Divine Apostasy Book 12 - Chapter 47

Chapter 47

The Guardian sensed Ruwen and it turned but Vex raced through the clouds keeping them out of sight. In moments they hovered at the golem’s lower back and Ruwen used Harmony to confirm the creature’s skin would take far too long to penetrate.

Ruwen took a few seconds and studied the skin’s structure with Harmonic Knowledge. If he could replicate these braided harmonies it would provide a powerful shied. Vex neighed and Ruwen focused on their real reason for being here.

The modified lute from earlier dropped out of Ruwen’s Void Band and he strummed the strings as he organized his thoughts. Part of him wanted to try and put the Guardian in his Soul Vault. If he hadn’t crippled his Soul once already, he would’ve tried for sure. He guessed a level four Soul would easily handle something this big.

Ruwen settled on a simple chord sequence, weaving the quarter-tones into a cutting wave of sound. The discordant harmony punched through the Guardian's back, boring a tunnel three feet wide into the stone. The creature had immense durability in the Material Realm, but when Ruwen shaped his magic with Creation Harmonies it exposed a vulnerability.

The Guardian stumbled and Ruwen dove into the tunnel he'd created. Vex gave a final neigh and disappeared into the clouds. The walls of the passage pulsed with green veins that leaked acidic fluid. It acted like a liquid bandage, rapidly repairing the damage Ruwen had done. He scooped up some of the fluid to study later before pressing forward.

The stench of sulfur filled his nostrils, and he cast Fresh Air to remove it. He used the lute to carve a path deeper into the creature's body, using his Root chakra to guide him to the corresponding location here.

The Guardian's internal structure resembled a twisted blend of metal bones, stone flesh, and green blood. Capillaries the size of tree trunks formed networks that crisscrossed everything ensuring any damage was immediately repaired.

Ruwen paused at the Guardian's hip joint to study the massive cavity that appeared before him. A gem the size of a house pulsed with corrupted Root chakra energy and it continually destroyed the surrounding flesh. Vaporized blood swirled through the chamber and the mist instantly repairing any damage the gem did.

The malevolent energy Ruwen had absorbed earlier twisted inside his Root chakra causing him to double over in pain. He thought the energy might rip itself out of his body to join its bigger brother in the chamber.

Ruwen used his Divine Domain to hover just inside the chamber as the Guardian’s natural regeneration healed the passage he’d constructed to get here. He sat, placing the lute on his lap, and used Master Pine’s breathing lessons to try and calm his frantic chakra.

The Guardian’s artificial Root chakra stilled its constant barrage of damage and Ruwen opened one eye to see if anything else had changed. A surge of energy from the giant gem caught Ruwen by surprise. The Guardian had triggered its Wrath Burst attack but instead of channeling it outward in an area of effect, it had contained the harmful magic inside itself.

As the dense energy approached, Ruwen knew he should have expected this. It had torn off its own arm after all. With the speed of its healing, it could shred itself internally without any danger.

Ruwen’s defenses against chakra energy were poor at best, but he decided against retreating since he didn’t think the blast would kill him and every interaction with chakra magic improved his understanding. He pulled the lute into his Soul Vault as using his Void Band might take too long.

The Scarecrow Aspect, and most of Ruwen’s body melted away as the tainted Root energy sucked the life from his body. Once again, only the areas near his Hardened Meridians survived, and once the energy passed he instantly reformed his body and recalled the Scarecrow Aspect. The Guardian needed to do better than that if it wanted to inconvenience him, let alone kill him.

 “My turn,” Ruwen said.

Recalling the lute, Ruwen played a series of piercing notes, and the quarter-tone music cut through the protective barriers around the gem. He jumped to the top of the massive crystal which had dimmed slightly as the cost of the Wrath Burst spell took its toll.

Ice formed over Ruwen’s boots as the gem used the contact to attack, this time with an energy drain. Waves of corruption slammed into his Root chakra, connecting with the infection that already existed.

