Chapter 238 - Survive

Nate sent a mental message to Frick as he teleported away from a screaming ball of purple flame.

“How long?!”

His words were frantic as the ball of deathflame changed directions, chasing him across the expansive dirt floor of the mine. Another three joined it, chasing Nate as he spun up a portal rune to launch them into the sky and buy him time.

“Two more minutes, Boss!”

The Deathflame Seed was casually launching off balls of Deathflame at Nate every second or third swing of his spear, fighting Kiri in melee at the same time. Kiri was faster, but by less than Nate would have expected. Worse than that was that she couldn’t use her Tethered Arms as they were dissolved by some aura of death and fire that the Seed of Eternity emitted around itself. Kiri slashed out twice, trying to get inside the arc of the spear the Deathflame Seed wielded. Instead she was blasted away as the spear impacted the ground in front of Kiri, exploding in a gout of purple flame. As the Seed of Eternity stepped forward to take advantage, an echo of Kiri’s movement appeared and cut through the green-skinned creature's armour. Blue blood dripped down its leg but it didn’t slow down its attack and Nate sensed an aspect of Destruction between the pair. He couldn’t enjoy the rush of Divine Energy as he watched the outcome of the attack. Before Kiri could teleport the spear carved a hole through her head before exploding again, ruining the rest of her body.

Nate hadn’t been idle as he’d constructed a more complicated rune incorporating his Grandmaster Sigil for Life, alongside Heat which he’d twisted towards the Subconcept of Burning, all encapsulated within a set of Master-tier Power Sigils. The beam of light was thicker than Nate was tall and screamed across the intervening space, enveloping the Seed of Eternity and launching him into the side of the mine and down one of the myriad honeycombed tunnels. The now ten purple fireballs rushed into the cave after the Seed of Eternity.

With a moment bought, Nate maintained the rune and looked at the reformed Kiri who appeared next to him, her eyes wild.

“Three,” she hissed. “It took three Soul Twins. Something about that attack… or maybe its weapon… was resisting my return. I can only afford to do than one more time. I’ve only got eight Twins.”

“Death, Destruction and Fire,” Nate commented. “All at what I would consider a Grandmaster-tier if they were Sigils. This is a really bad matchup. I want to counter it with Life and Water. Maybe Create. But of those only Life is Grandmaster-tier. Nine Hells, Create is only Novice-tier. And since I don’t think we have an advantage in Stats, that's a hill too far. We just need to get the artifact and run. Frick said two minutes. We fight to run, agreed?”

Kiri’s eyes firmed but she nodded as the Seed of Eternity stormed back out of the tunnel. The purple and black armour showed signs of damage, scorch marks across its surface and one pauldron was missing. As for the Deathflame Seed, it looked injured, with more blue blood leaking from its hands and a cut above its eye. But oddly there were five deathflame fireballs circling its head. As the Seed of Eternity looked at them it opened its mouth, showing off black, serrated teeth. Into that maw flew one of the purple fireballs. One of the cuts on its head instantly vanished. Deathflame Eater. Nate remembered now. Which made him realise the reason it was likely keeping up with Kiri in terms of speed was that it was damaging its own body using an enhancement Skill.

“Annoying gnats,” it growled out. 

“So, that is why you smell of Soul,” continued the Seed as it looked over Kiri’s reformed body. “But no fire? Not a phoenix Path. Shadow instead. Shadow and Soul. An assassin path, though, not a very good one. More concerned with preserving yourself than killing your enemy. Poison would have been better. Or Death. So very incomplete.”

With a snort the Seed opened its mouth to eat another ball of Deathflame and Nate recognised it was buying time to heal itself. Something he was more than willing to allow as it also bought Frick time to finish breaking through the barrier around the artifact. He debated assisting Frick but that thought vanished when the Seed of Eternity’s eyes flicked to look at him.

“And you. Runecaster? Probably. Specialised in Space? Why are you even on the battlefield? Space is only good for travelers, crafters and thieves. You don’t seem like a thief. You should be someone serving at the behest of your betters.”

Nate continued to listen, preparing a new rune as he did so. 

“If you wanted to be on the battlefield as a Runecaster you should’ve chosen a Concept with more battle applications. You don’t like being in close combat so Physical or Enhancement. But even if you wanted to play at being a Mage there are better choices than Space. Electric or Fire perhaps. Another incomplete Path.”

The Seed of Eternity swallowed his final deathflame fireball, most of his wounds now healed, the blue blood evaporating off him as his aura of death and fire returned.

“Let me show you what a real Path looks like,” goaded the Deathflame Seed.

