Chapter 157 - Unequal to the Task

Everything happened all at once.

One second, the warlock, whose name was Julian Asino, was giving a villain’s monologue, and the next, everyone attacked. Abby’s initial salvo hadn’t done much good, but that didn’t stop her from shooting more arrows. At the same time, Tucker tossed a small grenade, and Carlos continued to spear the slim man with shadow spikes. Even as that small, glass globe crashed into him, Zeke rushed forward with Pudge at his heels.

An explosion of white-hot fire, implacable force, and a plasma-like substance rocked the island, with Asino at the center. Luckily, it was localized and only affected the warlock, but Zeke still felt the heat as he crashed into his opponent, shield first. As he did so, he unleashed the small amount of momentum he’d managed to gather on the run-up to the island. It wasn’t much, but it combined with his impressive strength and the inertia of his charge to add up to a shield bash that should have sent the small man flying into the lava.

But that wasn’t what happened.

Instead, the man-shaped ball of white fire remained rooted in place as Zeke, along with a handful of other attacks, crashed into him. No one held back even the slightest. They didn’t dare. It was like running into a brick wall, except that, with his strength having reached such lofty heights, Zeke could’ve run through any number of walls. Zeke was stopped dead in his tracks, and he felt the sudden halt of momentum in his very organs. His mouth filled with blood, and his ears rang.

He didn’t stop, though. Even as he shook off the cobwebs that had ensnared his mind, Zeke’s battle instincts took over, and, with a roar, he transitioned his shield bash into a vicious overhand attack that could crush a boulder without any difficulty at all. So, he was shocked to find the head of his mace stopped by an outstretched, flame-encased hand. The surprise ran so deeply that it took him a second before he gathered himself enough to try to rip his mace free. For a moment, it didn’t budge. Then, suddenly, there was no resistance, throwing Zeke off balance. He stumbled before falling onto his back.

Pudge took that opportunity to attack, rearing up on his hind legs and swiping at the man with terrifying force. Asino’s hand blurred, blocking the attack before he backhanded the giant bear, sending him sprawling. Meanwhile, the rest of the group hadn’t stopped attacking, for all the good it did. The man, still burning with white flames, took everything without even straining himself. In fact, the glimpse Zeke got of his face showed him an expression of boredom mingled with disappointment.

After a few more attacks, the warlock’s shoulders slumped, and he declared, “Enough!”

With a gesture, a series of smoky, bird-like shapes emerged into being, only to immediately target Zeke and his friends. The birds shot forward, and everyone erupted into motion, trying to dodge what was obviously an attack.

The first attack hit Abby, and in an instant, she collapsed onto the ground, shaking as if she was under the effects of a seizure. The next hit Tucker, who had much the same reaction. Carlos and Pudge soon followed. Zeke, however, raised his shield and embraced his newly enhanced martial path, which had upgraded at some point during the battle:

Martial Path: Shield – Novice (High): Using a shield is acknowledging your place as a defender.  You have begun to grasp what this means. +30 End, Vit.

The skill hit his shield with a loud clang that had nothing to do with the materials that had gone into creating it. Instead, the bird, which was little more than smoke and mist, hit something else. Something that was both more and less than a physical shield. Originally, his martial paths had only allowed him some insight into mastering his weapons. That had manifested in improved techniques and instincts when in battle. However, upon attaining the penultimate level of the novice tier, things had begun to change. He had started to see that his previous gains had been nothing more than laying the groundwork so he could he understand far more fundamental truths of the universe. With his mace, he’d started to understand the concept of force. And with the shield, he’d begun to grasp the notion of stability. He wasn’t sure if that was the direction his path was headed, but it was a start. And that small glimpse was enough to briefly empower his block.

For a few seconds, at least.

The skill was ruthless and persistent, though, and Zeke’s brief moment of insight soon gave way, and the mist-like bird wasted no time in sliding through the chitinous surface. The moment it hit Zeke’s chest, he understood why his allies had all fallen. As the thing entered his chest, it came with the sort of agony he’d felt only once before. Immediately, all rational thought and bodily control collapsed, replaced by pure, unadulterated pain. If Zeke could’ve formed a coherent thought, he would have recognized the similarities between the agony coursing through his mind, body, and soul and the pain he’d felt when he’d forcefully evolved his race. As it was, though, he fell to the ground and curled into the fetal position, his every muscle contracted and his soul writhing beneath the skill’s raking claws.

