The Great Farmer anchored its feet, and opened its twisted mouth. A dense fog spilled out, a toxic green color. Jonathan met it with a pulse of the Void, erasing the miasma from the air. The skin of the Great Farmer started to fall apart as the Void tore at it. Jonathan clamped the Void down upon the Farmer’s wrists, using Maw of the Void. With twinned snaps, the Circle Lord’s hands came off. Jonathan pulled the scythe out of the monster’s failing grasp. It shrunk down to match his size, until he was gripping the weapon just like the Great Farmer had mere moments ago. Strange whispers tugged at the corners of Jonathan’s perception.
“No!” The Great Farmer roared. “You can’t have it!”
“Ignore that monster,” a strange voice said in Jonathan’s mind. It was that of a woman, ghostly and ethereal. “You have proven yourself more worthy of possessing me.”
Jonathan felt knowledge that was not his own pouring into his mind. Of how to wield a scythe like a true master of that craft. Of how to strike with the curved blade behind the defence of a shield. Of how to cleave a head from its owner, instantly spelling the end to a battle.
“Those gauntlets will not hold up to the challenges ahead. Your Hellbreaker quest has not changed in light of the ascension of the circle lords. They will grow stronger, while your weapons will grow weaker.”
You have gained a temporary Pathway Skill!
Scythe Mastery: Master 1
A scythe is a rare weapon on the battlefield, more suited for harvesting crops than anything else. However, with suitable skill, those crops can become the bodies of your enemies. In the hands of one who truly understands it, a scythe is a devastating weapon.
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Bonuses: As this is a temporary skill, contingent on possession of Kharon, Scythe of Endings, you will not receive any bonuses.
Jonathan slammed the hilt of Kharon down on the ground. Flames of the Void raced up and down the scythe. Jubilant laughter rang in Jonathan’s mind as the spirit of the weapon reveled in the potent energies channeled through it. The Void was stronger than the other elements, and that in turn made the scythe more powerful. He leaped, drawing the scythe back. Using the weapon effectively needed a lot more of a range of motion than a sword or a mace. He had to engage the entirety of the scythe’s blade in a singular arc, one that crossed almost half of his body. While gathering power, though, he could use the hilt to block.
The Great Farmer raised its stumps, one bleeding, and the other simply made of bone, and gathered its power. A spectral scythe formed out of the ether, grasped by hands of green light. However, a look that had not yet graced the face of the Circle Lord now burned in its eyes. Fear.
Jonathan hovered over the Great Farmer, poised to attack. “Your path was so convoluted, so idiotic that even your own scythe abandoned you. I think it’s time you realized that.”
He flashed down like a purple meteor, Kharon raised. A second scythe, made from Maw of the Void, formed over the weapon. The Great Farmer swung its own scythe, but it might as well have been made out of mist and dreams. Kharon cleaved through, and into the Great Farmer’s head. It cut through, bisecting the two halves of the monster. Another blade sliced down through the Great Farmer, cleaving it in two. It was far more powerful than it had any right to be, empowered in some way by the scythe.
Both halves of the Great Farmer turned to dust, bones and flesh becoming fertilizer for the fields below. A ruinous crop was sown, the wheat crumbling apart in every direction. Cracks started to spread outwards.
The entire realm split in half with the demise of its creator, and Jonathan plummeted through the rift, back into the real world. Another Circle Lord was dead, and the Hells were one step closer to salvation.
