Chapter 79

The Fate of the Thief (IV)

The world around Cain froze momentarily, the stillness inspiring a trace of eerie nothingness to emerge out into the reality. The skeleton hovered in the sky, as did Cain by now, winds whipping like tails around them, forming storms as the sky above them darkened, causing thick rain to begin to fall. Elements coalesced and dispersed as though it was their base nature, bowing to the two of them indiscriminately.

Right after, the elemental barrage ensued; hepta-attunment rose up to the sky in the shape of a thousand arms belting through the rain, digging at Cain. The latter triple-cast hexa-attunements, ripping a building-sized patch of rock from the ground and heaving it in front of him as flaming wings sprouted from his back, coiling around his figure in the form of a shield. The last were the bolts of lightning that ripped from the high skies and thundered toward the skeleton.

The apocalyptic scene continued to unfold as the sound found itself sucked out of the reality, each ensuing explosion collapsing the spacetime inhabiting the arena. Massive gashes of reality rippled out as the two figures bolted around in half-circles, dodging back and forth, up and down, while firing elemental carnage at one another.

Snakes of fire dug out from the skeletal fingers, ten of them, each a hundred feet long, spearing toward Cain who charged Creation, Water, Frost, Aether, and Blood casually within a single breath, summoning a crimson-dyed face of a giant that swallowed the serpents within a singular roar, exploding like a tsunami wave upon the world.

Cain retaliated further, immediately casting several dozen Amnesty Shields to surround him while he executed another triple-cast hexa-attunement. Tiny, blue, pebble-like spheres appeared around him, their centers suddenly opening like slits, eerily resembling eyes. At the same time, a crashing sound echoed out into the world as a massive rapture rippled above his head, opening into yet another eerily-alike-the-eye slit, the 'iris' shimmering in red.

Lastly, a fuming halo of fire appeared further behind his back, blazing holy in the rain, spanning a good three hundred feet across. It spun and spun like a wheel, belting out jets and fumes of fire like thick liquid dripping over the metallic edge.

The skeleton didn’t sit still, summoning giant bolts of ice to his side and a splendid pillar of gray that shot from the sky to the earth, bathing him. The hazy eyes from beyond stared at Cain who appeared indifferent. It was yet another moment of silence and stillness, when the whole of the world came to a screeching halt, staring at the two with bated breaths. Wondering. Waiting. Fearing.

Cain exploded forward, the blue, eye-like spheres scattering out like a flock of birds, the monolithic slit widening into a pit in the sky, ejecting fumes of black that coalesced into chains which then whipped toward the skeleton. The burning halo widened and roared silently, belts of fire dragged out and over in the form of scythes that ripped over at the skeleton. The latter roared back, the pillar of gray expanding and bending into a sky-bloating claw that fell toward Cain while hundreds of bolts of ice fumed out toward the eye-like spheres and the chains.

The set of clashes collapsed the reality into shards for a moment before the world began to rapidly recover and repair. The continuous explosions flung both Cain and the skeleton into a whirlpool of edged, jagged, and biting winds, into the eye of the storm. In there, the two continued to hurl elements at one another even whilst entirely at the mercy of the storm, incapable of moving their bodies out of it.

The collisions expanded the eye, the outward tornado swallowing the entire arena and the world around it, breaking down the higher dimensions.

Inside the storm, the two continued to clash, elemental outrage burning and repairing the eye of the storm; only thirty seconds had passed, but Cain was beginning to grow worried. He was unable to crack even the elemental shell of the skeleton, let alone land a proper hit on its body. And, he felt, the skeleton still held back -- rarely ever multi-casting, and never even attempting the octa-attunement, something Cain was certain the skeleton was capable of.

He sighed as the storm began to settle somewhat, giving him just enough room to rip himself free from its chains. Landing on the outside, he scoured the now-ruined surroundings; it all truly looked like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, not a whole foot of the world left intact and untouched by the wanton destruction.

Glancing forward, he saw that skeleton freed itself from the storm as well, standing on the spinning tornado’s other end, staring at him. There it is, Cain mused, noting the shaky tornado being ripped toward the skeleton as all surrounding elements began to defy Cain’s will and conform to the skeleton alone. This was why those who couldn’t perform octa-attunement were never able to match those who could -- no matter the tricks, the schemes, or even the skill discrepancy... if the elements themselves didn’t obey you, it was pointless.

“... I have to try,” Cain mumbled into the falling rain, taking a deep breath as the space behind skeleton ripped open into a circular abyss. “All hell be damned... I have to try...”

He settled his breathing and steeled his nerves, trying to wrestle elements from the skeleton's control. One... two... three... he extended his right arm and opened up the palm toward the sky, summoning shivering, tiny, dying flicker of fire above that looked like it would get extinguished any second now. Four... five... he could feel the veins in him churning, the vessels rupturing one by one, his frame bleeding. Six... the flame flickered and nearly fizzled out, with Cain barely maintaining it with all he had.

