WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 25

“Not good! Chloe! Siv! Get us out of here!”

Neither Chloe or Siv spoke as they spread their arms wide as if to embrace us. I grabbed Kari and Lin, then Flash Stepped over to the pair just as they manipulated space around them. Strange undulations appeared in the air around them seconds before the scenery changed. We were no longer standing inside of the temple, and instead we were before the shocked Fay and the still unconscious Tora.

“Eryk?” Fay blinked in surprise. “What’s going on?! What is that shaking?!”

“Nevermind that. Just come over here and—”

I never got to finish my sentence before two things happened simultaneously. The first was the disappearance of the barrier surrounding Atlantia—and consequently keeping all the water away—while the second was a massive shark head bursting through the temple roof. It was so big that I couldn’t even begin to judge the size of the creature. Nothing I had ever seen in this realm or the others could compare to it.

“CHLOE!” I shouted.

Chloe nodded as I grabbed Tora and Fay, then spread her arms once more. I felt an odd moment of weightlessness. My stomach made a leap into my throat. Chloe’s control had slipped, and yet, fortunately, just before the waters came crashing down around us, the world shifted. We were standing on an island instead of at the bottom of the ocean.

“Haaaa! Haaaa!”

Chloe heaved and rasped as she fell to her knees. Sweat broke out on her skin and poured down her face like thick rivers as her shoulders heaved. She looked pale.

“Chloe!”

Kari knelt and placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder, but Chloe just gave her a shaky smile.

“I am fine… Mistress Kari… just… transporting that many people… and from such a distance…” She heaved a deep breath. “It’s exhausting.”

“I’ll bet.” Kari gave the woman a compassionate smile. “Take a break now. You’ve earned it.”

“I don’t think any of us will be able to take a break right now,” I said, pointing at something in the distance. “Look.”

Kari, Fay, Lin, Siv, and Chloe turned to look at what I saw, and they all gasped in shock, for rising out of the water like an erupting volcano forming a new island was Entz—the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm. He rose high above the sea, leaping out of the water before descending with a splash. His size was incredible, but what made me even more frightened was his appearance, those massive fins, powerful body, and row upon row of vicious teeth. I could hardly believe this creature was “one of the good guys.” He looked like a Demon Beast.

“That… is that…?” Fay was so shocked she couldn’t even finish her sentence.

“That…” I sighed. “Is the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm. We failed to stop the Sekbeist from undoing the seal.”

“How are we going to deal with something like that?” asked Lin.

“I don’t think we can,” Chloe told her. “There is a reason the Great Overlords gained the title Great Overlord. It is because they are exceptional beings of incredible might. Entz is the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm, Sfærevann, the primordial realm of water. His powers over water are unparalleled. During the Great War, it was he who had fought the entire Sekbeist navy to a standstill by himself.”

“I didn’t know the Sekbeist had a navy,” I said.

“Because Entz destroyed it. Wiped it from the face of existence,” Chloe said. “What’s more, Entz has mastered the concept of life, which compliments the water element perfectly. He has an unlimited supply of Spiritual Power to draw upon so long as he remains in the water, and the Concept of Life will keep him from dying so long as he has Spiritual Power. Out of all the Great Overlords, he is the third strongest behind Tiamat and Wodan.”

That was… really not good. I glanced back at the giant shark, though all I could see now was his fin sticking out of the water. The fact that I could see his fin at this distance was a testament to his size.

“So what we need to do is get him out of the water?” Fay asked.

“If you can get him out of the water, you might be able to beat him, but that’s easier said than done,” Chloe said.

“But still… it’s not like we can do nothing,” Kari said.

We didn’t have much time, so I quickly reviewed everything I knew about Entz, from what Chloe just told us to what Fray said to me before we left. Entz was invincible in water. He could also transform his body into water, meaning getting him out of the water would be next to impossible. About the only thing we could do was stall for time.

Damn it. If only there was some way we could get him onto the mainland…

Onto the mainland…?

“Chloe, would it be possible to transport him somewhere else using spatial manipulation?” I asked.

