As he felt his heart twist inside of his chest, delaying his own breathing even as he stood there, he couldn't help but find something ironic about the words spilled by Krimjaw.
'That makes two of us though, Krimjaw. In the grand scheme of things, my life doesn't matter, either. However, if you can abandon all self-preservation, if you can do just that, the things you can accomplish are amazing,' Jin thought.
"I fail to see what you have that's worth smiling for," Krimjaw said.
"Nothing," Jin said, raising his daggers.
Noticing the man's readiness to fight, the goggle-wearing, worn man smiled, shaking his head as he snapped his fingers, "I have other things to attend to. You'll have to wait if you wish to kill me."
"Hold on–!"
As Jin dashed in, he found himself intercepted by the long, twisted limbs of black-wood that arrived from the many holes in the dome-shaped chamber's walls, blocking his way from the man.
Krimjaw held a smirk as he waved to the man, placing his other hand against the circular mechanism against the wall as a secret entrance opened up to an unforeseen room, "Have fun, assassin."
Though Jin attempted to brute force his way through the sentient, mechanical arms, he found them much tougher and faster than expected as they whipped around, blocking him from any angle he tried.
It was becoming tougher to shift into the element of darkness, as it was incredibly straining on his weakening body, but he saw no other option, fearing whatever it was that Krimjaw planned with the accursed organs of Dread.
'Push…!' Jin told himself.
Becoming one with the shadows again, he dashed through the mechanical arms as they swept towards him, only able to become intangible for a second before–
SLAM
Intercepting him before he could reach the secret room, somebody landed abruptly before him with a heavy impact.
Jin instinctively flipped around, jumping back as a secondary impact crushed the ground in front of him, gauging his newly-arrived opponent: as the dust settled, a figure dressed head-to-toe in black-and-dark silver armor stood, heavily clad with a circular-rimmed helmet.
The behemoth of a man wielded two, massive hammers in each hand, each forged out of stygian steel, looking dense and easily capable of turning bone to dust.
'Just great. This definitely isn't a dime-a-dozen grunt like the others–I feel it; he's one of their "Blessed", or so they call each other,' he thought.
The tank of a man exhaled breath like steam through the small gap in his helm, resting one of his gargantuan hammers on his shoulder as he faced the assassin, "Prepare. You face Alastair, The Smasher: I possess the Aspect of Crushing."
"Great," Jin sarcastically exhaled under his breath.
Embedded into the silver-haired man's mind was caution; it was the single most consistent thing he learned from the man who took him under his wing. With that in mind, he immediately sank into the shadows with the arrival of the new obstacle.
"A user of darkness? You're one of those types–hm!" Alastair hummed as his voice echoed past his bulbous helm, "I will enjoy crushing your bones into powder, either way!"
"Come and try."
Following the sly words, Jin silently arrived from the shadows beside the bulky figure, sweeping by as he unleashed a set of slashes against his foe.
CLANG
"--?!"
As Jin slid by after his quick attack, he found the sensation that met his shadow-forged daggers to be abnormal; they were rejected completely by the equipment worn by the man.
A laugh bellowed from the man shrouded in heavy, dark armor as he stood in the same place, proudly slapping his gauntlet against his breastplate, "Did you believe blades that meager would pierce my armor?! Laughable!"
The taunts from the ironclad antagonizer were nothing they Jin felt the need to let meet his ears, let alone respond to. In battle, he had learned to close his heart to anything directly contradictory to victory.
'That's a special armor of some kind. My daggers should be able to bypass any normal defenses. Unless it has something to do with the "Aspect" this one has,' Jin thought.
As he was in thought, he was forced to slip to the side through the shadows as an invisible pressure swept in his direction. It was violent and chaotic; like a shout that pushed through anything in its path.
The cluttered tables of journals and unknown conditions were thrown aside by the blast of pressure, leaving Jin remaining in the shadows again.
"Only the cowardly hide from my hammer! Reveal yourself and surrender to my might! For I am Alistair, the—!"
As the bulky figure boasted with his hammers raised to the ceiling, the silver-haired assassin leapt swiftly from the shadows on the roof. The shadowy blades once more struck the figure, striking the helm of the loudly-speaking man as Jin dashed by.
Again, Jin found that his blades were unable to bypass the sable armor of the proud, hammer-wielding figure.
As he flipped around back onto the ground, he was immediately met by laughter from the figure shrouded in seemingly impervious armor.
"Do you want to know why your blades have no effect on me? I will let you know!" Alistair claimed before speaking low, "Gravity."
The revelation made the half-elf man pause for a moment as he kept his guard up, not quite understanding what was just revealed to him.
"You seem confused, intruder. That's only natural—the blessings of Chaos are an impossibility to non-believers," Alistair spoke."
"Doesn't matter to me."
Though Jin spoke as much, he found himself wary in approaching the figure of enigmatic abilities. It was difficult enough to fight in the large, tricky chamber of secrets wielded by "Krimjaw", surrounded by the unknown, but Jin knew well of the difficulties when approaching a "Blessed" member of the Children of Chaos.
As Alistair took a single step forward, Jin leapt back, returning into the veil of shadows as he lurked around the chamber.
"Fearful little pup! Come out now and receive your judgment!" Alistair's voice boomed against the walls.
The taunts of the figure were followed by swings of his mighty hammers, each erupting with invisible force that chewed through any obstacle in its path.
It was difficult to evade when observing only with one's eyes; Jin relied on all of his senses to hop from shadow-to-shadow, avoiding the unseen blasts of force.
'Aspects are always troublesome like this. Different from any magic in this world. It's what makes confronting these lunatics so dangerous—you never know what to expect,' Jin thought.
The crushing force was able to contort the shadows themselves, forcing the silver-haired man to continuously go from spot-to-spot with each movement of the bulky man's hammers.
It wasn't that Alistair specifically aimed for his blunt weapons to crush anything directly, instead swinging them in the air as if he were conducting an orchestral performance.
"Crush beneath the weight of Chaos' majesty! Crush! Crush!" Alistair hollered.
From multiple directions, the heavy, crushing force slammed through the wind. Jin sprinted and flipped around, slipping by the rain of bone-destroying blasts of pressure.
He aimed to strike the hammer-wielding figure again as odd echoes resounded from the room where Krimjaw stayed.
Clouds of darkness exuded from Jin as he rushed towards his foe, forming a dual set of shadow-made duplicates that matched his appearance and movements perfectly: ["Shadowborn March"]
"There's more than one of you?! A pest!" Alistair howled as he flipped his mighty hammers around.
Each hammer was slammed against the air, causing invisible pillars of weight to slam downward. The crushing force destroyed two of the duplicates—only the original was left as he dashed in front of the hammer wielded.
"Ghh—!" Alistair winced.
"Just shut up and die already."
In an instant, Jin dashed by, leaving a trail of dragons forged of shadows that acted as smoldering blades, cutting against the crazed figure.
["Shadows Beneath Heaven"]
The volatile force of the ethereal dragons brushed against Alistair from all angles, wrapping around the figure. Ensnaring his enemy in the length of darkness, Jin slowly brought both of his hands together with a finishing command, "Squeeze into the abyss."
Just like that, the abyssal dragons exploded into a pillar of erupting darkness, shaking the entirety of the accursed chamber.
—
Amidst the battle ongoing outside of the gloomy walls, the maddened man of snowy hair stood in a pool of black liquid.
'Despite being as devoted as the most tenured of my colleagues, I am absent from the Council. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. All because I have not received a "Blessing" of my own so far–that will change now. I am special…I know it. Somebody once held my in that regard,' Krimjaw thought.
Krimjaw ran his hands through the liquid before sliding his fingers through his hair, slicking it back with the abyssal liquid.
"The time is near. It's coming. Soon, it will happen…I will reach what is beyond flesh."
In the ominous chamber of stagnant wind and unholy presences, faceless statues stood within the pool of abyssal liquid.
Vibrations quietly ripples across the surface of the pool.
ραпdα n?νa| сom The man removed the goggles from his face, dropping them into the liquid that stood to his waist. His eyes were absent of sanity; unblinking and etched with a lifetime of the harshness of the world.
["What I seek lies beyond flesh. The mortal coil that places limitations on the world—it is a nuisance that must be cleansed like dirt off a boot. This limit upon the flesh is the origin of stability. Stability is the anchor of normalcy—of compliance with stagnation. That is the antithesis of chaos."]
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel