Death fell from the sky.
"Take cover!" Narwhal bellowed to two of her temporary comrades. They had been staring mutely at their dead companions, but her cry broke them out of the reverie and they scampered underneath her forcefield. A few others had worked together to manage some sort of a functioning screen to block the rain.
It was hard to see anything outside due to the sheer volume and intensity of water, but already a couple were dead near her, gone in an instant, before they knew what had killed them.
She added two more forcefields to her existing one, covering the entire rooftop. Only a sudden premonition—some sixth sense alerting her to the darkening sky—had allowed her to be ready to spring up a barrier above her.
She hoped that other capes on standby and in reserve had found some shelter from the sudden downpour of this deadly 'rain'. It'd be an understatement of the century to call it just that, as it was chipping the fricking concrete, leaving visible dents a finger's width wide.
"You," she called out to a young cape who just stood wide-eyed under a ledge. Not recalling his name, she waved to him, he noticed her and had enough self-consciousness that he made an effort to appear calmer.
"Get a hold of yourself," she had to shout to make herself heard, "can you reinforce my shield?" She thrust her chin at her own forcefield.
He nodded, gulping.
"Yes? Good, do that."
Narwhal wondered if he'd find her words encouraging.
She walked towards the capes huddled together under the other forcefield barrier and addressed them, "Anyone who cannot build some barrier, or shield, or anything, take cover elsewhere, go inside the houses, anywhere this rain can't reach you." You don't need to see the battle, you can't anyway.
She paused to take a breath, fixing them with a steady stare, "the time will come when you can contribute, but it's not now." When they started trickling down from the rooftop, she turned away from them, squinting hard trying to look beyond and through the forcefields and the rain.
Her main concern was now for those on other rooftops and the grounds outside of the park's massive purple-black fence that kept Leviathan contained.
There was a reason so many of them were not inside fighting head-on against an Endbringer who had been displaying frightening levels of strength, speed and intelligence, even after she had seen him take more punishment than ever before.
Her last view of him was of a mess, blood had oozed from his numerous wounds, one arm gone and he had looked like a skeletal abomination. It would have despaired those watching if not for the hope she had seen in many eyes that Leviathan may have found his match today, or worse.
For once she too had allowed some hope to enter her heart, that perhaps with powerful new capes bolstering their numbers, Leviathan might finally be put down.
But like earlier, he had managed to upped the stakes, and brought out another hidden ability, just as devastating as the rest.
A flash of silver in her periphery caught her attention, followed by a roaring sound, drowning out even the rain's constant. onslaught. The sky above her completely cleared of the falling rain for a few seconds before it resumed. Not as deadly this time as before but still abnormally fast, with unnaturally large droplets.
The next thing she noticed with the visibility improved was one of the stranger sights in her life, an impossibly tall pole, no, a tree, devoid of branches. It kept rising in the sky until it pierced the clouds.
That was followed by an evident warping in the sky, which brought much of the rain previously falling outside the park, to swirl around the tree and fall inside the park. That was... yes, the young Ward Vista's doing.
It would certainly spare those on the outside but it meant more water for Leviathan to work with. It would make the Endbringer stronger.
Eidolon had done something earlier to cancel that advantage for Leviathan when he cleared the park of all water, but with rain this intense, another mini lake would form inside the barricade.
Perhaps it was time to help, Narwhal had been run ragged today but could still go another round or two. She made a platform from one of her forcefields and slowly began to lift herself, getting closer to the distortion.
She pressed a button on the radio on her arm and spoke into it, "Dragon, any capes who can block out the rain, send them to me. Even better If they can fly."
That said, she continued rising. Half a minute later, four more capes joined her: three fliers and the last one carried by a flier. Luckily, they all withstood the deluge out in the open.
At a suitable distance, she stopped, and gestured the others to do the same. Releasing a deep breath, she created as many forcefields as she could, making them as large as possible. Finally, she linked them all together to create a bigger barrier.
The rest followed suit, working together. Soon there weren't many gaps left for the rain to slip through and cause trouble.
The effort made her head ache, she had pushed herself to the max for the second time today counting her brief defiance against the Tsunami.
The others looked to be straining as well, barely holding on.
They would stay as long as they could, she told herself.
