Return of the Tower Conqueror

  Servant of the Council (IV)

The vortexes behind everyone abruptly grew, shuddering in the process, while Albadesh himself shortened a few inches, though bulked-up in the muscles department. The second phase started without a break, with Emma rushing back to the front and slamming her warhammer at the King who blocked it with his trident. His speed and attack had grown considerably, prompting Emma to dodge far more than before, though still occasionally being unable, forcing Taima to sweat even more than before.

Cain also upped the ante, tossing a relentless onslaught of elements at the King, each spell a combination of at least four elements. He didn't experiment nearly as much with the newly acquired ones since he had very, very little experience -- if any -- with them. He gained access to the 'Space' Element basically two years before he left the future, and he didn't even come within the touching distance of others, especially Chaos.

The Chaos was by far the most unstable Element in the Elementalist's bag; it was almost impossible to control, and the end-results were often unpredictable. In Cain's past life, there was only one Conqueror who even had the confidence to occasionally include it in his arsenal, but the resulting backfire was always worse than what he had bargained for.

Cain wasn't about to become a victim of curiosity himself, so he largely relied on the Elements he was already familiar with. Even still, it was clear that the 'upgrade' from the Blessings benefited him the most; he was like a machine gun with infinite ammo, unrelenting, unfiltered. So much so that he often had to slow down since the King veered away from Emma and toward him.

He landed squarely suddenly and took a deep breath, preparing to use hepta-attunement for the first time; the Blessings from Larua ensured his body could easily handle such an attunement of the Elements, but he still wanted to feel the sensation of Mana as it swelled through his body, compounding into a Skill. At the same time, he started the Skill Creation process, preparing to create the first Skill that he will likely use until he either Conquers the Tower or decides to give up some time in the future. He could see the clear picture of the Skill in his head, every one of its finest details, which Element went where, how they interacted, and the result of it all.

He slowly started with Creation, summoning an empty framework, filling it with Ruin right after. It was in the shape of the cube, thin, surrounding sheen barely seeming to hold the Ruin within in the shape of electrified elements. After Ruin, he injected a dash of Wind, separating individual molecules of Ruin and containing them within tiny, wind-woven spheres. Then, he charged Arcane, infusing it within the framework itself, strengthening it, before augmenting Creation and turning the shape from the cube into an arrowhead-like shape.

With only three Elements left to go, he took another deep breath and charged Blood, infusing the tiny spheres with it so that he could detonate them at will. Right after, he infused Nature and formed tiny, pipe-like conduits between each individual sphere, before finishing everything up with a dash of Aether, further enhancing each individual Element.

"EMMA, BACK OFF!!" he called out suddenly; his voice barely broke through the noise, prompting Emma to slam the warhammer into the ground in front of her and use the repulsion to propel herself backward like a cannonball.

"Starburst..." he mumbled softly and tapped the arrowhead-shaped object in front of him. Suddenly, it vanished, appearing nearly four miles in the sky, beginning to fall. The travel was hardly long, barely a whole two seconds, before it was right above the King's head.

He only now seemed to notice something was wrong and rapidly slammed his trident upward, clashing directly with the arrowhead -- the latter dwarfed the former in size, good fifty feet across altogether -- yet the trident still managed to stall it for but a moment. After, however, the arrowhead slammed directly into the King as Cain detonated each individual sphere, causing a series of explosions to shake the whole world around them.

The reason he used Ruin instead of Fire as the heart of the sphere is that Ruin was far better against armored foes; it was a spell created solely to counter heavily-armored opponents they would fight as it also had a chance of further shedding the layers of their defenses.

Unluckily, that property didn't activate this time around, but the damage was still enough to shave whole 5% of the King's Vitality, prompting him to immediately summon a Ghoul from the ashen mist he was surrounded by due to the explosion.

Cain charged a single bolt of lightning and struck the Ghoul, killing it, while Emma once again ran to the front and picked back up the fight with the King. The latter appeared rattled, his hair slightly disheveled, blood trickling down from his forehead. Cain, however, didn't stop, continuing his barrage of Elements, though restricting himself to hexa-attunement. Any further took a bit too long to charge, and -- especially for raid bosses -- once you showed them a nuke-level Skill, they'd rarely get hit by it again.

The entire reason for the 'Skill Creation' was to create a decent arsenal of nuke-level Skills and some utility ones so that there was no reason to repeat the same one over and over again.

His defense is probably linked to the other Servants, Cain mused and glanced at the other battlefield that was completely within control. I have a bad feeling about them. They are being handled far too easily... plus, the boss battle is going exactly as I thought it would before Larua came forward. Will his 3rd Phase change if we don't take care of the Servants? But... if we switch our DPS onto them, it will likely take us more than 15 hours to kill him. Nobody here except maybe Larua could either mentally or physically fight that long.

