“Fracturing your soul before reaching Tier 5 is a surefire way to die. Even then, all you have to do is look at me to see it’s a terrible idea.”
“Yet Priam did it,” the fairy said, pointing to the clone. “He's watching us right now through a spiritual connection.”
Through the clone, Priam locked eyes with the Fallen.
“Hello, Sumstreh,” he said. “Feels good to say your name out loud. Until now, we've been calling you Bastard, but that's an insult to bastards.”
Even through the clone's eyes, Priam could feel the Fallen's fury. A rage just as powerful flared up inside him, but he refused to let it take control. The masks were coming off, but the real game was still ahead. Could the brilliance of his plan outsmart the brute strength of his adversary? There was only one way to find out.
Clenching his fist tight enough to shatter the dice into glass dust, Priam signaled the tribes to attack.
Crack.
His hearts froze as Sumstreh destroyed the clone's subsystem and the fragment of the soul hidden inside it. The dreaded pain didn’t come, and anxiety took its place. Now, Priam was blind to what was happening in the Fallen’s lair.
“Our plan is flawless,” Esmée reassured him, squeezing his hand.
“You know what they say about plans meeting battlefields...”
Before Priam’s pessimism could jinx him, a rift opened before them. Sphinx and a sort of fairy leapt onto the grass as, in the background, Sumstreh raged against the mythical shield.
Seeing the protection begin to crumble, Priam summoned Promesse. Every attack from the Fallen was terrifying, but he refused to die a coward. He hadn't done all this just to run away now.
The shield shattered, the enemies' eyes met, and the ground quaked. In the distance, columns of light descended from the heavens. The Tier 4s unleashed their power, attacking the Divine Kingdom through dozens of meters of earth.
For a moment, Priam thought the end had come. But then the Fallen turned his attention to the attackers; their pride meant less than their survival.
The portal closed. Priam stood still, locking eyes with his friend, unsure of how to act. Sphinx had spent almost three weeks trapped with a monster, and there was a chance her mental state...
“PRIAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!”
Priam barely had time to toss Moonie to Esmée as his friend launched herself into his arms like a cannonball. The impact knocked the wind out of him. Sphinx might have been the size of a cat, but she was heavy!
“Welcome home, Sphinx,” Priam smiled, stroking her head.
“You came for me!”
“Did you ever doubt it?”
“Not for a second!”
The child buried her face against his chest, her tail wagging, before looking up. She looked like a winged cat with a nearly human face, and anticipation shone in her eyes.
“Are we gonna kill them?”
“Soon. You wanna come?”
“Of course! I’ve whipped up a surprise...” A feline rarely forgot a wrong done to it, and sphinxes even less so. “Where's Blueberry?!”
“In Valaryth, why?”
“Because I'm hungry!”
Priam burst out laughing.
“I'll go fetch him. Meanwhile, you'll stay with Esmée.”
Sphinx studied the princess, eyes wide, then whispered in Priam’s ear. “She's even more beautiful than Helen of Troy!”
“Isn't she? And she asked me to marry her,” Priam whispered back.
Sphinx's eyes widened while Esmée blushed. With her sharp perception, she caught every word.
The horizon trembled under a quintuple Tribulation. At the heart of Oasis, Dishnu was fighting off two armies and a boss under a literal waterfall of crimson light. The Guardian of the forest had grafted himself onto Log-a-rhythm to create a colossal treant, and the battle had taken on cataclysmic proportions. The sanctuary had become a no man’s land, shockwaves tearing through the earth with violent force. Already, the upgraded ramparts showed signs of weakness.
After witnessing what the System did to those who dared to stand in the way of Tribulations, Priam had no desire to get involved—at least not without taking precautions.
His instincts had always warned him against flying high in Elysium; the upper altitudes were likely the domain of dangerous predators. Dishnu's Tribulations temporarily allowed him to bypass this problem. The third Tribulation had piggybacked on the natural light of the Necromoon, intensifying it to affect the plants. Even trees under Dishnu’s influence struggled to regenerate.
Thanks to this, no predators hovered over Oasis... except Priam.
Sitting astride Promesse, he watched the titanic battle below, trying to discern the drya’s weaknesses. The first was obviously fire, as evidenced by an army of fire elementals advancing slowly toward Oasis. Each tree consumed by the blaze gave birth to a new being of energy that seemed capable of merging with its kin. Relatively weak if stopped in time, the Tribulation had apocalyptic potential if left unchecked.
The add-on calculated that the conflagration would have devoured over a hundred square kilometers by the time it reached Dishnu. That was twice the size of Manhattan, representing more than five million trees...
“This is gonna get out of hand,” Priam muttered, sniffing the air, his nostrils irritated by smoke. “And the others aren’t any better.”
At the center of the cataclysm, a twenty-meter-tall robotic boss that looked like a cyberpunk axemaster was locked in a duel with Dishnu. As a specialist in close combat, it prevented the challenger from extinguishing the flames ravaging the forest. Despite merging with Log-a-rhythm, the drya couldn't outmaneuver its opponent. More powerful than Taishi, the Lumberjack was incredibly resistant to any physical or magical attack.
Priam studied his rival’s movements, hoping he wasn’t a master of both aether and close-quarters combat.
Blocking an axe blow with a reinforced bark shield, Dishnu countered with an uppercut. The strike lifted the Lumberjack, while the plant fist transformed into thousands of branches that began to envelop the axeman’s head. If they found a weakness to exploit, it could spell the end of the duel.
Her response caught Priam off guard. It wasn’t like the princess to joke like that... But it's far from unpleasant.
“On a more serious note... If your Mythic Gift gets refunded by Back in Time, you could save her the moment you return.”
“I think it will be. Even if not, Jasmine was willing to offer her own Mythic Gift,” Priam said. As he spoke, a wave of relief washed over him. The knot of tension that had been in his stomach since Sphinx's kidnapping began to loosen.
“We’ve won,” he realized aloud. Saying it made it feel real. No matter what happened next—whether Sumstreh died or not—he now had a quick way to save Sphinx upon his return. The help of his rivals or the Tier 4s wasn’t even necessary.
The future seemed bright.
“You should be proud of yourself,” the princess said, smiling at him. Priam returned her smile.
The ground shook as an orb as bright as ten suns rose from the hole above Sumstreh's lair. To the north, a wave of thick corruption poured through the breach, along with a monstrous Tier 4. To the northwest, an undead army attacked the tribes. To the southeast, Dishnu completed a ritual that tripled the thickness of tree bark across a massive area, making them fireproof.
Priam clapped his hands, drawing the group’s attention. “The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind,” he quoted, smirking. “While the others wear each other down, how about we grab something to eat?”
“Yeah!” the group cheered in unison, rushing to help Blueberry prepare the feast.
“Let’s go.”
The princess nodded, and Priam took her hand. He was smiling.
[3 hours 26 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 33 minutes 47 seconds.
Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attribute > 900 / 3 attributes > 1 200 / 1 attribute > 1 500
This arc is already complete on Patreon if you want to find out what happens next!
/ANovelConcept