Alexander Bladeheart pov
I clenched my teeth, suppressing the agony I felt as my body ripped itself apart and reformed around my bones, My Asuran Armour melding with the scales growing from my shredded flesh, shrouding me in black and white scales with armour plates covering my limbs.
Spines grew from my elbows, horns from my head, bones snapped and grew back longer, muscles tore and melted reforming to be stronger, larger, more monstrous. This didn't feel like when I fought Cadell.
Frustration, anxiety, doubt, and fear—all of those emotions faded as a shroud of crimson lightning crackled around me. I let myself sink deeper into the cold embrace of my Will's. The feeling reminded me of when I met Boreas. He had that lofty, detached air around him as if he wasn't a part of the universe, but above it. I know why.
Stasis surged through me, weaving its celestial energy into my body, I could see the runes spreading connecting with each other around my body. I felt calloused, numb as the power from Bahamut's will flowed freely. It was an intoxicating feeling.
I didn't feel human, I felt like a demi-god. I felt the concern from my bond leak into me but brushed his concerns away. There's no way to win unless we use everything. Brandishing my blades, a smile that didn't reach my ears rose on my face.
I rocketed down like a comet slashing with all my strength, splintering the ground; my blades stopped mere inches from his throat, blocked by a wall of blackened spikes.
His eyes widened in shock, his pale skin turned a shade lighter, I pushed harder into his defence, the spikes snapped one after the other with each heartbeat.
"What's the matter, Vritra... Scared of a lesser? Oh, how your clan has fallen~." I ridiculed the Vritra, pushing him to his knees under the weight of my body. In my shadow, he was but a frightened Cornsnake.
"Lesser Scum!" he roared, a nova of decay mana black as space burst from him, erasing the fractured ground beneath us; I held steadfast, unmoving in the attack as Aether clung to my skin like a haze while stasis ate away at his spell, replenishing my mana core with his mana.
I yanked my blades back to sever his head but felt nothing as he wisped away into the shadows. My body screamed at me to move, and I did, as I Thunder Stepped backwards, moving before my body's reflexes caught up with its instincts.
The mana moved before the attack came, a swarm of ashen tentacles burst from the earth around me, intertwining into a net before bearing down on me. But I was ready.
"Aegis Auroras," the words fell from my mouth with a smile, Aether and Stasis solidified around my scales like a second skin. I stood tall staring down the Vritra dead in the eyes as he watched his spell be devoured by my own.
"You said try harder, correct? The Stonemason is going to have a laugh carving your tombstone," I mocked, an aetheric tone echoing my words. Veins bulged on his forehead in a clear frustration and rage.
An inferno of soulfire enveloped my body in onyx flames. I felt thousands of metal spikes in the wind hurtling towards me.
With a thought, torrents of white fire flooded out of my skin tinged in the pearlescent hue of Stasis. Frostfire extinguished his fire, shattering the spikes in the path before I launched them back at the false god.
His body disappeared like Thanatos had, shrapnel passed through the mist harmlessly, a blackened cloud surrounded me, I watched as his body shifted almost too fast to track in the haze, Almost too fast.
Tightening my grip on my swords, I strengthened my body till my bones creaked at the force. The way I saw the clump of mana he was in this haze, the speed at which I observed him, appearing slow as Aether and Stasis infused thunder surged through me.
"You think this will save you? Dodge this." I lowered my stance, filling my swords with mana till they couldn't contain the seething winds within.
"Deus Interfectorum!" The earth shattered underfoot with a silent crack, my body a blur of crimson bolts far surpassing the speed of sound. With each swing, the haze spilt, with strike thunder raged and snow screamed.
A howl of pain escaped from his mouth, the haze blew away dashing back clutching his arm then he hurtling into the sky, his lost blood trailing his path in the air.
"Zeph, clip his wings." as I spoke the words I watched his form silhouetted within a stormcloud emerge, decaying lightning tore out of his maw slamming into the Vritra.
I kicked off the ground ready to strike the Vritra down, but something about zephyr's attack felt different. Almost... Aetheric.
Then it dawned on me, I opened my mind sharing the feeling of Storm soul's embrace, I felt the power flow through my bond I could feel Strom soul slowly awakening in him. With a thought, chains of ice burst from the ground, binding the Vritra to the ground and anchoring him.
'I can't hold him for too long so give him hell Zeph!' I sent with a chuckle as I focused on the aether, willing it into the chains tinging purple with an aroura that drained his mana.
My black lightning shifted crimson striking down like an avalanche, the Vritra yelled out in pain desperately trying to shield himself from the column of thunder.
