Chapter 195: Ruined
The guardian’s roar shook the ground, arms cleaving arcs of destruction. One swipe shattered half the ridge, sending boulders crashing down the mountain. Varik stepped into its path, bracing his blade two-handed. The impact detonated a shockwave that blew Lucen flat onto his back.
When the dust cleared, Varik was still standing. Unmoved. His blade buried in the guardian’s remaining arm. With a wrenching twist, he ripped it free, and the arm shattered like glass.
Lucen coughed grit, rolling back to his feet. "You’re ridiculous," he muttered.
Selindra launched herself from a foothold of ice, blade driving into the beast’s chest. She vanished into the wound, carving from within, then exploded out the other side in a hail of crystal shards.
The guardian staggered, chest glowing with ruptured veins of abyssal energy. Still alive. Still moving.
It planted both massive legs, light building in every single eye at once. Not one beam this time. Dozens. All pointed down the ridge.
Lucen’s gut twisted. ’Oh. That’s gonna hurt.’
"Scatter!" Selindra’s voice was sharp, commanding.
Lucen didn’t think, he moved. Sprinting low, boots slipping over cracked stone. Light built behind him, the heat prickling his back like open ovens.
He spun, hurling his hand up. [Frost Spire!]
Ice erupted in a jagged wall, spiking high. The beams crashed into it a half-second later, shattering the wall instantly, but the delay saved him. He dove behind another outcrop as the slope melted under the assault.
Selindra dodged cleanly, weaving between beams in flickers of steel and shadow. Varik didn’t dodge. He planted his feet and swung. One massive arc of his blade split through the storm of light, scattering beams wide, the force of the strike cracking the mountain deeper beneath them.
Lucen whistled low even as dust choked his lungs. "Yeah. Okay. Show off."
The guardian roared again, half-blind now, its chest leaking searing light through a dozen wounds. It thrashed in fury, fists slamming into the slope. Stone shattered in cascades. Avalanches thundered down both sides of the ridge.
Lucen braced with a hand against the ground, forcing mana to his palm. [Cataclysm Vector!]
The spell ripped forward, a jagged surge of unstable force that carved into the guardian’s torso. The impact staggered it half a step. Not much, but enough for Selindra to dive in, her blade carving a clean line across its cluster of eyes.
Half of them burst. The creature shrieked, stumbling back.
Varik’s voice cut through, steady and sharp as steel. "Lucen. Again. Harder."
Lucen’s chest burned, mana scraping low. Sweat stung his eyes. He dragged air into his lungs and grinned anyway. "Fine. But I expect dessert after dinner."
He thrust both hands forward, pulling deep, reckless. Mana surged wild, hotter than he could control. [Ignition Burst!]
The explosion tore across the battlefield, engulfing the guardian’s cracked torso in searing fire. Blue ichor sprayed upward in a geyser as crystal fissured, fractures racing through its frame.
The light dimmed. The roar wavered. The guardian staggered.
Selindra was already moving, blade drawn back for a killing strike.
But Lucen caught it, the flicker in its core, deep under the cracked chest, the surge of energy coiling like a second heart.
His smirk faltered. ’Wait. That’s not dying. That’s charging.’
"MOVE!" he bellowed.
Too late. The guardian’s chest burst open, a blast of raw abyssal energy erupting outward like a shockwave cannon.
The ridge shattered beneath them.
Lucen went flying.
—
Lucen slammed into the rock hard enough to drive the air from his chest. He rolled, gasping, the world tilting sideways as grit and snow rained down. His ears rang from the blast; the mountain felt like it was groaning under them, bones ready to snap.
Through the haze of smoke and fractured stone, he saw it.
The guardian no longer stood like a construct. Its shell was sloughing off in chunks, plating cracking away, limbs warping inward. What was left was leaner, twisted, almost humanoid in outline but wrong, too many joints bending the wrong directions, too much light seeping through skin that wasn’t skin.
At its chest, where the explosion had ripped it open, the core pulsed like a black sun, each beat sending a tremor into the ground.
"Damn it," Lucen hissed, dragging himself upright. His ribs ached, mana reserves felt scraped raw, but he wasn’t out yet. He couldn’t be.
Varik stood unshaken in the center of the ridge, dust falling from his shoulders as if nothing had touched him. His sword was raised, tip down, eyes locked on the creature like a hunter sighting prey.
Selindra reappeared at his flank, blade dripping faint crystal shards. She wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist, blood smeared red against pale skin, and spat onto the ground. "It’s shedding its limiter. Core form."
