Chapter 329 Book 5: Chapter 50

Aaron took a step forward and felt the aura of aether radiating off Darius. He wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, but he could tell that he was somehow linked to the obelisks.

The quicker I take out Darius, the more lives that will be saved.

Glaring down the necromancer, Aaron leaped toward him with a burst of energy. He briefly glanced back at his allies. But there was nothing more he could do for them right now. They would have to deal with their respective opponents themselves; he needed to concentrate on Darius.

But before he even reached him, he heard a bang echo out, and Agatha, who stood near Darius, seemed to flicker as some kind of defensive Skill triggered. One moment she was standing there, and the next, she was several meters away, and wide-eyed as she realized how close she had gotten to Ernest’s long-range attack that had blown a smouldering crater in the construct’s back.

Aaron didn’t pay it more than a second of attention, though. He could feel not just aether, but souls radiating from Darius, and when he swung his fists at the necromancer, a barrier shimmered out and consumed his attacks.

It wasn’t just a barrier, though. It seemed to be powered by souls themselves, and he could hear their screams as they were destroyed by his punches.

It was a truly disgusting Skill. Darius was sacrificing souls from somewhere to protect himself, and it only made Aaron want to punch his face in that much more.

As he rained down attacks, looking for an opening through the barrier, he spotted Emmy out of the corner of his eye. She was descending toward them on a sea of bubbles, aimed at the weretoad.

“I see you, you big dumb, ugly keroppi!”

As she waved her wand about, bubbles floated down toward it, and the weretoad’s tongue lashed out at them.

“Is this it? I expected more from the man who doesn’t die!” Darius sneered. “Prepare to become my puppet!”

Aaron shook his head. Now wasn’t the time for distractions. He had a necromancer to kill. Besides, the rest of them were the peak elites from their world, and he would have to trust that they could handle Darius’ lieutenants alone.

Find an opening, exploit it, and deal with those obelisks!

Using [ Gorgon’s Soul Vortex ] and [ Pinpoint Accuracy ], Aaron scanned the foul man. He sensed something beneath his chest brimming with divine energy, which was concerning. But it wasn’t what was powering his shield.

As aether filled his gaze and Aaron tried to look beyond the veil of the living into the plane of spirits, he spotted something. It was ghostly, and hidden, and likely impossible to see for normal people. But he commanded the aether, and was a shinigami now.

What is that?

As it came into view, he realized that there was a swirling pit of aether behind Darius. In fact, that wasn’t quite right; it was following him around. It had to be some kind of Skill.

Wait, that’s not just aether.

He could feel it now. Souls were drifting out of the swirling mass of concentrated aether and into Darius and his barrier Skill.

A well of aether? A spirit well…

It was becoming more and more obvious as he focused on it. Darius was channeling spirits themselves to fuel him, and as they poured into him, he had a seemingly unlimited amount of aether to use.

As Darius shot several crippling beams of necrotic energy at him, Aaron dodged and returned fire with haymakers and soul-sapping punches that landed heavy against his barrier.

The attack was a test. He wanted to see how Darius reacted to so much power, and he got his answer immediately as he saw a fresh burst of aether and spirits fly from the well into Darius, powering him up.

Aaron ate some food quickly as they exchanged attacks. But he knew something needed to be done about the spirit well, and quickly. As durable as he was, he still needed food to power himself, and if Darius’ well had no limits, then a battle of endurance greatly favored him.

There was no need to waste time, and Aaron immediately shot toward the well, dodging several of Darius’ attacks, and swinging past him as he threw [ Equal and Opposite ] at the energizing Skill to cancel it out. But surprisingly, the divine Skill given to him by Yendal herself seemed to have no effect on the spirit well, and his punch flew straight through it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the kind of energy he could just oppose.

“Baha!” Darius mocked as he realized what Aaron had attempted, and shot ice beams at him. “Fool. And to think I was worried about you. You might control the aether as I do, but you clearly don’t understand it!”

Darius roared, and hundreds of beams of both ice and necrotic energy shot out, and the well pulsed with energy as more spirits and aether flooded into Darius as more power poured into the many attacks.

It was impressive from a raw power perspective. But it was also obvious that Darius was used to having his minions fight for him, and despite shooting out so many attacks all at once, Aaron really didn’t struggle to dodge them.

