Chapter 101: Towers 6
The lens of the Sun Golem's arm cannon glowed, charging an imminent blast.
[System Analysis] popped up with an unhelpful: [Error. System Device Detected.]
Whatever the fuck that meant, it offered no help.
"Damn it," Elania muttered. Why did the boss have to have a transformation with a second health bar? "Eziel!"
The sword continued forward, stopping in front of her and flipping horizontal, flat of its blade toward her.
[System Golem Detected. Opposition Ratio: One-Hundred Percent. Defensive Action required.]
The taste of the message was distinctly not-Eziel, yet somehow, the message had still come from the sword.
A golden circle of runes materialized, forming multiple layers of circles that expanded with each ring. The intricate design shimmered, a mesmerizing display of divine energy.
The golem fired, a giant blue blast of arcane energy plunging toward them in slow motion. It smashed through the first layer of Eziel's barrier, then the second. The deeper layers stretched as it pushed through them, the runed circles bending inwards like a stretching net.
Glittering light motes spewed into the air, forming dozens of auroras while gouts of high-pressure energy shot out like released steam.
Eziel's sword form morphed, flashing into a bright light that transformed into the full, majestic form of the arch-seraph. His wings glinted gold and white, and the presence of massive amounts of [Divine Power] flared over Elania.
Eziel reached out, placing his hand on the golden rune barrier as the arcane energy reached the last layer.
The Sun Golem's attack shot backwards, the golden barrier flinging it back to the golem's arm. It wrapped around the laser lens while energy escaped over the arm, scorching the metal of its chassis black as the power built up with nowhere to escape.
The laser arm exploded like an over-pressurized tube.
The rest of the golem's body was licked by the blue flame of its own attack, leaving it charred and damaged. The runed light of the net disappeared and Eziel reached over his head and formed a giant lance that floated down into his hand.
He didn’t waste any time and flashed forward to strike.
They clashed like two titans in a Kaiju-style film. Elania floated back and scanned for the others.
She spotted them huddled around Arlois in the distance.
As she moved towards them, the golem's energy whip cracked in the air, sending out a violent shockwave. Her aura shot out, forming a bubble that prevented her from being smashed into the ground.
The crackling tendril of energy snared Eziel's wing, though. He stabbed the golem's torso, the divine lance carving off a huge chunk of stone and runed metal. The golem tugged, ripping Eziel's wing off and flinging it into the air.
A rain of gold particles trailing down on the countryside and Eziel roared.
The arch-seraph reached forward and grabbed the golem's stub of an arm and yanked it out of the socket, then slammed the chunk in the golem's face. That sent it stumbling backwards, but it raised its other hand. Its whip moved, slicing through a few remaining half destroyed spires of the city as if they were made of paper.
The crack of impact erupted on Eziel's side, a massive blue burning lesion appearing on his armor.
Panic surged. He was their trump card—or, well, their last card.
If Eziel couldn't win… They were screwed.
Parts of one of the damaged spires began to fall straight for the Celestial Engine. She shot forward. If the engine were damaged, they'd be fucked twice over.
She reached the engine in time and slammed into the falling debris, shoving the tumbling stonework away and out into the open air. A lightning crack of the golem's whip struck again, just overhead, and she was smashed into the engine's arcane barrier.
Maybe it understood what was going on, because it let her plummet through while stopping the attack. She landed heavily on the cracked marble but managed to stay on her feet.
Eziel moved forward, grappling with the golem and punching its side with his free hand while holding the whip arm at bay. Thunderous blows rained down. Parts of the golem smashed off, sending spews of stone and metal flying.
Despite the effort, the energy whip continued to lash out, striking Eziel repeatedly, along with Contia's remains. The two titans smashed and assaulted each other with no regard for defense.
It was a display of raw savagery.
Elania clenched her fists. A surge of [Power] shot through her wing as she adjusted to flying with just the one. She darted in dangerously close. Repeated shockwaves of air buffeted her. She summoned her [Divine Power] and forced it into [Power], creating a mana sphere.
It was simple enough to release it all at once, and the golem's head was so large it made an easy target. The lance of blue light caused a minor explosion, digging a thin line through the stone.
The damage looked tiny compared to the two behemoths' struggle. But she had to do something.
