Chapter 159: B2: C59: Controlled Darkness 2
“No!” Sinfeast screamed, whirling around. He desperately struck at the spot where he last heard Zarian.
But Zarian used Void Waltz once more. He stepped in and out of the void midair, ending up behind Sinfeast again. His arms and sides returned to normal as he took over his body.
Para changed the tail into multiple tentacles with scythe-like ends, each one covered by hungry dark aura, Void Authority, and Void Layer. She whipped the tentacles out to pop artillery shots and make them pre-explode before they drew too close.
Zarian pushed the sick red fog away with his own side of Aura Mastery, saving his body from further taint. He also gave the monster tornado a hard shove to keep it back.
Sinfeast whirled around again. He moved even faster, with more rage. Again, he tried to snatch Zarian with his many claws and talons, each covered in more layers of sticky magic.
The deplorable god even tried to hammer him with a hoof or two. He was growing truly mad, and his many bestial heads reflected that as they bellowed, shrilled, and cawed wildly.
But his efforts were futile.
Zarian slid out of the way of each attack with a backward swagger. He flickered in and out of the void rapidly, like he was a video game character with a very low frame rate.
Further enraged, Sinfeast tried to use his warp ability. He struggled to make it work, as if reality firmed up against him.
“How?!” Sinfeast screamed. “Warp energy beats void! Every bastard who thinks they can get void magic and dominate can never get around warp magic!”“That’s your problem,” Zarian said, moving his hands to finish the last part of the unsealing process. “You think you can play rock, paper, scissors with a wizard.”
The answer to the warp problem was profoundly simple, while also difficult to pull off. This was why Ruvaria had Zarian exposed to warp energy multiple times. Just so he could realize the problem wasn’t as simple as warp magic being better than void.
The problem was figuring out the particular aura frequency that a warp user emitted, which was based on how their aura moved while using warp magic. Zarian wouldn’t have figured it out without Para and Sinfeast’s help.
While the god had kept trying to grab him up as Para piloted his body, Zarian kept studying Sinfeast’s rapid use of warp energy and how it affected him, and more importantly, his Aura Mastery. It was then that Zarian had noticed there was a particular wavelength moving through his aura.
Then, through multiple small tests using Void Authority + Aura Mastery, Zarian had kept searching for Sinfeast’s particular warp energy frequency. The deplorable god was so focused on catching Zarian he hadn’t noticed the little ways Zarian brushed his aura over him on purpose until Zarian finally had a match.
This was specific to Sinfeast and his avatar, so Zarian would have to learn the frequency of the next warp energy case. But for now, Zarian had Sinfeast’s number, and Zarian was going to abuse the hell out of that.
“Don’t look down on me!” Sinfeast shouted. “I’m a real god!”
“You’re pathetic, that’s what you are,” Zarian said.
Sinfeast rushed him again.
And Zarian welcomed him with some humble pie.
The thousands of spiders minding their own business on a section of the cavern activated a few gravity spell arrays they’d made.
The spectral spiders hadn’t gone away when Zarian died, because his divine revival was just quick enough to keep them going. So while the fight was happening, the spectral spiders had done their work to prepare something nifty.
Sinfeast’s many eyes widened as his body jerked toward the webbed spell arrays, as if a powerful gravity well had caught him in its wake. When he tried to use a warp dash to escape, he found even more difficulty.
Zarian’s Void Authority + the gravity well trap was heavily effective. They completely crushed Sinfeast’s warp tactics.
Angered, Sinfeast released a berserk roar. He changed his milky white force into a raging red force. His monstrous body buffed up with so much physical might, he could easily tear apart an entire range of castle mountains boulder by boulder until none remained.
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He flapped his wings harder with great hurricane force. He resisted the gravity well and flew directly at Zarian. Meanwhile, the monster tornado made a mad, spiraling return toward Zarian’s back.
The wizard looked dead into the eyes of the orc head at the center of the chimera avatar. Zarian’s hands picked up where he left off with unsealing One Percent Power. He had a few last words to say.
Sinfeast roared with fury and was about to unleash a relentless slashing and smashing onslaught of attacks. But that wouldn’t come to pass, because Zarian cheated.
Aura Mastery, Overlock +2, Mind Spike +2, Void Authority, and Void Layer.
The mind spider in Naomi’s head was still good and alive after the divine revival. It was easy for Zarian to empower both of her skills while she was looking out from the far side of the sunken citadel.
