Chương 187: A new adventure
***Central Hall of the Tower of Apokolips***
Arkayne had not felt such an exhilaration in a long time. The spontaneous and dangerous idea of taking his mind off the battle with the angry dryad and trying to get revenge on the green-haired bastard had borne unexpected fruit. Abigail lost all will to resist as soon as the bone spear was thrust into her heart. And with the capsules destroyed, the plan to create a passage to the Kingdom of Rot was on the verge of failure. The blacksmith didn't expect to come out of the fight victorious at all, realizing the capabilities of the Elemental avatar. Naturally, the man himself was an avatar of the Black One, but the problem was that almost all of his mana reserves had been spent on summoning numerous Hounds of Rot, raising clones, preparing the ritual, and destroying astral traces so that Dr. Fate would not have even a shadow of a chance to understand the true state of affairs. The ancient sorcerer, whose knowledge allowed him to optimize the ritual of energy absorption, did not really want to participate in the whole adventure.
The plans to capture the Crimson Lodge and attack a city of many millions of people were more of a diversionary tactic whose trail had been deliberately left in the Earth's Infopolis for any clever wizards with semi-divine artifacts. Though Arkane wouldn't turn down a strong sacrifice if his minions somehow miraculously still managed to pull off the task. But what was the main bet was to create a new passage to another dimension, thanks to the energy absorbed with the help of special cocoons, because without normal access to his dimension one could not even expect to defeat the Parliament of Trees. And he would have succeeded, if not for the Joker's attack. He could see perfectly well that the projectile could not do him any serious harm, not to mention the capsules behind his back, covered by a powerful kinetic barrier so as not to interfere with mana circulation. Yes, there was magic, explosive substance was also present, but how could a blacksmith, who had spent more than fifty years in confinement, and in principle was only superficially interested in human life, know about thermobaric ammunition and the fact that the aerosol of bat-fuel, thanks to the same magic, would emerge from the coiled space and bypass the defense in less than a moment?
Of course, some might say, "What an idiot, just put the clone capsules somewhere far away and wrap them in a hundred layers of metal," but the pure energy of the Forest is not so easy to absorb, especially with the help of arteries made of altered flesh not designed for such manipulations, and the absorption itself should take place as quickly as possible to prevent the current Guardian of the Forest from showing his true power. Considering that Arkane himself had weakened considerably after all the rituals he had performed, the latter was especially important.
Actually, despite some overlaps, Fortune had suddenly decided to show her favor, and Arcane didn't miss the chance, beginning to furiously destroy Abigail's energy and physical body. After all, she was the only one here capable of finally killing the Black avatar at all. The same Fate or a strange half-demonic chimera with an interesting summoning at most could try to destroy the avatar's physical body or try to seal it. He had his doubts about the chimera, though, for despite its decent reserve, it couldn't even get out of its shadowy restraints right away, instead floundering like a helpless infant.
The blacksmith, engrossed in pounding his once handsome face into the metal floor, watched out of the corner of his eye as the weave the green-haired mage had sent flying at him before he died. It looked like an ordinary banishment spell, dangerous only to the younger spawn of the Black One. Arkane had used similar designs himself many times in his distant youth, when he had been summoning small otherworldly creatures. But what he had not expected was that a simple weave would suddenly complicate its structure in flight and then enter his body with a swift stroke, causing unbearable pain and blocking his connection with Black.
"Ooh," the humanoid monster howled in a single note, arching his back and ignoring the man in the bat suit. The injection of some murky substance and a strong blow to the side that threw the body a couple of meters away also passed the agonizing consciousness.
"Batman said, helping the dryad to roll over on her back and trying to give her first aid. Her face was now a mess of wood splinters of armor and bright green blood from numerous cuts."
"Jay..." she whispered with broken lips as her wounds slowly regenerated.
"Yes... I understand..." the greatest superhero's voice trembled for a moment. - Despite some disagreements, Joker was my friend, but now is not the time for grieving. Only you can finish what you started.
