by Aaron Oster
“I love you, Morgan,” she whispered, and though their distance seemed great, he heard her loud and clear. “I love you more than life itself. Remember that, always.”
Then, a massive spear made of ice exploded from her chest, and the moment was gone.
Morgan screamed as he felt something within him break, even as Sarah’s core shattered in his Aura Sense. The icy lance had purposefully been driven straight through to ensure she would have no chance at survival.
Morgan felt his body go limp as the light faded from Sarah’s eyes, her smile slipping away as the front of her armor was stained a deep crimson.
“No,” he whispered, as though the word alone could negate what had just happened.
He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that she was really dead. Sarah couldn’t die, not after all they’d gone through! All the plans they’d made together for the life they were going to start once they left this wretched place were suddenly taken away from them.
Yet there was the proof, standing right in front of him. The Pinnacle King tore the lance from Sarah’s chest, then carelessly threw her body on the ground before him, leaving her to lay in a pool of her own blood.
“See,” Octagon said, raising the lance, now coated in her blood. “Easy as that.”
Morgan felt his hand unstick from the ground at that moment, as the script clicked into place.
Now it finished?! Now, when it was too late?!
Morgan’s mind was numb as he rose unsteadily to his feet, his eyes locking on Sarah’s downed body. He had to be imagining it. He had to be. There was no way she was gone. As though in a dream, Morgan walked towards Sarah’s body, sure that if he could just reach her, she’d be okay.
“What do you think you’re doing?” the Pinnacle King asked, stepping over Sarah’s body and moving to block his way.
“Get out of my way,” Morgan whispered.
“I don’t think s…”
Morgan’s hand flashed out, his fist connecting with Octagon’s abdomen. The Pinnacle King was blasted off his feet and send flying across the room. He slammed into the opposite wall at such speeds that he burrowed a full ten feet into the ice before coming to a halt. Morgan didn’t even notice, moving over to Sarah in a daze.
He crouched beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and giving her a light shake. She didn’t move. Her body felt nothing like her own. It was now heavy and limp, all signs of life gone from the woman he loved.
“Come on, Sarah, quit playing around,” he said in a voice that didn’t sound quite right to his ears.
When she still didn’t respond, he reached under her shoulder and turned her onto her back, cradling her head in his lap. Her face was pale, her lips slightly parted, and her eyes still wide open. The hole in her chest was even more obvious now, as he’d somehow blotted out the entry wound in her back before.
“She’s dead. Get over it!” Octagon roared, tearing himself free from the wall.
His body was glowing violet once again, meaning he’d had some time to replenish some of the lost reiki. Morgan wasn’t even looking at him. With a trembling hand, Morgan reached up and lightly caressed the side of Sarah’s face. She was gone. There was no denying that now, but, just one last time, he wanted to get a good look at her before he lost himself to the madness churning within.
“Let me out!”
The voice of the beast, the one he thought he’d locked away so long ago, screamed in his mind.
“Let me out, and I’ll kill them all!”
“Just let me say goodbye,” Morgan whispered, reaching up to close Sarah’s eyes.
He leaned down then, feeling the tears flowing freely now and pressed his lips to her cold forehead. With her gone, he had nothing. When he’d lost Dabu, Sarah had been there for him, the same with when he’d lost Gwen, twice. Now, he had no one. There was only him. Life didn’t matter for him anymore. After all, what kind of life could he hope to lead without her by his side?
Morgan set Sarah gently on the ground. He rose to his feet, hand slapping to his chest and closing down on the material there. As he rose, the Pinnacle King approached, lips pulled back in a pleased snarl.
“You wanted to see what I could really do,” Morgan said in an oddly flat voice. “Well, now you can see…”
Then Morgan surrendered to the beast, setting it free from its cage and allowed his mind to drift into oblivion.
