Chapter 300: Altercation and Obliteration (1/2)

I lifted a hand and shouted, ”Now wait just a minute. You're actually free?”

Lehesion narrowed his eyes, slicing his tail down at me in a flash. I lifted my shield overhead, the starry portal larger than my own body. Lehesion cut his own limb, leaving a gaping hole where he'd of hit me. Revulsion spread over his face as the seafloor quaked beneath me.

The ripples and cracks spread back until they stopped along the blue core's barrier of my city. I gawked back at the fallout sticking my palms at Lehesion, ”Hey, big guy, I'm talking to you. Are you lying to me about being unshackled?”

Genuine confusion spread over Lehesion's face while his eyes narrowed, ”And what if I am, little one? Why would it matter to one who will die?”

”It matters because we can talk this out. How did you escape? I thought that was impossible.”

”Your torturing out sustained my capturer's tolerance for it. Now I roam free, my life perpetual, my wrath infinite.”

I checked, having been tearing his mind up for a while now. Lehesion told the truth. He was free. Thinking on my feet, I switched Event Horizon to The Rise of Eden, washing the boosting aura over Lehesion. He eclipsed his previous form, becoming a monster even more formidable. The rush of stats flustered Lehesion further, and he gawked at me,

”What are you doing? Did my full strength drive you mad, and now you wish to die before it overtakes your full sanity?”

Still tethered to his mind, I shifted my attacks towards the psionics, attempting to help Lehesion out. Gritting my teeth, I frowned, ”We're not enemies.”

A primal hatred bloomed in Lehesion chest as he took a step forward. The sea quaked as cracks ebbed outwards from his claws, ”And you would have me believe that after what you've done? After sundering my body, after enveloping my mind in thorns and claws and pain? Our battle was purgatory, one where I rested in the cage while you prodded from afar.”

He simmered, ”And now you wish to cease our battle when that cage has been lifted.” He radiated golden energy, ”You will find I am not so easily tricked nor defied.”

I shook my head, ”Let me explain myself.”

He snarled like an animal, ”My patience grows thin, thinner than the string tying you to life. A string I will snap in my jaws, soon, should your reasoning falter.”

I grimaced, the mind mages overwhelming in number and skill, ”I tore you down because you were a pawn to someone else. I have nothing against you, Lehesion. If anything, I think we could be allies. Maybe even friends, under different circumstances.”

Lehesion spread his wings, his body emboldened by the Rise of Eden, ”Your words fall on deaf ears, little one. Evoking my wrath will lose you all you've ever held dear.”

Incalculable amounts of mana streamed in as Lehesion shined, ”My people and my planet are dead. Of yours, only ash will remain-”

I roared, ”Are you a pawn by choice, or are you really just this stupid?”

I caught him off guard, and the giant gialgathen sputtered, ”What? No. I am not. In fact, I am unequaled in intelligence.”

I spread out my hands, ”You should talk me down into surrendering if you're that damn smart then.”

Lehesion tilted his head, ”You are unyielding. You may not be reasoned with.”

”Try me.”

”Uhm...Then, then I shall do so.”

The golden gialgathen coughed, ”I am pitted against you at all times and at every corner. Each time we've met, you've attacked me relentlessly. Killing you now would make my existence far more bearable. I am certain of it.”

He got back into his standard bearing, ”And so, I shall destroy you.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, ”Lehesion, you're a literal legend. You can reason better than that.”

Lehesion snapped, ”I have just now regained my senses after decades of being chained down by a horde of psionics. When you've been in the same circumstance, then you may judge me. Until then, be silent, and cast your appraisals elsewhere, perhaps on something you actually understand.”

”Ok, ok, you're right. You're not in the best position to make calls about what to do next. I'll give you some more time before I take you for a fool, alright?”

”You stall for time to preserve your petty guildsmen and your tiny city. I know that much.”

”You're not wrong, but that's not the only thing I'm doing. I'm defending you. If all I wanted to do was stall for my guild, then why would I do that? I'm also why your stats are boosted. That doesn't add up with what you just said, does it?”

During this entire conversation, I fought against the psionics using four different minds at once. The rest of me was invested in this conversation. Lehesion took note and put a wing under his chin,

”That is...it is bizarre. Once I was freed, your acts changed in an instant.”

