Roll out, I say, but I still haven't thought about any way I could defeat that gigantic body made of lava. My most powerful ability is to swallow things whole and dissolve them, but all I can think of when seeing this thing is a person trying to drink a cup of lava and getting their insides melted away by it.
... I have a pretty vivid imagination when it comes to dissolving and melting by now.
Other than that, I'm strongest at physical attacks, which I doubt are going to be useful against living lava. Additionally, I can shoot plasma and spears made of light, and throw large pools of water on him. Then there's mostly just light magic with soul-cleansing and shielding for a set duration.
I don't know what Tahiri could do, other than make it rain and try to cool his body down. But since that didn't really work against Felgar's main body before, and my water pools didn't work on his empowered form, I doubt it'll be useful against a mountain-sized being with an even hotter surface.
Down below I see an army of Tokomaha spreading out, while a great rumbling from behind me suggests that Awhina is beginning her work. And the trees shaking or outright bending in a straight line towards the volcano Roamukao is emerging from indicate where Korenga is running.
Really, how can I waver when the Black God, whose only powers are being incredibly sturdy and having very strong punches, is running at this enemy without hesitation?
Well, here goes nothing.
I increase my size immensely, but still within reason so I don't stretch my matter too thin. Immediately, I can feel the drag caused by my sheer size, and understand that I most likely won't be able to fly like this. I didn't expect to do so with the wind spells I have at my disposal anyway, my aim is another; I'll have to discover something more powerful as soon as I can for that, though.
I turn into a gigantic dragon, but leave out the wings and transform the entire neck, including the head, into a simplified form shaped like a massive cannon barrel. Digging my feet into the ground and crushing the trees around me, I brace myself for what comes next. Gathering an unprecedented amount of plasma, I launch it at Roamukao from a huge distance away. Basically, I became a long-range artillery, shooting plasma beams instead of explosive shells.
The plasma hits him square in the chest and causes an explosion. The shockwave causes all the trees in the area to shake and dust to be blown all over the place. And apparently it's quite effective, as I see large chunks of his body break off and molten rocks splatter all over the place as his upper body bends backwards from the impact.
But it was far from enough to bring him down completely. The pyroclastic flow spreading out from around him is mostly blown apart by the shockwave, but the Ashlings are undaunted and finally run into the forest at the foot of the volcano, setting fire to everything they touch. And Roamukao himself consolidates his body with more magma from below and quickly regenerates the damage he sustained.
I can't fire these in quick succession, unlike with much smaller plasma breaths shot from my hands. The heat this produces almost melts the insides of my barrel, so I need to wait until it cools down again. Since I'm using almost my entire mass, I can't just swap out the hot matter with fresh stuff from the inside. So I can only use some wind magic to hasten the process; I sure as hell won't use water and risk a vapor explosion like with Felgar inside my body.
The ash and smoke expelled from Roamukao's body mixes with the thunderclouds gathering above, and lightning plays around him. I've heard of that before, it's called dirty lightning, which is caused by volcanic rocks in the clouds colliding and creating static electricity. Some of them are striking the god's surface, but they show no effect.
Then suddenly a massive lightning bolt comes down and connects with his chest, almost exactly where my plasma beam hit earlier. It digs into his body and causes lava to be scattered everywhere once more, as he shakes from the impact. There's no question that this was caused by Tahiri. Still, it did about as much damage as my attack, which is far from enough to bring his huge body down completely.
That's when the God of Destruction goes on the offensive himself, swinging his arm around and throwing a huge mass of lava in the air. It turns into a hail of molten and burning rocks, coming down in the general area where I've dug myself in.
Oh shi-
Pulling my entire mass together and returning to the size of a human, I minimize the chance of being hit. Even then, I still begin to run forward to pass under the hail just like one would charge forward on a battlefield to avoid a shower of arrows, rather than run backwards risking being hit by those projectiles that traveled farther and for a longer duration. But being so small, the giant mass of lava coming down from above looks so much bigger and much more intimidating. And I'm seriously scared of being hit by any of that.
