Bro, I'm not an Undead!

1426  Finish It (2)

The Chronocle Fiend was aware of its weaknesses. It had yet to mature into a horror that Deities of Suzamete's calibre would truly be wary of. The fact that she had sent a bunch of mortals to fight it showed just how low she regarded this particular Fiend.

The reason she wasn't too concerned with it was because she knew that unlike Impermanence Fiends, Chronocle Fiends needed to learn efficiency to survive. Without that skill, they would simply use themselves up without bringing anything of consequence about.

The hesitation the Fiend had earlier was based on its knowledge that it was terrible at efficiently applying its time-abilities, especially on stronger mortal beings. It couldn't even isolate individuals with its attacks yet.

But now, it couldn't afford to care. In truth, it had been startled by Grim's invasion of its personal dome of time, where it was strongest, where it didn't need to pull on cords of time from the void as a means to activate attacks. That shouldn't have been possible… unless grim held a power that made him resistant to weaker forces of time – a strange protection.

And of course, Grim did. He had the Granted Star Armament which employed Null Life Essence in abilities like Tranquil Instance, which Grim had active. If Grim hadn't had that ability, he would have been rewound to nothing just by being in the Chronocle Fiend's personal dome.

But still, he had been affected. Barely a second in the dome and he had been aged back 10 years. Even if his armour and powers weren't affected because of Null Life, just a few more seconds in there and he would perish. @@novelbin@@

In a panic, the Fiend twisted the cord of time in its hand and cast another one of its abilities: Stall Flow.

It unleashed a fierce control over time to temporarily freeze it in a specified range.

Thus, the meteor shower froze, Asthon and the beasts froze, Jiggorrhax froze.

But the Impermanence Fiends didn't freeze. They held a concept of reality senior to time.

…And since that was the case…

"Las Aggrante!"

The younger Grim too wasn't frozen. He couldn't move as freely because his mastery of death was still laughable at best, but he could point three fingers at the Chronocle Fiend and fire the fastest variant of Aggrante in his arsenal. The shining ray was intense and driven. It pierced through the dome of frozen time on its way to the Chronocle Fiend.

The creature would have counted on its confidence in its personal dome of protection and waited for the ray to be rewound, but it grew cold feet and countered instead. With a third arm, it reached into the void and pulled on a thick cord of time which it drew to block the Aggrante. There was a brilliant shower of sparks as the two forces met and cancelled each other.

Some of the countless tangles of greenish-white that made the Chronocle Fiend vanished and it suddenly looked a little smaller. It released the ability, Stall Flow, and time flowed naturally again.

Grim didn't miss any of this.

Jiggorrhax sent him a message through the network, making an inquiry. Grim responded quickly.

As the Chronocle Fiend reeled, the Impermanence Fiends took the chance to attack. None of the ones Grim and Jiggorrhax attacked had died. It was difficult to kill death, after all. The one Grim bit into first and blasted with Aggrante had restored its strange flesh. It looked livid. They all did.

They were quickly closing in on Jiggorrhax and Grim who drew closer together and floated back-to-back.

Three of the Impermanence Fiends suddenly opened their mouths so wide they could have devoured Feinheath in a single bit, and blackish red liquid torrents spewed in horrifying volumes. They moved swiftly, eager to engulf anything that had had traces of life. It was, after all, Death's Tide.

Grim's pupils constricted. Even for him who had traces of death, it was unlikely that he would escape this unscathed. The concentration of death in that wave was too great.

But even though he knew taking in too much death was a risk, Grim did it anyway.

He immediately changed into his Avhanar form, becoming a great, white wolven head with a ravenous hunger and thirst. He opened his mouth wide as he soared to meet the tide and drank it all greedily!

The Impermanence Fiends were shocked, but that didn't stop the rest of them from rushing to attack him while his back was turned.

Thankfully, Jiggorrhax was up to the challenge.

Just now, when he had spoken to Grim, the Unlimited Star had explained everything.

"It's difficult for me to share this affinity for death with the Paradon. I need to eat more of these Fiends to enhance my proficiency with death and create a new, stable form for using that concept. Even then, I'll only be able to use it for a short time. For the time being, I've ignited a spark of death in you – a small one – making you resistant to short moments of contact with the Fiends. I'll use our link to help you perceive them."

And indeed, he did. While drinking the tide, Grim painted a picture of the locations of each of the Impermanence Fiends for Jiggorrhax in his mind.

