Interlude

The rules for this bout are simple… The winner is decided when I save Eryth from the withering consuming her. That is the only outcome I’ll allow to occur.

I can’t get a good look at her, but she’s in there, I’m sure of it. I can pull her out!

“Our ideals may be different Eryth, but we can agree that the lives of us humans matter right.”

“Our lives? I’m just a doll remember, don’t link me in your human affairs. Sure, the lives of humans matter to an extent, but the lives of the withering Souls matter just as well. And if you aim to destroy each and every one of them, then to me you are an enemy of the world.”

Darkness flares up around her twisting form as she retorts. This debate of ideals only fueling her anger further.

I can’t get my thoughts through to her.

“Well then Eryth, if there’s one thing I know for sure, we’ll be able to find out who’s correct by fighting it out.”

Under different circumstances, I’d welcome this battle. A duel once fought at the start of our journey together. But facing her as a true enemy… it just feels wrong. As much as I’d like to avoid it, this battle is inevitable.

“Good, time to die.” Eryth seems fully prepared to end everything.

And yet here I am wavering.

The dark withering particles converge on each other directly in front of her, forming into a giant fist.

She lunges towards me!

Her fist flying at me at ramming speeds. This is different from our last battle, back then she fought by–well not fighting at all. She hid behind the protection of her magical shield.

But I’ve gotten stronger too, it's time I activate my new spell–I’ve managed to workshop a name as well. My armor of exploding electricity, I’ll call it [Electrostatic Discharge]; the armor of one million volts!

Letting the lightning take flow across my body it engulfs in a powerful aura of my electrical darkness. Except without the proper charge I can’t materialize it fully! All that forms from just my magic alone are the gauntlets and leggings. It seems I alone cannot output the same power as a pure bolt of lightning.

Understandable really.

But even with this, my moves are accelerated and my strength amplified.

Her giant fist reaches me as I counter with my own electrified punch, sending an explosive shockwave across the arena as well as incinerating her materialized hand.

Her flimsy hand of decay crumbles from one electrified counter.

“Don’t expect me to lose like I did last time, Eryth! This time you're fighting a true magician!”

“Tch– you should feel lucky I don’t know the full capabilities of this new form yet! This is just the trial phase, after that you’re dead meat!”

It almost feels like another exciting battle with Eryth again, low stakes, chatter, and all. But it's not that, not at all, despite the banter she definitely wants me dead.

As the fist of darkness withers away I charge through it, moving as if teleporting right up in front of her. Performing a quick multi-hit combo–a double kick down to a low sweep then a nasty uppercut. Although I definitely feel like I’m hitting something, the moment my attacks hit, more black petals appear to cover the damaged areas. My finisher was the shovel, aiming for her torso and spearing forward.

DING–

My attack rings out almost sounding like a bell of a gong.

“Seems like you’ve forgotten something important, allow me to remind you! HIYAH!

Another hand forms out the dark cloak of petals swirling around her, catching me in its grasp. Forcing me away from her body by spiking me into the ground.

“I call it, [Arx, my unbreakable defense]! It works as a protective barrier against all types of attacks. You should have known that at the very least. You can’t hurt me King!”

Climbing to my feet I stand firm and ready.

“Unbreakable–unshmakeable. You can’t stay cooped up in there forever, I'll break through it eventually!”

“Nah I’d win, and no you won’t. It's in the name stupid. Give up and die.” she responds all while taunting a wiggling giant withering finger in front of her.

“It broke before, I’ll break it again. With this shovel in hand I can dig through any wall–unbreakable or not! You’ve seen this one before, but let’s see how you like it against you [Thunder Surge]!”

Returning to a sprint I leap soaring into the air, sending intense currents of electricity into the shovel as I launch it down into Eryth the unbreakable. This time throwing it with a bit of a spin, causing the shovel to drill into her body with even greater force.

CLASH–

The damage dealt fails to break her defenses but does succeed in forcing her backward. The giant fist seemingly breaking apart in order to shield her better from the attack. Her shield can be broken and that hand crumbling proves it.

“So this is the world hopping shovel, I never gave it much of an examination. Almza always seemed so interested in it… of course it falls in the hands of such a lowly human.”

Her hands of darkness attempt to consume the shovel, and as the withering disperses the shovel remains untainted by it.

“A bizarre power indeed, but a useless one to me”

She uncaringly tosses the shovel behind her.

“Now allow me to further show you the world you wish to destroy”

An abundance of withering matter disperses from her body, finally granting me what’s become of her. Her wooden vessel still retains its carved shape, although now succumbing to some wear and tear from spots that look like black mold. The withering is destroying her body!

The dispersed darkness forms into an army of mannequins in the shapes of horned humans, or rather daystars. The first appear dormant, but with a flick of her commanding hand, they begin to move.

“Kill!”

And as the directive is made, the shadowy mannequins attack.

Without my shovel I’m left to fight barehanded, but when has that stopped me. I’ve fought stronger opponents before and these guys are weak.

The sheer abundance of them is a bit alarming. Nothing I can’t handle of course, but as I cut through one, two more form from the first one’s corpse. They’re splitting endlessly like the heads of a hydra. But growing slightly smaller with each death. It’s like I’m fighting a sea of first graders; an odd comparison sure but imagine being swarmed by hundreds of short little guys, totally scary stuff.

As the numbers build higher and higher, I finally decide that this horde is not worth the energy. Eryth is just standing there farming some final boss aura while her minions swarm me. Time to change gears.

These mini-monsters die on impact with one punch, so my [Electrostatic Discharge] barely erupts into much of an explosion. But what if I were to slam my fists together and create my own shockwave counter.

KABOOM–

My quick thinking of using my own strength against myself sends a launching wave of energy, disintegrating the nearby mannequins and pushing back the farther back ones. Now with an open battlefield I can reach the shovel without trouble.

But as I charge forth Eryth stands firmly in front of it, puppy guarding my weapon of choice.

“Skedaddle on out of here Eryth, your minions are weak and I’m about to shatter your armor.”

“Pshh–you really think you can break through with that tool… Fine then let’s see it.”

She surprisingly grabs the shovel and throws it toward me. Of course aggressively throwing it like a spear. But it's the thought that counts… I guess…

“Come on then–you trust that dumb thing with everything you have, let’s see it break the unbreakable!”

“Challenge accepted!”

I just need to attack with more force than before. She’s being very lenient with me for some reason. Maybe she just trusts her magic that much.

Alright I have a plan!

SNAP–

“[STATIC SPEAR].”

The shovel ignites with static electricity jamming itself into the body of Eryth, chipping the shield ever so slightly. And now to hammer the nail!

SNAP–

Using the speed of the pulling connective electrical wiring I fly feet first into the back of the shovel…

KLANG–

The unexpected sound of metal hitting metal sounds off. There at the bottom of my shoe a red shovel deflects my earth shattering kick.

The Demon Lord makes his appearance.

“Long time no see, Strider.”

END CHAPTER 23