As the notifications for the guards I’d killed, played over my vision, I shot up through the hole and into the blinding sunlight. It was notably warmer outside and under different circumstances. I may have even taken a moment to admire just how lovely a day it was as I soared across the white stone walled courtyard with well-manicured gardens.

As it was, a bolt of silver power smashed into my back from above. I rode the attack and kept on flying. Though I added an element of unpredictability to my fight pattern.

I wasn’t even sure if I was going in the right direction, but presently all that mattered was clearing the massive white palace-like building and its towering spires, from which a hail of arrows now flew in my direction.

Once past their range, I shot up at a steep diagonal angle. Beneath me it appeared the entire sprawling city of Nova Hasia was built from the same white stone. It looked like a place straight out of fantasy and in fantasy this is where the good people would live. I laughed bitterly at that thought as I outdistanced the attacks from the palace.

Traveling for over two minutes at top speed without an attack, I had a good feeling about my escape. The city was receding into a dot behind me as I coasted over the canopy of a seemingly endless forest. So, I took the opportunity to look at the Protectorate map. It didn’t take long to work out that I was heading in the wrong direction. I was traveling westward, but I needed to be traveling north east.

Altering my course and feeling pretty damn confident about my chances, two level 80 paladins portaled in front of me.

I fired off a dark ball and a golden ball, which of course came out as an ethereal ball, in quick succession. I wondered what happened when the limited Ethereal store ran out and decided to only fire projectiles from that hand if I needed to.

The two balls of power sailed wide as they dodged and returned fire. I evaded their attacks and brought the cleaver to my hand. Infusing it with Ethereal energy, I hoped that using it in this way wasn’t as big a drain on resources.

I swooped below my enemies avoiding a pitched battle and using the cleaver like a bat, which meant I didn’t even have to dodge incoming attacks and could concentrate on pure speed. If I got bogged down in a fight, I’d be done for as more inevitably arrived.

And arrive they did. As I stretched out a lead from the first two, four more appeared in front of me. Their levels ranging from mid-sixties to ninety-seven.

These portals were going to be a fucking nightmare, but I could only imagine they were a huge drain on their power resources. Like everything else in this world, there would have to be a limit on use and a cooldown. What they would be I didn’t know, but I resolved to keep going, no matter what. I definitely had the edge on flight speed over most of these guys, though I suspected the Level 97 Paladin would be close.

They began to fire, and I batted two of their shots away desperately. The other two were direct hits and they were bloody hurt. Not only did they hurt, but they caused me to fall. I corrected almost immediately, but I’d lost a lot of speed.

Enough so that the two paladins chasing me caught up and now I was in an indefensible barrage. Those last ten points in Constitution were well spent, as were the points in intelligence as I came up with a desperate plan.

As the heavy hits continued, I fell again. Only this time, I used gravity to my advantage. Making myself as small as possible I hurtled down toward the trees, using my increased Perception to stay as aware as possible. The paladins chased me of course. But their shots were less accurate at this speed. The instant I broke through the dense canopy, I brought myself to a heart lurching, g-force inducing stop. I let a second pass, as I sensed the paladins coming for me, And as the first one broke through the foliage, I used a thrust of power directly from my core to shoot myself directly up like a rocket. Bursting out of cover I saw the last of my pursuers trying to stop and come after me. I was going way too fast for them to catch because while I couldn’t use my core to travel any faster moving horizontally, I sure could use it to head directly upward .

I hit a Level 71 straggler with an ethereal ball, and he disintegrated as it impacted on the back of his armor. But that was all I had time for as I continued my upward trajectory.

Focusing directly above me, I rued the lack of clouds. I may have been able to lose them in clouds, though, I knew they could sense me. Particularly the use of ethereal power. I had to stop fucking using it. I wondered if my arm now produced that energy as If I was actively using it and decided it probably was. I potentially had a huge target on my back now. Perhaps there would be a way to mask it, but I had no time to think about that now. My plan had worked, and I had gained a fair amount of distance, but as soon as I turned back on course, they could cut the angle on me and catch up.

Moments later, it didn’t matter as the tell-tale sign of swirling gray smoke indicating a portal about to open appeared in front of me. Thinking fast, I sent an ethereal ball at the first area, followed by a dark ball at the second. I scored direct hits as they both appeared. A nut shot on the level 97 paladin made short work of him as his groinal region exploded and he fell from the sky.

The second paladin survived the dark ball but not the cleaver in the head. I had to let go as it wedged and a third and fourth paladin appeared, and attacked. On instinct, I punched the first with a right hook, Ethereal style. His head exploded as I caught a glowing sword attack on my left arm. Though it cut deep, I rode the force of the blow downward and shot off again from the three remaining paladins.

