Rising god
Chapter 45: Baines vs...

Chapter 45: Baines vs...

’Divine power...’ Baines mused silently, his eyes narrowing as he took in the oppressive aura surrounding the temple.

—It is only residual, but that is divine power.

Smalltooth confirmed through their link, awe laced in her tone.

Without hesitation, Baines leapt from the dragon’s back and dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

Bang!

The impact of his landing sent tremors through the soil, a declaration of his arrival that immediately alerted the creature guarding the temple.

—W-What are you doing?!

Smalltooth cried out in alarm, her wings flapping anxiously as she hovered above.

But Baines didn’t answer.

He stared forward calmly as the skeletal creature began its slow approach. The sound of its arrival was the clinking of chains against its body, echoing through the fog-drenched ruin.

It was no ordinary skeleton.

Black mist draped over its bones like a tattered cloak. Twin embers burned where its eyes should have been, and a dull red gem pulsed from its forehead like a third, cursed eye.

"A lich?" Baines muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

Liches were always known to be summoners of skeletal and death creatures. And their description fit everything Baines was witnessing at the moment.

’Eye, identify the location of its core.’ It wasn’t news that the leader of undead creatures usually had a core, and without destroying that core, it would continuously regenerate.

[SCANNING...]

[CORE LOCATION: RIGHT EYE SOCKET]

One would think the core of the skeleton was at the top of its head, however, it turned out to be its eye.

Without wasting a second, Baines pulled his bladeless sword from its sheath.

"Torrential Slash!"

As he drew it, the invisible blade extended mid-air into a searing arc of energy, cleaving through trees, vines, and straight toward the advancing lich.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

But a dark magic circle materialized in front of the lich, absorbing the impact. Then, another circle formed behind it, and like serpents, black chains shot out at Baines.

Click.

He sheathed and re-drew his sword in a flash, using it now in a physical form to parry the incoming chains. Sparks flew as metal met enchanted metal. But the lich wasn’t done.

Several magic circles flared into existence around it, summoning elemental assaults, flames, bolts of lightning, tendrils of plant life, and torrents of water.

Baines responded in kind, pulling out the Moonblade with his off-hand. As the magical onslaught descended, the blade absorbed the energy like a bottomless void until it remained only wisps of mana.

’It uses elemental mana too?’ he thought, blocking more chains with his sword. His footing was precise, but even he felt the pressure mounting.

’I need to learn dual wielding... this is clumsy.’

His attacks weren’t as fluid as he wanted, but he couldn’t stop now.

Clenching his grip, he reversed his body and unleashed the energy absorbed by Moonblade directly onto the chains.

BOOM!

The resulting explosion sent tremors through the earth, dust and magic smoke billowing into the sky. But even before the smoke cleared, Baines launched forward, bursting through space with a speed that blurred his image.

"CLEAVE!"

For the first time, he tried the move with both sword and dagger, swinging down with crushing force.

BOOOOOOM!

The very earth cracked beneath them as a crater formed from the force of the blow. The lich’s protective magic circle and skeletal frame were violently split, its form shattering into fragments.

But the technique came with a cost.

"Cough—" Baines choked as blood gushed from his mouth. Pain tore through his ribs and lungs, internal organs bruised from the recoil. It felt like fire was burning him from within.

’It was stronger than I expected,’ he thought grimly at the recoil, but it was still bearable.

Despite the agony, he pushed forward again as the lich began to heal.

This was his first fight after forming stars with what his aura, and its effect, couldn’t be more obvious.

This lich was a middle 6th star in strength, and he was at peak 5th star.

The lich, though momentarily down, let out a bone-shaking screech.

KIEEEEEE!!

Its fragmented body snapped back together with unnatural speed, forming dozens of magic circles that fired in all directions.

Baines, breathing hard, charged straight through the barrage, dodging the first waves, parrying with his sword, letting his cloak absorb the strikes that broke through.

He closed the distance once again.

"BLAST!"

He thrust the sword forward with precision, condensing all the destructive energy into the point of impact.

BOOOM!

The attack pierced straight through the lich’s torso, sending it crashing into the temple’s structure. But to Baines’s dismay, the temple didn’t crumble; it accepted the creature and its divine residue, beginning to heal it.

’So that’s how it is...’ Baines muttered.

The temple itself served as a healing font, providing divine recovery to the undead monster.

Then,

BOOOM!

The black divine power coating the temple began to emanate from the lich.

Watching in disbelief, Baines felt another wave of blood rise to his mouth. He was exhausting his reserves, and fast.

Blast.

This was the destruction technique after Cleave, he had learnt to use upon forming stars with his stomach core. Using the will of the technique, this attack would tear through anything with a pierce.

And he used it just after using the double ’cleave’.

Then, the lich retaliated.

It’s mana, no divine power erupted across the forest, spreading like a suffocating blanket. Over thirty magic circles emerged in the sky, all brimming with deadly black magic.

And this time, they weren’t elemental.

Balls of void-dark energy, cursed chains, and weapons made from corrupted souls began raining down like a storm of death.

