Got the Grimoire, Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Short answer: Eidolon didn’t suddenly gain control of the Endbringers that day.

Longer answer: Due to how strong he already was, even the impressive amount of power granted by his sacrifice wasn’t enough to boost him to the level we wanted. But it sure as hell did give him a power upgrade.

“Four powers!” Eidolon laughed triumphantly. “Before, I could choose to take additional powers beyond three, but at greatly reduced capacity. Now I’m using four different powers at their maximum potential!”

The landscape beneath us was a cratered mess, Eidolon having unleashed a salvo of different power effects as he swapped and tested his new limits. In addition to having a fourth full power slot now, he could also choose to limit himself to only three or even one or two powers and in return, the time it took for the powers to come to full charge was drastically reduced the less powers he had going.

“Is it really that big of an upgrade?” I asked skeptically. Truth be told, I felt a little bad at the time. Considering how far I’d been able to boost Colin and Crystal, I was expecting more drastic results from such a huge sacrifice.

“Magus, you have no idea!” he said excitedly. It was the happiest I’d ever heard the man. Even when we’d fought and defeated the Blasphemies, he’d only sounded satisfied. “Look, three powers is great, and I recognize that even that is incredibly lucky. Hell, most capes would probably kill to even have one of my power slots. But the thing about it, is unless I’m working with a team to support me, I have to use those powers very carefully. I always have to have one power dedicated to defense, one to movement capability, and then I get one for offensive use. If I’m lucky, then maybe a power fills more than one role, like Gravity Manipulation or Telekinesis, but my power doesn’t exactly give me what I want in a given situation. It’s almost like it decides what to give me and then I have to use it as I go.” He flexed a hand and suddenly unleashed a scintillating beam of silver light that reduced a nearby cliff face into rubble. “Not to mention that before you helped me learn how to recharge my powers, I sometimes had to dismiss good powers to save them for the Endbringer fights. I’ve been fighting hamstrung for years, but now I’m stronger and more versatile than ever!”

I smiled at his almost childlike joy. “Yeah, not like you were already the most powerful parahuman on Earth or anything,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“I know, I know, I sound ungrateful, but we’re talking about the fate of the Earth here, and then some. I’ll take every iota of power I can get to help defend this place.” He set himself in the air, power rippling around him. “I was created for one purpose and now I’m closer than ever to fulfilling it.” He tilted his head and seemed to gaze off in a random direction. I knew instinctively what or rather who he was looking at. “Part of me wants to go take the fight to him now,” he said quietly. “The part that’s scared of losing all this power, the way I did after I first debuted. Even if intellectually I know that I don’t need to worry about that anymore.”

“Old habits die hard,” I offer. “But we need to be absolutely sure and ready before we initiate that fight. This isn’t some video game where we can start back from the save point if we start to lose the battle. Once it begins, it will end only once he’s dead or we are.”

He flexed his hands and gradually the aura of power faded in intensity. “You’re right, I know that. But dammit, after having to be on the back foot for so long, part of me just longs to really take the fight to it.”

I gave him a bemused look. “Isn’t that what we did the other day when we cleared out a bunch of S-class threats?”

He paused and finally gave a nod. “I suppose that is what we were doing. Sorry, but when your mind is constantly on a multiversal threat, you tend to lose sight of the things that can only end countries,” he said. “Still, with all this power you’ve helped me gain and the power that you can give to other heroes… we don’t have to keep holding back in order to have a parahuman army. We can just invest your power into those capes that are worth it and finally take out the trash! No more letting villains run loose, we can finally put away or put down the scum that really deserve it.”

I felt a small tug of guilt at the fact that I’d just unleashed a pent-up Eidolon upon the villains of the world, but the other part of me felt ecstatic. I didn’t like the unwritten rules just for the sake of it, I appreciated that they kept the world balanced and free of outright warfare in the streets. If the heroes could now be strong enough to outright flip the game board and force the villains into the shadows for good…

Well then I guess I was all for that.

