Emerging from the Depths Part 2

-Shoggoth-

It was a common misassumption about the blessings of the god of silence that it bestows the ability to block all magic.

In truth, being Silenced affects the flow of magic.

For those who only have magic from blessings, this cancels the blessing. Making it super effective against most priests.

For those with divine blood, the effect can vary from preventing them from forming the sigils that focus their spells, to preventing them from channeling their magic throughout their body to enhance themselves.

Though only the weakest of demigods were affected so severely by the latter.

And there was a difference between being under the sigil of Silence in the sky, and being hit directly by the blessing of Silence.

The sigil affected prayers. And in this case, extreme sounds.

The strike affected the flow of magic in the body.

The leviathan was still able to channel magical energy, but to the untrained civilians hesitating, seeing it unable to create sigils convinced them that it was unable to use magic anymore.

It sickened Ruddy to rely on such details to instill courage amongst the people, but they needed to believe they stood a chance as they charged with whatever impromptu weapons they had.

An assortment of civilians, each with their own experiences, all yelled as they slashed at whatever tentacles got close enough. Some had farm equipment like pitchforks or shovels, and others had weapons from past lives like swords and spears.

Ruddy jumped off the docks towards the side of the leviathan, using his sword to climb onto it. The flesh was strong, but his sword was stronger. Even if it only drew a few drops of blood, it would add up.

“Would you like my blessings as well?” Shoggoth’s voice asked as Ruddy began climbing, gathering every drop of blood he could towards his blade. Shoggoth’s eye moved in the shadow of Ruddy, only a foot away from his face.

“You’ve helped enough!” He snapped, not being happy with the speech earlier, but having to accept it. “If you want to help, go assist the civilians!”

“Way ahead of you.” The eye glanced over at the civilians struggling to make their way to the leviathan.

For the average civilian, the disastrous waves, the trashing tentacles, and the pure chaos of the fight all but guaranteed certain death. Only the stronger species, like minotaurs or orcs were able to brave this maelstrom.

But, when someone called out to Shoggoth for the knowledge of how to proceed, miraculous routes would reveal themselves.

The smashed remains of a boat floating up to form a platform across the water with surprising stability.

The thick tree roots previously unseen made sturdy bridges across dangerous waters.

The tentacles of the leviathan getting stuck in the polluted seabed offer an easy hit to the devout.

Or even, just a voice in their head, telling them how to dodge the thrashing tentacles with perfect accuracy.

At times, people could catch glimpses of a shadowy tendril pulling them out of an attack, or holding a thrashing tentacle still just enough to allow it to be struck.

Ruddy couldn’t focus on the others. He was directly on top of the leviathan now, swinging his sword at every tentacle coming out of the creature. There was no rhyme or reason to the source of the tentacles, coming out of more than just the mouth of the beast, but all over its body.

“It’ll be hard with this storm going on…” Ruddy growled, hacking at the thick tentacles, ducking into shadows whenever he was about to be attacked.

With every swing of his sword, he dug deeper into the flesh, drawing more blood. Every drop of blood stuck to his blade, sucked towards it like raindrops down a hill. And with every drop of blood his blade absorbed, the edge of his sword grew sharper, blood taking a place at the edges of the sword.

What blood wasn’t being used to enhance offense, was instead swirling around Ruddy’s body, slowly forming a chestplate of blood tightly around him. And the armor was only growing around his body, though he tried to keep as much blood out of the rain as possible.

Every drop of rainwater that hit the blood, it took a drop of blood with it, and it was only due to the strange magnetism of the blood that the drop of blood wasn’t entirely lost before it splashed against the wet flesh of the creature, and mixed with water and slime.

Ruddy was the first to chop off a tentacle, the blood splurting from the wound like mad as the tentacle fell like a tree, knocking a few attacking tentacles out of the way. And causing a pained rage in the leviathan.

But its roars were muffled by Silence, and all it could do was thrash harder than before.

Ruddy’s job quickly became harder, as more tentacles appeared, trying to whack him. He flashed through shadows, zooming across whatever unbroken lengths of darkness he could find.

Strike one tentacle near the head, disappear into shadow and appear near the eyes, striking another tentacle, disappear and strike a tentacle near the mouth.

This time, Ruddy took a little bit longer to observe the mouth, the sharp beak that was already smashing up boats and people grabbed.

And if it had a mouth that big, then Ruddy’s plan would work.

But first, he needed more blood.

His muscles strained with every strike against the tentacles. His body strained against the weight of the blood and water covering him. And his mind strained with the toll of sigil of Silence he was still keeping in effect.

But he kept swinging, as the blood formed a helmet under his hood.

He kept slashing, as the sword in his hands became longer, excess blood adding to the blade.

He kept cutting, as the yells of the people filled the air, clashing against the sounds of the leviathan’s thrashing.

And he kept slicing, as his own voice began to go raw from his own yelling.

“Rah!” Ruddy yelled, slamming his right foot down as he swung his bloodied blade in an arc, the blade so ridiculously long it was cutting into three tentacles at once in a circle of blood.

The longer the blade got, the more blood was being exposed to the rain washing it away. Even the blood flowing out of the tentacles and flying towards the blade was being rapidly diminished by the storm.

Grinding his teeth through the pain in his skull, Ruddy kept slashing, needing as much blood as he could draw, even though he was losing so much.

“Need to get rid of that storm…” Ruddy refreshed the blood on his sword by slicing off a chunk of the leviathan’s hide, digging the blade as deep as it could go before he had to pull it out to dodge another tentacle.

But no spells or tricks existed in his repertoire that could remove a storm.

Only Light, Thunder, Wind, or Water could do such a thing.

‘-maybe-’

And Ruddy refused to pray to the goddess who abandoned him. Even with his muscles screaming, and his own blood leaking out of his nose.

‘-if I-’

Even with the traitorous voice in the back of his head considering the unthinkable.

‘-but perhaps-’

Another tentacle severed.

Another fountain of blood.

The leviathan writhed in pain.

Tentacles slammed into the water.

A deluge splashed on Ruddy.

Blood spilled into the ocean.

He drove his blade into the beast to steady his footing.

The leviathan prepared for this.

Ruddy was sent flying up.

The leviathan launched him using its enhanced rubbery flesh as a springboard.

In the air, the rain struck Ruddy like countless needles, his cloak failing to protect his bloody armor from the water that wiped away his progress.

‘-need help-’

Ruddy’s brain felt like it was about to burst like a bubble.

‘-they could-’

His bloodshot eyes felt like they were going to melt.

‘-but I’d-’

Without Ruddy to draw the rage, tentacles thrashed at civilians unstopped.

‘-only they could do this-’

One tentacle smashed a fisherman, turning them into chum with an errant flick.

‘-what would they say-’

A house was obliterated, filling two warriors with wooden shrapnel.

‘-what would be the cost-’

Ruddy was still falling. The blade in his hand was all but drained of blood.

‘-I have no choice-’

His blood-armor was losing its strength, quivering in the rain as it struggled to retain its shape.

‘Fine! I’ll do it! Screw the consequences! I refuse to allow this thing to win!’

He let the traitorous voice in the back of his head win.

Even if it made his stomach want to burst.

Even if it made the scratching in his head worse.

Even if it meant giving that thing more power.

Ruddy could almost feel the smile looking at him as the words built up in his throat.

But they never reached his tongue.

A godly flash of light from the north blinded all for a fraction of a second.

The biggest lightning strike Ruddy had ever seen struck the mountains to the north.

Like a tree of electricity reaching for the heavens.

There was no one alive that should have been capable of that.

Not the King of Raedenia nor his sons.

Not the Lady of Lightning either.

So who did?

And why?

The branches of the tree of lightning began to spread across the sky, traveling miles in moments.

And then the boom reached Mesolefko.

It was deafening, breaking apart even the weakening sigil of Silence.

Lightning began to crackle in the storm clouds above the battle.

