Creation Online
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17 - The Ways of the Rod
🕑 Added 2024-04-06 17:11:00 +0000 UTCScourge had shown the truth of the Unknown, Judgement had taken her right to judge away and now Intervention had set her into a conundrum where she had to put the Unknown in place by force. All while refraining from killing any of the Unknown anymore.
'I should stop calling them the Unknown, but till when I find an accurate name I'm stuck with that'. She leaped into the air avoiding the stream of bright sickly green flames.
'Best to keep avoiding those, keep Molliwag from physically chasing'. Getting permanent death was a no-no. The devs had wonderfully given a permanent death as punishment for getting killed by Molliwag or killing Molliwag. That atleast was how she interpreted the failure punishment of death since it was already clear she could kill the huge dragon anytime.
In a way, it made the matchup a bit unfair, yet also reasonable.
Right now she was close enough to figuring out the secret to Molliwag's defeat but like an oily pin on an equally oily floor, it kept eluding her.
'Atleast my health is better than before. ' she thought mentally checking on her health. It had fallen a bit low from the scratches and nicks but overall remained high enough.
'Divine Purity is surely one hell of an insight. An Overkill if I may say.'
Her legs halted drawing traction on the ground. Her eyes locked unto Molliwag as a single thought pushed its way to the surface like a swimmer coming up for air.
'If the devs made everything quite different and unexpected then what would an ability that should be just for healing do?? Or wait, what if this time it's not too different? She turned existent to look at her palms but suddenly noticed another attack getting close.
'Shit' Hilde moved to the side avoiding the adolescent that crashed there. "Be on the move". She chastised herself but kept her gaze behind and around her.
'Back to that. Let's check out Divine Purity'.
[INSIGHT]
[NAME - DIVINE PURITY]
Divinity is pure, holy, and bright a true counter in some ways to the Primordial Chaos an energy having no match. Its effects are the complete opposite of the dark miasma of the Void.
The text was the last of the written information the rest simply settled into her head. A bit of understanding came to her yet it also brought more intricacies.
"Enough running Mother" the roar of Molliwag sent a chill down her spine freezing her long enough to let an adolescent Unknown scrape her right forearm. With a lapse in thought, she willed it to be sent flying but it barely moved her will useless without the specific skill.
A groan escaped her while she leaped back again flooding her arm with Divinity courtesy of Divine Purity. The beautiful feel of warmth spread over her and into the wounds on her body, quickly replenishing her health. Yet it didn't make her smile or happy.
It was a matter of time too before Molliwag got fed up and she would have to fight him. An accident could lead to death on either side. Something she couldn't accept.
The Unknown still there leaped at her while the Divine worked its restoring magic. Stunned at the sudden attack yet again she blasted another force of Will at the creature.
Something different happened.
A wave of ethereal golden energy spread out from her striking the Unknown and flinging it back.
Two dings resounded in her head simultaneously and two lines appeared in her vision while a voice repeated the words already emblazoned into her line of sight like it wanted to make sure she understood.
[YOU HAVE GAINED INSIGHT]
[Divine Cloak]
Instant information flowed into her brain explaining what just happened and other things. When she was done absorbing it all and understanding, a laugh escaped her.
'Now it makes sense'
Cold embers of divinity, basically the leftovers of Divine energy negated all will from beings with pure divinity which she had. This was due to the resemblance it bore with the main divinity The catch though was the balance, just like cold divinity could negate her will, she could negate the will of those with cold divinity.
'Not like it would have mattered. Can't even utilize any skill or spell without the energy.' she reasoned catching an Unknown and tossing it into the pack of them. Then there was the loophole she just found. She could use her will on the Unknown if she cloaked it with Divinity. The burst of Abstract while using Divine Purity had taken the energy with it hidden within thus the golden wave.
'Like I stopped using it like a tool and just made both Abstract and Divinityy tool. Combined both'.
"But it's not enough if I don't...Wait a minute" Her eyes widened as she looked at her palm.
Her eyes went to the Unknown her burst of Divine Cloak hit wiggling and screeching from the divinity affecting it.
"It surely can't be that simple right". Dashing forward while slipping nimbly through the grasps of various Unknown her Cloak of the one somehow also getting past without being snagged she slid onto her knees beside the Unknown and shut her eyes in concentration. It didn't take long to find and understand the information she needed.
Processed it.
Then her eyes opened. A suppression landed on the environment as she felt her aura spread from her. But it was more than Aura.
[GENERAL SKILL - Divinity Emission - gained]
The Divine you form now flows not just through you but can also be forced out. This energy powers the very godly and divine phenomena related to beings of your level.
[GENERAL SKILL Abstract - Phys Emission - gained]
The Abstra-physical manifestation of your Abstract or Will. Unlike the mere mental utility, this one bears a more physical presence that can be easily seen and felt.
