WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 56

I had moved with the Nevarian Spiritualists to Demon Beast Pass. I would have gone back by myself, but even I would not be able to defeat an army of over sixty thousand on my own. Smashing against the army like an anvil and a hammer required a force that was at least somewhat comparable in size and strength.

I was strong.

But I did not have the strength of sixty thousand.

We made out way through the forest, with me, Dante, and Hellen at the head. After we had crossed over the drawbridge, which was miraculously still standing, we made it to Demon Beast Pass—and found a massive army of Demon Beasts and Sekbeists waiting for us.

I could actually tell their forces had been whittled down quite a bit. It looked like at least ten or twenty thousand had been slain, which meant my idea of having us form a defensive line in the pass to limit the amount of forces this army could bring to bare on us was a good one. However, I also recognized that a lot of the enemies who’d been slain were grunts and C-rank Demon Beasts. The real threats were the creatures closest to us, the Greater Behemoths and Acromantula.

There was also one other threat that I couldn’t underestimate.

And he was currently fighting against Kari, Lin, Fay, and the others.

I wasn’t sure how long their battle had been doing for, but when I saw the large sphere floating in the sky and slowly descending toward the women I loved, I knew it must have been for awhile. Hilda, Kari, Herleif, and a woman I didn’t know were doing everything in their power to stop the sphere from falling. However, it continued to move closer to them with every passing second.

At least, it did until Siv blasted it away with an incredible wind attack.

I remembered seeing Siv’s power back when she was being controlled, so I knew she had reached the Third State of Spiritualism… or the dragon equivalent of that. Even so, seeing her fire off a tiny sphere of wind with the destructive power of an S-rank Spiritual Technique was impressive. There sphere penetrated the black ball and detonated inside of it, destroying it. Words like Incredible and amazing would not have done what happened justice.

This didn’t end the threat, however. The man who I feared was the greatest threat to Nevaria wasn’t died. He appeared from within a shadow, his blond hair with gray flecks, his cold eyes, and the armor covering his body giving him the air of a military man. However, the insane grin on his lips was anything but militaristic. It made me think of a psychotic killer.

“It looks like the situation is pretty bad.” Dante was not wearing his usual lazy grin, but he was still grinning as he looked at me. “What should we do?”

“Do you even have to ask?” I summoned the Dragon’s Tail Ruler from my storage ring and readied it. “We charge in!”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Dante crowed.

Meanwhile, Hellen turned around to face the Nevarian Spiritualists who followed us. “ALL FORCES! CHARGE!”

And that was the signal. All eighteen thousand Nevarian Spiritualists who formed the hammer of our strategy released a resounding battlecry and charge forward. Their feet thundered against the ground and caused it to shake. Their roars echoed through Demon Beast Pass and made the enemy army turn to face us.

While I was at the front of the charge, I did not remain by the side of these people. My body surged with Spiritual Power as I transformed into lightning. My clothes and weapon transformed with me. Like a streak, I used the superior speed that a bolt of lightning could travel at to close the distance between me and one of the Greater Behemoths.

I quickly changed back into a human since the Third State of Spiritualism was not needed to defeat one of these creatures. Greater Behemoths are large and powerful, with a strong defense and even stronger attack, but they had a weakness that I could easily explode.

“HAAA!”

I swung the Dragon’s Tail Ruler against the Greater Behemoth. A loud clang rang out as my attack struck purple fur that was harder than adamantite. While my attack didn’t manage to do any damage to this beast, the strength behind my swing was enough to knock the creature off course. It stumbled to the side. The large gondola sitting on its back also slid, causing the Sekbeists standing on it to squawk in shock as they tumbled over the edge.

Of course, this didn’t defeat the Greater Behemoth. It soon righted itself, then turned its enraged eyes on me. The horns on its head began to glow and spark, a prelude to its oncoming attack.

A grin appeared on my face.

I had no intention of taking that attack.

Using the Jump Step, I maneuvered myself until I was right in front of the second Greater Behemoth. I waited until just before the Greater Behemoth launched its lightning at me, then used the Illusion Step to avoid it. The lightning bolt went straight through my after image and struck the other Greater Behemoth’s flank. An agonized and enraged roar echoed from the creature’s mouth. Meanwhile, the Sekbeist and gondola it had been carrying were annihilated by the strike.

Greater Behemoths were A-rank Demon Beasts with incredible power. The lightning bolt that had been fired from the first one’s horns had decimated the entire flank of the second one. I could smell the disgusting scent of overcooked meat from where I stood on the ground. A large hole had been blasted into the Greater Behemoth’s side. It looked like something had exploded inside of its body. The outer layer of flesh was completely charged and smoking black, while the inside was a tender pink. Smoke wafted from the hole.

