Dei didn’t want to even consider that as a possibility. If the Grovyn was still here… what would he even do? What could he do?
How long would Edward last if he copied the Grovyns soul? If he could copy Amaya for half an hour, and the Grovyn was a little over half as strong as Alorans entire troupe, would Edward last a minute or two? Seconds?
He needed Amaya’s professional opinion on this, so he told her all that he was able to observe, getting a non-hopeful answer in return.
“That would… certainly explain it. I can’t imagine Moren would be able to kill the Grovyn on his own, and the Grovyn was alive last we parted. That means either someone else in the Gem Dweller system killed it, someone outside your society came in and slayed it, or it is still here. I can’t imagine any Gem Dwellers killing a level seven hundred demon-kin, so that is out, and your society is notoriously bad at asking for help. Not impossible, but somehow it is more likely that Moren found a way to distract the Grovyn… yes, that would explain why it never came back to finish the job on me or the others.”
“Finish the job?” he asked. He imagined the demon-kin would be happy in simply putting them all out of commission.
“Indeed. You said Jasmine still lives yes? That is a relief to me, and it only proves how difficult it actually is to kill living equipment. When we break, our souls fragment but we still live, and very few things can truly kill us. One way is through the dreaded Demon affinity, an awful thing that only demon-kin have access to, and disgustingly powerful compared to every other affinity.”
Dei always pictured affinities as equal in nature, all providing weaknesses or strengths in their various fields, so he was confused. “What makes it so much stronger than others?” he asked.
“Its ability to simply erode everything. It can kill things normally immortal, and break that which should be unbreakable. Anything killed by an attack imbued with Demon affinity just… doesn’t come back. I remember the tale of a Slaughterer based around resurrecting himself repeatedly, Grims Despair was his title I believe because Grim was very vocal about his hatred for the Slaughterer. Grims Despair faced true death hundreds of times, always slipping away. When he was killed by the Demon affinity… Grim said that the Slaughterer never even found his way to the plane of Death, implying his soul was completely erased. A truly horrifying fate, especially for those promised afterlife by the divine.”
Dei frowned, that was an utterly broken affinity. “What is its drawback then? Is there any, or is it just…” he found that he couldn’t finish the sentence though. He didn’t want to call something like that ‘Better’ because it felt disrespectful, but he couldn’t think of anything else.
“Simply put, the drawback is that if you are not a demon yourself, it kills you instantly to use it. It erodes the user as well. Considering there is only one true demon in this world, and this demon is happy to sit back and wage war through his children, the use of the affinity is limited. I think what Moren is doing right now is trapping the Grovyn in a loop of sorts. Long ago, the Grovyn used this Demon affinity to shatter Jasmine, likely sacrificing the lesser demon-kin to use small fragments of it in the attacks. Now, there is only one demon-kin left, the Grovyn, so it can’t reasonably use the affinity anymore or it will die. It could use itself to kill Moren, but that would involve letting me and the others run free, alive. If it were directed by the demon to kill us all, it can't take a course of action that lets any of us live, so it can't use the affinity, meaning it has to kill Moren without it. For as long as Moren persists, it is trapped or he will escape, because Moren is one mobile bastard when he’s not tied down by the rest of us. It’s likely he even let the Grovyn catch him specifically so he could engineer a situation that potentially allows all of us to live.”
Dei imagined a few issues with what she said, and voiced his concerns. “But there are two more demon-kin in the area, I’ve run into them. Also, couldn’t the Grovyn use whatever domain ability it used before and extend itself backwards to you, Lani, or Jasmine and kill the three of you while keeping Moren trapped?”
“The weaker the demon, the less powerful the demon affinity that comes from its death. The Grovyn probably left them alive to act as its eyes or ears in the area, sacrificing all the rest of the lessers in an attempt to slay Moren. Luckily, it failed, as he and the rest of us are still around and Moren still fights. As for the domain, that is something only Moren will answer, but I imagine it is limited in some way. He must have found that limitation and accounted for it.”
“We don’t know enough. How can I even get Edward to attack it safely? The moment we are close, it will just kill us.”
“That won’t be the problem you think. You’ve met other demon-kin you said, you felt the disgust of your affinities, yes?” Amaya asked him, getting a nod. “Edwards Rage will be the same. In his mindless state, he will simply change targets to that of his affinity’s ire.”
“Okay and what’s the plan past that?”
Amaya shrugged. “The rest relies on Moren. After this long, I imagine that his escape Skill will be unparalleled. I’ll connect to him when we get closer, share the plan if he is sane or, at worst, take over his mind if he’s not. Then, we use his mobility to transport us to Aloran, reunite his domain into that of Undying Refuge, and finally end this battle.”
“Undying Refuge?” Dei asked, as it was unfamiliar to him. Alorans domain was just Refuge, he was pretty sure.
“Yea, that was… actually, if Aloran didn’t tell you, I don’t want to share more than necessary. Ask Aloran about domains and how he resurrected himself when we see him again.”
Dei frowned but agreed to focus on the task at hand. They were getting closer to the Grovyn, and he didn’t want to be distracted when facing off against something like this.
* * *
He didn’t know what the exact threshold was, but once he was close enough, he felt his affinities reacting as they had last time he was near a demon-kin. He was ‘much further away this time , perhaps half a mile, but the effect was also stronger, probably matching the strength of the demon-kin.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
When Edward fell within range of the effect as well, he slowed down, his fists coming at Dei in weaker and weaker blows until he simply stopped.
Edward’s red face and bloodshot eyes receded, and a look of confusion passed over him. For a moment, Dei was worried the effect hadn’t transferred his rage, but provided a moment of clarity.
His thoughts were unfounded as Edward’s head slowly turned to face his new enemy, and Dei realized he was dangerously close to the fight that was about to commence.
“Have you already connected with Moren?” he asked Amaya quickly.
“Yes.”
“Then let's go” he said as he turned back and started running from Edward, who didn’t so much as flinch in his direction.
Edward seemed transfixed, completely absent in mind, but Dei started to feel the pressure emitted by him. A tide of power fell behind him, and he managed to barely stay ahead as Edward’s soul reconfigured itself into something more. Something capable of pushing even a level seven hundred.
The man didn’t react, but Dei’s [Soul Echo] Racial ability again responded on its own, showing him a twisted labyrinth of power, layering itself hundred of thousands of times over the core until little more than the concept of a man was left. Edward no longer existed, replaced by a vessel of power as he sacrificed everything to extend his limits towards impossibility.
Dei saw him crouch, preparing to leap.
A series of images flashed in front of his eyes faster than he could think.
Then everything was over, and he stood before a God, everything for miles flattened as the Grovyn fell apart.
* * *
Amaya saw a much different scene. She did not usually have the mental stats to keep up with everything, but by synchronizing with Moren and the rest, they shared their experiences and reactions. She did not see the moments pass directly, but Moren shared his memories with her, and Lani helped them process it all.
Edward approached the demon-kin with a sonic boom as his body was vaporized from friction at mach two. As the spirit of Edward lashed out at the Grovyn, it had to redirect a small fraction of its abilities into defending from the attack.
This moment of weakness was enough to break the stalemate between it and Moren, and he slipped through the tangle of vines, seeming to teleport in front of Amaya as he used freestyle Space mana manipulation to compress the distance between them.
Taking hold of Amaya and Dei’s group, they appeared in Aloran’s cave as well, linking with the others and feeling power thrum through the five of them. Alorans new domain roared to life as it was finally complete, and a skeletal hand burst forth from the ground of his garden.
He’d never told Dei, afraid of what a desperate Slaughterer might try to do with the body of a weakened God, but Aloran did have an actual body. It was just buried below and easily killable.
Bringing himself up as fast as he could, the four pieces of equipment assembled themself onto him. Moren was, admittedly, very fractured in the mind, but that was fixable. Moren had given up memories to gain strength, slowly burning away at everything unnecessary to enduring because he knew that, eventually, his family would find him again. He kept only the bare minimum, his family’s names and his trust in them. With that, it was easy for Amaya to convince him to trust her. Now that they were together once more, they shared their memories with Moren and he was made whole.
They’d spent their entire lives together, by working together, he could regain his sense of self- even if the memories were from other perspectives.
