The Harvester

Chapter 433: First Contact

From the depths of the Star Tear's crater, a metallic glint flashed ominously. A sharp noise of wind being split resounded loudly and Rakna's eyes quietly glowed.

"[Helix VI,]" he intoned and an ellipse-shaped Assembly appeared in front of him. It spun for just a second before something invisible violently collided with it. A shockwave rattled the werewolf's fur and the Assembly promptly shattered, closely supervened by two mountain tops being sliced in the distance.

"…well, that's quite a lot of Sword Intent you have there," Rakna commented as a human shadow gradually emerged from the crater; almost crawling.

It was a tall man with long black hair, a handsome appearance, and a dark robe adorned with many red patterns. His eyes were completely white, from the sclera to the pupil, and his expression was set in stone.

Most strikingly, he was dragging a massive sword behind him, ripping the ground with every step as if nothing could resist it. Despite its size, the weapon was nothing short of a masterpiece. 

With golden tresses around its handle, a deceptively thin blade, and several gilded grooves inside the blade itself. Truthfully, it couldn't be called a greatsword. It was as if it had been made for a giant and a human had gotten hold of it by mistake.

Yet, inside that man's grasp, even at rest, the Sword Intent wafting off the edge was enough to make it look tame. It was yielding to its wielder; even the most dense of people could notice. 

"…" Rakna silently furrowed his eyebrows. He obviously could sense the danger of this man, and it dwarfed whatever aura the sword had, but that didn't prevent him from realizing that the weapon was connected by a thread of soul power… no, soul essence. 'A Soul Weapon?'

"Are you Bhumi?" The werewolf eventually raised his voice, but he received no answer. He snorted and his eyes glanced at the white-eyed man's right hand, faintly wounded and releasing a calm remnant of star energy. "You stopped my Star Tear, didn't you? Slashed it even," he commented.

Before Rakna could say anything else, an arrow of moonlight zoomed past him and fell like a comet toward the swordsman. The undead-like man twitched and faster than the eye could see, he split the arrow with one swing, shattering the ground all around him at the same time.

"He's ours," Soma solemnly said as he appeared, a grand bow in his hand. "Save your strength for the Fiend," he added and Ramsa arrived a beat later, followed by Zikserth.

Rakna silently narrowed his eyes before nodding at them. "Lilith, come closer," he spoke aloud to the demoness who had approached, staring at Bhumi with a saddened expression.

"Yes…?" She uttered in confusion but nonetheless obeyed. At the same time, she gazed at the crater left by the Star Tear and couldn't help but grimace when she saw new Shades emerging. They were not even limiting themselves to that location anymore either.

The Sentinel's spell must have surely weakened a good part of the planet's crust, and now several tunnels were opening everywhere around the crater. In Lilith's opinion, if Bhumi or the Fiend had not been in the way of the spell, it might have easily pierced through the Earth in its entirety.

"Are we… going to head down directly?" She asked after a moment.

"Yes," Rakna replied and mentally commanded his Valkals. He coated them with Soul Power in the physical plane and in the blink of an eye, they drew a constellation as fast as he could think.

"Are we… supposed to charge through all that?" Lilith asked hesitantly. "How can…" She pursed her lips sadly. "How will we get past Lord Bhumi?"

"We don't," the werewolf smiled and snapped his fingers, actualizing his constellation. 

A low-pitched bell resounded across the planet's surface and Soma shuddered, sensing what was happening as the apparition of an archaic clock formed above them.

"[Horologium,]" Rakna intoned, and the clock ticked. Colors dimmed, the world slowed down, and eventually, everything stopped altogether.

Without wasting time, he grabbed Lilith with one arm and flapped his wings. He rocketed toward the crater, flying over the frozen Bhumi, but not without noticing the corrupted god's eyes move in his direction ever so slightly.

"Eek?!" Meanwhile, Lilith yelped intelligibly, almost having a heart attack as time resumed for her as soon as Rakna touched her. "What is--!? Huh?!"

Rakna chuckled at her and weaved past the Shades, careful to not touch any of them. He plunged into the crater he had made himself and accelerated. 

Though his speed was limited due to Horologium's restrictions, it was more than enough to reach the heart of the planet before the clock completed a rotation.

"It's a spell of mine," the werewolf explained to Lilith as he barreled between two Shades crawling up the walls. "It's not really high tier, but it does the job."

"'Not high tier'?" The demoness reiterated dumbly. "How is that possible…?"

"Don't get me wrong, it's quite a complex spell, but it's not as powerful as it seems. I can barely do anything in this state. Time practically stopped, yes, but everything is essentially indestructible. It also comes with the downsides of not being able to use external energy and automatically set free anyone I touch, whether I want to or not."

"Still…" Lilith wanted to say something but held her breath instead. Before she knew it, they had reached an awfully obscure place. She couldn't see any Shades, but the weight of the miasma was starting to make itself apparent.

