Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 31B2 - : The Wrathblade, cometh.

“I think we got him!” Mary shouted, pumping her fist into the air and clapping Cherly, the Planet Mage who had used an ingenious combination of flame and metal to burn their foe.

“We need to stay focused!” Kado, one of the Pulsar Mages replied. “Don’t distract us!”

“Oh, right,” Mary, their Planet Medic, replied. She backed away a few feet to wait for her allies to inevitably destroy the Aspirant. Delta’s magnetism to crush his prosthetics. Kado’s magnetism to amplify the efficacy of Cheryl’s fire-metal…this was a brilliant plan! I wonder why he dropped his Cloak, though.

“Hey, something is happening!” Kado shouted, getting Mary out of her thoughts. The Medic glanced up, and she felt her heart drop.

An enormous geyser of water shot up into the sky from the Aspirant who had collapsed onto the roof: and it was blood-red. All the way up into the sky, beyond sight.

That’s not how people die.

“He’s out of range!”

Jace had used his single Archmage Skill that Ollie said he could use. Hydromancy to wash away the burning metal, and to carry him away from the magnetic spheres. It blasted him up in a geyser, straight up six miles: to its maximum range. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). Detonate. The power went off, and he was suspended, six miles in the sky. He coughed out the last of the burning magnesium, “Thank God I can’t feel pain right now,” he said in between breaths.

“You are badly hurt. Can you use your Mending?”

Dark Matter Mending (Rank 4), Jace thought. He saw the deep, purple glow in his torso that shot out to all his extremities: uncrumpling his arm and legs. That brought him some relief.

“Great! It looks like since you got the NICIF in you that is more ‘part’ of you, your Mending can affect it. No need for the Omnitech repair module in your bag.”

Jace nodded and looked down. Zooming in with his vision, he saw the three Mages: holding their spheres over their heads again, waiting…watching. Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3) [Reflecting]. The purple bubble popped around him. Hope’s Edge isn’t going to be active long enough for me to rely on my trump card, he thought.

“Thoughts on how to approach?” he asked as he mentally counted down from twenty in second increments.

“You should fall upon them like a meteor. But you do not have a way to negate fall damage. Your once-per-day walk on air Skill is on cooldown. To survive the fall, you would need to use another Dark Energy Mine.”

That’s what I thought. He raised his palm, “Dark Matter Dart (Rank 2) [Exploding].” He directed one dart towards each of the Magi holding a sphere over their heads. The purple-black spikes launched out, impacted them, and bounced off of a slight, glowing green, protective barrier. Right, they’ve got a Medic with them. He spotted them, moving under a slight overhang of a doorway leading to the interior of the building they were on top of.

Jace felt himself beginning to fall as gravity reasserted itself. He felt anger. Rage that these three had caught him off guard. Anger at himself for not being able to weather the assault. He had survived: barely. Only because of Priam’s [Contingent] healing Skill was he alive at this moment.

And that was the most upsetting of all. That he wasn’t strong enough to survive on his own.

Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). He placed the effect on his torso. Cocking back his arm, he threw his sword down at the Planet Medic.

Mary was peering up at the sky, trying to make out the black dot that she was sure was slowly falling.

Dodge! Her Medic’s Intuition (Rank 3) told her, and she ducked into the stairwell of the building. In front of her, where she had been standing, a five-foot long blade with a foot-long hilt stabbed into the ground before sinking down into the concrete…and then vanished.

What the hell? She looked over at her allies who were still holding their Skills at the ready. “He’s throwing swords at us?”

Dodge!

Listening to the instinct, she backed further into the building. She saw the sword slice down through the ceiling above the roof entrance, the blade coming to a stop mere inches from her face. “Help!” She shouted as the blade vanished.

“He’s too far away to reach!” Delta shouted.

“I can’t see any of you. He’s targeting me!”

“Don’t come out unless you- Gah!” She heard Kado begin to speak and then get cut off as she heard a shlick, whump noise. Dashing out of cover, Mary saw that the sword had pierced through the magnetic sphere above her ally, right into the top of her skull, and out her back. The Pulsar Mage began to fall backwards, and Mary ran forward as the sword vanished. Dragging Kado back, she felt for a pulse. Faint, but there! “Medic’s Medicine (Rank 32),” she muttered as she got her unconscious ally and herself back into cover.

She saw the skull mend and Kado’s eyes snapped open. She gasped, “What happened?”

“Everyone! Get into cover!” Mary shouted.

Her other allies ran towards her, and all of them got into the building leaving the roof behind. “He can throw and resummon his sword,” Cherly said with a frown on her face. “How’s Kado?”

