Chapter Text
[Skill: Echo Attack has evolved into Epicenter.]
[Skill: Speedstrike has evolved into Shatterspeed.]
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[Skill: Epicenter]
- Passive Togglable Skill
- Mana Cost: 0 Mana Cost.
- Description: All of the Player’s attacks, including Magic, ranged weapons, and melee weapons, will be accompanied by four following shockwaves, each decreasing in intensity by 25% (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%). This Skill can be disabled by toggling it off.
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[Skill: Shatterspeed (Ice)]
- Togglable Skill
- Mana Cost: 100 Mana Per Second.
- Description: The Player’s Speed increases by 200% and all physical damage is enhanced by 50%
- Gem Modifier (Ice): Leaves an invisible trail of Mana that slows any enemy passing through it by 18% and all physical attacks are augmented by an Ice Elemental Bonus.
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[You have acquired Items:]
- Rune Stone Part 2/7: Gluttony
- Rune Stone Part 3/7: Wrath
- Hellscale Chestplate (Dark)
- Hellscale Leggings (Dark)
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[Item: Hellscale Chestplate (Dark)]
- Item Class: S
- Item Type: Chestplate
- Gem Slots: 1 (Dark)
- +40 Strength
- +40 Vitality
- Description: Forged with a Dark Elemental Gem that cannot be removed. Passively reduces the Vitality and Strength of all enemies by 15%
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[Item: Hellscale Leggings (Dark)]
- Item Class: S
- Item Type: Leg Armor
- Gem Slots: 1 (Dark)
- +40 Agility
- +40 Vitality
- Description: Forged with a Dark Elemental Gem that cannot be removed. Passively reduces the Agility of all enemies by 15%
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Set Bonuses (Hellscale Armor):
- [Set Bonus 1 (2 pieces): All Enemy Regeneration and Healing Magic effectiveness is reduced by 40%]
- [Set Bonus 2 (3 Pieces): ???]
- [Set Bonus 3 (5 Pieces): ???]
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[Xessis Lvl. 1 - Captain Grade]
“How do you even pronounce that?” Momo asked, looking at the massive leviathan-like bug.
“Ex-sis,” Merix answered. “The Tenebris language only pronounces ‘Xs’ as ‘Ex.’”
“No offense to your language, but I don’t wanna call him that…”
Merix smiled at Izuku’s honesty. “Why don’t you and Quorra discuss his new name then? I would like a moment alone with your partner as we walk.”
Izuku glanced at Momo, who nodded. So Izuku walked off to the next Floor, right alongside Quorra. After allowing them to get some distance, Momo and Merix followed.
For a while, Merix said nothing, his hands clasped behind his back, his blackened lips pursed in tense silence.
“I… needed to apologize… It is the human thing to do. And truthfully, it scares me to be anything like my kind.”
Momo shrugged. “You’re in a stressful environment, with a lot at stake.”
“Yes, but… to find excuses is to encourage chaos,” He countered. “You see, the story I told you and your partner about myself and Quorra was the truth, but I omitted my past. Not so long ago, that is to say, several decades ago, I was no different than my brethren. The Lux killed my father and mother in combat, which was typical for my kind. It forced us to embrace the anger and resentment that the nobility wanted us to have towards the Lux. Before I realized just how toxic all that was, I used my spatial magic against the Lux. I was responsible for perhaps tens of thousands of deaths, each kill making me more bitter than the last.”
Merix took a moment to breathe, as if waiting for Momo’s response, but she was stuck in her own contemplation. “I’ve… I’ve been responsible for a lot of death too. We don’t really question it that much because usually it’s an ‘us versus them’ situation. Humanity sees themselves as the good guys because we didn’t start attacking. We were just replying to an invasion. But all of us are carrying around buckets of blood. We’ve just grown strong enough to not notice the weight of it all.”
“Well said,” Merix responded with a bittersweet smile. “The point is that Vexor brought me back to that very dark place. He made me feel like I was that same young fool. Full of anger, full of hate. It took me time to even realize I had regressed.”
“I used to be terrified… of everything,” Momo said. “Even though I was strong, I was constantly scared… Izuku helped me feel as strong as I was. But every now and again, I feel that small scared version of me pulling on my mind. Somewhere, deep inside of myself, I’m still that same frightened girl.” Momo looked up at Merix, removing her mask to look him in the eyes. “The past sucks. For all of us. You, me… Izuku, Quorra. We all have demons. But just as we’ve grown strong enough to carry those buckets of blood, we’ve surpassed the person we were before. It’ll nag at us, but it will never be enough to win over the present.”
