A little part of Hiral’s heart broke as the unbelievably comfortable couch absolutely shattered beneath the bulk of the green monster Hiral slammed down onto it. Nearby, the breakfast that’d been earlier prepared for him—along with the table it had sat on—flew into the air from the force of the impact. A trail of torn floorboards traced their path from the instant they’d entered the now-closed door, and the entire, interspatial building shook.

  Mainly because Hiral pounded on the body of the beast beneath him, Impact surrounding his knuckles, while Rejection jetted from his elbows to further empower each punch. Fists coming rapid-fire, they were basically a blur of white, with black lightning crackling around them. On his head, the Seeker’s Crown materialized, the sun-like centerpiece glowing in preparation for…

  WHAAAM.

  Hiral careened off the thirty-foot ceiling of the living space, collided with the wall, then ricocheted to slam down into the kitchen. Granite countertopping exploded as he went through it, before the floor finally stopped his momentum. Stars crossed his vision—some of them wobbling a little drunkenly—but he pushed himself to his feet at the same time the muscular monstrosity did. From the look on its face, it was outright surprised it hadn’t pasted Hiral with that punch.

  In the Abode of Asinef, now that Hiral had a real chance to look at the monstrosity, it was clear his gambit had paid off. Neither of the two tendrils of connection were visible at the thing’s back. On the other hand, its body somehow looked… fresh? Like it’d gotten infused with a second life or new energy upon entering the Abode.

  I don’t think it’s my imagination it feels stronger now.

  The reset ability was terribly powerful, but did it come at a cost? Did it limit their actual power in exchange for making them basically immortal? That… threw a new potential wrench in destroying the Heart of the City.

  A problem for after he dealt with the thing in front of him. Wish View worked so I had a name for it…

  Standing up straight and cracking his neck, Impact and Decrease rotated around him, the combination having taken the real sting out of both the blow and his meetings with the ceiling, wall, and floor. Yeah, it still hurt, but Hiral wasn’t the same person who’d fought the Hulking Behemoth in the Palace of Creeping Death. He wasn’t defenseless against overwhelming strength.

  Because he was overwhelming power.

  “Rule six,” Hiral said, activating Double Trouble+, Eloquently Enraged+, and Concentrated Domain of the Sun+—with all the benefits from the Domain Ability Modifications he’d gotten in the A Fallen Hope dungeon—in quick succession.

  Spectral seating rose along the interior walls of the Abode of Asinef, spectators appearing on balconies ringing the space. From the sounds—and glow—the same thing had happened in the other rooms as well. This time, Hiral hadn’t bothered dropping his RHCs into the Domain Infusion, but instead his Blight’s Mercy, just in case this thing in front of him had an annoying regeneration. With the powerful buffs—along with his pseudo-aspect and Reinforcement—his attributes were well into the realm of absurd.

  As if realizing just how dangerous Hiral was, the behemoth across from him used its own buffing skill. Unlike Hiral’s, this one didn’t have any flashy energy explosions or rotating special effects around it. No, it just bulked up, its already impressive musculature inflating, while it grew tall enough it could reach the ceiling with a bit of a jump. Beneath its feet, the wooden floor cracked under the new weight set upon it, and the thing leaned forward and roared in Hiral’s direction.

  More debris from their ‘entrance’ into the abode flew at Hiral from the sheer force and volume of the roar. Nothing his Runes of Sound and Rejection couldn’t handle without him even lifting a finger. Though, when he did lift a hand, it came with dozens of threads of Connection, Rejection, Impact, and Dreaming that stretched out and looped around the monster. Before it had a chance to even notice them, Hiral jerked his hand to the side.

  Surprised—or maybe just lacking the will to resist Hiral’s command of his Edicts—the behemoth shot to the side to crash into the nearest spectral wall. The impact shook the house, and then the thing rocketed back in the opposite direction to smash into the other wall. Back and forth, up and down, Hiral bounced the thing around the room, decimating the walls behind the spectral seating, but doing little actual damage to the monster.

  What was more, after fifteen seconds of the abuse, another wave of power rolled off the thing, eroding the ties Hiral had lashed it with, to finally break his control. That was fine, the process had just been a test to see what he could do with it—and how much he could hurt it—and it had told him a lot. His Edicts could directly influence it, though not enough for something like Separation to outright cube it. Non-lethal things would be easier to work, but as soon as actual danger came into play, the lizard-like humanoid’s instinctual defenses kicked in.

  The beast wasn’t thinking about defense at all, though, its thick-fingered hands balling into fists as it hurled itself at Hiral. Copious amounts of muscles bunched and then unleashed a powerful, sweeping hook that tore at the broken floor as it came around.

