Rise of the Devourer

Book 2: Chapter 39 — Wayward Projections

Noah sat on a corpse of a giant Deidacroc he had slain. Bun Bun remained buried within the body of the creature, eating pieces from the corpse with abandon, coating his fur a dark red.Noah paid the bunny no attention, his focus was on his Inventory. The menus moved past, as he looked through all the items he had in his Dimensional Pocket. “Where the heck is my spear?” Noah said, trying to check once again to make sure he hadn’t missed it somehow.

Tony shivered, flapping around his head, taking a look as well.

Noah tried to remember if he’d somehow left it, but that was impossible. He always kept the weapon safely in his Dimensional Pocket.

Tony sat on Noah’s head, sending quiet whistles.

“Yeah, I’m not worried. It’s just weird,” Noah said, scratching his head. “Can the projections access my Dimensional Pocket?”

Tony gave a shrug with his wings.

Noah returned his eyes to the Dimensional Pocket. Reaching out, he called back the spear with the Dimensional Pocket. The air vibrated in front of him, as if something was resisting, before the spear popped back into his hands.

Checking the weapon in his hand, Noah felt something different. The design on the weapon had shifted subtly, now little strands of black twisted around its red shaft, changing the design subtly. Using Identify, Noah checked the weapon.

[Spear of Crimson End (Uncommon/Growth)]

Progress to next rank: 7.2%

A spear infused with Crimson Rot and Void mana. Inflicts [Rot-II] upon use. A hunger has awakened in the weapon, morphed by [Devourer], the weapon drinks in the lifeblood of its enemies.

Noah spun the weapon around once, feeling it fit better in his hands than before. Something had changed the weapon and he wanted to know what.

“Time for an emergency meeting, send the word Tony,” Noah said, as the little bat-eye fluttered around, communicating with its other versions. A moment later, Noah activated his ability. The world warped around him, as his two projections appeared.

“I was just about to finish going through what was a pretty important piece of information so this better be important,” one of the projections said, looking annoyed.

“I was fighting cultists, we probably lost a level or two because of this,” the other one said, clicking his tongue.

Holding the spear in his hand, Noah waited a moment to see if either of the other two would comment on the weapon’s change. After neither said anything any further, Noah spoke up. “We’ve had some time to explore, I thought it best to combine what we’ve all learned, and if we’ve found any leads to the others.”

“Why couldn’t we have done this through Tony? Wasn’t that the whole point?” the projection asked, as one copy of Tony rose from the creature, before merging with his. Noah didn’t reply, as Tony supplied information his other selves had gained.

Noah’s eyes went to the other projection, as he used Identify on him.

[Astral Projection - lvl 13]

“How did you gain levels?” Noah asked.

“What?” the other copy said in surprise. “You have levels?”

The projection gave a shrug. “Dunno. I was fighting a big abyssal worm and then I got a bunch of notifications and now I have levels.

“That’s… so strange. I thought we couldn’t gain levels till we fused back,” the other projection said, holding his chin in thought.

“Can you merge back?” Noah asked.

“Probably,” the projection said, shrugging. “I’m still connected to you.”

“This is weird,” the other projection said.

Tony nodded in agreement.

“Was the spear your doing as well?” Noah asked, showing the spear.

“Yeah, happened around the same time I got levels. I like the change,” the projection said, smiling.

Noah agreed, but that wasn’t the point right now. “I didn’t know you could use my Dimensional Pocket.”

“I didn’t either, learned that pretty recently after I split. Turns out my pocket is connected to yours, just gotta stretch a little,” the projection said.

“Alright, so clearly a bunch has happened. So, progress report, you first,” Noah said, looking at the projection with levels.

“I walked around, killing a bunch of stuff and harvesting credits. No levels by this point. Then I found some cultists, doing some kind of ritual. I lurked through the area, trying to see what they were up to. There was one chief and a couple others around, but nothing too strong. I jumped in and killed the chief, before taking out the others but the spell activated and a big Abyssal Worm come out. I fought it and killed it, which is when the spear changed and I gained levels,” the projections said.

Noah hummed in thought. “So it just happened on its own?”

The projection nodded. “I can’t assign any attributes though, but I can feel myself getting stronger.”

Noah could feel it as well, the projection had as much mana as he did.

“Alright, that’s a whole thing to look at,” Noah said, turning towards the other projection. “What about you?”

“Well, I walked around for a while, looking at the mini map and trying to move in a way that would maximise our area coverage. Eventually I found the ruins of a village and made by way through. There were some undead around, and a pulsing bundle of life-force. Abyssal cultist work. I took it out before I began to go through the ruins to see if I found something interesting. There was a diary talking about the origin of this place, and a map,” the projection said, as the map appeared in his hand.

Noah grabbed the map, looking at it. Multiple settlements, branches and locations marked with different names and purposes were set. One line pointed at a way towards the castle. “So we know the way to the castle?” Noah asked, looking at the projection.

