Vir clucked his tongue in irritation. That was not only too close for comfort, Ashani’s intervention lengthened the duration until her next cast.
The tide of battle shifted, and Vir was forced on the defensive to conserve his prana usage. He was winning, though not fast enough.
Just a little more. We’re so close!
A great bolt of lightning had something to say about that.
With a deafening roar that left Vir’s ears ringing and his hair standing up on end, the power of the gods skewered the Wyrm, paralyzing it long enough for it to fall out of the sky and crash to the ground.
Vir didn’t waste this precious opportunity.
Katar in hand and Blade Projection active, he reaved—a spinning blade of death. Vir danced around the fallen Wyrm, killing hundreds of baby worms with each strike.
The giant beast dissolved into a million tiny ones, hoping to swarm him.
Unfortunately for it, Vir could escape fast. Very fast. He sunk into the strong shadow of a nearby spire and appeared halfway up its side, clinging to a ledge for support.
From his vantage, Vir battered the ground with impunity, sending a barrage of Prana Darts raining on the beast.
He was winning. But if it became a battle of attrition, the Wyrm would win. Vir’s body would burn out from channeling too much prana, and that would be the end.
The Wyrm had shrunk to half its original size, and Vir’s movements continued to slow. More and more, he favored Micro Leaps and Empower—prana efficient abilities—over the flashier, more powerful Katar and Chakram Launch.
His strikes dealt damage, lopping off more and more of the mythical beast at the cost of safety, bringing him closer and closer to the worms.
Vir wasn’t sure when they’d managed to latch on. Perhaps it was when he’d gouged deeply into its body with Blade Projection. Or maybe it was when he’d run along its side, skewering a line of death from front to back.
He hadn’t noticed at first—they’d been busy devouring his Prana Armor. It was only when they wiggled through his brigandine and began to gnaw at his flesh did he feel the pain.
By then, it was too late.
Vir collapsed onto the street, screaming in agony as the tiny worms burrowed into his flesh, consuming him.
Think! Do something!
There was no time to think. His body reacted instinctively. He flared his prana, opening his pores.
Ash prana exploded out from him in all directions, draining his reserves.
But it did the job. The worms invading him died instantly, and his pranites set out to heal him.
“Vir!” Ashani screamed.
Vir looked up just in time to see the maw of the great Wyrm descend over him.
He barely managed to suck enough prana into him to activate Dance, sinking into his shadow just before he met his end.
That was too close, he thought, considering his situation in the Shadow Realm. I need an edge.
Something that didn’t require much prana, but was capable of harming this enemy.
Vir looked over his exits, finding one in particular that caught his attention. It showed an Ashfire Wolf—the runt leader. And it carried something very familiar in its mouth.
Surfacing near the wolf, Vir caught its attention.
“Thank you,” he said, retrieving the chakram it carried. “I’ll put this to good use.”
Vir gripped the black-and-gold chakram. In any other situation, he’d have gawked at its exotic beauty, but now, he just wanted to use it.
Though he’d never used Imperium magic before, the knowledge came almost immediately. Vir willed the Artifact of the Gods to activate, and the moment he did, geometric blue lines sprung to life all over the disk, accentuating its otherworldly beauty.
But this was no mere work of art. It was a weapon of the deadliest caliber.
The chakram hummed. Razor blades deployed around its outer edge, vibrating in place, their tips coated with Ash prana. And yet, Vir was able to grasp it barehanded without injury.
The deadly weapon sucked hungrily from the air, and Vir could almost feel its bloodlust.
“Let’s see what you can do.”
He hurled the divine weapon at the Wyrm.
The moment the disk left his hand, the razor blades began to spin rapidly, emitting a high-pitched scream.
The beast’s maw opened, thinking to swallow it.
The chakram entered… and exited out its back.
Then it reversed course, ripping a new hole into the Wyrm’s body.
No way…
It exited. It entered. It exited again, and it entered. The chakram had a mind of its own, decimating the Wyrm with its deadly vibrating blades.
The shrill scream emitted by the chakram was joined by the Wyrm’s own death throes.
The beast writhed in agony as bits and pieces of it sloughed off.
Ashani’s lightning struck again, annihilating half of the remaining beast, while Vir launched into action, adding his own attacks to the mix.
The Wyrm, now barely a third of its already-reduced size, took to the air, desperate to escape the flying disk of death.
They’d done it. They forced a Wyrm, of all things, to flee.
Vir extended his arm. The chakram obeyed, flying back to him and landing securely in his hand.
Steam hissed from the disk, and it was hot to the touch.
This might be the most powerful weapon I’ve ever seen.
It not only drove off a Wyrm, but could punch through Prana Armor with ease and was intelligent enough to attack his enemies on its own.
Those features might not function once he left the Ash, but the metal it was made of was a composite that Ashani assured him was as tough as Imperium steel.
The Wyrm shrieked from high in the air, and Ashani suddenly appeared at Vir’s side.
“You need to leave. Now!” she said.
“Why?” Vir asked. “We drove it off!”
Ashani stared at the sky.
“It has summoned its brethren.”
Vir paled. “Its brethren? You mean other Wyrms?”
Ashani nodded gravely.
“I thought you said they don’t come out this far from the core?”
“I thought so as well. But look.” She pointed off into the distance.
A half dozen full-size Wyrms descended from the storm clouds. Their mile-long bodies cast shadows upon the already dark city.
“We can’t fight that,” Vir whispered to himself.
Ashani shut her eyes in concentration and extended an arm.
Reality cracked like a shattering mirror.
Spiderwebs spread out in front of her, expanding into an oval that looked into a deep nothingness.
Then the image shimmered, and an image took shape. The edge of a forest, and a small valley beyond.
The Mahakurma! Vir laughed.
“What is it?” Ashani asked.
“Never thought the day would come when I’d be happy to see those Domain Lords,” Vir said, stepping through.
“Oh, wait,” he said, turning around. “We still need to get your other core… um, Ashani?”
Ashani waited on the other side, staring at him with a somber expression.
“Why… Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I never believed it, you know? Not truly. Yet everything I have wished for has happened. Everything it told me would happen, happened,” she said, smiling despite her tears.
“I don’t understand. What—”