Blue and red symbols etched in strange patterns illuminated under Korbin and I, vacuuming the mana from our skills before they could reach one another. The sheer force ripped both of our wrists down to the floor like they were magnetized, though that didn't stop us from trying to take each other's heads off.
"The ONE time I let your dumbass distract me, you get us eliminated in the FUCKING. FINALS!" Korbin barked, spittle splattering against my cheek as we glared at one another, our limbs pinned to the floor by the system's meddling spells.
"ME?! I'm not the only one who lost track of our entire unit, at least that's never been my fucking JOB!" I yelled back, wiping his saliva off with my shoulder. Lightning Strike consistently triggered in my hands, though the glowing insignia's pull only grew stronger with every attempt. I could visibly see the Lightning mana flash and fizzle each time, strobing at my palms as my mana pool rapidly drained.
"Ohh ho-ho, OKAY. So we're playing that game, mister 'I need others to fix my problems for me'? Gee, I'm sorry I couldn't hatch up a scheme to account for your incredible capacity for useless prattling this time around, I'll be sure to bat a hundred from NOW ON!" Korbin angrily yelled back, his voice nearly hoarse with rage. His hands illuminated a dull orange hue, implying to me he was constantly trying to charge up something to wallop me with. The feeling was mutual, as Spirit Of The Storm had already failed to activate before I even attempted a Lightning Strike-booster punch. I wanted to rebuttal, though I failed to find a fair retort.
"I…look, how the hell was I supposed to know they'd have some sort of one-shot attack? Even if I had a propensity for scouting in the fucking first place?!" I eventually replied, noticing my intonation's massive drop in passion only after the fact. Korbin's shoulders visibly relaxed, as did his contorted sneer.
"None of us could, it's not like we had any intel on them in the first place." He sighed, the glow around palms fading before he stood up calmly. I followed suit, feeling both shame and pain in my near mana-empty gut from the outburst.
"Do you think the othe-"
"And don't YOU fucking start with that self-righteous bullshit now!" Korbin angrily shouted, looking up at seemingly his…brow?
"Uhhh, are you talking to me?" I asked, waving my hand over my head in hopes to get his attention.
"No, no I'm talking t-" Korbin angrily blurted before abruptly pausing.
"…oh yeah, you were in your own hell that whole time." Korbin said through a chuckle. I scanned him up and down, looking for some detail I must've missed this entire time, because he didn't seem affected in the slightest by that Escaping Fate shit. Not like I had with these weird scar-tattoos.
"Are…are you okay?" I asked, feeling a wave of concern for my near-lifelong friend, and guilt for never having asked.
"Yeah, it's nothing really 'new' so to speak, just confirmed more than anything." Korbin said, taking his time to explain, clearly choosing his words carefully for some reason. I felt my eyes narrow in suspicion at his slow build up, knowing nothing good ever comes from Korbin beating around the bush.
"Okay, well then what is it?"
——————————————————————
"-oh spare me the patronizing tone, you act as though you haven't indulged in your fair share of some old-fashioned fun over the millennia." Beloris said, waving me off as he kicked his feet up on the table.
"Throughout all of the near 20 Integrations I've known you for, our definitions of 'fun' have vastly differed." I replied, keeping an eye on Galenthelos' vessel, as well as that human who fights like him, Tom. They spent most of their time planning their battle strategies between rounds, making this final round more a formality than competition given their prowess. Still, I wanted to be sure not to miss any detail I could find to distinguish Tom from Galenthelos, as each difference only added to their uncanny resemblance in combat. And, from the notes Beloris has shared with me, even their influence has shown a few similarities, at least to my uncle in his youth.
"Ohh, 'vastly' is being a bit dramatic." He replied with a scoff, using his long, shapeshifting tail to rub under his chin.
"How so?" I asked, genuinely curious at how my silver-tongued friend would try to spin this.
"Shall I remind you how lengthy of an explanation you gave when I merely asked what that 'Tidal Covenant' nonsense did?" Beloris asked, crossing one leg onto the other knee.
