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It's the entire body morphing and changing. Going from a round mass of flesh to a ball of flesh with two arms and two legs. Akheamen would have laughed at the ridiculous body shape if not for the horrifying flesh composing said body.
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The Orphan charged, its legs clumsy, tripping itself and moving past Akhenamen, crashing at the bottom of Selinad’s statues, its loud shrieks showing its annoyance. The Cygilite was surprised; this being felt like a baby that was just starting to get used to its body.
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This made Akhenamen worried; he knew one thing… he couldn’t allow it to fully adapt. It had to fall before it felt confident in adapting its body even further. Lifting his warglaive, he threw himself toward the Orphan. Appearing right next to the squirming ball of flesh, his blade slammed into the beast’s flesh.
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The gauss energy started to unmake and destroy the flesh it touched, making the Orphan roar and scream in anger, one of its arms lashing out with such speed that Akhenamen had almost been struck.
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He would have if he hadn’t planned for that and surrounded himself in a “bubble” of Gauss to shatter the matter trying to touch him. Literally cutting off the arm that attacked him effortlessly.
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Said arm melted back into a pile of limbs, then a weird flesh made liquid, mixing eyes and screaming mouth as the wave started to rush back toward the Orphan. Akhenamen swiftly moved to action, his GALS sending powerful annihilating rays of pure Gauss energy, trying to destroy as much of the arm as he could.
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Yet, Akhenamen was soon met by the second arm, yet this time, the grossly made hand looked far… more fat and chubby? Slamming toward his body and striking him. His Gauss shield reacted and started to unmake the fleshy hand.
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Which morphed from a hand into a bone-like spike that slammed straight into Akhenamen’s body. Cygilite was surprised, but soon his enhanced mind understood what happened. The orphan had simply already figured out how to bypass his Gauss field.
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He simply slammed a bunch of useless flesh to be destroyed against it, and while his gauss energy was busy trying to unmake this seemingly infinite amount of matter. A still untouched part of its arm morphed into a bone-like shape. The shape that currently impaled him.
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It adapted too fast. It had to be killed now. He stared toward the Felinids soldiers, projecting his voice to them as loud as he could.
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“Go guard Rubi-Khion and your people. You’ll be the last line of defense. I cannot go all out with you here.”
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The troop of five hundred soldiers obeyed without question and swiftly retreated toward the surviving Felinids being evacuated from Selinad. Leaving Akhenamen free to unleash himself without any fear of turning innocents into glowing green dust.
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His four hands and two GALS started to blow massive holes through the Orphan, Akhenamen’s body morphing out of the spike impaling him as his Gauss Arcs let out booming bass-like sounds, erasing everything in their path.
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The Orphan’s roars of pain started to change into a strange laugh. Almost childish. Its body, which had once been tall enough that it could have easily reached Selinad with the tip of its fingers despite being in the chasm surrounding the city, changed.
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Shrinking smaller and smaller. The flesh makes him fuse and concentrate itself, going from a mix of mouths, eyes, and limbs trying to imitate a body into what seemed like a very, very creepy version of a fetus. Floating softly above the floor.
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Akhenamen did not have a faint heart, but seeing what was happening before him was simply far beyond creepy. Just as his body finished healing all the damage he had taken from the stab using his reserve of Living Silver, both fighters stared at each other.
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“Who are we?”
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“I do not know your name. Only what you are. And I cannot allow you to obtain those souls.”
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“You are not of their kind. You… are… an enemy? Ally? Old friend? Construction? Cygilite? Prothean? Fascinating? Our love?”
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The fetus's voice seemed to be a mix of many. Akhenamen believed it was either remnants from those making the Orphan’s body. Or the Orphan trying to settle on an identity. But right after… just as it said “our love”, it transformed for a few seconds. A gruesome version of his wife. Lan.
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He was now staring at perhaps the most horrific sight he had ever seen. Matched only by one of his family members on the hospital bed. A horrifying skinless version of his wife. An arm too short, a tongue too big, a missing eye, a pulsating brain within its cracked skull. Akhenamen had never felt… so angry.
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He didn’t know if that creature was doing that to provoke him or because it was genuinely trying to trick Akhenamen into believing it was Lan. But either way, Akhenamen had never felt such fury.
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To mock or threaten him was nothing. But to mock the memory of his dead wife with such a monstrous… form. That he could not tolerate. There was no speech or any more words said between them. Akhenamen shattered the distance between them.
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A red tri-astromath construct appeared in front of him, and soon after, hundreds of humongous 3D lines shaped like rectangles started to chase the fleeing fetus around. The Orphan seemed now far more nimble, able to evade the chasing rectangles. Every time one of the shapes slammed into the floor or a wall, it would instantly cause such an impact that an earthquake spread through the entire Brightheart Covenant, the shock creating humongous cracks all over the walls and floor of the cavern containing Silenad.
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The city had to be enchanted because it had taken quite a few hits and seemed ready to take a lot more before it fell. Even Akhenamen had been surprised by the sheer power within his red construct, but soon remembered why. It had been so long since it had happened, but his skill’s restrictions had been mostly lifted!
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[Seal’s Effect] :
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First Seal:
Second Seal:
Third Seal:
[Authority]: Fourth Seal: Life cannot be created or replicated in the dimension.
He could now use the full weight of a neutron star. And clearly receiving a collapsing sun on the face was not something the Orphan would like. Akhenamen had also massively underestimated Zenthia, as despite the full weight of a neutron star striking it quite a few times, it was handling it surprisingly easily.
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Magic? The system doing? Akhenamen didn’t know. His mind was solely focused on how to kill the being that dared impersonate his dead wife. Every second, dozens of cubic red shapes appeared behind him before suddenly turning into extending 3D rectangular lines, chasing the fetus. Giving the Orphan not a single chance to fight back.
