HELEN'S POV
Unholy. Unreal.
It should not have been possible. The pain. It was maddening. Too legit. No. Over legit.
My lips parted as the shrill cry that was more Helen than Hilde escaped into my surroundings, the shockwaves and vibrations of the pure sound shaking the nothingness. My knees met the cracked rocky terrain of the vast unfertile grounds pushed down by my solid weight.
I whimpered even as the pain faded. Like a buzz, slowly ebbing even as the injury pulsed. I shivered as I listened to the sound of liquid splashing on the stones my knees dug into.
'Are my pain settings increased?' I wondered. The pain had been so much at first that it was just unexpected. While it was gone a slight buzz remained, like a constant tremor. I knelt there unable to look at the injury even as the sound of the chaos beast fleeing probed at my attention.
I wanted to follow but the pain was still rattling in my mind. I'd felt pain in the game before. But it had almost been nothing like this. Even my wings breaking did not hurt like this.
Voices and shouts sounded around me as I knelt there still reeling from the shock and feeling like I had received a Taser shot.
A hand tapped my shoulder. My eyes moved up still clouded meeting bright golden orbs. Freyr looked at me, his eyes refusing to look at a spot as he profusely apologized and fussed over me.
His words slowly reached my brain as the fog in my mind cleared.
"...jump in... halt... catch again.."
"Mother!" His shout jolted me out completely and I blinked. My eyes went to the others all standing around looking at me in horror, well not at me. Something right next to me had their attention but I was more interested in getting that thing.
Any attempt at venting I desired was long gone. Erase was the only word in my mind. I pushed myself to my feet with my left hand helping to balance me. I stood tall and proud my eyes leaving my children and focusing far into the distance.
The rocky plains ended at a chain of crystal spires that marked the borders to the Star River. A thousand feet tall crystal spires in a ring surround the golden waters of the river.
The only space available led up to the Bridge of Burdens. The landmark floated peacefully atop the golden waters, numerous souls either managing to grasp it and escape the tidal waters or get flushed past. At the end of the long bridge amidst flashes of explosions and blasts of perks and skills stood the Chaos beast locked in combat with the Kaizer of Taursa.
I exhaled and then took a step. Atleast it wasn't too late. My balance swayed. Something was off. My eyes moved down and scanned myself.
I saw it. Before I spotted the thing on the ground that everyone had been staring at. Like the system was confirming what I was seeing a mental prompt appeared.
[Organic] - [Arm of the Creator goddess]
[ABSOLUTE]
The severed right limb of the creator goddess. Lost in defense of her universe. This item can be used for crafting or life evolution.
I blinked then gazed upon my stump. It was almost to my shoulder just short a few inches. My brain didn't seem to understand yet.
Thinking about it the injury made sense. I bore no armor. Just dressed in my gown and boots. My health was normal. I frowned. My eyes left my body and locked on tbe still-fighting figures ahead. Ayarat was doing a better job at holding the chaos beast back.
I took a step forward then another. There was no time to think of healing my arm. Any more time wasted could lead to Ayarat's loss.
Bane of Heroes weaved into my left grasp while the ground crumbled into little pebbles and rolled up in a green glow that formed a faux limb. I flexed the stone limb once, it was strange, there was no feeling to it. Just a presence that was locked and made cleared by Earthen Grace and Earthen Forge. I ignored this new sort of sensation and focused on the task. My right stone fingers numbly but with a bit of struggling managed to pull the string of the bow.
I realized then j had no arrow. Not like any normal arrow would serve to end this thing. So I delved into my mind.
My sub-divinity gave me prowess in cosmic energy. Celestial mode simply made my use of it flawless. Without the mode, I was back to the amateur stage.
Titan's Abolition was me testing just how much I could use the energy and its control and manipulation. I knew how now. My will went to work guided by my imagination.
What came first was [Order], the white flame that I used to forge the body of the arrow my will holding it in place. Next was [Ira], filling the shaft of [Order] with its enraged scarlet fire, [Divine] flowed next into the grasp of [Ira] then the two last pieces came. Cosmic energy, divine energy holding within it the Spark.
The arrow forged was a color spectacle. It shimmered and dazzled in my vision, its various heat held in place by pure will.
The only reason the string of Bane of Heroes was yet to burn was my will which kept the arrow's heat within. My earthen arm completely stretched and with the tip of the arrow pointed I paused.
