Moyo continuously clashed with the blight dungeon boss in a shower of sparks and intent so deadly, the pyramid shook, waves of power buffeted the both of them as Moyo snarled. The being twisted and twirled like a piece of clothing, somehow avoiding the biting edge of dominion as Moyo used his aura and Ashe encased body to slap away the staff, marvelling at the crushing power it carried. The being stepped backwards, slamming the staff to the ground and releasing an unearthly shriek as the skies above darkened and a force began to press down on both Moyo and his spiritual form.
Snarling in anger, he let more of his titan aspect respond, his spiritual form glowing brighter as it swung its blade and reality answered with a chime. He could eat the blighted aura and what he felt was the essence of the monster, but something held him back, greed of Esu wasn’t enthusiastic to consume the putrid power of the dungeon boss and he at the least was also curious. The two moved to engage again and the boss snapped its bony fingers. A black tar like substance oozed from its body to coalesce and form a humanoid shape.
It took Moyo a few seconds to realize he was staring at a shadowy form of himself, eyebrows raised in surprise as the form gurgled and raised its imitation of dominion up to attack. Moyo, appalled by this moved with a step of Ogun, attempting to catch the monster off guard when it moved with the same skill, appearing behind him in a counter-offensive maneuver and brought its black blade down on him. Ferocity of oshosi saved him from the attack, dropping to a roll and activating the step of ogun to appear in the air, he stared wide eyed at the black creature that stood in front of the dungeon boss.
It was protecting the boss, but the main question was how the boss had been able to create a clone of him with his skills. The creature Moyo was definitely sure was a blight wasn’t acting in the same way usual blights did, the environment wasn’t a putrid festering mess, no spires or pathways were being attempted to be opened and it was somehow leading a bunch of creatures who in themselves weren’t looking like denizens of the abyss despite what ajax had said. The titan blazed with unrestrained power as he shot a quick glance to his side and saw Ashira comfortably holding off the guardians to an extent.
The chimera had been able to avoid the crushing blow of the phase golem and the edge of the nightmare knight, but it was apparent she couldn’t take the both of them on. He gripped dominion tighter, a subtle smile on his face,
Finally, a challenge,
With both hands, he raised dominion high and brough it down with a swing, activating one of its attacks,
“Black hole” he whispered,
The intent attack shot forwards with speed, reality screaming as the titan attempted to sunder both the clone and the dungeon boss in one fell move. The attack would no doubt bite through the clone, but it might not reach the dungeon boss and that was fine, the black hole would draw in the boss as well or in the least distract it while Moyo took the advantage. The shadow moved, its blade raised as black and green putrid aura encased the blade made of tar also, it gurgled a reply, but Moyo heard it clear as day,
Da pa da,
With eyes wide opened, Moyo watched the monster repel the attack back at him, his intent attack crashing against the blade and rebounding back towards him. Without thinking twice, he encased himself in more of his titan aspect Ashe, dominion humming at the challenge presented and brought the blade crashing down on the attack. Reality splintered, the attack twisting and screaming in the void between and Moyo saw flashes of a desolate place where auras and essence of creatures rampaged but with nothing to destroy,
The nethervoid,
In a blink it was gone though, reality asserting its dominance, but the titan had been pushed backwards a noticeable distance from the pyramid. The shriek of the dungeon boss resounded through the air, but Moyo paused, nodded, took one step of Ogun and appeared right in front of the nightmare guardian knight and with one swing of dominion that caught the guard in surprise, relieved it of its head.
Gripping both body and head, he crushed it as its essence and aura wafted into his body, along with a taste of the power of the dungeon boss that he analysed in silence even as the dungeon boss shrieked in anger and its clone stood stoically. Ashira unleashed her pent-up rage on the golem and Moyo could see her spiritual form, a humanoid hybrid of a chimera unleash the full might of a master on the golem, shattering its body and ending its existence. She panted and stepped backwards, glancing up at the dungeon boss then back at Moyo,
“What the hell?” she asked as she saw the clone,
“My thoughts exactly” he grimly responded,
The dungeon boss pointed at them with his staff as a black intricate rune circle that spoke of destruction and death began to take shape above him,
“On guard” Moyo hissed as he summoned his core realm, the mountain of the titan at the same height with the pyramid, belching intent, Ashe and aura of the titan with his aspect submersing the entire area.
