Darkness finally gave way to a stuttering, frail light.
Ethan found himself standing in a [SAFE ZONE], something he didn’t expect in a dungeon like this. Probably, even level Cs had to allow their Delvers some measure of respite before the Big Bad Boss.
And, looking down at the world beneath him, he could tell the Boss room was just above him now.
He was standing in a translucent sphere of shimmering light itself – a hollow room that bore his weight through no discernible means. He moved, and the floor rippled, giving him a view of the Nerve Tower’s pulsing depths below, and would probably have churned the stomach of an Acrophobic. After all the things he’d seen, however, this was child’s play.
He walked over to the sphere-wall to look out at the City of Illusions far below him, whistling slightly as he inspected the chaotic path he and his comrades had carved through the place. Around every alley they’d skulked through, and every spire they’d toppled on their way here, the manta-like Dreamstriders did their jobs – coating the buildings in the sticky, ethereal good that seemed to keep this whole place together. The phasing outlines of Obscaurus ran down the side of the Nerve tower to take up new positions in the city below, summoned to do so by whatever force controlled this place. Ethan suspected it was Kaedmon Himself.
The architect of everyone’s pain in this world.
The way the slim Obscaurus ran down the building seemed more frantic than the behavior he’d seen them exhibit in the city itself, however. Some of them ran with a distinct sense of fear – if such creatures could even feel the emotion. They ran with abandon, their necks split open spilling ghastly globules of blood across Ethan’s little sanctuary, trailing their limbs behind them. Such a mass exodus could be the work of one person only.
The Lightborn.
Ethan looked above, seeing nothing but a mist of fog and clouds. Though he couldn’t see him, he knew he was up there. He knew he’d passed through the same trials he had and, of course, he’d emerged before his ancient enemy.
“Artorious,” Ethan murmured. “Hope you didn’t miss me too much, old man.”
The time has come, then, Sys suddenly perked up.After everything you have seen here, Ethan Hawke, are you truly ready to meet your fate?
Ethan thought about it for a hot second – he thought about that word, and how much he despised it and those who lived life by its absurd rules.
“I’m doing nothing but what’s right. That old dude’s gotta go. First him, and then Kaedmon.”
Jun’Ei’s last words flooded back to him then – along with the vision of her prison. Killing the Lightborn would only be the first step to truly freeing this world. She had the key – he knew it. Klax had known it all along, too. Ethan felt like a moron for ever doubting the guy.
He’d felt like a moron for ever doubting any of them. After all, they were the ones who broke through their own illusions, right? It had taken them almost no time at all.
And because of that, they deserved to have a win here. Killing the Lightborn wasn’t just a job he had to do. It was something he owed Klax, Tara, Fauna, and every damn hybrid on the surface.
And that thought was what summoned his current Spirit Core counter to the forefront of his conscious thought:
Current Spirit Cores: 1650
He smirked, sitting down and crossing his legs, readying himself for a major upgrade session.
You trying to hint that it’s time to fine-tune this Host a little more, Sys?
…maybe.
Not like he needed any prompting. After all, he had to wait for his companions to come through – wherever they were at right now.
Might as well make use of this time. I’ve been floating around in dreams and nightmares for far too long. Time to do something real.
Current Spirit Cores: 1650
Strategy time…
First, he knew taking the Lightborn and his grim Commander head-on would be suicide. Even with all his new abilities, he’d have to be careful – relying on synergies and tricks that could mess up the flow of the Greycloaks’ combat. If this Carliah and Artorious were true tactical geniuses, then how come even Artorious had been duped way back when they fought in the Grenbelm forest?
Simple: he thought he lived in a predictable world. The world of Kaedmon was exactly that: everything was defined for you since birth.
But Ethan Hawke was anything but a predictable [Hat].
And it was time to show these bastards exactly what that meant.
First – he’d upgrade his stealth capacity so that not even the twilight-infused shadows of this city could stop him from gaining an advantage:
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Hide (Grade A->S)
[Hide-in-plain-sight] unlocked!
You may now attempt to disappear from your enemy’s line of sight even in broad daylight, with a 30% chance of failure.
He had expected the skill to be based off his enemy’s Perception score, and thus to be overall useless against these ageless paladins. But the flat-out 70% chance for a successful sneak attack (at triple damage for him and his companions if he tried for a Mass-Hide) was way to great to pass up.
He assumed that’s just what S Grade skills were – super powerful, but risky.
And he’d have to risk it all if he was gonna win, here.
Upgrade…complete!
Hide (Grade S)
Congratulations! You have achieved the highest Grade of the [Hide] skill!
That was a start, but he wasn’t done yet.
“Sys, pull up snipe. We’re gonna need some precision.”
As he administered these improvements, his entire Undead body shimmering with a ghostly veil of pure energy. It was the kind of power no mortal being on Argwyll could ever possess, all contained in one pure vessel. Even the Dreamstriders, floating outside the pale bubble of nothingness, seemed to stop and take notice of his energy levels as the spiked higher. Ever higher.
Spectral Snipe (Grade D->C)
You launch a bolt of precise energy up to 200 ft from your current location. This bolt deals 200 pts of {piercing}DMG and takes 60 secs to recharge.
