Back in Bloodspill, a massacre the likes of which the realm had never seen before ensued. Avarana was enraged by the disappearance of the Ore Titan, which meant that her pet armies couldn’t fight with wild abandon, armor and weapons ready for use whenever they needed it. Additionally, the death of Eleander had been a blow to Avarana’s pride, as for some reason, she had been unable to resurrect her. Traces of foreign elemental energy clung to the air where a few particulates of Eleander’s armor and weapons still lingered, but despite Avarana’s best efforts, the woman did not come back.
The dragon hovered over a scorched battlefield, filled with corpses so mangled and broken that they looked more like a carpet of ground meat than anything else, mixed in with metal and leather.
“Jonathan…” Avarana ground out, smoke leaking from between her teeth. “What a nuisance you are proving to be.”
The Circle Lord let herself drop to the ground, landing in the mud and blood. Her intense body heat vaporized the filth before it could mar her scales, baking it into something like a nest.
Closing her eyes, Avarana connected to her powers, reaching out to the deaths that she had just caused. All the energy was laying dormant, given that her attempts to bring Eleander back from the dead were useless. Instead, she focused on weaving together something that would prove to be a nasty surprise for Jonathan when he returned.
Loops of exotic energies gathered around Avarana as she worked to turn the stolen life force of millions into a weapon capable of slaying a god. A god who was still at the lowest rungs of progression, but a god nonetheless. An ant could not afford to look down on another ant, just because of how lowly they were. That was a privilege afforded to gods and kings, not Circle Lords facing off against the Hellbreaker.
Eventually, the process ended, and the energy sped off into the distance, spreading across Bloodspill. Avarana watched it go, a half smile on her toothy maw. Death was waiting for Jonathan Harlowe.
In the Emerald Naga Faction City
Edgar and Eva, as compared to the more hot headed Uthraki, were having no trouble keeping out of the scrutiny of the city guards. Instead, they ingratiated themselves with the local authorities and garrisons, slowly but surely injecting dissent into local society. With Edgar’s abilities to listen in on conversations from miles away, nobody was safe, save for those able to afford expensive privacy arrays. Doing so granted him access to channels of information spanning organizations, gangs, and all other manner of social groups. He used this information to convince others of treason within the city government, which wasn’t even far from the truth. Many of the city officials were active soldiers, meaning that they cared not for their city, but for their ability to survive. As a result, they often siphoned away resources to supplement their own progression, or changed assignments to keep them off the front lines. In Bloodspill, death was inevitable for almost everyone, but it could be postponed.
Naturally, Edgar had run into the Bloodscorned before long, who saw him as a valuable asset to their cause. After learning of his connection to Jonathan, even more so. Apparently, Jonathan had joined up with the rebels, but was in another sector of Bloodspill, too far away for Edgar to reach easily.
In the Great Farm
A few weeks passed as Jonathan worked to bring his levels up to par with what he needed to fight Avarana. He was already on the level of the peak elites of Bloodspill, but not on the level of its lord.
Avarana was already Tier 8 and likely hovering around the power of a Tier 9. Jonathan’s only saving grace was that there wasn’t anything strong enough to powerlevel her within Bloodspill. Given the monster’s personality, it was unlikely that she would leave her playground to hunt in other Circles.
In other news, the Ore Titan had been incorporated into the structure of the Great Farm, serving as a constant source of wealth for Jonathan’s realm. Even small chunks of the monster sold for huge sums of money in the Universal Trading Hub. Even better, Jonathan had discovered that the Ore Titan could regenerate, just like a living creature. The vast holes he had created in its body were gone, filled in by more metal.
The creature had remained rooted in place, unable to lift itself out of the ground. Every attempt that it made had simply sunken it deeper, eventually leading to the golem stopping its efforts and going dormant. Still as it was, it loomed over the world like a mountain range, the light of the sun gleaming off its metallic skin.
