Chapter 699 - The Defense

The world erupted into an explosion of water and force, sweeping through the army with far more kinetic energy than the tidal wave that they’d barely managed to endure.  The shields shattered, and everyone was thrown from their feet.

Everyone but Talia, at least.

She leaped high into the air, balancing on droplets of rain via the always-active [Unending Grace].  Her feet barely touched them, but that was all she needed to get started.  She ran, activating a multitude of skills as she bounded from one drop of water to the next.  All around her, everyone else looked as if they were moving in slow motion.

Or in many cases, entirely stationary.

That was the world she had adopted as her own.  Her perception was so enhanced – her potential for speed so great – that she often felt like the rest of the world was populated by statues.  Meanwhile, she could scarcely contain her own energy enough to confine her movements to a sprint.

Once – not long after she’d ascended to the Ethereal Realm – she had tested her speed, and she had come away more than impressed with what she could accomplish.  Back then, she’d circled the entire world in mere minutes.  She didn’t know how fast she was, but it was more than enough to make most fights entirely trivial.

Which was why she didn’t understand why Zeke wanted her to hold back. 

Did he thinks he was that delicate?  He had always had a protective streak, especially with her.  That was one of the reasons she cherished him so fervently.  She didn’t worship him – not like the kobolds – but she did look up to him. She did endeavor to emulate him.  He was everything she wanted to be. 

And she was determined to prove that she was on the same track.  She desperately needed to impress him, to show him that she was worthy of fighting beside him.  In her mind, she knew they were meant to battle shoulder-to-shoulder, protecting and complimenting one another, for all eternity. 

They would be partners in their godhood. 

But then he had returned, broken in ways she couldn’t really understood.  He still stood tall and strong, far more powerful than even she could comprehend.  The gap had only grown wider in the century that he’d been gone, and she knew that if she didn’t do something soon, he would leave her even further behind.

So, she ran, leaping from one water drop to the next, then sliding down the slope of a wave.  Along the way, her claws erupted from her fingers, long and deadly, and a miasmic cloud billowed in every direction.  Every step came with pestilence that infected the oddly shaped lesser gods that had accompanied the invasion. 

They would soon die.

Talia knew that.  Few could stand up to the rot she wore like a cloak, and even those who were capable of enduring were grossly affected. It was one of the reasons she’d fared so well in battle since her ascension.

She was special.  Everyone said so.  Destined for great things.  A future greater god if ever there was one.  Talia knew she would one day be worthy of standing by Zeke’s side.  She just needed to keep going, to continue improving, and to prove to him that she could keep up. 

Subjectively, it felt like a few seconds passed before she reached her destination, but in reality, it was a fraction of an instant.  She moved so quickly that, to everyone else, it looked like teleportation.  Her claws glistened with green toxicity as she bore down on the two combatants, both of whom towered over her.

Zeke was hundreds of feet tall and made of jagged rock, metal, crystal, and a host of other minerals.  Meanwhile, his opponent was positively miniscule in comparison, though he towered over Talia like a giant.  His skin was blue, his gills were prominent, and his harpoon moved with perceptible speed. 

It glanced off Zeke’s upraised shin, and he aimed a titanic punch at the greater god.  That was when Talia struck, lancing in with all the speed she could muster.  She was untouchable.  Imperceptible.  She was special.

So, she didn’t even have the space in her mind to sound the alarm when, suddenly, she came to a screeching halt.  Dense bands of water wrapped around her, squeezing her so tight that ichor erupted from every single pore.  She activated a skill – [Reformation of Life and Death] – sending a surge of vitality and necrotic energies coursing through her body. 

But it was useless.

She squirmed as her bones broke and her organs ruptured, and she only had a moment to recognize that she was going to die a failure before something huge waved above her head.  She couldn’t perceive it, it moved so quickly. 

And then, she fell.

Suddenly, the world moved at normal speed, and the sound of battle erupted all around her.  She hit the ground only a moment before the receding waters washed over her, taking her further out to sea.

Lesser gods pounced, stabbing her a thousand times with their wicked harpoons, but her torment didn’t last long before they all exploded into visceral mist.  She’d barely managed to regain focus when she saw Zeke kneeling beside her.  For some reason, he’d abandoned his titanic form. 

He looked so human.

And yet, his eyes blazed with fury and concern.  White light erupted all around him as he laid his hands on her bare, white stomach.  Energy, thick and electric, flowed into her.  Her organs twisted back into shape, and her bones reformed as her body mended itself.  A scream of torment erupted from her mouth, but it was lost amidst the cacophony of battle. 

Zeke paid it no mind. 

Just as he didn’t seem to care that another wave of lesser gods had descended upon him, stabbing him in the back with those deadly and barbed harpoons.  Their faces twisted with hatred and fear as those weapons proved incapable of penetrating his skin.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

“I…I think so,” she answered in little more than a whisper.

“Good.  Don’t attack him again.  He will kill you next time.”

Then, he was gone, leaving nothing but green mist where the attackers had once been.  That gave Talia a chance to push herself to her feet and gather her wits.  What she saw was chaos.  And in the distance, miles out to sea, Zeke had once again resumed his titanic form. 

