Lifeblood Chaos [LitRPG Apocalypse]

Ray stared at the bastard. As if it hadn't been enough that he had ruined Ray's plans earlier. As if it wasn't enough that Ray had been forced to rely on nothing but himself, that he had almost given up believing that anyone could be on his side on this Floor.

He was once again back. Once again standing before Ray at the culmination of everything he was hoping to achieve.

Gritty: Just hold on, wingman. We'll—

Her words cut off abruptly. Ray didn't even need to raise his head to see that she and the rest of them were still busy dealing with the Tower Lord's little Sylvan army. They wouldn't be magically coming to his rescue any time soon. He was on his own here.

"Get out," Ray growled. "Before I kill you where you stand."

Pierce didn't even smile. He just shook his head. "Don't be stupid. You couldn't kill a bug in your current condition. You're lucky you got one over the Tower Lord, but let's face it, you're too weak. So unless you want to die, just stand back while things go as they were supposed to from the beginning."

He turned away from Ray. The crowd above and around them were murmuring loudly, getting roused by the turn of events. Possibly even eager to witness the completion of the Tower Lord's original plan even if he was down.

"You idiot," Ray said. "You think that treasure is going to work on someone who can't use Mana?"

Pierce looked down at the prone form of the Tower Lord. For his part, the leader of the Sylvans actually appeared to have lost his anger. Instead, all Ray could read was a deep sense of trepidation.

"That's alright," Pierce said. "I'll just use it myself, then."

Ray stared. "Do you even know what that thing is for?"

"Just contacting a Paragon for the benefit of the Sylvans." He shrugged. "It's no big deal. I think I can spare one Tower Node as long as I get my hands on the others and crush them all."

Ray was having a little trouble thinking through the pain in his chest and hand. The blood loss probably wasn't helping. But he forced his mind to focus. "Why? We've been working together all this time… and all this time, you were just working for the Tower Lord? I could have given you the Tower Nodes after all this was done. I don't get it…"

Pierce just shook his head. He almost looked morose. "You're too drunk on the power the Tower Nodes gives you. You'd never really surrender them. That was clear from the start. You getting to keep even one Tower Node makes this whole exercise pointless."

"And what, you think the Sylvans were just going to happily surrender all the ones they had?"

"Not at all. But they stopped caring about anything not directly related to their goal after the last dungeon. I mean, come on, they didn't even go after you even when you killed their Floor Lord. Once their stupid ritual was done, they wouldn't need most of their Tower Nodes anymore, so I could have obtained them all."

"And you couldn't have done that on my side?"

"You wouldn't have given any of it up, not once you'd seen what they could do. What kind of powers you'd be able to get."

Pierce almost looked sad when he said it, like he really believed, in the depths of his heart, that Ray was incapable of surrendering other Tower Nodes. And there was nothing Ray could have done to convince him otherwise.

It was impossible to fathom what sort of warped thinking had led Pierce to conclude that siding with the Tower Lord would help him achieve his Tower Node killing goals, but that was besides the point. Ray was done wasting time trying to figure out Pierce. The Tower Lord was recovering. The effects of Core Deconstruction would run out soon.

Ray had to end this, fast.

He closed his eyes, gathering his focus and his breath, letting the pain become another part of him.

"Don't even think about it," Pierce said. He had seen what Ray was about to attempt. Although, he looked… strange as he said. Almost guilty in a way. "You're right though, I think. We shouldn't need to rely on the Sylvans for this. We can just… get everything on our own."

It took a few moments for what Pierce meant to sink in. When it did, the Tower Lord renewed his struggles. "You would not dare."

Pierce turned to face the Sylvan still jerking and twisting on the ground. "Wouldn't I?"

Ray's breath caught in his throat. He was once again a little taken aback by Pierce's actions. Once again, it shouldn't matter. Especially not when he was betraying the Tower Lord too. Just one less enemy for Ray to deal with.

The crowd was almost deathly silent now. Ever since Ray had taken down their Tower Lord, they hadn't recovered. It was as though they were waiting with bated breath for the final conclusion.

