Chapter 12: Transcendence

Valia stood like a statue, staring at Valon with her mouth hanging open and not a single word falling out. Her mind was blank, not even feeling the wind and the rain. She had spent so much energy planning everything she would say when she found her brother, but now, looking at him, nothing seemed right. No word seemed worthy.

“Take Aithorn and Gradius and get out of here. I came all the way out here to work in solitude, and still you people insist on interrupting me,” Valon said, devoid of all emotion except frustration and disdain. His cold words hit her like a slap to the face.

“We finally meet and that’s what you say to me? Why?” she asked, unable to hold back her tears. “Why did you vanish like that? Why did you leave me behind?”

“Because you would just get in the way.”

“Get in the way? You can’t just walk out on me because you thought I’d get in the way!”

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“How can it not?! Valon, you’ve been with me since before we were born! If it doesn’t concern me, then why does it hurt so much? Why have I had to suffer alone while you were galivanting around, making the world your enemy?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“That is not your choice to make! After everything we’ve been through, I deserve a real answer! You owe me an explanation! Just tell me what it is that you want! What could be worth abandoning me and your home?”

Valon floated down to the ground, but did not step off his floating platform. “What I want is meaning. I used to wonder if there was purpose in our lives, if we were born as part of some plan. I no longer wonder, and I can’t go back to how I was after learning the truth. I can’t continue to live so pointlessly. Everyone wants to know their place in the world, but there is no truth more horrific. We are all so small, less then dust. This thing we call existence is a bad joke.”

“Then what is it that you are trying to do? What have you been working on here?”

“I have been working on a way to become the most powerful being in existence, even greater than the spirits, even greater than the gods, even greater than the titans. This puny flesh-and-blood existence, weakness and mortality, it is utter torture. I curse every moment I spend in this fragile body. I will break free of it all and reach divinity, true divinity, inarguable and absolute.

When I looked across the universe, I found the gods and experienced their power, and it was so ... underwhelming. They are infinitely stronger than we are, but even the gods are merely whales in an endless ocean, and the titans are the ocean itself. To surpass them, gods and titans alike, to become the heavens above the sea, is the one and only truly meaningful act in existence, and that meaning belongs to me.”

“And that was worth nearly destroying Colbrand?” Aithorn accused, accentuated by a crack of thunder overhead. “That was worth stealing Sylphtorian relics? Is there anyone you aren’t willing to betray?!”

“Nothing matters in the face of divine purpose, nothing. You think your nations matter? You think your world matters? Colbrand and Sylphtoria, they might as well be mold on a pebble. The power those relics hold is insignificant, but combined, they can become the key that will open the door to divinity and allow me to transcend all limits.”

“Valon, please, let me help you! You aren’t thinking clearly!”

“Wrong, my mind has never been clearer. I see now the true worth of everything, and I know what I must do for my existence to be meaningful. It is to surpass all other existences.”

“Then I’ll help you fulfill your goal! Just please, please don’t leave me again!”

“How can you help me if you don’t understand? If you don’t believe me? You haven’t seen it; you don’t know the gravity of what I know. Everything you fight for, everything you believe in, everything you care about, none of it matters on any kind of scale. It’s completely irrelevant, what I do or who I hurt. We might as well already be dead. We might as well not even have been born. It’s all meaningless.”

Valia was unable to respond. She had heard these words before, from someone else. She had heard that nihilistic creed, felt the inhumanity in the voice that spoke it, and shivered now just as she did then. The three elves then turned to the sound of splashes in the mud, and at last, Noah came into view and stopped. He stared at Valon, the same way Valia had, but while she had been waiting for this meeting for over a year, Noah had been waiting thousands.

“You saw the truth, didn’t you?” he asked, having to shout over the pouring rain. “You understand it, right? How insignificant it all is. You know what that hollowness feels like. You know that absolutely nothing matters. You know just how small you really are on the cosmic scale. Reality is just a cruel joke.”

Valon’s eyes widened in shock. “Who are you?”