I nodded, ”That's because I'm against Elysium, the guys controlling you. If you're not controlled anymore, I don't want to fight you. Hell, I would fight hard to protect you if that's what it takes to keep you away from the Adair's. You don't even have to pay me back. Think of it as a way of compensating for the bad blood between us.”

Lehesion's eyes flared wide, the agony still vivid in his mind, ”And you believe that bad blood can be washed away so easily?”

”No. I don't. I know it would be a hard and long road to recover from what I've done. That's why I'm helping you to start walking down that road. You kill me now, and you'll lose any ability I have to repay you.”

I gestured to the desolate wasteland around us, ”And let's face it, I'm the only one who's fought to keep you sane for the last few decades, right?”

Lehesion calmed, ”I...Hmm...Yes, that's right. It's been longer than I can remember that I've been whole. You fight to keep my fragments together. Admirable, yet foolish in the end.”

Lehesion blinked while fighting off the psionics, ”There is no way of saving me any longer. I may have broken free of their restraints, but the ties between them and I, they cannot be broken. They are as entrenched as the connection between Eonoth and my reincarnation, two parts of the same whole.”

His eyes saddened, ”And now I am the lesser of those two halves, the piece that is used by the larger fragment.”

I shook my head, ”Bullshit. Remember, you fought these mind mages alone for decades. With my help, you can pull out of this...this cycle.”

The nanomachines swarmed into his skull to retake his mind. His eyes turned bloodshot from them, orange streaks pulsing beneath the white of his eyes. Lehesion didn't so much as flinch,

”Listen, youngling, for I have a story to tell you.”

I beat back mind mages, ”Ok, but uh, keep it short.”

”I will, as short as the story may be told. I lived my first life well, having few regrets. Before my fall, I gained one - Emagrotha and my relationship with her. We grew to despise one another. In the end, she betrayed me, piercing my back after I trounced her in battle.”

I frowned, ”Never turn your back on an enemy.”

”Wise advice, but I believed she was still a friend—even a lover. Our disagreements ended in my demise. An ancient one, older than time and more powerful than can be conceived, granted me another life in a new body. From forest green to gilded gold, my hide changed in color. Mana effused my bones, and energy coursed in my blood.”

He pointed a wing to his proud chest, ”I became what you see before you, a god to many.”

”Not to me.”

”I'm well aware. I'm no god in my eyes either. I see my faults clearly now, and they led to my undoing. I changed the course of my previous life using these gifts granted to me. I altered history. Many events came to pass, but my arrogance led me to believe I would be victorious in all outcomes.”

I frowned, ”But then you mangled Emagrotha, right?”

His face crinkled in rage and horror, ”No. I did nothing of the sort. That ancient being is the one that destroyed Emagrotha. I only aimed to cease her rebellious nature. I would never, not in a thousand lifetimes, wish that upon her.”

He couldn't meet my eye, and as his head lowered, my eyes widened, ”You loved her again, didn't you?”

”In both of my lives, yes. Emagrotha loved me as well, in my first one. She became my enemy in the second far earlier, but that is yet another failing of mine. The point of this story, however, is singular. I was given all of these advantages, and look what I wrought upon myself and my world.”

He marveled at the destruction around him, ”I killed my people. I may have won the war I forged for the espens, but I lost Emagrotha. The espens were given freedoms they abused, and I usurped order across our lands. I blundered in all the tasks I'd set before myself. All my powers only magnified my mistakes.”

His story reminded me of my own position and how I might do the same. Lehesion stared up, ”And as I wallowed in regret after our great war and what was done to Emagrotha, these...magicians found me in solitude. They offered me redemption, a drive to continue forth. In the end, they stole my mind from me, along with everything I ever was. I am now a husk.”

His eyes glazed over, ”In all my actions, I have failed. I was betrayed in my past life. Despite being given gifts greater than any before me, I wasted them. My body grew strong, but my mind grew weak. These people, these monsters, they've infested deep under my skin.”

Lehesion reached up, shearing his face with his claws. Orange liquid oozed from him. I winced at the sight as he grimaced, ”You cannot save me. Nothing may, not even death, for I cannot die. I am a ghost, a shell of what I once believed in. My wit has regressed from being a tool, and one can only have their mind violated for so long before it is no longer theirs.”

