The New World Chapter 294: Revenge Given Form

Chapter 294: Revenge Given Form

The twisted Sentinel lobbed out his first ntal attack, a sort of initial jab combined with a feint. This typical opener gave plenty of leeway for my start. I partitioned two minds for ntal magic as I did with Torix, one for offense and one for defense. They went to war against the telepathically inclined being, and the rest of charged the wretch.

The Sentinel hovered himself backward, several mana streams directing his movent. Event Horizon smothered him after the initial seconds of battle, and his energy fizzled. The draining aura outpaced his ability to physically manifest mana, leaving him sinking down in the water. I shoved my knee at his face, but he raised his spear to deflect. Angling just right, the Sentinel knocked my foot up before slicing at .

I slapped the spear sideways, the close-range abilities of the weapon feeble. Passing over him, I redirected myself with a gravity well. Pulled down towards him, I reared back a fist. At the sa ti, I made another consciousness that controlled gravitational magic. This let simultaneously generate an antigravity well under the Sentinel.

Bobbing him upwards, I caught his montum and his face by surprise. My blow landed with pinpoint precision, transferring imnse force into the Sentinel’s body. His armor cracked over his nose before he shot downward through my earlier magic. Recreating the feat, I generated nurous powerful antigravity wells under him. This lobbed the Sentinel back and forth like a pinball being slapped up by flipper bats.

Each of my attacks targeted his skull, intending to kill. Upon each impact, I reverted to the Rise of Eden, augnting my stats as well. This gave harder hits before I continued suppressing the Sentinel with Event Horizon. The mana draining effect of my ascendant aura, in particular, crippled the Sentinel completely.

It left him running on empty, unable to make even a wisp of magic. His ntal abilities faltered as well, most of his endeavors manifesting in little progress. This standstill ca from weaving between his ntal assaults while prodding back with my own barrages. This put in an unfamiliar position; the ntal fight would be over before long, but instead of losing, I was actually winning.

But the fight wasn’t over yet. The Sentinel jerked back and forth under the extre stresses of both my magic and physical strikes. His rapid movents left the Sentinel within unable to do anything, but the mind mages controlling him kicked into action. More mbers joined them, bolstering their ntal attack. Their ritual strengthened, mana siphoning into the Sentinel. His spear charged, containing enormous plus of arcane energy.

With the augnts, his mobility returned, able to function once more. I missed a weighted punch, and he skimped with his spear. It left a long slice in my leg, but only for a second. It closed as quickly as he cut into it, my regeneration unmatched. My armor laughed, a hollowing sound radiating across the landscape.

I leaned into this fear causing tactic, sending taunts at the Sentinel,

“Co. Surely you have more than one swing in you?”

A culmination of minds voiced, “We will adjust.”

Surrounding us, version 2.0’s flooded forth. Several dozen arrived, their psionic controllers joining the fray. They rged with the connection before smothering my own mind magic. Sent into a spiral, I lost the smooth connection between and my body, which left vulnerable. Imposing on my opening, the Sentinel dashed forward, his spear raised.

Magenta-shaded, arcane energy flooded his spear before he sliced towards my head. A tear in dinsion ford as the arc of his strike ca towards my skull. The blade made contact with my helt’s aura before I opened my mouth. The teeth of my helm widened, and my armor snapped its jaws into the hilt of the spear.

An instinctual, primal rage took over, and I smashed two quick haymakers into the Sentinel’s body. Powdered graphene erupted from the impacts, making gray clouds in the water. Plus of evaporated water gushed beyond the Sentinel, the heat left from my fists palpable. Before I continued, version 2.0’s converged, holding my limbs. I struggled for a few seconds as they tried sinking their teeth in .

The Sentinel roared at , “Who’s afraid now?”

I laughed while opening my dinsional storage. From it, I unloaded a bottled up, kinetic blast. Earlier, I used so singularities and captured the resulting explosions. Using them like ammo from my pocket dinsion, I put those implosions point-blank for and the Hybrids. I survived the intense radiation and compressive shockwave. The Hybrid’s fared far worse.

The attack rippled through their bodies, those closest to inflicted with grievous wounds. The more distant ones had their senses jumbled as if I used a sonic grenade on them. Event Horizon expanded over them while I pulled my hands close. My armor writhed over my skin, my flesh becoming fluid. A true monster, I lashed out in all directions, tendrils of my armor piercing into the many version 2.0’s.

