Chapter 8: First death (3)
Any fool could understand this situation and what it meant: they were the last group of survivors on what was left of this doomed and torn planet…
In the end, all his efforts to try to protect the others had been in vain. Until his last moments, he had been unable to save those who had meant something to him.
As he looked around him again, he could not help but think of the wonderful treasure that this world would have been without all these horrors. He emptied the remaining alcohol before letting the empty bottle fall to the ground at the same time as the last cigarette fell from his lips. As more and more enemies climbed the fortress walls, it was only a matter of time before they crossed the labyrinthine corridors and reached him.
Mars looked again at the orb in the center of the ritual room
"I've always wanted to use one of these things."
Hey, what would happen if he tried to do that?
As the demons' cries began to grow louder and louder in the hallways, his mind was filled with ideas worthy of placing him on the dark side of the force.
Mars walked to the center of the room and grasped the Orb of Witchcraft in his right hand. When he touched it, he felt an incredible power radiate from it. The artifact catalyzed the magical energies so intensely that simply breathing became difficult. Yet, for what he wanted to try, it might not be enough.
Since he was a child, he had always loved explosions and fireworks on the annual national holiday, and even today that love had not changed. And no matter what Aleria tried to do, she had failed, so this magical energy accumulated in the circle could well be used so he could try something irresponsible. This world was ruined, right? Apart from the enemies there was nothing left, so if something went wrong no one would blame him anyway.
"It'd be a shame if it all went to waste, wouldn't it?"
Blowing the air out of his lungs and expelling all thoughts not related to his intention, he concentrated on his task. Gathering his will and focusing it to cut himself off from the outside world and his physical senses, he concentrated solely on his magical senses.
Retreating inside his mind, he descended within himself to the depths of his consciousness, where his most primitive emotions existed, marked and twisted by their continuous proximity with the dimension of the immaterial. They palpitated with life, and so much hunger for destruction and desire to oppress and trample on any other form of life that he himself was thwarted. This devouring and endless greed mixed with an irresistible desire for conquest accompanied him as he let fragments of his soul slide to the other side of the veil of the material realm.
The pain lacerated his mind as much as his soul, while on contact with the abyss, his spirit was consumed and twisted as the immaterial planes opened up to him and its dark inhabitants sought to penetrate his soul and make their way into it. Remembering the odious prayers of invocations used by the sorcerers of the nightmarish gods, he called upon the most powerful existences of the immaterial to come and devour the tantalizing bait his soul now represented, like a shining beacon on the horizon on a night without stars or moon.
Suddenly, an obnoxiously powerful existence, probably a nightmare lord, swept away the other presences with a single blow and clung to Mars"s existence with such force that he almost felt as if his dying soul would be ripped to shreds and destroyed in the next instant.
He felt his whole body stiffened by the nauseating pain as magical power flooded his soul and mind like a cataclysm, combining with the energies present in the orb and reshaping the space around Mars under the pressure of the energies. He could barely contain the flow of raw and corrupted power, and the explosive flow of energy created by the energies of the Orb made it even worse.
Electrified flames gushed from his orbits as he projected his spirit into the sky, while the surrounding cloudy areas reacted immediately to the absurd amounts of power he deployed.
Gleams of light shone down as far as the eye could see, rivaling the dawn, while immense multicolored lightning bolts passed through the clouds and struck everywhere, creating a maelstrom that rumbled and grew larger every moment for miles before engulfing the entire horizon.
He narrowly avoided being swallowed up by the oozing existence of madness and terror, restricting it with all the strength of his will, sharing his concentration on the link with the Orb of Sorcery. The almost Divine protection maintained the last barrier around his soul to prevent vicious existence from nesting there, and also protected him from the aura of madness that seeped into his consciousness. Mars kept just enough clarity of mind to direct his fury to what he was seeking up there, beyond the sky, beyond the heavens.
Deploying all the strength he had slowly and painfully accumulated during his life, he stole and consumed the demon's powers within him at a staggering speed, and used them to draw focus to his powers.
In a demonstration of inhuman willpower and a totally absurd mixture of magical energies, he applied his telekinetic magic to one of the asteroids orbiting the planet.
Half-conscious, and as madness gnawed at him more and more, he felt the powerful existence that wished to seize him roar with anger and frustration at its inability to grasp the meal in front of it, shouting and whispering in a thousand different voices, hitting him even harder with all his rage, trying to seize Mars"s mortal envelope, blinded by his desire for the material body that was offered to him.
Mars looked up at the sky. Flamboyant and luminous, a dazzling light illuminated the horizon like celestial rain as the asteroid passed through the planet's thick atmosphere. Even the thick cloud cover could not extinguish the light of this dazzling promise of destruction and death.
A carnivorous smile appeared on his face, while the electric arcs burned his flesh and transformed it into powder under the influence of the powerful corrupted magical influences that licked the surface of his body.
After so many horrible years, his heart was for the first time inhabited by a strange feeling of peacefulness as he contemplated the sky shimmering with light. He also felt as if a familiar presence was thanking him for what he had done. It must have been his imagination, but leaving with this feeling suited him very well, because there would be nothing to expect after his death, except nothingness if no existence managed to seize his soul in time.
Breathing in one last time, he closed his eyes, laid his fist on his heart, addressing the last prayer to this world. Then, finally, when he opened them, the world turned into a silent light when the meteor struck him.
Farewell, old friend.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone