III-64 Weapon

It is highly inappropriate to think of an Animancy Bomb as a weapon. It is not a weapon. It does not destroy. Quite Contrarily, it forces yo

It is highly inappropriate to think of an Animancy Bomb as a weapon. It is not a weapon. It does not destroy.

Quite Contrarily, it forces you to be remembered. It splays your narrative upon the system, fusing you with the Integration itself. Perhaps the best way to understand it is as a poorly told story, in which the first person bleeds into the third. With you being the first person and the system being the third. This is why most who are struck by the Animancy Bomb are actually immortal. Immortal in the worst possible sense. They cannot die. They will always remain, but pulled apart at their foundations.

Some report faint traces of blue staining reality afterward. It is less a form of mana and more a bruise, painting a new partially fused entity under the skin of existence.

And so, we use Animancy as a weapon. A feared weapon. These cores that my father has created are regarded as instruments of unparalleled destruction. There are treaties binding them from use, and the Faiths refuse to develop them further. But destruction was not what they were made for. They were made to change the system itself, to deliver a universal narrative—to bring an end to strife.

For if we are capable of deciding a narrative, of leaving wounds upon the system itself. For if it is possible to mix third with first then why not can we use first to usurp the third?

It is too late to turn away now. We have already stolen fire from the system. All that remains is choosing how we wish to burn.

-Udraal Thann’s Animancy Notes

III-64

Weapon

Shiv let everyone out of his cape, and Adam caught them up on what was going on.

Whisper responded in an instant. He ordered one of his fellow orcs to head across the dimensional pathway and make for the Tutorial. There, he was to inform their army about what was happening on the surface. That they were to scramble and push for Blackedge immediately.

Uva projected one of her strands and cast a thought into Shiv's mind. "Shiv, I need to borrow your dragon."

"Choki?" Shiv asked. "Sure, but why? What are you planning?"

"The sun is coming up, and I have yet to accommodate myself to surface sickness. The dragon suffers no such issues, and if I keep my mana strands tight within the confines of its mind, I should be able to avoid the Light Curse."

The idea of her entering the battle during daytime made Shiv uncomfortable, but a time dragon was a better vessel than most. "Alright, take the dragon, but make sure the curse doesn't affect you. If it does, head right back through the gate. Don’t burn for nothing.”

He wanted to say something more, but she sent a pulse of affection through his mind and he fell silent.

“Just be careful," Shiv said.

"As careful as I can be," Uva replied. She let out a quiet chuckle. "If you didn't want me to be in such grave danger all the time, then you shouldn't have made yourself so favored and contaminated me as well.”

"Yeah, the system and I are gonna have words about that sometime."

Uva promptly departed as well, leaving only Whisper, a few of his fellow orcs, Valor, Rose, Can Hu, and Adam nearby.

"Mother," Adam said to Rose, "I need you to stay here.”

"No. I need to be at Blackedge," she said. She cupped his cheek and stared into his eyes. "You are not telling me to stay here while everything is going to hell. I won’t listen. And you won’t tell me no.”

Adam swallowed, the wisest thing to do would be to confine her to Gate Piety, but before an onslaught of overwhelming emotions, wisdom had little hope to prevail.

"If you're going into this, you're sticking with me," Shiv said. "You're going to be with Valor inside my cape. That's about the safest place around," Adam winced at Shiv's statement, but didn’t dispute it. Shiv was at once the most likely to die in the coming fight, but considering that he wasn’t going to stay dead, her odds of survival were considerably higher with him than without. "Are you sure about this?"

"Fuck no, I'm not sure about this," Shiv shot back. He looked at Rose and shook his head, "you're not even an Initiate right now. If things go wrong—”

“I die," Rose cut him off with a scornful scoff. "I've been a Pathbearer longer than you've been alive. I've been a Pathbearer since I was barely a girl. I know the consequences of defeat. I have lived the consequences." Rose swallowed. Her expression turned sour. “And I would do it again, but I will not abandon my love or my people to fate while children suffer in my place. If there is anything I can do, or any difference I can make, I won't leave. I won't turn away. I won't."

Her eyes came aglow with a faint violet energy. She was caught sight of the diviner she used to be. The Pathbearer she used to be.

Shiv sighed. "Fine. But do not do anything stupid. I didn't shit you out of my soul just so that you could end up dying a pointless death."

"Don't be so cynical," humorlessly. "Dying pointless deaths aren't kind of what we Pathbearers do, Shiv." She popped her head and looked him up and down, "but you know that better than most of us. Or at least you should."

"Valor. Can Hu." Shiv called out.

"I will make sure Lady Van Erren remains unharmed," Valor said. "Additionally, I would request that you project your Psychomancy down into the Forest of Alloy. That way, I and Can Hu might be able to provide you with active assistance from the inside as well.”

“Sure,” Shiv said. “But things are probably goign to turn into a real shitshow pretty quick, so—”

“I just need a bit of context and an opening,” Valor said. “I intend to keep you spared from Necromancy if I can.”

As Rose, Can Hu, and Valor entered the Shiv’s cape again, the Deathless regarded Whisper.

"Think you can keep us from being noticed by the Vicar once we get up close?" Shiv asked. “Because I didn’t do so well myself last time.”

"I dare not promise the sky nor the heavens, but let's see how this goes," the orc replied with an excited twinkle in his eyes. If there was one good thing about the orcs, it was the fact that the bastards were unshakable. A sphere of Dimensionality expanded out from the orc, and it formed a protective veil shielding them from notice. Anyone staring in from the outside wouldn't see Whisper or anyone beside him. “Even so, I would assume that my Dimensionality will buy us a few moments at least.”

The orc drew his Stealth Skill back into his body.

“Alright. Very simple briefing,” Adam said, trying to keep his breath under control. "The Necrotechs unleashed a massive attack on Blackedge earlier, and while my father was occupied, something emerged from the Abyss, and now it’s hovering over Blackedge like a blade set to fall. The Necrotechs are charging it Necromantic mana, and it's building up with magic fast. We need to get in position. We need to, we need to—"

Shiv grabbed the Gate Lord by the shoulder and squeezed him gently. Trying to calm them down. "We'll figure this shit out. Like before. Like always.” The Deathless shrugged. "Maybe our tentative plan can be you firing an arrow at one of my Vitae Golems if everything goes to shit. That should obliterate all the Necros at least.”

“And us,” Adam rolled his eyes. "And have you forgotten how Sullain managed to secure your Vitae last time?"