Moments after it was hit on its flank, it turned to glare at the other Greater Behemoth and launched its own lightning bolt. The attack struck the other Greater Behemoth in the face. It was an instant kill shot. I could only grimace as the creature’s head exploded, sending skull fragments, brain matter, and blood all across the Sekbeists’ battle lines.

Not letting that get to me, I summoned lightning to my hand and speared the inside of the still barely alive Greater Behemoth. My lightning slammed into the charred flank. The muscles and everything inside of it sizzled and popped. The Greater Behemoth roared, though it soon turned into a whimper as its legs gave out and its body fell to the ground. Just like that, it died.

Immediately after killing the Greater Behemoths, I summoned my Spiritual Power and transformed that power into water. My body quickly became liquid. I saw the world around me through a slight haze, like when you’re swimming underneath a lake and the light comes through the water in distorted rays. With but a thought, I surged my Spiritual Power and exploded, but not in the literal sense.

Water blasted out of my body. It crashed against the sides of Demon Beast Pass, expanding and swelling, until it had transformed into a twenty meter large wave, which soon crashed into the Sekbeist army. Many of the Grunts were swept away. Even larger Demon Beasts like the Saber-toothed Tiger were unable to remain standing. Only a few like the Greater Acromantula, which were about half as tall as the Greater Behemoth, were able to keep themselves firmly planted on the ground.

That was fine.

I wasn’t done yet.

I transformed back into a human, and then transformed into lightning once again. Stepping into the water I had created, I generated large amounts of lightning, which raced through the water and struck everything within it. Blue electricity lit up the water and the enemy army within. Thousands were killed in an instant as the lightning fried their bodies.

The water I could create was normally quite pure, but I had made sure to keep the impurities within it so I could generate this attack. I watched as Sekbeists and Demon Beasts lit up like a fireworks display. Only after the water had seeped through the cracks on the ground that had been created some time before I arrived did I cease my attack.

The Nevarian Spiritualists behind me were closing the distance now, so I switched to a more standard mode of attack. Water spheres and lightning bullets appeared above my head. I sent them at the nearest Sekbeists while charging into the enemy lines. Many enemies were soon filled with holes as my attacks blasted right through them. They fell to the ground and formed a small wall of corpses, which I leapt over, the Dragon’s Tail Ruler raised high above my head.

“HHHHAAAAA!”

I slammed the ruler into the ground. I didn’t use any Spiritual Power here. It was nothing but brute strength. Yet even so, the ground shook as a massive crack split it open, starting from where I had struck and growing to several meters in lenght. A number of Sekbeists were knocked off balance, and I used that to my advantage, swinging the Dragon’s Tail Ruler at them. Bones broke. Bodies were sent flying. Several of my enemies were torn in half as the force of my swing split them apart. I gave the Sekbeists no time to attack as I waded into their forces and began making my way toward where the battle against the leader of this army was taking place.

At that moment, the Nevarian Spiritualists crashed into the Sekbeists forces and began pushing against them. Blades of wind, bullets of water, bolts of lightning, and balls of fire flew from the hands and weapons of the Spiritualists. Their attacks struck down numerous Sekbeists who were still too shocked by my display of violence to properly respond. Our surprise attack had done its task. Thousands of Sekbeists and Demon Beasts were slaughtered during the initial assault.

But they soon recovered. It wasn’t long before they began fighting back, and the grueling battle that took place became something akin to a war of attrition. Leaving the front lines to their leader, the Sekbeists and their Demon Beast thralls turned toward this new force and attacked with renewed zeal and war cries.

I decided to leave the army to the Nevarian Spiritualists.

Having finally broken through the enemy lines, I turned into a streak of lightning and slammed into the enemy leader—or that was my plan. A dark portal of some kind appeared in front of the man a split second before I reached him. Tendrils burst from this portal and tried to skewer me, but they were destroyed upon coming into contact with my body. Instead of slamming into the enemy leader, I crashed into the portant, tearing it apart and coming out the other side. I transformed back into a human, landed on the ground, and skidded across the dirt for several meters before coming to a stop.

I turned around. The man was no longer where he had been. In fact, I couldn’t find him at all. Kari, Fay, Lin, and Siv were standing with Empress Hilda and the others, the Sekbeist army was battling against the Nevarian Spiritualists, but the man who I had been hoping to kill was no longer present. He must have disappeared into the shadows using Shadow Walking or some other skill.

“Eryk!” Kari suddenly shouted. “Above you!”

