MM - Chapter 190 - WITH ALL HASTE

Raine’s mace crunched into a Fetch so hard its neck was pulverized right along with the vines and roots it used for a head. He jumped back, pulling the weapon free with a sickening squelch. A geyser of Primal Energy jettisoned from the fresh rupture in its torso. The golden liquid wasn’t technically blood, more akin to watered-down sap.

To Raine’s bloodlust, the spray of liquid was close enough to what he sought. His fresh perspective gave each kill new meaning, new purpose, and brought him one tiny step closer to understanding his ideal. He was no mindless reaper of lives, nor was his desire to kill fueled by righteousness. Fear, anger, or resentment held no place either.

Another swing, another Fetch dead, this one with a gaping hole the shape of a mace in its abdomen. The beast fell, nearly torn in half, its sap gushing onto the hard jungle soil. Raine turned on the last beast, pure, unmitigated desire fueling the Lunge that brought him before the monster. Its mouth was open, a Primal Energy-fueled roar on its lips. The Fetch discovered how hard it is to scream without a head.

Raine was already walking away as its body fell to its knees. He stared at the soaked head of his mace, bloodlust quivering with need.

That’s right. Desire. It can all be boiled down to that one word. I desire excellence, improvement, a future brighter than my past, a me better than yesterday’s me. To fulfil my desires, I kill. For with each death, my path forward gains resolve. If I stop, then all the deaths I’ve caused cease to hold meaning. I’ve taken so many lives. If I falter, it would be a betrayal to each and every one of them. But more than that, it would be a betrayal of my own desires.

A self-fulfilling prophecy of blood and death. Does that make me evil? On some level, surely. Does it matter? No... I won’t stop. Thankfully, a monster like me has plenty of killing to do in a world like this.

Raine tore through the jungle, rapidly returning to the fourth shrine where Selena waited. Her jaw tightened at the sight of him. There was not a speck of golden blood on his armor, nor did he appear disheveled or tired. Externally, nothing seemed to have changed, yet her instincts screamed something was different, more dangerous.

“Alaric?” She called softly while retreating a step, hand drifting toward a position that would ready her Lunge.

Raine found himself smiling. The thought of testing his new conviction against her Noble’s killing intent was thoroughly appetizing. As a noble Vaaterran, she was born with one. He’d yet to feel her use it, but knew she must be proficient with it if she was saving it as a last resort. Unfortunately, now would be a terrible time to coax it out of her.

“It’s time to go. Big guy’s only a quarter-knuckle away again.”

Selena relaxed a touch at the familiar words, nodding in agreement. She’d been growing anxious as the tremors increased in intensity. “Starting from the fifth shrine, they won’t be as simple to reach.”

“Figured as much,” Raine shrugged, “All the more reason to stay ahead.”

Seeing him heading for the clearing’s opposite edge, Selena called, “You haven’t rested at all. Do you not need a moment?”

Raine paused to open his senses to his real body. Not yet needing to take a piss, he shook his head. “Maybe at the next shrine.”

“As you say…” Selena mumbled, following behind at a jog that quickly turned to a halt as she dug her heels into the grass. 

Alaric stood still, head cocked at a sound she couldn’t hear. He glanced back in the direction of the boss, eyes wide with concern. Selena’s heart froze. Alaric had stood firm through the Morkits, soloing a higher-level noble, and even the administrators had nearly killed him. Yet now he showed fear.

Shit! That’s Morty’s proximity alarm. An assassin? If it takes me more than a couple minutes to deal with, the boss will catch up. Worst timing ever.

“Get on!” Raine’s stern shout coming out of nowhere caused Selena to flinch. When she didn’t immediately comply, he glared back at her, bloodlust coating the air. “Now!” She gulped and jumped onto his back. In the same instant that they collided, his arms wrapped around her knees, and they were off. “Hold your breath!”

Raine didn’t give further warning as his feet left the ground. A Lunge brought them over the canopy, where freezing cold winds whipped at them relentlessly. Grace of Nirvana, a hardened cone of Connection, and a full 20 Discipline per second turned their flight into something she could only have imagined in tales.

The tops of the trees were blown apart by their passing. Each step was fueled by another Lunge, and all the while, the wind cut Selena to the bone. Icicles formed across their bodies and armor, elongating behind them in flippant disregard for gravity’s designs. It was good Alaric warned her, the cold was many times worse than last time, and a single breath would have allowed the temperature to invade her core that much faster.

Grace of Nirvana only lasted 15 seconds, and Raine allowed them to crash back into the jungle the moment it ended. In that short time, they cleared just over 9 kilometers. Selena still hadn’t taken a breath. Her eyes were wide and completely frozen over by a layer of ice. If not for the Healing Burst Raine used on her at the halfway point, she may have died.

At his command, the Soul Flame of Amanesh wreathed them in angry fire that licked away at the long icicles. The ice clinging to his head was shattered with a punch. His health was in the orange as sweet, warm oxygen entered his lungs. A controlled chop shattered the ice covering Selena’s head as well. Her gasp was pitifully weak, body unable to even shiver under the thick layer constraining her.

