blueteamnovel Book 3, Chapter 100
Book 3, Chapter 100
Eslaka’s work proceeded at a manic pace, hours flowing endlessly and unheeded as she ferried the fuel for her pyre to her place of power. She’d gathered the fuel in secret over long centuries, just waiting for the day she’d be allowed to use it. It was a motley collection, everything from rare wood imbued with the elemental essence of fire that caused the wood to smolder continuously to heart stones from greater fire elementals. Gems that glowed with inner heat and massive sheets of gold and platinum carved with dizzying rune arrays festooned the enormous pile.Reisha had forbidden her to complete her life cycle. Twice, he’d found her stash and destroyed it. Both times, she’d vowed to give up, but her nature drove her to start collecting again. The primordial need to build her pyre warred with the rational knowledge that if she tried, he would simply appear and disrupt it. Six times, the need had overwhelmed her. She’d resorted to burning down forests, uncaring that the fuel lacked the essence she needed.
Those pyres had all failed, of course. Even without Reisha’s interference, they weren’t charged with the essence she’d needed. Burning up her own essence trying to make up for the lack had simply resulted in an overall weakening of her powers while her mind slowly eroded.
But now, finally, she was free to complete the next step in her life cycle. The fuel was ready. She flew overhead, circling it slowly as she examined it to ensure everything was there. It was hard to even remember what she’d hauled over, but now that she was finally on the brink of igniting her funeral pyre, she wanted it to be as powerful as possible.
Finally satisfied, she settled onto the top of the pile. It shifted under her weight, forcing her to flare her wings until everything stopped moving. With a flicker of annoyance, she reached out telekinetically to stabilize it and put a few pieces back into place. Then, with a final look around to make sure everything was perfect, she started summoning fire.
At that very moment, a cracking snap echoed through the world. Essence rippled through the fabric of reality, straining as it was pulled out of its natural flows and dragged far, far to the west. Eslaka scowled at it, but it was truthfully better that it had happened now than while she was in the middle of her immolation.
That stupid wolf kid probably did something to mess things up. As far as she could tell, that was about all he was good for, not that she could complain. It had been touch-and-go for a week or so there, but she’d managed to point him in the right direction, plus she’d managed to adapt a version of the essence draining spell the gods had based their system on.
Most of the stolen essence had drained away already, unfortunately. Without a full understanding of the spell, she’d only been able to hold onto it temporarily. What was left was going into her pyre and would enhance her rebirth. At least it would once the essence parasite finished eating the wolf kid.
With a huff, she settled back into place and watched the essence start to smooth back out. As soon as the echoes of the disruption faded away, she could begin.
* * *
Velik didn’t know how many times he could summon another [Void Lance] before he exhausted himself, but he doubted he’d outlast the massive mechanical centipede in front of him. More tendrils were already spilling out of the split in its armor, and the original ones were growing longer and longer. He didn’t know what they’d do if they touched him, and he wasn’t eager to find out.
The fracture didn’t seem to slow the creature down, either. Yes, parts of its body were spilling out into the open air, but the rest of it ignored the damage and swung around to target him again. After a few seconds, he was once again dodging the immense coils of its miles-long body as it got its head into position to fire at him again.
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Velik dashed around the curve of the monster’s body, then unloaded a salvo into the armor plate. Flecks of metal snapped off and went flying in every direction, ignored by the monster. Perhaps it simply couldn’t feel the damage accruing, but either way, it gave Velik the time he needed to get closer. Individual bars of darkness merged into a pillar of destruction that ate away at the plate.
The first crack formed in the divine beast’s armor, right where the system had told Velik it was most vulnerable.