It became a giant, born of rock and clay and dirt and grass, carrying whole trees and sidewalks up its body. Its head and shoulders alone were enough to dwarf the crumbling castle by its side.
The Rainlords wasted no time attacking. In unison, explosions and materials and gunfire and beams of nearly invisible light all bombarded the earthy titan with a furious maelstrom, carving out chunks of its body and causing it to shower chipped rocks across the battlefield.
But it wasn’t enough. The giant’s body repaired itself as quickly as they could damage it. Even a pair of rapid singularities from Octavia did little more than make the golem shiver before refilling the gaping caverns in its stone flesh.
The ground all but vanished beneath the beast’s clawed feet, sunken in so greatly that it flattened the hill that they had all been standing on. Rhein’s Keep shifted as its foundation did, losing many of its broken pieces to a sudden landslide but otherwise remaining intact.
The beast grew to its full height, a living skyscraper for Rheinhal, complete with the same devil’s face as Sanko’s mask, this time bearing a devil’s body to go along with it. It had the hunched posture of a gorilla with its short legs and long, powerful arms; and from its huge back jutted two enormous wings, crooked and grotesque and almost certainly incapable of flight, if that mattered. It probably didn’t, Zeff felt.
From his position of momentary safety atop an icy platform, Zeff reached for everything he could muster from his mind. Pan-forma burned inside him, granting three important increases: soul defenses, physical regeneration, and connectivity of his creations. The latter bonus was often overlooked somewhat, but it meant that Zeff could create complex structures more easily, treat multiple creations as one in his mind, and even have his materialized mass regenerate on its own, if he wanted it to.
And he called on each of those material enhancements now as he created something that had been in his mind for years but that he had never quite been able to manage without forma to help him.
The body of it was a long tube of soul-strengthened ice, thick enough to withstand cannon fire--because that was exactly what this was going to be: an enormous cannon. Only without the fire.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every day at noon PST by ~400 words.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Page 932
The six retreated to the air--Rayen’s group on a platform of ice, Octavia’s group on one of platinum, courtesy of the Lady Socorro.
Rather than pursue them, however, Sanko went after their support. A tidal wave of rock and dirt launched up and swallowed a building full of Rainlords some thirty meters away. One moment, the structure and all the people were there, and the next, there lay only flat land and a few sinking chunks of broken roof tiles.
There had hardly been time to react. More Rainlords were rushing up the hill to the Keep’s entrance, but if the six heads didn’t hold the Gargoyle back, then those new Rainlords were practically dead already.
Rayen went full tilt. Pan-rozum brought out the full strength of her alteration ability, transforming herself into a being of ultraviolet light. To the naked eye, her flesh was almost invisible, save only for the dimmest of purple outlines around her body, making her clothes appear to float in space. Zeff, however, could at least see the woman’s soul now--a kind of translucently blue whirlpool that completely filled the space where her body should have been.
And in a blink, she was gone, launching her assault at the speed of ultraviolet light. She carved a swath into the ground so fast that it left a second wave of exploding rock in her wake. She zigzagged faster than any human eye could follow, and then focused her efforts into a concentrated burst of nigh invisible light, creating a shock wave that left a massive crater behind and a fresh hole in the Keep’s front wall.
That seemed to grab Sanko’s attention.
The other five heads attacked as well--Octavia with another singularity that sucked up one of the Keep’s towers, Zeff with a pair of building-sized spears of ice dropped from the heavens, Socorro with a gigantic slab of platinum dropped above the Keep, Santos with a series of earth-shattering explosions, and Evangelina with a splash of fuming acid that melted half the Keep’s gate.
Parson Miles burst up above the castle and knocked Socorro’s slab away with an arching tornado. Lawrence and his men would not be far behind, Zeff knew.
But of course, they were not the real threat.
The sundered earth convulsed and bloated skyward, and from it, a gargantuan figure began to rise.
Rather than pursue them, however, Sanko went after their support. A tidal wave of rock and dirt launched up and swallowed a building full of Rainlords some thirty meters away. One moment, the structure and all the people were there, and the next, there lay only flat land and a few sinking chunks of broken roof tiles.
There had hardly been time to react. More Rainlords were rushing up the hill to the Keep’s entrance, but if the six heads didn’t hold the Gargoyle back, then those new Rainlords were practically dead already.
Rayen went full tilt. Pan-rozum brought out the full strength of her alteration ability, transforming herself into a being of ultraviolet light. To the naked eye, her flesh was almost invisible, save only for the dimmest of purple outlines around her body, making her clothes appear to float in space. Zeff, however, could at least see the woman’s soul now--a kind of translucently blue whirlpool that completely filled the space where her body should have been.
