Divine Apostasy Book 11 - Chapter 39

Chapter 39

The shadowy tendons holding the darkness together weakened under Ruin’s onslaught, and the area around him turned from patches of complete darkness into areas of twilight. Uruziel adjusted her feed, returning primary sight to him while supplementing his vision with the obscured battlefield below so he could keep his bearings.

Ruin couldn’t see Erebus but sensed an odd density of power twenty-five feet away.

Suspicious of a trap, Ruin didn’t approach the area and instead gathered power into his hand. Using Xavier’s natural energy as a guide, Ruin folded the magic in on itself over and over until it became violently unstable. It was as energetic as he could manage in his current state.

Without fanfare, Ruin snapped his right hand out. The ball of energy in his hand launched forward, stretching into a shaft of purple light four feet long.

It struck the suspicious area, stripping away the darkness there instantly.

Erebus withered under the intense light, exposing the boss’s treasure—a pulsating black rune somehow darker than the blackness that surrounded it. The dungeon boss growled and reformed its shadowy armor, obscuring the rune once more.

Taking a page from the boss, Ruin armored himself in a weaker but more stable version of his purple Xavier light.

Spears of Dark essence launched at Ruin from hundreds of locations. Dark essence in this Tower, fighting this boss, would overcome any of his spells, and he hadn’t learned enough control yet to form a counter with pure Dark essence yet.

Ruin didn’t need to stop the spears though, just redirect or blunt them. And if he’d learned anything about his new body, what it lacked in control it made up with desire for pure destruction.

Hundreds of fist-sized balls of raw Destruction Essence exploded from Ruin’s body. He found the less control he exerted on the energy the more power it kept, so he scooped energy from his core, briefly shaped it, before hurling it at an oncoming spear. Like apocalyptic snowballs they struck the spears.

While some of the attacks retained their path, all of them lost the ability to do him any damage.

Ignoring the remaining spears, Ruin tried to Blink to Erebus, but he couldn’t make the spell strong enough to overcome the boss’ Divine control over his personal space. The creature exuded something like a Divine Realm, something else Ruin needed to learn how to replicate here in his new form.

This failure didn’t matter, though, as Ruin possessed something far stronger than his Destruction Essence.

Ruin pushed his Will into the space between himself and Erebus, overcoming the Dungeon’s resistance. He twisted reality, condensing the space connecting them. As he anchored himself to the far location, he released his control. When dimensional space snapped back, it carried his anchored form along.

Erebus reacted instantly, a cloud of shadow spores erupting around the boss.

The spores reminded Ruin of the space fern he’d fought on the way back from Rainbow’s End; he wondered if Fractal ever succeeded in growing one on Grave. Ruin had learned a valuable lesson during that fight and didn’t push his way through the tiny dangers. Tiny pricks of cold across his back were the first indication he’d misjudged the size of the cloud.

Ruin’s Archangel Fortified body had a density only Demigods and Deities could match. Erebus had the strength of a Deity, and the spore-like attack visible to Ruin was a distraction. An invisible mist of much tinier dangers surrounded him, and they slipped through his light shield, both sets of armor, and finally his skin.

Divine level shadow spores poured into Ruin’s body, their microscopic size making them immune from his attacks.

Ruin spun Last Breath up to full speed and took stock of his situation.

I’m having flashbacks to when that Destruction Core unraveled and consumed you in one go, Overlord said.

How are things going out there? Ruin responded.

Better now that Uruziel figured out how to make Minions with the density of Angel tier. Your core is dangerously unstable right now, but it provides a ton of power. We could fight all month and not make a dent in your core. We’ll win out here eventually. Assuming this stuff in your body doesn’t just kill us all.

About that. I have an idea.

No one responded, and Ruin almost wished Sift were here to offer a predictable groan.

I know you want to save your currency, Uruziel said, but if your level was higher, I wonder if your Annihilation Shield buff would’ve protected you from this attack.

Ruin recalled the buff that his Saraph body assimilated from the potion-based buffs his human form had active when Lalquinrial destroyed it.

Name: Annihilation Shield 

Description: Increased durability against destruction energy based on level.

Fair. I’ll do it right now.

A Notification appeared when Ruin tried to access his mobile vendor to trade his DeN currency for experience to level himself.

