“What do you mean The Light Blade is unavailable, and The Sky Mage has gone into seclusion?” I scoffed. Just at the final two, they decided to play games with my heart. I was really looking forward to meeting the chick. And who wouldn't want to meet the strongest being on the planet?
“We sent the Light Blade out on a mission to investigate mysterious occurrences around the Lake of Metal.”
“Lake of Metal?” My eyes couldn't help but widen. This was the biggest lead as to where the Lord of Alloy was located, but the Lake was a heavily guarded zone. If I wanted to enter, I would need to either fight my way through the entire Western Alliance, or earn entry.
The giant spoke, “I am the leader of the Western Alliance. The lake of metal has always been heavily guarded by us, until one day, every single soldier, scientist, and Janitor were killed. A tide of Metal creatures came from the lake, and hasn't ceased yet. The Light blade is currently fighting off the tide alone, and has been in a stalemate for months.”
The woman chimed in “The others were sent to help, only to be of no use. Sky Mage is currently unreachable. That woman helped proctor the test you took, with The Light Blade’s brother. Soon after the test, she stated she would be in private training for a few years.”
The old man calmly stated “You have shown us incredible power, and shown us that you are not of an evil heart. Every opponent you fought had a decent opinion of you afterwards. We humbly request of you, go to the Metal Lake, and assist the Light Blade in annihilating the beast tide.”
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Some say she came out of her mothers womb floating, bathed in light.
At the age of 3, she could speak, write, and read.
At the age of 9, she could do college level mathematics, and manipulate light freely.
At the age of 13, she formed a thesis on spacetime and the theory of light. And became the second strongest being on the planet.
One popular geneticist once wrote a now very famous article called “Theoretical Perfection” in which he described the almost infinitesimal chance that a perfect genetically sculpted human is born. In this article, he claimed it was The Light Blade.
The world began to see her as the greatest hope, the greatest hope to bring humanity to the stars.
What a terrible burden. It inevitably began to crush her. From birth, she was doomed to never relate to another being in this world. The price of perfection.
There was only one person she could ever speak to. A mage from another world. This mage told her a prophecy. That this world would be destroyed in less than a decade.
What a terrible burden. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.
From that moment on, the girl shunned all life, even her family. Her heart hardened. She only lived to pursue strength. Her brother, her parents, even the world thought she was cold. She found herself getting more and more distant. She had long ago reached a roadblock, this world itself serving as the biggest bottleneck.
There was simply not enough energy to consume, to elevate to the next level. Something held this world back, kept it stagnating and rotting. Her instincts told her the answers lay in the sky, but no matter how hard she searched, she could not progress.
One day, she went to the Metal Lake, only a teenager still. She walked upon the lake, and sat there. After a long time, a voice resounded within her head.
Human. You are worthy of accepting my inheritance. You may become the Lord of this world. First, I shall teach you what it takes to be a ruler. Listen to the Story of Metal, and come back in half a decade.
Before the sky cracks open. Death descending.
What a terrible burden.
All she ever wanted was to enjoy life.
5 years later, as if pulled by a force in the sky, The Metal Lake formed a spire, pointed towards the moon.
From the spire, came an endless stream of metallic beasts, as if desperately running away.
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The Lake of Metal was almost impossible to miss. A lake bordering on a mini-ocean, it stretched beyond the planet's curvature. An awe-inspiring metal spire pierced out of the ocean. It appeared as if Iron filings were being pulled by the moon.
In the far distance, beams of light flashes continuously within a Horde of Metal.
It seems a rave was going on.
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“Be careful, there are thousands of beasts within that group. Many are of Golden or Diamond stature.” Au-ha warned.
“Oh my god, it's like an infinite wellspring of power. Go eat them all!” The Lord of Stars was ecstatic.
In this situation, I was inclined to agree with Big Star. I ignored the flashing light on the other side. She had been here for months, I'm sure she could last a few more hours. I, however, had not eaten a good meal in a long while.
It was time for a feast.
I did not hesitate to enter the battle. A Metallic monster of a blood red hue. I sliced, stabbed, kicked, and used my tail to crush the creatures. Lightning would blast them into bits, and the fierce strength of my kicks would bend their necks into unnatural shapes. I ate their cores, one after the other.
I felt like a fat kid going crazy in a candy shop. The diamond creatures were the finest, boosting my strength and defense a good amount. These creatures were all made of metal at the moment. I could only feel myself progressing incrementally in these two aspects, the good thing is, there were thousands of creatures.
