She jumped atop the dead Anachron’s body as fast as she could, then quickly made her way to the peak of its head. That took her as close to the floating monster as she was going to directly get on her feet. From there, she leaped right at the ascending Aetherian.
Her jumping ability might have improved during her time at the Sect, but it alone wouldn’t have been enough to take her to the floating monster.
But she had her skills to count on. Neither Fray Passage nor Gale Blade cared about the orientation of gravity relative to her body. All that mattered was the direction of her momentum. As Rieren was headed upwards, Fray Passage boosted her travel in that direction. Rieren found herself rising fast, getting within striking distance of the Aetherian.
It saw her, of course. The horned head with the large blue eye swivelled in her direction.
But Rieren had only used Fray Passage to get close. As soon as she was within range, she activated Gale Blade. Of course, her body was going to protest the brutal treatment it was receiving thanks to her constant use of skills without enough cultivation.
Worse, it wasn’t enough to stop the Aetherian. The monster blocked her first slice that shot her past him with its tapering arm, then her follow-up as well. Sparks flew at the contact of her blade and its limb. Her third slash couldn’t counteract the reverse momentum of the previous one, thanks to gravity, so it was weak to begin with.
Which gave the Aetherian the opening he needed to slam a limb through Rieren’s guard. She was flung backwards to hit the Anachron’s corpse hard. The Receptor Sword went flying out of her hand and pain exploded all over her back and shoulder.
“As I knew,” the Aetherian said. “I was right to begin eradicating you all. Little creatures who would annoy me ceaselessly. Now, you shall suffer.”
Biting through the pain, Rieren tried to see what had happened to her companions. Now that she had been thrown off, the Aetherian was free to continue with its previous efforts at summoning its golden power.
The dots of light rematerialized around its form, turning into an array of spherical bombs. Their presence made the air throb with a heavy, golden glow and hum with a sharp sound that lanced into Rieren’s ears. All the little light bombs streaked outwards, shooting throughout the chamber like a thousand comets.
Thankfully, Rieren’s distraction had been enough. Amalyse and Folend had managed to combine their defences, the expanded mace held before the scarlet greatshield. Alone, they likely wouldn’t have been able to stand up to the Aetherian’s attack. But together, while both defences still fell apart, they were enough to prevent their wielders from suffering any damage.
Nevertheless, the entire area exploded into a spray of dead body parts—courtesy of the Anachron’s corpse—and lava, sending Rieren’s heart bounding into her mouth. She was safe, thanks to having fallen right under the Aetherian.
With great mental will, Rieren pushed aside the immediate feelings trying to take a hold of her. No time to worry about Amalyse or Serace. She had to focus on her priorities here.
As such, she started moving away as soon as the Aetherian’s attack was complete. Rieren pulled open the System Shop while she crawled away. It would be more advantageous to keep an eye on their overwhelming enemy, but she needed something if she was to survive first. Something that could at least give that golden monster a bit of pause.
“What is this?” the Aetherian said from far above. “Have I missed one?” He tutted. “You pests are always causing me such pain.”
Instead of summoning his light bombs again, the monster spread its arms wide, both of which started to expand. There was no point in pretending to crawl any longer. Rieren gave up the pretense and ran pell-mell just as the expanded arms of the Aetherian, now resembling glowing golden blades the size of trees, crashed in. Fray Passage kept her safe for the moment.
It seemed the Aetherian had no intention of resting until he had killed her. Rieren barely managed to buy the material she sought before she was forced to use Fray Passage again.
At this rate, her body was mostly a walking mass of pain and injuries. She had torn several muscles, and she wouldn’t be surprised to find some fractured bones either.
But that would work to her advantage.
Around her, much of the Anachron’s corpse had been turned into a chopped carcass thanks to the Aetherian’s relentless attacks. Rieren had nowhere to dodge the next blow. It came incredibly fast anyway.
She had recovered her sword to block it, though. Ground Truth stopped the monster’s strike fully, surprising the monster. But that was only one arm. The other one shot in too quickly for her to react. It hammered past her relatively flimsy guard. Rieren was sent flying backwards, her ribs broken, the bones of her left arm pulled free of its socket.
Her howl of pain was lost in the rush of her flight. But once the agony’s immediate shock finished rolling through, she grinned. This was what she needed.
Rieren recalled her focus and summoned her Domain just as she was about to drop. The fall would have been fatal, what with lava covering everything but the parts that the Anachron’s corpse occupied. The water summoned by her Domain helped reduce the danger of that.
A great gout of steam billowed up at the contact of the water with the lava. She summoned enough water, no matter how much scalding steam scorched past her body, that some of the lava cooled enough to form the first layer of rocks. It wasn’t enough. If Rieren placed her weight on it, she would sink and then vaporize.
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But she wasn’t about to let her rest last that long. As soon as Rieren came within touching distance, she used Reaver Stance.
The skill took in all the pain she had suffered so far and converted it into a furious combination of physical energy and Essence. They exploded through her body like battle rage, manifesting as a burst of spiky red aura poking out like lightning sparks all over her.
Of course, it didn’t heal her. Her pain and her injuries were still present. But they were pushed far, far back in her mind’s list of things to focus on as her concentration settled purely on her newfound strength and her enemy.
The Aetherian.
Rieren’s touch on the newformed rock was light and momentary. She only used it as a platform to launch herself forward, using Fray Passage immediately afterwards to enhance her momentum. Boosted by Reaver Stance, Rieren veritably flew over the lava as she reached the Anachron’s corpse.
The golden monster had lowered itself so that he only floated a handspan or two above the enormous dead body. Its single eye widened at seeing Rieren return.
“What is it with you creatures?” he asked. “Do you not know when to submit?”