Alexandria punched Leviathan with her free hand, twisted in the air to narrowly avoide the claw swipe he had intended for her, and flew up out of his range. In the next instant, another attack demanded the Endbringer's attention, which left an opening for her. She dived through the air to strike, abruptly her advance was met by Leviathan's echo, she tackled it head-on, cleaving through, but Leviathan had moved from his position behind the cover of water. The heroine halted and hovered in the air, waiting for another opening.
The most concerning thing was that Leviathan increasingly moved in a jerky manner that made it seem like his water echo hovered around him as an auxiliary body armor, disrupting not just her advances but also defending himself from other long-ranged strikes.
That level of defensive awareness and ability was unprecedented and exactly in line with how Lindon had suggested Leviathan could improve.
Nonetheless, while the Endbringer fought on, he didn't look too comfortable out there, constantly on the defensive, unable to escape, and unable to shake Lindon off for more than a few seconds at a time. Whatever the burly cape had been doing to him, it certainly left the Endbringer visibly slower compared to a few minutes ago.
Her attention was drawn to the impossibly long tree Vista had fashioned, perhaps used as a reference to draw the 'rain' towards itself from what limited understanding she had of the girl's ability.
She took a moment to get a status update, "Dragon, has everyone outside taken cover?" The pelting droplets would bore through regular flesh, even some types of armor wouldn't be too useful against it.
Dragon sent an affirmative which meant Vista did not need to exert herself anymore, the rain would not harm anyone who couldn't handle it.
"Tell Narwhal and others to disengage immediately." She spoke in the radio and cut off the connection. She had seen the telltale rainbow hue of the Narwhal's forcefields. Once Vista's shaker effect was gone, the barrier would be too small to cover anyone below, better they back off for now.
She flew closer to the one called Mercy, who was patrolling her fence from the air. Alexandria came face to face with the woman and said, "Tell your friend that Vista can stop. We no longer need this", she gestured at the ridiculously tall apparatus, "nobody outside is under threat from this rain anymore."
The trio calling themselves "Reapers" would of course deny if asked directly, but they had some sort of communication system set up that she couldn't figure out. Nothing else would explain the almost choreographed coordination between the three. Alexandria had forced herself to not think about getting them onboard for the eventual war at the end of world, against their true enemy, that was for later.
Although judging by the what she had seen earlier, Cauldron had become interested remarkably quickly. She wasn't stupid enough to think nobody had noticed doormaker's portal—used to transport the last of the injured quickly before the Tsunami—but with enough 'luck' no one would remember that.
More notably, for the past several minutes, Vista had somehow been on the same wavelength as Lindon and his two companions, responding instantly to changes in her circumstances and maximizing her power in ways she never had before. Each time Leviathan tried to escape, either his escape path lengthened absurdly, or the ground folded beneath him. The Endbringer could not maintain his balance properly for long, often trees expanded to block his path, or projectiles reached him quicker. Vista was proving why she was a Shaker 9 and rated so highly.
Alexandria had kept tabs on the ward; her reflexes and response times were her biggest weaknesses. There had been no sign of any such drawbacks holding her back since her team up with Lindon. It was worth investigating later. Surely Lindon or one of his companions was responsible for this development, but how was the real question.
However, Vista was just a child, a very powerful one but still, only a child. Alexandria would prefer if a Shaker like that didn't die today.
All those thoughts flashed through her mind instantaneously.
Mercy only nodded in answer to her earlier suggestion, not bothering to shout or signal Lindon in anyway. But a second later the tree was getting back to a normal size, the warping in the sky was gone along with the forcefield screen.
A quick glance showed that everyone now in the open was durable enough to ignore the unnatural rain. Except for Vista, but she had been covered by a floating shield ever since the rain started, a shield that had replaced the floating gun-like contraption. Another question mark.
She found her chance to attack, flew in, punched Leviathan on the face, tilting it backward, Lindon followed her punch with a large palm shaped forcefield attack, Legend aimed all his lasers on the open backside of the Endbringer and Yerin slapped aside his tail before destroying his tail's echo. The Endbringer tried to regain balance with his arm but the ground underneath turned into a hole leaving him unbalanced and without defense.