If Ruwen hadn’t already poisoned himself with this corrupt energy by absorbing the leprechaun magic he could’ve easily shrugged off the attack. Now he battled the assault both inside and outside his Root chakra.

Ruwen’s Willpower contained the spread of the malevolent energy inside his chakra and shielded him against the attacks from outside. He knew it would be enough to win, but it would take time, and he wanted to end this before any more surprises arrived.

Summoning the Citrine of Will, Ruwen channeled his Will through his Solar Plexus chakra and tried to detect the resonance change with Harmonic Knowledge. He always used his Will like a hammer. The Destruction Realm had encouraged that and shaped his behavior.

On its own, the Citrine of Will altered and manipulated Ruwen’s Will, but never in a forceful way. It would enhance and amplify his Will if that is how he chose to use it, but he could see that would limit what it could offer. Instead of treating his Will like a Viper strike, he shifted his approach to something like a Bamboo throw.

Ruwen’s Solar Plexus chakra responded immediately, turning the Guardian’s artificial Root chakra attack back on itself. He knelt, placed the lute in his Soul Vulat, and touched the gem with his hands.

Stone Echo and Sixth Sense gave Ruwen a perfect representation of the massive gem. Creation Realm magic saturated the artificial chakra, making his Architect Role useless. The Citrine of Will along with his new understanding made countering the poisonous energy trivial.

Ruwen channeled level five Scrub to his hands, passing the vibrations into the giant gem. He used Willpower to guide the vibrations to as many flaws in the gem as possible. He hoped to generate cracks that he could exploit.

Instead, the Guardian’s artificial Root chakra shattered and released all its remaining energy at once.

For the third time in as many minutes, most of Ruwen’s body vaporized, and what remained was carried outward by the explosion.

Sunlight and blue sky came into view as Ruwen’s eyes reformed. He reoriented himself using Divine Domain and studied the damage the explosion caused.

The Guardian's hips disintegrated from the energy discharge, and its legs buckled. As it fell to its knees the clouds swirled in agitation. It would only take seconds for the creature to regenerate even though the damage looked severe. For physical damage to work, it needed to be overwhelming.

Reaching for support, the Guardian pushed itself back to its feet, crushing the top of an unfortunate mountain. The lowest of the eight lights in its chest had gone dark, and green fluid leaked from its midsection hissing where it struck the ground.

Ruwen had an idea, but if he wanted to recover the Divine chakra vault undamaged he needed to get much closer to the Guardian’s head. The Architect Role wouldn’t provide gate runes for any part of the golem, probably because of all the Creation magic.

Vex, how fast can you reach this thing’s head?

The Guadian grabbed the top of a mountain and threw it at Ruwen.

“Dumb,” Ruwen muttered. “This is my Realm.”

Using the Architect Role, Ruwen transformed the approaching mountain into millions of silver chimes. He swept across them with Harmony causing each to vibrate with a tone harmful to the Creation Realm creature. He pushed his hands outward and chimes swirled to surround the golem.

A mental neigh from Vex snapped Ruwen’s attention to the Guardian’s head. He found Vex who pawed the air with his two front hooves. Ruwen grinned as he memorized the gate runes for his steed’s location.

Good job Vex, Ruwen said as he created a Soul portal with the runes. I’d start running now. If this works, it’s going to make a mess.

When Ruwen stepped out of the portal Vex had already disappeared. The Guardian moved to swipe at Ruwen but disturbed the chimes which grew louder with the contact. The golem roared in pain as the frequencies caused stinging wounds.

The top of the Guardian’s head lay four hundred feet below Ruwen, and the Divine gem vault nestled another five hundred feet below that, deep in the golem’s head.

Delaying didn’t serve any purpose. Ruwen had worried that Creation essence or some other leprechaun magic might have strengthened the gems that made up the Guardian’s artificial chakras, but the Root gem had proven they retained their gem like properties.

Once again Ruwen tapped his Architect Role and focused on the closest mountain. The Guardian leaned its head back and stared up at Ruwen.