Cain was even more confident in his theory due to the fact that he actually had the time to think about it. In most raid battles, one had to always be completely aware and focused on the battle itself; Cain, right now, was splitting his attention threefold -- part to fight, part to observe the other battlefield, and part to think about all of it. It was... too easy. Yet, no matter how hard he thought, he had no answers -- what little he knew of the Council wasn't helpful, and he never fought a raid boss whose final phase changed from what the before-the-battle description detailed out. Yet... his gut was almost certain something would be different about the third phase.

It almost feels like we are just passersby in a story beat, he continued mulling after unleashing a barrage of frozen bolts at the King, slowing him down momentarily and allowing Emma to duck out of 'Frayed's' range. And this is Larua's stage... no, that's not true. If that was the case, the boss would be physically unbeatable. Am I just being too paranoid?

The King summoned another Ghoul, prompting Cain to kill it quickly and resume his barrage. Just then, however, he felt a burst of pain through his shoulder, glancing down and noticing the stream of blood gushing out and a ghastly hand with its fingers spread open hanging from the wound. He realized he had been too distracted to notice the vortex's attack, causing him to sigh and shake the pain off as Diya healed him.

"E-everything okay?" she asked worriedly.

"... does anything seem out of place to you?" he asked, shooting blind and hoping something pops out.

"... y-yes, actually," Diya said. "I... I thought I was just imagining it but..."

"Say it." Cain pushed.

"The vortexes..."

"... yes?"

"They've stopped sapping our Vitality ever since he summoned that first skeleton," Diya said. "The constant damage... isn't from them. It's from something else."

"... from something else?" Cain frowned, his eyes lurking around like mad, looking for something -- and they found it. "Shit... we're fighting one of those Servants that came later!!" Cain exclaimed, startling Diya. "Hold the fort here, D'. I'll go to the other side for a moment!"

"S-sure!!"

Cain charged Wind and Fire, spurring wings to appear on his back as he took flight, reaching the other battlefield immediately, prompting confusion to settle inside those there.

"What's wrong?" Senna asked.

"... we're fighting a fake, Larua," he looked at the winged woman and said, causing her to frown as well. "The real King isn't anywhere."

"But there are eleven Servants..."

"Yes," Cain nodded. "I imagine that one of these here is a complete, fake clone," he added. "Did you notice anything strange with any one of them?"

"Third one from the left," Senna said. "He always stays behind another. Wait--where the fuck is the King then?"

"... he's invisible," Cain said.

"That's not what the description said!!" Senna exclaimed.

"No, it's true," Cain shook his head. "We are fighting that version of the boss -- probably the one we triggered, to begin with. And if we do defeat these eleven guys, we would clear this raid. But I have a feeling things won't go that smoothly."

"How do we fish 'im out?" Senna asked, though her barrage of attacks never ceased.

"Thief, I have a proposition," Larua suddenly interjected.

"What is it?" Cain asked.

"King Albadesh is likely conducting another Ritual," she explained. "To extract my Soul before I Ascend so he can present it to his Overlords. At the same time, someone from the Otherside had likely established contact, however thin, with him, and is helping him stay invisible. Unless I completely destroy this battlefield, we won't be able to find him."

"... and if you do destroy it," Cain sighed. "You'd destroy all of us in the process."

"Yes. Which is why... I will lend you my strength." Cain noticed a switch -- she was no longer talking about, but rather through his mind. "We'll continue fighting as is, appearing desperate to kill these eleven before his ritual is completed. However, I will slowly begin the transfer of my strength to you so that he doesn't notice. That way, when he reveals himself, you will have enough power to fight him."

"What about you?" Cain mumbled, still not having the ability to communicate with someone telepathically.

"This... was the reason I came here, Time Thief," Larua said. "I had but the Final Breath in me and no more. That one breath was not enough to fight and avenge my Blood, and I had to settle on this child here in hopes someone more important would come out to help him. My Final Breath... will be in the service of Divine. That is more than most of my brethren ever got."

"You'll die?"

"Yes," she replied without hesitation. "But this way... I get to save a group that made my last days truly wonderful. You have inspired me, Time Thief, as did your friends. And you provided me with a home when I thought nobody would. As a courtesy, allow me to warn you: to the Outsiders, you are a trophy. While even those who serve the Divine will hunt you for your secrets and knowledge, the Outsiders will offer you a Throne -- they will make you a Herald if need be. However, I implore you -- do not join them. Power... power is fleeting. What you have already is far more important... and you would lose all of it."

"... power can be obtained easily," Cain grinned as he slowly began making his way back.

"And what you have... can't."

"No."

"I envy you, thus," she said as Cain felt a tiny mote of energy enter him and form up a link with her. "Yet hope you ascend beyond all of this. Though my Strength will leave you after this battle, my mark shall remain with you for all eternity. Should you ever reach the heights to meet other Dragons, my mark should help you at least stay alive. Focus now... we must not be found out..."

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