"Oh right, the skill you kidnapped several Chosen of lesser gods to attain knowledge over. I believe I explained its concepts in great detail? An explicitly forbidden skill outlawed generations ago by the system itself. Your issue is with the powers that be, not me." I answered plainly.
"You know how little that matters to me, Anutir. Yet even now you wait to sneak in that devious detail the skill requires holy mana to learn until the end. Why is that?" Beloris shot, with an unmistakable dash of genuine frustration in his permanently snide tone.
"You asked." I replied with a slow shrug, feeling a grin form at the edge of my mouth. Peering over the Devils viewing area railing, I noticed team 'Elysium' had been teleported to their final round.
"'You asked'. 'Meh-meh, I'm watery and mysterious'." Beloris rambled mockingly to himself as I scanned over the systems crude replication of Jaesk, a wonderful planet that was rich with Manafalls and powerful rapids that circulated in perpetuity. I remember as a young C grade, traveling there with Galenthelos. The rivers ran black with death when we'd arrived, though only in the infected regions. It didn't take long to purify the hoards of undead abominations, especially after Galenthelos himself decided to take part. Still, only the land and its beasts ever truly recovered, while the sentient race native to Jaesk, the Draelek, either died or fled their planet. They were a dryadic species naturally attuned to water and earthen affinities. They were naturally primed for adaptation, which is why Galenthelos even offered the relocation. Many were prideful and wished to defend their world, a decision we respected all the same. Now, the planet is a shell of its once glorious self, but alive all the same.
This simulation, however, was clearly one of an earlier time on Jaesk, one before it suffered a deathly plague and with all beasts removed. The Vessel, and Beloris' lowest Chosen followed tightly behind Tom, both of them chatting about something. Behind, their team remained vigilant in ignoring their strongest members, apparently electing to remain stationary. Though, the woman clutching the long staff appeared to catch on quickly, pointing them out to the other two members.
Looking across the field, I felt a brief rush of excitement seeing their opponents stationed just a few hundred feet from them. The Magmarred Magistry, a faction long and well established as a multiversal haven for all fire affinity mages and healers alike, regardless of sub-affinity or species. Clearly, one of their associated gods got a hold of someone important from a newly integrated planet, landing them fresh representation for the multiverse to be forced to watch. I'd traded blows with a few radical branches of the rather loosely governed multiversal conglomerate, many of which leaned heavily into infernally-charged fire affinities.
"Wow, I haven't seen them with some new blood in over 4 integrations. Good for them." Beloris said with a patronizing smile, gazing down at the 4 ember-toned Thermavari scrambling below in preparation. Natives to a sulfurically rich planet, Thyrenhal, they adapted early and journeyed deep into the planet, becoming a near-fully subterranean species. One that found a multitude of ways to integrate the magma near their homeworlds core into renewable energy before their integration, and now mana. Anything they could manage to avoid the Voltranths, a predatory species also native to Thyrenhal. A nasty young race of blind serpents, the Voltranths emerged from the planet's core itself long before the Thermavari ventured below.
The Voltranths quickly established themselves as their natural predators, utilizing a thermally charged lightning mana with every bite that did particular damage to the Thermavari's highly complex thermoregulation systems, as well as the machinery that housed entire colonies of Thermavari. What Voltranths lacked in vision they more than made up for via a notably advanced pallet, capable of detecting shifts in gas concentration caused by the heat conducted with mere friction from miles away. Their hearing was rather advanced as well, though the Thermavari learned early on to use powerful explosions to disorient the beasts, marring the creatures boon a bane when hunting them in particular.
Of course, the Basalt Wyrms that inhabited Thyrenhal were much easier standalone prey for the Voltranth. Though this didn't take heat off the Thermavari, who immensely valued the Basalt Wyrms for their natural production of intense magma mana, being a beast of fire, stone, and steel by nature. One the system more than likely bred to fill a need for a few other emerging awakened beasts that were quickly eradicated by the ruthless Voltranth.
