Jonathan quickly divided up his free points between Strength and Constitution, bringing them up closer to Resilience and Dexterity. With his unlimited ability to draw upon the Void, mana and mana regeneration wasn’t as important any more. While he could still use mana based techniques, Void related ones were much more efficient, and could achieve most of the same effects. Jonathan would have to keep practicing with his mana manipulation to upgrade his Pathway Skills, but for now this arrangement was fine.
With the raw power and skills amassed to take on the Archon, Jonathan conferred with his allies over the best course of action. It took almost as long, at least it seemed that way, as it had taken to train in the first place. Everyone had different ideas of what best to do, and now that Arkanon’s phase of treating Jonathan as his better was over, nobody was at all concerned with voicing their opinions.
It looked like Jonathan’s resistance to that avenue of leadership had eventually changed Arkanon’s mind. The Uthraki had lived for centuries having to hold his realm together with an iron fist against the Mimics. He wasn’t used to diplomacy and friendship, though he was getting better in that regard. All he had respected in the past was strength.
In the end, the group settled on an idea. Jonathan was a bit put off by how simple it seemed, given the time it had taken to reach that consensus. Essentially, he would lead the Elemental Archon away from its domain, or if it came to it, force it away. This would remove some of the elementals’ strength, forcing them to draw upon the Elders instead, limiting their strength greatly.
While in the Archon’s field of sovereignty, anything aligned with Order was greatly empowered. While the Archon was out of the equation, Arkanon and Eliza would directly target the Elders, supported by the others. They were the two that Edgar judged to be the best counter to an Elder, as his own elemental powers would simply be counteracted. Brute force was the best way to go. Meanwhile, Eva’s power set wasn’t as suited to single combat. There was also the matter of her being quite a bit weaker than the others, but nobody had said that to her face.
Jonathan also planned to engage as many Elders as he could find on the way.
Edgar had assured him that there was only enough room for three within a conventional elemental hierarchy, but Jonathan refused to leave things to chance. The last time that had happened, a good portion of his commanders in the Ash Heaps had died to ritual magic. Jonathan hadn’t lost any of his core allies since, and he didn’t intend to anytime soon. That involved walking a fine line between protection and coddling. In the end, his allies needed to be strong enough to defend themselves. If not against a Circle Lord, then anything short of that.
A few minutes later, they were in the air, flying back towards the Archon’s city. Jonathan led the way, cloaking himself and his friends with a mantle of concealing Void energy. There was a chance that the Archon could see through it, but Edgar gave it fifty fifty odds, so Jonathan decided it was worth going for it anyway. The Void was a very uncommon element, and even most elementalists wouldn’t know of its existence. Neither man was sure how that held up for sapient elementals, but it was probably close enough.
As Jonathan passed over the borders of the Archon’s territory, a faint flash of blue light tugged at the corners of his vision, though when he looked down, nothing was there. Shrugging, he moved on, though a bit more on edge.
A few thousand miles away, Zandrus waited, flanked by two of his Elders. As he had suspected, Jonathan had returned, bringing his oh so pesky Void energy with him. That was what Zandrus had been laying in wait, wanting to engage Jonathan before he could get too far into his domain. Upon feeling the trap he had laid around his kingdom trigger, Zandrus teleported, followed by the Elders. He appeared a mile away from Jonathan, already conjuring a lance of glowing blue crystal in his hand. Zandrus loosed it, using every ounce of his not inconsiderable physical strength. Order elementals were close to the top of the pack in terms of durability and physical might, just behind Earth elementals. They had correspondingly weaker ranged abilities and less versatility, but that shouldn’t have mattered. Not against a Tier 8.
When Jonathan snapped his head around and punched so quickly that flames danced around his fists for a moment. He met the energy beam with the punch, smashing it away with an almost casual movement.The backlash still pushed him backwards, sending him over the border into unclaimed territory. “There you are,” Jonathan said. “I wanted to get you out of your territory. It looks like you’re already doing that for me.”
“You foolish mortal,” Zandrus sneered. “You could never understand my plans. What you think is a turn of luck directly plays into my hands.”
“Sure,” Jonathan replied derisively. “Let’s fight. Whoever wins will be correct in any case.” Kharon warped and transformed into gauntlets, covering Jonathan’s hands. The sentient weapon sent a pulse of anticipation directly into Jonathan’s mind, bypassing words entirely to express its bloodthirsty desire.
Zandrus opened his hands invitingly, while his elders peeled off, heading towards Arkanon and Jonathan’s other retainers. The elementals were larger than he was, and each had four large arms. Two arms held shields while the others held swords. They were perfectly alike in appearance, both elementals handcrafted by Zandrus to achieve perfect resonance with their element.
Jonathan flew towards Zandrus, fists extended. Zandrus moved around, positioning himself outside of the border.
Jonathan slowed somewhat, narrowing his eyes. “What exactly are you trying to do? Why are you so intent on leaving the source of your power?”
