Author's Notes:
Firstly, as always, I would like to thank all those who favorite, followed or reviewed my story. Your support is really appreciated and pushes me to try harder.
Secondly, some reviewers asked me to better clarify the power rankings of the Shards of Infinity so here it is: Rank 1, akin to the power of a strong mortal mage; Rank 2, uppermost level of human power, Hime-miko and Grand Knight level; Rank 3, lesser Divine Beasts; Rank 4, mid level Divine Beasts; Rank 5, high ranking Divine beasts; Rank 6, Divine Ancestors; Rank 7, Subordinate Gods; Rank 8, Lesser Gods; Rank 9, mid level Gods; Rank 10 high level Gods.
So from a pure power stand point you could say that only the ranks 7 and higher can truly affect an Heretic God, how much of an effect depending on the ranking of the shard and the God's own power.
Hopefully that gave you all a better feel for the power levels.
Lastly: I do not own "Campione!" or "Worm Serial".
\V/
Campione!
Punching a charging scarab away with a crunching blow before immediately turning around to hit another one with her elbow Taylor could easily admit that she was deeply annoyed.
Ripping off another of the massive beetles that was attacking her back while simultaneously kicking away two others of their brethren and trying to keep track of the rest of the swarm hidden amidst the billowing sands she idly wondered if this was the universe's idea of some kind of sick karmic joke on her expense.
The scarabs had a decent amount of strength, but nothing she could not deal with, her own physical powers dwarfing them by several orders of magnitude. Their real danger was in their numbers, for every single one she took out ten more seemed to appear out of nowhere, their sand like appearance also meaning that she could barely track them amidst the sandstorm they were in.
She knew the dangers of numbers better than most, how apparently weak beings in sufficient quantity and with the right coordination could take down foes far stronger than them. She knew far too well the dangers of a swarm.
After all that had been her main form of attack back on Earth-bet, numbers and expert coordination, and as even the supposedly invincible Alexandria could attest, if she had still been alive, that combination could take down even the strongest of foes.
She knew quite a few former opponents and enemies of hers that would probably feel deeply vindicated if she were to be taken down by what once had been her own signature modus operandi.
The fact that Khepri was staying back, far out of reach, hiding amidst the sands and his minions while harassing her with blasts of his golden flames, was also not helping her mood in the slightest.
Staggering backwards after being hit by one of said jets of flame only to have two other scarabs she had not been able to notice in time colliding against her, claws scratching alongside the top of her reinforced body as they attempted to drag her down, she could feel her annoyance slowly turning into outright rage.
Ripping them apart and crushing another scarab mid leap, she charged towards the direction the jet of flame had come from, only to confirm that once again Khepri had moved away immediately after unleashing his attack, leaving only more of his minions behind in order to harass her.
She could barely keep track of all the enemies currently attacking her, what with their seemingly endless numbers and the sandstorm raging on, much less find out the freaking bug God that was attempting to cook her alive!
There were simply too many variables coming forward from far too many directions all at the same time. With everything that was happening all around her she would need to have eyes in the back of her head if she wanted to know where everything was all the time!
Now more than ever she missed the swarm sense her former Master powers had given her, the ability to just 'know' where everything all around her was would be extremely useful right now, point in fact any kind of super sensory ability would.
That sudden train of thought nearly made her stop in her tracks, as she realized a fact she had all but forgotten due to the battle raging on.
'Wow I'm dense…' She idly though with a hint of exasperation, as she realized that, while her swarm sense was indeed lost to her and far beyond her grasp; she had a new power that would work just fine for her current purposes.
Battering away the newest wave of irritating bugs that were attempting to take her down she readied herself, grin determination filling her features as the words left her mouth.
"I saw that which should have never been seen; I've gazed into the abyss and watched its secrets; I've peered into infinity and learned its truth; I've stared past the veils of reality and witnessed its wonders; nothing shall escape the sight of my all seeing eyes!"
