Savage Awakening 571. One More Thing (II)

Hreinn twitched. 

He wasn’t smiling so much now. 

“That,” he hissed. “Is quite the story. And it might even hold up remarkably well, in this little telling! Except for one thing… this all presumes you had the ability. It presumes you really could change runes that I, a Prime Endbringer of Malzareth, had constructed. Some no-name man like you could defeat the likes of me!” 

Kain shrugged. “Yes,” he said. “It does all rest on that.”

“You think you’re so very clever, don’t you?” said Hreinn. He floated right up to Kain, ghostly spittle flying. “Do you know what I think of this little tale? I think it’s absolute dung. It’s a well-crafted tale, oh, yes. So well-made it made me doubt myself, for just a moment… but if you truly did all this, you think I woudn’t notice!” 

“I did think you’d notice, actually,” said Kain. “Which was why I hadn’t expected you’d actually set it off… honestly, I’m surprised it’s even come to this.” He shrugged. “It’s a scheme which can only work against a certain kind of foe.” 

“Really, now!” 

Here Zane figured he might as well chime in. “For what it’s worth,” he said. “He actually did ask to study my disguise amulet for a few days. So it checks out on my end.” 

“SILENCE!” screamed Hreinn. 

They watched as Hreinn visibly wrestled with all of this. Then the man simply started to laugh—this high-pitched whine of a sound. 

“No, no, no.” He grinned. He spoke a little raspily now. “I’ll give you credit. You almost got me. You almost got me to go back and check my runes… almost made me doubt my own work! But if you think that’s are enough to fool the likes of me—” 

Anomaly Detected

All the color drained from Hreinn’s quite red face. This man had a very expressive face—capable of going from very red to very pale in just a single instant. 

System has detected external tampering— 

SYSTEM HAS DETECTED MASSIVE TAMPERING.

“No…” croaked Hreinn.

METING PUNISHMENT.

Hreinn’s head jerked up. 

Thick black clouds billowed overhead, stormclouds of pure ink-black—clouds crackling all over with lightning just as starkly white… 

Except it blotted out the entire sky. It was thicker here, heavier, than any Zane had seen in modern times. 

PUNISHMENT LEVEL: DIVINE RETRIBUTION. 

Hreinn shrieked. 

Zane shook his head. He supposed the System really was stronger back in these times. This was shaping up to be quite a doozy.

“I can’t believe you keep getting away with this,” said Zane. 

“What do you mean?” said Kain. 

Zane just shook his head. This would be the second time Noughtfire had gotten the System to whack an Endbringer-tier Monster for him—all while he just stood there and did nothing except look cool. 

Assuming this all worked, anyway. 

Hreinn was making hand gestures at the hand now, each more frantic than the last. 

Reality seemed to solidify before him, just slightly, like a vast stretch of thin air was instead becoming a great rectangle of glass… some kind of defensive skill, by the looks of it—a skill rife with Creation. That had to be several plates’ worth. 

Not a lot of essence powering it, though. It seemed Hreinn could barely muster anything here. Zane could see why he’d set up all those runes. It would’ve been quite difficult for him to attack Zane straight-up. 

Still, Zane wasn’t sure… 

“Can he try to get away?” he asked Kain. 

“Even if Hreinn escaped, the Tribulation would still find him in the Superdungeon,” said Kain. “There is no escaping the Heavens. That is why he’s merely trying to blunt the blow as best he can.” 

“...Can he even do that?” 

“To an extent,” Kain acknowledged. “It’s not a very potent defense; there’s simply not enough essence to do that. But several plates’ worth of Creation Laws, arranged in an efficient manner, can still make a robust defense.” 

“You’re saying he might survive this.”

“I am not saying that,” said Kain, a wry smile on his face. 

 “Say he does end up taking it to the face, then,” said Zane as sweat started beading on Hreinn’s brow. “How much damage will he take? That’s just a projection of his soul, right? The guy’s not really here.” 

“It is still his soul, though,” said Kain. “Simply an extension. Think of it like a man, holding a long metal rod out of the window. Now imagine what would happen if lightning struck that rod.” 

“Ah,” said Zane, nodding with satisfaction. “That’s good to know.”

Hreinn let out a scream of frustration. He was too busy making hand-gestures to even look at them; more and more runes sank into the fabric of reality. Some kind of elaborate fortress of hardened reality was taking shape in front of the man, but he still had time to scream— 

“I’ll kill you!” he shrieked again. “This isn’t over, not by far. What do you think you’ve accomplished here? Hm? This Tribulation won’t kill me, won’t come even close to killing me… you never planned for what comes after, have you? You don’t have the faintest clue what’s coming… Fool! The moment I’ve dealt with this I’ll find you, and when I do—” 

“You do that,” said Kain. 

Zane and Kain both watched his frantic efforts with fascination. 

“He’s doing pretty well, I think,” said Zane. 

“He is,” Kain agreed. “He’s quite skilled. The trouble is, he’s up against Divine Retribution-level Tribulation lightning.” 

Zane nodded. “That’s a tough spot to be in.” 

“Still…” Kain narrowed his eyes. “That…I hadn’t expected him to make that much progress. He really is knowledgeable in matters of the soul.” 

Hreinn ceased his frantic building at last, sweat dripping down his face. Before him lay a pretty neat feat of soul defense. 

