Kyle took a deep breath, as the mana surged through his body, violently tearing him apart from the inside out. His skin cracked, his eyes burning with the bright blue light they shone, his entire body was briefly in pain. But each crack changed, morphing to golden slime and undoing the damage. The mana Kyle absorbed from Liliana continued to flow inside him, expanding fiercely, lashing out and resisting his control.
This was nothing like before, the soul he absorbed wasn't going to relent. Kyle wasn't a devourer anymore, he couldn't force it to do his bidding. The mana wasn't his own, it was stolen and unmatchable with his own.
So Kyle just let it run rampant, as his body adapted, as his slime changed to match the seemingly infinite well of mana that frenzied within him. This was definitely different than before, for Kyle didn't just feel power, or energy. He felt it all, her memories, her emotions, her wishes. Kyle felt the Goddess's very being merge with his own, his slime the needle and string that patched it all together.
Kyle now understood Lucifer's words ("You won't recognise yourself after…") he inwardly chuckled, sensing his own existence gaining more than it once had.
His flair for the dramatic, his pride, his hate…everything that bothered him, everything that he loved. It all merged, with her impatience, her power of will, her guilt…everything that she was, everything that she became and everything that she wished for.
Kyle felt her overlapping his own soul, as slowly they became one. When suddenly his slime form convulsed, losing its shape. A blob of golden goo, glowing with a blue light. The pain subsided, as the change ended.
Kyle didn't feel like himself, yet still did. It was strange, as if his life so far had been just a dream. Sometimes it was unpleasant, other times wonderful but it was full of both regret and wishes. Alongside that dream he had a second, shorter nightmare. It was full for horror, pain and anguish. Thinking of it made a profound hate boil up, he couldn't stand it. He wanted to let it go, he wanted to forget.
He felt a part of himself slowly fade away.
But he couldn't let it, as even in that never-ending nightmare there was light. It shone within him, a feeling he couldn't stop clenching. No he wouldn't let it go, he wouldn't look away. Because that nightmare was his own, that short mortal life full of pain was who he was. And as long as the small yet bright light that was part of his life existed, he didn't care what else he'd have to hold onto.
At one point in time it was all he had, the lone light within the darkness of his soul. A light that made it all worth living for, a group of memories that kept him together. For it, because of it…Thanks to it, Kyle resisted the other being and retained his self. Absorbing what remained as energy.
He noticed the darkness closing in around him, Void's claws wrapping around him. The Darkness whispered into his mind, tempting him to surrender. He felt the Void's cold yet comfortable embrace, a serene emptiness that brought peace to his mind.
Neither Kyle or Liliana were peaceful beings, immediately he resisted the attempt of sloth. He fought back, pushing out with every bit of power under his command. And for the first time ever, Kyle understood why beings like Ymir and Titania were limited in power.
He felt the energy crackle through his bones as it made its way throughout his body, he felt it ripple through his flesh and blood like an overdose of adrenaline. The power surged out of him like an explosion that would wipe out cities, a blast of raw mana that disintegrated Void's claws as they lay pressing on him.
Kyle breathed out, feeling the raw mana exhume out with his breathe. His body was back to its original shape, yet remained slime. He was shaking, but not in fear or expectation. His body was trembling, fading in and out, almost vibrating with power.
He felt new, he felt strong. But above all, as his signature wicked grin slid across his face and he looked up at Void "I told you, I'm not alone. And I'm not a Fox either. I'm a Wolf." He sensed the teleportation magic behind him, as easily as he could see or hear.
As they appeared behind him, he engulfed them in his golden flames, protecting them from Void's influence. He glanced back at them, still grinning widely "And this is my pack."
Kyle looked back at Void "Alone I might not be able to defeat you." Kyle flowed back as he chanted, his body expanding and losing shape. The golden slime that made up his body flowed back like liquid, spreading, reaching out towards each one "And they may stand little chance against you…" suddenly the blob of slime tore up "But."
Severed pieces of slime flowed over to each Champion, slithering around their wrists and up their weapons before beginning to change. "The strength of the Pack is the Wolf." Each weapon was engulfed in the ever changing goo, as it solidified, taking each weapons shape but enlarged several times and shining a golden gleam.