[General Skill - Divine Cloak gained]
Divinity melded into Abstract forms a semi-shrouded energy that let's divinity act without detection.
[General Skill - Aura - gained]
Divinity is the very strength of gods. Outwards its very presence is spread. Abstract manifested bears the might of your mental prowess and capabilities. Conjoined, both create an intense sensation, weight, and pressure called Aura.
She ignored the prompt since she expected it. The information had come with aura learning. Simply because Divine Cloak was a mix of divinity and one's Will. One bearing her Abstract and the other her divinity. Together it created pressure for those beneath her level.
It was this same Divine Cloak that she funneled into the Unknown watching as it twitched and screeched in horror and pain. A loading bar appeared slowly rising to demonstrate the ongoing progress.
Hildelith had words for the loading bar but she was too focused to bother.
Her awareness was spread through the Unknown's body finding everything within. She could sense and feel her Divine Cloak burning through the Unknown, mapping its internal structure and more.
Unknown to Hilde at this point the bird following and recording her fight blinked. The game staff edited out scenes.
Unaware she poured more of the Divine Cloak into the adolescent watching as it twitched and screeched for help. But its cries and screeches were useless as none of the Unknown could move with the full brunt of her uncontrolled Level 9 Aura and then the boosts from her amplifiers.
All the Unknown that entered her aura range were flattened while Molliwag could barely move his breath seething with greenish flames.
Finally, the loading bar filled up and she saw what she wanted to see or hoped to be good.
[Unknown has been purified]
[Cold Ember Divinity Cleared]
[You have received a shard]
The Unknown was quiet, its body now changed. Gone was the macabre creature that once brought chills. In its place lay a still six-eyed lesser beast.
[You have redeemed a new race]
[First to Purify an Unknown]
Rewards - x5 Blank Upgraded Racial Templates.
Chance to name the local race.
Hilde looking at these rewards could only smile as she realized she had figured it out. She had won.
A roar from upfront shook her a bit, Molliwag was now free and pissed. In her distraction, she had lessened or removed her Aura.
"Half won". She mumbled making a face.
"Now how to purify you all?" Another sigh, then a slow rise to her feet. To the Unknown, she at that very moment with the little glow of veins on her bare arms, the golden luminous eyes in the dark, and standing next to a now white six-legged former member of them resembled nothing but an Angel of death.
Not that she would like the use of the word angel.
"Come you stubborn kittens. Let mummy soothe your sorrows". Her golden blonde hair fluttered as a draft kicked up around her. The light in her arms increased as did the glow of her eyes almost glaring like beams of stars.
Hilde smiled sweetly as if she wasn't compressing as much Abstract as possible within a ball of divinity. Molliwag sensing the danger in the air roared defiantly.
Her head whipped to him.
"Be silent child. No need to be hasty. The Rod of discipline will reach you too" Turning back to the other smaller Unknowns she released the ball and watched the Lost World light up in a more radiant light for the first time since its birth. The screeches and wails of anguish tore into her ears. None distracted her from the beautiful notifications popping into her mind.
[Unknown has been purified]
[Cold Ember Divinity Cleared]
[You have received a shard]
[Unknown has been purified]
[Cold Ember Divinity Cleared]
[You have received a shard]
****
'I the Great Dire Dragon, First Born of this universe felt threatened by a little being. She was my mother sure, still, she was, a little, puny.' he pondered.
'Why obey such a weakling and why feel fear when I held the true might here?' Molliwag knew Dragons were born to dominate and stand on top and no little person, parent or not would tell him otherwise.
He'd been patient expecting the lesser ones to harm her enough for him to devour. All that power within her becoming the spark that would make him the true creator of this universe and let him bask it in his glow and his likeliness.
Yet his plan seemed to have failed. He should have rushed out there and stomped her tiny form to death yet a part of him had held back.
The voices in his head attempted to call him weak for that soft side of his. He had pushed to go yet that soft side had shown its strength by keeping him still. Making him wait.
And now this.
He had felt the Aura. One of a true being. Something that transcended even him. Sure he felt above and beyond her but that was simply because he possessed the very same energies she was made of. He was almost her equal for this reason. But the keyword there was almost. Part of him hated and raged at it, the other his softer part feared and at the same time respected it. It was confusing to the Great Dire Dragon.
But funnily this time the soft side didn't halt his advance even egging him on when he roared and got insulted for it. His body kicked into the air as a light blinding and hot washed over his territory. The screeches of his lesser children were like scrapes of nails on boards to his ears.
The Great Dire Dragon roared. A fury beyond his comprehension boiled from him as the light dimmed and showed him the new skin of all his children, now different. Their skins were no more the prideful black they once were.
Molliwag roared as he descended with a burst of his powerful wings. His maws opened as from within the glow of the green flame rose. He descended till he was close enough then spat a deluge of sickly green fire onto the puny being called Mother.