Ember, Elysia, and Lyra followed her lead. They flew up to join her and began to unleash their own attacks.
Flame gouts blinded the golem’s eyes. Vines wrapped around its feet, growths digging into the stone and metal in an attempt to pry it apart. Water dug into cracks and then expanded, weakening the stone.
The attacks were small, but they began to stack up as they attacked the Sun Golem from various angles.
The whip flew at them, but they avoided it by flying erratically and close enough to its body that it couldn't hit them without smashing itself.
Eziel punched the Sun Golem hard in the face, toppling it over. It staggered and released the energy whip, snagging Eziel's side with its hand and pulling him down along with it. They rolled furiously over the charred husk of the city, crushing and pulverizing anything that wasn't already flattened.
Near Arlois, Yolani raised her wand.
At a massive fucking boulder.
Elania flung her wing back and punched forward. She hit it with her head, her [Regalia] crunching and taking the impact. It was enough to daze the shit out of her and send her tumbling to the ground, rolling onto her back.
Yolani appeared overhead and shook her. Elania blinked and smiled.
She reached up and cupped the other girl’s cheek. Her partner had such a pretty face.
So she told her that.
Yolani helped her sit up. Elania blinked as she looked out in the distance.
The Sun Golem picked up Eziel and held him in the air with one arm, then slammed him into the ground. A giant tidal wave of stone rushed toward them like a pyroclastic cloud.
Yolani stood up and put one hand on Elania’s head while holding out the other. There was a powerful tug at her [Divine Power], enough to shock Elania from her stupor.
A massive wall the width of the island began to form out of reconstituted brick, producing a giant wedge, launching the flow upwards and over them.
Yolani turned to her. “Are you back?”
Elania nodded weakly.
“Go! I’ll tend to Arlois,” Yolani ordered.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Elania nodded again. Her wing tugged her upward. It didn’t work the same as before. She didn’t really need to flap much—it just tugged her along.
It sort of hurt, which sucked.
The reverberation of a shockwave knocked her thoughts back into the fight and she homed in toward the battle. The other demi-divines were continuing to attack, but they had slowed down, allowing more space between them and the golem. It had begun to crumble on its own.
But Eziel wasn’t in much better shape. His lance was gone, along with one of his wings. Ribs jutted out of his armor where his torso had been smashed and golden liquid evaporated into the air like a swarm of fireflies.
The Sun Golem’s hand clamped down on the Arch-Seraph’s throat, metal digging into his flesh. It let out a massive roar loud enough to create a shockwave of its own.
She was forced to dip and hide behind Eziel’s body while he clutched at the golem’s wrist with both hands, beating at it to no avail. The other demi-divines attacked the arm as well—but it wasn’t working.
Suddenly, Eziel’s hand lowered to his side. A sickening sensation filled her—they had come too far to fail now!
He must have felt the same way, because a golden light began to form in his palm. A small dagger stretched out, replacing his lance. He raised his hand and punched the blade into the Sun Golem’s torso, right under the armpit, aimed for the heart.
The massive construct began to crumble faster, but then there was a sickening crack of bone, and Eziel went limp. His form burned with golden fire, turning into a shimmering light that exploded outward, leaving behind only his sword form.
“Eziel!” Elania flew up and caught him by the hilt as he fell. She held him up. “Eziel, are you okay?”
Silence greeted her, causing a knot of worry to form. She pulsed [Power] into the blade, which glowed in response, but there was still no reply.
A groan caught Elania’s attention, and she spotted the Sun Emperor crawling out of the rubble of the fallen golem. Fear and alarm coursed through her.
Why wasn’t he fucking dead?
Her grip tightened on Eziel, and she launched forward.
He noticed her at the last second, just as she swung for his head. He raised his own sword and blocked, but the blow knocked him off his feet and sent him into a roll.
He was still alive, but he was weakened.
She couldn’t let him regain his strength.
Pressing her advantage, she rained down a flurry of strikes on him, determined to end him once and for all.
He dodged and blocked, his movement sluggish compared to before. A lash of heat smashed into her stomach, but it barely singed her skin.
“You’ll pay for this,” the Sun Emperor snarled, turning his gaze towards the Celestial Engine.
