195 (II)

Shatter

The Deathless projected his Psychomancy into Adam's mind just in time for a massive burst of Dimensionality to crash down on both of them. He felt the pulling pressure draw them upward. There was an enormous portal forming, a pocket that was trying to swallow them. Shiv denied the pocket. His Shapeless Tides gave him the power to say no. And just as Adam and Can Hu rose, he reached out and held them still. He poured his vectors into his companions and pinned them in place. And with that, Adam activated Commander's Foresight, and once more, their minds were joined.

"Rebis is down," Shiv said, "but Stormhalt can't be hurt so long as he's wrapped inside Halsur's lightning. But I got an idea,"

Adam sighed. "Shiv, no, I'm not going to blow you up inside this chamber. Come up with something else. There are other people in this room, and I don't think Can Hu will survive a soul explosion. It's pretty badly damaged right now."

"What? No, I don't want you to blow me up here. I need you to fire an arrow and create a route for me out of here. I'm going to tackle Stormhalt and drag him across. After that, I go Non-Sequitur, and you fire on my decoy body. Then you blow him up."

Adam thought about that for a second. "Color me impressed, that's actually somewhat of a plan. It might be able to work. But are you sure you can wrestle with him for that long?"

"Well, what's the worst that's going to happen? He kills me halfway?" Shiv chuckled.

Adam, however, had his apprehension. "There are a lot of moving parts to this, Shiv. You need to be able to keep him grappled. We need to move him across. And in the meantime, we need to hope that no other Ascendants are teleported into this room. And judging by the sheer amount of pressure that's tugging at us..."

The Deathless grimaced internally. "You think that's another Avatar coming?"

"I'm almost certain that's another Avatar. We are out of time, Shiv. We either break this mana core in the next couple of seconds, or we're going to be overwhelmed."

Something hardened inside Shiv. "That's not going to happen. We're getting out of this place. I don't care what I have to do. Wait, Adam, earlier—"

"My Unique Skill evolved," Adam said hastily. "Into The Shattered Star Unites. Do you know what it does?"

Surprise overtook Shiv. "You don't?"

"No, I'm just channeling my power into you. I have no idea what it does beyond the same thing as the Righteous Dawn Prevails."

"I'm getting some of your skills. Adam, I managed to activate Commander's Foresight earlier. The skill keeps changing, though. Wait, if you can focus on giving me a specific skill, can you make it the one with your vector wings? My Toughness skill was still active earlier, but I had yours as well."

"You're getting my skills?" Adam asked, his voice climbing a pitch in disbelief. "That's why it felt like part of me was slipping out from my body." A feeling of awe emanated from Adam, and it was quickly replaced by a growl of near-playful frustration. "And why is it that my Unique Skill is devoted to making you even more of a monster?"

"Well I don't know, Adam. Sometimes hunters like to feed their hawks with all kinds of cool steroid-like elixirs. Maybe the System noticed that you're my ass-rubber."

"Never call me that. Also, absolutely no hunter has fed their hawk steroids," Adam deadpanned.

"You don't know that."

"I'm absolutely certain of that, Shiv. If a hawk were fed steroids, it would... It's stupid, Shiv. It's just stupid."

"Well, maybe not for this hawk."

"You're not a... You know what? Fine, let's go with that analogy. I'll try to give you steroids, and you do things quickly. I'll open up another dimensional pathway, and we'll see if you can dump Stormhalt across somehow. We need to find Gone, Candles, and Kura. I lost track of them earlier."

"Gone might be down," Shiv said. "Last I saw her, Rebis was trying to squash her under his foot. Rebis is down too. I caved his skull. Not sure if he's dead, though."

"How did you manage to do that? He's wearing my armor!"

"New Skill Evolution."

Adam groaned. "Don't tell me. Actually, you know what? Tell me. I'm going to take out my frustration on Stormhalt."

"Yeah, so I combined Silver Tongue with my Striking Proficiency. Got me a Sticks and Stones Skill."

"How in the hells does that work?"

"I call people names, I hurt their feelings, and they get easier to break. Makes me hit them harder too."

"Of course it does. Alright. Desperate final struggle on three?"

"Yeah, desperate final struggle on three."

Adam breathed out. Shiv breathed out. And they spoke together. "Three."

Commander's Foresight ended, and the Azure Sphere exploded over Adam's head once more. This time, Shiv felt a new skill slam into him, but it wasn't the one he needed. However, that skill changed several times, jumping from Adam's Toughness skill, to his Veilpiercer, to his Awareness, and then finally, his Reflexes. Vector wings flared out from Shiv's back, and his Inertial Overdrive roared as it was exponentially boosted by the Gate Lord's power.