Zandrus did not respond, at least not with words. Instead, as space began to tear around him, he demonstrated that he himself was the source of his power, and not any geographical location. Long crystals of resplendent diamond emerged from the cracks in reality, lightning crackling along them. The sparks coalesced into a uniform net of power, leaping off the ends of the crystals and meeting in the air before Zandrus.
Jonathan only had a split second of warning, dodging at the last moment before a ray of light erupted from the intersection of the sparks, punching a whole through where his head had been a moment before.
“You are fast for your level,” Zandrus observed. “No wonder you have the hubris to challenge me.”
“The hubris to challenge you and the power to defeat you,” Jonathan shot back, along with an attack of his own. A tiny black hole spun towards Zandrus, moving deceptively quickly. The ground beneath it cracked, chunks of stone racing up to feed the hungry orb. Zandrus didn’t miss a beat, not a single change on his crystalline face. He responded by pulling a tower shield out of thin air, one made out of shimmering crystal.
The shield pulsed and a ripple of azure energy expanded out from its center, slamming into Jonathan’s black hole. The orb of darkness froze in its tracks and then dropped from the sky, completely solidified and useless. Somehow, Zandrus had transformed a ball of conceptual energy and attraction into a crystalline form.
“Is that all you have to offer?” Zandrus asked. “With your Void element, I expected far more.”
Jonathan grinned. “Oh, I have far more than that. I just wanted to get a feel for your strength.”
A billowing cloak of purple and gold surrounded Jonathan as he used Wrath of the Void, adding a bit more of a showy aspect to the skill. His stats increased until time seemed to slow down and he raced towards Zandrus, a pathway of the Void forming beneath him.
The elemental reacted, slowly at first, but he quickly sped up. Loops of Order elemental power erupted from Zandrus and then cycled back into his body, increasing his physical might.
Jonathan had already reached him by this point, though, and a blistering right hook slammed into Zandrus’ jaw. The crystal cracked, and the elemental staggered, feet landing on empty air.
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In a swift, machine like movement, Zandrus returned the blow, at the exact same speed and strength as Jonathan. It nearly caught him off guard, but Jonathan dodged at the last moment, using the Third Eye of Exal’drin to predict what Zandrus was doing.
“Ah, I see,” Jonathan said. “You’re an Order elemental. You can probably throw back all of my attacks at me. Some sort of balance related skill, I assume?”
“I will not give away my secrets, just as I would not expect you to give away yours,” Zandrus chided. “You will have no need for them after you die.”
“Are all elementals this arrogant, or is it just the Archons?” Jonathan wondered outloud. “Or is it just you? I would have thought that someone so aligned with Order would know his own place in the cosmos better.”
“I do,” Zandrus replied. “That is the reason I am so sure in myself. What you call arrogance, I call wisdom.” Zandrus raised his hands like a conductor directing an orchestra, only for his next attack to come from a completely unexpected spot. His right foot shot out , disconnecting from his body. So absurd and sudden was the attack that even with the Third Eye, Jonathan didn’t have enough time to dodge it. By the time he could see the ghostly image preceding the strike, the leg was already a few millimeters away from his face. It slammed home like a wrecking ball, breaking Jonathan’s teeth and most of the bones in his face. He flew backwards like a bird with its wings clipped, dazed.
Zandrus’ leg swept back around and reattached to its body. Even as the elemental gloated, he started to channel power into his arms, beacons of blue light shining on their ends. The sky swirled above him and a rift of crackling blue lightning formed, disgorging a pack of elemental wolves, each the size of a car.
“Hunt him down,” Zandrus commanded, pointing a finger at Jonathan. “Rend him down into atoms and return some order from the chaos that is his life.”
The wolves howled in unison and charged, loping across thin air. Their paws left glowing tracks in the air that quickly faded away.
“You can’t fight me yourself?” Jonathan said mockingly. His face was already healing over, and any pain that he had felt was replaced by rage. “You take me too lightly.”
“I take you lightly? You are the fool who decided to challenge me. Look where that got you. Just accept your demise with dignity."
Jonathan shook his head and began channeling his element, deciding to show Zandrus the true extent of his power. While he was a potent enough warrior to fight up Tiers, that would not be enough in a battle like this. It was time to use an ability that only he possessed. Unlimited elemental power.
The Void spilled out into the air, spreading like a malevolent cloud. Purple lightning played across it, leaving patches of nothingness wherever it struck. Jonathan let loose the floodgates within his soul, gathering as much power as he could muster. In the few moments before the dogs reached him, Jonathan unleashed a tidal wave of the Void, enveloping them in pure destruction.
The wolves let out mournful cries as they were unmade, the rampant Void sweeping them from existence with as little effort as swatting a fly. Jonathan glared at Zandrus, his eyes a deep purple. A tornado of raw Void energy gathered, ready to be unleashed. All of it condensed into a tiny marble of glistening black, hovering over Jonathan’s palm. With a flick of his wrist, it sped towards Zandrus.
“If you thought that was a real black hole earlier, this one will show you the truth,” Jonathan said as the tiny orb started sucking up matter from the ground beneath. “Good luck.”
Zandrus scoffed, snapping his fingers. A pillar of elemental energy shot down from above, slamming into the black hole. The river of energy warped and fractured almost immediately, pulled into the black hole. As the projectile emerged from the center of the ruined spell, it was far larger than before.
Jonathan grinned and moved in, racing towards Zandrus. He arrived at the same time as the black hole, fist streaking towards the elemental’s face. Zandrus closed his eyes, and for a moment, Jonathan thought the elemental was giving up. Then a flash of blinding light whited out Jonathan’s vision. When it cleared he was standing on a flat sheet of crystal, with Zandrus standing in front of him. The black hole was still there but it was caged in a box of light, straining ineffectively to get out.
“So this is the reality warping Edgar was talking about,” Jonathan mused. “Interesting.”
“Within this space, I am your god,” Zandrus declared. “My will is law and my power absolute. The battle is over. It is simply a matter of time.”
Jonathan stumbled as a sudden pressure blasted into him from above, mounting until he was forced to drop to one knee.
“Your existence brings chaos, and I, as an incarnation of Order, cannot allow that. I will erase you from existence and cleanse the taint that you have made upon my realm.”
Jonathan gritted his teeth and looked up at Zandrus, purple fire sparking within his eyes. “Are you forgetting something? I don’t need my physical strength to beat you.”
With a dull whoosh, the Void entered Zandrus’ domain, waves of rolling purple rushing towards the elemental.
“What?” Zandrus exclaimed. “How can you do that? My elemental mastery is far higher than your own!”
“The Void is the only element in existence that is truly unbound,” Jonathan declared. As the Void began to weaken Zandrus’ hold over local reality, he rose to his feet. “It surrounds every universe and is infinite in its scope. It can reach me no matter where I am. This paltry excuse for a realm is no obstacle at all. You made a mistake letting me in here.”
Zandrus took a step back, horrified. This was exactly what he had feared would happen to his kingdom in the dungeon, but he could never have guessed that the elemental domain he had relied on for most of his life would simply fail.
He tried to banish the domain, cracks spreading across the world as he clawed at the empty air. Jonathan shook his head and extended a finger. A stream of Void energy shot out at Zandrus, knocking his hands aside.
The realm’s fracturing slowed and Zandrus snarled in rage, directing his efforts in a different direction. The walls of the world bent inwards, closing in on Jonathan.
Jonathan flew through the contracting planes of blue light, closing in on Zandrus. With the tone of the battle flipped, Jonathan was the one on the offensive.
Zandrus armored himself in the fragments of his shattered realm, seeming to fuse with the very existence around him. He grew in size, crystal fusing with crystal.
“If I cannot destroy you with my domain, I shall do so with my strength!” Zandrus bellowed, shaking the air within the dimensional place. “Begone!”
The elemental Archon’s fist seemed to skip through space, moving beyond Jonathan’s ability to detect it. It crushed his arm against his side in a devastating blow, shattering the bones and tearing apart the flesh.
Jonathan could feel the very air around him compact and warp, pressing into him from all sides. He forced his way out before it could crush him completely, emerging in the pocket of empty space next to Zandrus. The elemental had nowhere to go, having grown in size until he nearly filled the remains of his realm. Jonathan pummeled the elemental’s crystal body, fists coated in the Void tearing chunks off of Zandrus.
Zandrus desperately reached out to grasp the sides of his elemental domain and tore it to shreds before Jonathan could finish the job. Both fighters emerged back in the Cantasian dungeon, greeted by the sight of the Elemental Elders fighting Jonathan’s allies. The battle was going poorly for the elementals, with both missing body parts.
Zandrus hovered in the air in front of Sam, missing chunks of his body. The dissolution of his domain, while having connected himself to it, had done incredible damage to the elemental. None of the gaps were regenerating either, leaving permanent scars on the crystalline flesh.
Still, the Elemental Archon was nowhere near dead. While he looked haggard and beaten down, he was still well over half health. To kill an elemental, all that mattered was reaching its core. It didn’t matter how battered their body was if the core was still intact.
Zandrus knew that and before Jonathan could capitalize on the change of scenery, the elemental unleashed a tidal wave of power from every corner of his body, setting off a detonation of pure energy that would have put a nuclear bomb to shame. Jonathan shielded himself as best he could with Aegis of the Void’s Dichotomy, but it shattered after a few brief moments of exposure. He felt his flesh start to harden, but a quick flash of Void energy stopped that in its tracks.
“If I cannot use my domain to destroy you,” Zandrus gritted out, “I will simply put that energy to a better use.”
“Bring it on,” Jonathan replied. “I’m waiting.”