Varik’s voice was calm, iron in storm. "Then we break it."
The guardian screeched, a shrill, metallic wail that tore into Lucen’s skull. It lunged, faster now, its warped limbs a blur as they crashed against Varik’s guard.
The impact cracked the ridge again, a shockwave slamming Lucen back against the rock. His teeth rattled.
"Keep moving!" Selindra barked, already vanishing into a streak of silver, her blade carving into the guardian’s side. The blow sparked but didn’t sink deep enough.
Lucen swore under his breath, forcing his hand out, mana sparking weak. [Shockweave Bolt!]
The arc lanced out, searing across the guardian’s warped shoulder. It twitched, snarling, just long enough for Varik to drive his blade into its chest. The steel scraped sparks against the core, then bounced, the impact rattling even him.
Lucen’s eyes narrowed. The core wasn’t fragile. It was shielded, wrapped in layers of living abyssal mana, each pulse regenerating the fractures faster than they could strike.
Selindra rebounded off a broken ledge, voice sharp. "It’s not weakening!"
"No," Lucen muttered, lips curling despite the ache in his chest. "It’s cheating."
He forced another surge, knuckles white. [Crater Bloom!]
The ground erupted beneath the guardian, spikes of stone spearing upward, driving it half a step off balance. Just enough for Varik’s second strike to land, gouging a deeper crack across the chest.
The core flared brighter.
Lucen’s stomach dropped. "It’s going to blow again!"
"Then we stop it before it does," Varik said, voice flat. He braced, aura radiating, a weight in the air that made Lucen’s knees want to buckle.
Selindra appeared on the guardian’s shoulder, carving down with both hands. Her blade cut deep, severing half the warped limb. Black ichor sprayed like molten tar, hissing where it hit the snow.
The guardian shrieked, staggering, core flaring so bright it turned the ridge daylight.
Lucen’s mind raced. None of this would matter unless they got through that shield. Varik and Selindra had brute force, enough to batter it down eventually, maybe, but "eventually" wasn’t good enough. That thing would take the mountain with it.
His grin came back, sharp, reckless. "Guess it’s my turn, huh."
He shoved both hands forward, pulling what mana he had left. The world narrowed to a single point. [Cataclysm Vector!]
The spell tore loose, a jagged rift of force that hammered into the core dead center. The shield around it flickered, just for a heartbeat, but it was enough.
Varik was already there, blade plunging into the crack. The strike shattered a layer of shielding, light spraying out like broken glass.
Selindra dove in next, carving another deep line across the glowing chest, widening the fracture. The core’s pulse stuttered, flaring wild.
"Now, Lucen!" Varik roared.
Lucen’s lungs burned, veins buzzing with empty mana. He scraped the last dregs, raw and unrefined, into his palm. [Piercing Flare!]
The lance screamed from his hand, tearing into the split core. It sank deep, light bursting outward, and for the first time, the guardian screamed in pain.
The sound was deafening, the mountain shaking like it might collapse entirely. The core flared again, then cracked down the middle.
Selindra rammed her blade into the split, twisting. "Finish it!"
Varik brought his sword down in a single, final arc, force like a falling world. The strike hit true, cleaving through core and chest both.
The light imploded. The guardian folded inward on itself, its form collapsing into shards that burned away before they touched the ground.
The roar cut off. The ridge was silent.
Steam drifted where snow had melted, air thick with acrid smoke and the sting of abyssal mana.
Lucen dropped to one knee, chest heaving, vision tunneling at the edges. He wiped sweat from his brow, grinning despite the ache. "See? Easy."
Selindra landed lightly beside him, blade sliding back into its sheath. Her expression didn’t change, but her eyes flicked to him with something unreadable. "Reckless."
"Effective," Lucen shot back, dragging himself upright.
Varik stood a few paces ahead, sword resting across his shoulders. He scanned the horizon, calm as though the fight hadn’t nearly torn the mountain in half. Then he glanced back. "You’re out of mana."
Lucen smirked, voice hoarse. "Details."
Selindra shook her head, turning away. But the faintest curl tugged at the corner of her mouth before she hid it.
The ridge lay in ruins, snow scorched black, stone split into chasms. The guardian was gone, but the vault ahead still pulsed faintly, sealed, waiting.
Varik finally spoke, voice low but final. "We move once you’ve recovered."
Lucen flopped back against a boulder, eyes shutting. "Then I’m sleeping right here. Wake me before the next apocalypse, yeah?"
Selindra’s silence stretched, but she didn’t argue.
And for the first time since they’d stepped onto the mountain, the world was still.