Chapter 2330

Chapter 2330

Devick remained still, waiting for her turn. For someone who burned so hot and whose mood changed quickly, it was a particular sort of torture.

It took ten minutes for the hand holding the time dagger to grow numb, but she didn’t dare allow her strained forearm to fail. She refused to let the weakness and nerves win.

Grip, grip, grip, grip. Devick chanted mentally. I just need to strike once. I have plenty enough strength for that. Squeeze it now and seize a future! Force your way through the hole of possibility!

...giving that speech, did Hungry Eye realize how much innuendo he was slinging at me? I suppose not.

Over the course of the same ten minutes, the figures of Hungry Eye and Neveah became completely obscured by a massive edifice of Nether building itself up atop their bodies. A monstrously large midnight snake seemed to have coiled around Hungry Eye, as he began funneling more and more of the stored of significance of the former Nether Arbiter into his body. It became a shadow mountain, looming next to her. Even with some of Randidly’s Nether moving through her body, Devick had a hard time breathing.

Lowanna had moved to the side as the Nether developed, away from Devick and her two ‘protectors’. Occasionally, she could hear snippets of Lowanna’s conversation with Enmya over the rumble of the building potential of Nether.

“...obviously his methodology isn’t elegant, but it’s reliable almost to a fault. With his body acting as a conduit, there is minimal energy loss, with no upper limit on how strong he can become. In addition, the simple structure means its easy to adjust as circumstances dictate.”

“But aren’t you trying to have me improve my own inner Nether patterns? There is no point in me examining this. I could construct a more efficient pattern-”

“You are missing the point, Enmya. Are you being deliberately obtuse? Which of you needed to bare your vulnerability in order to earn a partnership? Yes, constructing theoretically superior Nether Rituals is well within your ability. However, your comment about efficiency is completely off base. Because while you are thinking about efficiency of Nether, he considers the most efficient output, via the available ingredients. Notice how he wields his amazing pattern recognition ability in combination with his near-indestructible body. He doesn’t need-”

The Nether building roared as the shape changed. Four thick pillars of energy appeared around Hungry Eye. Devick just observed the change, but Hank’s eyes slid sideways to Westrisser. “Shouldn’t ya go speak with yur subordinates? They look itchy down there.”

“They have received the proper training,” Westrisser sniffed. But despite his decisive response, the army lingering to their South appeared to be growing increasingly concerned by the shifts in Nether that Hungry Eye produced.

Further discussion was interrupted by a sudden swell of energy in the sky. Beyond the barrier created by Hungry Eye, a blazing figure of energy could be seen. Although the Nether wielded by Hungry Eye was the most potent force Devick had ever sensed, this figure’s aura didn’t lose out. She could only gape as the distant forces she had sensed earlier were no much more clear to her. “What the hell is that?”

“My cue,” Hank grunted and straightened. Devick had witnessed him fighting with the two small weapons strapped on either side of his waist, but he pulled out a different weapon from his interspatial storage. He took the small bit of metal he had been tinkering with, popped open a chamber in the side of the long-barreled weapon, and inserted it with a flourish. The weapon made a satisfying click as he snapped the opening closed and took aim upward.

The aura around Hank exploded faster than Devick could believe. She knew he had been powerful, as a follower of Hungry Eye, but she couldn’t believe how quickly the force rolling off his body began irresistible. His clothes seemed drenched in the warm orange-red light of sunset. Small dust devils formed on the ground and orbited his position. The wind rose and rose, singing a whistling song of victory.

In the sky, the burning energy humanoid began to rip his way through the edge of the barrier. Hank squinted down the barrel. “Take a long ride off a short ridge, ya prick.”

All the burning light radiating off of Hank’s person swirled together around his weapon. But just as quickly as the barrel exploded and shot its brilliant shooting star of a projectile, all of the energy seemed to fade his lanky frame. He squatted down and then sat in the dirt, setting his weapon to the side; He had poured everything he possessed into that shot.