She nearly staggered as her power took effect, as understanding, true understanding, washed over her mind while the world seemed to open up before her sight.
She knew where every single scarab was, her mind easily keeping track of every single one of their movements, she knew where Khepri was lurking, seeing the God's form with the same clarity as if he had been standing right next to her, just like she knew the pathways of every single grain of sand being blown by the storm's winds would take.
Not only that, but somehow she now also seemed to simply know facts regarding everything that was within her power's area of effect, like the fact that the sand looking scarabs were actually made out of sand, the speed, trajectory and strength of Khepri's jets of flames, or that the Heretic God's regenerative ability was literally infusing his entire body with healing energy.
The amount of information bombarding her brain was mind boggling, not to mention that the fact that she now apparently had a three hundred and sixty degrees omni-directional field of vision was something that would take some getting used to, but she could cope, and now that she could keep track of her opponents a plan was swiftly forming in her mind, the facts her Authority had given her allowing its creation.
It would be extremely risky, a gamble that would weight all or nothing on its outcome, point in fact some would consider it downright suicidal, especially since she had less than ten minutes remaining before the Golden Hero deactivated and no hard proof said plan would even work.
But Taylor was fine with that, the odds had never been in her favor during the entirety of her life after all, and despite all that, against all odds, she always endured, persevered and triumphed.
This time it would be no different.
Crushing another one of the annoying insect she charged forward, straight towards the hiding God location, a fierce determined light shining in her eyes.
And as she engaged the Heretic God, she knew that in order to pull this off her timing would have to be just about perfect, and that even if it worked as intended it would be close, extremely so, but if her mental calculations were right she just might be able to pull it off.
Barreling straight through dozens of scarabs, all but ignoring their searching claws, she locked eyes with her opponent.
It was time to slay a God.
\V/
Anit could only watch with wide eyed wonder as the battle raged on in the distance.
She had intellectually known that both Gods and Campione were beings that stood several orders of magnitude higher in the power spectrum than even the strongest of mages.
But knowing something as just theory, and seeing it with her own two eyes were two extremely distinct things.
It was like watching two titans clashing against each other, two forces of nature vying for dominance, Taylor's golden form enduring every single one of Khepri's attacks with apparent impunity despite the obvious strength of the blows, while the God seemed able to regenerate from any wound his opponent was able to inflict, no matter how grievous.
The battle being fought before her eyes was something that would be right at home amidst the myths and legends of antiquity, right alongside the great tales of old.
It was quite literally awe-inspiring.
Hespu and his two lackeys had long since fled the area, the arrogant waste of space throwing all decorum to the wind and running away as fast as he could. But for once in her life she could not deny the fact that her useless boss had actually taken what was the most sensible course of action.
She knew that she should leave, that she had no place near such a titanic clash of pure power, and yet like a moth drawn to the flame she couldn't help but stay.
Watching as Taylor swiftly dealt with the swarm of sand scarabs surrounding her from all sides, crushing them with precise blows, all the while closing in with her enemy despite his constant barrage of golden flames, she knew that she would never forgive herself if she did leave, if she failed to witness what was happening.
To witness this momentous occasion with her own two eyes.
And as she watched Taylor barreling through dozens of the God's giant scarabs in order to deliver a vicious hammer blow with both hands against Khepri's plated chest, the shockwave of the blow strong enough to be felt even from where Anit was standing, she started to understand the real meaning behind the title all God-slayers held.
As she witnessed a mere mortal standing fast against a God, holding her ground against a being all logic demanded should be able to simply erase her from existence with a flicker of his hand, matching it blow for blow as thought they were equals, she believed that she now had an inkling of why the famous Italian mage Alberto Ricardo had gifted the Devil-kings with the title that they now were universally known for.
Campione.
\V/
'I hate fighting regenerators!' She all but snarled as Khepri once again emerged completely unscathed after bathing in his golden flames, the limb she had just ripped off his body swiftly disintegrating into golden dust.
