Heilliege's Gorge was a narrow valley with thick rock walls nestled under two hills. A river ran under the rocks, separating the guild outpost from the hidden base of the Accari Crows on the other side. The area was a veiled black zone hidden within a neutral zone, and this meant that they could carry on with their activities without the guild members being aware of it.
To enter the Gorge, Langa, Aquila, and Aramaga had to fight and detain the few members of the guild guarding the entrance. Langa was suspicious of the low number of Vonelle Heilliege guild players present in this place, but now he knew it was because they were bringing new sacrifices for the voidents thus, they had given more outgoing missions to their guild members so they would leave. It seemed that not everyone in the guild knew that they were involved in business with voidents.
Langa and Synn had to move quietly towards the voidents' side to avoid alerting any high-ranking members of the Vonelle Heilliege guild that may be close by to their presence. The only reason that they did not already know about the commotion was because of the seclusion of pseudovoid territories. This also made it easy to conceal the voi-den as whenever a void veil was erected, it created a camouflage that made it seem like the area was empty, and only those with high perception, Deiform artefacts, or the Blessing of The Unrivalled could see through it.
“I’m sure the voi-den was this way, but I can’t see it now,” Synn said in frustration, looking around.
“The void veil starts right here,” Langa told her, pointing to the empty space in front of him. “I can sense many breaths of life inside. 22 or maybe 25? I’m not too sure, but it’s somewhere around that number.”
“That many?!” Synn exclaimed unhappily. “Do you have the Perception stat? How high is it?”
“No, I'm using a title,” he said. “How are we going to do this?”
From what he could tell, the voidents were all together in one place, and Langa wanted to test his new enchanted lucent powder bombs by blowing up the voi-den with the voidents in it. He had only one spell scroll with Lightning Lance Inscribed on it, so he was planning to make it count.
“Let me convert my stamina to excess mana because the pseudovoid territory is going to suck it away anyway. As for the voidents, I’m going to set fire to this cursed place and blow them all the way to the thirteenth hell.” Synn said, her words laced with venom.
Langa grinned. “Damn, you took the words right out of my mouth.”
”Good, that means you didn't let all that righteous anger cloud your judgement,” she said. “Can you sense their levels?”
Langa shook his head. “My title isn’t that specific. However, according to the Guardians, most of the voidents on the lower Floors keep themselves below level 15, so that the level 25 and above Guardians can’t attack them. Plus, most NPCs turn to voidentism because they failed to get the favour of a deity.”
Synn pushed her hair back and licked her lips. “I’m level 10, and you're level 11 as long as we work together, I think we can handle a few unbound voidents under level 13. Beyond that, though, it’s hard to tell.”
“You’re right,” Langa agreed. "Plus, once the altar is completely destroyed, we’ll lose our element of surprise. They’d rather run than risk being captured by the Guardians. In that case, maybe I should call reinforcements.”
He couldn’t call Aquila’s team out here because they had no protection from the void veil, and the pseudovoid territory would weaken them severely. Therefore, he called someone whose job it was to hunt voidents.
“Hi, Langa, can I call you back?” Jandri answered the comcer. “I’m in the middle of-“
“The Vonelle Heilliege Guild is habouring the Accari Crows at Heilliege’s Gorge. There are more than twenty Tier 1 voidents here, and I’m about to go into the pseudovoid territory. If you can, please send a team here ASAP,” he said, cutting her off.
“What? Are you serious?” Jandri shouted. “Are you telling me that you have proof? Langa, please tell me that the Guardians finally have probable cause to raid that stupid gorge. The last time we tried, we couldn't get the Authority from The Unrivalled.”
Seriously? They worried about shit like probable cause while children were being killed? “Do goblinkin trafficking and mass murder of children count as probable fucking cause? A corrupted altar with a Void Gem? Pseudovoid territories all over the gorge?” he snapped.