And in a blink, she was gone, launching her assault at the speed of ultraviolet light. She carved a swath into the ground so fast that it left a second wave of exploding rock in her wake. She zigzagged faster than any human eye could follow, and then focused her efforts into a concentrated burst of nigh invisible light, creating a shock wave that left a massive crater behind and a fresh hole in the Keep’s front wall.
That seemed to grab Sanko’s attention.
The other five heads attacked as well--Octavia with another singularity that sucked up one of the Keep’s towers, Zeff with a pair of building-sized spears of ice dropped from the heavens, Socorro with a gigantic slab of platinum dropped above the Keep, Santos with a series of earth-shattering explosions, and Evangelina with a splash of fuming acid that melted half the Keep’s gate.
Parson Miles burst up above the castle and knocked Socorro’s slab away with an arching tornado. Lawrence and his men would not be far behind, Zeff knew.
But of course, they were not the real threat.
The sundered earth convulsed and bloated skyward, and from it, a gargantuan figure began to rise.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Page 931
Everyone was moving now. The dozens of other Rainlords all around them were already either opening fire from a distance or rushing in to provide upfront support. Rayen Merlo’s flesh was in turns vanishing and reappearing, but always with a faintly violet glow. And Zeff, of course, was launching a storm of frozen spikes toward Sanko.
But it was Octavia who got to the woman first. The white blade shuddered visibly, and Zeff saw light bend around Sanko’s torso, distorting like a bubble in space itself. It was similar to the destruction type abilities, but this was a single point, not a path, and the sound was different. This was the rushing of wind past his ears. He felt the violent shift in gravity, as well, pulling him and everyone else suddenly forward.
In an instant, he watched as Sanko’s body imploded, sucked into the bubble and spaghettified.
And just like that, the bubble was gone again, disappeared into thin air, leaving a small crater in the ground along with the dusty remains of Sanko’s body.
But there was no blood--no bits of flesh, even though a few busted stones lay where Sanko’s feet should have been.
She was not dead, rather obviously. The Rainlords needed no assurances on that point. Even if they had believed that the Gargoyle could be defeated so easily, there was still the matter of that oppressive presence having not diminished whatsoever.
It was common enough knowledge that the Gargoyle’s power involved earth in some way, but if not for Axiolis’ memories, Zeff would have lacked any genuine details. Instead, he was able to recall tales from half a century ago about Sanko’s fearsome control of integration.
Hers was an ability type most often relegated to the supporting role, but she had lived long enough to become an exception. She’d used pan-rozum to do more than simply fuse elements together. She’d learned to fuse herself into them, to become an entity of dirt and rock and stone. Integration may not have allowed her to create her own elements, even with pan-rozum, but that was a small price to pay when she could wield almost every element of every type of ground in the world as an extension of her body.
Everything beneath the Rainlords’ feet belonged to the Gargoyle now. Axiolis didn’t know what her maximum range was, but anything less than a kilometer was just wishful thinking, Zeff knew.
And it was no surprise when the ground began to tremble.
But it was Octavia who got to the woman first. The white blade shuddered visibly, and Zeff saw light bend around Sanko’s torso, distorting like a bubble in space itself. It was similar to the destruction type abilities, but this was a single point, not a path, and the sound was different. This was the rushing of wind past his ears. He felt the violent shift in gravity, as well, pulling him and everyone else suddenly forward.
In an instant, he watched as Sanko’s body imploded, sucked into the bubble and spaghettified.
And just like that, the bubble was gone again, disappeared into thin air, leaving a small crater in the ground along with the dusty remains of Sanko’s body.
But there was no blood--no bits of flesh, even though a few busted stones lay where Sanko’s feet should have been.
She was not dead, rather obviously. The Rainlords needed no assurances on that point. Even if they had believed that the Gargoyle could be defeated so easily, there was still the matter of that oppressive presence having not diminished whatsoever.
It was common enough knowledge that the Gargoyle’s power involved earth in some way, but if not for Axiolis’ memories, Zeff would have lacked any genuine details. Instead, he was able to recall tales from half a century ago about Sanko’s fearsome control of integration.
Hers was an ability type most often relegated to the supporting role, but she had lived long enough to become an exception. She’d used pan-rozum to do more than simply fuse elements together. She’d learned to fuse herself into them, to become an entity of dirt and rock and stone. Integration may not have allowed her to create her own elements, even with pan-rozum, but that was a small price to pay when she could wield almost every element of every type of ground in the world as an extension of her body.
Everything beneath the Rainlords’ feet belonged to the Gargoyle now. Axiolis didn’t know what her maximum range was, but anything less than a kilometer was just wishful thinking, Zeff knew.
And it was no surprise when the ground began to tremble.
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