  As powerful as Hiral was, trying to straight tank that—even with his Edicts—seemed like a bad idea. So, he didn’t try to tank the mighty punch. A lift of Rejection hopped him up and twisted him into a spin above the fist that shredded the ground beneath him. At the same time the blow swept beneath him, Hiral snapped his hips around, adding in a—frankly—nasty amount of Impact, Increase, and Breaking to the heel that slammed into the side of the beast’s face.

  The shockwave from the connected blow bowed out the walls, the ceiling and the floor like they were trying to contain an inflating waterskin. Even as the wood naturally bounced back, the behemoth was coming back around with his other fist, looking to pulp Hiral. From the displacement of the air and the speed of the blows, the thing wasn’t quite as much a punch-savant as Right was, but it was still dangerous, and Hiral changed up the range again.

  This time, stepping in, he coated the back of his hand with Impact, Decrease, a bit of Rejection, and Expansion, then slid it along the inside of the beast’s own forearm. Deflecting the momentum of the punch gave Hiral the opening he needed for his other fist to throw a needling series of punches.

  These ones, laced with Piercing, Vibration, Breaking, Impact, Energy, and Expansion acted like a barrage of spear thrusts punching into the thing’s chest. Even though Hiral didn’t shred the now-tougher scales protecting the thing, he didn’t need to. The resonating force of each strike would feel like a stab going into its chest and exploding out its back, and do just about as much damage.

  It still wasn’t enough, with a roar of pain getting accompanied by another attempt at a crushing blow.

  Sure, I can play this game.

  Another deflection, along with another bombardment of his own punches, became the norm for ten seconds of brutal exchanges. Hiral, by far the faster of the pair, countered each of the titanic punches by deflecting or evading them, then throwing out counter after counter. Volleys of punches changed to vicious slashes of his Claws of Separation—these tearing chunks of scales off with each pass—and then Gravity Bombs around its ankles to steal its footing.

  Through it all, licks of black, Blight energy licked the wounds, but it wasn’t quite enough to counter the thing’s powerful healing factor. Calling the ability regeneration really wasn’t accurate, with how overwhelmingly powerful it was. It was easily as good as Hiral’s own Abyssal Runic Regeneration, on the level of healing throughput. Where it was lacking, on the other hand, was the cost.

  Hiral could feel the amount of solar energy getting sucked into each burst of healing, almost like the beast was instinctively using an active healing ability so much, it just looked like regeneration. The fact it had enough solar energy to keep that up was just as impressive, the tour of force between the pair blasting them through the wall of the living room and into the spa-area the maid must’ve been talking about.

  Off to the side, a two-hundred-foot-long pool extended, with a swirling, bubbling whirlpool, and a room leaking steam beyond it. Closer, a pair of the maids ran away from a cushioned table, while the butler guy just rolled his eyes like he was annoyed he’d have to clean up the mess later.

  Ignoring the ‘help’, Hiral ducked another sweeping blow, to come back up with his own massive uppercut. Planting his feet on planes of Rejection, and doubling down on pure Impact, the punch drove into the bottom of the thing’s jaw with a brutal crack. Finger-length fangs shattered as the jaw slammed shut on itself—the tip of the tongue flipping into the air with a spray of blood—and the thing staggered back.

  Shaking its head to try to order its thoughts, the thing’s legs didn’t seem so sure beneath it. An opening like that, Hiral couldn’t pass up, his other hand dragging up and across in a low-to-high arc, massive blades of Separation and Expansion trailing his fingers. Even thrown together quickly, the attack tore deep gouges across the scaled chest, four lines of blood spraying to strike the ceiling high above.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Like that attack had finally hurt the monster, it turned and leapt into the huge pool. The bellyflop threw up a wave of water Hiral cut through with a thought of Separation and Rejection to keep himself completely dry. When the wave of water cleared, he found the monster staring up at him from the bottom of the deep pool. It had to be almost a hundred feet deep. Why anybody would need a pool like that—especially in an interspatial home—Hiral didn’t know, but the monster clearly expected Hiral to go into the water to chase after it.

  “Uh, no,” Hiral said, thrusting his hands to the ground, where he channeled his Runes of Vibration, Increase, Breaking, Sealing, and—most importantly—Sound. The instant the cocktail of runes reached the water, it bubbled and shook like it was boiling.

  Thanks to Sealing, all of the deafening volume remained trapped—and magnified—within the water, and the monster’s hands went to the side of its head in surprised pain. Vibration and Sound crisscrossed and bounced within the water, magnifying with each pass until the pool was a white-water mess. Cracks spread outward along the stone, and the spectral crowd of Domain of the Sun raised their voices in chanting support of the show.