Since the integration however, the Thermavari have rapidly transformed themselves from clear underdogs to contending for the top of Thryenhal's food chain. Word from multiple sources suggest their species' stiff conditions pre-integration conditioned the majority of them for higher starting stats, noting their Qualification Tournament was so heavily populated the system enacted team fights that descended in member totals after round 50. The few gods who reserved the planet's integration viewing stations are less than reputable however, many with much to gain from increased attention lends to Thryenhal. None of my sources reported a connection to the Magmarred Magistry though, which actually gives some merit to the theory of their species-wide strength. Then again, the conglomerate of fire affinity users hardly reported their missions to the factions homeworld, let alone to the multiverse. They just let us find out, one way or another.
"Yes, and they've made quite the gamble on this species in particular." I finally replied, feeling Beloris' expectant gaze. No doubt he had plenty of intel on Thryenhal himself, considering the obvious intrigue the planet's natives strike in both Holy and Infernal forms of Fire gods alike. My eyes narrowed on the group of red-eyed and dark-robed Thermavari's plop of land between raging rapids where they'd initially been teleported in at. The group must've spotted Tom and Korbin early, as they urgently set up two members out front, one in the center of the small island, and the final two at the back. Each squad was separated by a mere 9 meters, a textbook distance for basic group-ritual formations with this many active mages. At least one form in particular; offensive spells.
"How unwise, they'll spend too much for the possibility of missing anyway." Beloris scoffed, waving the busy bodied fire mages off. Each adorned subtly different gear, and many ranged in size and general appearances. That didn't mean they were anything notable, other than a newly privileged spe-
*..vVOOM*
Almost instantly, each member managed to simultaneously channel presumably large portions of their mana pool into a single beam of flaming rock. Tom and Beloris' Chosen burnt and crumbled to ash within a matter of a second, an impressively long sustain-time for a spell of this magnitude.
"Damn?!" Beloris guffawed in shock, his head lurching back as the beam of fire vaporized his Chosen.
"Impressive, I don't recall having dealt with any faction utilizing this level of group ritual skills at H-grade." I added, watching as their faction members struggled to get their jaws off the soil they hunched over. Cassi, the one Beloris mentioned had taken on a rather curious path via his own Chosen, was the first to snap out their team's stupor. She grabbed the bigger one by the arm and barked orders to the bronze armored one while quickly drawing out something in the dirt at her feet. Considering how quickly they got up and dispersed, I assume it was some sort of battle strategy.
"I think you forget how lawless the multiverse was when we were mere H grades." Beloris said, taking his head off the top of his horned-skull to address me.
"And I think you forget who was constantly warning you of that at the time." I rebutted, hearing the smirk crackle at the corner of the demon's lips in response.
"Touché. Welp, I don't suppose you intend on sticking around, not with our plan all but executed by this point?" Beloris asked with a performative sigh.
"The same plan we had to rehash mere hours after its prior construction. No, I think our little Elysium members are too volatile to leave well alone at the moment." I replied.
"You sound genuinely intrigued, that wouldn't have to do with their female companion, would it? What of your own Chosen fighting in her own Quarterly objective?" Beloris asked giddily.
"If I didn't know your sarcastic tone well enough, I'd be offended at the implication I didn't have eyes on Veronica at all times." I replied.
"Ah, the ole 'don't let your Chosen keep you from your disciple' deal. I could respect that." Beloris said with a sly grin.
"Easy, let the wake of my interest ripple as it may with this one.." I warned, lending the devil my eyes for only a moment before checking back in on Elysium's progress given their poor predicament the remaining members have found themselves in. The Magmarred Thermavari had already began a mana regeneration spell, led by the one at the center of their square formation. Though they all wielded rather lengthy staffs, each appeared personalized and filled with enchanted mechanisms below the surface.
