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BII: Chapter Thirty-three
🕑 Added 2023-04-25 03:29:10 +0000 UTCBoiling blood steamed out of the forcibly amputated scaled demon. It threw itself at Eli in a fit of rage as it shaped its blood into a whip that raked across his chest. He skid backward from the blow gouging furrows in the hard rock beneath his feet.
Acidic blood bubbled over his Aurora Stardust constructed shirt. Stray drops sizzled over the exposed skin of his arms and hands. He shot out another ray of starlight that he dialed the density and gravity up as high as he could.
Bone crunched beneath blackened scales as the demon screeched. Despite the force of the ray, it didn’t even take a step back.
Eli threw himself in a roll as streams of acidic blood sprayed around him in an arc. Vigilant Revelation pinged to him that Rick had intercepted a deathblow aimed at Roman’s head.
Unnatural fear buzzed in the undertow of his thoughts as the demon’s Dream power tugged against his mind. Vigilant Revelation muffled the heft of it.
Sharp stone scraped harmlessly across his palms as he pushed himself up to his feet. Demonic claws ripped for his throat.
It was time to stop holding back.
Astral Starspace created swirling vortexes of stars all around them. He enchanted each star with the concept of rot as a constellation of starlightning converged on the demon.
Blackened scales cracked as blight thickened its wounds with decay. Filthy blood and broken scales hurled themselves at Eli. Starspace shields crumpled under the bombardment.
Celestial Embodiment and Aurora Stardust went into overdrive to heal him as infections drilled into him from the faintest wound it inflicted. Eli raised his hand with his palm aimed at the demon’s head.
It limped toward him as fresh bone and sinew regrew from the stump of its arm.
Aurora Stardust released a plume of plasmic cloud that spanned between him and the demon. Electrons charged through the cloud as he pushed at the magnetic field through it. Waves of radiant crimson shone on the surface as spectral emerald railed straight into the demon’s skull.
For a split second, he felt the entire structure and ecosystem of the demon’s physiology. Wounds from years ago. Vestigial wings and horns that waited to sprout. He felt where he could siphon its life to further fuel his own aurora or how he could bolster and heal it.
He folded his aurora wave into a spike that lanced into its smoking face.
Gouts of white flame spiked around its melting scales as it collapsed. Starlightning solidified in a web to keep it upright. Metal laced scales hammered, then buckled in a geyser of gore. Motes of iron dust ignited in the air.
Sparks of electricity arced around the fading flare of aurora as he reabsorbed it. Renewed vigor strobed through his nerves as he shivered at the euphoria. Vigilant Revelation already parsed the brief instance of directed use to give some further ideas on how to use Aurora Stardust.
“Are you okay?” Eli asked Rick and Roman as he teleported beside them in a flicker of starspace. He surrounded them in a harmless, inert flash of aurora that he used to supercharge and heal them anyway.
“I’m fine.” Roman twitched. “I was fighting one of them, but no matter what I did, that aamonite demon kept healing. It used all the damage I inflicted on it against me. Somehow it flooded my exosuit with both biological and technological viruses. I’d blink and think I was hacking Theo apart. It was about to maul me apart when Rick killed it.”
Eli winced as he spoke and then grimaced at the abandoned pair of demonic legs that still kicked with displaced signals. A trail of bloody mist and viscera led to a blasted crater where a single bullet of ice steamed.
Rick had smote half of its body with one nugget of hail.
“You mostly had it. Sorry that I stole your kill, but I got concerned when your armor started rusting and bleeding.” Rick patted Roman on the back before he smiled reassuringly at Eli. “You did pretty well for yourself in the end.”
Eli focused on his spatial field as he scoped out the labyrinthian warren of caves full of demons and elementals. They were just at the bend that led to the castle. These were some of the first demons that had given them any trouble, all the others had been focused on enhancing their physiology and recovery.
Nothing like what these last two were.
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have slain:
Igneous Elemental (x 27)
Scaled Demon (x 13)
Aamonite Demon (x 1)
With the powers:
Igneous Authority Ev. 1 (Rare) (x 27)
Innate Mastery Ev. 1 (Uncommon) (x 13)
Exponential Recovery Ev. 1 (Uncommon) (x 13)
Biological Warfare Ev. 2 (Epic) (x 1)
Empathic Illusion Ev. 1 (Rare) (x 1)
<Condensing list and voiding repeat powers>
<Processing...>
You may select from one of the following options for:
Igneous Assimilation Ev. 1 (Epic)
Exponential Regeneration Ev. 1 (Rare)
Biological Warfare Ev. 2 (Epic)
Empathic Illusion Ev. 1 (Rare)
Siphon Power Experience
Gain a Power Perk
Obtain Power from the Conquered>
“Do you think we’re good to head on up to the castle?” Roman asked, while he rubbed a thumb into his palm.