Through tears, Zeke managed to look up and see the flames slowly fade from the warlock’s figure. For only a second, he was naked, with burns covering most of his body. That only lasted a moment before black flames swept across his skin, healing his burns and cloaking his body in the same dark robe.

His eyes locked onto Zeke, and he said, “That was a little more impressive. You have touched upon a higher truth today. To do so at your age and at your level is an extraordinary feat. It is your bad luck that you stuck your nose where it does not belong.”

The man stepped forward, his eyes never wavering from Zeke’s twitching form. Zeke ground his teeth together, and gradually began to gather his wits. The pain was unreal, and it went far deeper than mere physical agony. His soul felt like it was being ripped into ribbons, and his body like it had been doused in acid. His mind, on the other hand, had been the first to throw off the skill’s influence, and he had begun to manage coherent thoughts.

The man knelt beside him, giving Zeke a good look at his visage. His face was thin, hollow cheeked, and with sunken eyes. With the goatee, he looked like a cut-rate villain from a bad movie. But the aura surrounding him was palpable, the evil in it almost tangible. Zeke had no doubts that Asino had somehow broken past the level twenty-five limit. How far, though, was a mystery. Until he felt that aura, he didn’t even think it was possible, but the more time he spent in the Radiant Isles, the more he’d begun to understand that it was a far more complex place than he’d first anticipated.

The Framework’s influence suggested that there were hard and fast rules. Levels were a clear indication of relative power. But Zeke had proven, time and time again, that there was far more to it than that. Now, a fundamental truth – that people were limited to level twenty-five – he’d accepted since the very beginning had been shattered.

“Ah,” said the man, leaning down so his face was only inches from Zeke’s. “You’re fighting it. Good. Do you feel it? Do you see how small you are? How inconsequential? You are nothing. Your understanding of this world is laughably incomplete.”

Rage roared in Zeke’s mind, and he managed just enough control of his body to spit in the warlock’s face. He growled, “Fuck you.”

Asino seemed unperturbed, wiping the spittle from his cheek. He smiled down at Zeke, saying, “How eloquent.”

He reached out with surprisingly small hands and ran a finger down Zeke’s tear-streaked face. Zeke tried to flinch away, but with the pain coursing through his veins, he had no control over his body. So, he settled for a murderous glare with increasingly bloodshot eyes.

“Hate,” Asino muttered. “I sometimes forget how delicious it is. Truly, it is –”

Zeke leapt to his feet with a roar, his mace singing as it cut through the air. He didn’t understand what was going on. It might have been the method he’d used to evolve his race, or it could have been the fact that monsters had been using his body as a punching bag since the very moment of his rebirth. He was used to pain. He was used to suffering. If there was nothing else he’d gained, it was a tolerance for agony. That, combined with the skill slowly running its course, had given him an opening to act. And the second he’d gotten control of his body, he’d burst forth with every ounce of fury he could muster.

And given that he was still under the effect of [Heart of the Berserker], that fury was quite formidable. His mace hit Asino’s chin with the momentum of a freight chain, catching the warlock by surprise. Zeke didn’t think he did any real damage, but whatever skill the man had used to absorb his previous strikes was no longer present. As a result, the man went flying through the air.

Zeke took that moment to activate [Life Scythe], and using his agony as fuel, powered his mace in a horizontal swing. A blade of red energy swept out in a great arc, hitting the warlock as he started to rise.

Until that moment, nothing had worked against Asino. He was too strong. Too durable. He was untouchable by any of their skills. However, when [Life Scythe’s] blade sliced through him, the warlock howled in pain. Zeke felt the expected injection of vitality, but it did little to assuage the pain. However, there was something else wrapped in the skill.

Before, Zeke had noticed that [Leech Strike] as well as its evolved form didn’t limit itself to siphoning life energy from his opponents. He’d long realized that there was more to it than that, and he’d speculated that the skill also tore off pieces of his enemies’ souls. Whatever it actually was, that component was clearly what affected the warlock.

