Chương 238: Outright cathartic

"Behind you, my Lord." With neither a look nor an ounce of hesitation, Will activated Spearmaster's Wake as he swapped places with a nearby javelin which was jutting from the ground beneath the lumbering body of the huge Ruler-turned-construct. The warning from his Lady had not been one of words, not really, but in the recent months the nuanced and vivid impressions which their auras could communicate to one another were already conveying the same level of detail as to make them functionally equal.

Or, in Will's opinion, superior. The hail of metal shards which had suddenly amassed and been shot from the metal frame of a nearby spindly leg therefore missed the spearman, just one of many new varieties of attacks that the construct was showing off as their struggle kept growing more intense. But this one had failed, and in return Will found himself in an excellent new position.

"My gratitude, my Lady," he sent to his dear Laevyeth through their connection even while his mouth spoke words of a more violent purpose." Heavenly Shaft; Darkness Penetrator!" Laevyeth's spear form was thrust upward as a huge spearpoint formed around her made from golden light, a core of transcendent light at its center.

The special attack was one of Will's more potent options, and he took the opportunity to sacrifice a nearby remnant spear to let the strike punch through what rank disparity remained after Kite's initial assault. This let Darkness Penetrator create a sizable wound in the huge abomination above him. Or at least it would have felt more impressive had the thing not been so big to begin with.

Another warning from Laevyeth had Will shift again, narrowly avoiding the monstrosity trying to crush him beneath its bulk but therefore forced to accept parts of another hail of metal shards which struck soon after he appeared in his new position. Pain, distant but pressing, bloomed in Will's mental image of his body, but it did not worry him overly much.

He might not be the juggernaut that was Dragonfly, but among the garden of spears which he was continuously sowing, he felt that he was closing in on something comparable as their presence increased his speed and recovery both.

"But I must be more," he thought as he flew up into the air on wings of spears, sending a continuous barrage of javelins to alleviate some distractions from Soul as the celestine had been sprung upon by yet another group of the abomination's minions. At the end of his flight, Will dropped into a plunging attack which punched more holes into the back of their foe before the long spike from within drove him off.

"Do not strain thyself, my Lord. Our unity is progressing splendidly."

"I know, I know, " Will replied through a shift in his spirit.

"And you are right, my Lady. But my feelings will not heed your wisdom. It's just... There is… Something… Something which I have yet to begin grasping, even though it feels like my fingers are brushing the faintest edge… Something I will need to seize and never let go, should I wish to continue climbing towards the heavens."

During their exchange, Will had been forced back even further by construct minions which had begun scaling the back of their progenitor, clambering over it like ants upon their hill to help drive off the invader. Dragonfly did an admirable job of tearing through where the things were clustered the most thickly, but the speed with which the abomination spawned new ones simply outpaced her.

Will did his best to help, but was hit a few more times in the frantic offensive which warranted a quick detour to where Fantina hovered before rejoining the fray. Overall they were keeping a tenuous pressure upon the construct so far, but that balance might still shift if any one of them faltered.

"And I have felt that within you, my Lord. Thy heart and mine are ever intertwined, after all," the outworlder replied, voice calm even while her actual body was spun, thrust and swept in the dance of conflict.

"And while I do not know its nature, I believe that it too is something that thou - no, we - will need to nurture together. Patiently." Will took a moment to reply that time as all of his focus was required for a moment to perform a blazingly fast spinning deflection to take the brunt of another series of concerted attacks.

"I suppose you are right, my Lady."

"I always am," Laevyeth replied proudly, even though the sensation changed somewhat towards puzzlement as she continued.

"Or at least that's what Dragonfly taught me to say. I wonder why? It wouldn't be reasonable to be right all of the time. For anyone."

"Do not fret, my Lady. The minds and sayings of my friends still baffle me at times too, even after all this time. I've learned to simply accept it with grace and equanimity. But as to us walking this path together… You are right. Let us find that which we cannot yet grasp. As one."

"As one," Laevyeth agreed, before her corporeal voice called out in unison with Will's own." Iniquity's bane!"" Lancer's judgement delivered!"

"My path will not be cracked by the world, but tempered by it." Kite had to admit that that particular part of his mantra felt most fitting in that moment as his left hand shot out to intercept and dispel some kind of warping touch delivered by the elf priestess from an angle completely off from where her motions should have carried her. Pattern-Shattering Counter saw to it that the flickering, roiling energies became mere motes of discarded magic that left only their hands clashing fist to palm.