These prongs tore through them like harpoons through fish. Once impaled, large hooks ford on the other ends of these spikes. Creating a gravity well over , I funneled them towards my fra while pulling them closer. Many fought the pull, so Hybrids even howling out in terror. Those screams were silenced as my armor drenched their mouths and eyes, tearing through their soft bodies.

The Sentinel used his arcane spear to slice the feelers sent his way, but he could only watch on as I consud his reinforcents. What was once a deadly attack now gave greater life. The actual Sentinel, still living, trembled as its puppeteers struggled to control it. The psionic controllers shouted from within,

“I…what in the hell is wrong with you? You’re a monster, worse than the eldritch.”

My usual body walked out of the shivering mass of dying Hybrids. My armor grinned at the twisted Sentinel, and I spoke,

“No. I choose if I’m a monster. It’s unfortunate, but you brought it out of .”

Version 2.0’s began dying, and their corpses disintegrated into mana, letting step forward,

“Now, you must deal with the consequences.”

My armor reford, reconstituting my typical fra. Sprinting towards him, other forces congregated at my position again. Stopping midcharge, I peered around, forming a plan against them. I had charged a few latent singularity explosions earlier, but they wouldn’t fall for that trick again. That left one option left – an all-out brawl. Preparing for the free-for-all, I peered around while visualizing my first few strikes.

I didn’t need to.

Spears drilled through them before exploding amidst clusters of enemies. The resulting orange and gray clouds cast shadows that Hod warped from. Our shadow lurker left our enemies in pieces that burned amidst umbral fires. Torix joined my telepathic connection, and he went forth like a bat scrambling out of a cage. His offensive mirrored our previous bout, lacking any hesitation or rcy.

I joined him, smashing towards the Sentinel’s mind. More mages joined the mass controlling the Sentinel, several Hybrids in the distance running wild as their controllers joined the fray. A dogpile of consciousnesses began, and we played a ntal ga of tug of war. This favored , as it required a primary controller.

Now, as the controller, we both struggled to maintain the sheer volus of ntal energy passing through our minds. At least he did. My willpower and intelligence ant I could handle trendous damage. As these ntal flows enhanced further still, my head ward to the touch. It kept building until it radiated heat, which paled compared to my own self-heating tactics.

The other primary controller, the one who killed Alpha, began wailing as the mana’s heat burned him. Unlike , most weren’t made of such a robust material. They were flesh, bone, and water. Hot water boiled, even after a person was systemized by Schema. Now, an average person could probably handle about one million mana every second. This would warm them, but it wouldn’t cook them alive.

Any more than that, and they’d begin to die. This conflict escalated beyond that, and as it rose further, so did my enemy’s anguish. Even in my anger, I didn’t relish in his pain. I wanted this fight over and that manipulator dead. Jolting forward, I pressed on with a variety of attacks. I stord the area with lightning, creating streams of volatile energy. I deluged the region in gravitation, buckling his knees. I swamped his legs in molten ground, a tactic I enjoyed using.

This left the Sentinel pressed onto his back foot the entire ti. I left little room for escape, surrender, or revenge. I enacted my own will, but others joined the fray. My team supported as I fought, stopping anyone from interrupting our fight. On the other hand, I kept pursuing and ripping this Sentinel’s body apart. In this endless cycle, the Sentinel’s armor cracked and crumbled over ti.

That armor astonished with just how long it lasted. I guesstimated that a paper-thin sheet of it would stop a tank bullet. Even under the unreal stresses of my attacks, it withstood for a while. Even when put under extre heat, it retained shape. Even more, it protected the person inside. Whether or not that was a benefit was debatable, however.

The individual that acted as the ntal conduit, his skull fried during the battle. He attempted disconnecting, but I latched telepathic claws into him. Using my master’s tactics, I chased without revealing my defenses. I kept calm, cold, and composed while dismantling his mind. I did so while thrashing his physical form as well. They weren’t the only ones that could use mind magic.

In the process of doing that, I slamd the Sentinel into the blue core’s barrier. I already bashed the Sentinel into Hybrids, buildings, and boulders alike. For both of us, these materials acted like gelatin, unable to withstand our physical forms. In this way, the blue core’s barrier served as my most potent weapon. The reason was simple – it was hard to break.