It looked to be a cross between a glacier and fort, making a stretch of hardened reality about a thousand feet long. 

It was enough to make Zane a little concerned. 

At last Hreinn came to a halt, hands raised to the skies, eyeing down the churning clouds. 

“This isn’t over,” he rasped again. “This isn’t—!” 

Then the first bolt of Tribulation lightning struck—this bolt of sheer concentrated Destruction; it must’ve held well over a hundred shards of the stuff. A bolt of the purest white, so pure it looked out of this world. 

That first blow smashed a good three hundred feet into Hreinn’s defenses; there was a massive shattering sound in the Astral Plane, and Hreinn coughed blood. 

“It’s holding up so far,” Zane observed. 

Then another bolt struck the same spot, even stronger, and crashed through another five hundred feet. 

Hreinn howled. “No,” he moaned. His eyes bulged. “I won’t, you can’t do this to me, you can’t—!”  

Yet another bolt struck, somehow even bigger, and it grew clear those first two bolts were just warm-ups. 

The last of Hreinn’s defenses shattered like so much glass. 

Then he ate a bolt of lightning head-on. 

Hreinn squealed. Much more like a pig than a rat, Zane noted. The lightning blasted him so thoroughly you could see his gnarled skeleton outlined black against the white of the blast. He didn’t know soul projections had skeletons, but there you had it. 

Somehow he still stayed up though. Maybe it spoke to the strength of a Prime Endbringer’s soul. 

Then another lightning-bolt struck him to the face, and there came another squeal—somehow even higher-pitched than the one before. 

That one did it. Hreinn came rocketing out of the air, smashing face-first into the ground. Since it was a soul-form, it didn’t leave a physical crater; he just lay there sniveling. 

It was fascinating to Zane that the soul still hit the ground like it was a physical thing. It did have a presence in the astral plane, this mass of dulled essence. So it made sense. 

“Y-you—” was all Hreinn got out. 

Then yet another lightning-bolt struck. And another. Over, and over again—drawing a new squeal out of Hreinn every time. 

The guy’s soul was incredibly durable, Zane had to give him credit. Eating that many Destruction-stuffed lightning bolts in a row was no easy feat. And he had quite the regeneration factor too. Every lightning-bolt he took, he instantly started regenerating. It was just that there were too many coming at him, far too fast. 

“…How long will it smash him for?” said Zane. 

“Until the System is satisfied,” said Kain, stroking his beard. “That is, until it has reduced him into a state of deep hibernation.” 

“Huh,” said Zane. “And how long would that take?” 

“Give it another half-minute, give or take,” said Kain. “The most difficult part for the Tribulation to overcome is the will to resist. I believe our friend Hreinn’s broke a few breaths ago, which should be a relief for him.” 

Zane considered the scene—lightning-bolt after lightning-bolt striking the flailing, squealing Hreinn. 

He kind of felt sorry for the guy. 

Then he remembered what the guy had said just now, and decided he could use a few more bolts, just in case. 

It was honestly impressive how much Zane wanted to punch him, considering how short he’d known him. 

“Sorry you’ll have to deal with this,” said Zane, nodding at Kain. “He really might retaliate, you know.” 

“Let him try,” said Kain, shrugging. “I doubt he’ll present much of a challenge. I’m not very impressed, honestly.”  

Hreinn was still there enough to give a furious shriek. 

Though by then, he’d mostly been reduced to a soul-puddle. 

A few more bolts, and the System seemed satisfied.  

PUNISHMENT COMPLETE. 

The thunderclouds dispersed. What was left of Hreinn gave one last groan, and promptly faded away. 

With that, Kain turned to Zane. “That,” he said, flicking his sleeves. “Is more my kind of fight.”

Zane shrugged. “Fair enough.” 

He couldn’t argue with the results. It’d been a remarkably fast turnaround time from Hreinn’s first appearance to his being utterly stomped. Zane got the odd feeling that in some alternate timeline, Hreinn would’ve been a much more annoying threat. But as it was the guy ended up barely registering. 

Zane did remember Noughtfire mentioning that this Hreinn guy had something like a 9-to-1 losing record against him, in all their years fighting. By the sounds of it Hreinn had imagined himself to be Noughtfire’s fiercest rival, while Noughtfire considered him mostly a pest to be dealt with now and again. 

This Hreinn guy really went back in time after a lifetime of getting dunked on by Noughtfire… just to get dunked on by Noughtfire again. 

Actually, if you considered the disguise amulet, which future Noughtfire had given to Zane, it was pretty much future Noughtfire giving past Noughtfire an assist. 

…The guy really couldn’t catch a break. 

“Well,” said Zane. “On that note, guess I’ll get going, then.” 

After so many years ending his days with ‘same time tomorrow,’ he almost caught himself saying it again.

“Wait,” said Kain. 

“What’s up?” 

There was a silence. Then Kain just shrugged. 

“I appreciated the company,” he said simply. “You were a good friend, Jack. The best I’ve had in a very long time.” 

“Thanks,” said Zane. “I had a good time too.” 

“I expect I’ll be seeing you again, then,” said Kain, looking a bit amused. 

“Yeah,” said Zane. “…It might be a bit, though.” 

“Very well. Until then.” 

Kain held out a hand—the guy didn’t seem like a hugger—and they shook on it. 

Which was how Zane’s time in the Pure Yang came to an end.