Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 80

[Author's Note: because of some astute comments about a plot hole regarding flying away in shelly (thank you!) I fixed that. Shelly now gets removed from the island by drought so that is why you dont see her anymore in the chapters. In fact, I may go back an update chapter 79 to avoid confusion. Thank you!]

Chapter 80

War turned his horse toward the forest in the direction of Overlord and the Masters. None of the Aspects had a hint of hurry, confident their prey had no ability to run or harm them. It provided another example of how dreadfully serious the situation had turned.

Ruwen turned toward the trees, and with Dash, disappeared into the forest almost immediately. He focused on Sift and spoke in Chat. The class is taking damage. I’m going to try and take out Plague and Pestilence before the other three Aspects reach our friends.

How are you going to reach them? They’re really high.

I have an idea for that.

I’m harassing them with Flyer and will join you as soon as I see you.

Don’t bother, you won’t see me. I need you to really harass them. I can’t handle any more of their spells.

Alright. Sift paused a moment. This looks serious.

I know.

Ruwen reached the small thirty-foot glade that Overlord and the Masters stood in. Their portal door had once stood against the thirty foot cliff of the stone outcropping that the clearing touched. The top of the outcropping led to an even larger clearing.

The five Fallen Heroes stood in a circle around the Masters, who were all bent over coughing. Overlord tossed him the portal chalk and Ruwen snapped it in two. He threw half back to Overlord and dropped what remained into his Void Band returning it safely back to Inventory.

Bunch everyone together, Ruwen told Overlord.

The apparitions immediately picked up the closest Masters and brought them toward Ruwen.

Ruwen cast the new spell Bonfire for two hundred fifty Mana, and three massive fires, ten foot high, appeared. With a thought, he placed one on each side of them, against the rock and the last directly in front.

Ruwen used one of his eight remaining spell points and increased Shed to level two, giving him an extra five feet in every direction. He cast Shed for fifty Mana, creating a structure fifteen-by-fifteen-by-fifteen around them. He left the front of the building open. Touching the Shed, he channeled Harden briefly, turning the walls into diamond.

The Void Band, still open from catching the portal chalk, expanded to three feet as Ruwen prepared to get rid of whatever contaminated the air. Using fifty Energy per second he accessed the one hundred twenty-seven thousand cubic feet of “cool air” he’d gathered shortly after restoring Uru’s Third Temple.

The force of the air leaving the Void Band pushed Ruwen up and against the Shed’s ceiling, so he doubled the portal opening to six feet and he dropped back to the ground.

Survey displayed a wave of small creatures Stone Echo had detected approaching from the forest. The Masters had stopped coughing and Ruwen narrowed the Void Band opening.

Catch, Ruwen said to Overlord and launched the stack of fifty Major Health Stickers he’d created in Shelly with his Mobile Alchemy Lab. They would heal one hundred eight damage immediately and another eleven Health per second for thirty seconds. Put one of those on everyone, including the Fallen Heroes.

Ruwen had displaced thirty thousand cubic feet with fresh air which would buy them a little time. He stepped out from the middle of the crowded group of Masters and aimed his Void Band at the ground. Narrowing the opening further to increase the force, he sprayed oil across the clearing, walking in a quick arc from one side of the outcropping, around the Shed, to the other. He drenched the area with five hundred gallons of black liquid.

Casting Warm Welcome for twenty Mana, a flaming dagger appeared in Ruwen’s hand, and he threw it into the oil.

The oil ignited immediately setting the trees ablaze, which Ruwen hoped would slow whatever crawled toward them.

Overlord, what did Uruziel say?

To counter desecration you use blessed or holy items.

How long does it take. Oh, and ask about soul powered runes.

One sec.

If soul energy ignored desecration, then Sift could use his seemingly endless well of soul power to create a portal for them. How ironic would that be? Ruwen looked at Pestilence and Plague high above, absorbing the information Survey provided on height and wind velocity.

Sift, Ruwen said in Chat. Try and keep them in one place. I’ll only get a single chance at this.

Overlord responded. The neutralizing time depends on the strength of the blessing compared to the power of the desecration.

And the soul runes?

Uruziel says you already know the answer. The desecration is severe because portal chalk made from Miranda’s Divine blood doesn’t work. And Divine blood comes from…

Overlord trailed off and Ruwen understood. Reaching the Divine levels remade a body into something completely made from soul energy. Including the blood. In reality, they were already trying to draw the runes with soul power.

Thanks. Ruwen said. He hated not having exact values to create the neutralizing solution, but at least he had a way forward. Stepping over to Nymthus, he kneeled next to her. “Are you okay?”

Nymthus nodded weakly.

Ruwen opened his Void Band and dropped the Spirit Infused Baton of a Thousand Uses. He touched one of the protrusions and the baton lengthened and one end morphed into a scoop. Holding the Void Band over the makeshift bowl he dropped the remaining nine Blessed Unleavened Bread and ten Blessed Water Hamma had given him on their first trip to the Black Pyramid together. They had added a couple points to various stats and he’d thought they were amazingly powerful. He had come a long way since that moment.

War and his buddies are twenty-five seconds from your location, Sift said in Chat.

Almost done. Ruwen responded. When I give the signal rush over here. I’m not sure how long it will take me to land and the Masters will need your help to survive.

Got it.

