Strength

Nayra wandered the dark forest alone. The place was silent and cold, with a sense of finality to it. Above the dead trees she could see an alien sky, one filled with stars. She knew the stories, that the old worlds had such skies, but she had never seen it before. It felt similar to the Ethereal Realm in many ways. She recognized it as a place of transition. It resonated with her Soul, with her meaning. It was her job to carry the souls from one life to the next, so she understood that this was the place that sent the souls to that last destination. To whatever existed beyond the Infinite Realm.

She focused, circulating her Qi and using her techniques to increase her attributes. It made her senses sharper, better. She looked, searching for any signs of the others.

Her Shepherd for the Souls attunement allowed her to see souls. She hoped that she would be able to glimpse something, find some sign that she wasn’t completely cut off from the others.

She continued walking, searching. All the while ready for a fight.

The attack came quickly, before Zach could even react. One moment, Ra’azel stood before them with a grin on his face, made so much more sinister for being displayed on the face of Zenker. The drake’s body was powerful, that it had fallen into Ra’azel’s hands… He didn’t know how, what had happened to Eratemus, but the feel of the yeti’s Soul was unmistakable.

When Ra’azel moved, the sensation that Zach felt coming from his Soul intensified. It went from a bonfire to a raging inferno. The same thing that he had felt from the Unchained. The effect of runes carved onto the Soul itself.

Zenker’s body bulged, muscles expanding, scales thickened, eyes sharpened. In a moment Ra’azel went from a powerful presence to truly oppressive.

His hand carved out a set of runes in a blink of an eye. Ryun and Selia were the only ones who reacted fast enough, they charged at him, but they reached him just as his carving was finished. Even Zach’s eyes had trouble tracking it. It looked as if one rune was carved by his hand, but the other two just carved themselves. Or he was just so fast that Zach hadn’t seen his hand move.

Both Ryun and Selia were blasted away with enough force that the ground beneath them crumbled, cratering and leaving a line stretching into the forest where their bodies had disappeared in an instant, shattering trees in their path.

Ra’azel’s right hand wasn’t moving, his fingers hung limply. Zach moved, picking the right side as his target. With a step and a current of Wind Zach was next to him. His Windsong blade cutting even as the wind around him roared, pushing Ra’azel into his attack—or trying to at least.

Ra’azel stood like a mountain, unmovable, he turned his head when he sensed Zach’s attack. Then runes flashed in the air around him, carved not by his hand, but... Zach was momentarily stunned as he felt Ra’azel’s Soul moving outside of his body, carving runes on its own.

Zach’s body spasmed, something constricted him. He broke through with a flex of his strength, but Ra’azel had moved by then. He lashed out, hitting a rune as he punched. His arm turned red, then it smashed into Zach’s chest.

His spiritual tool fractured, it bent inward, it pierced his skin, it broke his ribs. His bones splintered, they punctured his lungs, the ribs bent inward and the force continued through his body and out through his back. He flew away, thrown back by the force with such intensity that the world blurred around him.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Oh, he thought to himself, I can’t feel my legs.

His spine shattered, and agony became his entire world.

Naha saw Zach get thrown back even as she executed her own attack. She reached Ra’azel in a stolen body, focusing entirely on taking him down. Her perks burning in her limbs as she prepared the attack.

|I Gain Power From Shadow|

|I Walked Through All Shadows|

|I Turn To Shadow And Stride|

Her awakened object shifted into a dagger. She burned Illuiy’s Dark Harvest ability, using the stored vitality to boost her strength. She used Dark Greed to steal Ra’azel’s stats at the last moment, not wanting to alert him before. Her Shadow’s Avoidance made her faster, her Shadow’s Favorite less noticeable.

The Shadow’s in this place weren’t quite right, but they were just as powerful. She didn’t feel them in the same way, but her powers worked. She stabbed forward at Ra’azel’s back, targeting a flaw with her Critical Strike and triggering Unseen Death—the conditions for it had been met, she had damaged Ra’azel before and he had lost all awareness of her, the next attack she used against him would deal 1000% more damage.

In Ra’azel’s shadow, with her Shadow’s Insight, she saw the reflection of who he was. She saw images, an entire world, as they had existed before—a sphere in space, held in his grasp. Then it was taken over by ringed eyes, staring straight into her Soul.

Shadow’s Intent saved her. She saw the moment he noticed her, the moment he moved to counter. She tried to evade, but her body wrenched itself violently before she could even do anything.

Her Shadow’s Anticipate triggered on its own, her body dropped into the shadow to avoid an attack that she didn’t detect. Still, she felt a burning sting across her thigh. Shadow’s Misdirect triggered, leaving a clone of Shadow in her place. It didn’t survive before it was utterly destroyed.

Naha dropped to the ground behind a tree some distance away. She looked down and saw a chunk of her thigh missing, bone clearly visible.

Behind her, the sounds of the world breaking filled her ears.

If she wasn’t connected with Ryun and Selia through her mind and Soul, she would’ve jumped after them. But she knew that they were alive, injured, but living and alright.

She saw Ra’azel throw of Zacharia and then saw a flicker of shadows before something flashed that she couldn’t follow.

She focused, channeled her Qi and unleashed two techniques. {Gravity Limit Release} and {Goddess of Gravity}, she sent her Gravity Orb toward Ra’azel and unleashed her power, increasing the gravity around him a hundred fold, more, pressing down on him with all that she had.

This place had felt stifling before, but not anymore. Somehow, she understood that she was part of it too now. It would not hinder her, she knew that.

Ra’azel stumbled, then turned to glare at her. She focused, not letting up. A rune appeared in the air in front of him, and a blast of force lanced out toward her.

She didn’t have the time to evade. The kinetic blast hit her and made her take a step back.

Her Forging of Body and Aspect made her mass much greater than normal, and she was extremely hard to damage by physical forces. Still, she felt the attack, as if someone had punched her in the chest and drove all air out of her.

She persisted, increasing the flow of her Qi and intensifying the effects of her techniques as she pulled out more.

—Reflective Harmonization—

It was all that she had, she couldn’t even move a muscle for fear of losing her grip on him. Her Qi was quickly dropping, she wouldn’t be able to hold him for more than a few seconds.

“Hurry,” she sent to Ryun and Selia.

Ra’azel fell to one knee, a beginning of a rune appeared in the air then crumbled as Gravity pulled even that ephemeral power fell before it.

He grimaced, then flexed, straightening just by the power of his body alone. The world around him flashed, and then they were no longer in a dark forest. They appeared underwater, and the pressure smashed her in the face.

Her control slipped, and in the next moment the forest was back, and Ra’azel was in front of her. He punched her in the head, sending her flying back. Her eyes went black, and when she blinked, she was on the ground. Her vision and mind fuzzy.

She couldn’t quite think right, light stabbed into her eyes and a scorching heat, and then she could feel the roar of wind around her.

She gritted her teeth and stumbled to her feet.