Three Strikes
Katherine had destroyed the five Nightmare Signs she had spotted during her initial fight with the Nightmares, and many more after that. Out of all the attacks she had done with Vantera, five of those didn’t have a meiyal-charged material to alleviate the cost from sapping her lifespan.
Including the cost of Drawing the Deitar Art in the first place, six years had been taken from her.
The sacrifice wasn’t in vain, fortunately. At least, not immediately. The destruction of the Signs would greatly diminish the Nightmare Influence from this section of the Incursion. However, if the root cause itself wasn’t handled, eventually, these monolithic abominations that could summon countless Nightmares would return. And then that would make her five years-worth of sacrifice be essentially useless.
For Katherine, it was a problem for later. What mattered was she was closer now to Aderis Tower.
Her grip on Vantera was failing. Not because it was heavy—while this was certainly true, it was not the main reason. It wasn’t because she was tired either.
This Magnum Opus didn’t belong to her. It would only obey her so much before it started acting up.
Three more, she told herself. Three more uses, and that’s it. I won’t be able to use this Art ever again.
Unlike with the case of when Kristel had Drawn Leviathan, Katherine had the expertise to know the limits of her Exhibit and the meiyal-charged materials within them. The strain on Evanclad’s Vantera, the material, couldn’t handle prolonged and multiple usage without ample rest.
Handle was the wrong word. The material had a semi-sentience within it. It knew it was being used by someone else, not its creator. And while Evanclad had influenced Destiny as a Deitar, and allowed for his Magnum Opus to be shared, he wasn’t a god, nor was he as loved by Destiny as Kristella or Su’karix.
In short, she only had two more inconsequential uses of the Magnum Opus, before she started weighing the worth of losing it forever.
Vantera was designed as a single use finale. Not intended for the way Katherine was using it.
Despite this, she kept on.
The Lady of the Void advanced slowly and cautiously through the air. At the same time, her Void Control Technique, I, Alone, Am The Center, monitored her companions.
Kristel and Frill were finalizing the solidity of their fusion, making sure they were in complete synchronicity with each other. Xiv was with them, killing lesser Nightmares and preventing anything from distracting the two.
Venry and his companions were skirting the edge of Befall just as they’d planned. There were concentrations of Nightmares even in those areas, but they were negligible for a group of Nightmare-hunters. Enza was with them as well, keeping herself safe with Nature’s Favor, while leading the group discreetly.
And then there was Alphazzel at the very edge of her Void Control Technique where Aderis Tower was. No matter how subtle Katherine used the Technique, the faunel still detected her, resonating with the Technique to send a feedback, just to indicate that she had been caught.
It didn’t matter. She wasn’t exactly trying to hide in the first place. The flare coming from her surging meiyal became a bright star, signaling everyone, including the faunel, to meet her challenge.
He didn’t budge.
So be it.
Since she couldn’t detect Mother Selfiya or Frein anywhere on the tower, despite finding the faunel there, she understood that they were either not there or underground. Regardless, her lead was the faunel.
Katherine landed on the sand-ashes of Befall, on a particularly tall dune that had re-manifested after all the chaos. She steadied her breathing, observing the faraway Nightmares gathering around the tower. As usual, there were entire colonies of these abominations, and the Nightmare Signs were well hidden from her Void Control Technique.
There couldn’t be that many remaining, however. At the very least, Katherine could still rely on her experience for this assumption. Even if it was an Incursion, Nightmare Signs themselves were territorial in nature, and would indiscriminately cannibalize one another to become a singular, more powerful entity.
That being said, she knew they were on a time limit. While she had not witnessed it first hand, she had studied the nature of Nightmare Incursions and how they could become irreversible. Once it connected with the full-fledged corrupted Nightmare Lands, even Void Mothers and Fathers would become unable to completely cleanse them.
It would be like any other Nightmare Lands, and the best that the Order of the Void could do then would be establishing patches of safe havens with constant Void Mothers and Fathers on duty.
Katherine’s inability to prevent the Incursion from expanding eastward, despite how she could ensure Irista Nation’s safety—for now, was a sore spot for her. Sure, Void Mothers and Fathers could do the exact same as she could, stop the expansion on one side, but she had five godly meiyal-charged materials to give her more advantage compared to them. And yet, she couldn’t do more.