“They were conducting the sacrificial ceremonies there?” Jandri asked in shock. “Velafor's balls, don’t go in there alone. Sasani-Zine might be there. He recently disappeared from the 6th Floor but remember what Perinda Housci said? He might be at Heilliege’s Gorge. Sasani-Zine has a Void Emerald. Your Deiform Artefacts won't work well on that type of pseudovoid territory. Even with Housci's word, without the Authority of The Unrivalled, we couldn’t raid the place without cause. If we had, it could have sparked a war between our guilds. Anyway, he’s dangerous, so wait for backup.”
“We interrupted their sacrificial ceremony and set fire to the altar. You know they'll be alerted that the altar was destroyed soon. If they know they’ve been made, they’ll try to escape. I can't let them get away with this, Jandri,” Langa said. "Send a team here, we could use some backup, but we can’t wait.”
"Shit, fine. There’s a teleportation wheel not far from there. Give us 5 to 10 minutes, I'll lead them myself. Be careful, okay?" she said anxiously.
"Sure," Langa said as he ended the call. Synn was standing still with her eyes closed in front of the void veil, meditating. “Backup from the Guardians will be here in ten minutes."
”I don’t know if we can hold out that long,” Synn said. Contrary to the problematic situation, however, her voice sounded excited. “It’s been a while since I’ve been pushed to my limits.”
”Let’s form a party so we can share the experience. Also, do you have any mana potions?” Langa asked.
Synn had only three inferior mana potions in her inventory as everything that had been in her bag was taken upon her capture. In the end, Langa gave her two of his basic mana potions as they did very little for him anyway, leaving one basic lightning mana potion for himself as he would need it to replenish his mana after using the Lightning Lance.
”What's the plan?” Synn asked.
Langa shrugged. Strategising wasn’t really his thing. “I'm not good at making plans. I’m fast and I can kill things with my spear and lightning. Work around that.”
She shook her head in disbelief, no doubt thinking he must be a simpleton. ”Alright, I’ll take down the voi-den with my divine skill but I have very low health, so you’ll have to protect me after that until my mana regenerates.”
”No problem. Let’s go," he said, stepping forward.
[You have entered a Common Rank pseudo-void territory.
You are not under the protection of any Void Gems
-5STA per second until STA is at 10% of your maximum
-0.25 karma per second until all available karma is drained.
+Chaotic Mind Debuff applied to all player characters inside the pseudo-void territory]
[You are under the protection of the Guardian's Deiform Ring.
You shall receive no negative effects from the pseudo-void territory]
Langa heard Synn flinch slightly once she entered the pseudovoid territory but otherwise, there were no indications of the fact that she was under a terrible, mentally draining power that was forcing her to relieve her worst memories. For a second, Langa was jealous of her mental resistance but he quickly chided himself because it was stupid to be jealous given what she probably had to go through to raise it that high.
Inside the pseudovoid territory, the voidents had set up their base in a cave. As they approached the cave entrance, the two voidents standing guard outside the cave turned sharply in their direction, and Langa sped forward with Flash Step, using Tonare and the skill’s extra damage to mortally wound one voident in the chest. He dove down to dodge a chain made of metallic mana from the other one, just as a Flame Spike from Synn struck the voident’s shoulder. Langa finished him off with Tonare a second later.
Thankfully, Langa had managed to dispatch the lookouts before they alerted the others. The real attack began with a booming roar as Synn stepped up, reached into her mana core, and used every ounce of her Faith in The Nine-Tailed Fox along with her mana to unleash her divine skill. "Kelpercutieyin! Meteor Strike!" she shouted.
Langa watched, mouth agape as a large flaming ball of rock the size of a fucking car appeared in the air and crashed on top of the voi-den. It created a powerful explosion of molten flame that shook the ground they were standing on. Langa's whole body rocked as the blast threw him forcefully backwards, and thrust his body hard on the ground. Synn had been standing much further back, so she was barely moved as the fiery rock bulldozed its way deep into the cave turning it into a wreckage.
Even from this far out, Langa could feel the blistering heat choking him as the explosion lay waste to the voi-den, the rock walls of the cave turned into powder, ash and flame.
