Book 2/24 - Power IV

HILDELITH'S POV



"Who the hell puts Devils as the first mobs in a dungeon!" My voice echoed, my disbelief evident in the yell. The sudden noise did nothing to dissuade the attackers. Some crouched on all fours for faster mobility, their long forked tail wagging behind them. Others move on two hind feet, their upper limbs ending with palms and fingers like humans but having claws and the lower limbs of a wolf.

Four red demonic eyes, three-pointed black horns, and a human-like mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth but having longer canines. The worst was their skin, like blood dripping from unseen unwounds.

The first one arrived, the second just a hand length away. The problem with having so many skills and abilities as a Creator was indecisiveness. Voidbringer burned with a bright golden flame. The black matter that was Nothingness crept over and slowly covered my skin. My left eye turned black with a golden pupil, while my right was pulsing red with a dull grey. The last of the nothingness was creeping past my face, and then my hair turned utterly black from root to top when the Devillings reached.

The claws raked and tore through the air. I was gone, appearing within the mob like black dust stitched back together from nothing. 'Fortunately, I have my favorites.'I was already swinging. The golden flame on Voidbringer is unaffected by the Nothingness Movement. The skull was similar to my Nothingness Erasure but different. Rather than losing my physicality, it erased the distance between me and a destination and erased me from the first position. Instead of creating a portal, it remade me to my new destination.

My swinging sword touched no one, but the trail of flame it left in the air burned those in its path

Divine fire. An element Ozai loved more than anything burned through the devilings. I was already turning and catching the one tashed at me with my left hand.

'Nothingness Erasure'. Black mist gripped it and then faded away, leaving nothing. I vanished just as a crowd piled on my position. Back at the original spot, I twirled the blade, snuffing the fire and feeding it with Akashic energy. I sounded and turned. A dance Ozai had taught me. An art he'd learned from the Sunforged.

Devillings pounced on me, and my sword's edge got bloody. Heads didn't fly, but I carved out parts of their skin. With each move, slash, twirl, and dance, my sword dragged through blood, flesh, air, and static.

'How did Tora say it'. I squatted low on one leg and spun. An impossible action in real life. 'Ah. Energy is the rule of life. But dragging that energy needs action, laws, and principles. I leaped and spun mid-air. The air charged, volts of electricity rushed around me and snaked up my blade.

'Unfortunately for my dearest dear. I don't need those. My blade turned blinding white, and below, the Devillings leaped to catch me. I swung down like a butcher. I cut through the air. The crack was deafening, and the flash that followed blinded my foes. The bang was thunderous, and I couldn't help but think of Ghar.

"The power one Elder wields". My feet touched the ground,d and I ignored the smell of burnt flesh. Cries of anger and wrath

'Here they come'. I twirled like I was in a dance. My free fingers trailed in the air and left wakes of Akashic Force behind.

'What was the word?'. I frowned as my twirl ended. 'What is funnier than an Omniscient Creator with forgetfulness?'. Akasha quipped. "Ah. OMĒNÖR". I snapped my fingers and a tiny shape. A Torain letter flared into life. One that symbolized a word. I cut down a deviling. I kicked away another deviling.

Wind.

It caught on the Akashic Force in the air like a spark on an accelerant. It flared into turbulence. I poured more force into it, turning to gather and raise it. It tried to drift, to follow. Cause it knew only what it was told. And to follow that which gave it life. That was the bane of a Torain word.

I stopped it from moving, then kept up the outpour of force. Wind picked up in a churning mass around it. The Devillings dashing for me; we're blown off like paper at the feet of a tornado. Some were sucked in, and others discarded. I raised my hand, d and it followed. Obedient to my force. A cycling pillar of nature formed in the center of the cave.

Then I flicked, and it went. Devillings were carried and flung around. A Deviling reached me and grabbed onto my attire. Claws sticking into my skirt. It opened its mouth, and silver fire spewed from within.

'Nothingness Manipulation'.

The flames washed over me and around. Doing nothing and being nothing. I raised a finger to it. 'I need no rune for this'. I didn't need magic, either. I pulled at the knowledge I had seen. That we had seen. Charges of energy rushed through my body and into my palms. It ate at my divinity, and I found it numerous. My skin prickled, and it fizzled out against the nothingness. My grey pupil flashed with the hidden storm. It erupted from my eye like a leak and my fingers like a wave.