His hammer, which now looked like a giant geode fused with the bone of some gargantuan creature, appeared in his hand mid-swing.  A sound like a bomb going off swept across the sea, prompting another tidal wave.  Talia turned away from the battle between god and titan, knowing now that, no matter how high she’d risen, that fight was out of her league.

But she could still help with the army.

With that in mind, she reapplied her skills, then swept through the battlefield, leaving death in her wake.

                          *

Zeke swung his hammer, releasing [Primordial Strike] as it arced toward Simeon.  The greater god raised his harpoon horizontally over his head in an attempt to block, but Zeke knew it would be insufficient.

So did Simeon. 

An instant before the hammer connected, a shield of dense water manifested in its path.  A second later, a geyser slammed into the hammer’s head, knocking it slightly off target.  Voromir slammed into the water, evaporating a million gallons all at once.  The hammer missed its target, though.  Instead, it hit the seafloor with so much force that the impact sent mud and sand arcing in every direction.

Simeon, too.

He flew away, flipping through the air until he hit the surface of the sea.  He skipped across the waves, then finally came to a stop miles away.  Zeke followed on his heels, pushing through the crashing waves slamming into him.  He moved with inevitability.  There was no stopping him.  Simeon could run, but he could not stand before Zeke.

The greater god didn’t see it that way, though. 

He recovered almost instantly, then skated across the water, launching thousands of water blades at Zeke with every passing instant.  Most hit with unerring precision, cutting deep into his titanic form.  However, it only took a quick pulse of [Hand of Creation] to mend whatever damage they wrought.

And the whole time, he continued to move forward. 

Simeon danced around him, jabbing with that harpoon and bombarding him with more attacks than Zeke could rightly count.  Then, the moment he’d been waiting on arrived. 

Simeon came to a stop, clearly frustrated and entirely out of range.

“I will wear you down eventually, you dull creature.”

Zeke responded with [Eye of Judgement].  Destruction erupted from his eyes, tearing a path through the waves and slamming into Simeon before the greater god could hope to respond.  The skill scorched through him, then exploded. 

The surrounding water simply ceased to exist.  So did much of the seabed and any fish or other sea life in the area.  Simeon was torn to shreds, and pieces of him went flying in every direction. 

However, Zeke knew it couldn’t be that easy.

Every greater god had access to some sort of powerful healing ability.  Otherwise, they’d have never made it so far.  And true enough, a huge surge of divine energy swept out from the site of the explosion, and it looked as if time had reversed – at least regarding Simeon’s body.  Pieces of flesh slammed back into one another until the greater god floated in place on a cloud of mist, entirely intact.

He was naked and disarmed, but otherwise, he was intact. 

“Brute,” growled the greater god, his voice echoing through the world. 

“Guilty,” Zeke spat, already wading forward.  Water blades continued to assault him, but he ignored them, trusting his skill to mend whatever damage they inflicted.

“What are you?”

“Your end.”

Then, Zeke again threw himself at Simeon.  What followed was more of the same.  Zeke didn’t use any skills – save for [Hand of Creation] – but he still held his own, battering the greater god back and forth.  He couldn’t quite finish him off, though.

As they fought, the armies did the same, though the battle was far more lopsided.  The combination of the kobolds’ powerful coordination and the benefits provided by Oberon’s domain meant that the invaders found themselves at a distinct disadvantage.  Still, they fought with impressive ferocity.

It was a losing effort, though.

As Zeke sensed that, he realized that Simeon’s strategy was dependent on a quick victory over Oberon – and Zeke – before he lent his weight to the battle between the armies.  That hadn’t happened, and so, the sea god’s side was losing badly.

Suddenly, Oberon appeared on the field of battle, and immediately, a third of the lesser gods were swallowed by grasping plants.  They didn’t survive.  That allowed the kobolds, faeries, and beastkin to gang up on the remainder, surrounding them and preventing them from escape.

“Release them!” Simeon shouted, trying to leap past Zeke. 

Of course, Zeke had no intentions of letting Simeon get by, and he blocked his path without issue.  He continued to batter the sea god, whose healing persistently weakened.  Soon, it became obvious that the loss of so many followers all at once had cut into his supply of divine energy.

Simeon came to that same conclusion very nearly simultaneously with Zeke’s realization.  When that happened, he threw out an enormous barrage of water blades that did the most damage yet.  But by that point, Zeke was well used to taking enormous amounts of damage.

So, he endured it with equanimity, healing with [Hand of Creation] as he attempted to follow Simeon’s sudden retreat.  Of course, the attack did delay him, which was probably the entire purpose of the tactic.

Because of that, Simeon managed to escape to deeper waters, and after only a few moments, Oberon appeared beside Zeke.  The dwarf floated on a water lily. 

“He is gone.  His people are abandoned.”

“We didn’t kill him,” Zeke growled.

“No, but we repelled the invasion.  It is a great victory.”

Zeke shook his head, feeling unsatisfied.  “It’s not a win until one of us is dead.”