AA. 187

• Might: Silver 0

• Finesse: Silver 5

• Mind: Bronze 1

• Spark: Silver 5

Brutal Battery: Bronze 9

• Absorb: Bronze 9

• Expend: Bronze 9

• Toggled Supercharging: Bronze 2

• Energy Instinct: Bronze 4

• Anti-Friction Lattice: Iron 8

Source Gauntlets: Bronze 1

• Wield The Source: Bronze 2

• Galvanized: Bronze 1

Nil couldn’t be happier. All he needed to ascend to Silver Realm and Gauntlet was to make it to second place in the Cleansing. A Silver Ascension Token was guaranteed, and he’d get the necessary rank to proceed to the Silver Gauntlet. Selia and Shawn only needed third place to progress. Meanwhile, Zora only needed to ascend. Arena ranks naturally decayed over time. A single victory every three months to prevent it. The many tournament victories had ensured she remained at the gauntlet’s peak.

The advancements in the other abilities also excited Nil. Energy Instinct didn’t come with as much detail as Selia’s supernatural echolocation. However, every rank seemed to increase his range. Nil could detect the denser and more powerful sources from several kilometers away now. Details became more transparent the closer he got. Much like all of Nil’s other abilities, he needed to practice and fine-tune it. The quest on Heimer had highlighted how relying on just the basics wasn’t enough. 

Quests would continue to get more complicated. The young Scourge Champion on Heimer was nearly impossible to detect. The teleporter with mantis blades was the same. Unless Nil improved his ability to find such individuals, they’d get the upper hand sooner or later. Getting better at manually using Energy Instinct would also hopefully accelerate its growth. The Energy Purification upgrade would hopefully hasten things. He hoped to call upon all elements of the ability instinctually as he had Toggled Supercharging.

As Nil sped forward, switching between running and sliding, he hoped Anti-Friction Lattice would soon gain ranks and ascend to Bronze. The ability’s usefulness spoke for itself, and he couldn’t wait to see how ascension would improve it further. When Nil picked Brutal Battery, he never expected to get particularly speedy. He expected powerful leaps and bursts of speed to be the extent of it. 

Things changed with Toggled Supercharging, and now he felt like he was amongst the fastest Bronze Realmers on Earth. In fact, he couldn’t think of many Silver Gauntlet fighters from his world capable of matching him. Between Expend Blasts and Chaos constructs, Nil didn’t feel the need to constantly switch to Absorb to survive. 

Team Forge has scored 1 point and needs 3 more to make it through the next checkpoint.

Your team has freed a Well of Power from the Void’s control and may divide 5 Schema Tokens and 500 Schema Credits between yourselves.

“Thank you for speaking up,” Zora said. “These rewards are way too stingy.”

“Well, I hope your year on Ashe Fall goes well,” Nil told her. “If you end up in the same place as—”

“Yes. Yes.” Zora sighed. “If I end up in the same place as Sammy or Emmy, I’ll look out for them. You still not going to tell us what you asked for, Shawn?”

“No.” His answer was short and curt. “Zora won’t admit it, but she needs a break. We’ll keep moving toward the beacon while she cultivates. How are you two? Any injuries.”

“We’re golden,” Selia said. 

“I picked up a big roving signature moving in the same direction as you,” Nil said. “It's big, and I don’t like how it feels. Something is very wrong with it.”

“Cursed Energy?” Zora asked

Nil shook his head but then remembered that he needed to speak out loud. “No. It's just wrong.” He didn’t know how to explain it. “Might be the Void. We’ll see soon enough.”

“Thirty minutes in, and we already have two,” Shawn stated. He sounded chipper. Nil was glad the man seemed to have relaxed since the match began. Combat seemed to push his other concerns aside. He hoped the Wilson Luduses team would get knocked out without Team Forge ever meeting them. “At this rate, we might be first to the gate again.”

“And one team in the quadrant has already been knocked out,” Selia said triumphantly.  “We got this.”

“That doesn’t mean we should target the other teams,” Zora replied. “Especially if we’re not all together. It's best if we just avoid the others altogether.”

“Unless they’re the Scourge, of course,” Nil told the team. “Then we lock them down and take them out.” He heard Zora start what was probably a reprimand and quickly followed with an addendum. “Locked down until we’re all together, of course. No taking them out unless we’re together, boss.”

“Drop that boss shit,” Zora grumbled. “Seriously. I know the competition allows for us to continue even if some are knocked out but I want all of us alive and together until the end. Danger levels are going to rise sharply, and two or three people will struggle to get this done. This is especially relevant when we find groups like that Iris you mentioned and the other Scourge who’ll work as groups of eight, if not more.”

“The odds of that happening are pretty low until after the next gate, if not the one after,” Selia said. “But yes. After this sector, we’ll stick together more. Or maybe just maintain close proximity for the next, maintain our lead, and use the full rest period. Then stick together for the final three sectors.”