Shimmering eldritch eyes turned upon me. “Fight me.”

“Huh?”

Eidolon’s eyes rolled behind his mask. “Nothing too serious, I don’t want to really hurt you or anything, but I need to know where I stand. And don’t even try to deny that you’re the strongest hero in the world right now, I was never able to make any Endbringer run the way you did before, only give them a better fight than most.” He drifted away from me slightly. “And even then I can’t discount the possibility that they were sandbagging against me because I have some kind of subconscious control over them. I need to practice against an opponent like him and you’re the closest we have.”

“I’d think you’d count more.”

He shook his head. “What, with the golden beams of ‘fuck you’ energy? C’mon, have you even read the forums? Many have begun calling you the second Scion.”

I groaned. “Not a title I’m eager to embrace.”

“I’d be worried if you were. Now quit stalling, let’s have a go!”

“Not on this Earth. Too many potential witnesses, and collateral damage.”

“We’re hundreds of miles from the nearest bit of human civilization.”

“And the kinds of power either of us can put out could cause damage on more than just a cosmetic level,” I countered.

He paused and finally nodded begrudgingly. “Fine, you have a point. Door to an uninhabited Earth.”

One of Doormaker’s portals later, and we squared off above a vast stretch of empty forest. I guess Doormaker and Clairvoyant took ‘uninhabited’ to mean ‘no people’ because I was sure this place was still teeming with life of some kind, even if it wasn’t human.

“Rules of engagement?” I asked Eidolon as I began to run through a mental list of spells.

“No kill-shots, obviously. No Master powers from me. Nothing with the express purpose of pain.” He eyed me warily. “Which means no groin shots.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I lied. “But otherwise, we’re going all out?”

“Let’s take things easy and ramp up from there. I wouldn’t want a kid like you to get tired. It’s a school night, right?” he taunted.

“Oh so we’re bantering?” I mused. “Well old man, I’ll try and get you home in time for the seven o’clock news, then you can take your pills and go to bed early.”

“It’s not funny when you basically make the same joke,” he grumbled.

I grinned sharply. “No, but much more applicable.”

“Ouch. That’s the most damage I’ve ever seen you do.”

“Damn. See if I save you from a tinker-tech shot to the head next time.”

He waved a hand, dismissing my reference to our fight against the Blasphemies. “That hardly counts. It wouldn’t have been a killing blow, just put me out of commission for a moment, thirty seconds tops.”

“Which is the difference between life and death in a real fight. Now are we going to just gab all day or actually fight?”

“You’re way too young to use the term ‘gab’ unironically.”

His eyes suddenly flared to life and one hand lashed out to send a beam of condensed light in my direction. A fairly basic laser if I was any judge, though from Eidolon that still meant powerful enough to punch through a building. I flexed Lunatic Eyes, attuned to the frequency of light waves being emitted, and canceled them out in the space of a heartbeat, making it look like the beam just dissipated before even nearing me.

Eidolon didn’t even blink, just gesturing again and sending out even more beams, all of them arcing around me to come in from every direction. But now that I’d attuned to the one, the dozen wasn’t so difficult either as I picked each and every beam apart.

“I thought I was fighting Eidolon, not Legend,” I taunted. “C’mon, old man, lasers won’t do a thing against me!”

Eidolon silently made a sharp gesture with one hand and suddenly I felt as if my entire body weighed more as my flight was almost overwhelmed by the sudden influx of weight. Some kind of gravity control? My vision started going fuzzy and I flooded my body with mana, reinforcing veins, tendons, blood vessels, muscles, and bones to keep from passing out. I lashed out with a bolt of lightning as I backed up, hoping to clear the influence of his gravity field.

He caught the bolt of lightning in the palm of one hand, the other coming up and firing a streak of poisonous green light in my direction. I knew instinctively that it was no laser and not something I wanted to get hit with, so I momentarily dropped my flight and allowed myself to go into free fall for just a heartbeat before letting the magic to reinfuse me. Eidolon’s attack continued it’s course and I gave myself just a moment to watch as it struck a patch of forest and created a dusty crater. Disintegration ray, seriously?

