Each attack she unleashed still carried terrifying power that would have devastated opponents far stronger than the average Fifth Enlightenment Divine. Her arrows split the air, her elemental bursts tore open the land itself and every movement of her body was the refined combat instinct of someone who had fought numerous times.
Any one of those attacks could have wounded, or even killed, a Fifth Enlightenment Divine. But none of it mattered. The humanoid giant was immune to it all. He didn't even bother to dodge. He simply walked through her attacks as though they were nothing more than wind brushing against his armor.
Now Elyonari lay on the ground. Her body was barely recognizable as the serene Verdarite I knew.
Blood soaked the shattered stone beneath her. Her breathing was ragged and shallow. One of her arms was gone entirely, torn away somewhere during the brutal exchange of blows, and one of her legs had been ripped apart so badly that the bone itself had snapped clean through. She could not even move anymore.
The black Divine Presence radiated from his body as he approached her lying helplessly before him. When he eventually reached her, he looked down at her ruined body and laughed.
"It's useless. No matter how powerful your attacks are, they cannot harm me."
Elyonari coughed weakly with blood spilling from the corner of her mouth as she tried to lift her head. The giant crouched slightly so his face was closer to hers.
"I possess the Verdarite Demesne. As long as that authority exists within me, every elemental and natural force you command will be rejected. You are a Verdarite yourself and yet you cannot harm me. Pathetic, isn't it?"
For a moment Elyonari said nothing. The giant then rested his axe over his shoulder.
"Perhaps I should introduce myself properly before you die. My name is Black. Vasreveilder is my creator. He gave me the Verdarite Demesne long ago."
Black's gaze drifted toward the distant sky as though remembering something ancient.
"He told me that one day someone would come for it. A Verdarite would appear eventually and attempt to claim the Demesne. I could not allow that so I trained for thousands of years."
His fingers flexed slightly around the handle of his axe.
"I reached the Fifth Enlightenment through sheer persistence. And as long as my Overwrite exists… I cannot be defeated."
Elyonari coughed again. Her blood splattered onto the stone beneath her as she struggled to stay conscious. Black looked down at her with mild curiosity.
"You are a Verdarite, aren't you? Tell me something. Why do you not even know how to use your own kind's capabilities?"
That single sentence struck me like lightning. Something clicked inside my mind instantly. It was a realization I've been circling around ever since Elyonari became integrated into my system finally snapped into place.
Elyonari's Base Tethers are unknown.
For every race in Spheraphase, Base Tethers defined the natural capabilities inherent to their species. The Aeterium possessed Soul Vision, Body and Soul Reconstruction and Limitless as their fundamental abilities. Those were their natural foundations they were born with before even touching the deeper layers of their strength.
But Elyonari had never used her Base Tethers.
Everything she had used during this battle had come from her Pinnacle Tether, Elemental Manipulation and her Nature Divinity. She never discovered what her true Base Tethers were because she had never fully understood what it meant to be a Verdarite.
She just knew she was a Verdarite a few days ago too.
[Ely, you can't keep doing this.]
My mind had already begun reaching towards Veneri.
[I'm telling Vener—]
[NO!]
Even in her current state, her will was strong enough to cut through my attempt immediately.
[You're not calling him.]
[This isn't the time to be stubborn, Ely!]
[I'll deal with it myself.]
[You can't even move!]
[I don't care. Even Veneri might struggle against him in this Overwrite. This isn't his fight. This is my trial.]
The words hit me harder than I expected.
[This entire fairytale is about me obtaining the Verdarite Demesne. If someone helps me… then I fail.]
Why is she being so...
[It doesn't matter if you fail the trial! You're dying!]
She chuckled weakly. I felt the surge of Nature Energy gather at the stump of her severed leg, knitting bone and muscle back together as her missing foot began regenerating slowly.
[I think …I understand Veneri a little better now.]
I froze.
[So this is what he means by risking his life, huh?]
The regeneration finished just enough for her to brace herself weakly against the ground. She turned her gaze toward Black.
"Tell me something. Why are you trying so hard to survive? This world is doomed anyway. Why cling to existence so desperately?"
"Because Vasreveilder promised me freedom. The moment I prevent a Verdarite from obtaining the Demesne… I will be released from this duty."
Elyonari's eyes narrowed slightly.
"What exactly is the Demesne?"
Black smiled faintly.
"I'm not telling you."
