“Jason,” Beowulf called in his low voice.
“Yup, yup. Guess I’m up,” the goggle-wearing, snowy-haired man stepped up with his hands in his pockets, holding a casual smile as he stood in front of the abyssal entrance.
There wasn’t a single word from anybody else as the white-haired figure slowly stepped forward, bringing his right foot past the doorway before sinking through the veil of shadows.
“Oh.”
He found himself arriving in a temple chamber; walls forged of burnt stone, inlaid with stained glass of faded colors. Statues stood tall in the vast room; sculptures of faceless humanoids, with their hands up as if worshiping a deity.
As the man brought his arm up, he watched the fabric of his sleeve begin to unwind itself and wither away.
He held an uneasy smile as he snapped his fingers, causing a distortion in the space around him.
“That’s not good. Guess it’s a good thing I’m here,” he remarked under his breath.
A spherical barrier formed around himself and the entrance, blocking off the nebulous force within the chamber.
Following behind him, the other two guild leaders arrived, stepping into the safe zone that was already established.
Sirius looked around, “Woah. Talk about creepy.”
“This barrier—the rumors were true, then?” Beowulf asked, noticing the protective zone.
Jason nodded, “There’s a curse in this area that ages you rapidly. It’s a good thing I was the first one to enter. I can keep time stagnant in this zone, but that might not hold forever.”
The others began to arrive as well, being carefully instructed to remain within Jason’s barrier. It was a hurdle that seemed to go against the entire strategy of the Tower: tackling guardians in groups.
“Hey, where’s the guardian?” One of the members asked, glancing around nervously.
Another added in, “...Yeah, this is its chamber, right? So…where is it?”
It was the woman with the verdant cap on her head that seemed to notice it, closing one eye as her vision honed in at what sat across the grim room, “I believe that might be it, suspended in the air.”
All eyes locked onto the ominous statue across the room, suspended by chains that held it above a staircase-led platform. The sculpted figure was of black stone, likely four meters in height with a head shaped like an oval helm, bearing the face of an obsidian skeleton. The arms of the unmoving figure were held above its head by the chains, with its feet bound together, tightly held by chains.
“Hmm,” Beowulf grunted, looking upon the nebulous statue.
“Seems like that’s our gu–” Jason began to say.
A single tap to the shoulder of the goggle-wearing man came from Sirius, whose azure eyes gleamed with intent.
Before any tactics could be discussed, a blur of light flashed by with a bright-blue glow, shooting straight out of the barrier without hesitation.
“Wha–” One of the mages stumbled back from the sudden winds.
It was difficult to tell what happened in that moment, but a few reacted to what the flash of light was as a bolt of lightning flung from the barrier, straight towards the suspended statue.
“Urgh–Sirius!” Beowulf yelled.
“There he goes…” Jason sighed, chuckling, “That idiot didn’t listen to a word I said, did he?”
As a bolt of lightning itself, the energetic guild leader struck the presumed guardian, returning to his physical state just as he made contact with the sculpture.
“Rise and shine, you dusty pile of bricks!” Sirius exclaimed with a confident smile as his electric-infused boot slammed against the abdomen of the primordial statue.
Strands of the erratic, flashing element expanded through the dim temple, scathing the stone as the presence of the impatient, all-too-energetic guild leader was announced. As observed, the guess was right: the statue rumbled in response to the kick, beginning to violently vibrate.
Sirius jumped back as a bolt, landing as his boots scraped against the ground, excitedly looking up towards the awakening guardian, “On the mark.”
Beowulf sighed from within the safe zone, witnessing the reckless assault, “This is why I hate working with this brat, what a pain in the ass…”
“Ha-ha-ha,” Jason laughed, raising his goggles as his snowy fringes were pushed up, letting his golden irises set forward, “That’s what you get when we’re dealing with the king of conceitedness himself: the “Invictus of Zeus.”
“Hey, isn’t he going to like…die out there?” June asked, nervously scratching at his own arm as he looked down.
Adding in, Vanya expressed her concern, keeping her bow drawn for the battle ahead, “The curse of aging will take him, even if he is the Invictus of Zeus–we need to–”
“Don’t worry. He’s safe,” Jason assured.