Screams came from the inside, but Langa knew that while players had generally low health, a lot of them had defensive skills and armour that could protect them from the explosion. Hopefully, a lot of them died or were trapped within the cave. Langa listened for signs of life while Synn sat on the ground and downed a mana potion.
From what he could tell with the effects of his title, the first two layers of the base crumbled under the force of her magic, sealing the voidents' fate. However, there were breaths of life rising from the rubble. Langa could feel that there were still more than ten voidents trapped inside the cave, alive, and they could come out any moment once they found a way out.
With the bulk of the work done by Synn, he took out his enchanted Lucent Patches wrapped around his lucent powder, preparing to unleash the experimental bomb upon the voidents who emerged from the rubble.
The ground shook once more and an elf burst out of the ground next to the cave. Sure enough, the surviving voidents rushed out after him, some battered and bruised others limping. There were about eight of them in total.
"Fucking hell," Synn muttered and Langa scanned the elf and cursed under his breath when he got a hit on the Guardians Database.
[Wanted: Dead or Alive
Name: Sasani-Zine
Designation: E-rank voident
Class: Druid
Affiliation: Accari Crows
Last known level: 17
Bounty: 83 Silver.]
The wood elf was the voidents' leader Sasani and he emerged from the ground below on his familiar, a Level 7 winged cat. So, this was the guy Perinda had told Langa to find?
"Take care of the Blitzhunter! The girl is the one who destroyed our base. She's mine!" Sasani shouted and he wasted no time in creating his pseudovoid territory, inside the pseudovoid territory they were already in, encasing Synn within it and separating her from Langa.
The two of them were now forced to face their enemies unaided, but he knew there was no way Synn could defeat a level 17 voident alone.
Seven injured and pissed-off voidents, ranging from levels 11 to 13 ran up towards Langa, malice in their eyes, with two of them holding Void Pearls.
Langa sprang into action, activating the magic circle for his Lightning Lance skill. The spell scroll filled with power as he infused it with his mana, and concentrated on his Faith in the constant, watchful gaze of The Lackadaisical Herald. Thankfully, the preparations were already made.
An arrow and three bolts of shadow filled with corruption magic flew his way from the voidents as two more charged towards him. Langa ducked and moved back to avoid them. He allowed them to get closer and surround him.
Langa then did something that the Legacy had forbidden him from doing, he moved his mana along the nerves surrounding his heart, using the lightning to stimulate it, and it started to beat faster. With his heart throbbing unnaturally, he activated his attribute to increase his perception of time.
Before his stamina could fall below 10%, he threw five lucent powder bombs at the voidents, the first being the one who was frozen in the stance of slashing at him with a black corrupted sword, then he used his Faith and all his mana to summone his Lightning Lance. The Lance was almost three metres long, and it followed his will, as he commanded the volatile lightning inside it to ignite the lucent powder.
With Flash Step, he teleported away from the impending explosion, almost depleting his stamina. The Lightning Lance struck the [Explosive Lucent Powder (V1)] and the entire area surrounding the voidents erupted into hundreds of streaks of blue lightning, forcing the fire from the ignited powder to engulf the seven voidents in its blaze. The scent of charred, burning flesh flowed into Langa’s nose as their screams tore through the air.
It was a rain of divine lightning that turned into a firey mess. Unfortunately, after ignition, the Lance had separated into individual streaks of electricity, so it was no longer fully in Langa's control. He noted it in the back of his mind that next time he shouldn't use such a volatile source of power, because it was a waste as some of the remaining lightning dissipated without a target.
After taking a stamina pill, Langa shot forward and used Tonare to cut through the screaming voidents that remained alive. With each slash of his spear, he felt his Fledgeling Voident Hunter title increase, his strength growing as he killed them all. He clasped a Deiform Amulet on all the voidents he defeated.
-
Meanwhile, inside the secondary void veil, Synn unleashed a large number of Flame Spikes at her opponent. Sasani's winged cat was quick to dodge as it flew him towards her. With her low health, she couldn't let him get close, so she circulated her mana carefully around her mana core to activate her Ring of Fire skill, creating a defensive barrier of flames around her.
