Chapter 334

Chapter 334

Long Zhiyuan wasn’t surprised to get an order for a full out decisive attack, even if he had hoped they wouldn’t be the ones getting such an order. It didn’t take a genius to put together that if they were receiving such an order, then the armada that had sailed past them had failed in its mission to secure one of the Empire sub-capitals.

The very thought was horrifying and almost unthinkable, but there it was. Long Zhiyuan was just happy he wasn’t part of whatever trap had been set for the two Ladies. The thought that The Drowner had defeated both of them along with the many armies that had been massed was even more frightening, and downright impossible.

None of that changed the fact that something had happened, which only made him worry about this order even more. Final fights were for desperate times or theatrical retellings of more mundane struggles. Considering Long Zhiyuan was prepping his armor rather than his makeup, he knew on which side of that coin he fell, which left only one option.

Give it everything he had and hope it was enough to see him through.

He had trained for this and simulated every possibility.

The three lead generals stood before them as they gathered.

“It is our mission to turn the Tier 25 war front around. With Ascender Shadow down for the foreseeable future, this is our last chance to strike a significant blow to the remaining Empire Ascenders. Pull everything out and use anything you have to; deploy all tactics and trump cards. Materials can be replaced after we win. All our armies are being mobilized... you have thirty minutes.”

Long Zhiyuan filled in the rest of that sentence in his mind. ‘And if we lose, it doesn't matter.’

Looking over to Maven, Jai Xilu, and Jai Meng, Long Zhiyuan keenly felt the absence of Gan Le. The man might have been abrasive, but he had been a damn good tank.

They spent a few minutes getting ready before they were thrown out into the intervening space and the battle was on.

***

The moment the battle started, Zack felt something was different.

It wasn’t just Titan shooting off the moment they left Drifter's ship, but in how ferocious the Harmony Accords were attacking. The initial volley of spells was twice that which it normally was, and he even needed to call deeply upon Codex’s reserves to defend against it all. There were three primary types of attacks headed at them: area effects, unguided projectiles, and homing attacks. The unguided attacks required only slight nudges to deflect them away from anything important. The area effects were usurped, altered, and triggered early. Those area effect abilities, in turn, blocked most of the homing projectiles. Walls of force blocked waves of cold and fire, eddies of mist swallowed projectiles of metal and stone whole, fields of serenity laid rot and radiation alike to rest, and nets of arcane tore the spell structures of mirage lightning and spectral flames to shreds.

The mana from so many spells laid fallow began to disperse, but there was enough of it that it would take some time. That was fine. Were it not consumed or dispelled through some other means, he could simply absorb it with his staff as the opportunity arose. But until then, it would simply affect the efficacy of his aspect changes, and could be accounted for.

Zack had nearly dealt with all the attacks that his initial countermeasures hadn’t blocked when a squad of Republic soldiers deployed a massive mana bomb before slinking away once again.

General Darrow informed Zack that he was in the opportune situation to deal with it, and he passed off his remaining defensive duties to Bulwark to assess the explosive. It looked to be of a fairly standard make, but it never bore to make assumptions.

However, after a moment of study, he mentally nodded. A fivefold-reflecting crystal lattice was at the center of the bomb, taking a base spell- this one utilizing summer mana- and reflecting it infinitely, each crystal reflection magnifying the power at play. It would detonate once the crystal magnifier broke, and the secondary storm enhancers turned the basic overload into a proper weapon.

Breaking it was as simple a matter as usurping one of the crystal reflectors and stepping the mana aspect down to earth. That ended the enhancement loop, and the suddenly-fragile enchantment simply broke under the strain. It still activated the secondary detonation, of course, but it hadn’t charged to the point that would be an actual threat. Nonetheless, he duly smothered the edge of the radiance storm with a thin layer of gloom, essentially negating its impact.

The melee components of the Harmony Accords were also advancing in a tight bundle, and while Maven and Long Zhiyuan peeled off with a number of pinnacle elites, it wasn’t enough to stop the rest of the group's relentless advance.

Torment directed his Sloth to cover himself and Bolt, the giant’s chilling field cutting down on, but not entirely obviating, the heavy fire the duo experienced as they moved to provide support to Titan.