Merix smiled wider. “I owe you even more apologies it seems. Your short lifespan has not affected your maturity or intellect in the slightest.”
“I’d rather forget the negative parts of the past and keep moving forward with the positive memories I’ve made.”
Merix nodded. “I agree. Thank you for this talk… it has been… enlightening.”
Momo returned his smile. “Should we see if they’ve come up with a name?”
“Let’s.”
*******
“Quasar?” Momo asked as the four walked along to the next Floor.
“Yeah, because he looks like some sort of alien leviathan. And technically, he is an alien.”
“Sounds good to me!” She amicably said once she heard Izuku’s reasoning.
[Quasar Lvl. 1 - Captain Grade]
“So these big bosses are called Tenebris Mutates,” Izuku began, directing his line of inquiry at Merix, “Which implies they were once just normal Tenebris right?”
Merix nodded. “Whilst the Lux obsess over purity, the Tenebris are happy to mutate and become distorted versions of themselves. Although… there were rumors that the Lux were experimenting on their highest Floors, trying to create newer, more perfect beings…” The Demon trailed off as he saw the door to the next Floors. It was wide open.
The city inside was pretty similar to the previous 50 Floors. The artillery towers looked slightly different, but they weren’t firing. Not only that, but the city itself was empty.
“Uhh? Is this right?” Izuku asked.
“No…” Merix responded, his eyes darting about, as if they were to be ambushed any second, but there truly was nothing there aside from the Raiding Party of four.
And there was nothing on the next Floor… or the next Floor… or the one after that. It was as if a plague had spread through the next 50 Floors.
They didn’t encounter a single thing until they reached the staircase to Floor 100. And just as before they ascended them into a cavern larger than some cities. The only difference this time around was that the cavern was not empty aside from a few scant buildings and a ceiling of darkness.
“So that’s about… one-hundred thousand right?” Izuku asked hesitantly as the stairs behind them shut with a THUNK.
On one side of the room was Izuku and his compatriots. On the other side, were the previous 50 Floors of Tenebris, gathered beneath their Floor Boss, ready to fight.
“Come Forth.”
It was an all-out war.
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Present: 10 minutes after the Raid began
Ryukyu reached up to her ear inside of the Sikorsky helicopter. Her comm crackled and buzzed with static as she tried to contact the boats.
“Comms are getting messy!” She shouted over the roar of the rotors.
“I still have contact with the other teams,” Endeavor replied. “We suspected the island’s Mana signature would cause some interference, so nothing’s changed!”
“What about that thing?!” Dabi asked, jerking his head at the camera underneath the reporter’s seat. Or rather at one of their seats. There were a total of eight reporters to cover each section of the Raid.
“Prototype transmitter! The tech boys suped it up, though it weighs like another 80 pounds!”
“Good thing you’re an A-Rank then!” Ryukyu bantered.
“I just wanna make sure it actually works!” Dabi clarified, glancing over at his father beneath the golden armor. Their comms getting scrambled with anyone outside the island was a possibility, so that alone didn’t bother Dabi, but he also didn’t trust his father. And if there was one thing his father hated, it was looking bad in front of the public. He wouldn’t do anything in front of the cameras.
“Approaching drop zone Alpha!”
“That’s us,” Gang Orca said, standing from his seat along with Endeavor and a cameraman.
“I gotta take a line down to not break this!” The reporter said, hefting the camera onto his shoulder.
Gang Orca nodded, making his way to the back of the chopper, where a ramp lowered to show the expansive Jeju island. Covered in greenery, overtaking the old structures of the city, it looked like some sort of mythical paradise. If there had never been a Gate break, perhaps it wouldn’t look as beautiful, but land was land. The governments could not allow alien colonizers to take over the island, whether they were harmful or not, and all signs pointed to the Nomu being harmful.
Orca attached a line to hooks on the chopper walls, before snapping the carabiner to the reporter's armor. “Let’s go.”
Endeavor and Orca leapt into the open air, not at all concerned for the drop. Whilst the reporter was slowly lowered to the earth, the two Heroes fell a hundred feet in a few seconds, crushing the lush foliage beneath their feet and sending a shockwave through the ground that disrupted more than a few roots.
Once the cameraman was on the ground and unhooked, the Sikorsky flew off to drop off the next team.
“Wait for the signal,” Endeavor commanded. “We don’t want to draw the Nomu to us just yet.”
Endeavor’s comm link crackled for a moment before being connected with the F-54s flying overhead, being piloted by three Japanese men… three Japanese men that Endeavor had given significant money to.
“Be ready to drop the bombs, I don’t want any of them getting out of those caves alive,” He muttered into his earpiece as Orca and the cameraman walked off to get into position.
“This is Tracer-1, copy.”
“This is Tracer-2, copy.”
“This is Tracer-3, copy.”
Confirming that his plan was still on schedule, Endeavor attempted to reach the president. The intentional frequency jamming would only affect the comms of the other Heroes trying to reach the boats, it wouldn’t stop him from contacting the Safety Commission’s President. And yet… the line just buzzed.
Endeavor couldn’t have possibly known that his transmissions with the president were currently being heard by every agent in the Hero Safety Commission headquarters. He couldn’t have known that the president was already in custody and that his plan was unraveling before it had even started.
But as it was, the rest of the world and Jeju might as well have been different universes. So time marched on.
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30 Hours Earlier:
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[Atric, The Demon of Power]
Rank: XS
Species: Tenebris Mutate
Skills: Tether, Recursive Defense
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Two armies stood on opposing sides. One made of Shadow and green light, the other, made of gnarled and blackened beings, all connected to a singular entity that stood above them.
If you asked either Izuku or Momo to tell you what it looked like, they’d reference one of their favorite authors of all times, H.G. Wells. Because standing on three legs, tendrils reaching out from under its pod-like body, was something straight out of War of the Worlds… a Tripod.
And the tendrils were perhaps the most interesting part. There were tens of thousands of paper thin lines stretching out from its underbelly and to the back of the Tenebris necks. They seemed to pass right through one another and through the Tenebris, as if they didn’t exist at all.
“That’s… at least every Tenebris from the past fifty Floors, maybe even the next fifty too.” Merix whispered, careful to not break the fine tension that existed between the two fronts.
“Well if they’re connected to that Boss, we just kill him and knock out fifty or a hundred floors right away,” Momo proposed.
But Izuku shook his head, delicately gesturing to a few System notifications.
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[Skill: Tether]
- Active Skill
- Cost: The User cannot attack, nor can it break the Tethers, unless it is outside of combat.
- Description: The User can tether themselves to a limitless number of individual entities. Those tethered to the User gain a Stat Boost equal to 15% of the User’s Stats.
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[Skill: Recursive Defense]
- Semi-Passive Skill
- Cost: Only active when the User is also using Tether
- Description: The User gains Vitality Stats equal to the combined Vitality Stats of all Tethered units. The boost in Vitality that this Skill provides does not affect the Stats given by Tether.
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“With a hundred-thousand Tethered Tenebris, Atric is borderline immortal. We have to get through the grunts first,” Izuku concluded.
“Who all have 15% of the Stats of an XS-Rank,” Momo added.
“Worst case scenario, they’re all at S-Rank. Best case, A-Rank. It depends on how high Atric’s Stats are.”
“Izu, look at the dots.”
“Huh?” Izuku hadn’t even bothered with the HUD to look at the army, they were enemies… right?
But instead of red dots above the heads of all the demons, there were only yellow dots.
“GO. AWAY.” The entire cavern shook with the trembling, halting voice of the tripod demon before them.
“Let us pass,” Merix immediately responded. “There’s no need for bloodshed, brother.”
“I. CANNOT. LET. OTHERS. THROUGH.”
“And I cannot let us be stopped. You know what this is about.”
“SHE. IS. DANGEROUS.”
“We’re all dangerous,” Izuku interjected. “But only Esil is innocent.”
“YOU’RE. NOT. INNOCENT?”
Izuku grimaced. “I’d like to save the world… but I know I can’t. I’ll settle for saving those I can. Even if I have to fight to do so. I’m no saint. You’re staring at my kill count,” He said as the Shadows writhed behind him, itching for a fight.
“BUT. NO. MALICE.”
“I don’t want to fight you. You’re living beings, just like me.”
Atric seemed to sit in silent contemplation for a moment.
“WHY?”
“Why what?”
“WHY. DO. YOU. NOT. FEAR. US?”