"You would not dare," the Tower Lord repeated, like it was a mantra that would keep him safe. "You have no idea who you are about to offend. You have no idea where all that you seek truly lies. You are making enemies of—"

"Enough." Pierce raised a foot and placed on it the Sylvan's chest. "You've talked enough. You're forgetting one clear thing." He raised the anchorlike treasure, the Divine Connector, high up in the air. "I have your precious little treasure. You don't. If I took your place and brought down the Paragon instead of you, who do you think everyone would follow instead?"

"No!"

"No fucking way…"

Ray was almost tempted to laugh at how both he and the Tower Node were thinking the same thing. No way was Pierce so deluded that he thought he could call down a Paragon the same way the Sylvans intended to.

"You don't even know the first thing about this whole Paragon-summoning process…" But even as Ray said it, was it really true? Pierce had been aligned with the Sylvans a lot longer than he had originally thought. What was there to say he wouldn't know everything about what they intended, and how they intended to go about it as well?

"No." The Tower Lord's eyes widened as Pierce raised his spear above the Sylvan. "You won't get away with this! Cease immediately, mortal! My followers will kill you. My—argh!"

The spear descended, piercing through the Sylvan's neck. Blood gurgled out of the wound. The Tower Lord's body twitched and jerked some more, but he wasn't even able to reach up and try to pull out Pierce's spear from his neck.

Ray swallowed. Pierce was serious. He looked up next, eyes travelling around the arena.

The crowd was gasping and murmuring loudly. Several were yelling out in outrage, disbelieving that Pierce had actually gone through with his threat. With his second betrayal of the day. But they weren't important. They were still just the audience, passive watchers of a show, not active participants that he had to worry about.

Instead, Ray looked beyond them. Yes. Just as he had thought. The Sylvans were coming. Of course. With their leader down, it was surprising they hadn't come yet already.

But now, they were actually leaving themselves open to being attacked from behind as they rushed desperately to the dying Tower Lord.

A part of Ray was actually tempted to say something stupid like "We're about to get company" or something. But no, he wasn't about to give any warnings to Pierce of all people.

Ray just slipped back. Let Peirce deal with the onrushing Sylvans and Ray—

Whatever he intended, it didn't materialize. The incoming Sylvans were indeed attacked from behind. Mostly by Sameer and Lent. A portal swallowed one of the Sylvans, disappearing him entirely. Lent crushed another with a boulder the size of a house.

Two managed to block or evade most of the attacks to finally reach the dying Tower Lord's location, but it wasn't going to help. Not only was Pierce ready for them, Sameer and Lent were not far behind.

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[Enemy Defeated]

Lifebound Reaver [Tier 6] Sylvan: [Level 71] x1

Essence: +21,300

Knowledge: +3

Mana Restored: +710

Essence to Level 56: 178,300/312,000

Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,569/3,500

Well, the Tower Lord was finally dead. For all that the Sylvans were trying to rush in, they had been far too slow. Ray looked down to see the Tower Lord's body had finally ceased moving. It felt… oddly dissatisfying to not have dealt the final blow himself.

Ray swallowed. This was such a hodgepodge of loyalties. Pierce had messed everything up. It was surprising to see Sameer and Lent working together, considering they had been enemies moments ago. Maybe they had both silently decided to take out the common enemy, though the fact that they had aligned together in such a short time boggled Ray's mind.

"You mongrel!" one of the Sylvans screamed. "You will pay for your transgression!"

Lent landed behind the two Sylvans. For all that they were incensed at Pierce for killing the Tower Lord, they weren't so suicidal as to ignore the one really trying to kill them.

Ray caught Sameer's look. There was the same kind chaos reflected in his eyes that was rolling though Ray too. Except, one thing was pretty clear.

This chaos was what Ray needed to take advantage of.

As the confrontation between the Sylvans and Pierce's group got underway, Ray cast Resurrect Recollect to bring up a sneaky little Scouring Eyeball. Coating it immediately with Mimic Mana made sure it remained out of sight.

Things had deteriorated pretty quickly between the Sylvans and Pierce's group. They had tried to attack, but Lent had moved in quickly despite his massive bulk.