Allie’s absence was something he felt keenly and constantly. He was no helpless babe without his partner, of course, and any who dared to challenge him learned exactly how he’d earned the title of Ascender. However, it was nonetheless undeniable that she had provided him with an extensive amount of defense through the combination of a dedicated melee specialist constantly within metaphorical arm’s reach, and simple constant mobility. With her lack, Zack had to be substantially more on-guard for daggers in the back or eye, both metaphorical and very literal. Furthermore, so too did everyone else.

He didn’t distrust Bolt and Torment’s capabilities to protect themselves, but he kept a keen eye upon them. Neither’s defenses were that spectacular by the standards at which they operated, and he thus needed to actively monitor them in the event of an attack which they might otherwise be incapable of surviving. The blink of an eye could be the difference between life and death for them, or himself.

Joon Jullian began to cast a volcanic explosion spell, likely some form of [Eruption]. Codex’s power flowed through him and a prepared [Leashed Jump], modified to utilize smoke mana to circumvent the spatial lock brought him within range of the man. His control was distinctly lacking.

Or at least, it was to Zack.

[Eruption] was a focus-type spell. That was, it built up substantial power within the periphery of its spell structure, then gradually worked to condense and magnify that power as the mana compressed, until it was released in a single mighty working. With [Eruption], that power buildup could be loosely abstracted in three dimensional space as a cone, with earth mana at the base rumbling and magnifying the lava and volcano mana near the peak of the cone.

At this stage of the spell, Zack could have disrupted the spell and smothered the entire working with nary a wisp of ash to indicate it had ever existed. But his time with Titan had demonstrated an alternate route open to him. His Concept-guided [Spellsteal] took ahold of a singular strand of the spell and twisted it, using [Spellmerge] to braid it with [Arcane Surge]. Instantly, power violently drained from the spell with such suddenness and force that most of Joon Jullian’s mana was instantly sucked into the magic.

[Arcane Surge] then returned all of that drained power with dividends, catastrophically overloading the spell, even as Zack’s [Leashed Jump] returned him to where he had been in the battlefield mere moments earlier.

There were very few mages who were capable of handling their entire mana pool suddenly being dumped into a single spell. Joon Jullian was not among them, and a pyroclastic explosion engulfed him and his two closest allies, even larger than he’d expected.

Jullian actually survived the initial blast of white-hot ash, lava, and flames without so much as a singe, but his closest two allies weren’t so lucky. One was outright killed, and the other had lost half of his body and activated a life saving measure, returning him to his ship.

It wasn’t enough to stop the onslaught of attacks though, and Zack had to interrupt another two deadly spells that were targeting himself or his allies the moment his form settled back into place.

A warning blip came from General Darrow, and while Zack finished taking over and turning a [Flame Dart] to smoke, he turned his attention to where Wraith was being chased down by Dao Child Darkness Eternal.

Wraith was doing an admirable job of defending herself from the void mage, but doing so was undeniably requiring more of her focus than was optimal, depriving much of Team Zero of her immensely useful support abilities. It didn’t help that Darkness Eternal had shown an ability to injure the woman through her spells, harming Aster by clawing at her dispelling winds.

Void was one of the most dangerous mana types, a hiltless blade capable of scoring deep cuts upon its wielder and target alike. Such was its power that nearly all higher-end armor was at least slightly tuned to defend against it specifically, lest it completely overpower it. However, void was at least conceptually simple to deal with.

Buffer void with as much of anything as you could. Void was indiscriminate, annihilating friend and foe alike with nearly no regard to how thick your defenses were, but where it suffered was variety. Tightly interwoven multi-elemental defenses, higher-level mana aspects, layers of defensive spells, those were what void most struggled with. Accordingly, arcane mana, as the mana of either creation or magic itself, was the ultimate counter. Arcane was every element, simultaneously and interwoven. Void, upon meeting arcane, was snuffed out nearly in its entirety whilst leaving barely a scratch.

Wraith, with many of her abilities based around the level 4 aurora mana aspect, was, on paper, a comparatively decent matchup against void. But many of her actual spells were air, illusion, or ice-based, and against such things, Darkness Eternal was very effective. Conjuring a discrete illusion was as good as presenting your real body to the velociraptor Dao Child. Wraith was fleeing with [Astral Path], still interfering with other fights where she could, as she attempted to gain distance from her pursuer. It was insufficient, and Darkness Eternal was slowly catching up and undermining the movement skill with every passing moment. Therefore, Zack moved to intervene.

