I held my sword in front of me, and the purple jewel at the hilt now glowed a shade of soul silver. Energy radiated from the blade of midnight black, and sent unease through the space around it.
A stream of small lights spun around me in a mini-twister, and when it ceased half a second later, I was wearing my armor of midnight-black, with no helmet over my head.
Irmeia chuckled. “This shall be interesting.”
She surged toward me, and I pushed forward as well. We met at the middle, ready to strike, one with a weapon, one without. Irmeia shifted gears and moved with an insane speed, easily dodging my strike and getting uncomfortably close to me.
“Oh, you poor dear.” She placed her hand on my chest, even before I could flinch. “Izrea!” she yelled.
A blast of green energy shot from her palm and thudded into me, hurling me backwards. I smashed me through a couple of trees before cratering against a rock.
I glanced up, just in time to see Freya shoot toward the Eternal. “Freya, no!” I yelled.
The elf shot toward her, and swung her broadsword hard. Irmeia put up her hand and attempted to catch her blade. However, Freya was nifty. She retracted her blade half swing — something that was nearly impossible to do with a sword as big as hers — and spun around. In an instant, her foot landed clean on Irmeia’s chest and the momentum from the kick sent the Eternal flying back. She went crashing through multiple trees before coming to a stop.
I stared at Freya as she dropped to the ground, astonishment all over my face.
“That woman is much stronger than she appears to be,” Acnologia said.
Irmeia sighed as she stood up, and brushed the rubble off her skin. “I knew I should have absorbed more Dragons.”
“Disgusting.” I walked toward her. “What kind of monster are you, Irmeia?”
She smiled at me. "Five thousand years I waited for this, Diablo.” Her voice was raspy. "Five thousand years I waited to crush your weak soul."
She thrust her hand up, and immediately two flames rose into the air on either side of her — one red and the other black.
“Oh gods,” Acnologia said. “This power… It can’t be.”
The flames instantly cut off and in their places stood two Dragons, one of blood-red and another of tar-black, both glaring at me. A low growl escaped their throats and they inched forward, ready to mince my body into their next meal.
“What kind of a monster am I?” Irmeia wore a smirk on her face. “I am Irmeia, the Queen of the Dragons.”
***
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Just great.
I stared at the sight before me, not at Irmeia, but at the two Dragons that stood by her side, bearing their teeth at me. I stood my ground, and used my Analyze screen on these creatures.
DING!
Race
Dragon
Health
15790
Level
1002
Mana
18510
Element
None
Stamina
17370
The other one’s stats screen was pretty much the same, but something about both screens bothered me.
“They’re not Ancient Dragons,” Acnologia said, confirming my thought. “These things are different from me. They’re almost…lesser beings.”
“Silence?” Irmeia stepped toward me. “Fitting for a man like you.”
She snapped her fingers and the dragons lashed out, jumping onto my form. I twisted my sword and swung, smacking into them with the flat of the blade and sending them into the trees. These things were strong, but with my Dragon Fusion form I was stronger than they were.
“Two are not all that I can make.” Irmeia thrust her hand into the air, and twenty flames formed around me, each one of a different color. A collective roar exploded outward, and sent massive shockwaves through the forest.
“How amusing,” a voice chuckled.
A beam of jade green surged from the ground before me and rose high into the air. When the light cut off, the Time Lord stood before me, basking in his golden glory.
“Good to see you again, Diablo,” he said.
“The feelings aren’t mutual,” I muttered.
“Careful, Zoran,” Nyx said. “We can’t take him on given the level we’re at. It’s best we don’t tick him off unnecessarily.”
“What are you doing here, Horace?” Irmeia asked. “You said I’d have more time.”
“Apologies, Irmeia,” he said. “Unfortunately, it has come to my understanding that Mr. Phantom Lord here has gotten to a stage where you will find it hard to defeat him.”
Irmeia glared at me, and the vein on her neck throbbed.
