Feeling that long-lost sensation of being completely drained, Rorschach felt his thoughts turning sluggish.
But there was no ti to rest. The falling, corrupt ooze was about to engulf them all. Master Humboldt urged his Guardian Oak to hold it back temporarily, buying Rorschach a chance.
The young man scoured the environnt for Magic Power, brutally pumping it into his body. Violent, racing streaks of purple light appeared across his skin.
’It’s like stuffing myself into a hydraulic press...’ Enduring the bloating pain racking his body, Rorschach cast the so-called "Blessing"—[Deryats Forest].
"What’s happening?" Master Humboldt felt he had lost control of his Guardian Domain. Sturdy trees erupted from the ground beneath his feet, possessing solid forms yet shimring with a magnificent aura of blue fireflies. Their canopies ford a tight seal, blocking all the filth, as ethereal flas blazed to sublimate and purify the ooze.
Rorschach beca the center of this nascent forest. Within the limited domain that enveloped all his teammates, he beca like the original Divine Wood—the source and terminus of Magic Power and Vitality, the pumping heart of the cycle.
Outside this "Shelter," Deryats, now returned to the Main Plane, began to sprout massive antlers. His face took on a majestic, masculine visage as He prepared to fight in His powerful new incarnation.
His form swelled continuously as He stomped His iron-shod foot down hard—in that mont, He was Vidar from the legends of the Northern Dwarves. His iron boots allowed Him to walk through magma and fierce flas. A rough-hewn Iron Sword materialized in His hand, poised to reenact the divine feat of slaying a Giant Beast.
The purple embryo let out a mournful wail as random, thick plates of armor sprouted across its body and withered branches grew from its spine. It gained a bizarre buoyancy from this, slowly lifting the sword-wielding Giant into the air. Its skin secreted a viscous fluid, attempting to corrode the god-gifted iron boots.
The Great Sword swung down, imbued with crackling Thunder and biting frost. Yet, it passed clean through the Divine Abomination’s flesh, and when it erged, its sharp edge had vanished.
The Giant simply tossed the Great Sword aside. Erald-green brilliance erupted from His mouth, eyes, and hands. He seized the embryo in a grapple, the green light tangling with the billowing, purplish-black mist.
The Divine Abomination embryo began to fight back. The withered branches on its back extended and forked continuously as it vomited an inky-green blood. The branches plunged irresistibly, deep into the Giant’s chest and abdon. A foul power warped the wounds, while the inky-green blood seeped into the Giant’s arms, corroding the flesh down to the bone.
Vidar had no choice but to release the embryo. He could have healed Himself, of course, but the creature’s Authority over ’mutation’ was most effective during periods of growth and regeneration. It was analogous to how malformations and cancers most easily arise within a living body during massive cellular proliferation and differentiation.
He first channeled His erald, natural power to dispel the malevolent energy, then began to heal His wounds. Even so, He still coughed up large chunks of flesh tainted with the concept of ’cancer’.
anwhile, patches of tender, pink skin appeared on the embryo’s body wherever it had been bathed in the erald light. While this might have been a healthy color for a normal organism, to the embryo, it was a festering, venomous sore. It was an imbalanced being, sustained only by constant mutation; any part of it that returned to a normal state imdiately collapsed, erupting in a bloody sar of red and green.
Near the domain where the two were fighting, the others watched the battle through the trees.
"This might be the first Divine War since the Age of Silence, eh? Though for gods, they’re both in extrely weak forms." Only Old Sir Kou Bo had the leisure to make such comnts. "Young Rorschach is maintaining this place, so, Alexander, how about you hold an umbrella for ?"
The others didn’t understand what he ant, but Humboldt Great Mage did. He raised a Jade Barrier to cover them both, and together they charged out of the forest, braving the gale of wild Magic outside the [Deryats Forest] to join the energy-ravaged battlefield.
Kou Bo rode the winds upward, positioning himself high above the massive embryonic monster.
"Good thing this new body of mine is so handy." With that, he unfurled all of his mycelia, letting them drift in the air. Under the Great Mage’s will, every single strand began to process and alter the surrounding Magic Power, summoning a thundercloud that was larger, more active, and more violent than the last.
