Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 67

I scanned the floating woman and didn't like what I saw.

Pale Moonlight Scholar (Level 575)

Almost as soon as I examined her, the System spat out a quest.

New Quest Available: Slay the Pale Moonlight Scholar and the Demon Moon.

A hostile void corrupted has entered System space in violation of standard operating procedures. Automated expulsion and obliteration processes have been overridden, and the invaders must be manually removed by skilled technicians. All those who assist in correcting this oversight will be compensated.

Assistance will be provided as available System assets allow.

Enemies will be restricted to a grade lower than their normal level.

Error: Restrictions overridden. You must now fight enemies at full power. Additional resources will be redirected to compartmentalize this battle and prevent planetary destruction.

The quest vanished. Meanwhile, reports of my scouts suddenly bumping into new people of all levels suddenly appearing on our shard in flashes of light came through my System menus. The barrier overhead was holding against whatever beam of energy the moon was shooting down at us.

The System was suddenly pulling out all the stops, or at least all the stops it could pull out. Something was overriding and blocking some of the System's processes. My mind went to the Chaos Gods. I'd pissed off quite a few of them lately, and if they had as much access to the System's backdoor as Ted and Jade said, it would be within their power to tweak things against me.

Maybe they'd caused this void invasion, or maybe they'd just seen it happening and decided to help it along. Whatever the case was, I'd need to do something about it soon.

The Pale Moonlight Scholar was the first threat. She had Jazon next to me on edge. But the thing that really scared me was the Demon Moon overhead.

Demon Moon (Level 799)

It was still blasting the System's barrier, and if the System stopped shielding us for even a moment, I knew for certain that Crownhill would be little more than ashes and dust. Maybe even this whole planet.

"Did the System give you a plan? Maybe a secret weapon?" I asked Jazon hopefully.

Jazon chuckled. "The only plan is to kill her before she kills us."

"Who wants to pick the battle cry?" asked the big horned woman standing next to Jazon.

I held up my hand. "Oh hell no. I've been through that level of strategy enough already. Listen, the other B-Grades are on their way. Stalling tactics for now. Buy time and wait for an opportunity. I'll take the lead, cover me when you can."

When I reached the edge of Crownhill's barrier, I passed through it and found the shield extended all the way to the sky. The System was shielding it the same way it was shielding the various shards. For fighting an A-Grade, our battlefield was actually quite small. Since this was a human-sized A-Grade, hopefully her abilities would be comparatively small as well.

The Pale Moonlight Scholar drew a bone quill from her robes. She stuffed it into her empty eye socket, and when it emerged it was stained with inky blood. She ruffled her robes, produced a scroll, then wrote as she spoke.

"May this realm be kindled with my blood. May the heavens unravel, may chaos consume the world," she said, voice creaking all the while.

A moment later, the air nearby tore open, and chitinous nightmares emerged. Nearest to the Pale Moonlight Scholar emerged a monster whose like I'd only seen a glimpse of before.

It a massive void creature white as paper with a malformed humanoid skull for a face. Its mask-like pale face was fixed in a permanent sneer, made inhuman only by the six eyes in two rows of three and the horn in its center.

Last time, a shockingly similar creature had stretched out an arm from a tiny hole in the void, and in one strike sucked the soul right out of Sam, a young and loyal fighter of mine. As I looked at the thing, I became increasingly certain that this was the very same creature. Perhaps poor Sam's soul was still trapped inside it.

Void Soul Shaman (Level 357)

The Void Soul Shaman wasn't alone. Next to it appeared several smaller crab-like things.

Titanic Void Scavenger (Level 287) x3

I grimaced internally. I was growing increasingly certain that this Pale Moonlight Scholar was some sort of void summoner. Besides the B-Grade threats, the scholar had summoned countless C-Grade and D-Grade threats to keep us busy. No wonder the System had sent so much help my way. I was going to need it.

To their credit, Jazon and his team were right behind me, regardless of the scale of the fight before us. I could feel the nervous tension in the air. But we didn't have long to stare at the enemy in blank-faced fear because soon the Pale Moonlight Scholar dipped her pen in blood again and wrote once more.

"May poison fill the air and fire cover the earth."

As though she was laughing at my earlier hope that this A-Grade's abilities would be smaller in scale and weaker than before, the earth split open and spilled over with molten magma, and a cloudy haze filled the sky.

"Hold your breath and fly!" I yelled to Jazon and his crew while I took flight. My eyes stung as the miasma grew thicker, but dragon wings formed on my back kept me aloft.

I knew this was the sort of fight where I couldn't hold back, so I activated Mania. First Dissonance, then Furor, then Blood Frenzy. Then, after a moment of hesitation, I activated Unholy Revelation.

Mania has increased to Level 4: Unholy Revelation.

You have shattered the veil between reality and the outer realms. Your shadow has become an otherworldly portal through which thought can manifest in the physical world.

All Sage of Forbidden Knowledge skills are enhanced by 120%.

Otherworldly entities are once again aware of your existence, but you are shielded by your Ring of Protection from Order and Chaos and your Ring of Protection from Good and Evil.

