Just Become...

Immediately upon entering the Soul Eclipse, Raya and I activated our countermeasures. Even just a moment here unprotected will result in death. That said, our countermeasures for Soul Eclipses could not be more different.

A dragon made of lightning was summoned and enveloped Raya, after which she immediately took off to fight Kael Drogo. She can wrap Ryuzu’s Fang around herself to shield her soul from the potent corruption of the Soul Eclipse. However, she can only do this once. This is the reason she couldn’t go all out even when we were fighting Kael Drogo.

Harsh winds and rocks pelted me, making it a struggle to even regain some semblance of balance. Raya had left me behind because at this point I was too weak to face Kael Drogo.

After fighting Lucius, countless assassins, and arguably the strongest person on the continent it seems that I’ve reached my limit. My mana tank is reading zero so there’s not much I can do. Dammit, Raya is fighting that guy all on her own now.

When I used Flood of the Unliving to force Kael to open his Soul Eclipse I didn’t think that just staying alive in here would be so difficult. I had hoped that I would be able to do… something.

Looking up, I could finally see through all the dirt and rock to where the fighting was happening.

Is this really a continuation of the previous battle?

Two dragons were going head to head with one another. Scratching one another with claws larger than my arms and unleashing breath attacks of fire and lightning. The intense winds that were previously flowing completely erratically now spun around the two in a deadly vortex.

I struggled with all my might to approach the battle but was easily thwarted with every attempt.

I didn’t know what I would do when I reached the two, or that I could even do anything, but I still had to try. So I jumped to a rock that was closer to the battle, only to be met with fiercer winds and thrown in all sorts of directions.

The dragon of lightning sunk its teeth into the neck of the gray dragon, which let out an ear piercing roar in response. It unleashed a flurry of claw strikes into the lightning dragons torso, but since the lightning dragon was mostly incorporeal it simply reformed itself each time.

When the gray dragon neared the end of its death throes, it retched and vomited a pitch black liquid.

Immediately, the liquid reformed itself into a black sphere while the omnipresent dirt and rock gravitated towards it.

The dragon of lightning flapped away and shot a flood of lightning at the black sphere, creating a blindingly bright light that filled the entire space.

But still the rock and dirt flowed, converging until the blindingly bright light slowly dimmed and eventually faded away.

I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even move if I tried.

- - - - - - -

I was kneeling on the ground, back in the real world.

Though it was bright, I looked up, only to see the silhouette of a flying head blocking out the sun.

With a disgusting splat, it bounced and tumbled until it reached me.

It just barely tapped my knee but a wave of nausea hit me harder than anything I’ve experienced before.

I realized whose head this belonged to.

???: …R-Raya?

I reached my hand out to her and caressed her cheek.

I looked into her eyes but they were cold and lifeless. Her unblemished skin was now devoid of color. No, perhaps color had been erased from the world entirely.

The world began to shake as I pulled the head into my chest and tears began flowing uncontrollably.

She’s not dead yet, I still feel some warmth from her…

Heal

HealHealHealHealHealHeaHealHealHeal

Shit, I’m out of mana. No, I can still heal her. I’ll make her whole again.

HEAL!

HEAL GODDAMMIT!

…

..

It’s… not working

She’s dead

You mean to tell me that Raya is dead?

That we lost?

That everything was for nothing?

No… I can still kill that bastard. The one who did this to her – Kael Drogo.

I finally looked up and saw that Kael Drogo was simply standing next to the rest of Raya’s corpse and watching me.

I’ll kill him.

I’ll make him suffer.

Kael: heh, you put up a good fight but it was always going to end this way.

I stood up, still clutching Raya to my chest. Her warmth can’t fade away yet.

I stirred my soul to unleash one final attack. It has to be stronger than anything else before it.

???: I’ll kill you Kael Drogo!

But then he disappeared from my vision.

And then the world turned black.

…

..

.

- - - - - - -

???: hmph, whether you like it or not, your perspective will be seen.

- - - - - - -

Perspective 5 - post mortem:

After I sliced her head off I wondered what kind of reaction that boy that was attached to her would have. Surprisingly, he had been quite formidable when paired up with that granddaughter of mine. Had he not healed her so often, this fight could have ended without me needing to use a Soul Eclipse.

Even without a relic, he managed to survive this long against me.

That said, I also don’t “wield” a relic. Heh, I’m something of an exception.

I’ll take note not to underestimate healing-type magic in the future. It’s always better to be cautious after all. He almost did something there.

But now he’s just sitting there blankly. I guess he’s in shock.

…

Oh! Now he’s standing up… Looks like he’s a bit mad too.

“Heh, you put up a good fight but it was always going to end this way.”

In respect for your strength, I’ll keep it quick.

With a single slash of my claws, his head was cut into pieces. Sadly he didn’t put up as much of a fight as he did earlier.

I guess it is impressive enough for him to even be alive at this point.

Looking around at the mess I made today, I sighed and spoke to no one in particular, “That was rather tiring, someone else can clean this up.”

I picked up Ryuzu’s Fang and began walking back when I suddenly heard bubbling sounds coming from behind me.

Adam’s corpse had begun melting and releasing steam for some strange reason. Red tendrils of blood reached out from his neck and latched onto the pieces of his head that had fallen to the ground. As the tendrils retracted back, he shakily stood up once more.

Though he was still looking downward and hunched over, I could tell that his head was riddled with black cracks. Then he even began mumbling something ominous under his breath.

What the hell?

I set Ryuzu’s Fang back on the ground and poised myself to fight this strange entity.

The creature began limping towards me, leaving behind a trail of boiling blood as it did so. At one point his left arm simply detached from his shoulder and fell to the ground with a splat. He stopped for a second to look at the arm, mumbled something, then finally looked up at me. His eyes were pitch black, just like mine.

With a smile I shouted, “I see! So that’s it!”

Without warning, he lunged at me with a speed faster than he’d shown before. It wasn’t anything crazy though. He threw a right hook, which I simply blocked with my claws.

Blood spurted out as his hand got mangled, but the cuts healed almost instantly.

He continued throwing punches and kicks at me without respite. Each time I would dodge or block with my claws, and each time his arm or leg would get mangled then heal instantly.

But somehow he was getting faster. It was to the point that dodging became difficult.

Damn, I guess I can’t just keep messing around.

I muttered a spell that would boost my strength, “The Eye yields naught but lies –Dragonification 1”

From my mouth, sharp teeth sprouted. My body grew larger and stronger while completely changing my appearance. But in this form, my speed was decreased slightly. Perhaps this is what he was hoping for.

He swung his left arm at me, except he didn’t have a left arm.

A feint? Or maybe he’s just an idiot?

Instinctively I had backed up but I wasn’t sure if I had fallen for his trap or not.

In the blink of an eye, a monstrously large arm sprouted from the entity’s left side. It was bloody and grotesque, and grabbed me with inhuman speed.

It’s grip was as strong as a vice, and it held onto my entire arm with a single hand. I launched claw attacks on the arm but it would simply heal them faster than I could rip it apart. Then I felt a stabbing pain in my arm, like something was setting its teeth into me.

Cutting off my arm, I made the decision to create some distance.

This situation wasn’t great for me but the entity previously known as Adam wasn’t doing great either.

Over the course of our short battle, the rate of his melting had increased and the cracks on his head had spread to cover his entire body.

He glared at me with deep hatred in his eyes as he hobbled towards me, growling like a wild animal. Then his monstrous left arm fell off and rapidly dissolved, letting off a vast amount of steam as it did so.

Adam managed to walk a few steps further before collapsing and shattering into chunks of meat.

Indeed, there is no way to cheat death.