Chapter 16
Kalex’s presence spread throughout the area on instinct and he immediately felt the power writhing in the Lumen’s fist. As the Lumen closed in, Kalex attempted to wrap him with his presence and do what he had done with Voric.
Unfortunately, the Lumen was not as susceptible to Kalex’s presence invasion as the guard was, and his attempt slid right off. By the time Kalex realized that pulling the myst out of the Lumen was a fool’s errand, he had already arrived. A moment before impact, A deep blue barrier covered Kalex. Vivian hastily formed a myst barrier in an attempt to protect Kalex from absorbing the full power of the attack.
The barrier held for a moment and took the brunt of the blow. Kalex was blasted back, bonelessly tumbling until he came to a stop at the edge of the clearing.
“Your power has grown immensely, Fool of Diat. I expected my opening salvo to utterly destroy the boy.” The Lumen gave a halfhearted clap. “Alas, you waste my time. I was going to leave you be and allow you to continue your suffering, but now, the Broken Axiom is not going to be the only death today.” The Lumen smiled as he saw the look on Vivian’s face.
Kalex had been hit hard. Harder than he’d ever been hit before. Although the attack didn’t do much damage thanks to Vivian’s barrier, the whole experience was still jarring. It took a moment for the myst in his body to calm. A metallic scent broke him from his musings. Kalex sat up to find a scene that he didn’t accept as real at first glance.
A sanguine smeared Vivian was desperately fending off lightning-quick blasts of myst from the Lumen, while Lyla lay unconscious behind her. Although Kalex had mixed feelings about Vivian, she was voraciously protecting Lyla. He could see past their differences for the moment and tackle the threat looming over them.
He spread his presence out as he sat up. Kalex was always someone who found ways to avoid conflict, but this time there was no way to avoid this altercation. He steeled his resolve and wrapped his presence around himself, fortifying it as much as he could. With the density of the myst he was exuding, he began to hover slightly off the ground. He immediately felt in control. Taking a deep breath, Kalex charged.
Pulling back his arm to strike, Kalex sent myst to his elbow and aimed for the Lumen’s face. Unfortunately, the Lumen caught sight of the flying elbow well before it could make contact. A split second before the attack would hit, the Lumen gingerly placed a finger on the point of Kalex’s elbow, angling it away from himself and causing Kalex to tumble away.
Kalex righted himself quickly and rejoined the fray. Vivian was a master of shield-making as she blocked every incoming attack with precision. “Kalex!” Vivian screamed in between the seconds it took for the Lumen to gather his myst and add another attack to the onslaught. “Focus on the one thing you want to do and enforce it with your myst! It’s the only way we can come out of this alive!”
The Lumen glared at Vivian. “You think you can so easily thwart me? Fools. I’m going to enjoy this even more.” The Lumen flipped his hair back. “I thought this was going to be another boring clean up, but this. This is worth coming down to this energy-starved world. Throughout my time as an exalted Lumen, I’ve never seen so much veracity from unworthy Baseborns. This will surely give the other Lumen a good laugh.”
The Lumen held his chin in thought. “Maybe even Scyris will chuckle. But I digress, this tiff must come to an end. This has been fun, but now I’ll show you the power a true Lumen holds. You should feel honored to die at my hand, you worthless curs.”
During the Lumen’s monologue, Kalex was able to get his thoughts in order. Even though he felt the feeling of death in his bones, he needed to take every advantage he could to make sure they all survived. It was not hard to see that the Lumen’s mental facilities were less than stable and Kalex had an idea on how to exploit that.
Bringing himself to his full height, he addressed the Lumen in a way that would get under his skin. “FALSE!” Reality rippled as the word hit its target. The Lumen turned to regard Kalex with a killing intent. Kalex felt like he weighed ten times as much, but soldiered through.
“Your power was given to you. You had no struggles. You had no hardships. All you’ve known is the power that was appointed to you. I’ve learned through years of tribulation that when something is granted to you, it can also be TAKEN!”
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With his myst as fuel, he focused every modicum of his willpower to enforce his statement. The physical world responded to his declaration. The space around him didn’t shudder like before, but the outline of the Lumen became slightly blurry as his face drooped. Kalex felt an influx of energy enter his body and he began to unconsciously ponder.
On the cusp of coherency and unconsciousness, he found balance. A place where he knew exactly what was happening around him. In this clarity, he didn’t need to pull up the Lumen’s status to know how powerful he was, but he did it anyway.
