Chương 22: Chapter 21 - Exterminating the Vermin
The building continues to shake every time the rat king smashes it with his tail. The squeals from the horde send chills down Shota's spine. The sun is peeking above the horizon but still the rats remain.
"Please Boss, you have to wake up. We are gonna die here if we don't do something." Shota is at his wits end, but Tect can't hear him. If Shota could feel the flow of mana he would notice that Tect's body was absorbing all of the mana in the room and condensing it in his chest. Even though Shota couldn't feel it, the rat king could. He began beating the wall more intensely and after three powerful hits a crack forms, and the rats begin to pour into the building. Quickly filling the first floor and moving upwards, the rats are like a wave of teeth and claws. The only thing between them and the goblins is a single door.
Tect floats in the darkness with the blue flame that is Azulak. "Concentrate boy, you have to draw in enough mana through that speck of elven core to free your whole mana core. With every breath in, visualize the small particles of magic in the air. With every breath out expel the particles of the curse. I can pull the mana in but absorbing it and circulating it is all on you."
Tect had been at it for a while. Azulak had shown him a technique for circulating mana and condensing it in his mana core hours ago, but now the rats were coming. They both knew it, they could here the squeals and Shota's panic. Unfortunately, with the rat king there, they only had one option, Tect had to break the Curse of Divine Punishment that he was afflicted with, then use that mana to empower his body to slay the rat king.
Tect's manacore was like a lump of coal with a shining diamond in the center, as he circulated and condensed mana inside it it started to glow red hot. The coal surrounding it slowly began to glow, and smoke began to waft from it.
"Condense the core or it'll burn away. Use the mana to squeeze it as hard as you can, we need to crystalize the core, not just burn it away." Tect concentrated harder. Shota watched as blood began to flow from Tect's nose, eyes, and ears. The temperature around Tect's body was growing uncomfortably hot as well. That's when the door finally broke.
Shota rushed to the opening with his dagger and began killing rats as fast as he could. As the pile of rats grew to block the door the other rats would pull the bodies back and eat them while more rats rushed in. Shota had never fought so hard in all his life. Sweat poured from him until he couldn't sweat anymore, then the blood and sweat began to dry on his skin. Shota looked like an ancient god of blood and death, every swing of his dagger created a fountain of blood. But he never lost control, never grew savage.
Shota's arm burned like fire after swinging the dagger for so long, soon he wouldn't be able to lift it and the rats would flood in. Tears rimmed his eyes as he urged his body to continue long past his abilities. He finally tried to switch hands, but he was clumsy and slow. He continued to kill but slowly the rats pushed him back away from the door. Soon it would be over, "I'm so sorry boss. I had one job and couldn't do it." Tears fell now that the end had come, his blurred vision lowering his combat ability even further. "I really wanted to help you find your peace so you could come back to us as our leader, but it looks like you'll have to find it in the afterlife." Shota threw himself forward into the rats, their sharp teeth biting deeply into his arms and legs. They pinned him down but made no attempt to go for the kill.
The rats approached Tect cautiously. Even they could feel the massive amount of mana swirling inside him. "Don't you touch him, you filthy fucks." Shouted Shota through tears of pain and regret. A rat slammed his head into the floor and Shota fell still.
Finally a rat grew brave enough to grab Tect, and as it did the massive store of mana in Tects body exploded outward. A wave of prismic energy crashed through the building unleashing a typhoon of elemental chaos. Some rats were pierced by stone spikes, some froze, others burst into flames, or turned into various crystals or even plants.
The rat king shuddered as it felt the energy roiling in the building. It was trying to make up its mind whether to leave or try and fight when the roof of the building exploded. Landing in front of the rat king was a tall warrior wreathed in mana. Tect's appearance had greatly changed this time. Though he didn't know yet, he had changed to more closely resemble the true form of goblin kind. He stood 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighed close to 200 pounds, his wide chest was deeply cut with muscle that tapered into a well defined abdomen. His skin, which was always lighter than his kin, had changed from a minty green to a dazzling emerald. His coarse hair had become soft and smooth, and his once ragged ears had become pointed and smoothly curved back almost like the ears of elves, except elven ears curved upward.
