I must have closed my eyes at some point because I was fighting against their leadenness to open them again. ‘Heavy’ did not make the feeling justice: Something deep within me was struggling against my conscious will to keep me sightless, but… this was not my first time fighting against myself.
After what felt like an eternity, but probably wasn’t since I didn’t hear or feel anything else happening to me in the meantime, I managed to crack an eye open by the barest sliver, and at that moment both widened in surprise on their own.
My staff was gone.
The tool that I was given as a gift for becoming a [Transferred Adventurer], the one that was meant to grow with me until such devices grew pointless, was now a charred splinter of wood, with a bit of slag melted on top of both ends.
I instinctively knew that this wasn’t something that I could repair with a simple [Repair].
The second thing I noticed was that my hands and arms, where most of the pain I was feeling came from, were similarly scorched, but a minute flex reassured me that, while heavily damaged, the blackened flesh was mostly superficial and temporary.
Not that it didn’t hurt like a bitch, but I had gone through something much worse just recently.
Then the third thing I noticed was a chromatic barrier shaped like a wedge right in front of my still outstretched hands, with its point meeting right in front of my broken scepter.
The barrier was a marvel of energies and [Runes], so complex that I was already doubting if I really had a hand in making it, or if someone else had interfered in the nick of time.
Certainly, the massive crack going through it sideways, dancing between the shoddiest of the [Runes] in the whole, helped in convincing me that it still was what I had hastily put together.
And the fourth thing that I became aware of were the screams, the explosions, and someone urgently shaking my shoulders.
I finally snapped out of my shock to meet Sheeno’s eyes, an easy thing since she had been staring at my face from the side trying to catch my attention.
“Are you ok!?” I finally registered her words, and the rest of the world came back into focus.
“Y-yes… I mean, I’m hurt, but it’s not as bad as it looks!” I hurriedly responded, shaking myself when I noticed that I was about to give her a dismissive answer that she didn’t deserve.
It was then that the barrier had seemingly had had enough, and completely broke apart, finally revealing the source of the noise beyond.
A giant latex Cthulhu plushie was wrestling with the towering biblically accurate angel from before, and somehow the angel still felt like the foulest being among the two.
I did a double take when I first saw them, and by the absence of chatter around I realized that I wasn’t the only confused one.
The tentacled chibi was notably weaker than the angel, but it still managed to keep it from unleashing more devastating attacks by forcing it into a melee.
To make matters worse, I looked at our apprehended perps, and the [Priests of Purity] were now raging like rabid animals against their restraint, making white light ooze out of their eyes; meanwhile, those that weren’t [Priests] tried to frantically crawl away from their allies, reasonably freaked out by their new look.
Except Jeff: He was sort of numbly looking at all that was happening around him, too stunned to properly react to any of it.
And I couldn’t really blame him for it.
I looked behind me and exhaled in relief once I finally confirmed that both Sheeno and Undine were ok. That exhale got choked short once I saw that everything beyond the cone that started in front of me had been utterly destroyed.
Of our house, only the front door, with a bit of the wall around it, was still standing. Of my army of [Aurumons], only a few were unscathed, some others badly damaged, a few back into my [World-Within] to regenerate, but the vast majority had been vaporized too fast to be saved.
It was unfair. The world was unfair, but the fact that a fucking god decided to exterminate me, above saving his own subjects, was unfair within the unfairness.
I was still at the [First-Tier], for fucks sake! This is WAY overkill.
“Sorry for the wait! I’m glad you’re okay”, a soft and familiar voice made me spin around, ready to open her a new one for leaving us to handle such a situation, but the sight of her harried body made it clear that it hadn’t been up to her.
Merga was in front of us, the brim of her massive hat singed on one side, the tip having been cut off, black marks along her hands, and her luscious black hair in disarray. It was clear she also hadn’t had an easy time.
“What took you so long!?” I couldn't help but ask.
She huffed good-naturedly at my bluntness and gave me a weak smile.
“I’ll explain later, but so you know: Somehow, [Purity] doesn’t have only one [High Priest].”
“That’s impossible!” Came the immediate reply from our [High Priestess].
“Child, you’ll come to realize that something ‘impossible’ is simply something that’s either too hard or too complicated to normally achieve”, the [Witch] explained calmly, one of her hands raising to point behind herself, where a blast of power cleansed the [Priest] of their divine rage and rendered them unconscious.
