50 Severing the Connection (2/2)
”You, who will right the wrongs of your predecessor, The Man Who Forsook the Stars , the previous owner of the sacred name, Ka'an . I will be your guiding light and compass for when you survey eternity on the other shore.”
Oh, nooo. I've got yet another girl who loves to speak in riddles in my hands. I've hit the jackpot, again… W-Well, she's not that bad, I suppose. Although we started off rocky at first, I can at least tell that she isn't a bad person at heart…
Reed shook his head and said, ”So all I need to do is find the heart and cut it away from the rest of the body, right? I can handle that much, if that's all I have to do,” A loud, ear-piercing screech shook the city; It was doing something. ”Looks like our time's up. Let's get this over with, I've got places to be.”
Indeed... all heroes share this fascinating trait — The will to live; to move forward and fight.
Anima shimmered in response to his will and waves of righteous light gathered around him like a protective shroud. When she disappeared back into the cloak, he felt as if she had connected with him and suddenly felt the incoming rush of power she'd talked about. It was a euphoric sensation, unlike anything he'd ever experienced in his life. Reed felt his senses expanding at an incredible rate; a completely new world had suddenly been opened to him. It was as if his ability to manipulate Anima had grown a hundred times in the span of an instant.
He felt genuine awe and fear; he realized that he was now capable of doing much more with Anima than before. So much more. With a single thought, he could bend the world until it screamed in pain.
”I can do this.” Reed channeled an astonishing amount Anima into himself and then launched himself with enough force that some surrounding buildings around him even collapsed from the aftershock. A massive wave of Anima blew across the rest of the city as if a bomb had gone off, startling both friend and foe alike.
The tower roared in rage when it detected the holy aura around Reed and loudly screeched, ” Wa thaftft ialun sha sh'una ur haa'an su gaftu'a' lianuthnans su sha raftta hau'! ” The sky trembled in protest as numerous tendrils of dark energy descended upon the city. Each one was easily larger than even the tallest building and carried with it the stench of corruption and death.
As soon as they forcibly pierced through the cloud-layer, they started their assault on Reed. Some tendrils reached out to grab and restrain him, and others split and morphed into hideous beings, intent on tearing him into pieces as they charged towards him. A host of abyssal creatures eagerly from beyond the void eagerly welcomed the lone boy to struggle against them, their contorted faces smiling in twisted delight. T hey wanted to fight.
Reed could not have possibly been more disgusted as charged into the maelstrom of chaos. He swore to himself that he'd purge every single one of them. With a single thought, he summoned an enormous sea of holy flames and sent it towards the horde. Screams of fury resounded as the horde did their best to avoid the oppressive heat and purity from Reed's attack, but it had traveled far too fast for them to dodge in time. A hole had been formed in their ranks of the horde, filled only with ashes and remnant scraps of light.
The horde immediately realized underestimated their enemy and took the lesson to heart; they hurriedly dispersed and adopted different tactics to keep themselves from suffering the same fate as their former comrades. Stronger abyssal creatures summoned wards of corrupted Anima around themselves and other conjured weapons formed out of the surrounding miasma. The weaker abyssals ran into the surrounding buildings for cover to wait for an opportunity to strike from the shadows…
They were not mindless scum like the Infested, which operated on instinct; No, these malformed fiends had sentience and a corrupted will of their own. Reed's indifferently gazed at the scurrying fiends and made a mental note of it — He'd have to more pay attention around these ones. The filthier they were, the smarter they'd get, it seemed… but it didn't matter. He'd still purge them all.
Reed charged through the hole in the defenses he'd made with his attack and forced the Anima around him to bend to his will. Anima began around him began spinning around him at an ever-increasing speed and tornado of pure Anima formed. All it needed now was a single match to set it off. He snapped one of his fingers and set it aflame with Lacrima's converted Anima. The ignited vortex of holy flame would continue feeding on the surrounding Anima and would continue growing until Reed stopped it himself.
He decided that it was simply for the best to burn the entire city district down to the base. Let the fire grow until it had consumed and purged all of the filth in the area. It was up to him to clean up the mess he'd made, so he'd do it efficiently. The vortex of flame quickly grew hotter and larger as it continued devouring Anima, sweeping across the city district as if it was a swarm of locusts, eating Anima and burning everything it touched into ash and cinder.