  It probably wasn’t enough to kill the…

  A fist emerged from the stone beneath Hiral’s hands, and only near-instant reflexes throwing up a shield of Impact and Decrease saved him from getting his face smashed in. On the other hand, the shield wasn’t enough to keep him on the ground, his back shattering the ceiling above him to “introduce” him to the second level of the Abode of Asinef. Thankfully, the thick floor between the first and second levels had stolen most of Hiral’s momentum, and he bounced off the second-floor ceiling to land squarely on a massive bed.

  Circular, with purple, silk sheets—Almost as soft as my Seeker’s Regalia…—the thing was fit for a king. As was the room around it, exquisite furniture, art on the walls, and what looked like a bathroom made of marble from top to bottom. To call it luxurious was an understatement.

  Until the monster from below made his appearance, warning bells going off in Hiral’s head the instant he laid eyes on it.

  Gone was the massive bulk of before, leaving the thing wiry and thin. Standing only eight-feet tall now, its long arms allowed its clawed fingers to scrape along the ground as it leaned forward. The scales across its body had taken on a new sheen, and the tail lashed behind it while its eyes landed on Hiral, lounging on the bed.

  If Hiral’s eyes wanted him to believe the loss of mass from the creature was a sign of weakness, his solar energy senses screamed how wrong they were. The muscle and power of the previous form weren’t lost, they were compressed into this new shape. If anything, this version of the beast was on a whole new level compared to the previous one.

  Pulling himself upright with Connection and Attraction, Hiral went from lying to standing like he had a fulcrum on his ankles. The beast didn’t give him any more time than that, lunging ahead with its claws extended. Faster by miles than before, it was on him in an instant, but it still wasn’t nearly as fast as he was.

  Dropping his points into Atn and Dex proved their worth in that instant, his hands catching each of the lizard’s wrists, before he twisted at the waist. Using the momentum of the lunge, Hiral pulled the lizard up and over, slamming it down into the wide bed. By the way the mattress just absorbed all the force for a heartbeat, Hiral worried for an instant he’d done nothing but offer the creature a good night’s sleep.

  Too bad for the bed, while the Abode of Asinef was an S-Rank tattoo, the furniture inside wasn’t built to withstand a full-on battle between two S-Ranks looking to kill each other. In the second second, the bed splintered, the mattress exploded out its sides, and the floor beneath them gave out. The wreckage falling back down to the first level might as well have been in slow motion for Hiral, and he pushed the wrists of the prone monster out with bursts of Rejection.

  As soon as it was spread eagle in front of him, Hiral lashed it down with thick bands of Connection, Attraction, and Gravity, basically tying it to the bed.

  So glad Right isn’t here to see this…

  The whole process—and the stray thought—barely took a heartbeat, and then Hiral was punching. Unable to protect itself, the monster had no defense as Hiral unloaded on its face until the bed crashed to the first floor a second later. Impressively, the new, shiny scales proved just how much more durable than the previous version had been, though they weren’t enough to save it from a busted jaw, an exploded eye, and most of its teeth missing.

  Not that the injuries were enough to stop it, the powerful arms finally ripping free of the bindings at the same time the bed exploded from the impact of hitting the floor. Long claws—make that extending claws—reached for Hiral in a dangerous pincer-maneuver, except he was already gone.

  Skidding backward on the dusty floor, once again in the living room from, Hiral’s hands went out to his side. This thing was too durable, and he probably should’ve just done this from the beginning, the Edicts racing down his arm to begin forming the Seeker’s Unmaking.

  However, as soon as the sword started taking shape, the entire Abode of Asinef shuddered. Cracks formed along the walls, dust and broken pieces fell from the ceiling, while the shuddering turned too full-shaking, like a localized, focused earthquake.

  The Abode wasn’t powerful enough to contain the sword. And, if Hiral let the thing back outside, it would once again reconnect with the reset ability. The fact it had hardly healed since they’d entered proved being within the interspatial house had broken the connection. Hiral needed to capitalize on that, and breaking the Abode of Asinef was not the way to do it.

  With the thought, the Edicts unraveled from their sword form, and returned to their usual place at his back. He’d really just have to do this the old-fashioned way. Clenching his fists at his sides, Impact laced his knuckles, while barriers of Rejection, Impact, and Decrease circled around him. Across from him, the monstrosity stood up from the wreckage of the bed, its claws now more than a foot long, and practically cutting the air where they moved.