Still, as they were both silvers this meant that the impact was distinct and audible as the air between them rippled. Their rank also meant that the following flurry of strikes and spells occurred within a few heartbeats, the blurring arms of Kite's mantle letting him come out on top through virtue of quantity and angles of attacks as one of Matra's descendants scored a solid hit that drained even more of the woman's mana.

Despite its fast pace, the clashing in and of itself was actually one of the outwardly calmer affairs currently being waged inside the crater, as the pair caused barely any disturbance or collateral damage.

This was clearly contrasted by Glint and the armored elf's continued brawl nearby, with the woman ripping the stony ground apart to send wave after wave of stone projectiles towards the sinuous dragon who absorbed them in globes of water or simply let her own watery simulacra take on the effects of lesser hits while she countered with attempted restraints and fierce bites.

"Fortune, may we keep this tenuous hold," Kite thought as his companions in the distance kept the constructs somewhat at bay. The duel with the priestess was shifting ever more in his favor as their previous clashes had let him better discern the intent in her obscured motions and recognized which attacks were the most devastating. There was something else too, something vague and distant he felt when dispelling her bolts of discordant magic or shattering her echoing boons and afflictions.

But he did not have the time to pay it much heed, because his foe had also apparently sensed the way things were going and decided to pull out all the stops.

"Curse you, Pathbreaker," she snarled, and Kite sensed both reluctance and determination in her aura as a ring on one of her fingers suddenly lit up. He had thought nothing of it before, but as its masking enchantments fell away Kite's magical perception could feel the power emanating from it in small ripples that felt at odds with everything around it. It started glowing with a multi-colored light that somehow managed to hint at the entire spectrum even while each and every hue within was somehow off and wrong.

And whatever else it did, it also seemed to cost the priestess something more than her mana, at least given the agony which Kite felt in her spirit. And whatever else it did, he did very much want to stop it. Three projected attacks appeared in shimmering lines around the priestess, but with a sudden burst of speed she swung the hand with the ring in a single strike which intercepted each one.

And as the strikes came into contact with the nimbus of wrongness surrounding said hand, they and the special attacks they were carrying collapsed in upon themselves. Kite's silver-ranked senses let him see the process with clarity too, as the magic in the attacks was somehow twisted into clashing with itself which caused the strikes to go up in chaotic bursts. It wasn't entirely unlike his own dispelling effects, at least if one looked to results alone, but the underlying process was decidedly different.

And the feel of it was something that Kite found that he recognized.

"That is like what Young Master Valor used against the King!" he exclaimed before he was forced to go on the defensive as the priestess charged, striking out with the glowing hand where Kite could see veins of crystal spreading from the ring. She did not reply, but Kite thought his observation was on the mark as the lines around her eyes tightened somewhat.

Then her fist struck the barrier he had brought up, and even though his timing with the ward had been perfect the barrier still ripped itself apart in an instant. Kite was already bringing his actual shield up to further bolster his defenses but was taken aback by the speed which this new asset of the priestess tore through his barrier.

Therefore her hand managed to graze his left shoulder just below the neck before the edge of the tower shield smashed her hand upwards, and pain of an entirely new quality blossomed at the location as the energies contained in the single touch seemed to give little regard to something as mundane as Kite's armor.

"Heavens," Kite thought as a pair of follow-up attacks forced his foe back even if it was just for a moment before she used her warped motions to go for another attack. His left arm had started moving a bit oddly too, as if parts of his shoulder weren't functioning properly but Kite had little time to properly assess the damage outside of adjusting his movements accordingly.

He had gotten no reprieve during his many spars with Soul, and thus his instincts were at least used to keeping his focus on the long game even through such setbacks. In the next set of exchanges, Kite started adjusting to keep his barriers in reserve for her ranged spells while using his staff and shield to intercept the steadily crystallizing hand as he saw that while the touch seemed to ignore his armor, it at least did not damage his equipment while doing so.

But that was of little comfort as the priestess was otherwise pressing him hard; harder than Kite had remembered being pushed in a one-on-one conflict in a long time.