Ray didn't note the fighting that went on. The quick exchange of powers between the Sylvans and Pierce and Lent, the way things exploded and flashed, the way the ground tore up and everything moved at a blindingly incredible pace, none of it concerned him. He just had to keep an eye on Pierce. More importantly, he had to keep an eye on that treasure.

Because Pierce was starting to activate it.

"This feeling…" Pierce said. He looked down at the way his hands were changing. "Ugh, I hate this so much. But it can't be helped."

Ray shivered as a dense pressure started landing on them all. A heaviness settled on the area, pressing down on everyone. It reminded him of the moment the Spirespine had come alive on the Second Floor. Was Pierce going to transform into that kind of monstrosity?

He had definitely started looking like he was about to. His skin had started bubbling, his limbs lengthening and undergoing strange, body-horror-esque levels of change.

Ray swallowed down his disgust. He had to act. He had to stop this before it got worse.

Once again, he caught Sameer's eye. In the midst of the furor between Sameer, Lent and the surviving Sylvans, they somehow still exchanged a nervous glance.

Ray focused on the invisible Scouring Eyeball. As soon as he got the construct close enough, he could stop Pierce. Charging at him directly wasn't going to help. Not when he was in pitch-perfect condition.

"You really think I didn't sense your stupid little summons?" Pierce asked. His voice had changed, turning weirdly mellow. Almost soothing. A teacher dealing with a young student. "I'll kill it."

Ray had figured it would be sensed. After all, just making it invisible hadn't been enough in the dungeon either. It had been sensed back then too.

"You don't get it," Ray said.

"Don't I?" Pierce proved his point by stabbing his spear through what looked like thin air, only for the flying eyeball construct to appear at the end, pierced right through. Just to make sure of things, he launched his spear and it went flying several dozen feet away. "I understand your intentions perfectly. Now go teleport away."

Ray shook his head. Then summoned up a grin as he used Temporal Passage. His instant motion took him right in front of Pierce. Idiot had forgotten it wasn't just directly to his spells that Ray could teleport to, but also to anywhere his spells had been in the last minute.

"Sorry." Ray grabbed the treasure. "This belongs to—oof."

An appendage of flesh and bone burst free from Pierce's chest and punched right into Ray's chest wound. He bit down on his scream as he went flying.

Pierce might have been too surprised to act, but the fucking Paragon taking him over wasn't.

"I told you," Pierce gloated while Ray hadn't even landed on his ass. "You can't stop me."

But Ray never landed. Not yet. Because he disappeared through a portal helpfully called up by Sameer.

At any other point in time, Ray would have been highly concerned by that. Disappearing through one of Sameer's rents to who knew where would have set his heart pummelling in his chest with the very real fear that he might end up in some godforsaken dimension with no way of returning.

Well, that would have been his initial panic before he tried using Temporal Passage to go back, which was probably why Sameer had never bothered to try it anyway.

But right then, the jump through the portal was what brought success. A second portal had popped up, just a foot behind where Pierce was standing.

As Ray disappeared through the first portal, he emerged at the exact same moment through the second.

Right where he needed to be to reach out and grab the treasure.

"What—"

It was surprising even for the stupid fucking Paragon inhabiting Pierce.

This time, Ray immediately used Temporal Passage. He disappeared all the way back to where Pierce had sent his still-alive Scouring Eyeball impaled through the spear. With the treasure in tow.

"It won't help you," Peirce shouted. "I've already got the Paragon coming. You can already see it, can't you? So why even bother?"

It was honestly a small miracle that Ray had been able to successfully pull away the treasure from Pierce's grip. Distant came the realization he had never fully tested what happened when he tried to use Temporal Passage while holding something that someone else was also holding. What about something that was locked in place with something even bigger?

Questions that vanished as soon as they appeared, because Ray had to focus on his current situation. On stopping the transformation that Pierce was undergoing.

The battle was growing furious around them. Lent and the Sylvans were tearing everything apart. Had Sameer been drawn into the fray too? There were a lot of noises, of screams and yells, none of which Ray could pay attention to.

All because he was forced to concentrate on the treasure in his hand, on the sudden link between him and the anchorlike item he held.