Not available while in combat.

Okay, I’ll do that right after I’m out of this dungeon. Speaking of those potion buffs I want to use another one as plan A and a second as plan B. Here’s plan A.

Name: Essence Purge 

Description: Once per day expel all foreign essence from your body.

And Plan B.

Name: Dark Charisma 

Description: Once per week take control of a Destruction Realm entity. Success and duration increase with level.

What happens if your low level makes them ineffective? Uruziel asked.

As if one of my plans has ever failed.

No one responded to the joke.

Tough crowd. Fine, I’ve been meaning to try out Fate’s Balance. I’m going to load myself up with good luck before attempting this.

Luck is a fickle friend and a worse strategy, Sivart said.

Sheesh, what a bunch of pessimists.

Ruin checked on his luck balances.

Fate’s Balance

Positive Threads: 8,127

Negative Threads: 8,950

Borrowed Threads (1% Max): 0

Ruin willed eighty-one of the positive threads to himself and placed a hundred negative threads on the dungeon boss. He hadn’t wanted to resort to manipulating luck in the very first dungeon but hoarding his currency and not leveling had placed him in a bad position.

The addition brought Ruin’s karmic offset to one hundred thirty-one. He still had the fifty from the sword he’d assimilated, and his Grandmaster Alchemist bonus granted him another twenty-five. He’d used up twenty-two luck making his friends luck potions, and it hadn’t regenerated yet. And that stupid Fortune Golem, Tarot, brought it down another three. That only left him the original fifty luck from the Threshold Compass of Fortune.

Those darkness spores had squeezed through the armor of light and Ruin didn’t know how to make it denser than it already was. Assuming the Essence Purge worked and expelled all the spores, what would keep them from returning immediately to his body.

After a moment of thought, Ruin had a possible solution and released Last Breath.

Immediately Ruin rotated the light surrounding him, creating something akin to a river that flowed across his form from one side to the other. He hoped the constant movement would catch the spores and destroy them, and it seemed to work. That didn’t fix the spores already inside his body though.

Erebus attacked with eight sword like tendrils and Ruin dodged and deflected them.

Ruin felt more confident as he cast Essence Purge. It would force the spores out and his body and into his new circulating light which should destroy them all.

Instead, Ruin’s skin prickled but nothing else happened. It appeared even all his extra luck wouldn’t be enough for a level one spell to overcome Divine darkness spores.

Ruin focused on Erebus and cast Dark Charisma hoping to take control of the Divine Creature long enough to recall all the spores or destroy them.

Once again, nothing happened.

Ruin twirled with his two swords, slicing through the tendrils that still tried to kill him.

Five feet separated them, and Ruin’s only remaining plan required him to be within one foot.

The spores inside Ruin’s body oozed poison and his whole body flushed from the surge of Divine toxin.

Leaping forward, Ruin crashed into Erebus and activated Void Purge, from his Voidwalker gem.

Effect (Triggered): Void Purge - Once per day, vent the accumulated Void energies from your body in an area of effect with a radius in feet equal to level.

Ruin’s stomach twisted with nausea as a grey mist appeared around his form. The air shuddered as the Void Essence ate through reality, fraying it like a powerful acid.

Erebus dissolved instantly along with everything else near Ruin. The Dark Spores and their poison had disappeared, as the Void Essence destroyed everything foreign in his body when it materialized within him.

The connections Ruin had with Overlord, Uruziel, and Sivart didn’t survive either, and his friends didn’t respond to his calls.

A dense invisible presence appeared, far stronger than the entity in charge of the dungeon. It grabbed the edges of the rip in reality and knitted it back together.

Ruin tried to study the newcomer, but the sudden appearance of the Void Essence had thrown his body into panicked chaos. How could such a terrible substance be inside him?

Displeasure and maybe a little fear emanated from the overwhelming presence which Ruin guessed was a manifestation of the Dark Tower itself. Then it disappeared.

The tear into the Void fixed, Ruin clutched his stomach and tried to reconnect to his friends. They all existed inside vulnerable Minions, and if those containers were destroyed before Ruin could reach them, they would either die immediately or shortly thereafter as the Destruction Realm dissolved them.