Chapter 4:
Rigrit woke up to find Kane putting the fire out.
"Rise and shine sleepy-head, time to move out" He said cheerfuly.
"Huh? Why are you in such a good mood?" She asks.
"I just got a good feeling about today is all"-he said with a smile.
*What a strange dream i had...We got attacked by imps and then...*
"Anything happen last night?"-She asks.
"Not realy, but i did do some scouting from the air after you past out." -Kane
"...and?"
"anything you want to share?"-Rigrit
*This can't be good...he's usually only happy when something happens that normal people would dread...*-Rigrit
"They're only a dozen or so kilometers out, they must've picked up their pace when the imps never came back..."-Kane.
"Wait, who?"-Rigrit asked suddenly confused.
"The Deamon horde approaching us, of course!"-Kane says happily like a child was just told they'd be getting a new toy.
"You ready yet Rigrit?"
*Is he serious? A daemon horde is approaching and he's calm...no, happy!* That must have been a joke...-Rigrit thought
*Okay then...payback for making me do cleanup!*-Rigrit continued thinking
"Sure, but today, i refuse to fight. You can do all the work if we run across anything!"-Rigrit said.
*Awesome!*-Kane
"i suppose thats fair"-Kane said after i slight pause.
An hour or 2 later;
"That's...a lot of daemons..." Rigrit stated.
"yep! Looks fun don't it?" -Kane said cheerfuly.
*I knew there had to be a reason he was so happy today! But to think there was this many in that 'horde' he spoke of...it's more like an army!*-Rigrit thought furiously.
"You're not going back on what you said earlier are you?-Kane continued
"As long as you don't let any come near me..."Rigrit replied
*You're insane! You actually want to take on thousands of deamons alone?!*-Rigrit thought as she looked at Kane with a quizzical look.
"I'm fine with that, oh look at that Rigrit"-Kane said, nodding his head at the deamons.
Looking back to the 6,000 or so daemons arranged before them, one of the biggest was flying up into the air. Shortly after the sky turned dark, lightning started to flash, and random areas of fire began popping up. The daemon appears to have cast some buffs and enchantments on his legion.
To Kane, it just made the scene more appropriate for what was to come...
To Rigrit, it looked like hell incarnate, she was admittedly a bit nervous without all her comrades here with her.
Talanthor wasn't taking any chances, these two must be of those 13 pests who had defeated the other, false daemon gods...as well as his brother.
*He was mine to kill! I was waiting for the perfect moment!*
Now it would never come...
*They shall pay with their blood!*
"AAADDVVAAANNCE!" -The daemon shouts, his voice amplified by magic.
"Showtime!" -Kane says gleefully
*hmmm, i should lay some traps around Rigrit, then thin the army's numbers, then have fun*
"Rigrit, don't move from that spot, stay right there until this is over."
"Okay...?"-Rigrit
EXTEND MAGIC; GREATER RESISTENCE
EXTEND MAGIC; MAGIC SHIELD WALL
BOOST MAGIC; EXTEND MAGIC; GREATER HARDENING
TRIPLET MAXIMIZE MAGIC; TRIPLE EXPLOSIVE LAND MINE
EXTEND MAGIC; TRIPLET MAXIMIZE MAGIC; TRIPLE DRIFTING MASTER MINE
"Enjoy the show!"-He finished before jumping up and towards the daemons rushing towards them...
Talanthor-
*The puny human man seems to be casting enchantments on the woman, she must be weak, perhaps i should kill her first to make him suffer more?*
*The fool!*
Kane-
*Alright, daemons are tougher than those demi-humans from the...what was the name of that kingdom again...?*
*Agh, whatever, how should i start? Something flashy right?*
*Well, maybe not something too bright...she wont be able to see it...got it! This aught-to blow her mind!*
Kane summons Tessaiga equipment:
"PLANETARY DEVASTATION!"
(You've seen this in Naruto Shippuden ya? If not look it up on youtube it was and still is pretty epic)
"ACCELERATE MAGIC!"
The ground the daemons were running across immediately began to fly upwards toward a center point. Gravity had seemingly and suddenly reversed with greater and greater effect the higher one was sucked up. The daemons barely had time to realize what was happening before they were squished together, along with the ground, rocks, trees, not to mention their own weapons.