With the influx of high Tier materials, a sort of crafting renaissance had started, fueled by the Ore Titan’s bounty of Tier 8 metal. Few smiths could work with the stuff, requiring either incredible strength or incredible mastery, but there were a few from the Great Farm that could just about work the metal properly. All of them were Tier 6, with some coming close to Tier 7.
In general, the overall strength of Jonathan’s faction continued to grow and grow. Most of the people who had come to the Hells weren’t the sort to squander the opportunities that they had been given. So many talented warriors and mages had been stuck at low levels, desperately searching for a way to break through the tyrannical mana suppression. Now that the path was cleared, up to Tier 7 at least, everyone wanted a piece of the action.
Jonathan stood on a large wooden platform, overlooking the elites of his realm. The platform had once been an auctioneer’s pulpit, from which slaves were bought and sold. Now, it mouldered in ignominy, save for this one moment.
Many of the allied elites had gathered there over the last week, coming from all corners of the realm. Some Jonathan recognized, and some he did not.
With the warriors from the Great Farm joining his army, Jonathan had a stockpile of Tier 6 and 7s who had proper combat training. He thought that it was high time to make them relevant again by bringing them to Bloodspill. With the aid of the Bloodscorned, he could stratify the battles by Tier, relying on his strongest followers to hold off the enemy Tier 8s while his other soldiers fought the weaker ones.
“Every day, we grow stronger,” Jonathan said. The crowd was silent, intent on his every word. “Every day, we grow closer to freeing the Hells. I have served as the vanguard of the revolution for over a year now, but I think it’s high time that the rest of you had a chance to fight.”
A cheer rose up from the army.
Jonathan smiled, and continued. “That is why you will all accompany me on my next journey to Bloodspill. You are more than strong enough to fight on par with most of the soldiers there. Together, we can liberate another Circle, and come one step closer to freedom!”
“To freedom!” the army echoed, tens of thousands of voices twining together into a wall of sound.
A few moments later, Arkanon, the Uthraki and the other core elites appeared, returning from Tartarus. Their training had gone well, bringing them up to the mid 700s in level. Given enough monsters to fight, and enough time, progression was surprisingly simple. The Tiers were quite linear in nature, meaning that they had no hurdles to jump, but neither did they have much in terms of bonuses over the previous ones on a fundamental level. Power came from the weight of levels and stats, not from ascending to a new Tier.
Jonathan raised his hands, summoning a portal to Bloodspill. It grew and grew until it was almost a thousand feet wide. Now that Jonathan had discovered a way to power the portal off his Void energy, the sky was the limit in terms of size.
Row by row, his soldiers marched through. Their footsteps echoed across the fields of the Great Farm, and into the realm beyond as they passed through the portal.
“Do you think they have what it takes?” Arkanon asked as he leaped up onto the platform next to Jonathan. “I’m not sure.”
“I believe,” Jonathan said simply. “Nobody thought escaping the Hells was possible. For billions of years, the Circle Lords were invincible. Now? Now we have a chance.”
Arkanon smiled. “That we do. I suppose we’ve come this far. Why should nobody else be able to?”
***
As Jonathan’s army massed on the other side of the portal in Bloodspill, Avarana watched and waited for her nemesis to arrive. His servants were worthless. None of them would even be able to scratch her scales. The only one she feared was the man who had already claimed six of her brethren. All the way in her citadel, hundreds of thousands of miles away, Avarana watched through an elemental focusing array. The picture was a bit distorted, but she was able to see Jonathan’s army with more detail than she could have otherwise.
One of Jonathan’s closest allies emerged, followed by the rest of them. Unlike the other soldiers, the five Uthraki and the infant god were troubling. Not strong enough to match Avarana herself, but certainly powerful enough to aid Jonathan.
The portal rippled as Jonathan himself strode through, his stride confident and unbothered. A grin spread across Avarana’s face, at odds with her imposing demeanor. As she watched, the skies above swirled, black clouds mixing with streaks of carmine lightning. The soldiers gathered around Jonathan shifted uneasily, looking up at the sky.
On the ground, Jonathan watched apprehensively as the sky blackened and the air filled with the sharp tang of ozone. His hair stood on end as static electricity played across his armor. It was harmless, but a sign of what was to come.
