Shin shattered silver swords as he flickered closer through the air to the gliding dhampyr. He blitzed at the speed of light, faster than anyone could hope to track, and his sword becoming material once more broke through Virgil’s barrier. But once again, it passed through mist as Virgil’s body reformed at a distance.
The speed of Light Blitz was absolute but he had to exit it in order to attack, and the split second between his blade destroying the mana barrier and reaching Virgil himself gave the dhampyr Psion enough time to react. Scattering was not as good at Phantasm in raw terms, but it served as a natural counter to Duality, as Shin’s truestrike enveloped weapon would connect with nothing.
A winged bull with the head of a woman appeared at his side and trapped Virgil within the mythic tier ward Sanctuary, but he blinked out with ease. White plasma formed within Mara’s jaw and surged forth at the king. Shin blitzed the instant the barrier shattered but Virgil had already predicted the attack and scattered away as mist once more as Shin blitzed back out of the aurora’s path.
Silver swords thrust towards the Lamassu Gatekeeper and a barrier erected around her in turn, but just as quickly she blinked away as the swords ripped through her Guardian enhanced barrier like paper. Virgil shifted away as a large stone destroyed part of the wall behind. Kong kept his distance, hurling stone and rubble at the elusive dhampyr, but after the first attempt, Virgil let the skilless mundane stone shatter against his barrier.
Swirling orbs of scalding plasma bloomed around Shin as he fused Aurora and Greater Spirit Gyro to create Plasma Spirals. Legendary tier only as Merge results in the lowest tier of what skills are used, but duality made up for it. The deadly wisps of shearing energy harried Virgil along with the attacks of the two spirits as Shin haunted him in turn, striking at the slightest of opens that arose.
Telekinesis held Shin in place, and Shin banished the invisible force away with Anti before the silver swords could reach him. Greater Phase could not let him slip through the mythic tier skill and Blink would see him lose the merged truestrike and pulse coating his staff swords. Duration skills like greater mystic protection would remain but not the ones of constant upkeep. The fused skill drained his mana steadily regardless but to renew it would require the cost of Merge once again, leaving him little better choice than Anti, which drained him less than Light Blitz.
But the biggest problem was that Virgil’s mana seemed endless, much like the Arhat’s aura who he faced in the tournament. Virgil was unfettered and too smart to let all of him be destroyed at once. Shin’s win condition thus remained unchanged from their first fight. He had to destroy his soul. But landing the hits proved difficult. Virgil knew that just as well, which he why he fought defensively and elusively. The longer he dragged things out, the closer he drew to victory.
“What drives you so?” Virgil asked emotionlessly in the heat of battle.
“Everything.”
“Greed? You do not strike me as the sort. Vanity? That seems more fitting.”
“What do you want?” Shin’s blade cut through mist as he asked in turn.
“Nothing… Nothing at all.”
“No.” Shin rejected his answer absolutely. “You have to want something.”
“You are… truly… incomprehensible.”
The silver swords circled behind Virgil. Three became six and six became twelve. And silver flashes filled the great hall. Kong clapped his hands together with a booming roar, sending a shockwave that knocked the swords away but they returned in an instant, and pierced and cut deep into his flesh.
As the Yeren slumped back, Shin withdrew his soul before it perished into hibernation. Mara fared little better, Premonition and Blink keeping her free of harm but little else. Shin recalled her too, before her mana ran dry.
Prismatic pulse honed his tempered blades as he stormed against the hail of silver. The swords were brittle, but they could eat through mana, his armor of pulse included if they struck before he could flare his armor out. His defensive skills and even greater phase were useless, and the threat of twelve started to chip away at his life.
In the shards of silver, Shin blitzed before Virgil again. His blade shattered the barrier as Virgil’s body started to turn to mist. And the shadows behind them sneered as darkness pierced them both and bloomed into wretched trees of stakes. The curses of his Malefic touch coursed through their souls, stunting them both as Vicious’ cackles filled the room.
“You thought I would help you?! Fool!”
Both patriarchs started to move, but Shin was the only of them unsurprised, and he moved first. Merge fused Darkness Lordship with Truestrike and through the impalement of spikes connecting them, iridescent cracks cut deep into the dhampyr psion.
Mist let him escape but the prismatic cracks remained. Shin recalled the Dusk Garm’s soul and pursued. Through the dance of silver honing even further through the danger, enduring the necrotic death seeping through his flesh while the damage to Virgil’s soul spread.
Virgil blinked out of the throne room and took to the moonlit sky as Shin broke through the ceiling in pursuit, the contact with his pulsing armor crumbling the throne room to ruins. The array of swords swirled around them as they raged in the air. Gray death consumed more of Shin’s body with every slash while Virgil’s prismatic cracks spread further with every failed light blitz attempt.
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Telekinesis blasted distance between them as the swords swirled into a cage piercing down around Shin. And he gripped his sword, unstoppable eyes trained on Virgil’s immovable apathy. The swords shattered to dust with the flare of his pulsing armor. And as Virgil lingered in the sky without care, the damage spread too deep, Shin severed his sword through him.
The two halves of Virgil fell from the sky, as the cracks spread further still. Even as he hit the stone balcony of the castle, Virgil laid still, facing the sky as the spread did not cease.
“I’m sorry…” Blair’s voice drifted into his mind as he lay on the cold ground, traces of sorrow refined through many years and other feelings he knew to be there.
“Do not grieve me…” Virgil said only to himself, for the connection had gone. “I have done nothing… for any of you…”
“Get up.” Shin stood over him with hollow eyes and neutral expectations.
