Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 26 - Territory

[Author note: bonus chapter]

The Demon of the Depths glowed in a brilliant light. The light remained steady, static, as Xavier was inside of his time dilation field. He peered at the tower—the one filled with mist that would return him to the Hell Moon Thazamar. Though he knew what the inside of that tower looked like, he still couldn’t pierce the stone walls with his Farscope ability.

If the idea he had worked, he’d be back there sooner than he’d thought. The idea had to do with something in the Demon of the Depths description.

It was stronger in its own territory.

Xavier hadn’t considered moving the Demon of the Depths outside of its territory the last time he fought it because he’d had a limited number of portals at his disposal. He hadn’t wished to potentially waste one when he knew it would come in handy.

Now, his portals weren’t so limited, and he had every opportunity to test out the theory he wished to test out.

So many times, he’d wondered how it could be possible that this beast was so much more powerful than the other ones on the same descent. It had been staring him in the face the entire time.

The Demon of the Depths must get massive boons because of where it was.

Xavier had to be careful here. The spell was already active. He still didn’t know if he would be able to disrupt it, but he figured this was his best chance.

The Demon of the Depths was so damned huge that he wasn’t even sure this would work.

First, he had to create a portal that was large enough to encompass the entire thing—then he had to get the beast through it.

And he had to do it fast.

Xavier pushed his time dilation field, making it far wider than it had been before. He was glad he’d been using the spell for the entire time since he’d come to the Hell Moon, else it might not be strong enough for what he needed to do.

Once the time dilation field was large enough, Xavier cast Portal—it was much better than using one of the portals already at his disposal. If he were to do that, he would have to move the twin portal out as far as he could manage to get this thing away from its territory. As it was, now all he needed to do was open the twin portal far away.

He opened the twin portal all the way back at the beginning of the descent, where the mist had teleported him to.

The portal that manifested in front of him was large enough to encompass the entire demon below.

Xavier released a long breath. It was the next part that would be the hardest. He didn’t even know if it was possible to do it fast enough, but he remembered the restoration spell the demon was currently performing had taken at least a second or two.

I’ll take advantage of that time as best I can.

He once more shifted time within the field, until he was able to perceive its movement outside the bubble. Then, he moved the twin portal out of the field.

This next part required a large amount of patience, patience he’d been cultivating for a good long while.

Millimetre by millimetre, Xavier moved the portal outside of the time dilation field. He was moving it as swiftly as he could, but from his perception it didn’t look as though it was moving fast at all.

Agonisingly slowly, it encompassed the Demon of the Depths tentacle-mouths. Then, it moved downward, toward the large mass that was the beast’s main body. The beast did not writhe. It did not roar in indignation. It wasn’t moving at all now that it was glowing. The spell made it invulnerable, but it clearly stopped the beast’s movement as well.

The portal reached the cold river below. It would transport a hell of a lot of water in the mix along with the beast, but that didn’t matter.

As long as he could get this thing out of its territory.

He wondered if that was how other Denizens fought the Demon of the Depths. If they lured this beast away, to fight it somewhere it didn’t have the advantage.

Xavier, feeling absolutely overpowered, hadn’t felt like he’d needed to do that. He hadn’t even tried. Then, when the fight had been getting truly desperate, it simply hadn’t occurred to him to change his strategy in that way.

It had been too late.

He was glad the Lost Bone of a Dead God had managed to save him from the final damage of that blasted sacrificial beam. He wouldn’t be hovering here in the air if not for that.

The portal devoured the entirety of the beast. Xavier watched in fascination as it disappeared through the moving portal. When all of it had gone through—Xavier had made the twin portal face the ground so gravity would work on his side—Xavier flipped the portal so it faced him.

He shut his eyes and pushed his awareness all the way to the other portal at the start of the descent. He couldn’t see the portal, not from this distance, but he could feel the connection he had with it.

Xavier had never moved a portal that was miles away from him before, and he had no idea if it would work.

But he wanted to try.

He pushed the portal upward. If he didn’t do this, he didn’t know if there would be room for him when he flew through the portal—and he needed to ensure there was a large gap between the portal and the beast for another reason.

The act strained his concentration so much that the other portals in his control began to dwindle in his mind until they ceased, closing on their own.

But he’d managed to do it. He could feel the portal moving upward, miles away. It was still agonisingly slow, with the speed at which time was moving outside of the field, but that was okay. He didn’t mind taking the time.

When the portal was in what Xavier hoped was the perfect position, he sped time up within the bubble until it was frozen outside of it once more.

Then he did something he’d only done once—he pushed the time dilation field through the portal in front of him. He’d had to break blocks in his mind to manage this the first time. This was what had made him discover that the pattern, the blueprint that allowed him to cast a spell he’d learnt from the System, was created using runes.

The time dilation field flowed through the portal. Xavier flew through the portal, still within his own field, and appeared hovering above the Demon of the Depths miles away.

The demon was no longer glowing, and its health remained at 1 percent.

Xavier still had a lot of things up his sleeve for this fight. Things he’d imagined he would need. But with that glow gone, it meant he’d managed to disrupt his enemy’s spell enough that he wouldn’t even need them.

All he needed to do was get rid of that final 1 percent of health—and he could do that easily enough with arrows.

The Lost Bone of a Dead God transformed into a bow before Xavier had even had the thought. He grinned as he summoned a runed bone arrow to his hand and nocked it.

He loosed arrow after arrow until he was satisfied it would be enough. Even then, he didn’t cease the time dilation field. He didn’t want to risk it. Instead, he shifted time enough to watch the arrows move through the air and pierce his enemy.

The Demon of the Depths died without landing a single blow on Xavier.

Even then, Xavier didn’t cease using the time dilation field. He carved it until he was close enough to loot his enemy, then he flew back through the portal, returning to the frozen plain at the mountain’s peak where the tower was.

Only when he was in front of the tower doors did he end his Time Alteration spell. At the same time, he closed the remaining active portals.

The trap was no longer active. That was interesting, and something he only just noticed—the moment he’d left the Demon of the Depths territory, his cooldowns had stopped being blocked.

Very, very interesting.

Returning here didn’t make the block come back, either.

I can use that…

He smiled as he stepped through the large double doors and into the tower. The mist enveloped him in a cold hug, and a moment later he was once more standing in the stairwell between the Thirty-First and the Thirty-Second Descents of the Hell Moon.

Xavier sat on one of the steps and took a long breath before letting out. A grin burst onto his face as he thought about the battle he’d just been in—it had gone better than he’d expected.

Far better.

He hadn’t realised he would be able to disrupt the enemy’s restoration spell, but the moment it had been taken out of its territory, the spell had disappeared.

Its strongest in its territory… But the moment its outside of it, it seems to lose access to its restoration spell.

There must be something in the environment that allowed it to be so strong.

That was remarkable.

Xavier blinked. He hadn’t forgotten that the Lost Bone of a Dead God could speak to him, but it was still a strange sensation whenever it did. Something that would take getting used it.

You said that was the beast that broke me… Yet you took no damage from it at all. Tell me, Xavier, how is this possible?

Xavier smiled, and explained to the soul bound weapon what had happened—the differences between the initial fight and the second fight.

The weapon was silent for a long moment as it digested Xavier’s words. So long that Xavier wondered if it would bother to respond at all.

I am glad that I ended up in your hands. What happens now?

Xavier stood from the step he’d been sitting on in his the stairwell and stretched out his arms and back. Now, we do it all again.

Another 998 times.

~

For the thousandth time, Xavier faced the Demon of the Depths on the Thirty-First Descent.

He had gained three more levels on this descent. Not as many as he’d hoped for, considering all the gruelling work he’d put in. It really showed him just how much harder gaining levels at this stage was, and why that—in a thousand years—there was only a single C Grade in his home sector.

But all progress was good progress, especially since barely any time had passed.

Xavier was progressing faster and faster—in real elapsed time—becoming stronger than he had ever imagined he would be this quickly.

His wings beat steadily as he hovered above the Demon of the Depths for what would be the final time. The trap had just been activated. The Lost Bone of a Dead God was in the form of a bow. His strategy had mostly remained the same since the second time he’d killed this thing.

But there were some differences.

Xavier summoned a runed bone arrow to his hand. The arrow glowed dully, producing a blue light. There were a dozen runes along its side. He’d taken the opportunity to practise the art of inscribing, becoming more and more adept at it each time he went through this descent.

Each arrow was now powerful enough to reduce the Demon of the Depths considerable health by almost one full percent—which meant he only needed to loose 120 of them.

A considerable change to the thousands he’d needed before.

Xavier, inside a time dilation field, did just that.

The arrows were slamming into the beast’s body when he enveloped it with the portal. The arrows burst into flame—but that wasn’t all they did. The instant they contacted the enemy, they electrified. Bolts of lightning shot from one arrow to the next in a chain that would be strong enough to subdue the monster, shocking it into submission, locking its limbs and stopping any of them from moving.

Not that it would live long enough to be seized by the attack.

The bone arrows burrowed deep into the demon’s skin. There was a rune etched into the shaft that made the arrow slide farther into its target, and a rune on arrowhead that made it expand once it reached bone, turning the sharp edges into hooks, making it near impossible for an enemy to tear the arrow out.

Again, not that he would need the arrows to do that right now.

When the Demon of the Depths reached the other side of the portal, Xavier made his way through the portal and nocked another arrow. He would only need this one, and one more, to deal with the last 1 percent of health the beast had clung onto with its spell—a spell that was disrupted the moment it was teleported out of its territory.

The Demon of the Depths died easily.

Xavier closed his eyes.

It was finally time to move on to the Thirty-Second Descent of the Hell Moon Thazamar.