The Knight was so focused it had almost not heard the spell, but because it did, it got translated, which gave it a clue of what is about to come.
(Bring chaos into this order
Consume as your insatiable appetite desires
Let none escape from thy embrace
I bound you
I seal you
Into the depths of time, I banish you
Into the vacuum of space together with everything around you
Where you may once again bring order to the chaos)
It still could not fully grasp what was coming. The Knight was about to attack when it felt the disturbance. The void it had summoned was slowly vanishing, even as nothing it was disappearing. The Knight then absorbed as much as it could and teleported as far as it could. Then there behind it a black spec appeared, it then absorbed everything into itself.
It pulled in the air itself, the bark from the trees were being pulled towards it. And the Knight could swear that even light itself and time were being warped. 'What kind of spell is this even?'
A sphere suddenly materialised, forming a perimeter around it, then it closed within a fraction of a second. The Knight then thanked Folisha and her gift of speech for warning the Knight to escape instead of trying to stop it. If the Knight had not been so quick to react, it would have been stuck inside it. It felt the book, thus Keiper, were not inside either, it had made it out. Then the Knight moved incredibly fast, ignoring the chaotic scene of a black hole being summoned just to be banished. And just like last time, the Lord of Spells had used a spell to escape and was trying to conceal itself again.
Then when the Knight was about to catch up to the escaping monster it heard something unsettling. This coincided with the massive explosion from behind the Knight as the summoned chaos disappeared, leaving a massive vacuumed that was filled it by the part of the trees and rushing air. A massive tree that had lost a semi sphere of itself collapsed. However, both the back of the vacuum, and the crashing of the tree did not muffle out the whisper as it reported on something the Knight thought impossible.
10 units of the Vile Knights void territory have been lost.
Even with it still confused due to the confusion spell, it was sure of what it had heard. The shock almost paralysed the Knight as it felt the small amount of weakness from the loss. The Knight then absorbed all of its void. Using all of it to strengthen itself. It then grew to a few hundred metres, it could not risk losing more of the void, the next time it could be more.
'This battle has to end!'
The Knight then found the monster using the Vile Hunters senses. The monster looked up, it could see now, but it was somehow in more danger. As the massive hammer descended, it thought about its situation more clearly.
'How could it have escaped the spell, the only way, was if he was somehow predicting my moves – must have seen it before or had another early warning. How is it able to find me? I am sure I was thorough this time. I must assume this things senses aren't like mine, so it must be tracking me using something else.'
It looked at the chest, it was hard to forget something causing one so much mental anguish and agony, just to be nearby. The fear had not even waned – in fact, it had gotten unbearable after the Knight grew in size. It would have committed suicide, but it kept using spells to counter its ability to kill itself – like how it tore its arms off and broke the ribs. But after pondering for a while, it finally figured it out.
'The book! If I… wait… I can use my power now. How did I not notice that, with the darkness gone – I have another of my strengths back.'
It activated its power. The trees rumbled, and then the monster glowed a dark sinister glow. The trees began rotting as they started to disappear. It was using the power that directly contradicts that of the queen, and most of all forest folk, instead of form – it had power over reversion – the forms of things that have been changed. The air itself was reverting back into hydrogen, and even hydrogen was reverting back into quarks. The latter was slower.
This was not the rot seen in food, this was the power over reversion. Even a proton was breaking down into its components. The heat released from all this was just collecting in front of the hammer head and the monster, creating a barrier, and this is what the Knights hammer struck. The hammer however did not revert back into its components.
The power over reversion was slowly turning things back into what they once were. The bigger the change the harder, and longer it took Keiper, the keeper of the book of spells to accomplish. It had just recently gotten this power, but it had impeccable use of it. Even more so was that the energy it takes from reverting things back into their base, it used to make weapons and barriers, like it was right now. One can imagine the amount of spite this power has, as this is a direct contradiction to the power that forest folk, his kin, grow into as they become stronger.
Sadly though, even after becoming mad and gaining the knowledge within the book of spells, this was still the only power he could get, as it base it is still the same power just somehow reversed. This stung him more because it proved to him, that even in the end, he could not remove himself from the roots that are his people.
The objects made by the Knight are made from souls. They are not compounded atoms; they are just a single thing. That is why when they are over stressed/exerted, they become nothing once more. The only reason this hammer shattered after the counter was because the Knight had forced some of the void into it, not because of reversion, as the Knight had rewritten its existence, meaning for all intense and purpose, that was the base form.
The impact sent the monster hurdling back; the barrier had not fully blocked the hit. This is when the Knight grabbed it with the tips of its gauntlet – pinching something out between its thumb and pointing finger. It pulled on something it had grabbed inside the soul. The thing the Knight was pulling out was the will. After taking all that damage from it and the queen, and using a high-end spell like that, including activating a power this strong – the soul had to have been battered and exhausted, and the Knight was counting on this.
The Knight knew firsthand how useless a drained soul can be after facing Vice in battle. The will the Knight pulled was not the main one. So, it did not die. The will the Knight pulled was the will of madness. The main will in this monster was that of learning. This is also why it was able to talk while being a monster. But even so, its soul began to fade.
This was because of the book and how much knowledge it had crammed into it. Without the will of madness keeping the soul together, it was over. As in the story it had told Basil, it had kept its soul from fading by willing it, trying to learn. The truth was that it was the will of madness that kept it alive. But now all those spells in it were destabilised, seen by the chaotically moving stars. This was too much for the soul thus making it collapse.
Afterall, once a being goes mad, it cannot go back. Its red orblike eyes, just sitting on the face, fell out, and in the blood filled socked, the Knight could still feel the glare. Even with blood clogging its mouth, it was able to say one last spell before it died – every syllable somehow pronounced correctly – as it knew saying a spell wrong spells disaster.
"Reincarnation with memories… – keep me close… bring me back!"
Greed could never be satisfied; thus, it managed to complain about the fact that the Knight killed yet another being, instead of taking it, but the Knight knew it couldn't manage to take its soul, it was not yet strong enough to contain it.
The book in the ribs glowed one last time. Then the soul disappeared instantly, instead of fading slowly. The body collapsed and became a pile of ash. The Knight reached into these ashes and out of them it pulled out the book and held it high as the ashes rained down like snowflakes.
The Knights grin once more returned as greed finally stopped gnawing on it.
However, one could almost see the smile phasing through the thick void aura and the helmet as the Knight laughed. The eerie noise travelled throughout the woods, reaching far and wide. Of the few that heard it. It sounded like the world laughing at those who live, for it knew something they did not. The first step towards a gruelling future – had begun.