Rune Seeker

Healing energies washed over the Aspect in waves, repairing torn armor, mending punctures, and healing energy burns. The solar energy cost was astronomical even to the combined raid party – and Hiral in particular. From the looks of the 0M3G4 W34P0N across the way, they’d done some solid damage to it, but taken more in the process. They couldn’t keep just trading blows and hope to come out on top.

Growling, the W34P0N in front of them crouched as if getting ready to pounce, and the two tails snapped up above its back to lash out with its raking energy beams. Lines of melted stone and metal marked the whipping and seemingly random path of the beams – like a hose of pressurized water left unattended – but they inevitably converged on the raid party.

Out extended the spear of storm clouds, spinning in hand to create a barrier that caught the beams every time they swept by like they were pulled to it. Above, the crown of flame tossed back its own barrage of plasma spears, needling in the direction of the construct.

Crunch, stone broke underfoot as the W34P0N darted to the side, legs practically a blur as it sprinted out and around, somehow slipping between the rare, still-standing buildings. The Aspect caught glimpses of it between the towering structures, spear up and ready for more beams, but none came as the construct continued racing around them. Then, suddenly, the shaking ground ceased as it reached a cluster of buildings that’d somehow remained untouched.

It was clearly up to something, and the party couldn’t let it go unmolested. Solar energy surged out of Hiral as they leaned forward and charged. Runes of Rejection shot them forward, while Runes of Impact sprung from the horn on their head, creating a kind of shield in front of them. They didn’t bother with more plasma lances for the moment and instead crashed right into – and through – the first line of buildings. Rubble fell around as the towers barely slowed them, one block, two, three, they absolutely wrecked the place like some kind of monster stomping a city for fun.

After that, they got their answer as to what the W34P0N was up to – with a black and white ball of destruction nearly the size of the party waiting to greet them. Time slowed as Hiral’s runes kicked in, and just looking at it, he could imagine the damage it would do to them or the surrounding area.

Wait…

It wasn’t the surrounding area that was in danger. The damn W34P0N had sprinted around and repositioned like that to put the Aspect’s back to where their camp was. If they dodged the blast, would it actually travel far enough to hit the fortress?

Can’t risk it.

As powerful as the barrier was from their Runes of Impact and Wallop’s Charge was, there was no way it could tank that kind of blast. Seeyela and Hiral wouldn’t be able to absorb it against like last time – this one was much more powerful – and letting it go was absolutely out of the question. Setting it off at point-blank range would catch both the 0M3G4 W34P0N and them in the fallout, but the construct had to be confident in its durability to survive the blast.

Hiral wasn’t quite as confident in the Aspect being able to shield them, even with Nivian’s aura of “I protect” suffusing everything about the combined form. No, triggering the blast in all their faces would have to be a last resort if they couldn’t come up with another option.

Really, what they needed was something like what Seeyela and Hiral had done earlier. A way to consume or absorb the energy. They had the process for that, but no place to put the energy. No storage for it. Seeyela’s portal space was already still full, and Hiral had reached his limit with what was left over. If they had somewhere to…

The Aspect nearly face-palmed with one of its four arms. It had the answer to their problems literally in one of their hands. The Splinter of the Storm was constantly eating energy. It was even more gluttonous and greedy than Seeyela.

Could it swallow an energy attack like what was laid out in front of them? Well, they were going to find out.

With reality knocking at the back of Hiral’s head while he held time in place, he called on the same runic combination he’d used to absorb energy from the first blast the W34P0Nhad so generously thrown their way. This time, instead of focusing the collection of it on his own Crown of Amin Thett, he wrapped thespear in the Aspect’s handin the gathering array.

Runic script flared along the haft of the giant representation of the spear while the Rune and Edict of Connection formed a bridge between it and the true Splinter of the Storm. From there, more Edicts surged to life, creating a ring of glowing energy around the spear’s blade with surprising ease. Because I was the one who made the weapon?

Power flowed from Seeyela while Hiral worked, adding hints of her own intent to the building creation. Gravity. Portals. Greed. She suffused the spear in it like she was forging a weapon to gobble the world up whole. More and more flowed from the pair as they worked between seconds, and they weren’t the only ones.

