Chapter 57: Star Walker
The Star Walker’s chest began glowing brighter, and the constellations pulsing with gathered magic.
Reinhard recognized the buildup pattern instantly.
"Move!" Reinhard shouted, leading the others to jump off the building.
A concentrated beam of stellar energy erupted from the creature’s center, blasting through the space they’d occupied. The attack carved a molten line through three buildings, leaving glowing edges that dripped liquid.
Reinhard landed on another rooftop with Anasha and immediately set her down behind a chimney. "Stay here. Don’t move."
Marie and Joseph spread out, creating a triangle formation around the towering spirit while also making sure to move away from the building Anasha was at.
The Star Walker turned its attention to Marie, who was closest. Four glowing orbs materialized in its massive hands, two in each palm and pulsing with compressed light.
"Waves of Light incoming!" Mimir warned.
With a thunderous clap, the creature’s palms collided. The air itself seemed to shatter, rippling outward in light blue-purple waves of energy. Marie is instantly tapped into the Herald Marker and using Wind Drift.
The air currents stirred around before bending to her will, carrying her along the edge rather than through the heart of the blast. Even so, the force flung her body across the jagged landscape of rooftops like a discarded doll.
Joseph thrust his spiral lance upward, using Wind Drift to stir up the wind around and deflecting debris and magic energy. But the sheer force still drove him backward, boots scraping across tiles.
Reinhard summoned Zenuken and charged forward, using the chaos as cover. He leaped from rooftop to rooftop, closing the distance while the Star Walker’s attention remained on his teammates.
The beast raised both arms skyward. Orbs of light appeared above its head, growing larger and more numerous.
Reinhard watched in the half-second before impact, his mind flickering through countless thoughts, but even his anticipation failed to keep up with the devastation that followed.
"Pillar of Light!" Mimir called.
The Star Walker slammed its hands down.
The ground erupted with pillars of searing energy that swept outward in expanding waves. Pillars of searing white and blue light vaporized anything it touched. Roof tiles exploded into dust, stone and brick liquefied, and glass fused into things it was close to.
For an instant, all the shadows around vanished altogether, obliterated by the intensity of the light. Each pillar exploded upward with enough force to vaporize stone on contact.
Reinhard’s instincts took over as he activated Drasil Step, and time began slowing down extremely to the point that the pillar light looked frozen.
Reinhard had just enough leeway to slip between them, but only if he committed fully. The first beam brushes past his cheek, blasting away all sensation except for a slight pain that quickly passes. He dove through the gap, rolled, and then continued moving towards the next building as he closed in on it. He landed on hands and knees, skidding across the remnants of a shattered wall, and forced himself upright.
Then Reinhard gripped and hurled Zenuken like a spear.
The weapon traced a perfect arc through the maelstrom, a streak of darkness cutting through the white. Zenuken struck Star Walker’s left arm, slicing deep into the beast, and for a split second, Reinhard saw something like pain ripple through the monster’s face.
The creature’s faceless head turned toward him with disturbing speed, and then it began to phase out of reality, its form becoming translucent like smoke.
"Stellar Grab!" Mimir warned urgently. "Behind you!"
Reinhard dropped to a knee and twisted, barely in time to see the Star Walker’s massive hand rushing out from nothing, fingers spread out to grab him by the torso.
The hand passed straight through the physical plane, but Reinhard felt the chill of absolute void as it brushed his aura. His skin crawled with the sensation of being twisted and pulled. He dove forward, rolling across the rooftop as enormous fingers closed on empty air.
But even after missing its grab, the Star Walker simply adapted. It brought both hands together and clapped, and a sphere of compressed blue-white light appeared where Reinhard was. His eyes widened before he kicked off the rooftop and leapt towards another one.
A ball of concentrated light materialized where Reinhard had been, erupting in a devastating explosion that consumed the entire building. He barely made it to the next roof before he was struck by the attack, and the structure collapsed.
Marie took advantage of the opening. She charged her spear with golden-crimson light and hurled it with all her might. Longinus pierced through the Star Walker’s translucent torso, the weapon punching completely through and emerging from its back.
The creature staggered with the constellation image inside of it flickering erratically across its chest. But instead of falling, it simply pulled the spear free and flung it to the side, forcing Marie to resummon her weapon.
Joseph circled around, using his elemental connection to feel air current changes that telegraphed the creature’s movements. The Star Walker, distracted by Joseph’s relentless feints, failed to notice Marie’s approach. She darted forward, her figure turning into a blur in a burst of speed, and smashed the butt of her spear against the monster’s side, sending a shockwave up its leg.
The impact, though nothing compared to the Star Walker’s own attacks, left a visible dent in the creature’s surface.
When the Star Walker turned toward Marie again, Joseph struck from its blind spot, his spiral lance carving through its leg. The Star Walker trembled before he tried to grab Joseph, but he quickly leapt away and stared at the Phantasm Beast.
The Star Walker’s form then began to glow intensely, the stars across its body shifting from white to blue-pink.
The accumulated damage was triggering something.
"Stellar Bolt!" Mimir shouted.
