The Storm King
Chapter 1214: The Umbral Plane III

The Souleater made for an impressive sight as it emerged from the gloom surrounding the desiccated city. It was first and foremost enormous, stretching from head to tail more than a thousand feet. Its head and body were rather fishlike, though harsher and more angular than Leon would’ve expected. Twelve black tentacles waved through the air beside it, while a fishlike tail gracefully undulated at its rear. Its body was almost entirely covered in scales of the darkest black that glistened in the paltry light remaining on the plane like the monster had been submerged in oil, but on its head were six pairs of glowing red eyes, each one at least several times Leon’s height in diameter, all seemingly capable of swiveling in every direction, though four of those pairs were fixed on Leon. Finally, its enormous maw was filled with razor-sharp teeth, each one larger than a fighter ark, and its tremendous aura intensified the darkness around it, which might’ve allowed its black body to fade away from physical vision were it not beelining straight for the iridescent tower.

“Five minutes,” Leon said, gauging how fast the creature was moving and how far it had left to go. “Prepare for battle.”

His people, consummate professionals all, prepared in near-silence. Armor was already donned, but last-minute checks were made and weapons were readied. While Clear wasn’t a fighter, Leon felt the tau’s aura spread out and surround them all, ready to use his light to heal or just to fight off the Souleater’s darkness.

As for the rest of his team: Anzu limbered up and assumed his griffin form, in which he was as strong as he could be. Armor Leon had personally forged for this form sprang into being on his body, light as his coat of feathers yet hard enough to take hits from a Despot.

Marcus checked and rechecked his thunder wood bow and an Adamant sword he wielded, his aura of light magic pulsing softly as a hint of killing intent made its way out. He then conjured his smaller Ulta suit into the throne room and entered it—something Leon hesitated to do given the size of his.

Zhang closed his eyes and murmured softly to himself—a prayer, perhaps—and Daryun next to him did the same. Zhang was far better equipped than Daryun, the latter having lost most of his equipment during his resistance to Leon, but Leon had still gotten Daryun as reequipped as he could without outright forging him bespoke gear, so Daryun was armed and armored like a Tempest Knight.

Finally, Leon himself gave himself a brief inspection and conjured Iron Pride to his waist. The strength of the Universe Fragment hummed softly within the blade, audible only to him, instilling a sense of confidence and anticipation—it was ready to be used. But as much as Leon might’ve wanted to revel in that sensation, the building tension before a great fight, he instead forced himself to be responsible and used his comm slate to send a message to Anshu in the plane’s Voidspace making sure he knew where the Souleater was. There was more Leon might’ve done to coordinate, but almost as if they’d been waiting for this, the two wolves stood and trotted toward the wall separating Leon’s team from the Souleater, and in concern, Leon paused his brief conversation with Anshu.

The two wolves exchanged a look, then howled in unison. The walls of the throne room vanished, leaving the ceiling supported only by twelve curving columns. In the next instant, the wild aura of the Souleater crashed down upon the palace, vile and terrible, with strength Leon struggled to categorize. Bestial magic was generally different from the magic humanity used, but it was close enough that Leon couldn’t remember if he’d ever run into a situation like this before—he thought he was stronger than the Souleater, but it was so hard to tell that he almost locked up in evaluating it.

In his brief reverie, both wolves launched themselves into the air and snapped through the barrier of light shielding the iridescent tower, a war cry passing their lips that was backed by enough power to alleviate the heavy aura of the Souleater.

Leon blinked and realized that Zhang, Daryun, and Anzu had slowed in their last preparations, their eyes becoming glassy and unfocused. Realizing what had happened, he let loose with a brief burst of silver-blue lightning, harmless at the level of the rest of the team but aiding them in fortifying their minds against mental assaults. Clear frowned and redoubled his effort to shield them.

“Pull yourselves together!” Leon shouted. “And follow me!” Without hesitation, he followed the wolves and launched himself into the air. Clear took his tau form and followed suit, his white body shining like a star in the Void, burning away the insidious darkness brought by the Souleater. Anzu was next, and then Daryun and Zhang, with Ulta-suit-clad Marcus taking up the rear.

