Priam
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Chapter 267: As Expected of My Rival
🕑 Added 2024-08-26 02:00:28 +0000 UTCA bit late, but I couldn’t resist adding another 1 000 words… Enjoy!
*
Sna felt useless. Her expressionless face was hard to read, but a keen observer might have caught the slight droop of her left lip corner, betraying a hint of frustration.
Hovering in the air by sheer force of will, the Tier 4 had shed her humanoid appearance to reveal a serpentine body covered in scales and supported by a pair of bat-like wings. Looking at her, it was obvious she was different from the rest of her tribe.
Born a serpent, Sna had been captured nearly a millennium ago by a Snahert shaman. The man had raised her for her unique venom, guiding her to Tier 3. After centuries of struggle, she had finally succeeded in altering her physical form. They had then produced offspring to see if her unique trait was hereditary. It wasn’t.
Centuries later, when their father died, her children had convinced her to stay with the tribe. She had agreed to become the new shaman of the Snaherts, in part to have easier access to ingredients for longevity elixirs. Without rare spiritual medicine, the soul of a Tier 4 began to collapse after a thousand years, and Sna wasn’t ready to die.
That was why she was here today. She and the other crafters were part of this raid, hoping to find more fragments of an internal world’s fulcrum. After all, nothing extended one’s lifespan like a Tier up.
So far, her efforts were disappointing. No matter how hard she pushed her Concept, Excess couldn't penetrate the Fallen's defenses. Three hundred meters below, the black dome of the Divine Kingdom rippled as a rabhorn emerged. The Tier 3 creature leaped forward, breaking the sound barrier as it tried to escape the cataclysmic battle raging in the Fallen’s lair.
Sna flexed her Concept, shifting the concentration of carbon monoxide near the horned rabbit to one hundred percent. The lethal gas replaced the oxygen in its blood, causing it to lose consciousness within seconds. The higher a creature’s physical attributes, the more energy its metabolism required to move.
A few seconds later, the Tier 3’s heart stopped. At no point had it detected her presence. There was only one Tier’s difference between Tier 3 and Tier 4, but the chasm between low and mid Tiers was vast. Even a crafter like her could terrorize a fighter.
Yet all this power still wasn’t enough to breach the Fallen’s defenses. No matter how much Excess altered the air’s composition to create explosions, the dome showed no signs of weakening. Frustrated, Sna let her anger erupt. In an instant, the concentration of the most toxic molecules in the ground and air spiked. A heartbeat later, there wasn’t a living plant for kilometers.
The violent emotion of a Tier 4 had just ravaged millions of trees, turning an entire valley into a wasteland. Such was the horror of the mid Tiers.
“An excess of frustration? I expected better from a colleague,” Mama Apo grunted as she levitated toward Sna.
“Our Concepts change us as we approach Unity,” Sna replied flatly.
“Civilized people fight those changes. I guess, deep down, you're still a beast.”
Sna ignored the jab. The hatred between the Snaherts and the Gaeserts ran deep. “Do you have any idea how to pierce these defenses?”
Below them, the ink-black dome marked the boundary between the Fallen’s Divine Kingdom and Elysium. The crafters’ role was to shatter it, stripping the enemy of their home-field advantage. The four fighters had chosen to dive inside, realizing brute force wouldn’t be enough.
Mama Apo thought for a moment before summoning a snake-shaped specter. “See if you can corrupt the dimensional veil with this.”
Intrigued, Sna took the staff, deciphered the complex ritual within, and began channeling its power. The ophidian eyes etched onto the weapon spat two drops of venom at the pseudo Divine Kingdom. Ten meters before contact, a white barrier appeared, blocking the poison. The reaction meant the venom would be effective... if it could reach the dome.
“The Fallen must have spent decades charging their defenses,” she said after summoning a dozen more drops of venom, which splashed uselessly against the barrier. “Given the strength of these protections, the inside of the Divine Kingdom must be filled with traps. This raid is turning into a siege; it’s time to cut our losses.”