“Someone like you, someone who has seen and realized the truth of existence and suffered because of it. It’s agony, isn’t it? These people, you’re just wasting your breath trying to explain it to them. They just don’t get it. They’ll never know the vastness of existence until they experience it for themselves, until they feel it like we have. They’ll never know how much it hurts, to feel that truth smoldering in their soul. For so long, I’ve wanted to find someone who knows what it’s like, who understands how it feels to scream as loud as you can into the abyss and never hear an echo.”

Valia and Aithorn listened to the unfolding conversation, but it was like Noah and Valon were talking in another language.

“How do you know?” Valon asked.

“Do not let this flesh prison fool you. I have existed for eons, wandering the multiverse, experiencing death and rebirth over and over. The truth you’ve known for a year, I’ve carried for thousands. When you performed that ritual to find the gods, I think you might have pulled me here, and I think you may be able to help me. I promised Valia that we would go to the ends of the earth to find you, and here we are. Listen to me, as someone who understands. Come with us back to Sylphtoria. Whatever you’re after, you don’t have to do it alone. We can help each other.”

“You think the queen would just welcome me back after what I’ve done? Stealing the Torrent Sword, the Whirlwind Tunic, the Hunter’s Moon Amulet, the—”

“Wait, you stole the Hunter’s Moon Amulet? But then how did that succubus get it?” Aithorn asked.

“Because I traded with her and her kin, of course. I got their relics in exchange for the amulet and knowledge of how to sneak into Sylphtoria.”

The trio all felt their stomachs drop, and Aithorn, gripping his spear, released a furious roar and charged towards Valon. He activated his Dragon Impaler spell and hurled his spear forward, but Valon waved his arm. “Zodiac: Rakshon.” For Valia, the spell granted her a body as strong as steel, but upon Valon’s casting, one of the silver spheres hovering around him flattened into a large barrier, blocking Aithorn’s spear.

“It’s because of you that the queen was attacked by that monster! Do you have any idea of the pain you’ve inflicted on our people?”

“Do you really think I care? Zodiac: Avagath.”

Another silver sphere flattened and expanded, becoming a magic circle that stretched across the ground. It was the same as Valia’s awareness enhancement, but instead of sensing the physical world, it allowed Valon to feel the flow of mana and its sources, and the circle reached over a mile in diameter.

“I can sense all the elves and knights you brought with you. You pretend you’re asking me to come back, but you won’t allow me to refuse. Unfortunately for you, I have no intention of returning, with or without shackles. Baol.”

Another sphere flew down and struck the back of the magic barrier, ramming it into Aithorn with enough force to knock him through the air and rip the breath from his lungs.

“Valon, please!” Valia begged. “You’re not well, but I swear, I’m going to make you better! Let me heal the wound you’re carrying and return you to the man you once were, the brother I depended on! What you’ve done can be atoned for. Come back with us!”

Valon aimed his hand at her. “You’re getting in my way, just as I knew you would. From the day we came into the world, our lives have been entwined, but I won’t allow you to prevent me from reaching my goal. I can’t be fixed because I’m not broken. I’m going to give you one last chance to leave me alone. The alternative is death.”

“You’re not going to hurt me, Valon, I know you. The same blood flows through us both. We’ve sparred and fought more times than I can count, but I know you can never truly harm me. The brother I know is still in there.”

Valon then suddenly perked up, sensing something was wrong. He directed his gaze to Noah and then aimed his other hand at a patch of open space. “Badtha.” A chain of stars shot from one of the spheres and wrapped around the empty space. The illusion shattered, revealing Noah while his clone disappeared. The chain was ethereal, and though it did not bind his movements, it had forcefully stopped both of his spells. The illusions weren’t burned away like with holy magic; it was more like a switch had been flipped, and his magic was completely blocked.

“Magic-jamming,” Noah hissed.

Valia had explained Valon’s powers earlier in anticipation of such a scenario, but this was beyond his expectations. According to her, Valon could only bind someone with the chain after touching them, not attack with it from a distance. It was the same with his spiritual awareness. When Valia activated her Avagath enchantment, she could sense when Noah entered her kill zone while invisible, but not from which direction. Valon, on the other hand, could sense his precise location and with incredible range, rendering his invisibility useless, and not just his invisibility. If all of Valon’s abilities were enhanced to such an extreme level, then most of Noah’s plans for this fight were obsolete.

