CHAPTER 285: EXPLOSION!+

“Coordinate with Ishi to get the Dragon flight supporting Krimsim directly. We can handle the adds out here ourselves.”

I sent a thought to Etja to see where she was with her Finishing Move combo. The mage had already rotated through the combo once, but could quickly throw out a final pair of spells to activate it again and triple Explosion!’s power through her soul hug. She even had a charge from her Luck evolution, Double Down, which would double the strength of the bonus if I wanted it.

There was some concern about how big that would make Explosion!, but I had ways to solve that problem, so I gave the idea the psychic equivalent of a double thumbs up.

The Hierophant’s staff was lighting up for another major spell attack, and a quick glance at the description told me it was a Mystical spell called Hyper Cannon that would add a second spell to its effect. A quick glance at that one–called Apocalypse Cannon, which was starting to show a lovely naming trend–told me it would be a massive dump of Divine damage that also healed the creature.

There wasn’t much for me to do about it directly, given the amount of mana it would cost to negate, meaning my options were to block the attack and carve out a safe spot for my allies or have us disappear from the battlefield for a moment through a portal. I wanted to keep the Hierophant’s attention squarely focused on us, so I wanted to stay in its face.

The staff was pointed down at the Hierophant’s head, the sigil that appeared in the air was large enough to encompass its entire front half, and two Varrin clones flanked me as I flew into the building mass of mana. Twisting branches of power spread throughout the sigil, corrupting its pure blue coloration with rot and death. I felt the Hierophant’s deity again, the unknown divinity smiling down and practically leering at my soul like a delicious grape it was ready to squash between its teeth.

I finished outlining our next play to everyone on the psychic comms just as the staff rocked back from the force of the launching spell. The destructive column filled my vision, appearing as a wall to me, but I held Gracorvus up and prepared to carve a path through it with my body. The two Varrin clones both drew up their spectral copies of Kazandak and brought the blades down and to the side as the wall struck, complementing my block with precisely timed spell parries, widening the hole our allies could use to shelter from the attack.

The spell tried to launch me away with nearly as much force as when the staff itself had struck, but Gravity Anchor kept me in place. Then I felt the nauseating grasp of the divinity, befouling my soul with its touch. My shield bucked, and my arms twisted like wrung celery. My ribs creaked, and my spirit screamed as a selection of my most disturbing memories flooded to the front of my mind. A third of my health melted away, and I took another burst of Wicked damage on top. I was still just above half, with Xim’s Lifeguard buff ready to trigger if I dropped any lower.

Varrin’s clones moved away, but their ethereal bodies were starting to look ragged, like they’d come apart at any second. The massive spell attack had also restored any of the severed heads that had yet to be outright destroyed and reinvigorated the Hierophant’s abused spirit.

We had a few seconds before the staff would fire again, and we took advantage of it.

I ended Gravity Anchor and flew back toward my allies while mana shaping the raging mass of power that Explosion! had become. I burned the stack of Potency I’d earned from my overpriced Dispel to make one mana shape free and cut down on the cost.

Tavio roared and his body flared with Sumrann’s light as he brought the hammer side of his poleaxe down, knocking the Hierophant away and sending its heads back into a flickering daze. Xim’s jaws practically unhinged as she released the burning orb she’d been channeling. A supercharged version of Judgment leapt from her maw, cutting through the air like a solid mass and driving into the Hierophant’s right eye socket to rip an infernal hole through the trunk growing out of it. Fire and smoke bloomed from the impact.

A mecha leapt up from where it was hidden beneath a pile of dirt and refuse. Nuralie’s soul appeared superimposed over it, her bow drawn back to fire. A dozen arrows flashed by us in a fraction of a second, lit up like tracer rounds, and finding their way into the hole still being burned by Xim’s spell.

Varrin hovered in the air, burning eyes pulsating, and his spectacular cloak fluttering bedazzled-ly. He spun Kazandak, creating a vibrant white circle in the air ahead of him. He released the blade, which floated to the circle’s left, then drew out a sword crafted from the modified Zng materials and released it to float to the circle’s right. His clones blinked into position beside the big guy, each gripping one of the two blades he’d released. Then, Varrin pulled out a massive dark iron greatsword and thrust it into the circle’s center.

