Chapter 875: The Terminator’s Undead Sorcery (1/2)

Chapter 875: The Terminator’s Undead Sorcery

The Terminator knew it’d come to the end, he’d prepared for it. If he hesitated any longer it would be too late. At least he wouldn’t let his failure become the end for his allies. He could die proud of that fact.

“Your Majesty, wait a moment.” Lan Jue pleaded.

From the outbreak of war they’d lost Satan, Xiuxiu, and most recently the Pontiff. There were so few of them left. If the Terminator… The realization was like a dagger to the heart, but he couldn’t think of a good excuse to give the Paragon.

“Take care of Chu Cheng, he is the North’s last hope. If you defeat the aliens, help him do what he must.” The Terminator’s voice was calm, with little emotion. It was Lan Jue who felt his heart sink with these final wishes.

He couldn’t summon the words to ask him to stop. Now was the time for action, or the chance to make the Terminator’s death mean something would pass.

The Conclave’s leader took a deep breath. Suddenly his body surged, and a crackling light like electricity radiated from his dark gold skin. The strange and unexpected scene caused the Queen’s avatar to shiver. She flicked her wrist and the threads of purple light she wielded gathered together to protect her. Chu Cheng’s attacks could not get through, and she hoped it would be the same for whatever Terminator was planning.

Golden light shone from the convert’s eyes. All of a sudden his aura burst out like a torrent and a burning shell of golden light sprang up. In horror they watched as his protogenia consumed him. The Terminator was his own Domain, and as it turned in on him his skin and muscles melted away. In the same moment the bones beneath grew, and in a few short breaths the Terminator had become an enormous golden skeleton.

“This is…” The Keeper, so wise and learned, gasped when he saw what was happening. He vaguely remembered seeing something like this in an ancient text.

“Undead Sorcery!” The Bookworm blurted out, completing the Keeper’s thought.

Yes, undeath! The Keeper recalled learning about it. But to his knowledge it was an ancient Discipline from the West. They were called Necromancer, and their goal was to understand life through death. When a Necromancer reached the end of their natural lifespan they sought to become undead, and thus live forever to continue their dark studies.

A necromancer might also choose undeath if, in the course of their experiments, they suffered grave injuries. The process was irreversible, and the moment the Necromancer shed their body they were no longer human. They belonged to the ranks of the dead.

But in all his research the Keeper had never heard of someone becoming undead in the middle of a fight – much less seen it.

Relying on what he could sense the Keeper realized the Terminator was filtering all the energy of his body into his skeleton. It made the Terminator stronger, though beyond that the old researcher couldn’t tell how else it affected him. It went without saying this process made the Terminator a terrifying force on the battlefield. He now commanded the power of the Infinite.

Boom--! With one punch the shield Queen had created broke apart into a thousand pieces. The Terminator’s eyes were the only flesh of his to remain, and in their depths burned the indomitable force of his soul. He reached forth with his bony hands to try and snatch up the avatar, and where they passed great fissured appeared in the fabric of space-time.

The Terminator also kicked a foot, but this was aimed at Chu Cheng. He knocked the young Paragon away from him and toward where the Pharmacist was fighting.

Queen’s avatar whipped the threads of purple to create another barrier. She channeled her Creation and Destruction Domain around her in total defense.

But to her shock and horror, the Terminator’s bony hands suffered nothing when they reached into her Domain. Neither the powers of creation nor destruction seemed to apply to this golden skeleton on any level.

Boom! Queen was flung away with the force of the punch leaving behind a caustic purple mist. He’d wounded her badly. However the Terminator also paused. He couldn’t maintain this unnatural form for long.

“AGGHH!!” The North’s ultimate Paragon, leader of the Great Conclave, heaved with a roar that threatened to deafen everyone nearby. Once more his skeletal form blazed with golden light and became a thousand ghostly copies. All at once they swarmed Queen, cutting off any means of escape.

No one could have guessed the Terminator possessed such a ghastly and potent ability, not the aliens nor the other humans. It was a skill that would cost the man his life, but might also turn the tide of battle. The Queen’s avatar was currently lost beneath the myriad copies of Terminator assailing her.

Lan Jue was the only one who could sense that the Terminator’s life force was gone. It was the power of his spirit that sustained him, but only for this final onslaught.

If it could be said that the Pontiff’s sacrifice galvanized their fighting spirit, the Terminator’s downfall set their blood to boiling. The Keeper and Bookworm exchanged a silent look, and each saw the determination in the other’s eyes. The Avenue’s old scientist extended his right hand, and the Bookworm took it with his left.