Leon shot toward the barrier worried for a moment that he’d have to punch through, but it fell just before he made contact—or rather, it was deactivated. Chalking it up to the wolves, Leon pressed forward and soon surpassed them, his body wreathed in lightning that seared the dark around him, his aura pouring from his body like an ocean of power. In the face of such a bold charge, the Souleater hesitated, and Leon thrust Iron Pride forth. Lightning burst forth from the Adamant weapon, and in less than a heartbeat, slammed into the monster’s hide nearly a mile distant.

It roared in pain, and then its oily scales darkened; Leon’s lightning suddenly went from splashing against it to vanishing within the darkness as if consumed. The Souleater then whipped one of its tendrils at him, and though it was far outside of physical range, darkness congealed around Leon and fell upon him.

The blow was strong, rattling Leon’s teeth and sending pain coursing through his body. He shot downward like a falling star, lightning still blazing around him, and barely managed to right himself before striking the earth.

At the same time, the two flying spectral wolves separated in different directions, with the lighter wolf howling and letting loose with a blast of light from its fanged maw. The darker wolf, meanwhile, viciously barked, and the darkness around the Souleater fluctuated and bent, not doing much but pushing against the onrush of poisonous darkness.

Anzu pursued Leon downward as he fell, chirping in concern. Leon groaned as his power banished the lingering ache from the blow, and shot back into the sky, shouting at Anzu and the rest of the team, “BRING THAT THING DOWN!”

In response, Marcus leveled one of his suit’s arms at the beast. Leon could feel lightning crackling within the metal construct, and a bolt from the small Lance within the arm was fired. Zhang, meanwhile, pointed Mountain Cleaver at the creature and light shone forth, cutting through the dark between them. Daryun then thrust his spear and sent a hundred razor-sharp wind blades streaking across the sky. Anzu did likewise as he rose, his magic careening around Leon and then curving back on target.

The Souleater slowed under this bombardment, but the dark of its scales glistened, and not a drop of blood was shed. With an earth-shaking roar, black smoke erupted from its mouth as if it were the caldera of an erupting volcano. That smoke billowed outward, filling the air and rendering physical vision useless. The Souleater nearly vanished within, like a squid in a cloud of ink as it prepared to strike again, but while its smoke nearly drowned out Leon’s magic senses, Leon still located it.

Leon slowed, a brutal snarl marring his features. The wolves were subsumed in this wave of black smoke, the light each gave off smothered instantly. It was Leon’s turn to hesitate, but Leon himself only accelerated, his body blazing with silver-blue lightning. With a cry of defiance, he plunged into the darkness, his inherited lightning pushing darkness away while the antimagic he’d built into his suit further punched holes in the black veil now surrounding him…

… and revealed the Souleater glaring balefully at him, its jaws ajar, yellow fangs brandished like blades. For a moment, Leon saw bulbous organs in the back of the creature’s black throat, faintly glowing in the dark. The monster suddenly inhaled, sucking in all the smoke it had exhaled, and Leon, taken aback, was caught in the gust. He passed the monster’s teeth and barely had time to right himself before vanishing into the darkness within the creature.

His brief ‘victory’ was short-lived, however, as the Souleater’s jaws snapped shut, drowning him in the dark within it.

For long seconds, Leon’s entire world was under pressure. He was squeezed and shaken relentlessly, barely able to orient himself. He pushed against this pressure, and an entire lightning storm erupted from his body to ward away this darkness, but the darkness pressed against him through every microscopic crack in his defenses, sliding like grease over his armor, reaching for his helmet and exerting extra pressure.

“NOT A CHANCE!” Leon roared as he squeezed the hilt of Iron Pride. The Iron Needle vibrated with power, responding to his call with exactly what he wanted: more lightning.

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For a moment, Leon was like a new sun illuminating this darkness. A wave of lightning shot from him in all directions, pushing away the darkness. Where the dark had seemed infinite, suddenly this world he found himself in was once again limited; black flesh, yellow fangs, and softly glowing organs just above him, presenting a tantalizing target.

[Leon!] Xaphan shouted just as Leon raised his blade at the organs. [Don’t touch those!]

Leon had already been launching a lightning bolt at each of them and barely managed to alter their trajectories to bite into the roof of the monster’s mouth. He could ask Xaphan about this another time, but as the darkness pressed in upon him again, he decided to just show some faith in his demonic partner and focused on cutting his way free of the monster trying to swallow him.