“I’m alive,” Kado replied.

“We have to retreat. We don’t have anyone to stand on the front line while we pelt him with Skills from afar,” Delta stated as they tapped their scepter against their temple.

Cherly went up to the door and closed it. “It’s okay. We’ll surv-” she was cut off as a blade stabbed through the door, and she went slack as it pierced her spine.

“Medic’s Medicine (Rank 32)!” Mary shouted as she lunged forward, grabbed Cheryl, and pulled her off of the blade. The two went tumbling back down the stairs, as Kado and Delta both got to the sides.

Mary rolled to a stop on the landing, her back slamming the wall as she let out a grunt of pain. Cherly was in a pile next to her, recovering from the stab wound. The door above her was ripped off its hinges, and the glowing, crimson covered figure filled the whole doorway.

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“You all are going to die,” he growled. He looked inhuman. A scowl of pure rage on his face that seemed to reflect in the crackling aura surrounding his body. His skin was an odd mix of grey, silver, and gold streaks. His eyes looked demonic and monstrous, blazing with purple and Stardust-blue energy. His teeth were slightly pointed, enhancing the demonic look.

Both Kado and Delta held up their Skill implements, and their magnetic energy shot forward…and dissipated against the purple barrier. The monstrous, humanoid figure slashed and with one quick cut, decapitated Kado. Mary winced at the severity of the wound; I can’t heal that level of injury! She began to drag Cheryl down the stairs further. We have to run! “Come on!” she shouted after her companions.

She heard the crackling of lightning as Delta used an electricity-based Skill: and then heard a horrifying crack followed by a terrified scream. “I’m not affected by your Skills,” the masculine, guttural voice said, the sound echoing down the stairwell. The tone sent shivers of horror down Mary’s spine, and she pushed Cheryl aside as the panic overtook her desire to protect and heal her allies.

She heard the heavy footsteps behind her, and sparing a glance back, saw Cheryl manifesting her most powerful Skill. “Molten Core Beam!” An enormous, powerful, superheated stream of magma surged out and impacted some type of large, square shield that was outlined by the superheated rocks.

“Nice try.” Mary kept running as she heard Cheryl scream out before going silent.

“No! Please!” Mary shouted as she kept running, tears streaming down her eyes as she descended more stairs into the depths of the building. “I just heal people! I can’t hurt anyone!” She got to a section where she was on scaffolding and the floor of the building was below her. It was some type of mechanics shop, with vehicles in various states of repair below. A ladder went down, and she quickly climbed down it.

As soon as she touched down, she quivered with fear as she heard the loud crunch of something heavy landing near her. Slowly turning, she felt the horror take over once more as this monstrous human approached her. He dropped his sword and wrapped his fingers around her neck: not choking her, surprisingly, but lifting her up into the air. She knew her life was in his hands, and she did not dare move.

Her Wayfinder, an adorable tree frog, poked out of her tuft of red hair. The Aspirant before her removed one of his hands from around her neck, reached up, grabbed the Wayfinder, and squeezed. With a slight ribbit, it vanished.

“H-h-how?” she barely whispered.

“How many of you are left?” His voice was stern…almost admonishing, in a way.

“I-I-I don’t know h-h-how m-many you’v-”

“Seven. Seven dead.”

“I’m the last one,” she whispered. “Of the Aspirants!” She quickly added as she felt the hand begin to squeeze her neck ever-so-slightly.

“Where are the Ascendants?”

“At the server room! P-please spare me!”

“No.”

She tried to scream, but the world went black as he twisted her neck. The last thing she felt was a loud pop as the world went dark.

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Jace dropped the woman’s corpse. “Dust her,” he ordered as he let his Skills all fade. Traversing the ladder and going back up the stairs, he also had Ollie dust the three Magi.

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[Stardust Acquired: 400]

[Stardust Split: 100]

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Reaching the roof, he took in a deep breath. “That was messy,” he muttered as he glanced back at the bloody hallway that was also scorched. “They had no clue I am practically immune to magnetism and electricity.”

“And you handled magma surprisingly well.”

Jace shrugged, “Not that bad with my (Burnguard) Aegisleather and Leviathan’s Skin.” He sighed, “Contact Quinn for me. I know it’ll take longer, but I’m heading back to The Cosmic Corridor portal. I need a rest in the tent, and a new comm unit. New lockpicks and e-pick.”

“I’ll have her put together a care package.”

Jace began running across the rooftops, leaping from one to the next: not worrying about stealth. All the Aspirants are dead. The Ascendants are on the defense. And Myscape Industrial hasn’t even sent in their security forces.

