Leviathan!?
Shit—
The water surrounding my body became a vice.
Pressure slammed in from every direction, millions of pounds reaching for me all at once. I felt my innards crack as the ocean tried to crush me. Water flooded my eyes, my ears, my mouth, drowning me as darkness swallowed everything.
An explosion of golden flame erupted from my body, giving me one brief moment of relief as the water boiled around me.
It didn’t last.
The walls of water came crashing back in, trying to squash me flat once more.
Infinity flared to full power.
A pocket of air formed around me as the ocean slammed against the divided space, crashing and churning, yet never quite touching me. Beams of destruction surged from my eyes, cutting through the dark waters and boiling the sea around me.
For a split second, the depths lit up as I swept the beam wide, but Leviathan quickly vanished into the dark.
Then steam and roiling water clogged my vision once more.
I needed to get to the surface.
Now.
Golden flame burst around me again as I shot upward through the churning water. The pressure fought me every inch of the way, trying to entomb me and force me back down into the depths. Infinity held the sea back, carving out just enough space for me to fly up through the crushing water.
The surface finally broke above me.
I erupted out of the bay with a gasp, water streaming off my body as I shot into the open air.
An arrow of white light slammed into me before I could even get my bearings.
Infinity caught it inches from my face, the attack grinding uselessly against the divided space between us. The light screamed against my barrier for half a second before scattering apart.
Then a familiar sound touched my ears.
A long, resonant note slipped past the crash of waves. It wasn’t loud, but it sank into my skull all the same, vibrating through my bones and making my thoughts stutter for a fraction of a second.
The Simurgh hung in the sky.
Around her floated dozens of strange tinkertech machines, all moving in orbit. Some were sleek guns with glowing barrels. Others were clusters of rotating lenses, jagged metal frames, and boxy launchers covered in wires. Massive metal blocks hovered among them, each one glowing and shimmering with energy.
And standing on her shoulder was Eidolon.
His costume was wrecked. Half of it had been burned away, leaving one side of his body exposed to the open air. His skin was blackened in places, torn in others, but a green aura covered him in a thin sheen, seemingly struggling to heal his wounds. His mask was melted, and a ruined eye stared hatefully back at me.
Another resounding boom tore through the air.
A metal spike shot toward my head faster than I could blink.
It stopped short against Infinity.
The spike hung there, trembling in place, its point inches from my forehead.
I glanced down at the boat in contempt, seeing the Three Blasphemies readying the gun again.
“How kind of you to save me the trouble,” I laughed as I stared up at Eidolon. “This is your best, David? What a sad fucking showing.”
Lightning crackled around Eidolon’s hand before he thrust it toward me. A jagged bolt tore through the sky and slammed straight for my chest.
It stopped short against Infinity.
That seemed to be the signal.
The Simurgh’s arsenal opened fire all at once. Tinkertech guns spun in the air around her, barrels glowing white, blue, and sickly green before they unleashed everything they had. Lances of light, crackling spheres, screaming metal rounds, and bursts of compressed force filled the sky between us.
The Blasphemies joined in from below, unleashing their own arsenal as well. Heavy rounds punched through the air. Thin red beams carved after me. Missiles split apart mid-flight, turning into clusters of smaller projectiles that curved in from multiple angles.
I flew through it all.
Infinity caught what I couldn’t dodge. The attacks came from every direction, but none of them touched me.
Still, my head began to ache. Even with all the boosts I’d gained, maintaining Infinity for this long was difficult.
I kept flying straight for Eidolon as beams of pure destruction shot from my eyes.
The Simurgh drifted backward, her wings shifting as she wove through the sky and dodged my flames. Eidolon stayed planted on her shoulder, glaring down at me through his cracked mask. The two of them retreated faster than the Cloak of Levitation could carry me forward, keeping just enough distance between us.
Annoying.
Eidolon raised one hand.
A small black sphere appeared in front of him and shot toward me. The moment it moved, my head began to ache even worse. Space bent around it, light twisting as the air folded inward. It wasn’t just pulling things in. Reality itself was warping around the damn thing.
I threw out a wave of Frenzied Flame.
The fire met the miniature black hole head-on.
Space buckled between us as the two forces collided, and the impact shoved me backward hard enough to rattle my bones. The sky distorted for a second, pressure crushing against Infinity before the black sphere collapsed in on itself and vanished.
I steadied myself in the air, golden fire crawling over my arms.
Lightning. Healing. Blackhole.
That made three powers I’d counted so far.
It was time to play fetch, you fucker.
The Hound of Tindalos stepped out into the air, all long limbs, sharp edges, and wrong colors. It hurt my eyes just to look at it.