Then the fight was rejoined. This time the creature ignored Kiri, charging for Nate. Nate unleashed the rune he had been holding, Gravity Control launching the Deathflame Seed back towards the mine as he changed that direction to ‘down’. Nate had expected to use the rune to buy them more time but the Seed of Eternity flipped in mid-air so that his feet now faced the cave entrance. Then purple flames launched from his feet and Nate sensed a Spell framework around the creature’s feet as the Seed of Eternity launched across the base of the mine like a rocket. Nate was caught unawares and tried to reinforce his barrier even as he began activating Conceptual Spatial Manipulation. Neither was enough, and only a sudden burst of speed, far beyond his capabilities, allowed him to dodge out of the way enough that the black tipped spear sheared through his right arm, carving it off at the elbow. 

If he hadn’t moved he knew that spear would’ve taken him in the chest. As he felt the remnants of soul energy from Kiri’s Skill leaving him, he sensed the first touch of Death in the remains of his arm. Then the pain hit and he screamed. Before he could react to the pain he was launched across the mine through the air like a meteor. His mind worked, separating to handle all the various problems. The first dealt with the pain, taking it upon itself to bear the brunt of the experience and he could faintly hear that part of his mind continue to scream. The second maintained his Gravity Control rune, manipulating it to prevent him from bodily impacting the mine wall. With his barrier now erased, that impact could do some serious damage to him. The third part was hard at work creating a new rune to protect the remains of his arm, as the Death Concept worked deeper into him, trying to find his heart or brain and end him. Destroying his very being. The Life and Barrier rune that enveloped the remains of his elbow kept it at bay for now, but the mana drain was constant. The final four were split between monitoring Kiri, Frick, the Seed of Eternity and finally activating Spatial Anchors to get his ship back.

Three of those focuses painted the picture of what had happened. It was Kiri who had launched Nate away, avoiding the second attack that would’ve killed him. That act had seen Kiri pierced and while he saw her reform, she was now on the run, unable to handle a third death. A final death. Frick was reaching through the barrier and was about to lay hands on the artifact. The Deathflame Seed was in hot pursuit of Kiri, but even with its Stat boosting Skill, its speed was slightly inferior to Kiri. Coupled with her teleporting, though she was doing so less and less, the Seed was unlikely to catch her.

As the flying ship appeared beneath his feet, Nate was forced to devote three of his mental focuses towards absorbing mana from gems within his spatial zone as the cost of the Life and Barrier rune was a constant along with powering the ship. Frick appeared a second later, a large dark blue shell in his hands.

“Got it, Boss! Holy shit, what the fuck happened?!”

Nate ignored the question, sweat pouring down him as a part of him continued to mentally scream from the pain of having skin, sinew, muscle and bone devoured slowly by small purple flames filled with Fire and Death. Instead he activated Conceptual Spatial Manipulation to reposition the sixteen rune cannons. He waited the one second it took Kiri to appear onboard before he activated all of them. The ground of the mine went up in his flames as Fire, Gravity, Earth and Metal bombs went off below.

The roar of pain and fury below told him the salvo had not been enough and a moment later he saw the Seed of Eternity, bleeding, with a broken arm hanging limply, launch from the dust of the explosion with purple flames enveloping its feet as it gave chase.

“Fly!” Nate yelled but Kiri was already at the helm, guiding the ship up and away. The speed was good, but definitely not enough as the Deathflame Seed rocketed after them with an angry glint in its eyes.

Nate moved to the poop deck, behind Kiri and sat down. The remnants of his arm still burned and Concept of Death hung about the extremity but it was contained for now, so long as he maintained the Life Barrier rune. But the Deathflame Seed was gaining on them. In another ten seconds he would be close enough to get on board. Frick was helpfully using Conceptual Spatial Manipulation to grab rune cannons and move them to the rear of the ship before binding them to the deck and launching salvos to try and slow the Seed down. Unfortunately, the blasts from the cannons were too easy to dodge at the current range and the Deathflame Seed continued to grow closer. So, Nate spun up yet another rune, bottoming out his mana as he channelled the Spatial Creation rune. It was ridiculously expensive, mostly due to the fact that the Create Sigil was only Novice-tier. But what it did was create more space between the rear of the ship and the Deathflame Seed. More distance that the creature needed to cover. Slowly the gap between them grew greater and greater before there was one final scream of rage, then space enveloped them.

Flying outside the other side of the portal a notification dinged in the corner of Nate’s vision.

You have completed a Dungeon challenge!
Dungeon: The Shattering of Halureth
Challenge: Face a True Seed of Eternity! (Defender)
Challenge Bonus: Custom Challenge with greater difficulty. Rewards doubled.

