AA. 202

It was as Iris had said. On their way to the beacon, the team assaulted scuttler hives and a few ritual sites and received no points. They had no choice but to fight the Scourge team. Apparently, when Iris's companions fell, reducing their numbers from seven to five, the arena construct fused the two teams. Each group had gained a point from defeating the giant Cursed Ones the Scourge somehow brought forth from the previous sector. Iris’s team had gained her fallen companion's points. The fact that Team Forge didn't benefit from Team Kraken's efforts further reinforced the theory. 

Only one group I'd allowed to survive the sector. 

After wasting energy on the third site, they went straight to the gate. Nil also detected a massive Cursed Energy signature rapidly closing in on the group. The Scourge was coming for them. 

The leading trio got to work preparing the area for a large conflict. Nil and Iris shaped the environment. The woman had more to show than her improved mobility and her beam attacks. She superheated the palms of her Source Arms, melting surfaces before reinforcing them or closing off paths altogether. Nil then used Shiver Shield to accelerate cooling. It also made the areas brittle and perfect for collapsing structures with minimal effort. He mostly carved narrow gullies for melee fighters to slip through after leading the enemy into kill boxes. 

Meanwhile, Selia dedicated all of her soul weapon's energy to creating Sunmetal Chain barricades. Her obstacles were more reliable than what Nil or Iris created. After all, they damaged Cursed Ones, seemed to deter the Scourge’s attacks, and also were challenging to break—for Cursed Energy wielders, at least. She used the same patterns that helped Team Forge eliminate the first Scourge Champions they faced. Forcefully opening certain paths would cause chains to snap in place, lashing, if not tangling, foes.

The preparations were complete by the time Zora and Shawn caught up to them. Nil couldn't tell whether the pair had discussed the earlier argument during the journey, but both said nothing besides complimenting the setup. The pair settled to recover energy, and Selia joined them. It amazed Nil how his partner wasn't in the least bothered by Iris's presence and didn't mind leaving them alone. It was clear she trusted him, and he respected her for it.

“The pair of you make a handsome couple and duo,” Iris commented, smiling as she glanced at Selia’s graceful, meditative form. “I understand now why you wouldn't even consider my offer. Not many paramours would consider helping, let alone working with, someone who pursued their partner. I wouldn't if I were in her place.”

“You'd let me have a concubine and a harem but not work with someone who pursued me?” Nil couldn't help but chuckle. He kept his volume low so as not to disturb the others. “That's just confusing and contradictory, Iris.”

“It's not the same. I want you to cement and reinforce my position as the Kraken Clan’s heir. Any children would've inevitably grown into incredible warriors and inheritors. That's not love. It's politics. A woman in my position has no choice but to prioritize the latter. What you have with Selia clearly isn't the same. If you and I were in a similar relationship, and Selia was the one who pursued you, I would've sided with Shawn.”

“That's good to know.”

The rest period didn't last for long. It started with a low rumble and slowly blossomed into a thundering roar as the enemy approached. The Scourge champions had gathered a small army of Cursed Ones. None of the team could get their head around how they had, apparently, transported their mind-controlled minions across many sectors. They didn't need speed with such numbers on his side. A monstrous arcane signature rapidly bubbled around Zora.

“I can only pull off three of these,” Zora announced. “It takes a lot of effort and energy. There is a chance of the resulting mental strain forcing me to surrender.”

“Don’t worry,” Nil said. “You’ll get a full share of whatever we get as a reward. You have first dibs on any possible soul weapon seeds, followed by Shawn, of course, and everyone will get at least one Silver Ascension Token.”

“If there are any decent spirit companion eggs, I might prioritize one of those over a soul weapon,” Shawn said, glancing at Meatball. She sat next to Nil, watching the approaching enemy forces. “She seems a far greater asset.”

“Positions,” Zora said. Shawn immediately manifested a barrier and lifted her to the high ground. She began casting her spell straight away. Several portals opened around her, and a wide range of arcane signatures bubbled within them. “My power was designed to devastate armies. If I fall, please ensure we at least get one of the ranking spots.”

“I can’t afford anything less than second, Zora,” Nil said. “Let's go all out.”

Selia disappeared into the ground, and Shawn found a position that he could easily hold while moving between offense and protecting Zora. Team Forge now had two strikers, both similarly wielding the Source. They moved to the front, sitting just within the first major bottleneck they had created, hoping the ground-bound foes would struggle to break through the surrounding constructions or climb over them. 

The pair manifested their constructs. Iris didn’t just stop at her six arms but also granted two-thirds of them weapons. Two carried standard curved daggers, while the other pair wielded katars. The final set of limbs grew two, almost twice the size, gaining girth and length. It was a far more intimidating sight when compared to the arsenal she pulled out during sparring.

Meanwhile, Nil added knuckle daggers and a pair of curved elbow blades to his arsenal. After some thought, he also added a few sharp edges to the tail. The short spikes along the spine grew sharper, and he also turned the end into a blade. Only the blades growing out of his gauntlets received lightning wrapping. 