The rings on my hand grew hot, and my mind grew cloudy. As my power doubled, I felt my control over my own mind growing lax.

My shadow spread out behind me, and I felt the kindling dimension near at hand. I'd had a hunch that was what was behind me the last time I used this ability, but now I knew for sure.

Once upon a time, the Chaos Wolf had reached through the kindling dimension to stick his hand up my soul and use me as a puppet. I waited in case he planned to try such a thing again, though last time he and I ran into one another I looked more dragon than human and ended up taking a few bites out of his side. He was probably still licking his wounds.

Activating Unholy Revelation had drawn attention from allies and enemies alike. Jazon took a step back.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Fine," I said between clenched teeth. I was already conjuring spells.

Meanwhile, the Pale Moonlight Scholar turned to regard me.

"A scholar meets a sage. Turn your back on the mortals, sage. Embrace the void and gain power you would never have dared to dream of," the Pale Moonlight Scholar said.

My response was a hail of magical projectiles. Some of them struck the Pale Moonlight Scholar's summons, but she swished her sleeve and her quill and swept most of them aside with a simple gesture.

Pale light gathered around her, like an aurora borealis, but only in white. It swirled about her and her bloody quill before forming into beams that shot toward me and Jazon's team.

I rushed into the attack, then cast Aegis of the Void to cast the light away. I followed it up with Unspeakable Word and Voidling's Embrace to slow the horde down for a moment. Unspeakable Word sent a shudder running through the abominations, but Voidling's Embrace never materialized. It was clear the void on the other side of this fight was on the Pale Moonlight Scholar's side, not mine.

I needed to draw the A-Grade's attention and keep it while my allies arrived and took out the rest of these things. I activated Blood Sacrifice, and a sudden burst of blood shot from the scholar's empty sockets. Comparatively, I was wounded much worse and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Levels in A-Grade were no joke. She likely had several times my total number of health points. Fortunately she wasn't much of a direct fighter and I was playing for time rather than to win. With Living Paradox, I had room to take one bad hit, but I wouldn't survive two. I needed to be careful.

I switched between passing in and out of the shadow realm and using Elemental Step to evade. After probing the Pale Moonlight Scholar for a while I realized the bulk of her abilities were slow summoning abilities or ranged attacks. I closed the distance to see if I'd have more luck fighting up close and personal, only to find my dragon bone sword being blocked by her quill.

"Sad small-minded sage, bound by the whys and wherefores of the mundane," the scholar said as she lifted her free hand. She slammed an open palm into my stomach, and my world spun.

I felt my probability engine spin to life. It often raced along with the beat of my heart when I was in danger. The device was supposed to shift luck in my favor the worse the odds were for me, but they hadn't been this bad since I'd built the thing. I wasn't sure what kind of fate distortion the engine could materialize, but I hoped it would make one soon.

I needed more tricks. I activated Multipurpose Glyphs. Doomblade's Armor was with Myrina, but I still had the glyphs stuffed to the brim with Reluna's talismans. I sent out most of my reserves in one flashy attack. The sudden burst of magic was like a thousand C-Grade wizards all casting attack spells at once. Fireballs, lightning bolts, gusts of cutting wind, and bursts of crushing earth.

All it bought me was a handful of seconds to stuff a healing potion and one of Bridget's biscuits into me. The buffs rapidly took effect, as did the healing. This fight was fast-paced enough I had to plan not just for the hits I'd taken, but the ones I was going to take soon.

We exchanged several rounds of combat in the same fashion, and each bout cracked the earth and shattered the trees. Nearby, I could see Jazon and his team fighting the Pale Moonlight Scholar's summons. Many of the weaker ones were dead already. I'd hit them with Soulchain Nexus during the earliest phase of the fight, and the extra stat points coming in as they died were going a long way to keeping me in this battle.

The dust settled from my talismans, and for a moment I was surprised the Pale Moonlight Scholar had let me breathe this long. Then I realized she was writing, and the void opened up behind her once more, letting through another wave of monsters.

"Damn it!" I cursed. I cast Blood Sacrifice again, startling the scholar out of her writing as pain wracked her body.

Even more pain wracked mine, but I detonated my Corrupting Marks, thinning the battlefield and giving me a sudden burst of healing through lifesteal.

Then I attacked again.

I followed up with another wave of spells from Mana Arsenal, though since I knew these would be easily blocked I focused more on hitting the minor void creatures near the Moonlight Scholar. They'd serve me better yielding more Corrupting Marks for emergency healing or for funneling additional stat points my way through Soulchain Nexus.

The two of us went at it again, sword slashing and quill scribbling. It was perhaps my most intense fight, with me the furthest out of my depth I'd been, not counting the battles where Jade had been taking the lead.

I wasn't sure if we'd only been fighting for seconds or minutes, but the ground around us was completely overturned or overflowing with lava, and was soon unrecognizable from how it was before.

In such an intense fight, it was only a matter of time before I made a mistake. I dodged right when I should have dodged left, and suddenly I was pinned between a beam of pale moonlight and the Moonlight Scholar's quill. It was dry for the moment, but soon it would be stained with my blood.

