Chapter 828: The Hegemon

The contingent making their way through Jason’s soul realm had two groups. One was Jason’s companions, led by Nik and one of Shade’s bodies. The other was Boris and his group of messengers. At the advice of Shade and Nik, both groups moved swiftly but not at a breakneck pace. With the world crumbling around them, even flying through the air they could run into a sudden breakout of corruption. They moved quickly, staying close to the ground but not on it. The messengers could fly, while the adventurers who could not floated along in Onslow’s shell.

Being in a half-formed astral kingdom in the process of being devoured by a god was the rarest of things for Boris: a completely new experience. For his messengers, it was unnerving in the extreme and he used his aura to keep them settled.

They made their way through gardens wilting with rot and forests where the trees were falling around them. The ground underneath them randomly turned into venomous bog. Tremors shook the ground and air alike, at least once with each passing minute. The cloudless sky occasionally shot lightning and shifted from day to night, swiftly and without warning.

Boris understood what was happening more than anyone in their contingent save for possibly Shade. The nascent reality of Asano’s soul realm was unravelling, moving from a physical realm to a nebulous conceptual space. If it moved too far down that path, everyone inside it would be annihilated.

Their destination was the avatar, a looming monolith in the distance. It wasn’t moving because it didn’t need to. The real power was infesting the land around them. Boris understood it was just a conceptual representation of Undeath’s power, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t useful. It was something for them to focus on in their attempts to aid Asano.

As they drew closer, the building-sized avatar seemed even taller. Belinda leaned out from one of the open sides of Onslow’s shell to look up at

“What’s it doing?” she wondered aloud.

“The avatar is just a representation of Undeath’s power,” Shade said. “Its attack is not against any specific thing but the realm itself. The corruption going on around us is the damage it is causing.”

The group pulled up in a large forest clearing mostly occupied by the avatar’s feet. The space around it was oddly clear of its corrupting influence.

“What do we do now?” Taika asked. “Hit it in the ankle?”

“Something like that,” Nik said. “I’m going to mess this thing up.”

“Is it safe for you to be here?” Humphrey asked. “You don’t have essences.”

“Were you not listening to Shade’s terrible explanation?” Nik asked. “Essences don’t mean a damn thing. It’s no more or less dangerous for me than for you.”

“And this is not truly the avatar,” Shade said. “This is a creation of Mr Asano.”

“Why would he make the avatar in here?” Taika asked.

“So we have something to hit,” Sophie said. “Isn’t that what you were talking about with frameworks and will and whatever? The evil power is all over, rotting this place from the inside out. Running around punching trees and dirt won’t get us far, but this place is all imaginary. Jason imagined up something we can stick the boot into. If we can visualise something to hit, we can hit it.”

Everyone turned to look at Sophie.

“What?” she asked.

“I think,” Belinda said, “that they just realised that you find magic theory a lot more comprehensible when the end result is punching something.”

“We’re adventurers. If the end result isn’t punching something, what’s the point?”

“Miss Wexler is correct,” Shade said.

“She is?” Neil asked.

“About Mr Asano’s purpose, not about punching things.”

“I’m completely correct about punching things.”

“Mr Asano,” Shade continued, ignoring her interruption, “created this representation for you all to focus on. There is a danger, however. The same factors that allow you to employ the representation of the avatar as a target allow the power of Undeath to embody the representation.”

“Meaning what?” Humphrey asked.

“Meaning the avatar might decide to fight back,” Boris said, moving to join the adventurers. “That would be a good thing, though. We’re here to divert as much of this thing’s attention as we can. If we can push it to inhabit this thing and fight us, that will be a major diversion.”

“The suspicious man with the wings is correct,” Shade said. “If you can prompt the power to inhabit the representation of the avatar it will significantly reduce the challenge of Mr Asano’s task.”

“And standing around here having a nice chat will do nothing,” Nik said. “I’m going to attack that thing.”

“How?” Taika asked. “Are you going to throw a carrot at its knee?”

Nik started blowing air from his mouth with a sound like a wind passing through a gorge. He rapidly waved two fingers from one hand in front of his face, making a sharp swooshing sound. A small cloud appeared in the air and rushed down towards them.

“Bro, is that the Monkey Magic cloud?”

The cloud stopped in front of them and Nik climbed on. He then reached into the cloud at his feet, pulled out a massive flamethrower and slung it on. The cloud took off in the direction of the avatar, spewing white fire. Taika watched it all play out, jaw hanging down.

“What the hell was that?” Taika asked.

“The reality here is not reality at all,” Shade explained. “This place is only a concept, and that concept is breaking down. It affords a unique opportunity for a will without vast power behind it to shape the world as a god might. Master Nik understands this better than most as he has an affinity for this place. But I would advise replicating your essence powers as the most effective—”

“Bugger that for a bag of chips,” Taika said as a giant robot descended from the sky. Nik immediately came flying back, shouting swear words.

“What are you doing?” the rabbit man shouted.

“I summoned Voltron, obviously,” Taika shouted back.

“You summoned vehicle Voltron!” Nik accused.

“It’s the best Voltron!”

“I’m a month-old rabbit who’s never left the pocket universe he was born in and I know that’s the worst Voltron.”

