LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 142: Whispers of the Past
The Plaza lit up in the glow of divine flames as torrents of silver and orange fire flowed out of Lyze and his blades, his power roaring to life in one final song as he felt his soul become even more strained with the amount of life force he had to sacrifice to return his flames to the intensity he needed. Kneeling down on the ground, he stilled as dust and debris began to orbit around him while the earth shook beneath his feet.
With one mighty leap, he shot straight up into the sky, cracking the paving of the plaza beneath him, flying all the way up Babel's length as he fixated his eyes on the monster in the distance, eyes narrowed as his ascent began to come to a still before he jetted off the direction of his opponent with a sound like thunder as he left sonic rings in his wake while breaking the sound barrier, a pressure field held up in front of him as he flew close to Typhon.
In one last bid, the monster released all the divine energy it had stored up in a giant beam attack which was headed in the direction of the city, intent on levelling it and ending the age of adventurers once and for all. Lyze flew headfirst into the beam with his blades held up in front of him as he tanked the blast head on, becoming the shield and obstacle between it and Orario. The Blades of Chaos heated up and responded with just as much heat as the blast dispersed around Lyze and reality around him quivered as it was seared with the intensity of divine energy.
Lyze grit his teeth as he bore the pain of taking the brunt of the blast attack before he pushed onwards, flying through the beam and splitting through it as he flung out the blades. They lodged into the upper jaw of the monster and quickly, Lyze flew downwards while yanking on the chain, clamping the monsters mouth shut as it flailed about, the blast attack stuck inside its head as its skull began to glow. The Blade of Olympus began to react to all the divine energy suddenly freely given and stuck inside the monster's head, and as per its abilities, it began to absorb all the divine energy as its entire length began crackling with electricity.
Lyze flew up to the monster's head, dodging the swiping arm as he did so, and grabbed onto the blade's hilt. The sword heated up and burned his hands as it became supercharged with more divine energy than he was currently fit to handle as his body still continued to devolve to his mortal state even if slowed down by his last trump card. Ignoring the pain, he focused on the blade and ordered it to absorb all divine energy from within Typhon.
The Blade of Olympus began glowing with bright fierceness as it heeded his command and it began siphoning out all the divine energy inside the beast as Typhon in alarm felt all the power it had stolen being sucked away into the sword. It thrashed about as it violently smacked its own face and scrabbled at it, trying the peel the boy off in any way and stop him from completing the job.
Lyze held fast and his fingers tightened around the hilt even as it burned him more in tandem with the more divine energy it absorbed. Typhon, though powerful and unique, was still an earthly creature at the mercy of a divine weapon. Within short time, the monster's soul had lost nearly all the power it had gained and Lyze saw its skin begin to shrivel and its muscles grow smaller as the Blade began to even drain the life out of the monster too.
Realizing that the divine weapon was also ripping away the monster's soul, Lyze began to panic as he remembered that the souls of his comrades were at risk too. With one powerful yank, he ripped the Blade out of Typhon's forehead, making the monster roar as it swayed about in place.
Lyze held the blade as it began to vibrate and then shake in his hands, his arms and elbows jolting as it jerked from side to side as the amount of power inside the Blade became too much for him to behold. Finally, Lyze could not bear the pain, nor did he have the strength and capacity to hold it anymore and he let the blade go.
The divine weapon floated into the sky as it became covered in a blue aura of power, shining brightly like a new sun in the sky before it angled to the East and shot off into the horizon, disappearing into the distance, incidentally in the same direction that the mysterious blue lightning bolt had come from as Lyze noted. But the Blade's departure left the boy feeling very hollow and vulnerable for a moment. Because before that blade became what it was, it used to be his Excalibur.
And now his Holy Sword was gone...to where, who knew? He would be left to go find it once he sorted this monster out.
Typhon screeched as it swung out, slapping Lyze away a little before it quickly charged up one last beam attack with the little power it had left. The blast smashed into the boy but with not nearly enough power as before. It did propel him further away from the monster though and push him into the sky as it seemed like the Desecration wanted to blast him into orbit. But not on Lyze's watch.
With one final use of {Overdraft}, the boy's body lit up with silver fire as he himself flew off and away from both the beam and Typhon. The monster closed its mouth as it stopped its attack, wondering where Lyze was going.