“I’ll never be afraid of someone willing to talk.” Izuku stepped out into the emptiness of the would-be battlefield. “And I’ll never be afraid to shake hands with someone who is willing to shake… er…” Izuku stumbled over his words as he realized that Atric didn’t exactly have… hands. “Shake… tendrils?”
A low grumbling roared throughout the cavern and for a moment, Izuku feared the worst. But before he could prepare for the worst, the Tether Skill began to dissolve. All of the Tenebris became separated from Atric. Atric… who was not grumbling in dissatisfaction, but chuckling in amusement.
“SO. LONG.” He said. “SINCE. WE’VE. HAD. PEACE.”
Izuku laughed. It was pure relief. He had to remove his mask, to wipe away a tear forming in the corner of his eye as the dots above the Tenebris changed from yellow to green.
“WHY. DO. YOU. MOURN?”
“I don’t!” Izuku shouted with elation. “I’m just happy! Between you and the Ice Elves… There’s hope. Hope that we can co-exist!”
“SO. NAIVE. BUT. A. WELCOME. CHANGE.” Atric stepped out into the emptiness just as Izuku had, leaving the Tenebris behind. “I. SHALL. JOIN. YOU.” He delicately bowed. “PLEASE. ALLOW. THEM. TO. LIVE. AS. THEY. HAVE.”
[Tenebris Mutate: Atric, is offering his Soul to the Shadow Monarch.]
[Do you accept?]
“I’m not asking you to join me, just let us pass. I’m more than happy to let you live as you have.”
“THIS. FORM. IS. PAIN. I. SEEK. PEACE. THAT. ONLY. YOU. CAN. GRANT.”
“Were you… an experiment?” Izuku asked gently, thinking back to Arcka’s rage and pain.
“YES…”
Izuku had to stifle more tears. “I swear to you, they’ll be safe! We’re going to the Lux after this, so I’ll make sure that not even the Angels will bother them!”
“THANK… YOU…”
[Do you accept?]
“Yes… I accept.”
The Tenebris Army took a knee as their leader fell to the ground, the life draining from him. It was almost impossible to humanize such an inhuman shape, but Izuku could’ve sworn that he let out a sigh of relief as his Soul was transferred to the Shadow Monarch’s care.
The Tenebris looked up, with a somewhat tense gaze. Their leader was gone, in the care of another. One who had already slaughtered countless-
Izuku took a knee to mirror the Tenebris, mentally commanding his Shadows to do the same. “We may not look, or even act like each other. But we can communicate. That alone makes you like me, deep down. If you need protecting, if you need help, and I’m there to give it, I will.” Izuku hoped he wasn’t demeaning the species by implying that he’d need their help, but offering help was what he knew to do.
“Brother, are you truly heading for the pinnacle of our domain?” One of the Tenebris at the head of the force asked.
Merix stepped forwards. “We are, there’s-”
“I was not speaking to you,” The Tenebris interrupted, directing his attention at Izuku. It was clear that there was still some bad blood between Merix and his kind. Especially since the Tenebris were the ones who messed with Esil, causing her to get captured. But from their point of view, Merix was just as much of a betrayer. He had bred with a Lux, created something that disrupted their world as they knew it. It was complicated, and hopefully something they could resolve, later.
It took Izuku a few moments to respond. He had not expected the Tenebris to so readily welcome him. It seemed that chaos was not their only driving force, or if it was, their understanding of chaos ran a lot deeper than just anarchy.
“We needed to strengthen ourselves before taking on the Lux to rescue Esil.”
The lead Tenebris scrunched up what could be called his brow. “I… We… cannot aid you. We will not stand in your way, but we cannot physically oppose the Lord of Hell. He possesses what you will need to fight the Lux.”
“I’m already honored by what you’ve offered,” Izuku said, doing his best to sound like Kei when she was practicing her presentations for school. “I would not ask you for more.”
The Demon nodded, standing along with the rest of his kind. “Then be on your way.” They parted like Moses splitting the sea. “And brother,” He said, now directing his attention at Merix. “Do not pass on from this world. Not until we’ve had time to speak.”
Merix nodded firmly.
“Thank you.” The Tenebris said to Izuku, “For curing him of his pain.”
Izuku continued to brush away tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
He smiled. “It is our loss, but his gain. Our pain matters not to his newfound peace.”
Momo laid a hand on Izuku’s shoulder, smiling down at him proudly. “This is the ‘you’ that I… fell in love with. Maybe Takashi was wrong… maybe humanity’s end times are farther away than he thinks.”