[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 32: Shawshank

Pumping the Archflame’s Heat into his blade, Sam focused every ounce of his bloodline into the tip of his claymore straight into the center of the Warden’s face.

It would have been nice to say that it worked just as the bloodline described. The more impervious the defense, the greater the weakness Sam could inflict, in theory.

In reality, as soon as the tip of the [Charred Claymore] hit the Warden’s body, a field of shimmering force held Sam back from piercing it fully. Sheet lightning rolled out from the hair-thin line between the tip of his blade and the Warden’s head.

Undaunted, Sam pushed with all of his might. So much so that he had entirely forgotten about the coal’s gift of strength. And as the coal’s heat haze of power began to wane, something unexpected happened.

Sam’s blade pushed deeper against the shining force field that had held it at back.

As the coal’s influence faded entirely, Sam fell completely into the realm of his own Incarnate strength. He instinctively switched from one wellspring of power to the other.

He only had his own power to rely on now. As excellent as the coal was for punching above his stats, its buff, unfortunately, could perform as an unintentional crutch.

One that needed resources to replenish. The body of that wooden golem, if not consumed as fuel for the Archflame, might have offered more loot.

The Warden raised a hand to crush Sam, but Raiko was there to distract it with a blinding slash of mana across two of its three eyes.

It didn’t do substantial damage, if any at all, but it provided the tiniest crack in the Warden’s attention that gave Sam the upper hand.

Leveraging his advantage, Sam drove the blade home.

The [Charred Claymore] sank up to the hilt into the creature’s head. But it wasn’t a normal living thing that would be so easily killed.

Sam withdrew the blade and leapt away before the creature’s hand could crush him flat.

Breathing hard, Sam tried to work some life back into his limbs. His arms felt like bags of sand. Using his bloodline to pit his will against another creature’s was nothing like using it against inanimate objects.

A wall, even the best made around, was still just a wall. It didn’t have any mana on its own—at least, none that Sam had seen so far—and no will or soul.

It couldn’t resist like the Warden had.

But its perfect façade was now cracked. Sam had created a weak point in its impenetrable defense.

Now all he had to do was get back at it.

With a body the size of a building, the Warden wasn’t very fast, and the hole Sam had created in its face seemed to be leaking streams of mana.

Its eyes flickered fitfully as it tried to crush either Sam or Raiko, the latter proving hilariously ineffective as Raiko simply phased through the creature’s mighty limbs.

Komachi healed whenever Sam caught a glancing blow, but otherwise she sent bolt after distracting bolt at the Warden, doing her best to time her strikes with Raiko’s in an attempt to confuse the thing.

The last thing she wanted was to draw more attention to Sam.

“You got this,” Komachi whispered to Sam with heartfelt encouragement.

Sam tried to get closer, again focusing entirely on each jump. The platforms seemed to be lifted up on the ever-present wind. Every so often he swore he could see strings of mana between the floating debris, but he forced himself to ignore them.

This was no time to be distracted.

The [Stellar Warden], unfortunately, wasn’t stupid. Whatever intelligence it had, it understood basic tactics at the least. And while it clearly hadn’t expected Sam to be able to hurt it, the boss monster was doing its best to make sure he never got close enough to do it again.

After its initial burst of rage, it stopped attacking either Sam or Raiko and instead focused on the floating debris that spun around it like tiny satellites.

Each and every chunk of rock that came near, it obliterated into powder, creating an accretion disk of dust in its immediate vicinity.

An area far too large for Sam to jump, even with his newfound strength.

Really wish I had some sort of short-range teleport, Sam groused. But he might as well ask for wings for all the good it would do him right now.

While the Warden was busy smashing anything and everything that got near it, Sam was climbing higher and higher into the field of debris above the Warden’s head.

As soon as it began to scan for him, Sam performed the same trick he had done earlier when foreign mana had tried to steal his platform.

Silvery-black flames rolled out from his palm and a powerful weakness stole over him as Sam somehow managed to push the strings of mana away from the block of stone he was standing on.

Without any mana to keep it aloft, gravity took hold.

Reversing his grip on the claymore, Sam wobbly rose to his feet. “Looking for me?” he bellowed at the Warden and activated [Rally] to help soften the fall.

Just as he had hoped, the creature turned its head up at the sound of his voice just as Sam and the block of stone he was on crashed into its face.

The stone had missed the weak point, but Sam’s sword didn’t.

His knees buckled, and he felt something snap painfully, but his claymore went into the Warden’s sole weak point, forming a cross just below its triple eyes.

Even with [Rally], and now Komachi panic-casting [Regen] on him, he still had trouble standing.

But the damage to the Warden was spreading. Thick cracks spidered out from the epicenter of the weak point, flaking off bits of stone. One of the creature’s eyes flashed once, then went dark.

Pulling his sword free, Sam struck again and again while the Warden was still reeling. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up.

It’s not like I have a whole suite of abilities and spells to pull from all day long, Sam thought to himself as he used [Power Stance] and managed to get off two Arts.

With two stacks of [Fury] empowering him with a faint ruddy haze, he performed a harsh overhand strike, [Shockwave], that shattered what was left of the Warden’s face.

An explosion of blinding force threw Sam and Komachi into the void, only to be caught by the blackened boughs of the tree at the center of the area.

The [Stellar Warden] broke apart completely, but as it did so, a ruby streak of light fled into the turbulent wall of storms. The storms died down, revealing sections of drifting ruins.