“Strange, I’ve never encountered magic like yours. Even the Harajin can’t hide themselves like you do. You are unique, I’ll give you that. I take it you were going to use that to capture me?” Valon asked, referring to the chloroform-soaked rag in Noah’s hand.

“I don’t care about your crimes. I’ve done things you wouldn’t believe to try and break my curse. I’m here because you may be the only one who can do it, and I am not going to let this opportunity slip by! Come quietly and Valia and I will protect you.”

“Whatever you are, your problems don’t interest me, and I don’t trust you to be of any real use. Begone from my sight.”

“You don’t seem to understand, I need your help and I’m not leaving without it. You’re Valia’s brother, so I would prefer not to hurt you, but you’re coming with us whether you like it or not.”

Noah then closed the distance in the blink of an eye and swung his blade, not at Valon, but at the sphere producing the magic-blocking chain. According to Valia, striking the chain itself was useless, as solid matter just passed right through, but attacking the sphere would break the spell. However, before his sword could get close, it was blocked by another sphere turning into a barrier, just like how Valon had blocked Aithorn.

Noah darted around, opened a monster-repellent bottle, then swung it and sent the splatters at Valon. A barrier stopped the droplets from landing on him, but he could not block the smell, and his elven nose was his undoing. He gagged from the horrific stench, but flew backward on his platform before Noah could get close. Valia intercepted and grabbed him from behind in a bear hug.

“I’m not going to let you go on like this! I’ll free you from this madness if it’s the last thing I do!”

“Get out of my life! Zodiac: Teez!”

Several of the spheres then transformed, flattening and stretching into wide ribbons that slashed Valia with razor-sharp edges. They peeled her off Valon and knocked her through the air with blood spurting from multiple deep cuts. As she hit the ground, she was overwhelmed with pain, betrayal, and confusion. Normally, each sphere could only be used for one spell. He could only attack with one blade, defend with one shield, etc. However, it seemed he could now use multiple spheres to enhance the power of his spells. How much stronger had he become?

While Valon batted Valia away, Noah got close with a pair of shackles, modeled after the collar used on Elisandra to seal the wearer’s magic. Valon swung his arm, and three spheres shot toward Noah like cannonballs. He deflected the first with his sword, dodged the second, and the third one grazed his side and fractured his ribs in the process. Still, he blocked out the pain and reached out to seize Valon’s arms, only for him to swerve back out of Noah’s reach, using his flying platform.

According to Valia, the platform complimented her balancing ability, allowing him to run without his feet touching the ground, ensuring that he always had stable footing, regardless of the terrain. Now able to fly in every direction without even moving, his maneuverability left Noah struggling to close the distance.

As he moved back, an arrow from Aithorn struck the chain sphere, freeing Noah’s magic. He wasted no time and bombarded Valon with flashbangs. Like before, his defenses could defend against physical attacks, but sensory attacks still left him momentarily stunned. Aithorn, back on his feet after drinking more potions, charged after Valon and tried to spear him through, only to once more be blocked by a mana shield.

At the same time, Noah took out his wand and used it to summon multiple clones of himself, then directed them to attack Valon from all directions as a distraction. Valon looked around, unable to tell what was going on. Though his sensory spell rendered Noah’s invisibility useless, he could detect no difference between Noah and his clones. Each one felt like a genuine flesh-and-blood copy.

“Pesky flies! Zodiac: Pravek!”

The silver spheres around him glowed with a foreboding light and began firing off energy bolts. They passed right through the clones, and though Noah managed to dodge several blasts, he got shot in the chest and knocked back by the resulting explosion. There was no heat like a regular flame explosion, but the mana burst disintegrated his shirt and singed his face. Fortunately, his armor prevented it from inflicting severe damage.

Valon turned his attention back to Aithorn and once more used his magic to knock him through the air. This time, Aithorn was ready and managed to stick the landing. He zoomed around Valon, dodging energy blasts while countering with his arrows. The lightning-wrapped bolts exploded against Valon’s barriers, failing to break through, but drawing his attention long enough for Noah to get back on his feet.

