The Archon merely raises its hand to fire a similar spell of violet color, a Void ray. It erases the Arcane spell with ease, and Wraithian is forced to move out of its way, lest he’ll be obliterated. In fact, the Archon’s spell drills through every single building and wall. Lou, Ion, Ti, the Rajash army—everyone can see the bright, violet beam disappear into the night sky, never stopping at anything. It didn’t happen in the previous timeline.
The hell is that power!? It’s capable of disintegrating even Arcana in its raw form! If she wanted to, she could cause planetary destruction!! Wraithian is awed, yet terrified.
The Archon steps through the Void to close the gap, then it stomps the ground to cause an eruption of Void energy. Wraithian creates three layers of Arcane Shield with the aid of Limiter Release to block the Elementi power capable of erasing anything.
His barriers barely prevent his death. Only the final Shield remains. Now that he’s unleashed his mind with Limiter Release, he’s going all out, casting a volley of Arcane Arrows at the Archon, then Teleporting behind it, sending another volley, and he repeats it thrice. When he’s launched the last bunch, the first volley hits, meaning he’s done it all in less than a second.
The Archon explodes, disintegrating all Arcana around it. Ender is shot at it three times in a row after the eruption, and all of the shots hit their mark. The physical body of Louir is damaged, but the Archon isn’t. Beneath the violet layer, Louir’s body is in very bad shape.
“Burn, struggler!”
The Archon fires the beam again, destroying a portion of the city. Some Rajash men are hit by it on the field, and subsequently, not even dust is left of them. Wraithian is forced to avoid it. He Teleports behind the Archon while it’s still casting the ray of destruction, sending out the Astral Arrow spell.
The spell hits true.
The Archon’s right shoulder is struck, and the spell is digging into the astral body.
“Serves you right, monster.” Wraithian is standing still, watching the Archon convulse. However, when ten seconds have passed since the spell has struck, to his horror, he realizes that the spell isn’t strong enough to kill them.
“Haha! Fool! We share the same body now. You need more than that to kill two bodies in one go!” The damage is distributed evenly between Louir and the Void, thus they survive the hit.
Wraithian casts the Astral Arrow again, but the Archon won’t let another one hit, as the next one will kill them both. It steps out of the spell’s trajectory, sending a swarm of tracking projectiles of the Void after the Mage.
As he Teleports away, Wraithian is assaulted by Elementalists from the side. Elementi spells like Molten Lances and Lightning Bolts are hurled at him.
Fuck, this doesn’t look good, Wraithian is cursing in his mind. Even with Limiter Release, he feels trapped. He teleports again to pick off two male attuners from close range. But it isn’t enough. Dozens are hiding all over the city, ready to strike him down.
The Archon appears next to him, the Void’s mad smile spreading on the vague visage. Thanks to Limiter Release, he manages to execute an Arcane Explosion, Arcane Shield, and Teleportation in 0.5 seconds, right before the Archon erupts in the manner it does all the time.
The city has turned into a battlefield. Buildings are ruined, the wall is being overwhelmed by Rajash troops, and the breaches caused by the Archon have turned into bloody arenas.
“Dissipate, human!” The Archon summons Living Weapons.
It’s wielding two curved swords that span feet in length. Wraithian is constantly forced to Teleport as the Archon is chasing him with the blades of the Void. Getting struck by them is as good as getting erased.
The Archon gives up melee combat. It goes back to the spells of destruction. “You piece of shit, we’ll demolish your soul!”
“Not a chance!”
The Archon draws energy from the Void while dodging a barrage of Astral Arrows. The surrounding air is turning into a violet cloud, and all the power the Archon gathers is diverted into one ray of Void energy. Wraithian Teleports out of its way, knowing that even a weak version would make him disintegrate. He’s about to cast the Elementi-killing spell at the Archon while it’s vulnerable.
However, the violet embodiment of power changes the trajectory of the beam, cleaving the city as if to clean it, and Wraithian is almost swallowed by it. Just as he avoids it again, the Elementalists assault him. A Lightning Bolt paralyzes him for a moment.