His voice cracked, ”If my mind is taken and my body is used, what of Lehesion has remained? There's little lingering. I have been tied to Elysium as an anchor is tied to a ship. They rest above the water while I drown in the abyss below. I am a mere tool, once to my arrogance and now to these mages.”

He shook his head, ”So many years have passed me by. In those spans, I have lost who I am. It's been an eternity, and I can no longer remember who I was. I...I-”

He peered down, sinking into a pit,

”I am nothing.”

I took a step back, his sincerity scorching like fire. We needed the guy on his feet, but Elysium gouged out all the fight he had in him. I spread out my hands, ”Lehesion, what are you talking about? You're awe-inspiring. You can do anything. Why are you beating yourself down like this? I'm supposed to be doing that for you.”

I swung my fists, kind of surprised I felt the need to cheer the guy up, ”You're the invincible destroyer, remember? Act like it.”

He scoffed, ”I am as fragile as I am undying.”

”I wouldn't have guessed. You've taken me out more times than I can count, and I consider myself pretty tough, actually.”

He only took me out twice, but hey, that's not what he needed to hear right now. Lehesion softened his gaze at me,

”But in the face of weakness, others have shown courage. I stood in the face of strength, and I exposed my weakness instead. For that, I have paid dearly. I have lost everything. You remain unbroken by this world, and for that, you should be grateful.”

I waved my hands in frustration, ”Sure, whatever, I'm not shattered, but dammit, you're about to blow up everything I've been working hard for. We need you to get a grip and take back control of yourself. It sounds like you really need that too.”

Lehesion shook his head, ”The destruction of your city may wait, as you've disarmed me, somewhat. I doubt that will last, given the telepathic tethering I've had implanted. They will overcome me again, for they are a many, and I am one. Once engulfed, I will become their immortal puppet once more.”

I pointed at my armor, ”If it's the nanomachines, I can take them out of you.”

He gave me a sad smile, ”The Hybridization leaves no effect on me. It merely bolsters my physical abilities. They've injected some kind of...psionic fluid into me, and it assimilated decades prior. Where or what it came from, I know few certainties about it. It was composed of something that felt similar to that ancient one, Eonoth.”

I thought about what happened to Althea with Yawm. She was afflicted by Etorhma's tears, and she ended up dealing with the horrific aftermath. If they did something like that to Lehesion, there was no way to separate the effects on him. We could only alleviate the symptoms at this point.

Lehesion shrugged, ”What I do understand is that no matter what has happened to me, no matter what I endure, they will return in mass.” He winced, ”It is only a matter of time before they retake me, and so-”

He spread his wings, ”I will use this moment of freedom to enact their will. Perhaps their restraints will be less stringent thereafter. I show loyalty, and they show kindness in turn. You simply are the aggressor before me.”

He flared bright, ”And you will be silenced.”

Thinking fast, a plan popped up in my head, ”Now wait one minute, that isn't necessarily the case. If you can't stop them, maybe you can escape them.”

”There is nowhere I may hide. They are within me.”

”Maybe you can't get away from them here, but maybe you could go somewhere else. Somewhere where time doesn't pass.”

Lehesion rolled his eyes, ”Now we speak of fantasies.”

I opened my pocket dimension. ”What? No. This is it. You can hide in here.”

Lehesion frowned, remembering the portal's effectiveness against him, ”Aw, that trick. Annoying, perhaps, but I doubt it can stop them from overwhelming me, whether that field destroys me or not.”

I raised a hand, ”Now that's where you're wrong. We can't overwhelm their mind magic, sure, but we can stop it in other ways.” I pulled out a chunk of Lehesion that got caught in the starry portal earlier, ”See this?”

Lehesion's eyes widened as his aura returned to the flesh. I poked it, and Lehesion turned to his tail and gawked, ”What...what kind of ability is that? Is it not a void of death? Maybe a disintegrating circle of some sort? How can I continue to feel my tail? That's fascinating but-”

He shivered, ”Disturbing as well.”

I shoved it back into the portal a second after. Lehesion raised his brow and widened his eyes, ”To think that such an ability could even be possible. Incredible.”

I shrugged, ”It's my dimensional space. I'm a living dimension. Multiverse, actually.”