"Oh no, you fucking don't!" I snapped, forcing stasis into the chains. My core lurched as I nearly drained every last drop of Stasis in my core. My arms numbed and my mind foggy, the spell Shattered the instant I lost concentration.
Then I fell to one knee.
Letting loose a snowstorm for cover, I grit my teeth dodging before I let the pain cross my mind, a searing pain raked across my abdomen where I had been moments before; I spun on my heel, lept back, and melted into the snowstorm using Phantom's Shroud, the spell felt as simple as breathing.
"Arrogant mutt, weak and timid just like every other lesser. You cower in snow and illusions, dishonouring your new blood," he snarled, looking around inside the snowstorm, his crimson eyes passing right over me.
"Says the Vritra shitheel who hid in my shadow. Yeah, you're real honourable. Do you think I wanna hear that bullshit honour talk from a person who was experimenting on the lessers they were tasked to watch over?" I spat venomously, motes of aether fluttered to my wound; I felt my flesh regenerate and sew itself back together as scales re-hardened over my wound.
"Enough of your mockery, Mutt. You're a dead man walking. You will not be so brave once we carve your flesh and learn your secrets," he seethed, blades of void light blazing into existence in his hands.
"We'll see about that, but for now. Let's Dance!," I yelled. Raising my greatsword completely enveloped in a thundering aura, I launched Balmung. Aether heeded my call, moulding around the blade that I shot like a bullet.
My opponent, his legs bound in chains, chose to block my attack. Rows of black spikes lit aflame in that hellfire capable of eating away at even light and aether, erupted from the ground in front of him.
But the sword tinged purple mowed through the rows of black spikes like they were made of butter. A torrent of aetheric lightning exploded out of my blade, shattering the spikes and leaving the Vritra's body ragged and covered in his blood.
Before he could react, I Thunder Stepped forward. Tempestarii exploded out of its sheath in a crescent trailed by a violent torrent of water.
Before he felt the pain his face twisted in disbelief, his gaze focused on his arm cleaved clean from the shoulder.
He let loose a howl of pain while clutching what was left of his severed arm. Even then, he dared to launch another attack at me.
A smirk rose from my lips as I took a step into the air. With control of spatium, the motes of aether in my shield rippled and folded around me. The wave of soulfire emerged on the other side of me, not even making contact with my scales.
He only managed to widen his eyes in shock before I grabbed him by the throat. Aether converged around the stub of his right arm where his hellfire was currently regenerating the lost limb.
Under my influence, however, the black fire turned purple devouring him.
"You know, for a being that's closest to the God's, you sure are an embarrassment," I mocked, my voice tinged with an ethereal timbre. "You know, though. Performance issues are pretty common; three out of ten."
He bit his lower lip harder, stifling a scream.
With blood streaming down the corner of his mouth, the Vritra scoffed at me. "I'll show you who's an embarrassment to the God's!" He regenerated his arm in an instant, a sword made of void light formed in his hands without a flaw in their instant construction.
I jumped back narrowly dodging a plume of soulfire, dashed back towards him and crashed into him.
Black and purple sparks flew as aether impacted against his soulfire-sheathed weapons. I slashed and stabbed, but each furious blow was deflected. A dozen new wounds opened up across his body, but they hardly mattered.
Then I was hurtling away in the air.
The tip of the void-black weapon periced through my shoulder carrying me with it. Ten feet, twenty, fifty, a hundred, until I slammed high against the shield walls that protected me from the fight raging outside.
But the sword continued to expand, growing through me. My shield and Armour peeled away as the blade grew wider, ripping a hole in my shoulder.
A shadow loomed over me.
Zephyr's wings gave way to hurricanes, Blue runes spreading over his massive scaled body, his tail lashing out and into the Vritra's chest like a whip. With a snap, the Vritra's body slammed into the earth.
I hit the ground on my ankle, toppling over myself.
Zephyr floated above me protectively, and I could see his clash with him, holding off another attack with a blast of Storm magic.
'Get back up! I can't hold him off for long like this.' His voice was a siren in my head. 'Get a hold of yourself.'
I spit up a mouthful of blackened blood, I ripped the blade out of my shoulder, snapping it in half the blade evaporated as the mana fell apart. My body devoured the poison in my blood and the Aether; the hole in my shoulder slowly grew back together, bones fusing, muscles regrowing, the whole process of destruction and repair once more.