55
Octagon the Bitter watched Morgan’s transformation before his very eyes. The man himself didn’t change. His physical appearance remained exactly the same. However, it was something else, something intangible, either in the way he held himself or in the grin of near-insanity that spear across lips. It could have been any one of those things. But it was his eyes that truly gave it away. His eyes were filled with a burning hunger, the desire to rip and tear. The need to kill and devour. Those were the eyes of a beast, not at all a human.
“So, Beast King, we finally meet face to face,” Octagon said, holding his arms out to the sides.
“Oh, save your bullshit for someone who cares,” Morgan replied, cocking his head from side to side. “I have no interest in joining some weakling pretender. My power is supreme. No one, not even you, will stand in my way.”
The way he spoke, with that odd cadence and complete madness in his voice, told Octagon that there would be no changing his mind, which was a real shame. He’d waited so long to meet the real Beast King, and now, when he stood before him, he wanted to simply kill him.
“Morgan thought he’d gotten rid of me, tamed me, so to speak, when he accepted me for who I was. Frankly, I was growing tired of all the fighting, so I decided to play along. Now, though, you’ve presented me with too good an opportunity to pass up, and here I am.”
Morgan chuckled, his laugh turning into a high-pitched insane cackle. Then, without warning, Morgan launched himself right at Octagon, ripping the armor from his chest as he did so. Octagon wasn’t too worried about the threat. Beast King or not, he was still constrained by the limits of Morgan’s body. Octagon had taken his measure during their last encounters, and there was no way he could hurt him.
“Bring it on, then. I’m not afraid.”
Morgan’s hand swiped down to his waist, and his body was enveloped in a sickly greenish-yellow glow. Octagon could feel the power of the radiation immediately and threw his arms up to block.
Something like that shouldn’t even exist here! he thought, his heart truly starting to pound now, before the glowing fist slammed into his crossed arms.
Even through his skin, which had withstood countless attacks from powerful fighters over the last hour, Octagon felt the burn. Radiation was something that no one had protection against. There weren’t any deposits of radioactive materials in the Five Kingdoms. Or at least, there hadn’t been when Octagon had been created.
“What’s the matter, Sonny? You’re looking a little green!” Morgan cackled as Octagon was sent flying back under the force of the impact.
Octagon tried to right himself, but Morgan seemed intent on following him, cackling madly all the while. He unleashed a barrage of glowing green punches into his crossed arms. His back slammed against the far wall, and the glacier shook as Morgan slammed into him a moment later. The burning was growing worse and Octagon knew that if he didn’t do something soon, even he could be in serious trouble.
Radiation damage was not so easily healed as something like a broken bone or cut. Even destroyed organs could be replaced, but radiation attacked at the cellular level, which meant that he’d need to drain all his blood and have it replenished. And, if a single corrupted cell was missed, the poison would come right back.
He had to wonder why Morgan didn’t use this skill from the start. It would have truly been a game changer.
“Wondering why he didn’t use this from the start?” Morgan asked as he hammered away. “The answer is simple!”
Morgan grabbed Octagon by his crossed arms and hurled him into the ai
r, rocketing after him.
“He didn’t know the proper use!”
Octagon tried to counter as Morgan appeared above him, bringing his leg up and slamming it down in a powerful ax-kick. The impact to his arms burned, and he could feel the breath knocked out of him as his back slammed into the ground, causing the glacier to shake and tremble once again.
How does he have this much energy? His body should be drained of all energy, especially after giving up so much to fuel his prison!
Morgan hit him like a lead ball, plummeting down upon him and driving him ever-deeper into the ice.
“Enough!” Octagon roared.
When Morgan rose off him once more, he stretched his arm out and used Corrosion Slime. It was a mercury-based attack that would invade the target’s body and destroy them from the inside out. There was no possible way of defending this attack, so he was confident that he’d now be able to regain the upper foot and destroy the Beast King for good.
The green glow vanished from Morgan’s skin, instead taking on a dark, metallic sheen. Octagon’s attack hit him and slid harmlessly off his skin.