The distance was too far off for such a shot. I was no goddess of the hunt.
"Fly true and fly right. May order find chaos" My sickly sweet voice yet powerful had an effect that had me gaping. From the cracks of my earthen arm wafted mists of aether that melded into the arrow.
Something changed within it and a feeling like I knew more overwhelmed me. A mental prompt clicked into my head with the feeling and I gaped.
[SUB-DIVINITY ASPECT DETECTED]
[ASPECT UNLOCKED - COSMIC CONSTRUCTS]
[Divine energy is more than lifeblood. More than holy light or fire. It is the will of gods given physicality, the drive in the machinations of immortals. It is the bone of capabilities and the spine of intentions.]
[You can now forge divine relics, gears, and weapons at the normal tier]
[Creating constructs will cost less divine energy and less concentration. Proficiency and capabilities affected by understanding]
[Aspect Construct] - [Bolt of Ebullience]
[Normal]
[An arrow forged from the Embers of flame and Cosmic energy]
[Damage - 3,000]
[Perks] - [Wrath of Ira] [Chaos Null] [Baleful Undoing] [Eye of the Raven]
[Templates for all made constructs will be automatically saved]
"Mother!" Freyr's shout jarred me out of the mental scanning my eyes going back to the bridge. While they didn't know what I was doing it wasn't hard to contemplate from the multicolored glowing arrow I had formed.
My hand already overstretched my aim already set, I eyed the fighting duo up front. My intent filled the arrow even as my lips moved in a silent whisper for one to hear. I let go with an exhale.
The arrow vanished from my grip, my will fading from its edges at the last moment.
*
Ayarat ducked down just as the thing clawed its humongous arm at her. Her back bent almost touching the ground as she slid beneath it before turning to stab daggers made of liquid silver into its hind feet. The fire extended like a chain and with a smile she wrapped it around the chaos being.
It flailed entrapped as it staggered precariously at the edge of the Bridge, the darkness of the space below calling to it. Ayarat pulled at the liquid silver chain tugging herself towards the thing. It shook as another head grew from its right shoulder, The second liquid silver in her left grasp reformed into a huge axe as she moved through the air like an arrow.
The axe descended for the chaos beast aiming to decapitate it. Its maw snagged on the fire, it paused then shattered the metal.
Ayarat kicked off the beast chain still in hand as she remembered. Devil's fire was not divinity.
Crack
The sound of chains shattering was the warning that she needed to roll back as a clawed crystalline paw smashed down on the bridge surface. Ayarat tended ready to engage her mind flickering over the beast as she sought a weakness to stalk it.
Her body froze as a melodious voice snuck into her hearing. One word that had her scrambling to flee.
"MOVE!"
A boom sounded from behind her. A buzzing of sound as something drilled through the air. An oppressive heat pushed her down to her knees even as sweat broke out on her forehead.
BOOM.
The explosion was loud enough that it almost drowned the death throes of the chaos. Ayarat watched eyes squinting as a myriad of colors swallowed the entity.
*
Hilde watched with a grim mood as her bolt tore into the entity guided by the aether. [Ira] tore into its crystalline flesh, [Order] nulled the chaos, and [Divine] surged through its being burning it to mist. The primordial chaos fought, attempting to drown the divine fires with its chaotic self. [Baleful] was no bystander. Like a vengeful entity, it unraveled and erased all that was chaos.
But Hilde's grim expression was not due to the obvious victory. Even as she watched the entity fall, dropping off the bridge, a torch of colorful flame hurtling into the darkness of the mortal realm she knew it wasn't over. Her eyes widened as the notification she awaited came, its words were not comforting.
[You have evicted the Primordial Chaos from the Soul Realm]
[You have applied status effect - Divine Curse - to Primordial Chaos]
[Divine Curse]
[An eternity of pain. A continuous scourge within its very being.]
[PRIMORDIAL CHAOS INCURSION]
[QUEST DIRECTIVES - SLAY]
The soul realm is at 2% corruption. Slay chaos limb to halt corruption.
[Rewards - Chaos stone]
[Failure - Perma death of lifeforms and corruption]
[Completed]
[Unwanted Primordial chaos detected in mortal realm]
[Security protocols activating]
[System spawned Voided beings now in effect]
[Introducing Void Dungeons]
[Introducing Void Zones]
[You have been marked with a Shadow]
[Eye of the worlds >> Plane walker]