Why is that? Where are they?

He wasn’t waiting long to learn the answer to his question. “Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3),” he whispered as he approached the portal to The Cosmic Corridor.

An army was surrounding the aperture. Mechs, soldiers, armored vehicles with turrets: all pointed right at the portal. “Ollie…tell Priam and Greg they cannot come through that portal.” He looked off to the Empire State Tower. Two Ascendants. I could maybe take them on if I was fully rested. I shouldn’t have left my pack in The Cosmic Corridor. I need that tent. Or…a thought crossed his mind, and he grinned. There’s always the old hangout.

Making his way to the crossroads he knew so well from his teenage years, he found exactly what he expected to find. The same chain link fence, rusted to hell, underneath the freeway overpass of Riverside Dr. and W 79th St, heading to the 9A expressway. Making his way to the familiar bolt hole, he hopped over the fence and made his way to where his group of youths once congregated.

His old hideaway. Where he and Chroma had first stayed when he rescued her from the orphanage. When life was simpler and easy. Making his way into the narrow, cement crevice, he found the same piece of metal that he had torn off of an old dumpster with the help of his mentor; an older member of the street folk ‘underclass’, who guided Jace on the streets. Moving the metal to the side, he found the well-worn hollow that he and Chroma used to sleep in.

Going inside, he pulled the sheet of metal back over the entrance and dropped his Cloak. “I’m going to rest up,” he told Ollie as he sat down and leaned against the familiar wall. Looking up, putting his hands behind his head, he saw the artwork that Chroma and some of the younger street folk had painted using the few buckets of grease they had taken from a garbage barge.

They were childish but had a charm to them. Jace sighed as he settled back. Ollie flew in front of him. “I will coordinate with the rest while you get some shut-eye.” The otter floated in front of him and his face was filled with…some emotion Jace couldn’t identify. “Are you…okay? You just…killed someone.”

“I’ve killed a lot of people by this point. Dozens.” Jace frowned, “But they were all fighting back.” In his thoughts, he added except the innocents working for the megacorp I killed with the Archmage spell.

“This last one was a Medic. No combat Skills as far as I could tell.”

“She…she supported people who tried to hurt me.”

“Just like Priam. What makes him different?”

Jace was shaken by that question. Priam reminded me of Verve, he thought as he recalled his childhood friend slaughtered in front of him. And Priam wasn’t working for a megacorp, and the Nebula Alliance with Aspirants trying to kill me. The people he was with wanted to capture me: big difference there.

“Well?” Ollie asked.

“This Medic was working for a hostile faction. Plus, they directly supported people-”

“Priam did the same thing,” Ollie replied. “I just want you to see the hypocrisy in that.”

Jace sat up and looked at Ollie, staring into his large, blue eyes. “I…what’s a hypocrite?”

Ollie sighed and pinched the bridge of his little, cute nose, “Right, your vocabulary is not the largest. When you claim a moral standard, but your behavior does not follow it.” Ollie looked at Jace as he crossed his little paw-arms. “I will always be on your side. I am your Wayfinder, after all. But you had told me back in Pheracorp’s holdings that you do not want to kill people unless it is necessary. You stated you had lines you would not cross.”

“Well, did you tell me in the moment that the Medic had no harmful Skills?”

“No.”

Jace continued, “And she worked for a faction that is actively trying to kill us?”

“Yes.”

“And it’s not like I had a prison cell to put her in. Or a way to keep her from communicating to her allies. And you didn’t tell me that she had no offensive Skills. Plus, even without offensive Skills, she could have had a gun, or a knife, or any multiple means of harming me.”

Jace leaned back against the wall, feeling vindication for his actions. “I…the lines have shifted. My moral lines, at least. That’s what has changed between sparing Priam and killing this Medic. She was working for people actively trying to kill me, while Priam and those others wanted to capture me. That’s enough justification for me.”

Ollie nodded, flew forward, and put a paw on Jace’s knee, “I understand. And I am happy that you acknowledge your moral boundaries have changed. Are there still lines you won’t cross?”

“There are.” Jace let himself slide down to a prone position and shut his eyes. “While I’m out, would you mind seeing if Quinn could communicate if I used one of the Common (Equipment) Boons I have for another earpiece.”

“Will do. And I am sorry if it sounded like I was interrogating you.”

“It…no, it’s a good thing,” Jace replied. “I needed to hear myself say it. I’ve done things that I need to come to terms with, and talking with you helps that.”

“You are welcome.” Ollie vanished with his pop, and Jace settled into the dark hollow under the bridge.