“Yeah, but that was last time—and just one explosion. Let’s seem him deal with two at the same time. You shoot me right after. And if that doesn’t work, I make another golem, and you shoot it too.”

"Yeah, but that's just the thing, right? He had to secure it. It might be able to distract him for a few seconds, during which we launch several more golems at him. Maybe we can overwhelm him that way."

"Wouldn't that kill all of us and set fire to a good portion of the continent? And the Pacific?"

"Yeah, but that might kill Sullain too," Shiv said. "Which is one of our objectives. And I would come back to life afterward and receive a new juicy Legendary Skill, which is the most important thing.”

Against all odds, Adam laughed. He slammed a fist against Shiv's chest. "You're an impossible bastard, you know that?"

"Yeah, but who else is going to go on these suicide missions with you?"

"No one," Adam said. Then he paused for a beat. "I would have no one else, either."

And Shiv cleared his throat as the sentimentality caught him off guard. It didn’t even matter that the orcs were looking at him. 

The two Pathbearers stared at each other, prodigal sons of Blackedge, forced from one bad situation to another. And here they were, faced with another calamity, another mess, another moment of desperate gambles and incredible stakes. Despite everything riding on the line, Shiv felt happier than he ever did before. 

Because this was what it meant to be a Pathbearer. This was what it meant to walk against the world, to fight the storm—and prevail.

As soon as they departed the gate, blinding colors of faint blue pierced the periphery of Shiv's vision. Everything in the direction of Lost Angeles was enshrouded by the light of Animancy. Shiv could see pitch-black war clouds drifting above the ruins, their forms composed by smoke and rising death. The sky was no longer a canvas of black, rather a softer light was seeping into the firmament. Even so, falling arrows twinkled constantly in the backdrop, spearing down in as an unceasing meteor shower. 

As Roland's latest barrage landed, pillars of flame speared up into the air, splashing the world in additional columns of radiance. The ground shook, explosions rumbled in the distance, and the faint Animancy blue was only getting brighter.

Adam took aim in the direction of Lost Angeles as he prepared to release a Veilpiecer.

Shiv looked at him. "Aren't you afraid they'll spot us immediately? I thought we were moving under the cover of Whisper’s Dimensionality."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take," Adam replied. His eyes shifted between a brilliant dawn and the blue of a midday sky. He was searching for a place to plant his arrows. "Besides, they're all focused on Blackedge now. Every single Necrotech is surging toward the town. We should have an opening. I hope.”

“Then their backs are exposed," Whisper hummed. The other orcs unsheathed their daggers and shortswords excitedly. "Now is the time to slit and gouge."

Adam fired his shot. A dimensional rift opened before them, and the Gate Lord sped across immediately. Shiv accelerated behind him, and finally, Whisper and the other orcs followed along. There was a wild urgency to Adam's movements. All caution was thrown to the wind. As Shiv stared through their dimensional exit, he saw billowing waves of smoke and ash spilling into the pathway. 

The air stank of sulfur and heat, Shiv’s Vibrosense enchantment shuddered across his body. He could feel just how much force was being outputted on the other side. Just how many explosions were hammering Lost Angeles.

No matter what else Shiv had to say about Roland Arrow, the man was a true Patherbearer, a true warrior. Weeks of nigh-constant combat, and he was still a godsdamned monster—still smashing the Necrotechs and city flat.

Master my ass, Shiv thought to himself. The Town-Lord’s been a Legend in hiding this entire time.

Adam crossed through the gate first, and immediately he grew six sets of Hydrokinetic arms out from his body. He fired a barrage of arrows all around him, forming a wall of rifts to shroud everyone from harm. At the same time, he swung his rapier. It flashed time and again, and a small army of clones joined the group. They began firing their arrows too. As they did, Adam pulled out his Hydromantic wand and used it for the first time.

A massive sphere of water exploded out from him. It splashed through Shiv and the orcs without imparting any force on them. As the water folded over them harmlessly, they exploded through each of the dimensional pathways, like the bottom of an exploding ocean channeled across a dozen narrow tunnels. Before Shiv could understand what Adam was doing, the Gate Lord fired another dimensional pathway right at his feet, and a new exit revealed itself.

"Across, now," Adam said. "Shiv, you're on point. We keep moving. We never stay in one place.”

Shiv didn't ask questionis. He fought with Adam long enough to trust the Gate Lord's instincts. He accelerated across as his inertial sheath thundered. Adam tipped pace behind him. He had six Veilpiercers nocked already. And with the final water-forged hand, he summoned more and more clones, filling the space behidn him.

"When we get across to the other side," Adam called out, "we need to destroy the Necrotech projectors powering the weapon. You can’t miss it once you’re high enough in the air. Just follow the beams of corrosive mana back to the launch sites. Ignore the artillery. There are already orcs fighting here. They've been silencing outposts and assassinating enemy elites, but we’re going to need more of them to do any actual damage to the Vicar’s army." 

The exit was fast approaching, Adam grimaced. "And then we need to figure how to deal with Sullain himself.”

"Well, if we distract him long enough, maybe the Inquisition will handle him for us,” Shiv replied.

Adam's shot a look at Shiv. "And how long will it take for them to arrive?”

“Soon. I think.” Shiv was pretty sure they were coming—that they didn’t want to see Blackedge and especially Starhawk’s Perch destroyed or taken.

“You think,” Adam muttered. “Gods help us.”

“Afraid they’re actually the enemy, Adam. We’re on our own.”

Then, they were through the exit, and Shiv found himself blasting up into the air.

As he climbed high, he took in the ruins of the surrounding megacity. Kilometers of urban architecture were missing on all sides. Sections of Lost Angeles were pockmarked in deep trenches of glass, wounds scarred deep into the land by Roland's arrows.

Shiv looked around, trying to find Blackedge, and a flash of searing green led him to what he sought. High up in the air, something immense hung just above Blackedge. It was practically twice the size of the entire town, and Shiv suspected if it fell when the town’s wards were down, it might just knock Blackedge out of the sky.

As the first rays of sunlight began spilling over the curve of the horizon, the weapon’s shadow spilled down upon the ruined megacity. It was shaped like an inverted anvil, and beams of Necromancy were being channeled into from across the city. Eerie, green colored circles were filling along the weapon’s spine. There were ten of these concentric windows in total, and right now, the first window was glowing with a radiant orb of Animancy while the six after it were already infused with Necromancy. Shiv assumed once the remaining three windows were filled, the weapon would unleash its power on Blackedge, and all would be for naught.