“Nice philosophy, but weren’t you meant to be already gone?” This time it was my mate who spoke up.
“To trick your enemy, you have to first trick your allies”, Merga adopted an aged and sage voice, making it clear that she was messing with us and wouldn’t be frank about it, at least for now.
“That’s all well and good, but do you think you can help me with my hands and scepter?”
She turned back to me while trying to hide the slight grimace on her lips by limiting herself to pouting at my sorry state.
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She threw a cerulean potion to Sheeno, “make him drink that”, then she waved a hand in my direction, causing a black wave to wash over me, which ate at my carbonized flesh, leaving fresh and exposed meat in its wake. It wasn’t pleasant, but I guess that would help me heal faster.
“And you don’t need me to tell you that your weapon is beyond saving: Its spiritual identity got completely destroyed, to the point that there’s no way to bring it back”, she finally turned back to me and her expression finally lost her usual carefreeness.
“Y-yeah, some of my [familiars] got hit by that and just immediately died: That was some kind of [Soul-destroying] attack, wasn’t it?” I barely had enough time to ask before my girlfriend shoved the beak of the potion in my mouth.
It tasted citrusy, yet bitter, and the biting itch that came with the regrowth of flesh was both quick and condensed.
“I was really hoping that I wouldn’t have had to refresh my familiarity with the sensation so soon, but oh well.”
I was still clenching onto the scorched bit of wood in one hand, and even though it was useless now, I felt like it would have been disrespectful to just let go of it. And, contrary to what Merga had said, I could still feel… ‘something’ coming from my ruined weapon.
In the worst case, I could use it as an ingredient to make something akin to it, in the best case, and the one I was betting on, this thing had somehow absorbed traces of my [Runes] and whatever the [Soul-rending Divinity] is supposed to be.
“You can rest now: Me, Ruby and Doris have the situation handled. Just don’t take it too easy: strugglers will be a problem until the [Avatar] and the remaining [High Priest] are taken care of.”
With a pat on the newly mended shoulder Merga was off to support what I’m pretty sure was one of her [familiars], and now that I had the leisure to better observe the situation I noticed the [Guild Master] flying on top of a disk of water while using an extendable pole-like weapon to bash aside anyone stupid enough to stand in his way; aside from him the other notable exceptions were the blazing knight that exploded in fiery energies whenever she swung either her mace or shield, while a tiny black blur, that even I had difficulty looking directly at, swiftly took out the strongest fighters in strategic positions by stabbing them in the neck with ruthless efficiency, seeding panic whenever she appeared.
Unsurprisingly, Merga, Rubicon, Doris, and Prise were the MVPs in the shitstorm; still, I didn’t fail to notice the significant amount of [Knights] and [Handlers] fighting on two separate yet united fronts. In fact, at one point I was sure of having seen Merglobth for a moment, just before his cthulhian form was swallowed again in the sea of bodies.
It was safe to say that everybody was doing their part.
And me? I was just done healing my hands, so with a flick of my hand, I sent the burnt rod to my back… where it promptly failed to hover on its own because it wasn’t magical anymore and simply fell to the ground.
With a disappointed sigh, I just made it fly with [Manakinesis] back to my hand, where I just decided to hold on to it loosely.
“Let’s try and lend a hand without attracting the big guy’s attention.”
My words finally awoke the need to act in my companions, and we slowly started advancing against our first opponents: Our captives, two-thirds of whom were already unconscious thanks to Merga ripping the divinity out of them.
Once those still awake registered that we were getting closer they stopped trying to inch away while using the chaos as a cover. Everybody but Jeff, that is: He was still staring dumbly at the two colossuses in the distance.
Sheeno and Undine effortlessly worked towards regrouping them in one cohesive bundle, with the [Water Nymph] gracefully making the unconscious people float, while the [Aberrant Heliokan] just bodily lifted screaming people and tossing them on top of each other, uncaring of their occasional comments.
When everybody was accounted for, we circled the only one we avoided moving, who had only thrown us a glance or two when he had noticed the noise, but seemed mostly unwilling to look away from the [Demi-God] blasting white light against the black skin of its adversary, only for its light being absorbed by the darkness, a rippling-like effect as the only sing of it having had any effect.