While running, I begin to transform with every step, creating boosters on my back, covering my body in dragon armor and growing out fixed wings. Then I begin to fly rather than run, breaking through the forest canopy and maneuvering quickly to dodge the hail of molten rock. I turn my arm into a dragon cannon and shoot those obstacles I can't dodge out of the way, before finally getting clear of the lava shower.
I don't think this is going to get anywhere with our current attacks. Tahiri is limited to using winds and lightning, and the most effective thing I have is the huge plasma artillery. Neither dealt any lasting damage, since our enemy can just regenerate. And I doubt any of the others are going to be able to do something, if we two can't.
I see Korenga's trail meeting the fires spread by the Ashlings from afar and hear a giant impact. Then her black form jumps out from between the flames with two aspects clinging onto her. They lose their grip due to her smooth surface and fall to the ground below, as she leaps up the mountainside and runs directly at Roamukao while roaring at the top of her lungs. Not slowing down her sprint she effortlessly smashes her way through the mass of Ashlings still rolling down the slope from inside the volcano's crater.
The massive lava god seems to notice her approaching and brings his arm down in a sweeping punch, completely disregarding his own aspects which get crushed by his gigantic fist. When the Black God sees it, she changes her direction and heads straight for it.
What is she doing?! Her, in comparison, hopelessly tiny figure is running to meet a fist the size of Awhina's house head on.
But nothing prepares me for the moment they actually meet. Korenga's figure seems to disappear into the half-solid fist. A split second later, it explodes and sprays molten rock in a wide area, as Roamukao draws back his shattered arm seemingly in shock. The Black God continues to charge, causing the lava god to use his regenerating arm and sweep her aside. Due to the force, she's thrown across the mountainside and into the forest below.
A roar coming from where she fell indicates that she's not only alive, but also kicking. I can't help but shake my head at her recklessness, but at the same time I'm laughing at the absurdity of her sturdiness. Her clothes didn't survive the encounter though, as expected.
Still, the lava god's incredibly quick recovery just shows that those kinds of attacks aren't very useful. I feel like the only way to defeat him would be to cut off his supply of magma from inside the earth and then scatter his body with big attacks like the ones Tahiri and I used earlier. How the hell did those feuding gods defeat him before, when he emerged to join their battles? How is the world not a single smoldering wasteland already?
If only there was a way to supersize Korenga. The only reason I could keep up with her was because I increased my density to the maximum while staying at her size. If I were to grow bigger, I'd spread out my matter and become too thin. That way I wouldn't be able to achieve the same kind of density and quasi-indestructibility that I displayed during our duel. Furthermore, I'm not completely immune to heat, like she seems to be, so I can't charge straight into Roamukao's body.
But wait, if she can do that, she could just dig herself into his midsection and explode it like she did his fist and forearm just now - however she did that in the first place is anyone's guess, though. I only need to find a way to get her there, since the lava god will slap her away if she tries to get close like before.
"[Tahiri!]" I shout up into the sky, and a lightning bolt streaks through the air inches away from me. The electricity jumps over onto my body, but since I'm basically immune to it at this point, I don't even feel a hint of numbness. Floating in midair next to me, the God of Storm appears.
"[What do you want?]" Her tone and expression suggest that whatever I want to say to her is very important, since otherwise me calling her down while she's gathering her powers would be a waste of time. Charming as always, I see. But you still came down for me, so I'll take it.
"[Keep him off of me for a while, but don't exhaust yourself.]" I begin, but she lifts an eyebrow.
"[Who do you think you're talking to?]" She sounds irritated, most likely caused by a combination of this situation and me questioning her abilities. Yeah, she's never shown any exhaustion in our battles before, so there was no reason to specifically warn her about it.
"[Alright, just keep your biggest shot in reserve. You'll know when to use it.]" Tapping her shoulder, I send Tahiri off. She grows serious again and doesn't ask what I'm planning to do before disappearing in a lightning bolt. I appreciate her cooperativeness.
