175. S-Rank Dungeon (VII)

The Blob King trembled like a cannon about to blast. Zane felt its essence drawing in, thickening, raging down its flesh, brightening by the second until its whole fat body glowed like a supernova in the astral plane. Like was it was setting its very life on fire. It bellowed a war cry.

And its Bloodline burned. Its skin burned too. So did the blubber underneath, streaming with unnatural pale light. A light so thick it saturated the waters, warring with the colors of Stormfire…

It flexed that mountain of a body and Zane saw thick slabs of muscle, rootlike veins bulging under the fat. The thing looked grotesque. It smiled grotesquely too, a too-big shit-eating grin on its too-big face.

And a Concept poured out from it.

Absorption—at a density Zane had never felt before.

It charged him like a wrecking ball.

And Zane answered it with a roar of his own, a roar of pure effort. The sound a man makes when his soul's still raring to go, but his body can't take any more.

He heaved, straining with everything he had. And unleashed his Cyclone to its fullest.

There was a horrible tearing sound slashing across his body. Like some invisible zipper running across him was ripped open at once. Then a brutal pain lancing up and down his body, slashing him open inside-out. He felt half the big muscles in his upper body rupture all at once. Rivers of blood exploded out of him, flowing upward; reams of flesh tore up and down his body...

He grunted, wobbling on his feet. He felt a crash of pain. It felt like a baseball bat to the dome.

Zane could eat most anything, pain-wise, with barely a reaction. But this... his biceps, his chest, his back, all shredding up at once—each on its own would send grizzled warriors flopping to their knees, writhing and howling. And they hit him all at once.

Even Zane had to stagger.

Chunks of innards floated out of him, borne out by those blood-rivers…

𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘!

ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝟝𝟘%

At the same time, his Axes found their mark.

They met the Blob King as it blasted at him—and struck the beast right under its sagging triple-chins.

SCHLUNK-SCHLUNK!

The sounds cut through everything pristine and clear and ever-so-sharp—yet strangely soft. A sound made slick by Stormfire. When that fire grazed the tips of Zane's Axes it transformed them utterly. They sank through everything they touched, finding no resistance; they cut like only the sharpest of blades could. Almost gently. Sinking through the softness, blazing a shining new trail through that giant chunk of a body…

The Blob King's mouth drooped open. There was a strangled choking sound. Its filmy milky eyes popped wide.

It slid into the flesh so easily it surprised even Zane. Then again, it was moving with a ludicrous amount of momentum. He'd never thrown that much sheer force before…

And it all descended through the Blob King's innards.

And all the Monster felt was an excruciating pain. Almost as much as Zane felt in that moment.

The difference was, the Monster couldn't handle it.

It lost its mind. It howled, made a guttural warbling sound, shivered, and thrashed this way and that—but the Axes held their course. And just kept sinking… Zane gritted his teeth. He kept the Stormfire on a leash, primed it to explode, but not yet. He needed his Axes deeper.

Ten feet into the Blob King's fatty armor. Twenty. Meeting that turgid ultra-dense essence head-on and carving straight through it.

Zane felt a war being fought in its body—a war between two mighty forces. One—his Axes, wielding their Stormfire. And the sea of Water and Earth and Absorption raging through that mad Monster's body.

They tried to suppress his Stormfire, wrapping around him, smothering him where he stood.

And Zane sliced right through it. Burned through everything it threw at him, cleaved them clean through in one smooth stroke. It didn't even matter what it was. His Axe was so sharp right now, so hot, he felt he could drop it straight on the ground and it'd slice down to the core of the Earth without stopping.

It was slicing through to the core of the Blob King too.

Now it was doing a different kind of trembling. Trembling like a bomb about to explode. It slumped, sagging into itself, jowls dragging wide open, trying to drag in desperate breaths—but even as it did, its lungs crisped inside its body. Its organs were turned to liquid, then steam; a glut of Stormfire was raging inside with a vengeance. And every ounce of blubber it burned only made it hungrier. .

There was nothing the Boss could even do. Zane's Axes were like missiles making a long arc toward their target, toward the creature's very core… Zane clenched his bloody teeth.

And finished it.

Stormfire erupted inside that mound of fat.

The Blob King's eyes became two brilliant blue spheres. Its mouth a lake of Stormfire light. For a moment, every open wound, open mouth, open nostrils, open eyes—it shone with that same color.

A flash of Stormfire blue blanketed everything.

Then—

CRACK-BOOM!

Pure Stormfire swamped the world.

