Chapter 353: The Battle over the Superweapon

"What are you doing here?" Matiavel sounded more irritated than angry, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Have I seen you before?"

"Possibly." Kai wasn't about to take one of the great powers of Rosemount lightly - he'd already gotten out Omilaena's syringe and now injected it into one arm. The power coursing through his veins couldn't compare to the adrenaline from facing the demon standing calmly in the chamber.

"Whatever that was, it isn't going to work," Matiavel told him mildly. "You're dead as soon as I decide you are, but if you tell me who sent you I'll make it painless."

"I'm more interested in knowing why you came here," Kai said. "Do you need the weapon that much?"

Matiavel's eyes narrowed and an instant later a flame shot across the chamber.

Kai was already gone, Thunderbird's Wings taking him to the opposite side. Even at such speeds, he wasn't that far ahead of the deadly flame. His back was prickling but there was no time to think about that, because he already needed to dodge away from further attacks.

Clearly Matiavel wasn't a fool who would be astonished by someone dodging his attacks: he'd met many opponents who guessed that evasion was the only counter to his unstoppable flames. So he began shooting them more rapidly, guessing where Kai would move and sending flames ahead of him. In a matter of seconds Kai was nearly overwhelmed, barely staying ahead, unable to think, unable to plan.

When he launched himself across the room again, he saw the flame in his path and knew he couldn't reverse directions fast enough to avoid hitting it. He desperately tried to focus on a defensive half-phase like he'd been taught, hoping it would be enough for him to survive - except something abruptly jerked him to a halt.

Enormous wings had sprouted from his back, crackling like the Thunderbird's but formed from dark leathery skin. They weren't just ornamental, either: as soon as he emerged, he felt them grasp the air and move him more quickly. When he next exploded across the room, he was ahead of Matiavel again, having gained himself a new edge.

Suddenly he realized that this was Omilaena's gift: she'd concentrated his emotions, hungers, and urges into the syringe. When he'd injected himself, his body coursed with all the raw sensations that the chakra required and he couldn't properly control yet. The heart pounding in his chest was Behemoth's Heart and he could feel his muscles shifting. He raised a hand to form a Tyrant's Claw and it remained transformed, a dark twisted claw that merged into his arm.

But Kai wasn't naive enough to think that any boost would enable him to fight someone like Matiavel. When he swung, he didn't target the demon, he slashed at the weapon column.

For the first time he saw Matiavel actually exert himself, jumping into the path of the Tyrant's Claw and blocking it with a wall of flame. Unfortunately, those flames were the same omni-destructive power as his usual attacks, so the claw broke apart against them.

That hadn't been the point, though: he now knew that Matiavel would take action to protect the weapon. Kai continued flashing around the room, actually ahead of the demon, and tried to bait him into attacking the column. Presumably his flames would have destroyed it entirely, but Matiavel wasn't gullible enough to fall for that. Which meant that if Kai dodged around to the other side of the column, he actually had a shield against the unstoppable attack.

Kai shot around the chamber, expelling Baleful Breath. Matiavel actually dodged back, which he wouldn't have done if he was confident he could shrug it off. Unfortunately, he began lighting more flames that could burn away even the dark fog, though it took him some time.

As insane as it seemed, Kai realized that this fight wasn't suicidal. He couldn't beat a great power of Rosemount one on one, but in these circumstances, fighting tactically, he could actually stay ahead of him. Matiavel seemed only irritated, as if a bug had evaded his swat, and presumably just wanted to connect with one single attack to finish things.

When that happened, Kai hoped that his phase training would prevent him from dying instantly. But he wasn't going to try it without cause.

The longer Kai fought, the more he changed. He was certain he was taller than before and he leapt with monstrous legs, but his body didn't feel alien to him. His claws and even his wings were part of him, familiar essence that he'd been using for so long, made manifest by the Savage Heart. Even his jaws were beginning to change, far more than they did from Physique alone.

How long could Omilaena's injection last? She hadn't warned him about a time limit, so it must not be too brief, but logically the power had to be finite. If his new form gave out, he wasn't sure he could keep up.

"You realize that you're a distraction." Matiavel stepped closer to the central column and placed a hand on one of the sigils.

Something deep within the earth rumbled, like a vast gear shifting into place. The dark power cables from above began to glow and the entire central column trembled as it absorbed the power. Not only could he feel it coursing through the pipes, they began to vibrate wildly - even though he couldn't see above, he had the feeling that some lights in the city had just gone out.

Now he had two impending deadlines. Fuck.

