WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 64

There was hardly a moment’s time to hesitate. The Leviathan opened its massive mouth and began sucking all the water toward it, creating a terrifying suction force that pulled at the small sphere I had encased myself in.

Of course, I wasn’t just going to stand there and take this, so I used my ability to manipulate water to try and swim away. I didn’t swim back, however. That would have been dumb. The force pulling me in was too great. Instead, I created a propelling force that shoved me to the side, allowing me to move outside of the Leviathan’s incredible sucking power’s sphere of influence. Yet even then I was given no reprieve.

Several powerful feelers with spiked tips flew toward me one after the other. I leapt back to avoid them, then swung my hand out and created a cutting blade made of water. My attempt at slicing the nearest feeler off met with failure. Whatever this Demon Beast’s hide was made from, it was far too strong for my Third State of Spiritualism powers over water to do much of anything.

I briefly debated using my ability to manipulate lightning, but I discarded it almost immediately. I was positive I could kill the Leviathan if I used the Fourth State of Spiritualism. However, I was in the middle of the sea. This sea, which was filled to the brim with contaminants, would easily conduct electricity. There was a very good chance my powers would do more damage than I intended. I wanted to kill the Leviathan, but I didn’t want to destroy the environment.

I also didn’t want to potentially harm myself with the backlash.

Since I had no options right now other than to flee, I quickly turned tail and bolted away, using my powers over water to create a propelling force that blasted me forward.

The Leviathan didn’t take kindly to my attempts at fleeing. It roared, a ferocious sound that carried an indelible force that pushed into me and nearly knocked me off my course. I could only grit my teeth and steady myself. When I looked behind me, I found that the Leviathan had given chase.

Despite being easily the most massive Demon Beast I had ever seen, it moved incredibly swiftly as it swam through the water. Those strange wings jutting from its back somehow helped propel it forward. I would have thought those things would hamper it under water, but I guess they were made specifically for this purpose.

As it charged at me, those feelers began moving. I didn’t realize what they were doing, not at first, but when they all began pointing toward me, the hairs on my arms and legs prickled. Something was about to happen, and I probably wouldn’t like it.

My instincts proved true when, seconds later, each of those feelers fired off a condensed beam of highly compressed water. I barrel-rolled out of the way. Then I watched in shock as the upper half of the building in front of me slid off the lower half. The building had been cut. It was an incredibly smooth cut too. The edges were perfectly smooth as if it had been sliced through with an extremely sharp sword enhanced by wind.

As more of those condensed beams tried to hit me, I realized that just running like this was not going to do anything. I needed to attack!

I turned around and quickly shot toward the Leviathan. Whether the creature was surprised or not, I couldn’t say, but it hesitated for a moment before trying to attack me again. However, it’s movements were a little sluggish. Juking left and right, I avoided the initial feelers as they tried to stab me, and then I was moving past the Leviathan’s head and running along its back.

Reaching into myself, I quickly called up my powers over lightning. I gritted my teeth and struggled to keep the lightning from lashing out at the surrounding water. It sparked and flared, and even I was hit by some of the backlash, but I exerted my will over the lightning and managed to somehow gain control over it.

I wouldn’t have much time. I could already feel my control slipping. At present, I was still manipulating the water to encase me in this bubble, which was the only reason I hadn’t drowned or been crushed by several tons of water. However, that meant I was now controlling two diametrically opposed elements. If I lost control… well, I didn’t want to think about what would happen.

Still gnashing my teeth together, I created a lightning blade, slammed it into the creature’s back, and nearly grinned when an unearthly roar almost shattered my ear drums. My lightning blade pierced straight through this Demon Beast’s skin. It wasn’t as easy as I wished it was. The Leviathan’s skin was incredibly hard—denser and more durable than anything save mythril. Even my lightning attack had trouble penetrating it, but bluish black blood soon began oozing from the wound as I created a long gash from its upper back all the way to those strange wings.

At that point, the Leviathan began thrashing and threw me off. I sailed through the water. Everything was spinning around me, to the point where I thought I might vomit. If there was any silver lining to this action, it was that I managed to disperse my lightning sword before it could explode, or before I could lose control over the water element.

Before I could try to attack again, I found the world around me blurring as a massive vortex sucked me into it. I struggled against the nausea as I was forced to spin around and around. I tried to regain control over my own trajectory and get out of the vortex, but just as I believed I was about to succeed, a force like a one thousand ton boulder suddenly slammed into me from the front.

Blood spewed from my mouth. I could practically feel my internal organs being crushed under this immense force. The world around me went black for a moment, but then the pain exploding against my back forced my consciousness to return. When I looked up, I noticed that I was still at the bottom of the sea, but now I was buried under who knew how many tons of rubble. Did I… hit something? I must have. Maybe it was one of those buildings?