Wow, she really hates me. My heart throbbed.
Horace sighed. “Irmeia, I am all for vengeance, but I feel you have held a little too much anger toward this man.”
“A man who led the Dragons against the Eternals,” she muttered. “I will never forgive him.”
“Huh?” I blinked. “You’re the Queen of Dragons. Who’s the one who’s siding with the Dragons?”
Horace chuckled. “There is one thing you must understand Eternal,” he looked at me. “All those Dragons you saw in my castle? I did not capture them.”
My eyes widened, watching as Horace turned to Irmeia. “You?” I blinked, disbelief in my voice.
“I can summon Dragons at will, Diablo,” Irmeia said. “I don’t give a damn if a few of them die.”
“You mutilated a hundred!” I yelled.
The Time Lord snapped his fingers and a shock wave surged out of him, striking my body and throwing me to the ground.
“I can’t let this go on for too long, Diablo,” Horace said. “I’ve been quite patient about killing you. It is time for the sacrifice.”
He put his hands to the sky and chanted. The ground around him cracked at multiple spots, and darkness rose from the depths. Tentacles of black rose up and traced motions in the air as he spoke words.
An eerie sight unfolded before me, and I could tell what was going on. A mass spell. This was something special, something that took effort.
And in that moment, I felt the Time Lord really could kill me.
Permanently.
I shot toward the man, activating my spells. “Peliosia. Asgionis,” I said, boosting my agility twice. A flame of red emerged around me, and over it spread a darker flame of jet black. I raced to the Time Lord and spun around, swinging at him with Dawnbreaker. I was fast enough to catch him off guard, and my blade swung into his arm.
Only to bounce back harmlessly.
I fell back, rebounding from the force of my own strike. I placed my hand on the ground as I came down, and flipped myself back onto my feet. I looked up. Not even a scratch. I glanced at the Time Lord’s spotless armor. He kept chanting, and with it the humming turned louder.
“Diablo,” Acnologia said. “I can make us stronger, but it will come at a price.”
I don’t care. I clenched my fists. Do it.
“Very well.”
I heard him take a deep breath.
And then he spoke.
“Limiter off.”
My eyes widened.
Lightning coursed through my nerves, and I dropped to the floor, gasping. My vision turned white, and the pain rendered my body numb. A voice called out to me — probably Freya’s — but I couldn’t respond.
I bore through the intensity for a few seconds, and my senses returned to me quickly. Anger coursed through my veins, and pure rage flowed into my blood. The elven assassin stood beside me but I shoved her to the side, not a care in the world.
I lifted Dawnbreaker, and gripped the hilt tight. The jewel in the center was now blood-red, and a hazy aura of the same color covered the whole blade.
DING!
You have activated Dragonborn: Rage Mode! For every attack landed, rage will increase and rationality will decrease. A rage overload will have undesirable effects. Proceed with caution.
Don’t give a damn. I looked at the Time Lord, at the man still chanting his spell.
I shot at him, but didn’t use my blade to launch an attack. Instead I curled my free hand into a fist and smashed it into him. The man went flying from my attack, and crashed through multiple rows of trees. I charged after him, keeping up with the pace he flew at.
I watched as he twisted his body, and touched down on the ground, forcing himself to a stop. He stood still, and looked in my direction. I charged in undeterred, and jumped at his form.
A sharp pain struck my shoulder, and I was pushed a few feet away from him. I dropped to the floor, and turned to my shoulder, noticing a long arrow embedded in my skin. I broke off the shaft with my arm and pulled the arrow out.
Huh, I blinked. That didn’t hurt at all.
I looked ahead of me, behind the Time Lord. Irmeia stood there, dressed in scaly armor of dark green. She held a violet longbow in her arm, and the weapon was adorned with two crystal dragon heads on either end of the structure.
I surged to her, my thoughts a muddle, and before she could even flinch, my fist had slammed into her stomach. The Eternal went flying up into the air. I heard footsteps from my left and turned away from her, just in time to see the Time Lord surge toward me.