As I swung, smashed, punched, kicked, and blasted lightning, slaughtering my way across the horde, more blade flashes continued to constantly flash from the far horizon, sending parts of beasts flying haphazardly.
I began to enter a frenzy. It feels like I am pushed to the back of my mind, a passenger to the show. Au-ha and The Lord of stars sat with me.
“This is what happens when you get greedy, star. Please learn to control yourself.” Au-ha was scolding me.
“Yeah, you messed that one up.” Big Star was uncaring.
It actually wasn't such a terrible sensation. I was stronger like this, holding absolutely nothing back anymore. Lightning danced fiercely upon my skin, blade flashes forming a continuous red streak. My tail smashed down, and down, and down with the force of many tons. I began taking whole bites out of the creatures.
This was too far. I tried to regain control, failing.
“You don't just break out of a frenzy, little star.” The lord casually stated “you just gotta ride it out, like a bad trip.”
Even the Lord of Stars has been affected by the earth’s culture.
“Au-Ha, please.” I begged her.
“Let me see what I can do.”
A tune began playing in my head. It was called ‘Ode to Joy’, by an ancient musician, whose name was now lost. It only served as a sharp contrast to the slaughter I was engaging in. It was a very dramatic few minutes. As the song heightened in crescendo, my strikes would sync in tune with the song.
♪ Daa-da da,♪
Each blow sent out shock waves
♪Da da da♪
Each Swipe of my blade sent heads and limbs flying.
♪ Da da da da, da da da!”
Once the song ended at last, I felt myself take a breath of cold air, in control once more. Standing on The Lake of Metal, my body bobbing to the slight waving underneath. It was an unusual method of regaining control, but it did work.
“You’re beautiful, Au-ha.”
“I know.” she smiled.
Before the frenzy, I had slain hundreds of beasts. During the frenzy, it must’ve peaked at around a thousand. I felt full to the point of being almost sick, and sat on the solid, yet half liquid lake. I could only feel the metal of my body growing purer, and purer. It began to shine, even.
As it should, I had missed my glow for a long time.
I digested over a thousand metallic cores in the next few hours. That Light still flashing in the distance. I burped loudly, and patted my stomach. I felt much better. My strength, defense and speed boosted by a solid 10-20%
When I traveled to the distance, near the flashing, I saw corpse after corpse, piled upon each other. There must have been thousands and thousands of dead creatures. I saw this woman, at last.
She looked just like the picture. Long, white hair that was glowing. Her eyes were purely white at the moment, not a pupil to be found. Slender, fit, and full-bodied. The augmented bits of metal on her legs and arm were glowing. Each step she took, it appeared to my eye like she moved many more. Each step taking her distances of upwards to a hundred feet.
Each slice ended a creature's life, not a single one wasted. Not a single motion wasted, her sword style was like cloth gliding through water at incredible speeds, elegant to the extreme.
The Light Blade. This one stood far above the others, clearly. I could see why Johnson felt such a distance to his own sister, when she was like this. I was no doubt a little bit entranced by her.
Even more entracing, where the piles and piles of Cores shone beautifully. The Lake of Metal would quickly dissolve the creatures just laying dead, and the cores were the first to be taken. While I had eaten all of my cores, this woman was clearly overly wasteful.
I needed to do something about this wastefulness. I started gobbling up the cores, again.
They weren’t that good anymore. I was starting to get sick of them. But if they increased my power by even a fraction of a percent, eating all of them would result in another boost of 10-20% Gotta love those numbers.
I didn't help her as I ate the cores more slowly this time, hoping to avoid a stomach ache, and another frenzy. I should count myself lucky it was a good place to lose my mind for a few moments. Anywhere else, even with the soothing noises of classical, could get me into a lot of trouble.
About 6 hours later, I had gotten to the bottom of the pile. The spire began sending fewer and fewer creatures of metal. Perhaps me consuming the cores before the lake reabsorbed them made it so they would be permanently slain?
In that case, I was doing quite a lot of help here.
After a full day of eating. I closed my eyes, and drifted away to the sound of metal screeching. The Light Blade still fighting, she would be fine, I'm sure.
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That night, I dreamt I was attacked by a woman.
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It was a short and unpleasant sleep. I was awoken to my chest being assaulted by a slash of light. It did not fully cut me open to my core, but it certainly would’ve before.
I got up calmly, wiping the light off my chest, A long mark still remained in the armor as it slowly attempted to reclose itself. The more severe the damage, the longer it took to heal.
I looked around, to see an empty ocean of liquid metal, no more beasts were being produced by the spire. Standing in front of me, was a woman with a blade of light.