Chapter 77: A Passing Of Dooms

Alabaster

Alley had to admit he felt a little bad when the Unending Horde empowered up to 8000 Power thanks to its interaction with City Of The Doomed and Rotten tore into the tree woman. He had felt a strange sort of bloodlust this entire Challenge, it was like he simply couldn’t shake the feeling that Lady Clataire Astley deserved to die.

He didn’t really have a whole lot of evidence for this feeling, not like when he had fought Karietto. In fact, even then he hadn’t felt all that bloodthirsty. He had killed the pirate captain because it was the right thing to do. The man was on a rampage across the silver sea sacrificing people to one of his Cards in order to increase his own power. Alley could understand the drive to get stronger, but if you went around wiping out the population of villages you had to die. It was really that simple.

Alley supposed Astley likely had control over most of the Undead in the swamp, and they had killed a lot of people over the centuries. Not a lot at once, but the number over time certainly added up. Still, that reasoning rang a little hollow even to himself.

The people of Rakino didn’t consider the Undead of the swamp a particularly great threat. More like just another hazard that could be avoided or prepared for. Like how Alley hadn’t really been afraid of the occasional bear on Cursed Isle. He left them alone and they had always returned the favor.

The dark-haired boy saw the energy of the arena's barriers begin to collapse and the Ante Card was ripped from her Library and pulled into his Dealer by the invisible force that handled that sort of thing during a Challenge.

He had wondered if one attack from the 8000 Power Unending Horde would be enough to end the match, and against an enemy that couldn't move it had been.

Alley was pretty sure Astley’s tree form would have allowed her to endure lesser attacks with impunity, but 8000 Power was stronger than Ranek Pho.

The enormous shark had been an engine of destruction and yet the pair of Hordes as they were right now would run right through it.

“Do it. Kill that bitch.” Came a violent hiss from the ghost girl who had fallen into a heap at the foot of the wall.

Alley wasn't so sure, he wanted to kill Lady Astley. He wanted to kill her almost as much as he wanted to hunt down Soren Creed and get back his mother’s Card. The thing was he still couldn't justify the feeling, plus it seemed like a waste. The tree woman was doubtless a font of knowledge about the nature of Undeath and Resonance in general.

Cautiously Alley walked towards the tree once the barriers were gone. The zombies hadn't quite toppled her, but several of the tree's roots were exposed, and even more had been torn from her entirely. Every branch that was within reach had been snapped and pulled off. It was fortunate for her that was less than half of them.

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Even her bark had been extensively stripped and the parts that remained had been bitten repeatedly by the swarm of monsters.

“My friend is in danger out there, so I'm going to give you one more chance to-”

From the crystals growing high enough to remain came dozens of beams of purple Undeath Resonance, blasting into Alley from almost every direction.

The feeling as his body filled with the Resonance was initially a good one, it reminded him of how he had felt after defeating Karietto but a hundred times greater. Once the Resonance started to slam into his first gate however that feeling turned to intense pain.

Gasping Alley felt himself drop to one knee as the gate was forced open by the influx of foreign power. While the sudden and explosive growth felt horrible like a part of his soul was being slowly and forcibly dislocated. It briefly relieved the pressure as the Resonance once again had somewhere to go.

This was not a state of affairs that lasted long, the second gate inside Alley stood firm. Quickly he felt himself become over full with the Undead power again. The pain from the forced open gate began to fade to something manageable. That might in fact be a good thing as Alley was pretty sure he had just been accelerated to Rank Eleven but it wouldn't matter if the process killed him. An outcome that was becoming more likely with every passing second.

Unable to continue flowing through his Resonance system the power began to split him open. Alley’s skin glowed that same flickering purple, he felt like he was breathing through honey, and every vein in his body burned as the Resonance seemed to stretch against them.

He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move, he could barely see.

“You thought I was done simply because I lost a challenge? Pah I am no Card fighter I am a Scientist! The Deck is merely one of my tools, a toy to entertain me. Taste the fruits of my labor boy.”

The arrogance he could feel dripping from every word stoked Alley’s rage, and he suddenly felt that killing the woman was a lot more justified. It didn’t help him though, his anger was an impotent thing with the way his body was being forced to cope with far more Resonance than he could ever dream to handle.

Just when he was sure he would split apart or maybe even explode into a mass of purple energy something changed. It was like a valve had been opened somewhere inside of him and the Resonance began to bleed away, flowing to…somewhere. Alley had no idea what was happening or where the energy was going, but suddenly he could breathe, and he could move.

The flow of Resonance didn’t cease, it was still an uncomfortable, unrelenting torrent that made every second agony. But it was no longer enough to stop him. Gritting his teeth and ignoring the way his skin still glowed Alley forced himself up onto his feet and then forward. He paused and bent double for a moment, but only to retrieve the same rusty old spear he had taken from one of the skeletons.

Aching step after aching step he stumbled forward through the downpour of Resonance that still threatened to overwhelm him. It was strange, something else was coming with the Undeath Resonance now, something sickly and dark, something that made his blood run cold and existential terror grip his heart. All of a sudden Alley had an overwhelming sense of Doom.

Ignoring the fear and trying his best to simply accept the pain he kept moving. Alley could feel the confusion and outrage pouring out of Lady Astley and frankly, he should pity her, he didn’t.

Grim face and determined Alabaster Roe took his second life by ramming the spear up and under the jaw of the humanoid figure protruding from the trunk. Such a vital area would have been out of reach had the tree not been left ever so ajar by the assault of the zombies.