The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Absolutely devastating the Lava Oozes that streamed out of the Scission, Vilnesh swiped his Ebonblade across the weak monsters as he fumed.  Not even bothering to activate any of his Battle Arts after his Ice Storm spell had devastated most of them, his newest attacks were created solely by the qualities of the sword he wielded, crafted by a piece of an Ebonlord, a frighteningly powerful monster that came through the Source in the Enclave over a hundred years ago. Vilnesh still remembered the battle against the enormous dark construct, which had nearly killed a dozen of his people before it was taken down.

The material his Ebonblade was made from was only a portion of the spoils they had gained from its corpse. It had been a great boon to their ongoing advancement, even if it was dangerous in the process. Nothing came easy for them, after all, which just made them appreciate it all the more when forced into a challenge.

This Scission, however, was not a challenge in the least. For Vilnesh, it was more an annoyance than anything.

If only that blasted slave had given up the whereabouts of my child, this would never had happened!

That wasn’t entirely true, of course, but after he had obtained the information passed along the slaves’ communication network concerning the presence of some sort of prodigy, their sources – which, he begrudgingly admitted, were much more widespread and comprehensive than his people’s own – investigated further. When knowledge about some sort of half-breed had potentially been sighted around the Kingdom, it didn’t take long for Vilnesh to put it all together.

There had been only one impregnated slave that escaped from their clutches over the last few centuries, and his spawn was the likely result of that pregnancy. It was the only thing that fit the timeline, after all, and it was his duty to see it was returned to the Enclave.  Success in reproducing viable progeny was only a matter of time, given all the work they had gone through toward that end. After their own females had become sterile after the Transition, it was up to Vilnesh and his fellow males to expand their numbers using the slaves as breeding stock.

Unfortunately, even after nearly 1,000 years of trying, every single half-breed born in the Enclave had been a failure. Sickly and deformed, many of them didn’t live past age 20, especially after it was discovered that their magical talent was either nonexistent or simply dysfunctional. They’d made progress through magical infusions into their impregnated breeding stock over the years, slowly eliminating one malady after another that the half-breeds suffered from, until the first semi-successful attempts occurred a few decades ago. While still sickly and deformed, for the first time their magical abilities were finally available in both forms, Mage and Martial – or so the slaves called them.

In reality, they stemmed from the same thing: Aetheric Power.

After breaching the veil between their world and another, which was filled with this Aetheric Power that his people took for their own, everything seemed to go wrong after that. After the majority of the Gergasi, his people, were extinguished attempting to tame this incredible Power, Aetheric Corruption began to spew out from the breach, forming what the world now knew as Scissions that released transformed Aetheric Power in the form of monsters that ravaged the land.

Vilnesh still remembered those chaotic days when it was all his people could do to keep their empire together, finally resorting to forcing their much-diminished slaves to obtain a portion of the Aetheric Power in order to defend the land. Reduced in numbers, it was all that his people could do to keep the breach from becoming worse, while running their empire – or as the slaves called it, their Kingdom – from their Enclave. It wasn’t by choice, having to hide away, but due to the fact that the Aetheric Corruption was somehow able to trace his people whenever they ventured away from the breach. Originally, it wasn’t that big of a problem unless they stayed in one place for more than a few days, but over the centuries, if they were someplace stationary for a few hours, then a Scission would appear and attempt to destroy them, ignoring everything else.

Some of his people ventured that there was a consciousness behind the Corruption, targeting its gatekeepers.

Vilnesh didn’t necessarily believe that, though, as he just thought the Corruption was a mindless pest that continued to become more and more annoying as time went on. Now that the Culmination was upon them, with the Aetheric Corruption increasing its flow and haphazard appearances around the Kingdom, for it to cause a Scission to appear only minutes after he stopped moving, it was downright maddening how it was preventing him from finding his child.

A child that, to all intents and purposes, seemed to be their most successful half-breed of all. If only Keandra, that worthless daughter of some Duke I don’t even remember the name of, hadn’t escaped from the Enclave, then we would’ve already had my child within my grasp.

Unfortunately, their Dominion magic had some flaws to it, as powerful as it was. The biggest one, and the one most important to the woman’s escape, was that all Dominion magic upon her person was neutralized while she had his spawn in her belly. A slave to his magic no longer, the impregnated woman had somehow found a way to escape and avoid the search teams sent out to look for her. Until a short time ago, most considered that she had simply died after she escaped, her body unable to be found, as there had been absolutely no trace of her until now.