I looked up to find a massive black sphere of crackling Spiritual Power descending on me from above. The hairs on my neck stood up. There was so much power packed into this attack that I couldn’t believe it was something a human had created.

Clicking my tongue, I transformed into a bolt of lightning and shot toward this dark sphere, crashing into it but not piercing it like I had hoped. The sphere continued to push down on me. Its overbearing power was unlike anything I had faced for a long time. I had not faced something this strong since my battle against the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain and his six Elemental Birds.

I pumped more Spiritual Power through my body, until lightning crackled out of my self-contained form. Yet even though I was shoving as much power I could through me, the dark sphere refused to budge. The power present within it was something I simply couldn’t compete with. That realization caused my heart to sink.

Just as I was trying to decide what I should do, a wind bullet about the size of my head pierced the dark sphere and exploded. The violent backlash sent me flying toward the ground. I was prepared for a hard landing on the floor, but then I landed on something else—the massive back of a dragon with green scales. It was Siv.

Siv landed on the ground and transformed back into her human form as I leapt off her back. As I landed on the ground, Kari, Fay, Lin, and the others crowded around me. I summoned a cloak and threw it over Siv.

“Eryk! I’m glad you’ve returned!”

“That was a very reckless thing you did, Eryk.”

“Darling, this princess has been doing her best, but that man is a lot stronger than she assumed he would be.”

Kari, Fay, and Lin spoke at the same time, each of them saying something different. I had trouble keeping up with them. However, they stopped when Empress Hilda walked up to me.

“I am glad you are here,” she said at last. “We really could use your help.”

“I assumed as much.” I nodded and glanced around. The man still hadn’t appeared before us again, which meant we had a bit more time. “It seems our enemy is incredibly powerful. It looks like my suspicions were correct. This man has indeed reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism.”

“There is a Fourth State of Spiritualism?” asked the pretty young woman with blonde hair that bordered on silver and ice blue eyes. I didn’t know who she was, but given our current situation, I couldn’t bring myself to ask for her name.

I nodded and said, “There is. The Fourth State of Spiritualism is what happens when someone becomes so intimate with their element that they can draw energy from that element in nature. Let’s say someone has a lightning affinity. When they reach the Fourth State of Spiritualism, they can absorb lightning in its raw, natural state and use it as an energy source, giving them a near unlimited form of energy.”

In my previous life, I had reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism for the lightning and water elements, though I had never been able to reach it for the light element. It was only thanks to me reaching that state that I had been able to fight against the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain and his six thralls.

“I had no idea there was such a state,” the woman murmured.

“Not many people do,” I said. “In either event, this man has definitely reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism. He is likely hiding within the shadows right now and using that time to replenish the Spiritual Power he lost during his battle against all of you by drawing on all the shadows around us.”

“What should we do?” asked Kari. “We can’t let that man keep absorbing Spiritual Power. We’ll never be able to win if we let that happen.”

She was right, of course. It would be impossible for us to win if we let him keep replenishing his Spiritual Power. The biggest advantage a Spiritualist who had reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism possessed was that they could literally regain all the Spiritual Power they had lost so long as their element was close by. For someone with a darkness affinity, this meant anyplace with shadows would work, though absorbing shadows wasn’t as beneficial as battling during the night.

“Kari… you’ve reached the Third State of Spiritualism, haven’t you?”

“Huh?” Kari blinked in surprise, but she recovered a split second later. “Yes, I have. I’m surprised you noticed so quickly.”

“I want you and Empress Hilda to use your affinity for light to banish all the shadows in this area. Once this man appears, me, Herleif, and…”

I glanced at the woman I didn’t know.

“Sigrid,” she said.

“Right. Me, Herleif, and Sigrid will attack him together.”

I wanted to include Siv in my attack plans, but she was not well-versed in combat. She had power in spades. However, in a battle like this one, power wouldn’t be as useful as skill.

“What about the rest of us?” asked Fay.

“This princess would also like to take part in your plan,” Lin added.

“I need you two and the others to lead the battle against the Sekbeist and their Demon Beast thralls,” I said with a shake of my head. “With the Nevarian Spiritualists fighting on one side and our forces attacking from this side, we have a chance to crush them now. We need to take it.”

Neither of them looked satisfied with my answer, but I think they also understood what I was getting at. They had not reached the Third State of Spiritualism. In a battle against someone like this, anyone who had not reached this state was a liability. They knew this. However, that didn’t mean they had to like it.

“Very well. This princess will lead our forces to glorious victory against these brutes,” Lin said, crossing her arms and puffing out her chest. “However, she will demand a reward from you after this is all over.”

