Vol. 5, Chapter 86: Two as One

"Cecilia!"

"I'm here, take my hand!"

At the moment, we're moving deeper into the mountains to avoid the pursuit of the remnants of Mankind. They've begun tracking us down once they realized that one of their Champions had gone missing and we've been moving further and further into the mountains ever since, hoping to lose them.

Of course, we hadn't just planned on running. In order to confuse the enemy, we have split out forces into three and moved on separately. Should they catch up to us, we would split once more. Lessening our numbers will allow us to move faster and since the enemy would not know which of us has the prisoner, they're going to have to split their forces as well to locate the squad with their captured Champion.

To further conceal our forms, each of us is wearing thick fur coats, making it difficult to tell us apart from the Dragonbroods. They also serve to keep us nice and warm even as the snowstorm rages around us.

"Is everyone still here?"

While the ongoing snowstorm has helped us elude the enemy pursuers, it had also made it difficult to stay together, so from moment to moment, I have to make roll calls to make sure that none of us had wandered off.

In this squad, I have with me Oro, Corona, Six, Michaela, Asha, and a few other Dragonbroods as well as the Champion we've made prisoner. It was decided that it's better to have all of our Champions in one spot rather than take the risk of separating and being taken out one by one. We know that at least three of the five Champions remaining on the enemy's side are running after us to get their friend back, so we want to have the advantage should we run into them.

Once we managed to escape, we will then regroup at a designated spot near the northernmost tip of Elgadia, the place where the Dragonbrood Keeper lies.

While things haven't exactly gone according to plan, I think we're managing. Seeing that Michaela is still here with us, I can only assume that Aurelius is doing the same on his side as well.

***

Powerful legs kicking off into high speed, long arms that both increase reach and capable of acting as forefeet, combine these physical traits with the unknown powers granted to him, Remus has become more dangerous than ever.

Ever since his transformation, I've been on the defensive. Against his relentless attacks, I have managed only to narrowly escape with [Shadow Steps] one after another, bypassing the cooldown limit by changing out old mana pathways with new ones. Honestly, if I keep this up, my body won't hold. Is it time yet? Almost? How much longer must I keep this up?

Again, I use [Shadow Step] to draw distance, and just as before, Remus immediately catches up to me with his powerful legs. I raise my sword to guard, but Remus' long arms easily circumvent the blade and his claws easily draw blood. Fortunately, the wounds aren't lethal, but with each swipe of his claws, he gets closer and closer to my vitals and as the battle drags on, my body grows sluggish and I can feel my mind beginning to fade away. I'm almost at my limit.

Should I go for it? Should I just use my trump card haphazardly without waiting for preparations? There's no way such a desperate move would end well. I have to hold until the opportune time. That is the only way I can get anywhere close to grasping victory.

Once more, I manage to draw my distance and yet, immediately, Remus catches up. Again and again, he relentlessly chases after me, absolutely refusing to let me go. Did he realize that I'm up to something, that if he gives me the chance, I'll definitely try something? Well, he's not wrong, but all this running around is getting rather annoying, not to mention predictable.

With a single leap, Remus arrives before me, his massive claws coming down for my head. Right this moment, the ground he had just stepped onto glows with a brilliant magical light, and from the soil, a burst of electricity erupts and coils around Remus' body, hitting him with an incredible surge of pain throughout. It's a rune, an [Lightning Rune], a Warlock class skill. I placed it there in advance knowing that he'll come straight after me and wound up stepping onto it.

To my disappointment, however, it did not take more than a second or two for Remus to shake it off, hardly giving me any time to get enough distance for what I am about to do next. In an instant, Remus disappears. It looks like instead of going after me normally, he's taking a more certain measure to just teleport right to me, with the skill: [Assassination]. He's not giving me any room for tricks this time.

"[Bind Circle]!"

However, I'm not fighting alone. The 'princess' has my back as well. With her spell, a circle appears beneath Remus, freezing his movements completely. This too, did not last long, however. Apparently having every single resistance bumped up to as high as possible, Remus shrugs off all but the most powerful of magical effects. It's not great, but this is fine, it's totally fine. That one moment when he's frozen is all I need.

Though he immediately swings at me the moment he breaks free, Remus ends up only grazing my leg as I am lifted up into the air. Aras has come to my rescue.

It is at this moment, the moment when Aras who was supposed to be dealing with his troops is here for my rescue, that Remus realizes it. Turning towards where his troops were, all he finds are corpses lying about, and the ones standing among them are Merida and Toto with the Beastkins on our side in tow. I wanted to avoid this, Beastkins slaughtering Beastkins. It's not great for morale and might just bring trouble for the future. But, with the situation as it is, there's no helping it. As for Toto, when I had her go look for the princess, I also gave her a secondary instruction to gather up the troops and have them flank the enemy forces while I have Remus distracted. Once she has been informed that the princess was already heading this way, she immediately went to work on the second order.