He dropped even lower as he burned her. His glee matched his fury as he watched the flames shroud her, his joy at the victory clouding his senses.
Senses that warned him too late.
A little hand of darkness shot out of the flames and grabbed his maw before he could fly past, he could feel the terrifying pressure it bore. One of finality.
His cold divinity attempted to burn off the Darkness yet it got erased thoroughly by the darkness. He felt the sensation of spinning and then his back slammed into the ground behind his mother.
His brain fought to register how his breath had failed to burn. It was inconceivable. But there was a chance, the stupid Mother of his had neared him. Did she not fear his size? Compared to him she was nothing but an ant.
He rose quickly eager to squash her now she had drawn close.
Boy was he wrong. A mountain's worth of pressure struck his shoulders, the ground cracked and he thought he could taste the air burning from the heat of the aura. He cracked a gaze and saw her. In all her bloodied glory she stood gazing upon him with eyes filled with fatigue.
Her left hand fisted and her eyes a sea of black with a prick of golden light between them.
"Bad children get the cane boy". Her voice like thunder, soft but domineering resounded in his ears. His soft side cheered at his loss while the other him raged and urged him to push this puny power away and claim his right.
He agreed his legs cracking the ground as he fought the pressure.
He felt it then.
Just as a whisper graced his hearing.
"Too late my little drakeling. Now be calm for mother. For she knows best ".the left palm she had up clenched tightly. He felt it instantly, not the pressure. But a sensation of absolute and utter weakness. Control she had over him.
She brought the fist down and he followed. His very self smacking the floor like a puppet.
Then a surge of energy washed into him like a tide. Flooding into his brain and body. His soft side cheered while the other him roared in desperation even as all three could feel the energy correcting what had been wronged within him.
His cells lapped it up greedily, his muscles and veins absorbing it all. His blood boiled and filtered and his scales and core, energy, and will all got primed and cleansed.
Then he saw darkness, a distant lullaby ringing in his ear and lulling him faster into his abyss.
"Sleep my dearest one".
"Wake in a land of beauty".
"Shed your foreign scales"
"And don your new real self"
"For while Mother may be mistaken".
"She always wants best".
*****
The comments section of the stream was silent. The game staff with Jameson were frozen. Yet the awe they felt was even more than that of the streamers who had to suffer through various dark and shuttered scenes.
All they saw was a dark world light up and then white corpses littered everywhere. Hilde singing a lullaby to what they assumed was a dying dragon as it writhed and died, as they thought.
Then the stream ended.
Three hundred thousand views.
(@Zuggyman )- I'm staging a protest. The devs need to let the rest of us play. Who's in?
(@Kaido) - I'll get back to you on that. Let me digest this feeling of WOW feeling me up
(@Hardman) - Who saw that part where she got burned by the dragon only for it to get smashed like a doll into the ground? *Shivers*.
(@Toonman) - Guys. Note to self. When you see a creator. Run.
(@Thatbhadboi) - Who's got a slot for the alpha testing? I got one. We should head for wherever she is. Hopefully, she will give us good advice in this game.
(@Bankai) - Yeah she knows her stuff.
(@Lolilpop) - Guys she's winging it as she goes. We all saw her running about like a footless chicken. Probably figuring out how to proceed.
(@Toonman) - You mean a headless chicken. and yeah that was obvious. But her ability to figure things out is genius.
(@Lollipop) - Headless chickens can't see where they're running. And yes. That's my point. She's badass. Wonder how to know her region.
(@Toonman) - Footless chickens can't even run.
(@Zuggyman) - I guess we alpha testers will find out soon enough. Can't wait.
(@Zuggyman >>@Thatbhadboi) - I'm up.
(@Bankai) I didn't get the slot. Hopefully, I'll get the beta.
(@Kaido) I got one.
(@Kaido>>@Zuggyman & @Thatbhadboi) - I'm in too.
Jameson sighed as he read the last of the comments before leaving to focus back on the girl who was now searching for the Core of the lost world.
"She's too good. Is she a pro player. ?" he wondered his eyes never leaving the radiant form of the player as her golden hair hid the side of her face, the fur still somehow intact even after the brutal fight.
"She coated even her clothes. Smart" he nodded approvingly. His eyes went to the digital clock that stood to the side of his table.
It read 4 am. By his calculation, she had been fighting for almost twenty-one hours. An hour IRL was three in the game thanks to time dilation.
"Impressive. But she'd better get her stats up faster though. She should have attained a lot of levels. Bummer that I can't check that and the A.I won't reveal either." he sighed before rubbing his eyes his neatly gelled hair of the previous day now tussled up. Around him most workers had started heading for their offices to finish the stream, some had stayed and now reclined in chairs in the large office.
'Best to finish up. Tomorrow she'll be offline in the day so I can sleep then.' he surmised before arranging his desks and pulling out files with the words alpha testers in bold italics.
