Everything was so quiet. Haston sat on the with his back against the wall of the watch room. An orange pill bottle was next to his duffle on his left. On the other side, his crossbow and Book of Furnace were stacked next to Staker's phone. Staker sat across the room with his legs crossed. His eyes were closed.
The room was so empty that there were only the two of them and a short ladder to the beacon above them. The faint light glistened on Haston's greasy face. He had just decided to take a three-hour shower after Staker finished destroying the dragon's heart.
He stared at Staker without much thought in his mind. The future of his getting a promotion was right before him. He just had to wait for the final ten minutes. Well, not even ten minutes. He did not really count how long it had been since Staker began connecting psionically with the dragon's heart.
However, he did not feel happy about their plan's future or success. He guessed he was just too tired to feel anything since he woke up without magical energy. He was a bit suspicious. Therefore, he picked up the pill bottle and read through the information on the lid.
"Human bodies need at least five minutes to digest a regenmancy pill and absorb the magical energy fully," Haston read the information out and put the pill bottle back on the floor. He closed his eyes and opened again. Haston could not fall asleep. His mind was foggy, but he did not feel sleepy.
"Thank you, Olinia," he said sarcastically. Haston would much rather sleep til his body naturally secreted enough magical energy than be forced to sobriety and swallow pills.
Distracting Haston from his thoughts, his phone started ringing. The default ringtone came out of his blouson's pocket.
"Hello?"
"Haston, I finished the circle," Olinia said from the other side of the phone. She was referring to the task that Haston had handed to her. A few minutes ago, Haston had told Olinia to surround the lighthouse with his forty magical pearls. Those pearls could form a magic shield around the objects they surrounded, defending the object against outside magic. Haston also had Adea put some on the roof.
"You are giving me serious back pain, man," Olinia complained.
"How?"
"You know. I need to stoop down to put the pearl."
"You can just toss them on the ground."
"I tried. They are too vulnerable for that. You don't mind losing three of them, right?"
Before Haston could answer her, Staker's phone began vibrating, buzzing. "Hold on. Just a min." Haston put his own phone down and picked up Staker's.
"Staker! Winceim Barbey's going for you! He wiped everything out in seconds. Every tank was ripped. Everybody dies. He had left three minutes ago," a panting voice came from the phone. Haston could vaguely hear other shoutings, callings, and conversations in the background.
"Why didn't you call sooner?" Haston asked in sudden fear. He grasped the Book of Furnace and cradled the phone on his shoulder to grab the duffle.
"You aren't—"
"I'm his attendant. Continue."
"The command center has been a mess. Barbey left with a dragon. He is too fast. We can't—"
"Dragon? What does it look like?"Haston questioned while hurrying to the ladder.
"It's like a blue snake, but with feathery wings. Uh, no legs."
"How many?" He held both the book and the bag in his right hand.
"Three pairs—"
"Shit!" Haston shouted as he climbed up the ladder with only one hand while cradling a phone between his shoulder and ear.
"It's that bad?"
"That's an avihexapter amphiptere. It can encircle the entire Darape within two hours!" Haston yelled, letting the phone drop off his shoulder as Adea Haki asked him what happened.
The two stood in the beacon room with a downward ladder before Haston and a beacon next to them. The sea gale blew past the slim pillars, filling the room with uncomfortable coldness. "Winceim Barbey is coming," Haston answered, seeing the toughness and dedication in Haki's frowns. He felt a sense of denial and looked back at Haki in acceptance of reality.
"We only have to hold until Staker is done with the ritual. When will Barbey—"
Maximized Laser: Eliminator
Before Haki could finish her sentence, a white beam fell from the sky. The beam had the diameter of a male adult. It clashed with the magical pearl's invisible shield, which was no longer invisible. Golden stripes in the pattern of tree texture appeared where the shield and the beam touched.
The giant thud the clash made caused the two in the beacon room to flinch instinctively. Haston turned back and attempted to discover Barbey by tracing the white beam. Haki was only startled by Barbey's new spell, "He can do that?"
"I know it's a bit late, but how did you Dilonbians traditionally fight him?" Haston inquired after seeing only a dark spot in the sky.
"His spells can crush any tangible thing around him, so we would either take him by surprise or spam until he drained his spell. It takes time to recharge," Haki answered while watching the golden stripes quiver like the shield was about to break.
"He got a lot of magical items from our branch. I'm not sure if that strategy can still work. Anyway, we need to stop the beam," Haston said as he took an aspergillum out of his duffle. It had a golden handle and two silver sprinkler heads on the two ends.