That trace was his child, whoever it might be. The reports leaned toward it being a son, though there were a few that mentioned a daughter; it didn’t really matter, of course, as either would suit their purposes as evidence that successful reproduction was possible. If this child was healthy, unlike their other recent half-breeds that had a full complement of Aetheric Power and yet their bodies couldn’t handle the energy coursing through them, leading to their untimely deaths more often than not, then they needed to know. If, as they also hoped, this child also gained a measure of Dominion magic, then that could start a new wave of control as they birthed thousands of these offspring, sending them out to take control of the rest of the Kingdom, putting every single person under their rule.

From there, they could finally expand to encompass the entire world.

As Vilnesh swept the Ebonblade through yet another score of Lava Oozes emerging through the Scission, he felt a hint of something pushing against his senses. At first, he wasn’t sure what it was that had gently poked against his mind, because it felt familiar and yet foreign at the same time. It was only when he realized why it felt familiar that he swung his head around behind him, seeing a flash of something disappear into one of the Academy’s doorways.

That’s my child! It has Dominion magic!

That revelation was so momentous that he was distracted, as he turned toward the main offices of the Academy with the intent to go after his spawn. Unfortunately, it was at that time that the next wave of monsters arrived – and they weren’t going to let him go that easily. A score of Fire Graspers raced out of the Scission, their spheroid bodies comprised of flames approximately 15 feet long and just as wide; they used their multitude of 50-foot-long jointed arms made of stone and fire to move swiftly toward him, the ends of which were tipped with grasping hands that latched onto Vilnesh.

The burning pain in his upper arms and his left knee were ignored as the closest Grasper clamped fiery extremities along his body, and he roared out in anger as he used his prodigious strength to rip himself away from it. Another grasping hand attempted to snatch him back up, but he simply caught it with his left hand as he separated its leg from the rest of its body with a slice of his sword. Gathering himself for another spell, he quickly threw the detached Grasper arm away and formed the pattern for Frost Nova, which he empowered with a quick flick of his Mana.

Detonating with an explosion of icy cold, the spell impacted everything within 100 feet of his location, excepting only himself. The trio of Graspers close to him were frozen entirely solid, while those a little further away were slowed. With a leap, he brought his Ebonblade down in a downward chop that shattered the frozen monster that had dared to touch him, that had dared to delay him, and thousands of frozen Grasper shards went flying everywhere. With a grunt as he landed on the ground again, he began to run toward the door he saw his child escape through, but was caught yet again by a fiery stone hand and prevented from moving.

Thoroughly enraged at this, he roared in displeasure and grabbed the grasping arm, pulling at it as he activated Titan’s Strength, a Battle Art that enhanced his Strength by 200%. With an easy yank, he lifted the Fire Grasper into the air above his head, again ignoring the burning coming from the exterior of the monster, as he slammed it back down on a trio of nearby monsters. His abrupt attack absolutely destroyed not only those three Graspers, but also shattered the other pair of frozen ones formed by his Frost Nova, as well as sending the others skittering backwards from the shockwave.

Letting go of his impromptu weapon, he once again ran toward the interior wall of the Academy, intending to find his child, but the remaining Graspers chose at that moment to leap after him using their long legs to cover the distance. He was incredibly fast and made it there before they did, but with them just outside the offices, he couldn’t take the chance that they would kill his offspring before he could discover what made it work when all of their other experiments ultimately failed.

Stopping right in front of the doorway to the offices, he turned around and waited for the remaining Graspers to arrive after their jump. As soon as they landed, he activated yet another Battle Art, Shockwave. With his Titan’s Strength still active, he channeled his Stama through his hands and into the Ebonblade, which further amplified the effect, and then slammed the weapon down to the ground. An enormous shockwave spread out from the point of impact, raising in a wide semi-circle of force that lifted from the ground and slammed through every single Grasper around him. The Shockwave was powerful enough that it literally snuffed out every spot of flame on their bodies and limbs before sending them flying away, their broken forms dead before they hit the ground.

Panting from the exertion, as it was more Stama than he was expecting to use at the moment, he saw that no other monsters were coming out of the Scission at the moment – but it was only a matter of a minute or two before the next wave arrived.

Vilnesh turned around and ripped the door out of is frame as he rushed inside, heading up the staircase he saw a short distance away. As he was taking the steps four at a time, practically flying up them, his Titan’s Strength Battle Art finally subsided, leaving him feeling weak as its debuffs hit him, reducing his Body and Strength stats by 50% for a short time. He didn’t have time for weakness as he reached the top, looking around for a brief second before deciding on a direction. His decision turned out to be correct as he discovered what appeared to be a room with its door sealed up completely preventing anyone from opening it. Vilnesh immediately recognized what had caused it to seal up and he couldn’t help a sneer from alighting his face.

