Aetheral Space

Chapter 284:11.11: Ablos of the Azure

"So," chatted Anastasia Darkdancer as they finally re-emerged into the sunlight. "Why do you think Charon wants that guy dead?"

Jester Marble did not reply. He just continued to run, hands planted together in prayer, his gill-eyes slowly breathing. The only sound he produced was the jingle of the prayer beads shaking around his neck -- that, and his quiet raspy breath.

Anastasia drifted across air on her hoverboard, coming to a halt as she frowned down at Jester. "Not a talker, huh? Well, whatever. I’ve got the mines laid all down that tunnel, so if he manages to take those guys out he’ll blow himself up on the way out anyway. I’m gonna go grab me some points -- how about you?"

Jester Marble did not reply. He just looked up at Anastasia as she hovered next to the treeline. Eventually, the girl seemed to get sick of waiting, frowned, and zoomed off towards the pyramid.

Foolishness. A direct approach would not be advantageous in this situation. Anastasia’s mobility would only make her a more prominent target. Jester Marble would be surprised if she wasn’t just blasted out of the sky.

The reason Atoy Muzazi had to die was obvious. He had dispatched and disgraced Baltay Kojirough, and Baltay Kojirough was one of Paradise Charon’s possessions. This was a matter of pride for the Contender. All things burned before a matter of pride.

Now that Atoy Muzazi was dealt with, though, it was time to forget about him. Jester Marble cast the swordsman from his mind and considered his present situation. He had the same overall objective as Anastasia now -- the acquisition of points. By what means could he accumulate them as quickly as possible?

Rumble.

Jester Marble glanced off to the side just in time to see a corruption of black bark and red leaf spread across the horizon, reaching towards the distant pyramid. Jester Marble knew it, if not from sight then reputation. The Forest of Sin.

Once, it had been a natural wonder. An entire forest capable of consciousness through the unique root structure that connected each individual tree -- like neurons in the brain. Some had thought it could be the key to a greater understanding of consciousness. Some had thought it a miracle, and sought to worship it.

Not Paradise Charon, though. When she had dropped out of the sky and twisted the Forest into her Aether ability, she had seen it only as one thing: a power to be exploited.

Lamentable, but it wasn’t as if Jester Marble was any different. He, too, was an exploiter. One who took what he should not and twisted it into the knife of his hand. All things he touched became tools of murder.

Jester Marble leaned forward and muttered a short prayer.

"Akabilata shoren mauzh terisapoletopetin maizh…" he said. "Neverborn David."

Jester Marble was not like most Scurrants. He had been created by Noblesse Oblige, a heretical organization that had once sought to regain the lost prowess of the Gene Nobility. They had failed, of course, and been put to the sword one and all. The only surviving remnants of their existence were Jester Marble…

…and his ’brothers’.

Neverborn David poured out of Jester Marble’s Aether, folds of fat and pus spilling onto the ground. He was massive, his distended body supported by sixteen human arms splayed out like the legs of a spider. Atop that carriage was a tower of interconnected human torsos, and at the summit was David’s skeletal head, gnawing blindly at the air.

He shuffled on the spot for a moment -- before charging off into the forest, his bloodcurdling scream echoing through the area.

There. Jester Marble released his hands from prayer. He’d left Neverborn Samantha in the tunnel, too, just in case Atoy Muzazi had somehow survived -- but if he was honest…

…he had no doubt that fool was dead already.

How was this asshole not dead already?!

Mazel Rho desperately dodged a blow that would have split his head in half, sending a blade of plasma forward to defend himself as he dropped to the ground. Atoy Muzazi went to parry the incoming strike -- but then elected to dodge instead as Maldonado attacked from behind. The plasma blade and Maldonado’s tongue collided in mid-air, and specks of orange flew in every direction as the blade exploded.

Atoy Muzazi was not a blur. A blur was something you could look at. Right now, Atoy Muzazi was a light at the edge of vision -- something that disappeared the second you noticed it. He was moving so fast that his movement wasn’t even visible.

It was fine. It was no big deal.

No matter how fast he was, he still had to get close to attack -- and if he got close, he put himself in range of Mazel’s automatic retaliation. The moment Atoy Muzazi’s attack made contact with Mazel’s body, a lance of plasma would burst out of its canister and run him through.

Still… Mazel would rather avoid getting hit in the first place.

Plasma Commander --

…but that fist never made contact.

Morgan’s arm shook uselessly in the air, trapped in place. The flexible body of the serpent had wrapped around the limb, pulling tighter and tighter as it restrained him. Morgan grit his teeth in pain as he felt a hollow creak through his bones.

Ablos’ right arm, the one that had originally transformed into the snake, had returned to normal. He tossed the white cube up and down in his newly restored hand, smirking. At the last moment, he’d switched the serpent from his right arm to his left -- allowing it to intercept Morgan’s killer blow.

Apparently, that was something he could do.

Ablos of the Azure offered no final words, no gloating or declaration of victory. He simply held out two fingers and stabbed them towards Morgan’s throat, ready to puncture his jugular then and there. Given the amount of strength he’d already demonstrated, puncturing the skin would be as easy as passing a knife through butter.

Ionir hijacked control for a moment, twisting their body in an attempt to avoid the blow, but too late --

"Blocked…"

-- for they had already been saved.

A solid block of compressed wood and leaf smashed into Ablos’ incoming hand, shattering his fingers. As he cried out in pain, another cube slammed into him, catching him in the midsection and sending him flying backwards. Morgan dropped into a roll as the snake-arm released him, retrieving his fallen sword to ward off further blows.

Further blows did not come -- the Cubed Man had prepared for this moment well. No doubt he’d been setting this up the whole time Morgan had been fighting.

The Cubed Man had plunged his mace into the ground -- and all around him, parts of the landscape were being compressed into cubes of different sizes. They floated through the air, unburdened by gravity as the Cubed Man sent them on their way. Some, like the one that had snapped Ablos’ fingers, were the size of bullets -- while others, like the one that was now floating directly above Ablos, were as big as a house.

Ablos understood the attack before it was completed, and moved to dodge. Aether alone would not grant him the speed he needed -- so he removed the serpent from his arm once more and moved it instead to his leg, which fired another volley of those crystal-shots to provide propulsion. It was a good idea.

Unfortunately for him, it was too little, too late.

The massive cube slammed down on him at the very last second, crushing his body between itself and the ground. Morgan, just outside of its range, planted a purple-sparking hand against the grassy surface of the cube.

E! A! E! A! E! A!

Morgan called out the abilities in his head like a cheerleader. This combination of his letters was devastating. Echo would cause a repeat of the blow just dealt, and Amplification would increase the force of that repeat by several times. By repeating the sequence against a stationary target like this, the force of the attack would grow exponentially.

Right now, underneath all this dirt and soil, Ablos of the Azure was getting pummelling by a force that grew stronger with each iteration. A human body could only take so much.

They’d won.

Clearly, these people thought they’d won.

Ablos would have sighed, but he didn’t want his mouth to get filled with soil. He would have covered his mouth, but unfortunately both his arms had been shattered. Legs too. These attacks were no joke. An ordinary person probably would have been killed by them.

Good thing they weren’t ordinary people.

The Cardinal Beasts weren’t like those amateurs back home. They didn’t call out their Guardian Entities like pets and watch them fight. They weren’t content to borrow someone else’s power.

No. They followed the path of Lily Aubrisher. They seized hold of that power, and they became one with it!

Guardian Entity: Sieryu -- 50%!

For the briefest instant, Morgan Nacht was both blinded and deafened. Instinctively, he squinted his eyes and clapped his hands over his ears, before his mind could even register what had caused the phenomenon. White light.

A bright white light, and a sound like the cracking of an ice-cap.

The cube that Ablos of the Azure had been crushed into had utterly changed. In a split second, it had been engulfed by that white light, transforming into that same fragile crystal. Deep within the transparent surface, like a fly trapped in ice, Morgan could see the warped shape of Ablos. He looked… different, but Morgan couldn’t quite place how through the barrier.

The cube shattered, shards flying in every direction, and Morgan got his answer.

Ablos of the Azure no longer had legs. No, instead he had a pale blue scaled tail, winding for at least two metres behind him as the man floated freely in the air. His arms were crossed over his bare chest, so Morgan couldn’t quite get a good look, but it looked like his hands were scaled now too -- terminating with vicious, barbed claws. The man looked down at his two opponents with four white eyes utterly unsuited to his still-human face, and those tendrils of flesh curled out from his lip now.

"You see what you’re dealing with now?" Ablos grinned with new fangs, his voice utterly saturated with Aether.

Morgan did. Morgan did see. It was obvious. That wasn’t a serpent at all.

That was a dragon.