Chapter 124: Udaeus (2)
Udaeus raised its giant sword as light began to get sucked into it, the dark aura around the sword growing thicker, stronger, more potent as the Loki Familia felt the air become heavier as the monster rex seemed to be gathering strength. Lyze was very well aware he himself could not exchange blades with this monster. One blow and he would probably be eviscerated into nothingness by the giant blade.
But for those who had been following along, they would know that Lyze was the lord and master over a very special blade. Beyond its iconic name, Excalibur was not just an exceptionally sharp blade. No, for it had been blessed and purified by the blood of dozens upon dozens of heroes before him and as such, those same heroes had taken up residence inside the sword, in hopes to guide each wielder as the sword passed down from one owner to the next.
There was no difference with Lyze. He was connected to the souls of these long dead heroes every time he picked up the sword. But Lyze was a tad bit more prideful than the previous owners, in the fact that he rarely ever took direction from these spirits who tried in earnest to pass their techniques onto him. Lyze was a swordsman hellbent on creating his own school, his own style and he accomplished that through various trials and errors, by competing against other expert swordsmen and monsters alike.
Now even rarer still did he give green light for those spirits to do one other thing...control his body. Just like he was when it came to unleashing Chaos, Lyze would be invincible at the blade if he let those spirits take ahold of him and fight through his body. All those various sword techniques, all those miraculous styles, he would be the best swordsman in the whole damn world in an instant.
Albert Waldenstein would not have been able to best him either...perhaps it was worth a try at some point, in case the man did not approve of-
.
.
.
...the point was, by himself Lyze could not stand up to Udaeus. But the spirits of the old heroes inside Excalibur could.
So as the monster rex's own blade darkened with the power of evil, Excalibur began glowing a little with the purity of the heroic souls within the blade and Lyze heard their voices whispering to him in his head as he held it up high and aloft, in direct defiance and opposition to Udaeus.
"Alright guys." Lyze whispered to the sword. "Just this once, I'm letting you do all the heavy-lifting here. I need you to play with this giant brute while I get ready."
The sword vibrated as Lyze felt his control over his body being taken over by some other force as Excalibur glowed brightly. But as that happened, Lyze quickly stuck a finger to his head and thrust it out again. A purple stream of magic flew out and and struck Finn in the head.
The Pallum became stunned as information of Lyze's plan just flowed into his head. It did not stop there though as the purple streak bounced between everybody else's heads, sharing the same plan with them and they gawped at the sheer absurdity of his plan.
"Are you mad boy?!" Gareth shouted at him.
"No arguing!" Lyze said as Udaeus swung down with the weight of a building behind its strike. "Just do as planned! I'll be fine!"
Lyze finally felt all his body get taken over as the souls in Excalibur hummed and Excalibur quickly whipped around to defence. The giant sword that swung with enough wind pressure to shred elephants in ribbons and decimate entire districts collided with Excalibur. The Loki Familia were forced to jump back as an explosion of blast pressure kicked them in their faces and made them throw their hands up to brace the raging gales that emerged from the point of impact. Lyze was hidden beneath a large dust cloud as the top layer of the ground cracked into near perfect squares. Only Udaeus's head could be seen above the smoke screen.
Following Lyze's plan, Finn nodded to Riveria who sighed and drew out her bow. Seeing her do this, the other elves also pulled out their bows and from their quivers drew forth very specific arrows. Shining white metal arrows that crackled with golden electricity as each arrow was pulled taut on a bowstring. The executives were still quite perplexed about this plan of Lyze's but it in no way measured up to the absolute chaos that occurred between the boy and his master in the Warrior's Room.
So for once, they actually indulged in Lyze's mad schemes. Noir noticed that the levitating rocks which had floated up from the ground due to the output of Lyze's Flame were now beginning to drop back down to the floor and the magical pressure began to drop as well as other forces took control of Lyze's body.
The smoke-screen cleared before Udaeus's eyes and it revealed to it a shocking and confusing sight. There stood Lyze, with no longer any silver circuits on his body nor a glowing wellspring in his chest. The flames had gone and the silver lightning had vanish. All that was left was a boy holding up the Holy Sword, dead still and solid against a blade that should have swept the boy and his sword aside like insects.