“Technically, it’s sectors,” Shawn said. “The final gate will take us to the Cleansing’s last challenge. Then, there will be the vault or whatever.”

A notification interrupted their conversation.

All first sectors have been completed. Because of exemplary performance by all teams, twenty-three have been allowed through to the second sectors. 

“It’s very likely we’ll see this nonsense until after the third gate,” Zora said. “Either more teams are being allowed through for maximum Cursed One and Void purging, or several ones, twos, and threes have been allowed through.”

“Enough chatter,” Shawn said. “Get more points. Get to the gate first. We’ll continue going straight and take out anything that gets in our way. Meet us there.”

“Roger.”

The pair sped through the rainforest. Selia phased through trees and rocky mounds, shooting out of each faster than the last. Air resistance and gravity slowed her progress. Meanwhile, Nil mostly slid around obstacles, changing directions whenever necessary by swinging around trees or with hand blasts. A grotesque sight awaited the couple when they found the pursued energy signature. It was as Nil expected: a Void entity. Its luminous focused on the duo, and the many mouths beckoned them in familiar and alien languages, using diverse tones, pitches, and volumes.

“Holy shit!” Selia exclaimed. “These things are far uglier in person.”

“You’re not wrong.”

Spines wrapped in alien lights shot at the pair, forcing them to dash in opposite directions. The giant blob of flesh and organs moved on tentacles and insect-like legs made of several bones held together with muscle and magic. Appendages randomly whipped at the duo, making the creature’s movements challenging to follow. The luminescent fluids flying off the creature changed whatever organic matter it met. Shrubs turned into crystalline statues and a bird zooming by liquified, but somehow didn’t lose the power of flight. Nil grazed a tree and found it had turned into jelly, and then another’s root sprang to life, almost tripping him.

Nil couldn’t tell whether the assimilator had merged with another Void entity with reality-bending powers or the literature on the creature was incomplete. He knew that getting touched by the sprayed fluids was a big mistake, and Selia wouldn’t be much help. She proved him wrong moments later, sinking into the ground and shooting out of a distant spot, leaving a long Sunmetal Chain in her wake. Selia’s trajectory carried her over the monster, and then she disappeared into the ground again. 

More loops followed. They kept the creature from moving but did little against the thrashing around limbs. The luminous fluids and alien magic running through the flesh did little against Nil’s Chaos spikes. They disintegrated massive chunks, giving him the confidence to move in closer. An ordinary Source Sphere didn’t feel enough against the beast. Nil pushed his limits, pouring most of his stores into a pair of basketball-sized spheres. Maintaining both simultaneously pushed his shaping skills to their limits. He dashed in, wrapped both in electrified Balance, and thrust them at the creature before throwing up a Shiver Shield.

The spheres floated away from him, moving at a snail’s pace. The crimson lightning struck flesh, disintegrating bits but there were almost infinite limbs swinging at him, attempting to grab, thrash, and crush. Infinite-crazed eyes glared at Nil, and the mouths screamed. Then, the rapidly revolving Chaos Spheres reached the assimilator, and it wasn’t just the lightning destroying flesh. Energy flew free of the spinning sphere, disintegrating larger chunks. Meanwhile, any appendage that touched the silver pyramid surrounding Nil froze and cracked, suffering instant frostbite. It didn’t take the attacking limbs to Absolute Zero, but it was close enough.

Absorb would’ve done an adequate job and Nil wouldn’t be immobile, but Shiver Shield helped Nil recover far more energy, hurt the attacker, and also protected him from the flying luminous fluids. They pooled on the ground outside the pyramid, twisting grass, fallen leaves, twigs, and all else lying on the forest floor. 

Eventually, the pair of Chaos Lightning Spheres ran out of fuel and shrank until nothing remained. Bits separated from the main body thrashed around mindlessly before losing energy and collapsing. They lay on the ground pulsating. The dripping fluids started changing the flesh, turning them into inorganic, alien-looking materials. The eyes lost their focus, and mouths just shrieked, gradually losing volume or going slack.

Nil focused his attention on the central chunk, which was still moving. The loss of mass seemed to have affected the creature’s ability to propel fluids. The liquid dripped instead of sprayed. He felt far more comfortable directly approaching the monster but let Selia bind it with more Sunmetal Chains first. Then he approached it with another giant Chaos Sphere. He didn’t electrify it and thrust the raw energy at the creature. 

Team Forge has scored 1 point and needs 2 more to make it through the next checkpoint.

“Good job, you guys!” Zora exclaimed. “We just took out a giant Cursed One but got no points. We’ll move on to the next one. No injuries, I hope?”

“No, but I’m spent,” Selia answered, panting. “My phase-shifting energy will recover as I cultivate, but the Sunmetal Staff is done for now. It’ll need a rest before it can produce chains.”

“Take it slow then,” Shawn said. “I think this big thing ahead is another Cursed One, but I’m more hopeful about this one. Just continue toward the beacon.”