“I thought you said no killing blows!” I shouted as I dodged another pair of beams.

He shrugged. “These won’t kill you. And if they do, then you’re way weaker than we thought you were,” he called back.

“Oh fuck off, old man!”

I clapped my hands together and summoned up a windstorm that began to lift up dead wood and rocks from the forest floor into a spinning cyclone with me at it’s eye. The debris began to pelt Eidolon from various angles, but he raised one hand up, dropping his disintegration beam (from his entire arsenal, I hoped) and summoned a sphere of shimmering light around himself. I eyed it critically, noticing that it didn’t so much as ripple when being struck.

Between one blink and the next I teleported myself right up to the barrier and pulled back my fist, infusing it with as much mana as I dared. The blow shattered the air, dispelling my windstorm and causing enough air pressure to put a dent in the forest below. Eidolon was sent hurtling away from me, shield still in place, but it began crashing through the woods, bowling over trees with the force of his passing. I shook out my hand as it steamed a bit from the force of the blow and conflicting energies. It wasn’t something I’d have tried on anyone else in a friendly spar, but I wanted to see exactly what that barrier was capable of blocking.

If he was able to block that…

He deserves his title as the strongest parahuman, Raziel commented. A worthy, if imperfect champion for this world.

And I don’t count?

You are not a parahuman.

…Fair.

I followed Eidolon’s trajectory through the woods and finally found the crater where it looked like he finally landed. I cut off my flight and lowered myself down, only to frown when I saw that the crater was empty.

Instincts honed by hundreds of hours worth of training kicked in and I ducked as a blade of compressed air cut over my head and sliced through a nearby tree. I kicked off the ground and spun, summoning a barrier in front of me as one and then two more of the same air blades struck, sending a spiderweb of cracks through my shield.

I stood there, tense, waiting for a follow-up, but none arrived. I scanned the forest and then grunted with annoyance, dropping my shield.

“A Stranger power, really?” I yelled out into the woods.

Eidolon’s voice drifted back, seeming to come from a different direction with every word. “I said no Master powers, Stranger is fair game.”

“I didn’t even know you have Stranger powers,” I muttered.

“I have all the power types, I just don’t advertise it. People mostly focus on the big and flashy ones. You’d be surprised how many times the government has asked me to carry out some shady black op or another.”

“And how many times have you said yes?”

“Zero. We have Contessa for that sort of thing.”

Eidolon appeared out of the darkness, fingers crackling with electricity. Deciding I didn’t want to deal with a Striker power like that, I started to fly up, but had to stop in place as a dome appeared only about fifteen feet above ground level. I glanced at Eidolon and I had the impression that he was smirking beneath the mask.

“Come on, a little hand to hand combat never hurt while training.” He cracked his knuckles. “Besides, you need practice if you’re going to fight Leviathan.”

“I can just sit back and blast him,” I complained.

“Try saying that while he’s running at half the speed of sound while in a hurricane,” he said cynically. “Often, getting up close and personal has been more effective against him. Even Behemoth is easier to fight in melee, if you can survive his Kill Aura at least.”

I dropped and hit the ground, reinforcing my body once again until I was sure that I would register as a low to mid-tier Brute. I was already dreading this next ‘lesson’. Diving in for the occasional magic fueled punch was one thing, but actual hand to hand combat? Not really my cup of tea.

I stepped forward and experimentally jabbed twice with my left before throwing a right hook. Eidolon moved with easy familiarity, dodging both jabs, blocking the hook with a raised arm, and then finished by stepping further into my personal space than I was expecting and headbutted me in the face. Whatever Brute power he had going was stronger than mine, because even with my enhancements, a shot of pain ran through my face and I felt blood begin to immediately drop from my nose.

