Aku/Isaac

  Squirmy’s sword came down. I deflected it losing a few layers of platforms from my air sword. Then went for an upward diagonal cut. He shifted his upper body to his left avoiding my sword entirely, before swinging his blade once more.

  I ducked under it then used a Qi pulse powered jump to gain distance. He came after me with a wide swing, elongating his arm for the multiplying force of a whip, but he walked right over my delay fireballs causing them to erupt in a swirl of flames.

  There was only two of them, but at that range his body had been covered. I then fired a Manacanon his way, but he cut it down. Squirmy ignored the pain of being set on fire and came after me.

  With a downward swing of his sword. I lifted the tip of my blade splitting the platforms that made up its form like a pair of scissors. As his sword ran down the open slit of my weapon, I closed the gap putting pressure over the two flats of his sword.

  This not only stopped him from cutting me in half, but it also trapped his sword between the layers of platforms. There was more to it as the handle of my air sword grew. Not only did it suddenly grow, but it became sharp like a spear.

  That spear head stabbed itself into the ground and turned into a tripod hook. I released my improvised weapon closing the distance between us with a Qi pulse while putting all that forward momentum into my auras hammer shaped fist.

  My punch landed squarely on Squirmy’s nose, the null aura extending forward like a piston, sending him staggering back. He even released the grip of his sword. I wasn’t done, as I chased after him Turning my other fist into a hammer.

  “Catch these hammers!” I yelled before combining tiny Qi pulses under my feet with the sudden barrage of extending hammer fists cracking and breaking bones under Squirmy’s skin.

  At some point my attacks seemed to do nothing. It was as if his body had become more dense. This was just like the other Squirmy. I realized the danger I was in, so I backed off dropping a protect spell between us just when it looked like he was coming after me.

  He broke right through it with his fist closing the distance between us and grabbing me by the head. The demon then slammed me through a wall.

  How had he changed like that? “The hell!?” I struggled to stand. Rubble fell from my body as I rose to my trembling legs. There was blood coming from my mouth from where I bit my tongue, but other than that my aura had held up its protections fairly well.

  Meanwhile Squirmy was walking over to retrieve his blade. He pulled it off the ground and gave it a flourish. “You’re a dumbass. For that cat girls unraveling, I’ve been holding back. All I needed to do was increase my density and turn my bones to steel.” He explained.

  My healing aura had taken effect, not only fixing my tongue, but soothing my nerves. “I get it. Your abusing the system.” I said. I was almost excited when I realized the loophole. Then I remembered this was a bad thing.

  It was the opposite of me. I increased the levels of my stats through my aura, but Squirmy was using his shape shifting to change his bass stats.

  He even had access to an aura. It wasn’t very strong, but that tiny boost in combination with a bass stat boost was insanely over powered. His Vitality and Strength must be through the roof.

  I locked my muse to his soul. Then drew out more null aspects from the large mana stone. The power raced through me as I began the kata of the flowing river.

  My sword reformed itself as several delay fireballs lined themselves throughout the battlefield. I was in for the long game. I fired off a spray of Manabolts.

  Squirmy smiled cutting them down before elongating his arm to strike from far away. I ducked under his arm then grabbed his wrist riding the limb back to him. This was just like the battle in the hole.

  My foot connected to his chest as I focused a Qi pulse into his ribcage. He staggered back into a delay fireball. The flames wrapped around him eating at his flesh, but he didn’t care.

  Jade fire engulfed his blade before he came at me swinging. Using my muse, I avoided his swings biding my time for an opportunity to strike.

  He whipped his arm at me again. I swung releasing my sword and controlling it’s path with only the spell functions, as I ducked allowing my weapon to spin and fly up in an attempt to sever his arm. While my sword did get through his skin and flesh, it was unable to cut through his bone.

  I Qi pulsed my way deep into the now open home, leaving several delay fireballs behind. Squirmy followed like I knew he would. I then exited by breaking through a window. As soon as I was outside, the home exploded in a swirl of flames.

  I then began gathering up as many heat aspect as possible refilling the heat stone I’d been relying on this whole time. It went up to about half before Squirmy busted through the wall.

  The punishment fire was all over him. I fired off volley after volley of Manabolts and even a Manacanon when it looked like I wasn’t doing damage. The Manacanon managed to make him stagger, but it wasn't enough, as Squirmy simply shifted his body so that he wasn’t burned.

  It felt like I wasn’t doing any damage. How could his Vitality be so high? I needed a way to keep him bleeding. Maybe I should attack his soul directly. I couldn’t do that because his metal ribcage was in the way.

  Squirmy lifted his arm. “My turn!” then created several jade fireballs. Including a large one. Instead of running away I decided to try something. My control was a lot better now, so it should work as intended.

  I began my kata once more. Moving from one stance to another while connecting my muse to Squirmy. If you couldn’t beet an enemy. Then make them fight themselves.