Moments later, rain comes down and begins to limit visibility. Within the downpour, I can see lightning flash and hit the glowing body of Roamukao, who expels ever more ash from his back to try and heat up the clouds, so that Tahiri loses control over the weather. I doubt it'll be so easy for him, but I shouldn't lose any time.
I can see that Korenga has begun beating up Ashlings which are gathering and piling up on her, instead of charging back up the volcano. It's clear that the lava god doesn't want to deal with her destructiveness and instead wishes to keep her occupied while he can spread his aspects further. To my right I see that the wall Awhina is creating is only expanding in one direction. Upon focusing my eyes, I notice that she's riding on the very front of the wave of stones rising up above the forest canopy. She actually has her arms spread out and seems to be having fun despite the circumstances, but at this rate she'll be done pretty soon.
Activating the bursts of wind in my back boosters, I quickly fly towards where the Black God is bogged down in a melee. All around me, the army of Tokomaha clones are engaging the Ashlings that are spreading out through the forest, and judging by the numbers on each side, this can only be described as a full-blown war. I'm sure there are humans witnessing this from afar. Maybe this will go down in history, noting this point as the beginning of the war against the God King of Adanak, or something like that.
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It would be cool to be a part of history like this~
Korenga is swinging her arms and kicking her legs, scattering Ashlings with every move while more pile onto her and try to hold her down. I swoop in and shoot a volley of spirit spears, while forming a blade made of dragon armor on each of my hands. Spinning around myself, I cut my way through the enemies and pierce two that are getting on her back at the same time.
She turns around and punches me straight in the face, causing my neck to break and bend backwards.
Like in a certain auto-morphing figurine with a revolving head, I flip up mass from my chest to reform my head while letting the broken one sink into my back. Staring at Korenga dumbfounded as she continues her fruitless battle against the ceaseless stream of Ashlings, I frown. She basically hit me out of reflex just now, and most likely didn't even notice that it was me, but if I had been anyone else, it would have ended really badly.
"[Korenga!]" I shout while shooting scattered beams of plasma out of my back to stave off the waves of enemies coming from behind me. I'm now in the thick of it and have to stand my ground to be able to talk to her. "[Hey, blockhead!]"
On these words, she actually turns around and swings at me. Dodging the attack, I get into her back and turn both my hands into dragon heads, with which I practically shotgun blast the Ashlings before me. At the same time, she continues punching, turning more of Roamukao's aspects back into ash and rocks.
"[Come with me!]" I keep my back to Korenga's while speaking, and extend spikes from my arms with which I pierce several enemies at once. Behind them, I can see that a contingent of Tokomaha clones is coming towards us; because of the pileup here, they were able to penetrate the Ashling lines much deeper. This means I can leave them to her now and bring the Black God along.
Not waiting for a response from the rampaging goddess behind me, I transform my wings into tentacles and wrap them around her. Then I turn my body around on the spot by bending my arms and legs backwards and spinning my head on my neck a hundred and eighty degrees. Anyone seeing it might cringe at the alien movement, but at this point I only care about efficiency.
Reforming the boosters on my back, I lift off with Korenga. Since she's incredibly heavy while in her black form, I'm much slower, and several Ashlings cling onto our legs. That's when a volley of spears from the Tokomaha clones pierce them and cause them to let go. Jolting upwards, we get clear of the enemies below and take off into the sky.
I'm flying us away from here, but she's not making it easy, struggling and trying to punch and kick me. Luckily she doesn't seem to be very limber in this form, as she can't reach around to her back and try to grab me. Even if she did, I can easily slip out of her grasp by transforming my body parts, so it'd be an exercise in futility. Still, because of her movements, our flight looks like that of a drunk bee's.
