Kaelen had awoken from his sleep about 2 hours ago.
He had woken and cooked himself something to eat just as he had done every other morning in the recent days. He heard the sound of the buzzing light—it was manageable when he had something to kill because he could move his attention elsewhere
But now in the silence he could hear all of it... all of it.
The buzzing was attacking his mind and was making him more irritable—adding to his recent outbursts when dealing with nightmare creatures. He was starting to get a little bit worried about his own mental state or lack thereof.
Kaelen was many things and there was also many things he was not
one of the things that he was not, was an idiot
He had long since realized that ever since the fire trial had begun, he was becoming more and more violent—no, it wasn't just violence; it was the normalization of violence in his life.
In the earth and water trial he was busy worrying about how to survive and acquire resources; after the water trial he had already become accustomed to this way of life—it was just becoming more and more visible
The Fractured Flame had managed to bring out a bit of insanity, but since starting the air trial, he was no longer worried about killing nightmare creatures; it was just a matter of how. Even that trial had the constant wind blowing in his ears while trying to stay focused and climb
Now, here in the light trial, the buzzing sound was a constant and became even louder now that there was nothing for him to dispose of and direct his irritation to.
'But maybe...maybe going a little insane isnt that bad.'
He raised his hands to block his ears so he could think in peace
There were a few things that he could do in order to increase his chances of succeeding in the coming battle and he would need to do everything that he could
Behind that door was an Awakened Tyrant, a being on the same level as the Mountain King that Sunny fought
He sat for an hour, lying on the ground as he gazed at the bright palace roof.
He had many memories that could give him assistance in every aspect of the fight.
The first memory he got would have to be equipped just in case the tyrant or one of its minions had the ability to emit an extremely bright light—if that happened, the Hunter's Mark would allow him to track the body of the creature.
The Seafarers Satchel would also be kept outside because he had many bone ribs in there and rather than having to wait 5 seconds to get the Burning Blood out, he could just reach in and get the memory
Naturally he was not going to be going in there with the Swift Sea equipped—he may have possessed an extremely durable body, just a tad shy of being as strong as an awakened beast, but if he could add to that durability, he would.
The claws of flame havent been dismissed ever since the Air trial since one was lodged in his hand and they came in pairs
'...but what about the ossified zeypher?'
It was an indisputable fact that the bow was the strongest weapon he had; it was also the best type of weapon to make use of long-range attacks, which allows him to keep a distance from the Tyrant and its minions while disposing of them one by one from a range
But how was he going to use it?
Every battle he had with a guardian was in an open battlefield; there was not going to be a place for him to go and sit on some ledge and use his feet to hold the bow and fire
But was that the only option?
No
What if there was a way to attach the bow to what was once the stump of his hand? It would not be a bow anymore—it was more close to a prosthetic crossbow
Waking up from the ground, he moved around the floor; he was alone and came to his destination—the window.
He bent down and picked up the ripped curtain that shone in the golden light. Summoning the bow he sat on the ground and started to graft the bow to his stump—the bow was placed there with the part the arrow would shoot from just behind the dagger
He would not want to limit his ability to stab punch
Anyway
He used the non-attached claw of flame to melt the stone of his hand for it to eventually cool and meld the bow to his hand; as an extra precaution, he used the ripped curtain to tie the already right bow to his hand.
It hurt like hell, but he had managed to pull through.
Once the bow was grafted properly, he returned to the door to the guardian. he then sat there for a while and used his flaming dagger to cook some meat and ate it quickly—he wasn't even sure if he still needed to eat, but it was a force of habit
Once he was done, he started to stretch and wave around his new bow-dagger hand—because of the angle the bow was attached, Kaelen could not pull the bow normally; he had to hold the string and more or less pull his right hand up to his left shoulder to fire it. It was annoying but it was effective
'Now let's go...'
...
Pushing the door open Kaelen sucked in a breath before walking in
'Let me guess, the door is going to slam shut.'
Slam
'There it is.'
This place seemed to detest the idea of him escaping the situation, first with the drawbridge he used to enter here, then the palace door, and now this one.