I held my sword up, and blocked his strike with the flat of my blade. A thunderous shock wave surged out from the impact point, ripping branches and leaves from the trees. I spun around and landed a kick at the man’s chest. He blocked my strike with his arms but still went sliding back over the ground.
“Quite some strength you have there, Eternal,” the Time Lord said.
“Shut up!” I surged at him once again, with the rage within me growing stronger by the second. I slashed at him with my sword and slammed him with my fists, using every part of my body to land a flurry of strikes at the man. He held his hands up in defense, blocking me with his forearms, but I kept pushing him back.
I heard the whistle of an arrow from behind and jerked around. My hand lashed out and caught a flying projectile by its stalk and snapped it in half. Irmeia stood there before me once again, her body covered in bruises, yet her eyes looking at me in hatred and disgust.
Usually I would have ached at the sight, but I felt no such thing. There was only room for one emotion in me right now.
A burning rage.
The Time Lord shot at me from behind. I simply turned around, using his momentum and adding my own as I moved aside and struck at him, sending him all the way to Irmeia. The man slid across the ground, and came to a stop before the Queen of Dragons. He stood himself up, and I heard a chuckle.
“You know, Diablo,” he said. “You were to be a battery for me. I needed your strength to use powers I hadn’t used in a very long time. However, to defeat you right now, I realize I will need the strength of another battery.”
“What?” I blinked, with rage still clouding my thinking. It took everything I had to prevent myself from wanting to smash this man’s face right in, even for just a second.
“Farewell, Irmeia,” the Time Lord chuckled.
Tentacles of darkness broke from the ground and wrapped around Irmeia’s limbs, holding her stagnant. She looked at us, bewildered. “What are you—”
A tentacle of golden light struck out of the ground, and pierced her right in the chest, emerging straight out the other side. The Eternal screamed, and the sound vibrated painfully in my ears. Irmeia’s body glowed a bright gold, and her limbs writhed violently as pain took her prisoner.
“Ahhh,” the Time Lord said, his body slowly setting itself aglow as well.
“He’s absorbing her strength,” Nyx said. “That’s what he meant. She’s the battery.”
“Do not worry, Diablo,” Horace said. “This process here is not what you were supposed to go through. The pain you will experience will make this seem like nothing.”
I looked at Irmeia, at her trembling body. I felt no compassion for this woman, but I was bothered that she was causing this Time Lord to become stronger now. He was already stronger than me as is.
I put my hand in the air. “UHER!” I yelled.
A phoenix of darkness surged out of the ground, its size much larger than any dragon I had seen. It cut through trees and broke through rock, flying through the air and smashing into Horace. The Time Lord however stood his ground, and simply put hands up, stopping the bird. He only slid back a few feet before the Phoenix dissipated into the air, no longer strong enough to pushed.
He just took that out like nothing, I grit my teeth.
“We need to use stronger spells,” Nyx said.
Send Freya a message, I said. We need a distraction. A loud explosion. In fifteen seconds.
“On it,” the spirit said.
“You are not strong enough, Diablo.” Horace walked up to me.
“She’s seen the message,” Nyx said.
Good, I thought.
I put my hand up. “Beltair. Qeteria. Uher!”
The sky darkened, and the ground shook. A fissure opened up, and a dark phoenix rose from within, threatening to take Horace down to the darkness.
However, this wasn’t my final move.
I closed my eyes and focused, channeling my energy into my arms. I felt the darkness around me, and my rage fueled my strength even more. I counted down in my mind, moving from ten to one before I even knew it.
I opened my eyes, with my mind concentrating hard. The Time Lord had broken through my chain attack, and was now standing a few yards in front of me with his hand held out. Before I could even blink, a blast of gold shot out of his palm, and struck me. I shifted my body weight, and maintained my concentration. I bore his attack, sliding back only a foot.