The elf disembarked from his familiar and muttered an incantation. The ground underneath Synn suddenly became softer than sand, and with her low agility, she lost balance and stumbled back as large, resilient tree roots dripping with poisonous sap gushed out from the soft ground and snaked around her feet.
The air filled with smoke as she utilised her Slumbering Smoke skill to try and slow Sasani's movements, giving her ample time to get away from him. However, his familiar let out a green light that washed over the voident’s entire body and he was freed from her debuff. Synn made her Fire Ring intensify and unleashed her Sear skill, marking Sasani, allowing her to target him accurately with her Flame Spikes as she continued to rain down fire upon him.
The Chaotic Mind Debuff circled her head, filling her mind with images of the world she’d failed. She saw images of her priests pleading with her for salvation. She shook her head, and the heat of battle flared as Synn exerted herself to the limits of her mana, the mental strain evident in her every movement.
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The roots below Synn tightened, and caught her feet, chillingly breaking the bones in one of her legs, but she didn't scream as she lowered her Fire Ring and burnt the roots. Unfortunately, whenever she burned one, a new one appeared.
But while she was concentrating on using Fire Ring to free herself from the roots, she was essentially defenceless. Something hard and blunt, collided painfully with her side like a giant club, and she grunted as she felt her health drain from her. That was more than 60% of her total HP, and coupled with the broken leg, it did not look good for her.
The good thing was that since she had been knocked so far away, her legs were free of the roots now. She downed a health potion as quickly as she could, making sure that she didn't deactivate Fire Ring even for a second, because once she did that, it would go on to cool down. So she brought up the ring around her again as she struggled to sit up. Her stamina had now fallen below 10%. Any second now, she would be paralysed by the low stamina debuff.
“Who are you?” Sasani asked, walking towards her.
He was not carrying a weapon, instead, his body had transformed from a lean elf's body to one covered with a brown muddy coating that made the muscles on his entire upper body bigger and his body as hard as a rock as he stared down at her.
“In the grand scheme of things, nobody.” She gathered more of her faith and slowly circulated her mana, a magic circle lighting up inside her mana core, preparing for another Meteor Strike.
The images of the innocent people who had died because Synn was greedy and stole the world of Zamone from The Nine-Tailed Fox filled her mind, making it hard to think.
At least her mana regeneration was quick, thanks to her high Wisdom stat. Using Meteor Strike again would drain the rest of her mana, and since she was not at 100% MP, it wouldn’t even be half as strong as the one she used earlier.
“I was just hanging around the gorge, and I thought it'd be a beautiful day to fuck up some filthy voidents,” she said.
Sasani’s face darkened, and red vines erupted both from the roots he was bringing up from the ground and from himself.
Synn’s mana merged with her Faith as the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox surged within her, two tails materialising as she shouted, “Kelpercutieyin! Meteor Strike!” sacrificing her mana.
Thanks to the mark of Fire Sear, there was no escaping the small, flaming ball of burning rock the size of a small rabbit that descended down on Sasani. However, since they had both attacked at the same time, Synn screamed as she felt the red vines wrap around her neck. She couldn’t breathe.
Worse still, even though her attack had struck Sasani and penetrated his armour, setting him on fire, and cutting off his arm, the winged cat once more bathed Sasani in a bright light, and he emerged from the fire, slowly healing.
"Dammit!" Synn blinked, and the voident was suddenly right in front of her.
“You chose the wrong day to play hero, foxkin,” he said.
She was down to only 10% health now. Fuck, she hated this weak body. “You harness corruption, believing yourselves to be special. You have no idea what Rampant Corruption does to a defenceless world. No idea what it's like to depend on fucking maestrils to feed on the karma of corrupted creatures! Do you even know how many worlds you doom by actively wielding corruption, not letting it remain a dormant passive force?”
"What the hell do you know? You have no idea what it's like to be powerless with only corruption as your salvation," said Sasani making the vines tighten around her body, sucking her blood.
As the pain overcame her, Synn couldn't help but remember her own desperation when corruption razed her world. But even then, she never considered joining his side, even when she Descended. Dammit, even with her high mental resistance, the Chaotic Mind debuff was affecting her.