Lightning scored the inside of the titanic beast’s mouth, but its jaws remained stubbornly shut even as an ocean of darkness attempted to subsume Leon. With origin power backing him, however, Leon resisted, and then shot against the monster’s jaw and started striking into its gums with divine force.

This finally achieved the desired result as Iron Pride sliced through black flesh and spilled inky black blood. The monster shrieked in pain, and Leon seized the moment to shoot from its gaping maw. In an instant, he regained some distance and evaluated the situation.

He’d only been gone for a minute at most, but already, Marcus’ Ulta suit was wrestling with one of the Souleater’s tendrils and using a blade of blue light extending from the suit’s wrist to cut its way free. The same couldn’t be said for the two wolves, however, who were hopelessly entangled in four more of the Souleater’s tendrils. The rest of the team was, at the same time, bombarding the monster with ranged attacks while Clear maintained a shield of light around them, barely keeping them safe from the darkness around them.

Seeing who needed his help more, Leon charged the Souleater again, his power filling him, origin power racing down his arm and reaching Iron Pride. The Adamant glowed blue with a silver halo as his power filled the metal, and with a single cut, Leon severed the tendril holding Marcus down, freeing him. Leon then pivoted and repeated the move twice more, freeing the light wolf.

The Souleater shrieked in agony with every cut and used its massive bulk to batter past Leon and make straight for the iridescent tower, whose stones were now turning black as darkness pressed against its walls.

The free light wolf howled again, and beams of light shot from its mouth and cut into the tendrils holding its dark counterpart, but the wolf struggled to keep pace with the racing Souleater, whose size belied its speed. Marcus, meanwhile, tumbled through the air, barely righting himself and opening up again with his Lightning Lance.

These attacks, however, the Souleater ignored, and Leon, blazing with lightning, shot after it. He hacked and slashed his way through the darkness, the Souleater’s power melting away before him. His lightning danced across its oily black scales, sinking in deep and ravaging everything it found.

Far above, clouds gathered as Leon’s power spiked. Lightning streaked through the darkness, forcing the darkness to part before it. This lightning rained down upon the Souleater so intensely that the air wavered and the attacks of the rest of Leon’s team dissipated without reaching their foe.

And yet, even as its flesh was torn and black blood flowed, the Souleater reached for the iridescent tower, the dark wolf still locked in its tendrils and struggling with greater ferocity as they neared the tower.

Leon changed strategies slightly and refocused on freeing the dark wolf. As lightning fell from the heavens, he swung Iron Pride twice, using bolts of silver-blue lightning to eviscerate the tendrils holding the dark wolf. The spectral beast fell away with the tendrils as the beast swung its enormous fish-like head around to glare with unnerving awareness and intelligence at Leon.

Pressure concentrated around Leon, seeking any way in. Leon’s mental defenses buckled and cracked under the sudden pressure, but he slammed shut his jaw so tightly that he nearly drew blood and filled his body with silver-blue lightning. His head blazed with power, and were it not for his helmet, his hair would’ve stood on end.

‘You like striking at the mind, do you?’ Leon furiously thought. ‘I can do that too!’

He reached into his soul realm, to a storage area in his Mind Palace where twenty metal cylinders stood, each one about as tall and thick as he was. He pulled these cylinders from his soul realm and hurled them against the Souleater’s black hide. They struck, bounced, and nearly fell away, but precise lightning bolts struck them, setting off their contents.

The cylinders detonated against the enormous beast, assaulting it with all the horrors that the Sen’uus couple that Leon had recruited from Shatufan could fill them with. Having been on the receiving end of one of their creations before courtesy of Manuchehr, Leon almost felt some measure of sympathy for the beast when it froze, a pained howl rising for a moment before suddenly strangling off.

The monster fell, its enormous bulk crushing many of the blackened towers below it. It had reached within a quarter of a mile of the iridescent tower, and Leon didn’t intend for it to go any further. Its mind ravaged by the Sen’uus bombs, Leon poured lightning upon it, and its flesh gave way. At the same time, he sensed beyond his clouds four war machines converging on the city, and he let them through.

Directly above, Storm Herald appeared, the blaze of its weapons illuminating it in the dark. Lightning fell not just from Leon and his summoned clouds, but also from the personal ark of Jason Keraunos.