At the mention of her lover, Abby's gaze became more meaningful, and some of her wounds were instantly healed by a surge of natural mana.
"You're right," the girl stood up slowly, her bright green eyes focused on the body curled in pain on the floor. - I won't let his feat go to waste!
Arcane's death was agonizing. The man had been severely weakened and deprived of energy thanks to the green-haired superhero's death spell, but he was still an avatar whose body had been marinating in its native element for more than five decades. Therefore, in addition to the physical damage, his energy shells were particularly damaged, which was much more painful than if he had just been killed. However, the earthly journey of one of the strongest blacksmiths soon ended, and now nothing prevented Swampy from plunging into grief.
The spike that had pierced his heart had been successfully removed, so everyone present could see that this time the Joker had indeed died. The head of the former supercriminal with a slight smile on his lips rested peacefully on the lap of a silent crying dryad. Batman and Simon stood nearby. The latter, however, was nervously kneading his hands, not daring to break the reigning silence, diluted by the sounds of the battle outside. The young man was the only one who hadn't taken part in the battle against Arcane, since casting dark spells took too long, and the Stone of Visions couldn't do any serious damage to the avatar, and being caught in a trap didn't allow him to use either of them, but now his thoughts revolved around the Joker's identity and whether it was really possible to sacrifice something incredibly valuable for him.
***Unknown location***
Stupidly... Once again I died, even though I promised Harley I wouldn't.
It was strange, but it didn't hurt to die from a heart pierced through, though I seriously suspected that it was because of the funny memories that raised the pain threshold, and because I had a rather advanced Fourth Element, which kept my subtle bodies from degrading quickly. As far as I could figure out, it was their damage that caused unbearable pain.
There was, of course, a small hope of surviving the dangerous adventure again by some miracle, but the fact that everything was now true was hinted at by the two statuses in the System. In place of the First Beginning now painted a proud dash, and opposite the Second the number "five". The latter, apparently, was due to the fact that part of the second shell managed to get a hold of the Fourth Initiation. It's actually quite an interesting effect, because it turns out that if I pump enough Soul, it may well be that at the next death will be able to capture more prana, so after rebirth I will immediately be unrealistically strong even without magic. Although it's not quite clear whether the unprepared body will be able to withstand such a volume of vital energy. Or maybe I'll end up in some infant, like a normal hit-and-run.
Luckily, I'd soon be able to put that to the test, as the darkness around me had almost dissipated into bright light. Now I just had to get past the local world of the dead, stretching the Fourth Beginning as far as possible, and embark on a new adventure.
The only thing left was to figure out how to do it... And now all my senses were insistently telling me that I was back in the astral, only without a connection to the base, which caused subconscious fear. And there's no indication that it's possible to manipulate the fourth shell. However, it could be assumed that my current translucent and slightly glowing body was the fourth shell, because when I went into the astral, I didn't see anything like that. It was not enough to familiarize myself with my surroundings, though, because maintaining the right level of concentration and magical manipulations took a lot of energy to waste on nonsense.
But now nothing prevents me from studying a new level of existence, and what can be said is that this body is not quite real, because you can feel it only when you look at it. It's like Schrodinger's Joker: if you poke your finger into the palm of your hand or into your stomach, you feel a little resistance, but if you look away, it's as if there is a void in the place of the palm, and it's as if the second hand ceases to exist, although its position at the second look corresponds to the inner sensations, and you can't penetrate into the same stomach or chest, as if there is a psychological block. By the way, the spiritual shell completely copies my appearance before my death, including a big hole in the place of my heart and a slightly torn suit, stained with drops of translucent blood.
Damn, that's not classy. I look like a loser vampire who got caught by illiterate peasants while hibernating. And the outfit's out of place. I need something a little more gothic. You can saw off his head to cosplay the Headless Horseman, but you'll have to get a zebra or a giraffe somewhere else, because a horse is too corny... Ahem, I'm getting a little carried away. I should just get rid of the wound first, and then experiment with more extravagant looks. Anyway, there's nothing to do yet.