-
Once Langa was done dealing with the remaining voidents, he hurried towards Sasani's void veil.
[You are about to enter an Uncommon Rank pseudo-void territory (Void Emerald).
You are not under the protection of any Void Gems
-10STA per second until STA is at 10% of your maximum
-0.5 karma per second until all available karma is drained.
+Chaotic Mind Debuff applied to all player characters inside the pseudo-void territory]
[You are under the protection of the Guardian's Deiform Ring.
At your level, this divine artefact is only effective against Void Pearls.
-5 STA per second until STA is at 10% of your maximum
-0.25 karma per second until all available karma is drained.
+ Reduced effects of Chaotic Mind Debuff]
Langa knew Synn was in trouble, yet he hesitated. The karma and stamina loss, he could live with, but not the Chaotic Mind debuff, no matter how much the Deiform Ring reduced it. He couldn’t subject himself to that mental torture again, so he only had one choice, he needed the protection of a Void Gem.
Sighing, Langa said, “Lord Adtonifulmin, please silence all the deities watching me. I can’t hide this from them forever, but I’d rather concentrate on battle and not be distracted by their comments."
Knowing that he was about to send a ripple among the deities watching him, Langa pulled out his Void Star and infused it with a small fraction of his mana. There was collective shock among the deities and then an unnatural silence as Adtonifulmin restricted them from communicating with him. The only other god besides Adtonifulmin that he could feel was Chaos watching him in delight.
“Protect me from the Void Emerald,” he said to the glowing Void Star.
Black strands of karma emerged from the Void Star and wrapped around his entire body like a rope, before disappearing completely into him. He felt a delighted stir from the malevolent energy next to his heart, the darkness in the Void Star reaching his curse, his Brand.
[You have consumed (1) charge from divine artefact: Void Star. You will be protected from the negative effects of all Void Gems of lower rank than the Void Star]
He could tell that both the Brand and the Void Star were unsatisfied with this and that the one charge he had just consumed could do far more than just protect him. Still, he had no desire to become labelled as a voident.
Langa placed the Void Star in the open slot of his belt, where he usually hung Tonare for easy access, then he burst into the pseudovoid territory, activating Distortion on his jerkin to make himself invisible.
His heart hurt when he saw that the voident had Synn wrapped up in red vines and she looked to be going limp from lack of air. He Flash Stepped right behind the voident and stabbed his lightning-infused glaive into the elf’s back, expecting to deal enough damage to kill him instantly. However, the voident had some muddy coating all over his body, and Tonare couldn't force its way deeper inside him, thanks to that enhanced body armour. He was only able to give him a flesh wound.
Now that he had attacked, Langa was visible, so the voident had turned his attention from Synn to him. Dammit, Langa had wasted both his damage and element of surprise. Letting go of Synn, the voident's leg kicked out at him but Langa was fast enough to use his reflexes to dodge and step back.
"How the hell did you penetrate my earthen armour?" Sasani growled, glaring at Langa as his winged cat appeared behind him and healed him.
Langa was the baffled one. What the hell kind of skill did the voident have that stopped Tonare from passing through his defences? Tonare was a unique glaive, so he guessed that whatever body enhancement Sasani had was a divine skill. There was no time to ponder that, however, as the ground underneath Langa softened, and he nearly lost his balance, but he regained it even on the uneven terrain because of his good agility.
He ran and cut off the vine holding Synn and she fell to the ground, breathing heavily. He stood in front of her as she took another health potion. After that, he spun Tonare around as fast as he could to create a defensive blade wind to cut off the numerous vines Sasani sent at them.
A second later, there was a Ring of Fire around Synn, and she stood up. Strange roots rose from the ground, trying to grab him, but they couldn't catch Langa because he was fast enough to evade them. With her mana and health back up, Synn burned away the roots that tried to grab her as well.
Sasani advanced towards them and once Langa was sure Synn was okay, he Flash Stepped forward and tried to stab the voident, but the vines surrounded him, forcing Langa to cut through them first so that by the time Tonare struck Sasani, it had lost its momentum and was easily stopped by his armour. Langa didn't stop, he retreated a step and then darted forward, Tonare raised.