  This thing had put all of its S-Rank power into pure physicality, and it was ready to show it all in a throw-down, knock-out brawl. It was going to make Hiral work and bleed for the win, every second it held him, another second his friends were in danger.

  One claw went to the broken bed tangling its legs, then snapped up and to the side, flinging half the wreckage aside. Wood shattered against the far wall at the same time Hiral appeared right in front of it, one hand grabbing the nearby wrist again.

  At the same time, his knee smashed into its gut with Impact and Increase crowning the runic cocktail there, and Gravity hauled on its shoulders from behind. Off-balance from the surprise attack, its eyes opened wide as Hiral headbutted its face, toppling the whole thing back to crash to the floor. Up and around, its free hand came to cut him to ribbons. As if it were scripted, though, the forearm below the deadly claws landed directly into Hiral’s waiting hand—Thank you Attraction—where his Eloquently Enraged-enhanced strength held it firm.

  Then he headbutted it again, flattening the ruined nose into nothing more than a bloody crevasse in its face. A third, a fourth, and a fifth headbutt left gore dripping from Hiral’s Seeker’s Crown. Cocking his head back for a sixth blow, the monstrosity below him actually winced, while its arms didn’t have quite the same strength in them from the stunning assault.

  A drop of crimson fell from Hiral’s brow to splash on a wide eye staring up at him, before a yellow glow spread across its face. Light flared from the runes dancing within Hiral’s eyes, while the crown on his head spit sparks of energy, shaping itself along his skull. Then, with Hiral’s face no more than two feet from the monster’s, the world went monochrome.

  There wasn’t even a chance for the monster to react before the controlled Seeker’s Annihilation drilled into its face, neck, and shoulders. As a testament to the thing’s power and durability, it didn’t simply evaporate beneath the point-blank blast.

  Within the arms held by Hiral’s grasp, muscles finally bunched and flexed, panic fueling instincts to protect itself. Its legs tried to buck and thrash, but Gravity held them firmly pressed to the floor. Panic wasn’t good for will, and it couldn’t resist the power of Hiral’s Edicts.

  And, the whole time, Hiral poured the tightly-focused Annihilation onto the monster’s face, leaning forward as it tried to pull away. Stray energy splashed out from the onslaught, the black and white lances of ricochetting energy carving sections out of the Abode of Asinef and Domain of the Sun. More and more, he poured energy into the continuous beam eroding the scales, the flesh, then the muscle beneath them.

  Peeling it away layer by layer, Hiral adding Breaking, Energy, Increase, and Compression to the beam, while at the same time restricting the size of it. With the addition of the Edicts’ power, even S-Rank durability and healing wasn’t enough to survive.

  A final, spasming twitch from the arms was the last resistance before the Seeker’s Annihilation punched through to obliterate the floor beneath the monster. Before it could go any further—and damage the Abode of Asinef more than it had—Hiral cut the beam off, leaving him looming over what was left of the creature.

  In his hands, Hiral held the detached arms—ending at the biceps—while the rest of the beast was missing from the sternum and up. Flickers of black flame—the Blight—lingered on the edges of the eradicated flash, ensuring no more healing would take place. Not that it would. The thing was good and dead. Hiral’s PIM had absorbed energy and meaning an instant after the final twitch of the arms.

  Speaking of which, he tossed the two limbs into his Shared Storage—the claws looked like they could make for good crafting materials—and he stepped off the broken body.

  Looking around, the Abode of Asinef was a mess. The fight had torn down walls, collapsed the ceiling over there, and water poured in one side from where the pool had broken. And, from somewhere, others had come to view the destruction. Three butlers and a dozen maids, with the butler who’d spoken to Hiral earlier stepping forward.

  The man’s balding head looked up to the hole leading to the large bedroom above them.

  “Ahem,” the butler said and cleared his throat at the same time. “Perhaps the young master would like us to prepare the guest suite while the master suite gets…” he looked up, then back to Hiral. “… tidied?”

  “Thank you for the offer,” Hiral said, letting Eloquently Enraged fade, so it’s cooldown could end sooner. Something told him he’d need it again soon enough. “But I’ll be stepping out.”

  “As the young master wishes.”

  Shaking his head at the young master nonsense, Hiral strode over to the exit of the Abode, then stepped back out into the real world. As soon as he did, a titanic explosion from above shook the city, and Left jogged up to him.

  “Did it work?” Left said. “Did it cut of the guardian’s connection to the Heart of the City?”

  “Yeah,” Hiral said, looking down the tunnel to the aforementioned Heart. “Just one problem. Breaking the connection seemed to let the thing tap into its true power. If we shut down the Heart, it might make the Raze even stronger.”

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