Book 5: Chapter 45

Aaron’s brow bent as he crashed through the aether barrier, slamming into the middle of a raging battle.

In truth, he was kind of glad. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but at least it would finally force a confrontation between him and Darius, something that was long overdue.

Turrets and troops were firing off attacks from atop and beyond the walls they had built, and Aaron landed between the ranks of the undead army and, within seconds of his furious assault, had wiped out the small army that had been around him.

He looked up just in time to spot an undead leader about to shoot ice shards from its hands when Soohyun appeared, splitting the undead commander in two with a single strike.

But the moment he landed and took a laboured breath, he knew that the undead warriors were the least of their problems. A thick, suffocating torrent of corrupted aether was pouring out from the obelisks surrounding them, so thick that even he could feel it.

“Get back behind the barrier,” he shouted at Soohyun, pointing toward the barriers they had covering the settlement.

There was no argument. She nodded and jumped atop her sword, flying back to their defenses. She could handle the legion’s troops, but there was no point weakening herself by ingesting unnecessary aether.

Aaron glanced around for his next target, and his chest sank. Atop the massive constructs that surrounded the settlement were barriers, and there were literally hundreds of undead atop each of them, feeding the barriers with their mana.

But the difficulty of a task had never been enough to dissuade Aaron, and he stubbornly flew up toward the nearest construct, and channeled every ounce of mana he was capable of pouring through his anchors, and slammed them straight into it.

The barrier rippled as he flung his fists into it, again and again, tirelessly chipping away at its energy even as his hands started to break away, flesh melting, and bone disintegrating and healing between strikes as he cycled his core at an ever-increasing pace.

But as he hammered into the barrier, he watched as undead within it literally burst into pieces, drawing all of their mana, and sacrificing themselves to keep the barrier from falling.

If there was one obvious advantage undead had over the living, it was devotion to their leader. There was no double-thinking of their sacrifice, as the mindless dead eagerly gave it to keep the barrier from falling.

And meanwhile, more and more corrupted aether was pouring out and infecting the land around them, creating an ever thicker cloud of toxic fumes that suffocated the living and compromised the settlement dearly hanging on below.

“Dammit! Just bloody fucking give up, will you?” Aaron huffed as he kept slamming his fists into the barrier. No matter how hard he pushed himself, it wasn’t going down, not quickly at least, and there were still hundreds of undead within that could sacrifice themselves to keep it going.

It was infuriating. Compared to him, the undead keeping the barrier up were ants to be crushed under his heel. But that didn’t stop them from using their mana to fuel a barrier. And sure, his fists would bash through it eventually, but how long would that take? Worst of all, it was the same for all of the constructs.

“Shit!”

Aaron tensed up. It was taking too long, and it wasn’t just one obelisk. What if he needed to take out all of the obelisks to lower the aether barrier and release the toxic clouds of aether that were quickly filling up everything within it?

He snorted and shook his head. If that were the case, everyone besides himself would likely die. Even he might lose control and get taken over by the Death God again if he consumed too much of it.

But perhaps there were other options… Aaron looked over to the barriers around the settlement. Even from where he stood, he could tell that the barriers were keeping out a lot of the aether, but not enough.

The troops stationed on the walls were getting weaker, even as the last few undead from the wave were cut down and destroyed. Alone, they wouldn’t be able to withstand it, but they weren’t alone, were they?

In that moment, Aaron was reminded of all the powerful talents who had come to defend the Oasis. Soohyun, Talia, Ernest, Terry, Emmy, and Lance. And those were just the top rankers. There were also skilled fighters, like Carlos and Yuki from the hunting party. He had even spotted Becky earlier, the cat lady, moping about as if she didn’t want to be there alongside Shadow, her kitty companion.

It seemed just about every skilled combatant in the area could see how important this was, and had come to lend their aid, even if they had given the impression that they weren’t interested.

And that reminded Aaron that he didn’t need to solve every problem himself. He had an entire army at his back, and it was being led by some of the greatest warriors their world had to offer. Perhaps it was time he used his other skills and took up a support role.

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After all, it wasn’t like they didn’t have literal mounds of beast corpses who had just thrown themselves against their forces, slaughtered in the thousands, and it wasn’t as if Aaron didn’t have an array of spiritual Skills that could be used to transform those epic piles of meat into spirit-enhancing food.

That… might just work.

Instead of launching an attack, he flew straight back into the settlement.

“Aaron! It’s Aaron!” Yelled one of the guards on the wall, waving his hands around and calling others over.

Within seconds, dozens of people had gathered around him, including a few of his friends alongside their commanders, Bucky and Kirill.

