New Tools

I stood atop a small crumbling tower while hordes of undead gathered. Pieces of hastily welded steel broke off and crumbled while the hordes gathered. Some pieces impaled undead and the crowd quickly turned on them. They weren't just eating brains now. These creatures hardly resembled the goblings they once were. Some looked almost like true mind flayers.

Flying creatures gathered around diving at me but never quite committing. Just before a talon would have caught me, my aura burst to life. I moved as the talons clamped down giving them empty air. Needles peppered me from all sides bouncing off of hardened scales. The gobling undead had completely melded to the fliers becoming little more than mounted weapons. Only their blow pipes and a face connect to them remained. The rest had melded completely with the winged undead.

Learning Aura Rush and Armageddon's Chainsaw had been a blast. I had more tools of battle than I knew what to do with. Well almost, it didn't take me long to pick through the texts and scrolls. There were hundreds of spells to choose from. Learning them to any level of competence was another matter entirely. I picked out my first red spell and decided to take it for a ride along with aura rush.

A technique was more than just knowledge written on a scroll. Learning from the scrolls was half hypnotism and the other half was a direct upload to my mind. It fooled my mind into thinking I've used this skill before, and I had all the information I needed to use it. I knew it was possible and had all the resources I needed to pull off the technique. When my aura erupted, I knew how to direct it to increase my speed.

Learning spells wasn't the same. I had to actually read the spell. Anyone with enough aura could theoretically use a spell. Understanding the function of a spell and using it correctly were different matters. The spell I'd learned wasn't a teir 1 it was a tier 2. It was my first tier 2 spell I'd ever learned, and I was ready to put it into practice.

I raised my hand and focused on the spell. It wasn't something amazing like meteor or devastating like an old-fashioned fireball. Meteor was mentioned as a tier V spell and fireball wasn't what I needed.

"Red Series Wyrm," from my aura a snake of flames and with scales made of ash emerged. It wrapped five times around my aura exposing the length of this snake to be 40ft long. It bounded around the tower while its scales cooled and hardened. There are hundreds of spells that exist and finding the right ones for me was a struggle. I started with what I needed and what would remain useful. Learning magic from a text was different from a download. Context was lost during a download that the text easily provided.

Ping!

Random Encounter activated

One of the flyers dive bombing without thinking. My wyrm struck. It bit down on the copper feathered owl suicide bomber and began wrapping it in its scales before constricting its prey. It erupted in flames and began burning the prey within its coils. The copper feathers melted away and soon the owl caught fire. The copper flowed over the wyrm mixing with the snake's scales. It was just kindling to the might of an empowered tier 2 spell.

Red Wyrm – A tier 2 spell that takes the form of a large snake. The more flying enemies slain with this spell the stronger the spell becomes. 1% stat absorption from fallen enemies.

Cost 1000MP

Ping!

Random Encounter Activated

Another of the bird zombies went berserk. It dive bombed the wyrm instead of me. Aura erupted and I made my move. I swung Diabla down on the eagle and felt the blade stop against the bird's golden feathers. Before I'd have to search for a weak spot. I had a tool to take care of this problem.

Lines of teeth appeared over Diabla's edge. Then the Armageddon's chainsaw's engine roared to life and the teeth on the chain moved. Spark erupted across and my blade tore through the feathers. The weight of the blade was all that was needed. Hollow wing bones snapped apart, blood sprayed across the eagle, and Diabla cleaved through the eagle. Guts, blood, and visceral exploded out of the eagle like a piñata

The Wyrm snapped up another flyer before it could sink its talon into my back. My wyrm reduced the flyers to ash and the metal on their feathers flowed into its scales. I leapt off the tower and let myself fall.

Ping!

Random Encounter activated

I landed heavy on the ground, whipped out my sword, and revved up my engine. I drove Diabla into the crowd. The more I killed the faster the chain moved. Blood splashed on the ground. A single swing killed 5, 10, and sometimes 15 as I continued to push random encounter. I needed to gather all of them here. There were risks, with ever use of random encounter I risked something big taking notice.

Ping!

Level Up

Jacob lvl18

+90 HP and AP

+9 to all stats

I turned to see a green skinned clone of Gwen. Besides her skin, she had a single yellow eye in the center of her forehead. The ground froze beneath her as she stepped over the field of slaughter.

She marched her dainty feet up to him and stared up at him. "It's funny, I remember you but I'm not her. When she ascended something had to be removed. I think that's me. I'm the part she cut away to ascend. She can't survive without me." The dopple Gwen said.

I rested Diabla's gore-soaked blade over my shoulder. "She seems to be doing alright. After I topple that big brain leech, I'll save her." The dopple Gwen turned her head to the side. She appeared on my chest her mouth was open just as I activated aura rush. The powerful teeth designed to pierce skulls lurched out at a crawl.

I leaned my head back and opened my mouth. Compared to her teeth mine were superior. She crawled to the side quick as a shadow. She was repositioning for the bite. I wasn't having it. Black static erupted around my body blasting her off like an electric fence.

She picked herself off the icy ground. "I'm her predator instinct. How can she feed herself without me? She needs me Jacob." I raised my blade and pointed it at her. "Don't you care. I thought you liked me. Or was I something you didn't like about her."

I spat on the ground. "You don't want to go back. You've had every chance to contact me or ask for help. No, I think you reveled in your gluttony. Now that the end is here you want a way out. Well the party is over." I said.

She narrowed her eyes. "You don't care about any of my victims and you enjoyed killing them after they rose up. What's the difference between us?"

"What do your victims have to do with anything? Gwen threw you away to ascend. So, you came to me for sympathy. I know what happens when the Elder Spawn reaches critical mass. You do too. Now that it's the end of the line you want a way out. Spring is over and summer is reaching its end, and winter is coming." I said.

"Is wanting to live so wrong? I just wanted to live and feel good. When I feed, I forget that I'm just a shard of a whole and nothing matters." Dopple Gwen said.

I shook my head. "You're an addict. But she probably needs you. I don't know how to help either of you. Is there any way to separate you from the Elder Spawn?" I asked.

Diabla placed a hand on my shoulder. "I don't know much about Mind Flayers. They don't produce many talented swordsmen. I'm a demon and I know a thing or two about rituals of ascension. When something is cut away like an instinct it only cuts away memories of that instinct. It resets the instinct and ejects the experience of the instinct in an astral form normally. There is a chance she literally lobotomized herself, but I doubt it. Be careful, most of those cast out desire to consume the original." That last part was what I feared most.

"How did Gwen separate you?" She glared at me.

"She uploaded me into the mind of a gobling. That's why I'm green. After that she ascended and left me behind. Eventually, I convinced my host's brother to let me go. When she discovered I had freed myself, she locked down the town and put me to sleep. Then you opened the gate and freed my drones. Eventually, I woke up as an Elder Spawn." Dopple Gwen said.

"So, Gwen didn't devour the town." I said.

"She hasn't fed since we separated." She said.

"I see, you want to use her lack of a killer instinct to take advantage of her. What will you do, will you upload yourself back into her head?" I asked.

"I guess you aren't going to help me after all. Let me show you the true power of an Elder Spawn."

She erupted with a sickly yellow green aura. Her aura grew larger and denser. A purple psy saber expanded from her hand shrouded in her green aura. A powerful shield appeared around her.

I revved up my Armageddon Chainsaw until it drowned out the rush of her aura.