God of Nothing

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Aleph reeled, mind aghast at the sudden outburst. It came so quickly after Brandon’s triumphant message that he feared the worst.

What happened? Aleph sent out urgently. He had already left a baffled Vaynard on his own, going out to the balcony for a launching point.

Rayse!? Ray, what’s wrong!!? Lacey’s panicked voice echoed back.

H-hey, we’re almost done with Rage, man… Just hang in there.

And all the while Rayse’s voice screamed in protest.

Brandon’s deflated thoughts were barely audible in the chaos. Aleph knew they had separated, sending Brandon ahead to help finish off the herald while Rayse kept the regenerator at bay. Aleph had silently approved of the tactic, confident that Rayse could hold out until the herald called Rage had been taken care of, but something unexpected must have happened.

Aleph leapt off the balcony, swiftly falling to the grass below. Strange glowing metal plates met his descent, though, carrying him higher than even the tallest spire. Aleph used them as platforms, looking out at a distant mountain, within which he knew his disciple was in dire straits.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

He was about to speed forward when the bright afternoon sky suddenly grew stormy.  A voice echoed in all directions, once again heralding the arrival of the demon king and her mount. They faded into existence in front of him, stopping his advance.

“Out of my way, Demon King.” Aleph said. More and more plates of armor started to surround him as he spoke, until eventually, he was clad head to toe in brilliant blue armor. Lightning crackled in his palms, a show of force he hadn’t been capable of since he stood before Erebos.

“I do not have time for you.”

“You are breaking our terms, godling.” She spoke lightly, looking unimpressed. ”Another step out of Mui and I will be forced to end you, here and now.” 

Aleph charged, disregarding her warning. One of the metal plates on his back flashed yellow, detaching itself to form a blade. He used it to strike through the king and her dragon. Or at least, he tried to.

Ttttriingg!

His slash was met by a pitch black spear, stopping it in its tracks. The demon king had leapt off of the dragon, joining Aleph in a mid air clash.

“Haaaaaaat!” Aleph roared, following through with a flurry of blows. 

“Return to Mui, you fool.” Lost taunted, evenly matching his every strike. “Your thoughtless actions place your race’s survival on a cliff's edge.”

“ENOUGH!”

Aleph swung wide, sending the demon king flying with a massive burst of energy. Aleph planned to take that chance to escape, but his quarry had doubled back almost immediately. She launched herself back into the fray, locking blades with the angry god once again. They stood like that for a while, vying for position. Sparks of mana erupted from where their blades met, sending black and blue flashes of lightning into the ground, and splitting the storm clouds where they passed. 

The two locked gazes through the slits of their helmets, looking at each other with a gaze filled with hate. 

Except, that was only true for one of them.

 “He’ll be fine. Believe in him.” Aleph heard her say.

Aleph’s eyes widened. “W-what are–”

Crkkkkkkk!

That momentary lapse was all she needed. A sickening metallic crunch was heard as she turned, giving Aleph a hard kick that sent him hurtling downwards. He crashed back down on the balcony he had just jumped out of. Aleph groaned, looking up in shock at Demon King Lost, who had bested him once again. Her cold, threatening aura washed over him, a stark contrast to her encouraging words mere seconds ago.

“Do not test me, godling. The Lord of the Abyss graciously gave you a month’s lease on your pitiful life, but I am not so kind. Return to your hole and wait for your death, before I am forced to send you head first into the Abyss.”

Aleph looked on, shaken but still ready to fight, trying to decipher what her game was. Lost was an enigma. Unlike his Emily, she exuded an air of mystery even he couldn’t fathom. The difference was large enough that he got an answer to whether he could throw his all into fighting her, but now he hesitated due to an entirely different reason. He sat there, transfixed, as he watched her make a show of pointing her spear at him for a while, berating him a bit more before turning around.

“As for your other friends… Betrayal!” The dragon dropped its head, even pausing the beating of its wings in reverence. 

Rrrrrr….

A low rumble emerged from its throat, similar to a purr. It was almost endearing, if it had not come from a creature capable of mass extinction.

“Keep this rabble in their cage. I have something to do.” Lost turned her head briefly at Aleph after saying this, her blazing gaze taking on a whole new look from Aleph’s perspective. But before he could wonder what that was about, she shot off like black comet, hurtling away from Mui. Aleph, head ringing from the beating he had experienced, belatedly realized where she was going; it was the direction he himself had been looking at just minutes before. Lost tore through the sky in her wake, shooting towards the mountain where his disciples were.

__________________________________

Rayse’s body surged with strength he didn’t know his body still possessed. Unfortunately, all it did was allow him to thrash along the ground in agony.

His mind being invaded lay in a spectrum beyond pain. Beyond Deceit’s torture, beyond tearing his own body apart to defeat it, and even his own mana leaving his veins a blackened mess: That was how much pain he was in.

His formerly useless hands tore at his head, almost pulling his eyes out just to feel something other than it. Every crevice, every cell, every fiber of his being rejected the mind that was burrowing into him. His mana rampaged through his body, ignoring the cries of his veins and threatening to shatter his vessel. A part of Rayse welcomed it, as if death was a better fate than whatever Conquest was trying to do to him.