Instead of losing heart, Jonathan started to channel the Void. The incoming assault was slow to build, giving time for Jonathan to return the favor. A glowing orb of purple light, about the size of a cannonball, formed over his right palm.
All around him, mages cast spell after spell, domes of elemental energy shielding the army from harm. Warriors braced themselves, those with shields turning them towards the heavens. Earth mages coated metal shields in soil, anticipating the lightning jumping to metal armaments. Swords were buried in the ground, and those clad in plate armor shifted uneasily as the metal sparkled with lightning.
Jonathan ignored all of this, focused entirely on the growing manifestation of his element tightly contained by his will. He was channeling the Void at the limits of his ability, his entire body turning into an elemental gate, letting the power of pure destruction enter the mundane world. The orb had only grown to twice its original size, but it contained dozens of times as much power. The air bent around it like a trampoline around a bowling ball, dragged in by an inexorable conceptual gravity.
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Streaks of electricity fell into the bottomless pit of elemental destruction, disappearing without a trace. Tiny amounts of Void energy disappeared from Jonathan’s body every time that happened, but considering how much he had to draw on, it was nothing. His Lesser God status really was a game changer in terms of personal progression, though it wasn’t as invincible as it seemed. He might not have had limits in terms of capacity, but he could still be overwhelmed by a greater opposing force, canceling out his ability to draw on his powers.
The skies shattered without warning, the clouds exploding into red lightning. For dozens of miles in every direction, the world became an electrical storm, lightning hammering down like hail.
Just before the lightning could strike Jonathan’s army, he struck back. A roar escaped his mouth as he sent his condensed Void attack hurtling at the skies above. A screaming hiss sounded out as the orb erased the air it passed through, before striking the descending lightning.
Jonathan’s vision whited out as the two expressions of elemental fury tore each other apart. An expanding disc of purple light sheared off the bottom half of the storm as it tried to continue downwards. The light started to dim, but Jonathan had imbued his technique with so much power that it could have stopped an extinction level meteor strike without faltering.
“AVARANA!” Jonathan bellowed. “FIGHT ME, YOU COWARD!”
A rumbling voice spoke, seemingly coming from every direction at once. “I WILL!”
The lightning finally petered out, vanishing into thin air. Jonathan waved his hand to dispel the remainder of his Void technique. Instead of waiting for the Circle Lord to attack him while his much more vulnerable army was nearby, Jonathan flew off towards the horizon, leaving his forces in the hands of Arkanon and the others. Combined, his strongest allies were only marginally less powerful than he was, and could defend against most foes that could threaten the Tier 6 and 7s.
Jonathan knew enough about Bloodspill to understand that Avarana did not direct her armies any more than a sports fan directed the game on the TV. She loosely maintained control over her own warring faction, true, but her only real allies were her chosen. Avarana would burn everyone in her realm to the ground for more power. Even worse, she would do it solely for her own amusement.
What that meant was that no titanic force of Tier 8s would be coming for Jonathan’s head. Avarana wouldn’t tolerate such a slight to her power in any case. She obviously thought that she was superior to him. After all, everything coming up to this point confirmed that.
He waited, hovering in the sky. As he did so, Jonathan channeled the Void, condensing it into a humming orb of power. He really needed to find a way to channel his abilities as a Lesser God into his more concrete skills, but for now, the power was too much for his level. It would burn out his skill matrices, which weren’t designed for that much energy. Perhaps that was something he could solve with Runecrafting, but not at the current moment. Such an endeavor would require a comprehensive enhancement of his skills, and would likely take weeks.
Instead, Jonathan took the time to build up the most powerful attack he had ever created. Had elemental energy been measurable like mana or stamina, it would be the equivalent of tens of millions of points. That much mana could level mountains. That much Void energy? An entire mountain range.