A way through.

You defeat the [Stellar Warden (Boss) (Level 15)].

You gain substantial Experience for slaying an Impossibly Tough Boss monster.

As Sam read the notification, the Warden’s remaining parts drifted down and organized themselves into a floating circular platform. It looked a lot like a mosaic being made before his eyes.

It was only one notification out of many, but in many ways, it was the most important one. The others could wait until he had a bit of a breather.

Sam spied a silvery chest and two huge hexagonal rubies to either side. A series of thin platforms rose up to the base of the tree like a massive spiral staircase supported by nothing other than air.

Groaning, Sam checked on Komachi tucked into his breastplate. “You okay?” he wheezed.

The little British shorthair gave him two furry thumbs up.

Sam struggled to a sitting position on the dark branch. Was he imagining things, or had it reached out to catch him?

With a shrug, Sam took a moment to breathe and let Komachi’s stacked [Regen] work its magic. The pulsing pain in his legs slowly subsided. His HP ticked up ever-so-slowly even with multiple [Regens] on him.

Too bad the spell didn’t also work on his MP, but it was slowly recovering too while he rested.

Raiko drifted to his branch, more ethereal and transparent than usual. She regarded the tree with a grim look.

Komachi, visibly unsure what a ghost needed, cast [Regen] upon her. Bits of glittering energy faintly pulsed around her, curiously looking almost like musical notes.

Is that what the spell looks like, and I somehow never noticed?  Sam thought, wondering if there was some kind of change in his cat’s spellcasting abilities.

Fragments of the Warden drifted about the space, lifeless and separated from the greater whole. The pieces that didn’t make up the platform below reverted to rubble and dust.

The way forward beckoned to him. It looked like the long hall of some ancient temple or cathedral. Faded paintings and frescoes worn with time adorned a path that led to a series of floating ancient buildings in the distance.

Storms still raged out there, but they no longer blocked everything from view. The pathways of floating stone ruins seemed untouched by the turbulent winds.

The idea of turning around to leave never seemed to enter Sam’s mind.

Besides, where would the fun be in running away?

There was more to be explored, and now that things had finally gotten interesting, Sam was more invested than ever in seeing this through to the end.

Sam looked down at the dark tree he was resting on. He could just faintly make out the crystal its roots were wrapped around. “Don’t suppose you’re some magical tree that could help me out?”

Silence answered him.

“Fair enough. Just figured you’d prefer to let me down there instead of me climbing all over you. No? Have it your way.”

Taking his time, because falling to your death after defeating a boss was so not the way he wanted to go, Sam made it to the platform below.

Why am I so weak? Sam wondered. He felt like he’d just spent the whole day underwater rock running.

Even a few minutes of running beneath the ocean waves with a 50-pound rock in your arms would tire you out for the rest of the day. And this felt even worse than that.

“Those silver and black flames. Is that your mana?” Raiko asked, quite close. “Is it… from that curious coal you hold?” The latter question sounded hopeful, like somebody who wanted to hear anything but a grave fate.

Sam sat down and folded his legs. “No,” he said finally. He was still catching his breath for some reason. He hadn’t felt this weak since arriving on Il’dran.

“To be honest, I’m not sure how I did that. I… think I remember something—what is it, Raiko?”

She stared at him, strangely intense. Tears gathered in her eyes for some reason.

Komachi whimpered, pulling at his heartstrings.

Sam frowned and went to reassure Komachi, but as he reached his hand out, he saw it for the first time. His fingertips were wreathed in silver-black fire.

He tried to snuff it out, but it seemed to make him weaker the more he struggled against it.

Gripping his hand at the wrist, he held it out as if it belonged to somebody else.

“Wield another type of mana! Anything else to cleanse it from your body,” Raiko pleaded with urgency. “That mana has the darkness of the Apocalypse upon it. One aspect of the end. It is poison if uncontrolled, a beast without a master.”

“I don’t have any other mana!” Sam replied. “Every time I’ve gotten an attunement, it just feeds into my Void attunement. Raiko, what the hell is going on?”

“Void mana.” She looked stunned, then shook it off hastily. “You’ve two options.”

“I’m all ears!” he interrupted, still trying in vain to shut off the flow of mana. Flapping his hand like a madman sure wasn’t working.

“Control it, somehow,” Raiko said with desperation. “Push it back from whence it came within your natural mana pool, or else draw upon any other source of mana within your possession to temporarily keep it at bay. I can drop a scroll on you, but I’m not sure it’d even work.”

“Oh, is that all?” Sam said with mock calm.

“I don’t know, Sam! I foolishly hoped you were spared, and I paid the price alone instead. What do you think did me in? Not the waves of monsters, and not that assassin, either. It was my Apocalypse mana, running out of control.”

“I heard one of the knights talking about Apocalypse mana,” Sam said slowly. “They sounded terrified, Raiko. The same men and women who faced down those Empty monsters without batting an eye were afraid of Apocalypse mana. And you’re telling me that’s what is… in us?”

On some level, Sam had always known, and yet… he had hoped it was somehow different. As always, ignoring the problem only ever served to make it worse.

“Yes. Its purpose, its very essence of power, is to destroy and be destroyed. It killed me, and it will kill you too if you do not fight this off. The Empty drew upon it, became it, a never-ending cycle of unliving rot and entropic disease.”