Universe's End

Chapter 262: Thunderous Lord

“So… I feel like this is normally where someone would question how smart a plan this is.”

“Implying you’re not going to?” Rory asked, as Zoey snorted.

“Oh, hell no, this is something I always wanted to do back on Earth. I just wanted to inform you that some people would be questioning this.”

“Well, I figured if we came in hot from too close, it would notice. Best to build speed up so that it’s too late by the time it notices.”

“Sure, sure, either way,” Zoey said with a shrug. “Any updates?”

“Nothing ye- oh, wait, scratch that,” Rory said with a grin as he examined a small pocketwatch-looking item, a simple detector he’d whipped up. “It’s go time.”

“Finally,” Zoey said with a wide grin. “Meet you there,”

Launching straight into a sprint, Zoey pumped her arms before leaping straight over the edge of the tiny sky island, a cackle escaping her throat as she dove over the side.

Five…. Four…. Three…. Two…. My turn.

Copying Zoey, Rory shot off the side, diving over the side. Hands pinned to his side, Rory sliced through the air like a fish through water.

Except that wasn’t enough. A moment later, A magical circle flashed around him as the velocity of his downward trajectory increased, a shockwave of electricity flaring out from the ring that exploded into sparks a moment after he’d passed through.

Part of why the skyblazer suits weren’t just regular old wingsuits was the fun little feature Rory had managed to cram into them.

Acceleration Gates. Making liberal usage of the skybound qualities of the materials involved, alongside some rather extensive inscriptions and burning through an entire monster core per gate, the wearer of the suit got to experience a bit of what it was like to be a projectile fired from a railgun.

Four more gates appeared throughout his forward trajectory, the entire fall, well over thirty miles from the ground to the sky island, and it took less than ten seconds.

Already on the floor of the jungle, a massive crater had appeared, as a massive meteor had crashed down.

Zoey.

His part was to drive down the second rod from God straight down on the Thunderous Lord. Unlike Zoey, who could straight-up tank the fall, Rory needed a bit more protection.

Feature two of the skyblazer suit activated, as several gems and even more monster cores were inserted through key points in the suit, all burnt up instantly, as all the backlash kinetic force was inverted and redirected, slamming straight into the prone figure of the giant monster that had been slammed into the ground only moments prior.

In under fifteen seconds total, between himself and Rory, they’d burnt up a rather massive fortune worth of high-quality gems and many monster cores.

But hey, Rory was the supplier, so no one would be complaining.

The crater in the ground was made even larger as Rory slammed down, his suit working perfectly, with all the damage that would normally have traveled through him instead directed downward, the world obscured by the explosion of debris from his fall.

Obscured for everyone but Rory, who had nifty eye skills that made it possible to see through it all.

Taking advantage of the brief moment where the Thunderous Lord would still be stunned from taking the brunt force of two rods from God –of the more organic variety— slamming down upon it and the obscured vision, Rory flickered away, his staff held high.

“Dragon’s Fall!”

Because sometimes rubbing salt in the wound was fun, Rory dropped two more oversized sky attacks down on the territory alpha, dual-cast meteors dropping upon the Thunderous Lord.

Against anything short of a territory alpha, such a sudden onslaught would have left anything else a red paste on the ground.

The Thunderous Lord, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on one’s perspective, was a territory alpha.

So even after being struck twice from a height that would have pushed past the stratosphere on Earth, as well as having two giant meteors dropped on it for added insult to injury, a shriek still rang out as the giant flying monster launched itself back into the air, looking heavily injured but still quite alive.

Zoey had been flung away as it took to the air, but with a few well-placed air shields, she rebounded, coming up next to Rory.

“Way more durable than I expected from a monster like that,” Zoey noted.

“You could say that,” Rory said with a slight frown. “Thinking that maybe the mucus that it uses to attack it also uses as a protective insulation which-”

“Nerdddd,” Zoey said, sticking her tongue out at Rory. “Is it immune to damage?”

“No?”

“Good, that’s all we need,” Zoey said with a grin, cracking her knuckles. “I take point, you keep it from running away?”

