He was falling again. The golden light swallowed him whole, familiar and sickening, the same oppressive glow that had burned his eyes for what felt like hours. But something was different this time. He could breathe. The air did not choke him. The weight did not crush him.
[Error]
The system voice announced it flatly, cutting through the chaos like a blade through silk.
'I have done it now,' Lucid thought.
The cultists looked at him with amazement. Their purple robes were stained with blood, their faces pale and smooth and wrong, but their eyes were wide with something that looked like worship. Sickening. Vile. They whispered among themselves. One of them had a smile on their face, their hands clasped together, on the ground trembling as if they were praying.
Fenwick was awed. His mouth hung open. His face was pale, his hands shaking, his whole body trembling with the particular terror of a coward who had somehow survived when braver men had fallen.
Celeste looked at him in despair. The magistrate's composure had shattered completely. Her white hair was disheveled. Her sharp features were twisted into something ugly. She was covering up her fragility with anger, but the cracks were showing.
Valen stared at Lucid in shock. The yellow-haired boy's golden eyes were wide, his cap pushed back, his nonchalant mask completely gone. For once, he had nothing clever to say.
A personal transaction with Mercyros himself. It was not possible. Nobody had ever managed to come out of one alive. Many try aristocrats had tried. Many leaders had tried. They had all tried to win over the Monolith's will.
"They had one thing in common," Valen whispered. "They all failed."
But Lucid tumbled through the air like a bloody mess, his limbs flailing, his wounds weeping golden light.
"Hey!" Valen stepped forward and yelled. His voice cracked with something that might have been concern or might have been terror.
White light came over Lucid. It healed him, slowly, painfully, knitting his flesh back together. He started to slow his fall. He summoned the Midnight Spear and drove it into a pillar where Mercyros floated above, the impact cracking the stone and halting his descent.
A spectral golden foot stepped forward. The air rippled around it.
Valen whispered under his breath. "Oh, you have done it now, you fool."
Lucid thought now that the transaction had failed, it had put the auction at a halt. It meant Mercyros and the participants could do as they pleased. That idea did not put Lucid at ease. He was sure he would be met by the Monolith's wrath.
He had read about Mercyros. About how the being had run down an entire lineage of noble royals to oblivion. About how he had collapsed economies across the world. This was not a Monolith to anger. And worst of it, he had his lyre of transaction. He would not stop at anything to get it back, Lucid guessed.
He jumped from the spear.
He manifested his chains. The white links coiled around his arms, ready to strike.
The air rippled. A foot came through and made a shockwave that sent tremors through the pillars. That was bad.
[Integrity at five percent]
The pillars stood. Most of them except for Fenwick's. Fenwick slipped and fell. He was falling, arms flailing, feet kicking, his face twisted in terror.
Lucid saw it at the edge of his vision.
"Shit!"
He leaped through the air and dove headfirst toward Fenwick. He caught the nobleman's hand at the last moment and threw him upward. Then he manifested the Midnight Spear again, driving it into the pillar. He threaded chains around the spear, creating a line, a path, a way to swing.
Fenwick tumbled through the air. Lucid twisted and swung, catching him again, pulling him toward the nearest pillar.
Valen reached out and took Fenwick's arm, hauling him onto the stone.
Finally, Mercyros stepped through. Not in his mortal form. His spectral form. The Monolith's golden eyes were immediately fixed on Lucid, measuring, weighing, judging.
[Chronos Stasis]
Lucid stopped. His body froze in mid-air. His arms were extended. His legs were bent. He could not move. He could not breathe. He could only watch.
He managed to throw Fenwick just in time, with the chain. The nobleman swung helplessly toward the pillar.
Valen took him. Pulled him to safety.
Then Mercyros descended on Lucid.
The Monolith's spectral hand swept through the air. The impact sent shockwaves through Lucid's body. He took it. Blood sprayed everywhere. His ribs cracked. His organs shifted.
He healed. The white light pulsed weakly, knitting him back together.
That was nothing. He had survived worse. Lucid was a primordial being. A lowly deity, like the Monolith he claimed he was. He couldn't get rid of Lucid no matter how hard he tried. The feeling was personal now. He wanted the relic, but with what Mercyros had done to him, playing with him like a toy, he wanted to tear his head apart.
If a mortal could kill a god, Lucid would be that mortal.
He went straight for Mercyros. He did not hesitate.
