Chapter 256: Outmatched (1/2)

The walls of the encampment had become a prison to the monsters driven to panic by the Builder’s aura. They were stampeding with nowhere to stampede to, a wild crush that was catching up the cultists and the construct and converted that served them. It was somewhere between a juice press and a meat grinder.

The air was filled with the sounds of combat and terror. The monsters let out a menagerie of shrieks, cries and roars. Cultists were yelling, trying to direct the constructs and converted. The automaton servitors made no sounds themselves, but the sounds of their destruction at the claws of frenzied monsters added to the storm of noise.

There was one space of eerie calm. No matter how scared or driven to madness they were, no monster would draw close the Builder. In the eye of the storm, Two figures stood still, staring each other down.

The Builder was wearing Thadwick’s face. Instead of the snide, entitled expression, there was now an incredible presence animating what were actually quite handsome features. Instead of arrogance, there was a confidence that transcended the mortal shape it was inhabiting. That shape was still intact, the Builder’s power not yet taxing it to the point of breaking down.

The Builder cut a heroic figure, facing off against Jason’s sinister, shadowy appearance. Over flowing, black combat robes was his cloak of night, a veil of darkness and starlight with the promise of mystery and power.

“You have an inflated sense of your own importance,” the Builder said.

It spoke softly, yet its words carried perfectly to Jason, even over the cacophonous din around them.

“Yep,” Jason agreed. He also spoke softly, having no doubt the Builder could hear him as well.

“You think all this will let you stop me?” the Builder asked.

“It would be a lot of trouble to go to if I didn’t,” Jason said.

“I’m not going to kill you,” the Builder said. “You have caused me trouble enough that I will make an example of you. The next person looking to cross me will think twice when they learned what happened to you.”

“Really?” Jason asked, his voice this with derision. “You try and use my soul as a hand puppet and you want revenge because I didn’t let you? For a great astral being, that’s very human.”

“Do not try and bring me down to your level.”

“You’re already here, mate, but that’s not on me. I’m just some random, low-ranked bloke trying to make his way in the world. Or worlds, plural, I guess. You saw some idiot sling a soul your way, tried to snatch it up and it didn’t work out. You could have left it at that but you just couldn’t let it go. You brought yourself down to my level and here we are. Well, slightly above my level. Frankly, you could do with a nerf, just for fairness. For all your vast, cosmic power, at the end of the day you’re a sentient being, just like the rest of us. I guess pride is a hard vice to shake, operating at your level.”

“Do you think I don’t see through what you are doing?” the Builder said.

“Engaging in classic hero-villain banter. I won’t lie; this is something of a dream come true for me.”

“Whatever your companions are doing, they will not succeed. Zato will stop them.”

“That’s funny,” Jason said. “I believe in my friends too. We have that in common.”

“I adjusted Zato’s body modifications personally,” the Builder said. “Even after the consumption of his essences, he is stronger than he ever was as a mere essence user.”

“The team knocked off a silver-rank essence user already. They can deal with your little hand puppet.”

“You killed Hendren through the escalating power of your flesh-rotting abilities. I reforged Zato in such a way that those powers cannot harm him. Even if you were with them to help, your powers would be futile. But you are not with them. I will capture you and he will capture them. I will claim their souls and they will be the ones to kill you, slowly and painfully. I will record it all, that every being that serves me will see for themselves the fate of the great Rejector. You will be a useful recruiting tool.”

“Yet, ironically, the one acting like a huge tool is you.”

“Name calling is the best response you can muster?”

“You’ve been inside my brain,” Jason said. “So you know that it pretty much is, yeah. I’m being facetious, though. In all honesty, that was some solid villain monologuing. You should look into getting a weather machine.”

“You still believe you can win,” the Builder said. “This is not a matter of win or lose. It is a matter of how long it takes for my intentions to be realised.”

“How about a compromise?” Jason asked. “We could give you something else instead of huge strips peeled off the side of reality. How do you feel about delicious sandwiches?”