But that wasn’t the only issue. From all across the city, the Necrotechs were firing beams of corrosive mana up into the air. It wasn’t just to charge their weapon, but also to box Blackedge in. A Necromantic barrier walled the city off from the rest of the world, like a cage holding prisoners. A similar cage was fused over the weapon, and even as Roland’s arrows splashed against the weapon, the explosions were blunted by the withering effect of Necromancy—and what little got through were consumed by the faint blue of Animancy.

“Quite a strange way to use a corrosion screen,” Valor said, studying the scene through Shiv’s eyes. “The amount of mana this must cost to shroud both the town and the weapon is astronomical. It would just be better if they formed a curved dome in the sky for the arrows. Ah. Sullain was never a good strategist.”

“Yeah, well, thank the system for small mercies, because he has a big felling weapon on his side,” Shiv replied. Still. Something about Valor’s apprehension had Shiv feeling a little paranoid as well. Shiv followed one of the beams back to its firing position nearby.

Less than 500 meters away, Shiv caught sight of a still-standing section of a freeway. On top of it was a Necrotech artillery unit. There were sixty figures standing atop the bridge, and most of them were magi—Necromancers, specifically. They channeled their corrosive mana together, forming massive spikes of Necromancy that they loaded into strange, ringed launchers. 

Their artillery platforms resembled four-legged insects with a series of U-shaped arches traveling along its body, rather than an actual carapace. Pulsing tunnels of dimensionality were channeled out from the corrosion screen, and the Necromantic spikes were loaded in. The arches tugged on the corrosive constructs and shaped them into long, narrow beams that surged forward.

Just as Shiv prepared to launch himself at the enemy, something moved in the corner of his eye. His head snapped down at an angle, and he discovered what Adam was doing earlier with his Hydromancy wand. A few hundred Veilpiercers punctured the flesh of existence and returned to reality from all the directions. From the dimensional pathways they left open followed jets of hyper-pressurized water. They cleaved out as slashing geysers, moving so fast that some of the liquid turned to steam. 

They split through the bases of already compromised structures. The Necromancer artillerists on the bridge Shiv was looking fell along with their crumbling edifice, and all across the city more jets of water speared out. Buildings were hewed and toppled like a forest of trees greeted with a tide of axes. Foundations of water exploded up into the air, unmaking several buildings from the inside. It was like an ocean was trying to erupt from just beneath Lost Angeles.

And then, the signs of return fire greeted Shiv. A fist of flame exploded a hundred meters away from him. He punched its unfurling blast and spared himself from the swelling heat. Nearby, Adam's clones bust into existence, firing their Veilpiercers before vanishing from existence. More of Roland’s arrows kissed the ground and shattered the earth. Blinding blasts cleaved the land asunder, but Shiv spiked down to avoid a salvo of corrosive missiles that came seeking his death.

Chaos erupted all around him. Shiv tried to find a trace of the original Adam or one of the orcs—

Inertial Overdrive 118 > 119

Through a dense wall of haze came a flicker of light, instinct spared Shiv from harm. He swung his mage breaker right as a beam crashed toward him. A forking bolt of electricity infused with the foul miasma of Necromancy struck his hand, but his Magebreaker rejected it, and his Frictionless Vector sent it spearing into the earth instead.

Frictionless Vector 69 > 70

He activated his Outside Context Problem, froze time, and threw his dagger in the direction of his enemy. He teleported to his blade and tried to track where his enemy was, but he found himself drenched in a veil of smoke. And it was magical smoke at that. It was thick and dense and Shiv couldn’t see shit.

Yet, he still felt a feeling of static in the air. More importantly, he had a sense of improved smell. He let his Pheromonic Cipher guide him where his sight failed.

Awareness 42 > 43

He spiked himself 40 times in quick succession, drawing closer and closer to his target. Holes disintegrated before him. He hammered through magical wards as well. Finally, when he could practically taste the Necrotech upon his tongue, he discharged all the inertia he had been building up and an explosion ripped out from his body. His Voidmantid armor suffered some damage, but then he reverted time back two seconds. Shiv’s armor returned to a relatively healthy state.

As Shiv prepared to reorient himself and find Adam or a corrosion screen to attack, a series of clenching pressures gripped his body and stole away his attention. Someone was teleporting near him. Three massive cylinders burst out from billowing clouds of Dimensionality nearby. They rippled with oscillations of golden mana, and their shapes began to fissure apart as the magic contained within began to spear out in curving streams of light.

Shiv's eyes widened as he guessed what they were.  Are those Chronomancy bombs?

He got his confirmation when they went off. Three waves of gold came at him. Shiv parried one of the explosions, but his Magebreaker rattled violently from the effort—and there was so much force behind the bomb that Shiv was launched back. The other two blasts ended up smashing into him while he was reeling. The first left a deep slash along his temporal shell. The second broke it apart.

Gravitic Wrestler 148 > 149

Strider of the Unbending Path 139 > 140

But even so, his Chronomancy field didn't fully break.

Not until someone struck him in the back of the head.

Shiv's golden mana burst apart across his body, and when coherence returned him, he realized he was dead.

Strider of the Unbending Path 140 > 144

Gravitic Wrestler 149 > 152

Inertial Overdrive 119 > 121

Frictionless Vector 70 > 76

The Deathless materialized over his body as a shroud of shifting Vitae. He watched as his corpse dangled in the air, impaled through the back of the head by a crystalline greatsword. Behind him, a Pathbearer clad in golden skeletal armor and sporting twelve mechanical wings from their spine bore the weight of Shiv’s body with one hand. The enemy thrust harder, driving their thin greatsword deeper through Shiv’s left eye. Coldness washed through Shiv as he sobered.

It had been a while since he experienced such a sudden death.

Just because he was a Hero didn’t make him invincible. Not even close. A single moment of distraction cost him everything. Can’t hesitate anymore. All they need is a single mistake to end me.

And where his failure was being stunned by their fast response, the enemy betrayed themselves with their inattentiveness, failing to notice the sprawling mass of Vitae hovering in the air nearby. Shiv acted, wrapping his Vitae around the enemy, sapping their vitality from them as he used one of his strands to plunge his still-bound Skysplitter into the base against their neck. 