Seeing Noah stand up, Valon swung his arm, and three spheres transformed into silver ribbons, hard as steel and razor-sharp. Stretching and twisting in the air, they were swung at Noah at leg, chest, and head-height, leaving him no way to dodge. Noah drew a steel spike from his pocket and threw it at the ground between his feet. The spell within activated, and a wall of packed earth rose up under him, lifting him out of danger. He was right not to try and hide behind it, as the blades slashed through the hard clay like it was nothing.

Noah sent off clones running in all directions, each taking fire from Valon. Controlling the movement of so many clones was far from easy, but he wouldn’t anything get in the way of his goal. He charged towards Valon, firing flashbangs and evading the elf’s counterattacks as best as he could, but Valon was a quick learner, and was able to dodge them with ease while on his floating platform. He was even bracing himself against the thunderclap, so as not to be distracted by the sound.

A silver blade slashed Noah’s arm, a mana beam scorched his hip, and a projectile sphere broke one of his fingers, but he didn’t give up. As he approached, Noah took out a thin chain and tied it around the hilt of his sword. An aura of mana enveloped the blade, enchanting the steel to cut through magical defenses.

He got in close enough to attack Valon’s barrier, only for the swing to be easily repelled. Despite the failure, he continued slashing and stabbing at the shield. Against the old Valon, his sword should have cut through the wall like a thin sheet of plywood, but now, he might as well have been trying to bisect an anvil.

“You get in my way and think I’ll help you?! I don’t care that you brought my sister here! I don’t care what you want! Right now, you’re just an obstacle that I must eliminate!”

“You’re making this difficult! The more you resist, the harder I’m going to fight to bring you back! I’m going to get what I want if I have to rip the knowledge out of you with a pair of pliers!”

“Just die! Baol!”

Multiple spheres fused into one giant orb, then split into a hundred smaller ones and shot toward Noah at point-blank range. He shielded his vital areas, but each sphere hit like a bullet, and though his silk clothes prevented them from piercing his body, they riddled his skeleton with cracks and knocked him through the air. He hit the ground, covered with large black bruises and coughing up blood.

“Pathetic,” Valon hissed as he waved his arm.

“Shock Baptism!”

Before Valon could finish Noah off, four electrified arrows from Aithorn landed around him. In the next instant, a blinding, continuous explosion of lightning went off, enveloping Valon and shocking him inside and out. Though he howled in agony, he could not be contained for long. He swung his arm, sending the rest of his silver buckshot at Aithorn.

They rained down on his position, forcing him to flee with the ground being ripped apart with each impact. Upon hitting the earth, the smaller spheres transformed and fused together, becoming a long chain that wrapped around Aithorn and sealed away his magic. Aithorn was then bombarded with blasts, ripping apart his armor and burning his flesh. Once he was out of commission, Valon, charred and disoriented, caught his breath.

“Zodiac: Zhanga.” One of his spheres then transformed and enveloped him, becoming a translucent silver membrane that began healing his injuries. “If the two of you fought me before the accident, you could have won. However, after seeing the expanse of the universe, the power I can draw from constellations is far greater than ever before. Right now, you don’t stand a chance.”

He launched his spheres to finish them off, but in the blink of an eye, they were all intercepted. Moving at super speed, Valia appeared in front of Noah and Aithorn, having recovered from her injuries. “They aren’t alone. I acknowledge your determination in reaching divinity, but don’t underestimate my determination to bring you back to what you once were! You may be stronger than before, but that’s not going to stop me from knocking some proper sense into you!”

She rocketed towards Valon, swinging at him with enhanced speed and strength. Valon recast his magic and blocked with a barrier, but the instant it met her sword, she circled to attack from another angle. In anticipation, Valon tried to slice her up as he had before, but she had already activated her steel body and boosted her speed and agility, nullifying his attack.

She began slashing from all directions, moving so fast that she appeared as a blur. Not only was she enhancing her body, but her sword was radiating mana as she maximized her attack. Again and again, she struck the barriers Valon put up, with each slash sharper and stronger than the one before it. After all the times they had sparred together, they knew each other’s patterns by heart, and the true contest was between Valon’s new strength and Valia’s desperation.