It was nice to see that not even a life and death battle against overwhelming odds could change Lin. I actually took comfort in her oddly cute arrogance.

“Sure. I’ll reward you plenty once this battle is over,” I said.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Empress Hilda began, interrupting our little moment. “But it looks like our foe has recovered his Spiritual Power.”

Empress Hilda was looking at a shadow off in the distance. I turned toward it and watched as the shadow created by several tons of rubble suddenly expanded and a man stepped out of it. As I stared into the crimson eyes of our opponent, I wondered why he felt so familiar to me. It was something I had noticed before. However, it was beginning to really stand out now. This man was using the same kind of abilities that the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain had used.

Was there some connection between these two?

I shook my head. I couldn’t think about that now.

“The rest of you get going. Help the Nevarian Spiritualists,” I said, gesturing to myself, Herleif, Hilda, Sigrid, and Kari. “We can handle this guy.”

“We’ll leave him to you then,” Fay said, then paused before adding, “be careful.”

“We will be,” I said.

Fay, Lin, Catalyna, Marko, Bjark, Valence, Siv, and the remaining members of the Neverian Braves and Imperial Royal Guard departed. They ran toward the battlefield between the Nevarian Spiritualists and the Sekbeist invaders. Fay and Lin slammed into the Sekbeists with fists and tail. Meanwhile, Valence began methodically cutting down everything in his way. The real surprise was Siv, who transformed into a dragon, flew into the air, and began raining destructive balls of wind down on the Sekbeists from above.

I returned my focus to the man we would be fighting. He hadn’t moved yet, but I was certain he was merely observing us, trying to determine the best method of attack.

“All right, you two,” I said to Kari and Hilda. “We’re counting on you.”

“Leave this to us,” Kari said.

“We shall keep him from replenishing his Spiritual Power,” Empress Hilda added.

With those words spoken, the two turned into beings of pure light. They retained their human shape. However, no longer were they made of flesh, blood, and bone. Their bodies were now a brilliant golden color, glowing in the fading light of the evening sun.

Shadows that had begun stretching out across the ground suddenly vanished. Our enemy seemed to realize what we were doing because he charged forward, darkness gathering around his body as he headed toward the two.

I used the Flash Step to intercept him. Appearing in front of him, I channeled lightning into the Dragon’s Tail Ruler and swung it. The segments unlatched and flew forward, curving toward the man much like the tail of a dragon did when attempting to skewer someone, but my weapon was intercepted. Gritting my teeth when a tendril of darkness smacked the segments away, I willed the Dragon’s Tail Ruler back on course, only to be met by six more tendrils.

While I was battling against this man’s dark powers, Sigrid and Herleif attacked from a distance. A blast of fire shot from Sigrid’s hand. It combined with the powerful sphere of wind that Herleif had launched, creating a massive inferno that turned into a spiraling lance of destruction. The heat left scorching waves that distorted the air. The ground beneath it turned red and began bubbling.

“Killkillkillkillmkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillmkillkillkillkill!!!”

Our enemy, screaming at us, raised his hand and created a powerful creature that looked like a massive jaw to intercept the attack. It chomped down on the fire spiral. I was almost too shocked for words at the sight of the dark creature eating their attack. This ability seemed far more profound than someone who had a darkness affinity, or was this what happened when someone with a darkness affinity reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism?

Cursing, I retracted the segments, combing them again, and used the Flash Step to appear right next to the strange creature. I swung my weapon, now coated in lightning and water, cleaving straight through it before it had time to eat my attack. I used the Flash Step again. This time I appeared right next to our foe and tried to slice him apart.

Clang!

My weapon met a scythe. The man had created a scythe out of the darkness element. As I struck it with the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, a sound not unlike metal clashing against metal echoed around the mountain pass. My attack was strong enough that the man was forced to take a step back. However, I was also forced to step back.

Planting my left foot on the ground, I launched myself forward, slicing through several tendrils with the Dragon’s Tail Ruler. My weapon was glowing a bright white as I combined water and lightning along the blade, increasing its cutting power. The man created another one of those strange creatures that was nothing but a jaw and teeth. I cleaved through it, the Dragon’s Tail Ruler splitting the earth as it slammed into the ground.

My attack caused the man to stumble. Herleif used that moment to attack from above, transforming into wind and trying to slice through our enemy. He would have been able to had our opponent been anyone else, but this man turned himself into darkness and disappeared in a whisp before reforming several meters to my left.

Sigrid appeared before this man in a blaze of fire, launching several punches that were met by an equal number of attacks from this strange man. The fire on Sigrid’s fists went out. She was pushed back as the darkness covering her opponent’s body sent her stumbling.

I appeared next to the man using the Flash Step. Already swinging the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, I narrowed my eyes and watched as it struck the man, who only skidded back a few steps. I realized with some shock that he’d managed to catch my blade somehow. With a grunt, the man lifted me off the ground by the sword and threw both me and the Dragon’s Tail Ruler away. As I flew through the air, I flipped around and landed on the ground.

Sigrid and Herleif began attacking the man in tandem, their bodies spewing fire and wind blades as they tried to cut our enemy down, but no matter how many attacks came his way, our opponent didn’t give in. He blocked what he could. When he couldn’t block their attacks, he transformed into darkness to escape. Their attacks cut through him, but he became like a wisp of black smoke that simply reformed seconds later.

I was growing frustrated. Our attacks weren’t harming him at all. What’s more, we didn’t have much more time left. Kari and Empress Hilda were doing everything they could to keep generating enough light to banish all the shadows in this area. They had even taken to consuming Spiritual Recovery Pills. One of them would enter the Third State, while the other recovered their Spiritual Power. However, this method might let them last longer, but they would eventually be unable to handle the mental strain this task required of them.

We needed to defeat this man now.

I reviewed everything I knew about this man from the battle so far. He used the darkness element, though it seemed more all-encompassing than what I was used to. His ability to control the darkness was something I’d only seen from the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain. However, he didn’t seem to have the same infinite supply of Spiritual Power as my most hated enemy. He needed to hide in the shadows to recharge… though that would change once night came.

My first idea had been to fight in a battle of attrition. If we could just wear him down, he would run out of Spiritual Power and we could strike him while he was weak, but that wasn’t working.

I watched as the man fought of Sigrid and Herleif, who had transformed into the fire and wind elements. The two were flying around the man and attacking from many different angles and with numerous attacks. Waves of flame washed over the man, but he simply created what appeared to be a black hole that sucked all the fire up. The black hole was sliced in half by Herleif’s wind blade. However, their opponent sliced the air in front of him, creating what looked almost like a tear in space. Darkness seeped out of the tear and sucked up the wind blade.

Frowning, I decided there was only one thing I could do. Fight darkness with darkness. I didn’t have the same power as this man, and I couldn’t control the element like him, but he didn’t know I could use it either. If I could just surprise him, then maybe we could win this.

I transformed into lightning once more and shot toward the man, who turned and sliced the air from above his head all the way to the ground. Another tear appeared in front of me, but I separated my body into two separate lightning bolts and slammed into him. He stumbled back as I transformed back into a human and attacked him with renewed zeal.

I swung the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, which split into numerous segments, and watched as he knocked it aside. The segments went wide, and I willed them to curve around as Herleif and Sigrid kept our foe occupied. Instead of gathering lightning and water like I normally did, I gathered the darkness. My blade turned as black as the night and slipped passed Herleif and Sigrid. It pierced the layer of darkness covering his body, penetrated his back between his shoulder blades, and came out of his chest. Dark blood dripped along the blade.

The man screamed. It was a loud wailing of agony, but it didn’t sound like one person screaming. A second voice had overlapped with the first, darker and more brutal than the man’s. This voice reminded me of the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain. It was a deep baritone that shook me to my core.

Black miasma flew off his body, crashing against the three of us. I was forced to let go of the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, which suddenly turned brittle and hard before disintegrating under the incredible power being emitted by this man. Even with the blade no longer impaling him, the man continued to scream as the dark miasma flew off his body and dispersed in the atmosphere. The wind soon died down. The man’s screaming grew quiet. He stood still for several seconds, his back arched in a manner that looked painful, and then he fell onto his back.

I walked cautiously forward, staring at the man and wondering whether or not he was dead. However, the man took a startled breath. His open eyes cleared a little and he looked around. His eyes stopped moving after locking onto me.

And then he smiled. It wasn’t the insane smile from before. It was a genuine smile from the heart.

“T-thank… you…”

Those were the last words he said before his body crumbled away, leaving behind a pile of ash. I stared at the ashes. My mind was somewhat numb. However, even through my shock, I was able to spot the slight glint of light from within the pile of ash. I reached down and grabbed the object. It was… a key? While slightly unusual in design, with strange grooves and a more square shape than I was used to seeing, I still recognized this object as a key.

As I stored the key in my storage ring, I thought back to the man’s last words. They had shocked me, but now I also realized that when he had been screaming like an insane man, he hadn’t been screaming “kill” as I had first assumed.

He had been screaming “kill me.”

Those words only left me more befuddled than before.