“Hmmm. You’ve kept more of your strength than I thought.” Conquest, still holding him by the neck, commented. “I’ll leave you to it, then. My brother needs me.”

The herald dropped him in a heap, and through his sightless eyes, only the creature’s receding footsteps told Rayse of what was to come.

Rayse’s body felt like it wasn’t his own. It thrashed and rolled all over the floor, doing all it could to expel whatever it was that the foul herald had embedded in him. He felt it in his head, whatever it was. Felt it burrowing through the crevices of his very soul. His mana heart instinctively responded to the threat, desiccating its pathways even further in an attempt to protect him.

He lay there for what felt like forever, writhing and squirming in pain. He could hear echoes of his companions’ thoughts, though their contents were out of his reach. Still, he could feel them fighting, and that bolstered him. The torture felt eternal, and yet instant, making him feel more and more like a wrung out rag. Except he had literally been wrung out by Conquest moments before, and so even he didn’t know what was pouring out from him in this very instant.

Eventually, pain did not even register to him. All he felt was a hollow void where his mana heart should have been. Stray thoughts told him that he had burned his own mana along with whatever magic the demon used, but it was all for naught. His body was beyond saving, a hopeless husk leftover from two warring energies that cancel themselves out.

Rayse lay there motionless, breathing ceased as he felt himself fading. He felt the finality of it all and accepted it. His thoughts went to his parents, who died trying to save people. He hoped that they were proud of him.

He lay there in the dark, feeling nothing. He floated in the nothingness of limbo as he felt death’s approach. Once he let himself go, getting pulled along the current felt pleasant, in a way. Death came gradually, like bags of sand slowly pulling him under. As he waited, he noticed someone sobbing through their mental link. He was too far gone to recognize who it was, but his mind strayed focused on the sound, trying to figure out who it was. It was then that he heard someone speak.

“Well? Had enough?”

A voice, clear as day, rang in his ears. It was different from the usual mental transmissions, as if the person who spoke was right in his ears. The sinking feeling had stopped, giving him a tiniest bit of annoyance.

“Ugh. He really did a number on you, didn’t he.” They said in disgust. “You could have wiped the floor with him, you dumbass. The hell were you doing, letting him grab you like that?”

Irritation flowed through Rayse as he felt that this person stopped the pleasant feeling he was enjoying. Then, he actually understood what they said. You’re telling me this now? He wanted to get up and berate them, but a bigger part of him wanted to let them get the last word and fade away peacefully, sobbing be damned.

“Look, kid. You’re pretty much almost dead. You can just let go, let your soul float away back into the abyss where you’d meet an extremely angry old man, orrrrrr…” They paused, “You could, you know, breathe in this mist. It’s like, pure life attribute, ya know?”

Rayse considered it briefly before letting it go. He was so tired. He just wanted to leave. Even the sobbing faded away in his mind, as if it was unable to follow him where he was going. He winced at the thought, feeling regret at the thought if leaving the sobs behind, but he was resigned to it. Only a couple of seconds remain until even that regret is washed away.

Someone sighed, and a soft thump could be heard as if something fell. When they next spoke, their voice was almost in his ears.

“Are you really gonna go out like this after making a girl cry?”

__________________________________

That got him. Suddenly, he could recognize the sobbing. Lacey’s sad cries were as gutwrenching as the torture he was feeling before. He breathed deep, circulating the mana in the air deep into his body.

“Hok!”

Of course, it only brought him more pain, as he was essentially tracing his old scars by letting mana flow through them again, regardless of what attribute it was. He counted that as a blessing, because at least he could feel things now. Encouraged by it, he sucked in all the mana that he could, trying to heal everything on its way to his empty mana heart. 

Gasp!

The mist, inexplicably staying in place since he fell, finally responded. It raced through his veins at such a speed that it took his breath away, the pain of rebirth threatening to render him unconscious once again. Rayse bit his lips through the pain, willing the newfound energy to restore him regardless of what it did to his body as quickly as it could.

Finally, after what felt like eternity, Rayse stood tall. His mind hazy, his body numb, his soul resolute. The dichotomy was difficult to navigate, but he was technically alive. For now, that was enough.

He looked up to see a massive hole in the wall he almost died to protect, and took a tentative step. He heard the ground crunch beneath him, the only thing that told him he moved at all.

No pain. Actually, I don’t feel anything at all. He marveled, but only for a moment. He felt something similar before, when he overdid it with Berserk. The difference was, he could move this time. Surface scratches and even the holes in his torso were gone, but he didn’t know how he fared under the surface.

No matter, he decided, extending his hand out for Unbroken. It flew eagerly into his arms, as Sonia’s gemstone twinkled with power as if in greeting. Rayse looked at it briefly, before shaking his head clear of cobwebs once again. His mana sensitivity might be as out of sorts as his other senses, because it felt as if Sonia’s gem, like him, was filled to the brim with mana once again.

Boooooom!

A massive explosion ravaged through the caves. Rayse swayed dangerously to one side, managing to stay upright only with his spear propping him up. Sweat pooled from all over his body, a phenomenon that he was quite familiar with. 

“Lace…” He rasped, voice gravelly from shouting himself hoarse. It seemed like his friend had to shoot out some stars after all.

No longer afforded any time to think, Rayse walked as fast as he dared, into the other side of the wall.