Ashira followed suit, her realm of poisonous trees and jungle taking shape as a loud roar could be heard from its shadowy depths. The dungeon boss shrieked again and black tarlike projectiles shot out of the rune, darkening the skies once more with their destructive might. Moyo gathered the power of his spiritual form as his eyes blazed,
“DA PA DA!” he shouted,
The edict made him stagger for a second, but his near infinite Ashe replaced the vacuum that had been sucked by the edict. The edict formed a repulsive wall of pure power that managed to repel the attack, devastating the landscape below and turning it into a post-apocalyptic landscape. Moyo had felt the power of that attack, as well as its deadliness and it made him to summon his mantle on top of his bloodline ability, Ashira glancing at him with wide eyes before following suit. The dungeon boss stared stoically at him before going back to its sitting position.
The insult was clear enough, should they stay on the defensive, they weren’t worth its time and Moyo squeezed his fists tight,
“Calm titan” Ashira said from where she floated over her forests,
He nodded,
“The aura and power of the boss, it gives off the power of a blight, but that is no blight” Moyo responded,
It had taken him a moment to understand what he had felt from the power he had stolen, and it had opened a plethora of questions again,
Like what was the creature?
A new form of blight?
It didn’t feel as strong as Araman did when he had caught a glimpse of the lord of the abyss on Duhiri, but then he had been a gold and the power felt like the distance between heaven and earth. Now that he was a master, maybe the power felt reduced, but Iveph, a master and brigade overseer had struggled with a lord and Moyo was sure this was no lord. He glanced at Ashira as she kept her blade and drew her bow, drawing on its strings as an arrow appeared on it.
A perfect fusion of her authority, aura and intent, it brightened the area as the dungeon boss turned to her and gave a shriek. Moyo watched the clone of him turn to tar and then into a perfect copy of Ashira with a bow also, drawing its string back in an attack. He took the opportunity, realizing the ability of the dungeon boss as well. It could only imitate the form of one maser at a time to counter said master, and currently, its focus was on Ashira. So as Ashira released her arrow, the clone replied in kind, its deadly arrow leaving a line of decay that would seriously harm a diamond and outright kill anything below diamond immediately.
The titan moved, dominion already swinging for the head of the clone as it tried to reel back, no longer having access to the skills of the titan. Moyo felt the dungeon boss move to intercept his attack and smiled, activating his step of the titan in time to appear behind the clone who was in the process of turning back to tar. Driving dominion straight through its skull, it froze up as the titan aspect ravaged its very being, releasing a loud shriek, it broke into pieces of frozen tar before dissipating.
The dungeon boss having no time to attack Moyo as Ashira had appeared behind him with talon, somehow biting deep into its bony form as it brought its staff up crush her skull. Moyo was there, gripping the staff as a lance of pure agony speared right through him. Punching the dungeon boss while gripping the staff, it shot like a bullet towards the destroyed landscape below, Moyo throwing the staff to the ground as he stared at his blistered hand and frowned.
Despite his titanic body, the mere power of the monster had managed to blister his skin. Ashira frowned at his rapidly healing hand,
“That looks like the power of a very strong blight to me” she said,
“let’s test that theory” he responded and blitzed towards the boss who rapidly took a stance to block the titan,
Dominion swung for the weaponless bony arm of the dungeon boss now covered in tar and resounded with a clang. The boss morphed its second hand with the help of the tar into a piercing form, driving it straight for the chest of the titan who encased himself in aura and Ashe before attempting to block the attack. It broke past his aura and crashed his Ashe before pushing him backwards.