  Squirmy released the fireballs. I felt the first one coming, so I avoided it while stripping it of its aspects. To my surprise the attack vanished. I did this with every jade fireball.

  The wind, momentum, heat, harming and punishment aspects were all fed into a secret spell. One I hid behind my back. The spell was a modified fireball spell. It was my attempt at recreating the Greater Azureball magic circle.

  This one wouldn’t be as powerful since it didn’t get a huge wind-up time, or the same number of runes, but it would be stronger than any of Squirmy’s attacks so far.

  With intense focus, I Siphoned off every last fireball and when it came time to receive the giant one that seemed to grow with every passing second. I knew I couldn’t reduce it, so I readied my own advanced fireball.

  Instead of focusing on size I went for density. I’m sure Squirmy would appreciate that. It seemed to be his favorite word today.

  I lifted my hand as a raging blue flame rose up from behind me. It was so small compared to the giant jade fireball Squirmy had unleashed.

  I felt like it didn’t stand a chance, but that was just on a first impression. The intensity of its heat was about the same as the giant jade fireball, mine was just more focused.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  I fired it off and watched as it clipped the side of Squirmy’s attack. Not because I couldn’t aim, but because I was aiming for Squirmy. His massive jade fireball collapse washing it’s flames over the area, while mine maintained its shape and headed right for Squirmy’s wide eyes.

  Not wanting to be caught up in the flames, I withdrew Snowball from my inventory. Then used her ability to duplicate a few protect spells. I made 4 layers forming domes over us.

  “Holy piss stain! That’s a lot of fire!” Snowball cried.

  “Well be okay.” I reassured her. I squeezed her because I wasn’t sure how true those words were. Might as well take advantage of the sudden downtime to power up. I used Snowball to conjure up a new sword.

  That was when a black hand slammed itself onto my protection cracking the outside layer. It startled us causing both Snowball and I to shriek.

  Snowball didn't stick around as she crawled her way back into my inventory muttering something about ‘good luck’ I didn’t know she could do that.

  The outside layer shattered causing flames to rush into the gap. That left only three. I really didn’t want to be lit on fire. It looked super painful. Lucky for me I had all these resistances, but just in case…

  I began injecting water and cold aspects into my aura for the fire resistance. I even added a few earth aspects to it for good measure. My fire resistance went up from 70% to 85%.

  That was when the second layer broke. Then the third. I dragged Snowball back out. She was screaming and crying. It wasn’t cute crying either. These were less ‘help me’ cries and more like ‘I’m going to die’ cries.

  Using her ability, I readied two Manacanons to blast Squirmy with and a double bind spell. Then placed Snowball back in my inventory so she’d stop Squirming.

  To my relief by that point the flames had died down a little. Instead of covering everything the eye could see. They were only clinging to the pavement and surrounding buildings. Squirmy looked horrible!

  “Oh my Cos!” I cried. His skin was gone! All that was left was some blackened meat and a hot red metal skeletal structure. Was that thing really still alive?

  His soul kept saying die. Like over and over again. It was super creepy. He was like some kind of terminator. That was when he broke through the last layer. As soon as he did I screamed and blasted his body with the Manacanons.

  This knocked him on his ass and into the fiery road. Not wanting to be lit ablaze I hopped up onto a roof and drained away the heat aspects from the flames that crawled up its walls. I looked back to where Squirmy fell. Then used the double bind on him.

  “Is he dead?” I wasn’t sure. “Hey! Are you dead! You have to tell me if you are!” I yelled, but he didn't answer.

  I created another fireball and shot it at him. He didn’t make a noise. I did that a few more times just to make sure, but it seemed like he wasn’t reacting at all. His metal bones also started to melt.

  For good measure I chucked my newly formed weapon at him and watched it go through his skull. A moment later it lit up in a blaze. It was expected of a flammable weapon.

  That was when a pink flowery window popped up in front of me.

  [Princess Aku] papa stop it! He’s dead! He died like 7 minutes ago!

  [Isaac] for real? How do you know?

  [Princess Aku] When he died we got all his stuff.

  My eyes went wide. I quickly opened up my inventory and looked through the mess of items. There were a lot of dead bodies I hadn't seen before. I also got that sword Squirmy was using, but most importantly I saw Luca’s soul.

  It was labeled as ‘Core Mold’ I withdrew it from my inventory and removed the ugly black stem. It still didn’t feel right. It wasn’t right at all. I felt a tear drop on my hand.

  “Its not right!” I cried.

  [Princess Aku] Luca’s soul has been heavily damaged. There’s hardly anything left of her. Its less than what I had before we ascended. You could try to bring her back, but it won’t be her. At that point she might as well be a completely different person.

  [Isaac] I know that! ....sorry… I’m not mad at you. Your papa is just sad because his friend is gone.

  It was so unfair. I worked so hard to get here and for what. To be rewarded with this? What kind of hero let’s people die like this?!

  “Luca… was it bad?” My soul connected to hers and I got to see what had actually happened to her.

