Divine Apostasy Book 11 - Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Silver motes swirled above the bodies and Ruin focused on the mass near his feet. The mental acknowledgement was enough, and a loot summary appeared as the silver mist disappeared along with the bodies.

Currency

DeN: 81,250

Reputation

Dark Tokens: 700

Threads of Fate

Positive: 7

Negative: 6

A small grid filled the bottom of Ruin’s vision and it contained three items.

Name: Gem of Twilight Accord

Compatible Heritages: Elemental, Cooperation, Dark, Light, Shadow

Quality: Splinter

Description: Wield elements of Dark and Light simultaneously with a reduced penalty.

Name: Nightmare Rub

Description: Small jar of black paste.

Application: Thoroughly rub paste into abdomen.

Uses: 3

Effect: Widen’s Dark Meridian Pathways by up to 0.05%

Restriction: Full potency requires one week between applications.

Title: Abyssal Conduit

Fragment: 5 of 13

Description: Ritual to summon and bind a powerful creature from the Void.

Ruin willed the Nightmare Rub into his hand and placed the other two items into Inventory. He carefully opened the small jar and gently wafted the scent of the paste to his nose. Even though he’d retained his Grandmaster Alchemist skills, his Saraph nose processed scents differently, so he didn’t recognize many of the pastes’ ingredients. He didn’t know for sure if that was because they remained unknown to him or if his new body made his memories of smells useless.

Placing the rub into Inventory, Ruin worked his way through the obsidian stalagmites, his steps crunching on the shattered stone remnants of the battle. Nothing else attacked him and before long he exited the forest of stone pillars and entered another flat plain made of polished tiles.

Half a mile away, a mound protruded from the ground, a dark tunnel entrance just visible.

Threads of silver energy spread outward from the mound, crawling through the tiles like roots. They flickered and squirmed like trapped lightning, creating odd shadows inside the floor. It produced an uneasy sense of movement in the corners of his vision.

Piercing screeches broke the silence, and Ruin suppressed a wince at the awful sound. He resisted the urge to look up and continued at a steady pace toward the mound. The creatures above him communicated in a pitch far higher than normal hearing, and they assumed he couldn’t detect them. But he was far from normal.

Ruin smiled as a thought occurred to him. He hadn’t had a chance to test his new wings yet. How they functioned while fighting in the sky was an important thing to learn.

Four wings spread outward from Ruin’s back. His original primal-harp wings remained, although a portion of the strings now consisted of shadowy threads. Underneath his original wings, his second set sprouted, a result of his Saraph body.

These new wings resembled the ones Ruin’s Scarecrow Aspect had materialized, although less demonic now. Instead of a leathery appearance they resembled trapped shadows. Complex silver-colored patterns swirled across their surface, and he knew from experience studying them would make him dizzy.

The harp wings hummed with their Harmonic energy, but without Harmony Ruin couldn’t see or modify the energies the strings contained. In the past, the wings had always defaulted to the frequencies that would destroy the surroundings.

Ruin willed himself upward and his wings responded with a powerful rush downward. The polished tile under his feet shattered from the force as he exploded upward.

In an instant, Ruin hovered among a large circling group of misshapen bats with needle-like teeth and sharp claws. Identify provided more details.

Name: Screechling

Description: An agile creature with bat-like wings, talon-tipped limbs, and an ear-splitting shriek that disorients its prey.

Estimated Power: Tier 3 Level 1

Strengths: Speed, Sonic Attack, Evasion.

Weaknesses: Fragile, Cold.

“Surprise,” Ruin said into the sudden silence.

Ruin willed the energy in his original wings outward. The dungeon suppressed the attack just like it had done with the Minor Prelude of Silence. Even so, the nearest five Screechlings vaporized as his magic overpowered the dungeon’s containment.

“That’s irritating,” Ruin muttered scowling down at where he imagined the dungeon core resided. Having access to his Harmonic abilities would have made this dungeon trivial.

In a louder voice Ruin continued, staring at the distant tunnel entrance that marked his destination. “What happened to ‘Child of Void your presence is revered,’ or ‘Child of Remembrance your presence is honored,’ or even ‘Child of Destruction your presence is welcome?’ Now I need to do everything the hard way.”

The nearest twenty Screechlings recovered, and the high-pitched screeching resumed, this time with urgency as they warned their brethren.

From above, more Screechlings responded, and Ruin glanced up. For a moment he wondered if he’d misjudged by launching himself into the air as he discovered the flock around him was only one of hundreds. He estimated another three hundred Angel level Screechlings circled above.

