Ch 27: Revenant of the Black Inferno

The Professor has revealed that Alastor and Altera Veritas act separately of the will of the Dark God within them. Now knowing he does not face a mere puppet, Grey holds nothing back. Will he prevail?

            Swinging his blades vertically in the air before him, Grey unleashed shining waves of light energy at the Professor. Sidestepping his energy waves, the Professor channeled EDE into his hand and began firing balls of blue fire at Grey, starting to move backwards out of Grey’s range. Grey charged after him, dodging his attacks as fireballs exploded behind him in blasts of blue flame. As Grey started catching up, the Professor raised a hand as though willing something to rise, and a wall of blue flames erupted between the two. Driven back by both surprise and the sheer heat, as Grey composed himself, the Professor shouted, “I wouldn’t touch it if I were you! I doubt even an energist of your caliber will survive my unholy flames…” Sensing an attack coming, Grey leaped out of the way as a torrent of blue fire shot through the wall of blue flames. Stepping through the hole in the wall of flames, with his rapier in one hand and crackling blue flames in the other, the Professor said, “Weren’t you going to hit me with all you’ve got, Grey? I’m waiting…” As he struggled to his feet, Grey quickly chanted, “Ego Voco Vos, Aqua Acies!” Blue runes raced across Grey’s blades, and with a smile the Professor said, “Rune Swordsmanship, eh? Very well…” Now the Professor began chanting, “Ego Voco Vos…” Grey’s eyes widened as the Professor finished, “…Fulmen Acies!” Yellow runes raced across the Professor’s rapier, and it began to crackle with lightning. Seeing Grey’s stunned face, the Professor laughed quietly and said, “Though Alexander himself is the one who originally developed it, I’m afraid the two of you are not the only users of Rune Swordsmanship! I dabble in it a little myself…” Pointing his rapier, he unleashed a stream of lightning at Grey, and Grey’s reaction was too slow. Gritting his teeth in agony as his body was electrified, Grey thought to himself, “D****t! This guy, he could be a problem!”

            With every ounce of will, Grey muttered, “Cesso, Validus Terra Obex!” Managing to hold one of his blades so that its tip pointed at the ground, Grey dropped it, and as the tip struck the stone street of the square, he quickly shouted, “Iacio!” Erupting from the ground, stone walls came up around Grey, interrupting the stream of lightning and sealing Grey within a shell of stone. Lowering his lightning rapier, the Professor said, “Not bad. Certainly not the best way to escape my attack though. You’ve basically trapped yourself.” Within the shell of stone, Grey quickly formulated a plan and began chanting, “Geminus Cesso, Pluvia Eversio, Vultus Lux.” Grabbing his other blade off the ground, he stabbed it forcefully through the stone street and chanted, “Geminus Secundus Cesso, Septimo Spiritus Ignis.” Using his remaining sword, he slashed at the ceiling of the shell until it cracked open, and leaping up on top of the broken shell, he pointed his sword at the Professor and shouted “Iacio!” White runes formed on his blade and arrows of light shot forth from his sword’s tip at the Professor, who leaped into the air over the wave of projectiles and swung his blade down at Grey. Grey leaped away as the Professor came down with his weapon, barely evading the lightning charged strike and quickly shouting, “Secundus Iacio” As a red rune circle formed beneath the broken shell he now stood upon, the Professor’s eyes went wide as he thought, “Blast, I’d forgotten! He’s a twin blade user!” A mighty explosion engulfed him and the shell, reducing everything in the circle’s radius to ruin. Yet certain this was not over, Grey chanted, “Cesso, Pluvia Eversio, Vultus Lux.” As he’d expected, stepping through the smoke and flames came the Professor. His clothes looking somewhat scorched, his glasses crooked, he had a stern look on his face. Grey quickly pointed his blade at him and shouted, “Iacio!” Arrows of light shot forth once more, but the Professor raised his rapier and chanted, “Velo Eternus Nox!” A dark hexagon wall formed before him, and the arrows of light impacted it and exploded harmlessly. 