Clearly he needed an edge, because at the current rate the weapon would fire, he would run out of strength, and Matiavel would win. He was surprised at how strongly the emotions flowed through him: Ceryyn and all the other elves would be destroyed in brilliant light, their deserts would be invaded, and the demons would spread across Rosemount. That couldn't happen.

At first Kai tried to throw himself into the battle, attacking more frequently, trying to keep Matiavel on the defensive, hoping that he could get a technique through to the weapon. But the demon remained entirely calm, always deflecting his attacks and casting new flames ahead of him, getting dangerously close at times.

If he could just return to his Frontier training... he'd achieved so many half-phases, he felt confident in his understanding. The power of Thunderbird's wings was coursing through him, more powerful than before now that the wings had manifested. Maybe he had so much speed that he could compress it into a speed phase. He wouldn't even need to attack Matiavel, he just needed to damage the column enough.

For a moment Kai abandoned offense to focus on pure speed. He flashed around to the other side of the room, reversed direction in mid-air, and threw himself directly at the column. No ranged attacks this time, just an attack at point black range.

Flames flickered around the sides of the column in curved lines, closing on him. Kai managed to halt his momentum with a thunderclap, but Matiavel had already pursued him, raising a hand directly in front of him - Kai thrust out a Tyrant's Claw directly at it in desperation.

The explosion embedded him in the wall with pain wracking his body. Of course it had been too much to hope that his claw would pierce or overwhelm the flame and strike Matiavel. But it looked like the demon's attack had been neutralized and he'd needed to turn his full attention to defending the column. It was vibrating with power now and there was an uneven wobble in the pipes, presumably because of the ones that Kai had destroyed before, so Matiavel had to balance the flow.

Suddenly Kai realized his solution. This wasn't a fight he was ever going to win with brute force, not with phases or transformations or new abilities. But that didn't mean he was helpless.

Kai struggled to his feet and activated Void Gaze. Matiavel twitched briefly and then cast him a scornful glance.

"Do you really think that's going to work on someone like me? Don't be a fool."

"You aren't attacking," Kai said through gritted teeth.

"I admit I haven't been able to squash you yet, but you aren't a threat to me." Matiavel raised a hand, carefully and methodically, generating a new flame in front of it. "Keep trying and die, for all I care."

But Kai hadn't been trying to freeze Matiavel in place. Void Gaze also encompassed the central column and all parts of the weapon. He didn't try to stop it, because presumably all of the raw chakra would resist the technique.

No, he had been focused on the wildly vibrating pipes.

Under his gaze they froze in place, no longer able to tremble along with the machine. There was no sign at first, since the column was actually quieter than before, but Kai felt the increased stress in his eyes as the vibrations became more violent. Just as Matiavel was about to attack him, several of the pipes tore loose and the column exploded with power.

For a moment Kai was completely blind and he threw himself to the side assuming there would be retaliation. When rocks tumbled over his head and shoulders he feared that he'd been attacked, then he realized the truth.

Interfering with the mechanisms of the weapon had caused it to misfire with some fraction of its full power and the attack had coursed directly upward. It had utterly annihilated the levels above, evaporating streets, and there was still a streak of power burning into the air. Kai could see the sky again, even parts of the city from within the pit that had just been blasted. Based on the location, he didn't think that the explosion had destroyed the areas where his wives had been fighting.

Then he realized that he needed to be worried about himself first: Matiavel stood in front of the column, surrounded by flames, and it looked like part of his sleeve had been burned off. Even he hadn't been able to block such a massive attack at point blank range. He was using the burned hand to change something with the weapon... despite everything that had been damaged, it didn't seem completely disabled.

Matiavel turned to him and for the first time Kai saw real anger in his eyes.

The inferno of attacks was even worse than before, forcing Kai to his very limits to dodge all of the flames. Since the roof had been torn open he used Thunderbird's Wings to shoot upwards, only to nearly collide with a vast sphere of flame that Matiavel had summoned. His wings flapped and pulled him out of the way just before it dropped, and the shockwave of the explosion sent him tumbling.

Kai crashed into the rubble around the new crater, struggling to get back on his feet. But Matiavel didn't wait this time, there were already flames closing in from all sides.

(Cognosticon here. Sorry for the cliffhanger before the hiatus, that's just how it fell out. At least I can promise this: it will be the last hiatus for a while, one way or another. I will be off one week, then when I return I will announce one of two things:

1) Depthless Hunger will end after the third arc; I will apologize and close the Patreon.

2) Depthless Hunger will continue for at least a fourth arc and will resume with bonus content.

Either way, you will of course get the conclusion to this battle and the whole Rosemount arc. Thank you for reading.)