The tricky part was figuring out how much of Naomi’s invisible psychic skill attack was a manipulatable element. In the end, Zarian made the attempt, urging Naomi to hit the single orc head specifically.
Her super-charged, Overclocked Mind Spike +2 ended up layered by the void and landing perfectly fine.
The orc screamed with horror and pain that differed from Sinfeast and the rest of the menagerie of creatures fused into one body. The original owner of the body rebelled as a psychic void spike ravaged his mind.
Zarian wasn’t sure of the exact damage or effect, but it was so distracting that Sinfeast lost control of his avatar. The sinful god veered off course, missing Zarian widely and smashing into his own monster tornado.
Just like that, Zarian had all the time he needed to finish unsealing a small fraction of his true power. He even had a different ending piece for the chant. “Controlled Darkness.”
Sinfeast dismissed his monster tornado spell. He had a couple of scratches on his body while back in control of the avatar.
But his situation was far, far worse than before.
All of his wild and beastly parts lost their primal urgency when they saw Zarian and the whirlpool of unfathomably deep darkness surrounding him.
There was nothing but darkness. It was above them. Below them. Everywhere. The sunken citadel was gone from sight. Only darkness existed, along with the two of them. But only Zarian existed as the center of the universe, with how the darkness spun around him like a massive and silent whirlpool.
“Interesting,” Zarian said coldly. “Overwhelming Darkness is eager to merge with my Aura Mastery, and it’s without my say-so. It’s less of me being in control, honestly. It’s more like I’m barely able to steer this immense monster that wants to keep growing and spreading and consuming and consuming no matter what.”
“It’s not fair,” Sinfeast whined. “I had to work for my power. I had to fight and hurt to keep my power. It’s not fair that you’re born with something you haven’t earned!”
Zarian cocked his head to the side before speaking in a dark and hollow tone. “Your weakness is your fault alone. You’ve kept living even though you’re worthless. Instead of that, you should’ve killed yourself.”
Sinfeast opened and closed his mouth, barely able to respond. He turned his obvious fear into anger to speak out.
“You know nothing, Zarian Darkrun! You’re only seeing a fraction of my real power! I would crush you like a bug with my real power!”
Zarian slowly shook his head.
“I’m going to excuse you for your inability to understand that you should kill yourself. You’re not speaking my language. And I don’t speak whiny bitch.”
Sinfeast screamed with all of his wrath and monstrous might. He flew with all his talons, claws, fangs, and hooves extended toward Zarian.
The bloody sickly energy contracted around Sinfeast, turning up its deadly necrotic touch. The bright red rage energy fanned out like a roaring inferno. He even shot more hellish and explosive artillery shots ahead and directly at Zarian.
The darkness rippled between Zarian and Sinfeast.
The red artillery shots disappeared.
There was no sound. No explosions. No light. Not even any trails of hellish flames and noxious fumes. They simply disappeared. Just gone.
The same happened to Sinfeast’s necrotic and rage energy. The darkness rippled close around his body and snuffed away all of his energy, like an ember disappearing under someone’s boot.
The god‘s anger disappeared as well. The fear returned in full force. Sinfeast flapped his wings desperately and tried to reverse course. He even tried to use his warp dash again.
He slipped out of reality and ended up somewhere far worse. He found himself surrounded by the void, and before the Star System could pull him back into the proper boundaries of the Infinita Universe, Zarian stepped out into the void with him.
Sinfeast tried to speak.
He couldn’t.
He turned about in fear as odd, eerie, and alien things lurked about in the void. More horrifying things looked up from the deep, deep abyss somewhere far and close in the void. Sinfeast tried to scream, but he had no voice to scream within the void.
“I know this is only a fraction of you,” Zarian said, able to speak in the void. “But I like to think you’re dying a little every time I cut you, no matter how small the cut. That’s what I’m going to do to you, Sinfeast, as I make my way up to God Land. I will cut, cut, cut. A temple here. A follower there. Wherever you exist, I will cut. That way, you can keep track of my progress and based on how much I bleed you a little at a time.”
Sinfeast tried to scream at him. It almost seemed like he was trying to beg for mercy.
Zarian looked at him for a long time. “I don’t give mercy to naughty gods, Sinfeast. I won’t even give you coals to keep you warm in the coldest corner of hell. Because I hate you. I really want you to suffer. That’s just how it is.”
Zarian took his time with the Greater Boon Avatar of Evil God Sinfeast.
He stripped some of the divinity out of the avatar. He experimented with his unique combinations of traits, skills, and spells. He made sure each step of the way was painful for the avatar.
Zarian took his time.