Spectral Snipe can now pass through solid and {ethereal} matter
Upgrade (Grade C): [Attack Vitals] unlocked – you may aim at specific body parts to trigger status effects in your enemies on a successful hit.
Hands: Disarm
Legs: Cripple
Head: Automatic Critical
Spirit Cores required to upgrade: 750
It’s…pretty much VATS from Fallout, Ethan thought, allowing himself a smile as his memories of blowing super mutants to pieces flooded through his brain. He envisioned taking that smug bastard’s head clean off his shoulders and shoving it in the face of every Argwyllian who hated him – and the rest of his kind.
Hell yeah he was gonna take this. Close combat with the old fuck would be possible, but a crazy proposition long-term.
Upgrade…Complete!
Spirit Cores to Upgrade further: 1000
Spirit Cores Remaining: 950
950 cores that, if he was facing a regular monstrous enemy, he would bank in order to get off a successful possession. But he remembered well the lesson he’d learned in Grenbelm – not only was the old fucker’s Willpower through the roof, but he couldn’t possess a human anyway. This wasn’t gonna be a fight to wear his opponent down, bend it to submission and then wear it as a Host. No – this was a fight to the death, straight up.
And for that he needed more power. Something that could be whipped out to end the fight in one swift strike. So, he turned to something he hadn’t looked at in a while:
Petrification Coating (Grade E)
You slather your weapon in the debilitating bile closest to your heart, giving your weapon the [PETRI] attribute for 10 secs.
[PETRI] Chance: 40%
Duration: 10 secs.
(Grade D) Petrification automatically triggered against targets with the [Sluggish] debuff.
Spirit Core cost to Upgrade: 250
Sluggish…that means…if I can time a [Roar] perfectly to hit the bastards, I can at least take one of them out of commission and focus on the other one. One good hit and the petrified Greycloak’s gonna come crumbling down, right?
He hesitated only slightly as he committed to the upgrade. Now wasn’t the time to waste Spirit Cores. But this was the best plan he had.
Upgrade…Complete!
Petrification Coating (Grade D)
Spirit Cores Required to upgrade further: 500
Current Spirit Cores: 700
Next – he needed a good defense just as much as he needed offence. Valgraiva’s HP was immense, but it meant nothing if he couldn’t keep his Host standing. After all, he knew what Artorious could do. If he had an Onixia blade with him…the chances were he could deplete HP like siphoning sand through a sieve. An Undead Lord meant nothing to an Archon slayer.
And luckily, Ethan had just the thing to deal with that:
Repulsor Shield (Grade E->D)
You heft your mighty shield, nullifying magical attacks completely up to certain magnitude of DMG.
Current {MAG} DMG Prot: 95
[Repulsion] trait gained: Repulsor Shield now reflects any magical attacks back at the attacker
Spirit Core cost to upgrade: 250
It was an upgrade that provided the best of both worlds. And it was all his.
Upgrade…Complete!
Spirit Core cost to upgrade further: 500
Current Spirit Cores: 450
One more, Ethan thought as the walls of the dome around him began to quiver under some unseen pressure. One more chance to win, here, Sys. Any recommendations?
Do not forget your team, Ethan. I tell you again – they are some of your best resources.
You have seen now why they fight. This battle is all that serves as important for them. Their entire purpose is to ensure your ascendance. They may be burdened with pain, but pain is often the best teacher for the fanatical and the -
“But they aren’t expendable,” Ethan interrupted. “You really think I could just let them die so I can claim my throne in this world, Sys? I told you already, that ain’t the kind of Archon I’m gonna be.”
Sys grew quiet then, allowing the world around them to spin, uninterrupted.
A different Archon, indeed.
I still do not understand you, Ethan.
When Sys said nothing else, Ethan merely moved on to his final skill pick, ignoring the droning sounds of the Safe Zone beginning to change.
…But perhaps that is the kind of Archon the world truly needs.
“Hm?” Ethan grunted – too preoccupied in musing on his next skill choice. “What?”
Nothing, Ethan. Nothing at all.
“Cryptic as usual,” Ethan scoffed back. “Right to the end.”
He set then to trawling his mind for something useful. He saw skills, numbers, status effects, synergies he hadn’t even thought of before all coming together in a vast web of demonic tools he’d pilfered from the different species of this world. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed something else.
He opened his palm and looked at what Jun’Ei had given him. What she had called her ‘gift’.
When he looked at it, he already knew how it was. He knew how it worked. He even knew where it had come from – somehow. He couldn’t understand the bond he had with the item. But he could guess it was something like…familial acquaintance.
It would be his trump card. His last-ditch effort in the event things went off the rails and he or one of his companions was brought an inch from death or worse. But how he could deliver it to his enemies was another matter entirely. It required a…personal touch. It required trust.
Then, scrawling right to the end of his skill list, Ethan came to his most recent skill.
He smiled in the ethereal sphere just as three portals opened to let his companions through. This skill – this ability – it suddenly made everything else click together so perfectly that, if he didn’t know that his life was at stake here, he’d think this was the final grand level of some intricate game.
He knew exactly what skill he’d spend his last points on.