Ruwen had tracked the trio of Aspects as they slowly advanced toward this spot. He prayed he had enough time to start the process of getting his class home. He launched the Fastidious Dagger into his right palm and handed it to Nymthus. Then he stood and moved to the back of the Shed, giving Nymthus directions in Chat. Hold that dagger tight. As soon as it gets dirty, like when you stick it in the blessed bread and water, it will vibrate. It should quickly mix that into a paste. Then I want you to smear that paste on the rocks. I’ll have already started in the area you need to use the paste.

Okay, Nymthus responded.

Ruwen had ten Blessed Bricks left over from his fight against the minions the Bone Mage occupying Uru’s Third Temple had summoned. He put the Crazor Crystal in his right palm back into Inventory and launched a Blessed Brick into each hand as he stepped up to the cliff. Channeling twenty Energy into Melt, he worked quickly.

The Blessed Bricks turned to liquid and Ruwen smeared it across the rock in a two-by-five-foot rectangle. He swiftly used the remaining eight, and the brick paste smoked and crackled against the desecrated stone.

Now or never, Sift said.

Taking a large step to the side, Ruwen used his forearm and Melt to remove a three inch layer of stone. If the desecration didn’t penetrate very far, this area might work, and they wouldn’t need to rely on the blessed items.

Ruwen removed a Soul Fruit of Potency from his Inventory. He had brought the three types of fruit back from the previous Bamboo Viper test, and Fractal had gotten them to grow. Fractal had let Ruwen take three of each. This one, the small green one, was the sweetest of the three and would add thirty to his Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina for thirty minutes. He didn’t know if he needed the extra Strength but didn’t want to take the chance. His plan needed to work.

Ruwen focused on Overlord again as he turned to the front of the Shed. Remember the Naktos Assassin?

Good times.

Only focusing on one side doubles my chance of success.

I got you, brother. Right side is the fun side.

Ruwen dived over the heads of everyone in the Shed and rolled to his feet twenty feet away. Flames surrounded him. He spread his arms wide and cast Climb, creating one hundred feet of magical rope pointed directly at the Aspects. The magical rope had the benefit of moving things along it, and Energy powered that movement.

Ruwen gripped the rope tightly with his left hand, squeezing with all his Diamond Strength, aided by the thirty points from the Soul Fruit of Potency. Before the rope fell, he channeled three hundred Energy to it, praying that much power didn’t rip his arm off.

Now! Ruwen yelled in Chat as he triggered Last Breath.

The Energy Ruwen had directed into Climb jerked him upward so quickly, the burning air surrounding him exploded, and his vision dimmed for an instant. His enhanced Strength wasn’t enough to stop the rope from sliding through his hand, and his Health dropped thirty-six points from the rope burn.

Even in Last Breath, Ruwen hurtled toward the two Aspects in the sky, and he worried he might have overdone the velocity.

Stone Echo didn’t work as well in the air, but the two Aspects were large targets and easy to find. Survey told Ruwen what he already knew. He had aimed well and only needed tiny corrections to his flight path.

Ruwen released the rope and directed small puffs of air from his Void Band, altering the angle of the dimensional portal to nudge him in the right direction and altering his trajectory slightly. Sift had done his job well and the two Aspects sat on their horses three hundred feet in the air, but less than five feet apart. Ruwen had aimed for the exact middle of the pair.

Ruwen increased the size of his Void Band as Overlord did the same with the Dark Portal on Ruwen’s right wrist. Ruwen regenerated four hundred Energy per second and his Energy pool had reached five thousand four hundred ninety. He had never created two ten-foot ovals however, and he worried the scaling of two portals might grow exponentially and his massive pool wouldn’t be enough.

The reality was, Ruwen didn’t have any options. Fighting three Aspects while protecting the vulnerable might be possible, but five remained out of the question.

Only an ability like Last Breath would have provided Pestilence and Plague time to react. And it appeared neither had such a skill, as they failed to react as he approached. He hurtled toward them like a flying cross, massive open portals hanging off each wrist.

Twenty feet from Pestilence and Plague the pair finally reacted. Their hooded heads slid toward him slowly. Too, slowly. Hope surged through his thoughts.

At five feet away, Ruwen felt resistance coming from both Aspects. At this speed it had to be something triggered by the Aspect armor itself. The sensation reminded him of pushing two magnets together with the same pole, but because he felt this force from both, they counteracted each other a little and instead of pushing him away, Pestilence and Plague leaned to the side.

Ruwen increased the size of his portal to compensate, and Overlord did the same. Ruwen realized this meant not only had the Aspects been upgraded with powerful shields but, at least these two, had also gained a repulsion field. It made complete sense. He was walking death to anyone he could reach, so Lalquinrial had made it so Ruwen couldn’t touch them. Once again, it demonstrated how prepared they actually were.

What the Aspects had not prepared for was a flying Void Band traveling over a thousand miles per hour.

Ruwen’s Void Band sliced through the yellow horse Pestilence rode, the head of the phantom animal disintegrating as it separated from the body. The Aspect had almost turned his head toward Ruwen and for an instant their gazes locked.

Then Pestilence disappeared into the black portal of Ruwen’s Void Band. Out of his peripheral vision, he watched Plague enter the mouth of the Dark Portal.

The bands both closed, and relief flooded Ruwen’s mind. They had a chance. He could still fix this.

I’ll keep trying the gate runes, Overlord said, while the other four Fallen Heroes attempt to buy you time. Hurry back.

Thanks, brother. See you in second.

Ruwen prayed when he released Last Breath, he would still have Energy, and would remain here to fight. He spent a moment producing a plan on how to get back, since his previous one had ended right here, and decided to just take the most direct route.

With a mental sigh, Ruwen released Last Breath.