The Devilling cried as it became charred meat. Voidbringer vanished and returned to the inventory, and I floated up a bit. I spread my palms, and space cracked. Tears ripping through reality and forming holes. Portals that pulled.on everything like a suction. I snapped my fingers, and all my force evaporated, killing the tornado in the room. The Devillings fell and then were sucked into the new weapon.

'This is overkill'. I ignored Akasha as I squeezed my palms. The Devillings touched the portals and popped like blood bombs. When the last of them, holding onto ponds and the ground, were killed, I snuffed the void rings.

The cave was clear.

I strolled past the corpses, the pieces, and the whole ones, while wondering. 'I felt no strength from ripping them to nothing '. I stopped at one of the Ponds.

'You know you're powerful. They don't '. Akasha explained.

I cocked my head. Did that still explain and exonerate Munoron's wasteful action? Sure, he wasn't the only one to act so brutally, but he was the Demon left.

The pond stirred. My attention went to it. The water was a weird silver liquid. 'That's not...'. It sprayed and splashed on me.

'Aaaah'. It was like acid. The spots where the liquid touched burned, and smoke rose. I backed off and reflooded my skin with nothingness, erasing the attack and damage.

"What was that?". Claws grabbed the pond's edge, at one edge point, and around the edges. I stepped back, watching as the first thing clawed its way out.

It was like the ones I just killed, but it was different. It stood on its hind limbs. It held a single shot, a fine steel sword in its right hand. Its tail swayed slowly behind it, and its four devilish eyes moved around, accessing the carnage before stopping on me. It stood unmoving as more and more crawled out of the ponds. Just like it, they, too, stood motionless as others came out.

The last one finally came out, and the one that had appeared first raised its sword. 'Leader'. It brought the sword down soundlessly, and the others erupted into a savage cry for blood—the charged.

Voidbringer appeared in my hand. The first one slashed down, and I caught the attack with my sword. The force sent a shiver up my arms. Another slashed a bisecting cut for my torso while the first tried pinning me there. 'Nice try'. My free arm flexed, and Frost flashed. Something came from nothing, and then the prongs of a Primordial Trident stopped the slash.

Divinity churned in my limbs and boosted my strength. I heaved against both and vanished in black dust. I reappeared to the far ends of the room, my Voidbringer gone, and the Trident held like a spear. I threw t. The devilings clamored for it.

One for in its way, and I raised two fingers. The Trident split. The first impaling the deviling and the other flying past and to another Deviling. Both choked as the Trident froze them over. The rest charged at my new position.

My fingers flowed with green swirls, and I dragged an invisible force up. The earth shook, spikes and spires jutting out of the ground. Some deviling were staked, others thrown off balance. The fire appeared in my hand; it spun and became a ball as even more fed into it. The devilings kept coming.

I vanished, reappearing in another free spot. The Deviling leader began chanting and shouting something. The devilings started spreading out. Some were coming for me, and others were racing for all the ends of the room. The fire in my hand burned hot and bright, forming a miniature sun a sit cast bright and hot.

I vanished. The devilings tensed, ready for me to pop out somewhere. And I did. Using Nothingness, I erased gravity around me and floated in my spot over their heads. The beastlings would have been none the wiser without my miniature sun. 'I could erase the light and heat to make it unnoticed. ' I shrugged and threw down the ball.

BOOM!!

The cave shook as the fire spread. I reappeared below. The devilings, so caught up in the shock of the spreading explosion, forgot. Voidbringer took heads. Then the blast reached me, and I let it wash past. Most were dead, but some had survived. 'How?'.

A hook sliced at my armor from behind, sending me jolting forward with a spark. Upfront came the claws of another Deviling, and my body instinctively ducked down as my blade flashed up. Two screeches of pain from the afflicted deviling were like music to my ears as I fell back and rolled. My curiosity got the better of me as I stood there and watched. 'How did they survive my fire?'.