Pain wracked my body, making me understand that, before I could even consider clawing my way out of here, I needed to heal myself. I popped a Spiritual Recovery Pill into my mouth, then used my excess Spiritual Power to manipulate the water in my body. The human body is composed of approximately 60% water, which was why the water element was so great at healing wounds.

When I was all healed up, I unleashed an explosion of water that blew everything away. With a sigh, I walked out of the now gaping hole I had made in the rubble, then looked behind me.

What I had struck wasn’t a building.

It was a mountain.

I gazed at the mountain for a moment, but then a roar alerted me to the danger I was in. Turning back around, I found the Levathian racing toward me with its mouth wide open, feelers firing condensed beams of water, and clawed hands clenching as though they couldn’t wait to crush me.

Taking off again, I tried to use the mountain I had struck as cover—not that it did me any good. The mountain was sliced into several dozen pieces from those compressed water beams. The sharp beams created currents that struck me and sent me tumbling through the water. I once more spun out of control, and the Leviathan used that moment to try and pierce me with one of those feelers. It took all of my considerable willpower to dodge.

Despite being shocked, I was not going to let such an opportunity go. As the feeler moved past me, I created an incredibly intense burst of lightning from my hand, forced it into the shape of a blade, and then swung it. The feeler was severed before it could retract. I watched it fall to the sea floor with a feeling of triumph swelling in my breast.

Those feelers must have been very sensitive because the Leviathan let out an even more intense roar of agony as it thrashed around. I was not the kind of person who would let such an opportunity like this go to waste, so I quickly shot forward and cut off two more feelers before my control over the lightning blade slipped and I was forced to dispel my sword. The Demon Beast’s enraged and agonized cries intensified.

However, it didn’t remain that way for long.

Bloody eyes soon locked onto me.

Even though I couldn’t really figure out its facial expressions, I could tell this Demon Beast was pissed.

I soon learned that this Demon Beast had far more power than I could have imagined. It couldn’t just create vortexes, condensed water beams, and an incredible sucking force. The Leviathan had the power to control the very water we were swimming in. Of course, I should have realized this at the time. A Demon Beast does not become S-rank unless it has reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism. However, for some reason, I hadn’t considered what this meant in regards to fighting such a creature in its natural habitat.

“HGGGG!!”

I felt my internal organs bursting and my bones breaking as the water suddenly gathered around me, creating an intense crushing force. It was hard to describe with words alone, but as I struggled to push against the massive force threatening to turn me into paste, I would have said it felt like I was trapped in the grip of a Lintilskudd—a lightning giant—and slowly being squashed.

Of course, I’d never seen a Lintilskudd before, so maybe my analogy was inaccurate.

My vision became blurry as black spots appeared before it. The sphere I had created was already gone, and now water was pushing into me from all sides. If… if something wasn’t done soon, then I… I might really die!

This thought filled me as I realized I didn’t have a choice anymore. It was either go all out or be crushed to death before my goals could be realized. Death did not frighten me, but I refused to die until I had accomplished my goals.

Biting my lip so hard blood welled up in my mouth, I pushed my mind past the pain and went deep inside my subconscious, toward my Spiritual Core. Once there, I reached out toward the yellow sphere that represented my lightning affinity and placed a hand on it. Like a key unlocking a door or a dam being broken, the floodgates on my Spiritual Power broke.

Spiritual Power washed through me as lightning burst from every pour of my body. I struggled to keep it in as my body transformed into a being of pure lightning. Arcs of power struck the ground and detonated. The water around me sizzled as it was completely fried by the over 30,000 degrees Celsius temperature. Several bolts slammed into the Leviathan, which reared back and screeched as the attacks pierced its skin like it was made of tofu. While all this was happening, I condensed that power into my lightning body.

It was hard. It hurt. My entire body felt like it was breaking apart. I could only assume this was because of my location. Controlling lightning while under the sea really was a nearly impossible task. It was honestly a miracle I could do this at all.

Knowing that I didn’t have much time, I turned toward the Leviathan, which now seemed to realize I wasn’t quite the prey it assumed I was. It looked unwilling to admit defeat. At the same time, it was no longer attacking.

That was fine.

I would attack it now.

Shoving Spiritual Power into my feet, I turned into a streak of lightning and slammed headfirst into the Leviathan’s mouth. I felt some resistance as something shattered. Then there was nothing. I felt no resistance or anything at all—at least, not until I slammed face first into a giant coral reef.

The coral reef exploded around me. It was a detonation so large that all the water in my immediate vicinity either fried or was blown away by the powerful shockwave. For one second, I was standing underneath the bottom of the sea with absolutely no water pressing down on me. I had already transformed back into my regular body, though sparks were still flying off me. The water around me had been pushed back to create the shape of a sphere. However, even as I observed what was happening, I knew what the outcome would be.