The boy cared not for this as he clenched a fist and his body broke several more speed barriers and came close to lightspeed, the atmosphere warping around him as glades, mountains, oceans passed by under him as in nearly a single instant, he flew around the whole planet in burst of divine energy. Upon completing the loop, he flew up behind Typhon as the monster turned to greet him with one last scream of defiance before Lyze slammed his fist into its chest. Typhon's body billowed before the 2000 foot monster exploded into dust.
The black ash of its demise painted the iced peaks of the Beol mountains black, and a village that had been nestled further inwards into the mountain range suddenly had their day turn into night as a cloud of monster dust descended upon them. For miles around, Typhon's ash blanketed the area much like the demise of the Behemoth many years earlier whose death created the black desert. Upon the destruction of its body, the monster's soul was released and absorbed into Lyze as he reclaimed the souls of his friends while also taking time to painfully and purposefully devouring the monster's spirit at a slow pace, all the while jeering and leering at the last remnants of the monster's conscious before it was snuffed out forever.
All the citizens of Orario saw as giant black cloud of ash rise and fall in the distance as the skies above cleared of the storm clouds and the bright blue sky returned once again.
---
The Loki Familia hung their heads low over the bodies of their fallen as they dwelt in silence. The sounds of war on the surface reached them through the hole that Lyze created. Drained of will, strength and power, they could do nothing but hang their heads in silence and in mourning over those that they'd lost and just how much of a disaster this had all turned out to be. What had been an expedition that was going so well had become a nightmarish disaster.
They'd been so proud, so sure of their success even with all the irregularities that fate had decided to give them a smack across the face and remind them just how much at its mercy they all were. Nekros stood by and let them ruminate, already knowing well how this would turn out, and considering it only a matter of time before things were put right. And as he sensed the death of the monster, he smiled up at the hole in the ceiling.
Finn caught sight of this and followed his gaze before he drew in a sharp breath, the noise catching the attention of his Familia members who also looked towards where his gaze was poised. Moments later they too suffered their own bouts of shock and relief.
Floating down out of the hole in the ceiling was their prodigy, bathed in the warm glow of his power as he descended and floated towards them. But there was something off. Floating around him were strange wispy orbs of sorts that followed where he floated, of different colours and different sizes and clasped in his hands was the one that glowed brightest, a lovely golden colour.
As his feet touched the ground, he roamed his eyes over the astonished faces of all who looked upon him and offered a warm smile. He then fixated on the many corpses around him and gestured with a hand. The adventurers suddenly felt the bodies of their fallen friends being pulled out of their grasps and embraces by an invisible force, as the bodies all floated towards where the boy was standing. Noir who was holding onto Ais looked between the golden orb in Lyze's hand and the still girl. A look of realization came over his face and he voluntarily held the girl's body up as she too began levitating towards the Lastborne.
The bodies of his friends came to rest around him on the ground and the orbs floating around him began to disperse as they each came to rest atop a particular person. It was then that everyone realized that there was the exact same number of orbs around Lyze as there were bodies that had just been collected. The colours also seemed to match a certain scheme as well. The orbs that shone mostly with green colours came to rest atop the elves. Those with more of a red and crimson tinge rested above dwarves and beastmen and then the more brighter colours floated over the Amazons. The generic and mixed boring colours came to rest above the humans but the golden coloured orb in Lyze's hand stayed where it was as Ais's body floated in front of him.
When all the bodies were assembled with their respective orbs in place, Lyze's aura flared once more but not in the fierce sort of way where he was rearing for battle...but like a gentle hum and an augmentation of the brightness around him as wispy bundles of his silver energy began to seep into the corpses. The adventurers watched as the wounds on their comrades began to close up, and colour returned to their faces as they began to glow with life, ripples of Origin energy running throughout their bodies as the boy restored their life-force by cutting away at his own.
Then the orbs descended into the chests of the bodies and assimilated as the earthly vessels regained their immortal souls. They stilled for a moment before fingers and ears started to twitch, and then eyelids flickered as groans emerged from their lips. And then, people thought to be dead began to sit up or began turning their heads around as they tried to figure out where the were, who they were and all kinds of other things amnesiac people would say.