There was another already beside me, ready to take my head. I could feel my body shiver as fate passed over me. I usually teleported, letting the blade cut the air. Appearing behind it, I grabbed Dot's tail and heaved. It hit the ground with a screech, and I appeared in its part boot, crashing down its head and caving it in.

The others came. I watched, less surprised that it could happen and more curious about how the sword in one of the deviling's hands shrunk back into a ball and tossed at me with a sneer. Instinctively, my left hand moved out of the grey mist on my fingertips.

Wind flowed as I directed it with force, forming a ball of compressed air that held the projectile. I brought it closer to me and took it in. 'It's the same material as the pond water.' Akasha hummed in my mind. I could see her tapping her chin, with a hand behind her back, and thinking. Then the ball shivered.

'Uh oh'.

It blew. The explosion was massive, enough to send me flying back from the force, crashing and rolling through the ground. I had failed to put up a nothingness barrier, so the thing burned my face, neck, ans chest. I fell to my knees. 'They're charging!' I ignored Akasha's warning. The pain was muted at best, but it had to be perilous as it burned and boiled on—My face like sizzling water. My not screaming was a feat in itself.

It burned hotter when I attempted to use divinity to heal. I mentally cursed as I brought nothingness to remove the damage. A clang of steel on rock had me open my eyes. Grey mist held a stone in front of my head. The thing went for the head. More rocks jutted up and around me to stop the others congregating around.

I dropped the stone blocking my face, my left hand shooting out and gripping the deviling's head. My body flexed and twisted. Bone stretching and popping. Claws dropped from my fingers, digging into the thing's head. I4 screeched and died, but I held on, squeezing while getting up to my feet. Fangs grew in my mouth, and my hair became a thick mane of gold.

I released the nothingness and then churned divinity through my body. I dropped the corpse and sent my sword away. The devilings around struck and hacked at my Earthen barriers. With Earthen Grace, I retracted the stones and spun. My claws took off the first one's head. My punch broke and cracked bones. I moved, and a sonic boom erupted from my spot. I was beside one far from the attack and trying to get closer.

My eyes left trails of mismatched colors as I appeared behind it. I didn't punch. I slashed. My claws formed frost that tore through it. I spun in a flash and caught the smell of another. It burned, and I let go, vanishing.

"What the hell?". Reappearing in the distance, I looked at my hand. 'Figured it was due to the force or something. But I believe it has something to do with whatever it is. I vanished and reappeared next to the leader, who had not moved since this started. He was even unscathed from me—fire attack. Yet I stood next to him as my eyes stared at the pond. It turned sharply even as I got what I wanted.

It slashed—Wirht eh is the same steel made of pond water. 'Well, now I know'. Black swirled and caked my hand, making it look like I was wearing a black glove.

CLANG

"Thars why you're standing here, huh. You didn't want me to check out the pond and know it was more than it looked. Oops. Too late". Its eyes narrowed, and it lunged, letting go of the sword I held in my right hand. Teeth and claws become their weapons. I caught it with my left hand, also covered in nothingness.

'Might have something else with that vile liquid.'

" Let's see you survive this." I opened my mouth. Light rose to the bottom of my throat, and I exhaled.


[HOLY BREATH]


'Watch out'. I turned, and my breath blasted out, halting the geyser of pond liquid that shot at me. I shattered myself into dust and reappeared at the cave wall. The deviling turned to find me, and I was confident that there was smugness in its eyes.

'So they not only wield it, they manipulate it.'

'Should have known in hindsight. That one did its sword to a ball of it. I looked over the description of the pond again.



[Liquid Silver]
A pond of Devil's fire. Neither unholy nor holy. This ethereal, molten substance glows with a silvery sheen, its surface ever-shifting with ripples of dark flame. The flames of the Liquid Silver burn with an intensity that transcends the mortal realm, capable of consuming both gods and beasts alike.

Effect 1: Entities connected to the Liquid Silver wield Devil's Flame, an unearthly fire that incinerates the divine and the profane with equal enthusiasm.