“Not necessarily,” Gryphe interjected as she approached. The specialist in formations, arrays, and rituals was studying the barrier with a focused expression. “I’m pretty sure I can hack this, give me a few minutes.”
“... You’ve got ten minutes before I call back Braato,” Mama Apo declared. “Leaving my tribe unsupervised for too long is a recipe for disaster.”
Ignoring Gryphe’s grumble, Sna watched the massive hole the fighters had carved at the start of the assault. They had been engaged for twenty minutes now, and the whole island trembled under their blows. Even for her, getting too close to the fight would turn her into mush. I just hope Ophis can find an opening...
A wave of corruption jolted Sna’s animal instincts awake. Alerted, the three shamans turned to the horizon. A true titan, fifty meters tall, was making its way toward them, crushing everything in its path. Its presence was so vile that it distorted the ambient aether, cutting off all long-distance communication.
The three crafters backed off to a safe distance, fully aware they stood no chance against a fighter. The titan stopped at the edge of the pit. On its shoulder, a young man reeking of corruption looked in their direction. Sna hesitated to act before holding back; necromantic creatures were particularly resistant to poisons.
After ten seconds of tense standoff, the undead turned away, and the titan leaped. A dozen barriers appeared to stop it, but they all shattered on contact.
The tremors ceased for a second before resuming with even greater intensity.
“This is our chance,” Gryphe said.
Sna raised the specter and began crafting dimensional poison.
*
Priam scratched the belly of Sphinx while watching the end of Dishnu’s Tribulations. Beside him, Jasmine, Esmée, and Arnold were waiting too. The Var Elegis had come to him shortly after the Necro Titan was summoned and asked what his next move would be.
“There is no next move. I just want Sumstreh dead,” the Homo Elysian had replied. With less than four hours left before the time rewind, nothing else mattered. Sending Jasmine to search the tribal camps or completing a few more waves in the Colosseum by opening a portal to the Moon was pointless.
What mattered most was defeating Sumstreh, watching his companions face their Tribulations, and attempting his own without dying twice. How he planned to do it was a secret, one Arnold wasn’t privy to.
BOOM!
When the father of all elementals finally collided with the fungus treants' army, the reaction was… explosive. The convergence of the two Tribulations was a multiplication, not a mere addition. In a split second, a wave of fire shot through millions of flammable fungi, creating a blast that licked the clouds.
Pyro absorbed the heat wave before it could reach his allies and focused on Dishnu. His movements were becoming sluggish, the flames transmitted through the symbiotic link consuming much of his body. Despite this, the drya remained unfazed, ignoring the embers on his bark as he physically blocked his opponent’s axe.
From time to time, he manipulated the ambient aether to create spells and rituals on the fly. Faster than the eye could see, runes formed to summon clouds that blocked the necro light, banish oxygen to snuff out searing flames, or bind the Lumberjack. Even without the support of the forest, Dishnu seemed capable of facing the Tribulations with just his sublime aether mastery.
“Fucking monster,” Jasmine muttered. “I’m almost sure he could end this if he really wanted to.”
The battle felt anticlimactic, with her rival ignoring most of the Tribulations. Watching how little energy the drya expended, Priam wondered what he was scheming.
“He’s waiting for the Tribulations to reach their final phase to reap the best rewards,” Esmée explained, pointing at the ground. “At that point, he’ll unleash his magnum opus.”
Priam frowned before his eyes widened, probing the underground. Far from being passive, Dishnu was using the underground root network to construct a colossal ritual, covering an area Priam couldn’t even begin to fathom. Polyglot’s Merit suggested the formation was related to protection, growth, and regeneration. Still, he couldn’t comprehend how the drya could intricately manipulate roots several kilometers away while enduring a quintuple Tribulation.
“It’s starting,” Esmée said.
The firestorm calmed, giving way to an elemental nearly a hundred meters tall. The being of energy condensed before being absorbed by the Lumberjack. Three Tribulations had fused into a golden, cyberpunk axeman on steroids.