Except, just as he moved, he snapped his neck to the right hard enough to shatter his spine as a blade was driven at his eye.

Ari Kai had finally made his move.

And it was a good one.

His timing was perfect, and was further enhanced by unexpected speed. The moment he attacked Zack, a black mist appeared around each Legion, bringing all of her bodies into a single location before a set of floating runestones that created a small zone of shifted reality, pulling her out of phase with the rest of the battle and forcing her into a single body. All while Aster was still backpedaling from a dangerously close Darkness Eternal.

Zack contemplated disabling the cage around Legion. It was unlikely to be terribly difficult, as the field it was utilizing- a variant of crystal, pulling them into a solitary ‘reflection’ of reality and disabling all other reflection-like phenomenon- was clearly some form of prototype based solely off the sensory feedback he was receiving from General Darrow. But as it was a new effect, it would take him some time to determine the way to properly disable it, and that was time he didn’t have.

However, it was Darkness Eternal’s actions which decided for him. His feathers ruffled and splayed, a runestone appeared within his armor, and space began to bend and fold in on itself, unlocking and dragging Wraith back as though she were on a treadmill. He was momentarily confused, until Darrow provided a probable explanation. They were likely attempting to free Gan Le. It had been deemed too risky to leave him in the ship’s brig during fights, and the prisoner convoy dedicated to his transport was still a week out.

The means by which the Harmony Accords knew this- or merely suspected it, as that would be sufficient- did not matter. What did matter is that they were attempting it, and they could not risk that they may succeed.

Breaking Gan Le from his icy prison would spell disaster for all of them, and couldn't be allowed to happen under any circumstances.

Zack's mind snapped into form, rapidly assessing a simple solution for the ongoing situation. He needed to get close enough to Wraith to give her an arcane mana shield strong enough to protect her, protect himself from Ari Kai, and help the rest of the team not collapse. And he needed to figure it all out right now.

Legion indicated she was safe, and Wraith made a move he would have never recommended, but the combined feedback made his own decision far easier.

[Ashes to Ashes] caused Zack's body to crumble into ash, and a quick application of fire mana allowed him to set his remains alight, forcing Ari Kai away from him long enough to allow him to throw a spatial formation around Wraith, further endowing her armor with an arcane [Invisible Object].

It wasn’t just a spatial lock or anything so simple. It was a dual formation that isolated Wraith and Darkness Eternal from their surroundings. That meant that when she expanded her spiritual space, it was limited in scope but also contained.

The void mage started slowing as ice crept up his limbs, but the second part of the formation prevented the streak of light that was Gan Le activating some recall tether that would have pulled him back to the Harmony Accords ship.

If Zack wasn’t setting himself alight to keep Ari Kai from stabbing his reforming body, he might have found the way Gan Le bounced off the shield amusing. But currently, pain was the only thing he could really feel.

Zack teleported as he reformed, keeping control of the spatial lock just long enough for Aster to recapture Gan Le and Darkness Eternal. Still, the damage was done, and their battle line was collapsing.

***

Liz dodged to the left as the boosted Lorlael shot a massive blade of dust at where she had been fighting Eliana inside the sphere of orange and blue light they had trapped her in.

She hadn’t been dismissive of Eliana when she first learned about the woman per se. Plenty of unusual abilities could be leveraged in unique ways to great effect, and having a body be both living and inanimate depending on, apparently, personal whim, was certainly abusable and unusual. But she had underestimated just how potent that it could be.

At a very basic level, it allowed her to enchant her body with things like self-repair and durability. Simple enchantments for a sword that corresponded to far more complex abilities for a human. At a slightly less basic level, it made her immune to practically all debuffs, be they intended for items or people. But the first thing she hadn’t properly appreciated at first was how it nearly doubled the number of buffs she could benefit from at a time, layering such delightful skills like [Unbreakable Blade] atop [Archmage’s Presence] and [Hidden Knife].