Straightening his glasses, the Professor called out, “Not bad, but I’d say you still need to learn some new tricks. Creating new spells is a hobby of mine, as I am somewhat of an inventor you know. My Anima Weapon also has the ability to enhance the strength of my spells. Let me show you my favorite creation…” Raising his rapier at Grey, he chanted, “Certamen Fluctus Ignis Quod Telum Fulmen!” A pair of rune circles, one red and one yellow, formed and combined in front of him. A swirling wave of fire and lightning shot from it towards Grey, who hurled himself aside just in time, the wave tearing onward and striking the wall of the dark shell around the square with a thunderous and fiery explosion. Pointing his rapier at Grey once more, the Professor chanted, “Excipio Inmicus, Carcer Furibundis Ignis!” Upon the ground where Grey was struggling onto his hands and knees, a red rune circle formed, and in the blink of an eye all around him were walls of fire. Frowning, the Professor called out, “This is subpar compared to what I expected from He of the Infinite. Can you really do nothing without your friends beside you?” As he got to his feet, the Professor’s words rang through Grey’s ears, and he thought to himself, “Is he right? Am I too weak to face him alone?” Suddenly, Amy’s voice rang through his head, and he could not recall where he had heard it. “Grey’s heart is his power, a power you’ll never have!” Grey thought to himself, “My heart?” Now Alexander’s voice rang through his mind, “It’s just like you, charging forward no matter what stands in your way.” Then he heard Scott’s voice say, “If I had to guess, I think it’s because he knows he’s always got us with him if things get tough.” Grey smiled, thinking, “That’s right! I have to go forward, no matter what stands in my way! You’re all here with me, counting on me!” As Mythra’s voice rang out, “Besides… we’re all friends after all, right?” His confidence restored, he said out loud, “I’m not alone! My friends are all here in my heart, and we’re gonna kick his a*s!” Suddenly feeling as though there was a great power waiting to be released from within him, words came to Grey’s mind and he spoke them without realizing, saying, “Void Energy, Level 1!”

            Raising his rapier’s blade at Grey yet again, the Professor paused as he suddenly sensed a massive amount of energy coming from Grey. Suddenly the walls of fire disappeared as Grey swung his sword through them, and the Professor thought to himself, “Hmm? What’s this now? He swept my fire away like nothing. This EDE I’m sensing, it’s different from regular gathering of EDE. It’s like… Void Energy?! Yes, it’s just as I theorized! He’s generating EDE from within his own body that is controlled separately from his gathered EDE! That means in addition to having 100% of the gathered EDE he can control normally, he gains an additional amount of power limited only by his skill in using the ability itself! A formidable power up indeed…” Realizing he had to end things quickly, The Professor chanted, “Certamen Fluctus Ignis Quod Telum Fulmen!” The wave of fire and lightning shot forth again, but with a determined look on his face Grey charged straight at it, raising his sword before him as it shined with strange light. The blade and the wave collided, and the wave seemed to evaporate as it struck. As Grey tore through his attack like it was nothing, the Professor looked on in disbelief, thinking, “What the…?! EDE Dissipation as well?! He mastered his Infinite Abilities in such a short amount of time?!” As Grey approached, The Professor quickly raised a hand to summon a wall of blue fire between them and backed away as he started chanting, “Certamen Quod Nisi Vestri Pius Vires…” Calling his other sword to him with telekinesis from where he’d left it stuck in the street, Grey cut through the wall just as The Professor finished chanting, “…Super Totus Pro Vos, Valde Vinco Mico!” Multiple yellow circles appeared and combined, and as Grey rushed at him, The Professor raised his sword and an enormous ball of entwined lightning bolts fired forth at Grey. Tearing through the lightning ball with EDE Dissipation, as it disappeared, Grey closed in and struck at the Professor with powerful force. Blocking with his rapier, as even his weapon’s enchantment was erased, the Professor laughed and said, “So you truly are He of the Infinite!” Glaring at him, Grey muttered, “Shut up and fight!” Raining strikes at the Professor, this time it was Grey who gained ground steadily, as unlike before the Professor found himself at a grave disadvantage. Barely blocking another blow, the Professor thought, “What’s going on here?! He’s nothing like the unskilled child he was before!” At last Grey disarmed him with a powerful parry. Leaping back out of the way as Grey slashed at him, the Professor said, “Truly, I have gravely underestimated you Infinite One! However, do not think you’ve won just yet!”