Those not caught in the area of effect and could cast magic, began to. Most of their magic was fire-based so they simply made the conditions more hellish, causing the mass forming in the sky to become partially covered in flames. This doesn't mean they sent all their attacks towards this...thing however. But...
Rigrit:
Rigrit's eyes started to pop, it was as if gravity was suddenly reversed as hundreds, no, thousands of daemons were sucked into the sky. At first she didn't know what to make of the black, light-emitting orb that Kane had launched into the sky. But with the words 'Planetary Devastation', she got the jist of it...or so she thought.
Within ten seconds, over half the daemon army had beed reduced to a gory mass mixed into an asteroid forming in the sky.
Then it began to fall and the rest of the daemon army scattered like the wind to escape from being crushed.
All the while, magic attacks were flying through the sky towards Kane...
"Heh heh, this was cool in Yggdrasil but this is even better in real life!" Kane exclaimed, watching it all happen.
"Incoming! Oh, i guess that goes for me too!"
"EARTH ARMOR"
"KINETIC ARMOR"
"WARD MELEE"
Multiple daemonic-based magic spells impact with Kane. The added buffs and difference in levels made it so Kane took little, if any, damage.
"Aaaand counter-attack!"-Kane shouts as if narrating his own battle.
"CHURNING EARTH!"
A bubbling mass of earth surged out from the ground in front of Kane, blocking a good number of the, still-incoming, attacks. Although they probably wouldn't have caused much, indeed if any, damage but he was putting on a show-he reminded himself.
BOOM!
A great crash resounded in the entire valley from the 'asteroid' that had hit the ground, causing aftershocks like an earthquake and throwing gore, dirt, rocks, and parts of weapons scattering across the 'battlefield'. This is when Kane began running out to meet them like a crazed beserker, laughing maniacally in his 'fun'...
Rigrit's pov:
"No way...*this is impossible!" she says to herself in disbelief
*He must be a god! There's no other explanation!*
Just then, the ground at Kane's feet churned and sprung forth as a massive flowing wall of dirt to intercept most of the enemy magic attacks. The rest...he just let them hit, seemingly un-fazed by them. Just before...
Boom!
*I don't care if he says he's from another world!*
She continues thinking as she tries to steady herself after the impact and the rippling aftershocks.
Then he started laughing like a madman and ran forward towards the daemons that survived the onslaught...
*Although, technically he never did, actually 'say' that he was from another world, only that he was 'new'...*
*Is he a new god then?!*
Talanthor's pov:
The man's equipment suddenly changes right before half his legion begins rising into the air, struggling against some unseen force. They howl, roar, and swing their weapons in defiance to no avail. A ball, made from their forms and the surrounding terrain begins growing in size. Even the surrounding hills and massive chunks of earth began sepperating into smaller parts and rising up into the 'ball' in the sky at an ever increasing rate of speed...
It was horrific.
Even to a deamon like him.
He doubted that even his daemon god could cause something like this or even stop it.
They were doomed.
We are doomed was the prevailing thought in the daemon general's mind as he witnessed the systematic destruction of his forces from his location in the sky. It seemed, however, that not all his forces were being sucked into the ball of death at least. A good 2000 daemons were unaffected it appeared, as they cast whatever magic they knew at the man...
They were stopped short by a wall of churning dirt or seemed to have no effect on the man however. It would seem that the man was rushing towards the remainder of the legion, intent on beginning a melee.
*Hopefully, somehow, i can still take my revenge on him!*
Gathering his resolve, he swooped down to engage in battle...
Kane was thrilled.
In the game this woulda been rather boring...but now?
It was...fun, exciting even.
In a game, fighting 'trash-mobs' would be a boring experience...'grinding' usually.
But now? To feel the air rush by, to decapitate and dismember deamonic beings...the smell of...okay, so maybe that was a downside but still!
Another swing to his left to impale one daemon. Then bring it up and thrust behind and over his shoulder to essentially decapitate another as Tessaiga goes through a shortish daemon's throat. Bring down Tessaiga back in front, slashing a flying daemon coming down towards him...
Levitate this boulder from the impact crater around to smash that group of daemons. Use "MAGNETIC SURGE" to make nearby daemons fly backward, away from him at the epicenter. Clearing an opening to use "STONE DAGGERS" on the group out ahead of him that were getting up...
