The Harvester

The runes shattered and released the magic formation dwelling inside. A literal star of frost energy spawned over Zasha’s figure and then deformed itself, trembling and twisting until it closed in on itself to form a black hole.

 

Nyx grunted and planted her feet on the ground, summoning two living armors from her shadow but not letting them fully surface so that they could anchor her down. The broken bits of buildings and roads were lifted into the air and then mercilessly disintegrated by the dying star.

 

The air was getting terribly thin, if not entirely inexistent at that point, and the gravity would have killed a normal person several times over already. The Half-Dimension was dangerously close to breaking down as well.

 

‘I don’t think I can keep it up for too long…’ Nyx thought as she resisted the pull the best she could. Surviving the black hole was one thing, but continuously manifesting the dimension to stop it from being fully brought into the real world was another.

 

Who knows how many people would die if it got out to Zero? The main reason why she and Rakna hadn’t already died from it was their inherently inhuman physique.

 

“If you’re awake, it’s time you do something…” She grumbled half-heartedly to the crater near her and not knowing what to expect, she was startled by a claw suddenly pulverizing one of the chunks of metal floating upward.

 

The werewolf rose, his fur now glowing crimson, from the ground and calmly walked through the landscape being slowly picked apart by the black hole, with Rift Shuttle bouncing off the effects of gravity.

 

He soon stood next to Nyx and her eyebrow twitched as she looked up at him. She hadn’t been this close to him the last time he had gone berserk. Not only did he have all his tails and wings, but his overall size had also increased.

 

Though, at the moment, she had to admit she was a bit more scared by the fact that he looked like a walking corpse. His body was currently closer to a bundle of Eion than flesh. One of his arms was still in the process of weaving itself back together, the left half of his skull was still being covered by a new layer of blood vessels, and his torso was fighting against Zasha’s venom to a stalemate.

 

“…you’re in control, right?” She asked uneasily at his silence

 

He glanced down at her and snorted. “Pride is a useful thing,” he said with a shrug. “Ireful Descent also saved my ass just now and the curse is flaring up, but I don’t feel any strain. That guy damaged me so much from the venom alone that my defense was doubled by the skill and I barely managed to activate Wrath Demon to increase my magical defense.”

 

Nyx sighed and shook her head. “Right…”

 

“How long can you last?” The werewolf promptly asked, sighing as he reverted to Everfrost.

 

“…preferably, I would like it if you ended that spell as fast as possible.”

 

He nodded and pointed his hand at the black hole. He grimaced as he tried to control the massively powerful Tier 2 spell. Thankfully, he hadn’t used his Manifestation like last time, since his current state had enough raw power to skip it, or it would have been much more uncontrollable.

 

On the other hand, while his Mystic Magic had made it stronger, it had also created a stronger link between him and the spell. Which was a convenient side-effect.

 

Eventually, the black hole began to shrink and lose power. Rakna would have normally continued to shut it down until it dispelled itself due to an eventual loss of core supply, but he stopped after a short moment.

 

His outstretched arm trembled and he growled, “That bastard…”

 

Before Nyx could ask what he was muttering about, the black hole was suddenly pierced by a large saw of violet energy. It began to spin loudly and then flashed all around its circumference until it was cut into hundreds of pieces.

 

The collapsing star was shredded into nothingness; just like that. And within its fading remains, a giant purple scorpion with red accents emerged. The shiver-inducing Arachne shrieked and fell to the ground, hitting the ground with its claws in anger.

 

“What kind of resilience is that…” Nyx heard Rakna speak with a rare nervous tone. “The star both formed and collapsed while he was inside of it. Even in my current state, I would have died without a doubt if it was me in his place.”

 

“That form,” the goddess narrowed her eyes at the titanic scorpion. “I assume that transformation is something every Nine-Tailed can do?”

 

“Yeah, if it’s anything like mine, or my wolf form specifically, then at least one of his attributes was raised by 50% if not more across the rest. My attributes are being overcharged by the full moon as well… but I think his are still higher now,” Rakna clicked his tongue as the scorpion turned his eyes toward them.