“Something that big?” Chloe bit her lip. “I don’t really know. Transporting something that big will take a lot of Spiritual Power, perhaps even more than I have. It might be possible… but it won’t be possible while he’s in the water.”

Right. Because he could draw Spiritual Power from the water, he could overpower any Spiritual Technique we could unleash. I also couldn’t see us being able to hijack his control over the ocean. He was the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm for a reason.

“What if we froze him in time first?” I asked.

Chloe only took a moment to consider that. “If you can place him in a time lock, I might be able to transport him somewhere… but can you do it?”

“Kari?” I asked.

Kari grimaced. “Maybe if I use a rune array, but not on my own. My understanding of time is still flimsy at best.”

“Right.” I took a deep breath. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Fay, I need you to get Tora to safety. There’s no telling how this battle will go, but I suspect nowhere on the ocean will be safe. Get her to the mainland please.”

Fay looked like she’d been struck, but we both understood the truth. Without having a concept to wield, she would just be in the way. She knew that. I knew that. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was something we had to accept right now.

“Okay. Yeah. I’ll get Tora to safety.” Fay scooped Tora into her arms. The woman dangled limply from her grasp as her feet left the ground. “You all take care.”

Fay blasted straight into the sky, perhaps under the hope that being far above the water would prevent Entz from being able to attack her. She disappeared within seconds.

“Chloe, I want you to recover your Spiritual Power and prepare to transport Entz,” I began again. “Kari, use Rune Writing to create the rune array you need to freeze him in time. While you two are doing that, Lin, Siv, and I are going to stall for time. We’ll fight him and prevent him from leaving this area.”

“I don’t like that you three are going against that on your own, but I understand. Please leave the creation of the rune array to me,” Kari said.

“Your jobs are going to be the most dangerous,” Chloe said to us. “Please be careful.”

“We’ll be as careful as we can,” I said. “Though I don’t think that’s saying—”

“INCOMING!” Siv suddenly shouted.

Her words of warning caused us all to turn and notice what we hadn’t noticed before: Entz was traveling right toward, and he was moving incredibly fast. He was upon us before we even had time to finalize our plans. His mouth was open wide, and I realized he was even larger than the island we stood on. Then his mouth came crashing down. Ents, the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm, had just swallowed an island whole.

***

Fay gritted her teeth in frustration as she flew toward the mainland. It had been a long time since she felt this level of self-loathing. The last time she had felt this way was during the Spiritual Grand Tournament, back when she had lost against Catalyna and said all those cruel words to Eryk. She had hated herself so much back then that she’d been stupid and let herself get kidnapped by Grant Leucht.

Now she was feeling that way again.

Ever since Kari, Eryk, and Siv were sent to another realm, Fay had been the bastion of strength for their people. She had defended them, led them, and staved off disaster time and time again. That had given her the illusion that she was strong.

The truth was that Fay wasn’t strong at all.

She was just strong compared to the weak enemies she had been fighting up to this point.

The Sekbeist she’d been fighting until the Sekbeist Lords showed up were all weak. She was able to slaughter them by the thousands. Both she and Lin had faced off against entire armies of them and come out unscathed thanks to their mastery over all seven elements. Once the Sekbeist Lords arrived, all that changed, and she and Lin were forced to retreat time and time again as their people were enslaved one city at a time. It was all she could do to take the few survivors she’d found and flee to the Endless Desert with Lin.

A massive explosion kicked up air currents and rocked the entire area. A shockwave spread across the sea. Fay screamed as the violent currents slammed into her, sending the world spinning as she went out of control. It took utilizing everything she knew about the wind element to stop herself from falling into the ocean.

Turning around, Fay could only gape as the massive shark raced through the ocean, kicking up a spray of water everywhere he went. It looked like he was fighting something. A massive bolt of black lightning slammed into the monster from above. The attack tore a gash in its flank, but the wound closed barely a second later. At the same time, a vicious roar filled the air as a much smaller dragon slammed into it from above with its tail. That was undoubtedly Siv. Her tail sliced into the shark like its hide was made of paper, but that too healed within moments.

