Toren Daen

As my bond slowly accepted sleep, I surveyed the tide of undead approaching on their makeshift rafts.

The numbers on the water had been reduced significantly by the resistance of the ascenders I traveled with, and then further decimated by the sudden emergence of the leviathan below. This gave me the time I needed to prepare.

I watched as several corpses toppled into the water, jostled by their clumsy allies. They never rose up again, sinking like stones to the lakebed. The lake had truly cut off their ability to advance: amidst the horde, which loomed with flickering violet eyes on one end of the shore, only a few seemed to be able to conjure solid platforms. This prevented me from being rushed by thousands of corpses all at once, keeping instead to a still-petrifying hundreds.

Despite this, there was a uniformity to their slow approach that reminded me of the acidbeam hornets I’d faced so long ago. There was a weave of intent that I could almost taste on the air, coating each and every entity in its thick, tarry smog.

These creatures were operating under a hivemind.

My eyes, which felt hot under the effects of my Phoenix Will, flicked over the water, searching for my targets. They were easy to spot: colossal monuments of gray flesh that stood imperiously along the waterline. Their eyes alone carried true intelligence.

Cut the head off the snake, I thought, shaping an orb of solid fire in my hands, And the body will wither.

I took a few seconds of precious time to mold the shape I wanted, stretching out the familiar orb into a foreign shape. The sphere slowly became a shaft, then formed a solid top of orange. I hefted a lance of flame, feeling its haft sizzling warmly against my palm. The spearhead flared visibly, ready to sear and sunder.

The undead weren’t far from me now.

I lined up my sights, my eyes boring into the bonfire of slate-gray lifeforce that this flesh titan held in its chest. Then I threw my spear of fire, adding a final flare of telekinesis to accelerate it on its way.

There was a blurring streak of orange as my spell sought its target. The water parted around it as it traveled, steam rising from the surface of the lake as my fire spell honed in on the undead.

But the thing seemed to be expecting my attack. A dozen mana shields popped into existence as the intent threading from its heartfire like puppet strings directed the minions to raise their barriers.

My fire lance ignored them like they were paper, searing through earth, ice, water, and even more fire as it traveled on its way. Unfortunately, each defense it shredded sapped away a little more of its mana. Motes were chipped off as it scoured its way forward such that once it reached its target, the projectile merely splashed against putrid flesh with minimal harm.

I ground my teeth, then forcibly settled myself. Long-range fighting wasn’t my specialty, and I needed to save my mana to ward off the true monster under the water. I couldn’t use plasma recklessly or try and overwhelm these things with power lest I tire myself out too soon.

The place I shined was at medium to close range, where my telekinesis was most effective in assisting me. My mobility was superb, so I could be where I needed to ward off these monsters.

I internally checked my core. It was lined with silver cracks, heralding another advancement, but I ignored those for a moment. I was at little more than half my maximum mana capacity, but it was draining fast.

My Acquire Phase wasn’t usually this demanding of mana, but without my bond to stabilize its effects on me, my own mind and body were left to shoulder the burden. The latter was more than up to the challenge with my new physique, but with the former, I had to keep my thoughts from racing in uneven directions under the effects of my primal Will.

So be it.

The first of the ice floes drifted within my telekinetic range. Before the undead on it could even start conjuring spells, a bullet of solid sound embedded itself into the ice below. Then the spell exploded, sending rippling cracks through their makeshift platform as the sound mana forced vibrations through the structure. It promptly shattered, dropping the flailing undead into the water below.

They sank.

I had been conservative in my use of offensive sound magic throughout this zone, fearing the retribution of these creatures. But I didn’t need to contain that part of my arsenal any longer. As more and more ice floes reached my range, I zipped across the lake, using wide-area telekinetic pushes on the surface like a water strider to keep myself aloft. Wherever I went, I targeted the platforms first and foremost, avoiding wasting mana on taking out each undead individually. The commanders on the outskirts quickly wised up to my tactics, the intent threading from their bodies twisting in a way that made my skin crawl.

A wave of fire washed over me as I approached another ice floe, but my telekinetic shroud easily shrugged off the measly attack like it was a breeze. When I noticed the undead reinforcing their raft with mana, I switched tactics myself.

I blurred forward, smashing into the raft with the force of a comet. An undead simply fell apart as its body crumpled under my boots. Then I thrust my arms outward, using an unfocused wave of telekinetic force. Half a dozen undead were sent into the water, snarling and hacking all the while.

My instincts, heightened by both my Will and assimilated body, blared from the edge of my perception. Knowing some sort of attack was coming, I backflipped off the ice floe, then latched onto it midair with my emblem. I hefted the raft in front of me like a shield with my telekinetic emblem as I settled back over the water.