The force staggered the dungeon boss who had no time to gain his footing as Ashira descended on him, tail lashing in an arc of pure venom that managed to pierce of its glowing eye sockets before she rapidly retreated to avoid its tar covered hand that had morphed into a broad blade. It gave a shriek of agony as her corrosive poison began to eat into its frame, its hand moving in a set of intricate gestures as a large runic circle began to form behind it. Moyo blitzed forwards, clamping down on the arm with all of his titans’ might before dominion came out of nowhere; relieving the dungeon boss of its limb. It reeled back in obvious pain as the runic circle it was attempting to create exploded due to fluctuating power level the titan had abruptly cut off. They were all blown away in an arc of power that raced across the landscape, the pyramid cracking from the force. Moyo however, had weathered the explosion, appearing right back in front of the boss as he clamped down on its skull with his Ashe encased hand,
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“What are you?” he growled,
A power tore through his body as he froze, eyes wide opened before meeting himself in another place,
**********************
A field of flowers, a tall dark-skinned man with a staff, a child close to him with a smaller staff. The two followed a sequence of movements that were harmonic as well as brutal, Moyo frozen where he stood and what looked like the father and son oblivious to the intruder who stood there. His gaze turned to the two beings who stood silently behind the father and son and Moyo wanted to shout in alarm,
A phase golem and a nightmare knight, the exact types that were guardians.
However his voice didn’t work and his attention was either ignored on purpose or they genuinely couldn’t see him. He kept on waving but paused when a large craft shimmered into being above the father and son, the guardians doing nothing but glancing up as the craft that looked more like the black carapace of some insect opened up and another nightmare knight jumped from on high, landing in a kneeling position in front of the father and son,
“My liege” the knight said, its voice sounding like the clacking noise of a cricket,
He was sure they weren’t speaking any language known to him, but still he could understand them, was this the work of the archailect?. The man patted his son and stepped forward,
“Speak, knight” he said, his voice rumbling
Moyo noticed a tattoo on his shoulder that glowed with gold color, a rune etched into his shoulder with the rune that had him pausing, confusion on his face. It meant more than one thing at a time,
Strength, perseverance, endurance, willpower,
It was as if the rune was somehow meant to ground the man in reality, and with the aura he noticed around the man, he was a master and a peak one at that. The knight nodded,
“The erosion has begun, the golems and knights have managed to clear the outer worlds of its inhabitants, billions upon billions are being evacuated deep into the system my liege, the uninhabited worlds would be their refuge right behind the wall” the knight said,
“Titan preserve us” the man whispered as Moyo felt his body run cold,
No one used that phrase, ever, never had he heard it, what was going on here?
The knight slammed one hand to his chest,
“His will, our strength” he replied
“Inform the army, withdraw all ships beyond the wall, we will make our last stand in this system. We may have lost the majority of our galaxy, but there is still hope yet, hundreds of ascenders stand ready to hold the wall” the man said,
“and the harbingers?, the brigade?” the knight asked,
Moyo could hear desperation in the voice of the man, a yearning for hope and relief from the war they were fighting with a foe Moyo just wasn’t sure of yet. One thing he was sure of was this was someplace and somewhere in the archailect, whether past or present; he couldn’t tell. The man frowned as his eyes glowed golden,
“They consider us heretic for venerating an unseen being, they have left us to our faith, but you and I know the titan protects, he defends and he avenges” the man said,
Again that term the titan, was there a being in the archailect like that apart from the being that had ceased to exist?, or where they actually venerating a dead supreme being or whatever that giant in an armor he had seen at the bottom of his Ashe ocean had been?. Too many problems and too little time, still he listened, he watched as the knight bowed,
“The titan endures” the knight replied,
“Go, ensure your family are safe, we shall meet at the bastion of war atop the wall, there we will beat back the abyss with all that we have, Araman will not take one blighted step on the crystal worlds” the man who was their king said,
The knight jerked his head up, his hands trembling,
“does that mean you go to war my liege?, will the titans’ champion lead the charge?” the knight asked,
Titans’ champion?,
The man nodded as the golden glow in his eyes gave way for a purple glow and aura that encompassed him, forming an armor almost identical to that of the knight. However, what drew the attention of Moyo was the crest on the armor,
Dominion, his blade,
His confusion adding another layer to itself, he watched as the man’s staff took on a purple glow and the two guardians behind him and his son bowed together, along with the knight and the champions son. The man spoke again,
“The aspect of the titan is without host, it has been eons since it had manifested, I merely wield a glimpse of it in passing and can only hope the titan will return to us soon, but if I must die using his aspect to beat back his greatest enemy, then I will” the man said,
The knight stood straight and slammed his fist to his chest, this time pure determination oozing from his very being,
“Then we will ride and die with you my liege, we follow the path of the titan, our lives are yours to wield” he said as he turned and with a short hop, made his way back to the ship that closed up and vanished.