Just as she was wondering where Eryk was, a black speck descended from the sky, wreathed in five different elements. Eryk slammed feet first into the shark. A massive crater appeared on the creature’s incredible body as it was pushed violently into the water, creating a tidal wave so large that Fay needed to slice it apart with the wind element to protect herself. Yet even that incredible attack did no permanent damage.

“Chloe wasn’t kidding,” Fay muttered. “That monster really is invincible so long as it remains in the water.”

Because she knew she couldn’t do anything, Fay turned around and left, feeling her weakness more strongly than ever. It was a feeling she had experienced far too many times in her life. She’d promised herself long ago that she would never feel this way again, but it seemed that promise had been broken.

She was weak.

She could not help her family when they needed her.

But she was also different than she had been in the past.

“I won’t let myself remain weak,” Fay said to herself.

In the past, when Fay felt this overwhelming sense of failure and weakness, she would withdraw from the world, lock herself in her room, and lament her powerlessness, but the Fay from back then was gone. She would not allow herself to remain weak like this. She would grow stronger, and by the nine realms, she would fight side by side with Eryk and her sisters once again.

***

Fighting against something the size of Nevaria was ridiculously difficult. None of the damage we did was big enough to be considered more than a scratch. We’d gouged its flesh, tore it apart with spatial cuts, and even damaged one of its eyes. Nothing worked. We were like flies buzzing around it. To make matters worse, this thing could heal.

“This princess has had enough of you!”

Lin screamed as she unleashed hellish black flames from her hands. Void fire. The Concept of Negation burned darkly in the light as it slammed into Entz’s face and burned off a good chunk of his nose. For just a moment, I saw bone. Then the wound healed. There wasn’t even a scratch left behind.

Entz was not content to let Lin attack and do nothing back. Before my wife could move, water rose from the ocean, transformed into sharks, and opened their mouths wide to chomp down on her. Lin snarled as she swung her tail, destroying the sharks with a single swipe. Her ability to use the Concept of Negation was improving. She always did get better by learning through experience.

However, all those sharks were just a distraction for the real attack.

“Look out, Lin!”

I appeared before her using the Flash Step Version 3: Light Step and spread my hands out just as a tidal wave crashed down behind her. Spiritual Power exploded from my body. I didn’t use a concept since life and death would do nothing here, and instead channeled the wind element. Powerful gusts like a hurricane slammed into the wave. Wind blades shot from me and sliced it to ribbons.

“Thanks, Darling,” Lin said.

I could only nod at her.

While I was defending Lin, Siv in her dragon form attacked Entz with reckless abandon. She tore into the creature’s skin with her sharp claws covered in spatial energy. Each of her attacks created spatial tears that ripped Entz’s flesh to shreds. Blood sprayed everywhere. Pink sinew became visible. And yet no matter how many times she attacked, the wounds healed right back up mere seconds later.

As Siv continued to attack, the giant shark turned his attention on her, and the hardened flesh suddenly opened to reveal hundreds of thousands of… scales? They looked like diamond shaped scales, though each one was about the size of a person. I had a bad premonition, but seconds before I could shout out a warning, the scales shot from Entz’s skin and slammed into Siv.

Ripples appeared in the sky as Siv tried to protect herself with a spatial barrier, but there were simply too many attacks coming in. Her cries of pain as the spatial barrier shattered and her body was battered rent my heart.

“Save Siv!” I told Lin before blasting toward our gigantic foe.

I didn’t use the Flash Step this time since I was generating momentum. The air around me burst as trails of fire exploded from my feet. Then I swung my legs forward, so that I was pointed feet first toward Entz, and planted both feet firmly in the creature’s snout. I thought I heard something breaking. Then again, it could have been my imagination. What I did know was blood burst from Entz’s snout as my feet pulverized a good chunk of its flesh.

Of course, it healed seconds later.

What else was new?

Entz released what sounded like an angry howl, though I didn’t think sharks could do that, and it spun around quicker than I would have expected from such a large creature. It was so fast I barely had time to defend myself when its powerful tail slammed into my side. I screamed as the air around me howled in my ears. My arms were broken, though I healed them with the water element. That meant little as I struck the water’s surface. However, even then, I got my feet underneath me and regained control, skidding across the water and using the resulting momentum to shoot forward.