“I can try, but if it makes a break for it, we’ve got to give chase.”

“Perfect,” Zoey nodded. “Then let’s get this fucker that’s been harassing my people for way too long.”

Ahh, that explains the gung-ho.

Launching herself upward, Rory couldn’t help but be impressed with how Zoey was already incorporating the skyblazer suit to aid in her mobility, rolling through the air like a dogfighting jet.

Alright, that was pretty cool.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Spinning his staff to switch his grip, Rory sighted the Thunderous Lord as it began spewing its exploding sonic boom mucus at Zoey, who continued to bounce through the air, air shields appearing as launch pads to change directions at the drop of a time, far more maneuverable than the skyblazer suit would have allowed on its own.

Locked onto the giant monster, the air exploded with noise as Rory began to unleash salvo after salvo of large metal spikes toward the beast, the sound lagging each projectile like a dog chasing a car.

Still suffering from having two tier-eight founders get the literal jump on it with supersonic HALO jumps from over thirty miles above, it was slow to react as the railgun magic slammed into its chest, each one eliciting a shriek.

Timing her own attack perfectly, the Thunderous Lord, which had been attempting to put more distance between itself and its two attackers, found itself knocked back down as Zoey ping ponged between air shields before appearing just above it, her fist glowing with the density of a planet’s core before slamming down on its head.

With the practiced teamwork that only came from decades and decades of partnership, Rory had swapped to a bow, string pulled back as he chanted quickly under his breath before bellowing a single word.

“Nathair!”

The oversized coiled arrow, more of a two-pronged spear than an arrow, flashed through the air, perfectly plunging into its eye as it bristled with rage, millions of fine hairs exploding out from its body, a no-aim necessary area denial attack.

Several rows of projected shields appeared in front of Rory, nearly half shattering from the onslaught before it ended.

Zoey, meanwhile, looked like a pincushion afterward. If she was bothered, she didn’t show it, as she flexed her body and the bristles that had somehow managed to pierce her were spat back out from her flesh.

Unlike in his fight against the Bird, Rory didn’t feel comfortable bothering with a domain; it would probably take more out of him than he would gain if it managed to get out of the radius. Without being in Ehkorrus, Rory didn’t think he could establish a large enough domain to prevent that.

Rory briefly thought of the Bird’s Arcana magic, but the reality was he still had no idea how that worked.

Well, back to the classics. Mostly.

There was one new attack Rory was considering, one he’d been thinking about since the Bird’s defeat.

Hand waving, a red line seemed to mar the air as Rory ‘drew’ what appeared almost like a constellation you’d see up in the stars.

“Sidereal Brand!”

The ‘constellation’ looked almost like an S, with a vertical line drawn through it. With his other hand, Rory slashed downward, cutting space before tapping the ‘brand’ with his left hand as it was pushed through the slit in space.

Only to appear directly in front of the damaged Thunderous Lord, which, as hurt as it was and surprised by the constellation of glowing red points suddenly appearing before it, was too slow to avoid the constellation striking its chest, sizzling as it screeched once more, the constellation branded upon it.

Rory instantly felt as if something was pulling back at him, grimacing through the pain of the confirmation that it had worked.

The brand was rather simple. Between Rory’s blood, coordinate, and lattice affinity, he ‘linked’ himself to his target, burning both of their vitality. One for one, it burned them both nearly equally, taking half a percent ‘more’ from him than his target. Against a target linked to several bodies, it was perfect for burning them all down.

Of course, it cut both ways, and there were several other variables it may not have accounted for, but that was why Rory was testing it out.

Was testing it against a territory alpha generally a wise idea? No, but it was a hurt territory alpha.

Totally different.

Rory wasn’t the only one who’d been working on a new move, evidently, as suddenly Rory found his focus turned upward, almost against his control.

What the hell is she doing? And why does she look like that?

Zoey was grinning like a madwoman, the entire world seeming to bend around her as she pressed her two fists together in front of her chest, each so dark black they seemed to swallow the light like the event horizon of a black hole.

Her body was being shredded by the second, rending wounds simply appearing, but her smile only widened. Raising her two entwined hands above her head, Rory realized the move she was going for, a downward double-clenched axe strike.