The flame’s hue began to shift, from coral to bloody-red to teal-blue to lime-green to milky-white... and even ghastly gray and jet-black. Seven, he roared in his mind, trying to attune an extra element into the combination. Come on, come on, come on!!!

The milky-white frame around his body seethed as the skin of his right arm peeled back, revealing muscles and bones, bloody spraying out like geysers. SEVEN!! SEVEN!!

A bolt of thunder exploded from the gray and rumbling skies, squarely landing on top of his head, causing even more of his skin to break open, like a chain explosion. He ignored all of it, however -- the incomparably ghastly sight, the pain, the tiredness, the insanity of the fact that he was trying to force a hepta-attunement while his opponent was well over halfway through augmenting eight elements together. But... he had no other choice. Nothing else left. He knew he would never be able to defeat the skeleton, something he learned through battling the past-his-prime Conqueror. All he had left... was the gamble.

Even if, in his previous attempt, he was never much of a gambler, and he always liked to plan things out well before attempting them, he knew that he no longer had that sort of a luxury. Especially if events like this would continue to happen -- where he would get dragged into the ‘Time Thief exclusive bosses’ fights, things he had no means of knowing. And his raw skill... wasn’t enough. Not just yet, anyway. He had to break past the chains holding him back and elevate himself beyond who he became in the last life.

SEVEN!! COME ON!!

His mind screamed, yet he continued to bleed, the flame above his palm beginning to die. It used to be the size of a pinky, yet was now half that. It continued to churn and burn in the ever-falling rain, seemingly defying the will of the heavens themselves, but it was dying. Slowly. Bit by bit. Inch by inch.

I HAVE IT!! I HAVE IT IN ME!! JUST ONCE... JUST ONCE!! COME ON!!

The skeleton had finished his octa-attunement, Cain spotted from the corner of his eyes. But he had no mind to think upon the ramifications -- if he failed here, he would die, his journey would end, and everything would have been for naught. His stealing of the Timecube, returning to the past, restarting everything, and trying to live a better second life. If he failed here... all of that would have been a passing dream.

A face emerged in his mind, tiny, flushed, and shyly smiling. She had his hair, though far more golden, like the rays of the sun, and a pair of eyes that had him reeling. She’d be left alone if he failed -- alone in a scary, massive world. He couldn’t fail; not with an entire life out there waiting for him, one well beyond simply being worth living.

“ATTUNE, GODDAMMIT!!” he flushed the last bit of elemental dreg from his soul, managing to finally shuffle Blood into the mix -- Creation, Fire, Aether, Wind, Body, Arcane, and Blood.

The tiny flicker of flame in his palm bloomed like a flower abruptly, growing into a lotus and then into a tree and then into a pure canopy -- webs spun in hexagonal shapes, fire alighting the world, spinning into a near-cylinder-like cocoon that wrapped around him.

He’d done it, he realized -- hepta-attunement. Though he was spent and his entire body was on the brink of collapse... he’d done it. He’d surpassed who he was in the time past... even if only for a few moments.

The abyss-like circle behind the skeleton expanded suddenly and swallowed the world, turning it into complete darkness for a moment, nearly snuffing out the cocoon of fire surrounding Cain. High up above, a pair of crimson eyes emerged and stared down at Cain for a moment before vanishing, a rip in the black nothingness appearing, a slither of silver light emerging. Cain recognizde it as his face turned pale -- he knew that spell. Rather, the whole of the world knew that spell... as it was the final attack of the boss of the 85th floor -- Wallflower of Creation.

It descended and, upon contact with the cocoon, it exploded into feathery shapes, millions, hundreds of millions of them, as the world anew was structured before Cain’s eyes, eating away at the cocoon and nearing him.

He smiled bitterly as his special state ran out -- the milky-white sheen withdrew, revealing the gory and bloodied body of a man spent beneath. He could no longer even maintain the Wind that had him hovering in the sky, and he closed his eyes, bitterly surrendering himself. He might have succeeded in being better... but, in the end, he still failed.

He landed, he realized -- not on a hard surface that would have broken him completely... but on something soft, almost like a bed. Surprised, he slowly opened his eyes and looked around -- the arena had been restored... no... even beyond that -- it was a completely new world. He was lying on a bed underneath the canopy of stars, the gentle winds sweeping against his cheeks.

His eyes veered forward where he saw a smiling man looking at him, a silver cup of wine in one hand and a book in another. The gem-like emerald-green eyes stared bemusedly at him, the full lips curled up in the faintest of smiles.

“Congratulations, Cain Gregory,” the man spoke in a melodic and pleasing tone, putting the book down. “For ascending the First Trial of the Crucible.” still stunned, he was spooked back into reality by an onslaught of notifications that swallowed the world around him, rendering him speechless.