“...You do ask the cruelest things.”
“Get up.”
A calm breeze blew over Virgil in the peace of the ruins as he took in the sky with dispassionate eyes. “I tire… of this endless struggle…” A silence held as the flesh of the listless dhampyr slowly starting to turn to dust.
“People are only alive when they struggle.” Virgil’s eyes drifted over to Shin, crouching down before him now, a neutral solemness still about him but he found a change within his hollow eyes. The warmth of a dull ember, ever so subtle. “There’s nothing wrong with being alive.”
Virgil lingered on the boy. The incomprehensible depth within his casual words pulling at something within him. And he turned his sight once more to the calm of the sky. “I see… You are quite broken as well…”
Virgil closed his eyes within the still of the world, and let the calm take him. Soul faded first and the body followed as dust in the wind, leaving behind a hollow eyed boy, still crouching as he had been. Shin lingered for a few moments, and flickered away from the calm ruins, empty and still.
---
Karla battered a horde of humanoid rats to death with nothing more than her bare limbs, the hardship of battle seen on the bloody scratches and green blotches of infection lining her skin. Wounds and disease that started to heal immediately.
“You shouldn’t be so reckless.” A blonde woman spoke as she healed her.
“It’s okay~” Karla smiled and the healer returned a less enthusiastic one.
The party fought off an ambush of gnolls with desperation on their faces, all except for Karla immersing herself in the joy and purpose of combat, once again the most accomplished with the injuries to show for it.
“We should take things slower.” The healer suggested.
“It’s okay~” The woman returned a more strained smile this time.
Karla waged a brutal war against the orc boss of the stage, paying no heed to the several bodies on the ground or her own injuries mounting faster than they could be healed. But still not a single cell in her body did not yearn for the fight, and within it she found victory, broken and bloodied. But the healing did not come this time.
“What is wrong with you?!” The healer she had travelled with for the past month yelled, her expression a mix of fear and disdain. An expression matched by the others. Karla merely looked back with her expression as always but did not speak, and when the stage ended she found herself alone.
Karla opened her eyes from the haze of overtaxed will to find Kamala standing over her, healing her wounds rapidly with stoic eyes that soon found hers.
“Try to be less reckless. I nearly didn’t make it in time.” Kamala glanced back over at Karla’s silent cheery smile. “...what?”
“Nothing~”
---
Mujin slowly dredged across the city, sweat dripping down his faltering and tense expression, but he pushed himself forward. The pain of his soul barely subsided but he would not afford to lie uselessly, not when others may be in even more dire straits.
“Look what we have here?” Mujin turned his head to two men in paladin armor. “What do you think, heretic or heathen?
“Could be a vampire.” The other one answered.
“I suppose we have to make sure.”
Two arrows shattered the heads of the paladins without warning, and Basem dropped down by Mujin before their bodies slumped to the ground. “Fool. Why do you not hide?”
Mujin looked at Basem. “The others?”
“Probably fine.” Yen flew down next to them. “Who did you get by the way?
“...the seer…”
“Wow, and you won? Good job.” Basem noticed Jean first but only just before the others as the puppetmaster made no effort to conceal himself, his reaction alerting the Yen to his presence. “You look rough. Ah, what’s the goal of the party?”
“Nothing.” Jean walked to a stop next to them, as he added a response for the mage. “Some of them can read minds.”
“...doesn’t hurt to check…” Yen stood by her idea of questioning others to make sure no enemy in disguise could sneak in.
Dante landed by them next, carrying Donny’s conscious but unmoving body, followed by Kamala and Karla arriving on their own, the priestess immediately healing the injured among them. Shin flickered by them and Ashley followed last just a few moments after.
“Okay, so everyone beat and loot their opponent?” Yen asked.
“Yeah.”
“Taken care of.”
“I didn’t loot.” Shin admitted.
“What? That’s the patriarch! This is not the time to stop being a loot goblin.”
“I took his stuff~” Ashley chimed in.
“Guess this is settled then.” Donny spoke up now that he finally could.
“Still the paladins.” Jean reminded.
“Fight~?” Karla asked.
“No.” Basem bluntly refused.
“Baz is right.”
“It’s Basem!”
“Should probably recover before we fight to the death again.” Donny ignored him. “They’re probably not important anyway.”
“We need to take out the Pope though. The vampire prince was yelling about the true enemy being there.” Yen informed them of what she learned.
“Not making this up just to keep the story right?”
“Fuck you, I’m serious.”
“We need to go back.” Shin spoke.
“Settled then.” Donny looked more closely at Mujin having fared no better with his body healed. “We need a soul healer or something first.”
Shin flickered away without warning but no one in the party made a fuss, simply waiting confidently where they stood.
---
“Wretched heathens!” Odwin roared, his temper flaring beyond control at his prize being stolen.
The vampire army still remained but they would end in no time at all, his army even having the leeway to start sending scouts into the heretical city. The problem he faced was the knowledge of the King of the Night’s demise. Even the greatest heathen’s head was no replacement for the glory of slaying their most despised enemy. But he would have to settle for satiating his vengeance upon them.
“Find them-”
The moment Odwin shouted those words, his Clairvoyant burst into chunks of flesh, and he saw naught but the flicked of a hollow eyed boy grabbing hold of the Soulsmith and dragging him into the depths of the shadows below. The veins on Odwin’s temple bulged almost to bursting as his rage fell like thunder.