A focused nimbus of electricity arced against my makeshift shield, splintering it and making me slide back over the water. A commander was attacking me, all its limbs focused on spewing electricity wildly.

I hissed, exhaling smoke as the assault continued. I gathered sound mana over my fist, simultaneously building up a telekinetic charge over my knuckles. I reeled back, then punched my makeshift ice shield with the force of a nascent asura.

The massive block of ice sped forward, splitting the wave of electricity as it came. Focused as it was on its lightning barrage, the miniature iceberg smashed into the commander, sending it toppling into the water. Electricity arced and sputtered over the water as it sank, yet I knew it wasn’t truly done for.

Then I sensed a wave of familiar power rising in the water. I got the barest glimpse of the leviathan as its jaws swallowed the two-story-tall commander with a whump. Hundreds of undead all around me went limp simultaneously, their tenuous tether snapping.

Okay, I thought. Three down, two to go. I was grateful the leviathan below was indiscriminate in its targeting, but I suspected it wouldn’t strike at me unless I made myself an alluring enough catch.

I coalesced a handful of soundshot in my palms, then morphed the constructs into something more streamlined. I clenched vibrating feathers of solid sound between my fingers like throwing knives, crystallizing the pure mana I’d interweaved to make them solid.

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I waved my hands with a telekinetic flourish, sending my makeshift darts toward one of the remaining commanders. The last two were working together, surrounded by a veritable horde of undead on the largest ice floe I’d seen yet. While I’d been picking off the stray icebergs as they floated too close to the looming Empire State Building, these last commanders had strategized.

My telekinetic feathers cut through a few of the approaching waves which had wedged themselves in like sardines to resist my assault. Once my shearing feathers–which vibrated like a buzzsaw–cut through enough enemies, they simply dissipated.

I worked my jaw, thinking of a way to try and end this once and for all. My method of creating solid fire and sound was based on rudimentary insight gained from Dornar Joan’s flame constructs, but I didn’t have the understanding required to make those spells truly durable. If I added too much pure mana, I negated the benefits of searing or vibrating attributes I aimed for. If I created too little, it would fall apart in an instant.

Normally, this wasn’t a problem. I used my solid mana constructs as shotgun attacks, chucking a handful of solidified fire at monsters with a burst of telekinesis to create an effect a lot like a cluster bomb. But I imagined how quickly I could’ve ended this fight if my solid constructs could endure more punishment as they punched through obstacles.

I felt my mana draining at an increasingly worrying rate as my Acquire Phase seeped through my bones. I had no doubt I could tear through all the remaining undead with my new physique and broad repertoire of powers, but the true enemy lurked below.

I ground my teeth, then floated higher in the air. I raised one of my hands, funneling a large amount of mana through my reinforced veins. A fireball appeared over my palm, then began to grow as it gorged itself on my mana.

That got the attention of the undead well enough. A multi-elemental volley of spells began to arc toward me as I prepared a colossal fireball. With Oath clenched in one hand, I cut through as many as I could. I managed to divert a spray of lightning with my telekinetic pulls, leveraging my increased understanding in my Acquire Phase to alter their flow. Oath came up in a humming cut, vibrating with sound mana as it sheared a boulder twice my size in two. Before, I might have felt that impact pressing up my arm even with my telekinetic shroud bolstering my strength.

Now, it was barely a sweat.

A dozen quick telekinetic punches shattered slabs of metal as a wave of fire erupted from Oath, wiping away arcs of cutting wind and obliterating grasping chains of ice that sought my ankles.

And still, the fireball in my left palm continued to grow. I felt my core strain as I pumped more of my reserves into it, enlarging it to an easy twenty feet wide. The heat of it made me sweat, even though it was my own mana.

Then I waved my arm down, letting the massive fireball slowly drift toward the approaching ice floe like an unforgiving comet. What it lost in speed, it made up for in size. The undead ceased their constant attacks on me, and under the seamless hivemind began to layer shield after shield over their little oasis.

I slumped, heaving for breath and feeling the drain on my reserves. I’d been able to pack an absurd amount of mana into that one spell, courtesy of my reinforced body. I felt myself wonder once again just what my Bond had done to wash away the Basilisk’s taint in my blood and replace it with such vitality.

I listed to the side slightly, my telekinetic supports straining.

The leviathan made its move as it sensed my weakness, lunging from the depths with its jaw unnaturally wide. The colossal beast lurched forty feet into the air as it tried to swallow me whole, making the water rock like a hurricane.

Yet only its head and part of its neck were visible over the waves, hinting at the terror beneath. Those massive, layered teeth were sharp enough to rip through an ocean liner. And as the yawning darkness of the monster’s gullet greeted me, I thought it could swallow the sun.

I smirked, my gambit having paid off. I let myself fall toward the monster’s jaw, then used telekinetic pulls to angle myself out of its range. I made eye contact with the monster as I fell past its face, my grin wide and predatory. The massive sea serpent seemed to hold my gaze.