"And the strength of the Wolf…" Kyle chanted, his voice coming from several directions at once. As his slime body became their swords and shields, their staffs and wands, their gauntlets and bows. As he became their weapons. "Is the Pack." Each weapon suddenly lit ablaze, a golden flame with tendrils of red and blue mixed within.
"We're all Wolves, a Pack of monsters following the scent of blood you left in your wake. Like bloodhounds we followed, we hunted. Now we've found you, and we're hungry." Kyle mocked.
And the Void hissed back in annoyance, as its hands regenerated it loomed forwards "You think containing a God will save you? You've only made things easier! Now I don't need to waste energy destroying you and devouring the Goddess! I'll just devour you both!" Void lunged forwards.
Author: Final boss! Fight!~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q46xYqUwZQ
"Sniper's Mark." Chanted Skill.
"Nature's Lash." Chanted CHfarms.
"Uni-Spark!" Chanted Woody.
"Wispfire!" Chanted Seren.
"Cryoblaze." Chanted Deathchilled.
"Arcane Bomb." And so did Zaahr.
The two rangers released their arrows. One lightning fast as it surged through the darkness and exploded out, surging electricity through the black mass. The other was engulfed in a dark green fog as it spiralled forwards, exploding midway as suddenly thousands of vines burst out and began wrapping around Void.
The four mages chanted their spells right after.
Woody with his elongated golden fiery horn aimed down, its length surged with mana up and down several times before a blast of white-golden energy shot forth.
Seren focused into her rippling staff of white engulfed by the flames, as at the tip formed a large sphere of golden-white blaze before suddenly shooting up.
Death grinned as he clenched his hands around the oversized Bo-staff, golden with red and blue trimming. He felt the flame's power more than anybody else, he tapped into its potential, bringing out its worst. As he unleashed a blaze of sheer dead cold.
Zaahr on the other hand was more careful, her mistrust of Kyle keeping her from fully tapping into the mana that covered her wand. She only used it as a resource, and unleashed one of her own spells. Rippling reality around the end of her pointed wand, black energy converged on it. It built up briefly, forming a sphere of pitch darkness before suddenly shooting forwards with the pressure of a rocket. Sending her hand and wand recoiling upwards.
The spells collided with the vine-wrapped and electrified black mass, exploding at different locations and disintegrating patches of the creature's flesh. Yet it regenerated, quicker than before its body refilled, the holes closing in on themselves.
Void roared, a beastly cry as he tore out of the vines and expelled the electricity "Your attacks tickle me, your magic goes right through me. Foolish mortals you know not what game you play at. Mere dogs barking at the moo-"
Void's monologue was cut off, as suddenly Cherry's gigantic golden hammer smashed through the creature's head and artfully burst it like a bubble. The warrior had leapt up at unprecedented speed, gone unseen until too late.
But even then, the black mass regenerated. Screaming out in annoyance as it suddenly lost its form completely. Tendrils of darkness surged out, lashing out at anything and everything. The darkness entered a frenzy, at a complete loss of control. The tendrils came at them from every direction, lunging with great speed and equal power.
The Champions formed around the others, mages and rangers in the centre with the civilians and warriors on the outside. Their weapons vibrated with energy, the flames that engulfed them brighter than ever.
Cherry spun around like a whirlwind of death, smashing tendril after tendril. Soren charged like a bull, cleaving, tearing, pulling and crushing anything around him. Birse danced with his hooked chains, slicing, ripping and clawing away at the rushing dark energy. Sparta stood her ground, deflecting the tendril's lunges with her shield and incinerating them with her fiery sword.
Jacky shadowstepped like a madman, appearing in and ripping everything apart with his twin daggers before disappearing once more. Jane twirled and evaded their lunges, her hands flickering with golden knives as she threw them, the blades bursting through the whirling darkness with ease. Vain surged with golden winds engulfing his body, his bo-staff twirling in his hands as he sliced and diced. Rico ran with seemingly solid air beneath his feet, his long golden spear engulfed in the flames burning everything in his path as he charged circles around the group at high speed.
Karnage flowed naturally with the tendrils, barely moving to evade their attacks as her long golden blades flicker with unnatural speed, slicing up hundreds at once.