With a burst of power through his soul, the dark iron sword hurtled forth, accompanied by both clones with their own blade, all three of which were empowered by the glowing circle they were a part of. They struck the damaged trunk of the eye tree, which snapped and cracked as its entire width was finally split. Then their spiritual forms continued forward, carving through the Hierophant’s entire soul and exiting along its belly.

The tree slumped, and the rest of the trunk shattered as it was felled. The eyes of the falling tree went dark.

A brilliant aquamarine beam fell from above, and the Hierophant’s entire body became awash in potent anti-magic, rolling across it like billowing fog. The flickering gaze of those on the still-standing tree became even more erratic. The dense flocks of birds in the sky grew languid as the source of their strength was momentarily interrupted. Every bit of magic the Hierophant was working was, for but a moment, halted in its entirety.

Xim Cleansed Varrin’s Berserk, and the big guy joined the others as they fell back to me. I cast Shortcut to put some distance between us and the Hierophant, then dismissed Somncres and held out my hand.

Etja layered Repulsion into Explosion! for the extra Holy damage, AoE size, and knockback. Her Finishing Move passive pumped all of the combined spell’s effects by +200%, and she’d spent a Double Down charge to increase that number to +400%. That was a full thirty-second charge of our soul hug Explosion! combo with a five times multiplier stacked onto it. Then, I’d mana-shaped the spell so that it wouldn’t detonate in its normal spherical AoE, but instead erupt into a tightly controlled angle to limit the collateral damage as much as I could. While this narrowed the effect’s width, it also had the consequence of making it much, much longer in the dimension leading directly up and away from us. ṘÃꞐօ₿Ěš

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I opened a portal in front of me and placed the exit near the Hierophant’s sternum at a sixty-degree angle.

“Get fucked.”

I snapped, casting Explosion! through the portal.

The world shook, and the Hierophant disappeared. It had been replaced by a belching cloud of churning golden smoke. The eruption deleted a massive swath of the struggling avians, their bodies obliterated so completely that they may as well have never existed. The annihilation rose, and clouds parted as the detonation stretched ever upward, expanding for nearly two miles. It was a proper mushroom cloud, albeit one with quite a bit of lean to it, and the golden glow added by Etja’s spell made it far more beautiful than it had any right to be.

The space before us stretched and warped as it kept the explosion contained in the desired direction, neutering our experience of the blast. It was a shame, really, since it had been so much more impressive than our Mach 5 plane crash. We missed out on the joy of bathing in its sonic ambience, and I absently patted at the side of my helm, finding that my hearing wasn’t even damaged.

High in the distance, the golden smoke swirled as a massive body tumbled through it end over end. The Dimensional aspect of Explosion! didn’t seem to give a fuck about how big something was. If the spell’s effect was large enough to fully encompass something, it was large enough to yeet that something over the horizon. Of course, the current version of Explosion! was a two-parter. First, it exploded and sent everything flying off, then it imploded and sucked everything back in. I had no desire to see the Hierophant return to us, as funny as it would have been to have front row seats to witnessing the titanic monster come crashing back down.

Fortunately, the pull effect from Explosion! was oriented on its origination point, which was a mechanic I could abuse. I’d created a small gap in between my Closet portals before firing the spell, nestling the origin in a spot that was just barely inside the Closet. That only worked because of how I’d mana shaped the ability to concentrate it into one narrow angle. However, that also allowed me to get a little silly.

I squinted into the distance, looking out over the Forest, the border of which began about a half mile to our south. I picked a random spot and moved the portal that I’d opened underneath the Hierophant out as far as I could, just above the trees. It still had to be within range of the original spell, but that gave me plenty of room to work.

When the follow-up pulse came from Explosion!, the Hierophant was pulled directly downward, careening from the sky, trailing streams of golden smoke. Its mangled form shot to the ground several times faster than terminal velocity, and it crashed on top of the Forest’s massive trees with a fresh plume of dust and debris.