Lani and Jasmine finally awoke from their slumbers as Aloran’s pure divinity shocked their systems enough to grant them awareness. Lani understood it was not a hallucination from his ailing mind as the feeling could not be recreated, and Jasmine finally opened her eyes to the world, sputtering to life as she came to be
They were awake.
They were whole.
Aloran hadn’t realized how close each of his family members had become to him until he’d woken up without them, finding that they became his strength. He was no God without them, and he’d have it no other way. He could have reverted the subtle changes to his Refuge domain long ago and become mobile, but what would have been the point? He would have had to cut them out from his path permanently, and that wasn’t something he was willing to do. Not until he knew the path of his family together was fractured beyond repair with their deaths. He’d believed in them and their capabilities, and he’d only been proven correct.
Together once more, he turned his eyes on the Grovyn. The stone walls between them were nothing, and would have loved to say the demon-kin was resigned to its failure, if only the creature knew the word. These beasts were nothing if not determined.
Edward sat somewhere at the floor of the Grovyns cave, unconscious. Aloran would make sure not to hit the man, as that was Dei’s fight to finish. Edward was no threat to Dei at this point anyway, and Dei could kill him with ease when the time came.
Aloran raised his skeletal hand, positioning it right over his shoulder as the Grovyn tore through everything to reach Aloran as quickly as its grey body would take it. For naught.
Aloran swung a backhand in its direction, expending some of his accumulated faith to smite the beast. The faith manifested as lightning, as pure faith did, and struck the demon-kin with a deafening crack.
Lani’s hatred, Amaya’s stored energy, Morens unending power, and Jasmine's amplification all went into the attack. Despite all being trapped, they’d all grown in their own ways since the last confrontation. Hundreds of years ago, the Grovyn could have challenged them, but demon-kin were stagnant unless they worked to steal life from others, and this one had been trapped in a battle it couldn’t finish.
Aloran’s singular divine strike was more than enough. His hatred of the beast manifested in the screaming white lighting as it slammed into his enemy, flaying it. The mass of vines that made up the Grovyns main body popped and sizzled, turning to ash.
What almost killed them hundreds of years ago could do little more than fade away beneath the power of a true God. Aloran was not meant to exist within the physical world, and he would not for much longer. When his purpose, his domain, became too strong for Avium to withstand, it would spit him out and into the divine planes equivalent of his current location.
He sighed in relief as the notification for the demon-kins death rang in his head, and he turned to face Dei, who’d barely processed the change in scenery as he now stood before a fully powered Aloran.
* * *
The feeling of divinity seeped into Dei’s bones, and he knew he stood before a God, one he had no chance of contending with, not that he’d want to.
Though he hated the vulnerability he felt, he was pretty sure Aloran wouldn’t turn traitor in a second for no reason. At the very least, Dei was confident in their meeting being neutral, so he calmed his nerves and studied the face before him.
He knew what Aloran looked like from the memories he’d gained from Lani, and what he saw now resembled that. Aloran’s skin was dry and wrinkled, stretched tight against his bones and a sickly pallor. His eyes were itch black orbs, and the little hair he could see escaping from the helmet, Lani, was paper white.
He looked like a proper floating armored Lich, and Dei once again felt slightly nervous as he realized an undead God might not be the best of people. Still… he would hopefully not turn Dei into an undead thrall.
Aloran slowly lowered himself down to Dei’s level, letting Dei once again see the smoldering remains of the crater left behind in Alorans final strike against the Grovyn. Dei had eidetic memory, so he’d hopefully be able to slow down and review everything that’d happened in the moment that was too fast for him to see.
The slight smile on Alorans face relaxed some of Dei’s nerves, even if it looked misplaced and foreign. Dei’s Beastial Communication surprisingly responded, translating the Aloran’s body language and confirming that he truly was happy, and that it wasn’t just a facade. Either that, or he was much better at controlling his body than Dei was at scanning it.
Neither spoke for a moment, but Aloran was the first to break the silence.
“I have only minutes, perhaps less, to speak in this world. Dei, for your dedication to my cause and reuniting my family once more, I shall give you my blessing, unfiltered by the interference of the world in the little time I have left on this plane.”