Shock decorated the man’s face as he got himself under control, but having found something that hurt the warlock, Zeke wasn’t going to let the opportunity go. So, he swung his mace in three consecutive strikes, sending corresponding blades of red energy at the warlock. Each one hit within a second, and Asino let out a torturous scream.

The four uses of [Life Scythe] had very nearly drained Zeke’s mana, but he had enough to toggle it over to its other function, which mimicked [Leech Strike]. The same red energy enveloped his mace, and he leapt forward, bringing the weapon down in a massive overhand strike.

For only the second time, Zeke managed to hit the warlock with one of his physical attacks. His power darted out, dragging life energy and bits of Asino’s soul back with it, but the mace itself did little damage. But that was okay. After having so much vitality injected into his body, Zeke had plenty more where that had come from. So, he hammered his mace into the staggered warlock, one swing after another. The volcanic rock beneath them shattered and cracked under the shockwaves of Zeke’s massive attacks, but the warlock remained mostly unscathed.

Finally, after a few furious seconds, Asino let out a screeching roar and backhanded Zeke. The blow took him by surprise, and Zeke was sent sprawling onto his back a dozen yards away. He rolled over, seeing that the demons they’d left behind were slowly making their way through the lava lake. Soon, they would arrive, and any chance of victory would be gone. It only took one glance back at the warlock – and the anger plainly painted on his face – for Zeke to know that he needed to do something different.

His eyes shifted to Abby, who was staring unblinking at the ceiling, and his heart nearly stopped. Heedless of everything going on around him, he crawled toward her, his mind going numb as he covered the short distance. With trembling hands, he gripped her shoulders and shook her.

There was no response. No blinking eyes. No breath. Nothing. A panicked look around told him that none of his other companions had fared any better.

And then, Zeke heard cackling laughter.

A wordless roar erupted in Zeke’s mind, and he lost any notion of control. He couldn’t think. He could hardly even feel. He gathered his feet under him and rose to his full height, turning to face the warlock, who was looking at him with a smile dancing across his face.

“Delectable,” the man said, his amused voice carrying despite its low volume. “Physical suffering is delicious, but emotional turmoil? That’s the good stuff. I could just eat you right up.”

Zeke’s anger boiled over. His mind went blank, and when he came back to himself, he was swinging his mace at the warlock. He didn’t bother with technique. He didn’t care if he was leaving himself open. Instead, he’d reverted to the same swing he’d used millions of times when he was playing baseball back on Earth. All his frustrations, his grief, and his anger coupled with his massive stats, still fully empowered by the long-running [Heart of the Berserker], to power it with unprecedented might.

When it hit, it did so with the force of a falling meteor. A shockwave erupted from the point of impact, and the ground cracked. The blood mithril rune remained, but the surrounding rocks were rendered into dust. The mace connected with Asino’s side, and Zeke was rewarded with the sound of cracking bones.

But when the dust settled, the warlock remained unmoved and seemingly unaffected. Even with half of his torso caved in, he seemed entirely unperturbed.

“Not bad,” said the man.

Then, with blurring hands, he hit Zeke a dozen times, each one cracking a bone. Zeke had been running [Heart of the Berserker] for far too long, and his endurance had suffered incredible penalties. And he didn’t even try to defend, his mind had descended so deep into the quagmire of grief and rage. He just didn’t care about anything but making Asino pay. Not anymore.

Even as his body was steadily dismantled, Zeke continued to hammer at the robed warlock, but it did little good. He did some damage, but it was too little, and it was far too late. He couldn’t win.

Never was that more apparent than when Asino used a front kick to send Zeke tumbling across the island. He only stopped when he collided with Tucker’s prone form. Just like Abby, he wasn’t moving. But Zeke had already seen as much, albeit from a distance. What he hadn’t seen was the trio of [Demolition Charges] that had seemingly fallen from Tucker’s hands.

The sight sliced through his grief, reminding him why he and his friends had descended into the caverns, why they had fought so hard. It wasn’t to defeat the warlock. Rather, they needed to interrupt his ritual and hopefully destroy the incomplete portal. They’d gotten sidetracked from that goal, and it had resulted in disaster.

In that instant, Zeke saw his path more clearly than he’d ever seen it before. It wasn’t about maces or shields, force or stability. It was about sacrifice. Time and time again, he’d put himself in harm’s way, sacrificing his own body in the pursuit of a greater good. He understood that tradeoff as well as he knew his own mind, and he’d long since come to terms with it. That was how he’d lived his life.