Unfortunately, Liz was still stuck in the middle ground. Ironically, a younger her might have been better off, before she’d pivoted from using blood like red water at a very basic level to embracing it as blood. An annoyed and bitter part of her wished that she still was just using blood like a hammer, because a hammer didn’t care if it was hitting a brick wall or a skull, it still smashed it. Of course, if she had tried to literally brute-force her way as a blood mage, she was unlikely to have become an Ascender.

Her career had forced her to perfect dozens of minor curses that each subtly sapped the strength from her enemies, hundreds of ways to hinder how her enemies’ bodies moved. She’d even shouldered aside her discomfort with the idea and created plagues, thousands of autonomous forces which could multiply her already considerable reach, slowly whittling away at the defenses of her enemies with no need for her direct attention.

Blood was subtle. It flowed unseen most of the time, only making its presence known in the instant before death struck. When fighting those far weaker than her, it was always flashy and always fun, every strike bringing the promise of death. Fighting elites, and those more resistant to her basic abilities, involved far more of the subtle buildup to the final strike. It was the buildup, the preparation, the grunt work needed to amplify her blows to the level needed to kill those who were nearly immortal.

And Eliana was entirely immune to every last bit of it.

Blood was the core of ichor, of course. It was the blood of immortals. There was too much fire in the existing structure, and she replaced much of it with lightning. Crystal reflected and solidified several of the more unstable portions of the fractal-like mana structure she could sense with her spirit.

Air was what breathed life into fire. It was what gave the spark to lightning. It was the very thing blood moved around the body.

It acted like a barrier, stabilizer, and method of transformation all at once.

It served as an underpinning and binder, and she wove a simple strand of air through the core of her blood pillar, using it as a conduit to bring lightning and fire directly into her bloodstream, just as oxygen had previously.

And then the final piece of the puzzle. Life. She didn’t need much, but she didn’t have much. Just the faintest film around the center of the structure, orienting it and giving the entire structure purpose. It was the overwhelming life of the truly exceptional, and all others needed to get out of the way or get ready to face their wrath. It was the life of those who thrived in battle more so than the life of healing wounds and soothing words. It was the vibrance to stand tall. It was life, the ability to push through unimaginable pain for just one more breath.

No wonder she’d thought it was so aggressive.

The final mote of mana fell into place, and Liz felt solidity. This, here and now, was ichor.

Her body continued to burn away, and she had been forced once again into being solely blood. A few drops were all that remained between her and oblivion. Even now, those drops were torn to pieces by the overwhelming power of Lorlael’s lightning, until but a single drop remained, barely held together by her buffs and what assistance she could be provided with through Darrow’s Domain.

But that just made it easier. One less drop of blood meant there was that much less to change. One drop of blood left meant there was almost nothing left to change.

Her Talent meant she never truly lacked for blood mana, her bloodline was already an ever-raging fire, and Lorlael had given her all the lightning she’d ever need. She pushed her Intent as far as it could go, and suddenly she was working not with her blood as a cauldron, but with her bloodline. The fire, weak and suppressed as it was, greedily consumed the blood, turning a deep blood-red, and then the lightning came.

The fire was blown to pieces, annihilated and scattered into embers, overwhelmed by the immense power. Shadows fell and water came, delivering death to the tenacious flame.

The fire went out.

And Liz died.

The fire returned.

Tiny pops of golden lightning within Liz’s spirit jumped from one place to another, electricity and essence unbowed and undaunted by the water attempting to extinguish it. The lightning sparked a golden flame, and the golden flame flared and began to flow.

In the wake of the overwhelming wall of lightning, Lorlael began to turn her attention to other parts of the battle, her job done.

Then, a golden fire sparked itself into existence right where Liz’s final drop of blood had been. An instant later, that golden flame expanded upon itself a hundredfold, becoming a golden tide of flickering blood before coalescing back into a single drop as Liz was reborn.

Lorlael wasted no time, obviously prepared for the possibility that Liz might have survived the attempt to kill her, and returned empowered by her Concept with the near-death experience. But this time, the golden blood was no mere affectation, no mere facsimile. This was genuine, and Liz returned to life with a rush of power unlike any she had ever felt before.

As a phoenix, her revivals had always been somewhat gradual, the slow kindling of a tiny flame as it grew into a bonfire once again. But as an ichor phoenix, her return was more akin to that of a bolt of lightning- entirely without warning, extremely sudden, and immensely powerful. She was a star igniting. It was the storm overhead raging at the ground with all the ferocity that nature had to vent. It was the righteous fury at anything that had dared to best it as it came back for round two with an adrenalized grudge.