I ignored the wave that erupted behind me and sped toward Entz as he engaged Lin and Siv in combat. My Drakvarian wife looked battered, her scales damaged and bleeding, but she was using the water element to heal just like Entz could. It was too bad we couldn’t use the ocean to replenish our Spiritual Power. We had already tried, but Entz had complete control over the ocean.

Landing on the giant shark’s back, I created a two meter tall ruler made of death energy, impaled Entz’s flesh, and ran along his back. Blood and black miasma spewed from his body as I created a large cut from his spiracle to his dorsal fin. I would have done more, but those scales of his sprouted from his back and came to life. They transformed into strange monsters with four legs and crab arms.

Lin and Siv landed on the shark’s back beside me. Siv had transformed back into her human form, though her arms were still draconian.

“What in the nine realms are these things?” asked Lin.

“Don’t know. Don’t care. Kill them,” I said.

One of the strange scales leapt forward to attack me, but I split it in half when I brought my ruler down. Another leapt at me from the side. I spun around on the balls of my feet, swatted the creature with the flat of my blade, and sent the thing flying into its companions.

Lin and Siv joined me. They fought side by side, one of them attacking with claws and tail, while the other had created whips made of negation energy and was slicing into the scaled monsters like they were butter. The two made a great combination. Siv slew anything that came close with her spatial tears. Lin, meanwhile, attacked enemies from a distance.

More scaled creatures emerged from Entz’s back. My lungs burned as I swung my death ruler again and again, cutting through some, crushing others, and batting even more away. It felt like this horde of monsters was never ending—it probably was. These creatures were made from the Spiritual Power of Entz, and he had an unlimited supply of that so long as he remained in the water.

“This is… absolutely… ludicrous!” Lin grunted as she crushed a monster flat with her tail. “However! Many! Of! These things! Are there?!”

“They are limitless,” Siv said. One of the monsters tried to get the drop on her, but she leapt back, spun around, and launched a reverse heel kick. The attack was too far to hit. Then a spatial tear ripped the space around them apart and cut into the monster, severing it into two neat halves.

“Triangle formation!” I shouted.

Lin, Siv, and I moved together, standing back to back to form a triangle. Like this, we could protect ourselves from any attack coming at us in any direction.

The swarm of monsters tried to rush us, but we all launched area attacks that killed them in droves. Death energy flew from my palms in a wave that stole their life with ease. Siv unleashed a storm of spatial blades that cut through every monster before her and even tore apart Entz’s back some. Lin was a lot more precise. She swung her whips hundreds of thousands of times in rapid succession to cut the monsters apart like they were made of parchment.

“Uh-oh! Darling look!”

Lin suddenly pointed out something that I had been too busy to notice—the water rising around us on all sides. I looked up as the water closed, creating a dome. What was he doing? Trying to trap us inside? Those were my thoughts until I suddenly found myself engulfed in water. That was when I realized Entz’s real goal was to create a killing field where he had every advantage.

Because everything here was under Entz’s control, myself, Lin, and Siv were unable to do so much as breathe. Wading through the water felt like wading through sludge. We were sitting ducks.

As Entz began thrashing in the water to throw us off, Siv plunged her clawed hands into the flesh of Entz’s back. The wounds healed, but that actually helped her in this case. Lin and I grabbed onto her as the thrashing became worse. We were able to hang on only because of her.

I thought we might be able to hold on longer, but then something powerful slammed into me from the side, crushing my left ribs and sending me hurtling off Entz’s back. Lin was sent sailing seconds later. Before I could recover, something dark appeared above me and smacked into me. It was a gigantic tail. The pain was so intense I think I blacked out, but I came to when my back slammed against the barrier. Groaning, I stood up and looked around.

It looked like this barrier was protected by a hard outer shell to keep us from escaping. It reminded me a little of the Sekbeist Lords’ killing fields. A few of the Sekbeist Lords I had fought were able to entrap me within a dome filled with their understanding of whatever concept they had mastered, which gave them a very powerful advantage over me and anyone else trapped inside. I had been able to break out of those.