He summoned the Midnight Spear. He weaved through the pillars with his chains, creating a small network of links that he could run along. He ran. His feet pounded against the golden stone. His heart hammered in his chest.
A shockwave burst from Mercyros's hand. He continued. He never stopped. He could not afford to stop.
He spun his spear into the air and kicked it twords Mercyros's leg. The spectral limb shattered. Golden light poured from the wound.
Mercyros swept his hand through the air. The shockwave burst the chains. Lucid spun in the air, twisting, dodging. He was close now. Almost face to face.
He punched. His fist connected with Mercyros's head. Shockwaves radiated outward from the impact. He pulled back and punched again. And again. It barely made a dent. Just cracks. Small fractures spreading across the golden surface.
Then Mercyros took him in the same position. The Monolith's spectral hand closed around his body, holding him in place.
Lucid brought both of his hands down on the spectral grip. He crushed it. His fingers dug into the golden light, making cracks, widening them, breaking through while also breaking his into a pulp in the process.
Valen yelled from the pillar. "Hey! We have to get out of here!"
Lucid did not care. He needed to kill this being. This fraud of a deity who dared to call himself a Monolith. He was a pathetic joke compared to what Neptune was, compared to what she had given him.
Lucid pushed himself up from the grip. He broke a finger. He drove the spear into Mercyros's palm.
He did not resemble the calm Lucid from before. No. This was a berserker. Someone who had snapped. Someone who had nothing left to lose.
Something changed. A green glow enveloped him, different from the white. Deeper.
"I get it now," Mercyros said. "A primordial being that inhabits your mortal vessel."
The Monolith breathed in.
Then it yelled. The shockwave tore through the air, sending Lucid flying back. He crashed into a pillar. His body folded around the impact. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
Valen took his hand and pulled him over the edge. Lucid was a bloody mess. His legs were twisted. His bones were jutting out everywhere. The light was working hard to realign his knees, his tendons, his shattered skeleton.
He was a visible catastrophe to look at.
Valen looked around. The other pillars were intact. The hooded cultists stood there, watching, their purple eyes gleaming with sick reverence. Celeste stood nearby, shaking now with trauma, her composure completely gone. Valen chuckled. It fit her.
"Hey, Lucid. Is it? We have to—"
He looked at Lucid.
Something was wrong with him.
Lucid's eyes were distant. His body was healing but his mind was somewhere else. Somewhere far away. Somewhere that Valen could not reach.
"Lucid!" Valen shook his shoulder. "We need to move. Now. Mercyros is not done. He will never be done. We have to get out of here before he—"
[Integrity at three percent]
The system voice announced it like a death sentence.
Mercyros turned. His golden eyes swept across the pillars, the participants, the crumbling Domain. He raised his hand. A light appeared above his hand.
"You have impressed me, mortal," Mercyros said. His voice echoed through the golden void, formal and cold. "But wealth is the same as faith. And belief is the same as a simple transaction. You will learn this. Perhaps today. Perhaps in another century. But you will learn."
"Keep the lyre... you have proven yourself... "
Lucid stood. His legs held. His bones were straight. His flesh was whole.
He looked at the Monolith. At the golden light that was already beginning to fade.
He turned his back on the Monolith. He walked slightly back tword the pillar's edge where Valen and Fenwick stood.
Valen threw Lucid a stone.
He took it, it was a rift seed.
"You can use fate essence right?"
Lucid nodded weakly.
"Good..." Valen sounded relived.
"Wait!' Celeste yelled.
"Do not leave me!"
"Young man, I beg of you please bring me with you!"
Lucid was about to turn, Valen closed the distance in half a second and stood against Lucid face to face.
He smiled gently eyes closed.
"You have a debt now... you know?"
"I saved you..."
He wanted to argue but he was too tired.
He only turned.
His steps were steady. His hands were steady. His heart was steady.
Behind him, Mercyros watched, the Monolith did not follow, did not strike, did not speak.
He simply waited.
Gods were patient. They had to be. They had all the time in the world.
Lucid reached the edge. Valen grabbed his shoulder. Fenwick clutched his arm.
"Let us go," Lucid said.
[ Integrity at 1% ]
He channeled Fate Essence to the stone and a small rift formed. A small white rift vibrant tear in the fabric of the golden air.
They ran. Lucid led the way, walking weary and slow. Valen followed close behind, his golden eyes scanning for threats. Fenwick stumbled and fell and got up again, his face pale, his breath ragged.
Lucid did not look back.
He stepped through.