Chapter 67: The hand of Starvation.

Within the deep ocean of lava beneath the moon of wrath lies a powerful slumbering beast. Its powerful limbs are shackled with azure blue chain to four hovering crystals. An incredibly powerful looking magic circle glows incandescently underneath the slumbering beast. The chain and crystal can withstand the intense heat the lava due to the magnificent azure glow emitting from it, sure it is a mystic protection spell. The sudden burn of energy recently awoke the beast.

It stare at the red ocean around it, then the chains on its limbs. It tugged against it with no avail. It sighed as a blue flame escaped its mouth into the lava. It began to lightly blow on one of the shackles. A thin blue line of fire akin to a blue fire welding torch, shot forth from its mouth.

It thought to itself.

[Drake]: Soon, I shall be free and my wrath shall be known once again. And I shall get my revenge on the man who sealed me.

It patiently blew at the shackles as its mighty flame which burned hotter than lava, slowly wore away at the metal cuffs. With the energy boost it got recently, it was only a matter of time before he escapes.

______

Brigid called Crule half a week later.

[Brigid]: It’s done. Come over, just by yourself please.

[Crule]: Fine.

He walked over and entered the door slowly.

[Brigid]: You finally arrived. Here it is.

On the pedestal was a gauntlet of black stone.

It looked like a perfectly normal hand with a black glove on. The only difference is that it looked like the glove was made of stone.

[Crule]: I see you have really outdone yourself this time.

[Brigid]: I am proud to say it’s one of my best.

[Crule]: Correction, one for your best, for now.

[Brigid]: Hoho, you make me want to join you guys even more now.

[Crule]: Mhm, take a good at this.

He took out his dagger, the Taming Sari, and presented it to her.

Brigid took the dagger carefully and inspected it with great detail.

[Brigid]: This…this is AMAZING! Who made this?

[Crule]: You did.

[Brigid]: Really? Wow, I sure did improve over the years. I kind of wish I had fourth dimensional freedom like the riders…I would at least know what happened in the previous world. To them, time is a where, not a when…

[Crule]: I doubt we will ever reach the point of the original riders. They are far too enigmatic.

[Brigid]: *sigh* Anyways, about this artificial hand. Try it on why don’t cha?

Crule took the hand and place it over the stump wrist. Several thread of electric like energy crawled out of the end of the hand and attaches to the stump. Crule felt a tingling sensation as the glove quickly attaches to the stump like a magnet.

[Brigid]: Now that it’s connected to you, it can’t be removed by other people anymore. Try moving the fingers by sending energy to it.

Crule pulsed a thin amount of energy to his hand. He willed it to move and it did, working like a normal hand.

[Crule]: Works great, knowing you it should have some other function too.

[Brigid]: Didn’t you ask for a weapon too?

[Crule]: This hand doubles as a weapon?

[Brigid]: Not quite. That hand is but a trigger for a gun. The gun itself, I’m still tinkering with it. You want to see a demonstration?

[Crule]: Ahaha, you know I always do.

[Brigid]: Great! Come, come, let’s go out back.

______

Outside of her forge/lab, was a yard of around fifty meters. It was quite large and unexpected as a majority of Wrath looked like a desert. The sparse plant life on the planet consist of cactuses and small shrubs. But the yard behind her house, was like a small forest. The well-manicured grass lawn covered the yard like a fine Persian carpet. The trees, although small, were a welcomed sight in such a barren planet. At the end of the yard was a wooden puppet wearing a shirt made out of a sack that use to hold potatoes. It wore a dainty straw hat and someone drew a smiley face on it with permanent marker.

Entering the yard, was a table right next to the door. On the door was a pitcher of lemonade and several empty glass.

[Brigid]: Looks like Gerald left us some refreshments. How thoughtful. Lemonade?

[Crule]: Sure.

She hands Crule a glass of lemonade.

Gulping down the refreshing lemonade, Crule felt a feeling of surging energy within.

[Brigid]: Ah, looks like it was laced with a protection potion. I keep telling him I don’t need it when testing weapons. Damn worry wort.

[Crule]: I begin to wonder if that man is satisfied only being an apprentice…

He looked down at the lemonade. It was placed with a lot of care and love. It sent a shiver down Crule’s spine when he thought how just drank it without checking what it actually contained.