So, smashing him against that resulted in lots of rebounding force. Every action had an equal and opposite reaction, after all. Ard with that knowledge, I hugged the Sentinel to before rising high into the ocean. As I ca down, the water boiled. The Sentinel garbled out,

“We’ll both die, you idiot.”

I just smiled, not choosing to answer him. This wasn’t my first rodeo. My armor let out a chuckle as well, one that I allowed it to have. That chuckle turned into haunting laughter. The twisted Sentinel heard the confidence in that voice, and he scrambled for survival. Before landing, he pulled his arms out of my grip. With his spear, he charged the bright, mauve blade and pierced my face.

It dug deep through my jaw and into my chest, but it didn’t matter. By the ti he pulled the blade out, my wound healed. It did cause a sickly gurgling as my armor laughed, however. This only further frightened the Sentinel as he stabbed again and again, but my grip didn’t lessen. It only constricted tighter. As we got close to the core’s barrier, He charged the blade, shifting the magenta-colored edge to a deeper violet.

He sliced through dinsions before the blade made contact with my shoulder. On touching my skin, the blade snapped. There was no resistance, and it was unable to do harm. As the edge flopped sideways, the Sentinel stared at . From the cracks in its facemask, its eyes hollowed. The corrupted Sentinel put a hand on my shoulder, and he spoke in his original voice,

“It was a good fight.”

We smashed into the blue core’s barrier, a vast plu of energy erupting. Beneath us, strains of energy stretched out from the hexagonal forcefield. It called upon its reserves to restrain our landing, and it sohow sustained the collision. Peering down, I uncovered why. Chrona and Krog flew under , each using their own abilities.

Chrona used her temporal field to slow down the energy transfer, letting the barrier take less initial damage. Krog used a sonic roar to break my shockwave’s impact. This dispersed the force enough, and the forcefield stayed standing. I stood atop it, standing over the shattered remains of a Sentinel.

But even if the Sentinel died, the psionic controller lived within it, and so, our battle still raged. I held with an iron grip, not letting that controller go. His mind reached its absolute limit, and on the other side, his defenses faltered. My mind rushed through his, and I sensed his own senses. He collapsed, blood trailing from his eyes and nose.

It was cramped in his, I don’t know, skull? I couldn’t really tell what it was. He simply lacked the ability to have my entire mind within his. It strained him, and his body disintegrated from the effort. It gave enough ti to search through vague mories. As I pilfered, I gained a few esoteric ideas. They lingered like bubbles floating in the wind.

Holding for only a few seconds, I still locked them in place with my excellent mory. These ideas would take ti to analyze, so I didn’t bother deciphering them until after this was over.

Which was pretty soon. Seconds later and the controller died. I didn’t want him to go like this, and I typically stopped this kind of fate preemptively. However, when he killed Alpha, he also killed my rcy. He foad at the mouth while I jerked my mind back towards my body. It wasn’t like I fully crossed over either since he couldn’t hold my entire mind. It was more like I sent one of my mini-minds over and pulled it back.

Either way, I stared down at the dead body of a Sentinel after returning. I closed a fist, staring down at it. I rembered the Overseer’s words when I last saw a Sentinel pass. Honoring those traditions, I lunged down and tapped the Sentinel’s chest plate with my hand,

“You may rest for all ti, brother. You fought the tide, and so it fought you back. Though washed away to sea, you will always be rembered.”

I laid my head on its chest,

“In Eternum, Vive.”

Placing my palm onto its neck, my armor began assimilating the body’s mana. It always saddened when one of these guys died, but I pushed through that sensation. The Overseer gave advice when we first fought Lehesion, and I agreed with the sentint. Schema’s world was harsh, and it required brutal tactics like this to survive.

Standing up, I carried the body and the spear with . Leaping down, I landed beside the edge of the blue core’s barrier. Without a threat nearby, its physical manifestation faded, letting enter. On the other side of the forcefield, I found several people watching . The first I noticed was the least evident of these individuals: Amara and Hod.

They hid behind the others, but the terror in their eyes as they gawked at was evident. It left my hair standing on end, so I shifted from Event Horizon to The Rise of Eden. This settled them down so, but they still stayed on edge. The others I found proved far more welcoming.