“You’re back?” Bucky said, pushing toward the front. “The beasts can wait. We’ve obviously got bigger problems. Wait, where’s Zero?”

“He’s dealing with the Beast King. As for those problems, I’ve got an idea,” Aaron said, pulling up his sleeves and strolling over to his portable kitchen.

“Is this really the time to be cooking?” Kirill asked. “We’re struggling to breathe in here.”

“Give me a minute.”

Even as battle raged beyond the walls, dozens of defenders crowded around, confused that perhaps their greatest asset had gone mad.

But a few minutes of barbecuing later, he handed a dish of glazed and slightly charred meat to Kirill.

“What’s this?”

“Try it.”

Kirill glanced dubiously at him, and then bit into it. “This is… It’s so good. How’d you get it so tender?”

“Just a little grill magic. How does your soul feel, though?”

“Wait,” Kirill said, gripping his chest. “I don’t feel it. The weight has been lifted. Actually, I feel great.”

“Hey, give me a serving of that!”

“Yeah, me too!”

The troops, weary and beaten down by the exhausting aether, were crowding around within seconds of seeing the effects of his food, and Aaron was happy to oblige, dealing out dishes at industrial speed.

“So this is your plan, you’re going to cook for us?” Bucky asked as Aaron furiously barbecued.

“For now,” Aaron said. “I mean, I can’t have my allies dying on me, can I, mate?”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Bucky agreed. “But I don’t think Darius is going to stop attacking just because we’re fighting off his aether. And what if this gets worse?”

“It’d be a problem, that’s for sure.”

He didn’t have a great answer for Bucky, but he felt oddly confident. With his spiritual food, and the combined strength of multiple top rankers, and a literal army, he struggled to see how Darius was coming out on top.

Meat was pouring out of his kitchen at an increasingly fast speed as he pushed himself to cook faster than he had before, using his mana anchors for additional power.

And the results spoke for themselves. The newly refreshed soldiers blasted apart the next wave of undead with ease. Darius was strong, but he was one man who had raised an army of the undead, and even with the Death God’s help, that simply couldn’t compare to an entire army of fresh warriors.

And wave after wave was blasted apart before they even threatened the wall.

However, Aaron knew the battle was far from over. The waves were just weak undead, fodder intended to be destroyed.

In a sense, it was like he and Darius were already fighting each other. It was an endurance battle. Who would last longer? Would Darius’ corrupted aether and endless legions outlast Aaron’s cooking and spiritually quenching food?

It was hard to say.

His food was divine, and he saw the looks on their faces as the soldiers ate it. It was refreshing their very souls, and washing away the aether. But the obelisks were doing their thing, pumping out more and more of the deadly toxins with each passing minute.

And what about Zero? How was his battle against the Beast King faring?

He knew Zero was alive, at least. He had bound himself to Zero before the dungeon, and he would know if anything happened to him, even without contacting him, which he avoided.

There wasn’t anything to do about it now. He was needed here, and he needed to keep Darius from the World Core. Calling Zero would only be a distraction. He just had to hope that he was strong enough to deal with the Beast King alone.

As another wave of undead crashed hopelessly against the walls of invigorated defenders, he saw their spirits rise even higher. It was far from perfect, but maybe this truly was the way.

Aaron grinned as his eyes went white, and he pushed his anchors and core harder than before, sucking in aether from the atmosphere to help empower his soul-food.

The echoes of battle sounded around him, but he remained focused, even when the deafening booms of Ernest’s sniper rifle, which sounded more like cannons, sang out.

They were elites in their own right, and he needed to have some faith that they could handle this, as long as he kept them healed from the effects of the aether.

But it wasn’t as if he had no plans brewing within as he cooked up a storm.

If they destroyed enough of Darius’ armies, sooner or later, the necromancer would be forced to play his hand and attack with his true elites, and when he did that, hopefully he would show himself.

Aaron grinned as he cooked. Perhaps finding themselves caught in Darius’ trap wasn’t so bad after all. If he could kill Darius here and now, perhaps it would be over. There would be no direct competition, and they could claim the World Core for themselves.

And while Aaron didn’t particularly care about being the leader of their world, he had seen how much trouble division had caused. The other factions could have whatever autonomy they wanted; he cared little for controlling people. But they did need a leader, and a strong one who could control the World Core, fend off other worlds and even sectors, not to mention the powers controlling the World Core granted.

There needed to be a central power.

More explosions rang out in the distance as another wave crashed against their forces. At this rate, a confrontation would no doubt be coming shortly.

About time. Just a little further and I’ll show the Death God who his daddy is all over again.

And even as he was cooking up a storm, he felt his understanding of his mana anchors increasing once more, and his lips curled into a wide grin. He was going to be ready for this fight.