Stolen story; please report.

[Crule]: I should be more careful…

______

[Brigid]: Anyways, now that we are refreshed, BEHOLD! My masterpiece!

On the table beside the lemonade was a black cannon. It was about half a meter in length and around a foot in diameter.

[Brigid]: I call it Salvation.

[Crule]: Why do you call it that?

[Brigid]: Because of the name I gave that hand of yours.

[Crule]: Wait, you named the hand too? God…knowing your naming sense, it’s probably something exaggerated.

[Brigid]: Nonsense! I called it the Hands of Starvation.

[Crule]: …So the Hand of Starvation….is the trigger to the Cannon known as Salvation…I suddenly have a headache…

[Brigid]: Hey now, don’t be rude to someone who fixed your hand!

[Crule]: Fine, fine, let me see how this cannon performs.

[Brigid]: Word of advice, I’m still working out some “bugs” but it should function normally.

[Crule]: Uh…guess I will take your word for it.

Crule lifted up the jet black cannon. Its sleek design made it look far too high tech for a simple blacksmith to be able to create. A steady stream of blueish energy pulses back and forth from the side of the cannon. Its entire outer shall was made of out sturdy metal to withstand rapid fire. The power at the back end of the cannon was a sort of energy battery that stores even more power than the giant glass sphere the Shining Radiance Academy could, and it was far smaller too, only at the size of a fist.

He placed his new hand on the cannon and it transformed. A handle shot out from the side of the cannon and Crule put his hand on it. His index finger after coming in contact with the cannon turned into a trigger. He could feel the energy battery sucking in his energy from his body. If he was a normal person, this sort of insane energy vacuum would have killed someone with energy depletion. 

Think of it as the energy constantly applying pressure around someone like the atmosphere, while the energy inside of the person pushes outwards to counter balance it.

It has the same concept as if one were to go into space without protective gear, the oxygen within them would push outwards the same way it did on the planet which had its atmosphere constantly pushing upon the person. Without anything to stop it, the person would burst, in a crude way of saying it.

Therefore, if a person were to be drained of all their energy, the pressure of the energy in the atmosphere would compress the person until they are crushed to death.

If Crule didn’t have his stupidly huge energy supply, he would be feeling a slight pain right now due to the increase in pressure.

[Crule]: It requires quite a bit of energy.

[Brigid]: You know it! Glad I knew your energy storage is stupidly large even for a rider.

[Crule]: Let’s try it.

Crule lifted the cannon and pointed it toward the wooden target dummy.

[Brigid]: NOOOOO, wait, wait, wait!!!

[Crule]: What!

He nearly pulled the trigger when she shouted.

[Brigid]: Don’t aim it toward the planet, it would destroy us all. Aim for the sky.

[Crule]: This…Fine.

He lifted the cannon and aimed for the clouds.

[Crule]: Fire, Cannon of Salvation!

A stream of Crule’s black energy traveled from the core alongside the energy channels on the side of the cannon and gathered in its chamber. A cylinder of energy condensed slowly in the middle. Pulling the trigger, the cylinder shot out of the cannon with an earth shattering boom. It sounded like a dozen fighter jets suddenly breaking the sound barrier just a meter away from you. The sheer sound could have shattered the very bones in your body if one was not prepared.

A black beam of energy shot into the sky like the galactic planet destroyer weapon on the Galactic sized destroyers. The traveled as far as the eyes could see and vanished out of sight as it traveled too far for the eyes to see.

[Crule]: This power…hahahaha, this should be more than enough for that lizard bastard.

[Brigid]: Glad you like it, although I wish I had prepare myself more…The bug I’m trying to fix is a limiter that makes the sound lessen a bit as so I don’t have to constantly protect my ear drums each time it fires. But all I can say is wow…the cannon didn’t have THAT much power when I used it…your energy must be incredibly destructive.

[Crule]: Ahahahhaha…

[Brigid]: Hey there, are you ok? You’re laughing kind of maniacally there.

He covered his eyes with his other hand and kept laughing at the sheer power.

[Brigid]: *whisper to herself* Looks like he’s a bit more power hungry than I thought…I kind of regret this now…