Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 256

Chapter 256: Battle of Life and Death

Lysette tried to escape the clutches of her primordial captive and retreat back to physical reality, but it was impossible.  The medallion was now exuding a powerful binding field that had trapped her spirit and consciousness within her Cultivation realm.  It seemed Bionco’s plan was  to trap her consciousness here, using this figment of her will as an eternal warden, or until her body could otherwise be disposed of.

Lysette refused to submit quietly and took a fighting stance while Bionco conjured more plants around her.  In addition to the carnivorous chomping maws on all sides, almost eager to devour her, the Goddess of Life had also summoned plants each containing one of the eight basic elemental affinities.  A collection of tentacles further surrounded her, generating a nearly-invisible barrier that seemed virtually impervious to all attacks.

Lysette’s cursory analysis of Essence flow revealed no clear weaknesses to exploit.  And unlike Asterion, who was haughty and as prone to overconfidence as his late Godslayer, Bionco remained motionless, eyeing Lysette while taking no action.  It was eerie, how willing she was to wait and delay and let Lysette make the first move.  But it wasn’t that she was stalling.  No, this was the measured approach of someone who expected something unexpected, and was leaving nothing to chance.

Lysette started with a straightforward, direct approach.  She expected poor results, and her expectations were exceeded.  She weaved in and out of the myriad attacking plants and punched into Bionco’s barrier.  But her punch was repelled by the barrier without showing any signs of distorting it.  She backflipped and charged once more, this time a bit faster, but to the same lack of result.

Undeterred, Lysette tried again, coating her fists with flame and attacking again.  However, rather than remaining motionless like before, the red maw opened and drank her flames before her attack connected.  The vine glowed a dull orange as her physical attack bounced off the barrier from before.

Something seemed off as Bionco started her counterstrike, pelting Lysette with crystallized flame pellets.  Her barrier must repel only physical attacks.  She uses those plants to absorb and then reflect whatever I throw at her.

She conjured both elements at once, fire in her right hand and ice in her left and again charged forward.  Bionco’s vines moved no more quickly than before, but they had started to get an understanding of Lysette’s unconscious proclivities while fighting and dodging, and were able to get a pair of superficial blows upon her cheeks.  Lysette grimaced and blocked out the pain as she again attacked the barrier with a simultaneous double punch.

As before, when her elemental attacks approached the barrier, two of Bionco’s plants were ready to absorb them.  They started to do so, but at the absolute last second, Lysette switched her hands, ice now in her right and fire in her left.  She managed to do a tiny bit of damage, but Bionco’s plants adjusted just as quickly, and she was unable to pierce the barrier.

Lysette backflipped and darted in and out of the waves of attacks that surrounded her from all sides.  A few times she suffered grazing blows, several to her thighs and a few to her torso and shoulders.  But she steadfastly refused to use her teleportation defensively to evade the flaming volleys that continued to home in on her.

She needed subterfuge to utilize her best plan of attack. But without any illusion techniques at her disposal, teleportation appeared the best offensive option.  If she could delay using it until an opening arose.

Instead she used Rekindle for a burst of speed and strength and again assailed Bionco.  Fatigue began to set in as the ability’s drain taxed her stamina, but she ignored the soreness in her arms and legs as she again pushed forward, trying to find some weakness she could exploit.  Attacks whistled through the void and plants emerged out of nothing to assault Lysette from behind, but she continued unfazed.  But Bionco looked perplexed as Lysette accelerated further, forcing her way through each of the goddess’s defenses without regard to her own injuries.

A cluster of vines grabbed hold of one of Lysette’s arms and attempted to yank her back.  Lysette screamed and grunted and pulled back despite the venomous thorns tearing through her flesh as she did.  Her right arm grew numb, though she isolated the sensation with her poison resistance and powered through.

“Why?” Bionco asked.  “Resisting will only invite more pain, more suffering, more death.  And yet, you persist!  Do you truly believe you can overcome your creator?”

Lysette smirked.  “You call me a self-interested hypocrite.  I won’t deny that I can be.  But in your heart of hearts, can you truly say that you are any different?”

“Of course.  I am the guide, the caretaker.  My duty to Aimarion is to ensure the continuity and harmony of all Life.”

“And yet, you were all too willing to dismiss me as mere blight to be eradicated.”

“Of course.  Those who defy the natural order of things are a cancer upon Creation.  And they must be excised to prevent their contagion from spreading and ruining everything else.”

“It must be easy for you to say, with all this power, this control, to speak of who deserves to live and die.”

“So too do you.”

“And that’s why this system needs to end.  Because when Asterion ordered his inquisitors to slay my family and harvest their Sparks for his own benefit, there was no one there to save them.  If not for Zarielle’s intervention, I too would have died on that night.  Why is it okay for them to perish?  Why does your so-called grand-design permit so much senseless slaughter by one of your own?”

“Asterion is a fool, as are his sympathizers.”

“He too seeks a new world order.  One with himself at the top.  And yet, where was your Godslayer when his forces attacked Domaria?  Don’t tell me you don’t have one— you clearly had at least one subordinate here in Domark to ensnare me.”

“My methods are my own.  Do not lecture me on what I ought to be doing.”