Uhhh, excuse me?

Where before her fists were just dark and gave the feeling of swallowing light, they suddenly began to bend light as it swirled inward, only Rory’s Eyes of the Architect allowing him to see through the visual distortion of light that could not escape.

“Black Hole Drop!”

I repeat: Excuse me?

As confused and surprised as he was, that didn’t stop Rory from being the ideal partner, snapping his hand and slashing downward with his other hand as he ‘grabbed’ Zoey and flickered her atop the Thunderous Lord, as she swung down like she was bringing a sledgehammer down on its skull.

Except it was a mini magical black hole.

Well, if we’re going to show off.

Two gems appeared, one per hand, as they floated upward and began to orbit one another rapidly. Rapidly chanting, Rory finished by snapping and pointing forward at the same time, the two gems crashing one against the other as oblivion was formed.

The oblivion point shot forward, and Zoey, who’d been straddling the Thunderous Lord’s head and manically driving a black hole into its skull, clearly noticed. The black hole fists returned to normal as Zoey escaped as quickly as she could, kicking off its head for good measure as she zipped through the air, partially thanks to the skyblazer suit.

The poor Thunderous Lord simply wasn’t getting a break.

Two rods from God.

Two meteors landing upon it.

A seismic impact to the dome.

Nathair through the eye.

A brand that constantly burned up its life force.

A nearly literal black hole being driven into the same spot it had already been struck by seismic impact.

And for a finishing touch, an orb of oblivion energy exploded upon contact with its head; the explosion was kept contained so that all that energy might be further focused.

When the null light finally faded, the Thunderous Lord fell to the ground below, sans one head, without the vitality of life, the oblivion energy had eaten the matter of its head in moments.

“So, was that just me?” Zoey said upon touching down next to Rory. “Or was that surprisingly easy for a territory alpha?”

“Agreed,” Rory said. “But that’s also the difference of a thought-out plan. You try tanking a drop kick to the head from someone flying toward you at Mach ‘Fuck You’ and tell me how you feel. And then do it a second time.”

“I would take the first one just fine. The second one would depend on whether it’s within ten seconds of the first,” Zoey said cheekily.

“Yeah, and without your damage nullification?”

“Point taken.”

The two of them stood around for a moment before sighing.

“You or me first?” Rory asked.

“Mine was cooler, so you first.”

“Sidereal Brand,” Rory said. “Came up with it as a way to handle an opponent like the Bird in the future. That regeneration, using several bodies, was bullshit. Sidereal Brand applies to the core of the target, but in return, it targets me as well. Give yourself ten bodies? Congrats, you now have ten brands. I have other ideas for it as well, thanks to the Bird.”

“Clever,” Zoey said.

“Just wish I’d come up with it sooner,” Rory sighed. “Now, the bigger one. The fuck was that?”

“Black Hole Drop? The name I came up with on the spot, but the concept I’ve been playing with. After experiencing first-hand what it was like to collide two conceptual opposites, I had a different idea: what if I collided two conceptual equals? I mean, earthquakes were two tectonic plates rubbing against one another, right? So Seismic Impact is already based upon seismic-y stuff.”

“And you got a black hole.”

“Well, I also made a point of burning up my durability to really go for it. It was, uh, heavy.”

“You don’t God damn say,” Rory said with a deadpan voice. “How often can you use that?”

“Sparingly,” Zoey sighed as she rubbed her shoulder. “One or two more before I burn through so much durability that I’d be out for the count even without taking any other hits.”

“Was it a literal black hole?”

“You’re the smart one, you tell me.”

“Oh, shut up, I know you play the part of dumb one because it lets you make me do the thinking.”

“Guilty as charged,” Zoey said, raising her hands. “As if my dad would have been caught dead with a daughter who got anything less than perfect grades. Once I got free, I got a little more free-spirited.”

“You don’t God damn say,” Rory repeated with the same earlier deadpan voice. “Well, with that taken care of, I guess we have just one last thing to do.”

“What’s that?”

“We’ve got to figure out how we’re dragging this bad boy back to your place.”