"Time is our ally now! We must prevent Mirrikh from reaching the fragments!" I declared, projecting my voice with intensity, even as I simultaneously blocked the peculiar tentacles that extended from Mirrikh’s form.
Our collective objective was clear: safeguard the fragments at all costs until they were fully drained of the sol contained within them. This process would render the fragments devoid of power, effectively stripping away the source of Mirrikh’s corruption and eliminating any possibility of his resurgence. It was our opportunity to vanquish him once and for all.
Furthermore, a substantial portion of mine, Kei’s, and Eugene’s powers were dedicated to sustaining the process, leaving us in a state of vulnerability. We were prepared to expend all our resources to repel Mirrikh’s advances.
"He’s heading your way!" Kei’s voice rang out in warning, snapping me from my momentary daze.
Simultaneously, a tentacle hurtled towards me with astonishing speed, a trajectory that would have ended my life were it not for the protective capabilities of the robe I wore. The robe, still possessing a few uses, possessed the ability to manipulate time, affording me the chance to warp out of harm’s way just in the nick of time as the tentacle’s trajectory inexplicably slowed.
In that instant, all four of us turned our focus to Mirrikh, his aura growing increasingly ominous.
"Why do you? he began, his words trailing off in an unsettling manner. His voice dripped with madness and corruption, akin to a creature born from the darkest abyss.
Before he could finish his sentence, Mirrikh’s form underwent a slow and grotesque transformation. His four eyes vanished, melding into his body.
"Perhaps he couldn’t bear the impending futility of the fragments. His sanity is unravelling completely," Kabir deduced.
As if in confirmation, Mirrikh’s transformation accelerated. His skin shifted to a deep blood-red hue, undulating and twisting as if being reshaped. His very form began to expand and grow, and an eerie luminosity suffused his flesh, as if it were on the verge of bursting.
Despite a flurry of attacks—ranging from Kei’s dagger to Kabir’s arrows—hitting him during this transformation, they were repelled by an inexplicable force.
In the span of just a minute, the metamorphosis was complete.
Standing before us was no longer Mirrikh. It was a colossal monstrosity, spanning ten metres in height, with pallid red skin. A web of blood vessels writhed across its surface, and where once features had existed, there were now none.
Limbs, ears, and nose were conspicuously absent. Countless black eyes adorned its form, each sporting white pupils that swirled upon its flesh. An entity of unnerving proportions, crafted from flesh and devoid of recognisable features. It was a horrifying sight to behold.
"Why do you… Stop me!!" A multitude of voices, layered upon each other, resonated with a chilling intensity that pierced my ears. The mere sound of those voices held an inexplicable power, causing me to involuntarily freeze in place.
In that moment, an unsettling sensation washed over me, as if something had transpired in the blink of an eye. Scanning my surroundings, I found nothing immediately amiss. But then Kei’s urgent voice reached my ears.
"Wallace, your hand!" His exclamation coincided with an intense surge of pain radiating from the location where my hand should have been. My gaze snapped down, and my eyes widened in shock. My hand was gone—severed in an instant, its absence replaced by spurting blood. This was the result of the monstrous transformation Mirrikh had undergone.
Even the protective capabilities of my robe had failed to thwart this attack, an assault that seemed to defy the very fabric of existence itself. However, a sense of relief washed over me as I realised that the robe’s intervention had slowed the attack, preventing it from being immediately lethal. Without that intervention, my body could have been cleaved in two.
"Aaaaaaah!" I shouted in pain, but then I felt another onslaught coming at me, for I was the source of the spatial rifts where the fragment’s sol was being dispelled. However, it was cut off before it reached me, and the monster’s flesh began to disintegrate.
Simultaneously, my attention was drawn to Keiichi. A shroud of black mist enveloped him, swiftly coalescing as if he were channelling all his energy into this ndeavor. The mist morphed and reshaped, condensing into a smaller yet dense form resembling the upper body of a hooded figure wielding a large scythe. This ethereal figure, crafted from the black mist, rivalled the monstrous visage of the transformed Mirrikh. Keiichi was at the centre of this creation as its controller.
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In tandem with the formation of this figure, Keiichi’s voice echoed.
"[9th Divine Art: Sacred Illumination]"
This was the technique Baek had utilised—a method to momentarily reflect physical attacks back at the enemy.
"I will stall him! Aid me!" Keiichi’s proclamation spurred action as the scythe formed from black mist clashed with the mutated Mirrikh. The scythe severed portions of its flesh, causing the disintegration process to accelerate as the lune consumed its life force.
Eugene and I prepared to lend our powers to the battle, but Kabir remained silent, seemingly occupied with preparations. Abruptly, his voice resounded in our ears, clear and determined.
"Buy me some time."
**
"Only twenty seconds remain!" My voice rang out, reaching Keiichi as his summoned colossal figure engaged in combat with the corrupted Mirrikh.
