Too Stubborn to Die

As the beast lords coordinated their attacks in deadly fashion, Aaron’s core was going critical. He kept pushing more and more energy into it, cycling stupid amounts of mana as he fueled his anchors, pushing them beyond their normal limits.

The beast lords themselves were strong, but that wasn’t why he was pushing himself. With skill alone, he was certain he could best them, given time. But time wasn’t something he had.

He glanced back at the arena where silver and golden light flashed out as Zero and the Beast King clashed, and his brow bent as he furiously attacked the beast lords.

Zero was plenty strong himself, but that Beast King was a serious competitor for their world, especially with the power he had absorbed from the other beast lords.

But the beast lords were not going to go willingly. As he launched his attack, he was met head-on by one of the alien beasts. It looked like a giant worm with a razor-lined maw, and massive butterfly wings carried it through the sky as it snaked toward him, plumes of pink bursting outward like fireworks from its body.

The moment he was in range, Aaron felt his throat tighten, and his breath shorten. They were some kind of toxic spores, and by the time he reached the worm, he had already breathed in a lot.

But instead of backing off, he pushed more mana and aether through his core, healing away the toxins and throwing a haymaker that literally crackled with energy.

It was obvious that the worm had expected to achieve more with its attack, and it shrieked as Aaron’s fist slammed into it, literally blowing it into ribbons of gooey pink flesh.

But the moment he landed his attack, another beast launched its own. From behind, a beast that looked more like a demon attacked, its clawed and furry hands swiping for him.

Aaron dodged easily, but they weren’t aimed at him, he realized. As the claws cut through the air, they rippled holes through the sky and tore into extradimensional space, causing rifts that sucked everything into them.

The deadly rifts lasted for several seconds, ripping things from the ground, and even a few unfortunate beasts that had been nearby, until System energy literally patched them back up.

But as deadly as the attacks were, Aaron was simply too powerful to be sucked into such a rift, and required little more than a minor pulse of mana to resist the pull.

“What?!” The demon beast sneered as its attack seemed completely useless. “Nobody resists my Cosmic Rift Claw! That’s a Mythical—”

Its complaints were cut short as his fist slammed into its head, completely obliterating it, and its headless body was sucked into one of its own rifts.

A fraction of a second later, a dive bombing bird the size of a truck shot down toward him like a bullet. It would have slammed straight into him, possibly killing him in one if he hadn’t spotted it at the very last moment through the threads of fate, and phased.

A booming sonic blast followed seconds later, once the bird had already well and truly passed, highlighting just how fast it was, but he couldn’t take chase, as some kind of nail-tailed beast flung into range, its tails whipping out at him all at once, covered in energy, and threatening to rip him apart unless he avoided them. While another beast that kind of looked like a laughing Buddha, if it were crossed with a mouse, shot blasts of energy from its mouth.

Turning into a blur of dodging and phasing, Aaron somehow managed to avoid all of the attacks, and circled back around to give them a taste of their own medicine.

I gotta go faster! Gotta push myself! Zero is out there fighting that damn Beast King by himself!

A cascading array of explosions all lit up the sky at once, and to his enemy’s abject horror, came flying straight through it, with a cruel bent to his face.

First, he aimed for Buddha Mouse, and the beast got one last squeal out before his fist turned it into meat paste.

Nine-tails had taken his attack on the mouse as an opportunity to try and hit him, and in the process, got one of its tails caught.

Aaron literally turned into a blur as he spun around at ever-increasing speed, spinning the Nine-Tails, who roared as his grip tightened on one of its tails, and then he released.

The nine-tails shot off like a cannonball, straight into one of the barriers protecting a group of nearby beasts, and exploded into gore and blood on contact.

“Almost there! Just a few more!”

That was when the bird dived down again. But Aaron was ready this time, and he prepared, throwing a punch straight up at the beak of the diving bird at the perfect moment.

And to be fair, the bird packed an incredible amount of power into its dives. But Aaron’s fists weren’t just empowered by a haymaker; his mana anchor had expanded once more during the combat and was now radiating a stupid amount of mana and aether as they collided.

Feathers and gore rained down across the battlefield.

The last two beasts looked at one another with fear in their eyes. If they hadn’t been able to beat him with the numbers they once had, the two of them wouldn’t stand a chance now.

“Oh, you’re scared now, are you?” Aaron grinned as power bubbled up in his anchors, and he prepared to annihilate them.

But before he could launch his final attack, he felt a tremendous power tear through the region. It wasn’t just Aaron, though. It seemed just about everyone paused, beasts included, and turned to watch as the sky changed. It was no ordinary power; it was corrupted aether, and it was far stronger than anything he had experienced before.

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“Darius?!”

Immediately, he looked up to the sky as it turned dark, and aether filled the clouds themselves, twisting them angrily.

“What is this?”

In the distance, he spotted dark gray energy arcing through the sky, corrupting everything it touched. He spotted several sharp edges pointing through the clouds that the dark energy was flashing between.

“What are those things?

Within seconds, it became clear that they were obelisks. There were dozens of them, and the obelisks riding atop giant undead constructs and they appeared like a circle around the settlement, their dark arcing energy creating a barrier around it, and shooting into the sky above.

The scene was absolutely apocalyptic, and he saw the energy drawing something in the sky above it all. It was a circle- no, not a circle; it was almost like a pentagram, but different. It had strange writing, like ancient runes across it, and as the energy took shape, it formed ancient-looking symbols he had never seen before.