Finally, I was able to lift my sword, taking a heavy breath. 'That fucking hurt, shoulda put more into defence.' I cursed mentally
I shot up to my feet clear headed but still angered. I continued to draw in mana from the atmosphere, slowly adjusting to the mental burden of my blessing as I drew more mana into me than I could do with my core alone.
'Just buy me a couple seconds,' I sent as I sensed the amount of stasis used in the barrier. This whole area Boreas made for my trail was like the inside of the shell over my core and that gave me an advantage against any asura that wasn't a Storm Dragon.
My body can process Storm magic.
Every last drop of mana that coursed through my veins became Storm magic. My runes glowed brighter as Storm magic flowed out of me with each passing instant, slowly replacing the atmospheric mana I drew in.
White flames erupted from Zephyr's jaws as a shower of void-black spikes swarmed like a flock of crows, spinning and darting around the flames, but not fast enough.
I leaped into the sky, stasis flowing to my hands as I released the energy I devoured from him before. A blinding flare engulfed the black bolts and everything behind them.
Suddenly I was lightheaded, my vision darkening. I stabbed a claw into my leg. Jolted awake, I barely avoided blacking out from overexertion.
Mana fluctuations rippled in the air all around me, and I knew what was coming.
Pushing ourselves away with a compressed blast of wind, we narrowly dodged a series of sudden combustions in the air.
Zephyr shifted back into a human in an instant. We barely managed to dance away, dodging as soulfire bloomed in the air like plumes of ash.
'Zephyr, air support.' I sent mentally, rushing down the Vritra. Extending an arm, I recalled Balmung to my hand, in a fluid swipe, pillars of crimson thunder bolted from my blade.
Black metal spikes burst out of the ground between us. My sword swept cleanly through them, but it gave him time to step back and bring up his own sword. "You'll be my offering to the High Sovereign," he spat.
"At least treat me to dinner before using me as an object," I quipped, hurtling forward and unleashing a flurry of cuts and jabs, pressing him further back. He tried to fly up into the air, but tendrils of Storm magic burst into existence around me, dragging him back.
Our magic was on the same level, but I can fight for longer.
Driving Tempestarii into his ribs, I tried to slash sideways and cut him in half, but his hands closed around my arm, holding me there.
Our eyes locked, and I took in the snide, cruel expression that seemed permanently affixed to his pale gray face. His chin jutted out proudly between the serrated horns that curled around his head. But the air of absolute confidence he had was long gone.
He was worried.
And he was afraid.
It was only natural.
I twisted my sword rending organ and muscle. immediately letting go of Tempestarii I grabbed his horn, jerked down, and Slammed my knee into his skull. He staggered backwards, tripping over his feet as blood poured from his shattered nose and mouth.
Grabbing his horns, I pull my knee back for another blow, But he broke free of my grasp throwing himself off balance in the process. He grabbed Tempestarii's hilt, ripping the blade from his body.
His hand snapped away from the handle in pain as mana was ripped from him forcibly into my sword. Thunder Stepping forward, I planted my heel in front of him swinging with all my might, but he ducked below my sword, avoiding death by a hair. But not the dishonour he felt.
Two cleaved-off horns flew into my grasp as I held his onyx horns in my hand just long enough for him to see.
His eyes went wide as a shuttering breath heaved from his lungs, his hand felt at the smooth stumps of his horns in disbelief.
I noticed the shadow almost too late.
Thunder Stepping away several times, a dozen spikes magnitudes of times the size of my body would have killed me, I watched from above as, instead, it crashed into the scarred earth, dragging him down into a huge crater.
Cracks snaked out from the crater, running beneath collapsed stands and making the entire ruined town shift and tremble. Somewhere, metal sheared and wood snapped, and a chasm opened splitting the ruins in two.
Something shifted in the shadows as I caught myself along the edge of one of the hundreds of black spikes sticking up from the floor. A monolithic serpent, a basilisk slithered out.
Obsidian black scales gleamed abysmally, just below the stumps of two horns his crimson eyes bore down on me with tangible malice.
The shadows around him twisted and bit at the air like flames. "Enough." His voice grated like teeth shearing through bone. "I swear on my name, Androxus Vritra. I'll kill you!"
The black fire began to boil out of him. His corrupted magic spilled like burning tar into what was left of the town devouring everything in his wake, tendrils of soulfire bared down on me from the skies.
Welp, there goes my escape plan.
As the flood of hellfire was almost on us, Balmung vibrated in my hand with a sharpened rage. But this wasn't my magic I felt in the blade.
I felt a consciousness stir in my mind one that wasn't mine or Zephyrs. It felt old and noble. Looking at the blade, I could swear to Boreas I saw another person in its polished blade.