“Kill him!”
The Hound disappeared.
Eidolon screamed in agony.
The beast lunged from a corner on the Simurgh’s shoulder, already tearing into him. Claws raked across his ruined costume and exposed flesh as jagged teeth snapped down toward his neck. Eidolon thrashed, green aura flaring around his body as he tried to force the thing off, but the Hound clung to him and ripped deeper.
I raised my hand, flames gathering for a shot.
One of the tinkertech machines around the Simurgh burst open before I could fire. Space folded around them, and the Simurgh, Eidolon, and half her arsenal vanished in a flash of distorted light.
The Hound followed.
It disappeared through the nearest corner and reappeared beside them in the same instant, rabidly lunging for Eidolon again and again. The Simurgh’s wings shifted, and several floating guns turned on the beast. White beams and metal spikes shot through the air, but the Hound vanished each time they came close.
Every time the Simurgh tried to pin it down, the Hound slipped away and came back from a different corner, forcing Eidolon to keep defending while the green aura around his wounds flickered harder.
Good enough.
I turned away from them and faced the broken ship.
The Three Blasphemies continued firing futilely at me from the deck.
I wove a gigantic sun of golden flame above my hands.
“BURN!”
A massive hand formed from the sea, rising out of the bay and swinging toward me with enough force to crush buildings. I ignored it. Infinity caught the blow before it reached me, and the water exploded outward as the hand broke apart against the divided space.
I raised both hands toward the ship.
The sun dropped.
Golden fire swallowed the broken vessel.
The hull lit up as the flames spread across it, burning through metal, cargo, and whatever remained inside. The Blasphemies kept firing until the fire overtook them, their weapons vanishing beneath the blaze.
The ship came apart piece by piece, its frame glowing, warping, and collapsing under the heat until there was barely anything left to recognize. Fire surged through the last of it, reducing the broken vessel to ash and molten scraps that hissed as they fell into the bay.
[Feat Achieved! Burn the Blasphemous]
[+1 Platinum Gacha Ticket][Rolling Platinum Gacha][Potara Earrings]
|Epic Item|
(Tome)Dragon Ball - A pair of magical earrings that, when worn by two different beings, permanently fuses them into one entity that possesses the sum of their powers and abilities.
“Come out!”
Ridley manifested from my inventory space first, his wings spreading wide as Prelati appeared atop him. Igris emerged behind them, and beside him, the Hound of Tindalos stepped out, its body shifting in a way that made my eyes ache.
I pulled out the Potara earrings and threw one to Igris and the other to the Hound.
“Use these.”
Igris caught the earring with one armored hand. The Hound snapped the other out of the air with its jaws. A flash of light erupted as both of them put the earrings on.
Their forms slammed together.
When the light faded, something new stood in the air.
It had Igris’s knightly frame, tall and armored in deep shadow, but the edges of its body bent wrong whenever I looked too closely. Its helm was crowned with jagged angles, its limbs longer and sharper than before, and its crimson blade now carried a thin distortion that made the space around it tremble.
Prelati clapped his hands together and giggled with pure joy at the sight.
I pointed toward Eidolon and the Simurgh.
“Bring me their heads.”
The fused knight bowed.
Then it vanished.
A flash of its sword was the only warning before it appeared beside the Simurgh’s arsenal. One tinkertech gun split apart. Another fell in two. A massive metal block shifted to intercept, only for the fused Igris to step through a corner in the air and reappear behind it, carving through the machine before it could fire.
Eidolon reacted immediately.
A white aura flared around him, and spheres of pale force shot out in every direction. The fused knight slipped between them, parrying one with Kiriichimonji and dodging the next by vanishing through an impossible angle. Every movement was sharper than the Hound’s rabid assault.
Feints, parries, and dodges blended together as he tore through the floating tinkertech. Cut after cut appeared across the Simurgh’s arsenal, each strike placed with brutal precision.
Eidolon raised both hands, and more white spheres erupted around him, forcing the fused knight back for half a second.
“What shall I do, Master?” Prelati asked, watching the fight with a bright, eager smile.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
I laughed as glorious power answered my call, golden flame gathering in my eyes. I waved one hand toward the sea below.
“Kill them all!”
“As you wish!” Prelati laughed manically as he raised both hands. “Oh, world, lay witness. Grand Illusion!”
The bay vanished.
In its place, a rocky valley stretched out below us, dry stone replacing the churning water in an instant. Leviathan stood in the middle of it, motionless, the sea gone from beneath his feet and nowhere left to hide. ***Sorry for the slight delay!