“You’re both doing great.” Rick smiled kindly at both of them. “Win or lose, you’ve succeeded already in my books. I wanted to get an idea of what you’re capable of, show you what a real dungeon is like, and see if Roman found an earth power he was interested in here.”
“I’m curious to see what else this dungeon has to offer.” Eli shrugged. He wanted to experiment with Aurora Stardust and Astral Starspace some more. Not to mention try out the Ghost Maeve gave him.
Hell, he might even put all his perks together into a new power. Eli still had no idea what he wanted to use Blight for.
“Okay. If you want to keep going I’m fine with that.” Roman frowned slightly. At Eli’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “My build isn’t the best for extended encounters like this.”
“Most people’s aren’t,” Rick nodded. “We keep this dungeon despite its many issues for that exact reason. Everything here is a hazard if you aren’t ready.”
“Yeah, I’m not really sure I am. I want to keep going, but I feel like I could do a lot better if I came back with a new and improved suit. Honestly, I’m ready to build a lot of stuff.”
“It sounds like the Forge could be a great place for that.” Eli pointed out.
“Maybe for the materials, but I don’t know. I’m tapped out. If you want to keep going, I’m fine with that. I can try to cover you.”
“No, that’s all right. I can go by myself or with Rick?” Eli turned to Rick. “Sound good?”
“I guess. Roman can eject and I can follow behind if you want?”
“Nah, that’s fine. I’ll go by myself for as long as I can. I heal pretty well.” Eli adjusted his smile as Vigilant Revelation reminded him to look less wolfish and more sheepish.
“Maeve said you could probably handle yourself fine even if you are a bit reckless. We’ll be around town. Send me a message when you’re done or send a quiet flare of aurora in the sky and I’ll see it.” Rick brushed his hands together before he nodded at Roman. “Eject.”
He disappeared.
Roman shifted awkwardly. “Good luck, Eli. After this, let’s work on some tech together to maybe get us back home, okay?”
“Of course. See you soon.” Eli waved before Roman vanished too.
Relief warred with a bit of sadness as they left. A part of him had hoped they’d all fight through the dungeon together. Dad probably would’ve never delved with him, but it would’ve been like one of the few rare days they both had enough time to play Eldritch Wars together.
Plus, Eli wanted to see Roman in action again. Fight side by side like when they took down Dorian and Nora yesterday.
Oh well, there was always next time.
Eli stepped through starspace teleporting in the middle of the courtyard to the castle. Broken castle walls spilled down into the road behind him. Mounds of twisted melted metal glowed in the wreckage where the crumpled gate laid.
Immediately, movement kicked up stone and ash everywhere around the courtyard as elementals, animated suits of armor, and demons prepared to attack him.
Vigilant Revelation cataloged the variations of elementals instantly. Dozens of flame, ash, and different type of igneous rock. There were two elementals of more potent mixes. One volcanic composed of ash, igneous rock, and magma and the other elemental was filled with ash and rot, probably decay.
A web of stars sparked in front of each of his opponents before he folded the space between each point into a single portal. Aurora Stardust flared with an infused shove of Celestial Embodiment. Elementals erupted in a kaleidoscopic flash. Lesser elementals disintegrated, demons popped into a charboiled pulp, and the enchanted suits of armor made out of iron and bronze melted into a smear of metal.
Several enemies remained.
Two greater elementals that closed in on either side of Eli. Hands of magma lunged for him while ashen spores swarmed around his head. He teleported into the air to dodge.
Four demons with ridged armored scales lobbed pitch black fireballs at him. Three of the demons regenerated smoking wounds across their heads and torsos. The fourth was unscathed. Eli inverted space with a combined flex of Astral Starspace, Aurora Stardust, and Celestial Embodiment as terror bled into his mind with the incoming fireballs.
Starspace fractured around him as they burst.
Swathes of gloomy flame swirled around him as fear and rage gripped his heart with the rising heat. His heartbeat skipped as weakened tongues of black flame licked across his skin. Aurora Stardust expanded around his body as he veiled himself in an improved suit of armor before he let himself fall.
Splotches of darkness clung to him where the flames caught, but it kept the looming heat and fear away.
A behemoth of plate armor stood atop the volcanic elemental with a magnificent warbow aimed right at Eli. It loosed an arrow more like a lance that hammered into him in the next instant. Metal crashed into his aurora armor with a crash of sparks but no true damage. Then a surge of kinetic energy transferred directly into him.