Octagon’s eyes narrowed when he saw this, and suddenly, his thinking shifted. He needed to stop thinking of this as someone who wasn’t dangerous. This was the Beast King, the creation that the gods themselves had locked away, never to be seen again. His power was such that they could not hope to contain or control it. Sure, the gods couldn’t interfere with him or any of his siblings, but he harbored no illusions as to who was actually stronger. In a fight against a god, no Pinnacle King would stand a chance.
The Beast King, on the other hand, had done so. He had killed a god, something which Octagon himself could only dream of. And as Morgan dropped once again, his skin taking on the radioactive glow, he finally understood why he had been locked away.
A monster like this has no place in my world, Octagon thought as he flooded his body with power. As the future ruler, it is my responsibility to put an end to him for good!
Octagon roared, extending his shield and finally repelling one of the Beast King’s attacks. To have to use his shield at all was a massive insult to his pride, but seeing as no one was there to witness it, he could bury the secret along with the Beast King.
Morgan was sent flying back up through the hole and into the main throne room once again, with Octagon hot on his heels. The Pinnacle King summoned his twin scythes and began slashing and whirling through a complicated series of attacks. The Beast King was nimble, twisting, dodging, and spinning his way out of each attempt at his life.
Violet light sprang up around his body as well, two gigantic hammers crackling with electricity spinning into existence with a whirling scream. Their weapons clashed, kicking up massive shockwaves and gusts of wind that pulled at his wings. Octagon was still the stronger of the two and slowly began to push him back.
He was quickly burning through his replenished reiki and knew that the fight needed to end quickly. The glacier was coming apart at the seams and if he wanted to save his home, he’d need to stabilize it in the next couple of minutes. He dashed forward, throwing Morgan’s attack back and knocking the man through the air. Giving chase, Octagon used another of his powerful skills, Eruption Beam. This would also attack a target’s innards, but unlike with his other attack, this would cause their bodies to grow unstable and violently explode.
A violet suit of armor appeared on Morgan’s body, the hammers morphing into gauntlets as the red beam blasted from the blade of his scythe.
Damn it! Octagon cursed as he threw the attack off, then retaliated with one of his own.
The gauntlets on his fists shot forward, slamming into him with massive force and speed. Suddenly, Octagon found himself backing off once more, the Beast King cackling as he advanced. The spark of electricity warned him of what was to come, just an instant before Octagon felt his entire body go numb. He’d felt this exact same attack from Morgan earlier, and it hadn’t done more than give him a little jolt. But now? Now it was making his body numb.
Octagon fell from the air, his wings unresponsive. He managed to land on his feet when he got to the ground and threw up an Ice Barrier between him and the attack. The shockwaves of the impacting gauntlets sent the room trembling and shaking once more, massive cracks running up the walls and spreading across the floor. As the trembling violently continued, Octagon knew that his glacier was on its last legs. There were perhaps a few minutes left before his home was gone for good, but he would make damn well sure that he won before then.
Morgan appeared beneath his shield suddenly, his gauntlet transforming into a hammer once again. The impact from this hit was far greater than any he’d felt so far, and Octagon was sent smashing through nearly fifty feet of ice, crashing into a different room entirely. Massive cracks appeared on his shield, letting him know what the attack would have done had it landed.
Growling, he tried to get to his feet, but the Beast King was in front of him once more, slamming the hammer into him and driving him down through the ice again. Every time he was smashed through a new part of the glacier, Octagon tried to rise, to counter, to do something, but Morgan was simply moving too quickly for him to recover.
He had no idea how the Beast King was moving so fast or how he’d gotten so much power. Even with a body enhancement, Morgan hadn’t really done much damage to him before. As Octagon was sent flying back into his destroyed throne room, his shield shattered and blood pouring from an open wound in his left pectoral, he knew that he’d have to pull out of another of his three big moves.