The enemy cried out, but their voice wasn't human at all. Rather, it came with the crackle of mechanical distortion, and sparks filled the air rather than blood. Shiv wasn't just fighting a Necrotech, he was fighting a Necrotech bot. Their armor exploded with golden mana, and suddenly Shiv lost track of them again. The feeling of losing an entire section of his own history was uncanny and terrifying. He remembered the first time he faced the Recollector. A coldness swelled through Shiv’s soul as he realized something had cleaved through half of his Vitae retroactively. Broken parts of his red and white mana were bleeding off into the air, evaporating as they had been severed from his body.

Another hit slammed down upon him. Shiv plunged through the air—barely a sinew left of his sprawling mass of Vitae, he felt the chill of true death lick at his core. Anger detonated inside him. He tried activating his Strider of the Unbending Path again, but his temporal shell was still broken. There was less than a sliver of his being left. He fed his anger into his Inertial Overdrive.

And it was barely enough to spare his life.

A thin greatsword slashed down a centimeter next to the last string of Shiv’s existence. The enemy Pathbearer hadn’t realized they missed, and they were unprepared when Shiv speared himself right into their neck. A scream of compromised metal filled the air, and the Deathless began to wriggle his way into the automaton’s sparking wound, draining vitality while ripping through wires and critical mechanisms within the bot’s neck.

Once more, a golden aura surged out from the enemy’s body, but then was interrupted as Shiv heard a pitched frequency squeal out from somewhere. He remembered hearing that frequency someplace before, and he followed the frequency back to its point of origin. There was a cape attached to the final string of his existence—a cape, a blade, a gauntlet, and the faint-shape of his Voidmantid armor. They were all being dragged along by his Vitae, and from within the cape, Can Hu was unleashing his Binaric Sovereign skill against the enemy automaton.

Gods, I love you Penitent, Shiv praised.

The enemy Chronomancy shrieked as they tried to regain control over themselves, but their body went haywire; they were lost to themselves. Shiv's Vitae swelled as he suckled life force out of the bot like a leech. He felt his enemy writhe, blindly slashing at him with their blade. A few times, they chipped off parts of his reforming personhood. But whatever Can Hu was doing, it was badly affecting their coherence.

Then, both Shiv and the Necrotech automaton crashed down against the ground. The bot went stiff. Shiv shot forward, tearing clean through his enemy’s neck. The automaton stilled as its head rolled off to the side. Shiv rose from their corpse, half-filled with Vitae but nowhere near a true resurrection yet. He was a half-formed mess of red and white, shaped only to resemble his original self in terms of outline. Just then, his old corpse struck the ground nearby, and Shiv seized his body before chucking it elsewhere, hoping to confuse his foes.

This proved to be a wise maneuver, as a barrage of corrosive spells turned his corpse into a smoldering patch of nothing a half-second later.

Deception 23 > 24

The dense veil of smoke was only growing thicker. Shiv could hear fighting everywhere, could see faint shapes moving beyond the shroud. He needed to figure out where to go and finish his resurrection.

Good thing I don't constantly lose vitality every passing second anymore, Shiv thought to himself. And then, as he searched for new prey, he noticed that faint sheen of red lining everything. That faint sheen of vitality stabilizes existence as well. He recalled how draining that caused parts of the world to rupture, created mana instability. 

And suddenly Shiv had an idea, well, something that was like an idea. It was more of a vague plan, frankly. But if he could drain enough, if he could cause a mana storm to take shape, could he use that against the vicar and the inquisition when they arrived?

Regardless of that, I can do one thing with it, cause some chaos. And Shiv immediately began sapping from the world itself.

Everything went to hell in an instant. The parts he drained were open, like skin licked away to reveal flesh and bone. Chaotic expressions of mana spilled over into the world. A storm splashed across the ground, contained with an oozing membrane, rimmed with clouds. Fire billowed out from other ruptures, and a rain of heavy crystalline stalagmites descended upon the land like falling hail. Screams and cries of terror sounded all around as the ruptures connected to each other and a chaotic vortex poured through, ripping its way across the world.

Shit, I hope this doesn’t bite me in the ass in a minute.

Vitaemancy 70 > 71

As soon as he finished that thought, he resurrected and immediately suffered the consequences of his own action. An explosion of Dynmancy ballooned out from behind him. It smashed him through building after building before it dragged him along the ground. His armor screamed in protest. He could feel parts of it breaking, and he bit back a growl of misery as pain filled his body. One downside for being sensory-bonded to your armor through a network of mycelia, everything that broke it hurt you. 

But Shiv was fine with pain. Pain was just a feeling.

He pulled high on his gravitic field and shot up into the air once more. He slammed his fist together and discharged his sheath. The fog didn’t clear, but he did catch sight of a corrosion screen nearby. It pulsated with an unceasing glow of green, and Shiv activated his Chameleon, Creeping Void, and Minor Illusion abilities in tandem and as he cast himself at the enemy.

They weren’t prepared for him. He sent his twelve mana hydras spearing ahead as he tore into the enemy with steel and spell. His Aegis of Assimilation shattered resistances and supped the flesh out of armor. The ones that survived Shiv’s Biomancy were then greeted by a magnified Skysplitter. His blade turned the Necrotechs into puffs of red and spraying pieces of sparking metal. He dragged his dagger across the ground and detonated his sheath as he passed over the corrosion screen artillery platform. It broke apart in pieces as Shiv lobbed himself higher into the air.

One down. A shit-ton to go.

He followed his sense of smell again. Spells tore through the air—but they came nowhere near hitting him. His Creeping Void and other stealth supplements were serving their purpose.

The Creeping Void 113 > 114

Just then, he passed through the dense haze of magical smoke and found himself just a kilometer or so away from Blackedge. He realized he could easily reach the town with his Biomancy field now if he so desired. And that made things simpler when he saw a twenty or so beams of Necromancy projecting beams of corrosive mana up into the air. They were all spread apart, but Shiv didn’t need to attack them in person. Instead, he struck out with his biokinetic hydras. He attacked with one hydra after another as they all shared the same field, but it extended from his person with ease.

Blasts of red blossomed across the ruins of Lost Angeles. Shiv assimilated every piece of organic architecture he could. What he couldn’t break, he struck and smashed using a newly forged chain of cancer flails. A nightmarish cord of tissue curved and then ripped through buildings and people alike. Entire blocks collapsed as Shiv swung his kilometer long flail left and right, scythe across Lost Angeles and silencing Necrotech projection sites one after another.

He spiked the heavy end of his flail down on the ground over and over as it traveled. Shockwaves spread in increments as blocks crumbled into the soil. A beam of Necromancy tore through the air, trying to sever the leash connecting him to his cancer flail. Shiv simply assimilated the biomass in an instant, converting the flail into a spell rendering. The beam missed. He threw his blade and teleported. 