His armor glowed as brightly as his skin, purple light shining from every corner of his body. Like a second sun, he illuminated the world of Bloodspill with the light of the end itself. As he did so, he felt his mind begin to slip, falling into the embrace of the Void. It was similar to his Lesser God trial, but limited to his own mind. His thoughts started to warp and elongate, becoming more like those of a true immortal than anything else.
Realizing that his mind was slipping away, Jonathan toned down his elemental channeling, leveling off the stream of power flowing through him and into the now car-sized sphere of destruction hovering in front of him. It wobbled like jelly, only his own will able to keep in check.
You have resisted Elementalization!
The System message put the peril he had been in into perspective. If he had kept going, his mind would have died, leaving only a body behind to act as a conduit for the Void. He would have become a Void elemental with functionally unlimited power, but with no way to control that power. More likely than not he would have scoured the realm to ash, killing his allies as well as his enemies.
Finally, with the distant thrum of beating wings, Avarana approached. Jonathan took a breath to steady himself and unstrapped Kharon. The weapon shifted, molding around his hands like gauntlets. It split in the middle, letting him fight normally.
Avarana roared with the noise of thunder. Her wings beat faster, accelerating her forwards so quickly that the skies behind her split apart, clouds severed by her passing. She was moving so fast that most of her approach was muted by the limits of the speed of sound. The only reason Jonathan could hear anything at all was the fact that the air was far denser and magically charged than the air back on Earth. As a result, the speed of sound was far higher here. There was also a degree of reality manipulation that powerful beings could carry out with elemental powers to further stretch the limits. Jonathan was sure that Avarana was doing this all as a show to intimidate him.
Unfortunately for the tyrant dragon, Jonathan had faced down Angranor himself. He could not be intimidated by an overgrown lizard that had far more ego than power. Instead, he responded by unleashing all of his gathered elemental energy.
Jonathan flew backwards as the sphere burst, all of the power packed within flying out in a beam far larger than the original orb. Whereas the clouds had split behind Avarana, the world split before Jonathan’s attack. Beyond the visible boundaries of his technique, a roiling cloak of invisible Void energy tore at the air and ground below. A shallow canyon tore open in the ground, racing towards Avarana’s position.
Where the ray passed, the air vanished. For a few seconds as the beam passed through, there was no sound. The vacuum left behind was preserved by the power of the Void, unwilling to let the material world encroach upon its domain.
Then, with the sound of the apocalypse itself, the air collapsed inwards. Tens of thousands of cubic miles of nothingness become whole once more. A windstorm swept across the ground, blowing clouds of mud and rock into the air.
Avarana continued to fly, responding to Jonathan’s opening move with one of her own. Her mouth opened wide, and a tiny star formed within. Made of pure elemental Fire, it was hotter than any mundane star, if not in terms of pure heat, than in terms of potential damage. Avarana kept close control over her power, which would otherwise have set the atmosphere on fire. As the vast majority of the realm’s inhabitants were Tier 1s and 2s, that would wipe out billions.
Instead, the miniature sun sped across the sky, whiting out the world in its immediate vicinity. As it went, it transitioned through phases, mimicking the evolution of a real star.
By the time it had reached the finger of Voidlight bisecting the heavens, it was about to detonate. A whining hum was the only warning Jonathan got before the tiny star erupted with the force of a dozen hydrogen bombs. The explosion tore everything in a hundred mile radius apart, leaving only Jonathan unscathed, shielded behind his own attack.
When his eyes recovered he saw two hemispheres of light, one purple and one orange,warring for dominance in the middle of the battlefield. The fact that Avarana could match his true strength was concerning, though she had her own boons. How many lives had gone into her last attack? A million? Ten? Whatever the number, it was almost surprising that Jonathan could match it at all.
He moved forwards, mirroring Avarana. Whereas the titanic dragon beat the air into submission with her wings, Jonathan simply passed through it, Void Slipstream easing his passage.
As he went he took a look at the ground beneath him. It was gone, completely and utterly, for almost three miles down into the earth and fifty in every direction. One half was scorched black and melted into slag, and the other was completely smooth, as if a titan had taken a scoop to the world. It mirrored the personalities and fighting styles of its creators. Avarana was brutal and domineering whereas Jonathan was restrained but inexorable. His powers destroyed without leaving a trace, both their targets and themselves vanishing from existence.
