Chapter 587: The Lion and the Serpent
With murder in his heart and killing intent pouring from his body, Leon directed Anzu closer to the boxy structure in the center of the massive crater lake. There, he could see Jormun watching with an expression of mild amusement. The pirate made no moves to counter Leon’s obviously hostile advance, nor did he summon his power.
Leon’s mind was filled with scenes of him tearing Jormun apart by fang, claw, talon, and beak. He could barely think enough to acknowledge that this didn’t quite feel right; Jormun was rightthere, and Leon couldn’t allow this opportunity to go to waste. Besides, with the wind howling in his ears and comforting sound of thunder both near and far, Leon felt invincible. The stormy sky was his domain, he could feel that in his very core; so high up and with such a tremendous storm around him, filling him with power, Jormun stood no chance at all.
As Anzu brought him closer, the griffin seemed to hesitate a bit, chirping back at Leon questioningly.
“Don’t worry!” Leon shouted to his griffin so that his voice could be heard over the wind and rain. “I’ve got this!”
The griffin chirped again and redoubled his efforts to fly through the storm and bring Leon to his destination.
As they approached, Leon pulled on Anzu’s harness and brough the griffin into a circling pattern, staying about two hundred feet from the already cracked roof of the boxy structure. Still, even when this close, Jormun didn’t react, merely standing there and watching with a sly smile on his face.
Leon snarled, almost baring his teeth at the pirate, and conjured a bright silver-blue lightning bolt. It formed in an instant, pulsing with tremendous power, and Leon hurled it with as much strength as he could muster from Anzu’s back.
The lightning bolt exploded at Jormun’s feet only a moment later, bathing him in so much lightning that even to Leon’s seventh-tier senses, he seemed to vanish into the light for a moment. More importantly, the roof beneath his feet, already broken from what looked like an earlier lightning strike, crumbled under the weight of Leon’s power, sending the area immediately around Jormun collapsing into itself while cracks spread even further across the surface.
With a single lightning bolt, Leon had nearly brought the entire rooftop down. Jormun hadn’t been killed, his aura was still emanating from within the structure, but Leon couldn’t help but revel in this power. He directed Anzu to the remains of the roof, and once he was close, he nimbly leaped off the griffin’s back so that Anzu wouldn’t have to risk landing upon it.
Once his feet touched the stone, it began to crumble further, so Leon quickly shouted at Anzu to return to Sigebert’s ship. Once he was finished with Jormun, he could wait a while to be picked up, but he didn’t want his griffin to be caught up in their battle—he was still only equivalent to the fifth-tier, after all.
Anzu screeched a protest, but Leon shouted again, and then jumped down into the structure before Anzu could protest again. With his magic senses, Leon was grateful to see him flying away in Sigebert’s direction, and as he landed in the huge empty chamber where Jormun was waiting, Leon put all of that out of his mind and focused entirely on the battle at hand.
Jormun wasn’t standing where he’d fallen and had instead moved to the slightly raised stage at the far end of the chamber opposite the structure’s entrance.
“Quite bold of you, to come at me alone,” Jormun smugly called out. “It’ll be your last mistake, I should think.”
Leon’s lips parted in something that resembled a smile but felt more like a primal, almost animalistic threat. His eyes were locked on Jormun like those of a hunter stalking its prey, and his hands shook with desire to get ahold of him and start ripping. His body filled with magic power, and for the tiniest of moments before he began to call upon his lightning, a few small, nearly imperceptible licks of black flame appeared around his fingers.
But then, torrents of lightning erupted from Leon’s body, and he charged at Jormun faster than the mortal eye would’ve been able to track. He slammed his sword down upon the pirate, the blade glowing with silver-blue lightning. However, Jormun simply raised a hand and conjured the massive bronze hammer that he’d used to escape from Leon back in the temple, the same one that Nestor had told him had been once wielded by a vassal of the Thunderbird Clan.