Ninth Ring Spell: [Revenge Storm]
As he chanted continuously, the Essence of nature beca imbued with the properties of ice, thunder, and wind. They swirled above the embryo, swimming freely through the thundercloud.
The first wave of attack was a barrage of dense lightning strikes, their frequency so high they continuously illuminated the night sky.
In the second wave, acid rain poured from the heavens, causing the embryo to writhe in pain.
Finally, a continuous bombardnt of gales, lightning, and hail struck. Even the worst weather in the Northern Lands could not compare to what the embryo was now enduring. Each force was like a blade, slashing at its body and digging into its flesh.
Under this onslaught of violent natural disasters, the embryo’s surface was constantly being damaged, and it constantly tried to heal. Fleshy tumors rapidly sprouted from its wounds. With so many injuries, its new growths rendered it completely unrecognizable. It no longer resembled an embryo, but a great, fleshy worm with two clumps of withered branches sticking out of it.
However, its warped Vitality remained largely intact. Instead, it began to proliferate without restraint, absorbing the ooze ford from the fallen giant trees and continuing to expand.
「anwhile, in the forest sheltering the apprentices:」
Within the cycle, Rorschach grew slightly more lucid. He was now able to spare so of his focus while still maintaining [Deryats Forest].
"Cavendish, give your Alchemy Map."
Cavendish didn’t know what use Rorschach had for the map right now, but he handed over his prized map without hesitation.
Rorschach bit his finger and firmly pressed a bloody print onto the map, right where the glowing dot was. Then, the young man took out a prepared Portable Communication Scroll and placed the map on top of it.
"Cavendish, activate it."
For days now, Rorschach had been diligently using this type of scroll to contact Kano. He had sent letters describing the forest, their discoveries, and their encounters. He had even teleported leaves, branches, and a small soil sample. Today, he was sending the map.
Rorschach did this tirelessly, regardless of whether the recipient on the other end, Lionel Kano, was getting annoyed.
A light flared, and the blood-marked map was sent to the other end of the Teleportation Array.
’You better not be taking an afternoon nap, you oaf.’ Rorschach glanced at the Pocket Watch made by His Majesty the King. It was 2:05 in the afternoon.
Rorschach’s insistence on this "ssage barrage" had only one purpose: [Any Door].
It was a forbidden Teleportation Magic. With this spell, a powerful Mage could teleport to a location within the sa plane that they had never visited. The key was imagination and description; the more accurately the destination was constructed, the higher the chance of success and the smaller the margin of error in the teleportation.
Rorschach believed that with all the information he had sent, coupled with Kano’s own research into teleportation, it would be enough to successfully bring a Great Mage to the battlefield—adding a significant weight to their side, in every sense of the term.
2:07 PM.
High above the embryo, Deryats shed His masculine incarnation. In truth, He disliked that form; since ancient tis, He had never spoken a single word while in the guise of Vidar, which had earned Him the title "God of Silence."
He ca to a realization. He currently wielded the Authorities of both blight and bounty, whereas the blindly proliferating tumor before Him possessed only a partial power from Mother Earth: mutation. This ant it could never stop growing. And so, Deryats called down both of His powers to bring about balance—the very state He had always striven to maintain, and the one the Divine Abomination embryo despised most.
The blight and the tumor’s own proliferation reached an equilibrium, successfully halting its expansion. The great, fleshy worm was now trapped within a Domain of natural cycles.
The next step was to kill it... but that was the problem. Judging from the battle so far, neither Deryats Himself, nor Kou Bo and Humboldt Mage who shared a similar vein of power, could inflict lethal damage on this foul spawn.
2:08 PM.
"AHHH—!" A tumbling fat man fell from the sky, plumting toward the battlefield. He stabilized himself and began to float just before an intimate eting with the ground, then grinned at the Divine Abomination. "With a face that ugly, you’ve got to be the bad guy, right?"
With that, the Great Mage crushed a crystal. Energy unfurled from it in a controlled pattern, ascending high into the endless sky.
A rift tore open in the night sky. This ti, what fell from above were four flaming teors.
User Comments
0 comments from readers