Chapter 167 - The Cathedral Showdown

There was always a calm before the storm, and this day had been particularly calm. Outside of the general chaos of a city stuck in danger level six, things were going according to plan.

Jack moved through the cathedral, making his way to the main chapel. Per Mortimaxx, he got home turf advantage, which Jack reasoned was complete bullshit.

Everyone else was in their position, troops at the ready just in case shit hit the fan after Jack beat Mortimaxx. Christopher, Elera, and Gaiju even brought up more reinforcements from the first floor. Although they would likely turn into cannon fodder should things go south.

As Jack made his way across the courtyard, he found Karlisle sitting at its center, hand dangling idly in the fountain.

Jack pulled out the phylactery, and tossed it to him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Karlisle asked, inspecting the vase.

“Don’t see why not. There are people who actually want to die, and people who think they want to die. Mortimaxx is part of the latter group,” Jack said.

Karlisle nodded, seeming to agree. “And what if it doesn’t work?”

“Then we try again I guess? The quest doesn’t say we can’t. Everyone will be annoyed, but I’m the guy who actually has to fight him, so they can pound sand,” Jack shrugged.

“Well, like you said, no harm in trying.” Karlisle tucked the vase away and turned to leave.

“You going up or down?” Jack asked.

“Up. If this works I’d rather be higher than lower.”

Jack nodded, returning to his mental checklist and putting the vampire and his schemes out of his mind.

First, he pulled out his flintlock, loading it with two Boulder-shots. He had a bunch of blunt types of ammo made up, leveraging that it would be his best tool against the ice skeleton lich. He almost thought about trading in his daggers for a pair of hammers, but he couldn’t find any that would fit his needs.

Next, he checked his core. Inside he held one thirty-fold drop of mana. It had previously been a fifty-fold drop, but he whittled it down to something more manageable. Rotating around it in the galaxy formation were thirty drops of three-fold lightning mana, the most he could manage to hold.

There were probably easier, better options he could have gone with. A stronger, more varied set of mana drops that gave him different options, but where was the fun in that? Jack thought with an almost manic grin.

He strode up the steps of the chapel, pushing the two doors wide open. Inside were several large chandeliers, candles burning brightly that lined the center of the roof. Several large columns supported the ceiling, and several sets of pews lined either side of the chapel.

Mortimaxx was in his skeletal form, an icy blue rope draped over his shoulders, and a large staff of solid, jagged ice that Jack had never seen in his left hand.

“Why have you not destroyed my phylactery yet?” Mortimaxx asked.

“I challenge you to combat,” Jack said, ignoring the question completely.

It was as if a flip had been switched. Jack didn’t really know what he was expecting. Perhaps some more banter, an exchanging of threats and insults. No. Mortimaxx decided to fuck him before he could even get his socks off.

The second the words left Jack's mouth, the lich quintupled in size, slamming through the cathedral rooftops as an ice giant. He grabbed his staff in two hands and swung hard, leveling the chapel and sending it crashing down on Jack.

Jack launched forward, wiggle forming into a suit of armor around his upper body as he danced and weaved through the chaos and rubble that came crashing down. He jumped off a piece of the roof and launched into the air, narrowly spinning past a titanic spear of ice that Mortimaxx launched at him.

He shot his wrist harpoon into the ice spear as it launched past him, slamming his foot down on the air and activating his zephyr stride bangles. He gripped the chain in two hands, leveraging every ounce of strength he had to redirect the momentum of the ice spear, pivoting on his leg and swinging it back down hard at the lich. Jack slammed it straight into his head, and followed up with a [Storm Step], landing on his shoulder and whipping out his flintlock, unloading two boulder shots into his skull. The massive boulders roared through the air as they appeared, ripping chunks of his skull. Mortimaxx let out a loud moaning roar, hands flying up to his head as Jack jumped back down to the ground, landing in the middle of the courtyard.

He was stunned for only a second, picking his staff back up and slamming it into the ground. The staff sunk half way, and then disappeared completely into the earth.

