Chapter 8: Chapter 7. The calamity of a named monster

Chapter 7: The calamity of a named monster

Mergers, the general term for people who succeeded in harnessing the mysterious energy that was Aether. And Awakenings, the process in which a person's body became attuned to Aether. Two important facts of this world.

Screams came from below. There were shouts, crying, and begging, followed by cracking sounds, like glass breaking over and over, it was the sound of ice spreading.

Although not everyone could use Aether, those were basic concepts everyone, from young children to the elderly, accepted and held as the truth. It was common sense. But in spite of the strange nature of this world, it also didn't mean it was a chaotic place without reason or logic.

Dark clouds formed over the barren wasteland's sky; it spread far, wide, and quickly. The dying screams from before were at once silenced. Looking around, it seemed like everyone had been freed from their icy doom and then brought to safety. Everyone except... an unfortunate one, lanky and clumsy, and wearing brown robes, he was stumbling along behind all others as a floating, spherical golem of sort helped him on.

He didn't have any chance.

Mergers, without taking their fantastical powers into account, were physically much stronger and sturdier than the average person; it was even widely known in the Human Lands that they could destroy a boulder with their bare hands.

This was not false.

However, while it was true that some Mergers could at the least shatter solid rock without effort, it was often forgotten that that was probably the absolute best of what most of them could do.

They were standing on the shoulders of the great Champions that came before them. It was natural that people's vision became distorted if their only reference for what Mergers were like, and what they could do, was godlike ascended beings.

There were Casters, with their flashy abilities and appearance; then, there were the more subtle but still impressive Channellers—Seer and Material types. And finally, the least known of them all, the oddballs impossible to fit anywhere, the Special types.

They were the Human Lands' heroes and celebrities. The object of both envy and administration.

All that shine surrounding them, coupled with their relative rarity, inadvertently masked the truth and over time built up the misunderstanding that Mergers were powerful, wise men.

Maybe that's why almost all these soldiers were left so unguarded that they didn't notice the barrier slowly covering them until it was too late. Pride and Mergers, this would be another tale a teacher spoke about in whispers to their disciple to warn them.

A great flash of light, a slow spear of clear ice. The clumsy one, as if sensing his end, leaned on the golem and turned around; his tired and fearful expression contorted into a curious one as he watched his death approaching.

"My reach is not so short that I can't save someone right before my eyes," said a booming voice as the ice spear vanished without a trace. A man in white robes grabbed the clumsy one's shoulder, making him look up at him in admiration. "Go."

The clumsy one stumbled and scampered away, pushed by the golem.

"You vaporized a spear made of quasi permafrost like it's nothing," he finally spoke, "very impressive."

The man didn't respond. He touched his chest, and a wooden staff as tall as him appeared in his hand. It was a rough thing, and looked like it would snap in two at any moment, but the power emanating from it was deadly.

"But aren't you a Caster?" he spoke further, closely examining the mystical staff. "And a Champion at that. What are you doing on the frontlines?"

"Quiet." Shockwaves spread from him as if that was a power word. Dense mist spread everywhere for kilometres, hiding the fleeing soldiers from sight.

After a while, the mist dissipated and two pairs of human and slitted eyes crossed.

"It seems that's enough time for them to flee." Sweat fell down the man's forehead. "Let's get serious, then, monster."

The "monster" looked around, and saw that all the men inside his barrier were gone, leaving only the two of them. He chuckled, and returned his gaze towards the man. "From your perspective, I am no doubt a monstrous thing, but I do have a name, too, Champion."

The "Champion" frowned. He looked suspiciously towards the thing floating above him. He snorted derisively. "Do you think I'm gonna ask for your name? Or give you mine?"

"So cautious." He laughed, but was not offended. After all, Merger abilities with all kinds of weird condition existed, though not that common. "But I guess you wouldn't trust my kind enough to expect a fair duel."

"Beat me, and I'll tell you my name."

"Ho ho! A Champion, no, a human lowering himself to compromise with a High Beast. You have to see it for yourself to believe it."

"Enough." Without much warning, a great lance of lightning fell from the sky, almost skewering him. He developed a barrier above his head to dispel the shock. Then naturally sent a spear of ice in return.

The Champion waved his staff and the ice disappeared again. He looked up at the barrier with a strong gaze. "That's what I thought. You, are you the one occupying Babel?"