The quick slicing of the glaive left a deep gash in Sasani's leg, and Langa was able to use the movement techniques of Legacy of The Tonare Thunderbird Spearmanship to quickly dodge a dripping root that snaked towards him from the ground. He was not a master of the spear, but he was no longer a beginner either, not after all the time he spent with the Legacy teaching him. Langa lowered his stance, maintaining range with Tonare as he feinted low. Sasani's vines surged down towards him, only for Langa to pivot on his right leg, and slash up the elf's abdomen.
Blood soaked Tonare and Sasani grunted, the wound painful but not deep enough to cause a fatal injury. The knee to his abdomen from the voident felt like he had been smashed in the gut by a strong, sharp rock, and he barely dodged the punch that followed, the wind knocked out of him as he doubled back towards Synn.
Dammit, what use was it being fast if he couldn’t damage his opponent?
So, the body enhancement wasn't just armour; his physical body strength was increased unimaginably too. The only thing that might have worked was Thunderbird's Stunning strike; it had never been stopped by any type of armour before. Langa was worried, though, that if he used it, he would suffer backlash and the winged cat would heal Sasani.
Unfortunately, without a mana core or a spell scroll, he couldn't use his divine skill at the moment.
Synn sent multiple Flame Spikes and fireballs at him, and yet, they failed to penetrate his armour, too. When they did get through, light from the winged cat would surround Sasani, healing him.
“Keep him distracted, I’ll take out the familiar,” Langa told her. "We can't kill him if it keeps healing him."
Synn nodded as she gathered some of the fire in her Fire Ring into a large, hot red fireball. "Incinerate!" she said, launching it towards Sasani and forcing him to tighten his armour skill around himself.
Langa quickly ran towards the winged cat and tried to stab it with Tonare, but a red vine wrapped around his neck from behind, and the cat flew away. He threw a lucent powder bomb and a lightning-infused dagger to ignite it. The creature was so fast that only its wing was caught in the explosion, and it shrieked in pain.
He was unable to finish it off, though, as Sasani's vine was attached to his skin, draining his blood every second, making Langa lose balance.
[-20HP]
[-20HP]
“You dare try to hurt my Piria?!” Sasani screamed, charging at Langa.
One of his arms was bleeding profusely from Synn's attack, and she was on the ground. No doubt her mana had depleted rapidly from that Incinerate spell, as she was being held in place by the roots and couldn’t burn them.
Langa ducked away from the voident’s punch, he had a feeling it would seriously injure him if it hit. It wasn’t an easy thing to do with the red vine attached to him sucking his blood. Thankfully, the more he got hurt, the more his Regeneration skill healed him, although even combined with his natural health regeneration, it was barely 1 HP per second. Langa couldn't help but wonder how both Synn and this elf were able to have two to three skills active at the same time.
Using his boots' Jumper skill, he struck with his feet, kicking Sasani's chest and using it as a springboard, the force helping him as he jumped away from the vines and towards Synn. He was conserving his Stamina for either his attribute or Flash Step.
She threw a Flame Spike at Sasani and Langa had the bright idea to infuse his mana into another one of his experimental lucent powder bombs and throw it at the voident. It collided with the Flame Spikes and erupted in a small, fiery explosion that pushed Sasani back, and Langa was able to catch his breath, his heart racing painfully in his chest as if it were going to burst. He would have to work on the enchantment some more, as it seemed the explosion wasn't as effective if it wasn't Langa's mana igniting it.
This guy was strong. As much as he wanted to use his attribute, he had already forcibly stimulated his heart earlier, and he was not sure how much more it could take before it failed and he died, especially with the Brand active. He could accidentally kill himself.
“Do you have any more of that powder? Next time he sends his vines, can you burn them for me?” Synn asked.
“But they regenerate. All that will do is make them flaming, bloodsucking vines, and they’ll deal even more damage to us,” he said.
“Just do it, I’ll be able to use my attribute to negate it, but it doesn’t work with my own fire,” she explained.