Frozen skeletal hands ripped up from the ground, clawing at the earth as they pulled themselves free from their tombs.

“This is supposed to be a one on one you asshole!” Jack screamed at Mortimaxx, but the lich paid him no mind, holding his hands in the air as he summoned several more titanic spears of ice to send raining down on him.

Jack wasted no time, pulling out his daggers and launching into the frey of skeletons. He cast [Storm Step] slamming down into the middle of the group of skeletons, sending frozen bone shards flying in every direction as he followed up with [Lightning Centipede’s Bite], cleaving through a mass of skeletons bearing down on him.

He had little time to stay in fight, as an ice spear slammed into the ground seconds after he cast another [Storm Step], appearing on the complete opposite side of the courtyard and delivering the same punishment to another group of skeletons crawling out of the ground. All the while Jack was careful to maneuver closer to Mortimaxx. The lich seemed to not care at all that his ice spears were doing more damage to his frozen army then Jack, and he for all of five seconds, he thought he was gaining the upper hand.

“Whiteout,” the giant lich’s deep voice rumbled, and Jack was immediately enveloped in a snow storm, unable to see anything at all.

He shivered once, and then grit down to suppress it. He felt skeletal claws rake across his back and fell forward, casting [Storm Step] once more flying forward through the storm and barreling through a dozen skeletons. He needed to get his back to a wall. Before he could though, another spell was cast.

“Blizzard” the lich rumbled.

“We’re already in a blizzard you dick!” Jack screamed, fighting off half a dozen skeletons that seemed to just appear from every singular direction in the snow storm.

Shards of razor sharp glass rained down from above, ripping through his armor and cutting in to his flesh. He could hear Wiggle screaming in pain as the shards slammed into him over and over again.

Gotta find a roof, Jack groaned, holding his hands above his head as he storm stepped with reckless abandon through the snowstorm until he slammed into a wall. He blinked away stars, his head aching as more shards of ice cut him to ribbons, but he didn’t let his hand lead the wall, using it as a guide until he found a door and slipped inside.

He fell to the ground, pulling out a potion and swallowing its contents. Panting heavily as more shards of ice pelted the building he was inside, ripping through the windows. Frozen skeletons poured into the room en masse, spilling through the windows falling over each other and shambling towards him. Jack turned to run, but then Mortimaxx sent his staff ripping through the building, cleaving off the roof with one massive swing.

Jack tried to get deeper into the cathedral, but Mortimaxx cast another spell.

“Freeze: World.”

Just like that, Jack was encased in ice, a human popsicle. He had turned just in time to see Mortimaxx pulling back his staff for what was sure to be a homerun swing, Jack being the baseball.

His heart beat wildly in his chest as he strained against the ice that kept him entombed, growing cracks running through it. He wasn’t fast enough though. Mortimaxx swung his staff hard down on Jack.

Fuck it.

Jack selected the thirty-bomb and cast [Lightning Centipedes Bite].

Two enormous fangs appeared over his arms, both wreathed in deadly blue lightning, breaking him free from his prison as he swung back at Mortimaxx. He met the staff head on, ripping through it, with ease. He didn’t stop there though, holding onto the ability for as long as he could, running up Mortimaxx’s left arm and destroying it completely.

Jack didn’t stop there though. He fell into [Storm Stance], launching at Mortimaxxs skull. The lich was forming some sort of ice beam in his open maw, but Jack slammed it shut with a kick, causing the technique to backfire in his mouth. The giant ice lich stumbled backwards, stunned briefly, and he used that moment to lash out a dozen times over with his daggers. With Mortimaxx, it took twenty consecutive hits before [Lightning Brand] appeared on his body. I guess it take more the stronger you are. Good to know. Jack jumped off the lich, landing on a nearby steepled roof. Whiteout was still in full effect, and the only thing he could see was the lightning brand. Jack glanced inside his core. Twenty mana drops left.