The woman Beloris informed me of, Cassi, had already glided her way upstream using a curiously familiar movement skill. Much like a familiar, she apparently wields a piece of my Spiritual Tides that whirled around her very aura at will. A sect of holy water skills I'd hoped would recycle naturally after I was forced to absolve my faction to that tyrant. Within minutes, Cassi managed to flank one of the mages at the front of the newest addition to the Magistry's little ritual formation. The mage must've heard her boots gliding over the raging white-waters, as he managed to conjure a lava-smoldering wall behind himself. Cassi dug her staff into the soil as she leapt from the water, summoning her Spiritual Tide at the bottom of her feet as she kicked straight through the shotty construct. No doubt the mage was still feeling the after effects of conducting such a powerful group skill, though his ability to stay nimble on his feet implied this faction's made it a tactic.
The ashen skinned mage barely ducked under Cassi's boot having clearly opted for a set of armor heavier than their lithe build could handle under those dark robes, and slammed his own staff into the soil. With a twist, dozens of small flashes of mana dispersed from the staff's center grip, releasing several strings of fire and stone mana that spiraled around the mage. Red-hot magma rose under the mage's feet as he shot up, propelling him away from his attacker. Cassi kicked off the dirt, changing direction with impressive fluidity for her grade while activating her movement skill that almost immediately closed the distance. The mage turned back, thrusting his staff humming with bright orange mana toward Cassi, who promptly slapped it away with her own bo staff as if she'd planned for him to counter attack.
Releasing her staff, Cassi landed a stiff punch to the mages jaw, kicking his feet out, sweeping him off the ground entirely. With the same arm she landed the initial blow, burying her elbow down on the falling mage's throat and thrusting the back of his head onto the dirt. The mage frantically tried scrambling up to his feet, squirming as Cassi wrapped her forearm around his neck before he could stand. She struggled with him for only a moment before letting his head go, grabbing his wrist and ducking under to get behind the mage. With a single strike, she snapped the mages elbow backwards, earning a pained yelp from the newly crippled mage. A shimmering armored shin smashed into the side of his unprotected skull, quieting his scream with a thump. Snagging his broken arm by the wrist, Cassi snatched the man as he fell limp and smashed the bottom of her boot onto the disoriented mage's face several times until he stopped twitching on impact.
"Brutal, I never get tired of seeing her do shit like that." Beloris said through a laugh. Without a second thought, she snagged her staff and leapt back onto the raging rapids, heading toward the large human and assumed tank on her unit, who had just managed to locate his own target. The second frontman for the Magistry was actively retreating toward the middle of their strip of land when Elysium's tank closed in, nearly reaching the Magistry member who conducted the group skill already stationed there. Cassi slid across the soil, her movement skill slowing considerably as she exited the water, yet still at a speed that far outweighed most humanoids' sprinting speed at this level. The tank grinned ear to ear as she glided past, raising his shield and fending off a descending ball of molten rock that crumbled on impact.
Cassi avoided severed streams of molten fire that spiraled through the air from the mage's staff. This Magistry member's jagged staff was considerably more crude, appearing more natural and made from stone than the clearly modulated staff Cassi's prior opponent brandished. Though, this only made his ability to launch several skills one after another more impressive. That is, until I noticed his comrade, the group's skill conductor, was feeding a steady stream of a mana amplification skill that fed directly into the other mages staff. Cassi must've picked up on this quickly, as she completely avoided the mage hastily tossing offensive casts.
Gliding off her watery movement skill, Cassi leapt over one final whipping streak of fire. The support mage was shorter than the other Magistry members, making the Thermavari considerable height disparity with Cassi all the more apparent as she shuffled around the mages first attack. Surprisingly, this support mage had access to offensive Voidfire skills, the dusky, raging hot mana forever burned into my memory since my first encounter with its power several integrations ago. That didn't seem to register with Cassi however, who merely ducked under the mage's open palm avoiding the skill entirely. The end of her bo staff smashed into the mages face as she slid past him, stunning him while she wound up a devastating kick to the knee. The ashen-skinned mage crumbled to the ground, his fire spewing comrade taking notice and readying another torrent of streaming flames. Cassi's massive human companion let out a primal roar as the spiked head of his flail blasted into the mages chest with a crack that echoed across Jaesk's simulated forest. Cassi slid her back foot, spinning and smashing the back of the crippled mage's skull. It took several more strikes to fully put the mage down, the Thermavari putting an oddly high constitution on display before finally succumbing.The ground sizzled with the Thermavari's molten-orange blood pouring from his head wound, earning Cassi's curious stare.