“You know,” I said to no one in particular. “Deific portals are pretty good.”

“Deific?” said Tavio. I looked over to find the man standing on one of Xim’s outstretched hands. He didn’t seem to have a stable flight ability, just a series of attacks that could keep him perpetually airborne when needed. He adjusted his footing as Xim’s body began to shrink. The timer on the cleric’s Wraithclaw transformation had run out, but she still had beast mode and her Angel of Fury going. “What do you mean, Deific?” he asked.

“Ah, that’s a whole conversation,” I said. “Something better discussed over a few drinks, maybe.”

“His portals are stronger than they should be and can’t be fucked with,” said Xim, her voice like the mewing of a pride of dying lions. It gave me goosebumps.

“I… see,” said Tavio.

“Guess it was a shorter conversation than I thought,” I said. I pinged Grotto for an update on the rest of the ongoing battle.

Varrin hovered closer as his two clones returned, carrying his three swords. They fell to pieces and rejoined with his primary soul as soon as he accepted the weapons. He looked us over from beneath his dark helm, then turned back towards the Hierophant’s fallen form.

“The Toxicity AoE is gone,” I said. “We’re out of its range, at least. The Dragons are supporting Krimsim and have taken up the slack from the cannons going offline. Team Pio is cleaning up their own fight.” I paused and listened to another relay from Grotto. “They would have had a faster victory, but there was a surprise attack from what sounds like a dozen invisible pterodactyls. Guar was mostly decapitated, but he’s better now.”

“We need to ensure the Hierophant is dead,” said Varrin. “I doubt we will receive any notifications until all of the birds have been dealt with.”

“The body is at least two miles into the Forest,” said Tavio. “That area is currently a Divine Dungeon. It appears normal from here, but changes rapidly once you cross the Forest’s edge, and all forms of Dimensional travel are blocked. It will not be easy to–”

I opened the Closet entrance, connecting to the exit that I’d used to reorient Explosion!’s pull. We got a nice view of the Hierophant, its body torn and twisted, a mess of mangled limbs and branches decorated with the brain matter of countless stolen heads.

“Ah,” said Tavio. “This is what you mean when you say Deific portals are pretty good.” He peered into the portal. His face was hidden by his helm, but I was pretty sure he was sniffing at the air. “It is dead,” he said.

I frowned and looked at the creature. The body twitched.

“Not to say I doubt you,” I said. “But I find that I am doubting you right now.” I threw a volley of Void Hammers, prepping for the Psychic blowback as they collided with the Hierophant’s body. None came. Xim fired off Judgment, and Varrin launched a wave of cutting force through the portal. The corpse started to burn freely.

“It is not the Hierophant,” said Nuralie. We all whipped our heads around to find the sneaky archer standing on Xim’s other outstretched hand. Even Xim seemed surprised to see the loson suddenly using her as an aerial platform.

“Whaddya mean?” I asked.

“There is another being,” she said. “Something evil.” Pause. “It is attached to it.”

I looked back through the portal, studying the creature with my Sight. Its soul had mostly fled, though it clung to its spine like a fog that wouldn’t lift. I examined the mana within it, finding the flows broken and dissipating, except for the same area along its back. The area that was covered by its weapon.

“It’s the staff,” said Nuralie.

“Gah, fuck, I was almost there,” I said, already throwing hammers at the massive length of mana-woven wood. Xim and Varrin changed targets as well, and the Hierophant’s body shook as the mighty pillar began to tear itself away. The Hierophant’s corpse began to swell, and the awful gas it had previously expelled billowed out of it at an alarming volume. I caught sight of a dark flame, and I closed the portal before the whole thing could detonate. In the distance, a mile of forest was consumed by the rotting fire.

There was a gruesome flash of light, and the staff became a wound on our reality. It rose from the festering pit, its form stuttering, and with each stutter, it grew, until the staff towered high enough to peek through the hole in the clouds created by my spell.

Three sigils formed in the sky overhead, and they blotted out the sun.