He started casting [Chain Lightning]. He didn’t aim. He didn’t have to. Every bolt of lightning slammed into Mortimaxx, and then jumped to the skeletons that were still spawning from the ground. Jack fed drop after drop into the ability, casting it over and over again until his channels were raw, twisted and mangled. He only had two drops of mana left, and those were rapidly dwindling as he fought to hold off his mana channels from devouring those as well in attempt to heal.

The white out snow storm had been replaced with his steam, his continuous assault of chain lightning burning up the atmosphere and melting everything. Jack jumped down off the roof, walking towards a crumbling lich. HIs giant form fell away, leaving a tiny gnomish skeleton.

Mortimaxx didn’t look ready to end the fight at all, as he immediately began weaving spells in his more compact form. Jack grinned at him, pulling his daggers back out as he fell forward to charge.

Stolen story; please report.

HE shifted his weight slightly, noticing strange movement out of the corner of his eye. A shadow had moved an odd way. So subtle he was surprised he noticed it.

Mortimaxx capitalized on the distraction, sending a spear of ice straight through his shoulder, drawing out a pained gasp as Jack fell forward. He didn’t have time to hit the ground though, because a giant panther jumped out the shadows, and slammed into him, sinking its teeth into his torso and slamming him into the adjacent building.

Jack's thoughts turned to pure fury. Cumberlin that lying piece of shit. He had dropped his daggers in the sudden assault, and his arm was pinned inside the maw of the panther. He used his one free arm to try and grouge out the things eye, but it’s centipede tail bit into him, and Jack felt poison flood his veins.

“Wiggle!” Jack screamed, and his armor disappeared as wiggle morphed back into a centipede and wrapped around the panther's neck like a guillotine, exhausting her modest mana supply to cast a lightning shock of her own over and over again. It wouldn’t do much damage, but it would buy him a little time. As the panther wrestled with Wiggleworm, Jack sighted in on the two drops of mana still in his core. They had shrunk down to singular drops at this point, unable to fully keep his mana channels from trying to absorb him, but it should still be enough.

He laid there in the rubbing, panting heavily as he grinded the drops of mana together, spinning them in a chaotic dance around each other as he pushed them together.

[Lightning Engine] roared to life as the two drops of mana combined. HIs core was immediately filled with a deep violet energy that threatened to break free from his core if he didn’t start using it. His burnt out mana channels greedily sucked up the Elder lightning, healing almost immediately. The venom coursing through his veins was burned out and his wounds cauterized as he fed the mana to every inch of his body.

He stood up slowly, violent cracks of lightning biting at the air around him, melting the world with each step he took forward.

This is how lightning engine worked. Essentially, it would repeatedly fill up his core with Elder Lightning based on the number of mana drops. For instance, if he had a pair of unused three-fold drops that he combined to activate Lightning Engine, his core would refill with Elder Lightning six times.

The two drops he had used this time had shrunken significantly, and he would likely only get about two core refills out of it this time, but that was plenty.

The panther seemed to realize something was gravely wrong as Jack stalked towards her, destroying both himself, and the world around him with every step forward. She turned to run, but it didn’t overly matter.

Jack cast [Bolt of Judgement], draining the entirety of his core into the ability. The sky turned deep violet as Elder lightning coalesced above.

He watched with an amused grin as the panther was erased from reality.

You have Slain Kasha the Fang

+7 SP

+135,805,015AP

“Not spending your skill points before an Assassination attempt?” Jack taunted her non-existent remains, “fucking amateur hour over here.”

A second bolt of Elder Lightning came down, slamming into hopefully Mortimaxx. Jack turned to the lich. Half his body was missing, and he stared at Jack with angry eyes.

“I told you…”

“Yea yea yea,” Jack said, waving away the oncoming lecture. “See ya in a bit,” he smiled.

The lich gave him a very confused look with his one good eye, and as Jack's core refilled a second time, he once again cast [Bolt of Judgement].

Jack fell on his ass as the effects of lightning engine faded away. It was at this moment he realized he forgot to have a healer somewhere on standby. That's not good.

He fell to his back, staring up at the pitch black sky.

[You are now the Mayor of Broken Moon City]

In his fading moments of consciousness, Jack stumbled through the mayor's interface menu, looking for something.