But if Udaeus could blink its puzzled state, it would certainly have done so at this point because of the sheer nonsense it was being made to experience. It's full powered swing had been blocked effortlessly by this boy who had suddenly gained a giant surge in physical strength, such that not even the {Cratus} skill or any other physical augmenting powers had achieved for him. Lyze grinned as his arm, bulging with the muscles of someone that had lived a life of labour, began PUSHING the giant's blade back like he were resisting the strength of a baby.
"I am the bone of my sword." Lyze said.
The spirits now controlled him besides his mouth, and flicked the cross guard of Excalibur at an awkward angle so as to tap the giant sword in the air. Excalibur came around Lyze's body in a full 360 and slammed into the giant blade, making Udaeus's arm slam back into the wall as its sword impaled the ceiling. The impact of the clash created a shockwave that rocked the ground beneath them all but more importantly, Excalibur had created a small slice of air pressure that hacked a massive schism into the wall and completely split it into two.
The Loki Familia were left agape as Lyze had split the whole room apart so they could see beyond the wall which was hundreds of feet thick, into the previous room which was the Knight's Room. Udaeus bellowed as rage and humiliation filled its being at being so callously bested by this boy and decided to target the ground, driving its blade into the stone floor as it tried to destabilize Lyze's footing with the impact. But Lyze leapt up into the air and flipped over the shockwave that unfortunately hit his Familia members but he had little time to worry for them.
If Lyze were in control, he would be flying about now. He was mid-air only due to a simple jump that was about to bring him down to the ground. Udaeus saw this as is summoned a sea of spikes to come up beneath the descending boy but Lyze's arm blurred as it sent a series of shockwaves towards the floor which completely shredded the spikes into atoms before he landed. Udaeus anticipated this and timed it so that it's sword was rushing towards the boy and would strike him upwards.
Lyze eyes as the giant sword cut through the stone floor like it were a knife passing through water, and it brought with it a tsunami of rubble, dust and dirt that should have scared the soul out of anybody seeing that coming. Plus they'd be blinded by the debris but Lyze stayed calm as panic never served him well in moments of crisis. Instead he channelled it into determination and trust as he left it up to the spirits in the sword to decide what to do.
Excalibur flipped in his hand as he jumped a little for the soles of his feet to meet the flat on Udaeus's blade as the giant sword erupted from the ground. And there Lyze got a free ride on the flat of the blade as it carried him up to a greater vantage point, held fast by the tip of Excalibur which was dug into the monster's rex's own sword. At the right moment, Lyze pulled the sword out and hacked off the two last fingers of Udaeus hand. The monster roared as it saw the two appendages fall to the ground and the hilt of its sword was now grasped in only its thumb, index and middle finger.
Udaeus quickly drove its entire arm to the wall aiming to crush Lyze between the wall and its wrist where the boy was situated but at the right moment he jumped off.
"NOW!" Lyze said, just as Riveria finished chanting.
"{Rea Laevateinn}" Riveria shouted as her high level magic washed the area in a storm of fire. Udaeus got caught in the blast as its body was smashed through ground and into the bedrock. Lyze also got caught in the crossfire and his skin singed with burns as the magic of a high level five engulfed him, but compared to the times he was caught in his own Cruel Suns, this was nothing. Even so, Riveria's magic had not nearly the same heat and effect as the Cruel Sun he'd thrown earlier.
The blast plummeted the boy's body to the monster rex as Lyze lifted Excalibur and sliced off half of its ribs on its right side and also lobbed off the collarbone. Udaeus howled as it once again felt the loss of its bones and it turned around in the ground as it brought it sword around again. As Lyze deflected the giant sword, he felt the undoubted traces of augmentation magic behind the force of the swing smash into his body and do further damage to him. It looked like Udaeus did use magic after all, but only of this kind through its sword. He still winced though as that magic residue hewed his flesh and opened slits in his skin, pouring blood thereof.