But I wondered if I could break out of this.

***

Lin would have cried out as a powerful jet stream of water struck her front, but the breath had been stolen from her lungs. She hurtled through the water. She didn’t get far. Another jet stream struck her from behind, slamming into her spine and sending pain through her body. She coughed up blood, which created a thin tinge of red in the water, though it disappeared seconds later.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to defend herself from the numerous jet streams. It was impossible, however. They came at her from every direction, from every angle, battering her body until it was nothing but a black bruise.

It hurt.

She had felt pain before. When she fought the possessed Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm with Fay, Lin had been torn in half. That had been more painful than anything she had experienced before or since. Even the pain she felt now was nothing compared to that, and so she held on, gritting her teeth as she covered her vitals and created a thick overlay of negation energy around her body to protect it. That actually helped a lot. Lin blinked when a jet stream slammed into her but dissipated harmlessly as it struck her overlay.

What’s going on? Wait! The Concept of Negation can negate everything! Does that mean this princess is able to negate the attacks this stupid fish can hit her with? If so, can this princess also erase the water surrounding it?

Lin narrowed her eyes at Entz and channeled the Concept of Negation through her body. It should theoretically be possible to surround Entz within an overlay similar to her armor, only this would keep him separated from his oh-so-precious water element, which would take away his biggest advantage. Unfortunately, Lin soon discovered that she did not have nearly enough Spiritual Power or understanding of the Concept of Negation to do something like this.

Grimacing as she realized she would have to think of something else, Lin tried to swim back over to where Siv was still hanging on Entz’s back like her life depended on it. She didn’t even see the scale monster coming for her until it was too late. Her negation armor shattered as the creature sacrificed itself. Then all she knew was pain as water once more battered her from all sides.

***

This barrier was made out of a combination of the water element and life energy. The water element had been hardened to the point where it was stronger than mythril, and the life energy repaired any damage done by attacks. I frowned and pondered how to break this. I couldn’t just overpower it. We were in water, which was Entz’s greatest element.

I blinked for a moment as I suddenly realized something. This dome we were trapped in was floating above the ocean, so didn’t that mean Entz no longer had an unlimited supply of Spiritual Power? I looked around and spotted a tendril that reminded me of an umbilical chord connecting the dome to the ocean. So he was still getting Spiritual Power from the ocean to bolster his strength, but what if we could cut that cord?

Finding Entz, I easily noticed that Lin was currently being battered by Entz’s relentless assault, but Siv was still hanging onto his back.

I couldn’t do anything for Lin, so I tried to swim over to Siv.

Entz noticed me.

Before I could do anything, a strong current struck me full in the face, knocking me off course and sending me spiraling out of control through the water. I gritted my teeth and manipulated the wind element to create miniature tornado jets underneath my feet and my palms, which helped me maneuver through the water. Entz might have complete control of water, but he couldn’t control any of the other elements.

I began zigzagging across the space, dodging Entz’s attacks whenever I could and taking those that I couldn’t. I conjured the black and white life and death armor to keep me alive. It would burn through my Spiritual Power quickly, but there was nothing I could do about that.

Lin must have noticed what I was doing because she began doing it too. Unlike me, she was not trying to reach Siv, but was instead trying to distract Entz. She slapped its face with her tail, then blasted away by turning her tail into a tornado that propelled her through the water. The shark chased after her, and it was fast, but Lin used her incredible nimbleness and flexibility to avoid being eaten. She darted through the water like a water snake.

I landed on Entz’s back, punched through its thick hide, and began slowly crawling toward Siv, who was still hanging on for dear life. It took me longer than I would have liked. This thing was bucking and thrashing like mad. Several times I thought I would fall off, and each time I didn’t would have made me sigh in relief if I could breath.

Speaking of, I was beginning to run out of oxygen. I had been using the wind element to create oxygen inside of my body, but that couldn’t replace breathing. I was certain Lin and Siv were in the same boat.

When I reached Siv, I tapped the woman on the shoulder, then gestured toward the umbilical chord. She looked at it. Then she looked back at me and nodded once to show she understood what I wanted.