“Now that Merga joined the fight the plushie seems to have gained the upper hand.”
“Weird, isn’t it?” Geoff finally spoke. “I was so convinced that what I felt when I watched into your eyes was born from you being a [Demon] in disguise… and yet now while watching a [Demi-God’s Avatar], the feelings that arise within me… I see it now…
“It was envy that dictated my actions. Envy and greed. Mine and my father’s.
“We were both blind fools, in the end. His plan will fail, just as mine did: Because we have been used as tiny pieces of something much worse all along.”
Je-Jeoff looked repentant and honest enough that I almost took pity on him.
Emphasis on the ‘almost’.
“You allied yourself with known killers and those that only spread misery and pain whenever they go: Did it really cross your mind that maybe you were the bad guy?” I couldn’t help but fail to hold in my contempt.
For a moment I saw in his eyes the need to sneer, the tiny flame of arrogance those faking being strong had in them, but it all died when he stared at me. In my different eyes. One filled with [Aether] and the meanings of the world, the other with [Void] and an unending hunger.
I don’t know exactly what happened at that exact moment, but even without bending my [Aura], I could feel something cracking within his mind.
“My mother was right: I should have never listened to my old fool and instead run away with her.
“I’m sorry, to you both, for being such a-“
“A thorn in our side?” Undine quipped.
“A nuisance?” I instead refused to acknowledge that he had meant anything to me this entire time.
“Heh. T-that’s fair. I deserve your scorn… and that of many others…”, Jeoff took it in stride, if ‘in stride’ meant that he was so down that he couldn’t go lower anymore.
“Look, I’m all for ‘redemption arcs’, but now we need to help fix the mess you brought to our door”, I thumbed to the angel uppercutting the cute horror.
“Understandable. I’ll be waiting here until someone has the time to either detain me or listen to my father’s plans”, Jeoff replied while sagging on himself.
“No plans on escaping?” The [High Priestess] still sounded unsure of his change of heart, and I honestly couldn’t blame her.
If it wasn’t for that part of me that had [Emphatic Aura] still in its raw form, which even Merga couldn’t avoid detection from when close enough, I wouldn’t have believed him for a single moment. And yet, as I am, I could tell he was saying the truth.
“What would be the point? No, it’s time I took responsibility for my actions”, he shook his head with a finality that didn’t need any other words.
I just went with my [Party] to lend a hand and maybe distract the big guy without getting blasted to smithereens.
* * *
{JEOFF JR.’S POV}
Jeoff watched their retreating back, the supposedly [Divine] being forming a fable-worthy backdrop to their advance.
Envy.
That was the crux of his whole life: He always thought he could have had anything in life, either for birthright or by asking his father for it. And yet, whenever he found something that felt unachievable, he always felt motivated by enviousness to obtain it anyway.
In retrospect, it was all so utterly moronic and obtuse. No wonder his mother had only asked him once to come with her before disappearing: She probably had known for a long time that his character was too lacking in resolve to move away from his father’s shadow.
A shadow of envy masked as hubris.
His followers had been staring at him for a while now, so he forcefully ripped his eyes from the object of his recent obsession to meet their gazes.
“What?” He asked curtly, immediately regretting the authoritarian tone he adopted with those he had always thought of as lesser.
But what was the point of ‘lesser’ and ‘noble’ when [Divine] felt foul and [Demonic] wasn’t what he thought?
“…what will happen to us now… sir?” His most recent vassal, dressed as one of the [Hunters] to pass unnoticed among them asked; his dry-dirt-colored skin now almost pleasant to look at, after all he went through.
“The [Priests] aren’t my problem after all this.” Jeoff vaguely gestured with his head the fight still ongoing. “The [Hunters] will only need to be identified and then properly dealt with, as the [Dark Guild] they are. As per those working directly for my family or me? I suggest that you all respond as honestly as possible to any questions that they may ask you, no matter how badly it might reflect on me”.
“B-but, your family-“, the other Nymph still sounded uncertain, so he decided to be clear.
“The Jeofferneys are over, Derek. There will be no coming back from this. Don’t let them bring you down with them. Don’t do like I did.”
Even the trained assassins among them didn’t know how to respond to that, so they all remained quiet and observed the world-changing fight that was happening next to them.