[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 272 – What Remains

A floating island swarming with monsters descended upon the crumbling Relagia Skyshard. The long-necked creatures screeched for his people’s deaths. Scorching lines of red flowed up the monsters’ scaled bodies, driving the dinosaurs into a frenzy.

They would be stronger than any Gray had faced before.

It was all Gray could do to keep his beleaguered people together under this coming doom. Even the group of raven feathered bandits that had ambushed Relagia mere hours ago to pillage and steal what little they had left, had joined forces to repel these hideous monsters.

The only alternative was to die. Either to a monster or the storm. Together, they had a chance to make it another day. To think of anything past the next day, the next battle, was beyond even Gray’s stalwart optimism.

Though if the chance came to choose between saving one of his people or a bandit, he wouldn’t lament the bandit’s death.

They had been fighting too long. Relagia was a mere remnant of its former self. Their only reprieve had been when the Maelstrom’s destructive wind and lightning had ceased. What little land Regalia had left remained intact.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean the land beneath his feet was stable. For reasons he didn’t understand, the Skyshard had grown brittle after losing the majority of its landmass. Monsters that attacked left deep scars in the ground, revealing desiccated dirt. Their river had begun to dry up, turning into a trickle rather than a stream.

It was enough to survive with aggressive rationing, but only just.

Deep down, Gray knew his home was dying. Somehow, it had been a living thing until the Maelstrom devoured it and that traitor Darren poisoned it.

That fool had stolen lives. He had been hunted for his crimes. And then, when he had nowhere else to run to, he used that demonic magic to poison the Skyshard itself.

Darren tried to kill them all. If the monsters didn’t slaughter them first, perhaps Darren’s treachery might eventually work.

This desperate bid for survival pitted humans against monsters. If Darren had stayed, rather than fled with those horrid wings he sprouted, they might have been forced to fight side by side.

Gray had hoped for so much more. And yet, Relagia’s rapid expansion and ingenuity hadn’t been enough.

Being called the Silver Streak once meant something. Where was his infamous luck now?

Gray carved his sword through the leathery wing of a monster, shearing it off at the joint. Spinning, he battered away the clawing talons of another before cutting into its neck.

He wrenched his thin blade free, ridding the scaled beast of the rest of its lifeforce.

It was not in Gray to give up. He would go down fighting, but he knew how it would end. There were too many monsters. For every monster slain, three more took its place.

Every breath, every moment he fought, was proof that he was alive. Each second spent defending his new home that he had known for such a short time was another second his people would live.

He had hoped for so much more, but this was all he could give his people now. A few more pitiful seconds of life.

There was no help coming. Why would there be? This shattered world sent its people adrift on the endless clouds.

He clung to the invigorating strength level ups granted his flagging soul. One of the brilliant lights belonging to Relagia’s greatest combatants in the Dragon Squad winked out.

Another from the Red Squad disappeared soon after.

Despair threatened to pull Nathaniel Gray under. He had built himself up to be an inspiring leader. The one his people could look to for hope and courage.

There wasn’t much chance of that in this mad melee. Especially when he had nothing left to give.

Bladedancer Harvey whirled his dual weapons through the gut of a monster, catching it mid-dive for his own head. The man spared him a bloodied grin and surged onward, clashing with another flying lizard. Harvey guarded against its clawing strikes with his crossed weapons, protecting a mage.

A ragged line of defense was forming until one of those feathered bandits was snatched from a swooping monster and thrown off the edge of the Skyshard.

His trailing scream was quickly drowned out by the ongoing clash of battle. In a way, he envied that man. At least death would be quick for him. Assuming there was something below them.

Sila thrust out the linked cube to him. It was a small mercy that she hadn’t fallen yet. He did not let her out of his sight.

Gray stared wordlessly at the cube until she pushed it into his numb fingers. The invention would broadcast his voice to what remained of Relagia.

What could he say to his people that would change the course of this battle? He struggled to gather his thoughts into a tactical mindset.

Gripping the impossible invention, pieces snapped into place. He pushed past his overwhelming despair and seized the ember of hope that refused to be snuffed out.

Relagia was not dead yet. If just a fraction survived, it was worth fighting for. Relagia was worth fighting for.

Its ideals meant something. Even if it only existed for a breath of time, Relagia had been a force for good. Nothing could take that away.

Gray called out orders, issuing a strategy that had been drilled into their training from the first days. His soldiers hardly needed to hear the commands that followed to obey them.

