Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 263: Song of Annihilation

If the [Master of Primordial Flame] had been a hammer, the sound mage was a scalpel. Tightly controlled fields of vibrations fouling up bullet projectiles, patches of ground being reduced to quicksand underfoot, perfectly tuned sound waves impacting buildings to vibrate the rebar to the point where the structures all but detonated into a field of shrapnel around them after barely half a second.

And all of that wasn’t even mentioning what happened to people who got too close or didn’t move around enough. A couple of seconds to determine their bones’ resonant frequencies, maybe two hundred milliseconds of perfectly tuned, well-targeted, sound, and then the victim’s bones would literally be reduced to powder. Bad enough to have something like that happening to the bones in the legs or arms, but when it was done to the skull … as far as fast ways to die went, that had to be one of the worst ones.

And even those who were managing to avoid direct hits or entering the danger zone were suffering, blood running from more than one soldier’s ears or nose, a few even coughing bloody mist from just being in the general area.

Scanning the man didn’t earn him much information. Sound magic, a metric ton of physically reinforcing Aspects, and a dark stain that spoke of a deeper danger, a darkness that should not be present in a human being. This was an evil [Class], not something that could be gained with good intentions, and its holder was not someone Isaac wanted to share a planet with.

… As though the figure’s actions hadn’t already made that clear. Really, it was all eerily familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was bothering him.

Isaac charged, Balmung manifested in his right hand and a kabar clutched in his off-hand. On the surface, rushing an enemy like this wasn’t exactly the brightest of ideas. If the blitz attack succeded, things were all well and good, but if it didn’t, and he remained near this enemy for an extended period of time, he’d be in trouble. Surviving having his bones quaked apart wasn’t something he was built to do.

That being said, Isaac did have his mental finger hovering over the metaphysical button that would trigger [Tools of Terror]. It was a [Skill] that let him borrow one body part from one of his Aspect monsters. Normally, he had it standing by, ready to transform his blood to that of a Hydra at the drop of a hat whenever an enemy got themselves sprayed in his blood.

Now, he was preparing to swap out his bones with those of the Hyrda. They were different enough from his own that any attempt to quake apart his human bones would fail against those of a Hydra. Sure, sheer force would still be more than enough to hurt him, but the precisely modulated, bone-pulverizing trick would take a little longer to succeed.

The very instant he got within a hundred meters of his target, the world was drowned out in a surge of noise. Clashing swords, screams of pain, and the last dying breaths of those who were not long for this world. The sky turned red as though the very air were tainted with blood, and the ground became a bog of bloody mud and bodies. A warzone straight out of hell.

And as if that hadn’t been bad enough, some of the sounds were very specific cries for help, people crying out for Isaac’s help, or desperately begging him to stop what he was doing. Familiar voices, belonging to his friends, allies, and even family. He knew it was all bullshit, as it was obvious, but that didn’t make it any less painful to listen to.

Even though the hellish landscape extended as far as the eye could see, Isaac’s [Aura] told him that was an optical illusion, the transformation only affected things within a hundred meters of his foe, everything beyond that wasn’t actually there.

The Horseman of War. Probably still an Aspirant, but still, a very different ability set than the first one. Sound instead of gravity.

Was it possible that the Horsemen had various possible powers that all still allowed one to take up their mantle? Gravity and sound were perfect for controlling a battlefield, and their wielders had been attached to the Horseman of War. What could the others’ powers potentially go for? That could turn into a nasty, nasty surprise down the line.

But right now, he had one specific foe whose ass he needed to kick.

War seemed to grin under his crimson mask, his entire posture radiating smug satisfaction as Isaac closed in.

His every sense suddenly screamed danger as power surged around him.

[I Am The Sword] triggered, not only rendering Isaac invulnerable but also allowing him to keep up his forward momentum. Even as a pillar of raw power rose around him, vibrations reducing everything caught within two hundred and fifty meters of the figure to dust.

Of course, Isaac kept going, kept moving, his momentum unalterable for the moment.

A more concentrated blast hammered into his face, once more doing nothing.

Only when a barrier that could have laughed off anything short of a nuke shattered before him did War finally dive for cover.

“Not bad,” The armored figure laughed as Isaac exited the other side of the pillar of annihilation, the sound coming from everywhere, “Got me to waste a few good strikes. But what are you going to do now? You’re out there, I’m in here, and I don’t have any reason to hold back anymore now that I have a worthy opponent.”

The confident smirk was clearly audible in that little speech as the man spread his arms and began to cast. The very air began to vibrate, and then he punched the ground, causing the asphalt under Isaac’s feet to buck, forcing him to leap a few more meters back.

Where that man’s powers vibrations, sound, or both? He couldn’t tell, so he’d have to prepare for both.

But he still had a plan.

One could be forgiven for calling Isaac a swordsman, fire elementalist, or spellsword. And it was true, in a way.

But his real weapon was something different, more conceptual in nature. Something best summed up as “It ain’t stupid if it works”. And in this case, what worked was an eighth-grade science experiment.