Leviathan was vulnerable and without an active defense, but found extra strength from somewhere. He lurched up and whirled around a couple of times, his echo creating a vortex effect and picking up debris from the ground to throw it at the capes around him before smashing into them. Without a moment's pause, he exploded from his position, displaying similar speed as earlier and launched himself at the airborne Mercy who had drifted nearer to the action.
What happened next Alexandria could only piece together due to her extraordinary mental cognition. Leviathan jumped at Mercy, but she also flew towards him at the same time. Her bow was gone, and one of her hands swiftly turned into a giant purple fist half the size of Leviathan.
She struck him square on the center mass.
Leviathan, who was clearly not expecting that turn of events, was blasted back down.
Down, towards the ground that had shimmered briefly – Alexandria later recalled – but otherwise had remained unchanged.
As a result, when Leviathan hurtled down after being punched, instead of crashing to the ground normally, he was impaled in a dozen places on sharp spikes, all made from the stone of the earth, all courtesy of Vista. Hidden because someone had masked them with a powerful illusion.
But the spikes weren't normal either, they shredded Leviathan's flesh much more than they normally should have. Yerin immediately attacked the Endbringer with all of her swords, shredding even more flesh, making Leviathan look even more like a bag of bones.
At the same time, Legend unleashed hundreds of lasers at Leviathan's prone form in a handful of seconds, melting away layers of his flesh. All before Leviathan's echo could even return to him.
But when it did, it exploded on impact. Eerily similar to the earlier rain.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, the rain intensified once again. Sharp, fast and relentless; made of inch-thick raindrops. Lethal for anyone with regular durability.
This time though, the majority of it targeted Lindon and Vista.
Alexandria had seen nothing like it. It was as if the sky had turned into the muzzle of a colossal machine gun, firing unlimited rounds of water-based ammunition, and the sole target were those two capes.
She moved to cover Vista. No doubt Lindon could handle himself, she had seen the evidence for that. But Vista was no Brute, one droplet was enough to kill her, and they could not afford to lose such a powerful hero.
Leviathan was still stuck; the rain didn't let up anyway.
Lindon had sprung up his spherical forcefield barrier, only covering himself and Vista this time, cancelling out the worst of the rain. A shield floated above Vista too, she looked unharmed.
Alexandria saw both of them leave the park to escape the rain. Good, Vista's fight should be over.
Leviathan had wriggled free. Although he looked like he'd been through a meat grinder or two, his physical state seemed to be no detriment to him. His echo started to act more independently, with a broader range of motion; it also swept up the detritus from the park with miniature vortices and collected some of the excess water in the park, almost like a second Leviathan if one were near sighted, but not quite.
Alexandria couldn't believe her eyes, they couldn't be back to square one, could they? No, this was surely the last acts of a dying animal, at least she hoped it was.
Leviathan moved. She moved with him, closing the distance and targeting a punch at his leg to knock him down. He tried to kicked at her but a dark arrow pierced his leg, pinning it to the muddy grass.
He kicked at her with the other leg.
She swivled in the air and kicked back, rocking him. Leviathan ignored his lack of balance and brought his arm around to defend against a sustained bombardment of Dragon's missiles aimed at his face. Even while defending and falling backwards, Leviathan brought his tail around in the arc, forcing her to dodge. Yerin at her side, dodged too before slashing at the retreating trail, cutting a big chunk out of it.
Eidolon chose that moment to announce his arrival.
The strongest cape in the Protectorate hovered high above the park. Dark grey clouds behind him. His form silhouetted by countless bright green twinkles from the rain hitting his defensive forcefield.
He raised his hands.
Everything in the park, in the air, and in the sky glowed a dull red. There was a low hum. Then, with a whooshing sound, all the water disappeared.
Not just from the ground, but the rain was gone from the air. The clouds in the sky above the park were gone. The sun shone through the gap.
Eidolon sagged, wavered, and dropped from the sky like a stone. Alexandria streaked through the air towards him but Yerin caught him first in a flash of white light. She handed him to Alexandria and nodded, before teleporting back to the fight again.
Eidolon wasn't unconscious. He assured her he was alright. Only needed a little rest, he insisted. She consulted Dragon and took him to one such shelter, one from where they could also keep an eye on the battle.
It wasn't over yet.
