Depthless Hunger

Chapter 220: The Heart of Poison vs The Heart of Crystal

Omilaena's fight with Boreas had danced above the roofs of Yulthens as they tested one another. Her opponent had proved shockingly flexible and overflowed with seemingly endless qi, allowing him to make use of what would normally be desperation tactics over and over again. She had evaded injury by a careful ranged strategy, wearing him down one poison needle at a time.

Both of them paused as a new force shook the city.

Kai burst through a nearby building and she immediately knew that something was wrong. Others were screaming about the blazing eyes or the burning darkness that flowed from his mouth, but her concern went deeper. He had always maintained a balance of monstrous strength and thoughtful calculation - that calculation was completely gone. In his eyes she saw only rage, and hunger... and perhaps pain.

At first she feared he might have lost his humanity completely and become a monster indiscriminately attacking both sides. But even if he didn't seem himself, he plowed through a group of soldiers and ignored the trembling revolutionaries nearby. His leaps cracked the fine streets of Yulthens as he made his way north, and she realized that he was aiming for the noble tower and the last great crystal.

A few Ruby Crystalliers guarding it tried to hurl attacks at him, but Kai obliterated them with a strange dark breath. It was almost beautiful, the clouds flowing with great speed unlike her own smoke. When they struck their target, they caused great destruction, but they also arced into complex whorls. Red and yellow glowed within, as if the cloud was a portal to a darker world.

In one more leap, Kai jumped on top of the crystal. By the time he threw the controlling nobles over the edge, he definitely had everyone's attention. Kai bent down... and then, with a sharp sound like teeth closing, the top portion of the crystal disappeared. Was he eating the crystal? It became obvious to everyone else when he took another bite and this time massive teeth marks appeared across the side.

This development caused a wave of horror through the city, and not only on the opposing side. But Boreas seemed to have taken the measure of this new development and turned back to her with glimmering eyes.

She wasn't there. Omilaena leapt from behind and jabbed a needle into his neck.

An explosion of power threw her back, and only a wave of her own defensive chakra kept her from being severely injured. She hoped that she had gotten her poison deep into his veins, but when she looked down at her syringe, she saw that it had been completely filled with qi crystals. Damn, the man seemed to be able to do practically anything with them.

The surprise attack during the distraction had been her best bet. Without that, she wasn't sure she had an elegant way of ending the fight. She glanced at her opponent's soul, just to make sure.

Name: Boreas of Kartiis

Total Power: 424

Crystal Cultivation: 1,019,337 (353)

Physique Level: F-8 (46)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

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He noticed her spiritual sight and shook his head. "Did you know they poured more than two million Goralian Eagles into me? Thanks to that damn ratio, this was all it bought me."

"I don't know," Omilaena said, "it seems like the real problem is diminishing returns with crystal cultivation."

"But it's enough, isn't it?" Boreas flashed his crystal teeth. "You should be stronger, but you're struggling."

"Just trying to finish things without getting crystal dust all over my hands."

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But the truth was that he was mostly right. She had used all her tricks and he had found counters to all of them. His crystal cultivation might not impress those from Cloudspire, but it was far more flexible than any sect cultivator she'd ever fought.

If she didn't beat him, who would? Not Zae Zin Nim, who was almost entirely exhausted. Probably not Kai, raging around the battlefield and eating fortifications. And certainly not all the revolutionaries, who stood so far beneath the peak of crystal cultivation they might as well be irrelevant.

Boreas unleashed another technique, a ring of rotating crystals with razor sharp edges. Omilaena jumped to a lower roof, but he summoned a second ring with an angle to bisect her. No matter how she moved, he kept building new defensive rings until he floated in a swarm of crystal death. All she could do was retreat, because she couldn't find a solution to his challenge.

Beneath her, she could still feel the aftermath of the battle subsiding. Lives would be saved and lost in these moments, even if they didn't decide the battle. She saw Nirka and Maggle supporting one another, both torn by many injuries. She saw Cragrila desperately fighting against Traelisia, outmatched but defending the people behind her. She saw ordinary workers hurling stones and pans at the remaining merchant soldiers in order to defend their homes.

And something deep within Omilaena, something that had slept for a long time, began to stir.

For too long she had been experimenting and playing on Deadwaste, searching for an intellectual solution to the limits of her power. Given how much stronger she was than most of the people who tried to fight her, it was easy to treat it all like a game.

But it wasn't a game to Kai or Zae Zin Nim, who were struggling higher even though they had no idea how high the mountains reached. Omilaena didn't know either, but she wanted to find out.

So she abandoned her clever tricks and elegant solutions and threw herself into the whirlwind of crystal. She wouldn't win this with a smug smile and an untouched dress. This was the time to put everything on the line and see if she still had what it took to be a warrior.

Dozens of crystals were slashing against her body, but she had reached D rank Physique and wouldn't fall so easily. Omilaena drew on Lethal Artisan to create a pot, which was normally used for alchemy and now served as a blunt shield. The crystals, which all moved in the same circle, flew directly into it. They battered against her chakra, but she held firm and an entire circle of crystal knives crammed together within the pot.

His qi, which was dedicated to the flowing circles, wobbled at the disruption. In the momentary fluctuation, Omilaena released a jet of pure poison from one hand. It passed through the momentary gap in the crystal and struck him in the face.

Boreas roared and burned his power hotter, trying to push out her poison. She arrived and tried to slash at his neck with her fingernail, but crystal armor leapt up to block her. Since that didn't work, she lifted the pot in her other hand and whacked him over the head with it.

"Enough!" Boreas managed to grab her wrists as she scratched at him and pushed her back. "This is beneath you. I thought y-"

Omilaena headbutted him. A crystalline edge split open her skin, but his head rocked back, blood gushing from his nose. They fell toward the roof and Omilaena leapt on top of him, not to tease or seduce but to beat the shit out of him.

Her hands rained down, cutting poisonous gashes all around his neck. His endless qi surged, yet again, and crystal armor leapt up. One of her long fingernails tore off and blood trailed from her finger... Omilaena made that hand into a fist and slammed it directly into his face.

Then, at the end, just when her fury faded, she slammed a syringe into his neck. No crystal defenses this time, no more burning qi. As it flowed into him, she saw Boreas's eyes widen in shock.

"That's right, it's just a paralytic, not a lethal poison." Omilaena created another syringe and injected this one into his heart. "You're hoarding over a million crystals inside you, so I'd bet that just about every single worker down there had a hand in making at least one of them. Seems like they should get to take them back, huh?"

His lips moved as he tried to object, but the paralytic was finally taking hold. Omilaena staggered to her feet and looked over herself, exhausted and bleeding and far from elegant.

Worth it.

Around her, it seemed like the battle had finally been won. She saw Traelisia finally brought down, not by any superior opponent but by a huge force of Physique-armored and potion-enhanced workers trampling over her earthen fortifications.

There were a few pockets of resistance left, but she didn't have the strength to go help with them. Still, everyone could see that the tide had turned. The greatest merchants and Diamond Crystalliers of Yulthens had been defeated within their own city and the nation would never be the same again.

Time to check on the people she cared about. Kai was finishing his meal of the great crystal and there was no way of telling what was going on in his head. Maybe he had been driven insane, maybe he was just hungry for pointy rocks. Zae Zin Nim sat with a group of acid cultivators, sipping tea. Omilaena counted a few of the others before she got bored and moved on.

Just when it seemed like things had ended well, Omilaena felt a flicker of qi in the distance, moving over the ocean.

"Fuck." She continued cursing under her breath as she reversed direction and raced down the city streets. Her plans for an exit strategy needed to be greatly accelerated or they were all in trouble.