After he repositioned himself, he resumed his reign of terror, swinging his flail across the land.

Well, this is pretty fun.

His magic only got stronger when chains of fear speared through his person from all across the world. They knew he was here now, and the survivors were terrified. Good. It was only going to get worse.

Aegis of Assimilation 105 > 106

Shape of Monstrosity 107 > 108

A team of Necrotech Pathbearers dove into Shiv’s Creeping Void. They launched a barrage of explosive spells that shook the world. He passed through the attack with a pulse of Outside Context Problem.

Outside Context Problem 64 > 65

Shiv rematerialized as he swung an extended cord of cancerous flesh against their bodies. Arms and legs snapped. Magical Resistances shattered, exposing vulnerable flesh. And the cancer flail only grew.

Whip Proficiency 10 > 12

The Deathless searched the land for more launch sites, another flash made him look to his left. A single corrosion screen projector remained there. Shiv detonated his sheathe and spiked himself in a new direction. But before he got there, a tide of arrows tore back into reality and utterly annihilated the launch site. 

“And I believe we have found Adam again,” Valor commented. “Nicely done so far, Shiv. You have a knack for chaos and creativity.”

“Thanks. Got put down once. Any suggestions.”

“Stay on the offensive. Always. Keep moving. Never stick the same pattern.”

“Be more chaotic. Got it. Just need to find Adam first and I—”

A dimensional rift opened beside Shiv, and Adam blasted out into the Deathless’s Creeping Void, firing arrow after arrow. A small army of clones followed thereafter, unleashing their own barrages. The Gate Lord’s arrows impacted threats Shiv could see, and even more he couldn't. And when his arrows hit, they multiplied and became two, before doubling more as they sought out new targets. Soon a little swarm of arrows was pouring all across the city. 

Adam was turning into a regular menace for enemy armies.

Shiv cast his Psychomancy into Adam’s mind and called out to him. “Fancy running into you here.”

“Not really,” Adam said. His eyes were aglow with Divination mana, and he continued firing even through Shiv’s dense mess of miasmic darkness. “I waited for you to inflict mass destruction on the city and found you by sound thereafter. Your Gravitic Wrestler thunders through the air every time you use it.”

“Huh. Good to know. I was hunting some Necrotechs earlier by smell. I think I got all the launch sites nearby here.”

“Good. Because they only need to fill two more circles before the weapon fires.”

Shiv’s stomach plunged. “Alright. Let’s go find some more projectors, then.” 

Then, Shiv’s Chronomancy shuddered, and he triggered his temporal shell on instinct. It manifested over his body, and just then, a wing of time dragons plunged down from high above. They were already firing their Necromantic projectors into the Creeping Void. And with time frozen, none of the young lord's clones had faded yet. Several of the beams were on track to hit one of Adam’s clones.

Shiv's mind went blank. Killing a single time dragon in around ten seconds was a considerable feat, and there was no way he could cut down an entire wing while trying to keep Adam alive—Wait, he didn't need to kill the dragons, he just needed to move Adam out of harm's way. Him and all his clone—

And then all of Adam’s clones fired at the dragons before fading. Shiv's eyes widened, and he noticed how each of the clones vibrated with faint traces of gold in the air. Right, they have Chronomancy too. They were spawned from my kukri as well. They have that skill.

That made things simpler for Shiv. He grabbed the original Adam and spiked them both through the nearest dimensional pathway he could get to. At the same time, he swung a mana hydra high up into the air and materialized his cancer flail once again. A mana explosion ballooned out as the head dragon was twice impacted. Shiv felt its Magical Resistance crack—along with a section of its ribs, as he whipped the end of his flail into the monster even harder.

Before the other dragons could respond, Shiv assimilated his flail again and pulled his Biomancy back around himself. Twelve hydras coiled around him and Adam as they shot through a dimensional pathway.

He had been too passive with his Biomancy before. He treated spellcasting as if it was separate from his physical attacks—but his Aegis of Assimilation was capable of more than just a few tricks. Like letting me aim and strike with my flail kilometers away. “Knife-fighting range” for me isn’t quite the same anymore.

Shiv's dismissed his Chronomancy to preserve his temporal armor. He heard Adam gasp and turn. “What just—where are we going?”

"The way you came. We got jumped by some time dragons. Decided not to stay in place and fight with the projectors gone in the area.”

"What?" Adam choked out. "No, no, go back the other way."

"Other way is time dragons, Adam."

"Well the way I came from is has a group of Invisible Vanguards I can't seem to damage at all."

A feral grin spread across Shiv’s face. “Invisible Vanguards, huh? Yeah, sounds fun.”

“You’re stark-raving mad, you bastard,” Adam breathed.

Shiv used his Biomancy to channel a dose of basilisk venom into his flesh. His body expanded. His bones grew longer, his muscles became larger; denser. Shiv’s Voidmantid armor grew along with him—a benefit of being an actual piece of bonded equipment rather than just mundane armor, he suspected.

As they traveled across the pathway, Shiv began shaping a Vitae Golem. It wasn't going to have enough time to give it four Animated Skill Infusions, so it was going to do without Drain Vitality.

"Shiv, listen," Valor said, "the sun will be up soon. You can move in the open. The Necrotechs. Destroy the architecture. You do not need to kill every last Necromancer or artillerist. Let the light work for you.”

“Got it, Valor,” Shiv replied. He cast the same details at Adam as he infusing his golem with the infusions.

Multi-Tasking 19 > 20

“Destory all the architecture,” Adam breathed. “That’s not bad. It makes things easier. I’ll focus on that.” The exit drew closer. The Gate Lord started summoning more clones and lifted his wand high. A thick wall of ocean-blue condensed from the air before them.

Shiv’s golem hovered by his side and they both stared at Adam. "The hells are you doing now?"

"Just watch," Adam said. And then he unleashed the water building around them. It exploded outward like a tsunami packed in too tight. It impacted ten invisible Pathbearers, and they were launched free from the exit. Shiv and Adam and all his clones followed thereafter. 

Shiv commanded his golem to accelerate to spike itself, discharge, and revert time until it had no vitality left. and detonate in the face of any enemy and to loop back over and over again until its vitality was spent. 

It obeyed. It shot past him, following the wave of crushing water. And it was a good thing too as, the tidal wave Adam cast out was suddenly stopped dead by a countering field of Hydromancy.