While she distracted Valon, Noah and Aithorn restored their health and energy with potions, and once they were in fighting condition, they jumped back into the mess. The three ganged up on Valon, dodging and blocking his attacks while hurling their own from all directions. He’d try to slash them to pieces with his stretching blades, bombard them with energy blasts, and crush them with kinetic blows, leaving them with no room for error. Their blades hammered his defenses and scrambled his focus, but his defenses proved impenetrable from all angles.

As they fought, Noah tried to come up with a plan, finding that all his countermeasures for Valon’s abilities were useless. Any sensory attacks or chemical agents were more likely to take out Valia and Aithorn in such close proximity, and physical attacks that might incapacitate him could easily be blocked or dodged. The only solution was to wear him out and make him use up all of his mana. Whether or not it was possible to outlast him was something he dared not ponder.

Eventually, Valon pulled away and rose up into the air out of their reach. “I have no interest in continuing this fight. Since you insist on bothering me, I’m just going to take my work and leave. I’ll find a much quieter place.”

“You’re not leaving so easily,” said Noah.

“You honestly think you can stop me?”

“The best way to stop you from leaving is to make you not want to.”

Noah held out his arms, and from his ring appeared the stolen relics, in a manner of speaking. Valon had been using alchemy to alter their physical shapes and fuse them into an amorphous craft. The inks used to create the relics had all been extracted the same way, recycled for creating new runic formulas.

“I knew there was a good chance you wouldn’t listen to reason, so I decided to swipe this while I was looking around your workshop. You now have three options: either come with us, fight us for this, or leave without it.”

A torrent of silver mana began to surge from Valon, causing the ground to shake and clearing the sky. “You invade my seclusion, interrupt my work, and now you steal from me?! The three of you will never leave this island alive!”

The orbs around him were expanding and transforming, becoming a protective cage made of ribbon blades, with a colossal crown floating over his head. Several spheres spun underneath him in a circle, each continuously changing shape between various geometric prisms.

Arrows began flying at Valon from all directions, courtesy of the elves perched atop the walls, but they bounced harmlessly off the defensive array. In retaliation, beams of energy shot down from the orbiting spheres, blossoming into roaring vortexes of mana that ripped apart the ground. They were raining like heavy artillery, shaking the entire island and forcing Noah, Valia, and Aithorn to duck for cover under a boulder, while their archers were mowed down and disintegrated.

“How are we supposed to stop him now?” Aithorn muttered.

“God, this is all my fault. I could have prevented this!” Valia cursed.

“No, it’s not your fault. This is just something we have to deal with,” Noah replied.

“Noah, please tell me you have a plan!” Aithorn shouted over the roaring explosions.

“All my plans went up in flames a while ago. All I can do now is improvise. Valon’s project isn’t the only thing I swiped.” Noah returned the amalgam to within his ring, exchanging it for a different relic. It was a huge rectangular emerald, the size of a 500-page hardcover novel, and set in an ornate golden frame like a brooch. “My magic may not be able to hurt him, but I bet this can.”

“The Wildheart,” Valia gasped.

“Come on, follow my lead.”

Acting only on theory and hope, Noah began running while sending his illusion magic into the Wildheart and imagining the creature he wanted. A horse appeared ahead of him, but unlike his other summons, it was real flesh and blood. He jumped onto its back, and it took off, galloping and dodging the explosions according to his instructions. The Wildheart had turned illusions into reality, but whatever he summoned, he could still control the same way he could as if they were phantasmal.

He shot off across the battlefield, firing flashbangs at Valon to draw his attention. Screaming in fury, Valon directed his fire toward Noah, but before the explosions could reach him, he cast summoning magic once more. A wyvern materialized out of thin air over his head and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him away from danger while the explosions slew the horse.