He leaped away from her, his solar wings pulsing with light as he flew.
Elania launched after him, her single wing doing its best.
He threw a sun spear at the engine, but it exploded against the arcane barrier. Flying through the flames of his own explosion, the Sun Emperor crossed into the threshold.
She passed through right behind him.
He threw another strike at the engine, but she moved faster, blocking it with Eziel’s blade and flinging the energy back at him. That smashed him out of the air and into a tumble on the ground.
She gave chase, their swords clashing as he recovered at the last second. The impact reverberated through the chamber, shaking loose the already damaged stone. They pressed heavily against each other, their weapons locked.
His sword began to crack under the pressure, and he backed away to avoid its shattering.
But she didn’t let him go, sword arcing upward to clip his leg, sending a spray of blood and metal into the air. Flickers of light pulsed in the wound.
Her second swing came downward, but he ducked beneath the strike, causing Eziel to smash into a nearby column of marble. He slashed at her with a wing, but she blocked with her own.
His other wing swinging at her was the next obvious attack, and she was ready. Eziel flickered upward, severing the solar wing at its base, sending the shimmering energy into the air to diffuse harmlessly.
He followed up with a sword strike, but she parried it. His free hand gestured at the floor under her, and a sun spear exploded from the marble, aimed at her groin.
She side stepped the attack and countered with a horizontal slash. He jumped over it, and her blade buried itself in the marble wall again. Fuck.
A flare of light flickered in the corner of her eye, and she ripped Eziel free and into the air. The hovering sun spear flipped around, and instead of impaling her in the back, it flared toward the Sun Emperor.
He blocked it, but the explosion sent him tumbling backwards. He regained his balance and skidded to a halt on one knee, his cracked sword digging into the stone.
They both panted heavily, a momentary lull in the exchange.
His wing attempted to glow, flickering weakly.
Elania’s lips broke into a smirk. “You’ll have to do better than glow at me if you want to kill me.”
“Stop resisting and hand over the arch-seraph,” he demanded. The strain in his voice was clear.
Elania scoffed. “I know a lot of other people who made those kinds of demands right before I dealt with them.”
“I might be wounded, but you’re still a fledgling,” came the reply.
Elania readied Eziel and then jumped forward. The Sun Emperor parried, the cracks on his blade growing with each blow. Divine light seeped through suddenly and blinded her, the shattering steel digging into her skin and armor like tiny bullets.
She couldn’t see, but she could somehow feel the light spear sweeping at her, and she jumped over it.
Wiping her face, [Regeneration] worked enough to clear her vision. Dozens of light weapons began to form in the air between them, and the Sun Emperor retreated toward the Celestial Engine, his eyes still on her.
He was trying to do something to the engine. Or he was trying to wear her down.
His [Divine Power] regeneration was probably a magnitude higher than hers. He’d get stronger, and she’d weaken.
She needed a decisive blow. And quickly.
The wall of weapons assailed her as she chased him. Her wing slashed through some. Eziel blocked others. A dagger jabbed into her side. A mace smashed into her leg.
Eziel raised up, and she pulsed a wave of [Power] into him and swung, a crescent flashing forward faster than she could ever move. He took the hit on his arm, a golden shield appearing there to block. The attack dug into the floor and ceiling as it passed over him.
It had done enough of what she had wanted—it had forced him to pause.
The distance between them disappeared before he could jump away.
She turned her jump into a stumble toward the ground, and she tossed Eziel into the air.
The Sun Emperor’s eyes widened at her mistake.
He jumped for it.
She rolled onto her back and converted as much of her [Divine Power] into [Power] as she could, forming a mana orb in the palm of her hands.
Just as he gripped the sword, she slammed it into his chest.
The Sun Emperor hung suspended in the air for a moment, the mana orb winking out of existence while time was stopped.
And then the surrounding stone shattered, creating a ripple of cracks and crumbling debris in an expanding outward circle. The wall behind him exploded as if struck by a massive hammer, and then he crumpled to the ground.
Broken and defeated.
Elania’s chest heaved as she sat up, a wave of dizziness washing over her; she’d nearly burned through all of her [Divine Power] in the last attack.
Eziel hung in the air, floating. She caught him as she walked over to the Sun Emperor.