"…use your Agni," Rakna uttered and promptly coated himself in Lunisolar Blaze. "Your flames should be able to burn this thing as much as mine does."

She nodded meekly and the ring of lime-green fire manifested behind her. Her breathing became a bit more relaxed as the Fiend's power was burned with each flicker of its light.

"We're reaching the bottom…" The werewolf added and glanced at Horologium's clock. The hand clicked to 10; two marks away from ending. However, right as he sensed themselves getting closer to the Fiend's location, a crack appeared on the clock. "…shit."

"What's wrong?" Lilith hurriedly asked.

"No time to explain," Rakna uttered and tossed her to the side. She yelped but quickly found herself landing on her feet, on the ground of something similar to a cavern. Since the miasma around her was stifling all light, even her Agni's illumination hadn't allowed her to see it earlier.

She quickly looked at Rakna and widened her eyes when the spectral clock suddenly shattered. In the next moment, it was like a destructive ripple spread over time and space. Her mind nearly shut down and her body felt like it was floating.

Once she regained her wits, the first thing she saw was Rakna spit out blood, whilst bluish veins steamed under his fur, repairing the damage with Eion.

"Rakna!" She ran to him, but he waved his hand to reassure her.

"I'm fine…" He grunted. "Damn, so this is what I did to the old man? I didn't expect time rebounds to be this violent," he muttered and slowly stood up, channeling his Lunisolar Blaze to his feet and letting it spread on the ground. 

Gradually, light began to win against the darkness of the cavern and more space was revealed. The ceiling was high enough to not be able to distinguish it and there were no walls in sight.

"There's nothing here…" Lilith remarked warily.

Rakna snickered. "No, there definitely is. I realized something on the way down. This thing we've been calling a miasma… it's not a 'power' or a particular 'ability', it's Tarnished Death's aura. The way it turned against my spell is exactly how an aura would behave."

"Then…"

Crystal Sight spun into the werewolf's eyes as he looked around. "The Earth is dead."

"Uh?" Lilith blinked at the sudden statement.

"The core should be below us, but the air is cold. I don't sense any vibrations in the stone, and most importantly, based on the currents inside here… this cave is fully 'open'. In other words, the planet was hollowed out but it somehow maintains a magnetic field as well as global stability."

Lilith's eyes trembled with each statement. Now that she thought about it seriously, it was indeed true that their planet should have practically been destroyed by now. "Do you think there is some kind of enchantment applied?"

"…not exactly," Rakna uttered and turned toward a specific direction. "Is this why you're called the Tarnished Death?" He spoke out loud to seemingly nobody. "I suppose it's fitting. I can't say I have met a lot, but you're likely one of the worst kinds of necromancers there can be. Or… their archetype, even."

"…"

A pair of red concentric eyes, with square pupils, opened in the darkness. They glowed eerily and silently, but the body it belonged to was impossible to make out with the naked eye.

Lilith shuddered at the alien-like stare and its inhuman stillness.

"You don't meet a creature who redefines the concept of death often," Rakna continued. "In a way, you tarnished the very essence of life and death; turning a planet into a zombie and whatnot."

"What…?" The demoness exclaimed from the side. 

The planet? An undead? Did that even make sense?

A crackle echoed and the disembodied eyes moved. The noise it made resembled bones popping, continuously so and certainly not pleasantly. The size of the eyes was hypnotic; sometimes, they would be as small as fingernails, while at others, they were as big as a hand.

Before Lilith could even put up her guard properly, they suddenly expanded without warning and as if her vision had finally accustomed itself to depth, she realized the 'thing' was standing right in front of them.

Rakna looked up slightly, to where the Fiend was staring at him. Crystal Sight had pierced through the somber aura long ago, so he already knew what it looked like, but now that it was close enough to be unveiled by his flames, it felt like a whole new experience.

Tarnished Death was an unearthly being. Most of its body was made of some kind of dark fog and shine. Somehow, it gave both the impression of a swarm of flies and a stream of jet-black ink.

Aside from its eyes, the other thing that was truly tangible was its skeleton. Looking nothing like a human's, it went in and out of its supposed 'flesh' at several junctures, sometimes coiling around its limbs like an exoskeleton.

And these bones congregated in the center of the Fiend's body, forming a small cage not unlike the ribs of a human being, confining a white beating heart. Once again, it looked nothing human, with no veins or arteries to speak of, much less a regular shape; black filaments were strung from it and connected to the skeleton, like a parasite trying to nest in its surroundings.

"Well, you're quite a specimen," Rakna snorted, ripples coursing through his Lunisolar Blaze as he began to release his Sage Aura. Beside him, Lilith gripped her swords tightly as her Agni Ring let out small bolts of plasma.

For a short while, all three of them remained immobile. Not even their auras were clashing, merely swelling and swirling around one another.

That is until Tarnished Death's eyes glistened, and Sonata was swung.