Several seconds later, all the water that had been pushed out came back.

And I was crushed underneath several thousand tons of water.

The world around me turned black.

***

“We’ve arrived,” Kari said, her eyes shining with excitement.

“That we have,” I agreed.

“You seem awfully moved,” Fay said to Kari.

“Of course I am.” Kari turned to Fay with a brilliant smile. “Are you not? After all this time, the four of us—excuse me—the five of us have finally come back to these ruins together. Isn’t that something to feel excited about?”

Fay wore an indulgent smile. “Yes, I suppose it is.”

“This princess doesn’t understand what is so great about these ruins,” Lin admitted.

“H-how can you not understand the greatness of ruins like this?” asked a shocked Kari. “Just look at the majesty of those gigantic pillars! They are works of art, crafted by the hands of masters so much more talented than anyone we know. It’s like they come from another world! And the inside of these ruins are simply outstanding. The architecture is not like something you’d see in a regular city. There’s something innately special about them. And we also can’t forget about the history such ruins possess. Who knows what we can learn by exploring it!”

“You may be excited, but this princess still wishes she could go home and take a hot bath.”

Kari looked like she wanted to tear her hair out as she lectured Lin on the virtues of ruins like this. Meanwhile, I stood next to Fay and Siv, studying the pillars, which depicted a pair of Lintilskudd raising their hands as though holding something up.

“All right,” I said, loud enough that Lin and Kari heard me. “Let’s keep going.”

It took about half a day to reach the ruins by walking. We passed through the massive archway and into the equally giant courtyard. The entrance into the ruins were, just like everything else, far too large to have been built by humans.

A gentle breeze caused grass stocks to sway and carried the scent of fresh plant life. Several giant oak trees stood near the walls, creating a large overhang of branches. Like the rest of this place, the trees were about ten times bigger than normal trees and the courtyard was so big it didn’t look like this place was meant for humans.

“It has been so long since we came here,” Kari said. “It feels like forever.”

“Actually, it’s only been a little over one month… give or take a few days,” Fay said to her.

“I meant all of us.” Kari pouted at the redhead.

“You said there was something you wanted to show me?” I asked.

“There is!” Kari suddenly ceased pouting and turned to me, her eyes sparkling like gemstones. “We discovered something amazing in a room below that one room! You remember it, right? It’s that room with all the side passages that led to different levels and had that strange platform with two massive hands on it.”

“I do remember.” I nodded as I vaguely recalled what she was talking about. “If I’m not mistaken, that thing should be a Warp Gate.”

Kari shook her head. “It isn’t a Warp Gate. It’s a key.”

“A key?”

I blinked several times, confusion flitting through my mind, but Kari decided now wasn’t the time for more question.

“It will be better if we just show you.”

With Kari leading the way, we walked through the gigantic first hall, which I think was even bigger than the hallways in Jordiskger. She led me, Fay, Lin, and Siv down to the next floor. We emerged onto the room with numerous walkways. Each walkway was fairly wide, spanning a few meters across. Once again, I was certain these walkways were meant for people much larger than the average human. We followed Kari as she walked through several hallways, descended a number of stairs, and eventually emerged from a hall onto the bottom floor.

This was the floor that contained what I had assumed was a Warp Gate. It was a large platform with two hands jutting from its surface. The hands were about two times larger than I was. The fingers of each hand curled, meeting in the middle to form an archway.

“Fay, Lin? Can you two help me with this?” Kari asked.

“This princess is always willing to help you, Big Sister,” Lin said as she slithered over to Kari.

“I don’t mind helping you,” Fay added.

The three of them left me and Siv as they leapt onto the platform and moved to either side of the hands. Fay and Kari took one hand, while Lin took the other, wrapping their arms around the hands and pulling. Nothing happened at first. However, a creaking sound soon echoed around us as the hands slowly moved apart. When that happened, the cranking of gears resounded throughout the room.

I could only gawk as the wall in front of me suddenly split apart. A giant entrance several times larger than myself appeared before us, leading deeper into the ruins.

“Come on, Eryk,” Kari said as she, Lin, and Fay hopped off the platform. “Let’s keep going.”

“Yeah… okay...”

I didn’t think there was much that could surprise me, but as I walked with Siv and Fay behind Kari and Lin, I found myself truly surprised. The hallway we were walking through was far wider and taller than the normal walkways. On either side were stone statues similar to the ones we had discovered outside, but they were even larger now.

“We discovered this extra room by accident,” Kari admitted with a smile. “The three of us had been staying inside of that room and exploring periodically, but then we accidentally slammed into those hands. When we did, it revealed this place!”

“How do you accidentally slam into something?” I asked.

“Those two were rough housing,” Fay said with a gesture toward Lin and Kari, who suddenly blushed beet red like children who’d been caught stealing baked sweets. “They were sparring with each other and playing around, when they accidentally hit each other so hard they got knocked into those hands.”