The burning figure took the shot in the chest, roaring with a voice thick with hate. The space and time around the figure warped. Two bright images clawed at each other for dominance. Its power ripped through the distortions, destroying the projectile's power as quickly as soon as it manifested. The more time passed, the more it seemed like the burning figure could destroy the bullet, had it not been encumbered Next to her, Hank panted and wiped sweat from his brow. “Stubborn bastard.”

“In the spirit of cooperation...” Westrisser raised his hands. The feathers along his arms began to glow. A pure white beam of illumination shot upward and crashed into the humanoid figure. After a moment of titanic struggle, the figure was forced back by the combined force of the two attacks. The barrier around the memory rippled and began to reform as the interloper was pushed back.

Hank and Westrisser exchanged a glance. In the end, Westrisser looked away first. With a little bit of peace, Devick could turn her attention back to the pulsing Nether building. It had expanded during the brief invasion, so she could no longer see any of Hungry Eye’s other supporters. She almost jumped when she looked, because thin threads of Nether stretched out from the towering pillar of darkness toward her position.

They approached in arcs along the ground, first forming a circle around her and then twining slowly across the intervening distance in a curious reversal of the Nether patterns that had been drawn around Hungry Eye. Both Hank and Westrisser moved back to get out of the way. Westrisser bit his lip so hard it bled as he looked at the dagger in Devick’s hand, but in the end, he made room without comment.

With the third step, Devick arrived at her destination.

Malice spread out and covered her body with a few adjustments. In the agonizing minutes of struggle leading up to this, holding the temporal weapon had shaped her image. In Malice’s right hand was a grey scythe that disintegrated existence just by touching it. Flakes of oblivion wafted away, time and space made ash by its proximity. The flesh of Malice’s hand had rotted away, revealing bone and tattered tendons. Yet still, she didn’t release the weapon, because she needed its hateful power.

Devick felt strange, moving in a world given to her. A moment, plucked and presented by Hungry Eye. Her image, the accumulation of all the experiences she had in her life. And finally, the foundation...

It was the memory itself, the identity and regret founded before it had become a pseudo-Dungeon. That’s why it had to be someone from within the memory who struck this blow and could not be Hungry Eye himself. Because she needed to believe in the place of her birth. But also in the possibility of another existence.

Devick raised the temporal-dagger/fell scythe. She didn’t forget Hank’s advice. “Wake up. Let’s... stop dreaming. And start advancing.”

She cut her weapon at the blazing energy form of Pine, who was the obvious choice for the Dungeon boss, when Neveah had adjusted the environment and completed the barrier. Even the universe soul’s rippling energies were frozen, due to the immense Nether wielded by Hungry Eye. The weapon cut through the energy and struck at the core of its being.

The dagger unraveled in Devick’s numbed hands. All the twisted waves ripped outward. The corrosion of her image spread, black corruption bubbling up the veins of Malice’s right arm to the shoulder. Her lovely crimson furr rotted away. But for the backlash to be this strong, Pine absorbed an even more ominous amount of dangerously jagged time.

Perhaps, even then, Pine could have endured it. If he had wanted to. But from the beginning, Hungry Eye had made his plea plainly and Pine had agreed to put his thumb on the scales, just slightly, to help that result occur. Put another way, Devick herself wasn’t truly important for the foundation that Neveah and Hungry Eye envisioned. She was just an appropriate ambassador to send to the real target.

Just like Hungry Eye said. Devick felt surprised. A shape... individually, the requirements didn’t necessarily point to me. But in conjunction...

Pine... did not resist her strike. His consciousness was obliterated. His body began to unravel, the dangerous explosion of his ruptured existence still held at bay for the moment, due to the absolute power Devick wielded in this moment.

Notifications flashed in front of her eyes.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 495!

...

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 632!

Incredible achievement! Pantheon Intervention. Calculating rewards...

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 791!

Due to your actions, you have unlocked the Godslayer Path 0/5000!

Due to your actions, you have unlocked the Reaper of the Shallah Path 0/10000!

Due to your actions, you have glimpsed hints about the birth of a universe! All Stats +100.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 802!

Due to your actions, you have earned the Skill The Consort’s Fell Condemnation (GD)! Skill Level set at 1.