And now, as the seed of an idea blossomed into a plan, Zeke made peace with the fact that it was going to be how he died, as well. So, gathering a pair of the glass globes, he pushed them into his spatial storage. One, he left behind.

Zeke rose to his feet and stumbled to his right. It was more real than he expected, as a couple of Asino’s kicks had cracked his shins. They weren’t entirely broken, but there were definite fractures. He ignored that pain just as he’d pushed through the agony of Asino’s skills, only collapsing when he reached Pudge, his stalwart companion. For the first time in more than three years, Zeke was all alone. There was no awareness in the back of his mind, telling him where Pudge was or what the bear was thinking. That loss was, in some ways, even more devastating than Abby.

But Zeke pushed that psychological torment aside, just as he had with the more physical manifestations of his pain. Still, he took a moment to lower his forehead to the bear’s side as he shed a tear. Somewhere in the background, he heard the warlock’s constant muttering about “delicious suffering”. Zeke ignored it, and when he left the bear’s side, a glittering glass globe remained behind.

“You see it now, do you not?” said Asino. “There is no point in struggling. Your friends are gone. You can not win. There is no more hope.”

Zeke ignored him, stumbling toward Talia. She hadn’t moved since the party had reached the island, so her fate was the same as the rest. Looking down at her, he couldn’t help but feel a profound sense of loss. He had wanted to help her see past the monster. He wanted to show her that none of that mattered, so long as she tried to do the right thing. But she was gone before she’d ever had the chance to come to terms with what she was, much less see what she could become.

Zeke fell to his knees, depositing the last [Demolition Charge], but before he could do anything else, Asino was upon him. With pitiless strength, the warlock gripped Zeke by the neck and dragged him into the center of the rune.

“You will make a worthy sacrifice,” the man said. “I considered offering you a way out. My master can always use competent underlings. But you know what? I’m not feeling generous anymore. You have cost me far more than –”

Zeke had no interest in hearing the man’s monologue. So, after making peace with what he was about to do, Zeke summoned the last of his latest runic creations. It was a runic rock, but it incorporated the raptor feathers, which functioned like gem-like mana batteries, increasing the rock’s yield by quite a bit. He’d used the one already, but he’d kept one secretly in reserve. And considering he was about to die, Zeke figured it would never be a better time to use it.

So, without ceremony, he threw the rock at the demolition charge he’d left next to Pudge. His aim was on target, and the runic rock exploded with significant force. However, that wasn’t the point. Rather, what came next was the reaction Zeke was looking for.

The first [Demolition Charge] erupted into a wave of vibrations, turning the remaining rock to dust. Even the blood mithril which had been molded into the shape of a rune was affected, twisting under the charge’s influence. But that was only the first wave. The next was pure force that blasted everything inorganic apart. That first eruption started a chain reaction, and the remaining two charges exploded as well. In only a second, the island fell apart. Lava came surging in, and the rune was destroyed.

“What did you do?!” yelled Asino, throwing him onto the ground.

Zeke only smiled up at him, his teeth stained red from the blood of his internal injuries.

That’s when things went wrong.

Everything froze for the briefest of instants, but that instant seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Zeke saw the wave of lava, which had ushered in a line of demons, their hulking bodies red and steaming but completely unburned. Asino was likewise frozen, his face twisted in rage and, for the first time, fear. Zeke tried to move, but his body was unresponsive. Not that it would do him any good – he had been beaten so badly that [Heart of the Berserker] had forcefully stopped, and with that stoppage came an overwhelming weakness that, combined with his broken bones, rendered him completely immobile.

Suddenly, the ground disappeared, and everything – including Zeke – fell into darkness. In that moment, Zeke saw Asino being ripped to shreds by some unseen force. Bit by bit, his skin was flayed from his body, then his muscles were stripped from his bones, and finally, his bones were turned to dust. In the end, nothing was left.

Which, as the darkness closed in on him, Zeke counted as an acceptable outcome. He hadn’t won. Far from it. He’d lost everything, even his own life. But he’d done something worthwhile, and even if his sacrifice was driven by grief and rage, it struck him right down to the very core of who he’d become that it was wholly appropriate.