Moyo was forcibly drawn away from the field to a desolate world, where ashes flew through the air and colors had been leeched from all of existence. He could feel it in the air, the absence of life, of sustenance and of reality, he was on a husk of a world, one sucked of all life and left adrift. His gaze was drawn to a being, more like a wraith in a tattered cloak and holding a blade, a blade stabbed into the chest of the titans’ champion. Moyo saw red, anger sprouting from somewhere deep within and guilt, a guilt he had no understanding of welling up within him.
He felt like he had failed the man in his duties, he should had been there, he should had protected him, but now the man lay there, dying. He turned his gaze to the wraith and for some reason, know who or what it was,
Araman
The lord of the abyss, but somehow Moyo realized he wasn’t at full strength here, no, he wasn’t a lord of the abyss yet, just a category 6 blight. The champion coughed out blue blood as his staff lay on the ground, Moyo glanced around in horror to realize the charred husks he saw around were the bodies of ascenders, disfigured beyond all recompense and mouth opened in a wordless shout of agony.
“Gaius golden champion, your death would serve as a step in my ascension, bizarre as those words sound” Araman said, his voice hoarse and sounding like the dying breath of a man. This was not the Araman he remembered and he was pretty sure now that this was the past, the Araman he knew now Would had ended this man in a blink, Moyo wasn’t even sure he could take on the lord of the abyss even at his current strength, the man known as Gaius chuckled even as he took deep rattling breaths despite the blade in his chest,
“Araman the destroyer” he croaked,
“You serve a worthless existence, I serve an existence that protects, the ti- “Gaius said, choking as Araman twisted the blade deeper,
Moyo ached to rip the would-be lord of the abyss in half, to rip him limb by limb, but an unseen force held him down. His rage trashed like an angry ocean, all he saw was anger, but still he listened,
“You do not mention that name, not here and not in oblivion, the abyss forbids it” Araman hissed,
Araman knew of the titan, somehow, he knew what the titan was or had been. Moyo paused at the realization, that meant the lord knew who and what he represented. Although Moyo had a feeling the lord considered him another titan’s champion, whatever that was. That was an argument for later, something he would have to come to terms with along with all that he had witnessed in this place he knew now was a memory.