Fighting an opponent that simply refused to go down was always a pain, especially if their power was near the upper spectrum of power levels. And the God before her most clearly was in a class of his own.
Most regenerators, even the high end ones, tended to go down if you did enough critical damage fast enough after all, if you managed to overwhelm their regenerative capabilities, removing the head being one of the most effective and widely recognized methods to do so.
But apparently such a minor inconvenience as having his monstrous head tore off from his body was not enough to slow the bug God down.
Taylor had checked, twice.
Not that that particular fact truly surprised her, after all she could literally see the absurd amount of healing energy coursing through the God's body, but even so she had at least expected such a grievous wound to hold Khepri back for longer than a couple of moments or to actually deplete some of his healing power.
But in the end it would seen she would really have to try and implement the plan she had cooked up despite its risks. But then again it wasn't like she really had much choice at this point.
Her time was nearly up. In her mind she could feel as her Authority slowly started to unravel, as if the last sands of an hourglass were slowly falling down until nothing remained.
She had less than two minutes before the Golden Hero would dissipate leaving her completely helpless against a foe that could kill her in mere moments.
Praying that the math she had hastily made mid battle was right she charged forward once more, batting the scarabs away and closing in against Khepri, arms crossed in front of her head in order to better endure the blast of flames hurling towards her.
If she was not mistaken it was well past midnight at this very moment, with only a few minutes remaining before it was one o'clock in the morning. And as she darted forward, grabbing both of Khepri's arms with all her might in order to hold him down, she knew that this possible difference of mere minutes would be what spelt her victory or defeat.
She could not defeat Khepri with physical strength alone, for like her Eternity's Sight had shown her and his regeneration powers had already amply demonstrated, as long as part of his body remained the God would heal back despite any damage taken, no matter how grievous said damage was.
In order to defeat him Taylor would have to somehow overwhelm his extreme regeneration rate, she needed something capable of hitting his entire body at the same time, something her Golden Hero Authority, despite it's incredible physical power, simply could not grant.
In other words, she needed a new power.
She now had mere seconds before her Authority dissipated, leaving her utterly vulnerable, but if she was right, it also meant that in but a matter of moments it would have been eight hours since she touched down near the outskirts of Cairo yesterday, and that was the point upon which her whole plan hinged.
And while she held down the Heretic God, all but ignoring the razor sharp bladed limbs that were hitting against her back, waiting for either her victory or defeat, she decided that the point for second guessing herself was long gone, she was committed.
And with a sudden rush of power she knew that her guess had been spot on, that her gamble had paid off, for exactly eight hours had now passed since she had used the first charge of her Shards of Infinity, and now that charge was once again back up for use.
If physical strength was not enough to defeat her opponent then she would have to try something else, and luckily for her, now she had plenty of options to choose from.
"From the void I claim you! From the ether I beseech you! Come to me fragments of creation! Grant me thy blessings in my hour of need; invest me with thy might; empower me with thy graces; for I'm the agent of thy will!"
She all but roared, activating her newly recharged Authority and immediately selecting an Striker power and upping its ranking to the max, a fierce smile firm on her face even as she felt the Golden Hero start to dissipate, hanging back with but a wisp of power as the claws of the swarm all around her started to leave deep scratches upon her skin.
It wouldn't matter that her new power would last only six minutes, after all if she didn't pull this off right now she wouldn't last even one minute longer.
She felt as the power was generated, knowing that this was the last part of her gamble; she needed something capable of destroying Khepri in one blow, but lacked the time to try and influence the choice of the power.
It was time to see if Lady Luck would favor her at least this once.
Not relinquishing her hold on the wildly thrashing Heretic God she felt as her smile grew to truly predatory proportions, immediately pushing her newly generated power right through both of her hands and into the Heretic God's body itself.
Tactile-macro-gravity-kinesis really wasn't what she had been expecting to get from a Striker power, but the ability to freely alter and control the gravity affecting a target she had recently touched would work just fine for her needs, it would work perfectly.