Zane felt it falling over like a tsunami—it was going to swamp the cavern, swamp the oceans, swamp everything, and it was only getting stronger—it'd gotten out of hand. It was so huge in the Astral Plane everywhere Zane looked Stormfire was all he saw. A beast that'd grown so big the collar snapped right off. That mass had a mind of its own now. A mind that only knew hunger.

Zane's hunger.

It was the same feeling that burned inside him every time Zane went to war. And it'd taken on new life.

Zane frowned at it. His head felt very light. He wasn't sure he could move right now if he wanted to.

He was realizing he might've underestimated his own powers.

Then he felt his friends right behind him, standing at the entrance. Avery and Evan and Reina…

NO.

He bellowed. He staggered to his feet and forced up his shaking, torn-up arms.

The sea of Stormfire washed over him…

And he threw every last shred of soul he had at it.

It swallowed him whole.

That beast of his own making torched him alive. He felt a searing pain running through him all over. A pain on top of the excruciating pain already lancing through him—and for a moment he felt blackness blanking out his eyes; he felt his body going weak, felt the world slipping away…

He refused to go like that.

He wrenched himself back, and began to wrestle with the beast.

He slammed his will into it, jerking it back, forcing it down, using all his powers in the Astral plane, all his flesh in the physical, to force that sea of roiling Stormfire to heel. He rolled even as his own body exploded chunk by chunk, failing him by the second; even as Stormfire scorched his innards—

𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘!

ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟝%

He felt it raging against him, a pure intense hunger, an ungodly power looming over him, ready to scorch its own maker to ashes. But Zane stood strong.

Zane knew his body wasn't invincible. His flesh could fail him. But he also knew, deep down, at the core of him—that if there was one thing that would never fail him it was his will.

Nothing had ever even shaken him there. And this was a battle of wills.

That simple confidence made a huge difference as he went to war. When he felt himself straining, felt himself burning alive, he kept on pushing. He knew he'd win. He had to. As they clashed, and he felt that shock of feeling, stood there, letting it wash over him, letting it pass. And then forcing his everything upon it. Bringing it low, snuffing it out bit by bit…

All the while his flesh was turning to liquid. Even his Indomitable Hide. In the distance he heard Reina crying out. He felt her throwing her warmth all over him, throwing as much power into him as she could even as he overdrew himself—just to fight his own wild feelings. He felt her panic in the back of his mind; felt her running closer to him, running into Stormfire's blast zone just so she could throw more essence into him. He had no time to tell her to stop. He was too busy wrestling for his life.

𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘!

ℂ𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙

But the Stormfire was burning out.

It had thrown everything at him. And he'd taken it unflinching—and crushed it lower and lower, so lower it was a field of dim ghostly flickers… Submit, Zane commanded. His eyes narrowed.

It was his soul that spawned this fire. It was his soul that would destroy it.

I created you. You are mine. And you WILL kneel.

He said it like an order. He didn't give those wild feelings a chance to disobey. His soul clamped down, asserted its dominance utterly, and finally the wildness flickered out, bowed tame…

That felt… strange.

Zane blinked. It wasn't like all the other times he'd interacted with essence. It felt like his soul just did something it had never done before; it almost felt like a—

𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕕!

𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝 (ℙ𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕧𝕖) [𝕌𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟 (𝔼)]

𝔸𝕟 𝕒𝕕𝕧𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕕 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕄𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕡𝕦𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟. 𝔾𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕒 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕕𝕖𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕕𝕠𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕚𝕣 𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕, 𝕚𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕠𝕦𝕝 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕦𝕗𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕨𝕚𝕕𝕖, 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕤.

…Huh.

Zane blinked at it, feeling rather woozy.

Then he almost face-planted.

Almost, because Reina was on him almost instantly, crying out, catching him, burying him in her warm embrace. He felt his head pressed against her as she worked on him, fretting, pouring warm essence all over him—he must've looked pretty dire.

Almost at the same time, though, the last of the Blob King's essence poured into him.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟟𝟟 -> 𝟙𝟟𝟠

𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕣 𝔹𝕠𝕤𝕤 𝕕𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕!

𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕨𝕠 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕔𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕕!

There were only two more floors to go. And his body had mended in a flash. His soul still felt a little woozy, though.

Reina was still checking up on him.

"Are you alright?" she said, holding him by the shoulders. It was kind of adorable how concerned she was. Of course he was fine, he said. He felt good. He smiled; he was still pretty pumped up, ready to go. He wanted to—

He blinked.

It seemed his cheek was plastered on the ground.

…Hmmm.

Apparently he'd blacked out for a second.

…Maybe they could take a little break.