Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

It was dark and quiet in the core room of the Murtsac Metnalov. Distant thunder translated into feeble quakes that shook the room and the sole inhabitant inside.

Antasaghar, with the crown on his head, had his full attention glued to the holographic screens inside his mind, displaying all that was happening outside. As predicted, the enemy was unprepared for an assault of this magnitude. They crumbled in mere moments, just the main barrier was still holding up, though barely. He could have crushed them instantly should he wish to, ending the siege in minutes.

He didn’t want to. The enemy had to suffer for all they had done. Also, his main researcher was in there, trapped with the humans. For the moment, he still wanted her back. Alive. He didn’t know if the humans found a way to trap her Soul, so he couldn’t afford to simply kill them all, hoping she would find her way back to a spare body. The risk was too high.

Slowly grinding down their hopes of survival, his armies killing their warriors trapped outside, Antasaghar couldn’t help but feel a tinge of happiness. Satisfaction.

And then it all changed. Something strong struck the outside of the barrier. Something vicious and large. Something he recognized. A monster.

“Shapeshifter.” He managed to squeeze out through gritted teeth as the familiar face appeared on his screen.

He watched as the perverted form of a Dragon clawed at his impenetrable shield, blasting it with magic. The enemy flapped its wings and then rammed the barrier, resulting in a minor tremor inside. Glancing at the energy stores, he saw the Core showing it at 95% full. The barrier integrity dropped down to 98% with the last attack, but then rapidly ticked back up to 99% and slowly climbing.

Antasaghar smiled despite his anger.

“Inside here I’m invincible, you vile beast! It’s time you pay for your crimes!”

With a single thought, the energy cannons shifted, the assault on the dome ceasing at once as the priorities changed.

“Full power.” Antasaghar said out loud, his voice trembling with anticipation. He could feel a pulse from the Core as the cannons consumed a full 1% of its stored power. It was excessive, he knew that, but Antasaghar didn’t want a single cell remaining from the man that struck him such a heavy blow. Even if his desire for revenge sterilized the ground to the horizon, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

The world would therefore carry a scar, reminding all of his absolute victory.

“The Drow, eternal!” He roared in a mad grin, mentally giving the signal.

The cannons discharged.

A dull thud I felt in my chest, and my flesh caved in as I was blasted back, spraying blood. A beam of energy carried me for a while until I managed to resist the push and discharge some Qi of my own, freeing myself from the foreign energy’s influence. I dropped from the sky and landed on my feet, stumbling for a moment.

“Master!” I heard Onyx’s anxious shout in my mind.

[I’m fine! Don’t worry about me!] I barked back, already nearly recovered. The taste of blood coated my mouth and I licked my lips.

[That hurt…] I murmured to myself and touched my solar plexus where I was struck. There was no sign of damage anymore. However, the memory of the pain was still fresh in my mind, and my head snapped at the flying fortress. The attack came from there.

I flexed my claws and threw my head back, roaring in anger. With a single powerful flap of my wings, I was already airborne, accelerating towards the barrier. Disruptive Qi gathered in my hands as I neared, yet before I was even halfway there, another beam of energy hammered into me. That time I was prepared and imbued my flesh with stupid amounts of Energy. I was directly burning Soul Essence straight from my enemies. There was so much death all around, my energy was limitless.

Immense pressure struck me and I found myself buried deep underground, feet first. Rage fueling my actions, a blast of fire annihilated the ground and I blasted off even faster than before with a single thought in my mind. To destroy.

[Antasaghar!] I roared the High Priest’s name in a challenge. [Fight me like a man!]

There came no response other than another blast from the cannons, after which came another, and another…

Prepared for their arrival, I stood my ground, solid steps made of Spirit Qi holding me upright as blast after blast of insane pressure tried crushing my body and tearing me apart. I laughed in the face of death and ascended instead.

Step after bloody step I climbed, nearing the barrier with the conviction and motivation of a madman. Each time a beam struck me I resisted, taking another step instead of faltering.

The blasts became increasingly rapid and strong, yet none of them were enough to stop me. Finally, there was a momentary lull in the assault, and I took that opportunity.

Three Spirit Realm Souls detonated at once, their entire lifetimes of accumulation fueling my magic as I punched with the weight of a mountain behind me. The energy was blasted in every direction, disruptive forces of chaos devouring the solid Qi. The rumbling like that of a thousand thunderbolts could be heard for a few moments, but then the world turned silent, yet the barrier still remained.

[Strong.] I snarled, my piercing eyes staring through the impenetrable wall and at the puny fortress inside. My eyes darted across the battlefield down below as my mind searched for ideas. Nothing remained of the natural landscape. No forests, no grasslands, not even the ground. Molten rock and ash were all that remained, with the sole exception of the Emberfall dome somehow still standing.

I glanced to the side, seeing Onyx at a reasonable distance fighting with a group of Drow. He was outnumbered, yet was winning. Good boy.

“Is that all you got?!” I heard a voice boom from the barrier. My head snapped around and I saw a holographic display of the High Priest laughing at me from the safety of his little bubble. He began taunting me, clearly trying to get me to strike again. I refused.

Ignoring his taunts, I turned my gaze towards the sky, to the blue expanse visible through the smoke, and began climbing. Wind roared in my ears as I accelerated, flying ever higher. Soon I was above the clouds, yet I continued upward, towards the darkness of space.

Higher and higher I flew, both carried by my flaming wings, as well as the pull of inverted gravity.

I had had enough. It was time to bring out a proper nutcracker.

The High Priest’s expression turned sour. His relic’s strongest attack proved to be ineffective. It had power, that was true, but it was all uniform. It had no piercing component, satisfied with just crushing the enemy. Usually, that weakness would have been solved by simply using more power, but he was already capped. The cannons were shooting at full blast.

While he managed to wound his quarry, the Shapeshifter was too resilient, able to repair the damage faster than he could dish it out. Yet that was not all.

He nervously shifted his gaze to the screen displaying the state of the Murtsac Metnalov. The fact that a single attack dropped barrier integrity from 93% down to 76% had him sweating bullets. Such power was unheard of! Luckily there was no follow-up, and he dared himself to relax. Of course, such destruction didn’t come cheap. His enemy paused after delivering that blow, likely nearly exhausted. The sheer amount of energy delivered was enough to bring a Mortal straight to the Sky Realm. Not that such a thing would ever happen.

Whatever relic was used to deliver such a blow had to be his trump card. Antasaghar knew that. Nobody, not even a once-in-a-million-years genius could deliver such energy all on his own. There existed no single person that had energy stores that large. Not even a peak Sky Realm Cultivator.

Of course, those were all just his guesses. You couldn’t prove a negative, after all.

Still, with his confidence rising, Antasaghar decided to taunt his opponent to see if he still had some juice left in his body. He didn’t, obviously.

Antasaghar could see it in his eyes, the Shapeshifter wanted him dead just as much as he desired to grind the man under his boot. Yet he didn’t try to strike. He was spent. Exhausted. Out of energy.

Antasaghar grinned. He had won. Glancing at the numbers, he saw them gradually ticking up. He was safe. He was in control. He tested himself in the exchange and came out on top!

“Victory is mine.” He murmured and closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling. By the time he opened them again, all he saw was a figure quickly growing smaller in the distance.

“Ah…? Hey! Coward! Come back and accept your death!” He suddenly roared, but the enemy was already gone. Escaped, like a dog with a tail between his legs.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and turned his attention elsewhere. “Whatever. That’s not why I came anyway. My real target…” The dome appeared in his sight and he rubbed his hands together. “… is right here.”

The blue sky transitioned to black as I left the dense atmosphere behind. As I neared the edge of space my speed of ascent slowed down and I soon came to a stop, floating in the void. Looking into the infinite cosmos, I could feel tingling on the side of my body facing the sun.

As mild as it was, I could clearly detect the Qi losing form and my body itching from its decay. Close to 6% of my cells, made out of pure energy, started to slowly die off, and it was not a pleasant experience. The radiation coming from space, because that’s the only thing there could be, was the one responsible for this rapid decay. Qi became unstable and began to fall apart under the unending barrage.

I didn’t mind it. It was much slower than the last time I experienced it, though I was much higher and more exposed. I looked at my hands and flexed my fingers, using the moment to learn from pain. I was still too weak to travel the stars, and it was unlikely that would change before I truly became a god. The ancient ones knew what they were talking about.

Unable to take a breath and relax with the constant prickling sensation on my skin, I turned my gaze back to the planet below. The curvature was clearly visible from my vantage point, even if it wasn’t all that pronounced. The great areas of land that served as our battlefield were so tiny in comparison to everything else. The vast swaths of green and brown stretched for as far as the eye could see. Mountains and hills were visible in the distance, appearing nothing more than tiny bumps on the otherwise flat surface.

The rapid flashes of explosions were all that told of the intense fight still happening on the ground right below me.

I closed my eyes and began to fall. Three entire Souls were consumed in a single blast, yet the barrier didn’t break. The energy, while not enough, was also too dispersed to show its proper penetrative effect. That was about to change.

I opened my eyes and zoned in on the target. The invading sphere hiding among the clouds.

My body began to contract into a smaller shape as gravity inverted yet again, pulling me down towards the ground. I accelerated.

A Soul was consumed, then another, and another… Energy began leaking from me for a moment, but then my reach expanded, and I concentrated it down to a point.

Glowing like the sun as I continued speeding up while falling through the increasingly dense atmosphere, I pushed even more energy into my body. Every cell inside me was stuffed to the brim with Qi, the densest kind I could create. Some of them started to die while others underwent miraculous metamorphosis, turning ethereal. Life of pure thought and energy. Spirit Cultivation with no equal.

The offending cloud appeared in my sight, the gray plume of smoke obscuring my vision. Inside it, the barrier.

My eyes exploded into light as my tiny human body shot down, with ten Souls’ worth of energy behind me, traveling a hundred times faster than a bullet, and with a thousand times gravity pulling down on me.

My expression was stoic as I braced for impact. Even in slow motion, I was traveling faster than I could react. All I knew was that I had struck the hard ground, and then there was a loud crack.

Mission Orbital Nutcracker was a success.

I broke through.