Through our combined efforts—mine, Kei’s, and Eugene’s—we had managed to keep the monstrous entity at bay for several minutes. Now, only twenty seconds remained before the sol within the fragments would be completely drained. Our energy was near depletion, and we were on the brink of collapse.
Kabir stood motionless, an aura of concentrated energy coalescing around him. He was preparing to unleash his most potent attack, his ultimate card. During his preparations, he had also managed to freeze the wound where my hand had been severed, briefly relieving me of the agonising pain.
In that moment, the scythe-like figure, forged from the black mist and directed by Keiichi’s control, accelerated its pace. Drawn towards the monstrous creature due to Eugene’s gravitational manipulation, the scythe’s trajectory was constantly warped in space using my powers. This unpredictable movement made attempts to predict its path futile.
The scythe struck, severing a substantial portion of the monster’s flesh. Predictably, new flesh regenerated within a mere five seconds. Regardless of the damage inflicted by Keiichi’s lune-enhanced attacks, the monster regenerated promptly, reverting to its original state.
However, a pattern emerged—the rate of regeneration consistently decreased with each successive instance. This deduction led us to believe that the monster was also nearing its limits, with its regenerative ability on the brink of failure.
"I can’t endure much longer!" Keiichi’s voice trembled as the black mist composing the colossal figure began to dissipate. In an instant, Keiichi was back to his regular form, sprawled on the ground, his breaths heavy and labored. He could now only focus on sustaining the lune within the pillars, removing him from the immediate battle.
Yet, ten seconds still remained, and Kabir had yet to unleash his final blow.
Before I could even begin to brainstorm a solution, Eugene took a determined step forward, a jar filled with enigmatic orbs in his grasp. Just as the mutated Mirrikh, now lumbering and sluggish, poised to unleash a shattering scream that could corrupt us, a translucent and illusory cage materialized, interposing itself between him and us.
Eugene’s voice resonated with authority, "[3rd Divine Art: Ethereal Confinement ]"
The cage effectively absorbed and contained the impending scream, buying us a precious two-second reprieve. Cracks marred the surface of the cage, however, succumbing to the monstrous force emanating from Corrupted Mirrikh.
Astonishingly, these fractures self-repaired, restoring the cage to its former solidity in the blink of an eye. Through Nelchael’s eyes, I perceived the sol being drawn from the jar containing the enigmatic orbs that Eugene held.
This reclaimed sol acted as a healing agent, mending the cage and bolstering its structure. It dawned on me that these orbs were the remnants of sol left behind by defeated Voidkeepers and Voidshades. Eugene harnessed this residual energy to reinforce his cage, thus affording us a few more crucial moments while Mirrikh remained trapped.
Simultaneously, Kabir’s bow underwent a transformation, expanding to span five meters. At the tip of a sizable silver arrow, congruent with the bow’s grandeur, a dense and substantial energy mass began to coalesce. Kabir was on the verge of completing his preparations.
The final seconds dissipated in the blink of an eye. The sol contained within the enigmatic orbs was rapidly depleted, with mere moments sufficing for their expenditure. We were left with two seconds, and it seemed that all was lost. Kabir had yet to complete his readiness.
In that poignant instant, the cage’s integrity finally fractured, causing Eugene to collapse to the ground. He joined Kei, incapacitated and unable to continue the fight. Despair welled within me as I watched Mirrikh assume a stance of finality, poised to eliminate us in an instant. Yet, before Mirrikh could enact his lethal intent, two events transpired simultaneously.
In a culmination of events, the first development was the completion of the draining process. The fragments fractured into pieces, their sol reserves fully exhausted. Simultaneously, Eugene and Kei succumbed to unconsciousness, their energy reserves fully depleted by their vital contributions. They exerted the last vestiges of their strength to hasten the process, facilitating its earlier accomplishment.
The second consequential occurrence coincided with the shattering fragments. Mirrikh, suspended in motion, appeared frozen in place. This synchronisation corresponded with the fragment’s destruction.
Remarkably, Mirrikh’s black eyes reverted to their natural hue, and his once-crimson flesh faded to a paler, bluish tint. The elimination of the source of greed had seemingly restored a trace of his lost humanity.
An almost-whispered, hoarse voice emanated from him, as if struggling to express his request amidst the relentless encroachment of corruption. "Hurry… End… Me!" His plea resonated, reaching Kabir’s ears. Yet, as he concluded, the transformation reversed: his eyes returned to their abyssal blackness, and his flesh reverted to its corrupted crimson hue.
However, this fleeting restoration of his humanity gave Kabir the time he needed to finalise his preparations. As if triggered by this respite, Kabir unleashed the name of his ultimate technique, "Thermal Singularity!" His voice echoed throughout the surroundings, accompanying the launch of a colossal arrow carrying an orb of concentrated thermal energy towards Mirrikh.
At this climactic juncture, a brilliant, luminous radiance enveloped the entire vicinity.