But Lyze held firm as he deflected the strong attack and began exchanging deadly blows with Udaeus as the entire Room began violently shaking, schisms opening in the ground and the walls with each clash as both blades generated shockwaves that were able to cut through the bedrock like butter. Lyze span Excalibur around in a way that drove the tip of Udaeus' sword into the ground. He kicked the giant blade downwards to make it go further before he jumped onto the arm and ran up it, aiming for the other shoulder ball.
But Udaeus predicted this and stuck its face on its arm, its jaws just about to snap down on the boys head but again the spirts within the sword outsmarted it and Excalibur buried itself between the sharp teeth of the monster's jaw with such force that cracks formed in its jawline. As Lyze was swung around, holding onto the hilt of Excalibur as Udaeus shook its head from what ever pain it could, five lightning arrows embedded themselves into Udaeus's body, with one being in the incision that Lyze's earlier use of {Darkblade} had made.
The still crackling black hellfire was dissolved by the holy magic of the golden lightning curtain that enveloped Udaeus's body as it was electrocuted by the holy ropes of judgement. Lyze grit his teeth as he too was subject to torture at the hand of a power of his own creation, but he gripped on tightly even as the explosions of the arrows seared off some of his skin. No regeneration to help him due to the cancelling of his magic, Lyze was forced to endure as he kicked downwards. With him, he broke off a whole section of Udaeus's jaw, teeth attached an all as the monsters moaned with pain.
Bone fragments showered off of its body as Lyze turned in mid-air and swung around Excalibur, the jaw piece which was still attached sliding off and rocketing back upwards towards the face, slamming into the face of the monster rex and shattering its own visage as a portion of its right eye socket completely crumbled from the impact. As Lyze free fell, he hacked Excalibur into the wrist of Udaeus and found footing. He focused on the giant blade and with one well place strike, completely shattered the giant sword into fragments.
Just as all the elves had finished prepping their spells and Lyze's immediate area was bombarded by a storm of elemental powers as well as what remained of the arrows he'd given them. Both Lyze and Udaeus were broiled into a raging storm of magical energies as they both were afflicted the greatest pains by it. Lyze bore it as much as he could, wishing he could use his magical defences but alas, his very durable skin would have to do the job.
But even as he was bathed in the agony, all was ready to be implemented. As he backflipped off of the monster's arm and onto the ground below, his body still steaming from the large scale attack he'd come under, he lifted Excalibur in the air as it began glowing brightly.
"Got what you need?!" Noir called out to him as Riveria and her elves put their staves and their wands down.
"I have plenty. I've been waiting a long time to use this!" Lyze whispered before he lifted his head and grinned as he lifted his head and cried out aloud.
"{REVENGE COUNTER}!"
...
A tornado of pure magical force began swirling around the boy as gales swept the room and the collective power of all those magical attacks joined into one slammed into the mages. Each and everyone of them felt themselves resonate with this new ability of Lyze's as they all recognised their own magical powers being mixed in here.
Lyze grinned as he retook control of his body and the spirits receded back into the Holy Sword. Yet still, Excalibur began to grow brighter as he began to collect all the magic within his blade and his body began to levitate in the air before the confused monster rex who had barely functioning body parts as it stared in fury and terror at the small human child that levitated victoriously in a state of pure confidence and assurance that he would triumph over the Risen.
Bara cocked her head to the side as she tried to understand what was happening.
"The hell is this?" She asked everybody, hoping to get an answer. "I was wondering why the kid stopped using magic near the end. Was he saving up?"
"Yes and no." Finn said as he leant his spear against his shoulder, knowing now that Udaeus was finished and he no longer needed to intervene. "He told me about this attack when we were still in the Middle Floors. He turns off his own magical powers so that his body stores and absorbs any other magical attacks he gets hit with or is caught in. He absorbed it from Udaeus, from the arrows that he made, and from Riveria's elves. Then when he was ready, he unleashed it all in one massive attack."
"...This kid's hat just doesn't seem to have an end." Gareth face-palmed. "How many more tricks does he have yet to pull out of it?"