“I… see…”

That was a surprisingly childish story, but I could honestly see these two messing around like that and having it get out of hand.

We eventually reached a massive door that was already opened. The door was beyond big. However, by this point I had grown used to everything in this place being gigantic, so I didn’t let myself get too surprised as we walked past it and traveled down a set of stairs. Like the door, the stairs were huge, but there was a small section in the center that featured smaller stairs. If I had to guess, the big stairs were for the Lintilskudd to use, while the smaller ones were meant for the other races.

After reaching the bottom of the staircase, we walked down a hall that eventually opened up into a massive room—and by massive, I meant it was probably three or even four times larger than the Colosseum in Nevaria. The ceiling was maybe sixty or seventy meters above our heads. There were a number of gigantic columns climbing up to the ceiling. However, two things about this place stood out the most.

The first was the massive hands in the center. They were just like the hands Kari, Lin, and Fay had moved to open this door, but they were about four times larger. This was obviously the true Warp Gate.  

Behind the warp gate was the second object that caught my attention: A massive statue. This one was a little smaller than the Warp Gate itself, but the amount of detail astonished me. It featured the same person that all of the other statues were portraying.

“This is what I wanted to show you,” Kari said as she spread her arms out and beamed at me. “Isn’t it magnificent?”

“It is,” I said in awe. “This place is incredible.”

“Right?!” Kari nodded as her eyes sparkled. I could almost swear her eyes were like a pair of green stars twinkling brightly in the night sky.

“I’m still not certain what kind of place this is,” Fay said. “However, even I cannot deny it’s impressive.”

“This place was likely used as a warp point for the Lintilskudd,” I said. Siv, who remained standing by my side without speaking, tilted her head.

“What are Lintilskudd?” asked Lin.

“They are a race of lightning giants from the realm Útgarðar, which is the third of the nine realms,” I explained as I walked over to the Warp Gate. “I don’t know much about Útgarðar or the Lintilskudd. However, it was once explained to me that the realms were like multi-tiered plates stacked on top of each other. Útgarðar is the third plate, meaning it’s the third largest realm, with Miðgarðr—our realm—being the largest.”

“You certainly know a lot,” Fay muttered.

I smiled. “Being from the future, I have a lot of knowledge that you do not. Once Kari regains her memories, she’ll know most of what I know.”

“I had a feeling I would.” Kari placed her hands behind her back and twiddled her fingers. “It seems like I was with you a lot in our previous life. I’m actually really curious to know what kind of life we lived, but I’m also a little scared.”

“Do you not want to remember your past?” I asked.

“I do.” Kari shook her head and sent me a self-deprecating smile. “I’m just afraid of learning about what my past self was like and discovering that maybe you love the me from your previous life more than you do the current me.”

Her words caused me to shake my head. While it hurt, I could understand why she would think this way. That was why I needed to reassure her.

“Kari is Kari no matter what life I’m in. I will always love you the same.”

“Eryk...”

As the two of us stared into each other’s eyes, I felt myself being drawn to Kari as she placed her hands on my chest and tilted her head up. I leaned down. My hands went to her waist as if drawn their by a magnetic force. My eyes fluttered shut seconds before I was about to make contact with Kari’s lips.

“This princess really hates it when they do that,” Lin suddenly mumbled.

“I do feel a little… awkward,” Fay also said. “I know they shared a strong bond in their past life, but seeing them act like this sort of rankles on the nerves, doesn’t it?”

“You said it.”

Me and Kari pulled back and turned to look at Lin, Fay, and Siv, all three of whom were staring at us with very mixed emotions. Siv looked like she might start crying. However, Fay and Lin just seemed put out. Well, Fay’s expression was more resigned, but Lin’s cheeks had swelled like a chipmunk’s as she pouted at us.

“Ah ha ha ha…” Me and Kari placed our hands behind our heads and gave them a sheepish smile as we spoke at the same time. “We’re sorry about that.”

The other three sighed in unison. That was some strange synchronicity there.

Me and Kari studied the Warp Gate a bit more. I discovered that a key was needed to activate the Warp Gate, just like the one in Hovebrann—the former Dweorg capital. That one had required Hriedmar’s axe to unlock, but it looked like this one needed some kind of giant object, a spear or staff maybe. There was a giant hole in the floor next to the gate, which vaguely resembled a complex locking mechanism.

Unfortunately, the key was not anywhere to be found in these ruins. Kari and I did search for several hours to see if we could find another secret passage, but we found nothing.

We remained inside of the ruins for exactly one day before leaving. There was still a lot we needed to do. Now that Kari had shown me what she wanted, it was time for us to gather all the ingredients necessary to create the Elemental Enhancement Pills and Yin-Yang Spiritual Enhancement Pills.