The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 69: Heroics. (Part 2)

It was then the power of the pill hit me. It dissolved within my chest and from it, something connected. A vision of a floating perfectly smooth sphere snapped through my mind. My heart thudded and with each beat I felt, more than ever, my body in sync with both my mana and Aura. I breathed and lightning crackled about me.

"You weren't kidding," I felt the surging energy and smiled, focusing on the small fragment of Kazu's soul within me. I traced it, feeling the strings that were bound. Some disappeared to the ether, but one did not, one pointed directly to the mountainous face before us, straight within its mouth. "I've got him."

"Lead the way then," Ardent gestured and I nodded.

I leapt and in a flash the earth I had been standing was far away. In a single bound I had crossed hundreds of metres. With another step, I pushed off the air and appeared at the mouths opening. 500m, 0.3 seconds and no preparation. It was a feat I couldn't ever reach as I was. The strength I had felt wrong, it was cheated and unearned, but it didn't matter. We required victory and I'd take that any way we could.

"Let me," Ardent's voice came from beside me and he swung his sword wide. A flash of the Void resounded, and a thin line echoed through the air. The entire face split apart, cut, and slanting at the mouth. The demons finally took in our presence and launched at us even as they fell. It was almost comical how easy it was to bat them away, but then something else appeared. I couldn't react in time even with the strength flowing through me. A heavy rod of steel slammed into my body, cracking apart my armour and sending a shattering pain through my bones.

I grit my teeth and pushed the steel away, recovering in mid air and stared towards the thrower. Kazu stood at the back of the split open mouth. Tendrils of red sinew covered in familiar crystals tied his body to the earth. He grinned, a challenging smirk seeking everything we could throw at him. A shriek bellowed from his open lips and from the earth dozens more of the same steel rods grew, firing towards us at terrifying speeds.

My older self parried them away, beginning his own assault towards Kazu. At the same time, a light shone behind us and the canons of the Isles rained down. Explosions of dirt threw up all around us, demons shrieked caught up in the artillery fire, their bodies being blown apart. My focus however remained on Kazu. He swung his hand and the entire island seemed to react, cleaving an enormous blade from nowhere, heading straight towards Ardent. I shot forwards, kicking the blunt side of the metal mass, veering it away.

"The both of you need to just stay still or die!" Kazu yelled in fervent passion and swung his arm again. The island of Celestia was acting like an extension of his body as more masses of steel broke through the earth. Both of us couldn't reach him. The moment we neared, something would push us apart as Kazu himself slid out of range, smoothly traversing the ground as if he was gliding. It wasn't enough that he was controlling the island, but he began to cast dozens of smaller spells towards us on top of the demons that still ran rampant.

A wave of ice threatened to engulf me as I narrowly escaped it. The other me was ahead, reaching towards Kazu only for him to be repelled by a powerful burst of force. I grew frustrated knowing that the boost of power we had was temporary. I needed to reach him in one quick movement. As I was now, I could do it. Me feet planted onto the earth as I floated to the ground. The demons screamed and began to swarm. I ignored them focusing intently on the straight line between me and Kazu. I activated the Leap skill, pulling together all the Old Man had taught me.

In a fraction of a second I was in front of Kazu and there was no reason to slow down. I slammed into the deranged demonic elf, tearing him from the thick flesh like bindings that held him to the floor. My hand clasped against his throat, intent to slam him down to the earth. If I had another arm, I'd have stabbed him then and there. As I carried through however, everything around us slowed. I had felt this before. Space began to reverse and before I could do anything more, I was thrust back the way I came and had nothing to stop me colliding into the ground, bouncing off it like a rag doll.