I'm not an archmage to bend reality with my will, even if it's not quite real, no matter how strange it sounds. But turning to magic was unexpectedly successful. I cast the Sculptor spell without any problems and used it to simply heal the hole, and then created a ball of "water" to get rid of the blood droplets. The latter spell was, in fact, concentrated mana of bluish color, as there was nowhere for condensation to occur in this place, but it accomplished the task with honor. The sensation of all these manipulations was markedly different from what I experienced when I went into the astral, because there the signal first reached the main body, and through it you could influence the Seventh Beginning, which made it feel as if you had to weave threads in very thick mittens, and even controlling the three-meter spokes. Now it was as if the magic itself was trying to leave the body as soon as possible, which made it easier to manipulate it.
Theoretically, I could try to scan the surrounding space for some sights, because the bright light from all sides doesn't allow me to appreciate the local beauty. But there's a small chance of attracting attention to my person, because now I'm in the local Limbo. Though it is considered a safe place where souls wait for their distribution, but even here there is a chance to stumble upon some flying demon who risked his skin by venturing into a conditionally light dimension, or a messenger of a deity looking for batteries. Though even without active space exploration there's still a chance of that, given the residual traces of spells and the fact that I have over a thousand units of ba-hion in my inventory. The points for killing Arkane never arrived, which made me a little worried about the fate of my friends who remained in the real world. True, I can't do anything to help them anyway. I can only hope that my final spell was able to weaken the bastard enough for even Bats to kick him, and that the divine energy didn't come since I left the Earth. Vaughn, now even the quest tab has become inaccessible, hinting specifically at the latter option. In order to worry less about likely opponents, I surrounded myself with a protective sphere, spending some more mana, which, as it suddenly turned out, stopped regenerating on its own. It was unpleasant, but when I meditated, the reserve began to fill up gradually, though the speed was far from usual.
In short, I was doing anything to avoid thinking about how the girls would survive my death. Except that I wasn't spitting at the ceiling, and that was only because there was no spit and no ceiling, just tree crowns with soap bubbles floating above them, filled with multicolored fog, and a strange sky, slightly resembling the landscapes of the Between Worlds. Wait...
I pinched myself for good measure, feeling something like a soft touch, but the trees didn't seem to be disappearing. And just a moment ago, none of this had happened. I looked around, and instead of a light-filled space, I saw the same trees and a strange sky. Only the plants are noticeably more clustered and seem older, which, in fact, contradicts botany. Driven by curiosity and certain guesses, I began to walk to where I could see a gap, until I found myself in a clearing with an emerald lawn. Above it hovered a small pink cloud, which took the shape of a chair, and in it comfortably settled a beautiful nymph with blue hair, multicolored eyes and the appearance of Harley. Even her costume was like my favorite one from the last time I saw her: a black and red harlequin outfit.
"You made it! - The blue electrovanic, ignoring the burst defense, nearly knocked me over as he rushed over to hug me.
"I couldn't refuse a visit to such a pretty girl," I gently put my arms around the girl, not quite sure how to react.
I mean, really, right now I've got a Delirium hovering over me. One of the Eternals, capable of destroying the galaxy at the snap of her fingers. Who cares about her title though, she's still a stunning hottie that I could say I've already had sex with, however, the sad thing is, nothing is moving anywhere right now! Purely aesthetic pleasure.
"Maybe now you understand more about what the Eternals can find in people and why you need an avatar," the charming nymph said, clearly having no trouble reading my thoughts. I didn't even think about shutting down, though, feeling the waves of absolute joy coming from the girl.
"Can't you create a real body for yourself?"
"This body is real and can interact with the real world without any problems. I can also copy Harley's body down to the molecule, but I can't experience the full range of senses available to humans. Although with the avatar, I've become much more aware of what you're feeling. And it's so interesting! - Her palm gently touched my chest, right next to the healed wound.