When Reed heard a cacophony of deafening screams, he knew that he wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. Now he'd be able to focus on his prey without worry. The hideous tower stood alone in agony as his flames ate away at its surface without end. A litany of unintelligible curses poured out of its mouths as it gathered Anima. Reed knew that it was likely going to attack. Only by following the path that Anima coursed through it would he find its heart. He would have to gamble — if he spent too long searching, it'd finish preparing its attack.
Should he fail, he'd have to repeat the process again from the start, that is, if he hadn't died yet. The tower was not like the cannon fodder it had summoned. With his heightened prowess, he was capable of seeing and understanding much more than before. It was connected to a source of infinite power on the other side and was likely an immortal entity. This was far beyond his pay grade, to say the least. Even with his strength, he was still wary of being hit by anything that it could create.
It seemed that Lacrima had noticed his concerns and whispered, ”I can probably block one or two of its attacks if I have to but I can't guarantee anything more than that. It'll win for sure if you let it to this battle into one of attrition. The only reason we stand a chance of winning is because this is just an avatar, an incarnation of its true self…” Ribbons of soft light sprung out of his cloak and wrapped around his right arm until they covered a majority of it.
”I've finished preparations; all you need to do is feel out its heart and point to where it is. I'll handle the rest, and we'll be done with this mess.”
Easier said than done. Reed shut his eyes, blocked off his remaining senses, and began focusing on the Anima that surged around him. It was easy enough following the Anima to the tower, but it became a headache after that. Following the pathways inside of the gigantic tower was a nightmare; streams of Anima overlapped, traveled in nonsensical directions and sometimes disappeared entirely, much to his frustration. It was an unorganized labyrinth of pathways that lacked any hint of order or structure.
Time was running out. He needed to find the heart now or else it'd finish gathering Anima. Luckily, he'd stumbled upon a possible lead, a powerful stream of Anima. It was far larger than any of the previous pathways he discovered before. It was what he needed most, a small hope to cling onto. He hurriedly followed the pathway and discovered an even larger pathway that led him to what he wanted the most.
Where most might lay down and surrender themselves to fate, heroes rise from the ashes of conflict and despair to give people hope.
It was right there in all of its terrible majesty, the heart of the Nightmare. The connection that anchored it to the world. All he needed to do was sever it and his work would be complete. Reed opened his eyes, pointed at the heart's location and said, ”I found the damn thing, it's right there. Finish this.”
To make them believe that there will be another day. That not all is lost.
”With pleasure,” said Lacrima and a beam of holy light slashed the tower's heart in a single blow, piercing through it and sky behind it. The attack left a massive gaping hole that left Reed flabbergasted. That sort of firepower could have probably destroyed the entire city had he pointed the beam at it.
The creature went silent after its heart had been ripped out and did not move again after that. It started hardening and turned black until it looked like an obscene tower straight out of hell. The storm subsided not too long after the connection with the tower's true self had been removed.
It was over, for now. Reed had accomplished what sought to do; that was good enough for him in his book. He let out a deep sigh and murmured, ”That's enough excitement for the today… Let's go back and check up on every—”
An abrupt spatial tremor shook the city just as he was about to finish his sentence and a giant ripple of Anima swept over the sky, dyeing it blood-red. ”An omen of evil, no doubt,” thought Reed as he gazed at the burning sky. A moment later, a painful, grating noise struck his ears; it sounded like two pieces of metal scraping on each other violently.
In the distance, a massive tear in the sky opened up like someone had wounded the world itself. Reed gazed at the ominous scene and quietly said, ”I might've spoken too soon. This day just won't seem to end…”
Lacrima chimed in and replied, ”It would've been a lot shorter had you not messed up, though. You're welcome, by the way. You know, for cleaning up your mess.”
”....”
Ah, she's started up again with that no-good attitude. I'm going to have to teach this damn cloak a lesson she'll never forget.
Reed swore that he'd take the cloak to a tailor after he made back home. Maybe they'd be able to cut her ego down to a manageable size…