(STONE DAGGERS: about a dozen daggers, formed from rock, are launched from the tip of Tessaiga)
He was definatly enjoying himself...then a great big daemon came swooping in from above to rend his flesh with a giant 2.5 meter axe...
Rolling out of the way to the left, he rolls and turns back, and activates "MAGNETIC AURA" causing the daemons weapon...
(and the daemon holding it)
...to fly straight at him.
(summon equipment Suizahni)
The former ability deactivates but the momentum keeps the daemon coming at him...
"ICE SPEAR!"
Launching a large, 2 meter long, spear at the daemon unable to change its course...is impaled and keeps flying towards him.
*hehehehe, poor hapless bastard*
"TEINAI'S PRISON!"
The incoming daemon is suddenly surrounded in a giant buble of water with wickedly fast currents swirling it around on the inside, completely devoid of air.
*I wonder if daemons need to breathe?* Kane ponders momentarily before returning to engage the other daemons surrounding him...
"GREATER ACCELERATION"
(Ok, so for this part i was thinking something like Madara- from naruto shippuden-vs the entire shinobi army in the melee, type scene...but with Suizahni and, daemonic and water/ice-based magics instead of jutsu)
As Kane zipped around the battlefield, cutting a swath of destruction among the daemons, he idly thought how unfair a large level-difference actually was. He was untouchable, well, figuratively speaking he was anyways, he was in a corporeal form after all, still...
Rigrit pov:
*Amazing, i can't even follow his movements, just the outline of him isn't much more than a constantly fading blur moving through the daemon ranks...I can only tell for certain where he is when daemons fly through the air...*
Talanthor's pov:
(what can be had)
*When whoosh, i whoosh, get whoosh, outta whoosh, here whoosh, i'm whoosh, gonna whoosh...*
(you get the idea, he's spinning in a suspended sphere of water still)
Meanwhile, Rigrit wasn't completely ignored during this time however. But whenever a daemon got within a certain distance from her it seemed like it simply exploded. Some daemons thought they'd be smart and throw weapons and magic attacks at her, but those simply bounced off an invisible force that seemed to surround her.
Rigrit just smiled at the few daemons surrounding her at a distance. She made no move to make her own moves against them, happy to oblige Kane by not 'lifting so much as a finger' during the entire time. Confident in Kane's magic defenses that surrounded her, she continued to watch the massacre beyond as best she could. Though to be honest...she was rather anxious and afraid that her defenses would fail somehow...
*Seems like there's only a few hundred left or so...* Kane thought to himself
*heh, i think i know just how to wrap things up!*
"WATER DRAGON!" Kane yells out
Water flows from Suizahni in a seemingly never-ending river of rushing water to form into a shape of a long, snake-like, wingless, dragon.
Kane mentally guides the 'water dragon' in a crushing cascade of arcane fury against the remaining daemons who are unable to get near to him thanks to the ever-rushing water encircling him at the base of the ever-lengthening size of the spell.
After a few minutes of 'washing' away the daemons, Kane deactivates the spell, as it constantly drains the user's mana as its used. Turning to the giant daemon, still swirling around in the water prison...
Deactivating the spell the daemon drops to the ground, gurgling profanities he can only assume were meant to be a snarl instead.
Kane equips Goruthreck and immediately casts "ENSLAVE SHADOW" on the daemon, making it unable to move.
"Are you the daemon, Asag?" Kane asks it.
Talanthor:
*I'm finally free from, cough cough thing!*
Suddenly, he realizes that he's unable to move...
"Are you the daemon Asag?" the 'man' asks him
*How does he know of Lord Asag!*
"Answer me!" The 'man says while unleashing a huge amount of 'killing-intent' towards him. It was of a level similar to his masters' when he'd get upset before destroying the cause...
Kane is waiting for an answer...then the daemon starts a barrage of obscenities and insults towards him, about his supposed parents, gods, and so forth.
Kane hearing enough of this defiant behavior, walks up to the towering daemon, and begins to literally 'pick him apart'...
First, squeezing its fingers off, one-by-one...
"Raaagwhrrr!" the daemon cries out in pain
"Want to try again?" Kane asks it
Curses flow from the daemon towards him..
Sighing, Kane continues...
Secondly, he see's how the daemon would look without it's horns...
More wailing from the daemon...