            His aura becoming darker and more powerful, the Professor raised his hands and summoned up streams of blue fire that raced towards Grey. Sensing Corrupted EDE, Grey did not again attempt his EDE Dissipation, leaping to the side instead. Rushing toward Grey with lightning speed as he struggled up, the Professor struck out with flaming fists. His blow struck the side of Grey’s face, and dropping his blades as he was knocked to the ground, Grey could feel the painful burn on his cheek as he struggled up. Grey had no time to recover his blades as the Professor closed in again, and blocking the Professor’s blows with his arms, they were soon deadlocked in unarmed combat. Striking and blocking again and again, Grey finally landed a powerful EDE charged blow to the Professor’s face, and with a powerful roundhouse kick he knocked him flying back. Calling his blades to him with telekinesis, Grey took hold of them as the Professor quickly jumped back to his feet. Extending his arms forward, the Professor started firing blue fireballs at him. Running in a circle around the Professor as fireballs exploded behind him, Grey raised a sword and returned fire with a beam of light energy. Leaping aside as the beam tore through the air at him, the Professor rolled across the stone street, and coming out on one knee he looked over at his rapier. Closing the distance between them with great speed, Grey swung with his blades and the Professor quickly dodged and ducked, and breaking away from Grey he dashed quickly to his rapier. In hot pursuit, Grey was stopped again by a wall of blue flames, and leaping back he fired spheres of light energy through the wall of flames. Grabbing his rapier on the other side of the flame wall, the Professor turned and charged the blade with EDE to deflect Grey’s energy spheres. Pointing his hand at the wall of flames, the Professor fired a torrent of blue flames through the wall. Already expecting this, Grey calmly stepped aside. Rushing out the hole in the wall of flames, the Professor chanted, “Ego Voco Vos, Fulmen Acies!” Pointing his rapier at Grey as he rushed towards him, he fired a bolt of lightning at Grey, but raising a sword, Grey used his EDE Dissipation once again and the attack evaporated. Grey blocked the Professor as he struck with his rapier, and as the runes on the rapier vanished once again, the Professor muttered in frustration, “Damn EDE Dissipation!” Smirking, Grey replied, “Yeah, life’s a b***h ain’t it?!”

With great force, Grey shoved the Professor’s blade aside and fired a thrust kick into his gut, sending him sailing backwards. As the Professor came to land on his back, Grey shouted, “Is this all a Revenant is made of Professor?!” Raising a sword, Grey fired another beam of light energy at the Professor, who flipped backwards off the ground onto his feet, narrowly getting out of harm’s way. Raising his rapier, the Professor shouted, “You want to see my best?! Try this!” Furiously, he chanted, “Tripudio Quinque Gladius Nox Subvertio Hostes Hostium!” Leaping high into the air, Grey’s swords became swords of shining light as he chanted, “Ego Voco Vos, Lux Acies!” The Professor pointed his rapier upward at Grey in the air, and from the black rune circle that formed from the tip of the blade came five swords of darkness. Then, the Professor transformed them into swords of Corrupted EDE as he chanted, “Additio Corruptio!” As his five corrupted swords raced forth one after another, the Professor shouted, “DIE!” Without fear, Grey came down and met the swords of corruption, deflecting four with his light swords and using a powerful EDE charged kick to send the final one flying away from him. The Professor raised his rapier to block as Grey brought his swords down on him, but against Grey’s might, his rapier shattered and Grey’s blades slashed into the Professor, drawing two long wounds into his chest. Staggering back, eyes wide, the Professor choked, “Ab… surd…” The Professor’s swords of corruption came back around and sped towards Grey from behind, and sensing them coming, Grey leaped out of the way as they sailed straight into the Professor, impaling him. Staring at the Professor, struck by his own attack, Grey said with a solemn look, “This is the end for you Professor…”

            Sinking to his knees, the Professor broke into quiet, strained laughter. The corrupted blades vanished as their master’s life faded. Staring at Grey, he choked, “I see… This is why he fears you so… Be warned Grey… I am but one of his Revenants…” Falling over on his side, the Professor muttered, “Forgive me… brother… I only wanted… you to live… free…” As he watched the Professor’s eyes close for the last time, Grey wondered to himself about the brother spoken of in his final words. Suddenly a dark mist flooded out of the Professor, and on his guard, Grey watched as a dark vortex opened and the mist disappeared into it. Quietly, Grey muttered, “The Nameless One…” Then he heard loud cracking noises all around him, and as Grey looked for the source of the sound, he could see the barrier around the square was breaking apart. As it shattered, the shards of the barrier evaporated as they fell towards him. Looking down the street where he’d last seen his friends, he could see them rushing towards him, Scott shouting, “Grey! Are you alright?! Where’s the Professor?” A wave of relief washed over Grey as he thought, “Good, they’re alright.” His blades evaporating, Grey let out an exhausted sigh as the others reached him and said, “I’m ok, it’s over.” Noticing the Colonel, he added, “Richter? What are you doing here?” Richter simply replied, “Don’t worry about it.” Then seeing the Professor’s body, he added, “My, my, if it isn’t Professor Vincent Marcellus…” Walking over to the Professor’s body, he continued, “If he was a member of Altera Veritas, it brings up some rather disturbing implications. Could they have infiltrated the Special Forces as well, or even the Council?” In a serious tone, Serius said, “Indeed. It’s quite possible.” Grey suddenly felt a sting of pain as someone touched the burn on his face, and exclaimed, “Ow!” He turned to see Mythra staring at the burn on his face as she said, “I thought that looked rather painful. Let me heal it for you.” Quite aware of the burns and bruises he’d suffered in the fight against the Professor, Grey said, “Oh I’m alright. I have a regeneration ability, it’ll heal in a bit.” Pouting, Mythra replied, “Humph, fine then! I can see I’m not needed!” Grey quickly stammered, “N-no that’s not what I meant…” With a giggle, Mythra replied, “Relax silly! Just let me heal it. You don’t have to act so tough.” Scott, coming up next to him, put a hand on Grey’s shoulder and said, “Yeah, you should let us help you out when you need it! Not that you aren’t tough enough by yourself from the look of things! You got the job done without any help from us at all!” With a quiet laugh, Grey shook his head and smiled as he said, “No Scott, it’s thanks to all of you that I was able to find the power within me.” As the others smiled back at him, he raised a hand before him and clenched it into a fist for emphasis as he said, “This is our victory!”