Through the water, a new Pathbearer emerged. They wore an armored dress and had tentacles in place of arms and each of their limbs was a whip, and the sheer amount of Hydromancy radiating out of them was staggering. Their mana rippled out like massive tsunamis as well. Shiv was facing a Heroic-Tier Hydromancer.

Unfortunately for the Heroic-Tier Hydromancer, they were about to be intercepted by a Vitae Golem. The golem impacted them and detonated several in quick succession. The Hydromancer was blasted back—and they tried to stop themselves from being launched back some more by shaping walls of water to slow their movements. That was interrupted as a few hundred Veilpiercers crashed into them right after. 

The Vitae Golem tackled the Hydromancer again, and it drove the enemy through Adam’s oceanic barricade. Once more, the stilled-tidal wave started moving, and it erupted out of the exit.

Suddenly the path was open, there was no one blocking their way. Shiv shot through first, Adam followed right after with his clones trailing just behind. The world was alight with fire, and the scent of burning flesh and melting concrete made Shiv gag. More of Roland’s arrows descended. They impacted places kilometers away, but towers of fire rose high into the air—towers that unleashed shockwaves that battered Shiv and Adam, even from so far away.

Yet the flames spilling out of the infernal towers did not spread naturally. The expanding blasts curved unnaturally to avoid Adam and Shiv. The Deathless scoffed in abject disbelief; the sheer amount of control Roland Arrow had was staggering. 

Adam began firing his arrows, his clones followed suit, Shiv didn't know what he was shooting at, but a moment later, but a second later, two figures appeared right next to them with a shower of sparks. Adam’s Veilpiercers bounced off their adamantine armors, and they came for the Gate Lord. One bore a gravity-infused axe while the other had a hammer shaped from crackling lightning.

Shiv intercepted the axe-bearer with a dozen spikes of his gravitic field. He seized them by the throat and thrust his blade into their gut. A shockwave burst between them, but aside from making his enemy grunt once, Shiv inflicted little harm, even with Deepest Edge. At the same time, he directed his Biomancy field out to strike at the hammer-user. His mana hydra coiled through the air, and Shiv’s cancer flail manifested once more.

The enemy wasn’t prepared for the Aegis of Assimilation. They were even less ready for the massive ball of teratoma and festering flesh that flattened them in mid-air as they got within two meters of Adam. The hammer-user’s Magical Resistance cracked slightly under the first blow and then shattered entirely as Adam channeled a stream of crushing Hydromancy from the tip of his wound into their skull.

Shiv didn't even give them a chance to fight back. They died with a fading scream on their lips as they were assimilated into his aegis, melting into his flail.

Their armor fell a moment after, hollow within.

Aegis of Assimilation 106 > 107

The axe-bearer headbutted Shiv. His helmet cracked. The Deathless headbutted them back. Their helmet cracked. Shiv tried to stab them with his Skysplitter again, but the enemy dropped their axe to seize Shiv by the wrist. 

They were equal in terms of Toughness, but Shiv gritted his teeth as he realized his adversary had the edge in Physicality—even with Shiv’s Plagueled boosting him. The axe-bearing Necrotech twisted Shiv's right arm back slightly. This annoyed Shiv enough that he immediately started fighting dirty. He wrapped his Biomancy around the Pathbearer he was wrestling and tightened his flail around their body. He felt his Biomancy bounce off their Magical Resistance, but that didn’t stop him from coating them in a thick ball of cancerous tissue—tissue harvested in part from their friend.

The axe-bearer cried out in alarm as fetid bursts of flesh were ejected out from Shiv’s flail. It coated their body, and they tried to shrug it off. This stunned them long enough for Shiv to knee them in the groin. 

The axe-bearer gagged. Shiv gripped their waist and pile-drivered them down into the ground. They blasted through the air for a good hundred meters as Shiv discharged agaisnt them over and over. At the same time, he battered them with his flail and Biomancy. They were coated in a thick layer of flesh—and partially fused with his flail at that. Shiv shot back up into the air and started swinging his enemy about. He used the axe-bearer as a club to smash through the tops of buildings, extending them further using his Biomancy as he ripped the roofs of buildings and toppled bridges.

The sun rose. It loomed ominously over the weapon. Shiv cast out tendrils of Vitae to drain from the axe-bearer as he continued using them as a club to remodel his surroundings.

Whip Proficiency 12 > 13

Multi-Tasking 20 > 21

Just then, Shiv noticed someone coming up from behind Adam. He cheated the inertia of his flail by assimilating it as he cast his Biomancy in a new direction. The mana hydra impacted the bastard trying to slit Adam’s throat—and Shiv materialized his flail once more. A mana explosion sent the Gate Lord stumbling forward—but he blinked away in a flash of gold, jumping briefly to where once of his clones were.

A second later, the Pathbearer caked against Shiv’s flail was degloved from behind by a rain of dimensional arrows.

Skill Gained: Physics 1 (Common)

Adam blinked back in place—and something hit him in the shoulder. The Gate Lord roared in pain as his left arm was dislocated. Shiv directed his hydra through Adam and consumed his wound. A crystallized injury filled Shiv’s Biomancy field as he swung his flail in the direction of the projectile that just hit Adam. A group of unseen foes were clipped along the way, ripped out from seeming non-existence, cloth lined by Shiv’s extended Biomancy.

Adam gestured with his wand again, a spell exploded out from its tip. Suddenly a swell of water exploded out from Adam in all directions. It parted around Shiv and pushed a small army of enemy Pathbearers and projectiles away. However, after it expanded to two hundred meters, it stopped and continued no further. Spells, arrows, and pathways plunged in from all sides, but they were held at bay by the dense wall of water, protecting Shiv and Adam. At the core, Shiv found himself with a moment to breathe.

"These assholes are coming from godsdamn everywhere,” Shiv said, assimilating his flail.

“I told you I didn't want to go this way," Adam snapped. He fired two more arrows, but then tackled Shiv out of the way as unseen enemies immediately began firing back through his rift. 

Whips of necromancy missed them by the barest of inches.

Inertial Overdrive 121 > 122

Adam responded by activating his Vambrace. A ball of swirling dimensionality danced atop his hand, and it was immediately consumed by corrosion thereafter. He projected the Necromancy into his dimensional pathways, and they lit up with that eerie green glow. From within the pathways came a series of ear-piercing screams. 

The Necrotechs on the other side were receiving a taste of their own preferred magic, but Shiv and Adam were still getting boxed in.