* * *

A few minutes ago, back on the surface of the Earth, all those who had been looking at Rakna when he cast Horologium could only gawk when he simply vanished alongside Lilith.

"Was that…?" Zikserth's eyes widened.

"Haha…" Soma chuckled wryly. "Even I can't use time so easily."

"Well, should we really be surprised at this point?" Ramsa shook her head. "More importantly, it's best we focus on what matters," she glared at Bhumi, who was currently looking over his shoulder at the hole Rakna went in.

"…he reacted to it," the Moon God remarked.

"He's not chasing though," Zikserth added as his body began to gain a crimson shine. His eyes also drifted to the hundreds of Shades seemingly ignoring them and heading toward the city.

"I don't think tha--!" Soma could only swallow down the rest of his sentence as he raised his bow and deflected a blade of Intent that split the clouds above.

Bhumi's emotionless gaze flickered; his sword still in the air from the swing. He let the momentum carry it to the ground before he himself shot up into the sky. 

The one who met him halfway was Zikserth. The king blocked the terrifying sword with a surge of crimson energy. "[Black Lotus,]" he intoned and his free hand summoned a black flower brimming with red flames. The petals multiplied and collapsed on themselves until he struck with it.

A deafening explosion rang and blew out a chunk of the planet's land. A massive black cloud rose to the sky and Bhumi flew out of it, unscathed and unfazed. Soma appeared above him in a flash of moonlight with three silver arrows nocked onto his bow.

"[Umkehroblitz,]" the archer whispered and let go of the string. The arrows incongruously fizzled out of view, as if illusions, but Bhumi reacted with urgency, landing on the ground with a rumble.

He encased his sword in a murky wind and swung it to his right. At the same time, the three arrows materialized from three different directions. The blast of his attack destroyed two of them and he struck down the last with his forearm.

Each projectile promptly exploded into blue flames and from within their cover, a stream of orange flames with wings dashed through. They reformed into Ramsa, and as soon as her upper body was tangible, she thrust her spear at him.

"[Surya Ka Bhaala!]" She chanted and the divinity coating her weapon condensed into heat strong enough to produce plasma. Bhumi's eyes narrowed and his Spiritual Intent suddenly turned into a bluish aura.

Soma physically wavered as he witnessed it from a distance. 'Elemental Intent Embodiment?! When did he learn it?!' He thought in horror. "Ramsa! Dodge!"

The goddess trembled at the warning, and at the very last moment, she redirected her spear to the ground. Her infused Domain blasted and melted the soil as soon as it collided, and she quickly flew to the side right when Bhumi's daunting blade descended where she was.

His Spiritual Intent rippled like water and spread throughout the air. All heat was banished from the atmosphere and replaced with vapor. All across the planet, reservoirs of water and even their sources stirred and were lifted into the air by an invisible force.

All of that happened strictly within the time Bhumi was swinging his word. And his sword stopped before even touching the ground. In fact, it bounced and caused the earth to ripple like a liquid.

Only then did the 'slash' come into reality. The rivers and seas that had been lifted by the swing fell as if hammers and a never-ending crevasse opened in the path of Bhumi's sword, surging with an endless wall of water.

With droplets falling on her like rain, Ramsa paled at what she had just avoided. Her breath became shallow when she realized this attack could split planets if aimed properly, much less her.

"…he's stronger," Soma said grimly. "Was he strengthened by the Fiend? Or has his mind survived enough to continue developing his swordsmanship?"

"My Lord…" Zikserth muttered, clenching his fists at the sight of his God emotionlessly destroying their home; the 'Father' that all demons genuinely wished to save. Crimson energy ignited at the tip of his fingers, but before anyone could do anything further, the Earth quaked once again.

"…!" Bhumi reacted seemingly instinctively and leaped into the air. Only after that did the undead god realize there was no direct danger.

However, the shaking was in a different league compared to when the Shades were climbing up to the surface, and it didn't seem to be related to the recent sword swing.

"Rakna made contact…" Soma said while he, Ramsa, and Zikserth wordlessly surrounded Bhumi.

Meanwhile, the Shades had reached the city and fired their first beams at the barrier. And to make things worse, several giant ones swarmed Tarasque and forced him to defend his position.

"Tarasque won't be able to help us right away," Zikserth commented.

"They're also stronger than we expected," Ramsa added as she briefly observed the creatures. She didn't know how the Fiend had birthed such things from within a seal, but a group of them could easily make even her wary; Rakna simply hadn't given them any room to display any of it before.

Deathly silent, Bhumi sluggishly pulled his sword and the trio tensed. For the first time, the Demon God gripped his weapon with both hands. His Spiritual Intent somehow spiked to an even higher level and Soma smiled bitterly.

"That's just like you… to hone your sword skills even in this state," he uttered and mirrored his old enemy by raising his bow. He breathed in and hardened his expression, "…let's continue."