[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 221 — Somewhere Ogre the Rainbow II

Raiko woke to the sounds of warfare, already riding a [Source Chain] that was launching into another Skyshard.

Shocked from where she woke up, she nearly lost her grip, then hastily tapped into the aid of [Glyph: Surgewalk]. The spell bolstered Agility, Dexterity and Vigor, while blunting some of the natural effects of gravity.

Dammit, the nightmare was real!

Skyshards full of people and monsters had crashed into Sil’mara’s barrier. The ogre had arrived, bearing the twisted remains of the starting island.

And some of the Dungeons they had left behind. Things might have been far worse if Sam had not collected those dungeon ingresses. The ogre’s allies could have been far stronger, and much more plentiful.

Raiko witnessed these things while feverishly dreaming. Some part of her Incarnate powers and bloodline blended together to seize greater might when confronted with the need to save Haman.

Or perhaps she was regaining what was lost.

[Phantom Image] swirled azure shaded reflections around Raiko. A flying monster dove towards her. Glancing over, she concentrated mana into [Phantom Image], resisting the instinct to cut the monster out of the air.

I need to see how well this new spell works.

The thing erupted into flames, exploding against the azure reflections. One of them faded away, the blast partially absorbed by [Phantom Image].

Raiko still took a hit to her HP, but it was nowhere near as much as it should have been.

The more layers of [Phantom Image] that were built up, the greater damage mitigation. However, upon absorbing enough damage, the layers were gradually consumed.

There was an added effectiveness boost as well, towards either physical or magical attacks depending on the type of mana used to conjure [Phantom Image]. As the mana Raiko used continuously changed due to [Chaos: Elemental Wheel], this was an aspect she couldn’t entirely control.

Haman was in danger. He had been away from her for too long.

Her soul was drawn like a lodestone to his. Raiko could not resist the call even if she wished to. Affected by a deepening [Hollow Rage], she was becoming blinded to nearly everything else.

The [Source Chain] latched onto the monster-infested Skyshard, forming a link to Sil’mara. Taking full advantage of its momentum, Raiko plunged forward into the muddied lines of battle.

People were everywhere. Friendly fire was a serious problem for everyone else, but not Raiko.

Fire and lightning coated her katana, and she released [Rift: Ancient Magic] into the monsters. Anything on her way to Haman was obliterated.

***

Vaskad was in a world of pain. He didn’t know how to cope with the constant onslaught. This small, pitiful creature that once infuriated him now terrified him. Vaskad wanted nothing more than to flee this manling’s terrible rage and unnatural strength.

This was not a man, but a beast in a man’s body!

Vaskad had lived through the centuries without ever getting as wounded as this. His multiple health bars were down to just two. An entire army of manlings had been unable to do what a single person could in the span of a few minutes.

Struggling on his back, the ogre tried to get up, though the agony in his left leg told him that was unlikely to happen. The creature appeared on his chin, hopped up to the bridge of his nose, and stared eye-to-eye with Vaskad.

This pitiful thing, the same shape of creature he had crushed countless times in his fist, dared to look him in the eyes as if they were equal?!

Despite his fear, the wound to his pride was too great to ignore. Vaskad, first among his kin, snarled and raised his hand to slap the creature flat across his face.

Flaring colors of purple, silver, and black rolled off the manling’s frame as he raised a single tiny arm and caught Vaskad’s massive blue hand as if it were a child’s.

He said something in that strange language of his and raised his other arm.

Vaskad laughed, though he did not stop trying to crush the man. He could feel the manling’s strength waning. The puny thing’s arm was shaking!

Just…a…little…more–

The aura around the man shifted wholly to purple-black flames. A gout of the same fire flashed into Vaskad’s right eye, stealing the light from his vision and sending white-hot spears of agony into his mind.

***

Sam dropped his arm and rolled, letting the ogre’s massive mitt fall to its face where it clutched its ruined eye socket and wailed in pain.

The last of his Paragon strength went into that [Escha: Scour]. As an Escha variant of the Void, it ate away at the material world instead of magical.

[Void: Scour]

(Magical Art) (F-Class)

(★☆ Uncommon)

As your connection to the Void deepens, you begin to understand the meager and ethereal nature of mana. By sending out a burst of Void mana, you are able to violently scour all other mana leaving nothingness in its wake. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength and Insight when using Scour.

Mana Cost: Low

Where [Void: Scour] ate away at all mana, [Escha: Scour] ate away at physical substance. The downside was that the latter took significantly more mana and drained him in ways that he didn’t quite understand.

Against such a powerful foe as the ogre, Sam was surprised he had done so much damage.

He was about to hop off the ogre, to try another attack, when he saw the weapons and armor tied up in its filthy dreadlocks.

This time, Sam really saw the armaments for what they were: trophies.

Before, it had been a stroke of pure luck to find a weapon he could use, but now he understood the meaning behind them. These were weapons from the people this creature had defeated and slaughtered.

How many of his own people had been killed by this very same ogre? What sort of home might they have been able to make on that starter Skyshard if there was no ogre?

These thoughts and more filled Sam’s mind as he stared, transfixed, at the weapons. They swayed back and forth as the ogre howled in pain and flailed its head around, trying to come to terms with its missing eye.

Sam stepped onto the ogre’s stony cheek and reached out. He hardly needed to wait more than a second before a large hammer’s handle slapped into his palm.

Wrenching it free brought several other weapons tangled up in its hair to Sam and it took the Swordsman a moment to rip them free.

Filled with righteous fury at the loss of his people, and the people who had come before that were slaughtered by this monster, Sam slammed one weapon after the other into the ogre’s face.

Every time the ogre flailed about with its free hand, Sam dodged to the side long enough to pull another weapon free.

Hammers that would have crushed a sedan back home were used with such ferocity that they shattered on impact. The ogre’s nose splatted into a ruined heap on its face, and still Sam did not stop.

Wrenching ancient weapons that nearly crumbled in his rage-fueled-grasp, he slammed one armament after the other into the ogre, even after the ogre stopped fighting back.

You defeat the [Alpha Ogre Vaskad (Boss) (Level 50 - Tin)].

You gain colossal Experience for slaying an impossibly tough boss monster!

Level Up!

Your [Swordsman] Job has reached Level 35.

+9 Strength | +9 Vigor | +5 Agility | +5 Dexterity

+3 Bonus Points

Level Up!

Your [Swordsman] Job has reached Level 36.

+9 Strength | +9 Vigor | +5 Agility | +5 Dexterity

+3 Bonus Points

Level Up!

Your [Void] Path has reached Level 35.

+3 Insight Talents | +2 Strength Talents

+3 Arcane Talents | +2 Vigor Talents

+2 Control Talents

Level Up!

Your [Voidknight] Legend has reached Level 34.

+4 to all Stats

+1 to all Talents

Level Up!

Your [Void] Path has reached Level 36.

+3 Insight Talents | +2 Strength Talents

+3 Arcane Talents | +2 Vigor Talents

+2 Control Talents

Sam was so focused on his revenge that he didn’t even notice when the eroded and weakened Skyshard edge below began to give way. It wasn’t until Komachi cried out that Sam realized his error.

With wind whipping by, he was falling, and fast.

He looked up at the Skyshard above them and then the underside of his own larger Skyshard of Sil’mara. He tried to jump, but the jangle of shrapnel embedded in the ogre’s face from Sam’s vicious attacks caught his foot and held it firm.

By the time he wrenched his boot free, the window was closed. It was too far to leap. He swore he saw Raiko staring at him in horror, and…was that Kale restraining her?

No. Couldn’t be. Focus up, Hunter.

“Sam, what’re we doing?!” Komachi called above the roaring of the wind in their ears.

The ogre’s large body did much to break the worst of it. The Maelstrom attacked the body with arcing bolts of green lightning, but the ogre’s corpse was tough.

Though it sheltered Sam and Komachi, sooner rather than later, they were going to crash into that black sphere at the heart of the Maelstrom. Nothing he had seen so far survived that impact.