Skill was obviously on his side, and as he moved around the countless attacks, he didn’t even need to waste mana phasing. Still, he didn’t want to fight Darius on his own terms.

Even if he did lack raw combat skill, if he could continue to pour out this much power, it could become a problem.

I get it now. That spirit thing is in the spirit plane. That’s why Yendal’s Skill didn’t work. If I want to disable the Skill, I’ll have to attack it there.

“Dodge all you want, I can keep this up forever!” Darius mocked as he continued to rain down attacks.

Aaron attempted one last assault. But as his attacks crashed against Darius’ barrier, he could feel the well feeding him more energy. He considered using [ Equal and Opposite ] against the barrier itself, but as long as Darius had unlimited energy, he could make a new one, and the divine Skill was still taxing on Aaron, especially when used to cancel out powerful Skills.

Aaron’s brow bent; his plan was beyond daring, but he had never been one to shy away from a challenge. And the more time he wasted fighting Darius, the more of their defenders would fall to the corrupted aether.

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With that thought in mind, he split his soul from his body, drifting into the spirit plane as he allowed his body to fight subconsciously against Darius. Although, even subconsciously, his body had far more natural talent at combat than the necromancer. The real threat was to his soul, which was vulnerable when separated from his body.

In spirit form, he moved toward Darius, or rather, the spirit well powering him. He could see the souls more clearly than ever now that he was in the spirit plane. They were traveling from the well to Darius endlessly.

There appeared to be soul threads anchoring the well in place, and channeling his shinigami powers, he attacked them. He felt the Skill start to rupture and become unstable. But the moment it did, the souls that had been traveling out stopped and turned.

Some of the spirits grabbed hold of the well itself, turning themselves into new threads to keep it from breaking away, while others launched attacks against Aaron.

The spirits were not quite conscious, he could tell. It was as if they were sleepwalking, and very easy to dodge, even in his soul form that lacked many of his powers. However, with every passing second, more of them were pouring out of the well.

He heard Darius howl, his voice cutting through the planes. Glancing over, he saw that his body had landed a strike through the barrier, as it was no longer being fed by spirits.

He had a problem, though, as dozens of attacking spirits quickly became hundreds, and they didn’t stop there. Darius himself was still fighting his body, but the spirit well had completely shifted focus toward Aaron, and the endless stream of spirits flooding out toward him was ridiculous.

Shit!

Aaron's soul lacked many Skills and powers that he had normally, and as the entire spirit plane was overwhelmed with moaning spirits reaching out for him, he was forced to turn back.

The battle wasn’t over, though, and there was no point in recklessly risking his very soul against the spirits when he lacked the means to heal himself. He turned back from the well and raced toward his body.

“Bah!” Aaron gasped as his soul found purchase within himself. He was going to need to do this the old-fashioned way.

Darius sneered at him as he summoned up another Skill. Even though his attempt to take down the spirits powering the necromancer had failed, the Death God’s disciple looked absolutely furious.

“You dare to attack my souls? Heresy!”

In an instant, Darius was on the attack, enraged by Aaron’s attempt to break down his spirit well. Necrotic beams shot at him, followed by clawed hands that made anything they touched decay.

But against Aaron, all of the attacks fell short. However, he wasn’t entirely certain what to do next, either. The spirit well was regenerating Darius at a ridiculous rate, and there was little point in wasting energy bashing his head against a wall pointlessly. He needed a plan.

But just as he was trying to come up with one, Darius placed his hands together at the end of a long combination, and he felt the spirits of the well burst free from the necromancer’s palms before he even saw them.

For a moment, he saw their faces. Ghastly and transparent, they howled as they flooded toward him through the air. Aaron dodged at first, but then realized the spirits were following him. And while they weren’t that fast, there were a lot of them, and their numbers were growing fast.

After several seconds of dodging, he wanted to return to offense, and that was when he screwed up. As spirits descended upon him from all sides, Aaron phased, but as the spirits were made of pure spectral energy, they collided straight into him with a burst of aether.

It felt like the entire world around him was vibrating, and Aaron gripped his head as he tried to steady himself, and then felt pain as something blasted into his chest, sending him reeling backward.