Her eyes began glowing silver as she channeled spatial energy through her body. Even her hair changed from greenish silver to completely silver. I’d never seen this phenomena before, but perhaps that was because she’d never used so much spatial energy before? Siv removed one of her hands from Entz’s hide, pointed it at the chord, and clenched her hand into a fist.

It happened in an instant. Several million spatial blades sliced into the chord, severing it from the ocean.

In that moment, the barrier shattered and the dome of water vanished. We began falling.

I knew that now might be the only moment we had to attain victory. I launched myself off Entz, blasted toward the water’s surface, struck the ocean feet first, and flew back toward Entz. I crashed into him with so much force that even his massive body was pushed into the air. Flames and wind sprouted from my feet as I continued to push, to keep him out of the water.

“Kari! I don’t know if you can hear me! But this is gonna be your only chance! Do something!”

***

Rune Writing was the act of writing runes onto the surface of something using one’s own Spiritual Power. There was also Rune Etching, which was permanently carving a room into the surface of an item to make the effects permanent.

Kari was using a more advanced version of Rune Writing. She carved runes into the air, then forced them to remain and not dissipate by pumping her own Spiritual Power through the runes even after they were formed. This meant she was consistently draining her Spiritual Power. It also meant the drain grew stronger the more runes she drew in the sky.

Sweat stung her eyes as she drew thousands upon thousands of runes in the air. She was breathing heavily as the strain of drawing so many runes and maintaining them eroded her mind and willpower.

The rune array she was making was even more complicated than her Death Array, which she had used on Vindenket to annihilate an entire army of Sekbeist in an instant.

She continued to work. Meanwhile, down below, Eryk, Siv, and Lin were battling against Entz with everything they had. If she wanted, she could have looked down and seen what they were doing. She did not. Kari knew that if she were to look, her concentration would slip. Seconds ticked by as she continued, until at last, she had completed the rune array made of 10,556 runes. To anyone looking, it would have looked like a massive glowing circle in the sky.

“That is very impressive,” Chloe said from where she floated several meters away. “I have never known someone with your talent for runes.”

“Thank… you…” Kari gasped.

“You’d better get ready. It looks like your chance is coming,” Chloe said and gestured down below.

Kari looked down and was just in time to see the water dome shatter like fragile glass. The gigantic shark began falling from the sky. She could see Lin and Siv holding onto it for dear life, but where was Eryk? Just as she was wondering about him, Entz was blasted into the air like something powerful had struck him from underneath. Could that be Eryk? She didn’t know, but she did know this might be her only chance.

She placed her hands on the rune array and channeled her Spiritual Power into it. More. More. She needed to pump everything she had into this array to activate it. Kari’s vision faded, then came back, and then faded again as the drain on her reserves zapped her strength. She bit the inside of her lip to maintain consciousness. With one last push, Kari activated the rune array, which glowed a brilliant blue that blinded her.

The last thing she saw was her rune array descending toward Entz.

***

I knew Kari had successfully created her rune array the moment my body became trapped. It felt like I had been frozen in time, though my mind was still active. Entz also remained frozen, just hovering in the air far above the ocean’s surface, unable to move even an inch.

Space rippled around us. Silver threads gathered together and created a dome that trapped me, Entz, Siv, and Lin. It reminded me of the killing fields of the Sekbeist Lords, but this only lasted for a single second before it vanished, revealing a bright blue sky with a few small clouds.

Time reasserted itself not long after we appeared. I quickly darted out from underneath Entz as he began falling. Soaring into the sky, I watched as the giant shark fell into a large basin several hundred kilometers in diameter, and I realized however belatedly that the place where Chloe transported us to was Nevaria. The shark fell into the basic, which still wasn’t large enough to contain him, and began flopping around like a fish out of water.

Well, he kind of was a fish out of water.

“Darling!”

“Eryk!”

Siv and Lin came flying toward me. I was so happy to see they were safe that I hugged them without thinking, even though we were technically still in a battle.

“I’m so glad you two are safe,” I said.