But what really sent shivers down his spine was the sheer amount of aether radiating from it. It was on a completely different level from anything he had witnessed so far.

Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good. Aaron glanced back at where Zero was flashing against the Beast King. He wanted to go aid him. Help him deal with the Beast King. He trusted him, but he didn’t want to leave him with such an epic challenge to face alone. But he couldn’t ignore this, no matter how much he wanted to.

He had no idea what Darius was up to, but it could be anything with the amount of power he was summoning. This was exactly the kind of bullshit he was worried about, and he needed to deal with it immediately.

Even if it was impossible to summon the Death God himself to their world, he was a god with thousands, or maybe millions of followers. He likely had all kinds of powerful entities at his command. For example, if a high C-grade lord was summoned to their world, it would have no difficulty slaughtering everyone, including Aaron.

As powerful as he was, Aaron was painfully aware that he and everyone on his world owed their independence to the System imposed barriers that protected it from the rest of the multiverse.

If whatever this was, was able to circumvent such things, the outcome would be devastating.

Aaron gritted his teeth. Zero was more than just a friend. He was an ally who had always been there for him, and he trusted him as much as anybody. But he couldn’t put anyone above the future of their world itself. Neither himself nor Zero.

Despite knowing what he needed to do, he hesitated. Zero was strong, but could he actually defeat the Beast King alone?

Before he could make up his mind, Aaron felt his relay stone tremor, and a message came through as he touched his hand against it.

Go, Master! You know what needs to be done. Nothing is more important than stopping the necromancer!

It was Zero, and he almost wished he hadn’t gotten the message as a knot formed in his chest. But… he couldn’t ignore it, either.

Sorry… boy. You better bloody win.

He pushed a ridiculous amount of energy through his body, blasting himself off toward the obelisks, disintegrating one of the beast lords as he flew through him, and shooting two [ Bombardier Fists ] backward as the last one as he shot by, blowing it to pieces with an impressive explosion.

He couldn’t help Zero with the Beast King, but at least he could help even the odds by taking out the last of the lords.

Unfortunately, now he had a world to save.

Zero

Zero eyed down the Beast King as he felt corrupted aether erupt around him, his rapier in hand. He didn’t even need to look. Just from what he sensed, he knew Aaron would have to do something about it.

And for some reason, it made him smile. He loved his master, but to some degree, he felt himself in Aaron’s shadow, as most did, but this was his moment to prove himself.

He stared down the Beast King as the giant lion circled. Despite the fact that his rapier was huge compared to a human, it looked small in the face of the Beast King’s massive, aura-radiating sword.

Silver light flashed as Zero closed the distance between them, swinging his blade with the same speed, but the aura struck him again, weakening him and slowing him.

“HAHA! Not bad, but not good enough!”

The air around him seemed to get heavy and thicken as the Beast King swung his massive blade.

In an instant, Zero was gone, making use of his next-level speed. But a glance up at the sky confirmed his fears. The corrupted aether that was spilling out across the land had obstructed his silver moon, weakening its effects on him.

“Stand still so I can hit you!” The Beast King roared as it chased after him.

For now, Zero held an undeniable edge in speed. But he could already feel the Beast King’s aura sapping at him. At this rate, he would lose his advantage, and then wouldn’t stand a chance against the powerful lion.

I can’t let my master down!

Zero flashed back and forth, staying light on his feet as he looked for openings, shooting silver beams at the Beast King whenever he stood still for even a fraction of a second.

There had to be a way. A weakness that he could expose.

The moon exposed the silver seams, which he could take advantage of, assuming he could see its light.

As he bounced around, he got an idea and tried to draw the lion’s attacks to him.

The Beast King mightn’t have been as fast as he was, but it was far stronger, and when the golden blade ripped through the air, it cleared chunks of aether away.

That’s it. I just have to keep doing that.

There was a problem, though. Zero was getting slower as the aura weakened him, and it was a struggle as he dodged several more strikes, slowing down enough so that the Beast King would swing when he wanted to.

But soon, the golden blade had blasted back the aether, and he could see his silvery moon again.

Now’s my chance!

It only took a fraction of a second. A tiny miscalculation, thanks to the weakening aura, and he didn’t quite dodge the next attack; the edge of the golden blade cut down, opening a gaping wound over his shoulder.

Zero had to bite down and ignore it. If he gave in to the pain now, it was all over.

Flashing to the other side of the Beast King, he scanned it for weaknesses under the silver light, and saw the seams before his eyes.

It was tiny. A thin gap barely a centimeter wide, but the silver light glowed brightly over it, illuminating it for Zero.

In an instant, he was one place, then another, confusing the lion as he zipped from side to side, feinting and creating an opening, and then, bam, he went for it.

He cut down the line illuminated for him, and his blade passed straight through the protective aura that had shielded the Beast King from him, and through his flesh.

The Beast King howled and backstepped. A huge wound slit across his chest, and blood gushed furiously. He had opened a deadly seam in the Beast King’s defense, but he was far from dead.

“You actually hit me?” The Beast King snorted. “Not bad. But it will be the last time you do!”

Zero flashed away as golden flashes of light destroyed the arena around him.

If the Beast King had been strong before, it seemed he was pushing himself to another level entirely, and it took everything Zero had to prevent himself from being obliterated.

But a moment later, as the array of deadly attacks ended, they both touched down on either side of the arena, panting, and ready for round two.