“Komachi, I need mana.”

“Take these!” His cat brought out a wealth of bright blue mana potions.

Sam chugged them down one after the other as he concentrated on his Void Path. A few were wasted before he realized that they stopped replenishing his MP, but he had managed to refill a good portion of his mana.

Enough for what he was planning, he hoped.

Filling his channels with Void mana, Sam summoned every ounce of his Paragon of War powers. He didn’t understand what they were, not consciously at least, but he knew they helped him against the ogre.

He needed them now more than ever.

Roiling black and silver flames sprang forth across his body, moving harmlessly around Komachi as she burrowed back into his armor.

From the depths of his stomach, somewhere just above his navel, a deep tearing sensation filled him with dread, but Sam did not let that stop him. He called upon every last drop of power he had left, even if it ripped his muscles to confetti.

Sure as hell feels like it, he thought through the haze of pain.

There were a million things Sam wanted to say as the black heart of the Maelstrom exploded into view. But it took all of his concentration to keep his Void mana in check. It became his entire world as it pulled on their descent, and the angry winds and bolts of lightning lessened.

It was almost as if the Maelstrom knew it had him caught and was finally content.

Only going to get one shot at this, he reminded himself as a Void inferno raged around him, scorching and burning away parts of the ogre’s magically enhanced skin.

Within a hundred feet of the Maelstrom’s eye, a black curving wall of nothingness that filled his world from edge to edge, Sam leapt from the ogre’s body toward the wall of death.

If I’m going to go out, then I’m going to do it my way, he thought to himself as he pulled on his aura of Void and concentrated it into his fist.

Blood thundering in his ears, Sam used his heartbeat to count down from three and then launched the largest [Void: Scour] that he had ever used in his life.

The Void mana collided with something he had never expected to be at the heart of the Maelstrom: Apocalypse mana.

This was neither Void nor Chaos, but something else. A third component that he had never heard of before. As Oblivion mana and Void mana collided, a cascading fissure ripped at the fabric of space and time.

Using one Apocalypse mana type against another always led to disaster. But unlike when Sam used his Void against Raiko’s Chaos, this did not explode and push him away.

It tore and pulled.

A shining white rip, a ragged portal to somewhere else, opened. It was just large enough for Sam’s body and he was yanked through by unseen winds.

The fissure closed around him in a flash of pearlescent white, and Sam hurtled through a sea of stars and glittering shards of light toward a rising brilliant sun that he somehow knew to be his destination.

Komachi poked her head out of his armor and gasped, looking around at the beautiful lights. “They’re tiny pieces of Worldshards!” she called out, amazed.

Sam looked around. He had full control of his body, but there was nothing he could do against the inexorable pull toward that growing brilliant white light.

Falling forward through the boundless expanse, Sam regretted his actions. Not killing the ogre. Never that. But getting so wrapped up in his own vendetta against the creature that he let it blind him to the surrounding danger.

Some Paragon of War I am, he thought darkly to himself. I let my sense of the battle be replaced by my own selfishness.

He left all those people behind, including Raiko. He felt the worst about that. It would have to be up to all of them to do the rest.

At least the ogre was dead. It would trouble them no longer.

Sam’s memories of the battle were hazy, but he guessed that the monsters would be in a full rout without the ogre acting as their anchor.

“Where do you think we’re going now?” Komachi asked, full of excitement. She didn’t seem to be worried at all.

He scratched her chin with his left hand. His other was broken. It must have happened somewhere in that storm of rage when he’d broken weapon upon weapon on the ogre’s face.

“I don’t know, Komachi,” Sam answered truthfully. Now that the battle high was draining, his body was filing complaints a mile long. This was certainly not what he wanted.

His goal had been to pierce the Maelstrom, destroying the mana that would have ground him to dust, not…this.

“I hope there’ll be snacks.”

Sam couldn’t help but chuckle as the warm, comforting light enveloped them both. “Me too, Komachi. Me too.”