“Huh?” Vanya and June both reacted, surprised as most of the others there.
The only ones lacking concern, besides the guild leaders, were the members of the Dracon Alliance, as the towering captain of the guild laughed mightily.
Alcides ripped the shirt of his uniform off, revealing his hulking chest, with muscularity that looked chiseled from stone, “Don’t hog all the fun for yourself, Sirius–!”
As the energetic force of brawn began to march from the safe zone of stagnant time, Jason gave the man a tap on the arm, “Have at it, champ.”
A light layer of translucent energy enveloped Alcides, who exited the zone; no aging came to his skin–no wrinkling or withering.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Oh, you gave Sirius that as well–” June observed.
Jason waved his hand, dissuading the notion, “Oh, no. That impatient bastard didn’t ask–he took it for himself.”
“Huh?” June tilted his head, confused by the words of his leader.
Beowulf answered for the perplexed adventurers, sighing as he removed his coat and cracked his neck side-to-side in preparation for the guardian, “Pantheon–that’s the power unique to the Invictus of Zeus. All it requires is a touch…after that, he can replicate that person’s Blessing, albeit temporarily.”
“That’s…” One of the adventurers remarked in disbelief.
“Unfair? Yep,” Jason laughed, “Alright, it’s time for me to join the fun–I can only give four, maybe six people protective layers. So the rest will have to stay put in this zone, then we can swap out. Sounds good?”
Beowulf agreed with the plan, nodding his head, “Let’s go.”
A high-five was shared between the two guild leaders, as the coating of time extended itself over the silver-bearded man’s body.
As the first vanguard left the safe zone, the ominous guardian fully awakened: its stone-clad limbs shook as the chains that bound it withered away into dust. Its skeletal face was slick with a black liquid, slippery as if of flesh itself.
Sirius stood at the forefront, looking up at the titanic figure as electricity sparked at his fingertips, “Looks like I gave it a rude awakening.”
“All you did was piss it off. Thanks for that, Sparky,” Jason playfully said, sliding his goggles down.
Beowulf grunted, gathering a sublime heat at the palm of his hand, “Don’t fight recklessly. We don’t know what its abilities are yet.”
“I’m ready! Allow me to showcase my strength!” Alcides excitedly said, holding his arms down as he flexed his arms and chest.
The colossal chamber seemed claustrophobic with the presence of the statuesque embodiment of death, as liquid darkness swirled at its feet. Its face shuddered unnaturally before its teeth began chattering, echoing like the banging of drums before the first move was made–
“Woah–”
“Huh?”
–In a split-second, the colossal, stone-clad entity crossed the distance between itself and the challengers, arriving in front of the much smaller humans. In its right hand, the guardian shaped the abyssal fluid into the shape of an axe, slamming it down towards the leader of the Dracon Alliance.
The youthful man’s blue-and-black hair swayed as strands of lightning ran across his body, fluttering through his hair as his eyes witnessed the axe’s downfall. In that fringe moment between one second to the next, his divine reflexes guided him–SPARK.
As a spear of lightning, Sirius evaded the guardian’s attack as the bottom of the axe slammed into the ground. In a seamless movement, a flick of the confident Invictus’ wrist sent a strike of electricity rippling over the guardian’s arm.
“Too slow–” Sirius said with more than a hint of arrogance.
–Though the counterattack did little to stifle the dead-faced colossus, whose mouth opened, spewing a stream of abyssal fluid towards the lightning-wielding adventurer. It was unexpected, yet surprisingly fast; the deathly liquid came towards Sirius like a wave, bringing the man a moment too slow to dodge it.
Time slowed to a crawl, with the reverberations of slow moving like nothing more than tranquil leaves through the wind. As everything seemed to fall still, one moved, unimpeded by the stagnation of time:
“Be more careful, Sparky.”
Jason grabbed hold of the Invictus of Zeus, who was unaware of the halted motion of the moment. The goggle-wearing figure pulled his comrade aside from the frozen liquid before–time resumed.
