Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 15B3 - : Good gods go bad

Jace shook off the remainder of the assault on his ears and got up into a ready stance. The doors had been ripped out towards him, and the Inner Sanctum was open. His dark vision was not able to pierce whatever was within, and his All-Seeing Dragon’s Eyes were not able to pierce the blackness, either. Time to try this out, he thought as he raised his hand. “Void Counter (Rank 10).”

The blackness disappeared, and Jace found himself face to face with an enormous, crab-like creature. A single, chitin-covered center point that housed a massive eyeball with several legs and pincers that led off from the main body. The bottom of the center eyeball was thicker, and he could see the slight drip of some type of liquid. The room it was in looked to be an enormous, circular chamber that was once, possibly, filled with a swamp-like environment judging from the detritus laying around the room; ancient, petrified plant remains.

The thing began scuttling up the tunnel, and Jace turned around, sprinting for the entrance. I need more room to maneuver, he thought as he burst out of the door he had shoved back into place and got out into the snowy tundra. Plus, getting it outside: it might not do too well in the cold. Void Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Void Shield (Rank 6), Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3). His blade ignited with the blazing, grey energy, as a similarly colored shroud covered his form, and he saw the slight pulsating of an outer, purplish layer of Dark Matter.

There was a tremendous crash and an explosion of stone, metal, some type of concrete, and ice as the small hill Jace was facing exploded, and the crab-like creature surged out into the cold. It screeched, and Jace saw the Dark Matter Cloak around him vanish. “Ollie? What’s it doing?!”

“It can disintegrate matter with sound waves. Don’t let your Void Shield drop!”

Well, Jace thought as he swapped to two-handed grip his sword hilt, that Skill only costs me energy while active, and it’s a constant drain. This isn’t a matter of who can do more damage faster; it’s a matter of how long it takes me to kill it. He had the ultimate defense: an Ascended Power that nullified and turned anything impacting him to nothingness: except, seemingly, creatures from other layers of reality.

Xera’s voice came over the comms, “Shit! It’s asserting itself as a local administrator!”

“Which mean-” he was cut off as gravity vanished and he began to be sucked up into space. Shooting out his Ghostlight Grapnel, he tethered himself to the surface of the rogue planet.

“He can control physics in a localized area!” Ollie shouted.

Jace tapped his sword-hand on his torso, Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). Detonate. The lack of gravitic influence on him seemed to also help negate the ridiculous situation he found himself in. fighting a Tier 10 equivalent, corrupted deity, giant crab. Keeping his Ghostlight Grapnel tethered to the ground, he yanked and was able to return to the surface. Digging his Steelstalker Sabatons into the ground, he found to his delight that the Reaper Armor shifted so that the blades could jut out and anchor him properly.

Cocking back his arm, he threw it forward and scored a hit on the creature’s enormous eye. But it continued to stare at him, unblinking, despite the grey and crimson aura beginning to cover it. He felt an odd pressure against his temples. He felt something next to his chest pop, and then a voice entered his mind.

“A wayward life form. You shall serve me.”

Jace was stuck there, transfixed, trying to do something: anything: but he could not control his body, or his actions, or use Skills. He was a prisoner in his own brain. Ollie flew up to his face and surged into his brain, shoving the creature’s influence aside.

Verge Protocol activated! Get out of his head, you giant crustacean!

“Arrogant little fur-worm!”

Jace could still hear the thing in his head, but he was able to move and control his faculties once more. Raising his Anathema Arm, he barked out the activation phrase. “Arbiter’s Anathema!”

The pressure faded, and the creature’s influence was forced from his mind. Once more, he shouted out, “Arbiter’s Anathema!” and gravity returned as he removed the creature’s temporary control over the localized System. Good thing I guessed correctly, Jace thought.

Guessed what? Ollie asked at the speed of thought as the two conversed almost instantaneously.

Jace thought back, I guessed that since this world is Tier 6, this thing’s control is only at that Tier as well, despite the thing itself being Tier 10. And, I bet that Arbiter’s Anathema only works on Skills lower than its Tier, and it comes from a Tier 8 world.

Oh, that reminds me: that Mind’s Eye Amulet shattered trying to protect your mind.

Damn, Jace thought as he dodged to his left. An enormous claw came crashing down where he had just been standing, but thanks to his Edge’s Intuition, he was able to sense and react far faster than the thing could swing. Glancing at his energy, he saw the steady, slow drain from the Void Shield.

The void energy coating the creature kept slowly spreading, along with the crimson miasma: but the thing rushed its bulk forward. It must have been able to tell the speed difference would work against it, and Jace knew it was intelligent, and would do some tactic to eliminate speed as an option.

Jace thought, I want this entire area to heat up to the maximum possible temperature I can survive with my armor intact. Archmage’s Admixture. As he finished the thought, a spark of multi-colored, prismatic energy surged out from him and spread out over a five mile radius. The entire planet in that radius became a scorching inferno, as flames licked up from the ground and scorched the entirety of that portion of the world.

The ice, snow, and rime below instantly melted before evaporating, and the crab-creature fell a good ten feet onto a glassed surface that cracked under its weight. Jace used his grapnel to pull himself down onto the vast, reflective surface. The flames had done a number on the creature as well, judging by the shriek it emitted as the meat inside seemed to boil and crack the shell in places.

Jace grinned as he felt the raw power surging through him from all of his Skills, and despite the slight energy drain, he knew he had a stockpile from the Primal Hide, just waiting to be tapped into. Throwing his sword over and over, he aimed for the cracks in the chitinous shell, targeting the weak points as he spread the miasmic effect.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Once more it let out a screech, and the glass underneath Jace shattered, turned into sharpened projectiles, and flew at him: only to disintegrate to nothingness as the projectiles impacted his Void Shield. Then, an idea struck him. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1), he thought as he attached it to his sword, threw the blade, and thought activate as it impacted.

The burst of energy went off, and the crab thing gripped down onto the dirt beneath the layer of glass it had just pulled together for the ranged assault. Jace kept throwing his sword, backing up further and further as he chose to keep his distance. All of the creature’s Skills were meaningless in the face of his Void Shield, and he felt supremely confident of his role in this fight.

But then, a gravitic influence began to pull on him from behind. He did not actually fall victim to it, thanks to his Dark Energy Mine still being active on him, with about half the time left. But glancing back, he saw a series of three drones; watching him from high above. Can they use Skills through the drone cameras? Jace thought.

Possibly, Ollie replied at speed-of-thought. And we cannot let them see your left hand. I am going to do something Xera would not approve of. I am going to override a safety protocol all Wayfinders must follow.

How? Jace asked in his thoughts.

Using your Ascended Power to make the programming restricting me vanish. Ollie giggled, I am, in a way, untethering myself from a portion of The Cosmic System. I will still be your Wayfinder, but consider this a bit of my own insurance policy to keep Xera from influencing me. You and me, until the end! 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Jace glanced down and saw that his Cosmic Power symbol faded away to be replaced by a dull, yellow symbol of the Star Cosmic Power, with a smaller, orange dot for the Gigastar Ascended Power. You can do that? Jace asked in his thoughts.

Only while using Verge Protocol. And Xera is not going to like me doing this!

I’ll deal with that, Jace thought as he pointed to the drones. “Dark Matter Dart (Rank 2),” he muttered. The invisible-to-all except for him projectiles flew out, impacted the drones, and blew holes through the center. The drones began to fall to the ground, and Jace felt the gravitic effect fade.

Turning his attention back to the crab-creature, it focused its eye on him, and he saw an enormous beam of energy begin to coalesce in front of the single, black pupil. Raising his hand, he pointed, “Arbiter’s Anathema.” The third and final use for the day did nothing to stop the beam’s growth.

“Well then, Void Counter (Rank 10),” Jace stated. He felt extremely winded and fell to a knee, watching his energy drop precipitously. The stored energy in his Primal Hide kicked in and refilled his energy to half; but the Skill shut-down worked. The beam vanished in a small flash of grey light, and Jace threw his sword once more into the center of the eye. “Ten seconds,” he whispered to himself as he ran towards the thing. “The bleed and damage over time aren’t kill it. How do I put it down?”

It is a deity, Ollie replied. It should have a Godheart somewhere inside it. Remove that, and you can give it to Priam to put it to rest.

“Can you scan it?” Jace asked as he dodged three razor-sharp claw swings and a pincer that tried to grab him.

No. Just keep cutting it apart!

“I need Wrath’s Embrace for a bigger blade!” Jace shouted as he got under it and cut only a third of the way through one of the armored appendages.

