Bro, I'm not an Undead!

1425  Finish It (1)

The Permanent Haven shattered right then.

Unlike the shards of the world Jiggorrhax had attempted to create, which were still floating about, the Haven's pieces turned into streams pure life energy that went on to form Asthon's body. His Crown and star did not retain their glow. Instead, they kept flickering, sometimes bright, sometimes dull.

The guardian beasts which had been in Asthon's Haven floated around him, watching the chaos that was about to unfold.

"Watch closely. How all beasts evolve will be up to you and how much you manage to glean from this," he told them, but his mind and magical faculties were being employed elsewhere. The Paradon Parody statue was left to his care. Grim couldn't fight and protect it at the same time.

Thus, Asthon applied every single concealing and protection spell and skill he knew on it, and just in time too, because when the turbulence began, it didn't stop. It only ramped up further in violence and absurdity.

His small eyes watched. His Crown flickered, mirroring his dark thoughts – his predictions.

If everything didn't go as planned, he might have to…

It started with the Chronocle Fiend, its face still a canvas of absentmindedness.

One of its longer, human-like arms reached into the void and grabbed another cord of time. Instead of striking it with a spear, however, it yanked on it hard and twisted. The great void thrummed as though some gargantuan monstrosity even larger and stronger than the Chronocle Fiend was snaking its way through it. But that wasn't it.

The darkness around whirled and then, without warning, throbbing pulses of light and heat blasted from above the Chronocle Fiend. They shot down, dozens of times swifter than light. They were great rocks searing with different kinds of flame, aimed towards the enemies beneath the Fiend. They numbered in the thousands.

This phenomenon was a meteor shower from a few dozen Consternals ago pulled to the present by the Chronocle Fiend!

Grim grinned.

One of the rocks caught him before he could react, but with Granted Restoration, he effectively had multiple lives. Besides, the attack that came for him didn't kill him. He healed his blasted, flaming side while taking flight towards one of the Impermanence Fiends instead of big daddy time.

Three of the Impermanence Fiends now looked like trolls, with ugly margins and marks to their dark red skin and fat limbs; three others like black, slim elves; and the rest like humans with multiple, misshapen limbs and eyes.

'This should be fun!' Grim thought and as he shot upwards, he was engulfed in a flash of light. He willed Paradon Parody to change his form, and it did. Suddenly, Grim was a giant serpent, pristine white and layered with thick vapours and flakes of deep cold. He streaked towards a Fiend that looked like a troll.

It noticed him and Grim watched as it drew back and turned less detailed, as though it had hidden behind some obscure glass. He almost laughed.

"You think I can't see you?" he cried with a serpentine voice amidst the downpour of hellish fiery masses. Grim embodied death too now, and couldn't be fooled by its primary techniques.

In a blink, his maw had opened and he ripped off the Fiend's shoulder as he blasted past, freezing a great portion of it at the same time. The Fiend shrieked in agony and its details came back to focus. But Grim coiled behind it, and assumed a human shape again. Three of fingers were already propped, pointing at the Fiend's back. @@novelbin@@

His eyes flashed a brilliant red and the Stark Constellation on his forehead sparked furiously.

"Nos Aggrante!" The blinding flash was horrific for the Fiend. It was engulfed by the detonation and the light while screeching horribly. It didn't help that some of the flying rocks bashed into it mercilessly simultaneously.

Jiggorrhax had been watching Grim while dodging the obstacles.

'So that's how you do it,' he thought and spots of fire lit up behind his humanoid shape, firing; they acted as propelling flames.

They made him a string of light, fast, clear and thin. He was hard to perceive. Jiggorrhax crashed into the oncoming rocks and overwhelmed them. He was targeting another one of the Impermanence Fiends – one that looked like a crafty, skinny elf. Unlike the one that Grim attacked, this one didn't see him coming. He had used the shower as cover.