They already knew what to do. People fell back, forming an angular wall with Gray at the head. Magic and arrows flew out, pushing the monsters back, granting a temporary reprieve. Enough to get into formation.

It was only the bandits that were left floundering. He could do nothing for those that were abruptly left exposed.

Gathering mana into his hand, Gray swiped his palm across the flat of his blade, coating it in [Blazing Spellfire]. If there was one thing these monsters were vulnerable to, it was fire. With his Second Order Job, Spellblade, Gray could enhance his weapons with potent magic. The unique buffs allowed him to inflict a variety of physical and magical damage types to suit his needs.

It was already difficult enough to fend off a blade from a man with superhuman stats. It was even worse when said man channeled fire into steel.

The battle wore on. Time lost all meaning. He took wounds. The healing he had come to rely upon slowed to a trickle, then stopped altogether.

Gray cut down dozens of monsters from the air, burning their wings to steal their advantage of flight. The prone creatures were vulnerable and far easier to slay.

As the numbers began to thin, his exhausted people let out hoarse cheers. Gray didn’t join in the shouting. He knew what was coming. At the point of the formation, he had seen the attacking monster isle spawn wave after wave of creatures.

This time would be no different. With no safe path to reach the other isle, and no way to disengage the strange tidal lock keeping the two in close proximity, there was only one way this would end.

The voices of his people’s victory shouts were cut off when the mossy nest spat out another swarm of monsters.

Gray looked at his people and knew they were at their breaking point. Desperation was already setting in.

A bandit pointed with his longsword. “It’s a monster nest! There’ll be no end to them!”

“It must be destroyed, or we’re dead!”

The ground quaked beneath their feet. Gaps of light shone through the ground. The Skyshard was splitting into two. The thing had taken too much damage to keep together.

“I’ll do it,” Gray said, resolved. There would be no coming back. Even if he could find a way onto the other isle without being killed, this was no fireside story of derring-do where the hero clears out the enemy and returns victorious.

A man charging into the jaws of death made a good story for other people to tell. Cold ice formed in his middle as he realized this was the end.

As Gray reapplied [Blazing Spellfire] on his blade in grim preparation, a deep shadow fell over Relagia.

What now? he couldn’t help but think.

“What is that?” Sila asked. “Another Skyshard?”

“Those banners! Could it truly be?” Teak cried. The Islegardian elf’s tone was filled with hope. Tears began to stream down his lean, blood-streaked face. “I recognize that symbol. It is the Sacred Tree!”

A lone bell rang out as a crimson armored samurai dove from the descending Skyshard, riding a line of luminous mana with a long blade.

Spearheaded chains shot out from the Skyshard that dwarfed his own. It dug into the stone and dirt, slowly pulling the splitting pieces back together.

Weighted ropes and grapnels were launched from above. People ready to fight slid down from the darkness above.

As details resolved into view, Gray was stunned in awe.

A pillar of light rose from the falling samurai. His bloodline, his third eye as it were, opened Gray’s perception to an individual’s potential.

And this woman harbored limitless potential. The likes of which he had never witnessed before. He hadn’t known such a thing was possible.

Her pillar of brilliant light spiraled into a magnificent tower that pierced the heavens.

She was not alone. Perched upon her hat was an otter-like creature ringing a beautiful silvery bell. Holding onto her back was a drow with an eager grin.

Patting the red-clad figure on the shoulder, the dark elf dropped into the mass of monsters just arriving upon Relagia. He moved like a dancer, slicing utter destruction through their ranks with a blurring blade of steel.

Midair, the limitless samurai unsheathed two blades, each glowing richly with mana. An aura flared around the woman. Not Copper like his own, but Tin.

With a flurry of crossing slashes, she unleashed a barrage of booming torrents of lava and thunder into the monster nest. The disparate admixture of magic flowed over the nest and the majority of the monster isle. The landmass began to fall, burning and melting away under the overwhelming assault.

He could see a giant monster emerge too late from the nest, stumbling through the smoking ruin. Thunder rolled over its body, but it was not finished yet.

The dying beast’s maw filled with a ghostly blue light. With a roar that shattered its own isle beneath its gnarled talons, it let loose a rectangular beam of energy at the samurai.

There was no dodging an attack of such speed.

The attack collided with her raised blades. What at first seemed to be a well-timed guard turned into a precise counter.