"Got any ideas," Shiv said, "because I think we can't stay here much longer."

And as soon as he said that, he felt a wave of Hydromancy spear through Adam’s watery barrier. Through the cleft came the Hydromancer of Shiv's golem had tackled earlier. She lashed out with her whips, and Shiv halted the blows before they could strike Adam's. He swung out with his flail, smashing into her whips—only to find her tendrils shape enough to cut clean through the tissues sustaining his flail.

He assimilated his flail and adapted. He shaped it into a dense, cancerous shield before him. This time, the whips were slowed.

But not stopped.

Holes emerged from the cancer shield. But Shiv parried each of the whips with a swipe of his Skysplitter. They were deflected downward—but new breaches shot out from them, striking him in his throat and left eye respectively. Shiv felt his eyeball burst inside his socket. He snarled with annoyance more than pain—but that turned to a gurgle as the enemy managed to slit his throat open as well. Then, a dryness spread through his body. The enemy Hydromancer was ripping the moisture out of his flesh.

Shiv pitted his feeble Hydromancy against his foe, but it wasn’t enough. Its field tore in half immediately—but it still gave him long enough to recover. Shiv smashed through the whips with his Magebreaker. The whips shattered. His gauntlet sang with a screaming pitch. Shiv fed his new wounds into his aegis and started his Song of the Vigilant.

Aegis of Assimilation 107 > 109

Adam responded thereafter. The Gate Lord fired an arrow. It emerged from a rift and crashed against the Hydromancer's head just as she rose above Shiv’s cancer-shield. The Deathless lashed out at her with Vitae, Biomancy, and a growing Skysplitter. The enemy Pathbearer turned into spray of water and avoided each of his strikes. 

Their presence grew so faint that Shiv lost track of them. 

But Adam didn’t. The Gate Lord drew back on his Spellstring and a surge of Hydromancy infused his newest Veilpiercer as he let it fly. He struck the Hydromancer again, and they went tumbling back into existence. The Deathless allowed up. 

He activated Outside Context Problem and accelerated forward. They didn't see him coming—they had no chance to see him. Not until he drove both his thumbs through their eyes. The Hydromancer screamed, Shiv twisted their neck back, ending his enemy's cry with a sickening snap. Just to be sure, he swung his Skysplitter across their head, beheading them. He then assimilated their head with his Biomancy.

The cancer flail must be fed, Shiv joked with himself.

Outside Context Problem 65 > 66

The victory was short-lived as he felt his Chronomancy shudder once more.

"I can't shake these bastard dragons," Shiv snarled. “Adam. Chronomancers. Get in my cape.”

The Gate Lord said nothing as waved his wand, and he too turned into water. He splashed down into Shiv's cape, and the Deathless blinked. Huh. Effective.

Shiv manifested his temporal shell. Time stopped. And he felt the turbulence pressing against his Chronomancy field grow stronger. He followed that sensation and looked upward. He saw six time dragons coming right at him, bathed by the light of the rising dawn. 

Then, he felt another pulse of resonance pass over his field. And then there was a seventh dragon coming in at a higher angle. 

Great. The more the merrier. Shiv triggered Outside Context Problem immediately, and he felt the coldness lick his core again. Not going to be able to sustain this for long. He accelerated through Adam’s oceanic barrier and climbed higher. He faced the dragons with Skysplitter in hand and Biomancy lashing out. 

Shiv eyed his adversaries, trying to come up with a strategy to eliminate them in one fell swoop. Whatever he did, he needed to disable their Necromancy projectors on their backs. He couldn’t risk getting hit by that.

Just then, he saw the seventh dragon dip low. Shiv frowned and used his Compound Ocular Network to zoom in on the stray monster. He saw that it didn’t have a barding, nor any weapons on its back. And then, he noticed how it was looking directly at where he used to be.

Wait? Uva? His frown turned to a wide smile. Oh, these poor bastards aren’t going to know what hit them.

Uva plunged, aiming at the rear of the time dragon attack wing. Shiv timed his own attack in accordance. He cast his mana hydra out and made a question mark around the dragons. He manifested his flail once more and swept it over the wing. Bursts of crimson mana spilled through the air, enveloping everything. Shiv’s cancer flail tangled wings and caused the time dragons to tumble through the air. Chaos swept through their ranks, Shiv spiked himself blade-first into the head off the first dragon. He stabbed the monster in the eye, but the dragon let out a roar, and his blow bounced off. 

Adamantine Adaption, Shiv snarled internally. Son of a bitch.

He was beginning to realize how annoying it was to fight someone like him.

As he exploded out from his Outside Context state, the other dragons were too disoriented to respond immediately. Their disorientation only grew when Uva slammed into one of them from the back. She bit down on the other dragon's throat and began to tear. At the same time, Shiv extended tendrils of Vitae while swinging his Skysplitter with his other hand. He drained vitality and hammered the dragons from the sky. He continued spearing his Biomancy—and flail—into the other dragons as well.

Several were launched out of place while one took a swipe at him as it passed by. His temporal shell cracked. So did the golden mana lining the dragon. He cast himself back in time and slammed elbow-first against its head. The dragon’s head snapped back. But it was disoriented not dead. Then came his Biomancy and flail. It struck the back dragon’s back and crushed its rider’s cockpit. Shiv spiraled in the air, turning himself as he held on to its neck. The dragon didn’t respond in time—its rider was slain; the telepathic connection was broken. And soon, so was its neck as Shiv caught it in a death roll.

He cast the dragon’s limp body aside after, its neck knotted it tangled cords. He swept through its body as it fell with a mana hydra, and grunted as he felt a magical strain build within himself. His Aegis of Assimilation was potent, but it increased how much weight was levied upon his spirit as well.

I need to keep my mana load light.

As he prepared to face the other dragons, he found that they had golden arrows lodged in their skulls. An entire wing was butchered in an instant. Shiv blinked. Fuck me, Roland. And then he looked up to see another arrow coming straight down.

At Uva.

No! Shit!

He spiked himself up into the air to intercept the blow. But it proved unnecessary—the arrow halted before it hit him, and he cast a thought into it. “FRIENDLY! THAT DRAGON’S FRIENDLY!”

In an instant, the arrow tore off in another direction. Shiv let out a sigh. As he followed its path, he watched it pierce clean through an unseen enemy along the way, and past that point he saw a few hundred golden threads punching through the weapon hanging over Blackedge. The massive inverted anvil shuddered in the sky, spewing Necromancy and Animacy into the air. Its Necromantic veil had faded. And the cage surrounding Blackedge was gone.