An unrelenting rain of ice spears was his answer. The "monster" then crushed the Gravity stone embedded in his back with a flex of his muscles, making him fall immediately towards the ground.

As soon as he landed, a violent swirl of mist engulfed him, his scales started glistening with frost. He laughed. Trying to attack him with his own attribute? Although the attack was unusually strong for a secondary ability, against him, it was particularly hopeless.

"You are at a disadvantage." He stretched his long, serpentine neck and gazed ahead, his eyes were filled with pity. The frost on his body dissipated on their own. "In addition to the relationship between our Merges, Babel, my Lord, has given me control over barriers that is at least equal to your own proficiency."

The thick clouds that covered the sky for many days now started to gather into a single mass, and in a few seconds, that gloomy sky became bright, letting sunshine touch their bodies directly again. The collected clouds were compressed and compressed until they were just a pitch black ball the size of a human's eyeball.

Despite its appearance, however, the pressure it leaked out, along with the very conspicuous sound of rumbling thunder raging from inside, reminded him to keep his guard up.

"This is my ultimate move. Be sure to put up a bit of a fight."

Countless spears of ice had been trying to destroy that black ball of doom for a while now, but nothing seemed to be working, he then tried to attack the Caster directly, but the human was turtled up in a thick sphere of Aether. A sense of crisis quietly welled up inside him.

This was quite dangerous. He hurriedly shifted from offense to defence, deploying layers upon layers of high level shields.

It seemed he made the right decision as nearly all of his shields broke in a single instant. Even though he hadn't made any mistake, and carefully observed the thing that somehow managed to get to his back, the black ball had easily disappeared from his sight. His shields regenerated almost at the same time as they were destroyed, but the ball was still there, so it wasn't a one use ability.

"Those shields are annoying. You're using wards meant for fortresses on yourself?" The man caressed the old staff in his hand, before storing it away.

Behind his barrier, the monster was relieved that that thing had been neutralized.

He focused his Aether once more as the man ordered the ball to attack him over and over. The power in each shot was unbelievable.

It seemed trying to compete with a Caster in terms of firepower was foolish. At this rate, that overpowered little ball would be the end of him.

If he allowed it.

"Oh, well, it has never been a question of power in the first place," he said to himself. He had been releasing his mutated Aether in the air since the first mist attack.

The Champion staggered forward and onto his knees, vomiting blood and suffocating. He glared with a burning gaze towards his enemy, body trembling in pain. Or was it anger, or guilt? The monster advanced towards his downed enemy, tail swinging.

"The air," the man said as he tried with all his might to stand up again. "You bastard, you poisoned me. How is this a fair duel?"

"I'm as surprised as you." He revealed honestly. "I just thought it'd distract you for a second. I didn't expect it to work this well. Are you more cornered than you let on?"

He tilted his long neck as the black ball whizzed past him; it wasn't an attack however, it stopped right before the man. Before he could taunt the man once more, he was astonished to see the man's right arm and leg dropping off and immediately changing into dust.

The ball stuck itself on the man's chest; it unravelled, the dark vapour compressed inside expanded, spread and finally covered the man completely.

He quickly jumped to the edge of his main barrier. His instincts were singing and screaming.

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"First Offering," a coarse voice muttered inside the swirling darkness. Even though it was a quiet incantation, it seemed for the monster to come from every direction. "Dark Lightning Knight."

The monster deployed his barriers once again, then added a thick layer of clear pseudo permafrost just in case. "I can't believe you went this far-" He didn't feel anything, not even a breeze. When he became aware of It, his head was already flying away.

There was a thud, and his head rolled helplessly on the ground.

As his body stumbled on the spot and fell down, he saw it. An ominous black cloud bathed in lightning, the thing was making growling sounds like the sky during a storm. The air around it was charged with pressure, and danger.

Death to all who dared to come near. There was such a thing going around his mind.

He was planning to deceive the thing by playing dead, or gain some time so the transformation would run its course, but remembered that Champions had near limitless Aether. He forced his body to stand up, and stimulated his core, causing his neck to heat up and produce gray steam.

Then, three new heads sprouted.

How lucky. The chances for more than one head growing from decapitation were less than 5%. He immediately assigned his defence to the other heads, and fully focused on attacking. His Merge was just Ice, it was simple and straightforward, but the higher applications were broad, especially when combined with his Lord's barriers.

The thing once again disappeared from his sight, but he remained calm. As he said earlier, not everything could be solved with higher firepower; his versatility would be the deciding factor.