"It is also boosting her in more ways. This feels more like fighting Soul. But perhaps even faster," he thought frantically. Another of his counterattacks landed, but instead of retreating the priestess warped distance and appeared at an awkward angle with another attack that led to Kite being forced to use one of his spectral arms to intercept the hand emanating such wrongness. And much like the barrier, said arm collapsed in on itself in a burst of painful feedback through Kite's tattoos.

He tried conjuring a new one, but felt that the artifact was slow to respond, as if it was still dealing with some kind of lingering effects of the strike. Where a new limb should manifest, there was only a blurry kind of static.

"My path shall not be cracked by the world, but tempered by it," Kite's mantra repeated in the back of his mind, his combat meditation still intact as his more conscious mind added a new line.

"And when it needs to bend, it shall be to adapt." The thought felt like it made sense, but the continued severity of the situation soon washed away the moment of internal clarity.

"And gods know I will need to adapt quickly." Fantina's brows creased in both concern and concentration as she guided her flying disc through the air above the crater. The growing, budding potential of fertile life in her companions - shown through her goddess-granted perception power - was flickering ominously beneath the strain under which the group was currently under. From her vantage, Fantina could clearly see each and every one of the conflicts currently going on.

Most spectacular was the one Will, Laevyeth, Soul and Little Crow were waging against the gold-ranked monstrosity their foes had managed to send against them, but Fantina actually found that conflict to be the most stable one at the moment. It was an epic strain, true, but one of attrition rather than ebb and flow. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. No, Fantina was keeping her eyes more on the others who fought by themselves.

Dragonfly threw herself against the steadily increasing number of construct minions with an abandon that should be straining even her set of powers. River fought a battle of interception against the draconian while trying to snare the man in turn. Braid was still making his preparations, and was at least decently safe. That left Kite and Glint off in the distance, keeping their enemies at bay even though Fantina could sense the strain in their auras.

Glint was especially hard pressed, as the versatility of an essence-user would in many situations trump her innate magic, but something had shifted in Kite's clash as well.

"You just had to run off outside my reach, hadn't you," Fantina inwardly sighed as she reached out to give River a healing boost when the acolyte of Pain intercepted another attempt by the Draconian to get at Fantina herself. The look the younger woman sent Fantina in return for the assistance was complicated, to say the least, but it was soon covered by her usual mask of sharp focus.

To Fantina, who had supervised and assisted in many a fight during her career before settling down for the first batch of children, it seemed like it was these more individual clashes which risked starting some kind of cascade into the others. That could be good, of course, such as one of them being freed up to assist the rest. But if the opposite happened…

"Bountiful Fertility, give me the strength to have this whole little group of seedlings emerge whole and hale from this. And give them the strength to keep this balance." She was about to send another set of spells to assist Little Crow when Fantina was struck by something in how the large horrific construct was moving. It had a purpose, which wasn't off, but there was a certain quality to it; something that reminded Fantina all too much of a guiding hand.

"Wander."

"Yes, Fantina~?"

"Have you found anything else in the crater here with us?"

"None except the new arrivals now tangling with Kite, Glint and River~."

"Try going a bit further. Back into the tunnels. My instincts say that there should be potential for us there which the right touch can fertilize into a true advantage."

"Whoa, careful with the phrasing there~."

"I know what I said."

"Hah! I knew that there was at least a little bit of horny priestess in you," Wander replied with a cheeky squeak.

"And just for that, I'll check it out. But there is a lot to keep an eye on here too. Will you manage?"

"There are only eleven of us Wander. I'm used to managing over twenty. Compared to my dear brood back home, this is almost relaxing."

"Moms huh… Scary bunch…" Wander muttered, then trailed off as most of her attention went elsewhere as parts of her swarm went off to follow Fantina's hunch. Soul found that she might be forced to adjust her view of fighting monsters, with her usual assessment being that they rarely held up to the intensity of an essence-user and thus weren't worthy.

But now, as her speed, strength, awareness and stamina were all constantly pushed to their limits as she was under constant assault where she fought atop the construct's back; glorious tempering beyond what she had ever encountered.

"I need to find more gold-ranked monsters," was the simple truth she took from the experience. Feeling that strain against her capabilities and all her powers was beyond even what dueling with the Pathbreaker could bring her, and it brought with it the same ecstasy that it always did. This meant that Soul fought with a wide grin as she felt herself become one with her path to a greater extent, one transcendent punch or kick at a time.

