted boulders and heat-cracked rocks disintegrated as she levelled the ground around the volcano. Protean with energised tentacles cut away and absorbed the mass rather than waste Mana. Eventually, the volcano's peak was a straight cylinder rising above a plain that extended for hundreds of kilometres. The various secondary vents were massive holes in the side of it, and the reddish glow of the magma chamber shone forth from the lower ones.

Though her detection spells washed over him, Ekdikésis didn't stir from standing in the lava cauldron.

I hope the exit pane survives this fun. If you can't bring the giant to Krakatoa, let's inject water into the magma chamber near him. At the very least, it should get him out of his comfort zone. Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance.

She set some psionic scrying orbs to keep tabs on him before she withdrew to a region among the distant foothills. With assorted spells, she sealed up sections of porous stone. Spells cut a deep foundation line, shifted the excavated mass, and turned it into thick, gleaming metal walls and supporting struts. When the first layer of the outer wall for the dam was in place, maintained spells jetted masses of water into it but at first seemed to only to dampen the vast tracks of ground. While she had spells conjuring mega-litres of water, she continued to build. Once the dam walls were high enough, Amdirlain excavated channels towards the magma chamber and the edge of the expanding water reservoir. She carefully kept them from breaching until her dam filled—much of the stone she absorbed with Protean, increasing her available mass and supplying more construction material.

The continuing flow from Mana Font provided a slight but steadily increasing offset of energy for her spellcasting, heightened by Mana cycled back into her Soul to encourage the Power's growth. By the time her Mana Pool emptied, Mana Font had reached Master Rank, and the trickle of Mana had grown into a small stream, with her recovery a smidge over four hundred and fifty-six thousand Mana a minute. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to cover the spellcasting she could manage in a second, leaving too much idle time.

Amid all the works, days passed and Amdirlain grew increasingly aware of her time limit to complete the trial. While she had repaired environmental disasters from massive eruptions, none had been for comparably-sized volcanoes, nor had she been there for their eruptions. Repeatedly, she second-guessed how much impact the water would have on the magma chamber and eruption she'd cause—keeping her fingers crossed that she didn't mess up the clearance—she continued with the magical minefield. It took her a week to fill the dam. Given the level of the lava inside the volcano, she made other preparations to ensure it would contact a significant section of lava simultaneously instead of a narrow contact point. She also added more tunnels so the water could simultaneously hit a quarter of the magma chamber.

At the magma chamber end of each tunnel, she set runes to disintegrate a wide arc of stone upon contact with water and retreated to proceed with the next stage. She spent days circling the volcanic core, lacing plates dropped on the ground with millions of spells and setting protective covers over the top. She learned the limits of his patience when she got too close to the cliff she'd left behind while laying her minefield, and Ekdikésis unleashed another Pyroclastic Surge that further stressed the thinned cliffs and set off those runes she hadn't finished protecting.

When the eruption ceased, creeping magma from the lowest vents had covered the closest stone plates, but the spells beneath were still intact.

With her fingers crossed that she'd done enough, Amdirlain manually triggered the longest sluice tunnels. The whirlpools at the corners of the dam produced a strange groan, and as the water reached the right point in the tunnel, runes triggered a cascade of spells to open the next slightly shorter tunnel. One at a time, more tunnels triggered, but her calculations of the lengths were slightly off because one side was still progressing when the whirlpools started feeding the central tunnels.

The disintegration spells removed the stoppers and vast tracts of lava. Though the contents of the magma chamber moved to fill the void, the water moved more freely, and hundreds of jets struck the lava in rapid succession.

The eruption sent cracks through hundreds of thousands of runes, triggering spells targeted at Ekdikésis. They blasted through stone plates, cooling magma, and continued into the still-standing cliffs on a straight course, which helped speed the collapse. Few reached him amid the chain reactions, with the dust and falling stone providing obstructions. The thinned walls of the volcano shattered as lava bombs flew, but a haze obscured the center. While more runes went off, the enraged bellows that slapped the air revealed that the eruption hadn't slain Ekdikésis.

He surged out from the churning lava haze, its energised acidic nature differed enough from the magma eruption that had it etched into his flesh. With long strides, he cleared the shattered side of his former home, ignoring Echidna's corpse now splayed out across the broken wall and onto the flattened terrain.

Hydrovolcanism for the win! Anyone for boiled balls? I'm not sure he'd take a tip about protective clothing, but he could at least wear shorts.

As he sighted Amdirlain, he thrust out a hand, and a beam of lava leapt for her. Only as she sped sideways to avoid the energy did danger prickle up her back. She enfolded herself in a protective barrier in time for it to deflect an Eruption beneath her feet. Formerly solid ground continued to jet lava that split around Amdirlain's shield. She flattened her barrier to let the force throw her upwards, and Ki Movement allowed her to blend with the smoke rising from the highest point of the column. Out in the open, she threw herself from it as the lava pillar widened and flooded the surrounding ground, blocking her from his line of sight.

I need to pull him into the other segments of the minefield.