Stepping inside, he was grateful that this place didn't have an even brighter light than the rest of the palace. It was a lot more clean than the rest though, and a lot fancier; there were these ornate paintings and designs on the wall, chandeliers, and a lot of other things too
Curiously enough there was also a structure in the room that was not bright
'Is that a carpet?'
The structure was lying on the floor just like the throne rooms that he had seen in movies a few years ago, but typically those ones were never pitch black. -black.
But he didn't pay attention to the carpet; he was more focused on the things where the carpet flowed too.
The Tyrant.
It seemed that the tyrant was asleep while sitting on the magnificent throne. There were other beings there too, about 2 dozen creatures, which he assumed to be the minions but Kaelen, rather than having a scared or worried expression
Had a confused one
The Tyrant and its minions were all asleep and they were all dark, like they were lifeless
Kaelen was glad for a few seconds as many possibilities flashed through his mind—they were dead, they were asleep and he could kill them now; maybe they were just statues
So what could he do to make sure of what they were?
He walked closer
His steps caused no change; stepping onto the carpet caused no change either—but the moment he took the last step to stand on the same platform that the nightmare creatures were on, there was a cracking sound
Initially just a cracking sound shifted to a loud shattering, which was disrupted by an incredibly loud buzzing and flash of light
Kaelen shut his eyes and raised his hands to block them—' Guess I spoke to soon...'
When he opened his eyes again once the light had decreased, he almost wanted to scream in anger
The light had returned to the bodies of the Nightmare Creatures and from what he could see, all the minions were roughly 2 meters tall; they were all equipped with weapons too—swords, spears, shields
But honestly, they looked mild compared to their leader.
The tyrant, who Kaelen could now see better as he was closer and the fact that the tyrant was not buried in darkness, was taller than himself and all the minions, roughly 3 and a half meters tall, 4 at max
While all of the minions were made of glass, glass clearly thicker than any of the enemies that Kaelen had faced so far, the Tyrant was a mix of glass and flesh.
What was the reason that Kaelen had a more difficult time dealing with the Shining Subjects and not the Servants or Stewards, who were one and two classes higher? The flesh-glass mix of the Subjects made it difficult to deal damage
With the servants and subjects, they were just glass, thick glass that a mortal could not break through without special conditions, yes, but they were still glass dormant monsters and demons—with Kaelen's awakened memory and pseudo-awakened strength they were much easier to deal with
But the Subjects still had flesh, which kept the 'blood' from pouring out too fast; the glass also added an increased durability as well as a the ability to act as a connector between ripped or torn segments
Kaelen continued to quickly analyze the opponent, breaking down its body structure and possible weak points
Aside from its height that emitted an oppressive aura, the weapons that were in its hands were just as oppressive—all four of them
As it sat there on the throne, its head, which held all those sharp teeth and 3 eyes, was leaning on the 3rd arm that had larger claws than the others. The second gripped a greatsword, the third one gripped a long spear and the third had a shield
Kaelen suddenly felt a rage bubbling inside him
'Is the spell fucking with me?'
He was standing less than 6 meters away from a 4-meter-tall giant with an entire 4 arms and several weapons, while he had 1 arm and only 2 weapons
He was pulled out of his thoughts in the next second when the Tyrant and its minions noticed him and now that their gaze was facing him, he had realized something else
And the realization hit like a truck.
'This had got to be a joke, right?'
One of the first things that made Kaelen curious was how this city of light looked so brilliant, but at the same time, it looked so old.
How come there were corpses around the floors close to this one? How come there were so few nightmare creatures in the upper floors
A nightmare creature would increase a rank given time and the amount of kills it has made that festered its corrupted soul to a breaking point; that was when it would increase in rank
Every being in this throne room was of the awakened rank—aside from himself
Kaelen's face was blank for a few seconds as if he were registering the situation
There were 25 awakened beings in this room right now—24 beasts and 1 tyrant; it was a situation so, so much worse than he had initially thought
But then why did he not feel any fear?
He had been through more than 3 weeks of dangers since he fought his first awakened beast, and he was stronger too; he was so much stronger than he was back then and he had much more tools than then as well
Even though the situation was bad, the only thing that flowed through Kaelen's mind was that he was going to get 17 awakened shards and a memory from the tyrant
Just then the Tyrant did something that Kaelen did not know how to feel about—raising the spear; it pointed at him and perhaps that was the signal to the minions to attack
'...It's fine, I'll come for you too.'