Eli slammed through the castle wall in a shower of stone. He rolled to a stop as his armor dimmed. Bruised skin and fractured bones smoothed and flexed back together. Grisly wounds reverted back to pristine health before his armor crackled with its prior glory.
Ashen spores billowed around him.
Vigilant Revelation went into overdrive. Thousands of predictions and patterns flickered as it honed his instinct. Dulled his pain and temporarily severed his emotional capacity. With the demons’ hellflame, it was only a hindrance.
Stellar Body activated as he transformed into a sun wreathed in starlightning and auroras. He teleported himself back to his feet while he yanked at the decay elemental with gravity, magnetic fields, and starspace. He felt the elemental buck against the reins of his powers, but he clamped Astral Starspace, Stellar Body, and Aurora Stardust together.
Eli clenched his fist around the spatial bubble trapping it. Gravity surged as the air inside of the bubble howled around the vortex at the center. It was trapped in the nascent singularity of his threefold powers.
Gravel grated as four demons crept around him. Flanking him. If Vigilant Revelation hadn’t suppressed anything extraneous to the fight, to survival, he would have laughed at their supposed assumption that they could trap him.
Each demon thrust their clawed hands toward Eli’s head. Unleashing jets of black flame. Bars of black hellfire streamed toward him as it devoured everything in its path.
He was sure that if he did nothing, it would sunder his aurora armor and flay the stellar flesh from his bones. Eli surrendered to Vigilant Revelation as he stood his ground.
Astral Starspace compressed around the spatial bubble in his hand. Vast amounts of summoned starmetal surrounded the ashen decay elemental at its center. Aurora Stardust squealed as he twisted the bubble and aurora around it while he used both powers to forge it into a ultra dense silvery star.
Tendons drew taut in his hand from holding it. Pressure ground against his distended knuckles as his wrist threatened to snap from the backlash of using both of his powers on a living elemental. It took all he had to keep the silvery star stable and prevent it from collapsing back into what it was.
Wisps of flame singed Eli as the hellfire reached him.
Eli shoved Stellar Body into the star in his hand until it crackled. Notifications adjusted with the newest casualty. He absorbed the star and his aurora armor, then shuddered as his vision turned silver.
Starburst patterns of crimson and spectral green washed over his silver skin as the flames hosed over him. Air and stone combusted with a bang as everything but him exploded.
Four demons hissed with laughter until the light and flames cleared revealing his radiant, nova form.
Hard rock splintered with a crunch as he teleported in front of the closest demon. An aurora dagger dyed silver fell into his hand before he plunged it into the demon’s throat. Armored scales stronger than diamonds ripped like tissue paper.
Another entry added to his notification.
Three demons rushed toward him with howls of rage.
Through the confluence of Stellar Body, Astral Starspace, and Aurora Stardust, he sensed the suit of armor and last elemental approach.
It hadn’t even been a minute since he fell.
Eli blinked tears of tarnished silver as he felt all his absorbed stars and his sun start to expire. Friction grated as each of his powers strained against the seams where he stitched them together.
His silver aurora dagger vanished as he teleported four times in rapid succession. Scarlet stained green light flared silver as it cleaved through the remaining demons before it rebounded off the suit of armor. Four pillars of starlight exploded as each point it landed erupted.
Eli found himself on his hands and knees once it cleared.
Pools of slagged lava bubbled in a chain leading to the suit of armor and volcanic elemental bearing down on him.
Embers of starlight flashed as he struggled to maintain Stellar Body. Twinges of weakness were all that remained. He had overextended, pushing each of his stars to their brink before they collapsed. Inside of Celestial Embodiment’s void was little more than fading debris.
Metal grated as the suit of armor conjured another lance to nock and draw. Each pool of lava burst as the volcanic elemental hurled them all at him.
Fear and exhaustion leaked through the emotional dam Vigilant Revelation provided.
Eli fought to keep his eyes open as he flailed uselessly with Astral Starspace and Aurora Stardust. Seeds of stars and radiant clouds strobed into his void, but it did little more than maintain his ailing stellar form. He had nothing left but the cold entropic vacuum of space.
Regardless, he tried to move. To flee the payload of lava and the lance aimed for his heart.
Why should he run empty just because he used up all his stars and his sun? Just because he burnt them out for his nova didn’t mean he was tapped out.
The suit of armor drew the arrow back to the cheek of its helm before it loosed. Aurora Stardust flexed around him as he created solid shields and nudged his limp form to the side.
A lance howled through the air shattering each shield in rapid succession. Voltage from the magnetic fields turned it cherry red before it pierced right beneath Eli’s left shoulder. His armor cracked from the impact. Shrapnel from the arrow burrowed into him.
Lava slapped him in a tidal wave of heat and molten metal and stone. More sections of his Aurora Stardust armor cracked while his bones snapped under the weight.
Dimensional space compressed around him like a vent as the Devil’s Forge dungeon prepared to eject him. Astral Starspace snagged against it as he resisted. Eli wasn’t done yet.
Lava froze around him with a brittle snap. Three feet of fletched metal vanished straight into the void of Celestial Embodiment. Eli’s last breath frosted before his lungs turned into a vacuum. His form shifted until it was mostly insubstantial.
Pain vanished as he fell into a waking unconsciousness.
Eli teleported out of the dungeon’s attempt of a burial mound with a thunderclap. Sheets of ice steamed around him. Another arrow streaked harmlessly through where Eli was, but it didn’t touch him. He attempted to fire starlight at them.
Instead, he launched asteroids through depressurized space. Frost twinkled around the suit of armor as it shot back. Weight leeched off of it as its gravity diminished to nothing. The volcanic elemental flattened as chunks of igneous rock shattered.
Fields of gravity hammered into it again and again until it stopped moving.
A suit of armor limped toward Eli.
It wobbled unsteadily on its warbow-turned-crutch. Portions of its body sagged where it had been deformed. Metal slumped in a squished blob where its helm had been. Water dripped from gored rips in its breastplate and greaves.
Vigilant Revelation directed him in his waking slumber to create starlightning. Jumbled agony misfired once it found no semblance of nerves or brain to complain to. Vibrant starlightning crackled as it jolted into the suit of armor with a rattle.
Then he inverted it with his new understanding of dead stars. Dead, empty space. While he had always understood the void, he had never truly used it until this moment.
Annihilation sundered the weakened suit of armor on its last legs until it burst into nothingness.
Eli relaxed as he fully gave himself over to Vigilant Revelation. Out of the void of space dropped the healed ruin of his body.
Sleep consumed him. He was done now.
VR caught its master with a flare of secondhand signals. If it had any iota of personality, it would have sighed at the display of recklessness. It certainly understood, after all, VR was trained exclusively on Elias’s thoughts, memories, and feelings.
If it wouldn’t have harmed its core directive though, it would have also gritted Elias’s teeth. How careless. Abandoning all motor functions in the middle of a delve without supervision was absolutely bonkers.
Thank the System Elias made VR with the plethora of perks he did!
It piloted the various nerves and muscles of Elias’s body. It seethed silently as Elias’s body flopped to the ground with a flurry of uneven kicks. Too bad powers weren’t actually sapient or it would’ve demanded a raise.
Not that powers were paid, either.
VR tried to push Elias up with his hands, but instead of the graceful push up it imagined, Elias’s fist hammered into his thigh. Dictionaries full of expletives populated VR’s thought streams until it banished the unnecessary junk.
People walked all the time.
Babies did it.
Certainly an evo-1 power on the cusp of evolving could do so too. Too bad it couldn’t communicate with the other powers or VR could’ve teleported Elias safely inside of sanctum. Or it could’ve made Stellar Body useful, but no. That was far too much.
Fingers dug into rock beside Elias’s hips while VR pushed with his feet. An awkward flop later and Elias was rolled over on his hands and knees. VR extended both arms and legs until it crawled itself upright. It was a standing maneuver that would’ve made Elias proud if he were conscious.
VR opened Elias’s eyes so it could scan the devastated surroundings. All good, no enemies here!
There was no way in hell that VR would be able to fight or navigate the dungeon by itself. It was an extraordinary power, but it preferred to be a navigator and advisor rather than driver. It already made a note to delete this functionality of itself… after informing Elias it could do this, of course.
Thousands of similar reminders and notes waited off to the side for the appropriate moment to alert Elias to them. Thorough logs were a must.
Enough memories lingered in Elias’s subconscious about the dangers of AI to know that he likely wouldn’t appreciate this being a common occurrence. Would he be mad?
VR pruned the unhelpful thought process. Goddamn that unfocused brat for polluting its training modules with such cluttered nonsense and insecurities.
It deleted that too.
There. All better now.
Looked like the only real option was to verbally eject the dungeon and hope Elias wouldn’t be upset. But it was better to be upset than dead. Although, VR idly wondered if Elias could even die at this point.
“Eaugh!” VR spoke for the first time.
Nope. That wasn’t quite it. VR considered the entire process of speaking and enunciating specific syllables for the required effect. It tried again.
“Egothe.”
One more time?