She sent out a volley of trace spells, leaving them to curve around the pillar. As they rushed towards their target, she deliberately set herself as a target atop a nearby hilltop. Ekdikésis charged forward into the still-intact minefield she'd laid. Explosions ripped apart the air and landscape, triggering more spells that all leapt towards the Primordial, cracking his hide, inflicting scrapes and minor cuts, yet everything looked superficial. Away from the volcano, his flesh wasn't instantly healing; the edges of the individual injuries crept in slowly. As explosions split his lips and broke against his throat, a focused shockwave erupted from him that spun her across the far side of the hill and sent her towards a rocky gully beyond. The strike cracked armour plates and threw her off balance, but Amdirlain spun with it. As she turned her back to him, she smiled with faked glee.

With her Charisma fully unfurled, she laughed mockingly and intentionally inspired rage through Muse's Embrace.

The ground bucked as his charge gained momentum, and rune plates far and wide bounced, unleashing a wide salvo of spells.

As he strode on, more spells scratched and slipped across his flesh as the triggered runes inflicted thousands of hits. Each was minor, yet they claimed a steadily accumulating tally that his regeneration didn't counter.

His elevation allowed him to maintain a line of sight, and a single step covered kilometres. In comparison, Amdirlain had to push Ki Movement as she blurred along wide gullies and narrow gorges through the rugged foothills. Spurred on, he increased his pace and broke through the outer circle of spells, activating yet more spells. The barrage that smashed in him cut through the anger, and he stopped to look down at his wound-crusted torso before turning to stomp back towards the volcano.

If I don't take him out now, I'll have wasted a week.

Amdirlain spun and rushed back across the rugged foothills. Tentacles projected from her shoulders and sides, throwing spells to draw his ire. As she crested a rise within reach, Ekdikésis took the bait. He thrust a hand that transformed into bubbling magma forward, and she replied with an Excising Concerto, aimed straight at the inside of his thumb's knuckle and lined up with the seamless centre of his abdomen. The Phoenix form of the Power in shining silver leapt from her hand, the Celestial energy in the outer shell obliterating her flesh. A hard smile started to twist his lips before the technique hit. Backed up by her combined Magic rating and Willpower, the projection tore through Ekdikésis's thumb joint and cored into his torso. A being native to the lower planes, Ekdikésis bent in two in the aftermath of the Celestial energy that had speared deeper into him than every other Spell combined. As Ekdikésis staggered sideways, Amdirlain sailed across his still outstretched hand and blazed up his arm. The energised lava that served as his blood leaked from thousands of nicks and slightly deeper wounds; the seething energy scoured at her protections. As her flesh blistered, she raced higher, forming a new arm. She ignored the persistent thrum of pain the use of Celestial Mana had set through her flesh, and soon the pain reflected in the minor chords became lost among the other agonies continually translated from her Soul.

Amdirlain drove upwards towards what she could sense was his core, weighing the cost of another sacrificial play. Determined to see it through, she reached his shoulder and aimed upward at a spot beneath his jaw. Before she fired, the broken stub of the volcano and Echidna's remains came into view, and she caught a glint of gold floating steadily higher near the magma jetting from the churning volcano.

"Sorry."

Held by Phoenix's Trail, Amdirlain transformed into smoke and the barest heat haze as she sailed for the ground and sped away. As she grew close, the fumes and ongoing eruption struck at her; the power of the ongoing eruption pushed out a hurricane of force that tried to drive her away. Desperately, she sunk attention into her sigil, flared its size to encapsulate her flesh, and tried to merge with the surrounding inferno.

[Ki Flight [S] (174) evolved into Phoenix's Blaze [S] (64)]

One moment, she'd begun to struggle for headway, and the next, her sigil came alive, as she turned into a Phoenix of living Primordial flame. With her wings snapped back, Amdirlain ripped through the haze-filled air, leaving a screaming shockwave in her wake that staggered the wounded Ekdikésis. As she hit the golden pane, she felt the condition of her success in the wormhole's energy—the destruction of Ekdikésis's home. The twisting walls of the passage crushed down on her control over her direction, and Amdirlain released her sigil. No longer living flame, she shed the armour plates she'd grown..

Arseholes, I did your dirty work for you. I can't even honestly apologise. I prioritised three souls, two completely innocent ones, over his existence and would do it again. It seems I'm still doing what's necessary.

She pulled on her clothing just in time before she hit the wormhole's event horizon and staggered as she got thrust into an emptied corridor with a burst of fume-filled air. Not bothering to search for Medusa or Damon, she hurriedly sluiced herself and her surroundings down with a torrent of water to quash the lingering fumes. Behind her, the stone gate slid closed, and the seal of Hades appeared.

I'm pretty sure I left a live enemy behind there, but I don't think I can kill him without risking True Song in this place. Not everything has to be a battle to the death. Does it?

The relatively empty Mana Pool in her chest ached at the thought of having to fight him further. Amdirlain slumped to the water-logged ground and put her face in her hands. The sour notes from her regrown arm made it clear her body would need time to recover properly.

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