[Properties
Devil's Flame: This flame is unique in its ability to burn through divine protection and resistance. It is incredibly potent against beings of holy and unholy nature, making it a formidable weapon against deities and infernal entities]



'Who and why would anyone make sure an insidious thing? Eh, it doesn't matter. It has to go. I vanished. I was dashing at speeds that were a blink to the devilingeyes. My speed and strength were the one reason I knew these were mobs. Still, their Liquid Silver made things a bit fair for them. It was time to end the fairness.

I appeared behind the pond and the devilling. Raising my left hand, I folded my two lower fingers and pointed my index and middle claws at the pond, using my thumb to hold the two folded fingers. Golden, red, white, blue, green, and other colors I couldn't name burned as flames gathered into a ball at the top of my pointed claws.

I condensed it instantly, noting the perk of my Tome. Before, I'd have to focus well and spend time forming all the edges and sides; now, it just shrunk to what I had in mind instantly. I made a firing motion n, and the ball shot into the pond.

'Nothingness Shield'.

A blank Sphere formed around me, and the deviling hee the whizz of my shot turned. It started too late to act as the ball vanished into the pond.

BOOM!!!

Volcanic eruption. I vanished, moving around the room and to the other pond there. I gave the same treatment and then left, keeping my shield up as the Liquid Silver poured like molten silver into the air and down in the rain. I wanted to wait for it to get wasted, but she was my opportunity. The deviling stared eyes wide at the scene.

I turned and dashed for him. My shield shrunk and stuck to me like a second skin, turning me black. Voidbringer appeared, and I coated it with nothingness as well. One moment, I was far away; the next, I was beside it, bent in a run, with half of Voidbringer in my right hand. The things right eyes turned to lock on me.

I saw it. The shiver in its feet. The chills that well down its back—the tremble of its eyes. My mismatched eyes shone with pure glee. My left cheek stretched with a smile that revealed the left fang—a start glistening white to the blackness of my skin. I swept past.

I paused at the side of the cave and sent Voidbringer away.



[deviling - Slain]
[Minor Shard gained]



'The emphasis on the little d is getting worrying. ' Akasha chuckled darkly. I nodded. The sight of the deviling's eyes had answered the question I had. Munoron felt powerful not because he was weak but because he saw the struggle and defeat in the eyes of the realm dwellers. I knew because it was the same way I felt when the deviling knew it was going to die. Looking around at the remaining devilings, I frowned. 'I just have to ensure I'm never on the other end of that feeling.'

It was a cruel sensation, but it was best I was the powerful one and not the other way around.

'Clean up time'. I took a step and then paused with an idea or thought.

'You think it's a good idea to test it here?'.

"Better here than my universe'. The devilings were trying to find their way to me through the eruption of fire. They'd have gotten to me if it had just been their Liquid Silver. But the Primordial Flame mixed in gave them a challenging time controlling it and having issues surviving its touch.

I shut my eyes, trying Akasha to keep watch. I sieved through the knowledge in my mind and wondered. 'Did the Devs believe such things like this?? I shrugged. 'Maybe they don't, and it's just a good power setting for them.'

I opened my eyes with a horrified expression. 'Never bring that into our universe'. Akasha warned. I shivered. A sort of me was glad I got the Tome; now, I could be prepared for anything and everything. The other was disgusted at why such a Tome would exist.

Looking at the still-coming devilings, I had my answer for things you needed to kill without raising a hand. I shut my eyes. Maternal Blight was a Creator's tool to bring biological death to civilizwasn't very comforting. What it could accomplish was frightening. All I had to do was study something's cells to see if they were immune to diseases and create a powerful death sentence.

'A simple slip up, and I'd need the disease control.' I paused. 'How about a disease that eats any diseases I created or naturally occurring ones, No matter whether it's make or utility? As long as it comes from me and has my imprint, this disease should be able to eat it and nullify it.

'Sounds good. Creating a preventive measure first is wise'. I started on it. In my palms, I formed the flame, the soul, and the body and gave it a piece of my own will. 'Last thing I need is a disease rebellion.'

'The devilings are getting free'. I looked up and then waved a hand. Akasha formed a wind wall and kept it in place. I focused back on my task. I started with the disease. I was crafting it into the form of a rabbit. I formed cells that would always stretch and expand to contain diseases—injected a bit of nothingness into the cells for erasure.