My aim is to get to a quieter place and explain the plan to her. Looking down below, I can see through the burning forest canopy that the Tokomaha clone army is fighting the Ashlings over a wide area, but she's getting overwhelmed at some fronts. I wonder what would have happened, if she hadn't been around. Same goes for Awhina, who is just about to finish the wall surrounding the volcano. But if nobody was holding back the tide, she would most likely never make it in time to close them all off. In a sense, if even only one of the people on our side had been missing, this whole thing would have literally gone up in smoke.
In either case, I find a pond far behind the frontlines and drop Korenga into it carelessly, before descending myself. She's survived being flung across several hundred meters, so a drop of a few dozen meters and into water is no problem for her. I wouldn't be doing this with anyone else, though.
With a big splash, she lands in the water and displaces an incredible amount of it. Just as she resurfaces, I come down at the edge of the pond, bracing myself for her attacks. But apparently the water was enough to take her out of her battle trance - and she's clearly pissed about it.
"[What are you doing?!]" She roars and wades towards me.
"[Listen, I need your help.]" Stretching out my palm towards her and gesturing for her to stop, I begin my explanation.
She actually calms down, turns her skin back to normal and listens. When I finish outlining the plan, Korenga has a huge grin on her face that shows her support.
"[That's so crazy, it might actually work.]" Patting me on my shoulder, she laughs. I can feel my feet sink into the ground from the impact; even in her normal form, she still has excessive amounts of strength...
"[It better, because I can't think of any other way for our lineup to defeat that thing.]" Shrugging with a sigh, I point behind me. "[You ready?]"
"[Let's do this!]" Turning into her Black God form again, she pumps her fists in anticipation.
I begin my transformation, into a form similar to the giant artillery as before. Growing out four legs to anchor myself with, I create a long and narrow barrel while shaping my main body into a form that can only be described as a loading chamber. And the payload is none other than Korenga herself.
Since her body isn't exactly cannonball-shaped, I create something like a cartridge into which I place her. I can feel discomfort inside me because of her curse, but it's not as bad as when I actually swallowed her whole; I can endure this until she's launched. Under the Black God Shell I begin to gather plasma. I know it doesn't have any actual pushing power, but my aim is another.
Pointing the barrel straight at Roamukao's torso, I assume that I will have enough force to shoot in an almost direct line. Even then, I make sure to factor the heavy rain in, and the fact that Korenga weighs a lot herself, so I turn the barrel up a bit. If I overshoot the target it won't be funny, though. After all, I haven't studied ballistics.
With this, I use water magic and place it right in the center of the plasma.
In an instant, a massive explosion takes place inside my body, which I have lined with the densest dragon armor possible while taking on this giant form. The Black God Shell is launched along the inside of my barrel while inside the cartridge, which I catch before it flies off. She shoots out alone at an incredible velocity, straight towards the target. I instantly dissolve my form and discard the molten bits inside me before they eat away more of my mass.
The Black God Shell is almost impossible to follow with the naked eye, but I can tell that this is going to be a success.
Because moments later, she impacts Roamukao's stomach, just about where he's emerging from the crater.
Then I see an explosion of molten rocks coming from where Korenga penetrated into his body. Looking down at himself, he must be wondering what happened, but then another explosion severs his upper from his lower half. He falls forward onto the edge of the volcano and begins to slide down the mountainside while trying to grab onto something, desperately trying to break his fall. It seems he has been cut off from the magma supply, because he's not regenerating the mass he's losing from moving about.
The large amount of ash expelled from his body turns into a new wave of aspects that begin to spread out in all directions. I can tell that this will break through Tokomaha's clone army, unless she can create more of them quickly; considering she wasn't able to do so right after creating the first batch, which are already getting pushed back in many areas, it's safe to say that she reached a limit somewhere along the line.
That's where Awhina's wall comes into play. The Ashlings can't fly and their forms don't seem like they're made for climbing, either. As long as they're confined within this area, we can pick them off to the last one sooner or later.
But for now, we need to deal with their origin first.