With a smirk, he entered his command.

[You have changed the name of ‘Broken Moon City’ to ‘IWONMOTHERFUCKERSBUTFORGOTTOBRINGAHEALEROHGODSENDHELPFASTEVERYTHINGHURTSITHINKMYDICKISBLEEDING’]

Jack blacked out.

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[Karlisle]

[Floor Three]

Karlisle leaned back in his chair, sipping from his cup in the dimly lit tearoom. He stared at a vase sitting in the empty seat across from him. Technically it was a phylactery. He thought the idea a bit stupid when Jack had suggested it, but to his surprise it seemed to be working, at least so far.

Karlisle squinted at the phylactery as it wobbled slightly. “Moment of truth time…” he murmured to himself.

Seconds later an icy blue haze leaked out from the top, slowly taking shape in the form of a tiny little gnomish skeleton. He watched as it put itself together piece by piece until his friend had completely rebuilt himself. Flesh slowly crawled up the skeleton’s bones until Karlisle was left starting at a very naked Mortimaxx.

“Where am I?” Mortimaxx asked, more to himself then Karlisle. He blinked several times, and then his eyes went out of focus and Karlisle couldn’t help but smile. Looks like it worked.

“What did you do…” Mortimaxx mumbled, his voice tinged with anger.

“So you have access to your own system now, I take it? What level did it put you at? I wasn’t sure if the Tower would allow you to start at the third floor or not,” Karlisle asked, talking more to himself then Mortimaxx. “When Jack suggested the idea, I didn’t think it would work at all. I mean sure, we’ve all heard the stories about Tower generated monsters and the like being allowed to climb, but to actually be here witnessing it. Very fascinating stuff.”

Mortimaxx was silent for a long moment, staring at his hands, and then the world around him.

“You understand what this means don’t you?” he finally said.

“What?” Karlisle asked, taking a sip from his cup once more and grinning at his friend.

“The Tower allowed this for some reason,” Mortimaxx spat, “what do you think that reason is? Why let this happen? Why give me my own system? Why let me climb? God’s I’m so weak now.” He complained all at once.

“I do not know friend, but how about we find out together?”

Mortimaxx stared at him angrily for a long moment, but Karlisle watched as a grin slowly formed on his mouth. He returned the smile.

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[Andurian]

[Oathbreakear]

The Oathbreaker floated idly around the Tower. A man stood on its observation deck, leaning against the railing and smoking cigarettes, lazily letting the ashes spill off the balcony. He wore a black shirt tucked into his pants; sleeves rolled up as though he had been hard at work all day. His blazer was thrown haphazardly over the railing he leaned against. The man was staring daggers at the Tower.

“Sir,” a robotic voice asked. “We are having some issues dealing with the Code Black. They appear to have a rather troubling artifact causing some degree of difficulties for Commander Crusher.”

“Have the sparrow deal with it,” Andurian ordered.

“She refused sir, informing me that it was your problem.”

Andurian let loose an annoyed sigh. He absolutely hated his friends.

Closing his eyes, he synced up with the thousands of constructs scattered across the thirteenth floor defending its exit. They existed so that he could get a good understanding of those who braved the thirteenth floor. His mind spread across the thousand of golems, branching out like a tree to every single unit, connecting to them. He opened his eyes, only this time he was seeing through their cold mechanical gaze. He watched a replay of the carnage that unfolded.

Mindalia danced through his golems with ease, her movements were precise, exacting, reserved. She summoned her familiar and let the dragon-like centipede do the bulk of the work as it swam through the seas of his constructs, devouring them.

Occasionally, she would let loose a burst of powerful black energy that cut through everything in sight, a supernova eating the world around it.

“Void mana…” he murmured, “nothing overly complicated to deal with.”

He paced slow circles across the observation deck as he further studied Mindalia’s exit from the Tower. He watched as she collapsed reality with a casual recklessness. He watched as she summoned forth a scythe of incomprehensible power.