Glowing golden liquids trickled out of the sprinkler heads as Haston shook the aspergillum. The liquid did not drip to the ground but forged itself into two bow limbs and a silver string.
"You know—"
Haki interrupted, "I know." She grabbed the aspergillum bow. When she pinched the string, a glimmering white arrow popped up between her finger and thumb. Haki pulled the bow, aiming at the dark spot in the sky. A crack appeared on the shield, and another intersected with it.
"This bow has tracking arrows. You don't need to be precise. You just need to use enough force to—"
"Twang!"
Haki launched the magical arrow and shot three more. The arrows went past the pearls' shield without resistance.
Haston stuck his head out of the beacon room with his hands on the pillars. He saw the white beam hastily narrow into vanishment. Simultaneously, four flashes of yellow light glared from the dark spot as the four arrows approached it.
"More! More!" Haston shouted while Haki swiftly released another volley of arrows. The cracks in the shield slowly recovered while the dark spot repeatedly flashed like a flickering light bulb. At some point, it just stopped, letting arrows hit.
Yet, something seemed off. Haston squinted at the dark spot, trying to recognize what was wrong. He blinked and saw the avihexapter amphiptere. It had charged through the pearls' shield. Three out of its six wings were penetrated. One of its four eyes was blinded. Its head and abdomen were covered in wounds and cuts. The lower part of its body was almost cut off.
On the amphiptere's back was Winceim Barbey. His upper body was naked due to the volley ripping up his tuxedo. He flipped down the amphiptere, watching it smashing toward Haston.
Immediately, Haston crouched and curled. However, the gust of slipstream still pushed Haston off his feet like a turtle on its back.
The amphiptere was so fast that Haston did not even see it flitting above him. He could only see the empty ceiling while processing the thrill. He reluctantly got up from the floor, seeing his bag and book a few meters away. The beacon that was supposed to be fixed on the floor was gone.
"Are you alright?" Haston asked Haki while grabbing his book. She was lying against a pillar, panting. They would both be dead if they had dodged a bit slower.
"Barbey's out of spells. It is the time," Haki said without answering him. She jumped out of the lighthouse and slid down the wall.
Haston took out the white rectangular prism Staker tossed him and clutched it in a suppressed fright. Prism could diffuse into munio-smoke, neutralizing spells with a vast area of weak effects.
Haston spread out the Book of Furnace and began releasing the army of monsters sealed in the book.
While blocking the pink lightning from Olinia with both arms, Winceim had dropped the idea of using one of the two remaining shots of Partial Unseal right now. Who knew what these IAO agents have hidden behind their backs?
Winceim charged toward Olinia with his obliterated arms grown back. Olinia sprinted before him at a slightly faster pace and kept spamming lightning backward. It caused a bit of trouble for Winceim since he could not catch the girl but ran in circles with her. Parts of Winceim's body were exterminated one after another and grew back in the same order.
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However, Winceim did not see this as a severe problem. The girl would soon run out of magical energy to perform whatever spell her worshipped entity had granted her. Winceim could feel the decrease in her reserve by enduring her attacks. He smiled.
What changed the situation was Adea Haki. She landed on the sand with the falchion in her hand. She went in the opposite direction of Olinia's as the girl rounded her. She swung her falchion while dashing right at Winceim.
Seeing a familiar face, Winceim widened his smile. He raised his left fist to greet his old friend with a punch while she was cutting off his parrying right arm. Yet, a string of pink lightning blasted his left fist. Winceim saw Olinia had stopped running and stood twenty meters away from him.
The shining blade of a falchion then blocked his sight. Winceim could stop it, yet he let Haki slash his head in half. She instantly followed with another gash through his shoulder and another in his stomach.
Winceim steadily stepped back. Haki followed, cutting off his limbs and head before they could fully grow back. None of these actually bothered Winceim. He sensed Haki's posture and position by feeling the pattern and track of her blade.
He caught an instant between her attacks and kicked her right in the chin as her falchion went into his shoulder. Winceim restrained the power of that kick so he would not knock Haki out. He wanted to have Adea Haki watch him freezing the world. Winceim Barbey wanted her, a member of the Haki Family, to watch the ultimate consequence of their action. He grew his hands back and had one blown off by lightning. Winceim punched Haki with the remaining one, completely dislocating her jaw.
"Don't worry, I will let you live and watch until the end," Winceim said with his newly grown head as he blocked another shot of lightning with one hand.