The Archon is sending a volley of Void Spears at Wraithian while he is struggling because of paralyzation. With his brains fully at his disposal, he manages to Teleport a yard to the side, barely escaping his death.
“Incinerate!”
The Archon summons a firestorm again. Wraithian is thus forced to concentrate all of his mind on maintaining an Arcane Shield. His muscles aren’t listening to him due to the Elementi spell of Lightning. He can only convulse on the spot, protected by the barrier.
“You’re in a pinch, aren’t you?”
Now, the Elementalists try to attack the Archon. All in vain. Their deaths are swift.
“Die, bastard!”
The Archon starts hammering the barrier with a Void weapon, striking it once, twice, thrice, again, and again, but it isn’t breaking. Wraithian is using all of his available Arcana to shield himself.
“Struggle as you might.”
His mind is hazy. Limiter Release is giving in. He has to end it in a few seconds, or he’ll perish. With willpower alone, he breaks free of the paralyzation, and then, he casts an Astral Arrow faster than the Archon can follow, stabbing it into its head with his hand. He doesn’t miss the mark.
The Archon breaks through the barrier just when the killer spell hits it. A Living Weapon tears Wraithian’s chest open. The last thing he sees is the Archon dissipating, and Louir falling to her knees with gruesome wounds all over her body.
Finale
The Labyrinth
That night has been a sight to behold. Violet beams of destruction have obliterated most of the city and the warriors of Poer Haem and Rajash alike. Tereon is no longer a city. It’s a graveyard of hundreds. The homes of the citizens and the fortress are destroyed thoroughly.
A little later after the fight, Louir wakes up beside the corpse of Wraithian, his chest torn open. The Astral Arrow was plunged into her Archon form, so why is she alive? Although she cannot figure it out, the raven knows. It isn’t with Louir at the moment, as it needs to look after Lou.
You were lucky. No, we were lucky. Wraithian hit you right between the eyes before you forced the Archon form, and as a result, your head had a gruesome hole in it. Thus the spell capable of killing us skewered your head, but it never struck your flesh. You could say the hole left by the Arcana spell saved us. I never witnessed this outcome. I am perplexed even now, the raven explains from afar.
“Ugh...”
Louir’s wounds have healed, thanks to the Void, just barely avoiding the three-year trip to the Void. She sits up, taking a good look at the surroundings. There are countless Marks of the Void glaring at her. She’s slain so many she’ll never be able to count the numbers.
There’s one particular Eye that keeps staring at her very intently. It’s Wraithian’s Mark of the Void. She picks it up, smirking. “Oh, was I too much for you after all? How troubling.”
His soul is clearly seething.
“Ah, your body is still here. I wonder, should I humiliate you a little? What if I tore your body a bit? Like this?” She summons a Living Weapon to desecrate him.
She slashes at the corpse. She holds the Eye so that Wraithian is forced to watch it. She slashes more, more, and even more.
“I almost died because of you. You know, I’m trying to save this world from utter obliteration, and you almost stopped me. You’re a villain who fought to end this world, and I’m the hero who saves it. Pathetic human. Do you know what will happen if I crushed your Mark of the Void?”
The Eye doesn’t want to know.
And then, she starts burning the Eye slowly. The panic the Eye is expressing makes her smile. The moon illuminates her as she enjoys her time. It takes nine seconds for the Mark to incinerate.
With Wraithian suffering in an eternal loop, Louir heads back to where Ti and Ion are.
***
As soon as Louir finds Ti and Ion, she is getting scolded by the devil girl and Ion. Her head is aching because of the Ender spell that drilled a hole between her eyes, and now that she’ll have to listen to the rants of two, it’s getting worse. It’s not like she still has the wound, though. Now that she is a creature of the Void, she can regenerate.