I blocked the pain from my mind and lashed out with a low kick at one ankle that didn’t connect as he danced back, then rushed forward and threw a few more punches. Each one was expertly blocked, much to my chagrin as Eidolon then hit me hard enough to crack a rib and then shoved me backwards until I slammed into the dome he still had raised.

“You fight like a bastard mix of Assault and Armsmaster,” Eidolon noted. “And you definitely need some more practice.”

“How the hell are you so good anyways?” I asked as I stood. I held in a groan of pain, just barely. Fractured ribs sucked.

“Lexi makes sure I practice at least once a week and you do that for over twenty years… Well you pick up more than a few tricks. Its nowhere near my preferred way of fighting, but sometimes my power gives me what it does and I have to deal with it.”

He darted in to throw another punch, but this time I tapped into my reinforcement even further, pushing off the ground with muscles that were suddenly far stronger than they probably should have been. I was almost certain that I felt something tear, but the extra boost in speed was enough to get me within Eidolon’s guard as I unleashed another Hero Punch directly into his gut, sending him bouncing around the inside of his own dome like a ping-pong ball. The innate properties of my own power, combined with his own prevented any permanent damage, but I could hear him wheezing as he lay on his back.

We sat silently for a few minutes before the dome around us flickered. Eidolon sat up and walked over, swaying ever so slightly. “Your punches hit way harder than they should, even with that Brute rating you’re giving yourself. Striker power?”

“Something like that,” I confirmed.

“Hm. Nice. You kind of messed up your legs though.”

I winced and pushed the pain away. “Yeah, well sometimes you have to sacrifice something to land a solid hit.”

“And what happens if you leave yourself immobile like this and can’t dodge the follow up?” he asked wryly.

I grinned. “If it was anybody but you, they wouldn’t have gotten back up so easily.” I thought about it for a moment more. “And also I could always just teleport or fly away. I tore up some muscles in my legs, but I can heal those or ask a friend too if it’s too bad. Either way, landing a solid hit like that was worth it.”

“Even so, you were holding back,” he accused.

“Was I now?”

“You didn’t summon your cloak or use those big gold beams that drove the Simurgh away or that red lightning, just your more basic powers.”

“You returned the favor, I’m sure you had some powers you could have whipped out that were way more lethal than anything you pulled out today.”

“Maybe, but those aren’t things I bust out unless absolutely necessary and not in a friendly spar like this.”

“Friendly my ass. My broken ribs would like to have a word with you.”

His eyes flashed for a moment as he looked me up and down. “Minor fracture and it’s to only one rib. If you can’t heal something that simple, I’ll eat my cape.”

I let out a rough chuckle and then allowed some golden healing light to suffuse my body. “Still, I think we confirmed one thing for sure.”

“And what’s that?”

“For an old man, you’re still pretty spry.”

“Insolent kids these days, no respect for the veterans,’” he muttered. “Door to Houston.” He shot me one last glance before he left. “I’ll work on controlling the Three, now that you’ve boosted me, but I may to have ask for more in the future.”

“I’ll do what I can,” I said. “We’ll need every hero when the time comes.”

“Damn right. But something tells me that in the end, you’ll be the one we rely on the most. Don’t burn yourself out before then.” He gave me a small two fingered salute and then vanished through the portal.

I allowed myself a minute to just sit in the forest and think before standing on freshly healed legs and took a deep breath without feeling like my ribs were screaming. Then I called for a Door of my own and headed home.

I need a drink…
***
A/N: I was able to get about 1500 words of this written on just Monday and Tuesday. Then the weekend hit and while Friday was busy, Saturday I just felt absolutely dead to the world. I originally was hoping to get this out early, but it was like all motivation just left my soul for some reason. Hate when that happens. Anyways, I love you guys and appreciate your continued support. Every week is a step closer to the ultimate goal of doing this for a living instead of just a hobby. See y'all next week, maybe even sooner if I muster up the strength.