Lindon knew to expect something from Eidolon, but this was a pleasant surprise. The rain had stopped for now. The clouds were slowly coming back but for now Leviathan was down an advantage.
[Let's finish him, Lindon. No more water for him to play with. Get him my boy!] Dross cried triumphantly.
Lindon activated the Burning Cloak, blasted off from his perch on top of a tree towards Leviathan. The Endbringer snapped his tail at him, followed by his remaining arm, sending two different variations of his water echo at him.
One reached him first, with a swipe of a half formed Blackflame claw Lindon brushed it aside, not breaking his momentum at all. The second echo burst apart when it came near Lindon, sending sharp water projectiles at him with increased speed. He disregarded those and let them land on him, they were of no consequence now that he no longer had Vista with him.
He thought about the young cape as he neared the Endbringer. They would need to find promising heroes and guide them, mentor them, if they were to face all the dangers that plagued this world. Just the idea that people divided themselves into Hero and Villain factions, and it was that normalized, was enough to indicate the rot that had spread in this society.
There would be no easy solution here, just like there was no easy solution to the Hunger Aura, Monarch and Dreadgod problem.
He put those thoughts to the back of his mind and followed the path Dross had indicated to him. The Endbringer reacted to an illusion of Lindon bearing down on him from above but Lindon went straight to his neck from below and grabbed hold of it with his Dreadgod arm.
He let his arm feed, and let Dross handle the influx of memories and impression while he smothered the Will behind the alien, chaotic power and tried Read its intent.
At the same time, he activated the Hollow Domain, covering the entirety of the Endbringer's remaining body. It snuffed out Leviathan's water echoes utterly. Preventing him from obstructing the attacks falling on him, or use the phantom water as a weapon.
Lindon had to deactivate his Pure Madra technique from time to time; whenever Leviathan wasn't moving, and to let the others' hits land. It was easy enough. He wasn't doing much else, other than stamping his Authority and dominance on the Endbringer.
And one more thing, he also had all of his Destruction and Death Madra cannons out of his void keys. Seventeen in total and surrounding Leviathan. Moving in and out of the Hollow Domain, firing uninterrupted at the monster. Dross was helping in controlling all of those; their flight maneuvers and bombardment.
He felt a growing annoyance from Leviathan, that turned into frustration and discomfort after a couple of minutes when nothing Leviathan tried worked.
The Hollow Domain negated one of his biggest advantages.
Eidolon had emptied the field of water.
Lindon was leeching away his strength and it wasn't any advantage against those remaining anyway.
His budding intelligence had been combated by no less than three Presences.
He couldn't run away because of the cordon. If he tried to jump he would be intercepted by Yerin and Mercy among others who would could fly. Leviathan could not, he could only move in straight lines in the air, a clear disadvantage when he wasn't the one overwhelmingly strong.
He could not shake Lindon off. He ineffectually slapped at Lindon with his tail and his arm, all to no avail. Lindon either batted those away, or dodged out of the way, finding a better position than before, to resume his arm's Devouring. Hollow Domain constantly active.
Even Leviathan's speed was not an advantage against those fighting him now.
Legend could keep up with him, the cape maintained his distance anyway. He had no need to come close as he was devastating enough from long range. The cape named Dragon had disengaged from close-ranged combat but still fired shots whenever possible from a distance. Yerin was capable of near instant travel and Mercy could match the Endbringer in speed and overpower him in strength.
No advantage remaining for Leviathan.
Finally, after a few minutes of being a punching bag at the hands of multiple powerful capes all of whom attacked his core, after being assailed by someone who actively, and constantly, stole Leviathan's power and made him weaker and slower, the breakthrough came.
The first inklings of fear.
Lindon could feel those coming from the beast. His arm turned even more ravenous.
He hadn't Consumed any power that the arm fed on. He vented all of that into a spare void key. It was too much work right now to sift through that chaotic mess to find something useful. There would be time enough for that later.
But vague memories, impressions and feelings; he feasted on those.
Leviathan's sense of kinship with his two siblings. His sense of purpose, synonymous with destruction and ruin. His experiences of causing that destruction. His defeats at the hands of a golden man. His fear of the end. This dreadful "thing" on top of him, who was not a prey to play with but the complete opposite of that.
Lindon's Authority swelled. If this was Cradle he would have been on the verge of manifesting an Icon.
Still the Endbringer fought on, and kept trying. Lindon admired that tenacity.
He deactivated the Hollow Domain, and struck Leviathan with back to back forged Empty Palms, right at the Endbringer's chest, at the same time Mercy bound Leviathan's legs in Strings of Shadow and pinned his tail with another arrow.
Lindon jumped back as Yerin flashed past him towards Leviathan.
As soon as Lindon deactivated his technique, Yerin prepared herself. She wouldn't get a second bite at the cherry, not with this technique.
It wasn't meant for her current advancement level anyway, but she was no mere Archlord. She was an ascended Monarch and the Reaper's disciple.
[Mercy's bindings would be in effect in one second.] Her Presence informed her, and slowed time down for her.
Yerin took a deep breath.
Her sword arms poised, her blade in position, her stance perfect. The colors dimmed away from everything on the battlefield, they even bled away from Leviathan.
She struck, falling on Leviathan like Death itself.
The Reaper's Sword contained all her Authority, it cut right at the Endbringer's core. She felt a great resistance in Leviathan trying to stand against her Will.
Until finally, her attack stabbed through the core. It caused a detonation that hurled her away. She controlled her flight and skidded to a halt some way away from the Endbringer. Her breath coming a little harder now, her Will drained. The attack had spent all her Authority and it would take days to rebuild it on this world.
She allowed herself a smile and waited for her friends to finish the job.
Lindon formed the Dragon Descends technique, using all his Authority and Willpower, his own and what he had stolen from Leviathan. Yerin had cut open the Endbringer's core, he could see space warping and light bending strangely where it lay.
He jumped above the beast, and brought his technique down on top of him in a blast of Destruction and Fire.
Mercy took out a bolt from her Soul Space as Yerin cleaved through the Endbringer. Coincidentally, the bolt was same one she had Read when she had joined the battle.
She had tracked down the girl Flechette after erecting her barrier and convinced her to lend her an imbued needle of hers. Luckily, her display had impressed the girl enough that she had agreed. It still felt heavy to her spiritual senses, like it existed only to pierce through anything once released.
Lindon followed up after Yerin, their techniques shattering the crystalline purple pillars. Mercy's barriers took the brunt of the damage and saved the city blocks around them from being completely obliterated.
She lifted her bow and used the bolt to layer techniques. All of her most dangerous techniques, she layered them on top of each other in less than a heartbeat.
When Lindon got clear, she shot. The core was wide open, shattered, and still felt wrong to her senses. The Endbringer not moving at all.
Her arrow flew true, and disappeared inside the remains of Leviathan's core mass, unnaturally so.
Next, reality broke, or the closest thing to it.
It felt like a crack reverberated through existence.
Mercy's instincts screamed warning, her spiritual senses taut. A screeching, keening sound started coming from everywhere.
[Its originating from Leviathan.] Suu said in alarm.
Suddenly his back arched, and without any buildup, countless lightning bolts struck down from above, destroying everything indiscriminately.
The radio on Mercy's arm came alive, "Someone protect the hospital!" A distorted shout came from a girl before the voice was drowned by the loudest sound of thunder she had ever heard.
Yerin looked up, already slashing out with Rippling Sword and Endless Sword techniques with all her swords, cutting out Lightning from the sky.
The sky was full of forking lights. It was a beautiful scene, and a horrifying one.
[Yerin, we need to protect the hospital.] Ruby said, she pointed out the direction and the distance.
Yerin activated the Moonlight Bridge, flashing above the medical camp set up for the injured and wounded. The Lightning storm had been doing considerable damage here too.
She flew higher, cutting and blasting away several lightning bolts headed for the hospital in less than a heartbeat. Her entire body buzzed from the insane amounts of electricity she intercepted.
[Yerin…] Ruby tried to say something.
"I know." She replied. There was only one thing that needed to be done.
Once among the clouds, high above the city with lightning and thunder all around her, Yerin let go of any restraints on her power. She unleashed her madra in every direction, without any precise techniques and emptied her core in the process.
The clouds for miles were blasted away. The sky above the city cleared enough that the Lightning storm ceased.
Lindon activated the Hollow Domain when he noticed the first Lightning strike as Dross chose that moment to increase his processing speed tenfold.