He threw Balmung straight at War, [Power Strike] providing the initial acceleration while [Remote Wielding] only added to its speed.

However, the trajectory began to be fouled the instant the sword entered the storm of destructive vibrations until it eventually clattered to the ground a few meters from its intended target, where it was pinned down by a series of constant, powerful, shockwaves.

“Really?” War laughed.

And then the sword ignited. It didn’t matter whether or not a substance was traditionally considered flammable, when it was reduced to powder and surrounded completely by air, and by extension, oxygen, it still burned like tinder.

Of course, a standard dust explosion using regular fire could never have hurt War at his Level, but then it was a good thing Isaac hadn’t used normal fire in months.

Hellfire, for that “fuck you and all life” energy that damaged more than just the physical.

Napalm, because it clung to absolutely everything.

Stellar plasma, because why not?

The starvenom flame of an Uraeus serpent, just to add insult to injury.

And who could forget the Samadhi fire he’d only just stolen?

Isaac dubbed the most lethal combination of fire that had existed “Prometheus’ Wrath”.

The world vanished in a multicolored blast of fire, black, yellow, orange, and deep crimson tongues of flame licking towards the sky as Isaac fought to contain the blast, keeping it concentrated on its intended target. After a long several seconds, it finally cleared up, leaving behind a deep crater filled with glass and glowing slag.

Around him, the world returned to normal, the warscape fading away like a bad dream.

If Isaac just ignited the dust cloud, War might have had a chance to remove the dust around himself.

If War had been smarter, he’d have done that the instant his pillar of annihilation had been unleashed.

And if he’d been just a little more paranoid, he might have run from the sword out of general principle.

But he’d not done any of that and now, he was dea- … no kill notification.

Isaac kept his guard up as his gaze raked over the fire-blasted landscape.

And then, he saw his enemy falling through the air, still very much on fire but with every passing millisecond, the flames were dying down as … Isaac had to do a do a double take when he saw that War was disintegrating his own burning flesh, then blasting the remains off himself.

The left leg was gone completely, the other was still there up to the knee but basically just a bone sheathed in charcoal, the right arm was surprisingly intact but the left had been obliterated along with most of the attached shoulder. And several other spots had been disintegrated down to the bone to prevent the hellish blaze from burning more deeply.

It should have been a fight-if not life-ending level of injury, but War was looking surprisingly … fine. Missing a few bits, but his condition didn’t seem to be deteriorating, and [Moment of Immortality] hadn’t even engaged. Another [Skill] had, though. Shit. Isaac knew [Moment of Immortality], where its limits were, and how to deal with someone using it. This crap, though …

And then the fucker activated another [Skill]. His magic Stats plummeted as his physical Stats shot through the roof, putting him barely below Isaac in terms of Agility, and his Strength, Fortitude, and even Perception were around that benchmark as well.

But that wasn’t the most extreme change. No, that honor went to the pair of wings that sprouted from his back, a pair of strange amalgams made up of sticks, stones, spears, and primitive iron swords, a bizarre collection of mankind’s earliest weaponry.

Odd, and they would probably allow him to fly even if wings made of those kinds of materials really shouldn’t allow for it, but that couldn’t be all, right?

The hellscape returned, smothering Isaac’s surroundings once War got within range.

And then, the wings beat. Once. A hail of countless projectiles hammered down in a deadly rain of supersonic projectiles. Isaac was actually faster than them, but the sheer volume of attacks was the problem. That, and the fact that there were other people in the area without his defenses.

He launched himself skywards atop a pillar of flame in an attempt to get above the man, barely managing to evade the next projectile storm. This time, it was a combination of bronze and iron swords. The wings had changed as well, becoming more metallic. Were they advancing through the ages of warfare? How long until Isaac would be dodging bullets, nuclear blasts, or even [System]-age attacks?

Chances were, outright nukes would be beyond the scope of whatever this [Skill] was, but even without them, this would be bad.

At least the sound magic had cut off.

Isaac rocketed past as the third wingbeat turned the ground below into a field of blades and corpses, then abruptly reversed course the instant he was above War.

Another wingbeat, though this time, the hail of projectiles was unleashed upon the upwards movement of the wing, as opposed to the moment they went down.

Shit!

Isaac pushed himself away, the combination of massively reducing his mass and his flames granting him insane maneuverability in mid-air. Almost as insane as the mana cost for keeping this up. He’d been fighting for far more time than most of his battles required, and even the brief burst of Samadhi Fire had been expensive.

“Can anyone see his mana levels?” Isaac asked over the general party chat. He’d have hoped that someone would have volunteered that information, but it was always possible someone did have that capability and hadn’t spoken up.

He dove out of the way of yet another salvo, this one containing mostly arrows but also catapult projectiles and ballista bolts.

Isaac’s last trump card was [Champion of Mankind], which he didn’t want to use yet as he might be screwed if he was unable to finish the fight. Technically, there was also [Grave of Swords], but locking himself in a small room with that fucker would be a truly terrible idea.

He let himself fall back down to Earth to conserve mana while continuously evading the subsequent salvos.