She didn’t waste time responding. Instead, she activated Gale Blade.
Rieren shot forward with much greater speed than she had achieved in this life thus far. Even then, even with all the power her pain provided thanks to Reaver Stance, the Aetherian was still able to block with near impunity. Her sword clanged as it struck the arm the monster defended itself with.
No matter. The first slice of the empowered Gale Blade had taken her behind the monsters. But as she had passed him, she brought out and released the ingredient she had bought in the System Shop.
Rieren threw a fistful of Rising Earth at the Aetherian.
The monster screamed as she continued with the rest of the Gale Blade’s slashes. Rieren sliced through the centre of its torso, spilling golden blood on the ground and on her blade. Despite the paralysis onset by the Rising Earth, he still managed to somehow deflect her third strike.
But there was no way he could stop the fourth and final blow. She shot straight at the Aetherian. Instead of stabbing in as normal, she used the motion of Everblade Cross. Her first vertical slash threw both of his arms up, granting Rieren the opening she needed to slash horizontally with all the force she could summon.
The Aetherian shrieked once more as the force behind her blow sent him flying backwards this time, straight into the lava.
“You did it,” Amalyse shouted from where she was pulling back Folend. “You showed that golden bastard.”
Rieren shot her a little smile. It had been a gamble to bet her fight with the Aetherian on her rushed deductions about what had gone on. But she was sure she had a grip on what had occurred here.
The Shadeborn or any other Abyssals that had reached the Beast Core had failed to absorb it, or contain it, or do whatever it was they needed to do. As such, they had pulled in the Aetherian to do it for them, who had then been paralyzed by the Aspect of the Essence of the Anachron’s Beast Core.
Rieren had pulled out an ingredient from the System Shop that had held the same Aspect. It made all too much sense. Where Abyssals were weak to Divine-Aspected Essence, conversely, Aetherians were weak to Aspects that embodied the Mortal Realm.
As such, it had been easy to weaken the Aetherian with Rising Earth, a material that innately contained earth-Aspected Essence.
“Did you find Serace?” Amalyse asked as she began walking over.
Rieren had been about to answer, but the effects of Reaver Stance were finally beginning to wear away. And that meant all her pain was quickly clawing back. The dislocated arm was making its presence felt, as were all the ribs she had broken. All the other various wounds were growing in intensity as well.
In short, if Rieren opened her mouth, she was liable to scream out in growing agony. Divine Resilience would heal her in time, but for the moment, the pain was atrocious to bear.
“Are you—”
Amalyse had caught sight of Rieren’s sagging form. But her concerned question was interrupted when the lava ahead of them exploded. Rieren froze. That was the spot she had sent the Aetherian flying.
Her heart fell into her guts as the golden monster emerged from the lava. Apart from the wounds Rieren had left on his torso, the lava dripping off the Aetherian’s gleaming body and mingling with the blood seeping out of his injuries, there was no other damage. That sort of heat should have vaporized him entirely, but he was completely unscathed.
“How is that thing still alive?” Amalyse asked, voice strangled.
The pain and the growing despair almost made Rieren laugh at the absurdity of that question. Hadn’t the Aetherian felt much the same when she had returned to challenge it, empowered by Reaver Stance?
In Rieren’s condition, taking on an indestructible monster was the last thing she ought to be undertaking. But in their current position, it would be nearly impossible to escape as well. Looking around for escape routes was futile, but she couldn’t prevent her head from turning around. Nothing. There was nowhere to go.
“I will give you great credit for injuring me,” the Aetherian said. For once, he didn’t sound incensed or bent on quashing them like ants. “But you must still die. None raises a hand against a Higher Aetherian and lives to tell the tale.”
He charged at the centre of the dead Anachron’s body. Rieren tensed, readying a defence she wasn’t sure would work. But Amalyse shot in between.
“Get back, Amalyse!” Rieren ground out.
Her friend didn’t budge. The red greatshield formed up a second later. As Rieren had feared, it was no match against the Aetherian.
The monster’s tapering arm crushed the shield with ease, shattering it into an exploding spray of tiny red crystals. Before Amalyse could suffer a similar fate, Folend charged in from the side. The only reason he survived the Aetherian’s thrust was because his expanded mace took the brunt of the blow. Nevertheless, he was flung backwards, his pained yell echoing out.
“Enough of this farce,” the Aetherian said. Amalyse was attempting to recreate her greatshield one more time, but the golden monster didn’t even bother reacting. Instead, he began floating higher, just as he had at the beginning of the fight. “It is time for your end.”
But before it could rise more than a few paces into the air, the Anachron’s corpse started shivering. A second later, before any of them could react, the dead skin and flesh burst apart. In their place, a hundred spiky, earthen branches shot out, twisting among themselves.
Rieren and Amalyse both screamed out, but somehow, the rising branches missed them entirely. As though guided by some strange will, they flowed around the disciples, leaving them untouched. Not so for the golden monster.
The Aetherian screamed again as it shot away from them. He was so scared of the rising branches that he landed right into the lava. That elicited another yell, so he rose straight up this time, rising higher and higher at increasing speed. All the while, the earthen branches continued reaching skywards.
“Curses,” the Aetherian shouted. “A thousand curses upon you, foul Anachron. Learn to stay dead. You will fall for the last time before long.”
With a swear that went against its pure, golden appearance, the Aetherian flew straight out through the broken ceiling nearly a thousand paces above them.
Rieren leaned back against a branch. The pain had grown so intense that she could have given in and lost consciousness, but all she could do was laugh. They had been saved by a dead Anachron.
She looked down. Or perhaps, they had been saved by someone who had used the dead Anachron’s power.