And then the clouds began to move north.

Ruddy could almost feel his presence, the aura of the god of thunder, as he began to move the clouds north.

The leviathan’s massive yellow eyes shrunk into black slit pupils as it realized it lost its greatest protection.

The sun began to shine above Ruddy, almost harshly so.

But it dried the water sticking to him, and thickened the blood remaining.

The traitorous back of Ruddy’s head felt a little disappointed, that Shoggoth’s help would have been preferable than Light.

Ruddy didn’t care however.

He adjusted his form, falling faster towards the leviathan, and diving into the shadows of the flailing tentacles.

Without water to dilute the blood, it began swirling around Ruddy with every slash of his sword. The blade became thicker and stronger with the sun’s light hardening the blood.

The leviathan’s flesh was drying out, its time was running out as more and more blood flowed out. It didn’t matter how big it was, it had a limited amount of blood. Even its cry was weak and short.

And more civilians began hearing the voice of Shoggoth, guiding them to throw ropes and hooks around tentacles, using ancient anchors and rusty anvils to hold down the weakening limbs.

Even tree roots were restraining some limbs, keeping it from escaping back into the water.

Ruddy’s form was shadowed by the blood whirlpool around him, his blade slicing through drying tentacles with ease as he danced atop the leviathan.

When his body felt weak, his muscles close to giving up, he drank the blood pouring from his nose, Blood’s blessing giving his body a brief revitalization.

His thoughts burned and pounded, his magic drained, his eyes might as well have melted, but he was ready to finish this.

The leviathan was too. Magic was being channeled desperately through the beast.

Ruddy didn’t need his eyes to see this magic. He’s never needed his ruined eyes to see. He survived once without them, and it was only Silence’s gift that restored them.

To Ruddy, magical energy was the only thing that he could always see.

He ran to the front of the leviathan, jumping from tentacles and dashing through shadows. His hood fluttered at the speed he was going, exposing ashen white eyes, as if Light burned them away long ago.

Magic was being channeled to the creature’s mouth, so that’s where Ruddy aimed. If it was going to fire a burst of magic, Ruddy would simply fire first.

He didn’t know what he landed on for this last moment, but it was not the leviathan.

As blue energy charged up in the leviathan’s beak, red energy charged up around Ruddy. The blood surrounding his body flowed down his arms into his blade, expanding its size over and over again.

When it got too long and wide for Ruddy to hold straight at the leviathan, the blood formed into a cylindrical shape around the blade, swirling with magical energy as it built up for one last attack.

The sheer magic in his sword was blocking his vision of the leviathan, as the blood was rich with the leviathan’s own energy.

But he could see the myriad magics around him, helping him as they always did.

He could see the many gloved hands of the goddess of blood guiding the tip of his blade just right.

He could see wispy ever-changing hands of the god of shadows keeping his feet steady.

He could see the long skinny arms of the god of silence wrapping around his head, focusing his senses as it blocked his sight.

But he could also see the harsh light pouring down on him. Like hands pushing him to his knees.

And he could see a silver eye behind him, whispers of information trying to sneak into his mind. Mathematical formulas and biological information to guide his aim to be beyond perfect.

All this culminated into a spear of blood charging on his blade, ready to fire.

Ruddy didn’t wait.

After all, he didn’t need to.

A flash of red magics lanced forward without so much as a tell, right into the open beak of the leviathan, right through the blue orb it was a moment away from firing.

The beak cracked into shards as the blood ripped through its interior, as if the spear knew exactly where to aim.

Ink leaked as the ink sack was burst.

Blood began to spill out of gills as hearts were pierced.

Tentacles fell slack as the brain was struck.

With a weakening shriek, the leviathan collapsed, the beast dead.

The foothold Ruddy had begun to creak, tree branches beneath him lowering him back down to the docks.

People watched the leviathan become an unmoving mass of flesh, and it was only when someone stabbed its side with a pitchfork, and a spray of blood spilled out into the water, did everyone realize it was dead.

The cheers were more deafening than the leviathan itself.