"I see," I sat down in a nearby cloud with Delirum hovering over me, trying to take in the game that was happening to me. It wasn't working so well, so the pause dragged on.
"Is there anything you want to ask me? - The mighty cutie asked, pulling me out of my own thoughts. She'd been wiggling her feet and nuzzling at me like a cat the whole time, which made me feel even more dissonant.
"Listen, do you happen to know what the System is? - I asked the first question that came to mind.
"Hmm, why don't you ask to resurrect yourself?"
"I think if you could do it, you would have done it without me asking you to."
"You're right. We can literally extinguish galaxies, but we have no right to interfere with the cycle of life and death, or the consequences will be dire. But don't feel bad, I can help you with your rebirth. I'll find you an interesting world, I've got one in mind," she said.
"Oh, that would be great, but first, tell me about the System," I decided to bring the conversation back to a more constructive direction. The System is my trump card, and in fact, it's the only reason I have a chance to get on the same level as the gods.
The fact that the soul superstructure might be a gift from the Dark Entity still bothered me, so Delirum's short story was like a balm to my soul. It turned out that Me was indeed the creation of an overly ambitious mage. He was so ambitious that he didn't hesitate to kill a couple of rather strong gods and as many archdemons for the sake of creating his masterpiece. Although the superstructure received such a high-profile title only due to the fact that it was created by a man, because, in fact, it is just a repository of divine energy with the remnants of the divine aura, thanks to which small miracles occur, such as the gradual strengthening of shells, as well as the creation of quests, the fulfillment of which is rewarded by the planet itself and the creatures that inhabit it. The only really interesting things were the creation of an emotional filter to protect the user's consciousness, and the absorption of only neutral ba-hion to avoid becoming a true god. But no matter how strong the gods are, they won't last long without believers, while the higher magicians have no such limitations, and the worldview will be yours, not the one imposed by thousands of worshipers.
As for the mage himself, he was just unlucky. If he had been using his creation for a couple of years, it would have gotten away from him during our collision, but killing several deities at once led to the fact that in a couple of months their acquaintances came to him and killed the experimenter with particular cruelty. The last one left a noticeable trace in the infofield, thanks to which it became possible to restore the whole chain of events, because according to the blue-haired girl most of the powerful artifacts and their owners strongly distort the mental and astral plans, so their path becomes quite difficult to trace even for someone of the aspect level.
"I've been looking all over for him, and he's sitting right here," she said, right at the end of the story, a disheveled beauty with an Egyptian Ankh necklace around her neck and a biker outfit suddenly appeared to the right of the couple. With a disgruntled and slightly jealous glance at her sister sitting on my lap, she opened a glowing white portal next to her and looked me straight in the eye. - Time is running out. It's time for you to go.
"Hey! He's my Champion! I could leave him here and organize a real Valhalla," Delirum jumped up and waved her hand, and an image of a huge table appeared nearby, with some bearded, ugly men drinking and eating.
"That's nice, but I have work to do. So hurry up, because I have about two billion more intelligent people to visit today," Eternal hurried me again.
"Where does it go? - With an apologetic glance at Delirum, I gingerly approached the portal. I didn't want my sisters to fight over me (the universe wouldn't stand for that). The image of the disheveled biker girl didn't fit with the image of Death, who had come for Solomon Grundy relatively recently, so something serious had obviously happened.
"To a new adventure," I was being pushed into the glowing oval without even a proper goodbye to my patroness. - Oh, yeah, tell your flying-mouse buddy to get less involved in stories, because it was only fun the first ten times I came to the false alarms," the dark-haired girl said last.
A second of weightlessness, and I take a convulsive breath, feeling all the delights of a battered body and pain in the area of my left lung.
"Jay! - Abby's voice over my ear was replaced by a very tight yet gentle hug.
Well, it looks like I've been resurrected after all, I just need to figure out how, and who to thank for that.
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