"Where's Bahamu- no, this isn't the time. Swing me." A refined voice boomed inside my skull, A smile rose on my face as Aether and mana flooded the sword, compressing hundreds of layers of mana in a instant.
The old man had a sentient weapon.
Zephyr shifted to his human form standing beside me; he poured storm mana into my core giving me what he could spare before I drained my core to near depletion into my sword. "Ragnarok!" I bellowed unleashing the attack without hesitation.
A nova of pure lightning exploded from Balmung, dwarfing the ocean of decay mana. The bolts chained between each mote of soulfire, destroying them utterly before spreading to the next. Webs of crimson lightning chained in the aftermath like shattered glass.
"It doesn't matter how many more tricks you pull out, lesser!" Androxus roared as his shadowy, serpentine form neared.
My grip tightened around the thunder-clad sword and a shared sense of a cold, emotionless void wiped my senses clear of anything other than Androxus.
I took it all in, his long serpentine body flickering like obsidian, his poisoned fangs, the aura of soulfire wrapped around him like wings.
'Calm yourself, open your mind to me. Once again like I had with Bahamut, I shall water the land with their blood and cleave them in twine.' Balmung's words echoed in my mind as I felt the path I would take before I even breathed.
'Zephyr get back, This will get... messy' I sent while flourishing Balmung, I felt him prodding my mind, learning from my mastery of the Bladestorm style, combining Bahamut's and His swordsmanship into one.
Androxus unleashed his arsenal of spells with reckless abandon—a hailstorm of towering black metal, a maelstrom of void light, an inferno of soulfire—but it was useless.
The Thundering sword in my hand arced in jagged flames as my body blurred. Concise, wasteless movements carried behind the small openings carved out by my new sword.
Arcs of violet tore through every spell launched out by the Vritra, and his gleaming red eyes widened in fear more each time.
Ignoring the icy grip around my core, I let Thunder Step carry me right in front of his hulking visage. I raised my sword over my head, Starlight blooming in a blaze of purple and teal.
His ghoulish black aura crossed in front of him, wreathed in soulfire, columns of black metal moulding into shields.
The blade came down, passing through the black spikes as if they were nothing but mist. I struck him with the full force of my chimeric body, flooding every muscle with every ounce of Mana I had left.
He was crushed to the ground, and a shockwave rippled outward from us, razing the Three-hundred-foot-tall spike that jutted up just behind him.
Androxus flailed in agony, the wind knocked from his lungs. Heaving violently he faded into a shadow, hundreds if not tens of thousands of golems made of blood iron emerged from the earth.
"That's gotta take a lot of mana. Too bad you can't replenish it anymore," my voice boomed as the last iota of atmospheric mana became storm magic. I could feel his intent, his pain, his anger, his fear.
"You may be able to resist my blood and all poisons because of your mana, But Storm magic Is like poison for anyone not of our blood. You must have heard about it, haven't you?" My voice boomed as this entire barrier became my domain.
I floated down to the ground, the dust and mana floating away from me, like a crowd splitting to make way for the passing of a God. Silently, I raised Balmung up, pointing the tip of his blade at the swarm of golems.
This sight and situation reminded me of an ancient trial of the Storm Clan, a rite of passing marking when one became a true warrior. With my body as it is now, I'm sure I could do it, something that was impossible while I was human.
Storm magic permeated my very being, the gaps between every cell, the nerves of my body, organs, muscles, skin, teeth, nails, claws, and scales. I let my body gorge itself on the mana, hungrily burning the magic as it grew fiercer.
Scales lost their sleekness, becoming more jagged and angular, more akin to forged armour. My horns curled and grew longer, becoming more noble and angular. Small spines grew from my forearms in line with the ones on my elbow.
Before long, I felt them burst from my back, my shadow growing larger as they spread and I felt the cool air on their scales.
"In the face of an army, if you wish to be a true warrior, fight honourably. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, Fight in the form of the first Lord Tempest." I spoke the line Bahamut told me ages ago.
"Well it's not exactly a half dragon but it'll do." I chuckled as the wings on my back beat, propelling me to the army. Frozen winds bellowed from my wings, blood-iron soldiers creaked and craned with each step.
My movements flowed like a dance, weaving between their lines. I slashed and stabbed, cleaving the golems in two with each step. My attacks snapped out like a whip and flowed into the next strike, one after the other.
A brute of a golem rushed forward with a giant Warhammer in hand, creating a depression on the ground with each mana-infused step. it swung its blackened steel hammer that seemed to pulsate.
