Fire exploded out of the King's hands and Gi rolled off the side of the South Tower's railing to avoid it. The stone that was a foot from his hand was blackened and charred and the heat he felt was extreme.

Gi swam around the tower, staying just below the opening. As he did he left a trail of summons swimming in the air behind him. [Papal Legion] allowed him to summon way more, but twelve would balance his Aether and combat effectiveness.

He ordered one of his all white otters to pop up first and it was immediately bathed in a gout of flame. Even their improved durability did little to extend their life and the summon puffed into Aether.

In the next beat, he and his other summons rose into the window that surrounded the South Tower. Each of them sending a [Divine Commandment] towards the King.

Bright, ancient light drowned out the red light of the King's attacks, but all of them hit a sphere of fire that had encircled the King. Like wood added to flame, it roared to life, swallowing all of their attacks.

Gi managed to duck down below the edge of the South Tower just as the flames swept across. He lost another three summons, but they were easily replaced. Gi kept moving around the tower, having his summons occasionally pop up and fire off a [Divine Commandment] to keep the King on the defensive while he thought.

He still hadn't given up on the route of diplomacy, but the Eldritch markings made that impossible for the moment. From Gi's experience, the timing of his transformation was odd too. Gi had slowly succumbed to the voices in the forest. The King's seemed to have been activated by anger or something else entirely.

Either way if he wanted to talk to the King, he had to break the hold that the Old Gods had on him. For Gi, pain and the fear of death had cut cleanly through their influence. He'd have to hope the same would work here.

However, that brought him back to his main problem. The King's shield was made of fire and Gi's attacks were mostly light. Light empowered fire.

In the second Dungeon, Gi had been able to overpower his defenses by overloading them, but he wouldn't be able to now for two reasons. The first was that Gi's attacks had gained a stronger aspect of Divinity. Normally, that would help him break through a type mismatch, but it wasn't helping as much for the second reason.

The Eldritch markings had just made the King too powerful. The Divine aspect of his attack wasn't enough to cut through the stronger defense nor was the light aspect enough to overload it to the point of damaging the King.

If nothing changed in the battle, it would be a marathon on who's Aether could outlast the other. Since the King could pull from his own life force, that wasn't a path Gi was willing to tread.

Thankfully, Gi had at least one other avenue of attack.

On the ocean side of the South Tower, his summons popped up and were once again decimated by a gout of flame. On the opposite side, it was Gi's turn.

Kicking through the air to pick up speed, he grabbed the edge of the lip of the tower and vaulted inside. His momentum brought him halfway across the room before the King started to turn, flames already curling around his hand.

A crashing wave burst forth from Gi's mouth, but the King was too fast. His wave wouldn't make it before the King could finish his cast.

Aether pumped through Gi's veins as he siphoned off a chunk of it to quickly cast [God's Passage]. His former teleport skill had been greatly upgraded just before his death. The point in space between the apex of Gi's attack and the King's shield was shortened by nearly a tenth.

It wasn't the way the Skill was intended to be used, but the flexibility of his Aether control now made it simple.

With the distance crossed, Gi's attack hit first, forcing the King with his unawakened Soul to burn Aether to keep his flaming shield alive. In Aether aspects, water didn't counter fire. They were entirely dependent on who was stronger.

Steam hissed as [Endless Torrent] struck, water roiling over the burning flames before turning to scalding mist. The King's shield flickered for a brief moment before a surge of Aether forced new life into the flames and a sickening violet started to spread across its surface.

Gi's D ranked [Endless Torrent] was stronger than the passive shield of the King's, but now that it had been reinforced with the power of the Eldritch behind it? Gi's singular attack had no chance.

But Gi wasn't singular. He was legion.

His summons who'd only been serving as distractions alighted in the circular window surrounding the tower. Water poured out as each of them cast their own version of [Endless Torrent]. Even that might have not been enough, but Gi added more and more otters to the mix until he'd doubled his original twelve.

The King might have a deeper well with the power of the Old Ones, but Gi's Soul of Rebirth was a wide river, allowing him to pour more Aether forth than the King could hope to keep up with.

Still, the King fought and the water continued to pour.

The steam had turned into a scalding fog that emanated out from the tower. Gi could feel the heat coming off of the King, but as the fog reached him, its touch cooled significantly.

Images started to appear within the fog. The wide river of Gi's attack was flanked by gently valleys and tall trees. Illusory rocks that were perfect for sunning one's belly dotted all across the river's edge. Over the sound of the roaring battle and quenching flame, Gi could just make out the sound of Otters laughing.

Though Gi had never seen it, he knew the scene before him was Danna's heaven - the place where her otters could settle their souls from the horrors of war before moving on to their next life.

He'd never witnessed it activate before, but it had to be a manifestation of his new combined aspect Stream of the Goddess. His Divine aspect was being added to his Water based abilities.

The King's shield vanished.