  I felt her fear. She was alone and afraid. Finally she got the courage to fight. All thanks to a kid that was in a similar situation. They were the same, but Luca decided to be the adult. Not just for the kid, but for herself.

  She fought tooth and nail to get the kid to safety. She was just a child herself, but she still tried so hard. She was still hoping and adult would come to help them. Either me or Shadow.

  Then this monster showed up. Except he looked like me, so she got confused. Her friend was killed in front of her and she was next. She died alone hoping someone would come and save her.

  It hit me hard. If I’d have been there. If I hadn’t caused all of this she would still be here smiling, cracking jokes. She was only 14 and now she couldn’t even remember her life before yesterday.

  There was a huge hole at the center. One bigger than the one in my heart. I looked around her soul space. There were no animals here. Everything was thin like paper. There were so many openings that lead into her empty center.

  There really wasn’t anything left of her. Nothing more than a shell. Squirmy ate her memories and insides. He converted it all to energy and left it at that. It’s like the description said. This was a mold.

  I almost threw up when I realized what I was really holding. “He wore her soul like a fucking skin suit!”

  I put the flower away. Aku unable to comfort me closed the chat window. She went off to cry in her room. It was a good thing Snowball was with her. I should have made her go to sleep when we got back to this world.

  Even at the end Luca never gave up. She believed I’d come save her. She never broke, and that was why Squirmy resorted to this. Turning her soul into a mold. “I’m sorry, Luca.”

  While locked in on my Qi sight I noticed something odd. There was an influx of antessence at the corner of my eye. I couldn’t believe it. I looked up and saw my mortal enemy ascend into the next rank.

  A ball of antessence, Qi and aspects swirled around as his husk of a body turned to energy. The entire thing was a dark red. It glowed so brightly that I had to close my eyes and observe with only my Qi sight.

  At the center was a powerful core. One as strong as my brothers. Slowly a new body formed around that core. One that was far stronger than the last. Surprisingly, the density of this body wasn’t as dense. Did he really ascend? I thought his body was supposed to multiply his abilities by 10.

  Rage burned in my chest as the echo roared within the hole in my soul. “Die already!” I readied an Azureball. Then released it. The spell slammed into the swirling mess of power and bloomed into a sweeping wave that ate all the remaining flames.

  The intensity of the flames melted several buildings making the area look like that melting clock painting. Of course since the Azureball burned out quickly the area cleared out of flames. What they lacked in persistence they made up in intense heat.

  My attack was in vein as Squirmy emerged from the transformation with a Shockwave that snuffed any remaining flames out. He still had that Aku Black body, only this time it was more grey. With black eyes that had red hearts at their center.

  I wanted to scream. I wanted him to burn. To finally die a horrible death like the asshole he was. It wasn’t over. Luca’s soul fell into my inventory, as I drew the sword that was always intended for me.

  The one I asked Cindy to make what felt like forever ago. It was a sword meant to protect the people I cared about, but instead it was used to hurt them.

  Edge Of The Abyss. It's a bit too edgy for my tastes, but using my pain to fight my enemies was right up my alley. Centa is such a dork. I couldn’t wait to tease her about it.

  I lifted my sword as my aura engulfed the blade and my body. It's sharpness became that of a splicing water jet. I added heat aspects to my aura for speed. Along with wind for lift.

  Adding defensive aspects made no sense considering a single hit would go right through me. No, what I needed was speed. I was up to 45 layers too.

  The next thing I did was inject the remaining 32 units of null aspects from my mana stone into my meridians. The energy was happy to join with me. For a moment I felt the support of my wife as the essence flourished in my body like petals facing in the wind.

  The last thing I did was connect my muse with Squirmy once more. He was currently full of smugness and self righteousness. He was sure the fight was over.

  It looked like the mana stone in my sword was also full of aspects. 1000 units to be exact. Wasn’t that like a mythical rank mana stone with a +4! That was when I noticed a familiar face inside the stone.

  Centa was there. She looked pretty flustered. As if I’d walked in on her naked or something. Now that I thought about it. These aspect versions of people didn't exactly wear clothes, but it wasn't like they had actual body parts.

  “Centa, please help me out. I know I don't look it, but I'm actually pretty scared right now.“ I said. My hands were shaking.

  The little Centa in the mana stone nodded. The power inside built up over my hand, as if my sister was putting her hand over mine. It helped a lot.

  Squirmy readied a jade fire beach ball. Meanwhile I cobbled together a protect spell. As soon as he releases it I threw my spell in front of him, catching both him and his exploding attack in a dome like shield.

  Sadly this did nothing as he broke out of it without a single burn. He came right for me, but my muse told me he was coming. I jumped back before he could reach me.

  “That fire crap won't work on me. I’ve upgraded myself from an ōmukade to a DJinn. Meaning flames no longer hurt me.” Squirmy began to laugh once he saw the look of horror on my face.

  That completely subverted my build... crap...