[Unsheathed Counter]

With a subtle twist, the beam was reflected from her weapons. The monster, its mouth still wide open, had no defense and no time to form one. From one heartbeat to the next, the creature’s large body burst into a cloud of ash.

Of all things, treasure chests materialized from the creature’s demise. They were thrown into the air, flying from the nest towards Relagia.

The difference in strength was staggering. Were they all Tin Rank?

“I can scarcely believe it,” Teak said, shock plastered across his elven face. “The Sacred Sage and the Gloam Ronin have come to save us. Of all the Islegardians…”

The Sage dropped down to Relagia. Rather than join the Ronin in his wholesale destruction, she landed amongst Gray’s exhausted people and defended them from further harm.

The otter-like creature rang his silvery bell. A barrier went up, blocking the monsters from advancing.

[Geomancy: Barrier Bubble]

The brown-furred creature moved with the fluidity of water, flowing down the red-clad woman’s armor until he was sitting on the ground.

The Sage stepped forward, out of the barrier, and cut the routed monsters down with waves of magic.

Getting over his shock, Gray called out orders. The strongest and sturdiest that still remained–himself included–formed a guard around the creature.

Gray had no idea what it was doing, but he could tell that it was preventing the monsters from reaching his allies. The barrier didn’t stop them entirely. The monsters struggled as if pushing through a thick jelly. Gray would protect that creature with his life as he stepped forward to slice a creature’s grasping claw off at the wrist.

Mages, archers, and clerics arrived from one side of the friendly Skyshard. Knights dressed like fast food workers charged from the other. Healing spells flew out, lifting some of Relagia’s people from the brink.

The monsters were beset on all sides, with that singular drow wreaking havoc in the center.

Despite the sudden turn in battle, and the assured defeat of the monsters, it wasn’t over. Pressed from all sides but Gray’s, the monsters renewed their assault on the beleaguered people of Relagia.

They see us as the only escape from wholesale slaughter, Gray realized.

With his ensorcelled sword weaving lines of flame through the air, the Spellblade cleaved through the scaly ranks of the monsters. Gray stepped up to the barrier to show that the people of Relagia–his people–would not be so easily beaten.

The stinging pain of attacks he was too tired to deflect felt like they belonged to somebody else. He knew on some level that he should be worried, but there was no time. Gray refused to let even a single monster through, even when those at his sides were forced to fall back.

Sila pulled her hand back from partially healing Harvey. He had taken a nasty wound clean through his gauntlet.

“I’m out,” she admitted, gasping for breath. Running out of mana was never a pleasant experience.

When her attention fell on Gray, her look of horror made him realize what was wrong. That distant, cold pain hadn’t gone away.

He looked down and pulled his hand away from his middle. It was coated in blood. A clawing strike had made it past his armor.

Huh, he thought with a dark chuckle. Didn’t even feel it.

“Gray!” Sila cried. “Healer! We need a healer!”

He struggled to stay standing. It wouldn’t do for a leader to fall to his knees.

From one eye blink to the next, Gray found himself on his back. There were people around him. Sila was sobbing. The noise of battle was gone.

“We’ve won. We actually won!” Harvey said.

He blinked again. That limitless samurai was suddenly there, studying him with piercing violet eyes. Lifting a brow, she didn’t seem too worried. A stark contrast to Sila’s grief-stricken features.

“You’re a healer, aren’t you?” the woman asked.

He couldn’t hear Sila’s reply.

“He’ll be just fine then.” The samurai raised an arm marked with golden symbols. A massive sigil blazed in the air, saturating the area with a wellspring of mana.

Raiko (Level 40 Ninja) casts [Glyph: Refresh Domain] on your Skyshard.

You gain the effect of Glyphic Refresh.

+Mana Recovery V

+Maximum Mana Increase II

There wasn’t much Gray could do with the mana. He was a Spellblade, not a healer. But it was exactly what Sila needed.

His muzzy thoughts cleared as Sila leaned over him and pressed her hands to his middle. With the coldness of shock receding, pain took center stage. Even that abated as Sila healed his health to nearly 80%.

“So,” Raiko began in a casual tone, sheathing her last blade. She nudged Gray’s side with a boot. “Ally with my kingdom?”

A woman in a plastic burger mask with googly eyes waved. “And mine!”

“What?” Gray asked, bewildered.

“Alliances are totes in right now, don’t cha know,” the burger mask woman added.

Haman peeked out from under Raiko’s hat. He had found his way back. “Alliances. So hot right now.”

I’m so confused.