The living adventurers couldn't believe their eyes as this miracle took place and they looked over at Lyze who was still cupping the golden coloured soul in his hands. A large portion of his aura was being absorbed into Ais's body as she glowed with practically the same aura as he while he gazed upon her face with an unreadable expression. There was a deep fondness in his eyes as tears appeared in them, and it seemed that though he was restoring animation to everyone else, he could not register anything and anyone else but the girl in front of him.
Then gingerly, with his own hands, he placed Ais's soul back into her body. A moment passed before Ais's Ariel activated and her body was covered in the aura of her green winds as the draughts blew further life into everyone else as they snapped out of their daze. Then the green winds began to change colour as Lyze sensed something inside the girl. He frowned as from within the girl's soul, something called out to him, something reached for him and beckoned him to come see. Intrigued and alarmed by this, Lyze allowed himself to be drawn in, fully trusting whatever Ais was doing to him even if involuntarily.
His mind's eye came upon the inscriptions upon her soul as the hieroglyphs of her Falna burned into his brain. And upon gazing at her status did he make eye contact with the very thing that was calling him.
{Lionors}
A new skill of hers he'd never heard of or seen before that sang out his name...
...except it wasn't his name that was being called.
Not his birth name in this world, or the one his mother had given him in his previous life, nor the new divine name he'd taken for himself. Nor any name he knew he'd been given at all. It was then he realized the connection; before Typhon had appeared, he'd noticed some kind of link to his soul that'd he'd been trying to follow to find the other end but had been distracted. Now the other end was this very skill in the girl's Falna, that didn't seemed to take anything from him but only wished a connection.
Confused, he investigated further by following the link back into himself to see exactly what part of him was connected. There he entered into his own soul, into the very make-up of his being in which was stored all the information about him, about everything he'd ever done, everything he'd ever been, and all the countless memories that came along with said achievements. Wading through his days as Lyzof Keele, he frowned as he saw that the link delved even further back than he realized, and he entered upon the lost identity of Alexander Turner, his previous incarnation.
On and on he went, following the connection as it pierced right through the memories of his old life, going right up to the day he'd opened his eyes on the day of his birth in that world...and became astonished as somehow the connection went even beyond that.
Whatever this thread was between him and Ais, its influence went further back even before his time as Alex, the little British school kid who had nothing better going for him than being a fitness freak and proving to everyone else how strong he was. But the implication of that would be that his life as Alex had not been his first life...he'd had a life before that as he now realized.
Carefully, he stepped further back in in time, before Alex's birth and came upon a wall, a part of his soul that was closed off from him. It had been so tightly sealed and secure and hidden that he'd never have even known it was there had he not followed this mysterious connection. Why was this piece of his history closed off to him? As his mental fingers brushed against this wall, he felt a familiar presence, and his eyes widened as he recognised the flow of power coming from behind this wall.
It was the true resting place of Chaos. It was this part of his soul in which the entity had taken up residence and had been living in, and was now calling to him as he began to step past this wall.
As he did so, he was suddenly flooded by a lifetime's worth of memories, more than his lives as Alex and Lyze combined as decades fell upon him, each carrying a key defining moment that were the anchor points of the character of whoever this first incarnation of his once was.
...
...the cold stone walls of a great castle...
...the haggard face of a bearded man dressed in the robes of a great lord...
...the haughty face of an older boy bearing the armour of a newly minted and appointed knight atop a well-bred steed...
...a wizened old man with a long beard in a shroud staring down at him with a twinkle in his eye...
...a sword stuck in a stone...
...a nation of warriors kneeling to him...
...a beautiful woman standing at a marriage altar with him yet one he'd come to mutually hate...
...a powerful enchantress who'd been dear to him but had betrayed and ruined him...
...the heavy weight of a great crown upon his head as he rode upon a great steed out to meet ungodly hordes with his armies behind him...
...but most importantly, a young girl in his court, the daughter of an earl, a golden haired and fair-faced beauty who captured his heart and stole his breath...
...and that same girl who bore him the one child he loved, a singular happiness in the darkness that his life came to be...
...there was none he loved more than her, none who'd been as faithful and dear to him as her...
...Lionors...
...