Not even giving the minions the first move, he sucked in a deep breath, the glass cracking beneath his feet—but he did not launch himself forward; rather, he launched himself back and his hand went to the bowstring, pulling it
He waited as the awakened beasts got closer as they rushed towards him, their bodies glowing, only enhanced by the golden blood in their bodies—the first two were the most unfortunate.
Kaelen did not aim the arrow at either of them; rather, he angled his hand upwards and released it—the pressurized arrow moved like a bullet whirring through the air and hit the crystalline chain holding up the chandelier.
Kaelen felt the grafted skin shift back slightly and the pain radiated through his body—he could only think about how much worse it would have been if he did not tie the curtain cloth around it
It struck the chain mounting of the chandelier with a violent crack. The glass chain was chipped and would soon fall; all that needed to be done was ensure that the creatures were kept in place
As the massive weight of the chandelier started to put pressure onto the chain, causing it to crack more and more, Kaelen was suddenly glad that beasts were so dumb because they didnt even seem to register the sound or even consider why he had shot the bullet at the roof, but then again, maybe these guys couldnt even hear
Kaelen lunged forward this time
The first Guard shoved its spear forward with devastating power
Kaelen didn't dodge; he observed the perfect angle and dipped his shoulder and let the blow nick his ear instead of his good hand or even his head. When the blow hit Kaelen felt his ear chip and that attack alone was enough to really, really piss him off
He used his weight.
He rammed his shoulder into the guard's midsection, pouring every bit of his momentum into the strike. It was like a battering ram hitting a wall. The guard's light-plate armor cracked, spider-webbing across its chest, and the creature stumbled back into the path of its comrade.
They both fell onto the ground but were still alive—for now
Kaelen let out a small smile—"Fall."
Above them, the chandelier finally gave way.
The throne room erupted in a cacophony of shattering glass and exploding light. The massive fixture slammed into the ground; both the beasts who fell to the ground and the third one who got close enough was implicated too.
Whoever made that heavy-ass chandelier had his blessings for whatever they had done in their lifetime
[You have slain an Awakened Beast—Lacerated Light Royal Guard.]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain an...]
'So the big one's name is Lacerated Light, huh? Makes sense given the theme of the names so far.'
Kaelen had blocked his face to prevent the shards from entering his eyes and the explosion of light from blinding him
After it settled Kaelen noticed the extreme amount of dust that clouded the area but he didnt only notice that—above the smoke the tyrant had seemed to have stood up even though it was not moving or attacking, but kaelen felt wronged
Very very wronged
'This bastard is watching me fight like a King watching a jester.'
Watching the next guard run through the smoke, its sword glinting as it dragged beside it, Kaelen smiled as he ran towards it.
The guard swung its blade at his head, and Kaelen brought up his bow, the length covering his body and adding to the defense—he was not going to use any deflection or secret strategy. He was planning to be hit
The blade crashed into his side; thankfully, it seemed to be only of the first tier of an awakened memory, while his bow was at the fourth and his armor being at the second—but he was sent flying across the room
If he was going to end up surrounded by awakened beasts, he would have just killed himself, but now with enough distance between them, he could pick a few more off—even if his stump of an arm hurt like hell now
But regardless, now that he had a significant distance from the group he had enough room and safety to pull the bowstring—one, two, three, four, five
Each arrow was aimed at a singular point on the current closest creature's head, but unfortunately only 3 landed and while cracks had formed, the creature was still alive
"Can't have that now, can we?!" - He laughed as he ran
He sprinted toward the nearest guard, who leveled a spear of solid radiance at his throat.
He shifted his weight to the side and waited that split second to hear the spear hit the ground. Once it did, he let a smile grace his face
"My turn."
Grabbing the spear with his right hand, he heaved his body up and reeled his left shoulder back before swinging it back down with devastating force, digging the bow right into the creature's head where he had shot before—it didnt crack fully but when he saw the creature's hand rising up, he pulled the bowstring back immediately
At this almost point-blank range the attack landed as intended
Crash
[You have slain an awakened beast: Lacerated Light Royal Guard.]
