Chapter 316 - Molten Anger

Nate spread his senses throughout the area around the base of the volcano. His plans for this ambush had always been multifaceted. Using the molten lava from the volcano had more than one purpose and the second was finally coming into play. The many spears of lava launched by his runes buried in the volcano's crust had released enough smoke and detritus into the air to make normal sight completely useless. For over a hundred metres there was nothing but smoke, ash and other small particles circling the area. While Nate knew it wouldn’t stop all of his opponents he hoped it would prevent enough of them from accurately targeting him while he continued to thin their numbers.

Moving to the side with a Gravity Control rune he split his attention enough to use Conceptual Sight and assess how Borin was doing. What he saw brought a smile to his face. The Golden Tide Captain was covered in some sort of Earthen armour. With his defenses in place he was charging down the pale humanoid Sel’kin, who was using two futuristic looking pistols that shot lances of some green energy that reeked of Corrosion. While it was having an effect, it clearly wasn’t enough and Sel’kin had the wounds to show for it. Satisfied that he wasn’t about to get sniped, Nate withdrew his attention and focused on his immediate opponents.

Off in the jungle it continued to look like Kiri was going to battle with some kind of deforestation machine. Trees kept going flying followed by small explosions and though Nate spared his sister's battle a glance it was legitimately hard to keep track of the pair since they were moving so fast.

Finally, Nate checked on Wulfgar. The Bloodborne Executioner was off on the other side of the volcano and was facing off against a team that had either arrived late, was just looking to pick some people in the battle off, or potentially had been trying to flank Nate. He doubted that last option as trying to flank him without a Seed in the team was the same as committing suicide. Kalin was unlikely to do that. While the elf of the Worldforger Sect was arrogant, he so far had not been what Nate would consider stupid. Either way, Wulfgar, backed up by Jak, Fili and Gwen, had the situation well and truly under control. Nate could tell by the huge smile on Wulfgars face as he swung his gigantic bloody axe.

With everyone checked on, and only a few seconds having passed, Nate returned his attention to his own battle. Drim Hall was dead, which meant one Seed was already down. But, Drim was the easiest of the three opponents, since using a Destruction based Conceptual path against Nate was throwing a little water on a bonfire.

Kalin wasn’t being idle and Nate launched a lance of lava at the elf only for him to slide to the side. The silver liquid coating the elf moved with him and Nate was waiting for the elf to actually attack. Instead, more Lesser Divines threw themselves into the battle against Nate and his air support. An elf flying on wings of light shot into the sky and started raining superheated beams of light down on the Solaris. Nate felt the barriers absorb the strikes and the responding shot from the Cannon of Last Rites. The thin beam of destruction shot through the space where the Lesser Divine had once been but the Light user vanished in a beam of light and a small application of Divine Energy.

Another two elves from the Dynasty started whipping up the wind in an attempt to clear the smoke Nate was hiding in. Nate took careful aim, continuing to be careful in his use of his own resources, and launched six bolts of lava from within the dark cloud. One of the two elves managed to escape but the other got caught as they managed to dodge the first and second but missed the third as Nate had hidden it with an Illusion Rune. A trickle of Divine Energy returned to Nate as the Lesser Divine elf died under the strength of the Molten Concept within the Lava. At the same time the smoke cleared just enough from their wind Skills for Nate to get a clear sight of Kole Darkscale.

The next moment Nate felt his Barriers shatter and his arm was completely ripped off as an arrow passed through the space that he had barely managed to vacate. Life Imitates Art activated and the wound vanished, Nate made whole as a painting in his gallery took on the wound, showing Nate missing an arm and bleeding from his entire left side.

Nate fled back into the smoke as he rebuilt his Barriers. The fact that the arrow had broken them was unexpected and while he moved his mind worked. There had been a Concept on the arrow. Not just Penetration or something simple. It had felt like a Concept Nate was intimately more familiar with. Empower, but taken beyond what Nate had ever considered or managed. Not that he couldn’t have matched it, but it had never been a focus. Watching with Conceptual Sight as he launched more lances of lava from his runes, he spied on Kole to see just what had happened. The answer he got was not one he was hoping for. Kole withdrew another huge arrow from what looked like nowhere. No Spatial Skill was used, and tracing it back, Nate could tell it came from the signature Skill of the Worldforger Sect. The arrow came from Kole’s Inner World.