Raine scooped her up and forced himself to keep running. Swapping to the Fraction of Purity for healing wasn’t an option. He needed the Fraction of Grace’s boosts to Acuity and Finesse. Time was the only enemy that mattered now. He flew over the terrain that had turned bumpy with depressed sections of ground like ripples frozen in time. The tiny, evenly spaced ruffles in the terrain would have been a nightmare to navigate on foot. 

Raine jumped from hill to hill, utilizing Lunge only when necessary. The seconds stretched into eternities, interspersed by grunts of effort and Selena’s groans. Each felt like another tick on a bomb waiting to explode. 

A kilometer later, Raine began spotting puddles in the low ground between each mound. It wasn’t long until those pools grew deep enough to wade through. The trees grew sparser, only sprouting from the tops of the hills, which drastically increased Raine’s speed. A choked cry from Selena had him stop atop the next hill.

Her teeth chattered, breaking up her words. “Light-ning. Wa-ter. Dan-ger.”

She must have a version of Elemental Sense. As far as ocular skills go, it's a good one.

“Understood.” Raine took off again, flames still working at thawing her out.

Within another ten Lunges, the puddles between hills were deep enough to nearly reach the summits, leaving them surrounded by water. Of course, jumping from one slice of land to the next wasn’t challenging enough for a Nightmare difficulty Mystic Realm. As Raine’s feet touched down on the next peak of dry ground, a group of five Fetches hiding beneath the water broke through the surface.

Thick water crackling with golden arcs of current clung to their viney forms as they threw balls of congealed liquid. It didn’t take a genius to know getting hit would be bad. Raine Lunged away, and a roar tore apart the air behind him. The balls of water exploded into localized storms of moisture. Between each drop of liquid, dangerous currents of Primal Energy raged. 

Before they landed on the next crest, a dozen more Fetches breached the water, each hucking another pair of Water Bombs. The explosions were only around 3 meters in diameter, but they came fast and from every direction. Each throw showcased the ancient beings’ martial expertise. Their aim was impeccable, easily a match for any of history’s top athletes. Attributes further boosted the speed of their bombs to the point they stretched across Selena’s vision.

Raine was forced to churn through Discipline at a prodigious rate, Lunging sometimes four times between each crest. There were no longer any areas of safety. Landing for even a second was a sure death. The Fetches' ambush was perfectly placed; hundreds of the beasts remained between them and the fifth shrine. It was within sight now, the last five hundred meters devoid of all but murky waters and the many ripples from monsters hiding beneath the surface.

“You’re up, princess!” Raine warned, Discipline running dangerously low.

Selena barely picked up her jaw enough to squeeze out a response. “What?!”

“Just like the Morkits.” Realization widened her eyes as Raine threw her in front.

“Noooo!” Selena screamed, terror mingling with the freezing cold still gripping her guts. Raine understood perfectly well what she wanted to say, and didn’t have the time to express. Just like his basic Lunge, her thrust required solid footing to activate. When the air beneath her heels suddenly turned thick enough to stand upon, her scream turned into a roar. A thin sword appeared in her hand, and Cannon Thrust formed a bullet-shaped dome of crimson energy around her.

Raine latched onto her waist, and they catapulted across water splitting from the force of their passing. Multiple Fetches were unfortunate enough to be in the way. Her skill blew off the tops of their bodies, draining their considerable life force to further empower itself. Flawed Conversion nearly bottomed out Raine’s Elemental and Demonic Power, giving him enough Discipline to repeatedly Lunge, shooting them forward fast enough to evade a barrage of Water Bombs.

Despite the cloying sickness ravaging his guts, Raine didn’t allow their momentum to peter out after Selena’s energy ran dry. Legs crammed full of nearly a hundred Discipline each smashed into thickened air in a monstrous Leap. They rocketed across the last hundred meters, crashing and rolling haphazardly across soft grass. A quick swap of fractions allowed Raine to heal his crimson-strobing health. The last of his Celestial Power was used to send a final Healing Burst Selena’s way. 

On Earth, the alarm announcing that his property had been breached rang loud and clear. The rest would have to be up to Selena. Raine was already accessing his interface and mentally jamming the logout button by the time they slid to a stop. “Emergency in my world. I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

“Wait!” Selena shouted, but she was too slow. As was the system message that sprang up at the bottom of Raine’s interface. His eyes didn’t have time to read its warning before his consciousness was yanked upwards along a road of shimmering stars.

[Logout error!]

[Due to interference from the Primal Realm, transportation to purgatory is sealed. Please ensure your Avatar is in a safe zone before attempting to log out]

Instead of vanishing as he normally would, Alaric fell limp, collapsing into the grass. The rest of Selena’s shouting never reached his ears. “Rahman is the Father of Death and Brother of Eternal Peace! We have to fight and spill blood on his shrine… or he won’t… protect us…”

Realizing he was really gone halfway through her desperate cry, Selena’s head fell, and tears stung her eyes. She was surrounded by hundreds, possibly thousands of beasts that she couldn't possibly defeat alone. Worse, they had ranged attacks that could easily reach her despite the monsters’ unwillingness to tread upon the shrine’s sacred grass. Most devastating of all, for the very first time in her life, no one was coming to save her.