Ruwen triggered both active spells from his lepre-kabab Title. Hopefully the buffs worked on Fae constructs like the Guardian.

Field of Clover – Once per week temporarily summon one thousand random leprechauns from the Creation Realm for fifteen seconds. (Note: Leprechauns will arrive angry, use caution).

Iron Chef – 15-minute buff that disrupts Fae magic reducing damage from Fae by 10%, increasing damage against Fae by 10%, and adds 10% Cooking bonus when grilling.

The Guardian’s face turned green as clover sprouted across it. The golem looked confused and stumbled backward when the first leprechauns appeared on its nose. The movement agitated the nearby chimes which filled the air with discordant harmony that caused more damage.

The quickly multiplying leprechauns screamed in pain at the sound and blindly attacked, assuming the Guardian was the source.

Ruwen transmuted the nearest mountain into six iron spears, each seven miles long. He wrapped the spear tips with the same frequencies he’d used on the chimes and with a sweeping gesture, launched all six at the Guardian.

The giant golem didn’t try and dodge as it desperately tried wiping the thousand furious leprechauns off its face.

Willpower, Spirit, and Soul energy powered each spear. Six loud cracks of thunder echoed as the mountain turned spears accelerated at speeds only a god could create. He hadn’t bothered trying to find each gem’s weakness. Blunt trauma should suffice.

The iron spears slid through the Guardian’s outer defenses and into its body. The acidic blood ate at the projectiles but didn’t have time to do much damage. The first spear struck the Sacral gem and just as Ruwen hoped, it exploded spectacularly. An instant later, the Solar Plexus gem took a direct hit and added to the blast’s strength.

One after another, in a blink, the Heart, Throat, Third Eye, and Crown followed.

Ruwen became the seventh spear, angled straight down, a human lance encased in quarter tone harmonies. The Divine vault was lodged near the Divine charka gem at the top of the Guardian’s head and would be incredibly difficult to extract unless something catastrophic happened to the artificial chakra.

Ruwen arrived just before the sixth spear struck the artificial Divine chakra. He extended his Void Band and tried to scoop up the Divine geode, but as he expected it couldn’t penetrate through the artificial chakra’s hold. It meant he’d only have a fraction of a second to save the geode.

Activating Last Breath, Ruwen studied the approaching calamity. The sixth spear reached the artificial Divine chakra at the same moment as the explosion. This last chakra detonated and added its power to the surging blast.

Ruwen increased the pressure of his open Void Band against the Divine vault, anxious to grab the geode and get away from this blast. His hopes of snatching the vault faded as the explosion reached them.

Just before the blast enveloped Ruwen, he felt the pressure against his Void Band decrease. He didn’t know if that was because he’d successfully snatched the Divine gem vault or because his arm had vaporized from the explosion.

Raw, contaminated Creation essence pierced every part of his body, ripping him into tiny pieces before dissolving what remained.

Rainbow filled fractals turned Ruwen’s world into a kaleidoscope. The mixed chakra and Creation energies turned his every idea, every concept, into dense weights that pulled him downward.

Ruwen’s chakras were ripped open by the overwhelming surge of power. They burned in the maelstrom, yanked open by Creation Realm magic.

As Ruwen’s Divine chakra rapidly transitioned from Dormant to Activated and then immediately to Awakened his last thought centered on the truth his Divine chakra revealed. It humbled him that he’d remained oblivious to something so obvious.

Ruwen had wondered why his Harmonic level was zero, and now he understood. His world and most of his experience consisted of the three dimensions that surrounded him, but he already knew many more existed.

The Divinity chakra had opened Ruwen to the secret of Harmonic advancement.

Control of Harmony in three dimensions was just the start. The default. Only by reaching into higher dimensions and gaining control there could he advance.

Harmony required balance in all things. Including every dimension.

Ruwen clenched tightly to this secret, terrified of losing it, and drifted in a fog of euphoria, oblivious to everything but this truth.