Leon’s blade struck the haft of this weapon and was deflected, though the stored lightning magic within exploded out, bathing Jormun once more in Leon’s silver-blue lightning.
A moment later, a powerful jet of water hit Leon in the stomach, not doing much damage but hurling him back dozens of feet. What followed was a storm of tiny beads of water, each no bigger than a raindrop but sharp, needle-thin, and fired with tremendous force.
It took Leon no more than a single glance to know that this attack was powerful, despite the size of each individual drop being seemingly insignificant—even one drop would probably pierce straight through his unarmored body. In response, he switched with incredible alacrity to fire magic, and swung his blade, sending out a great wave of fire to shield himself from the oncoming storm of droplets.
Jormun’s water droplets hit the fiery wave and were largely vaporized, but a few still managed to pierce through, and Leon had to switch back to lightning and dodge as quickly as he could to have the speed he needed.
But Jormun wasn’t done; barely a second had passed after his attack failed before he was raising his hand into the air and causing his aura to spike as he manipulated a terrifying amount of power. To Leon’s magic senses, it was like suddenly staring at the sun, and he reeled for a fraction of a second as Jormun’s magic power rushed outside.
And then, Leon felt the ground begin to shake, and he knew that he had to stop whatever Jormun was doing. He conjured a lightning bolt and hurled it at Jormun, but a shield of water materialized in front of the pirate, causing the lightning bolt to spread out and dissipate across its surface instead of piercing through, though quite a bit of it was vaporized.
Before the bolt hit the water shield, however, Leon had already jumped, merely using his lightning bolt as a distraction. He put all of his strength into his legs and leaped with everything that he had. His seventh-tier strength had him sailing over the water shield, nearly scraping the ceiling of the massive chamber, and falling down almost directly onto Jormun, the power he was absorbing from the storm outside building up in his legs. As soon as he hit the shield, all of that power would…
Jormun waved his hand and conjured a dome of ice around himself. Leon hit the ice, and all of the power he’d built up in his legs shattered the ice with a tremendous blast of lightning and thunder.
Leon thought Jormun would’ve been in a more defensive stance, but instead, as the ice dome broke, the pirate was already in mid-swing of his massive hammer, and Leon barely had time to land on the ground before a massive spike burst from the floor. He managed to dodge just in time, and he was pushed far back from Jormun as more and more stone spikes erupted from the ground for him to dodge.
A moment later, the walls of the chamber shattered, and a decent-sized river’s worth of water came pouring in from outside—the result of whatever Jormun had done before Leon’s jump.
“Yes…” Jormun muttered loudly. “This power… it’s not even a hint of what’s to come, but already…”
The pirate turned and smiled at Leon.
“Count yourself lucky, young Raime. You’re here to witness the birth of a new god!”
Leon’s eyes narrowed. Those weren’t exactly the words he was expecting to hear—more ranting and raving about the Serpent, or something more in line with that.
‘Whatever…’ Leon thought as his body filled with power once again, the storm outside nourishing him and giving him a nearly-limitless pool of magic to draw upon. Or so it felt to him, at least.
Leon raised his weapon, the blade of his family, the sword used by the Thunderbird herself, and let loose with his power. Jormun had strong defenses, and Leon needed a change in strategy, so instead of quick, powerful, surgical strikes, he decided to fill the chamber with lightning and see where that got him.
Silver-blue lightning poured out of his sword at least as quickly as Jormun’s water poured into the room. These two powers clashed in the center of the chamber, shaking the entire structure down to its foundations, and causing the already-weakened ceiling to start to collapse even further. With stone falling from above, Leon’s lightning and Jormun’s water competed for dominance.
For a while, it seemed to Leon like he might come out on top. Jormun’s water was heavy and limitless, but his lightning, powered by the storm, was just as limitless. It slammed into Jormun’s water, filling it with energy, heating it up, and causing it to vaporize before it reached Leon. Jormun was forced to keep his water coming, or else Leon’s unending stream of lightning would quickly reach him.