Before he reached it, attacking from its flank, he was cast in a brilliant light, and then he was no longer a humanoid dragon. He was a stag of harsh fire, perhaps the greatest kind Aigas had to offer. His horns were blinding, sharp prongs, erect and lethal. With his momentum, he stabbed them into the enemy and they detonated at once!

The eruption was ungodly. It didn't kill the Fiend, but it hurt like death. Flames blazed from its back, roasting its strange flesh. It shrieked inhumanely and wore a dark, atrocious face of hate and fury. With one of its hands, the only one that remained after most of its torso was blasted to high hell, torn and glowing with the heat, it grabbed Jiggorrhax's neck.

Two other Fiends rushed to the aid of their partner. They turned invisible to the dragon as they approached. Jiggorrhax immediately changed back to his humanoid form and his hand blurred, whacking away the grip of the Fiend he had charged into. His arms left after-images as they formed intricate shapes, as though they were rapidly painting on an invisible canvas. By the time his palm poured into the Impermanence Fiend's chest in a deafening blast, the creature didn't realise what was going on at all. It was sent flying right into one of the falling meteors at shattering speed!

As it fell, screeching, it couldn't help but agonise…

Why was that creature unaffected by its deathly touch? It didn't make any sense!

Jiggorrhax didn't have time to pat himself on the back. A cruel blow landed on his jaw sending him streaking into one of the meteors himself. The enemy that attacked him… he couldn't see them, but that didn't deter him. His hand blurred and with a powerful Form Using technique, he blasted the meteor apart, sending millions of small flaming fragments flying everywhere.

The dragon, like his younger sibling, Jerthrax had multiple Classes.

Jiggorrhax was a Warrior (a Form Using Class), an Arch-Mage, a Summoner, a Swordsman, Assassin, Priest, Mind Caster, Tamer, Diviner and Archer. He also had multiple golden cores with great volumes of mana, which, when paired with his Mage Class were used with terrifying efficiency.

'Grim did something to ensure that I wouldn't die to the Impermanence Fiends with a simple touch. Hm. With my newly enhanced physical attributes – because of that Tier – as well as my fire, I can harm the Fiends, but I need to be able to see them,' he thought. He knew another blow was coming for him, but he couldn't see it still.

But then, he spotted one of the Fruit Bearers below him, healed from whatever had caused them to scatter into pieces by the Chronocle Fiend. They had thrown up a giant, brass ring towards him.

'Huh?' the dragon was puzzled.

But then a huge cold, white serpent came streaking from behind the Fruit Bearer and right when it went through the ring, its speed was augmented by a degree that Jiggorrhax failed to perceive. The Herald only heard something akin to two great explosions behind him.

He turned, but couldn't see anything other than the speeding white shadow of the serpent crashing into showers of meteors great distances away. It was unbelievably fast!

Jiggorrhax couldn't perceive it, but two Impermanence Fiends had had their sides and shoulders chewed through by Grim.

The brass ring that Grim had gone through was a Realm rank Treasure that multiplied the speed of anyone who passed through it by an exponential of 2!

He kept up the momentum in his snake form and charged towards the Chronocle Fiend. He dodged as many of the meteors as he could, returned to his human form and used Granted Warp!

He was above the Chronocle Fiend in a flash, so close to one of the spears revolving over its shell!

But… something was wrong. There was something about being close to the Fiend, sharing the atmosphere it created around it… It was unnerving.

The Fiend's gigantic eye scrolled to Grim. He paled and in an instant, he used Granted Warp. But he wasn't fast enough. He managed to teleport himself away but…

'What the…!' Grim thought as he looked at his arm (the new one, unshielded by the Granted Armament). It looked… younger.

No. Grim was younger. He was 10 years younger!

He grew ashen.

But then the space around him groaned. A terrifying force fell on everyone and everything with all the wrath in the void!

Everything above Aigas was caught in a bubble of frozen time, stalled and still!