Keeping her hold on her new power even as the scarabs' attacks grew frantic in their intensity she watched as Khepri was crushed from all sides under the almighty push of an unbelievably strong gravity well, his body swiftly compacting into a single point even as his regenerative flames tried to keep up with the damaged caused.
Holding fast against the growingly frantic assault of the swarm she kept her power going, knowing that it was now but a matter of time.
Until with a final bellow of mindless rage and a sickening crushing sound nothing but a small softball sized lump of golden sand remained where once stood the mighty God.
She barely paid noticed as the scarabs stilled into place before dissolving back into the sands that had birthed them, keeping crushing the mass before her into an even smaller form, keeping her new power running even as her body lost its golden tinge and the myriad of scratches and cuts all along her skin made themselves known, slowly staining her clothes with blood.
Not taking any chances, she only let go of the power when nothing but a marble sized ball remained, until not even a trace of the God's power remained and the sandstorm that had been raging all around her finally dissipated, until she was positive that Khepri was finally gone for good.
Letting out a deep relieved sight she all but collapsed backwards into the sands, a relieve smile firmly placed on her face despite the pain from the myriad of cuts littering her skin.
"Now that was something." She mumbled, still feeling slightly light headed due to all the adrenaline coursing through her body.
Now on top of facing super powered psychotic mass murderers, city destroying eldritch monstrosities and a freaking alien supernatural entity, she could now add facing off a literal God in single combat to her list of achievements.
'My life is weird.' A part of her mind could not help but remark, the fact she had done all that before even reaching nineteen years of age only adding to the absurdity that seemed to constitute her life.
Her still ongoing sensing Authority immediately informed her that Anit was swiftly approaching her position, apparently using the same flying trick she had used when they first meet.
"Your Grace, are you alright?!" The Egyptian mage frantically called before even touching down, worried eyes taking in the blood leaking out of her wounds.
"Eh, I've been worse, don't worry about it. You should've definitely seen the other guy." She replied with a tinge of humor while slowly rising to her feet. "And what did I tell you about all that Your Grace nonsense?"
"Sorry." Anit mumbled with an embarrassed smile, but at the same time the slightly amused glint on her eyes showed that she was glad to drop out the formalities as well. "But the fact remains that you are covered in blood tattered clothes and just fought a Heretic God, are you sure you are alright?"
"As I said, don't worry about it." She waved off the mage's concern, after all she hadn't been lying when she said she had been worse, hell during her fight against Scion she had managed to get her whole right arm ripped off her body.
While inwardly mussing that she really seemed to hardly leave a battle unscathed, and that now that she didn't have Panacea around to make sure she didn't die of her wounds she really should try and avoid such situations, she decided that there was no longer any reason to keep her Eternity's Sight going on since things had apparently calmed down. "And what happened to the pencil-pusher and his two bulky friends?"
"He ran away as fast as he could as soon as the Heretic God appeared, and in all likelihood is probably still running." Was the olive skinned woman deadpan reply, amusement clear in her tone of voice.
"Somehow that does not surprise me; he seemed the type to hate getting his hands dirt…" Taylor started to say with dry humor before staggering forward with a sudden cry of pain, hands darting towards her suddenly strongly aching head.
"Taylor?! What is wrong?!" Anit frantically asked while closing in to the distressed God-slayer.
But Taylor could not answer, her whole focus directed at the fact her head felt as if someone had picked a red-hot metal pike and rammed it into her brain. As the price for using her Eternity's Sight Authority to track so many things at once, during a sandstorm of all places, made itself known in the form of a searing migraine.
She knew Anit was saying something, but at the moment she couldn't care less what it was. If this was what Lisa usually felt when she had one of her Thinker headaches after overusing her power then Taylor definitely owed her friend a massive apology for all the times she had bugged the Thinker during one of said episodes.
"Blessed Sekhmet, lady of life, she who is powerful; grant to this humble servant the gift of thy healing light."