“You are tiresome,” the Builder said. “It is time to end this.”

Jason felt magic surge in the ground beneath him. He vanished into his shadow as two slabs made of the ground beneath him rose up to snap together like a bear trap. All they caught was the body of Shade left behind, which was unharmed.

“Just a tip,” Jason called out from within the monster scrum. “You shouldn’t warn that people you’re about to make a sneak attack.”

The Builder gestured in the direction Jason’s voice had come and a wave of stone spike rose up from the Builder’s feet and crashed into the monsters. Jason, in the meantime, emerged from the other direction and lunged at the Builder. A wall rose up in his face, blocking him off, before exploded over him, thousands of razor fragments storming over him over him like a hurricane in a gravel quarry. His cloak danced to life, a forest or dark tendril zipping out to intercept the projectiles. Most of the fragments blew past him, while the rest fell harmlessly at his feet.

Jason dashed into melee. As it turned out, great astral beings had little use for martial arts skills, and the one’s the Builder inherited from Thadwick were significantly sub-par. Jason’s dagger flashed rapidly, scoring quick marks on the Builder’s flesh.

Special attack [Punish] has inflicted [Sin] and Mark of [Price of Absolution] on [Builder’s Vessel].Transcendent power within [Builder’s Vessel] has negated these effects.[Sin] does not take effect.[Price of Absolution] does not take effect.

“That’s not good.”

The Builder grabbed Jason by the face. Gordon appeared with a surge of Jason’s aura and beams of blue and orange energy blasted from his four orbs. They focused on the Builder’s arm and the Builder let go of Jason, who vanished into his shadow again. A dozen spikes burst out of the ground and floated between the Builder and Gordon. The air around them started shimmering and the spikes launched out, tearing large rents in Gordon’s incorporeal body. Gordon dissolved into a nebula and shot away into the crowd of monsters, where Jason has escaped to. Jason reabsorbed his familiar back into his aura.

Each of the combatants were making unpleasant discoveries as they fought. Jason was the worst off, with the realisation that he had no means to effectively harm the Builder. Even his strongest trump card, Colin, would be of no use when afflictions couldn’t take hold. The best he could hope for was that his sword would be effective, which was a slim chance against the most powerful enemy he had ever faced.

The Builder was discovering the limits of its vessel. Vessels were meant to be generals, not soldiers, and channelling even moderate amounts of power through them accelerated their degradation. This vessel in particular was weaker than it would normally tolerate but this was a pursuit it would undertake personally.

Jason’s words had found their mark when he said the Builder’s pride as a great astral being had been pricked. Even with the considerable luck and circumstance that made it possible for Jason to win the battle for his soul, the fact remained that he had won. Given the disparity in their power, it was an intolerable record for a being of near infinite power.

If Asano died by any means but the Builder’s own design, he would achieve a kind of immortality as the Builder remembered the mortal who bested it for all eternity. This was not an outcome the great astral being was willing to tolerate.

Unable to effectively fight, Jason was forced to flee. Unable to let him go, the Builder was forced to give chase.

When the camp had been plunged into chaos, the rest of Jason’s team started fighting their way through the madness. Like an icebreaker ship they were a solid wedge, smashing a path through hostile and inhospitable territory.

After the Builder’s attempt to pacify the situation with its aura backfired so wildly, it had withdrawn it. This allowed the team’s own auras to recover but the damage was done as far as the monsters were concerned. The crush would not abate until they died or escaped the walls.

The team had to fight past monsters, constructs and converted as they slowly made their way down the tiered levels of the camp. They didn’t bother finishing off anything tough enough to survive a handful of attacks. Stopping to secure kills would only slow them down and nothing was following them in the crazed, shoulder to shoulder press.

As they closed in on the tower they found the monsters were pushing away from it, clearing something of a space as they jammed into one another to get away. The magic throbbing from the tower carried a similar feel to the Builder and the monsters were terrified of it.