As Valon muttered another curse, enchanted arrows began exploding against his defenses, courtesy of Aithorn. Valon tried to obliterate him, but Valia grabbed Aithorn and took off at super speed like the horse that saved Noah. Shrieks reached Valon’s ears, and he turned to see a flock of wyverns hurtling toward him. He fired a barrage of energy blasts, and though he managed to shoot off their scales and char their flesh, their agility in the sky allowed them to escape the worst.

They attacked Valon from all angles, clawing, biting, and striking his protective cage with their tails. All their actions were controlled by Noah, like extensions of his own body. Growling with frustration, Valon swung his arms, and the blades around him lashed out, slicing the wyverns to pieces and sending them falling back down to the ground.

At that moment, several bottles of chloroform and other knock-out agents smashed against his barriers, filling the air around him with gas. He wobbled, momentarily losing his balance, and while his defenses were open, another arrow from Aithorn exploded right next to Valon, electrocuting him and leaving his body smoking.

Before he could heal himself, he was suddenly attacked from above and forced out of the sky. Looking up, he found his whole array held within the teeth of a colossal T-rex, summoned and dropped from high above. Not only was it trying to crush him with its jaws, but its weight was also forcing him down to the ground. Enraged, Valon raised his hand and fired a beam of energy that annihilated the beast and lit up the sky.

Now close to the ground, he was struck from the side by Valia, hitting him with every ounce of strength she had. Her sword failed to break through the protective cage, but it still sent him crashing like an asteroid, ripping open the landscape.

Valon managed to regain control just as a stampede of triceratops charged toward him, with Noah riding on the back of the first. Valon held out his arm and summoned a huge shield, but the horned beasts hurled themselves at it relentlessly under Noah’s command. Even if he couldn’t break through the barrier, the harder his minions pushed against it, the more effort Valon had to expend. That changed when the barrier, rather than pushed back, rushed forward and slammed into the triceratops herd with destructive force. The creatures flew through the air with shattered skeletons, and though Noah managed to avoid injury, he was slow to get to his feet.

As soon as he stood up, he lurched forward and vomited blood onto the ground. He was bleeding internally, and it wasn’t from the landing just then. He was pushing himself too hard, just like when he warded off the basilisk. True, the Wildheart supplied the power to summon these flesh-and-blood puppets, but they hung much heavier on the strings than the illusory versions. Noah was exerting more effort than his body could produce, but he didn’t have the luxury of quitting.

Valon was flying overhead, carpet-bombing the area with energy blasts. Noah summoned another horse to escape the barrage, and as it carried him off, he downed a healing and mana potion to try and keep death at bay. He rode towards Valia, who was watching her brother and working on a plan.

“I’ll get you in the air. Try to knock him back to the ground!” She noticed Noah’s spilt blood and haggard condition, but before she could say anything, he summoned a wyvern to carry her. “Go!” he shouted.

She nodded and grabbed onto the wyvern’s leg. It took off from the ground and carried Valia up to Valon. She enhanced herself with as much magic as possible, but like Noah, too much at once extracted a heavy toll.

“Come back to me, Valon!” she cried out as she let go of the wyvern and unleashed another almighty slash upon her brother’s defenses. Once again, she failed to break through, and this time, Valon retained his position in the sky.

“You’re in my way!” he shot back before hitting her with a barrier slam. Even with her steel body, she was blown through the air with blood trailing from her mouth. Noah’s wyvern caught her and carried her away.

There was no rest for Valon, as he immediately felt a sharp pain in his neck, courtesy of an insect stinger. He slapped the vermin away, but it was just one of many. A swarm of mosquitos, wasps, and everything else that could fly and fight was coming toward him. He tried to blow them away with energy blasts, but unlike the more enormous beasts, they could dodge his attacks and circumvent his defenses. Even if he wiped out 90%, the remaining 10% were able to latch their fangs and stingers into his skin.

“Zodiac: Zhanga!” A silver aura shrouded him, healing his wounds faster than the insects could make them. “You think this is enough to stop me?!”

He held his arms to his sides and released an omnidirectional wave of silver mana, disintegrating each insect. As soon as the explosion ended, Valon was attacked from his blind spot. Aithorn, hanging from a wyvern’s tail, was stabbing him in the back with his Dragon Impaler, but not even his spear could break through the barrier.