That was when he saw the giant shadow appeared around him. Winceim looked upward and saw the falling clump of monsters: monkeys with ten arms, metal octopi, lions with wings, wolves without skin, eagles with three eyes, giant sea urchins, and more and more…
While Winceim was amazed by the falling pile of monsters, Olinia cast Entry of Paradise. The pink bubble sent the man's mind into the boundless space. On Winceim's body, the white robe, instead of tuxedo pants, billowed in the emptiness. Flowing aimlessly, Winceim heard the question: Do you want immortality and eternal happiness?
"Well," Winceim smirked, "Unfortunately, you can provide none. But still, yes." He formed two circles with each pair of ring finger and thumb. Bringing his two hands together, Winceim overlapped the two circles and let the rest of his six fingers naturally attach to their counterparts.
Partial Unseal: Field of the Ceased.
The pile of monsters stacked into a small hill. Skinless limbs and eldritch body parts stuck out of the mountain. In the center, Winceim Barbey was torn by infinite tusks and claws. In a tiny gap between the squeezed creatures, a hand gesture was grown back. A hand gesture of overlapping circles and attacked fingers was grown back. It brought the spell from paradise back into reality.
A translucent yellow bubble popped up in the center of the circles. The intangible bubble expanded over the gesture, over the hill, over the lighthouse, over the beach, to a size with a two-hundred-meter radius.
Short, curvy, loose, drifting, yellow line segments, densely filling the air, appeared as the border of the bubble went through. It was like those lines were already there, and the bubble only made them visible.
The little mountain of living flesh and moving bones became lumps of dissolving ashes in a flash of yellow light. Naked Winceim Barbey stood intact while holding his gesture. Haki had successfully run out of the two-hundred-meter radius. Olinia was kneeling on the ground, staring blankly into her palms.
"Are you surprised? I just slayed your god," Winceim rhetorically yelled his question with a huge smirk on his face. He wanted Olinia to hear his words. He wanted to mash her mind before mashing her.
Winceim would not bother torturing the girl if he were dealing with a Wictin, but he was with a Haki. He was with a descendant of the woman who trapped him in this dimension for centuries. He was with a member of the family that put him in this eternal torture. All these shows he was about to put up were for Adea Haki. Everything was for her.
"You don't need to act so sad. At least now, it could not enslave your soul after you die. Do you not expect your cosmic-level sky daddy lying at you to take your soul?" That was true. "I wonder what you are going to do now that you have lost all the meaning of your life. Don't get desperate. I'll fix this for you." He would.
Winceim gazed at Adea, who was two hundred meters away. His pathetic human eyes made him incapable of seeing her expression, which he would be able to if he was not trapped in this mortal body.
"Boom," Winceim uttered. Olinia exploded without a sound. Her organs, bones, flesh, feces, and body fluid stained the sand, blemished the beach, and left no impact on the world.
Winceim turned his head toward the lighthouse. To his surprise, a pale hand pierced through his spine and stuck out of his chest. The pale fingers were long with sharp nails enough to cut through steel. As the pale monster pulled out its hand, Winceim dropped, failing to hold his gesture. The line segments immediately disappeared with the yellow bubble.
The pale monster had a torso similar to humans' but much slimer without ribs. There did not seem to be any reproductive organs between the slender thighs. Its feet were in the same shape as a duck, and its shoulders did not even exist. The upper ends of its arms were literally connected to its long and narrow neck. Atop the neck, its jaw was about the same size as a human skull. Two lidless eyes were embedded in the upper gum.
The monster howled in a hoarse voice, facing the sky like a wolf. Its body shivered, especially its hands. Before it could finish its roar, Winceim ripped it apart with his bare hands.
"Human of Furnace," Winceim whispered out the monster's name. He recalled this specific creature from the Book of Furnace. He had fought dozens of these back when the book's author, Crat Feras, was still alive. Humans of Furnace were magicless, unlike every other monster made by Feras.
Winceim had almost forgotten these magicless creatures that were immune to his spell. As a four-dimensional being, Winceim had the ability to shatter any three-dimensional substance. Yet, he could only manifest this power through the magic contained in objects since he was trapped in a mortal body.
Human of Furnace, a magicless creature forged out of human souls, was the only thing in this universe that could stand against Winceim Barbey's power.
It was gone now.
While the creature turned into dissolving ashes, Adea started dashing again. Naked Winceim easily dodged several of her attacks and clasped her by her wrist when she lunged with her falchion.
Controlling Adea's right hand, Winceim stood at her right, punching her in the face while her left hand was barely blocking anything. Three incisors were knocked out of Adea's mouth. Abrasion wounds on her cheeks and orbits were uncountable due to the gushing blood.
