God of Nothing

Aleph charged, altering his weight in an instant. His newfound lightness combined with his physical strength placed him in the midst of the emissaries in a single step. He threw his knives in a crescent, creating a tornado of steel that hacked away at them. Agony's subordinates managed to defend, but the flying emissaries were blown away by the force. The ones that endured hacked at him with their makeshift weapons, but he was careful not to get hit. 

A shower of blows threw them away and eventually rebuffed them, thanks to Aleph's force gloves. Gaining some distance from the troublesome ones, he charged right after one of the weaker emissaries. Force gauntlets in tow, he went after the one that began the engagement, the impatient one that gave away the ambush. 

Crack!

Aleph drove his knife into its heart, hearing the telltale sound of the crystal breaking. The demon desperately grasped his arms, but it was too weak to resist.

"Weren't you going to shank me?" He taunted as he twisted the knife even deeper. Surprisingly, the demon cackled madly, giving Aleph the sense that something was wrong. 

"Fool! Fooooool! Kikikikik!"

Aleph tried to break away, but the demon held him in place. Its strength grew along with its size, new flesh springing forth from within its damaged heart. It smothered Aleph, who suddenly found himself in the maws of a giant beast.

Panic began to sink in as he found himself in a familiar position, as Agony's jaws slowly closed in around him.

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Rayse looked towards the horizon, worry seeping in despite himself. Storm clouds formed a distance away, seeming to mirror his worsening mood. He looked on at the

"You alright, kid?" Luke asked from beside him. They were fortifying the wall together, patching up the damages with compacted earth. 

Rayse sighed, shaking his head. "It's nothing. I'm just a bit worried about master."

Luke stopped what he was doing and walked over to him, giving him a hard clap on the back.

"Sir Aleph will be fine! I mean, I haven't seen him fight a whole lot, but he should be more than a match against anyone."

 

Rayse winced. He was able to endure the good natured blow better now, but it still stings.

"I know that, but still… When it comes to the demons, master becomes a bit reckless… I'm just hoping he doesn't overdo it."

"Reckless? Really? That doesn't sound like him. Well, if he really needs help, couldn't he contact you guys in a pinch?"

Rayse looked down at his chest, where he had pinned the disciple's brooch. It was quiet as it ever was, which was weirdly comforting. He touched it affectionately, feeling a tiny bit better.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Luke gave Rayse another clap for good measure, which he was almost able to shrug off with a grin.

Luke laughed it off, moving to get back to work, but then he looked like he remembered something. "Hey, listen… kid. I heard about your fight with the shapeshifter. Did he really turn into that thing with a mouth for a body?"

"Yeah. With tons of arms and legs sticking out at random angles. He was creepy as hell."

"...That guy's trouble."

"Eh? We beat it pretty handily though."

"Not the shapeshifter, you idiot. I meant the guy they're copying: The Herald of Agony."

Rayse nodded. Deceit's follower only emulated a portion of the herald's abilities, but he could easily see how troublesome the real deal would be.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Luke grew serious, speaking in a firm tone he seldom heard from him.

"No, kid. You don't understand. That thing's beyond strength. If he so much as touches you, nicks you on the shoulder with the tip of his nail, it would feel like your whole arm's about to fall off. People have gone mad from a simple graze."

Rayse gulped. That definitely was not part of the skills that the shapeshifter had shown.

"I mean, you're a mage, so circulating your mana helps mitigate it somewhat, but that's just a drain in your strength as you fight a behemoth like that. It just snowballs out of control after a while. I've seen your old man fail to save a few of them just because they thrash around so much during treatment. Or they pass out from the pain, but they die of shock as soon as they wake up anyway. It's a really nasty way to die…"

"Damn, that's terrifying… Well, thanks for telling me, Luke. I'm steering clear of that guy."

Luke just stared at him. It seemed that he still had more to say, but eventually he smiled and changed the subject.

"Good. That's for the best. Hey, there's some less annoying guys to fight. Maybe one of the new heralds is a pushover. Hahaha."

Rayse waved him off, a bit conflicted as to whether he helped his mental state or not. He was glad to learn about Agony though. The real one sounded difficult to deal with, to say the least. He looked back to the place where Aleph intercepted the enemy. Curiously, the buildup of clouds was nowhere to be found. Taking that as a sign of good luck, Rayse eagerly went back to work. Aleph was buying them time, after all. He had to make it count.

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A shower of blood erupted in all directions as Agony's impostor exploded from within. All the demons in the area were drenched, all looking towards where, just seconds ago, one of them had successfully devoured the godkiller.