Nate had done his research on their Skill, especially since he had intended to use a version of it for himself. While their ‘worlds’ weren’t as expansive as Nate’s own, they were still incredibly useful if they could be cultivated correctly. The entire purpose of the Worldforger’s Sect Inner World was to create a resource that the user could use. Word had that in Worldhammer’s case he sealed inside his Inner World enchanting arrays that whipped up winds with various Concepts that he could then unleash and further improve with his own Skills. Nate was pretty certain that Kole’s Path followed one of Empowerment and that his Inner World was a place where he could place items that would then become more empowered over time.

Nate had to give it to Kole, that was a clever use of Inner World for a hybrid crafter. It was also unfortunately an issue for Nate. Anything that could punch through his barriers was a lethal threat to him and while he thought his contingencies might allow him to come pretty close to death, it was possible that a headshot would simply instantly kill him before the contingencies could activate. With a real threat on the table, Nate was done holding back his own Divine Energy. He had spent days preparing for this battle and even longer planning for it. It was time to show his enemies just what that meant.

Paint flowed like a river from Nate’s Regalia, all black threaded with gold as he built a grand runic array. It spun around Nate into a sphere as the runes formed into a second layer of armour around him. The smoke that had clung to the area so vehemently began to vanish, the air becoming clear as the motes of dust and ash ceased to exist in a constantly expanding wave. Nate watched on and felt anger building inside of him. He was almost always calm, careful and collected. But these people dogged his steps and the steps of those he cared about simply because they couldn’t stand for someone else to have what they didn’t. Greed, thought Nate and had to stop himself from spitting. It always seemed to come back to greed.

An arrow that moved so fast Nate didn’t even see it hit the expanding barrier and vanished into dust and then nothing. Nate saw Kole’s eyes open wide but it was already too late. More Divine Energy flowed into the rune and Nate felt it stretch out on the path the arrow had taken. Kole turned to run but the threads of Destruction reached out and Nate watched as the elf failed to give up the Divine Artifact that was his bow. So the Destruction rune took his arm and the bow as well. The Artifact broke down and Nate managed to absorb a few motes of Divine Energy but he was still running at a loss.

Two more attacks landed from other members of the Dynasty of the Heavenly Serpent and two more ropes of Destruction reached out, following the attacks back to the source. The entire time Kole Darkscale continued to scream as the arm that had held the bow slowly disintegrated, Destruction eating its way through his body. Kalin finally acted, a blade of liquid silver severing the rest of the arm at the shoulder before the Destruction could reach Kole’s body. The same was not true of the other two Lesser Divines. With weaker Concepts and lesser Divine Energy to fight off the attack they were already naught but dust on the ground, Orbs lying where they had once lay but even they appeared to be marred by the attack.

Nate finally dropped the rune, having burned through fully a third of his Divine Energy to maintain it and to fight through his target's own Divine Energy. Victory through overwhelming force. It was ugly, and lacked his usual artistic method, but he could acknowledge it had been effective and accomplished his goal of taking Kole Darkscale out of the fight.

Kalin finally turned to Nate, raising two liquid silver hands.

“We give up. You’ve made your point, Nathaniel Weber. I know you still have enough Divine Energy left to do that again. So, I will admit defeat here and now. You can take all that we have collected and your victory, and that of the Risen Sun Sect, will be assured. Let us part ways with our lives and our remaining Divine Energy intact.”

Nate’s Conceptual Sight drifted over the battlefield, all of it. Borin was still fighting Sel’kin in the distance. Winning, but not yet won. Kiri and Perenthia were still trying to murder each other, their fight taking them deeper and deeper into the jungle. Nate supposed he couldn’t hold that particular battle against Kalin. Then there was Wulfgar and the others still fighting on the other side of the volcano. Jak looked wounded and was being treated by Gwen while Wulfgar and Fili held off four together. Without his Regalia, Wulfgar wouldn’t have been able to manage the three he was taking care of. A fifth enemy was dead on the ground already.