I dug my heels into the ground, directing a burst of mana from my core through my arm and into my fist while keeping a steady flow throughout the rest of my body to keep myself balanced.
My bare fist collided with the face of the hammer, creating a shockwave that ripped through the air.
The golems nearby were demolished, slammed by the kinetic energy while the hammer was gone without a trace.
All around me, the golems scrambled chaotically, one came from my left, hefting a huge sword surrounded by a sharp torrent of soulfire, but I sidestepped the unwieldy weapon easily, its cutting aura not even tickling me.
As the blade struck the ground, I snapped out a forward kick against the flat edge. There was a snap of metal as the serrated blade tore free from its handle.
At that moment, I grabbed the snapped blade and cleaved it in two with it.
Spinning, I dodged a crackling blast of soulfire that left a trail of shattered earth in its path.
With another series of mana bursts channelled through my body, I Thunder Stepped past the caster golem, my draconic arm ripping a hole through its stomach.
I held the body and spun, using it as a shield to catch a series of spikes that flew toward me. I felt that body shake as the spikes impacted, then he went still in my grip.
Just then as I felt at the absolute peak of my strength - I coughed my backend blood, I felt my insides churning like they were ripping themselves apart.
As I stood on my last few minutes of Tyrant's Awakening, I regained my footing, moulding my very will into the elements.
With a wave of my arms, massive tendrils of aetheric thunder arced out of me solidifying into spears. Then, I flicked my wrist.
They rained down like a meteor shower as ravines formed in the earth, scaring the entire area with ravines. Soon, it was a frozen hellscape of ice and lightning thick with a fog of earth and metal.
With a breath the dust cleared, a massive clump of blackened mana hid between the cracks of a ravine. Thrusting a fist into the shadow, I pulled with all my might, ripping him out of the gorge, a plume of poison spewed from his mouth like a miasma.
I inhaled deeply, taking the poison into my lungs I felt the hydra part of me digesting the otherworldly toxins, rejuvenating me on the normally lethal substance.
"Balmung, lets end this." I breathed out, barely holding my body together as I poured more soulfire and aether into my body, repairing the damage as my body slowly started reverting to normal.
"With pleasure." He spoke aloud, making the Vritra recoil back in fear. "That voice! It's YOU!" He snapped as I watched the silver blade dye itself with the hues of aether and stasis is siphoned from me.
"Ah, you're one of Agrona's assassins aren't you?" he chuckled lowly before he showed me the path to attack him, the very same ones he and Grandpa Bahamut used to kill thousands of Vritra.
As the creeping sensation of my body reaching its breaking point neared, I Thunder Stepped a dozen times in an instant.
Twisting my body mid-air, Sound magic ready to burst as it flowed through my leg, I drop kicked like a missile. Androxus's body slammed into the wall of the Barrier, collapsing over itself like a ragdoll.
I reappeared instantly in front of him, running along his coiling body as he desperately tried to take in mana, only poisoning himself further with the abundant Storm magic.
'Balmung, this may sting a bit.' I smirked, planting my foot and cleaving his tail in two as he struck me.
"Your light is like the morning sun. Grant me the divine winds that carry your wrath, for I shall smite those who gather thine ire. Praise the Lord, my God Boreas be his name for he is upon us to smite the heretic, Aroura Borealis!" I chanted, swinging Balmung down.
Shades of green, blue, white, red, and violet burst from him like rippling curtains flowing as they erased all they touched.
Androxus's body was flickering with soulfire and the Aroura. He thrashed and writhed desperately, his body flickering in and out of reality, but the light clung to him, the rage of mana he outputted as he burned his life away was the only thing keeping him from being consumed.
The Vritra's face was pale as he shivered, and the shadows clinging to him melted away as he returned to his normal form. His crimson eyes filled with dread.
As I looked down on him, I felt all the pride of having killed these false gods could give. "Just die already." I sighed clutching my chest in pain.
The divine light flowing gently around the sentient blade grew even more restless as I thrust forward. It plunged through his chest and burst out of his back, I watched as they engulfed him leaving nothing behind.
"A job well done Alexander," Boreas boomed, lowering the barrier and using it to heal and replenish my mana core.
"J-just give me a minute to lie down, will ya?" I collapsed to the ground as Zephyr sat down next to me with a worried expression on his face.
I let go of the power of Tyrant's Awakening as the backlash hit me as I groaned out, "Boreas, you're an asshole, you know that?"
A/N- If you didn't see the two jetstream sam references read it again
Also heres a better picture of Balmung incase you forgot