“Well, I was about to find out before you pulled me here. There’s something guarding the main castle gates apparently, and there’s ways to avoid the creature. Though I don’t know how,” the projection said.

“And give up on the experience we could gain? Why?” the other projection asked, frowning.

“Because it’d be stupid? Whatever it is was powerful, and the Familiar of the Ascendant that created this place. And unlike the Wyrm, there’s no guarantee that this one will be peaceful, especially since we’re here to raid its home.”

Bun Bun seemed to have been intrigued, peeking out from the corpse before he jumped out, and thumped its feet. Apparently it agreed with the projection that wanted to go fight the creature.

Noah sighed. “This is like watching my thoughts act out in real time. I wonder if this is how I look to other people.”

“You should decide,” one of the projections said.

The other one nodded, now looking at him as well.

Noah watched the two projections, thinking through the problem. “We’ll go look at this thing before before deciding.”

“So, are we going to merge back then?” the other projection asked.

Noah nodded. “It’s best that we did. We’ll just have to trust that the others make it to the castle as well. There’s a time limit on this place, and if the cultists find the Shard before us, this will have all been for nothing.”

The projection nodded, and a moment later, Noah felt his mana increase as the memories and experiences returned to him at once.

[Exsanguinator] has reached level 75.

[Astralwalker] has reached level 73.

[Void Hunter] has reached level 73.

Power: 300 → 306.

Agility: 300 → 304.

Constitution: 300 → 304.

Mystic: 418 → 430.

Free attributes: 57 → 77.

Noah glanced at the other projection, who had his eyes closed but otherwise did not seem to be doing anything.

“What’s the matter?” Noah asked.

“Merging back doesn’t seem to be working,” the projection said.

Noah frowned for a moment. He tried to recall back the projection with his ability on his own but felt a resistance pushing against him. “Strange, guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”

Getting up, Noah raised his spear as Obliterate channeled into the weapon.

“Wait wait, hold on a second,” the projection said, raising his hands.

“What’s the matter?” Noah asked looking at the projections, as he raised an eyebrow.

“Uhh, what’s that behind you?” the projection said.

Noah turned behind him and found nothing. “What do you mean there’s nothing there—“

Noah froze as he saw the projection dashing away at rapid speeds. It took him a moment for him to realise what had happened, and another moment to realise that he’d fallen for something that stupid.

“What the fuck,” Noah said, before realising that he was going to lose the projection if he waited any longer.

Taking his attributes, Noah dumped fifty points in agility. A rush of energy filled his body, altering his spirit, and the rush almost made him tense up, but his spirit was much stronger now and he pushed through the rush of energy.

Agility: 304 → 357.

Using Blink, Noah gave chase. The projection moved quickly, blinking rapidly all around the place and Noah had to keep his senses peeled out to not lose track of it. Noah focused his attention on his ability, feeling the thread of mana connecting him to his projection. Letting his will power focus on it as much as he could, he pulled back upon the connection.

The projection stumbled, as the connection yanked itself, and Noah did not relent, moving ahead as he continued to pull back. A moment later, he felt the connection snap, as the mana he had put into the projection flowed back into him. But the projection itself remained.

“Should’ve figured this would happen,” Noah said, rushing forward through the dense foliage of the forest.

Raising his spear, and letting his senses guide him, Noah shot his weapon. The spear moved around the trees, shooting like a speeding arrow as it launched ahead, but the projection teleported at the last second, jumping away.

Noah growled. The projection had every ability he had. He really was annoying to fight.

Chasing the ripples in the atral rift, Noah blinked as well, rushing behind the projection. The astral realms swept over reality as he moved through tangled webs of space, before reality reasserted itself.

With a pop Noah appeared behind the projection and launched himself. The two crashed into muddy waters and Noah grabbed the projection’s throat, holding him down as a growl escaped his mouth.

“Wait… wait I can explain,” the projection tried.

“It better be good, because right now I’m thinking that the cultists managed to corrupt you and I’m not very inclined to let an evil clone of myself run around,” Noah replied.

“No they didn’t I just-” The projection’s eyes widened deeply, almost in fear as it raised its hand, pointing up.

“Look… look behind you,” the projection said.

“Oh seriously? Do you think I’ll fall for that twice?”

Before Noah could strike, the world darkened around him as he felt a powerful presence behind him. Keeping his grip on the runway projection, Noah turned back.

A giant creature remained behind him, its giant body towering over the two of them, with deep iridescent scales gleaming in the sunlight as it covered the them underneath its shadow. Two wings came from the creature’s back, and a long leg that led into a maw full of giant teeth, and two reptilian eyes that regarded them with cold intensity.

Noah did not need to use Identify to know what this was. A creature so majestic, the legends of it had pierced even his home. One whose mere name was feared to be spoken by the people of this world.

[Adult Lightning Dragon - ????]

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