“Freya sent a message asking you to close your eyes,” Nyx said.
“Oreolis!” a voice yelled.
I shut my eyes, just as a bright flash of light shot out, half-blinding me. I opened them up a moment later, and gained my vision quick. The Time Lord shook his head, and I knew he’d fallen for the attack.
“Poor you.” I pointed my hand to the air, and rage amplified my voice. “INJELA REIKIAN!”
A massive blast of darkness surged down from the sky, and struck the Time Lord, crushing him into the ground. I watched as his health went down, and quickly at that.
“Solar Equatoria!” he yelled.
A golden light exploded from within the darkness, and a sphere of translucent gold expanded out, cancelling my attack in a mere second. I stood there, completely stunned.
That was one of my strongest moves. I looked at my trembling hands.
“I did not want to use my spells too much, Eternal,” the Time Lord said. “I did not want to hurt you more than I had to. However, you seem to be pushing that concept out of my mind.”
“I’m glad,” I muttered.
He snapped his fingers, and tentacles of darkness surged out of the ground, binding me still in seconds. I thrashed, trying to break out, but the outgrowths held me tight, their grip too strong.
“How unfortunate,” the Time Lord chuckled.
Before I could even open my mouth to reply, a golden tentacle struck out of the ground and pierced my chest. I screamed, as pain and rage swirling into my body, with heat and horror drowning me in their hateful waters. My vision began to die, with my mind unable to hold on.
And then, it happened.
All of the tentacles turned red, as if blood had suddenly coated them. They quickly withered away, and I dropped to the floor, my body shaking, my lungs gasping for breath.
“What?” The Time Lord collapsed, and his shoulders trembled. “What…is this?”
“The rage.” Acnologia’s voice shook. “The rage has taken a hold of him.”
I blinked, realizing that I no longer felt the rage I was supposed to. He absorbed all of my rage. I looked at him.
The Time Lord threw his head back, a red aura glowing around him. His existence had been polluted by pure rage. He yelled out uncontrollably, his v
oice dual toned and echoing into the sky.
What kind of rage is this? I shivered.
“I think he’s losing control,” Nyx said.
“What?” I asked, picking myself off the floor, Dawnbreaker in my hand, ready to slash into the Time Lord.
“AHHHH!” the Time Lord yelled. A massive pillar of golden light surged up from behind him, and in a flash a sky of golden portals emerged all around us, thousands of images held within them. I glanced through, realizing that these portals led to other places, and possibly other times.
“ZORAN!” Nyx yelled, and somehow the spirit guided my vision, up to a portal about a hundred yards above the Eternal. An image lay within it. One look, and I knew where this was.
Ikarius.
“The way home,” I whispered.
The Time Lord clawed the ground, trying desperately to handle his rage, and I needed to take full advantage of that. I shot away from him, and used the distraction to find Freya and the others. “We’re leaving,” I said, lifting Raffyr. Freya was in the same mindset as me the moment I saw her, and picked up Viola and Oris as she shot ahead of me.
“Up there!” I pointed to the portal, and Freya caught on. She placed her foot on the ground and jumped up, taking Viola and Oris with her as she surged into the air, heading into the portal.
One down, I thought, and shot forward. But before I left, I still had one thing left to do.
I charged up toward Irmeia, grasping her by her waist and using my momentum to pull her free from the tentacles. The portals around me immediately flickered.
Uh oh, I thought.
The portals slowly faded away, and flickered frequently. The Time Lord’s screaming calmed down, and his mind came under control of this rage we had infused.
Dammit. I surged into the air, and headed straight for the flickering portal.
“DIABLO!” A voice tore through the sky.
Dark tentacles shot from my right, and smacked me back toward the ground. A tentacle of gold shot up to us as I fell, aiming right for my chest.
“Tell Viola I said goodbye.” Raffyr whispered in my ear.
The Eternal: Transcend - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 3) Page 24