The boy's eyes rolled back as he collapsed backwards on to his back, the last vestiges of his power finally spluttering out as his aura died down and he became lost in the abyss of a dreamless sleep. Ais's body lowered to the ground and stayed there for a moment before she stirred and opened her eyes to the world once more as people immediately gathered around the two children.
The adventurers began crying and rejoicing at the return of their fallen friends, and many tears, kisses and hugs were shared between friends as they welcomed their family back home. The executives gathered around the unconscious boy as they gently lifted his limp battered body and looked him over. Gareth whistled.
"Well would you look at that?" The dwarf said as he examined Lyze's new appearance. "How are we going to explain this to him when he gets up?"
"If he gets up." Riveria said before she stared up at the tall man who was just staring down at them. "What's happened to him?"
"No need to worry." Nekros smiled as he gestured to the boy. "Let him rest, regain his strength...for as long as he needs...because when he wakes up...his world will be a different place."
---
(A Few Days Later)
"Right here goddess." A man garbed in a blacksmith's outfit said to the woman in the carriage. "We found them."
Hephaestus looked at her child before poking her head out of the window.
"Are you certain?" She asked.
"Well it can't be any other." The man said as he scratched his head.
"Why have you not brought them to me then?" She asked as she looked at the ground, which was covered in dark ash.
"That's the thing...we tried." The man said in a strained voice. "As soon as Bard touched them though, his hands were nearly roasted off his wrists. We're trying to fix him up with healing potions now as we speak."
The smithing goddess kissed her teeth before she looked down at the ash covered ground, the remains of the abomination from the great battle some days before...an altercation the tales of which was now passing from mouth to mouth across the world as a new legend was beginning to take root in the annals of history.
"Is it safe for me to walk?" She asked the smith.
"It's not toxic." He said as he looked down at the ash. "But if you are going to get out, I wouldn't recommend it."
"I have to." Hephaestus said as she opened the door. "I need to get those things."
"Ma'am, with all due respect..." The smith said. "...a level 4 nearly lost his hands to that fire...I don't think its a good idea for you to try."
"I should've considered the possibility before I sent you to retrieve it, Egor." Hephaestus said as she stepped out, her boots sinking into inches of monster ash. "Those flames are by no means ordinary. Only I can touch the weapons...besides the one who owns them of course..."
"And that would be because?" Egor urged.
"No business you should concern yourself with." She said as she wrapped her cloak around her body to shield against the cold winds coming down from the mountains.
"You don't think the Loki Familia is going to throw a fuss about this?"
"Loki will understand why I'm undertaking this." Hephaestus said as she began walking away. "After all...that boy now has an eternal smith contract with me...whether he likes it or not."
The goddess trudged through the ash plains that were shadowed by what was now coming to be known as the Halved Peak, the mountain split by the body of the Desecration upon its descent to earth. Orario was abuzz with the tale. She walked over to a group of her children that were clustered around something in the ground. Pushing through them as they split to let her through, she came upon one of her children who was rubbing his still charred hands in healing potions. There were already several empty bottles by his side.
"You okay Bard?" She asked him.
"Those fires are real nasty." Bard answered with a wince. "I only just touched them for a literal second and this is what they did to me. One second more and I think I wouldn't have hands."
"I didn't think they'd be that temperamental...though I suppose that it does match the character of the one who wields them." She said before she stepped past him to observe the topic of conversation...or topics.
Two bastard blades stuck in the ground, though covered in soot, made from the combination of the most powerful metals in the lower realm, augmented by divine fire. Hephaestus sensed the presence of the familiar flames, her Olympian blood tingling as she reached down for thems. As her hands closed around the hilts, the blades came alive with searing hot fire. The heat alone burnt the cheeks of the adventurers standing near her, but no damage was done to her as the blades seemed to register who she was.
The flames died down with a low raspy moan as the Blades of Chaos quieted down in her hands. Separated from their master, she was the only other person they recognized as eligible to touch them, courtesy of the fragment of the Flame of Olympus residing in them. As the respective smithing goddess of that particular pantheon, she was free to handle the weapons of all Olympians, and Olympus itself had given her permission to handle these.
Hephaestus held the blades as if she were holding a baby, funnily enough, and as she stroked the edge of the blades with a finger, she smiled to herself as one word came to her lips.
"Kratos..."
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END OF VOLUME 2
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