It was a short-lived victory. The brunt of Gi's attacks flowed toward the King as his shield fell, battering into him, but the King immediately flipped backwards and landed on top of his four poster bed.

All the other furniture in the room had been knocked over or tossed about by the force of Gi's attacks or the swirling water that now came up to Gi's shin in the room. The heavy bed alone remained where it was.

The instant the King landed, one foot perched impossibly on the one of the poles. Two whips of fire ripped through the air, taking out almost all of his [Papal Legion] in a single strike.

Gi dove under the shallow water, swimming towards the King. An impossibly fast lance of flame shot towards him as he approached, and even though Gi rolled away from it, Gi's Core, Waterborn Vitality, was the only reason he didn't take a burning cut along his side.

Having survived unscathed, Gi rushed forward, summoning his legion as he did. Streams of water blocked the whips just long enough for him to continue his advance. Little snippets of heavenly memory appeared with each one.

As he finally closed the distance, he could see hatred marred the King's features more than the Eldritch markings ever could. Gi knew a lot of that was the Old One's influence, but in his experience, it only amplified what was already there.

If he could break him free of the Old One's control, was there still a wise King inside him? One who might listen to his plea?

His determination renewed. Gi thrust a palm forward, releasing his [Divine Commandment]. That ancient presence was cut short as a truncated whip intercepted the attack just as it manifested, blossoming an explosion of fire as it absorbed the attack.

Gi's C Vitality allowed him to weather the after effects even at such a short distance. As though he'd never died, his body instinctively moved into his stance for (Five Hands Firefly). Palm thrusts shot like a machine gun with bursts of light caught by fire exploding outward.

New summons spawned to intercept attacks with a precision [Endless Surge] attack while Gi continued to wait for an opening to inflict an attack harsh enough to disrupt the Eldritch energy, but without killing the King.

Gi felt like it should have been possible, but despite being in the range where his [Fighting Style] worked best, he found himself slowly losing ground.

The King clearly had a fighting style of his own not too dissimilar to (Five Hands Firefly). Gi suspected if he didn't have his [Fighting Style] so closely attuned to his Domain which literally gave him extra bodies, he'd be overwhelmed in an instant. Still, it wasn't that that forced him back.

It was their raw stats.

If Gi had to guess, they were both full Rank Cs, but with the Eldritch Markings, the King was halfway to B. Gi had punched up ranks before - even as high as a B.

But Queen Siht been injured, exhausted, and caught by surprise before he'd attacked her.

The Prince was none of those things.

A flare of Aether brought Gi out of his thoughts, but the King moved too fast for Gi to be able to actually change anything. A burst of steam hissed to life as the summon blocking with [Endless Torrent] was cut in half.

An engorged whip of fire cracked into his chest.

Gi flew backward like a missile and was embedded in the stones of the tower, half of his face being exposed to open air. The chest plate that he'd received from Plutus, Hephaestus's Hearth, was the main reason he hadn't been cut nearly in two like his summon had.

Gi ripped himself out of the stone, but another whip to his back forced the hole he'd made wider and he went hurtling into open air.

Taking flight, Gi managed to dodge the next whip that came for him and the next, but it kept pushing him further and further away, drastically limiting his ability to deal damage with [Divine Commandment], (Five Hands Firefly), or [Endless Torrent].

Gi summoned more otters to fly around as distractions and pelt the King with attacks to ensure that he couldn't reactivate his passive shield.

Gi's Aether reserves were at roughly half. Considering how much he'd used, his upgraded and realized Soul was working overtime for him in this fight, but he knew it wouldn't be enough in this war of attrition.

He had to find a way to flip the script if he wanted a chance to even defeat the King, let alone talk to him.

But how?

As Gi flew, his eyes fell downward towards the rest of the castle. A large host, maybe five hundred or so humans, had marched into the castle and now stood in the courtyard opposite soldiers of the Thousand Islands Kingdom. Each of the humans wore colors that Gi's [Religion] Skill marked them as clerics of various human gods.

The human at their lead stuck out though.

In her all brown robe, Ellen led the clerics of the Thousand Island Kingdom's religious faction in a coup against the King. The First One had said that both she and Matar could get these humans to join him, but seeing them now still surprised him.

If they could ally with a monster, maybe the King could see reason too? Maybe Gi could stop this bloodshed.

That little spark of hope died as violet explosions of power erupted all across the castle. Each was one of the King's soldiers succumbing to the Old One's influence. Eldritch markings thrummed with power on each of their bodies, giving the castle an unearthly violet glow.

Mud poured from the ocean's edge and leapt to Ellen's command. Other types of Aether followed as each of the clerics brought their own powers to bear against the thrumming violet sea of Eldritch warriors.

Dread filled him as he continued to dodge the King's renewed attacks. There was no way that the Old One's corruption had just naturally turned all of them just as Gi showed up.

From the First One's instruction, there was also zero possibility that the Old Ones themselves were responsible. That only left one logical choice for Gi.

The Father had revealed his strength.