Regardless, the Lady’s priority was still Frein. It was just the truth of the matter. Between saving Eastrise or the love of her life, there wasn’t even a question to consider.
In order to do that, she needed to lure out the big fish.
Katherine breathed and amassed as much Milled meiyal as she could, doubling down in an instant by Gathering more of the Nightmare Influenced meiyal. Unlike the rest of her companions, she could do this feat without risking her own sanity.
Vantera flared with compressed meiyal as the Lady took a stance, bringing the glaive across her back, winding up for a large frontal slash. At the same time, she paid its price.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Kat, what are you doing?” Elizzel, who has been inside Katherine’s Mind Palace this entire time, stirred into confusion. “This is too much!”
The Lady of the Void didn’t reply and continued to amass power. If it was for any moving target, this sort of attack wouldn’t really work unless she tripled her distance. But for an arrogant faunel who refused to move, this would be perfect.
“How many…?” Elizzel gasped, unable to comprehend what was happening.
“Militia-style Juudai…” Katherine uttered the words, whispering them as she Drew the Art into reality. Vantera screamed with power. The sand-ash around her began to melt, leaving her to once again stand in the air with Rivasia.
The power emanating from Evanclad’s Magnum Opus brought about it cleansing effect. While it did nothing for the curse of undeath, the Nightmare Incursion was being pushed away.
“Katastrofera.”
No shouts, no screams, no exclamations. Uttering the Meiyal Art, invoking it, allowed for reality to easily accept its manifestation. Like a warning before the plunge. But even with this accommodation, the strain it had caused upon her surroundings was devastating.
The idea was simple. Destruction was an equalizer among all things. Including the Nightmare. While the Art was an addition, the concept was behind the abilities of all Void Mothers and Fathers. It was also the reason why they couldn’t just erect safe havens everywhere. The resources alone to allow for plants to grow again was a daunting one.
In this cursed land where nothing could grow despite the absence of Nightmare, however, Katherine was free to use the most devastating Art in her arsenal. One that she paid for with three years of her entire lifespan.
Katherine stepped and slashed the widest arc she could possibly manage with the glaive, aiming it straight and true to Alphazzel and all the Nightmares surrounding him.
As it was with the nature of the Meiyal Art, the light of a slash cutting through space erupted for a single instant. Only, it sliced through the entire half of Befall. Katherine knew exactly where to strike to avoid her companions. And then the rest, she was completely free to eradicate from existence.
The second had barely passed.
The Nightmares within the strike, the Nightmare Signs, and even the sliced part of the Incursion itself, were all erased from reality.
Vantera was Evanclad’s Magnum Opus, and he was the founder of the Order of the Void. The Art itself was the First King’s greatest creation to fight against the Nightmare. And even in the hands of a lesser, it did a splendid job.
True, in his hands, the Magnum Opus could probably do more than just erase a small section of the Incursion. But for Katherine, this was enough.
Two more.
She took a moment to breathe. Art fatigue was settling in, but the meiyal now was easier to Gather without the weight of Nightmare Influence adding to the pressure. Without more seconds to lose, Brymeia’s Embrace, one of her godly meiyal-charged materials, took action and eased her fatigue. She recovered in an instant.
It did not, however, alleviate the worsening condition of Vantera. But it did its job. Katherine traversed the desolate land. Still cursed, but for now, no undead nor Nightmare was present to stop her advance.
When she reached the tower, the top half of which was now gone, the faunel finally emerged.
He looked nowhere near Tryvinal. Long hair in a braid, closed beard, and formal clothing. Alphazzel looked a distinguished, old version of the former Guard Knight if he had actually worked on himself and matured.
“Impressive,” he said. “The hair, and the display of power. Really good.”
“Where’s Frein?” Katherine asked. Now that she had gotten closer, she expected to finally get a sign from her Void Control Technique. She could feel the basement of the tower, but it was empty.