It was over almost as quickly as it had started, and his senses returned to him. The spirits had somehow stunned him when they crashed into him, making him an easy target for Darius.

He wasted no time, retreating backward with a blast of mana. He was alive, but he didn’t want to get hit by something like that again.

Dammit, that was too close.

Circling around the necromancer at a distance and at great speed, Aaron quickly ate. The stunning effect mightn’t have lasted that long, but at this level, it didn’t need to. And Aaron didn’t want to risk resurrecting himself against Darius, as the man no doubt possessed the ability to attack his soul directly.

“Running now, are you?” Darius taunted as he released more spirits, but this time, Aaron wasn’t going to try to dodge like before.

Instead, he flew around, keeping range, blasting out tremendous amounts of mana from his anchors and ghost wings, drawing them away before turning back on the necromancer at high speed.

In a near instant, he travelled hundreds of meters and crashed against Darius’ barrier at high speed, attempting to find a way through it that didn’t involve risking his soul.

Unfortunately, pure speed and power were a failure. He struck it hard, and even made the barrier shimmer, but it hastily drew in more spirits to power itself.

Aaron didn’t wait around for the spirits to be turned on him again, speeding off and looping around to attempt another dive-by assault.

Again, he attempted [ Equal and Opposite ], but with more power this time, and again, it came up short. He could defeat the barrier for a second, but the well just poured new spirits into it.

Raw power didn’t seem to be the answer. The spirit well would just keep doing what it was doing.

Nonetheless, with his usual streak of stubbornness, Aaron attempted several different mana anchors against the barrier, until he hit it with mana anchors empowered by the void element.

When he struck the barrier with his void-powered anchor, it didn’t so much break the barrier as it sucked in the souls themselves being transferred to the barrier, drawing them into the void instead, and a relatively simple follow-up punch against the barrier made it flicker violently.

He almost had it, and even saw the surprised look on Darius’ face as his barrier almost collapsed, but was forced to speed off again as spirits descended upon him.

But he had a plan now, and on his next dive, he crashed into the barrier, hitting it with his void anchor, and following up with [ Equal and Opposite ], and it worked just as he had hoped.

Void drew the spirits toward it, breaking their link with the barrier, and [ Equal and Opposite ] knocked it down, leaving Darius vulnerable.

With the barrier down, Aaron landed a clean punch across Darius’ chin, resounding with a satisfying crack, but the necromancer wasn’t without his own tricks, and a burst of spirit energy almost disintegrated Aaron’s soul in an instant as the well seemed to burst from the seams, letting out hundreds of spirits in an instant.

The attack sent Aaron hurtling backward, eating soul-mending food before he even stopped moving.

It must have been some kind of trap Skill that Darius had activated, and worst still, he had missed a step, and spirits were descending upon him from all around.

But he wasn’t going to retreat this time. Darius might have saved himself, but he could see the look on the necromancer’s face. He hadn’t liked that, and Aaron wanted to land another.

Instead of running, he decided to pulse mana through his anchors, pushing the energy beyond his body and creating transparent mana limbs beyond his own, allowing him to strike the spirits at range, hitting them without touching them.

He wished he had thought about it sooner, as the spirits were weak, and it only took a single strike using minimal mana to destroy them.

Seeing his spirits being destroyed one by one, Darius roared into action. “Hurry up and die!” The necromancer shouted at the top of his lungs as he poured all of his power into the spirits, sending hundreds of them out toward Aaron.

At first, he attempted to beat them back, punches and kicks furiously shooting out to meet the endless sea of spirits, but there were too many. He could fly back around and create distance again, but he wanted to capitalize on Darius’ down barrier and the look of outrage on his face.

“How about this?”

Aaron tensed up as he drew a titanic amount of mana into his anchors, expanding their power, and drawing on the void as he blasted the raw mana out toward the sea of spirits. The result was catastrophic, blowing hundreds of them apart, leaving a tear in the void that pulled in hundreds more, and clearing the path between him and the necromancer.

You have gained insight into a possible upgrade path for Mana Anchors. Current discovered upgrade paths:

Expanded Mana Anchors 35% → 40%

Elemental Shift (Void) 20% → 25%

Partitioned Mana Anchors 90% → 95%