She more felt than heard the incantation spoken right next to her, the power being evoked managing to grasp her attention despite the pain. But before she could even think about trying to see what was happening she was brought short by the feeling of two small but strong hands grabbing her head and a pair of soft lips meeting her own.
'The hell?!' She thought in utter bewilderment as Anit kissed her on the lips, her confusion and shock only increasing as she felt a sudden warmness permeating her body as her wounds visibly healed before her eyes.
Steeping back from the olive skinned woman, while idly noticing that her migraine had been reduced to manageable levels, she took in the mage sheepish form.
"Is there a reason why you decided to suddenly smooch me?" She asked, her tone of voice as dry as the desert all around them.
"Actually, yes, there is a reason." Anit promptly replied, a tinge of pink appearing on her cheeks despite her dark skin color. "Due to their extremely high magical reserves Campione are all but immune to external spell-craft, almost as if their skin itself constitutes a barrier that prevents any magic from affecting them."
"There is only two known ways to bypass this immunity in order to affect the body of a Devil-king, the first is to just overpower said defense, but that is something that only Gods or other Campione can do." She continued in a businesslike tone of voice, clearly having gotten herself back under control.
"The other is accomplished by making the Campione ingest the magic through the mouth and therefore bypassing their skin natural resistance to magic altogether, either through the use of potions or direct contact."
"So the only way that I could heal you was by allowing the spell to pass directly from me to you through our lips, hence the kiss." She finished with a sheepish smile.
After hearing the explanation for the other's actions, and determining that, yes, there was actually a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why someone that she had known for less than an hour had given her a lip lock moments after a duel to the death against a rogue God hell bent on killing them all, Taylor could only formulate a single thought.
'Yeah, my life is definitely weird.'
\V/
Taylor's Authorities:
Eternity's Sight; Golden Hero; Shards of Infinity. (Scion)
Master of the Sands (Khepri)
"Come forth guardians of the desert; arise keepers of the wastelands; Heed my call; from the shifting dunes I summon you; emerge I command you; for the billowing sands are my domain!"
An Authority that allows Taylor to summon sand constructs to fight in her behalf. While their individual strength by itself is noteworthy, the sheer number of minions one can summon and the fact that if destroyed they merely turn back to sand, only needing the user to reshape them in order to be ready to fight once again, turns them into a far more serious threat.
The form and shape of said constructs is completely up to the caster's will, but while she has great control over the sand creatures themselves, the Authority only grants minor control over unshaped sand.
\V/
Author's Notes:
So that concludes Taylor first battle against a Heretic God and her first glimpse of the world she is now residing on, I think it turned pretty well myself, hopefully you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
I must admit that I was torn upon which Authority to give to Taylor for slaying Khepri, having already decided that, no matter what, she would get only one since Khepri did not have the same attenuating circumstances Scion had.
In the end it ended up being a contest between the one she got and some form of regeneration like Khepri used in the fight. But in the end I decided that the sand constructs were more in kind with the 'theme' of her Authorities, not to mention that the idea that defeating her cape namesake would, in a way, grant her back her swarm seemed deeply fitting.
For those of you not familiar with Campione, its Canon proclaims that a Devil-king nature affects the authorities he gains from his defeated foes, giving them a kind of 'theme', like for instance, Alec's theme is 'The Thief' and Godou is 'The Warrior'. I wonder if any of you can guess Taylor's 'theme' from her Authorities so far.
In a separate note, did you know that the ancient Egyptians had not one, nor two, but four different God's dedicated to the healing arts? I found this interesting little fact while researching which God Anit would invoke in order to heal Taylor, said Gods being Serket, Isis, Nefertum and Sekhmet.
In the end I chose Sekhmet because she was closely tied to the Pharaohs, being considered one of their protectors besides her powers over healing, so it seemed fitting for the healing of a King of Kings to be done in the name of Sekhmet.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review before leaving.