Adea passed the falchion to her left hand and slashed cleanly through her right forearm to break free from Winceim's grip. The four-dimensional monster had enough fun torturing the poor, black girl. Now was the time to end his suffering. As Adea stepped back, Winceim made the gesture again. This time, Adea Haki could not escape.
Partial Unseal: Field of the Ceased.
The spell wiped out her entire arms and the arm belts, leaving Adea to faint on the ground. Then, the whole lighthouse turned into a wide pile of wreckage in the yellow flash. A cloud of white smoke was in the center of the wreckage.
"Do you really think that can stop me?" Winceim asked as he deleted the smoke with the spell. Staker was still sitting with his legs crossed and eyes closed. Haston had the Book of Furnace in his hand. Sweat glided down his face.
"I suppose you ran out of reserves?" Winceim asked, smirking at Haston's shaking legs and hands. He saw the fear in his eyes. It was the kind he had seen so many times. He used to feel sad for these brave souls. Now, he could not care less.
"Fuck you," Haston replied, standing as straight and solid as he could. Nonetheless, his back hunched without his notice.
It was the time to end it. It was the time to end his infinite death and rebirth—
"Uh…" Adea Haki whined while bleeding from the cut on her shoulders. Both Winceim and Haston looked toward her. Haston's eyebrows knitted upward and squeezed back toward the center of his eyes. Tears of rage went down his cheeks.
Winceim's smirk beamed. He enjoyed it. There was only satisfaction on his face. A Haki on the ground, twisting and struggling like a fish on land, was the best ceremony before the end of time.
"That white monster. That white monster could resist his spell," Adea Haki forced the sentence out of her mouth before spitting a mouthful of blood. Winceim guffawed. He laughed unrestrictedly at the cloudless sky. He was amused that the girl had not given up even in this situation. This pleasure was so great that Winceim decided to entertain himself a bit more.
"Hey, operator," he called Haston out, "Crat Feras sealed his power into the book with his monsters. That white thing she was talking about was the Human of Furnace. I think you can already guess it. It is crafted from a human soul."
Winceim saw Haston's hesitation in his face, so he continued, "Well, I am not suggesting you. I am commending you to do it. If you don't, I will crush her legs one by one. I will make sure she gets the—"
Before Winceim could finish his sentence, Haston was gone. Instead, a pale monster charged toward Winceim. Its sharp nails ripped his hands apart, and its teeth bit on his throat.
Winceim's smile widened as he punched his newly grown fist through the monster's chest. All the strength was immediately drained from the monster. Its head leaned against Winceim's shoulder, and paws hung on its sides.
"Did you see it, Ms. Haki? Your dear friend turned himself into a monster just for you." Winceim chuckled as the monster's body disappeared with the line segments and the yellow bubble.
Haston Tale was gone.
Winceim slowly walked to Staker, killed him by turning his head a hundred eighty degrees, and sat down, closing his mortal eyes.
Military aircraft dropped bombs on the beach. Missiles wiped everything out. Yet, none mattered. After the death of infinite Winceim Barbey, that one had stopped time itself. The entire beach was frozen. The entire Darape was frozen. The entire Earth was frozen. The entire galaxy was frozen. The entire universe was frozen. The entire dimension was frozen.
Out of this entire world, there was only one thing not frozen. That was Barbey. That was Winceim Barbey. His mortal body was no longer movable. He could not use his spells. Yet, the mind of a four-dimensional being could not be stopped. Winceim Barbey died in the freeze. Winceim Barbey respawned in the freeze. The never-ending cycle was not stopped.
Winceim Barbey screamed and screeched, and no entities could hear him. A lonely mind that feared nothing but the inevitable death floated in this world.
The time went back to normal immediately after Winceim Barbey used the dragon's heart. The only difference after the pause of time was that Winceim Barbey stopped fighting. He lay on the ground with his eyes closed. He was alive but not responding. He did not have any brain damage. He just wouldn't move again.
Winceim Barbey's servants disbanded. Saliscreasits stopped producing spell casters after losing their connection with Saliscreace, which no longer existed. The Haki Family stopped forcing their descendants into warriors since there was no need to do that anymore. Staker had a monument on that beach next to Haston's and Adea's. Haston Tale's brother gained enough money for college from IAO and insurance companies. The Darape branch of IAO slowly started rebuilding, just like Darape's shattered military.
Everything moved on and changed, leaving the immutable dreams of immortality behind.