229. Asura (I)

Avery wondered what they were even doing here. She thought maybe Integration was a way of conscripting tons and tons of people to help 'muck out' the prison. Like a Universe draft. Reina considered it and felt there was a decent chance of it.

They got to talking about what they'd do after this was all over. Avery had pretty much lived out of a skate park before the Change, bumming food and living carefree after dropping out. She figured she would keep doing that kind of thing. Go around the Universe being a helpful hobo. Beating up any bad guys she came across.

Evan wanted to take up Quests. He nodded happily. He was going to be a Hero and he was proud of it. He used to be a little timid about saying it out loud but not anymore. He would do what he wanted to do, no matter what anyone thought, he said.

As for what Reina and Zane wanted to do… they were both not sure. They looked at each other. A few months ago Zane might have said he wanted to go out there, and fight whatever there was to fight. And he still wanted that. He got restless sitting still.

But he also liked his new home. And the friends he had made there. More and more he wanted to protect them too. Reina felt the same way. They wanted to take care of each other. One thing they were dead set on—they were staying by each other's sides.

***

They made good on this quite quickly.

After Avery and Evan went to sleep Zane and Reina snuck away for a bit. Reina had brought some portable noise wards just for the occasion. They tried to be discreet about it.

…Had there been a seismometer nearby it might still have registered as a low-level earthquake.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟝𝟙 -> 𝟚𝟝𝟚

They came back early the next morning, casual as could be, like nothing had happened. Reina had to change clothes, but she fixed her messed-up hair. They were hoping no one would notice.

Evan brightened when he saw them. "You guys got new Levels!"

They froze. Avery choked on the essence potion she was drinking.

"Did you find some more Essence treasures out there?" said Evan.

"Yes," said Reina, quite pale. "That's exactly it."

"Oh great!" said Evan.

Then he saw a chunk of pretty ice floating by, and the thought quickly evaporated from his mind.

***

Zane had two more upgrades before they were set to go. The first he couldn't do much about right now. Organ tempering would take more soul recovery to tackle. He wanted to be fresh before his next comprehension.

But he could do something about his new Weapon Soul.

Two dusky pearls floated in front of him. One white, like a snow-globe. The other a tiny world of icy-blue. Both like little suns in the Astral Plane.

He took the first and began to absorb it. As he did, a strange tingling energy swept through him, something under the skin, cool and warm at once, touching the soul…

His hair began to float, and he felt the Weapon Souls' contents gush into him. Fragments of thoughts and feelings, ghostly impressions, gushing in a river... his chains began to shine, heating up as new energy poured into the steel.

It felt like he'd been shot full of adrenaline. He was swept up in other people's feelings, energies—a thousand thousand little impressions, wisps of joy, of sadness, of melancholy and hope floating through him, washed up on the banks of the river of time, flowing into him...

They did not move him much. He knew who he was; he did not lose himself in it. His mind stayed clear, firm. He let them flow around him, through him. And claimed the power left behind.

When it was done, he found he was sweating a little, but otherwise fine.

Time for the second one.

A lot more beasts in this one. Orcs. Phoenixes. Sphinxes. . But a fair share felt vaguely human. It all flowed through his weapon, granting it their powers. Until—

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕦𝕤 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚 -> 𝟛

𝔸𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕝𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝, 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕦𝕤 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤 𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕥𝕙 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕕𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕓𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕧𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕜𝕪-𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕖 𝕌𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟 𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕥 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝.

His Chains felt a good deal stronger than the rest of him now—he wasn't sure how he could tell, but he had a good sense for it. A feel. The way you know your own body.

He brought them out, inspected their surface.

Strong, muted-dark steel. Streaks of smoking Stormfire running across their surfaces, heating them from within, giving them their own sort of life… it looked like he was staring down at some molten landscape where the lava ran bright blue.

He liked the look. But what mattered was if they would perform.