For a moment, it seemed like enough power was being poured upon the Souleater to split the entire plane in half, and yet the beast still remained stubbornly alive. Leon thrust Iron Pride forward again, reaching deep within himself to a power he hadn’t called upon in a long time due to its cost, and a bolt of lightning darker than the deepest abyssal power conjured by the Souleater shot forth, striking the monster’s head.

The creature went limp, its aura flashing for a moment before winking out like a snuffed candle. Leon halted his barrage of lightning, his team, Storm Herald, and the light wolf doing the same. In response, the Souleater simply lay there, motionless, its body devoid of power or any other signs of life. Leon struck it with another black bolt, hitting it directly in its center of mass, and while its body vibrated a moment, it otherwise remained still.

The beast was dead.

“And that demon said that people capture and drain these things?!” Anzu shouted as he flew up behind Leon, once more in his human form.

[They do,] Xaphan grumbled within Leon’s soul realm. [Foolish lot, but Souleater venom is extremely valuable.]

Unable to hear Xaphan, Anzu flashed Leon a cocky grin and asked, “If we ever find another one, want to try and take it alive?”

Leon just groaned and said, “Maybe I’m getting old, but I’d prefer to just kill them, honestly.”

“Bah. You’re no fun.”

Leon didn’t take Anzu’s words seriously, and playfully socked his brother in the shoulder before his attention was captured by a flash of light within the throne room; the two wolves had returned to it, and their magical signature was fading.

The power of the Souleater was already starting to fade, not just from around its body but within the city, too, so Leon began rapidly issuing orders.

“Marcus! Call Anshu and let him know the threat’s been dealt with! Clear, Daryun, Zhang, make sure that monster’s dead! Marcus, help them when you’re done!”

Four affirmations followed as his team rushed to follow his orders.

“What about us?” Anzu asked, one of his eyebrows raised slightly.

“Follow me,” Leon ordered, and with Anzu at his side, he shot after the wolves.

It took but a moment for the two of them to return to the throne room. Only a small section of the wall remained open to them and closed after they entered. No projections reasserted themselves, however, leaving the walls bare and somewhat marred by the power of the Souleater. Leon’s attention, however, was taken by the wolves.

The dark wolf was lying at the feet of the mummified monarch, looking half a step from death. It was limp, its body dissipating so much that only its head was recognizable, the rest of its body fading away. This dissipation was ongoing, and Leon could tell that soon, it would be gone.

The light wolf had collapsed beside it, looking exhausted. But it was able to lift its head upon Leon’s entrance, and Leon guessed it was by that wolf’s will that the wall sealed behind him and Anzu. It made eye contact with Leon, its eyes now milky white. For a moment, Leon felt some foreign power brushing against him, but as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, leaving him unable to truly analyze it. He was certain as to its origin, however, as the light wolf turned its head from him and to the radiant amulet around the monarch’s neck—now markedly less radiant.

Where before, the gem had been akin to the light and radiance of a star plucked from the sky hung from a golden chain, now it sputtered like a failing magic lantern, the beautiful blues, purples, and pinks that once shone through it now lost. The light wolf returned its gaze to Leon and gave one last mournful howl as the dark wolf beside it finally dissipated into nothing. Its howl ended in a pained cry. It lowered its head to Leon and seemed to relax, accepting what was coming.

“Rest easy, friend,” Leon said, his voice as quiet and tender as he could make it after such a short, yet brutal battle. “You will be remembered, as will your people.”

Whether or not the wolf could hear him, he wasn’t sure. Regardless, with a look of peace on its face, the wolf vanished, the last vestige of its magical presence disappearing along with it.

Leon’s eyes turned then to the amulet. It had seemed like the wolf wanted him to have it—at least, that was what he wanted to believe. But as the last hints of the light wolf vanished, the light within the amulet died, leaving the large gem gray and dull, as beautiful as a common, cloudy crystal.

Still, Leon walked over to the mummified monarch, a melancholic sense of having lost something special rising within him. With as much respect as he could, he lifted the amulet over the monarch’s head, doing his best not to damage the corpse. He’d make sure it received a funeral fit for Royalty once he was more in control of the plane.

As he lifted the amulet, he held it with one hand and brought the other down to hold the gem, intending to examine it more closely. He wasn’t much of a jeweler, but he had some experience with gems thanks to his skills as a blacksmith. However, as the gem settled into his Adamant gauntlet, lightning suddenly began pouring uncontrollably from his fingers, and Leon’s entire world became pain…