Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 153: Joy(II)

His laughter was cut short.

In the time it took for him to swing down, hammering the fox into the ground, then blink, he suddenly felt himself lifted off his feet, a powerful force driving into his chest and throwing him into the air.

His breath was ripped from him as his eyes widened.

The Fox, having sprung from the ground and driven into him at speeds he could hardly fathom, reached out, its maw snapping over his leg. It failed to break past his shell, yet latched onto him nonetheless.

It violently swung its head in the opposite direction, all the momentum that had been throwing Uriel away suddenly concentrated onto his body. His shell cracked, and his organs shuddered from the impact.

BANG!

Following the beast’s swing, his body was slammed into the ground where he had hammered it only moments prior.

But the Fox wasn’t done.

Fiercely holding onto his leg, it swung its head again, and again, and again, slamming him into the frozen earth from side to side as if he were a rag doll, nothing more than a dispensable toy.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Uriel was in heaven.

All he could feel was pain, and all he could see was the world blurring so fast around him that it became nothing but dots and streaking lines. His bones cracked and his flesh tore.

And yet, it was heaven nonetheless.

The pain felt like spikes of joy and euphoria, the breaking of his bones like the percussion of a dramatic melody, and the tearing of his flesh like the drawn strings of a harp and violin.

The twisted form of the world became nothing but broken shapes and bright colours, a heaven born of his own mind.

And so, he laughed.

"Hahaha!"

The fox was about to swing him again, but suddenly it felt Uriel’s body tighten and then... torque. His body twisted upon itself, and as if he were an immovable point in space, the fox found itself flipping through the air instead.

Paws facing the skies. Back smashing against the icy ground.

"GRAHHHGGG!"

Though confused and taken off guard, it hadn’t let go of Uriel’s leg. Not even once.

This proved to be a grave mistake.

In what world would Enoch buy Uriel a mere "simple" weapon?

...

[Item: Broken Fang of Hate — {Gold [Ego] — Growth}

~>Details: Long ago, the Noble Dragon of Respite had his heart torn from his chest, stolen by an uncaring mage, and from his hollow corpse madness rose, consuming every last dragon until none remained.

• In their madness, they gnawed at the fabric of the world, seeking to devour it all, seeking respite from their torment, only to end up dead, maws filled with broken fangs.

• >Enchantments: Hateful Presence {Gold}, Wrath-Bound Sacrifice {Gold}, Heartless Vessel {Gold}, Merciful End {Diamond}

...

>Enchantment: Hateful Presence {Gold}

~>Details: A dragon without a heart is a dragon severed from the world, and a dragon without a world to rule is a dragon bound to eternal hate.

~The hollow gash within its chest may only fester rot.

• Once activated, it passively turns one’s presence poisonous to all life, a ward that withers all things. When actively used, it allows all wounds caused by the Fang to detonate at will into explosions of rot that consume mind and body alike.

• The Fang’s user does not automatically become immune to the rot.

...

>Enchantment: Wrath-Bound Sacrifice {Gold}

~>Details: A Dragon’s magic, without a heart to anchor it, becomes twisted, and in turn so do the laws of equivalence.

• By burning aether, massively enhance your physical might; by burning blood, temporarily gain power beyond your rank and realm.

• All borrowed power comes at a cost.

...

>Enchantment: Heartless Vessel {Gold}

~>Details: Those beyond always seek vessels, and what better vessels than the children of the world and progenitors of the arcane arts?

• Once activated, both the user and any chosen other party will begin to collapse into eternal madness, turning into monsters of twisted flesh.

• The user will gain a warped, overlapping armour of bubbling flesh and blood that massively enhances their power, while the other party will have their body assaulted by a plethora of tumours that weakens them until death.

• The Heartless Vessels can never return to normalcy.

...

>Enchantment: Merciful End {Diamond}

~>Details: Dragons were born to die, as were angels ushered across the heavens only to inevitably fall, as were demons to endlessly sin.

• With their wings torn, scales ripped, and veins ruptured, their limbless bodies will fall to the earth, blood splattering to form a sea within which they will be entombed.

• Only then, only when the dragons have fallen to their most merciful end, will the truth awaken.

• Only then will the first hiss echo.

• > [?]

—

Uriel activated [Hateful Presence], and his very aura became a poison of the foulest kind, dark tongues of energy flickering around his form.

"KIHHHHH!"

The fox screeched and yelped, releasing his leg and flipping back onto its paws before furiously retreating. It hacked out blood as it fled, the liquid dark and so corrosive it melted through the frozen ground.

Uriel sprang to his feet, his glaive still firmly in his grasp and his grin just as radiant.

"Oh, no, please! Come back! We were having so much fun!"

Without hesitation, his aether tore into the glaive and a silver glow erupted around it, darkening as his very essence turned foul and chaotic, everything he touched becoming twisted in nature.

He activated another enchantment, [Wrath-Bound Sacrifice], burning aether and blood alike to overwhelm his frame with might.

The surge of power was such that most would have had their cores shatter and their minds sunder, but Uriel’s core was unbreakable and his pioneer scale more than capable of accommodating his swelling strength, however temporary.

He pushed forward and, in a blink, bridged the distance, already before the retreating beast, stance lowered and blade thrusting with vicious momentum.

Wisdom flickered through the Fox’s eyes as it rapidly analysed the situation, its savage gaze bouncing from his weapon to his aura to the sudden eruption of might surrounding him.

Then, shockingly, the beast formed a plan.

WHOOOSH!

Uriel’s eyes widened as his spear pierced into the Fox, but just as he expected blood, its body dispersed into countless arcs of lightning that surged toward him before reassembling behind him.

’Elemental control?!’

Frantically, he turned, but the moment his gaze caught what lay behind him, his eyes widened further.

His heart hammered against his chest as he watched the golden cloud there... disperse.

’An illusion—?!’

He could barely finish the thought before pain wracked through his body, sharp claws tearing across his back.

But instead of being sent flying, he felt himself pulled inward by a spectral force.

He twisted around once more, even as he was dragged closer, coming face to face with the fox, now shrouded in a thick mantle of elemental aether.

A mantle shockingly similar to—

’My elemental mantle?’

He expected the beast to attack again with another physical strike, so he crossed his weapon over his body and lowered himself, aiming to shield his vitals as he was drawn nearer.

Everything was happening far too fast.

But just as he braced for more pain...the fox roared at him.

There was no sound.

Instead, the very fabric of space shook and rippled as though it were water, space and light twisting beneath its might and then—

"NO!"

—exploding.