The rat king was stunned and had no time to react. Tect's eyes glowed with a green light as he stepped forward and with one hand crushed the rat king's head. With no other rats to kill, the excess mana on Tect's body turned a bright emerald green and began to flow outward. Everywhere the energy touched regained life. The once charred and broken ground sprouted with new life. Shota stumbled out of the building as the wave flowed outward and when it hit him his wounds were healed and his body began to change. Enveloped in a bright green glow Shota grew to nearly 5 and a half feet tall. His body was still rather lanky but his skin grew softer and smoother, his hair less coarse, and he looked a bit more like Tect did a few days ago.
As the energy dissipated into his surroundings Tect fell to his knees. He was utterly exhausted, but he couldn't help but smile. As he looked inside himself, in his mind a radiant green crystal with a tiny blue dot appeared, His mana core was unlocked, and his curse was broken. Azulak's soul took residence in the adventurer's ring but the two could still communicate.
"You did good, little goblin. Now we will have to break the curse on all of your kinsmen. Unfortunately, It won't be as easy as it was with you. We will need to find the creator of the curse, who is most likely the god Lumnos, or find another being with similar power to remove it. I don't think either of those will be easy. I do have some good news, the humans use this ring to offer life force to the god of adventure, Ardent. Ardent will grant the humans increased strength after they have sent him enough life force. It also allows adventurers to earn points and trade those points for skill books and spell books from the adventurer's guild. Lucky for you I have overpowered their enchantment. Now when you slay enemies their life force will go to Kopal the God of Invention. Plus we can still use the adventurer's point system to get skill and spell books from the ring." Tect Was stunned by everything Azulak had just told him.
"You said Kopal was the god of goblins. Is he also the god of inventions? The ring on Tect's finger flashed and images flooded his mind.
Goblins building strange ships, huge buildings, massive machines, and creating new life forms.
"This world is the homeworld of goblin kind. The lord of the world was the god Kopal, god of invention. He gifted your people with the ability to create anything they could imagine." More images of goblins in schools, strange symbols were floating in the air in front of them. Then Goblins pouring liquid metals into moulds of such size and complexity that Tect was astounded.
"The Goblins nearly destroyed this world pushing further and further into the earth, polluting the air and seas, and waging war against themselves. At the precipice of their demise a divine messenger came to the goblins and offered them a second chance. It took 2000 years but the goblins turned everything around. They learned to reinvigorate the nature that they destroyed, they learned to clean the air and seas they had polluted, and when the world was on the road to recovery Lord Kopal flooded this world with mana. Once the mana came everything changed, goblin kind learned to use mana to fuel the machines of the past. The microorganisms they used to clean the sea evolved rapidly into the slimes you see today. The automatons they built to serve grew and became sentient. This world was becoming a paradise again. The people worshipped Lord Kopal with all of their hearts, except there were eventually disagreements on how to properly worship. With war in the air once again Kopal's divine messenger descended again. The Goblin's were told that they shouldn't worship Kopal. Kopal didn't want slaves who poured affection towards him. He wanted to watch them grow and build. He wanted to see them stand as his equal not beneath him. He told them he awaited the day that they unlocked their divinity and joined him as gods."
The next images were incredible, goblin warriors were fighting hand to hand on the surface of the sea. A massive sea creature rose from the depths intent on eating the two combatants. As it dove towards them, they turned and struck the beast, crushing its mountain sized skull. A Flash and Tect stood before a shimmering blue gate goblin merchants were entering with wagons drawn by giant lizards, some merchants were returning with strange metals, crystals, and foods.
"Goblins built doors to other planes and other worlds, their culture prospered and they grew ever closer to the goal of divinity. But that was never meant to be. The citizens of the other worlds began to flood through the gates into this world, eventually large gates were appearing all over the planet. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, even orcs, giants and dragons poured out of the gates. Their gods followed behind sealing the gates to their homelands forever. In their greed humans and elves had tried to reverse engineer the gateways of the goblins. They failed many times until they eventually connected to a mana rich world."
The images in Tect's mind changed dramatically. A world of writhing miasma appeared before him. Strange moans and growls could be heard from all directions. From the mist a creature with four limbs and a long tail rushed forward. Every inch of its body was covered in natural chitinous armor with sharp ridges and spikes. It ripped the humans to pieces and charged through the portal. It killed an entire town before it was stopped. Shortly after thousands more rushed through the portal. The humans fled in terror, the creatures used the portals to rush through to many other worlds.
