“Now,” Serrix said, standing over Leo who was still holding Bjorn’s body. “Let’s finish what we started, shall—”

His voice cut off as a pressure descended. Not entirely unlike Leo’s usual aura blasts. It was something far more violent.

Lines of power burst from beneath Leo’s skin, the power of his storm wrestling its way out from deep within him. His body arched as something ancient surged through him. It flooded every nerve, every vein, every fragment of his being. It wasn’t like his mana.

It felt like an awakening.

Leo’s mouth opened in a soundless scream as a booming wave pushed Serrix back.

Wind exploded from him in a violent spiral, forcing shattered stone and broken corpses across the battlefield. Lightning screamed through the air in jagged arcs while frost spread onto the ground below. Only for blistering heat to evaporate it moments later. The ground beneath Leo cracked under a pressure that felt far too heavy for one body to contain.

And still, the storm kept rising.

Notifications started flashing across his vision:

Your Bloodline: Bloodline of the Elements, is trying to go through Apotheosis

WARNING: Your body is not strong enough to activate this transformation and may result in permanent soul damage.

It is recommended you cancel this transformation

Your skill: Storm’s Guidance (Unique) has been lost.

Your bloodline has overridden your will.

Apotheosis has begun.

His blond hair darkened rapidly, the colour draining into deep storm-grey as strands lifted violently around his face. Flecks of elemental light surged through it like living currents beneath thunderclouds. Crimson embers. Pale frost. Arcs of blue lightning. Traces of earthen gold. All shifting endlessly through the grey. Then his eyes opened.

The rainbow hues that once swirled within them were gone.

In their place was something deeper. Something forgotten.

His irises had become shifting storms of elemental light. Lightning flickered within them while frost formed and shattered at the edges. Fire burned beneath twisting currents of wind and fragments of glowing earth.

They were even further from human than they were before.

The air itself bent around him unnaturally, elemental mana flooding toward him like the world was recognising something it had long forgotten. Cracks of lightning crawled across his skin before fading beneath glowing lines of shifting colour running through his veins.

Leo inhaled once. Silence descending.

Then he raised his head and met eyes with Serrix.

For the first time since they met…

It no longer looked confident.

~

“This…” Caldrin breathed, a smile tugging at his lips.

The Fate-bound seamstress was watching in complete disbelief. Even Vera was no longer smiling.

“That power…” Vera whispered. “What is he?”

“I did not foresee this…” the seamstress whispered back. “This is not possible. His fate was assured.”

Caldrin laughed, pointing toward Leo as the storm raged around him. A smug grin on his face.

“Looks like he doesn’t care.”

~

Power.

It flooded through Leo’s veins as the storm fully took hold.

He’d expected death. Expected his body to tear itself apart like it almost had the first time it had tried to fully wrest control and take Serrix along with it.

This was different. It felt like something buried within had finally awakened.

Another notification appeared.

You are undergoing Apotheosis through your Bloodline: Bloodline of the Elements

Bloodline of the Elements has revealed its true name.

Bloodline of the Prismatic Storm

During Apotheosis:

Stats are significantly enhanced

Elemental affinity and control are drastically increased

The storm within you has been unleashed

WARNING: Your body is not capable of sustaining a full Apotheosis
Continued usage may result in permanent soul damage.

The notifications didn’t matter.

Leo vanished in a flash of lightning, appearing far behind Serrix with Bjorn still in his arms. He placed the man down gently next to his wife.

Serrix spun, eyes wide. “How did you…”

In a blur, Leo’s fist slammed into the giant converted’s stomach in a twisting spiral. The force of it sent the creature flying through the air after a booming shockwave.

Leo watched Serrix hurtle over the ruined building, crashing through it and flying further still.

“Leo…” Cecelia spoke, voice barely a whisper.

He gave her a glance, then a Cloak formed around his body, enhanced by the wind that felt so natural to him. It grew in size, lifting him from the ground without so much as a push. He kicked off, chasing down the form of Serrix into an area less populated.

While he was in the air, Serrix suddenly dove up from below, arms splayed with swords in each of them. Wings had sprouted from the creature's back and buzzed behind him.

His arms swiped out with rapid motion. Each strike carved through nothing but afterimages as Leo moved instinctively beneath Nerveflash’s guidance. His speed was enough to handle the slashes.

Serrix wasn’t showing signs of his usual arrogance. He wasn’t nervous either. The look on his face was one of determination. Fighting a true competitor.

One of the blades went slightly off course, not requiring him to dodge. The moment it did, Leo pounced. Both of his hands slammed together with enough force to blast the dust far below them apart. The shockwave caused Serrix to lose his balance in mid air, interrupting the relentless barrage of blades.

Both of Leo’s fists lit up with power. One lightning. The other fire.

They crashed into Serrix, one after the other. The first seared his chitin, the second scorched the flesh beneath.

Titan Barrage started up next, fists heavy with power. Fury burned in Leo’s eyes as the strikes descended. Serrix caught his wrists.

“What are you?” His words were filled with intrigue and fury. Eyes peering into his soul.

Leo’s eyes flashed with pale blue frost, his hair mimicking them as the air chilled around him. He let out a breath that froze the moisture in the air into solid pieces that dropped from the sky between them.

Serrix’s eyes widened, throwing Leo away as ten Frost Lances spiralled into existence behind him. The creature spun to defend himself as the lances crashed toward him all at once. His fists were like a blur, crunching through ice as it splintered into shards under the force of his blows.

Leo was falling from the air, watching as Serrix tore apart his ice. But the ice didn’t fall like it should. It coalesced into thick chunks, floating like blocks of hail that were frozen in time.

“Weak!” Serrix roared.

*Snap*

Like a flak cannon tearing apart an aircraft, shards of icy shrapnel detonated outwards. They rained from the sky like razor sharp hail. Leo could feel every single one of them. Some tore into Serrix while others screamed past into the city below.

Each element in the air was like an extension of him. They offered their service.

Serrix tore from the cloud, eyes raging as he grabbed Leo. Nerveflash had warned him.

He didn’t care.

“You should not exist!” Serrix raged.

Leo’s arms were pinned as they surged towards the dirt.

But he could still move his hands.

Fire coursed through his muscles. Strength poured into him. His fingers, superheated with flame like red-hot pokers, dug through the chitin, burning holes that he used to grasp hold.

The wind caught them from the side, Leo using it and his momentum to spin Serrix around before they hit the ground.

And before Serrix could regain control, the earth met them first.

A massive slab of stone erupted upward and shattered across Serrix’s back, breaking it into pieces as Leo lost his grip, tumbling down.

Leo watched as the wings on Serrix’s back cracked and twitched as he stood. His chitin was chipped in places, but Serrix barely seemed slowed.

They were in a random street, quite far from where Serrix had first emerged. It was Leo’s will that guided them here, under his own instincts.

Keep the fight from his friends.

Control had been flashing in and out through combat. Most of it had been instinctual, brought forth from something deep within him. The power of his Essences poured through his body. Each element in the air, ready to pull forth.

While his control started to return, the power within was starting to lessen. It was like some kind of resource he was burning through. Connected to all of his Essences.

He was on a timer.

“You’ll pay for what you did,” Leo said, voice laced with reverb and power.

Serrix looked at him with disgust. “You humans and… whatever you are… are nothing more than stepping stones.” Serrix sneered. “I’ll show you what you could have become had you submitted.”

Serrix’s aura grew as his muscles started to bulge. Light formed over his body, fluid first, then snapping solid. The light entered his body, swelling his frame with power. A helmet of solid white mass formed over the creature’s head. Two swords formed in two of his hands.

They were unlike the blades of light he’d used previously. These began as constructs of light that then became something real. One blade was white, the other black.

The danger he felt increased the moment the blades were formed.

His aura crashed down on Leo with the overwhelming taste of superiority. It was proclaiming itself the true evolution of the human species.

Leo’s voice was cold as he gave his opinion.

“Pathetic.”

Stormforged Presence mixed with his Apotheosis came forth like a tide. It washed over Serrix’s aura and carried further still. His hair’s dark grey colouration flashed into a full rainbow of storm-like elements. His eyes glowing brightly.

No more words were said.

They clashed.

Blow after blow, both combatants started landing hits. Leo took a few slashes when he couldn’t dodge. Reinforced Stoneskin thickened further as mana coated his body in protective layers, drawn from his surroundings. Enough to cause Serrix’s blades to bounce when a glancing blow was dealt.

Leo’s fists hit hard too, impacting the strong chitin and leaving large dents, even more than he’d been taking from his foe. His resources were being burned up like they were set ablaze. It didn’t matter, he’d fight until his enemy broke.

Or he did.

“Light’s Vengeance!” Serrix called with a grin, and Leo saw each hit that he’d given to Serrix over the past minute of rapid fighting manifesting into glowing fists of light that hovered in the air above him.

Leo felt a tug at his core. Something was coming into being from within in response to the overwhelming assault that had just formed. He could feel the drain on whatever resource was being consumed to power his Apotheosis. It took a pretty large chunk.

The words came from his throat without him forming them.

They brought the power into being.

“Prismatic Dominion.”

Like an invisible dome had been erected around them, the storm converged. Elements became unstable and unruly. Lightning was scorching the air with frost. Wind sliced flaming gouges into stone.

Serrix’s assault of glowing fists flew towards him through the storm of chaotic elements. Leo tried to dodge but his body chose differently. It pushed him through the storm, flashing past some, but taking hits from others in order to close the gap. They slammed hard into his body, but earthen layers instantly formed over the points of impact, lessening it, albeit barely.

His control weakened over his own body as the storm took its place. His body was cracking, skin peeling from his own attack he’d awakened around them. The power was too great for even him to withstand.

Serrix was even worse off, fighting off desperately as he tried to flee from the area around them. But Leo was just as fast now.

Running from a storm was never easy.

Especially when he was the storm.

Leo felt his hands come together, pulling the elements around them into his control. The storm’s control.

Serrix’s chitin cracked as the elements turned violent and unnatural around him. Frost spread across his body only to ignite into burning blue flame moments later. Wind screamed past carrying arcs of lightning through the air while shards of stone sliced like blades through his armour.

Nothing within the dominion behaved correctly, the elements had become chaos.

Each second inside the dominion tore more from Serrix… and from Leo himself.

As long as he could outlive it. It didn’t matter if he died.

~

Ellie tore herself away from Ron’s protective embrace, taking to the skies with a flurry of Wingbeats. She could feel the turmoil of emotion and energy across the bond. She could feel his rage. Feel the storm raging through him.

Feel his will to die.

It hurt.

She felt useless as she watched Leo fight the bug monster. They were fighting so fast and so hard and she couldn’t keep up! All she would accomplish would be getting in the way. She didn’t know where this Leo came from, all changed and scary. But she wasn’t sure she liked what it was doing to him.

What it was doing to the bond between them. It was like Leo’s soul was being eroded.

But what could she do? He wasn’t responding to any of her mental tugs. None of her attempts at screeching out with her voice. Did he even want her in the fight?

Ellie suddenly froze. Her rainbow irises darkened, rimmed with a golden hue.

Her vision shifted to a landscape impossibly far from this one. One she’d seen before, many sleeps ago.

A broken, torn up landscape of endless storms and constant pressure.

Home.

A giant black monolith appeared in her vision. Her gaze travelled upward. There was a crack in it. One that spread down before it stopped halfway.

A voice tried to enter her head. She could almost hear it. But the words were muted. She focused harder on the feeling behind the words. The intent.

Bond. Together.

Her vision of the sprawling city returned the moment she understood. Instantly she found Leo. It was obvious by the storm flaring above the rooftops.

A Wingbeat carried her upward, once more. She rode the wind until she was above. By the time she got there, Leo’s attack had ended.

The little dragon dove.

~

Leo suddenly stumbled, breath hitching as his body struggled to stay standing. Prismatic Dominion faded as the elements dispersed. No longer could he sustain it.

His consciousness was weakening. The storm was going to consume him before he could finish Serrix. It wasn’t enough. What resource his Apotheosis had been consuming was almost out.

Serrix turned and Leo took in the sorry state of the creature.

It was as if he’d gone through an elemental blender. Not one part of his chitin was untouched. Large scars revealed pink flesh underneath. Red blood dripped from what wasn’t frozen or burned.

“I don’t know what the hell you are,” Serrix breathed. “Some impossible trial, crafted by the system itself to test me. But it ends here.”

Leo couldn’t say anything while the creature monologued. It took everything he had to stay conscious. He felt his hand raise up, shaky palm outstretched. His eyes flashed as his hand closed shut.

The alley walls surged inward, slamming into Serrix from both sides. Leo coughed out blood. breath coming in short wheezes. He looked up. Serrix had stopped the walls from crushing him, but two of his arms hung broken afterwards.

“You’re tenacious, I’ll give you that,” Serrix spat.

Leo couldn’t hold it any longer, and his hand dropped. The walls lost their pushing power.