Crumbling the body to dust, I then reformed it. Slowly, the creature was formed. A tiny rabbit sat on my palm. It was cute and white. Yet the idea of what it could do gave me chills a bit. Shaking my head, I named it.

"Chump". Maybe giving it a cute name would reduce its creepy factor. 'Wait'. I peered into its soul and constructed a four-ringed matrix. My Elders would vomit if they knew I just gave four whole tiers to a new life without it needing to do shit to earn it. But I had my reasons. The more you grew with any essence, the greater your connection to Akasha. It was why my children were more interested in learning Primordial energy than cultivating.

They'd grown without and with the system in ways that made it part of them.

With the rabbit, Akasha could keep increased tabs on and warm me if it went haywire. It was simultaneously watching and recording the diseases it took in.

When I was done with that, I moved to the next thing—the actual disease. The devilings were now pounding and striking at the wall of wind. The element, in turn, flung them away.

I wanted something that would affect them fast. 'If some are not infected, then use it to affect the others?'.

'Zombies. Feels generic. What if I create something that dies anyway once its task is done? I shut my eyes back. A sprout of chaotic energy appeared on me. fimgees. Next, I weaved it, forming tiny invincible cells only I could see. I used Akashic Force to write commands for its DNA. 'Hmmh. Could I do that with others '? I waved the thought away.

I engineered the cells to gain energy to spread from organic materials. When there was no organic material, it would wilt and die. I added a false growth mechanism that needed to spread within a body or infect a new entity. Then, I said a nucleus that served as a starter core. That way, the pathogen would only erupt when it received Akashic Force. But only act infects live organisms.

Once I was done, I had a tiny black and green seed in my hand. "How inconspicuous". I blew on the see,d, and it floated off. "Light as a pollen". I waved my fingers at myself, the Akashic Force flowing out and blowing wind toward the pollen. 'Akasha a hole right there's. The pollen got to the wind wall and then through as a fist-sized hole popped into place. On the other side, I blew the wind sideways and watched it latch onto a deviling.

This one had suffered burns from the Liquid Silver with Primordial Fire. The seed touched a burn, and I watched it vanish into the bloodstream. The seed could germinate from anywhere, but when it had the chance to get to the heart of the living being,n,g, it would take it. I watched it through the Akashic Force, which traveled through a river of blue filled with lumps and other things, and when it reached the heart, i5 burrowed in.

Ou, outside the deviling, felt nothing. Then, it took root and began to grow. What followed was germination and growth in real-time. The seed became green vines, thin like worms that wriggled in all the directions of the heart.

"Hmmh. It would seem the heart gets taken over. Meaning even if knowing and tey5ti get it out, anything else is impossible when the heart is infected". I watched the vines take over all the hearts. Now, the deviling was showing signs of pain.

"Heart pain or maybe burn looks to be a symptom. Also, maybe ripping out the heart and regrowing a new heart for it would work".

'Something has changed'. I focused, and indeed, the vines were now turning silvery. 'It's absorbing the Liquid Silver or Devil's Fire.'

"Looks like they have it within them, too. So energy can affect them?".

'Give them properties too.' The vines were now dripping like water. Instead of moving around like a vine, it segmented a part of itself and dropped into the bloodstream, heading for the other parts of the organs. The deviling was writhing on the floor now.

" Looks like zombification". Unfortunately, there was no outward change. Or was it fortunate? The devilings had no idea. In a minute since the change, the liquid vines spread and held all parts of the body's organs hostage. The final phase was the brain. And when it took over my brain, I shivered. The core was in the heart; Another segmented core was in the brain. The devil stopped writhing.

"Is this segmentation due to the Liquid Silver or just normal?"—the deviling springs up. I didn't need to order or give it an idea of what to do. The deviling attacked its kin. 'Former kin.' There was no biting, though. It used, no formed a sword out of Liquid Silver. I could see the cells of the pathogen within the sword.

As expected, it dashed forward and struck the first unaware deviling. The sword bit deep into its neck, and then it drew the blade back, leaving a bit of the cells inside it. It attacked the next one, which managed to screech before falling. The rest were warned. There was no confusion as they attacked the Infected deviling.