"How about now?" Kane tries again, with much the same results as from before
Lastly, Kane starts to butcher the daemon, slowly, with his semi-corporeal sword...till he got bored.
"SHADOW DRAGON!" He casts for his amusement and has it consume the non-negotiable daemon wretch...
Deactivating his spells upon returning to where Rigrit was, he asks; "Did you like my show?"
"That...that was a cruel thing to do...even to a daemon..."-Rigrit slowly said, still trying to keep from throwing-up after everything she'd seen and witnessed...not to mention the over-bearing stench of death.
A few days later:
The last few days have been...odd, and fairly boring since the encounter with that legion of daemons.
For one, he thinks that he may have gone a bit overboard in the battle, showing off.
Rigrit had been acting, weird ever since...she stopped arguing and complaining...
(not that the complaints was so bad, but the reasons he feared behind it)
...basically she became little more than a follower/student since she still seemed fascinated by his 'artifacts' that he still made for her, though materials were basically gone. She even suggested some rather, interesting, things to make.
For two, soon after the daemon legions defeat; the evil presence he had sensed, still further west, had seemingly disappeared...along with any meaningful daemonic presence in the area other than a few scattered daemons here and there.
Things were...dull, mundane, boring...maddening
He 'needed' a battle...something!
Asag's lair, shortly after the legion's defeat:
"Curses!" An evil-sounding daemon yells in frustrated fury
Asag had watched the battle through long-distance, clairvoyance type information magic's and was very displeased, to the dismay of many nearby daemons...
*Aaaagghhh! How can that, that, man-being be so powerful!*
*I don't have plans in place for something like this! And to top it off i've lost a general and a full legion!*
He screams his frustrations in his head while taking out said frustrations on a few more daemons in the chamber as the horde begins fleeing the chamber from their master.
*But if i can fully control this gem...*
"Yes, if i'm able to fully control it, then nothing can stop me! Mwahahaha!"
*In the mean-time i should contact 'them' and have them occupy him to buy some more time, yes* Asag schemes and plots his path to victory over Kane...
Meanwhile, far to the southwest:
"Captain! We need more reinforcements at tower 7's position!" A soldier informs Captain Mala
"There's no one to spare, grow a spine damn it!" The captain yells back
*We could really use Kane's help right about now...where did he go i wonder?* she lets loose another arrow from her post atop the wall.
The invading beastmen's invading army was massive, dwarfing anything heard of in living memory. The invaders surged once more like waves crashing against the break-wall, their number, immeasurable it seemed. Their dead would eventually serve as stepping stones to reach the top of the wall if the gates weren't breached first...
Roble Capital:
King of Roble continued- "and so i hereby declare that, by law, all citizens of the kingdom are to be conscripted into the national army for a minimum of 5 years of their life. Furthermore, i want a general draft to begin immediately in order to assist in repelling the horde of demi-humans laying siege at the wall...Also,.."
The nobles gathered around stood with heads held low, expecting riots to break-out in the coming days because of the draft and new law, but unable to say anything against it because they also knew it was necessary in order to save their recently founded nation. All with the exception of Kraxus, who stood, seemingly indifferently, not really concerned about what was going on...
Far to the east and south, in the Slane Theocracy:
"I believe that this man is a god-kin, the reports from the Roble Kingdom.." One cardinal was saying
"Could be fake, dis-information, or.." A second cardinal said
"A threat to humanity" A third said, continuing and overriding whatever the second was about to say.
"Let the Black Scripture meet and determine who, and possibly what, this man actually is" A fourth said
"If there's any truth to the report at all" A fifth cardinal said
"The Roble kingdom is currently besieged by a vast army of demi-humans, should we not be helping them?" A sixth said
"Yes! We shouldn't allow the fall of a human nation to demi-human filth!" A seventh said
"Regardless, we should investigate this man from the report further and make contact if he does indeed exist" First said
"Another report claims the 13 have disbanded and gone their separate ways after defeating the last demon god, should we not pursue them?" Second mentioned once again
"Yes, that brings me to what i think we should be having the Black scripture be doing!" Eliminating the non full-bloods and bringing the rest back into our fold!" Third advises
The cardinals continue to argue and debate what should be done in the interest of humanity...and to increase their own power, both politically and militarily speaking.