            Within his citadel, Alastor stood alone in the dimly lit meeting room, staring out the windows at the ruins that lay in the great wasteland outside. Turning away, he thought to himself, “I see, you’ve gotten stronger Mr. Greyson. I knew the Professor could not defeat you though. I simply sent him to his death in order to deliver a message, and he has served his purpose.” As the door to the meeting room suddenly opened, Alastor turned to see a woman with dark skin and silver hair that was short on the right side and long on the left, the left side braided and hanging over the front of her shoulder. She looked in her early twenties, and had a black leather headband strapped across her forehead with a short, ornamental red horn attached to it. Her clothes consisted of a black long sleeve shirt with gold designs and a crescent moon made of silver metal stitched onto chest, black pants, and black boots with golden designs as well. A long black overskirt that was open in the front was affixed to her waist with a red and gold leather harness. She stared at Alastor with her deep yellow eyes, and as she approached, she bowed before him and said, “Sir, I assume you already know, but the Professor has fallen in battle against the Black Knight.” Turning his gaze away from her, Alastor closed his eyes and said, “Yes I already know, thank you. I believe the time for calling him the Black Knight is over. He is our enemy. Grey of the Infinite.” 

After a moment, the woman said, “May I ask you something sir?” Opening his eyes again, Alastor turned to look at her and said, “Yes, what is it?” Staring back at him, the woman said, “The way you speak, it sounds as though you no longer seek to acquire him, but simply to destroy him.” Walking back to look out the window, Alastor replied, “Yes. Although it will make things more complicated, there are other paths to pursue in breaking the Master Seal. It was created using the power of Deus Amictus and my brother’s knowledge of the original seal, and the direct way to unseal it would be through the proper key incantation accompanied by EDE from the new He of the Infinite. However there is another, happy little accident that I had overlooked until recently.” Alastor smiled faintly as he continued, “Our young hero has a twin sister. Though I doubt she was granted the same power entitled to one born as the Herald of Origin’s Will, she was still born his twin. She should suffice. Her location is unknown at the time, though I’m certain she is somewhere in the world of Gaia. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to move much of our operation across worlds right now, much less begin the Merge. For now, we’ll have to depend on Grave and his impeccable tracking skills.” As he turned to the woman again, Alastor said, “I need to have a word with that sister of yours. Also, I would like you to arrange another meeting.” Obediently, the woman said, “Yes sir.” Suddenly Alastor’s eyes went wide and he went rigid, and for a moment he seemed to struggle against an invisible force. Staring at him in shock, the woman said, “Sir?! You’ve been pushing yourself again, haven’t you?! If you do not rest, you will not have the strength to control him!” Seeming to recover from his sudden episode, Alastor breathed heavily for a moment before regaining his composure. Turning to leave, Alastor said, “I know Giselle. However I must ensure that all I’ve done isn’t for naught…”

Reviews

[Ryan Henderson]

Wow! Amazing chapter as always! Your fight scenes are exhilarating and believable, but they have sort of an anime feel to them. I think that I have mentioned this before. Anyway I loved the battle between the professor and Grey, it was truly a contest! I also loved how after the battle Mythra offered to heal Grey but acted offended when he refused. When Grey stammered to explain that he didn't mean to offend her she giggled and it felt like she was satisfied with herself. I think that she likes teasing Grey...

This book is better than most PUBLISHED books that I have read, and I have read a LOT of published books. By far my favorite character from your book is Mythra (obviously) and I will probably NEVER stop loving her! Haha!

If you EVER even THINK of killing Mythra... Man I would freaking die.

Awesome job, keep writing!

[KeithKVH]

xD Ty for the review. To tell the truth, the end of this story will get darker than the slightly lighter middle of it. Not to say I've decided on any character deaths, but as far as Mythra's case I think I've already decided against it. I can do dark, but I think it wouldn't be right in this case. She has a lot going on in Vol 4 and beyond.

[Ryan Henderson]

SHE LIVES UNTIL VOL 4 IM SO HAPPEH! Mythra for the win!