Then there were the eight or so dead in front of Nate. Some from Nate himself, some from Frick and the cannons. A little over ten yet remained, with Kole wailing in the distance and Kalin waiting for an answer.

“You brought all these people here to kill me. To kill my sister. To kill my friends. And you think now, just because you’re losing, that you get to walk away? That I would, what, show you mercy because you admitted defeat? Here is my mercy. Everyone else who leaves now will be allowed to do so with their lives. But Kole Darkscale and Kalin Silverscale will remain and face my justice for this cowardly attempt on my life. That is my mercy.”

Four of the elves instantly took flight, sprinting into the jungle or producing flying devices as they tried to escape. Kalin’s face twisted in anger and Nate felt the rising wave of a new Concept. Form filled the air around Kalin as the liquid silver turned into spears and shot at Nate. 

Nate vanished, rewriting his position in Reality through a painting inside of his Regalia. Floating in the air using a Gravity Control rune, far above the ground, framed by the volcano at his back, he muttered something for the second time during this battle.

“Almighty Boom.”

Instead of cannon fire, a rumble built beneath the ground as the final part of Nate’s runic preparation activated. Then the earth shock and volcano heaved, spewing forth a tidal wave of molten lava. As it launched into the air, the Peak-Grade artifact appeared in Nate’s hand, melting the air around it, before being absorbed into Nate’s Regalia. Then the falling tidal wave of molten lava moved. Instead of raining down on the surroundings, it flowed like a rushing river towards the remaining members of the Dynasty of the Heavenly Serpent. 

Three managed to get airborne, Kalin included. 

Kole tried to teleport away using some item pulled from his Inner World. Space didn’t respond, overwritten by Nate’s own Divine Space rune. Kole vanished beneath a wave of molten lava as the forest went up in flames, trees vanishing as they melted rather than burned. Waves of heat rose into the air and a flying device failed as it too melted under the presence of a more powerful Concept. The final two elves that weren’t Kalin beat a hasty retreat, and then they were finally alone.

“You would go this far, just to kill me?” spat Kalin.

“You orchestrated this. It was you who brought them all together. Actions have consequences, Kalin. Goodbye.”

Nate started building a rune for a Beam of Destruction on his Regalia. It was time to end this.

*************

Kalin sensed the spectre of death hanging over him. He had known that the two Second Evolutions would be powerful and would have more Divine Energy to work with than he would. That was why he’d brought so many together. The tried and true method of killing anyone was to simply overwhelm them with numbers. But even after Nathaniel had created that sphere of Destruction that ate a hole into the volcano's slopes and dissolved multiple allies, including Kole’s High-Grade bow, the human still had enough Divine Energy left to launch even more attacks.

Kalin was careful. He was meticulous. He was always prepared because to follow Form was to be adaptable. Even so, he had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. There was power yet unseized in the Lesser Divine strata. But he’d use what little Divine Energy he had available warding off Nate’s other attacks. He was simply out of options. With a thought Kalin absorbed a single Low-grade artifact and triggered his evolution. Divine Energy swirled down, golden and silver as it merged with him. A blast of dark energy lanced out and Kalin spewed out enough silver from his Inner World to absorb the black beam of destruction. He didn’t have time to go through all his options for his Class Evolutions. He just grabbed the first one of each, the entire time his now expanded space for Divine Energy filling up until it was full to the brim.

Kalin stepped out of the cocoon of silver threaded with gold, still encased in Liquid Silver as he took in Nate’s form. Kalin sighed. He was safe now. He was Greater Divine. He would live, and that was enough.

“It’s over, Nate, you win,” said Kalin with more bite than he had intended.

Kalin had expected Nate to look angry at being denied the chance to end him. Instead the human looked amused.

“You think that is enough to stop me?”

Then, to Kalin’s mind, Nate did the unthinkable, and attacked an individual of a higher strata alone.