Challenge Rewards (Select One):
1. Equipment (Mythic)
2. Wealth (Mythic)
3. Power (Mythic)

One reward per recipient: Nathaniel Weber and Kiri Beaufoy.

Nate set that aside for a moment as he felt processed mana flow into him, this odd Dungeon’s reward for completing Challenges.

Accrued Mana applied to Tertiary Class.

Level up…
Level up…
Level up…

Stats adjusted: +3 Magic Power, +12 Magic Control, +6 Channelling Speed, +6 Mana Reserve, +3 Mana Absorption, +15 Free Stats

With a thought he dumped the Free Stats into Magic Power, since that Stat had begun to lag behind and he was happy with his Mana Absorption Stat for now. Then he collapsed on the deck, laying there in pain as he went over everything.

Kiri was beside him a moment later, “Are you alright?”

Nate did a more thorough assessment before answering.

“I’ll live. But regrowing my arm might take a little while,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “Though… Divine Energy might bridge the gap.”

“Do you want to spend it on that?” she asked.

Nate gave the question serious consideration. Kiri was right in that he probably didn’t need the arm immediately as he spun up his runes mentally. His Dexterity was probably high enough that he could paint with his left hand, though he might not be as good as usual. But that in and of itself offered a new experience. And he could save his Divine Energy for other things. Like creating a Divine Rune and Divine Item, or just for levelling.

“No, you’re right. I’ll hold off. Might give me some more experience with the Death Concept anyway. Something I am supposed to do, I guess.”

Nate had of course shared the details of his plans and Path with Kiri, including what The System had told him was necessary to achieve his goals. That brought him back to Kiri and he looked her over. She wasn’t mutilated like him, but she had clearly been badly burned and beaten. Though those wounds were gone from her flesh, the marks on her leather armour remained.

“How about you? You alright?” he asked.

“By the Nine Hells,” Kiri groused, standing up and pacing back and forth. “That’s the closest I have come to death in months. Multiple Soul Twins consumed with each death, and its aura made it almost impossible for me to approach. That was perfect! I just wish we could’ve won.”

She turned to look at him, the fire in her eyes dimming.

“But, what if it was right? It looked down on our Paths. Said they were incomplete or flawed. I have wondered about that myself…” she trailed off.

“I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Nate replied. “Your Path was enough to achieve Lesser Divine. As for my Path, the Seed of Eternity was right in a sense. The battlefield isn’t really where I want to be. I’ve just been pulled there.”

A glance at his sister's face made him smile and add, “And of course, I will always come to help you. Thanks for saving my life.”

“What are big sisters for?” smirked Kiri, punching him in the arm gently before her face transformed and she started apologising. Thankfully it hadn’t hurt him that much anyway.

Their banter was interrupted as another notification appeared before them.

You have completed a Dungeon.
Dungeon: The Shattering of Halureth
The Dungeon will cease to exist in two hours after which you will be ejected from the spatial pocket.
Countdown: 01:59:58

“Rewards then?” Nate suggested.

“Equipment for me,” Kiri replied as a new set of armour appeared at her feet, the leather black and white. Nate inspected her new armour.

Armour of the Shifting Soul Wisp (Mythic) (Growth)
Stats: +30 Agility, +15 Perception
Features: Soul Signature Storage (Mythic), Soul Camouflage (Mythic), Item Concealment (Mythic), Innate Repair (Mythic), Temperature Control (Mythic), Self-Cleaning (Mythic)

Soul Signature Storage: Store the soul energy signatures of up to Willpower / 200 individuals. Current storage space: 0/5 used.

Soul Camouflage: Soul Energy can be used to track and identify even the strongest practitioners. This item is Enchanted to allow the user to change the nature of soul energy that leaves their body. Expressed soul energy may take on the same nature as stored soul signatures.

Item Concealment: This Item is Enchanted to conceal its nature from identification. Powerful enough identification Skills will bypass this Enchantment.

Innate Repair: This item is Enchanted to repair itself over time using ambient mana. Feeding the Enchantment mana can accelerate this process.

Temperature Control: This item is Enchanted to protect against the basic elements and has built-in temperature controls.

Self-Cleaning: This item is Enchanted to clean itself, and to some extent, its wearer. This is not an excuse not to bathe.

“That’s an infiltration item if I have ever seen one,” Nate commented.

“Sure is,” Kiri agreed happily, holding up her new armour and running her fingers over its smooth surface. “What about you?”

Nate looked at the options and nodded, “Wealth.”

A moment later a small storage ring appeared on the ground. The ring itself was only Epic-tier, which left Nate concerned until he looked inside and saw the veritable sea of Mythic-tier paint waiting inside of it. He supposed that sometimes having The System read his thoughts wasn’t such a bad thing.