Chapter 682 - Shaking Heaven and Hell

Zeke grabbed hold of a monster with both hands, then ripped it apart.  It showered him in viscera, but by that point, he’d killed so many of the creatures that he was absolutely covered in the stuff.  His efforts had turned the surrounding lake red with blood, and bits of other monsters floated to and fro with every movement.

But he didn’t stop.

Instead, he threw one half of his latest victim at an oncoming horde of others, briefly delaying their entry into the fight.  That gave him just enough time to brace himself for the impact of the coming collision.  He set his feet, hunched his shoulders, and spread his hand just in time to catch the next monster. 

In his titanic form, he was most than seventy-five feet tall, but this creature was at least as long as he was tall.  And it possessed deific power that Zeke could not deny.  However, he could combat it with his own primordial strength.  He caught it, latching onto its comparatively spindly legs. 

He pulled, expecting them to detach, but they proved far more stubborn than he’d expected.  That wasn’t to say that his efforts didn’t do damage.  They did, but it was limited to cracking carapace and rending flesh.  But they didn’t detach, and the monster didn’t immediately die.  Instead, Zeke was forced to endure a flurry of bites and claw attacks as he flexed his power. 

The creature’s talons bit deep, dragging grooves into his body and sending chips of rock and crystal to fall into the water.  Zeke countered the damage with [Hand of Creation], but he was quickly buried under the weight of a dozen more monsters of similar size.  And he knew there were more coming. 

It was clear that he wouldn’t be able to kill them without his other skills.  Even [Primordial Strike] wasn’t going to cut it.  He needed to break out the big guns.

If his titanic form was capable of smiling, he would have.  After all, testing out his new skills was one of the reasons he’d chosen to brave the ire of the lake monsters.  So, it was with no small degree of eagerness that he finally ripped the monster apart and focused on [Vengeance].

Divine energy surged within him, enveloping his body.  From that moment forward, when they monsters attacked him, they were turned to ash by the sheer power of that energy.  The only issue was that the skill took quite a lot of energy to maintain, and if he kept it up for more than a minute or so, his core would soon run dry.

Still, that wouldn’t always be the case.  After all, one of the lines on his status had been for his core.  It had been graded just like every other facet of his being, so the implication was that it would improve.  He had to believe that said improvement would concern not only the potency of the energy within him, but also the capacity of said core. 

For now, though, a minute or two of [Vengeance] would have to be enough. 

Zeke kept it going for only twenty seconds, though.  He wanted to test his other skills, and he needed to ensure that he had enough divine energy to fuel them. 

It also gave him a little room, which in turn gave him the space necessary to use [Primordial Strike] a few times.  Each attack obliterated his opponents, and in a wide swath that far exceeded what he could do with mundane attacks. 

For a while, that was how he fought, but when even stronger monsters began to emerge, he decided to up the ante by using [Primordial Authority].  Suddenly, Zeke found himself mired in a different sort of battle.  [Primordial Authority] warred against some ephemeral force he couldn’t identify.  And it was no simple skirmish, either.  The weight of his will slammed against an opposing mountain. 

It did not end the way he wanted.

Sure, he managed to create a few cracks, but his [Primordial Authority] never took hold.  The backlash sent him staggering backward, which made him vulnerable against the weight of the oncoming horde.  Before he knew it, he’d lost the ground he’d gained from [Vengeance]. 

So, he used a mainstay.

[Steps of Creation] activated, and the world went still.  He shoved himself forward, and hundreds of monsters exploded from the weight of his footsteps.  The ground cracked, and the world shook.  In that moment, whatever authority reigned over the lake shattered, and Zeke’s dominion took hold.  Suddenly, the fearsome monsters in the distance came to a screeching halt.  Some even turned to flee.

Zeke flexed, taking another step.  The lake roiled, sending a tidal wave of energy and water in the opposite direction.  Mud hardened underfoot, then cracked into a thousand pieces. 

More monsters ceased to exist, their bodies reduced to atoms that then scattered across the world. 

But then, the skill ended abruptly, and Zeke staggered.  A huge chunk of his divine energy was gone.  The expenditure didn’t quite push him below the halfway point, but it wasn’t far off, either. 

He only had three other skills to test.

Hopefully, his reserves would be enough. 

With that in mind, he took a moment to watch the monsters return.  The second [Steps of Creation] had faded, they’d reversed course to bear down on him.  He welcomed their return. 

It didn’t take more than a few seconds to recognize that only the largest remained.  There were still thousands of them, but tens of thousands had already been killed.  Perhaps hundreds of thousands.  It was a good start, but Zeke was not satisfied with that level of slaughter.  He needed more.

When the next wave came, he unleashed [Eye of Judgement].  The world went white.  The water boiled away for miles in every direction.  And every single monster in his field of vision was utterly destroyed beneath the power of focused divine energy. 

It was almost disappointing.

Zeke had come to the lake expecting a long and arduous fight, but he’d found nothing but slaughter.  Certainly, the monsters had proven quite terrible foes, and if he’d met them before becoming a primordial, he would have had some degree of difficulty.  However, he felt certain the he still would have won out. 

But now, it just seemed insufficient. 