Leon couldn’t help but smile as he turned himself into a conduit for the raging storm outside. The very storm that Jormun’s rituals had summoned would be his undoing, as its power flowed through him and pushed the pirate back. He could almost feel his teeth sinking into Jormun’s throat, breaking the skin, piercing his jugular…
And then, Jormun swung his hammer once more, and the ground under Leon’s feet shattered into sand and erupted over his body. Leon’s eyes went wide as the sand formed arms and hands and grabbed onto his body, restraining him, and pulling his sword arm down, causing his lightning to score across the floor instead of across Jormun’s water.
That water, now without the restraint of Leon’s lightning, crashed down upon him with terrible force, first slamming Leon into the ground, and then lifting him and hurling him against the wall of the chamber, just above the door.
And there, the water held him, even as more lightning erupted from Leon’s body in an attempt to free himself. But no matter how much power he used, there was just too much water—Jormun’s power reserves were without limit, and he had all the power of the lake outside, which the rain was more than happy to replenish.
Leon was able to break the water’s hold on him, but not enough to completely free himself. He switched from lightning to fire once again and created a bubble around himself through which Jormun’s water was unable to penetrate.
But that still left him clinging to the doorframe a couple dozen feet above the ground. With a single swing of his hammer, Jormun could dislodge him, and then his water would be on him again…
It was strange, Leon didn’t think a seventh-tier mage should have quite this much power. There was just far too much water for Jormun to control, let alone have the spare strength to use that hammer. The pirate’s aura was still that of a seventh-tier mage, though…
As if able to hear Leon’s thoughts, Jormun helpfully offered the solution when he shouted, “Just give up, Leon! You can’t win! I am backed by divinity! You cannot hope to compete with the two of us together!”
Leon grimaced, his anger growing in direct proportion with his sense of helplessness. His eyes turned in the direction of the silver bands upon his left arm, and he decided that it was now or never. If they worked, then great. If they didn’t, then he’d have to resort to even more desperate means.
Leon clenched his left fist and channeled his magic power into the first of his three silver bands. The runes etched upon its surface flashed with blue light, and then a pulse of water magic filled the ruined chamber, immediately scattering all of the magic that Jormun was using to control the lake water. The water fell to the ground, as did Leon, and spilled back out through the massive holes in the walls that Jormun had made. As Leon’s feet hit the stone floor, the band he’d used made the sound of a struck tuning fork, blackened like it had been burned, and then split in half, falling to the ground.
Jormun made a confused sound as all of his water was forcibly released from his magical grasp, only to them smile and say with more than a hint of admiration in his voice, “Well, well, well, look what you have there… I haven’t seen weapons like that since ravaging the coasts of the Sky Devil’s Hell. I’m impressed, Leon, I had no idea you had such powerful weapons at your disposal…”
“I’m full of surprises,” Leon said as he pushed himself back to his feet and, before the room could completely empty of Jormun’s water, let loose with a blast of lightning through his legs.
His lightning spread out in a flash of silver-blue light and deafening thunder, almost instantly covering the drenched room in Leon’s power. Jormun couldn’t avoid it, and his response time was just a little bit too late. His body seized up and he screamed in pain. Leon kept it up, advancing slowly as his power devastated Jormun.
But then, the pirate managed to contort his body enough to slam his massive hammer into the ground, and he was lifted ten feet into the air by a stone platform, releasing him from the water that Leon was using to channel his lightning.
Leon halted and conjured a lightning bolt, hurling it as soon as he felt it finish forming. Unfortunately, Jormun invoked the power of his hammer once more, forming a stone shell around himself strong enough to remain intact as Leon’s terrifically powerful lightning danced across its surface.