Kaelen didnt even wait for the body to fall immediately, kicking off the falling corpse with a laugh. He landed, and twirling the claw of flame in his hand he stopped and pointed it at the king.
"Is that all? Is that the best the King's lapdogs can do?" - There was no reaction
Two guards swung massive glass greatswords in a horizontal pincer. Kaelen dropped to the floor, the glass rug shredding his knees, but he didn't care. He reached out with his claw of flame and grabbed the ankle of the nearest guard.
He didn't just pull. He shattered
He ripped the guard's leg clean off at the hip. The creature toppled, its golden essence leaking onto the floor like spilled oil. Kaelen scrambled onto its chest, his remaining hand becoming a blur of motion.
It seemed that this technique of mounting and stabbing was beyond effective and paired with the blunt bludgeon of the bow, the power seemed to have doubled
[You have slain...]
He stood up, drenched in the glowing, warm blood of the Awakened.
It coated his stone skin, making him look like some horrific, luminous statue of war. His vision was tunneling. The room was too bright, too loud, and too crowded. He needed it to be dark. He needed it to be quiet. He needed everyone in this room to stop moving, stop making sound, sound, and...
"Shut off this GODSDAMNED LIGHT!!!"
Five guards converged on him at once. Their weapons formed a cage of light around him.
Kaelen's mind raced through the permutations. Left sweep, overhead smash, thrust, thrust, shield bash.
The situation he did not want was here, being surrounded but now there was only a few in this little formation
He let the shield bash hit him. It sent him flying backward, his ribs groaning under the pressure, but he used the flight to gain distance. As he tumbled, he reached for the burning blood at his waist in the bag.
He swung his hand in an arc, spreading the liquid.
He was not falling from the sky this time so the liquid fell over all of their bodies, coating them
He held the claw of flame in his hand and flipped it, grabbing the blade before throwing it into the group—instantly the flammable liquid was set ablaze, and the dagger was back in his hand.
"Heh," he groaned. "Will the flames melt you guys?"
The liquid fire splashed across the light-plate armor of the guards. It shouldn't have been enough to kill an Awakened, but Kaelen didn't give them time to extinguish it. He was already back on them, his movements a frantic, twitching dance of violence. He pulled a bone rib from his bag and stabbed it into the things around it.
He was losing himself in the rhythm of the kill.
Was this what Sunny felt like when he was using the shadow dance?
All 5 of the creatures were killed, but then another one had joined the fray—the Tyrant had taken its steps into the battle.
Perhaps too many of its guards had fallen or perhaps it had just seen a threat in the disfigured madman.
Kaelen spat a mouthful of watery blood onto the glass floor and looked up, a terrifying, wide-toothed grin splitting his face.
"So the big light bulb joins in?"
He stepped over the headless corpse of a guard, his hand twitching for the next kill. He wanted to end this nightmare a little more now
When he was done with these ones, the terror would be next and then even the titan
The tyrant exploded into motion, and as it moved, the remaining twelve guards formed a living corridor of glass and light, their movements tightening in a desperate attempt to contain the little monster that was Kaelen.
The little monster who couldnt help but reminisce—28 days ago he was almost killed by an awakened beast; he had almost drowned in mud but barely managed to claw his way through
And now since that battle he had amassed actual memory weapons, he had more than just his clothes, he had more skills with dealing with nightmare creatures, and he had 4 elements in his body
"Come on then, you lampshade!"
The king's third arm, the one holding the serrated spear, lashed out with the speed of a lightning strike. It was a thrust that should have ended the fight instantly, aimed directly at his heart
It was nice not having something now aimed at his neck again and again
It made sense after all; the tyrant seemed to have once been a king and a king needed to have a good mind. he must have been a good ruler too
But that was in the past
None of that mattered to Kaelen; he didnt care about the king's past, and he didnt care about what he once was—the only thing that mattered was that a spear was aimed at his heart and the king had aimed it there
Twisting his body Kaelen dodged the tip of the spear; sparks flew as the tip grazed the armor on his body—he stabbed the dagger hand into the closest guard, using the creature's own bulk as a pivot. He swung around the guard's body, the king's spear punching straight through the guard's light-plate chest instead of Kaelen's.
[You have slain...]
Kaelen laughed. "Thanks for the assist, Your Majesty!"