He felt something this time, his two other heads confirmed the direction and speed all from seeing where the barriers were being broken.

Results? Direction: random. Speed: fucking fast.

Two heads went flying again, but this time, he regenerated them just as fast. He now had seven heads, and the asymmetry of it all was driving him insane. But at least now, processing power was off the charts.

Let's not think about energy distribution for now. They were both giving it their all anyway.

The thing stopped. It seemed the explosive power had some side effects too; from what the monster had seen of this man until now, from his cold thinking to how he successfully rescued all his men under the monster's nose, this Champion was relatively experienced. For him to repeat the same mistakes like this must mean that there was something interfering with his reason.

Was it like a barbarian's berserker state? He decided to come closer to complete his plan. Six heads were now assigned to defence, the last to observation; the first step was immobilizing the thing with his barrier-Ice combo.

The thing finally moved, the pressure rose along with the sound of thunder. "Oh, you're approaching me?" He didn't respond.

There was a crazed laughter, it sounded like stones in a bag hitting each other, but the stones were the size of boulders.

The thing shifted, and long claws made of dark smoke and lightning came out. And they said he was the monster?

"But not this time," he said. He watched the thing coming towards him, however, unlike the near-teleportation moves from earlier, now it was only running at a normal human speed. He swung a hardened tail towards the thing, and was pleased to see it flattened to the ground even if it had tried to escape at the last moment. He hit it a few more times at full power to be sure.

When he stopped, the darkness had dissipated and the Champion could be seen again. He was in a pitiful state, laying face up with robes in tatters, the armour underneath rendered useless, and blood flowing out from everywhere, but strangely not from his severed arm or leg.

"How?"

"My racial poison," he said at once, "coupled with a two attribute barrier."

"A Hydra, right?" The Champion managed to get out. "I thought it was a myth." He coughed, his mouth leaking blood, and looked up. Surrounding them was a transparent barrier. "Two attributes. I see, you had me trapped from the beginning."

"... yes. Ice-Barrier Composite: Artificial Time Dilation." That was the nature of that barrier and the one he used at the end there. "Don't worry, your men shouldn't be too roughed up, you made sure of that, but that was also your biggest mistake. It took more Aether than you expected, right?"

"More than half," the Champion admitted. "And I can't recover."

They stayed like that for a few seconds, Champion and High Beast, human and monster.

"You're not like what I expected."

"I imagine not. And you're not as... careful as other Casters."

They laughed again, both loudly and heartily.

"I'm Gamwick." the man said suddenly. The monster was surprised for a second before remembering their earlier banter. "I'm a man of my words."

"I'm honoured to hear it, but well," he floundered, not knowing what to say. "I said I had a name earlier, but I just wanted to trip you up."

"..."

"Hey, say something, you turd!"

"No, I'm," Gamwick replied unsteadily, and the monster realized the guy was trying to stifle his laughter. It went on for a while before a gurgling cough forced him to stop.

"Had enough?"

"Ah, yeah." He sighed heavily before lying still. Then, "Babelroth."

"What?"

"It means 'the one who protects Babel' in my mother tongue," he said quietly.

The monster was silent for a while. "So, you understood it, huh?"

"Not really," Gamwick whispered weakly, "but you're not a bad guy. I can feel it."

The monster sat down near the prone Champion, a feeling of companionship hung in the air. The atmosphere was peaceful and familiar, like hanging out with a close friend.

"You're not a bad guy, either, my friend."

"... friend," Gamwick repeated, with a smile tugging on his lips.

"Hahaha, ridiculous, aren't we?" the monster asked, but there was no response anymore.

He looked upwards, the barrier cracked. The clear blue sky was beautiful, Babelroth thought, but he wished there would be some more clouds.

From start to finish, for those involved, the fight lasted a bit more than five minutes, although it may have felt infinitely longer. For the rest of the world, it happened and was over in an instant.

The barrier finally broke completely. And as the shards fluttered and scattered in the wind, reflecting rainbow lights everywhere, ice spread on the ground until it reached and surpassed the horizon. Unlike the ice that appeared during the fight, which were clear and beautiful, these were ugly and gnarled. Tainted.

As Gamwick's body degraded into dust and was taken to all corners by the wind, an intense light burst out of Babelroth's chest, and pierced the heavens.

This was the first natural Ascension since the rise of the pillars, no, since Creation.

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