"Less than ten percent of the inhabitants of the other worlds escaped. Only this world was safe, the portals of the goblins would repel the beast of the void worlds, as it was not the first time they had encountered them. This world became the safe haven of the various races of the multiverse and their deities whose life was linked to their's. The deities cohabitated for thousands of years, using their combined powers they began to expand the world to many times its original size, many of the races claimed separate continents tailored more for their physical needs. The only races left on this continent were orcs, humans, elves, goblins, and a few of the dragons. My people viewed the goblin race as our saviours and some of us took up roles in goblin society, like myself. Unfortunately, the goblins goal of gaining divinity was an affront to the other races who viewed their gods as powerful untouchable existences, and mortal races as dirty and flawed. Eventually, the religious zealots began attacking goblin settlements, goblins were attacked and driven from multi-racial villages and cities. Years of inaction by the leaders of the various races drove the goblins into hiding. The other races, fearing the goblins might, raised mighty armies and began attacking the goblins strongholds."
Tect saw images of cities burning blood filled the streets, the goblins killed hundreds each but the number of attackers was too great. The next vision Tect saw, he was high above the world, Bright lights fell from the heavens and struck the world. The places they hit were goblin cities. One of the lights was destroyed by a flash of blue light.
"That was me." Azulak said, pride evident in his voice. Then with sadness he continued, "Those attacks were from Lumnos, he wiped out all of the strongholds the goblins had, then he descended to Mountain Heart, the last stronghold, personally to finish the job."
Before Tect's eyes the Mountain Heart was rebuilt. A stunning city of marble with fantastical creatures everywhere. The goblins were all tall and fair, their ears and almond shaped eyes gave the haughty predatory look of felines. The daylight got insanely intense for a moment, Then a flash of blue flew from the city and the light was gone. In the courtyard in front of the security building, very near to where Tect and Shota now stood, 4 goblin elders and a dragon look to the sky.
"Rebirth was too slow, we can't fight him yet." the elders all sighed. "Hopefully some of the others can escape this. Azulak, once we bind him will you be able to do it?" The beautiful blue dragon nods its head, "Yes, elder. Today we shall dig a grave for 4 goblins, a dragon, and a god." The elders all smirked, the humans scoffed at their attempts to reach divinity and embrace their god. Now they would slay theirs.
At that moment a bright light fell from the sky forming a crater in the street. A 12ft tall humanoid being with four pairs of golden wings rose from the crater.
"Filthy mortals, you wish to become divine. When I kill you and drink the sweet nectar of your souls you will get your wish as you become a part of me."
The Elders sneered, one elder charged forward and punched Lumnos, golden blood fell to the ground.
The buff elder sneered, "What kind of all powerful being bleeds from one punch?"
Lumnos looked up, his face a mask of fury, "How dare you strike a god!" Lumnos punched the elder, blowing a hole through his body.
"Quickly pin him down. Azulak go!" The elders' staffs glowed, a dome forming over Lumnos. A light burst from Lumnos that leaked underneath the half formed dome. The elders were burned badly and Azulak's face and scales were burned off by the wave of light, but the dome formed. "Azulak go now, activate the divine cannon." Azulak flew up to the top of the security building, as he did a blue light flashed burning a hole through his chest. Azulak entered the building and crawled towards the control panel. He reached into his chest through the hole and pulled out the crystal heart. But before he could place it in the device the world turned black.
"What happened next?" Tect wanted to know what happened to destroy the city.
"How would I know, that's where I died. I didn't know anything until you touched my heart. I do think the blue light that pierced my chest was from the Elven God Sylvis. But I'm not sure why Kopal never interfered, we all assumed he was already imprisoned by the other gods by that point."
After that Tect was silent, it took a few hours to fully recover his energy. When he did, he and Shota started walking back to the other goblins.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
DissonantWhispers
DissonantWhispers Long and full of world history, since I wanted to give some background info without it feeling like an info dump, maybe it still does but what ever. Also, The system is here finally, Azulak will be the voice of the system which should be fun.
Hope you enjoy,
Dissonant
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