Krog and Chrona flew overhead, both of them circling my position while thundering to the heavens,

“We are victorious.”

They were right. The Hybrids stopped their first offensive as the Hybridized Sentinel died. They still rallied a few miles from our encampnt, but this left us with about twenty square miles of secured territory. Not much for a planet, but it was plenty considering we were in the middle of Blegara’s capital. It wasn’t too shabby a place to start our conquering of the area.

Knowing how important this victory was, I raised a fist and shouted,

“We’ve won.”

A group of my guildsn let loose with approval and celebration. The gialgathens, in particular, let out a deafening telepathic howl. It left stunned, both with joy and a bit of ntal whiplash. Either way, they ant well, so I let it slide. Before I began celebrating, I turned towards where the Sentinel and my fight initially started.

There, resting in pieces, was Alpha. I winced at the sight, his eyes dead and cold. I raised my hands to everyone crowded around , “Excuse . I have to handle sothing first.”

They backed away before I paced up to Alpha’s body. I leaned over, putting my hand on his chest piece. It was cold. I grimaced at the sight, his death affecting more than I thought it would. I made hundreds of these guys, new and improved versions even. None of that changed the fact that he was the first of his kind.

Losing him was a new kind of sting, and I hadn’t expected it. I turned towards the others here, and I raised my hands, “Golems. Co here.”

Those that heard obeyed. The golems raced over towards my position, several dozen collecting here. The others helped Vagni in the distance or cleaned up the sses there. I let them continue with their worthy pursuits. I just wanted Alpha to be rembered, kind of like how the Sentinels and Overseers respected the passing of their own.

I turned to the golems here, “I don’t know what kind of burial he would need, but you guys are probably more in tune with what he would have wanted. Any ideas?”

A golem walked forth. It was Beta, the second of his kind,

“Master, I believe he would want to assist the war effort. He died a noble and complete death, and for us, we could hope for no greater honor than assisting the whole.”

I took a few steps back from Alpha, “Then do what you can.”

The other golems stepped up, and they lifted the body over us with gravitation. They each used their own version of Event Horizon. While paling in comparison to my own aura, they used many of them condensed over his body. The intensity mounted until Alpha’s remains began disintegrating.

He converted into the two mana types he was made of, both quintessence and ascendant. Those energies flowed over the other golems, the subtle hues of red and white both lancholy and beautiful. Over those few seconds, he disintegrated into a cloud of colorless ether.

In the end, he joined his brothers and sisters to fight on.

Beta turned to the others, “For Alpha.”

They telepathically bood, “For Alpha.”

Turning around, I rembered where we stood. On the outskirts of our camp, many troops scattered out wet sand and ocean stones. They used plastic covered docunts or system loaded data for communications, which wasn’t exactly efficient. Given their lack of conducive working conditions, now was as good a ti as any to build. It would act as an interlude for all the fighting I’d be doing this week as well.

To start, I stayed over at Alpha’s resting place where he was last living. I took a ntal image of my first golem made with a mind. Using that form, I molded a massive block of white stone. I chipped away at it, tearing it apart and cleaving at corners. Minutes passed, and I got the rough approximation of Alpha. After an hour, a more refined take appeared. It served as a morial for him.

Beside the golem, I made several faceless warriors. One wore power armor, one wore an Oga Strain, and another was a gialgathen. Creating a tal plaque, I etched a date for the battle along with a quote – ‘To those that sacrificed everything so that we could have anything.’ Having honored our fallen, I turned and found several people grouped around . They paid their respects as I finished.

Surrounding the monunt in glass and tal, I protected it from the elents while giving it a walkway. Continuing work along that line, I spent the next few hours creating buildings for our people. Explosions in the background weren’t precisely the best way to focus, so by sealing my mbers off from those distractions, I guaranteed more productivity for our people. It improved their quality of life too while we sieged here.

Watching craft buildings in minutes also motivated the teams here. It gave this new place a sense of permanence, one where we had no intention of leaving. Knowing this, I built everything to last. I kept the designs similar in scope and function to my own golem center. Minimalist and functional, I gave them bulbs of quintessence as lighting too.