I'd just used Shadowrealm Stride and Elemental Step, and was helpless for the crucial moment the Pale Moonlight Scholar needed to finish me off, and I had no doubt whatever she planned to do after stabbing me with her quill would be lethal to even a peak B-Grade.

So I let go again and handed things off to the System as Living Paradox activated to save my life. I was pushed out, and the System took the driver's seat while I watched.

I watched as my body moved faster than it normally did under my own control. My sword twisted in a feint, parrying the quill. The Moonlight Scholar was going to follow the attack up with a poke from two bony fingers, but the System controlling my body was quicker.

I watched as my hands twisted unnaturally, forming what I suddenly realized was an enchantment matrix. My fingers switched positions suddenly several times in quick succession, but each shape left an imprint, especially on the shadow behind me that represented a portal into an immaterial realm of thought and pure possibility.

Between the two, the gestures alone were enough to carve a unique spell into the fabric of the world. Moonlight was drawn out of my enemy's body in a great gust, and the attack coming for my back dissipated as all strength left it. Suddenly, all the power she was using to attack became my power, and the System turned that energy against my enemy.

All of a sudden, a Sunlight Spear of unfathomable power shot out of my hand, enhanced by the power of my ultimate, Secrets of the Unseen. It pierced the Moonlight Scholar's stomach like a golden lance. Her guts exploded backward, coating the ground and leaving a hole in her center as large as my head.

The System returned my body to me a moment later, and just enough time had passed for Elemental Step to activate. I used that chance to get clear and get away, where I held my breath a moment and waited for the Pale Moonlight Scholar to topple.

But after a heaving breath, she stood. Her missing stomach seemed not to matter at all as she picked her fallen quill off the ground and wrote again.

"May this foolish sage before me perish in agony..." she wrote even as I cast more spells at her.

Suddenly, I felt my body wracked with pain. Once, a wizard by the name of Tharandul the Healer struck me with his most powerful spell, Inflict Cancer. It had been a truly terrible curse at the time, and this felt similar as my own flesh turned against me.

I collapsed to my knees as all my attention turned inward to put down the rebellious parts of my body. There was no way I could keep fighting like this, and I knew the killing blow would follow any moment now.

I'd been fighting the Pale Moonlight Scholar long enough to know that her most powerful abilities were a distortion of reality, like the Kindling power that Jade had been teaching me. Her abilities seemed to be quite literal. Perhaps I could shrug this one off by becoming something other than the sage she'd described.

My mind went to the Chaos Dragon title. It'd chased off an A-Grade before, and it would only be more powerful now. But the only question was what would I become if I embraced it again? There'd be no Ted to pull me out of it this time.

I went to activate the title, but before I could, I heard the Pale Moonlight Scholar cry out in pain.

I cracked open my swollen eyes, and to my delight, I realized the cavalry had finally arrived.

"Drop dead, ugly lady!" Myrina shouted. She was still in my Doomblade armor and hacked at the Moonlight Scholar. Next to her Liliana and Sorcerer Mourningstar were healthy and whole once more and casting spells to back her up.

Nearby, I saw Reluna in her own armor, back from the walls of my castle. Cyra was there too, along with Sakura, Nakano and Frank. When I called all the B-Grades to Crownhill, I really had called everyone.

But the local forces only made up a small portion of the B-Grades doing the fighting. Jazon and his team were there too. They'd finished off the last of the big crabs and the Void Soul Shaman lay in pieces on the ground. There were five other teams of B-Grades of slightly lesser power engaging as well, most of whom had just arrived.

What had been a one-on-one battle for me was suddenly one against an army, and the Moonlight Scholar was heavily wounded already. We could win this.

"You held her off long enough. We'll take it from here," Jazon said. He nodded to the big horned woman with a shield, who planted herself and that towering shield before me.

I used the time well and raced against the clock as I hunted down every rebellious cancer cell and killed it before converting mana to health points and healing myself up again. I had to stop and eat two dozen of Bridget's battlefield rations while kneeling on the ground, but when it was all done I was on my feet again, mostly cancer free and ready for battle.

I stood just in time to catch the last of it.

"Pests of the System. Fine. You will die with your world." She ripped open another portal in space, though this one was to flee through rather than to summon another monster.

"You're not getting away that easily!" I shouted as I jumped to my feet. She ignored me, but then I cast Blood Sacrifice again, discarding most of my recently replenished health pool. In the same instant, I activated all my Corrupting Marks.

Just before the Pale Moonlight Scholar could slip away, she exploded.

Objective 1 of 2 completed!

Pale Moonlight Scholar Slain.

Demon Moon remaining.

Error: Level restrictions disabled. Due to administrator actions, the System is unable to reduce this hostile entity's threat level or expel it from System space. Please rectify this error at your earliest convenience.

<Note>

I might go back and write out the details of what everyone did during this battle while Carter was healing himself. For now though, I want to see how long the end of the book is going to be. I'm still hoping to reach a good break point somewhere in the 70 chapter range, though it's increasingly looking like it will be in the later half of the 70's.