The first swing of the axe tore off the treant's arm, and Priam winced. Despite his resistances and constitution, an attack with that much Aura, Axe Mastery, and a Concept behind it would have one-shot him. The gigantism of Log-a-rhythm saved Dishnu, but he had to retreat from the Lumberjack’s fury. Dodging a few attacks, the drya showed commendable martial arts skills. Soon, it wasn’t enough.
An axe blow missed Dishnu but split the ground open for hundreds of meters. Unbalanced by the sudden appearance of the artificial canyon, the treant stumbled, sealing his fate. The second arm fell. The Lumberjack then raised its axe high into the sky and activated a skill for the first time in the fight.
Its weapon fell like a guillotine. A spectral blade decapitated the treant and continued its path to the horizon, gouging the earth and cleaving through the clouds. Just witnessing the attack made Priam's eyes sting. Rubbing them, he was surprised to find his fingers bloody.
The battle was a showcase of the heights a Tier 0 could reach.
The treant’s head hit the ground with a thud, revealing Dishnu grafted inside. Torn between splitting Log-a-rhythm’s trunk in half or finishing off the drya, the axeman focused on the Tribulation candidate.
The executioner raised its axe and swung it down like divine judgment.
Dishnu shattered like a dry log.
“What the—”
Stunned, Priam's mouth dropped open. The drya had seemed vast and omniscient. Could he really die so easily?!
The ground trembled as the underground ritual activated. In less than a second, the ambient aether and heat were absorbed by the drya’s masterpiece, transformed, and guided through the root network. A wave of energy and vitality shook the world.
The charred bark of the trees scorched by the fire fell away, revealing sturdy trunks that began to grow. The plants devastated by the fungus were reduced to ashes, but their seeds, hidden in the soil, sprouted and grew at a furious pace.
Before Priam could recover from his shock, a majestic forest had regrown. If Tribulations were destruction incarnated, Dishnu was a creator.
The drya had replicated the miracle of life and the vegetation was now resistant to fire, fungus and necro blight. Leaping into the air, Priam rose a hundred meters to admire his rival’s work, and his mouth went dry.
The ritual covered over a hundred square kilometers, the size of a large metropolis. I thought I was closing the gap, but... looks like I need to up my game.
The second Tribulation, the symbiotic bond between the forest and the Guardian, activated. The treant regenerated and grew until he reached fifty meters. A golden halo encircled his head, his emerald wood accentuating the crimson hue of his leaves. Maybe because it was the fusion of two Guardians, he radiated a regal presence.
Almost as if to say it hadn’t lost yet, the Lumberjack wound up for a terrifying axe blow... which barely scratched his opponent’s bark. Dishnu pressed his palm against the giant and demonstrated the quiet strength of nature, crushing the cyber punk against the bedrock. The cascade of crimson light dried up, the System recognizing the victor.
Dishnu had won his quintuple Tribulation.
*
Priam approached the ruins of Oasis, sighing. The wall was half-collapsed, the turrets useless, the Forum cracked, and the river bed diverted. Not everything was bad; the biotraps had evolved, the guardian’s domain had expanded significantly, the forest was lush, and Log-a-rhythm had grown. However, neither its new size nor its enhanced features were as important as the emotions Priam could feel budding within him.
“It’s sentient,” Priam realized, watching his tree take root again.
“The second Tribulation helped, giving it the spirituality of millions of trees.”
“That’s why you triggered this ritual?” Priam asked, understanding. “You waited for the forest to completely die so the symbiotic bond would elevate it to another level.”
Dishnu nodded.
“...You could have won faster? If you had ignored Log-a-rhythm and the forest.” Priam wondered where he stood compared to his ally.
“I would have won the Tribulations and lost my heart,” replied the Guardian of the Forest.
“I see. Will Log-a-rhythm keep its new territory?”
Oasis's area had expanded by nearly fifty thousand times, which seemed excessive.
The drya shook his head. “Its consciousness is too weak to control an area this vast. Over the next few days, Oasis will shrink, but you could speed up its growth with a compatible Concept,” he said, gesturing toward the ground.
“You mean Valar—”
BOOM!
The forest shook as birds fled in their direction.
“The Fallen’s lair is open,” Esmée announced.
Priam turned. “Then it’s time to—”
*
“Then it’s time to—”
The remains of the cyberpunk axeman trembled under Arnold’s fingertips. The Var Elegis stepped back, satisfied with the robotic knowledge he had gleaned from his rival’s Tribulation. With this, he could craft a fourth version of his avatar, pushing his limits even further. This would allow him to maintain a slight lead over the Guardian.
Sensing a sudden spike in temperature near the robot’s abdomen, Arnold backed away just in time to avoid the explosion. An immense, furious flame shot skyward as the reactor, damaged during the battle, detonated. The fire condensed into a nova that glared down at the rivals.
“The fire elemental…” Priam murmured, sounding just as surprised as Arnold. His sensors hadn’t detected anything until the very last second.
Two balls of plasma broke away from the main body, one of them rocketing toward Var Elegis. The Champion raised his hand, absorbing the attack, but immediately regretted it. The heat was so intense that the circuits in his arm partially melted, despite his enhanced constitution and resistances. The energy seemed to have a mind of its own, refusing to be harnessed by his generator. His Domain shattered its resistance at the cost of his own willpower, but the energy yield was abysmal.
“Delicious.”
Arnold turned to his rivals just in time to see the First swallow. His rival seemed unfazed by the plasma, once again showing off his insane resilience.
“RAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
The elemental roared in fury, and Arnold braced himself for a tough fight. An energy creature was notoriously difficult to harm, especially in a forest where it could regenerate endlessly. The trees had been reinforced, but that would be little help against a sentient ball of plasma.
The homunculus's processors calculated the best way to exhaust the elemental, and he fired a laser infused with his Aura. Watching the elemental wounded by the Aura but healed by the laser, Var Elegis understood this fight was going to be brutal, the energy creature an especially effective enemy against him. The most optimal plan was to trap the creature in the chasm beneath Log-a-rhythm. Could he convince the First to—
“I guess the Fallen takes priority... Fuck off before I decide to devour you,” the First said, swapping his cloak of mist for a mantle of flames.
The First’s apparent confidence surprised Arnold. A creature born of a Tribulation naturally held a deep-seated hatred for System users. The chances of it fleeing were statistically zero.
“Rahh…”
The elemental eyed the First carefully, then vanished, leaving nothing but the streak of a shooting star in its wake. Astonished, Arnold analyzed the situation, trying to understand how a Tribulation could fear someone before remembering one crucial detail.
His rival defied all the rules.
“As expected of the First.”
*
[3 hours 15 minutes before optimal activation of Back in Time.]
*
Status:
PHYSICAL:
Strength 782
Constitution 1 386
Agility 924
Vitality 1 336
Perception 817
MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599
Dexterity 680
Memory 896
Willpower 1 193
Charisma 754
META:
Meta-affinity 920
Meta-focus 438
Meta-endurance 777
Meta-perception (A) 441
Meta-chance 332
Meta-authority 252
Potential: 12 431
Tier 0
Sun point: 0
[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED
[Tribulation]: Six Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 152 days 9 hours 22 minutes 14 seconds.
Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attribute > 900 / 3 attributes > 1 200 / 1 attribute > 1 500
Comments
stormferret
I love that Arnold is being defeated by confirmation biased.
Shadow Korosu
You know, I just had a thought. Priam was theorizing that anything he carries in his internal world would be carried back in time with him, thus duplicating it. What if he brought Sphinx with him? It would be very interesting to have two of her, I'd think their Karmic bond would be *unreal* and possibly enough to pull her secondary self out of Bastard's realm. If both versions of her met and physically interacted, what would happen? I doubt we'll ever see it happen, but my brain found it amusing.
IdolTrust
I wonder if the tree would keep its points/growth because it’s connected to priam with a soul bound. I wonder how many potential points the tree got and if he got enough to get that most expensive upgrade that would make it on par with Priam.