It also cracked her Domain.

That had more to do with the sudden change of her bloodline and mana type than anything, but while it wasn’t as bad as Aster’s last bloodline change, it still came with a sharp pain from her Concept as it attempted to reconcile the foundation she had built it upon with the new foundation it found itself upon. She may have to alter her phrase slightly, but that should be doable without having to completely redo her Domain.

After all, Ichor was in many ways simply a more refined idea than rebirth through blood.

Her Intent was not unscathed either. Her anchor, her blood itself, made the jump from her blood to her new ichor without a hitch. Her image of blood being the best conduit for energy flexed and warped slightly, but with how much power was contained in her new ichor, Liz wasn’t surprised in the least.

But with a suddenly unstable Concept phrase beneath it, Blood is the Cauldron of Life was intensely damaged as it sought to reconcile the new power of her blood. Fortunately, the conceptual space behind ichor was close enough to blood that it should heal on its own over time, but she was very glad that it had been such a small change. Something larger may have broken her Intent outright, and that would have been an awful fate for the middle of a fight.

She didn’t think it would be too bad in the long run, however. Even as a single drop of blood, Liz had never felt better. The power contained inside just a single, solitary drop of her new blood was a dozen times stronger than it had been a moment ago. She could easily see how this new ichor would not only be the cauldron of life, but would be a far better cauldron than her blood once was.

But even on an injured Domain, her Concept still empowered her, and more than ever. She spread out from her tiny flame, her drop of blood, and resolidified into her human body, whole once more. Glowing, golden blood now coursed through her veins, giving her a radiant yellow complexion as her Talents adjusted. Her skills stayed unchanged, as they cared about the mana type, but her Tier 3 and Tier 25 talents ran off of what her blood was, and right now her blood was pure ichor.

Lorlael struck with a new bolt of lightning, and Eliana engulfed her with a blast of flames, but Liz flowed around each with almost laughable ease, then threw herself at Eliana.

Instead of trying to rip and tear at the other women, she dug inside, something Eliana did nothing to prevent. Inside, she found the mana and lightning which her body used in place of blood. Once upon a time, that had stymied Liz, but no more. The idea that blood was the sanguine fluids of biology no longer limited her. Now blood was that which brought life.

And metal or flesh, living or artifice, Eliana was undeniably alive.

Liz’s ichor seeped into the metal like it was any other flesh and assimilated everything, brute forcing the entire method. Her new blood was so strong, it innately crackled with fire and lightning. And together, they carved a path through Eliana, wholly ignoring the non-biological nature of her tissues.

Eliana screamed and clawed at her chest, trying to rip Liz out, but it was too late. Bits of ichor had traveled from her chest to both her brain and toes alike. The only chance Eliana had to survive this was to recall back to the Harmony Accords ship. However, Liz knew that they would never recall a combatant if it risked bringing her onboard with them. Letting Liz loose on a ship with that many non combatants and weaker soldiers would be nothing but a slaughter.

Eliana could always surrender, but unfortunately, Liz had used her esophagus as the easiest method to her brain, and she just so happened to be blocking any [AI] signals from escaping the other woman.

A happy little accident. At least, it was for Liz. And she didn’t particularly care about anyone else’s opinion right now.

Death was the only outcome for Eliana now, but it wasn’t instantaneous. It was painfully slow. What slowed Liz down more than Eliana’s body's innate resistance was the absolutely absurd amount of natural treasures that had been stuffed into Eliana. It made sense, she could use every type there was thanks to her unique constitution, but it was still more than Liz had as an Ascender. Absolutely absurd.

But what made her blood- ichor- really boil were the pieces of ‘wetware’ incorporated into her body, pieces of magical beasts integrated into the cybernetic body. Given the Federation’s reputation, she truly doubted those had been sourced ethically.

She had no mercy for someone who participated in such actions. Her assimilation of Eliana was cut short by Lorlael, who once more threw a massive bolt of lightning at them. The remainder of Eliana’s body was blasted into pieces with an explosion of essence, proving her death, and once more, Liz didn’t bother to block the lightning.