The creature raised one massive hand skyward, leading to countless pillars of light erupting from the ground simultaneously. At first, there were only a few, each one radiant before then dozens more and even more appeared, forming a forest of lights that filled the entire street.
Reinhard’s perception narrowed as his brain raced to keep up. He first rushed towards where Anasha was, grabbed her, and dove through a half-collapsed building. They slid into the building split second before a Stellar Bolt incinerated the spot where they’d stood. He rushed through the building with her and ran further down the street before jumping up on the roof and leaving her even further from the battle.
"Are you okay?" Reinhard asked quickly.
"I’m, go help them, Rein! I promise I will be fine... I don’t want to lose any more precious people." Anasha says softly, leading Reinhard to smile and nod his head.
Then Reinhard looked back to see each pillar explode on contact with any solid surface, punching neat holes through the remnants of buildings and sending molten debris tumbling into the burning undercity below.
He saw Joseph flattened himself against a wall, then leapt vertically in two steps, using Wind Drift to evade a beam and reach a roof. Marie zig-zagged through the minefield of pillars of lights before rushing up a wall.
"Honestly, this is just insane." Reinhard muttered with a sigh.
Leaping across the rooftops, Reinhard summoned darkness from beneath the scattered debris, molding it into jagged shadow-spears. With precise throws, he launched these spectral projectiles to intercept the pillars of light before they fully formed, the resulting explosions carving temporary corridors of safety through the lethal maze.
Once all the pillars of light were gone, Marie and Joseph rushed towards the Star Walker.
Marie and Joseph moved in synchronized patterns, their academy training evident in how they covered each other’s blind spots. When Marie needed time to charge an attack, Joseph drew the Star Walker’s attention. When Joseph was forced into a defensive position, Marie struck from unexpected angles.
But the creature was adapting. Its movements became more deliberate, less wasteful. It began using Stellar Bolt in targeted patterns instead of random spreads, herding them toward specific positions.
"It’s setting up for something!" Joseph called out, recognizing the tactical shift.
The Star Walker suddenly teleported, vanishing and reappearing at the far end of the district. It spread its massive arms wide as twenty portals materialized above it, each one pulsing with gathered stellar energy.
"Lightshow of Stellar!" Mimir’s voice called out urgently.
Balls of concentrated light rained down from the portals like countless arrows being released. Each impact exploded with devastating force, consuming buildings and creating craters in the streets. The entire area from where Reinhard was down to where the Star Walker was became a hellscape of cascading explosions.
Reinhard dove into a building’s interior, using its structure as a temporary shelter. Marie and Joseph followed, all three pressed against walls as the world outside transformed into apocalyptic destruction.
"Anasha?!" Marie asked while the sounds of explosions continued raining outside.
"On the other side of the street!" Reinhard shouted while the building they were in continued shaking.
"Good! But we need to hurry up and beat it before one of its attacks reaches where she is!" Joseph stated, leading both Marie and Reinhard to nod their head.
When the bombardment finally ceased, the area had become even more ruined. Entire blocks were simply gone, replaced by glowing craters that still dripped molten light.
But the Star Walker had expended significant energy. Its form flickered more noticeably now, constellations dimming and brightening erratically.
"Now!" Reinhard shouted. "This is our chance!"
Marie charged her spear while Joseph prepared his lance.
From three angles, they rushed at once. Joseph’s lance spiraled into the creature’s legs, the twisting momentum throwing the Star Walker off-balance. Marie drove her spear sideways through its torso, her terrifying strength smashing through the cosmic substance of its body. Reinhard targeted the existing wound on its arm with Zenuken, tearing the gash wider until starlight spilled out.
The Star Walker staggered, trying to maintain balance. Its massive hands swept out defensively, forcing them back momentarily.
But they had created the opening they needed.
Joseph rushed on the rooftop before launching himself skyward, positioning above the battlefield. Marie and Reinhard moved in perfect synchronization, their attacks driving the Star Walker backward and upward.
With combined strikes, they launched the creature into the air. Its massive form rose above the rooftops, struggling to regain control.
Joseph waited at the apex, lance drawn back and glowing with accumulated power. Marie stood on the ground below, accessing Ragnarok from the Herald Marker while channeling it through Longnius. Reinhard activated his own Ragnarok, Zenuken blazing with black-blue energy.
They struck as one.
Fifteen simultaneous slashes materialized on the Star Walker’s right side from Reinhard’s position. Fifteen more appeared on its left from Marie’s ground-based assault. The creature was caught between crossing waves of cutting slashed that carved through its form.
Then Joseph descended from above like a falling star. His lance had transformed into a piercing pillar of golden-white light that illuminated the entire district. The weapon punched through the Star Walker’s chest and drove it downward with unstoppable force.
The impact was terrifying. The Star Walker smashed into the ground with enough force to create a shockwave that swept outward for blocks. The stellar surroundings shattered like glass, and constellation patterns began dissolving. The buildings near the impact collapsed as the ground itself fractured from the impact.
When the dust settled, the Star Walker lay motionless in a massive crater, its form flickering weakly.
Reinhard, Marie, and Joseph stood at the crater’s edge, breathing heavily, while the burnt district was now devastated beyond recognition.
Anasha emerged from her shelter, staring at the destruction in surprise.