Unlike other mana bombs, I kept the crystallization stable, having learned quite a bit about solid mana after making the gems so often. I tied runic wiring to many of these buildings as a finishing detail, making the lighting serve dual purposes; they beautified and powered these living areas. This combined with roadways I generated along with tallic lamps powered by the sa source.

This process continued until the next morning. Staring around, I found myself having crafted a miniature city overnight. People filed into my architecture as I made them, and it always filled with pride seeing people enjoy, laugh, and live in what I made. That being said, this comfy interior gave the entire waterfront an incredibly surreal sensation.

On the one hand, my golems fought in view, just a mile away. They destroyed wave after wave of Hybrid reinforcents. On the other hand, soldiers sat in enclosed dwellings, comfortable and secured. They rested well, being able to block out the roar of war. The rings I gave them served that purpose, letting them float in place. This creative use was pioneered by Diesel, actually.

He spread the word, and now this antigravity sleeping style was commonplace throughout my guild. This improved living standard extended to my elite as well. Torix maintained control from an improvised lair as the siege dragged on. His hideaway offered relative tranquility, so Torix no longer needed to get his hands dirty anymore. This quiet enabled further outstanding logistics and orders from our lich, and he outmaneuvered the enemy ti and ti again.

Never needing sleep, Torix continued this through each night. During the days, Althea used the blue core’s tower as a sniper’s nest. Her spears tore enemy ships sent here, giving us aerial and nautical superiority. On the ground, Hod handled the situation, keeping his mind intent on personal, contained killings. He followed Kessiah, who operated under various rescue missions. This gave us a steady stream of pretty pissed off Vagni, but they did as they were told.

For now.

Amara worked on that issue, getting everything ready for our announcent. This gave us plenty of leeway for the operation’s timing, and I readied that for our full advantage. I gathered a team of twenty gialgathens, Krog and Chrona included among them. We sat in our secured zone, communicating effectively despite the war waging beyond Torix’s isolatory magic.

Staring at them, I raised a hand, “How are you all holding up?”

They established a telepathic multilink, one where anyone could join. Krog spoke out first,

“We’re doing well. To have gained this much ground so soon fills our kind with pride. The ability to stretch our wings and explore as well, it’s sothing I’ve long missed. I know others shared in my longing, and they share in my excitent as well.”

Chrona peered at her skin, the silver sheen especially radiant today, “This place isn’t as dry, either. I prefer this world to yours. The oceans, they are beautiful flying spots.”

She peered away, “Er, not to offend you, Harbinger.”

I raised a hand, “Trust , no offense taken. I figured you guys would. Either way, we need to get a grip on the local populace. I don’t want to wipe them out, and having them evacuated would make this a lot less complicated. To do that, I need to convince them that the eldritch are terrified of .”

A gialgathen in the back bood, “Not too difficult a feat for you, I’d imagine.”

The gialgathens laughed, and I raised a fist, “You’re right. It’s not. In fact, I’m a little too effective at scaring them now. I need the biggest of those monsters grouped together, but they run from . That’s where you all co in.”

I pulled out blocks of quintessence, Amara and Hod’s favorite flavor of mana,

“We can use these to bait the eldritch all into one place. Once clustered, I’ll be using Amara’s broadcast to show the eldritch submitting to . That will really help out with getting the Vagni over to our side. They love their old gods, so if the old gods worship , then logic dictates the Vagni will worship whoever the eldritch worship.”

Krog narrowed his eyes, “What if the Vagni don’t follow through with that reasoning?”

My runes flared red, crimson light bathing those around , “Then I’ll give them a different reason to follow , one equally convincing.”

The gialgathens paled, both heartened and terrified by at the sa ti. Turning to Amara, I raised an eyebrow, “Are you ready?”

She tapped a few keys before nodding,

“Yes, Harbinger. Everything we need is prepared. We need only herd the wolves with these sheep.”

She narrowed her eye laced palms at the gialgathens, “Enormous sheep.”

The gialgathens laughed, their natural confidence on display. I turned to those here, “Then let’s take this planet’s people in one fell swoop.”

After handing out the quintessence, everyone got to work. Amara nabbed a piece as I tossed them to our flyers, and she indulged with great hunger. Our force of gialgathens went about dispersing the bait after, leaving with a bit of ti before the eldritch clustered up. Optimizing as much as possible, I figured checking my status wouldn’t be a waste of ti.

And I was right.