She didn’t need to, in this state. Lightning was but a part of ichor, and ichor was her blood, and Liz was blood. Using her Tier 3 talent, hypercharged by her Concept in the wake of rebirth, a large portion of the lightning was assimilated just as any other blood would be, which simply empowered her all the more.

A bloodcurdling grin stretched across Liz’s face as she [Blood Sacrifice]d a bit of spare ichor, feeling the power absolutely pour in. Her blood skills had technically taken a bit of a hit to their power, but that was more than offset by the strength of her bloodline cultivation. Feeling things out a bit, even her subtle plague-like skills, which benefited the least from ichor mana, still came out ahead of where they had been.

But where the power truly shone was her physical boosting skills. The cage was still blocking her from creating other bodies, but she used [Sanguine Legionnaire] to simply partition portions of her blood into separate ‘hers’ without making them actually physically separate, then used [Blood Brothers]. The strength was immense, on par with what she’d felt with a full legion of bodies all with their overlapping strength boosts.

She still wasn’t a true melee fighter, but she felt like she could wrestle Matt right now.

A bit of [Coven Casting] from the inside put pressure on the trap around her, and Dena and Zack put pressure on the outside, and it shattered, letting Liz once again spread out into multiple bodies.

[Sanguine Regeneration], [Pillar of Blood] and [Adrenaline Rush] coursed through her being, and the frontmost Liz darted forward while casting [Crimson Wings of the Phoenix]. A steady thump sounded out as [Lifeheart Manifestation] further boosted her skills and domain.[Legion’s Insight] made her mind crystal sharp, which made her chuckle as she cast [Blood Crystal Armor] on her left arm as she hadn’t yet recalled her shield.

A spare attack pinged off her golden armored arm and was diverted upwards. Still, it slowed her down a hair, which allowed Lorlael to retreat.

Transforming into her bloodline form, Liz didn’t feel the usual rush of fire and flames as she transformed. Her Ichor Phoenix instead exploded in a pulse of golden light, flame, and crackling lightning.

Even as Liz flapped her wings, not pushing against air but the fabric of reality instead, she took a moment to inspect her new form.

Her overall shape had remained the same, she was a bird of prey similar to any number of raptors. But the transformation had slimmed her down some, streamlining her feathers to the point she nearly looked like a golden statue, and the haze of fire and lightning coming off her wings merely added to the illusion.

It was a form built for power, and exactly what she had needed it to be.

Flying through space, she cast [Scarlet Plague]. The skill was one of the ones that felt out of place thanks to the shift in mana type, but Liz brute forced the activation. [Scarlet Plague] had once allowed her to infect other forms of blood which she used to spread plagues. This time, Liz forced the cast while focusing on the infecting properties of the skill.

With each flap of her wings, golden spores flew out and started darting for everyone near her.

For her allies, Liz controlled the spores to create thin filaments of armor that she then crystallized. For her enemies, the spores created a bridge she used to start assimilating them. They tried a number of methods to stop her, but two of the rune soldiers learned the hard way that fire was not an effective counter to her ichor. Instead, her new blood fed on the flames and spread even faster.

Lorlael instead used a mixture of ice and earth, which proved a suitable defense, and the others quickly copied her.

At least, the elites did. The supporting soldiers drawn from the other ships weren’t so lucky or well equipped.

Once Liz got a foothold inside their defensive line, they tried to destroy her blood with explosions, but her ichor easily absorbed the fire and powered through the damage. Curses designed to corrupt mundane blood simply couldn’t find a foothold on the pristine ichor she now embodied. They changed to try to freeze her, but none of them were sufficiently powerful to freeze a bolt of lightning.

She was the hunter. They were her prey, and there was nothing they could do to her. They broke before her flight, with far more vigor than she had anticipated. Liz cast her awareness further afield, paying attention once again to the mental connection to Darrow she had been ignoring and looking around the battlefield.

Looking over to the arc ship enemies were escaping to and seeing a giant hole in its side that was leaking massive quantities of air and debris told her everything she needed to know about how well Matt was doing.

The soldiers had run from the frying pan to the flame, and Matt wouldn’t be in any mood to pull them out. No, they were only likely to get charred.

Smiling, the three new Liz’s rejoined the fight, ready to end this farce once and for all.