“Filthy Fusions; they’re worthless and a waste of time. As soon as I find my child, that’ll the be first thing I beat out of them.” To say that it was a disappointment to hear that his child had taken it upon themselves to study Fusions, which was a slave adaptation of Aetheric Power that the Gergasi didn’t dabble in because it was virtually useless in their eyes, was putting it lightly. While it had uses in the slaves’ Kingdom, especially for the commoners, Vilnesh had never seen the potential for it other than a curiosity; that curiosity had lasted all of a decade before he never studied it again.

After all, why put in so much work for something that didn’t last and could be copied in better form with a spell?

He ran full speed at the closed doorway, expecting to burst right through it, but his reduced stats apparently betrayed him as he bounced off, only causing a few cracks to form. Grunting in anger, he whipped up the Ebonblade by his side and impacted the wooden doorway, cutting through it easily. Over the next 10 seconds, he carved his way through the surprisingly sturdy portal, emerging on the other side as he frantically looked around.

“WHERE IS MY CHILD? BRING THEM TO ME!”

Using his Dominion magic on the older slave he found inside, he was momentarily taken aback when it didn’t work, at least not entirely. Normally, he could immediately sense that his magic had taken hold, but just like the Dean had done shortly before, he was able to fight it somehow. Did my child do this? That was the only explanation he could come up with of why his Dominion magic didn’t work the way he expected.

The old man dropped to his knees, a shaking through his body evidence that he was fighting the command Vilnesh dropped onto him. With a little bit more pressure on the slave, he forced his magic to cut through whatever was preventing him from taking control.

Gasping, the man abruptly said, “No. You’ll never find him—”

A sudden crash echoed through the building, before a giant fist of magma slammed down from above, smashing through the ceiling and falling upon Vilnesh. Even though he was weaker than he had been a minute or so ago, thanks to the debuff from his Battle Art, he was still fast enough to dive out of the way of the fist. The old man, however, was caught unaware while he was battling for control of himself, and was crushed under the fist along with half of the floor.

A Magma Behemoth? The Corruption really wants to kill me. Too bad for it that I’m a lot harder than that to kill.

He picked himself up from where he had dove out of the way of the fist, looking back to see that the old man was literally just a smear on the broken floor. He wasn’t getting any other information from him, obviously, though he did have it confirmed that he was looking for his son, and not a daughter. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to look for where this son of his went, as another fist slammed to the side of where the last one landed, and he was forced to dodge yet again.

Enough. I’ll take care of this Behemoth and then track him down. He couldn’t have gotten far.

Pulling out every trick he had in his repertoire, he launched himself out of the broken ceiling and took the fight to the 100-foot-tall Magma Behemoth, noticing that the Scission had closed after the Behemoth had emerged. Spells and Battle Arts flew through the air as he battled the giant monster made of pure magma, but their confrontation wasn’t without even more destruction heaped upon the Academy. When the Behemoth finally fell, Vilnesh knelt in exhaustion as he stared at the completely destroyed main offices, along with half of the building along the wall where it was located.

My son. I just need to dig through the rubble and—

Before he could get started on searching for his son, or at least the remains of him, Vilnesh could feel a subtle buildup of Aetheric Corruption coming from all around him. Cursing in annoyance, he knew that it would probably take another 10 minutes or so before another Scission opened in his location, but that wasn’t nearly enough time for his search.

He’s probably dead, but I’ll have the staff here locate the body and send it to the Enclave.

On a time limit, Vilnesh quickly Dominated the nearby staff he could see cowering in the entrances around the Academy, imprinting commands upon a few of them with instructions to carry out his will. Another flex to his Dominion magic caused another wave of his power to flow through every living person within a mile of the city, forcibly suppressing their memories of the last 24 hours. Knowledge of his presence was more dangerous than a Scission appearing within the walls of the Academy and Fort, and it was important to eliminate them as soon as possible.

With reluctance and not a little bit of annoyance at the corpse of the Magma Behemoth, which was setting fire so portions of the wooden portions of the building, Vilnesh left and headed back to the Enclave, where he would await any information from the body that was recovered after the mess was cleaned up. He would get answers…

…one way or another.

Book 3 Chapter 19