Behind them, Skill's bow was moving in a wide arch as his golden gloved hand blurred with speed, as he shot arrow after arrow after arrow. CH instead charged up his bow, the three flames flowing around his arrow before he released it, sending forth a flurry of magical projectiles with.
Seren spoke buff after buff, heal after heal. Steph erected barriers from the bottom and top, giving them cover. Woody's horn was smoking from overuse as he fired laser after laser, wiping dozens of the tentacles of darkness at once. Death held his Bo-staff tightly, as out of one end gushed out golden flames that disintegrated anything they engulfed.
Zaahr finally tapped fully into the mana lent to her by Kyle, her hybrid energy now glowing a bright gold as it blasted out of her wand, expanding the further it travelled until exploding on collision.
Lilior hovered above them all, watching her entire surroundings with her oversized bow of aquamarine with gold trim. If someone was being pushed back, she'd take aim. A massive arrow appearing within her stringless bow, she'd nock it and out of either end a fiery string would form. Releasing the arrow made the projectiles very existence ripple, as Frostfire and Foxfire formed around it. A twirling whirlwind of opposing flames, the arrow pierced through the darkness undeterred.
The more they fought the more they found themselves attuned to the lent power. Each Champion felt the invasive mana flowing through their bodies, slowly becoming more natural by the second. And the longer they fought the more intense the mana became, even their weapons glowed brighter for every minute of combat.
Each fought at their hardest, for this was the day to risk it all. Unleashing everything they had, everything they wanted as Kyle supplied them the mana.
But it wasn't enough.
The Darkness kept coming, the Void was unending. And they were tiring, growing slow and weary. One by one, mistakes were made. One by one, the Void entangled around them. The fiery aura that covered them kept the darkness at bay but it couldn't protect them and itself at the same time. Kyle understood this as he felt Void penetrate his mind, filling him with hate and disgust.
It wasn't enough, after everything it still wasn't enough. As he was now he could resist it, but he couldn't destroy it. Unless he Ascended which seemed still so far, Kyle as he was now couldn't defeat Void. This thought ran through his mind as the Nogitsune forced him off his allies, tearing the flames and slime off their bodies and weapons.
Kyle could only watch, as the darkness lunged at his allies.
He could only stare as the tendrils of black pierced through Skill's entire body.
As the Void attacked his friends.
He couldn't move as the darkness wrapped around Steph, condensing on itself, crushing her.
As the Nogitsune yet again took people away from him.
He didn't have the time to react, as the tendrils entangled themselves around CH's limbs and began to pull, tearing off limb after limb before suddenly converging on him.
Kyle couldn't do anything, as he watched with horror, three of his dear friends be devoured by the Void. Nothing remained, not a hair, not a drop of blood. He couldn't even sense their souls anymore. And as he glanced around, within the brief moments that this all happened he saw the Void looming over the rest, it had only just begun.
As his body reformed on its own, Kyle felt his heart freeze over, his mind slowing down…
Author: And now for the feels..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpJmbywRkwk
As the darkness surrounded them all, like a thick black liquid they sank inside, slowly drowning.
It spoke to them, it's voice mocking "You shall sustain me through, I will devour you. I will take your abilities for my own and with them I will escape this dimensional cage, then devour reality itself."
Kyle sensed the void draining his friends, slowly devouring their bodies and soon to start on their souls. He watched as they reached out to one another, panicked, afraid and some in despair. This sight flipped a switch inside him "YOU BASTARD!" Kyle roared out as the golden flames covering his newly reformed body turned pitch black, and like an explosion they frenzied outwards.
Kyle felt it, the hatred he'd bottled up for all these years, he felt it burn. He felt it fuel him, as it turned to anger. As his frustration, guilt, hate and pain…all at once turned to wrath. And like that, he then also felt something else. Something had woken inside him, and it was hungering for a bite. The beast had returned, and this time nothing could sate it.
Kyle opened his mouth wide, his skin suddenly gaining patterns of pitch black flowing mana. He began to inhale, forcing anything and everything into his maw and down into the endless pit that was his devouring stomach. The very darkness that made up the Void, at first slowly but then picking up pace, began to flow into Kyle's mouth.