The direction of my fireball changed, lurching and reversing with surprising speed as my telekinetic emblem coated it in an outline of white. With the barest effort of will, a fireball the size of a living room entered the monster’s jaw instead of my own body.

It detonated a second later within the creature’s mouth, blowing chunks of flesh and bone everywhere in a spray of power. The monster roared in pain, its mouth smoking as it pulled itself from the water further in anger. Higher and higher and higher it went, until it towered over most of the skyscrapers in the zone. It thrashed and writhed like a worm, its slitted violet eyes crazed from pain.

The water surged as if it were in a hurricane, capsizing the nearby undead like they were birds caught in a storm. But I was hit the worst: the water swallowed me whole, the turbulence of the thing’s tantrum tearing at me from half a dozen directions as the water churned. My body was twisted and spun around; my attempts at reorienting myself with my telekinetic pushes and pulls only made me more dizzy. Water rushed into my lungs, clogging my nostrils and clawing at my throat.

I smashed into something in the water with the force of a train. A bare flash of bluish-white blared in my vision as it crashed into me, ripping the telekinetic shroud around my arm asunder and tearing a bloody gash across my shoulder.

I dimly recognized that it was the glacial iceberg the undead had been camped on. All around me, corpses were torn apart by the churning water, heads, limbs, and torsos shredded like they were in a blender. My own body held on remarkably well, despite the blood now streaming from my shoulder.

I sent a telekinetic shove randomly into the water, blowing myself off to the side. I blurred forward like a rocket, finally managing to escape the underwater tempest.

I then shoved myself upward, ascending like a comet. I breached the surface of the water in a rush, arcing into the air before I could stabilize myself. I coughed for a few seconds, expelling the water that had gotten into my lungs.

I winced as my shoulders heaved with each cough, feeling the wound as it leaked crimson. Embers of heartfire–a strange orange-purple instead of crimson–sparked and popped along my blood, but I had a more visceral sense of my lifeforce now that my physique had changed.

I laid my left arm on my shoulder, wincing as blood seeped through my fingers. I remembered what I’d done for Dima and Darrin: the instinctual call to their own lifeforces with my own. It was not unlike how I spread my emotions to the world with my intent-based music.

My heartfire flared, warmth running along my veins as my power reacted to my silent plea. Slowly, my wound began to close, the aetheric soul-tether of lifeforce enforcing my needs. Blood still dripped down my shoulder, running over my fingers, but I was good as new now.

Except the orange-purple lifeforce in my chest–which I could sense now, rather than just see–had shrunk ever-so-slightly.

I wasn’t given the chance to think about this change. A long, sinuous shadow stretched over me, blocking out the sun with its bulk.

I looked up. The serpent was poised above me, a towering titan that overshadowed everything. Its once flesh-coated skull was charred and burnt to a blackened stain. Where once rotten flesh covered its entire head, now only bone remained.

My attack had wounded it, but it was angry now. It stared down at me like I was an ant, coiling and shifting in the barest of movements. My breath caught in my throat, and it was only the Will melded with my mana that kept me from instinctually cowering. Its heartfire was the same silent, slate gray of everything else here, the drab color seeming a portent of its desires.

We stared at each other for a long moment. Then the serpent turned, orienting toward the massive Empire State Building replica. My breath left my lungs as I realized that it planned to ignore me.

No, I thought, starting to panic internally. I can’t let it shift its attention. I need to keep it here!

I conjured a dozen fireballs around me, pumping more mana into them. I didn’t even need to kill this thing. I just needed to keep it away from my comrades.

It began to slither toward the center of the island, slowly and forcefully. I yelled, throwing my fireballs in response. They splashed against the monster’s great bulk, scouring away flesh and carving meaty divots into its form. Yet it didn’t even slow down, ignoring my attack with a mild roar.

I grit my teeth, slamming my telekinetic pushes into the water. I shot forward like a jet ski, a wake blown behind me. I narrowed my eyes as I made a beeline for the Empire State Building.

I saw the metallic ice floe my ascending partners had once resided on beached on the small island, the mages nowhere in sight. Judging from what I could feel inside the tower, they were slowly ascending floor by floor.

What’s taking them so long?! I thought with a flash of anger as I sped past the serpent, my mobility the only thing I held over it. I continued to pepper its colossal bulk with fireballs and sound grenades, trying to get it to change course. They should take the damn elevator!

I briefly wondered why the serpent, so enraged before, had decided to ignore me. Did it have some sort of vindictive sense that told it I was trying to distract it? Or was it programmed somehow to protect this tower and prevent ascenders from reaching the portal near the top?

In the end, it didn’t matter. I needed to hold it off as long as possible.