Inertial Overdrive 165 > 167

Shiv tore on ahead. The world around him slowed by a magnitude, and every string of lightning cleaving through the air went from near-imperceptible to merely being worryingly quick. Shiv dove and tumbled through two slashing bolts, channeled a beam of fire from his blade, and watched it splash off Stormhalt's shoulder. As soon as he teleported, he reverted himself back a second across time. Stormhalt sent an eruption of electricity out from his right shoulder. He managed to strike nothing.

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Strider of the Unbending Path 158 > 160

Dodge 31 > 32

Shiv picked Stormhalt up again, wrenching the City Lord free from the air, and just then a Veilpiercer exploded up from between Shiv's legs. It missed his sensitive section by the width of a hair and slammed into Stormhalt's right leg. The dimensional arrow ricocheted off, but beneath Shiv was a pathway.

The Deathless grinned.

Stormhalt tried to react, but a flood of Overflow Tides surged into Shiv's right foot, and he pitched the City Lord downward before stomping down with a spike of force. He felt something inside Stormhalt break upon impact. It was the brittle spot he'd left there earlier. Stormhalt gagged as Shiv tossed him like he was little more than a ball.

He zipped down in a blink, though the black lightning spreading free from him still tried to grasp Shiv. Shiv went Non-Sequitur, avoiding the worst of the blows, but his decoy body was utterly shredded. He started losing vitality at an alarming rate, but he wasn't far from the mana core. Once more, he flung himself before the massive breach, and he poured his Vitae into it.

The moment he did, a lance of pain flashed across his neck. Blood flowed freely, and he felt the length of a cold blade lodged tight in his trachea. His Pillar of Orichalcum had stopped him from getting fully beheaded, but embedded halfway in his throat was a length of metal that hissed and pumped loads of taint through Shiv's veins. Immediately, a fever started overtaking him. His Plaguefueled skill went into overdrive, and a deformed hand clasped him by the skull.

He was lifted off the floor by the enormous and nightmarish form of Daughter. She emerged from seemingly nowhere and hissed a foul breath in his face. "You hurt me earlier. Hurt me!"

Shiv gagged on his blood. Her body was wreathed in black tar, and he could still see the wound he'd left on her misshapen skull. Within the rippling currents of foul fluid gushing along her torso, Shiv caught sight of the current woman that Daughter was using as a vessel. This one didn't appear psychotic. This one was distinctly terrified. Shiv could see her face, pale and white, blue eyes wide, with tears running down her face.

Shiv's stomach turned. He reached up and gripped Daughter's arm, the mana core all but forgotten. With every heartbeat, he generated new tides, but though he pushed hard against Daughter's power, she was an Ascendant. It was all he could do to stop her from driving the blade all the way through and finishing him off.

A part of Shiv snarled for him to swing his blade up, to cut Daughter down, even if it meant sacrificing his own life. But there was a girl inside the Ascendant, and this one was all too human. Shiv didn't know if he had the will to.

A bloody blade erupted from Daughter's heart. The nightmarish Ascendant screeched, and the girl it used as a vessel gasped. A golden blade pushed the girl free from the spilling mess that was Daughter, and Shiv felt his heart skip a beat as he looked into her eyes. Hovering behind the girl was one of Kura's golden shadows. It seemed more cracked than usual, but at least the elven Chronomancer was still in the fight.

"Go! Collapse the core! I'll cover you!" Kura declared through her shadow. Just then, another blur of motion came from Shiv's right, but a bolt of golden lightning slammed into the oncoming attack.

Gone slashed at Anthony, but the old man was surprisingly fast. He shifted back into the shadows, and Shiv found a curtain of blackness falling upon them.

No more time. He launched his Vitae free once more, and a rush of red and white mana poured into the wound within the nexus that was the mana core. He groped blindly, trying to find as many skills as he could to corrupt. Ignoring the mortal wound lining his neck, Shiv sank his power deep within the core.

And instead of tearing, he focused. He remembered what Udraal showed him earlier. He just needed—

Something slammed into his right leg, and it ceased to be. Then came a massive blast that shattered his pillar entirely and rendered everything beneath his hip little more than a spray of gore. Shiv found himself tumbling forward. It didn't even hurt. He was simply broken, numb. He wasn't sure what had hit him, only that it had utterly destroyed his lower body.