They followed, firing flames of justice at me. I evaded some, the ones that hit, as much as they hurt, only assisted in my forward momentum as I slowly but surely pulled away from them. After ten minutes, they had all but disappeared from sight. Clearly, their portals were spent. I heaved a sigh of relief. I’d done it.

For half an hour I flew over pleasant looking farmlands, lush and green. Normal people went about their business, and I felt bad for wanting to destroy the entire island of Delosha. It wasn’t the normal persons fault that their leaders were self-serving fucking arseholes.

As I looked eagerly at the horizon and the sparkling sea I was aiming for, one of those self-serving arseholes appeared in front of me. Gladivel MonDiar. Beacon of Justice, in his gleaming ornate white and silver armor, had come to dance and he was not alone.

A dark spicy ball left my hand on impulse as I dropped low below the ten high powered Justiciars. They dodged it easily while assisting my descent with seriously damaging blasts containing far more power than my previous foes.

One of them portaled right next to me, flying in his full Nephilim form:

Tanalay MonQuine: Eighth Sword of Justice, Level 135

Despite his enormous size, his hand moved like a snake as he went to grab me. He caught an ethereal ball for his troubles and as his colossal hand turned into a cloud of blood and bone; I knew I was in deep shit.

My arm remained human in appearance though I didn’t know if it had lost its ethereal qualities. I wasn’t willing to get close enough to find out as I reengaged evasive maneuvers. Gladivel didn’t come for me, though. He watched with a smug expression from above l as I was continually hammered with nowhere to run.

It didn’t take long to find myself in freefall once again and missing a foot I couldn’t remember losing. I was sure this was the end. I brought myself to a halt and one by one swirls of grey smoke appeared around me as the Justiciars emerged. I raised my golden glowing cleaver, no longer coated with ethereal energy. The Justiciar nearest me on that side, swung his sword to cut my arm off.

As the sword clanged against my human looking arm without causing any damage whatsoever. I smiled tiredly at him. “Thanks for solving that mystery. Where’s the giant fuck nugget Gladivel.

The Justiciar looked angry, but only donned as a gray swirl accented with silver and red coalesced in front of me. With a desperate act of basically not knowing what else to do, I surprised everyone by shooting forward at the opening portal as fast as I could. Perhaps as a last act of defiance I could kill Gladivel. But that’s not what happened. I shot through the portal appeared where Gladivel had been watching from and it was a decent distance away. He had appeared where I’d been moments before. I took it all in an instant and then shot upward and forward as fast as I possibly could.

That they didn’t immediately portal to my new location and instead flew after me suggested that even at their high levels. The use of portals had a cooldown.

The last paladins I fought only seemed to have two before they were spent, and they weren’t of an awful level.

Gladivel and his men had just used two, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they had one more in the tank at least. Time would tell as I pushed toward the glistening sea with every ounce of power I had.

I managed to keep close to the same distance ahead of my pursuers, though I still anticipated them to portal again before long. With that in mind, I slowly turned my angle in a more northward direction. Now I was running parallel with the approaching coastline that I so desperately wanted to reach. Admittedly, not flying headlong to my goal was a risk, even more so when I received the notification I feared.

Neuma Fatigue: -15 to Internal Connection. Duration 3 hours. Continued heavy use of Neuma prior to Debuff lapse will result in Complete Neuma Exhaustion.

I was so many different kinds of fucked I couldn’t count even count them all. Yet still, onward I pushed until around ten minutes later, the signs of portals began to open around me. Without hesitation, I flew into the first one to appear, leading with my Immortal Shell arm. The Justiciar emerged before I could make it through, firing flames of Justice as he did so. They deflected harmlessly from my arm as I clattered into him. Pushing him desperately to the side in my effort to get through his portal. It worked and I made it most of the way through. Then he grabbed my leg.

I don’t think it was his intention, but the portal snapped shut, removing my legs from the knees as I flew free where he had come from. Having no choice but to blank out the trauma I turned eastward again toward the sea.

I knew if I had kept flying in this direction earlier, when I hijacked their portal I would have ended up further back into Delosha with them between me and the sea. By traveling North when I moved back to an earlier position, they were stuck to the north of me and I had a clear path. I couldn’t believe it had worked. They’d been too eager and too confident to see my ruse, and I had been incredibly lucky for it to work. Of course, I had hardly any legs left and no Neuma to regrow them with. So, not that lucky.

I crossed over to the sea after about five minutes. The Justiciars still followed doggedly. Occasionally, a hopeful flame of Justice flew past me, but that was nothing to worry about. As long as I held steady and reached my Protectorate before they could portal again or my Neuma ran out, there was a chance I could survive this. If they did portal again, I was done. Completely out of tricks, legs and…

Neuma Exhaustion: Through pushing to your limits of Neuma manipulation, you have lost the ability to access your Neuma for the next 3 hours.