Araman grabbed Gaius by the throat,
“While killing you would give me pleasure, the abyss cannot afford the position of champion to pass on to another, instead, you and your dead guardians will serve us, even in death” Araman said as a pathway opened up,
This one however opened up into inky blackness, even as the skies above darkened and a writhing form could be seen moving above the clouds. Moyo watched as Gaius smiled, his eyes going from golden to purple,
“checkmate” he growled and exploded, detonating his core,
The power pushed Araman through the pathway as he screamed in anger, the pathway closing up behind him, but with the essence and aether of Gaius, his golden form going along with the future lord of the abyss. Moyo silently took in all he saw as the dungeon boss appeared in his front, however this time with golden eyes, Moyo stared at the skeleton that knelt in front of him, hands up as a large purple book and a crystal appeared in its bony limbs. Moyo understood in that moment, even as somehow his master ranked body that had seized all bodily functions saw wet tears drip down his eyes,
“You are Gaius golden champion” he whispered,
The skeleton gave a shudder as the tar like substance on his body fell away like dirt, sizzling up into oblivion and the skeleton took on a golden glow. It looked at Moyo again as the titan continued,
“I thank you for your service, your valor, and you didn’t deserve a faith such as this, you deserve rest” he continued,
The cloak on its body fizzled away into nonexistence,
“You can have your rest now, but realize that I am not the titan you venerated and loved, I am my own being, I am a titan, I am the titan, but I am not that titan” he said,
Still the essence form of Gaius golden champion beckoned for Moyo to pick the book and crystal,
“However, I will honor your wish, but bear in mind that I may not choose any champion, not in my name, I will not be venerated” he said as he picked the book and what he knew now to be a crystalized form of the titan aspect, his titan aspect.
“The archailect has found ways to make me eat my words before though” he muttered as he opened the book and saw blank pages,
“of course its empty” he said sighing,
Glancing back at the bowing golden champion,
“Go, rest in peace, your trials and tribulations are done” Moyo said solemnly,
The skeleton looked up at Moyo and with one bony finger, touched the book before turning to golden ashes that filtered into the book. Moyo glanced at the firstpage and saw inscriptions writing themselves. He waited till they were done before reading, a soft smile on his lips,
Art of staff work: Gaius golden champion, first champion of the titan
“I thank you for your gift” he whispered as he closed the book and took a deep breath.
*****************************
He felt the memory releasing him and hands on his shoulders shaking him. Opening his eyes to stare into the golden and green ones of Ashira who spoke,
“Are you alright?” she asked, frantic,
Moyo glanced around to see the pyramid had crumbled, now a heap of dust and the cloak of Gaius laying there on the ground. He nodded and wiped the tears from his face,
“How long was I out?” he asked softly,
“a few minutes” Ashira responded,
“You touched the boss and the both of you froze, the next minute it was turning to ash and you just stood there, frozen” she explained,
He nodded and glanced back to the pile of dust and sand that was the pyramid, making his way there and picking up the staff that now glowed golden and purple,
“isn’t that?” Ashira asked pausing as he nodded,
With a thought his deific vault appeared, opening up as Moyo threw the staff into it,
“What happened to you?” Ashira asked softly,
“I saw a past” he replied quietly also before turning back and looking at his hands where the book and titan aspect appeared,
Ashira stared at the aspect,
“That feels oddly like a lot of your power crystalized, that’s very potent, dungeon reward?’ she asked,
“In a way” he replied,
His HUD lit up as he opened it,
Notice: congratulations, you have defeated your first dungeon, you get:
- 1,000,000 diamond coins
- 10,000,000 golden coins
- 100,000,000 silver coins
- 1,000,000,000 bronze coins
- Book of the titan
- Crystalized titan aspect(M)
- Staff of the dungeon boss(L)
- Primordial essence of the nightmare guardian knight
- Staff of the golden titan champion
- Primordial essence of the golden champion
He brought up the notification of the book and crystal,
BOOK OF THE TITAN
This is a direct link to the titan himself, enabling the champion of the titan to receive boons and miracles from the titan himself as well as messages privy to the two of them. It also serves as a path to invoking the power of the titan in times of dire need, although within limit of the champions strength and attributes.
CRYSTALIZED TITAN ASPECT(M)
The crystalized aspect of the titan bestowed upon an ascender to complete their ascension into the position of the titan’s champion. Giving them access to the aspect of the titan in battle, it cannot be forcibly used without the blessing of the titan.
Moyo sighed and turned to Ashira who stared at him, not understanding what was going on,
“let’s get out of here” he said softly,
She nodded but stared at him,
“When we get out, not here, too many burdens and memories” he replied as they both left the dungeon.