"I gave up counting a long while ago." Noir shook his head. "It's clear to us now. He's been holding back his true power the whole time. I mean I can kind of get why. I doubt the ones we sent below could stand in the presence of all the attacks he's unleashed, let alone the monster rex. For our own sanity, we should just stop trying to apply rationale to whatever Lyze does because it is pointless."
"That I have to agree with." Finn said as his mind went back over a month and a half of Lyze's endless shenanigans. "I can't believe it. He was just a rookie a month back, and now he's taking on Udaeus by himself...all that we worked for, what did it matter?"
"That our Familia came around to creating mighty prodigies like this." Dain put his hand on Finn's shoulder. "This is the fruit of all our struggles Finn. This is the future we have managed to create. See this not as something you failed at, but a success as captain of the Familia that produced the greatest prodigy to date in all of adventuring history."
"...Yeah, you're right." Finn put his hand on his hip as Lyze finished his preparation and moved into Udaeus. "What we're looking at now is the future ruler of all adventurers...Loki was right. We are witnessing the birth of the new hero of this age..."
"I doubt any other hero was able to progress like this." Noir said as his eyes twinkled. "This is not just any hero...this is the King of Heroes..."
...
Lyze felt no rush, no great emotion as he flung the gathered magic at Udaeus. In his eyes, he did not see any difference between a monster rex, a normal monster or another mortal who obstructed him. All were things he had to barrel past in order to reach the top and see his dream realized. To finalize a future in which all his family were gathered and kept safe, and he was free from the shadow of his master, left to a pursue a destiny he could truly call his own.
Whether it took a year, ten years, a thousand years or ten thousand years, he would see to it that he reached the end...
Udaeus howled as ball of brilliantly glowing magic crashed down on it and pulverised it into the ground as the explosion grew so bright that the adventurers were forced to close their eyes or block the source of light before the room shook and was filled with a giant dust cloud. For a moment, silence reigned as nothing could be heard beside the last settling of rubble and dust. But they waited for everything to become visible again as they allowed Lyze to finish what they anticipated by now he would do.
Lyze stood wordlessly as he stared at what remained of Udaeus. The monster was now nothing but a pile of splintered bones, the only intact part of it being its spine, and a portion of its skull where a single red eye stared at him. A couple of ribs held the giant stone in place but everything else was either broke or strewn around the battlefield. Lyze sighed as he stared at the pitiful remains.
Even the greatest kings were destined to eventually fall...and the higher you were, the harder the fall.
Lyze summoned his lightning chains and targeted the remaining parts of the skull as the Flame latched on to the soul of the monster rex. Lyze began tugging as hard as he could, noting that even with the monster in its most weakened state it had probably ever been, it was notoriously difficult to yank the soul out. Plus he himself was also feeling quite sore from tanking the heavy blows from the monster rex's sword.
Even if the spirits had been using his body, he was still taxed with the physical repercussions. He dug his heels in and tugged backwards as the wellspring glowed to life in his chest and the astral form of the monster rex came wriggling out. Lyze grit his teeth as he then decided to take to the air, the soul stretching as if it were made of plasticine as he moved further away.
"{Cratus}" Lyze muttered as his strength physical power multiplied and he successfully managed to yank the bastard out with one final tug.
The giant soul of the monster rex began flying across the room for all to see, the astral spectre visibly howling in terror and trepidation as it floated towards its inevitable doom. Lyze gasped as the Flame began to vacuum into itself the soul of the monster rex and the circuits on his body began burning with power and involuntary silver electricity began to spew out of them as his body glowed with power.
He floated back down to the ground, heady with the onslaught of pure life force he felt himself absorbing as the monster's soul was broken down and turned into Excelia. The dust and rubble around him began to levitate in his mere presence now as Lyze clenched his hands and threw back his head to revel in the sensation of this new power.
But as this happened, he felt his soul become very strained at having to accommodate this new surge in power, to the point where he was cringing in pain. He was at the crossroads now...and there was only one way forward. He was not going to sacrifice his elemental magic now, it was too precious at the moment.
So he gathered the majority of his sub-skills, leaving behind a select few, bundled it all together and chucked them into the Flame. And once more his powers surged...
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