“They’re in the dungeon,” Alphazzel said simply, completely contradicting Katherine’s Technique. He raised his hands as if to present something grand. “As well as a Fragment of Zerax’thum’s Core. It’s disrupting your Void Control Technique.”
Heart’s Will told Katherine that the faunel wasn’t lying. Despite this, however, she couldn’t trust him.
“So what?” she asked. “You’re just giving it to him?”
Disappointed, the faunel flopped his hands to the side. “You don’t really know anything, do you?”
“Stop dodging the question!”
Alphazzel laughed. “Why is everyone trying to be intimidating today? It’s seriously hilarious.”
Katherine contemplated on just forgetting the talk and simply attacked. But she knew better. She and Frein had not discussed enough about killing faunels, but they both understood that it was nigh impossible. They had exchanged a few theories, but nothing they could apply.
Faunels weren’t exactly commonplace. And the only ones they knew about before meeting Alphazzel were friendly to them.
“Fine,” Alphazzel said. “Let me explain. The entire reason why Visitors come to Brymeia is because they need to gather Zerax’thum’s Fragments to recreate the Fallen Dragon’s core. But because of the sheer weight and significance of this entity, they immediately die right after integrating with it, or whatever they call it in the meiyal discipline they adapt before coming here.
“The one year deal? Total bullshit. The Gatekeeper just needs to know that the Visitor can easily accept their death. It makes sacrificing their own lives easy. It’s Destiny, Katherine. Destiny defines how long a Visitor would take before they could gather a Fragment. It provides them with a journey so memorable, so fulfilling, that they would deem their deaths worth it.”
Alphazzel smiled. “I am simply skipping that one step, and giving your loving Visitor an easier time.”
Katherine blinked once, twice. The more the faunel talked, the more she couldn’t trust her Heart’s Will. There was no lie in his words; no hidden motive. He was simply stating a fact. One that he was personally involved with, given that he was the Faunel of History and Disasters.
“So you see?” Alphazzel smiled once again, understanding that the Lady of the Void, the Seeker, was using her Blessing. “I’m helping you out. So why don’t you just die and be with your lover? I can help you out with that too.”
Concentrated beams of meiyal blasted out of the ruins of Aderis Tower. One was aimed at Katherine, the other was somewhere up in the skies.
The Lady of the Void took a moment to realize she was under attack. She needed another one to determine where the stray beam was headed.
The realization painted a grim picture in her head. It was aimed at Tich, who was well outside of the Incursion. No… It was aimed at Sam.
The how and the why didn’t matter. The origin of the attacks didn’t matter. Katherine simply knew that her Floating Dream and her MOBILE would have no chance in avoiding such a concentrated beam of death. And she was sure, with full certainty, that despite the distance, the beam would hit its mark.
The third moment came, and Katherine quickly flew up to meet the beam. The one aimed at her completely missed, but it had done its job to confuse her. It had also prevented her to think of a proper way to deflect the one aimed at Sam.
Vantera, with another payment of her lifespan, blocked the beam and split it in multiple rays. Katherine had no time to determine where they would go, except making sure that they didn’t harm her companions.
The beam was strong. Stronger than she expected. It had the properties of Negating Roar condensed within, and it took Katherine and Elizzel their all to make sure they keep Drawing her Siffera and other Meiyal Arts to counter its effects. Defend, she did.
However, Vantera wasn’t stable enough to remain in reality after taking the hit. And while Katherine could probably force it to make one final strike, she decided to let it go. She couldn’t guarantee victory against Alphazzel with this Art, despite how strong it was. Losing it forever over something like that would surely disappoint Frein.
She remained in the air, Drawing Delolera to mend her clothes. All the while, she observed the faunel and the tower ruins, making sure whatever was causing those beams wouldn’t catch her off-guard another time.
“Despite knowing the truth, you still don’t want to die?” Alphazzel asked, disappointed as he massaged his forehead with one hand. “It’s a true tragedy, indeed.”
His sad face suddenly turned stern. Wrath burned in his eyes as he removed his hand. The tower behind him began to completely crumble as a colossal two-headed yuma emerged from it.
“No matter,” Alphazzel said. “I’ll make sure the story ends as wonderfully as it should be.”