 

“If I had to guess…” He continued. “I’m currently at about 600 and that’s with the dimension being at a constantly ‘perfect’ full moon. And he is somehow hitting 700 without the System. I could try and demonize… Pride should help, but if I end up passing out before we can defeat him, you’ll be left alone. Not to mention he still has the magic that seems to amplify anything he desires, even himself…”

 

“I think I’ll pass,” Nyx huffed in response and he let out a wry chuckle.

 

Both of them warily watched as Zasha ominously and slowly made his way in their direction, his eight legs piercing the ground with every step, leaving small puddles of liquid metal, corroded by the venom coursing through his body and dripping from his tails’ stingers.

 

“A Tier 2 spell…” The creature spoke with a distorted voice, its mouth clattering. “No, even before that, how did you draw those runes without me noticing?” Zasha asked as he stopped his advance while on top of a small mound of metal scraps, looking down at them with his titanic size.

 

“Who knows,” Rakna deadpanned. “I’m not going to put myself at a disadvantage against you,” he said as most of his body was done regenerating. Grand Reinforcement had greatly accelerated the process; turning his physical composition into star energy had always been his most reliable method to recover after all, though it could be greatly disrupted by external factors.

 

“Of course, of course,” the scorpion nodded twice with its eerie appearance. Zasha had maintained his mannerisms even in his transformed state, which only made them even nastier. “I suppose it’s the same for my Oryad Poison? I really would like to know how you’re still alive…”

 

“Ah, this thing,” Rakna looked down at his gaping gut, which had finally started closing once his body overcame the venom. “Unfortunately for you… my body is far from normal and I even have a contracted Soul Beast with immunity to poison. While I don’t inherit that, it seems the link is still there to some extent. How nice of you to make me notice it,” he said sarcastically.

 

“And,” the werewolf raised his hand, and soul power whirled around it, taking out a small object from his storage. He held it between his nails and showed it. “I have a gift from a lovely alchemist with me,” he uttered and threw the pill in his mouth.

 

Immediately, The Scavenger was triggered and a surge of power refilled his stamina, healed him, and expelled the Oryad Poison in full. Evelyn’s Cardiac Pill was essentially a condensed mixture of several hearts, and thus was acknowledged by Rakna’s Nirvana Skill, effectively bypassing the lack of System and properly functioning as an Item; though just for him alone.  

 

The Oryad Poison was indeed a mighty substance that could even kill Gods, as per the legend from which the Nine-Tailed Scorpions originate, but The Harvester’s ‘authority’ as a skill outclassed it and imposed recovery upon its user, utterly squashing the poison.

 

“…I see,” Zasha uttered quietly.

 

“Also, thank you for the crash course on Circuit Pathways,” Rakna jested. He was already aware of the implications of cooldowns, but he wanted to bait the scorpion into staying still.

 

Although, admittedly, he had miscalculated how helpless it had made him and he fell victim to the Oryad Poison. On the other hand, he wasn’t scared to have his circuits crippled since Perfidious Edict was essentially a Nirvana Skill meant to reset his Pathways.

 

“…” The scorpion’s black eyes adorned with a red light glowed stronger for a moment. “Well, you got me. I suppose I should finish you with everything I got then,” he declared and his aura erupted with accrued intensity.

 

“…I guess that’s the limit of the time I can buy,” Rakna mumbled and called Sonata. The guandao rocketed out of the ground and whirled through the air until he caught it.

 

He then wrapped Nyx with one of his wings before flying off into the sky at a speed surpassing the speed of sound by many times. Amongst other things, his Full Moon state’s three pairs of wings added one more multiplicator to his Mana Flight.

 

The moment he took off the ground, Zasha’s aura, laced with shredding energy, turned everything below into bits, like the structure of a block-building game suddenly ejecting its pieces.

 

While gently embraced by Rakna’s wing, Nyx felt most of her shadow army being diced into pieces alongside it. Although her Legion was not that expensive, and she was also capable of using the moonlight to refill her mana, it solidified her conviction that she needed stronger servants.

 

‘Looks like I need to continue bounties once we return to the System,’ she concluded internally and couldn’t help but let her thoughts roam as she felt the increasing warmth of the werewolf. Some color crept to her cheeks and she groused, ‘This man really needs to learn boundaries…’

 

“[Re…]”

 

Zasha’s voice softly echoed and his aura twisted into something different; more ordinated.