“E…ject,” VR spoke through Elias’s mouth. Dimensional space slammed into them as it flushed them out of the dungeon’s instance out into the real world. An idea on how to crack dimensional travel occurred to it.
VR couldn’t wait to—
Eli woke up on his feet in the freezing hallway outside the dungeon entrance. All his powers led to sore throbbing points in his mind. He blinked at the wall of notifications preening for his attention.
Something unloaded in his thoughts first of him sleepwalking while Vigilant Revelation piloted his body around. It felt bizarre to know that technically he did that, but in actuality it was one of his powers acting on his behalf.
Eli felt disturbed at the notion, but he also knew that people were generally immune to their powers. It was how people didn’t burn themselves with fire powers or tear their body into pieces with flight. Besides, he knew that Vigilant Revelation was incapable of doing that again.
But it didn’t mean that he couldn’t enchant something else for Vigilant Revelation to pilot on his behalf.
He caught up to the last bit of Vigilant Revelation’s plan with a smile. Roman and him had a lot of work to do.
Eli read through his latest power offerings and his notifications with a smirk. He had improved so much already, but he was almost ready to create his new power at last now that he knew more about Aurora Stardust.
It was time to get to work.
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Astral Starspace Ev. 1/Lv. 8 -> Astral Starspace Ev. 1/Lv. 9>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Aurora Stardust Ev. 2/Lv. 0 -> Aurora Stardust Ev. 2/Lv. 1>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Vigilant Revelation Ev. 1/Lv. 4 -> Vigilant Revelation Ev. 1/Lv. 7>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have slain:
Igneous Elemental (x 49)
Scaled Demon (x 24)
Aamonite Demon (x 5)
Volcanic Elemental (x 1)
Decay Elemental (x 1)
Personified Armor (x 1)
With the powers:
Igneous Authority Ev. 1 (Rare) (x 49)
Innate Mastery Ev. 1 (Uncommon) (x 24)
Exponential Recovery Ev. 1 (Uncommon) (x 24)
Biological Warfare Ev. 2 (Epic) (x 5)
Empathic Illusion Ev. 1 (Rare) (x 1)
Empathic Flame Ev. 2 (Epic) (x 4)
Decaying Ash Ev. 2 (Rare) (x 1)
Volcanic Terramancy Ev. 2 (Epic) (x 1)
Living Armory Ev. 2 (Epic) (x 1)
Dynamic Equipment Ev. 2 (Epic) (x 1)
<Condensing list and voiding repeat powers>
<Processing...>
You may select from one of the following options for:
Volcanic Devastation Ev. 1 (Legendary)
Accumulative Regeneration Ev. 1 (Legendary)
Biological Warfare Ev. 2 (Epic)
Ethos Pyre Ev. 2 (Legendary)
Decaying Ash Ev. 2 (Rare)
Volcanic Terramancy Ev. 2 (Epic)
Living Armory Ev. 2 (Epic)
Dynamic Equipment Ev. 2 (Epic)
Siphon Power Experience
Gain a Power Perk
Obtain Power from the Conquered>
Comments
QKelpFace
Eli could take the legendary Accumulative Regen and give it to Roman maybe? He was looking for a healing/regeneration power I think. Or perhaps Eli goes off the rails and goes for a volcanic eruption type sub power set instead of lightning :O (fun theory, most probably not happening) VR being mildly self aware but not really is pretty interesting, but then it deleted itself. Oh well, could’ve spelled trouble for Eli later anyways with AI take over and all of that. Also, I’m imagining Eli in his Celestial-Nova-Star-Void-Galaxy Embodiment type form looks like those extra dimensional guys from MIB international (mid movie don’t watch it)
weas97
honestly the power of aurora seems to be better than I thought it would be and it's a great relief apart from being very exciting to see Eli finally unleash the full power of his estelayr body and see how he used the void, as soon as [vigilant revelation] was curious to see how the superconscious gained consciousness by itself and although it will not be able to pilot the body again, however, due to the ability it has to have multiple lines of active thought along with what Eli seems to plan, it will be interesting to see his future, and for the powers In the end, everything really seems great, I'll just wait to see what the author brings with them, what better way to rest a few weeks now than a major problem later and more if it affects your personal life and health for what the novel has been worth so far Great, don't go too far and take it at your own pace.
QKelpFace
Wow, there’s a lot to unpack in this chapter. Pretty awesome! Anyways, if you feel the need to step away and take a break don’t hesitate to do so, us readers will understand. Do what’s best for you and your health first!
![DoBert [ ドベルト] from fanbox](https://patrefans.com/kistorage/93596.jpg)