Even so, Shiv continued pulling at the mana core. A resounding crash of steel on steel echoed behind him, and even more golden shadows formed over his body. Just then, a dead orc splashed down ahead of Shiv. Half of its face remained; the other half was a bloody mesh, caved in by repeated blows. The orc's chest rose and fell a final time as its fingers slackened. Through it all, it never stopped smiling.

The skinned monster never stopped smiling. Something about that inspired Shiv, made him keep going. He remembered Udraal's lesson. He had to switch lores between different skills. He needed to add pieces from himself as well. But right now, he wasn't just himself. There was Adam as well. Shiv froze time. It didn't buy him much more room for his sabotage, but it did delay the Ascendants.

Their Avatars weren't all immune to Shiv's Strider of the Unbending Path, and that forced the Ascendants themselves to use other means to get to him, other means that were being stymied by his many allies.

Another strike came from above. A flash of Animancy hissed down in an impending blow. Shiv felt the shiver in the air. He'd been in enough battles to guess what was about to happen. He prepared for death. It never came. Gone crashed down ahead of him, her clawed fingers tearing into Anthony's arm. The old man gritted his teeth, wrenched his arm free, and got atop the goblin. He brought his knife down. Gone grabbed his wrists. Gone was fast. Gone was faster than even time itself. But Gone wasn't very strong.

She was losing the fight, and fast. Shiv made eye contact with her. Once more, the ugly choice from earlier returned. The core or the life of one of his companions. There wasn't time to think. There wasn't time to deliberate. And ultimately, there wasn't a real choice at all. If he tried to help Gone, they were all going to die here.

Just as the old man's knife began sinking into Gone's chest and a panicked gasp escaped her, a burning figure slammed down on him out of nowhere, and Anthony bit back a snarl as Candles gave him a branding hug, his hands wrapped around the Avatar's neck. Both of Candles's legs were missing. Flames were spewing free in molten sprays from the many wounds lining the pyromaniac's lower body, and what seemed like burning intestines were swinging out from it. Despite all this, Candles sounded like he was in high spirits as he cackled. "Hey, gramps, you look like you could use a light."

Shiv turned his attention away just as Candles wrenched the Avatar away from Gone amidst a blast of fire and enveloped them both in a sphere of scathing radiance. Shiv's Vitae spread, jumping from one skill within the core to another, and as time went on, he began to inject more of himself inside. At some point, he died. He barely noticed. He kept working. Even as something else hit him, ripping away half his vitality, he kept working.

Here was freedom. Right on the precipice! He was so close, so—

"DEATHLESS!" Stormhalt cried aloud. Everything seemed to stop. Everything went black, and through the veil of unpierceable darkness, the City Lord plunged down toward Shiv. Within his hand was an ethereal spear of stygian lightning bestowed upon by Halsur, poised to strike Shiv down once and for all.

Shiv was going to die. He didn't have enough time. He didn't. He would—

Two blurring motions washed over him. The first seemed like a scrawl, a stroke of charcoal dragged across paper. Stormhalt's divine spear froze entirely, locked on the border marked by the etching. The second was the swing of a brush, a brush that absolutely disintegrated the spear. A burst of countless colors spilled out through the air, and the lightning recoiled for the first time. Shiv heard Halsur scream.

A figure loomed over Shiv.

She looked just as she did back within Gate Theborn; the flowing black robe, the beautiful features, the tome chained to her back. "Well? Why all this hesitation? See it done, Deathless!" the Educator said, not hiding the scorn in her voice at all.

"I didn't come here and expose myself on Udraal's behalf just to have you make it all for naught."

Shiv's mind reeled, but he pushed past it. He connected another skill, injected another bit of himself, and soon the mana core began to shudder, began to groan. Adam appeared beside him, and he had a Veilpiercer drawn, aimed at the Educator. "You—"

"Me," The Educator scoffed. She casually intercepted a shot launched by Adam just as Shiv inserted another portion of his own legend into the core.

Several things shattered at once.

The first was the dimensional arrow.

The second was the border the Educator had sketched as Halsur's lightning tore it wide open.

And the third was the mana core itself.

The fractured shape of the core thundered, groaned, and then burst apart as a flood of overwhelming incandescence rushed out into the chamber. It was accompanied by Chronomancy, Dynamancy, Pyromancy, and more… so much more.

Shiv turned. Shiv tried to reach out for Adam—but everything around him faded in a blast of light. But as an agonizing heat clawed its way to Shiv's very core, something else latched onto him. It was the weight of a deed well done. It was the bestowal of one of the System's gifts.

Category 20 Gate Closed

Equipment Gained: [Generating Legendary Weapon]

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