 

Nyx’s eyes widened at the very familiar feeling as well as the syllable he uttered. She had heard it plenty and had used it herself more than a few times. “Rakna!” She shouted in panic and she could feel him tense. “Leave! He’s about to use his Manifestation!”

 

Rakna shuddered and his six wings promptly started releasing a silver mist. He was already ready to use Wings of Spatial Collapse to escape but then his instincts kicked in; it was too late. None of his skills would allow him to leave in time if he didn’t demonize.

 

The giant scorpion’s features somehow imitated a grin and opened its mouth, “[…surrect--?!]”

 

But before Zasha could finish, he abruptly stopped. His rising power died down as if a mirage and he quietly looked to the side, where nothing could be seen, before reverting into human form.

                                                                                                                                                       

“It seems like you won’t die at my hands, Rakna Xiorra,” he spoke up as he donned a completely immaculate coat out of nowhere. A top hat then materialized in his hand, which he put on, followed by a pair of sunglasses. “The Clan is calling me back. Looks like they found out what was happening out here,” he calmly said.

 

The scorpion pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and straightened his coat. “This wasn’t included in my pay, so I was ordered to leave the Abyss to their business. It’s not such a bad thing, actually. Killing you will probably create more trouble than it’s worth.”

 

“On that note…” Zasha bowed grandly in mock respect. “Farewell. We will meet again, if you leave this place alive, of course. There’s a greater foe than I waiting for you in this Plateau after all,” he smiled. “But I’m sure you know that already,” he chuckled and swiped his hand, tearing a hole into Nyx’s Half-Dimension and leaving before it closed behind him.

 

After he was gone, the dimension fell silent and Rakna groaned, landing back on the ground and softly letting go of Nyx. “Take it down,” he said evenly and she nodded. Promptly, the darkness of the Twilight Realm receded into the moon in the sky as if it was hiding behind it until there wasn’t enough of it to sustain the dimension anymore.

 

The Crepuscule Night immediately fell apart with the disappearance of the full moon, and what had been destroyed was fixed, as if rewound in time. Before Rakna could be seen by anyone, he grasped the small interval between the disappearance of the moon and the return to the real world and ended his transformation.

 

He grimaced at the discomfort of prematurely ending the ‘berserk’ state and forcing his extra tails and wings to go back to ‘sleep’ inside his genomes. Once again, he took on the appearance of Ranka so that no trace of his presence here becomes known after Zero is back in Eva’s hands.

 

He looked at his trembling hands; his body was hanging by a thread. The Oryad Poison had done far more damage to the Alkahestic Physique than he had admitted. He was genuinely afraid when he was injected with it.

 

‘I managed to keep a few trump cards… but will that be enough?’ He thought and looked at Nyx. “Do you think you can cast the Half-Dimension again?”

 

She shook her head in the negative. “I forced it too much. I will need at least an hour to recover properly. Otherwise, it might just collapse as fast as one minute or a second after being cast.”

 

Rakna slowly nodded and used Eye of Symphony to link up with his Eion bugs.

 

“Hans, do you hear me?” He called and didn’t receive an answer even after ten seconds. But since the signal hadn’t been lost, it meant that Hans either lost the automaton or was unable to respond.

 

“I don’t like that…”

 

“What’s the plan?” Nyx questioned and he clicked his tongue.

 

“Let’s go to that damn Terminal,” he said and unfurled his wings. At this point, people had already seen this fake identity with them, so he didn’t mind. “Back or princess?” He quickly asked and Nyx blushed a bit before sighing.

 

“…let’s go with princess,” she replied reluctantly and he snorted in amusement. With her blessing, he lifted her and flew off, not forgetting to check up on Rita, and Cura, who was currently engaged in a battle of which he could see the direct repercussions from his current location.

 

‘Rita is doing the rescue, I see. They should be fine…’ He thought and focused on the map up on his retina. He would arrive at the supposed Terminal’s coordinates in less than a minute. And for some reason… he had a really bad feeling about it.