He’d been forced to use Absolute Zero, a skill that allowed him to freeze time and anyone who didn’t have at least one attribute over 600. It was extremely taxing, but when those mages had attacked, he’d sensed that his glacier would not survive, even if he did. So, he’d pulled it out at the last possible moment. And now, he’d be forced to use another one.
Octagon smashed into another wall, feeling the ice crack and splinter beneath his back. Morgan came through the hole he’d created, that manic grin still plastered onto his face. If Octagon had had any reservations about what he had to do next, they vanished in an instant. He tore himself from the wall, landing hard on the floor and gathered what reiki he had left in his core. Veins stood out all across his body, trembling with the effort of activation.
Morgan wasn’t going to give him the time he needed. He flashed across the distance between them in the span of a heartbeat, his hammer changing to a lance. He snarled as he drove it straight for the center of the Pinnacle King’s chest. Octagon grit his teeth as the lance punched through his skin, sending blood flowing down his front.
“How’s that feel?” Morgan asked, his grin widening.
“Bastard!” Octagon growled, feeling blood welling up between his teeth.
Morgan pressed harder, the rotation of his lance speeding up, and began drilling into his skin. Octagon had more than one defense to block himself from injury, though. The first was a barrier of metal just underneath his already-tough skin, and that was what Morgan had hit when he’d attacked. However, Octagon could feel the metal slowly giving way as Morgan pushed harder. Lightning suddenly coursed through him, making his body go numb once again.
“Come on!” Morgan cackled. “At least try and put up a fight! It won’t be nearly as satisfying otherwise!”
Octagon allowed his rage to burn colder and colder as he began to channel his skill. If the Beast King wanted to see real power, then he would gladly oblige. Just as Morgan’s lance punched through the metal and started to head for one of his vital organs, Octagon felt the skill finish charging.
He roared, reaching down and grabbing Morgan by the head, then hurled him back. He didn’t know why, but when he used these particular skills, he had to call out their names to get them to work. Not that he minded. They were pretty cool to say. He threw his head back, feeling the icy armor crackling up over his body as the wind kicked up.
The Beast King was on his feet and watching him, head
cocked to one side as though confused by what he was doing.
“Now witness the true might of the Pinnacle King of Winter!” Octagon roared. “Arctic Rampage!”
56
Morgan floated in an endless void, the only things visible to him being the fight going on around him and the image of Sarah, lying dead, her eyes lifeless and her body cold. Right now, all he could feel was the burning rage that was keeping the beast going and the knowledge that the monster who’d murdered Sarah was still alive. It kept the pain at bay, kept him from thinking about life, should he make it out of here in one piece.
The Pinnacle King didn’t need to be sealed away. He needed to be killed, and if that was the last thing he’d do, so be it!
***
The beast currently in control of Morgan’s body watched as Octagon coated himself in shining white armor. A little over the top for his tastes, but white was a great color. It would show the red of his blood the clearest when he cut him some more.
The Pinnacle King charged, his body now many times heavier. Each step caused the already-trembling ground to shake even harder. It wouldn’t be long before this place came crashing down around them, but he wasn’t worried. A little ice couldn’t hurt him, so let this place fall!
Octagon roared, his body blazing with violet light. His body began to bulge, and the armor cracked. For just a moment, Morgan was confused.
What is he doing?
Then, as the armor began to shatter and crack, revealing the dark skin beneath, he began to finally understand. The Pinnacle King had had a base form, one that he preferred to use when he wasn’t fighting. When he’d transformed, they’d believed that that was what he really looked like, the monster with massive wings. However, what they hadn’t considered was that it could have been a hybrid form, something between his real form and the one he chose to wear on a daily basis.
Now, as the Pinnacle King’s body continued to grow, his spine contorting and warping forward, his snout lengthening and all his proportions increasing massively, he finally understood what facing a Pinnacle King at the top of the food chain really was. He braced himself as the now forty-foot-long monstrosity barreled towards him, a paw the size of a small boulder swiping out to slam into his body.