'I'll. Need a name for. This new disease'. It injured two before it got taken down, and even then, it showed its ferocity and need to spread by turning to claws and teeth that dropped Liquid Silver. 'Frightening'.

One of the devils bit its skull, and liquid silver burst into its mouth. Another went for the threat and more. Soon, even more were getting infected.

The dead one was now twitching. Something different was her, though. Instead of consuming the brain like in the living one, it repeated the same action of spreading out over it as it did with the heart. When it ros,e I noticed this one was faster and swifter.

'It needs brains to control and can't take over a living brain. '

"That's why it consumes living ones." A shiver at the thought passed me. The devilings were now fighting the new one, who showed even better skill. It had the memories and knowledge of the one to work with. 'Damn'. Soon, more were writhing on the ground. It was a lost cause by now.

'Tell me when they're all infected.' I'd seen enough. I brought up my records and eyed it. 'Level 23 now". I'd gotten the Pathogen Creation skill. Life Creation has gotten an upgrade to Life Creation I. Fire Creation has done the same. 'Guess I'll have to use Ice more.'

Still, I was bothered about my Earth skills. I had no AMs, only the insight. I had gone far and well in it. I did not have a skill for it, and it felt like a disservice simply because I lacked an Origin element or Primordial Element. Given the circumstances, I thought the Bands should have been there.

'How to go about making a Primordial or Origin element.' Aether and I made Sol, but honestly, I wasn't sure if it was a Primordial Fire before or after Haero is it. Glacius was my Primordial Ice, but I made it by forging it myself '.

'That could be it'. Akasha butter in.

'Could be what?'.

'You made Sol, You made Glacius, You designed the Star River and the Bands. From your knowledge, Primordial means First or existing before. The children are Primordials because we made them before all things, and they can use Primordial energy. That's the same for the others, too. Sol has Primordial Energy, which is why it's your Primordial Fire. Same for Glacius. But does it matter? The Star River and The Band were listed as origin Elements. They have no Primordial energy. If Sol had no Primordial Fire or Glacius Primordial Ice, wouldn't they be considered Origin Elements instead?'.

I let her speak before I began to dissect her observation. "Well, yes and no. If you're right, shouldn't Vaustaris count as my Earth Origin Element or Primordial Element?".

'Not technically. IT never came first. You reforged an already existing dead planet formed from the Dawn Bang. Also, it has no Primordial energy, and finally, it doesn't meet the criteria I made for others.

"What Criteria?".

'Sol is pure fire. Whether condensed, crystalized, liquid, or air. All of it is fire down to its core. Every other thing added was later. The Star River is water. The Bands was just itself—no additional elements or differences. Vaustaris has air, water, earth, storms, and other components.

"Okay, I get your point there. But if this idea is right, doesn't that mean I can create more Primordial Elements and get Tomes for it. It shouldn't be this easy".

'It's not what, eight ticks. You've made Sol, Glacius, The Star River and Bands. Yet only. No, are we even suspecting what might be what? If we'd purchased the Tomes earlier, we might have '.

"But we needed funds to get it. It didn't matter. We'd still. meed to pass the Tower to get all that MVC and ORP to think of making the expenses we did".

'Which means no own, but those with funds to buy the Tomes will have even noticed.Let'sly start thinkinaboutut uI i 't. '

"We might still not be right".

'I calculate the probability of our conjecture being positive as 89%. A controlled experiment would let you know, though.'

"How would we generate a Primordial Element for Ert,h though?".

'I believe the same way we made Glacius. Ourselves. The devilings are all infected. I looked, and sure enough, l was standing as I, I, ll looking at me. 'Dd the recognize me as their maker. They'd better '.

Poking into the Akashic Ener,gy giving it a spark of li,fe, I was welcomed with a strange display of vine shaking. I pulled away. 'What was that?'.

'Pathogenic display of affection?'. I could see the smirk on Akasha's face. Grunting, I tapped into the Force again. The vines shook once more. 'Do I have them go ahead or. '. Thinking about it, I didn't have Akasha here to show me everything. My presence had filled the cave quite well with Akashic energy, but it wasn't enough to see everything.

'Go ahead'. I directed them forward through the passage behind the now-empty ponds.