“How?” Taika asked.

“I don’t know. I think knowing that vehicle Voltron sucks is a fundamental aspect of my species.”

“Yeah, he was created by Jason alright,” Farrah muttered. “Can we please stop talking about Voltron and go fight some evil?”

Farrah stepped forward, conjuring her massive obsidian sword. It was currently in its greatsword state, the blade made up of ragged stone protrusions like a crude saw.

“I’m going to use my essence powers as a framework,” she said, “but if we’re just making stuff happen…”

Music started blasting out of the sky and Farrah flew into the air, carried on wings of fire.

“Nutbush,” Taika said. “Nice. Let’s go, Voltron!”

“Pick a better Voltron!”

“Suck it, rabbit!”

Shade watched Taika get picked up by the giant robot, Nik flying alongside as they continued yelling at each other.

“I wonder if Anthony Hopkins needs a familiar?” he wondered.

“Who is Anthony Hopkins?” Clive asked.

“Was that out loud?” Shade asked. “Oh dear.”

***

The adventurers all moved to the attack while the avatar remained still. It showed no signs of injury from any form of attack, which Shade assured them was normal. The goal was to threaten the power, spreading its focus and buying Jason time. The only path to victory was Jason converting what remained of the power from undeath to death energy.

The messengers also went on the attack. Under the direction of Boris, they all started shooting feathers from their wings. The feathers all changed from their original colour during flight, glowing with the silver, gold and blue of transcendent power.

Half of the adventurers followed Shade’s suggestion and fought as they normally would. Sophie, Humphrey, Rufus and Arabelle all fought as they normally would, expressing their will through confidence in their abilities. Gary fought like his mortal self, although he was still larger than normal with a mane of gold fire.

Stash did not follow Humphrey’s example of fighting normally, as much as the shape-shifting dragon did anything normally. He turned into a massive version of Humphrey, as large as the avatar and Taika’s robot. He had a bushy moustache and was naked other than for a sandwich board with VOLTRON written across the front and back.

“DID I GET IT RIGHT?” giant Stash bellowed.

“Still not the worst Voltron!”

“Shut up, rabbit!”

“STASH!” Humphrey roared. “Put on some pants!”

Neil, being a healer, ignored his essence abilities and joined Nik and Taika in taking a more imaginative approach. He was standing on the ground, sending a line of massively overweight Jason clones awkwardly waddling towards the avatar, many of them tripping and having trouble getting back to their feet. On reaching the avatar, each one tried to crawl up its leg, failed miserably and exploded.

Onslow floated into the air with Clive and Belinda inside his shell. Clive waved his hands like a conductor as lines of gold light filled the sky, drawing dozens of ritual circles. Not only did they surround the avatar but also stacked up like slices of sausage.

“It would be a waste not to experiment with some of my combat ritual plans for gold-rank, given the opportunity,” he said.

Ritual circles appeared over Onslow’s shell, one in front of each of the runes on Onslow’s back. Clive reached his hand out and the little humanoid tortoise that was Onslow reached up to grab it. Clive smiled down at him.

“Go ahead.”

Elemental attacks blasted from the runes on Onslow’s back; lightning and fire, scouring winds and razor-thin jets of water that could cut steel. They all hit the ritual circles in front of them and vanished. They reappeared, replicated many times over as they emerged from the circles surrounding the avatar. They passed through the layered stacks of circles, growing larger and more powerful with each one they passed through. Each attack became a storm of elemental power that crashed down on the avatar in a blinding cataclysm.

“I think we need some help,” Belinda said over voice chat.

“How is the voice chat up?” Humphrey asked. “Is Jason doing it?”

“Nope,” Belinda said. “It’s just that we can do essentially anything. Made sense to use the weird magic thing to talk to each other at least. I blocked Taika and the rabbit from joining in, through.”

“You said we need help,” Humphrey said. “What kind of...”

The land shook with the thunder of footfalls as a fourth giant appeared alongside the avatar, the robot and Stash. It looked like Clive, except with the clothing, physique and hairstyle of a woman.

“Belinda,” Clive said through clenched teeth.

“Yes, Clive?” She asked, innocent as a puppy.

“What is that?”

“I think you know who that is, Clive.”

“That is not my wife!”

“Oh,” Belinda said with an awkward wince. “Marital problems?”

Clive’s response died in his throat as they all turned to stare at the avatar as it finally started to move.

***

Hegemon was empty. It had cast away of almost every part of itself, from its mortality to its name. There was no space, no time. There was only will, power, resolve, and the pain. It needed to embrace the pain in order to destroy it, but it was unsure how. The pain was strong and hungry.

It was an external thing, something that did not belong. Then, there was something else. Something dancing around the pain like dry leaves floating on the hot air of a bonfire. If the fire flared they would be burned up. Hegemon found that unacceptable but could not remember why. It just knew that they belonged while the pain did not. It would not allow the pain to burn them.

It knew what to do now. How to fight. Not like a man, as it was not a man. It was the hegemon, and it was time for the pain to understand that. It would not let the pain harm the things around it, even if Hegemon still didn’t know what they were. It knew that they had to be protected, and protected they would be.

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