[This is a majestic view, I have to admit.] Even Dross sounded impressed. There were hundreds of lightning bolts in the sky, possibly more. Lindon saw them fork and multiply and disappear, increasing in number as they descended towards the city.
He glanced at Leviathan, the remains of his smoking body rigid with tension.
Ask Suu and Mercy to keep an eye on him. He told Dross.
[What are you planning? Actually, no need to tell me. I know exactly what it is.]
What's your estimate then?
[You cover the whole city but it takes a second or two and in the meantime some people might die, no they would definitely die, more than some. The intensity of the lightning will be… let's just say higher than usual. Oh, and you have been very liberal with spending your pure madra, your core will be empty if you keep this up for more than half a dozen heartbeats.]
Well, as you know, I have another. Lindon internally gave Dross a smile as he said that.
Then he poured all his madra into the Hollow Domain, expanding it to cover what he hoped was the whole city. He made it as dense as he could.
The results were… encouraging. Lightning strikes lost their power when they entered the field, they might still have injured or killed some ordinary humans but from what he has seen, no one had been outside in the open for a while thanks to Leviathan's earlier rain attacks.
[Sometimes fortune does favor the righteous.] Dross added sagely.
The exterior of many buildings was wrecked by the lightning, some small houses collapsed. He hoped nobody was inside.
A few seconds later, he sensed a familiar flavor of power pulse like a bright star in the distance.
The sky cleared of Lightning and the majority of the clouds.
He momentarily felt proud of Yerin before bringing his attention back to Leviathan.
While this storm appeared to be the last death throes of Leviathan, apparently a final blow was needed.
Mercy forged her bloodline armor, partly for extra protection from the lightning storm but mostly in anticipation of anything Leviathan might try next. Although she remained her normal size, no towering giants needed for now.
The arch in Leviathan's body was gone. He weakly tried to crawl away amidst the distraction, using the last vestiges of his strength.
Mercy stored her bow in the Soul Space and focused on her bloodline ability. A massive foot, half the size of Leviathan, sprouted from her leg and stomped at Leviathan. She trapped him under her boot.
The lightning storm ended too.
Everyone who remained in the park fixed their attention at Leviathan.
Eidolon had gone beyond his limits in clearing away the water, twice. He had needed rest in between.
But he finally felt he had the right power. Leviathan would die by his hand, today.
He looked for Alexandria, but couldn't see her. She had gone to search for anyone who might have needed her help during the lightning storm. Better, she might argue with him, might tell him to rest, he was in no mood for any of that.
He picked himself up, and teleported.
Lindon prepared a Dragon's Breath. He was already out of madra in one core, he figured depleting the other too was worth it if it meant killing this monster.
His technique ready, he raised his hand.
[Lindon…] Dross said, a note of caution in his voice.
"Step aside please." Her heard Eidolon's voice from behind. He knew it from Dross's, actually Ruby's, memories before, but the man sounded tired.
Mercy had removed her foot and dissipated her armor. It was only Lindon and Eidolon in close proximity to Leviathan. He half turned towards the cape, keeping his palm steadily aimed at the Endbringer.
"I'll kill him, it's my duty, you understand, always running, always..." The man continued to speak but his voice dwindled to a mutter, both his arms raised towards Leviathan.
[He sounds delirious. What in the world?] Dross was confused, or pretended to be.
He wants to be one to make the kill.
[What does it matter? Fool… eh, what do I care? Let him.] Dross dismissed the cape, going silent.
"Go ahead." Lindon spoke for the first time, and took a few steps back to give Eidolon a clearer shot. He lowered his hand but kept his technique ready if needed.
Eidolon nodded.
A translucent power, heavy on Lindon's spiritual senses, shot out from between Eidolon's hands and struck the Endbringer's entire upper body, including his core mass.
Everything above Leviathan's legs was annihilated. Ceased to exist right in front of Lindon's eyes.
Dross whistled in his head, [Dangerous,] he said.
Lindon agreed.
But the Endbringer was dead, only his lower torso remained on the ground, the rest had been destroyed, utterly and completely.
Lindon let his technique fade, bringing the madra back into his core.
Everything was still for a few heartbeats.
Then he started hearing scattered cheers.