Back to Kane and Rigrit sitting around their campfire:
"So there used to be 10 human nations but now there's only 4 human controlled countries and none are of the 10" Kane summarizes the latest history lesson he's learned from Rigrit
"Yes, its roughly been one catycalysim after another and humanity is being pushed to the brink i fear" she looks to the side and spaces out for a while.
*From the sounds of it, the people in this world have almost literally had a 'hell of a time' First the 6 gods who introduced Yggdrasil magic. Next, after roughly 100 years later the Eight Greed kings came and their battles with the dragon-lords nearly destroyed the world...Then the latest, these evil deities or daemon gods came to seemingly finish the job.*
*Then, here i come, alone...is she wondering the same thing? The powerful beings who've occasionally appeared in this world have come in groups soo...*
"Life, growth, the dream of prosperity and happiness...it all seems so...meaningless when one can be cast aside and stepped on like an ant..."
*Uh oh, she's in a rather depressing mood* Kane remarks to Rigrit's current train-of-thought
"Well, at least sometimes, people like me come around and help!" He says as cheerfully as he can, although he's rather bored and feeling particularly contemplative at the moment.
"So? Entire life-spans of us humans have gone by and seen nothing but despair and destruction for their entire lives, its not enough"
"You all have still survived in this world, regardless, and continue to do so" Kane replies
"But for how long though? How long can humanity actually last against these kind of odds?" Rigrit says
"Everytime we start to gain strength and momentum, we just get knocked back down again to start from scratch" she continues
"To never give up, that is, in essence, what's known as the human spirit" Kane tells her
"That could be said of any living creature" she counters
"Mmm, yes but i'm not talking about the survival instincts, but the spiritual aspect of it" Kane replies
They continue talking about theological and philosophical aspects of life for hours before calling it a night...
The next day after Kane has finally made one the 'artifacts' that has enabled Rigrit to FLY more efficiently, enabling them to cover larger distances.
When they were upon a mountain range looking for tonight's meal, they were engaged by some local trolls...
(Kane probably found them before hand and instigated the attack of course)
"Use it more like a weapon! It'll be a lot easier to cast magic!" Kane yells over to Rigrit who is struggling with an 'artifact' that was made a couple days ago.
"Easy for you to say! I'm a mage not a front-line fighter" She replies, dodging another swing from here attacker.
Kane grumbles and, in what could be called contemptuous, dispatches his current foe.
*She keeps trying to use it like a magic staff!*
(More grumbling)
*I make weapons not simple magic enhancement tools, if she doesn't use that more aggressively it'll only be a hindrance to her, she's being too stubborn. I suppose it might be habit, but still, she is a mage and should be able to learn new things right?*
Rigrit was using an 'artifact' that was flame-based. It looked like a crudely made mace, which wouldn't be wrong because it was true, that had a soft red glow to it.
She dodged another blow from the giant mountain troll and hesitated before jumping toward the towering monster, too slow, even to for a troll.
(sighing)
Kane used his Telekinetic ability to, gently as possible, toss Rigrit to the side so she wouldn't get crushed.
"Don't hesitate! Just move in as fast as possible as if the only thing you need to worry about is the time and coordination of your strike and spell release!" Kane calls over to her, trying to advise her, who, in turn, only gets more irritated and somewhat frustrated.
"I know that!" she yells back
She couldn't just disregard her past training and experience as an adventurer. She was used to attacking at range. Attacking up close and against something like a troll, not that she hasn't faced worse, she can't help but keep hesitating in her attacks.
*I guess she just needs more experience as a warrior before she can fight on the front-line with any resemblance to proficiency...*
While Rigrit is busy with her target, Kane simply back-hands his latest opponent to the side without taking his eyes off of Rigrit in case she gets into another dangerous predicament...
Somewhere on a nearby rock ledge:
"Thats them allright" A hooded robed figure whispers
"Indeed, the woman doesn't seem very much a threat but the man..." Says another figure contemplatively
"Mmmm, yes, it also seems they haven't noticed us yet, these ROBES OF CONCEALMENT are wonderful! With these.."
"Silence, keep focus on the task at hand" the other figure continues while the first grumble quietly about being interrupted...
"We have our orders and we must follow them implicitly"
Far to the north:
A strange and powerful minotaur had appeared in recent weeks. He would eventually become known as the Minotaur Sage.