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However, the surprise of Akhenamen’s sudden increase in lethality was forcing the Orphan to go defensive for a time. It took quite a few times, being smashed, crushed, or even struck by Akhenamen’s Gauss Arcs and Aspect.
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No matter how many times its body was shattered and splattered or erased, its body just got more and more sturdy, evolving and changing constantly, adapting to Akhenamen’s barrage of attacks.
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The Cygilite could have wiped out an entire country and even cracked a continent with this much power. But on Zenthia, everything reinforced by the System, a being of his level was allowed to go all out.
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Finally, the Orphan was trapped, targeted from every direction by red tri-astromath constructs; the massive rectangular lines slammed into his body, each wider than a building and carrying the weight of a neutron star.
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Yet… the constructs were all shattered a few seconds after having struck the Orphan. Its shape had changed once more. It now looked like a teenage boy. The boy looked rather androgynous, his body half man-half woman, without any genitals.
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It had what looked like bunny ears on its tail, its hair made of thin veins pumping blood on the floor, which seemed to cover its eyes and go down to its ankle. It lacked any cheeks, exposing its teeth and tongue to all.
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“We are… Lapinids. Yes, Lapinids were our kind. We... died. W.. we were betrayed. By our own.”
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The Orphan’s eyes were revealed. Unlike what Akhenamen had expected, they were not some unspeakable horrors, but normal eyes. Eyes full of tears, full of intelligence and reflection.
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“We are sorry to have intruded upon your mind. To have taken the shape of your dead wife was a mistake.”
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Much to Akhenamen’s shock and surprise, the Orphan bowed to him, his eyes showing no lies. He truly seemed sorry for what he had done. Then it rose back, and in a single instant, it was before Akhenamen, his speed so great that Akhenamen was frozen. He hadn’t even seen the Orphan move; he just appeared in front of him, yet the cracked feet shaped holes within the floor showed the Orphan hadn’t teleported; he had just walked.
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“You cannot defeat us. But we do not wish to kill you. You are like us.”
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“We are nothing alike. I do not…”
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Akhenamen stopped himself, realising the truth within those words. Just like the Orphan, he had been killed and suddenly awakened within a body that was not his, with another mind fused to his.
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Just like the Orphan, Akhenamen had a sudden and very fast rise in power, and just like him, they were the last hope of their race.
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Just like the Orphan, Akhenamen would one day also have to exterminate entire civilisations. In fact, in a way, Akhenamen would become even worse as the Orphan would most likely not have to kill more than a “few” millions of people to recover enough of himself to be reborn as a Lapinid god. But Akhenamen? He was the Aspect of the End; his kill count wouldn’t be in millions or even billions, it would be in planets.
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The only difference was that Akhenamen was lucky enough not to house millions of his screaming and suffering children within his own mind.
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“I suppose you are correct.”
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“See. You were betrayed like us. We understand your plight. Leave. You have no hope of fighting us. And we have no wish to kill an Aspect.”
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“You know my identity? How?”
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“We are not a god anymore. Our sleep under Zenthia wasn’t peaceful. There are things down there. Things without names. Things we would rather never face once more. They speak, they teach things that we did not wish to learn. So yes, we know what you are. We do not wish to attack an Aspect, for we respect your work and position for our Universe’s good.”
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This was the most reasonable horror beyond comprehension Akhenamen had ever met. But Akhenamen still couldn’t allow it to attack Rubi-Khion. But… he also knew it didn’t lie. It was too strong. As a fetus, he could fight it. But in this form… Akhenamen doubted he’d last more than ten minutes.
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He would save the innocents. And he had done so. Thousands had been able to escape because of his help. But now it was a choice between putting his life on the line for millions of souls. And two divine sisters.
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Just as Akhenamen was about to step aside, knowing this fight would be a losing battle that could cost him his life and endanger all his plans for this universe, he was startled by a notification from the System.
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[Emergency Quest received…]
[To Survive!] : [The System has felt your lack of will to fight The Orphan. It offers special rewards for you to continue the fight. Including any guarantee that you might demand.]
[Objectives] :
Survive 10 minutes against the Orphan.
[Special Objectives] :
Kill the Orphan without any help from anyone other than Cygilites.
[Mythic Objective] :
Kill the Orphan.
[Reward] :
5 levels
Obtain a new Title: Slayer of The Orphaned Remnant.
Increase the level of [Keeper of Unsaid Truths] trait.
A promise from the System.
[Special Reward] :
Divine Law of [???]
[Mythic Reward] :
Obtain one Mythic Level.
[Penalty]: None
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Akhenamen stared at this new quest, wanting to laugh out loud at the absurdity of this event. The “neutral” System did all it could to ensure the rebirth of Sapphyra, even promising immense rewards, including a Divine Law and the mysterious Mythic level he still didn’t know about… and, most importantly, promising Akhenamen anything. But Akhenamen didn’t care about any of those rewards. Only one interested him.
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“System… does that promise… include bringing back my family to life?”
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[...]
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[...]
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[Yes…]
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“Then it is settled.”
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The Orphan felt the change within Akhenamen’s very soul; he had been ready to let him go through, but the intervention of that damned betraying System had once again pinned him against an enemy he had no wish to kill.
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“That filthy System. Once again, you interfere. What did you promise this tortured soul? How will you twist the promise you have made to him?!”
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But the Orphan knew better than anyone how toxic hope could be. Yet how vital it had been for his own survival. Hope to one day get access to enough soul to be reborn and bring back his children. And from Akhenamen’s eyes, he could already know that both were fighting to bring back those they loved.
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