Roamukao has turned around and stopped his descent, clawing at the flank of the volcano to try and crawl back to the crater so that he can reconnect to the bounty of the earth. That is when a gigantic lightning bolt, even bigger than the previous one, comes down from the skies and digs straight into his shoulder. The electricity doesn't cease, seemingly turning into a gigantic sword that severs his left arm and continues to cut into his back.
The massive arm rolls down the slope and breaks apart into a large puddle of lifeless lava, from which no more Ashlings emerge. It worked!
I immediately transform into the giant plasma cannon and dig my feet into the ground. Since I'm much closer to my target this time, I increase the caliber of the barrel while making it shorter, before taking aim at Roamukao's exposed back. I gather even more plasma than before, fully acknowledging the fact that it will most likely overheat me and burn away even more of my mass. But this is our only chance, so I'll have to risk it all.
Tahiri seems to exhaust her current supply of electricity, as the lightning blade ceases and the thunderclouds expel a large mass of water in a cold downpour. For some reason I'm reminded of cooling liquid being purged from a giant machine that just overheated. If only I had any such liquids that don't instantly evaporate - as in, something that isn't water.
Blasting open my own barrel open, I shoot out the largest amount of plasma yet. It flies straight at Roamukao and hits him square in the back. The ensuing explosion scatters his matter and I see his other arm flying off and disappearing into the volcano. The remaining mangled torso finally begins to dissolve and lose its form, flowing down the mountainside as simple molten rock.
The will behind Roamukao has disappeared, and his pieces return to the earth where they belong.
I quickly purge the mass that's melting down and beginning to foam as a natural defense against the immense heat my body is experiencing. Making sure that I don't discard anything that isn't irrevocably lost, so as to not needlessly create more Crawling Chaos children - since I'd rather not do it asexually again - I consolidate my body back into my humanoid shape.
This was a really incredible design, if I may say so myself. I'll name this the Godslayer Cannon. I'm sure it will come in handy against other gods I may encounter along the way.
Looking around, I can see that the Ashlings aren't stopping or outright disintegrating in the wake of Roamukao's defeat. Can't be as convenient as movie boss battles, where the hive mind is destroyed and the armies cease to function immediately, huh? Well, most likely it's because the actual god is still alive and only lost his form above ground. But I seriously hope he doesn't come out of that volcano with a new body.
... Oh crap! I completely forgot about the fact that Korenga is now in there!
As if to mock my concern, I see her black form jump up onto the smoldering edge of the volcano. She raises her fists in a triumphant pose and roars across the area.
"[I have single-handedly vanquished Roamukao!]" Hey, this was a team effort! But her laughter washes away any irritation that could be building inside me and I sigh with a wry smile.
It seems that the Ashlings broke through the Tokomaha clone army, but have been stopped by the wall Awhina completed just in time. All that's left is to mop them up and put out the fires, though the latter is best left to Tahiri, who seems to be gathering more thunderclouds again for that very purpose.
I look at the crater from which Korenga is running down to join in on the extermination of Roamukao's aspects, still expecting him to rise from it again. But there are no signs of it happening, only heavy smoke floating up into the sky and raining down as ash around the area. The volcano itself even seems to have calmed down and is no longer spewing lava. We'll have to stick around a while and see how it goes, but I think this is the end and the God of Destruction rests once more.
... I have to say, that was pretty epic. I'm kind of happy that I could experience something I've seen in games and movies all the time, and even participate in it. Seriously, this is like any super hero fan's dream come true, assembling a team of people with special powers and fighting a big bad together. Though now I'm aware of the dangers involved in it. Still, better to have lived and experienced it, than to only ever watch others do it.
"[What are you standing around and grinning for. Get to work.]" A Tokomaha yells up to me and derails my train of thoughts. I can't tell whether it's the real one or just a clone, but I can feel irritation rise up again. I'll punish her later for ruining the glorious moment.
Taking on my organic mecha form once more, I activate my boosters and join the mop-up operation.