Just before he let [Primordial Titan] lapse, he felt something in the distance, and not from the direction of the lake, but rather, the way he’d only recently come.  He turned just in time to see a man’s approach.  The way he moved suggested a casual stride, but he covered dozens of miles with every step.  So, it was only a moment before he stood before Zeke. 

He was tall.  Maybe ten feet at least.  However, from Zeke’s lofty perspective, he looked incredibly small. 

Moreover, he was clearly a demon.  An embrace of [Primordial Mind] told him that much.  Red-skinned, with broad horns and a muscular body – he was the very picture of a devil.  The only thing he was missing was a forked tail. 

“What do we have here?” he asked nonchalantly, craning his neck to give Zeke a once-over.  Divine energy swirled.  “Oh, isn’t that interesting.  Your identity is hidden.  I feel it within you, though.  You are a god, are you not?  Lesser, perhaps?  Certainly not greater.  Very interesting indeed.”

“I have no argument with you,” Zeke rumbled, his voice like an earthquake that shook the land in every direction.

“See – that’s where you’re wrong.  Those creatures were a special project.  My master has left them cooking in that lake for nearly a millennia.  And you just come along and murder them?” he said. “A less reasonable person would demand a life for a life.  But I will settle for two things.”

“What do you want?”

“The first is an explanation.  Who are you, and why did you murder those poor, innocent creatures?” he asked.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then you definitely won’t like the second demand.  Recompense.”

“In what form?  Do you use money here?”

“Of course not,” the demon scoffed.  “Money is for the rabble.  We trade in favors.  Or in your case, servitude.  You will make a nice addition to my master’s forces.”

“Again, what if I refuse?”

“Then I am to destroy you,” he answered.  “Nothing personal, you understand.  I take no joy in that facet of my duties.  However, like you will soon become, I am but a humble servant.  I do what is required of me.  Nothing more, and nothing less.”

“I’ll pass.”

“What?”

“You heard me.  I refuse.  You will get no explanation from me, and if you want me to come with you, then I only have one thing to say,” Zeke replied.

“And what is that?” asked the clearly annoyed demon.

“Make me.”

The demon cocked his head to the side.  Then, he let out a ringing peal of laughter that was as loud as Zeke’s voice.  A second later, he glowed with divine energy.  It was blinding, both in Zeke’s mundane senses as well as his more ethereal perception. 

“You truly do not know who I am, do you?”

Zeke used [Unfettered Truth] and nearly swooned from the deluge of information that came his way.  But he latched onto two relevant facts.  First, the demon in question was nearly level two-hundred, and his name was Kalix.

“Kalix.”

The demon took a step back.  “What did you say?  Where did you learn that name?”

“Again, I refuse to answer your questions.”

“You will answer,” said the demon, summoning a whip of fire to hand.  “Now or after a decade of torture, you will tell me where you learned that name.”

“You’re welcome to try.  I came here for a good fight.  The lake monsters were a disappointment.  Maybe you will provide a more interesting contest.  I doubt it, though,” Zeke revealed.

“Insolence.”

Zeke shrugged his enormous, rocky shoulders.  “Maybe so.  But I’m not the one dragging this out with unnecessary conversation.  You want a fight?  Come on, then.  Show me you’re not as worthless as those creatures back there,” he taunted. 

The demon twitched with every word, and by the end, he couldn’t contain his rage.  He raised his whip and snapped it forward.  The weapon moved like lightning, and Zeke couldn’t have dodged it if he had tried.  Maybe if he’d used [Steps of Creation], but that wasn’t a current possibility. 

And besides, he wanted to see what kind of punch Kalix could pack into that attack.

As it turned out, quite a lot.  The whip snapped out, then slammed into Zeke’s chest, scorching an enormous hole in his torso and sending him staggering backward.  Because of his enormous size, the stumbling footsteps shook the earth. 

But even that wasn’t as loud as the demon’s laughter.  “You challenge me?!  I am the Lord of –”

The words were cut off with Zeke embraced [Hand of Creation], mending the damage in only a second as he summoned his hammer to hand.  It moved so swiftly that Kalix never had a chance to dodge. 

The impact sent the demon skipping across the dry lakebed, and he didn’t stop for nearly five miles.  And that was only because he’d managed to grab hold of one of the rocky pillars ascending from the lakebed.  It cracked beneath the strain, but it managed to arrest his momentum. 

He recovered quickly, then used that odd stride to cover that same distance in a single step. 

“You brute,” he growled, raising his weapon. 

Zeke didn’t need to endure another attack, so he wasted no time before using one of the two skills he’d yet to test.  Divine energy flooded [Pantheon], and a hundred figures climbed out from the earth.  He’d expected them to look like the automatons he’d once been able to conjure, but instead, they each looked oddly dissimilar.  Some were towering humans, while others were much smaller figures.

They all blazed with divine energy.

With a flick of his will, Zeke sent them forward.  They looked like half-carved statues, but they moved with the speed of gods as they descended upon the demon.  As he was buried beneath them, he let out a scream. 

Zeke knew it would do no good.

He could feel his minions ripping the pitiful god to pieces.  Certainly, his death would not come quickly, but that was okay.  It was certain nonetheless.