The winged cat healed Sasani again, and when he charged towards them again, Langa used the Legacy of The Tonare Thunderbird Spearmanship skill to defend both himself and Synn. It wasn't very effective with his pitiful strength. Sasani's muddy armour imbued his attacks with the strength of the earth itself, each blow that managed to strike Langa filled with a force that threatened to overwhelm him.
Then Sasani frowned, looking beyond the void veil. “Tier 2 karma?” he muttered, then glared at Langa and Synn. “You weren’t trying to defeat me, you were just buying time for reinforcements, weren’t you?”
Now that Langa had a second to breathe, he could feel multiple breaths of life nearby. Was Jandri here with reinforcements? “Nuh, I wasn’t buying time at all. You’re not that strong, despite your level. I can defeat you,” he said, hoping to provoke the voident.
“You can't put a scratch on me, and I will not be captured!” the voident retorted. “Piria! Let's go!”
The winged cat lowered itself, and he climbed on top of it, trying to fly away. Langa had the feeling that if they missed Sasani here, they would have trouble catching him. To prevent that, Synn tried slowing the winged cat down again with her Slumbering Smoke and surprisingly, the debuff worked this time. Langa used this to his advantage and threw Tonare as hard as he could at Sasani. With his agility, he knew it would hit, as the familiar would be too slow to evade the glaive.
To his utter shock, however, the familiar raised itself a fraction higher and took the hit. Tonare plunged deep into the winged cat’s neck, and it fell to the ground along with Sasani. The winged cat whimpered and died, bravely sacrificing itself to protect its master.
"PIRIA!" Sasani screamed as he tumbled to the ground with his dead familiar. "You filthy bontelags!"
"Was that an insult?" Langa asked, his arm aching.
"Of course. A very offensive one too," Synn said, breathing heavily. "He must have loved his familiar."
"Fuck him. I'm sure those children had people who loved them too. He's coming, get ready," Langa said, pulling out two daggers. He did not feel right without Tonare. "He's about to awaken."
Enraged by the loss of his familiar, Sasani grew more frantic, and hundreds of roots erupted from the ground, as he assimilated the Void Emerald into his hands, the corruption filling him as vines grew from his arms and turned black. The vines launched rashly towards the two players. It was far more intense now than before.
"Do it!" Synn, her mana depleting, shouted. She chugged a basic mana potion in preparation.
He infused mana into his last lucent powder bomb and threw it into the approaching black-red vines. She sent a Flame Spike towards Langa, urging him to set the incoming vines ablaze. The air burned with electricity as the vines caught fire, but once again, they regenerated, this time heading towards the two of them with fiery force. Langa hoped Synn had a plan because he had warned her about this.
”50%,” Synn muttered, and she staggered forward, this time taking the front line. Langa watched with horror as multiple mouths appeared all over her visible body. Her hands were trembling, and at first, he thought she was scared, but upon seeing the anticipation in her eyes as well as the smile on her mouth as she licked her lips, he realised that she was actually excited.
This woman was standing in front of the incoming fiery vines that could steal away her health and kill her instantly, yet she was smiling as if she were hungry for the fire. Even without his attribute, time seemed to slow down as Langa watched her greedily absorb the fire into her body, her mouths devouring every single flaming vine ravenously. Her robes were half burnt, and her body was a mess of blood and fire as she spewed the attack back at Sasani.
She honestly looked fierce and beautiful, as if she belonged in the heat of the fire. Langa shook his head. First Liberty, now this? Either Langa needed to add extremely dangerous to his type of woman or he needed to have a mental health checkup soon. Probably the latter.
The flames of Synn’s attribute, along with his own burning vines, were reflected back at Sasani and they licked hungrily at his skin, searing his flesh and driving him back towards the edge of the pseudovoid territory. The ground trembled beneath their feet as Sasani channelled the Void Emerald’s strength into his body, the muddy coating covering his burn wounds as he screamed again.
”I will avenge Piria!” he shouted, and his Void Emerald glowed black as he held it, allowing the corruption that was sealed inside the emerald to eat away at his body.