The Tower Node of the Marauder appeared almost as though it had a will of its own. Ray focused on it, on extending the connection to incorporate the Tower Node as well.

"What the hell are you trying?" Pierce asked. His eyes flashed after seeing the Tower Node appear beside Ray. "Whatever it is, it's not going to work, you dumbass."

Ray just shook his head as the connection expanded. A strange, floaty feeling started expanding outwards from within him. "I don't understand you people always saying something isn't going to work or is going to fail or whatever. Can't you ever just shut up and see if it works or not?"

If Pierce replied to that, Ray didn't hear it. His ears were filled with an incredible rushing noise like a waterfall pounding straight against his eardrums.

Remember, Ray thought in his head, trying to see if he could feel the Marauder's presence. Remember what you're supposed to do. What we're all supposed to do…

Pierce was definitely not standing still while Ray tried his best to use the treasure and summon the Marauder. He yelled out, and a shockwave of power erupted with him as the centre point. The ground ruptured, rocks went flying everywhere, and the fighting around them was interrupted as the others went sailing back.

Even Ray was almost thrown off his feet. The only thing that kept him grounded was the Paragon slowly taking form in the real world.

"You will not stop me," Pierce yelled, his voice discordant and almost a bestial roar now as he continued transforming. "You will not win against me!"

"Yeah? Think again."

The Marauder was done manifesting. His form glimmered around Ray once again in those thousands of little blocks that made him up.

It was a heady, almost panicky feeling, as though Ray was mid-air above a sheer drop standing on nothing but a thin tightrope. One wrong move, and he'd fall into a depth he wouldn't be able to pull himself out of.

"Fear not," the Marauder said in Ray's head. His words were many-voiced, just like Pierce's. Ray had to wonder if his actual voice had become fragmented like that too. "The Paragon has failed to find a proper root in the likes of a mere human."

"Is that why… we're so… disconnected?" Ray couldn't find the proper words. "Because I'm a mere human?"

"Correct. You have undergone nothing of the true procedures needed. This Divine Connector you obtained only grants you the ability to call down a Paragon. To truly host one, you'd need far more. Which the Tower Lord had… but you killed him, so."

It was odd to have a mental conversation at a blinding speed in their current situation. Especially since it took barely seconds.

"Are you ready for the end?" the Marauder asked.

Ray considered how best to answer. It wasn't a matter of waiting. The strange connection they shared… the concept of the passage of time wasn't as pronounced.

And he waited because the question sounded final. Like this was the end of… whatever he had with the Marauder.

"I'm ready to win," Ray said.

There was the sensation of the Marauder nodding as though he had expected nothing less from Ray. And then he flashed forward and struck Pierce.

Pierce screamed. The flesh that had been transforming and bubbling all over him now ruptured and ripped off him. Ray didn't take his eyes off the sight, no matter how gruesome it was. Still. For all the fighting he had done, for all the violence he had visited on others, it was absolutely a sight to see someone get more or less skinned alive to the bone in some places.

The scream grew to an ethereal shriek. A howling that transcended any and all of them. And then it was over. Nothing but two men surrounded by dust.

Above them, wisps of violent colour rose higher and higher into the air and slowly dispersed. The last of the Paragons.

And then, it was just the two of them standing there. Ray and Pierce. Or what remained of them. For even if Ray hadn't tried to get possessed by a Paragon, he still had summoned one, had acted as the anchor for the Marauder. It had taken a chunk out of him, worsening his wounds significantly.

Honestly, the fact that he was still standing, still conscious, said a lot.

Pierce fell to one knee. "What in… what did you do…?"

"You can't tell?" It was hard for Ray to talk too, but he was determined to end this once and for all. "You should never mess with stuff you don't understand."

"I knew… the risks. I—"

"You dismissed the power of Tower Nodes. Blinded by your fear, you never realized how to make proper use of them. I did. And that's why, I got to stop you."

Pierce glared at Ray. He tried to say something, but all he managed was to do was cough out blood.

"Sorry, but I'm done." Ray raised the one arm of his that still worked. "Goodbye."

A quick cast of Aetheric Trace brought out a draconic head as it always did. And then he blasted Pierce with a flaming laser right in his chest.