Now, thanks to that, Remus is alone and the advantage is in my favor. I can now fight with absolutely everything without worrying about what I have to deal with next.

"Nine! Now's the time!"

"You asked for it. Don't blame me if anything goes wrong."

In the 'princess' hand, she holds a [contract]. I am sure that throughout the whole fight, Remus has been wondering, 'Where's the World Breaker?' That should be one of the reasons why he's so cautious about keeping me on my toes and not letting me try anything. Well, the thing is, I've already dismissed her. I can't have her be killed you see, and against Remus massive firepower, she's just going to be a big lumbering target. That is why I went and arranged a different use for her.

"Here goes nothing... [Overwrite]!"

***

I find myself in a space of pure white... No, not white, just blank, complete and utter blankness.

"Why is it that you go this far?"

From the blankness, I hear a voice. There is no face, no figure to ascertain who this is, and even the voice itself is without sound, just information dumped into my mind. However, if I am to base it on my guts, on feelings, I would say that this is a similar voice to the [Holy Guardian Beast], the voice belonging to the [World Breaker Behemoth].

" I guess I'm at an age where I feel the need to meddle. Perhaps it's my instincts telling me to leave something behind before my time is up. And hey, I suppose I am in need of some excitement in my life. I've lived my whole life playing it safe you see. I thought I'd like to go on an adventure for once. All things said and done, I don't think I've ever felt as lively as I am now."

"Ironic, considering that you're on the verge of death."

"Yet, I have never felt truly alive until recently, until I arrived in this world. Makes me feel like I've wasted so many years. Well, that's time I can't get back so there's nothing I can do about it."

"Then let us make up for lost time. Shall we go?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

***

By the time I realized it, my body has changed. My limbs feel bulkier and heavier, yet stronger than ever before. My sight, my hearing, and my sense of smell are bolstered to a degree I could not have imagined before, as if I've been kept in the dark for the longest time only to have a bright light shine upon me. As one can imagine, it's rather overwhelming.

"Focus."

In my head, there is a second voice, the World Breaker's voice. With that single whisper, all of my senses feel like they're suddenly reined in.

As I manage to calm down, from below, I see sparks lighting up with ferocious intensity. In between Remus' beastly hands, arcs of electricity jumping from one finger to the other. For him to use this particular spell, I'm sure that the ability he uses to create those powerful explosions is still on cooldown.

"Aras!"

At my command, Aras swings me across the sky before releasing its talons' grip on me, flinging me over to Remus even as he charges up his [Lightning] spell. And though I expected him to fire it at me in reaction, as if reading my mind, he held onto the spell till I used [Assassination] and appeared behind him. It appears that I've been relying on this one skill a bit too much, but of course, even I knew that.

As Remus turns his [Lightning] towards me, I immediately cast the [Stone Ward] I've been preparing in advance. The spell comes out almost instantly, and instead of myself, a body of stones wraps up Remus' hands, sealing his [Lightning] away. Remus seems surprised, though I don't blame him since from the timing of my spell's activation, it looks almost as if I started it before the use of [Assassination] and is somehow able to hold onto it till after I teleported behind him. The thing is, it didn't just look like it. That's what happened. I use two skills at the same time. And no, this isn't quite the same as double casting, as that applies only to spells and I couldn't pull it off either way. I have only enough presence of mind to use one spell or skill at a time. Fortunately, right now, within this body, there resides more than one mind, there are two, one to handle the maneuvers of the body and the other to handle the casting of spell.

In truth, I had wanted Nine to [Overwrite] as many of those on my side as possible with the [World Breaker Behemoth]'s [contract]. However, according to him, the [contracts] are more or less black boxes. So, while he can use them, he does not understand them, and without being able to fully understand the internal workings, he could not [Duplicate] them, leaving us with only one copy of the World Breaker [contract]. The only one within his arsenal that he could use [Duplicate] on is Diablo's [contract], but only because it was something he had created on his own from the ground up while trying to recreate something similar to the [contracts]. It's unfortunate, I'd have a pretty impressive army if I could outfit my forces with the abilities at my disposal right now, but that's how it goes.

Having sealed Remus' [Lightning], I swing my claws at him only for the second consciousness within the body to stop it and twists this body to perform a kick instead with my powerful and bulky leg. The hit lands squarely at the center of Remus' abdomen, sending him flying into the distance and slamming into the trunk of an uprooted tree. The reason the hit landed so easily was that Remus was preparing to defend against the claw only to be hit with something else. With help from the other consciousness, I ended up performing an impromptu feint, it would seem.

Of course, even though I've landed a solid hit, Remus wasn't going to go down so easily. Once he recovers his bearings, he charges towards me without any hesitation, not planning to waste even a single moment and tries to engage me in a battle of raw power. He's getting desperate. Can it be that he too has a time limit? It certainly doesn't feel like he would like to drag this fight out any longer at least. I should prepare myself.