“That scythe though is going to be an issue though… I’d rather not deal with that quite yet. Probably best to send that thing back into the Tower before someone comes looking for it,” he mused to himself. He watched as she swung the blade, leaving no trace of life in its wake. Yep. Definitely don’t want to deal with that.

With the parameters decided, Andurian gave his hand a lazy wave. Just outside the ship, graying mana began to spiral together. Slowly, raw power coalesced, taking shape and morphing into that of a new golem, a shape that was evolving to match his needs.

“Maximize void resistance,” he said, speaking the words into reality. The golem solidified, sleek gray armor materializing around its skeleton-like frame. As he added the void resistance to its makeup, the armor turned pitch black. Resisting the effects of her void mana wouldn’t be enough though. She could delete space, destroy reality itself.

“Spatial reconstruction,” he commanded.

The black armor became tinged with starlight and took on a strange warping effect, as though it was made up of space itself. If she was going to destroy space, then his golem would need to be able to rebuild it.

Still, it needed more.

“What to do about the scythe…” he muttered, chewing on the butt of the cigarette hanging limply at his lips and replaying the scenes where she used the scythe on his Oathbreaker models.

“Quantum shifting,” he said, “and a perception module. Try your best not to touch the blade, bad things will happen,” he said to the finished golem, giving it a casual smile and a lazy wave goodbye. It didn’t respond, teleporting away instantly. Andurian put the problem out of his mind.

He returned his gaze to the Tower, putting the code black out of his mind completely.

“Tell me…” he said, anger building in his eyes. “Just what are you doing with my experiments? Why now?”

No answer came, so he continued to puzzle out the problem to no avail. This is why he hated the Tower the most. It was a problem he couldn’t solve.

“Sir…” another, more timid voice came.

Andurian’s eyes shifted slightly. Erin Crushers stood next to him, an S rank system crystal in her hands. She was the latest recruit on the Oathbreaker after presenting him with a rather peculiar discovery on the second floor. Andurian was quite fond of her. She was magnificently lazy. Lazy people were good. They always found the most interesting ways to make difficult tasks… less difficult.

“Done already?” Andurian asked, but he already knew the answer.

“I got really lucky,” she said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly, holding out the crystal for him.

“Luck huh… Do you believe in luck?” Andurian asked.

“After a fashion. It got me working on your ship after all,” she admitted.

“And what if I told you, it has nothing to do with luck at all. That this was the tower manipulating events. What would you say then?”

“I’d say you were batshit insane sir, the Tower has no influence on the outside world, only what goes on inside.” she said with a surprising amount of confidence.

Andurian couldn’t help but chuckle, taking the system crystal from her hand and peering into it.

“There is no such thing as luck,” he started. “What this is… this is an invitation from the Tower. This is how it exerts its influence on the outside world. It’s asking us to come play.”

“I don’t understand sir…”

Andurian didn’t bother explaining, instead focusing his attention on the system crystal. The S rank model was capable of a great many things. In this case, the infiltration and overriding of Tower creations. It worked about thirty percent of the time.

Andurian let his consciousness bleed into the crystal. When he opened his eyes, he found himself inside the Tower, staring at a familiar face.

Karlisle… it seems old ghosts are coming back to haunt me in droves, Andurian thought, an amused smile tracing his lips. I never did solve his vampire problem.

Andurian had set Erin to the task of monitoring the man who possessed his Omni-core, and infiltrating his group should the opportunity present itself.

The Tower had given them that opportunity on a shining silver platter.

The Tower didn’t often let its own creations climb. Sort of a pointless endeavor for them after all, so Andurian could understand why Erin thought it a stroke of luck that one of this man’s companions happened to not only be a Tower creation but was also allowed to climb alongside him.

No. This one no stroke of luck, Andurian thought, raising his hand and clenching his fist, watching as Mortimaxx’s hand mirrored his own movements. The Tower had planned this. It knew he was still alive. It knew he needed a conduit to exert his influence, so it was giving him one.

Andurian let loose a wicked smile. Finally, something interesting was happening.

“Let’s play then.”