The elusive feeling had also become more common as of late as she strained to get closer to her goal of perfection; of becoming her path. This wasn't something which anyone had taught Soul, but a discovery of her own long ago. And Soul believed that it was what Warrior had seen in her as he had appeared before her to acknowledge her vow and give her his blessing. She would become the onslaught. Mighty. Swift. Relentless. And this construct and trial were no more than a stepping stone.

"This experience will be something to impart upon those little bronzes and irons at the guild too. I am sure they can learn a lot from…" her mind began, but trailed off as Soul caught herself. Something warred inside her for a while, but it was as if some part of her usual defiance which rejected the idea was too caught up in trying to survive the constant assault of metal spikes, construct minions, metal shards and the like.

"At least imparting this upon them will be a good way to consolidate what I learned and strengthen my foundation. Yes, that's it. That's the only reason." Kite found himself swearing that, if all went well, he would travel and find Phiona Geller again. While he'd like to think that his staff-work had kept improving into a cohesive fighting style worthy of at least some praise, his current predicament had him realizing that he had perhaps been too lax in practicing without the support of his barriers as of late.

A hand glowing with light in all the wrong hues met Kite's chiming staff of odd metal in a staccato rhythm, with him constantly needing to cede ground. The ring and whatever power it brought to the priestess had so far let her fight through more of Kite's mana drain that he would have hoped too, and he had trouble gauging if the war of attrition was leaning in his favor or not, and her increased speed made her odd motions even harder to predict.

One misstep cost Kite another arm of his mantle, the first one still not having completely recovered yet.

"I need to change the pace. This is not the way to victory," he thought, gritting his teeth against the odd pain which the glancing hits of his foe had left across his body. Just accepting a few hits while assuming he would be able to recover from them later wasn't an option after all which left him with fewer approaches. But remembering a few of his lessons with Master Zarth-An, Kite had a realization that made him feel a bit foolish for not coming up with before.

"Habits die hard… Now isn't that the truth." Kite was used to being the one putting a battle on a timer through his constant mana-drain, but something with the current situation gave him the impression that the sand in the metaphorical hourglass wasn't falling as quickly as it should. But given the steadily crystallizing hand and arm of his foe, Kite wasn't the only one who had started a countdown. So he dropped the focus on progressing his own, and instead shifted to speeding up hers.

So the next time his staff locked against the priestess' rigid hand, both remaining arms of Kite's mantle shot out to project two stabs with Matra's descendants. But unlike earlier attacks that simply wanted to make sure that Chakra Implosion drained as much mana as possible, both instead carried the darkness of Void-Sunders-Firmament. They each hit one of the priestess' legs, erupting in unfurling void tears that temporarily crippled both limbs.

The woman was a silver though, and whatever coursed through her body would also help her recover more quickly from the wounding effects if the combat up until now was anything to go by. But instead of trying to press the moment of imbalance this time, Kite did just the opposite. He left.

"Wall!" Springing backwards through the power of saved momentum, Kite pushed off in a geyser of gravel while leaving a layered cube of force walls in his wake. The priestess burst out of it a moment later, the roiling energies tearing the barrier with ease, but the twin wounds did hamper her speed somewhat as Kite arrested his own momentum up in the air with a few panes of force, running sideways for a moment before the path righted itself.

The elven woman, also capable of some kind of air walk through those distorted motions of hers, did attempt pursuit but was slowed down as Kite first unleashed the cuts and slashes stored within Matra's true form followed by another crippling strike that hit her ankle after she was briefly stopped in her tracks by the onslaught. This was all done while backpedaling in a steady retreat, and his harrying of the priestess gave Kite a moment to check up on Glint who was being pressed hard by the armored elf.

His wordless question through their bond prompted an answer of frustration, but also determination. Glint felt that she could hold on for a while yet. Then the priestess of Discord was upon him again, now with a distinctly frantic feeling leaking through her attempt at keeping her aura steady. Seeing it as proof that he was on the right track, Kite battered her away again by unleashing the enchantments of his large shield as he managed to interpose it to ward off another spell-empowered strike.

"It's not often that I am the elusive one. Not bend, but adapt indeed." Jin gritted his teeth from where he was propped up inside the hiding place where he and Kura were holed up just inside the mouth of one of the tunnels leading out to the crater-like center of the Labyrinth, which was in turn currently getting a brutal remodeling of its landscape as parts of the gravelly slopes were blown apart, singed, pierced and otherwise demolished by the conflict raging there.

