196. Monster Knight (III)

Zane ran Asterion straight over.

He started fast—and ramped even faster, like his body were a huge performance muscle car, shifting gear after gear—he slammed straight into it. And the Minotaur couldn't seem to make sense of its new reality. It stumbled back even as those dense slabs of bull-muscle bulged and groaned on its legs, veins and fibers stretched so tight they seemed ready to burst—

A legendary beast giving its max effort.

Zane let out another beastly roar. He shoved back even harder—and for a moment their muscles fought ferociously. Him shoving on Chain, the Minotaur shoving on Axe, hulking brutes going all-out side-by-side, burning so much power it warbled the air. Clouds of essence, of Bloodline, of Law hissed out of them as though leaking out of great steam engines.

Where their bodies met the world ripped wide open. You could see with your bare eyes, one force straining against the other—just by the scars it was leaving on reality…

And one side was clearly winning out.

One force just kept building.

Zane was running so hot now he was streaming essence all over. The air warbled around him, shrieking in protest—every heaving muscle was an engine burning enough essence to power a Safe Zone. His body, in that moment, could power a continent.

Only a God's body could handle that load—and even then Zane could not hold this long. He didn't need to. He unloaded every last shred of it, even as he felt his body ripping at the seams—

Asterion's eyes popped then. It gave a ragged gasp. This no longer felt like a fight. The Monster felt like some deer standing in the path of a freighter. As that power rose and rose, towering over it, it felt for the first time very, very small. Frail. It took everything just to stand its ground—only its disbelief, its utter inability to fathom just what in Heaven's name it was dealing with, locked it in place—

And soon even that was overcome.

Zane's raw brute force smashed everything.

Asterion's muscles burst like bloody balloons inside its enormous frame—it howled.

Asterion, with that Black Axe and all, must've weighed tons upon tons. Made cruise ships seem feathers—and then it was flying, sent hurdling through the air.

It crashed.

The crater smashed the mountain peak flat.

The Monster Knight was in tremendous pain—it was shattered all over. But still it tried to rise. It was in shock, almost in panic, but it still managed to get up to a knee, bleeding from bursts all over its vast musculature, heaving and choking.

It looked up.

Just in time to see what looked to be a meteor. The kind that drove extinctions. Crashing down to earth. Crashing right over it—blazing with so much Stormfire it was like staring into the center of the sun—

STORMFIRE SMASH!

Howling it threw up its Axe, pure reflex, something like a flinch. A shield of black lightning flared all over its surface.

That was the only thing that saved it.

Zane's hammer detonated all over it. And it brought with it the full brunt of his powers.

Asteiron's Axe took the bulk of the force. And that age-old weapon, forged of some ultra-dark steel whose quality Zane couldn't even fathom, screeched as though in pain. And cracked down the middle—a jagged white line running tip-to-hilt.

Asterion cracked too. Bones shattering. Zane could hear it, feel its explosions of pain—but the beast itself was spared most of the force.

That wasn't even the worst part, though.

Stormfire exploded all over it.

That black lightning caught most of the first explosion. But that was only the beginning.

Chain Combustion did its nasty work.

One-two-three-four—a machine-gunning of ballistic blasts. Left-to-right—Stormfire erupted all over its face, its body, making a rainbow arc of destruction, leaving smoking, burning craters all over the Monster Knight's bulky body, like hundreds of meteors crash landing all over it—

Zane let out one last triumphant bellow.

And sagged. Almost falling to a knee. Sweating heavy, glistening with it. Breathing heavier. Locks of long dark hair were matted to his face.

He had dragged out nearly half the essence of his Core in that one huge sequence. And considering Zane—that meant a lot. His power only ramped, the expenditure growing exponentially. Another few seconds and he would've burnt out then and there. Even he had to take a breather. Recharge.

Still. It was enough.

It had to be the single greatest expression of power Earth had ever seen. By several orders of magnitude.

He looked over the smoking crater. So ruined with smoke he couldn't even make out its insides at first. But soon it started to clear.

The Minotaur had some impressive Passive Skills firming its body. Bloodline Stuff. Zane could feel it in that moment. It had tempered its body just like Zane had.

It was why its life force felt like a weak, wispy flicker. Instead of wiped flat. It let out a dragging cough, and cracked bloody tombstone teeth fountained out of its mouth. Its massive body had been smashed to half its width. A good chunk of its bones—a good chunk of its muscles—all shattered.

It was a broken animal. Its limbs dangled useless. Its jaw wrenched to one side of its face. One of its horns had been blasted fully off.

It let out a choking sob. It was whimpering even as it stood, shaking…

The pain it felt then was mind-shattering.

It was less broken than Zane had been. But then—it could not take pain like Zane could.

It took a certain force of will to be willing to stand on a broken leg, and feel it shattering beneath you, and still stand as though it were whole. And Zane knew not everyone could manage it. But you had to at least try, in Zane's opinion.

You couldn't let your enemy know you were shaken.

In this case it would not have mattered anyways, since Zane had Sage Mind. And his soul could simply read theirs. Especially if there was a difference in soul power—the wider the gulf, the easier they were to read. The Minotaur was not even bothering to hide or suppress its emotions.

Its entire mind was pretty much one emotion right now. Something like 'Holy Shit.' But more intense. It was the kind of Holy Shit that made you doubt your very place in the world, that made it feel like everything you thought you knew was crumbling beneath you.

Now Zane was well over 75% too, thanks in part to his super-regeneration. And thanks in part to Reina's regen buff—it was percentage based. So it stacked nicely with his powers.

For the first time that fight it felt like he had the upper hand. It was hard to believe the Minotaur could come back from this. It felt ruined in mind, not only in body…

Then—to Zane's surprise—its demeanor started to change.

Even as its eyes leaked bloody tears it staggered up on its one whole leg.

And a new emotion sparked up inside it. Railing against the pain.

Sheer dumb rage.

It was as maddening as a bull maddens—made mad by the sheer force of its denial. It was furious that it had been shaken. Shaken by the likes of Zane.

It snarled. 𝔼ℕ𝕆𝕌𝔾ℍ!

And it roared. It sounded to Zane much more desperate than proud. 𝕀 𝔸𝕄 𝔸𝕊𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕀𝕆ℕ! 𝔼𝕏𝔼ℂ𝕌𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ𝔼ℝ 𝔸𝕋 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝔾𝔸𝕋𝔼𝕊, 𝔹𝔸ℕ𝔼 𝕆𝔽 𝕄𝕌ℝ𝕀𝕄! 𝕀𝕋 𝕎𝔸𝕊 𝕀 𝕎ℍ𝕆 𝔹ℝ𝕆𝕌𝔾ℍ𝕋 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝔼𝕄ℙ𝕀ℝ𝔼 𝕆𝔽 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕊𝕌ℕ 𝕋𝕆 𝕀𝕋𝕊 𝕂ℕ𝔼𝔼𝕊! 𝕀 𝕎ℍ𝕆 𝕊ℂ𝔸𝕃ℙ𝔼𝔻 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝔹𝕃𝔸ℂ𝕂ℍ𝔼𝔸ℝ𝕋 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔼—𝕀 𝕎ℍ𝕆 𝔸ℕℕ𝕀ℍ𝕀𝕃𝔸𝕋𝔼𝔻 𝔼ℕ𝕋𝕀ℝ𝔼 𝕌ℝ-ℙ𝕃𝔸ℕ𝔼𝕋𝕊!

There was something hysterical about the way it was roaring. Something strangled.

It seemed to be working though—at least for now.

Then it raised its cracked Axe. And for the first time that fight—the dusky pearl at its end began to glow. The colors within started to swirl, like storms moving across the surface of a planet…

In Asterion's mind, it was about to go all-out. Now or never. It was bringing out the very last of its powers.

Zane was not sure what that pearl was.

He frowned, tried reading it. But he couldn't get an analysis. Weird. Only his higher tier Sage Mind powers were working. All he could feel was Asterion's mind, which was a little too garbled to understand much.

He could feel Asterion was going a little nuts. Ridiculously excited and desperate all at once.

Its soul weapon began to throw off a cold, pure-black light….

Zane frowned at it.

Suddenly… that thing almost felt like it had a soul. Not quite. But he felt impressions streaming out of it, fragments. So many exploding at him—mostly of fear and pain. Not from the Minotaur. They felt like from many, many, many different souls….

Kind of like he'd felt when the Minotaur had burned its Bloodline, and called upon the souls of its ancestors… those souls were lending that weapon a strength it could never have on its own.

And there were a lot of souls in there. Some a lot more strong than others—especially the bigger fragments. Not all human. Dragon? Elf? Phoenix? Some even felt like Godbeasts, once…

The weight of history lay in that weapon.

𝕐𝕆𝕌 ℍ𝔸𝕍𝔼 ℕ𝔼𝕍𝔼ℝ 𝕊𝔼𝔼ℕ 𝕋ℍ𝕀𝕊, ℍ𝔸𝕍𝔼 𝕐𝕆𝕌?! The beast was still roaring, spluttering, spitting big gobs of saliva. Delirious. 𝕋ℍ𝕀𝕊 𝕀𝕊 𝕋ℍ𝔼 ℙ𝕆𝕎𝔼ℝ 𝕆𝔽 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝔽𝕆𝕌ℝ𝕋ℍ ℂ𝕃𝔸𝕊𝕊 𝔼𝕍𝕆𝕃𝕌𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ! 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕎𝔼𝔸ℙ𝕆ℕ 𝕊𝕆𝕌𝕃—ℙ𝕆𝕎𝔼ℝ𝔼𝔻 𝔹𝕐 𝔸𝕃𝕃 𝕋ℍ𝕆𝕊𝔼 𝕀𝕋 ℍ𝔸𝕊 ℂ𝕃𝔸𝕀𝕄𝔼𝔻! 𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕊𝔼, 𝔹𝕆ℕ𝔼ℂ𝕃𝔼𝔸𝕍𝔼ℝ… 𝔸ℕ𝔻 ℝ𝔼𝔸ℙ 𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ 𝕃𝔸𝕋𝔼𝕊𝕋 𝕍𝕀ℂ𝕋𝕀𝕄!