Name: Sorus Weldef
Race: Lumen (Nimbit)
Rank: Axiom
Maturity: 1463/3000
Path: Fundamental Monarch (Novice)
Vitality: 24,224/30,800
Myst: 210,070/12,000,000
Strength: 623
Wisdom: 148
Agility: 698
Charisma: 57
Luck: 6211
With the extravagant use of his myst and with Kalex siphoning off as much as he could hold to cycle through his body, the Lumen’s myst was dwindling. Kalex knew he had hurt the Lumen and it was time to make his stand.
Faster than Kalex had ever moved before, he appeared in front of the startled Lumen. Leaning on his combat training as the heir, Kalex moved with the grace of a seasoned warrior now that he was in a tranquil state. An uppercut connected to the Lumen’s jaw with a terrible crunch that painted Lumen’s face scarlet. Upon seeing that Kalex now held control of the situation, Vivian began solidifying a shield of myst around Lyla as the sounds of a heated flurry of fists and feet sounded behind her.
Checking the status of the vitality and myst reserves of the Lumen, Kalex grinned. Sorus was barely above 10% in each and Kalex could feel the engagement begin to slow. Before the Lumen's stats could drain fully, he felt the Lumen preparing something big. Kalex didn’t need to wait long. The Lumen slid back and touched his forehead with two fingers. “I INVOKE THE MARK OF THE AXIOM!”
Power surged throughout the clearing, knocking Kalex and Vivian onto their back. The myst shield that kept Lyla safe deteriorated to nothing as the Lumen’s power surrounded her. Kalex looked up at the glowing avatar in disbelief. Feeling with his presence sight, Kalex could glean that the power the Lumen was exhibiting was borrowed and he sensed a tether of myst sending energy directly to him. Faster than a blink, the Lumen was gone and a scream was heard. Hovering a few feet in the air on the edge of the clearing was the Lumen, tightly gripping the broken arm of Lyla who dangled helplessly in his grasp.
Vivian roared at the sight and sped off to engage. Before she could raise her fist, the back of the Lumen’s hand met her face, sending her shooting off toward the other end of the clearing. Seeing this, Kalex made to continue his attack but was held down by the much stronger myst of the Lumen.
Being unable to move or do anything to change what was happening snapped something in Kalex. The Lumen’s force was minutely pushed away as Kalex entered his state of balance and imbued his words with every last shred of myst he had. “HEED ME SORUS, YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED IN YOUR THEFT. I WILL TAKE FROM YOU OF WHICH YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO TAKE FROM ME!”
Blood gushed out of every orifice on Kalex’s face as he said the words that drained his myst reservoir. The Lumen’s complexion turned a sickly gray as the tether of power bent over and connected Kalex with the Lumen directly. Kalex held the connection with everything he had and began to consume everything the Lumen was.
With his prey in hand and his life force rapidly draining, Sorus deftly decided to cut his losses and return to the higher worlds. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t budge. Now that he was cut off from the Mark of the Axiom and instead connected to Kalex, Sorus was at his mercy. As the Lumen’s power waned, he went with his last resort option.
Using the last of his myst, he pulled his Glaive of the Axiom from his hollow ring. Scraping together as much ambient myst as he could, Sorus propelled the glaive with an enforced throw directly at the struggling form of the Broken Axiom. Sorus’ vision fell away as he released his throw, but immediately after, the connection had disappeared and he was free. Without a second thought, Sorus ascended to the higher worlds with his replacement Axiom in hand.
Tears welled in Kalex’s eyes as they lay upon a smiling face. “Lex,” Vivian coughed. “Initiate transfer, please.”
Kalex attempted to move but was held in place by Vivian. “Please wait, young Kalex.” Shifting slightly, Kalex could see why she hadn’t wanted to move. The tip of the glaive meant for him was slightly protruding from Vivian's abdomen.
“Elder—” Kalex's words were stopped as Vivian gripped his arm. “Don’t speak, I don’t have much time.” Kalex nodded lightly.
“I wasn’t able to tell you about what happened to me after you left Diat, but I was able to transfer my memories to Lex so you could see my point of view.” Vivian took a ragged breath. ”I only hope that you’ll be able to forgive me for sentencing you to death. I’ve always thought of you as a surrogate child, Kalex. You saw and learned from me more than you did from your parents. My heart broke when I fulfilled the will of the council on that day outside of Mourtia.”
Vivian’s body began to glow a light blue as the glaive finished eating away her myst.
“Please Kalex, don’t think poorly of me.” A tear fell from her eye as she dissipated, the glaive falling in Kalex’s lap. He stared at the azure myst that was once his most trusted advisor. The myst that was once his most hated enemy. The myst that was once his savior.
The fog condensed for an indiscernible moment before disappearing completely. Understanding hit Kalex harder than the Lumen had. In the empty clearing full of the remnants of battle, Kalex wailed. He was alone.