What stood in its place was Aleph, breathing heavily but unhurt. in his hand was a small, frail looking demon. He held it by the neck, but it didn't move at all. The demons looked on, clearly hesitant to engage. The blue blood gave the godkiller a domineering air, a grim reminder of their fate once he got his hands on them.

Aleph shook off some of the blood, but there was far too much. After giving up on cleaning himself off, he settled for gouging out the demon's mana heart. Like the one that Brandon and his friends brought, it was about twice as big as the regular one. He studied it in silence, casually ignoring his surroundings.

"This looks almost unused. I could make something good with this." He muttered. Grey smoke began to descend from the air, seeping into the blue gauntlets that floated in the wind. That somehow broke the demons' shock.

"He's still recuperating! Now's our chance!" One of the winged creatures screeched. That signaled the continuation of the battle, everyone charging him at once.

Aleph's knives flew from the ground where he left it, stabbing the closest one in the eye. He threw the corpse he was holding at another one, but there were still two of them to contend with. The winged one arrived first, taking a swipe at him as it charged past with razor sharp claws.

He narrowly dodged the attack before intercepting the final opponent: the remaining follower of Agony. He clashed blades with him, careful not to touch any part of his blade. He let it skate off of his knives and into the ground, where he stomped on it for good measure.

Now disarmed, the demon sought to wrap his arms around Aleph just in time for the rest of his friends to regroup. The three rose into the air, crashing down into him for their patented dive bomb attack. They reached an alarming speed, heedless of their ally's safety as they put their all into this strike. It was their best chance to defeat Aleph, after all.

Suddenly, a soft blue light from above shone down on them, as if they were put under a spotlight. It clashed against the noon sun, so it looked innocuous enough, but its effects were anything but. Everything the light touched was flattened to the ground, causing the diving demons to be crushed into paste. They crashed all around Aleph and the demon that held him, a mangled mess of bones and flesh. 

The final demon loosened its grip, allowing Aleph to calmly step out of it. He watched as the demon struggled to stay up and fight the influence of the force gauntlets, but he could not do much else.

"How many of you have been sent?" Aleph asked.

The demon looked at him intensely, gritting its teeth and refusing to speak.

"How many!?" Aleph growled in demontongue.

That seemed to rattle the beast.

"Y-you speak the lord's tongue?" It answered, quite a bit more eloquent than the herald it served.

"Ah. You know these words. Excellent." Aleph said casually. He kept an eye on the army forming on the horizon. They kept marching on, ignorant of the massacre that awaited them. He had time to burn before they arrived, so he thought to fish for some answers while he waited.

"I have more guests to attend to. Will you answer and be sent peacefully to your lord, or be slowly choked by your own blood?"

His threats were met with vicious laughter.

"Kikikikik! Your threats ring hollow, godling! I am Agony's child! Pain is euphoric for my kind!"

"Suit yourself." Aleph said in man's tongue, completely moving away from him. The blue light narrowed slowly, until it surrounded just the demon. It screamed madly as the gravity it experienced magnified, eventually ending up as a red spot on the ground just like the others. 

Aleph looted their hearts, fully intact despite the crushing weight their owners experienced.

"Such mysterious things…" He pondered. One could collect them amidst demons' ashes, burnt corpses, or even one crushed into paste such as these. It would always come out nearly perfect regardless of the punishment the enemy endured. And yet it collapses in itself quite easily, even a child could manage it.

He himself had a penchant for digging through their bodies at the moment of their deaths and taking it out, but it always came out relatively unscathed. Perhaps the crystal only forms at the moment of death?

Crack.

He crushed the crystal in his hand into powder, absorbing some while redirecting the rest into his force gauntlets. They slowly hovered to the ground, still glowing a faint blue after the previous spell. Aleph watched it drink up the mana in the atmosphere almost greedily, still thinking about the secrets that lay in it.

He felt the ground rumble, taking him away from his scholarly pursuits at the moment. 

The next wave had arrived.

Aleph stowed away the rest of his haul for later use, quickly assessing his condition before the next battle. He popped a potion into his mouth, healing up the nicks and bruises he had acrued, especially the troublesome wounds Agony's children manage to inflict.

"Huuup."

He breathed deeply, getting back into the flow of things. That last melee with the emissaries wasn't ideal, but aside from massively depleting his mana, he managed to get through it with little issue. He cast his senses forward, trying to see if any more surprises were in store.

Fortunately, he couldn't sense any more emissaries coming. He could go for a bit more, maybe clear out this wave before heading back. Thanks to the crystal he just absorbed, he had enough left in the tank to make a quick getaway when needed.

So there Aleph stood, a bit worse for wear but still eager to fight. The stream of harbingers still seemed endless, but to him, they all just looked like resources to regain his strength.