Stimulating amygdala for aggression response and flooding your brain with appropriate chemicals.

Jace saw the world go red and activated Wrath’s Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused] and Mage’s Mark as he slapped his palm against the hide of the creature. The thing tried to flatten itself down onto the ground and crush Jace, but he was already out the back of it and used Raging Cleave (Rank 10) to extend his next swing out to fifty feet. Taking a massive, chopping strike, he carved through the middle of the thing: bisecting it horizontally.

It trembled before collapsing to the ground. Jace started to scan for the same weird, black-shaped object that Priam had taken from Pheracorp back on Earth, but he could not see it. “Ollie?!” Jace shouted as he tried to find it amongst the meat that began to freeze over.

Just keep cutting!

Jace chopped away at the thing, over and over again, until he got to the eye and cut that in half. A black, wrinkled seed of some type was embedded in the viscous, gelatinous body part, and he cut the offending goop away before extracting the Godheart. Tapping it to his forearm, it went into the TPSB.

He let the Skills fade as the System messages popped up in his vision and Ollie dusted the body.

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[Quest Completed: Slay the corrupted deity.]

[Time Limit: N/A.]

[Reward: Legendary (Skill Evolution) Boon.]

[Sender: The Cosmic System.]

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[Stardust Acquired: 4,000]

-----

“Ollie, you coming out?” Jace asked.

No. If the Conclave drones see a Wayfinder, they can run a query off that. I will stick in here for now. Plus, it keeps you from getting a nasty headache.

“Fine by me,” Jace said as he went back to the facility this monstrous, corrupted deity had broken out of, grappled up to the shattered entrance, and made his way into the Inner Sanctum. He could see the bones of some creatures inside. “If I had to guess,” Jace stated, “They locked themselves in here with this deity to survive.”

Xera’s voice came over the comms and she sounded irritated and suspicious, “Ollie…what did you do?”

I disconnected and reconnected.

Xera practically exploded, and Jace winced from the increased volume, “What the- why?!”

We had to hide Jace’s identity and change his Power symbols. I mean, he is a new code name now. The new identity would be rapidly unraveled if he had the Dark Matter symbol, still. And we did not have the Stardust to get a level for a Skill that you restricted.

Xera groaned, and from the sound of her voice Jace imagined she was rubbing her temples. “Ollie…you have made things so incredibly difficult for me now.”

Jace interjected into the conversation, “Look, Xera, he did what he had to do to make sure my death as Flicker is still intact. Keeping me as a hidden asset like this is a good, long-term play.”

“But it removes Ollie from my sphere of influence,” Xera replied. “He just untethered himself from The Cosmic System. Normally, that means the Wayfinder disconnects entirely and goes offline: suicide by another name. But because of Verge Protocol, and him being inside you, a person who is completely in-sync with the System through your Cosmic Infusion Skill at Rank 10…Ollie, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you are stuck inside Jace unless you’re in Khrox or The Cosmic Corridor.”

What?! Ollie shouted in Jace’s head. I’m stuck inside him?!

“That’s what I said,” Xera stated. “If he comes across another Glitched location, and enters it, it will be permanent as your programming goes into ‘survival mode’ to keep you intact by any means necessary. But, if you get back to Khrox, I can reintegrate you so you can tether as usual.”

Ollie thought, and Jace knew instinctively that he was talking to just Jace. Well, she cannot lie to you, but she could lie to me. Ask her directly for me.

Jace spoke, “If we return to Khrox, and Ollie reintegrates, he will still be beyond your control, right?”

“Yes,” Xera replied. “Just like how my override could not force him to self-terminate. Hopefully you do not find any more unmerged Glitch locations: if you do come across one, you will have to leave it be. Otherwise, Ollie is going to be permanently along for the ride in your mind; only going ‘dormant’ if you turn off Cosmic Infusion. Like putting a computer on sleep mode.”

Happy? Jace thought to Ollie.

Yup! He replied, again just to Jace’s thoughts. We will get me reintegrated properly when we go back to Khrox. He then swapped so he was speaking with Xera and Jace. We will come back soon!

Xera sighed and spoke to Jace, “Well, keep up the good work. Lots of Complexes to clear out. Get to it.”

Jace left the chamber and went outside. Pulling the hypercycle out of storage, he mounted up and raced off to the next destination.