"She is an interesting one. Why isn't this skill displayed when the other two are present?" I asked Beloris, genuinely curious at the expertise she'd shown now and several rounds prior to reconvening with Tom and Beloris' Chosen. Beloris let out a heavy breath from his nose.
"You know exactly why. Look at her." He replied, pointing his vermillion finger back over the fiery rails of his infernal domains viewing area. I'd already allocated a construct to keep a constant eye on her, though I peered my prime body's head down to humor the devil all the same. Cassi was studying the Thermavari's corpse, no doubt searching for any signs of natural strangers and weaknesses. Smart, as the species is especially weak to lightning mana, which probably played a role in their choice to invest into a group skill to kill Tom on sight.
Cassi had already sent the larger one after their third remaining team member, a straggler actively caught in a rather cruel mana trap. His leg was being constantly vacuumed into a conjured pit of magma triggered by a glowing rune in the ground, pulling at his greaves like sentient quicksand. Surprisingly, the bronze armored warrior showed no signs of weakness, digging his short sword into the soil constantly yanking himself from the magma pit. Such trapper skills were rather uncommon for an H-grade, giving further merit to the Thermavari's uncannily high base stats theory. The trapper was also trying to remain hidden, perched atop a thin-branched tree hanging over the rapids. A bold move for a Thermavari, though its ignorance to no surprise considering water itself was not a resource native to their planet.
"Show yourself c-argh, coward! Pain is a choir I'll happily harmonize with, how about you?!" The bronze warrior proclaimed to the air as he struggled to escape the perpetual fire melting his leg from the knee down. The tank of a human arrived shortly after, calling out to the warrior.
"Wait, Lonni look o-" the bronze armored human tried to warn, a wall of fire erupting in front of the tank before he could get the words out. 'Lonni' raised his large shield, digging his heels in as a jet of flames spewed from a towering wall of fire in front of him.
"Not the sharpest tool in the shed, but you just got to love his spirit." Beloris said, laughing aloud sitting up in his chair.
"He's certainly strong, the weight of that spell should've had enough force to send even his hulking frame aloft." I replied, genuinely impressed at the human's display.
"The man's all strength and no brains, a build I personally love to see but would hate to be myself." Beloris causally replied, shaking his head.
"You act as though such a build hasn't bred some of the mightiest gods the multiverse has ever seen." I replied, raising a brow to the devil feeling a hint of bitterness in his tone.
"And how many still live to aimlessly wage fruitless wars? I've quite enjoyed the perks of immortality, and don't intend on relinquishing that luxury anytime soon." Beloris replied, never taking his eyes off the arguably pointless combat ensuing below. After all, it was clear Cassi was capable of completely wiping out these Magmarred Magistry members herself in this environment. She'd already located the fifth mage, who immediately plunged his short metallic staff into his chest cavity. The mages body popped and leaked unstable magma energy from the Thermavari's every pore, his eyes glowing with molten rock.
The mage's body rapidly expanded, his skin melting, hardening, and crunching over his wails of agony. Cassi wasted no time in allowing the transformation skill to finish however, leaping forth and landing several strikes using a low-level Spiritual Tide skill. A surprising display, as I'd assumed she'd be better attuned with her most natural skillset given her clear connection to the holy water affinity.
"Ah…I see now." I said, as Cassi bashed her staff into the slow, bulky molten rock abomination the mage made themselves. His smoldering skull shattered after taking multiple heavy blows, all amplified by the conjugation of Spiritual Tides. Once more, a wave of pride for having created the construct itself so many generations ago had resurfaced. I'd hoped Veronica would lean into the legacy skillset soon, though she'd been gravitating further toward the fiery side of her combination affinity that formed Steam, Fire and Water. Certainly a rare combination affinity to be born with, though she hadn't done much other than exact her strength on weaker enemies with it thus far. A shame, she has much potential.