“Us too. We are glad you’re okay,” Siv said.

“What should we do now?” asked Lin.

I let them go and looked back at Entz, who had locked his eyes on us. They were red and black with rage.

“It’s time to finish this,” I said.

I knew this creature was actually the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm, a hero from the Great War who had held off the Sekbeist Invasion alongside the other Great Overlords, but I also knew there was nothing we could do for him. We couldn’t remove the Sekbeist Overlord’s hand. It was sad, but the most we could do for this hero of lore was put him out of his misery.

“Let’s do this!” I shouted.

“Yeah!” Siv said.

“This princess is with you!” responded Lin.

The three of us shot off like bolts of lightning, streaking toward Entz, who responded with a wave of water to impede our progress. Lin pushed ahead of us and created her negation armor. Her body became covered in repugnant black power. She slammed head first into the wave and demolished it.

Several dozen massive spears of water erupted from Entz’s body and flew toward us. Lin rotated out with Siv, who shot forward like a brilliant streak of silver light. Her body was covered in spatial distortions shaped like blades. All those distortions gathered around her clawed hands, which she swung forward with a mighty heave. Silver blades flew from her hands, sliced into the water spears, and sliced them to ribbons.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed all the Spiritual Power I had into my hand—my real hand and not my fake one. My fake hand had already crumbled away. Black death energy engulfed my hand as I held it in front of me like the point of a spear. Overtaking both Lin and Siv, I descended toward Entz, who stared at me with a single blood-red eye, which was what I was aiming for.

I slammed into his eye. The death energy caused the eye to erode a split second after I struck. Entz thrashed as though to buck me off, but I planted my feet on him and grabbed the rim of his eye as I pumped his body full of death energy. Black marks appeared around his eye, then spread across the rest of his shark head, and then his body. They looked like bruises, but it was actually decay setting him.

He tried to fight off the decay with life energy, and when that didn’t work, I felt him shift to negation energy, but it was far too late. I could feel it. My death energy had already reached his brain. It spread across his brain, eroding the organ that all creatures no matter what realm they were from possessed. It wasn’t long before his thrashing slowed down and became the occasional twitch. His eye went from red and black to a single black pupil surrounded by white. I thought I saw intelligence return to his eye, but then it glazed over in death.

Entz, the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm, a hero of the Great War, died.

With a sigh, I pulled my hand from Entz’s eye. It was covered in juices, but I used the water element to clean it off as I walked across his body and leapt onto the ground. I stumbled when my legs turned to jelly.

“Darling!”

“Are you okay, Eryk?!”

Siv and Lin landed on the ground next to me, and I smiled at them, though I thought it must have seemed awfully frail.

“I’m fired. Just exhausted.”

Lin and Siv moved to either side of me and helped me stay standing. I would have to thank them later. For now, we began walking away from the gigantic shark, which was so large not even the crater could contain it. That crater was at least a hundred kilometers wide. It was ridiculous that something as large as this shark could exist, but I guess it made sense if Sfærevannwas a world of nothing but water.

I took one last look at Entz as we turned around and thought I saw something black like miasma drifting off his body. Then I looked back in front of me. We had no more reason to remain here.

***

“Ha ha ha! Bravo! Bravo! That was an incredible showing!”

Wutend clapped his hands as he floated several hundred meters in the air and watched the exhausted trio leave. He did briefly consider killing them… but no. They were doing his job for him. Why kill them when they had proven so useful?

Black miasma from Entz’s body drifted through the air and gathered around him. Wutend eyes glowed with glee as he held out a black chalice covered in the language of his people. There was already a lot of black miasma like liquid sloshing around the inside, though not a single drop spilled out. The miasma from Entz flew into the chalice, which glowed blackish red as the lettering carved into the chalice lit up.

Wutend grinned.

“So that’s Ask, Weib, and now Entz. We only need to release the remaining six Great Overlords and gather the rest of our lord’s essence to revive him.” Dawn was already coming. Wutend looked at the two moons as they peaked out from behind the mountains. “Soon, my lord. You shall very soon return to this world, and then we can reap everything there is to be had from this pathetic planet.”