“You don’t seem so impressive now,” Jonathan said. “Not that you ever did. How are you unable to overcome someone lower level than yourself, with all that power?”
“I do not explain myself to the likes of you,” Avarana replied. “Lessers. The fact that you can even match me at all is a grand cosmic joke. You are not the author of your own destiny. Your element is.”
Jonathan raised an eyebrow. After his close call, the words hit close to him. He was unusually attached to his element, far more so than even others with True Affinities. It was a fundamental part of him at this point. At what point did his desires become its own?
“I am my element, Avarana. What are you? All your power is stolen or given. None is your own. If Angranor hadn’t given you pathetic creatures the scraps from the table of his Divinity, I would already have killed you.”
“Oh, I saw your battle with the Stillborn Hegemon and Ashokan. The former was an idiot, and the latter a brute. The outcome would have been similar, even today. I am different. I am superior.”
At that moment, the twinned techniques still warring for control finally destabilized. Waves of force, flame and Void tore through the sky, washing harmlessly over their progenitors. Jonathan bathed in the light of the Void, while Avarana let the flames soak into her body. Her scales lit up like bonfires, and her wings trailed flickering fire.
A few seconds later, the two gods clashed. Jonathan’s fist met Avarana’s outstretched claw. Neither gave way. They traded blows one after another, finding themselves to be equal in power. Then Jonathan funneled more Divinity into Wrath of the Void, and his power eclipsed that of his foe. His next strike shattered Avarana’s talon and the one after that, the one beside it.
Avarana bellowed in pain, before using an enhancement skill of her own. Armor made out of ethereal warriors piled one on top of one another formed over her skin. Her movements sped up until the building sized monster was moving at a truly ridiculous speed for her size.
Jonathan was torn out of the air by a devastating claw strike straight to his chest. Ribs cracked, and his armor buckled. Like a comet he flashed down, impacting the ground below with enough force to make a crater of his own, superimposed over the far larger hemisphere of destruction etched forever into the face of the realm.
Blinking to clear the blood from his eyes, Jonathan saw Avarana plummeting from above, her entire body arranged like a spear behind her outstretched talon. Oceans of flame swirled around her claw, layering into a thick coating of blindingly bright fire.
Jonathan forced himself to his feet, coughing up what felt like the entirety of his lungs. Then he used his Stamina, his legs pushing into the ground with the force of pistons. He crossed a dozen miles in the blink of an eye, just before Avarana came crashing down where he had just lain.
The ground buckled and tore, streaks of fire visible through the cracks. For miles in every direction around the Circle Lord, the ground erupted like a volcano, spewing lava and chunks of rock high into the sky. Jonathan nearly lost his footing as the world shook, more cracks spreading beyond the edge of the devastation. If this was what a fight looked like at Tier 8, then what would his later battles be like? Would the entire world serve as nothing more than backdrops to apocalyptic clashes that left permanent scars not just on the world of the physical, but across all of reality?
Jonathan, realizing that he would need to pull out all the stops for this fight, started using abilities he hadn’t needed to in a very long time. Runic Overcharge was one such skill, allowing him to increase the potency of his abilities by empowering the skill matrices with Divinity. It had been mostly useless for some time, given that his skills were more complicated than his runic expertise could affect, but now that he was a Master Rank Runecrafter, new possibilities had opened up.
Most of his Void abilities wouldn’t be affected, given that he already had a bottomless conduit to his element. Adding a small boost from his Runes would do nothing when he could summon enough power to blast holes in the world that would put a small sea to shame. Instead, he focused on Ephemeral Quartet. It was the ability that let him keep fighting, functionally forever. As long as his health did not run out, his other resources would continue to regenerate without end, drawing upon his connection to the Void. It was about time he leveraged that connection to an even greater extent, not only sustaining his ability to fight, but actually improving it.