Ruin focused on his Storm Chaser Stud and switched from Sheet Lightning to Forked Lightning.

Six fist-sized balls of lightning appeared and slowly rotated around Ruin. Immediately, the closest Screechling shrieked as one of the orbiting balls struck it with a bolt of lightning. The four bats closest to the target added their surprised cries of pain as the ball lightning arced outward to strike them as well.

Ruin wondered how long it would take the flying creatures to realize they needed to stay ten feet away from each other.

An almost unbearably loud shriek from high above caused Ruin to grimace in pain. The sound acted as a command, and hundreds of Screechlings turned to him as one and released their sonic attack.

The air rippled from the massive disturbance that raced toward Ruin like a tidal wave, and he entered Last Breath.

Ruin had options, although he suddenly realized he’d never fetched Vex which meant he couldn’t use the Steed’s teleport ability to escape.

Ruin’s first option was simple. Take the damage head on. His current Armor Class with his Ink Lord’s Wrap of Shadow active over his Scarecrow Aspect had reached a staggering value.

Armor Class: 9,707

Considering top-tier plate armor provided fifteen hundred AC, Ruin’s armor alone gave him the equivalent of six and half times that. Any damage that made it past his armor would encounter his Arcangel Fortified body which was even more durable.

Even though Ruin’s body had survived contact with the outer portions of massive stars, the combined damage from three hundred plus Divine creatures might cause some harm.

Ruin’s Arcangel Fortification wasn’t his only natural advantage, however. The buffs he’d had active when his Saraph body formed gave him two passive abilities that would help him here. One defensively and the other offensively.

Name: Annihilation Shield 

Description: Increased durability against destruction energy based on level.

Name: Shadow Mirror 

Description: Reflect a portion of all destruction-based damage back at the attacker. Percent increases with level.

These natural buffs would be more helpful if Ruin had invested his Destruction Needle currency in levels, but even at level one, they should still provide some protection. In addition, he had two passives from his Ink Lord’s Wrap of Shadow helping him.

Dust Jacket - The armor emits an aura of distortion, providing a 10% chance for any incoming ranged attacks to miss.

First Edition - Reduce all magical damage by 33%.

Ruin had only used half his Wing Resonance with his attempt to destroy the Screechlings earlier, which meant he could wrap himself with his wings and use the remaining Wing Resonance to nullify anything that touched them.

Option two was even simpler. Ruin could activate the set bonus of his Scarecrow Aspect.

Holy Rapture - once per week, transport yourself to any location in the current Realm and sector using mental gate runes.

Ruin recalled multiple gate runes for different areas of the Destruction Realm, including one that would take him to the forest not far from his alchemy camp. Two things might complicate this option.

Up until now, Ruin hadn’t considered how his Scarecrow Aspect powered its “Active” abilities. Before, the Aspect had used Spirit, but his had all been consumed. He’d used his Wrathful Crow Beater, though, which must have utilized his new Apocalypse Destruction Core.

The issue was Ruin didn’t know if Holy Rapture would tap into his Destruction Core intuitively as well. Actually, he now worried his Wrathful Crow Beater might not work either now that he’d realized something had been happening automatically. Plus, he didn’t know if he was still in the Destruction Realm. These towers were obviously not normal structures and might exist in their own Realm.

Option three relied on some emergency capabilities. First, the active ability on his Cloak of Phasing.

Effect (Triggered): Once per hour, the wearer can phase out of the current plane for 3 seconds, avoiding all damage.

This might also rely on Ruin’s Destruction Core and might fail if he needed to consciously know how to funnel the energy to the cloak.

Worse Ruin realized, this same problem existed for options four and five which both originated from his Ink Lord’s Wrap of Shadow’s triggered capabilities.

Option four:

Debinder - Once per day, transform into a wraith for 10 seconds. While in wraith form, all damage is funneled harmlessly into the Destruction Realm. User cannot attack or cast spells.

And option five:

Librarian’s Hush: Once per day, restore silence to your library by suppressing all sound in a 1,000-foot sphere for five seconds.

Ruin took a moment to marvel that he had five options. Not long ago he’d consider such planning a waste. He’d survived a lot of terrible situations with just one plan after all. His enemies had grown in strength though, and his life now depended on alternatives.

Sift would tell Ruin he didn’t need five options. One was plenty if done right. Basically, a combination of “don’t suck” and “get good” methods of facing the universe.

Ruin released Last Breath, grinned at the oncoming wave of destruction, and wrapped his wings around himself.