Buffing magics from Sera overlayed everything they did, enhancing it beyond the norm, while Seena tipped the spear in a flame so hot it was like it had been dipped in the sun. Igwanda flooded the core of her class – One True Shot – into the weapon, to make the coming thrust nearly unstoppable. Nivian and Romin reinforced the Aspect’s armor along that arm, giving it the strength to endure what it was about to go through.

And Yanily, yeah, he did Yanily things.

With the spear so intimately connected to the man through his rebirth, his class, and his mindset, he took everything the others were doing, and then just made them better through nothing more than sheer talent. Pieces fit together so perfectly, it was like they were meant to be that way the entire time. Each individual modification stopped adding to the effectiveness of the others, and instead multiplied it.

Is this what an ability evolution feels like when it’s happening?

Just like that, it was ready.

Power surged in their hand, lightning crackling along the arm and spear both. The image of spread wings seemed to flicker in and out of existence along the haft, and a snarl told Hiral to let go of the paused time.

The instant time snapped back into place, the Aspect burst forward, its left side thrusting forward with the spear wreathed in cascading energy. Lined up perfectly, the tip pierced the heart of the growing orb of black and white, then continued straight through. Into the open maw, it reached some kind of device hidden at the back of the construct’s throat, but didn’t extend far enough to punch into it.

While the crescent-shaped horns focused the power of the attack, the mechanism in the throat was what generated the raw power for it.

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And the spear wanted that power.

Again, time seemed to freeze, though it wasn’t anything Hiral was doing, as the ring of Edicts perfectly circled the circumference of the destructive orb. Like they were searing themselves into it, they bound the growth of the power, then focused it back down on the spear itself. At the same time they did that, the combination of Hiral and Seeyela’s workings hauled on that rampant energy, unmaking it from the inside out. Pulling it into the seemingly bottomless pit that was the Splinter’s hunger for energy.

Mechanical eyes widened as the W34P0N seemed to realize something was wrong, but dozens of crimson threads and spectral chains leapt from the back of the Aspect to hold it in place. Individually, none of the bindings would be enough to slow a beast like the 0M3G4 W34P0N, but together, they did manage to delay it. Just for a second.

Which was all they needed.

The destructive blast had been primed and ready to fire when the Aspect thrust its spear through it, and neither of the two battling opponents could stop it. As the compressed power released in the next second, a ROAR shook the cradle.

This wasn’t the W34P0N, the Aspect, Hiral, or even Heaven’s Punishment come to support his apprentice. No, this was Yanily, as the power from the blast condensed down through the giant spear, through the bridge of Connection Hiral had built, and into the Splinter of the Storm. Along with the man holding it.

Within the left arm of the giant Aspect, the image of a man sheathed in lightning and storm flashed, a spear in his extended arm, the two halves of a greater whole battling to consume a power that should annihilate either of them alone. That frozen second seemed to last an eternity, pain and struggle radiating out, as even the spearman’s abilities were pushed to their limit and beyond.

Just when it seemed like he would be overwhelmed by the task, another presence settled on the spearman, wrapping its arms over him in a blanket of safety. Of security. Dulling the pain and shouldering the worst of it to let Yanily focus on what he needed to.

Nivian.

I will protect you, it seemed to say.

That moment of clarity was enough, and suddenly the power bent to Yanily’s will. No more was it being fired from the W34P0N, but instead pulled from it.

The Splinter of the Storm drank deep from the W34P0N’s well of power, the construct’s legs pressing against the ground like it sought to escape. Chains and strings pulled taut, right up to their breaking point, as the Edicts flared.

They were so close. Hiral could feel it to the depths of his gut, but something was missing. Some way to finish it. The energy filled the giant spear, while the actual Splinter…

Of course.

With just a smidge of the inspiration left over from awakening his Edict of Absorption – and some stolen power from the spear – Hiral pushed on another node. Yes, he was one-hundred percent cheating, and boy he’d feel it in the morning, but this was the path to success.

And he was the Vanguard.

Pain and power exploded simultaneously in his abdomen, the thread of potential following behind the forced-open node, and a familiar symbol flashed before his eyes. Taking his new Edict of Compression, Hiral squeezed the energy in the spear down into the Splinter of the Storm. There, he took hold of his Edict of Sealing, mixed in his Rune of the Eclipse – no half-assing this one – and created a new reality.

The explosion sent both fighters hurtling in opposite directions, their bodies shredding deep lines through ground and buildings. As the flash cleared and rubble rained from above in all directions, Hiral’s eyes went to the severed left arm. There was simply nothing below the bicep, with everything else – including the spear – missing.

Yanily?

Hiral got his answer a second later – along with a notification he ignored – when he looked to ground zero. A sphere of white and black energy easily five-hundred-feet around vanished to reveal the spearman floating in the middle, the weapon in his hand crackling with power. Wings of stormclouds held him aloft while he first looked at the weapon in his hand, then to the smoking 0M3G4W34P0N standing up in the distance.

Missing its maw entirely – and a solid chunk of its chest – the thing’s face looked like a melted candle left too long. Large sections of its forelegs and shoulders had been removed by the device in its mouth going nova, and its first step almost toppled it back to the ground. The joints on the left foreleg had been fused together. On its back again, the remaining, curved spine that’d housed the flying 833s had been torn off, leaving a jagged horn pointed at the sky.

Still, despite the catastrophic damage done to it, the W34P0N wasn’t backing down. Its one, good eye glared at them through the drooping metal that’d cooled like bars in front of it. This fight wasn’t over.

The smile that spread on the Yanily’s face in response wasn’t Hiral’s imagination.

Solar energy on a level Hiral had never seen from the spearman exploded out – It feels like one of my inspirations… – before the man transformed into a bolt of lightning and shot for the sky. This time, however, instead of immediately ricochetting back down, the gathered storm clouds seemed to hold him. In an embrace almost a like a father welcoming his son home, the clouds gathered around where Yanily had vanished.

Huge eyes of criss-crossing lightning bolts opened within those clouds, looking down at the scene below. No, not at the scene below, but at what was to come.

Heaven’s Punishment had descended to witness something.

Another roar shook the Cradle as the image of Yanily’s Aspect flashed within the clouds beneath the glowing eyes. More arcs of lightning danced along the building storm, the pressure of it pushing down on the valley below. Thunder boomed in time, like echoes of the roar. Or, in answer to the roar. Then came Skyfall, and Hiral suddenly understood the name of the ability.

Like a dream – or a nightmare – Yanily burst out of the clouds spear first, at the tip of the absurdly large lightning bolt that brought the storm with it. Hauling on the clouds in slow motion, the tower-sized bolt brought a tornado of storm clouds, thunder, and rain with it. Elements churned in his wake, even fire and ice – like the strange tornado-creature he’d absorbed back in the Lost Refuge of the Lost – swirling within the hurricane-force winds.

As it fell, the form of it shifted. Solidified. Where the Yanily-led lightning bolt met the tip of the clouds, they split to reveal a roaring maw, followed by a serpentine neck, ridges running down its length. Wide shoulders with powerful arms and stretching claws came next. Wings that seemed to spread from horizon to horizon extended from the muscular back as the draconic body looked to be bursting from the storm above, but was too big to make it all the way out.

And yet, none of that was nearly as impressive as the man leading it all.

Yanily’s Aspect radiated power. Command. Confidence. The weapon in his grasp glowed with might, reforged through their combined effort, and in the hands of the one who truly deserved to wield it.

Together, they were the spear that leads the storm.

Too bad for the 0M3G4 W34P0N.

Yanily’s empowered Skyfall+ struck the center of the W34P0N’s back, slamming the massive construct to the ground – its fused leg absolutely shattering in the process – with a titanic boom. Electricity flashed for half a second in arcing lashes that tore at the ground, before the rest of the storm dragon arrived. Like an upside-down mountain falling, it crashed down with an earth-shaking force, only to spread across the ground as more and more of the sky fell behind the attack.

Within another second, the raging storm had completely engulfed that section of city, and Hiral was very thankful they’d been thrown so far by the initial blast. The roar of the wind drowned out every sound and pulled at the Aspect even as they lifted themselves to their feet.

The attack had been mighty, to say the least, but would it be enough? Even as they found their feet, the Aspect stumbled down to a knee, the solar energy running through its body almost halved with Hiral’s own energy a mess after using his Rune of Eclipse. Others quickly picked up the slack, their own pools dropping fast as they worked to make up for what he’d been contributing while the storm in front of them calmed.

Half-dreading what he’d see – and half-working on trying to get his energy under control again – Hiral looked to the where the 0M3G4 W34P0N was.

Well, to the crater, where it had been.

Now, all that stood in that place was a spearman atop a torn sea of broken brass.