A moment later, the water in the room fell back under Jormun’s control, and it sprang into action, rising up around Leon, who wasted no time in conjuring forth a shield of fire to ward the water off. He was just barely fast enough, and holding up his fiery shield almost forced him into a kneeling position as Jormun’s water crashed down upon it. But as he held it up, he felt the ground beneath him shift once again, and he threw himself back just before a stone spike burst from the floor.
“Leon!” Jormun shouted as the stone shell fell away from him, his tone both impressed and victorious. “You’ve put up an admirable display! But I’m afraid that duty calls, and it’s time to end this!”
Leon snarled and activated the second of his silver bracelets. The water that surrounded his flame shield collapsed as Jormun’s magic was forcibly dissipated, and Leon recalled his flame shield in favor of filling his blade with lightning magic.
As the flame shield subsided and he laid his eyes upon what Jormun was doing, however, he paused. He’d kept an eye on the pirate with his magic senses, but seeing what was happening with his own physical eyes was another thing entirely—a tall, thin line of light had appeared behind the pirate, almost as if the stage he stood upon had a set of invisible curtains that were now just starting to separate. This line was about four times as tall as Jormun, but only about as thick as a flagpole.
As if to solidify that curtain comparison, the sides of the light suddenly expanded like two curtains being pulled open, revealing featureless white light.
And then a shadow appeared in the center of that light, a shadow that rapidly and alarmingly grew larger until it took a roughly human shape, though it was far larger than any human could possibly be.
[Leon!] Xaphan roared into his mind, [Summon me right now! That pirate is summoning something of his own!]
Leon’s heart rate spiked, and though his mind was still filled with images of ripping and tearing into Jormun like a crazed beast, he still followed Xaphan’s suggestion and immediately cut off the flow of power into his blade. Instead, he focused deep within himself, allowing the entrance of his soul realm to grow. He mentally reached into his chest using his magic body and searched around until he found the thread of power that connected him and Xaphan, the magical bond that had formed when they had first made their contract years ago. When he found it, he pulled hard, like he was using fishing twine to haul a boulder out of the sea.
His body practically exploded with dark red demonfire, and for a moment, he could see Jormun’s triumphant smile falter.
An arm came out of that fire, enormous and wreathed in flame. The shoulder followed, and the fire grew as if stretching to accommodate the massive form that was squeezing himself through. Xaphan’s head came next, his obsidian skin obscured by flame but undeniable in shape. The demon roared in exertion as he thrashed and crawled out of Leon’s soul realm, the temperature in the ruined chamber spiking fast as the bright orange flames that perpetually covered his body filled the room with heat.
But the figure behind Jormun only grew faster as it raced to leave the light, and almost as soon as Xaphan was done pulling himself free of Leon’s soul realm, it was stepping out into the ruined chamber where it was no longer obscured by bright white light.
It was tall—taller even than Xaphan, standing at perhaps seventeen or eighteen feet tall. It was broad shouldered, rather masculine in shape, though most of its physical features were obscured completely by a long white robe. Its head was, in turn, obscured by a loose white hood that had been clearly enchanted to hide its face, for nothing could be seen beneath that hood save for a pair of wrathful glowing white eyes.
Perhaps most startling of all, however, was the pair of wings that proudly sprouted from its back, its feathers as pristinely white as if it were an ethereal thing that had never been touched by the profanities of mortal life, while grasped in its right, white-gloved hand was a truly immense blade large enough that it could easily be wielded with both hands even by this massive being. The handle looked to be made of platinum and ivory, while the blade was entirely made of sharp, white light.
Leon could tell what this thing was just by looking at it, its staggering and ancient-feeling aura that emanated light magic like it was one of the most radiant stars in the sky only served to add further proof to his conclusion. The Thunderbird had told him of the servants of the Primal Gods before, though she’d also told him that they were no longer around, just like their creators.
Only a second after it emerged from the light to stand just behind Jormun, from deep within his soul realm, Leon heard Nestor whisper the confirmation of his conclusion.
In a voice dripping with awe and fear, Nestor whispered, [An angel…]
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