The Axe's aura flared. And suddenly it had a new dangerous edge. Its power just jumped drastically, Zane felt—it grew blinding in the astral plane. It had already been super heavy. But now it started sinking through stone as though it were water.

Just how heavy had it gotten…? And that extra weight, that new ability, was powered by those souls it had slaughtered—just how many souls were in there…? Thousands? Millions?

He frowned. He felt a new sense of danger coming from that thing. It had jumped to a whole different stratosphere of power. Even if he blocked or countered it could still badly hurt him—that he was certain of.

It was time for him to go all-out too. This was for everything.

Zane was struck by a sudden idea.

He knew just what power to use. Now was the perfect chance. It took a while to charge, so he hadn't been able to set it up for a while. But now…

It was time to pull out his ultimate killer weapon. Something that had not seen even Plasma, much less Chain Combustion.

All the damage his body had suffered until now—and all his new Core Powers—began smashing together in an instant. Thickening, burgeoning fast, condensing so fast it seemed a rising explosion—

𝔽𝕆𝕆𝕃! Cackled Asterion. 𝕐𝕆𝕌 𝕎𝕆𝕌𝕃𝔻 𝕊𝕋𝔸ℕ𝔻 𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝔼, 𝔸ℕ𝔻 𝕃𝔼𝕋 𝕄𝔼 ℂℍ𝔸ℝ𝔾𝔼 𝕄𝕐 ℂ𝕃𝔼𝔸𝕍𝔼? 𝕀𝕋 𝕀𝕊 𝕋𝕆𝕆 𝕃𝔸𝕋𝔼 ℕ𝕆𝕎! 𝔹𝔼ℍ𝕆𝕃𝔻!

It raised its axe. It took a full-body effort, and it almost failed in its try. But it managed it.

That great Axe hung proud overhead.

The power coming off that edge… just casually swiping it about tore gaping holes in reality.

𝕀 ℍ𝕆𝕃𝔻 𝕀ℕ 𝕄𝕐 ℍ𝔸ℕ𝔻 𝕋ℍ𝔼 ℙ𝕆𝕎𝔼ℝ𝕊 𝕆𝔽 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕄𝕆𝕌ℕ𝕋𝔸𝕀ℕ𝕊 𝔸ℕ𝔻 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕊𝔼𝔸𝕊!

Zane did feel an immense weight coming off it now. So much that gravity warped toward it that stones all around it began to float. Like it was wrestling them away from Earth's own gravity.

But Zane stayed the way he always was in fights. At once calm in his mind. And fiery in his heart.

He felt he knew something stronger than the mountains and the seas.

He raised his Axes to the high Heavens. And called every last drop of his power.

His Core spun to its maximum—shedding all its essence at once. Throwing it out into one specific Skill. It took his whole body straining with all it had just to keep this thing upright—and he had to hold it tight. If he didn't, he knew it could rip him clean in two—

And primal sound tore out of his throat then. Pure, all-out effort.

And he unleashed a new power into the world…

𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝔼𝕧𝕠𝕝𝕧𝕖𝕕!

𝕎𝕚𝕤𝕙 𝕌𝕡𝕠𝕟 𝕒 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣 [ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟 (𝔼) -> ℝ𝕒𝕣𝕖 (𝔼)]

It felt like he'd spawned a new sun. A sun so bright it eclipsed the one in the sky. It felt like he'd thrust out the might of his entire Core.

And the moment it appeared it broke everything.

A blank void stretched across the whole sky. Like it was made of brittle paper and he'd just punched a gaping hole through it. Carved out a new night sky in the middle of the day. A night sky with no stars. A night sky with just one horrible, beautiful, shining sun…

The moment it appeared, the Legendary Monster's final, desperate move just seemed irrelevant.

The whole world seemed irrelevant.

The moment Zane's star appeared, it broke minds. Even as it broke the world. It was like a mortal staring at the true face of god. Some things were not meant to be seen. Were too much to understand. It was just too much.

Asterion looked up at it. Stared at it. For a moment, it stayed silent. Shaking.

Then this beast of legend—a beast that had seen the aeons come and go, that had wiped kingdoms from the face of the world, that had cleaved open moons with a stroke—

Collapsed trembling to its knees.

Its Axe just slipped from its sagging fingers. Useless.

It let out a single whimper.

And Zane dropped the hammer.