The dragon went wild.

He mobilised his mana and, in a blink, from the great void, which met with the Stagnant Space protruding from Aigas, a series of creatures great and small, powerful and weak spewed out in the tens of thousands. They distracted the incoming Fiends for a split of a spit of a microsecond, but that gave the Herald enough of a chance to warp back to his original draconic form, open his maw wide, and unleash a frightening storm of fiery destruction.

Some of the Fiends were caught in it and scorched, but some managed to phase away. Grim told Jiggorrhax where they had gone. The dragon changed into his humanoid form, and then into the stag form. He formed Rule Runes as he charged towards the Fiends, and in another splendid show, he attempted to create a world around himself and the Fiends. It shattered almost immediately, but he had managed to keep them from running further away.

He bounced off the scattered pieces of earth, water and sky and pierced another one of the Fiends with his prongs. The Fiend's torso exploded in a magnificent jet of fire. A sun might have been forming.

Even Jiggorrhax was surprised by how effective assuming this shape and form was.

The Paradon Parody was a cheat unlike any he had ever seen before.

The conclusion Asthon and Grim had come to was simple.

To overcome their limits, beasts had to transcend one of the fundamental rules that applied on them: humanoid beasts had Classes, and non-humanoids had mutations.

The difference between mutations and Classes was that the latter was more effective, in exchange for greater costs in mana, while mutations were less effective, with barely any costs for activation at all.

Most beasts would opt for Classes, since they weren't built like humans – with an innate aptitude for learning to be efficient with their powers given time. And indeed, most non-humanoids had mutations and were usually of low intelligence.

In truth, neither was better than the other. But being able to use the properties of both mutations and Classes would be a boon for beasts who were above a certain threshold.

To overcome the limitation of effectiveness in mutations, they would simply pour their astounding reserves of energies into mutation abilities, ramping up the output outrageously.

Jiggorrhax had been given access to Paradon Parody's properties. It allowed Grim and anyone he willed, to obtain beast properties (as shown by the acquisition by a Tier). They could even cycle through any beast form they pleased; non-humanoid forms gave them access to mutations, and humanoid forms gave them access to Classes.

Jiggorrhax could use his own abilities while in the stag form. He found his fire more unruly and dangerous since it suddenly counted as a mutation rather than a Class ability. Its fire power was greater than he could have imagined possible!

The Impermanence Fiend he had impaled and blasted screeched and failed to find the strength to counter. Its mates did, however. Jiggorrhax felt too great blows strike his body. He changed form in a shower of scorching flames, becoming a humanoid with a scale armour. Fire concentrated in his hands and formed a blazing scimitar that he whipped around like a whip, cutting into the Fiend which had struck him.

It was a special Sword Technique he used.

His opponent had its right hand and abdomen slashed through cleanly, but then its mates were flying over it. One of them opened its mouth wide and spewed out a Death's Tide at Jiggorrhax.

Grim was late in warning the dragon… and Jiggorrhax was drenched in the liquid death.

"RRAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!" He roared in agony. His flesh melted and then it disintegrated without pause. The liquid death was like a fast-acting virus running through the flesh, eating him without mercy. Jiggorrhax tried to heal, but his energies were lost without effecting any sort of healing.

A hiss came right then. A giant serpent used its immense body to crash into the Fiends, sending them flying away from Jiggorrhax.

This chilling form of Grim's was adopted from the humanoid, winged creatures which had been in Hauza's Territory. Asthon had empowered them along with the dragonflies from Azila's Territory using his Permanent Haven, increasing their Tier to over 300. Then they were sacrificed to feed the matrix which allowed Paradon Parody to be formed. And thus, Grim had access to the power of those creatures.

The Unlimited Star wanted very much to worry about Jiggorrhax, but there were more Fiends coming from behind him. He hadn't dealt with the ones whose Death Tide he had devoured.

He spun, assumed his human form and then sent a Nos Aggrante against them. As the Fiends dodged, Grim rushed over to Jiggorrhax and placed his hand on him.

"Granted Restoration!" he commanded… and nothing. One usage of the powerful healing Starmation was used up and it did nothing. Jiggorrhax's body was still being eaten away by the effect of Death's Tide. "Damn it!"

And to make matters worse…

The Chronocle Fiend knocked its spears against one of the cords of time it had pulled from the void.

The time started to get siphoned from all the living beings in the area again!