Cassi however, has displayed a clear affinity for holy water energies. Which makes her supposed path according to Beloris all the more intriguing.
"Yes, quite the affinity for holy magic for a blossoming Hellknight. At least it is nowadays." Beloris said, amplifying his snide attitude with mana for emphasis. The devil always had a flair for theatrics, something I don't feel like humoring right now.
"Spare me, has she any other skills of this sort?" I asked, making note her movement skill was a neutral one, a blend of both infernal and holy, therefore pure form of water mana.
"She's displayed a few infernal skills since I started to pay attention, one in particular I found most had incredible potential for reconnaissance. None of them have been combative though, but I doubt that'll last as she grows alongside Korbin and Tom." Beloris quickly replied, with a glee that implied he hoped I would ask.
"I see. Why do I get the sense you've got some ulterior reasons for me to take a liking to this godless warrior?" I asked, watching as Cassi rendezvoused with Lonni and the still trapped bronze warrior.
"Haha, you asked." Beloris replied, snapping his fingers and summoning a golden chalice that sat hovering at his side. Shaking my head, I noticed through a construct I had hovering below Beloris' viewing area that Cassi elected to sit down, after scanning over the land. The floor was peppered with runic traps, the final surviving Magistry member remaining utterly motionless atop his tree. I watched as Cassi pulled a snippet of her own spirit, imbuing it with infernal energy and allowing for a spectral eye to grow from the snippet of her spirit. It hovered high in the sky, floating over the trap-infested soil, periodically pausing whenever it passed over each hidden symbol etched into the ground.
"Mana Lattice…feed line…conductor center…" Cassi's body mumbled, her eyes rolled back into her skull.
"-…got you." She said as finally, the eye zipped over toward the final mage's hiding spot, tucked between several branches.
The spectral eye yanked back across the forest and into Cassi's body in a blink, her real eyes immediately locking onto the mage's hiding spot. She dashed in a curving, serpentine like pattern between each trap effortlessly before leaping up the tree from branch to branch. The mage frantically casted his trapper skills, dropping burning symbols off the side of his branch. None of them traveled with any speed, being weightless mana constructs meant to conjure effects upon activation, something that was clearly out of this mage's control. Then, just as the human closed the gap landing a branch below, the mage's entire wooden platform lit ablaze as fire twisted around his branch in a flash. The branch strained and snapped, collapsing down toward Cassi.
With one final leap, Cassi gripped the bottom of the massive branch descending atop her head, pulling herself up and around its path while locking her foot around the mage's armpit. She pulled herself atop the mage, locking his neck between her legs and snatching his wrist. As their bodies spiraled down from atop their tree, the human twisted hard and snapping the Thermavari's arm while thrusting his face first into the dirt. Her opponents head slammed down, their combined weight crashing down on his neck that visibly snapped out of alignment on impact. Cassi let out a loud breath as her back slammed against the dirt, pausing for a beat before kipping to her feet. The Thermavari was twitching, his arm reaching for the staff that fell beside him.
"That's mine." Cassi said, slipping her toe under the Bo staff and kicking it up to her palm. With a twist, she smashed the wooden staff atop her opponent's skull, finishing him off and dispelling the traps that kept her comrades at bay. The larger one, Lonni, dropped his shield and immediately sprinted to tend to the smaller bronze armored one, whose leg was utterly charred. Cassi jogged over, earning praise from her two team members before the system teleported all three of them to meet with Tom and Korbin.
I caught Beloris staring at me out of the corner of his eye, wearing his famously nefarious smirk I knew all too well. Doesn't matter, regardless of what he sees himself getting from this, that human has officially garnered my curiosity.
"Very interesting." I said, extending the closest thing to a 'thank you' I'll be giving this devil of mine anytime soon. He nodded with a stiff chuckle.
"You're welcome."
——————————————————————