He went back to his friends, gathered them, and together they set out again. Looked across the waters, saw a distant fortress rising in the distance, a solemn monolith.

Time to finish off the floor. Time for the final stage.

***

They passed the rest of the bridges without much incident. Arrived on the far banks within a half-day.

The fortress looked a lot like some Roman temple, carved of deep-earth stones. Great pillars rising to support a marble dome arching for the ceiling. Jewels studded it down its length.

It was carefully made, every inch of it, like the whole thing was meant to be a sculpture. The stonework was a mass of perfect geometries. Pristine despite all the time—no moss, no rot.

A staircase wide as a highway led up to solemn double doors, rising bare and imposing as cliff faces.

It took a leap just across a single step of that staircase. Their bounds echoed in the silence all the way up to the top.

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕕: 𝕊𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝟛-𝟙

𝔻𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖

Right before the grand entrance, stood proud on a plinth, was a statue. Some forty-odd feet tall. A blocky thing, a dense mass of pure silver, reinforced plate stacked on reinforced plate, welded together at the joints with thick gold bulbs. It bore a behemoth of a shield and an even bigger hammer, so black it seemed to suck in all the light around it.

The statue let out waves of subtle aura, as though dormant…

Avery squinted at it.

"Sooo. That thing's definitely gonna come to life, right?" she said.

They took a few steps closer.

… It came to life.

Red eyes flared in that massive helm. And it whirred into motion. Aura erupting. A Monstrous soul awakened.

𝔼𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕤, 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝔾𝕦𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕚𝕒𝕟 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟠𝟛

A thick red splotch landed right in front of them on the mini-map. The sign of a Boss.

A fat shining core seething raw energy was buried deep in its chest—it felt as strong as a peak Core. Whirring softly, spinning the creature up, pumping torrents of essence to the rest of it. A well-oiled machine of destruction. Loaded with the firepower to execute.

If those Wardens had achieved their final form, this would be it.

And Zane felt within the Monster the very same imperative.

𝕂𝕀𝕃𝕃 ℤ𝔸ℕ𝔼 𝕎𝔸𝕃𝕂𝔼ℝ.

"Get ready," said Reina, eyes narrowing—but Zane touched her shoulder.

"I will take this," he assured her. "Stay back."

When he said this, his heart was pumping hot in his chest. It was a matter of pride, of fighting spirit—that was true.

But his head was clear. He knew this was not overconfidence. He simply trusted himself. After all those power-ups, he felt this creature would be a good test.

He wanted to take the measure of his new body.

Reina nodded. She recognized the look on his face. She knew when he was like this… he was not losing.

He was not losing regardless.

He marched toward the machine.

And it marched toward him too.

Every step that thing took shook the entire staircase. It sank a good foot into the marble ground. There was some Steel Concept seeped into every last inch of it, something that made it ultra-dense, that wove the essence of durability deep into it. The same as with the Wardens—just stronger.

Zane's Chains burst to his hands.

The Guardian gave a metallic screech like steel grinding on steel—a kind of battle cry. And it charged him, that battering-ram of a shield thrust out in front of it.

Zane charged it right back, roaring lustily. And threw.

His Chain whipped through the air.

They came together, moving like only two tremendously heavy objects did, almost in slow motion. You could see the gravitas, nearly see the power, the momentum endowed…

Then Zane's Chains wrapped around that shield. He narrowed his eyes. And his new Skill took hold.

Anchor of the Gods.

His Chains came to life. To Zane's surprise he even felt his Bloodline in it, racing down the length of it—and when he made to exert his power, his muscles, his tendons, channeled through with such ease… It felt like an extension of him. Another limb. Another expression of his power.

He threw his whole body into one violent pull.

And felt a lurch. Deep inside.

If he did not have a Seamless Core, what happened next might have killed him. The amount of essence dragged out of him in that moment would have drained any Core under Peak-grade dry. In an instant. And it all raged straight into his Chains…

A tsunami of aura washed down their length.