Serrix grunted and the walls shattered. Swords of light manifested above him. They grew in number. Grew in size.

“You’d have made a good follower,” Serrix said.

“Fuck… you…” Leo croaked out.

Leo felt a tug from within him, something deep and ancient, but also not part of him at all. It told him not to surrender.

It also told him…

To brace for impact.

The swords flew out in a wave, just as a little rocket slammed into him from above. The impact drove him hard into the stone beneath him.

Serrix clicked his mandibles. “One thing after another.”

Ellie appeared in his vision a moment later, crouching next to him. His eyes widened, wrenching him from unconsciousness as he saw Ellie’s wing. It had been severed halfway down and she was bleeding badly.

Fury renewed his vigor, swearing further revenge, even if it killed him. Ellie placed her nose on his forehead, stopping him.

He felt the touch. Felt the bond and what his Apotheosis was doing to him.

Together.

She vanished, and a moment later Leo’s body was filled with warmth. His arms, barely held together by the storm coursing through them, began coating themselves in metal.

His legs that no longer could hold his weight felt heavy, and reinforced. Greaves of sharp silver brilliance formed along them.

He slammed a fist into the ground hard enough to crater the stone. He roared with effort, pushing himself to his feet.

His voice came in breathy pants. “Round two. You ant bitch. And this time I brought back up.”

Fury coated Serrix’s face as he charged. His helmet of light had cracked, revealing one eye, bloodshot with rage.

Leo waited, watching him approach. The storm-grey in his hair had already begun fading as Ellie stabilised him from within. But he still had the last dregs of its power.

He raised his fists, holding them in a boxing stance.

Serrix swung out, wild and devastating. Leo moved at the last second, blurring with Lightning as it grazed his cheek, tearing a chunk from it.

He answered with an uppercut into Serrix’s chin, cracking what was left of his helmet, and shattering his jaw.

A fist crashed into Leo’s chest, shattering his ribs and launching him back. He sprung back, flipping as Gale Talon formed a wind blade, he spun in the air, two more wind blades forming.

But they didn’t fire. They held.

Leo’s hands grasped onto the blades of wind like they were a solid object, halting his momentum mid-air. Then he let them fly, gripping them tightly as they launched toward Serrix.

Leo used the wind blades like swords, slashing into Serrix as he tried to block. He quickly let go. It was a feint. Spark Dash warped him past, turning as he unleashed a barrage of strikes. Fists crashed into Serrix’s back before he could turn, crushing what remained of his armour.

His enemy staggered as Leo continued his assault, slamming his fists with as much force as he could muster. He could barely see straight, but it was enough to smack this insect into the ground.

Serrix dashed forward, escaping the barrage. He spun around, bleeding heavily from the injuries. He had one last chance to finish Serrix before he ran out of energy completely. His body was failing him, even with Ellie’s help.

And he had just what he needed.

Elemental Momentum: 100

It was fully stacked and ready to be unleashed. He could feel the power intertwining with his Apotheosis. His Elemental Severance was changed. Temporarily, but he could feel it.

He could pull from one of his Essences, unleashing all of the stored power and the last of his storm to do it.

Help me out with this one Ells, gonna need all you’ve got. She responded seriously through the bond, power flowing through him. Stabilising him.

His arm outstretched, focusing on the air around him as Serrix steadied himself. Elements raged through the air around him, colliding, mixing, and fighting for dominance. He focused on one that Ellie loved to use.

One that would seal him back in the prison he came from.

He spoke the word. Calling forth the frost.

“Glacia.”

Serrix’s eyes shot open as he tried to run. The air around him frosted over, creating icy walls that trapped him within. His two working arms struck furiously and desperately against the ice, chipping it, but what fell simply froze over once more.

Ice spread rapidly across his arms and torso like a plague of frost.

“No!” Serrix screamed, thrashing around, light mana surging.

Leo closed his gauntleted fist, closed his eyes, and punched into the sky.

A pillar of frost erupted upward, massive enough to dwarf the surrounding buildings. Serrix was trapped within, fully frozen. Leo walked toward the pillar slowly, barely standing at this point.

He placed his hand on it and exhaled.

It shattered into millions of pieces.

The frozen pieces of Serrix mixed within.

A notification appeared. One he’d never expected to live to see.

You have slain: Lord Serrix - Level 118

Experience increased for defeating a higher-level enemy.

+500,000 Store Credits