“Do you even know how much the past has changed!? Your little rampage eradicated most of the Rajash, especially their Mages! Well, guess what? The past Ion never used Limiter Release to get rid of them since you did the job in his stead with those beams! Furthermore, Lou didn’t turn into a Void attuner!!! She didn’t need to anger the Elementi, as the enemy was already reduced to the point that all she needed was a single Living Weapon! Not just that, since Ion didn’t go unconscious because of the spell, they’ve now left this place! Don’t you remember? You and Ion were supposed to remain here for a day after the battle! And worst yet, we don’t know if you can destroy the Titan alone! I’ve sent the other Louir far from here, so she can’t help you with it!!!”
“I agree with her. This doesn’t look good at all. There’s no telling what will happen next. Butterfly Effect shouldn’t be triggered casually, as it’s impossible to predict how it’ll turn out.”
“Can you guys just shut up? I have an intense headache.”
“So what? You’ve triggered a really troublesome thing!”
“Butterfly Effect aside, shouldn’t we go the Hantor?” Ion says.
“That’s right. The Dragoni guys are soon there,” She thinks aloud.
“Ugh, I totally forgot about them. They’ll raze anything they find, won’t they?” Ion holds his head.
“Pretty much,” She replies.
Blood drains from Ion’s face as he imagines Tereahn and Ohan tearing down a town. He doesn’t want to deal with them when they’re ‘relaxing.’ He’d like it if his mental health didn’t plummet more than what it has already.
“Just gimme a moment,” Louir begs.
“Fine. You have five minutes.”
Louir sits down beside Ti, who is lying on a soft, mossy spot. She keeps complaining about this and that, and Ion fills in whenever needed. Ti keeps tilting her head time after time as they argue. She can’t understand what they’re so mad about.
Once the five minutes pass, she summons a portal. “Time’s up. Let’s go to Hantor. We need to clear out the trap Lou cannot. We don’t want her to die because of it, now do we?”
“What trap?” Louir’s curiosity is sparkled.
“You’ll see. But before that, we’ll need to fetch the Dragoni Priests. We can use them to clear it out faster. We’ve got less than twenty hours before Lou and Ion set out to Hantor to confront him. However, I doubt we’ll see him in this world ever again. I mean, didn’t he say that he is off to some other, uh, Era, was it?” Even she doesn’t seem to understand what he meant by that.
“Let’s just finish this.”
With that, they enter the portal.
***
Tereahn and Ohan finally get to the outskirts of Hantor. They’re studying the city from a distance. The overly eager Priests are about to begin their little tour as the portal appears behind them.
“Oh? You finally came.” Tereahn is disappointed by their arrival.
“Do you mind if we relax a bit?” Ohan’s claws are itching.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get to have some fun soon. Just don’t go on a rampage yet,” she tells upon coming through the portal. “There’s a trap in the city we need to clear out before the Titan gets here.”
As soon as Louir sees the capital, she smirks. It’s still early in the morning. The sunrise is still an hour away, but despite that, dark clouds are gathering above Hantor, red thunder is raging in the distance, and the wind is gradually growing. It was the same back when Louir confronted him in her timeline. However, the storm isn’t at its climax yet.
“So, the final showdown is about to begin, is it not?” Louir shares her mind openly.
“It seems so,” Ion replies.
Even if the Sun did rise, it’d be dark nonetheless due to the clouds. The bad weather will last until the Titan is defeated. This time, however, the outcome will be different since Lou didn’t become a Void attuner.
“Let’s get moving,” the devil girl urges.
The group of six starts walking towards the capital. Ion is sweating. If they don’t fail at any point, they may proceed to invade the other dimension, which would mark the end of the cycle of iterations. With Butterfly Effect triggered, there’s no telling what’s going to happen.
“Can’t we just use your portals to get in?”
“Nope. As you can see, the city doesn’t look normal at all. Hantor is twisted by his doing; the whole city is unstable. Don’t you see that tower? Does it look normal to you?”
“Wasn’t he supposed to be gone?”
“Exactly. However, the city is supposed to be like that at this time, whether he is gone or not. He made it so in advance before the iterations even began.”