Coming straight at me, Remus hadn't bothered to use [Assassination], most likely because he knew that I'll be waiting for it, that it's one of the moments I'm looking for to trap him. His razor-sharp claws cut through the air towards me from a lower angle, an angle difficult to defend against and even if I did block, it'll leave me open for the next strike. The best thing to do is to dodge but I'm sure that's what Remus is looking out for. So, in this case, what should I do? I haven't even come up with the solution by the time the body starts to move, driven by the mind of the World Breaker that has been overlaid on top of my own consciousness. The body moves neither to block nor dodge, but to attack without regards like a beast whose priority is simply to take out the opponent before the opponent takes it down.

Remus' claws slash into my abdomen while mine sinks into his chest. Blood spills from us both, but neither of us is backing away. Doing so will give the other the opportunity to heal. This is a battle in which only the most lethal damage will count.

I use [Shadow Step] to get behind him, and just as he turns to face me, I use [Assassination] to once more, get into another of his blind spot. However, even though he swings at me, thinking that I'm about to strike, I have actually taken the opportunity to pull away and had begun healing. What now? Will he come for me? Or will he take the chance to heal as well?

From Remus, I spot the lights of magic gathering around him. He's taking the chance to recover. With the distance I've made, no matter how fast he is, I can still react to him and should he closes in carelessly, he'll only grant me room to counter-attack. His other option is [Assassination]. However, knowing we're both watching out for it, he's not going to use it willy-nilly, even more so after falling for my [Lightning Rune] from before. It should be imprinted in his mind that recklessly chasing after me will only result in him falling for my traps.

The damage we have taken is roughly the same, if we're both healing ourselves, the one that started first, which is yours truly, will be able to attack first and be at an advantage, even if slightly. Like so, I'll stack up my advantages against him and gradually push him towards the brink. It'll be a war of attrition. I can only hope my body holds until then. Well, I have to, that's what [Overwriting] this body with the Worlds Breaker was for, to extend the time I have left.

At the exact moment my Hp bar fills up to the last pip, a fairy brings me a new sword the moment I'm done healing. While my hands are too massive to be able to use a regular bow, I should still be able to do a [Blade Toss]. I'll hit Remus with a ranged attack as I move in, then I'll either attack directly or use an attack spell. For the rest I'll rely on the World Breaker's beastly combat instincts.

Of course, my plans did not go accordingly, because as it turns out, Remus wasn't performing a healing spell. He was doing something else, a spell I've seen only twice before, a spell that fortunately has a long enough charge time for me to realize what he is going to do. It's the same spell that destroyed the gates as well as everything one hundred meter radius of it, the same spell that wiped out half the palace and would have destroyed the [Demonic Tree] had it not been the triple-layered [Mana Wall] that the princess and I conjured up.

Is his cooldown over already? Or is he pushing against the limit as a means to deal with me. He should almost be done charging up and without a doubt, if he hits me with it, I'll be dead for sure. I need to stop it, I have to stop it. But, will I have the time to do it? Because I was so focused on getting the first hit the moment I've healed up, my attention has been on my Hp bar, I didn't realize that Remus was casting another spell till it was partway done. There's no time for me to use [Mutation] to change out my mana pathways which meant that [Shadow Step] and [Assassination] aren't available, so those options are out. I'll have to defend against it head-on. I'll take some damage, but I'll live, probably. It's a cheap price to pay for misreading the situation.

I prepare to cast [Mana Wall], and as the princess is nowhere near me, I'll only have the one, which I fear would break upon taking a direct hit. However, as I am just about to cast it, this body, without heeding my protest, begins to move on its own, rushing towards Remus and canceling the casting.

"What the-"

"No time to explain!"

It took a moment and a half for me to realize what the World Breaker was talking about. Remus, he's not looking towards me. He's looking towards the [Demonic Tree]. If he destroys that, the forest goes with it, and if even one Keeper dies, then there goes our chance to obtain full administration rights. The World Breaker had sensed his intention and decided the best course of action was to take him out before he could do that. However, I don't understand. I thought he wanted the 'key'. I thought he wanted to reach the One Being in hopes of fixing this broken world. So why, why would he destroy one of the very 'keys' he's seeking? Did he not understand how it works? Or does he know something I don't? Either way, there's no time to wonder. I have to finish it here or else it's all over.

I use [Blade Toss], but Remus easily deflects it with his free hand without even turning to look at me. Then, as I charge towards him, as I got close enough, only then does Remus' eyes slowly shift towards me, causing a chill to run down my spine. He's not targeting the tree, he never was. This whole time, he's trying to lure me in closer. It was a trap and I, or rather, the World Breaker, fell for it. Of course, in her defense, if I had noticed what he's doing earlier, I probably would have done the same.

Fine then, if that's how he wants it, we'll just give it to him.

I trust forward my claws towards Remus as a bright light fills my vision and soon enough, I lose all sensation. I feel no pain, I hear no sound, and slowly, the light I am seeing fades to darkness. Then, even 'I' fade away.

***

End of Chapter 86