"By the Builder, move like you should," he inwardly sneered as his mental commands to the construct in the distance were only partially executed. While his main gifts from the Lord Builder were his swarm and his arrays of lightning manipulation, Jin had also been blessed with the power to interface with the Builder's more mindless servants to better guide them from afar.

He had thought that giving the ascended Ruler some direction would be enough to have it tear the adventurers to shreds with its superior attributes leveraged efficiently, but so far they held on with unreasonable tenacity while the construct failed to capitalize on any of the openings Jin spotted. Its gold rank was simply too much for the cultist's weakened state to handle, but that would not deter Jin from trying.

"At least Discord's followers came to join the fray. Better late than not at all," Kura remarked from where he stood watch behind the screen of metal scales he was controlling to form a half dome around them. Each scale normally covered the man's body, and he was able to manipulate what they reflected and - to a degree - even their texture.

This created a kind of camouflage for the both of them even though miniscule gaps let them get a somewhat hazy view of the outside which their silver-ranked senses easily compensated for.

"True. Small mercies. At least they were able to see the greater good in this situation," Jin replied.

"They will get plenty of chances for penance too, once the star seeds remove the unnecessary parts of both body and mind. We'll have to-""Yessssss~!" zap"Yes yes yes~!" zap"Fortune's fine-" zap"- fanny, I'll donate a ton for this once we get back out~!" Jin had barely the time to hear the high-pitched shout before he had turned and flung a precise bolt of lightning at its source; a lone rat which had risen to its hind legs, tiny front paws lifted in triumph.

The rat disintegrated, but the words were simply picked up by another which was suddenly revealed to be nearby. It too was electrocuted, as were its companions during the delivery of the now rather staccato cry of triumph which the small creatures gave off. Jin barely heard the words though, panic rising even inside his mechanical heart as he knew what these diminutive vanguards were heralding.

Both he and Kura looked around outside, properly looked as their attention had been trained mostly on the battle in the distance until now. And around them, rats were gathering. Along the walls, the ground, from between rocks and cracks, everywhere; small black eyes trained upon the two Builder cultists.

"Well, beetle guy," one of the vermin said in the moment of silence which followed.

"I gave a speech about being a girl of simple pleasures not too long ago. So I just know that this… this will be outright cathartic~." From afar, one could see lightning flash in the mouth of one of the many tunnels dotting the edge of the crater. But not long after, its flickering, crackling light gradually became dimmer; smothered as if covered by a great mass until not even a spark made its way out.

From her vantage point, Fantina noticed the shift in the construct even as she was currently making evasive maneuvers to get away from another of the draconian's attempts on her life while River was in turn at his tail in an odd kind of chase that might even have been considered amusing under different circumstances. The abomination was in the middle of a kind of charging pursuit of Will and Laevyeth when it suddenly jerked, staggering to the side in a way that was immediately pounced upon by Fantina's companions.

Soul's fist finally found the opening to crash through and break one of the pipes at its back, Little Crow sent a rippling rain of detonating needles raining down onto the abomination through a twirl of his parasol and Will reversed his goading retreat in a glorious charge which tore a decent chunk out of the thing's distended lower jaw.

"Wander, was that your doing?" she asked the rat at her shoulder while using a set of tentacles to ward off the chained sickle which was still doggedly seeking her throat.

"Sorry, can't talk. Chewing on beetle guy. Tastes bad, but oh so sweet~""Good! Hopefully that will be enough to shift the balance here," Fantina still replied, preparing to help River gain some advantage with a calculated risk. Offering up herself as seemingly weaker bait had been something Jarvan always hated, but it had paid of enough times to- All thoughts were scattered for a moment though when a bright line of something wrong suddenly arced through the left side of Fantina's periphery.

The discharge was felt all across the crater, carrying not only the distinct sense of a wicked kind of dissonant destruction, but also the touch of divinity. Something potent had just been unleashed where Kite was fighting. And given how Kite's aura suddenly went from strained but stable to wildly flickering, Fantina knew that something had gone wrong. And that she was needed, or would be soon. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who had noticed either.

The black-scaled draconian had also snapped his head in that direction upon seeing whatever had been unleashed and its results, and even as Fantina turned her flying disc to set off at full speed to where she felt Kite's presence, she saw the corner of his mouth quirk upward in a vicious smile before he dove down into a nearby shadow and disappeared.