“--Huh? Oh,” Sirius was surprised at first, finding himself instantaneously moved from the path of the fluid, though quickly realizing what happened as he noticed the snowy-haired figure beside him.
Jason smiled, “You're welcome.”
“I was going to dodge that, ya’ know,” Sirius claimed, readying himself once again.
“Sure, sure,” Jason responded.
Across from the two energetic leaders, beams of condensed heat shot out, dispelling the flood of abyssal fluid, accompanied by the roar from the silver-bearded man, “Save your talking! Focus on the counterattack!”
Beowulf flipped through the air, guiding ropes of bright-orange heat that melted through the deathly fluid spewed from the mouth of the forgotten deity. As the guardian continued its bile-like assault, the muscle-bound figure leapt in with a mighty laugh bellowing from his gut.
Alcides yelled out, “Hercules!”
At once, the man’s physical form changes; his muscles tightened before bulking further, with tattoos of golden light surfacing on his skin, resembling the teeth and claws of a great lion.
[Hercules System Awakened.]
Calling upon his divine power, the guild captain arrived above the guardian’s head from his grand leap, slamming his knuckles against its head.
THWOOM.
“Hah!” Sirius laughed out at the impact, feeling the air brush through his hair.
The impact caused the air to vibrate, rippling through the chamber as the obsidian statue of death stumbled backward.
Following up, Sirius sprinted towards the concussed guardian before leaping forth as a bolt of lightning, shouting out, “--C’mon! C’mon!”
The azure flash struck against the back of the skull-faced deity, thundering against it with a howling kick.
Not letting up for a moment, the next attack came from the silver-bearded leader of the expedition; Beowulf flexed his entire body as heat rippled, lifting his cape as he commanded a divine force:
“Hyperion.”
A pillar of supreme blaze rose from the man as burning, hot-orange ink of suns and scorching waves imprinted on his skin.
[Hyperion System Awakened.]
He engulfed his fist in unsurpassed temperature, thrusting his knuckles against the wind.
A construct of his fist, enlarged and built of plasma burned through the air, catching the stumbling guardian with a harsh impact.
“Guess I oughta jump in as well,” Jason mumbled with a smile, leaning down, allowing his fingertips to graze the floor before setting off as a blur.
Amidst his dash, he traveled between fractions of time no larger than what would be atoms of a millisecond, accelerating his own body as his heart raced within his chest and his cells surged.
[Chronos System Awakened.]
He was free, unbound without any witnesses as he raced around the chamber as a blur, circling it as he warped around its perimeter dozens of times over, gathering momentum.
‘Time Dilation: Set,’ Jason thought.
[Time Elapsed: 0.000001 sec(s)]
Across a boundless instant, the blurred marathon met its destination as the goggle-wearing man sprinted across the wall, leaping from it as he swept his thumb against the pearlescent ring on his pinky. There was a small edge on the unique ring, causing his finger to be cut as a droplet of blood spilled, and with it, came something else.
Into Jason’s hand, a spear manifested, of chromatic steel that flickered between many shades. He thrust its end against the guardian’s shoulder. With his unmatched momentum supporting it, the weapon’s head unleashed a heavy impact against the stoneskin of the deity.
CRACK
“Ruuuah…” A groan left the unmoving face of the guardian as its shoulder began to come over with splits at its seams.
The speeding man landed with his momentum still guiding his body, letting his boots slide across the slick tiles of the temple. While the colossal sculpture of demise was rattled from the impact, the goggle-wearer squeezed the the colorful spear, causing it to to flash with a dazzling light:
“Re:Burst!” Jason commanded with a smile.
From the forgotten deity’s shoulder, a second impact exploded, blowing chunks of stone off of its unorthodox body.
“Hah! Nice one!” Sirius yelled.
Beowulf’s eyes honed in on what was left from the guardian’s shoulder, “Looks like we’re not fighting a statue.”
“Oh?” Jason looked up as well.
Exposed from the blown-away shell was blackened flesh beneath, as if rotten through centuries, yet not fading away. What came was something grotesque; an existence that defied logic. The depraved meat slid from the hole in the colossal stone, rising out as the statue vibrated, shaking and falling to its knees.