“You’ve got lots of new scary-looking toys,” Iris commented. “I was terrified when you dove into the fray. It took me a bit to realize that it was you.”

“Those look terrifying too.” Iris nodded at the elbow blades. “And the tail is an unexpected development.” She grinned. “My family will be mad that I didn’t try harder to get you.”

“I doubt they’ll be pleased when I complete Source arms of my own.”

The enemy’s scouts appeared, putting an end to their banter. “Don’t die,” Nil told her. 

“You too.” 

Much to Nil’s surprise, Iris offered him a fist—not one of the Source arms, but a flesh limb. He didn’t know the gesture meant the same in her world as it did in his, but he bumped it anyway. Then, they clashed with the enemy’s forward forces, and all hell broke loose.

Nil didn’t know about Iris, but neither he nor any of the Death Gauntlet team had faced such a large offensive force before. The Schema mostly sent Selia on quests that demanded stealth. Shawn and Nil received the same types of quests. They had more experience taking on solitary or small groups of monsters. Iris’s advice regarding getting in some live-combat training as a team felt more vital than ever as they took on the monstrous mass of enemy forces.

If we weren’t all so strong individually, we’d be toast right now. Crisped to perfection. Eaten. Digested. Excreted.

One With The Source continued to prove its superiority over Energy Instinct. Nil had lost the visual element, but the detail and precision of the sixth sense were unparalleled. Nil knew exactly where all of the hearts were, and he piled up corpses far faster than any of his friends. He rarely needed more than one strike to defeat his opponent and occasionally took out several during a single pass or Expend blast. 

The seemingly endless Cursed Energy kept him fueled, energized, and pushing onward. It wasn’t long before a fervor took over. It was almost like an out-of-body experience. Nil didn’t think. He only rushed onward, attacking all in his path. His companions were all behind him, and he didn’t pause to study or think about his enemies. Fire and slag flew at him. The tail, Source Gauntlets, and metallic skin on his neck protected him from most. Nil never stuck around long enough to suffer major injuries, relying on his speed, unrelenting, endless attacks, and blocking to survive.

Galvanized has progressed to Bronze 3!

Source Gauntlets have progressed to Bronze 3!

Quicksilver Burst has progressed to Iron 2!

Reinforce has progressed to Bronze 1!

The notifications retreated to a non-intrusive corner of Nil’s vision. He kept pushing forward until he found no new enemies before him. Nil had sliced and diced his all the way through the enemy forces.

“Take cover!” He just about registered Zora yelling at him. “Hurry up! I can’t hold this for long.”

It took a moment to calm himself and reabsorb all the Chaos constructs. The energy was too much just to throw away. He switched to Absorb and constructed a Shiver Shield.

“Ready,” he reported, struggling to calm his heartbeat.

“Sunbringer!” Zora’s voice echoed all around him. It wasn’t coming through the badge but all the surfaces around him. “End the darkness. Bring about a new age!”

A giant portal opened overhead. Nil expected to see countless weapons emerging from them. Instead, a blinding glow followed, forcing Nil to cover his eyes. The temperature around him rapidly increased. Order forced Nil to stay in place, but he still had limited movement. He had no choice but to drop to his knees and throw his arms over his head. 

If not for Shiver Shield, Nil was sure that the thundering boom that followed would’ve deafened him and scrambled the insides of his skull, leaving his brain to trickle out of his ears. The ground around him shook. Fissures spread, and then everything seemed to melt. Nil had pushed his energy pool to near empty and was playing a dangerous game of balancing his input and output. The attack pushed his monstrous Silver Realm stores dangerously close to maximum capacity. 

The trembling ended, and the glowing rock rapidly cooled around him. Even though Nil had squeezed his eyelids shut and covered his face, his eyes stung, and he struggled to blink away the endless spots. He just about managed to see the enemy forces around him. Many had burned and melted. The rest looked like the first ever Cursed One Nil had faced: outer layers burned, and flesh bubbled and twisted before mostly turning to stone. Many smaller specimens, especially the humanoid few, continued to move. All that were too big or had failed to find cover were dead.

In the midst of it all stood a seven-foot-tall greatsword. Nil doubted any average human had the necessary strength or height to wield the weapon. The gem on the hilt and the lines running down the blade’s center shone with the brightness of the sun. It was almost impossible to look at directly. 

“Holy shit!” Selia exclaimed through the communication badge. “You could do that all this time?”

“I don’t know if I can do that again.” Zora groaned. “My head is killing me. I’ll start preparing another nuke, but I’d rather not use it. My mind might not be able to take it. I don’t think it can handle this.”

“Maybe not the same again?” Selia asked. “I can’t very well phase through surfaces that are well over a thousand degrees.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be weeks, if not months, before I can call forth Sunbringer again.” Zora’s voice trembled as she spoke. It sounded hoarse. Nil doubted she had it in her to continue now, let alone after another spell. “Storm Skewer is next. Be warned, though, if you don’t end this before I cast my spell, I’ll be out of the Cleansing. The next two challenges will have to be completed without me.”