Langa activated Distortion from his jerkin again, going invisible as Synn collapsed from mana exhaustion. In his invisible form, he rushed to grab his fallen glaive and tried to attack Sasani from the back, but the voident's superior perception allowed him to sense the attack, and he grabbed Langa’s throat with his hand that was covered in black veins, and corruption started seeping into Langa's body.
He felt pain shoot through him like never before, as if he were being consumed from the inside. He could feel Sasani’s corrupted mana seeping deep into him, interfering with his lightning.
Langa focused on the karma from the Void Star that he’d been using as protection, and he absorbed more of the charge into his body, willing it to protect him from the corruption entering his body. The energy was pulled in by his Brand, and the Void Star flew up from his belt and merged with the skin of his arm. The dark, acidic pain intensified. It travelled up his body until it reached his heart, where it wrapped around the Brand. He used the fluid energy of the Brand to absorb the corruption, feeling the power enter him.
The pain and excitement made his heartbeat start to increase again, and, oh, he was drunk on that feeling. Nothing had ever made his heart beat faster.
More. He needed more corruption! He would give anything just to live in this moment of his heart thundering against his chest. He wanted to go even faster so he let nearly all of his stamina drain as the Brand forcibly activated his attribute. With the time slowing down, the darkness coursing through his body, and corruption filling his veins, the Brand absorbed the excess energy from the charge he had used from the Void Star.
He was in serious pain, his whole body brimming with corruption, but he knew he had only one shot before the attribute deactivated, so he pulled up his mana, concentrated on all the corruption, darkness, and lightning in his body, and infused all of it through his fiery nerves into Tonare. His head was frantic, trying to will himself to move according to his velocity, but his body moved slower than he knew it could. His mind and body couldn't keep up with the slowed-down perception of time.
"I AM IN CONTROL!" Langa screamed, forcing his body forward.
Black lightning covered the glaive as Langa plunged it into Sasani's side, and activated Thunderbird Stunning Strike, lightning sizzling. This time, thanks to the slowed-down time and Tonare’s skill, he was able to get through the wood elf’s body armour and deal extensive damage, unleashing a surge of black lightning that tore through Sasani, bathing him in electric darkness. He felt his Void Star absorb all the corruption and karma inside the voident's Void Emerald.
Time righted itself, and Sasani staggered, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief, as he realised he had a gaping hole in his side and nothing to heal him. He was defeated, and his Void Emerald was gone.
"How did you..." Sasani croaked out, his black veined eyes wide. He looked at the corrupted mess that was Langa’s body. "Oh, you're one of the Branded..."
[Critical hit! Impulse Pulse activated!
(Sasani-Zine) -1322 HP.
Bonus Lightning damage -1322 HP
Backlash (Langa Zulu) -293HP]
Sasani’s eyes lost focus, and he fell to the ground, dead.
That was insane. Langa had dealt nearly 3 000 damage, and it hadn’t been an instant kill?! Without his curse, he would not have been able to defeat him, except perhaps if he could have used his divine skill. He knew he had to use his Deiform Amulet to arrest Sasani now, otherwise, he would just respawn somewhere else, but he could not move.
[WARNING!!! You have been critically injured! Your entire nervous system has been corrupted.]
[WARNING!!! Overuse of your attribute has caused your heart to suffer from Ventricular Tachycardia due to erratic electrical impulses ]
[WARNING!!! Your health has fallen below 10% of its maximum. Please seek healing immediately!]
Pain shot up Langa's hand and directly into the veins in his arms, in reverse to how he usually moved his mana, as the backlash from Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike burned through his arms. The backlash from the black lightning left Langa writhing in pain.
He’d lost about 90% of his health from the backlash alone and he could feel it. He screamed as he felt the pain intensely on his nerves, as if he had walked directly into a live electricity transformer and grabbed it with his bare hands. He thought he heard someone screaming his name as he felt the shock tear up his arms and into the nerves in his brain and then it was gone, replaced by darkness.
[A Clanless Deity Without A Name is watching you.]