The lich had begun channeling divine power.

Crack...

Its body cracked from the strain of several magic circles using divine power, but the residue from the temple began healing it.

Everything happened within seconds.

One moment, everything was calm, then the sky was suddenly covered in black magic circles and attacks.

Baines’ mind was spinning as he thought of his next action.

’I can’t dodge, and Moonblade cannot absorb divine power.’ He frowned grimly as he watched the blanket of black about to shower him.

’Do I use it...?’ he thought, eyes glancing down at his chest. This was the second time he had to contemplate unleashing his Heart’s core.

But something stopped him.

’Wait.’ He suddenly reached into his pouch and pulled out a light green staff.

This was the relic of the Silent Monks.

Eye had told him the staff could find the perfect route in a difficult situation, and this could be counted as a difficult situation, right?

Without hesitation, he tapped it against the ground.

DUUUMMM...

A soft sound, like striking a shallow lake, reverberated outward.

And unexpectedly... his mind exploded with information.

"ARGH!"

Blood poured from his eyes and ears as visions and instructions flooded his thoughts.

[RECEIVING INFORMATION...]

[SORTING INFORMATION...]

"Ha...ha..." he gasped as he fell to his knees, the pain worse than any battle wound.

Eye immediately took over, processing the data before it overwhelmed him completely.

[1,1234,532,132 SECTIONS OF INFORMATION GATHERED]

He would have died if not for Eye, but his situation didn’t allow him to reminisce.

Just Eye, a solution emerged.

’So I can use the aging technique like that...’

Click.

He sheathed his sword.

Then turned to face the descending tide of destruction.

Aura flared from his core. A different kind of energy, matured, weathered, heavy like the weight of time itself. He put all his aura into forming this technique.

"Torrential Bind: Decaying Rain: CLEAVE!"

He drew the blade.

It came out as a tree-sword, each branch dripping with aged energy.

The magic circles were now just above him.

And he swung.

The branches met with each attack, digging into it. The aura was fading away, and then came the aging. Each drop of decay on the branches began to spread, touching the incoming attacks and infecting them, slowing them, then the Cleave component shattered and ripped them apart.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions rippled across the sky and land. The force sent Baines flying backward, rolling across the ground. His cloak barely held up, his body a tapestry of cuts, bruises, and blood.

"Gahhhh..." Still, he pushed himself up and sprinted again.

Intense explosions rocked the ground and engulfed everything as Baines kept working on overdrive, continuously damaging his internal organs as Eye restored it. Thankfully, his Origin arts also allowed his aura to naturally replenish.

It made one think, what would he have done without them?

But he wasn’t done. He couldn’t stop now.

Upon getting to safety, where the explosion was the least, he tore through space to get closer.

The lich was already regenerating again, raising more circles.

But this time, Baines acted first.

A lot of insights came from just the little information he had received from the treasure staff.

He didn’t reach the lich when he gathered aura to his throat, opened it wide, twisted it in a painful, and released a word he shouldn’t have been able to.

[STOP!]

The power of the dragon tongue.

The lich froze mid-gesture. Completely paralyzed.

And the cost...

"Cough—!!"

Blood burst from Baines’s mouth and nostrils. His vocal cords tore, his throat strained to the brink.

Crack.

His vocal cords shattered as a word mistakenly came out.

For a normal person, it would be over; however,

[COMMENCING TREATMENT]

He also threw a plant inside his mouth to aid his healing and approached with Void sky steps.

He suddenly understood why the creator of the technique lost her voice trying to create it. It was just too powerful.

Void Sky Steps carried him forward like lightning. His legs had suffered from overstrain, bleeding continuously.

He neared the lich and gripped the Moonfang tightly.

-Cut...

A low voice echoed.

"Cleave," he whispered within.

The blade met the creature’s form and passed through with precision, however, it was still healing. With difficulty, he employed his Baines combat method and changed the direction to slice through its limbs and,

SHING!

The lich’s head detached and fell.

Baines stepped forward, pushing his bloody body and his creaking bones to reach the headless lich before it began to heal.

Upon reaching, he dug his fingers into the right eye socket.

Silence fell.

Baines stood amid the cratered, mangled earth, his cloak and body soaked in blood, his body trembling from overuse.

However, the temple behind him remained intact, somehow untouched by the devastation.

But the land around it... was a ruin of a ruin. The ground cracked like glass, trees felled, the air thick with smoke and lingering divine power.

...

Above, Smalltooth hovered, still muttering the same word.

"...Impossible..."

She had watched everything.

Every single thing Baines had done wasn’t something he was supposed to be able to do.

First off, how was he battling someone stronger than he?

And he won.

From his weaker self, he pulled out attacks too strong for him to handle, and instead of collapsing from internal injury, he continued. He bled, screamed, and broke his own body continuously with every attack, but he continued.

If anything shocked her the most, it was the Dragon’s tongue he used.

How was he able to use it? Though its power wasn’t significant and it wasn’t performed well, the point was, she, as a dragon, couldn’t even use it.

After seeing the battle was over, she waited a full five minutes before trying to descend.

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