Elyonari pushed herself upright before she charged. It was reckless.
Her speed was still incredible despite her injuries. Still, Black didn't even move until she was right in front of him. His punch landed squarely in her chest.
Elyonari's body was launched across the Overwrite, tumbling violently through the air before slamming into the ground hundreds of meters away. I immediately focused my fragment on her vitals. What I saw made me gasp.
Her internal organs were destroyed. Her body lay motionless in the crater where she had landed.
[Ely?]
There was no response.
[Elyonari!]
Her breathing was so faint that even my fragment had to focus carefully just to detect the shallow tremor of life still lingering inside her chest. Her internal organs were in catastrophic condition. Her healing was trying to keep up but it was slow and unstable.
What should I do?
If I interfered directly, Elyonari's trial would be ruined but if I did nothing, she would die.
The choice was obvious to anyone with a shred of logic..Trial or not, she couldn't awaken to anything if she was dead.
I'm going to call Veneri.
Right as I prepared to do it, his voice entered my mind first.
[Phae. How is Ely?]
My original body was still in the middle of battle elsewhere on the field, slicing through waves of stone giants with sapphire constructs and brutal physical strikes, but my attention had completely shifted to the fragment observing Elyonari. For a moment, I didn't know what to say.
The lie came out automatically.
[She's fine.]
There was a pause.
[You're lying.]
[I'm not lying. She's handling herself pretty well—]
[Phae. I can't sense Elyonari's emotions right now. She blocked our Sapphire Bond but I can feel yours.]
Silence filled the connection between us.
[You're scared and worried. Something happened to her, right?]
I didn't answer. I heard him sigh quietly through the connection.
[Phae.]
[Yes?]
[Can you access someone's consciousness with Memory Implantation and Extraction?]
That question caught me off guard.
[Yes. I can enter memories with it.]
[Ely said she doesn't need help and I respect that. But she's stubborn as fuck if she thinks she can defeat that giant like this.]
Veneri rarely used language like that unless he was genuinely frustrated.
[I'm not going to fight the giant for her but I can help her reach the Fifth Enlightenment.]
[You're serious?]
[Yes. A Codex doesn't appear randomly. It forms when someone has a clear conviction and purpose.]
Images flickered through my memory. His fight with Stephos was all about that.
[That's how I awakened mine. When I fought Stephos, my only goal was to survive until morning. That conviction became my Codex. Ely doesn't have that yet.]
I understood immediately.
"She doesn't know what she wants."
"Exactly."
Then my fragment watching the battlefield shifted slightly. Another fragment of my consciousness was positioned near Veneri's current location and suddenly that perspective warned me.
He was already sprinting.
The ground shattered beneath his feet as he ran. The distance between him and Black was enormous yet he crossed it in seconds. Black reacted immediately. The humanoid giant raised his axe as Veneri appeared in front of him with terrifying speed. Calimostria already descended in a lethal slash. Black barely managed to intercept it with his axe.
The clash exploded with a violent shockwave that tore open the ground around them. Before Black could even stabilize himself, Veneri's leg moved. The kick landed directly in Black's torso. Black was sent flying across the battlefield like a projectile, smashing through layers of stone before finally crashing into the distant ruins of the Overwrite.
Veneri didn't chase him. Instead, he turned immediately toward Elyonari. His expression changed the moment he saw her.
The calm composure he normally carried cracked as he knelt beside her unconscious body. His hand hovered above her chest for a moment as he checked her condition. I could feel the sharp spike of worry radiating through our connection.
He placed his hand gently against her forehead.
[Phae, I'm going to use Memory Implantation and Extraction. I'll connect to her memories and guide her toward awakening.]
[How long?]
[A few minutes. I need you to protect us until I finish.]
I didn't hesitate.
[Done.]
The moment he activated the Base Tether, I acted as well. I redirected the fragment that had been observing Elyonari and turned it into physical form directly in front of them. I summoned five more fragments. Each one turned into a physical vessel beside me.
When the process finished, six versions of myself stood in a semicircle around Veneri and Elyonari. I looked at them briefly through their eyes as I fought the stone giants using my original consciousness.
Black landed lightly on the shattered ground in front of us as he examined the scene before him. His gaze moved slowly across the six identical figures.
"Who are you?"
They stepped forward.
"I'm the one stopping you. But you can call me Phaenora."
The other versions of me shifted their stances slightly as they prepared for the next clash.
"Well this just became interesting."