If you venture deep enough into the tide you’ll learn the truth of this world. You might even get to claim a slice of it for yourself, but power never comes without a cost.
-Excerpt from ‘Charting the Tide: Beyond Bathypelagic’ by various contributors
The air itself was set aflame as the dark sun met the flames of the Shadow King. Chester’s blade crashed against Trent’s cutlass. Despite wielding the more powerful weapon, the serrated edge of his blade began to deform and break against the blistering strike.
He pushed against the weight of his foe. Even with the energy of the countless tidestones he’d shattered flowing through him, Trent found himself being pushed back.
However, most of the arcane power was being diverted towards his core rather than his muscles, leaving him disadvantaged. The black smoke billowing from the Shadow King’s body was a sign he was using one of his signature abilities—shadow engine.
It was a fancy name for something with a simple effect. He used his attuned energy to create a kind of engine within his body, empowering his muscles in a feedback loop that grew stronger with every strike.
Even though most of his enemies and allies alike knew how it worked after decades of use, that didn’t stop it from being devastatingly effective. How did you deal with an enemy that grew more powerful with every exchange?
The answer was simple.
You just needed to make sure you wiped the floor with them in a single strike.
But Chester wasn’t planning to give Trent the time to charge his attack. Sevalon’s Revenge groaned suddenly and then the blade bent backwards, shattering.
It felt as though something deep within Trent shattered at the same moment. He wanted to roar in fury but all his focus was diverted elsewhere.
Chester’s blade swung forward, carving a line of black fire through the air as it bit deep into Trent’s shoulder.
The pain was like nothing else he’d ever felt. His arcane circuits bent and cracked under the searing onslaught and his flesh was being sliced and cauterised endlessly as the Shadow King pushed the blade deeper.
It carved all the way down until it bit bone and a metallic clang rang out, prompting the vice admiral to cackle with glee. “It’s over, Blackheart! Give in or I’ll take your arm,” he cried.
Trent hadn’t yet used the power of the ARM. It cost too much arcane energy to power it while also attempting to gather enough to power the dark sun’s ultimate strike.
However, he had little choice right now. If he did nothing the battle would be over before he had the chance to fight back.
He smiled, blood coating his teeth. “This old thing? You can have it.”
It was only an epipelagic treasure. The quantity of energy flooding his body right now was far too great for it to handle. But he wasn’t trying to activate it.
With the Shadow King’s blade already halfway through his shoulder, he knew there was no chance of saving the ARM. He needed time, so he would obtain it through any means necessary.
Power flooded through the glowing blue appendage as he unblocked the circuits in the shoulder. It strained to get through the disfigured circuits, suffering under his foe’s black flames, but nothing could stand in the way of that raging tide.
As the ARM began to glow brighter and brighter, he saw Chester’s eyes widening in surprise. But it was too late for the man to escape.
He clenched the muscles in his shoulders—the ones that still worked—gripping the edge of the man’s blade and preventing him from pulling back. The ARM began to crackle and spark, ominous clanking sounds echoing throughout.
All of a sudden one of the blue fingers exploded in a shower of blue sparks, burning whatever they touched.
“You fool! What are you doing? You’ll kill us both,” Chester exclaimed in shock.
“I’m already damned,” chuckled Trent. “If I can drag the Shadow King down with me then it will make my legend that much greater.”
There was a final crackle and then the world flashed blue as the ARM detonated. Trent wasted no time in shoving away Chester’s blade and letting the force of the explosion throw him away from his opponent.
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As he flew he felt the pressure from the tidal energy rampaging through his body lessen. The dark sun floating behind him continued to swell, growing in size as well as intensity.
The festering heat even burnt him, scorching away at his rotten back. Trent knew that this would be the final move he ever unleashed on the world.
So he wanted to make it one to remember.
Then again, he wasn’t sure there would be any survivors to tell the tale. Perhaps a fisherman on the distant shoreline…
Skill up!
Blight Resistance ★66 > ★67
Blight Assimilation 12 > 13
Your occupation has advanced!
Plague Duke of the Dark Sun 64 > 65
Every time his Blight Assimilation skill levelled up and with it his occupation, the accursed pain of the festering rot that consumed his body became a little sweeter. He detested it.
The moment a man began to love that which was killing him was the moment he succumbed to madness. However, Trent wasn’t able to turn down the power it offered in exchange.
Especially when he needed it to bring down the Shadow King. Chester had already begun to recover from the explosion of his ARM.
Burns marked his face and arm, his once pristine uniform now ripped and charred where the treasure had exploded and torn into his flesh. He had a fierce scowl on his face and his black flames roared as though mirroring his anger.
He didn’t waste any time, instantly charging at Trent as soon as he’d regained his footing. But it was too late to stop him.
When the man was halfway to Trent he suddenly stumbled as the sea beneath him vanished. All the water ten miles in every direction suddenly evaporated into billowing clouds of steam as the dark sun rapidly swelled in size.
Trent had known he had the power to do this the moment he’d taken the occupation, but he never had a reason to unleash such a devastating strike until now. And the cost was heavy.
Using it when he’d been in prime condition, holding off the rot with relative ease, wouldn’t have accelerated the spread by much. As he was now, he was sacrificing himself to unleash this single strike.
Chester regained his footing, standing on two small clouds of black smoke and continuing to charge. The steam blocked him from view every few seconds, but he was still a few metres away.
All of a sudden Trent felt the dark sun sucking all the energy from his core. He let it happen.
When it had drunk its fill he was only left with a few drops—barely enough to sustain the mythril tideheart. He didn’t need to stay alive for much longer.
The necrotic blight crept up his neck and he gasped as he lost the ability to breathe. It felt as though he was deep underwater, running on minimal oxygen.
It wasn’t healthy for a surging core to run on this little tidal energy.
Trent felt a pop inside his gut, followed by a devastating wave of a thousand icy needles burrowing into his bones. He let out a booming laugh.
It was even less healthy for a raging core to run on this little energy.
He’d broken through in the moment of his death. It was a little ironic. If he’d possessed a raging core at the start of this battle he might not have had to go to such extremes.
But he needed to push himself this far to achieve the breakthrough. The tide was a vicious mistress.
Unfortunately, this skill required more than just arcane energy to activate. It required a sacrifice of flesh and bone. Trent felt the burn as what little remained of his organic body was consumed and devoured by the dark sun.
Chester took the final step towards him right as the sun went supernova. Trent felt the blistering heat incinerate the last of his rotten flesh, the last thing to burn being his dead black heart.
His soul lasted a few moments longer. Long enough to witness the Shadow King being burnt to a rotten crisp with a shocked expression on his face.
A bunch of whorls appeared as he burnt up, but he didn’t care to read them, given that he wasn’t long for this world. His final thoughts were with Yasmin, Rose, and even the damn rifle boy.
He’d earned them enough time to escape and with the Shadow King gone it would be a while before anyone else thought to chase after them.
Nasar, I’m ready to join you, my old friend. I suppose it's fitting that I face my final rest in the sea of my birth.
A crater had appeared in the ocean, all the way down to the seabed, dozens of miles below. The colossal cloud of steam and the hideous green explosion could be seen all the way from Aughold, making the residents wonder what had happened.
Only a select few members of the navy knew that was the direction that Vice Admiral Saff had set sail in pursuit of Blackheart. They weren’t sure whether the explosion was an ill omen or a sign of his victory.
Eventually, a few hours later, the sea returned to normal. The choppy waves hid all evidence a battle had taken place and the tide claimed nine more ships and a thousand lives.
All was calm on the ocean floor and the myriad creatures of the sea were feasting on the charred and rotten remains of the unfortunate sailors. One curious fish broke away from his school, following the scent of a tasty treat.
When it reached the end of the trail it was confused. Instead of the delicious snack it had been expecting there was just a lump of misshapen blue metal fused with a clump of charred, rotten flesh.
It figured it had come this far so it might as well give the strange object a taste. It swam closer, realising that despite the grim appearance the lump of metal and flesh was filled with crackling arcane power.
Just the kind of nourishment a little fish needed to advance the quality of its very existence; to take the next step.
However, right as it went to take a bite, the lump suddenly throbbed, sending out a wave of power that made almost all the gathered creatures scatter in fright. And then it pulsed again.
Deep under the ocean, carried by the tide, a dead black heart began to beat once more.