He kicked the dying guard off his hand. He moved with a terrifying, jerky efficiency. He used the bow in his arm to hook a guard's jaw, ripping it sideways while simultaneously firing a bolt into the neck of another.
The room constantly vibrated with the sound of shattering glass.
Nine, Eight, Seven, Six
One by one the floor was becoming slick with the blood of the creatures and it filled him with glee—the sound of the buzzing light was replaced by the sound of sloshing golden blood and shattering glass bodies
Every time a guard landed a blow, Kaelen simply took it and landed his own attack. He was leaning into the madness, that little step, more and more each time a creature died and drowned out the noise, the isolation of the last week crystallizing into a singular, obsessive need to see the King fall.
To leave this bright hell and enter the next, to forget this trial and everything that happened within
The realization hit the king like a hammer; after this last guard gets killed, it would just be him, alone again. Once that realization set in, the king seemed to glow sightly brighter
Kaelen was mid-lunge, his hand buried in the chest of the final Royal Guard, when the Tyrant's greatsword came down in a vertical arc that threatened to split him and the corpse in half
Kaelen's instincts screamed. He threw himself to the right, the blade missing his shoulder by a fraction of a millimeter and shattering the glass floor into a crater.
But the king had anticipated the movement.
The fourth, empty arm snapped out.
It was too fast for him to dodge and too close for him to block
There was no pain at first—only an empty feeling as if something was missing
The jagged shards of light dug deep into his socket, hooking behind the globe of his left eye and tearing it outward in a spray of watery blood
Kaelen recoiled, a guttural, animalistic roar tearing from his throat. He fell back, clutching the left side of his face as the king loomed over him
"My... fucking... eye...!" Kaelen hissed through clenched teeth.
The structure of his face was changing in rapid time—steam boiling from within mending itself; the flame, just as how it had melted the rock skin and turned to magma, had done the same in his eye
Kaelen looked less like a human before but now with the glowing orb where his eye once was, he looked like a mad psycho
He didnt even know if his body had adrenaline now
But it was definitely working overtime because his entire body started to steam—every bit of the blood in his body was vaporizing, burning.
The realization finally hit slowly
There was another thing that was causing his deteriorating mental health: this process of setting his organs ablaze to speed up his bodily functions was burning away his own personality slowly, replacing it with the reason he was setting himself ablaze in the first place
That was why killing creatures since the light trial was so amazing to him
Because that was what he wanted to do
He wanted to kill
He rolled to the side instantly, dodging the greatsword that had besides him
"What happened? Couldn't kill me with that?" - He mocked the molten rock leaking from his eye down his face like a tear
Kaelen was literally burning his life force by using the water in his body—if he couldnt kill the creature before it was all used up, he would die
But so what?
If he was going to die, he would at the least drag the tyrant with him
Kaelen started to laugh loudly, the sound drowned out by the explosion of movement he performed, shattering the ground behind him
"Is that all?!" Kaelen shrieked, his voice cracking into a manic, high-pitched peal of laughter. "I've been doing this shit for almost a month; I've been forced to drink from corpses, I've been dragged into the fucking ocean, I got roasted alive—what makes you think a little eye-plucking is going to stop me?"
He reeled his hand back and stabbed the dagger's bow arm into the creature's chest, the heat hissing as it boiled the king's flesh like glass. He pulled back the arm and sucked in a breath before sending it back into the king
The king roared. Kaelen was glad that the weapons seemed to be melded to its hands so he didnt need to worry about anything other than that free arm since the others were too clumsy to get him but the free hand had dug into his good hand. he managed to move to the side a bit so it didnt manage to claw him off.
He was a blur of frantic, jagged motion. He bit. He gouged. He hammered.
"Die!"
He jammed the "crossbow" directly into one of the king's glowing geometric eyes and shot it. The recoil of the shot nearly tore Kaelen's prosthetic bow off, but he didn't even blink. He just used the momentum of the kickback to elbow the tyrant in the jaw, his stone-hard joints cracking the king's glass-like teeth.
Every time the Tyrant's massive hand tried to crush him or one of the weapons got too close, Kaelen slipped through like grease, his endurance allowing him to maintain a level of hyper-violence that no human body should have sustained.
He was a whirlwind of grey stone and flickering orange flame
Kaelen was not sure if this was an ability of the creature but the king seemed to have let loose a blast of light that blasted him backwards
His body skipped across the glass rug like a stone over a pond. He hit the base of the throne with a sound that suggested half the bones in his body had just turned to gravel. His stone skin was cracked, water was leaking out directly now and the flames were trying to mend the stone
His body could not keep up with his rage—even his mind could not
He didn't stay down. He didn't even wait to catch his breath.
He scrambled to his feet, his movements twitchy and unnatural.
"You want light?" Kaelen screamed, his face a mask of gore and mania. "I don't know if you've heard of fire, but it's pretty bright, and it will warm you up just right!"
As he spoke more and more water poured from his body but the water was not what he was worried about—it was the flames licking his body
He didn't throw the burning blood this time. He smeared it. He coated his own stone hand in the liquid, ignoring the smell of his own flesh beginning to char beneath the protective stone layer.
He charged again, but this time, there was no strategy.
There was only the obsession.
There was desire.
The King swung the greatsword in a massive horizontal arc designed to bisect the room. Kaelen didn't go under it. He jumped onto the flat of the blade as it passed, running along the length of the steel like a tightrope walker from hell.
The tyrant's fourth hand—the one that had taken his eye—snapped out to intercept him.
Kaelen met it head-on with his own blazing hand
The flames and stone helped him to weaken the elbow joint, so when he attempted to punch the arm aimed at him, his own snapped clean off
He had no hands now but why would that stop him
He saw the tyrant look into his eyes—one was a red glowing orb and the other was mortal, but reflected an eternal madness
"I see you now," Kaelen said with a eerily happy tone
With a guttural roar, his hand fell to the ground as he propelled his legs forward, opening his jaw as much as possible and biting into the creature's neck.
Its arm grabbed and pulled him off but with his jaw locked onto its throat, it had ripped out most of it too, the golden blood pouring out
The king brought its hand to its throat, trying to stop the bleeding
But Kaelen who had crashed to the ground managed to get onto his knees and while the king took its hand to its mouth Kaelen brought his mouth to his hand and jerked back
Pulling the bowstring
"Shine bright like a diamond, asshole."
He tried to say it, though it was incomprehensible because of the fact that he had a string in his mouth
Opening his aching jaw that was slick with the gold blood, he watched the air arrow fly through the air and strike the tyrant straight in the head, going through
Then waited for a second.
[You have slain an awakened Tyrant: Lacerated light.
[You have received a memory: Light Sword]
He wanted to smile, to laugh but couldn't—his jaw hurt too much but he still celebrated internally
He had done it. He had killed the tyrant
But what was he going to do now...
He had no arms, no eyes, and barely any blood.
He lay there almost allowing his eyes to close but then
"Like fucking hell... I didn't come here to die like a worm."
So, he dragged himself like a worm, watching as the golden light mist seeped into his body, healing the physical wounds.
So what if he didnt have water
Wasn't blood a liquid too? Didn't it have water too? So what if it was gold? He could drink the blood of the creatures he killed
Right now his body was in a state of rapid healing—of assimilating
"So let's take what you took from me!"
He heaved himself up with great struggle.
He had already dismissed the bow.
He for the first time in the air trial dismissed the claw of flame from his hand
He woke up and watched as the mist was flowing into him slowly
He brought the stump down
Kaelen was going to replace his arms with the tyrants!
Again and Again and Again the left arm had fallen off, and his own wound had opened up
Then he moved to the right one and smashed it off as well
Immediately after it was taken out, he didn't even bother to look if the mist had completed the entry process
He fell to his knee and bent down, placing the stump of his hand from his elbows to both of the pieces of arm he took out
He did not know if it would work but if he had an affinity to light like what he was absorbing, if the mist had the ability to mend his flesh
Why could it not mend these hands to his own?
There was no reason it would not work
Which was why it did
He felt his veins shoot from the stumps of his hand and move into the elbow and below the shining arms. They flowed into it and created a network connecting it to him; the blood that was in the arms was now refilling the little reserves of water that he had in his body
He screamed.
He did not know if it was joy or pain but he screamed
And somewhere just before all the mist had been absorbed, He passed out