“Oh, yes, yes.  I’m sure that’s what you tell all your followers.  Trust in me.  Trust in my design.  Your lot in life is to simply fulfill whatever role I have decided is best for you.  If you don’t like your role, if you want to do something more with your life, then too damned bad because the design is the design.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Who died and gave you the right to decide that your design was best?”

“All mortal Life yearns for its continued existence.  And you should know full well that the design of the web of life is in constant flux.  A constant battle for survival.  Nature is brutal, and the deaths of your family are tragic.”

“Tragic?  They were entirely preventable.  Not one of them had to die.  But they did anyway, all while you did nothing but wax poetic about their tragic sacrifice for your design.  So tell me, Bionco, why should it be you at the top?  Why should it be your design that prevails?  You accuse me of honeyed words, and yet yours are no different— just propaganda you use to convince yourself and others that you deserve to rule unopposed.”

“And what about all the men and women that you slew for your own power?  Like a parasite, you drink of the vitality of Life for your own, and in doing so spread your fell influence further.  Your existence is anathema to all!”

“No, you’re wrong!  I wouldn’t exist if there weren’t people who want to see a world of true freedom, one without some grand design holding our future back!  A world in which we no longer have to fight and die because of the war of the myriad gods!”

Lysette reached out to the barrier and used her Essence Siphon.  Her palm touched the invisible structure before her, and she pulled.  She pulled and pulled and even as ravenous plants tore into her flesh with toxic, narcotic fangs, she kept pulling.  The rush of energy negated the dizzy lightheadedness that had taken root within her.  And when she smashed through the barrier with a single brutal punch, the entirety of her soulscape echoed with Bionco’s shriek.

Lysette channeled her strength into legs and forced through her injuries, leaping over the goddess’s body as even more vines and razor-sharp leaves left welts and lacerations on both her arms  She attempted to smash through the goddess’s armor, but this time, she was repelled by an even stronger force which sent her flying backward.

“It’s completely useless,” Bionco said.  “My carapace is made of a fusion of the strongest scales and chitins produced by every lifeform on Aimarion since its first creation over five million years ago.  It is impermeable, harder and tougher than the strongest diamond.  Submit, usurper, give yourself to the grand design of Aimarion, and your long suffering will finally come to an end.”

Lysette blocked out Bionco’s contempts and conjured waves of flame and ice once more.  She charged forward into the morass of plants once more, carving a path as she evaded what attacks she could.  Her regeneration was nearing its limit and her poison resistance was already struggling just to keep the darkness from growing worse as more doses invaded her body.  But she pressed her final attack nonetheless.

She got closer, closer.  With each pump of her heart, pain swelled through her veins.  Her muscles were on the verge of defying her and collapsing of their own volition, and only through immense willpower could she force herself forward.  Her blood was lava, her breath acid that burned through her nose and mouth and throat with every exertion.  But still she persisted, waiting until the last moment to make her move.

The maws of Bionco’s plants opened, ready to absorb her attacks.  And Lysette waited until the first bits of flame and ice were pulled away from her hands.  Space and time twisted around her and she appeared once more on Bionco’s other side.  She loosed her attacks into the opposing maws, incinerating the ice maw as the fire maw turned cold and brittle and shattered into so many lifeless pieces.  And with her final bit of strength, she pulled the medallion out of the hand of Bionco’s spectral presence and used her demonic power to pull at it with everything she had left.

It cracked.  Bionco screamed.  And Solanna’s voice echoed through her soulspace.  It was distant, as though it seeped through the tiniest hole in an otherwise impenetrable void.

“Can you hear me, Lyse?  Answer me!”

Lysette tried to answer, tried to form a telepathic connection, but she lacked the strength to do anything more than lie down and cling to consciousness.  And Bionco’s wail had stopped, replaced with gritting teeth of anger and defiance.

“You–  I–  Will…  With the last of this strength!  Kill–  you!  For everyone!”

Bionco attacked, though with the Lotus Medallion damaged, her form was falling apart.  Her arms separated into so many vines which lashed out at Lysette.  What plants still obeyed the Goddess of Life’s commands slithered toward Lysette full of vengeful wrath.  But each was incinerated by a sphere of blue fire which surrounded and protected her.

Solanna appeared in spectral form a moment later, standing next to where Lysette lay, keeping the barrier going as Bionco’s final strike petered out.  She shook her head.

“So, it was a trap all along.  Honestly, I’m disappointed that I didn’t see all the signs sooner.”

“You knew?”  Lysette could barely muster a whisper.

“That so-called merchant from before.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he somehow looked familiar despite his illusory disguise.  Like I’ve seen him before— felt that presence sometime in the past.”

“You–”  Bionco’s form was barely holding itself together, and the plants she had conjured stopped moving altogether.  “Siding with demon?  You…  You will not live to… regret… this.”

“Maybe I won’t.”  Solanna grinned.  “But there’s no Passion in a life of stasis and imprisonment.  And if that means I eventually succumb while trying to create the world she and I envision, then so be it.  The thrill of fighting toward an unknown future is…  It’s exciting.”

Solanna crushed the Medallion with a single flaming punch.  “Alright, Lyse.  Let’s get you out of here.”

Chapter 255: https://www.patreon.com/posts/115020500

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 257: https://www.patreon.com/posts/115165982