“He’d using mana every time he fires a salvo, but not nearly as much as he should. Maybe ten more salvos?”

“Thank you,” Isaac replied a split second after the information reached him. That would explain why some wingbeats didn’t unleash salvos.

But even with that, he didn’t know how long those wings would remain, or what the hell was keeping that man alive. It wasn’t [Moment of Immortality], even if Isaac hadn’t been able to recognize it, it would have run out over a minute ago.

He needed to get that fucker out of the city.

Isaac launched himself past the enemy, throwing another sword in passing, but all in all, presenting a fairly tempting target. Not just because he was briefly exposing his back, but also because his enemy couldn’t afford to give him the space to accelerate when he returned.

But War stayed put.

Once he was five kilometers out, Isaac chugged a mana potion, turned, and came back with a vengeance, forced to phase to avoid being impacted by air resistance.

War let himself fall to the ground to dodge, disrupting Isaac’s fire blast with another salvo of projectiles, and this one had cannonballs mixed in.

He did not want to move … maybe he couldn’t? He might just be stubborn, but he might also be limited by either his transformation or immortality [Skill]. The power to transform into the incarnation of warfare throughout history and not die while on the battlefield did seem like the kind of powers the avatar of war’s destructive nature would have, right?

Either way, ending the other fights here might help free up some others to help.

[Champion of Manking: The Thinker] activated, granting Isaac the cognitive ability to slide right into the intel officer slot of Ardoin’s party. And then, he split his mind into a thousand strands of thought. In five seconds, [The Thinker] would end.

But for those five seconds, he was aware of everything around him, information arriving from every member of the party, letting him access all their variations of [Inspect], see through their eyes and all in all, made him the spider at the center of the web.

And then, he activated both [Lessons of History] and the [The Meaning of the Name], and all was laid bare.

He spoke to almost every member of the group at once, and their enemies fell like wheat before the reaper.

And five seconds later, the tide of battle had turned and Isaac was out of trump cards.

War somehow managed to go white despite basically being a charcoal briquette at this point and that’s when Isaac launched himself straight at the man.

He dodged the majority of the first salvo and almost managed the same trick against the second, but that one had been filled with airburst shells meant to take down enemy aircraft during the first half of the twentieth century.

Isaac’s armor took most of the hits, but several projectiles punched through regardless, tearing ragged wounds into his body. And then he was within range, and both his [Auras] blazed to life.

One rust-red and steely grey, half of it wrapped around his limbs and swords, the other half projected outwards to serve as an impromptu detection sphere.

The other a bloody crimson, a two-meter-in-diameter sphere around his body, both shielding and healing him, but also standing at the ready to tear his foe to shreds.

He was upon his enemy in a flash, the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] empowered to the point where it was practically solid, holding back the wings while Isaac’s left hand crushed War’s shoulder.

And in his right hand, a kabar sat, which flashed out over and over again, punching through vital organ after vital organ.

War’s pitiful sonic [Aura] had been crushed the instant Isaac had come within range, and now his body was slowly disintegrating under the force of the twin energy field that bore down on him.

It was taking far longer than it should have, and his body was absurdly tough, even stronger than it should be given his Fortitude, but the degree of reinforcement was dropping alongside the surrounding level of conflict.

A final blast of sound flung Isaac clear as War made a desperate dash for freedom, pulling out a healing potion as he fled and unleashing three more wing salvos, but the injuries accumulated had been too much without the reinforcement provided by his [Skill]. A [Skill] that had died when his allies did.

Human (Lv. 146 Aspirant for the Mantle of War) has been slain 50,000 XP gained (7,.000 XP base distributed across 23 people as per their contributions)

Unfortunately, the last three salvos had been the most devastating, containing heavy explosives, guided missiles, and a hail of spells, respectively.

Isaac didn’t even bother trying to gently return to terra firma, he just let himself fall until he landed on his feet, the shock sending a wave of pain through his body. Cracked ribs and countless lacerations throbbed, but he was alive. War wasn’t.

The sickle-wielder had also been taken down, Schultz had trapped him in a corner by a constant bombardment of thunderbolts and electrically charged air-to-ground munitions, and then Zeneli had just rolled over him with her projected Phalanx. It might be a slow formation, but it was one made for being unstoppable, its inexorable advance crushing anyone who wasn’t in a proper formation. An aspect that was increased to absurd heights by her [Class ]. And that was the end of that particular fight.

The Kitsune had gotten away, though. Sun had gotten a little distracted when Isaac had started speaking and the entire battle had shifted as one, and the Kitsune had used that to skeddadle.

That would doubtlessly be the cause for a fun conversation in the future, Isaac just knew that.

He looked around the city, or what remained of it. All of this had started out as a fight over eels of all things. And the cult had escalated to the point where a city with a population of fifty thousand was mostly been leveled. To make things worse, Isaac doubted too many of them had been evacuated with the constant bombardment of illusions making it impossible to identify civilians as such.

He hadn’t thought it would be possible to make him hate the cult even more, but somehow, they’d managed it.

Things would not continue like this!