And slow motion, in an instant, went very fast.

It was like their weights shot to infinity. Zane could see space curving down the length of them.

This Guardian must have weighed more than any structure mankind had ever built; more than cargo ships and pyramids and skyscrapers.

Then it faced Zane's pull—and face-planted.

Its shield smashed straight into the dense stone ground and sank like it was made of putty. Dragged the whole Monster keening, flailing over—and at the same time Zane's other Chain snagged the falling arm, and anchored it too.

The Monster let out a screech—and crashed. It went far more violent than it had any right to be; normally gravity barely knew what to do with creatures this big. It usually let them down easy, slowly, in chunks.

This thing splattered.

It was violence at a scale seldom seen.

The crater crushed in half the staircase. Sent tremors shivering the riverbank. Webbed the entrance, all the way up to the grand stairs, in deep-set fissures…

And the Guardian lay there. Struggling mightily. Joints screeching, steam leaking out its inside, its core flaring strikingly bright, trying to do something—anything—

This was a Monster whose great specialty was its brute strength. It was exerting all it could—and it barely managed to work its way up to its knees, trembling, joints shrieking all over...

Zane looked at his hands, frowning. Then at the Monster.

His muscles right now were still running at half-power. His blood was just getting battle-hot. But the more this Guardian resisted him, the more he felt it growing…

A new raw power—hotter than anything he'd felt before. Rising from the furthest depths of his soul. It was a ferocious thing, a savage thing, and all it wanted to do was burn. Burn his Bloodline, burn his essence, his Stormfire, his very battle-spirit, all at once—

The very essence of Zane. Burning for all it was worth.

𝔸𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕒 𝔹𝕠𝕕𝕪 𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕!

His body erupted in Stormfire. In Bloodline. In essence. All at once—in one glorious explosion, all three coming together in one majestic alchemy.

He bellowed.

And his powers shot to untold heights.

Greater than the sum of their parts. Greater than anything he had ever known—and rising still…

The Guardian was still trying to get to its feet. Desperate.

Zane snorted.

Flexed. And his body responded.

It felt like crushing an insect.

Wrecking-ball joints snapped at the hinges. Those pillar steel arms splayed out—and the Guardian rammed hard into the ground, steel squealing.

And this time when it tried getting up again…it couldn't move anything but its eyes.

Zane frowned down at it.

Weak.

It tried firing off skill, steel blast shooting out of its hands, vast gobs of essence driving into the earth, fighting just to flail—but it was facing a level of power it simply could not measure up against.

This was Zane's Fourth Evolution.

Zane leaped over its fallen chest. And plunged two thick hands deep in. Where its heart should be. Burying his way through the pipes. Grabbing at the raw material of its core.

The Monster. Wheezed. Shook. But there was nothing it could do. It tried a last-ditch attack; its core went white-hot, and Zane felt a beam of pure power rushing up to greet him—

Zane grunted. Took the blast. Stomped down. And pulled. Straining. Standing. Head, chest both lifting, rising—

The pipesr snapped off one by one. The laser started struggling, sputtering—

And Zane tore the heart right out of it.

The red in the Guardian's eyes faded. It gave one last weak spasm. And went still.

He stood there panting for a moment, head still throbbing hot. He blinked. At his hands, at the beast.

That was it?

… Huh.

He had not even gotten under 75% Health.

He had come into this confident… it seemed he had still undershot it. Which was new for him.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟝𝟚 -> 𝟚𝟝𝟛

He was still panting so hot he could see it warping the air… he could feel his body powering down. Settling from that furious rush…

This Guardian was meant to be a Boss-level threat. Over Level 280.

It was strange to imagine far lesser versions of it had ever come close to defeating him.

Maybe he really had just gotten a lot stronger.

He looked back at his friends.

Evan was gasping. Avery was staring. Even Reina's mouth was a little open.

After a pause—

"Jesus Christ, dude!" cried Avery.