“Ah, I see.”
“By the way, how exactly do we enter the city? Peacefully or destructively?”
“Do it violently. That’s what the other you did.”
“Got it.”
Their entrance to the city can be summarized in one sentence; they go in with force, showing no mercy. They head to the castle where the trap should be according to the devil girl. In the plaza, the Dragoni Priests can’t resist the urge to spills some blood, leaving behind a mass grave as they continue to the king’s home. Originally, the Void attuner killed them in the previous timeline, but with Butterfly Effect in play, things are going differently.
In front of the entrance, she stops the group. “When you enter the castle, the trap will be triggered. You’ll find yourselves from a whole different dimension where you’ll be confronted by hundreds of Elementalists and knights. Just get rid of them all, and you’ll be sent back here. The trap is meant for Lou. She won’t stand a chance without Void attunement, so you need to clear it out. Preferably, we want to face the Titan on top of the tower, so we do need this place to be safe.”
“Sounds easy. Let’s go,” Ohan says.
“Agreed.”
The double gate has been left open. For some reason, she has a bad feeling about the trap. True, she has seen it countless times by now, but now it’s somehow... different. The interior of the castle is so dark they can’t even distinguish the floor. It’s as if they were entering a hall with black walls and floor, combined with the darkness of the Void.
“Wait!” She shouts.
Louir’s right foot is already inside as she turns around. “What is it?”
“Something’s not right.” The devil girl appears to hesitate.
“Isn’t that normal when there’s a trap?”
“No—I mean, yes, but...”
“C’mon, let’s go,” Louir urges.
They enter the dark place, everyone except the devil girl. A drop of sweat forms on her forehead. Whatever it is, the thing that’s on the other side isn’t merely abnormal; it’s something she hasn’t experienced before.
“Don’t go!” She shouts, but the doors slam shut as soon as they’re all inside. “Damn it!” Shivers run down her spine. “You guys are beyond my reach now. Fuck! How did this happen?” She clenches her fists. “Something’s not right at all.”
***
“It’s dark in here.”
“Sure it is.”
They haven’t gone further int
o the darkness just yet. The Dragoni Priests light the place with their fire, holding flames above their palms. The thing about the dark is that even Louir can’t see in there. It’s as if the whole place were darker than the Void’s deepest depth, but then again, that’s a wrong way to put it, as the flames of Dragoni are enough to light their path.
“Eh? We’re in a cave?” Ion blurts.
“I don’t like this.” Ti is scared.
They aren’t in a castle anymore. The air is damp, and the floor, walls, and the ceiling are bedrock. Not just that, they can hear echoes of eerie cries of creatures unknown to them, and sometimes, a cry of a human fills in. Ion turns around to see if they can retreat outside in an emergency. However, to his horror, the door is gone. There’s a tunnel behind them.
“This doesn’t look good,” Ion shares his thoughts.
“Hmm?” Louir glances at Ion, who is behind her, and she, too, notices the same fact. “Huh? Where did the door go?”
“No idea,” Ion answers.
“Doesn’t matter. Just tear this place apart,” Ohan urges.
“I can hear humans nearby. Let’s go.”
The Dragoni Priests start walking. Louir, Ti, and Ion can only follow them, lest they’ll get lost in the dark. Ion can use Flares, but they last only for a brief moment, whereas the Dragoni flames last for as long as the Priests want.
The longer they walk in the dark, the more they begin to believe it’s a labyrinth. They run into dozens of different tunnels that lead to who-knows-where. Also, the echoes of creatures and humans aren’t stopping. From the sounds of it, it’s a vast place, for the voices resound very subtly. They can’t tell if the other living beings are dozens of miles away, or somewhere nearby.
Half an hour later, they find a corpse of a human, torso torn open, innards devoured. From the face of the dead man, the group can gather it was a horrifying thing he saw before his death. There’s a torch next to the dead man, but the flame has died out long ago.
“I wonder what killed him.”
Apocalyptic Life (Era Series Book 2) Page 23