She looked down at his battered form. Blood—red human blood—leaked from his ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Even then, some of his wounds pulsed with light, a flicker that didn’t want to die.
He weakly raised his hand, gripping her ankle.
“End it, girl,” he croaked. “You’ll enjoy the power.”
She kicked her ankle free, rolling him onto his back and knocking his shattered chest plate off. Eziel’s tip flipped downward, and she held the sword over his heart, ready to deliver the final blow.
She wasn’t sure why he suddenly wanted her to finish him, but one thing was clear—no one could afford letting him live a minute longer.
A skittering nearby interrupted her.
A flock of blue-eyed chickens emerged from a ruined corridor.
Elania blinked in disbelief.
Tessa appeared, running along with them on her feet and hands, her movements erratic and wild.
Elania looked down at the Sun Emperor, then glanced back up.
“Tessa!” Elania called.
The wild demoness paused and stared at her, approaching hesitantly, tilting her head. “Bad men come. Wicked men hurt my babies. I only kill the ones who try to hurt!”
The demoness chattered wildly about all of it.
Elania praised her and patted her head. Then pointed at the Sun Emperor.
“He’s the one who hurt your babies, Tessa. He hurt all of us. He brought the evil men here,” Elania said. “You… should make him pay.”
The Sun Emperor groaned and rolled over, his hand going out in an attempt to drag himself away.
Tessa’s eyes slid to the man, a hungry gleam in the blue.
Elania walked away, her pace quickening to a jog as she headed back toward Arlois and Yolani.
Behind her, the moans turned into screams.
Elania’s wing flickered and strained, finally pulling her into the air as she struggled against injury and exhaustion.
Her throat tightened up as she spotted Yolani holding Arlois in her arms.
Ember, Lyra, and Elysia landed nearby, arriving at nearly the same time. Their faces were etched with grief and concern.
Flecks of Arlois’ body were slowly flickering into the air, purple motes of light melting into the sky.
Yolani looked up at Elania, blood smeared on her cheek and arm. “Elania… Arlois is dying.”
The others gathered around, their eyes glistening with unshed tears.
Arlois opened her eyes, her gaze weak, but filled with affection as she looked at each of them. Elysia began to sob, her shoulders shaking.
“Please don’t cry.” Arlois’ voice was barely above a whisper as the demi-divines moved closer to kneel beside her. “Keep Contia safe. Protect the people.”
Her gaze turned to Elania, and she beckoned her closer.
Elania knelt beside her. She forced a fit of [Power] into [Divine Mending], but the glow flickered out immediately.
Arlois reached up and took her hand. “I’m beyond that, dear. My core shattered.”
Elania’s eyes welled up. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Arlois’ hand went to her cheek, trembling slightly as she cupped it. “[Mana, Protector, Savior],” she whispered, her eyes mixed with pride and sadness.
Elania frowned, confusion etched on her face.
Arlois smiled weakly, her body beginning to dissolve faster. “It’s a complex [Domain] and a harder path to walk than most.”
A [System] panel opened in front of Elania, her eyes going wide with shock.
[Do you wish to absorb the lingering essence of Demi-Divine - Human - Lvl 1234?]
She nearly swatted the message away by reflex, but Arlois’ grip on her hand turned hard.
“Do it,” Arlois ordered.
Elania swallowed a lump in her throat. “Do what?”
“You know what to do. I don’t want what’s left to be lost. Please take care of them for me,” Arlois said, her voice becoming hoarse.
Tears welled up in Elania’s eyes. “Okay,” she whispered.
Ember, Elysia, and Lyra began to cry, their sobs filling the air. Yolani looked at Elania, her expression bleak.
Elania took a deep breath and triggered the system prompt.
Arlois’ body dissolved rapidly, turning into a purple mist of light that swirled around all of them, a feeling of warmth caressing each of the women’s skin.
They formed into a solid light before flowing into Elania’s chest.
[Power] surged through her, and the sensation of a thousand—tens of thousands—new connections settled on her shoulders.
She was surprised that there were any survivors, although she had known in the back of her mind; her own connections were still there.
Elania knew what they needed to do and stood up as her exhaustion evaporated.
“We can’t rest. We need to search for survivors,” she ordered.