Rapidly the dark mass gushed in like liquid, pulled in by the black flames that flowed in with it and then reformed through Kyle's body. But there was too much, the void was too vast. And even as he devoured, the darkness wrapped itself around him, choking him.
Yet Kyle didn't let up, willing the switch to flip back. The flames turned golden once more, burning away the void. Kyle growled as he glanced around, his friends were still being absorbed. Some were already gone, devoured by the void.
"Not like this…Not again, never again." Kyle mumbled to himself, as his entire body began to shake, reality around him blurring as he suddenly bellowed louder than he ever had before.
"GIVE" With each word, his form shook faster.
"THEM" With every passing moment, his flames shifted from Black to Gold and back.
"BACK!" The darkness suddenly backed off, as a shockwave of rippling energy surged out of Kyle and expanded, distorting reality around him. The blurriness that covering him suddenly disappeared, revealing the birth of a new being.
Kyle fully ascended, as the Kitsune and Yako inside him shattered and merged. Everything about him was white. His hair, his eyes, his skin and fur. Even his flames were a pure, empty white. His expression was just as empty, void of emotion as he glanced around seemingly without a care.
The darkness flowed around him, curiously studying him.
Kyle's eyes widened as he clenched his hands into fists "Give me my friends back." Suddenly the white flames burst outwards like many many vines and into the darkness, seemingly sucking out all the energy out of the black mass on contact as the Void froze over, the white flames shining brighter in contrast. The tendrils of white fire poked around the blackness, breaking through what turned to ice and freezing over what yet hadn't.
The darkness tried to escape away from the flames, suddenly expanding away from Kyle's position leaving him standing in an empty white void. But having already found what he was looking for, the flames retreated back to him. Many a tendril dissipated back into the inferno that raged around Kyle, but more than a dozen slowly came to a stop ahead of him.
Each tendril was wrapped around a sphere of fire, each one a different colour or shade than the others. These were their souls, condensed into Spirit. Kyle could sense the damage from Void's attacks, it needed to break them before devouring them after all.
He grimaced, their bodies were gone and their souls…it was so close. He had almost lost them, he had almost lost everything he had left. His guild, his friends. Those he saw as family and those he loved.
It was too close, Kyle had come too close to losing it all.
His fangs grinded against each other as he clawed at reality before him, tearing it open as he focused on one place he knew they'd be safe. Ripping open a rift to Chaoz's Spirit Realm, Kyle controlled the flames through sheer will "Thank you…and I'm sorry." He spoke, his tone full of regret, his expression averting with guilt. As he threw the souls into the rift, and closed it.
Kyle sighed, a long drawn out breathe before glancing around. The darkness was still there, hovering at a safe distance but still looming around him. "There is existence after death but…what happens after your soul is destroyed? Hah…" he raised his arms forwards, reaching out with his mind to the fabric that held realities apart "Void you've done enough, you've hurt enough, you've taken more than enough."
The flames that frenzied around him suddenly blurred, before expanding outwards. The darkness lunged forwards in response but the flames went right through it, neither affecting the other, as if a ghost was passing through a wall. Both the darkness and the flames were overlapping each other, seemingly existing at the same spot, at the same time.
Kyle had done something he had never done before, he had reached out to the veil but instead of forcing it to move to his will he moved his own mana through it. Kyle flowed his flames through the fabric of space and time, expanding it as far as this pocket of reality was vast.
"Every, Last, Drop. I'll use it all, Liliana's soul, even my own body, even my own soul. To trap you, to keep you here. Alone, stranded and caged. For the rest of fucking eternity." Kyle spoke, his voice hoarse from the sheer amount of mana he was expelling out of his own body. Every bit of elemental, every bit of Aura, every bit of Spirit he had, Kyle forced it all out.
Until he reached his limit, and even then he could feel the very reaches of this realm. He was so close, just a little further and…Kyle tapped in deeper, willing his slime body to burn and change into flames which he used to reach further. It still wasn't enough, there were still holes.
And Kyle was determined "As long as they live…as long as they enjoy that world…I have no regrets. Silva…Sly…" he spoke, as he floated in the empty void as a bodiless soul. "Here I come."