The Town-Lord was free.

All around Lost Angeles, massive towers stood tall, and from them soared an endless stream of burning hawks that bombarded the land even when time was frozen.

Roland Arrow… This is absolute bullshit, Shiv growled internally. All the Town-Lord needed to turn things around was an opening. It was impressive, but the prospects of Shiv punching him in the face were moving further and further away.

Uva shot up into the air, and she made eye contact with him as she let out a pitched roar. Choki pumped a fist and Shiv responded in turn. Both of their temporal shells were cracked, and they were going to return to baseline time at any second. “Nice flying—”

A force slammed into his back and the world blurred past him as he was carried up into the air. Shiv’s Adamantine Adaption struggled against the impact as something twisted against him, drilling through his armor, biting into flesh and kissing his backbone and chipping away at his backbone.

Adamantine Adaption 174 > 175

Shiv wrapped a mana hydra around himself and pulled, he tore himself off the projectile, and he saw a strange geometric shape blast past him. It resembled a spike with a series of hooks at the end. Its tip was infused with both Dynamancy and Dimensionality and Shiv noticed a chunk of his flesh still floating within the projectile.

Another thing he noticed was just how far he had been displaced across the world. He was hovering high up in the air now, falling just above the damaged weapon. But he didn't get to fall for long. A concentration of shadowy energy collapsed around him. Shiva grunted as he felt an impossibly strong power collapse around his body. Shiv’s temporal shell shattered first, then his armor began to crack as well.

Husk of the Adamantine Voidmantid

Condition: Wounded

Unlike an oasis emerging from a mirage, Vicar Sullain materialized before Shiv. Roland’s arrows shot down to strike the Legendary Mage, but Sullain formed a veil of Animancy around himself and Shiv.

"And so he returned to me undying one," the Vicar said, sounding absolutely jubilant. His voice was softer—weaker. His long, snake-like body chittered. His many hands clasped together. "Just as I hoped you would when I began this attack."

Shiv spiked his gravitic field and discharged his inertial sheath. The gravity field holding him at bay parted slightly, but Sullain swatted him over and over again with telekinesis. He brought his hand up and down like a parent smacking an uncooperative child. Shiv snarled and hissed out as Sullain broke his body. His ribs shattered. His kidneys were punctured. One of his lungs collapsed, his skull caved in quickly, and his stomach was ruptured.

When Sullain was finished, Shiv vomited another mouthful of blood out from his broken helmet. He was getting used to coughing on blood now, and was practically becoming a daily occurrence. And worse yet, he was starting to get a liking for the coppery taste.

Adamantine Adaption 175 > 176

"Will you listen now, child, or do I still need to hurt you unnecessarily?" Sullain asked.

Shiv snorted. “ I can do with a little bit more Toughness. Give him a harder—”

Sullain made a flicking gesture with one of his hands. Shiv felt all his limbs snap backward. His feet ended up pressed against the front of his hip, and his arms were folded over his elbows. Pain washed through him, and Shiva just let out a slight growl. "Oh, you absolute piece of shit."

"You requested, so I obliged." Sullain said. “Here. Some more.”

Shiv activated his Outside Context Problem—only to howl with agony as Sullain started ripping the vitality out from his person. “You are not very versed in the art of draining vitality. It is a far more potent power than you realize. A shame. But one that will be corrected soon. I will teach you.”

The Deathless shook as he felt himself on the precipice of oblivion. “F-fuck—” He couldn’t finish the words. It hurt too much to exist right then. “The Inquisition is coming for you. This isn't gonna work anymore. They got a Legend, too. You—you’re done here. You’re finished.”

"Oh, do they?" Sullain sounded tired. "Oh, that is truly dreadful. I do not think I will be facing them. Not I, myself.”

Shiv narrowed his eyes. “So, what? You’re leaving? Gonna fuck off now?”

"Leaving? Yes, after my task is done."

"Task done how," Shiv asked? "Your weapon's broken. You're out of time.” Shiv looked down, and he couldn’t see through the veil of Animancy.

“Shiv,” Valor said suddenly—that was when Shiv realized he was still connected to the others. “Do not agitate him further.”

“I have plan,” Adam added. “It might work. You remember my special arrow earlier? Just stall. Try to make an opening somehow. Don’t—don’t let him kill you either.”

"Oh, that was not the weapon," Sullain continued. And there was a smile hidden in his words. "That was simply the receptacle I used to incubate it."

"Incubate it," Shiv whispered. "What do you mean incubate it?"

"Ah, but perhaps I should show you first. After all, it is your essence that powers it. That which fuels your soul, Undying One. And thanks to you," Sullain paused, "thanks to you, my beast of retribution will now be undying as well. But words are cheap and weak. I think I will show you instead.”

And Sullain held up a finger as a portal opened above him. It was a portal that swelled as wide as Sullain’s body. And on the other side, in a desolate place that choked with ash and death, a massive shape moved. Shiv thought it was a collapsing mountain for a moment, but as Sullain cast him through the portal with a gesture, Shiv tumbled across the ground before coming to a rest atop a mass grave. Ash and bones littered the ground upon which he lay. 

Shiv barely managed to sweep his Biomancy through himself and consume his wounds. Even so, he was drained. Barely any vitality left. Holding himself up was a feat beyond feats, and his lifted his head, his heart stopped.

A huge shadow loomed over him, and two eyes—one pale white and the other blood-red looked down at him. That was the color of his Vitae. And his Vitae pulsed out as an aura from a colossal form some five kilometers wide and twice again as long.

“No…” Valor whispered in Shiv’s mind. Cold dread spilled out from the Legendary Pathbearer.

“I was saving this one for Marikos originally. They were meant to safeguard the original weapon. But the Animancy Core was a crude thing. And your Vitae is life. I thank Udraal for bequeathing me his notes—and giving me insight into what to do with you.” As the Vicar finished with his words, he laughed softly. “But this act of creation has left me spent. And so I retreat to watch my work be done afar. Struggly vainly, Undying One. Struggle, and feed my Beast of the Undying Apocalypse…”

The titanic monster took a step forward. The ground shook. The world shook. And its body emerged from the ashes, and Valor’s terror only grew. “That… how did he…”

“...Feed my Deathless Tarrasque.”

And before Shiv could respond, the monster moved faster than he could perceive, and slammed into him, carrying him out of the portal, and down…

Down from the sky.

Down toward Blackedge.