Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Three: Dark Sarcophagus: Verse One-Hundred and Forty-Four

Cypher and Alex quickly moved into position. Their plan would require a good bit of luck and precise timing. With their opponent being a Berserker it was difficult to simply approach him and attack. His blows were powerful enough to break their bones in a single shot, and send them flying into the distance.

However, strength wasn’t everything. The two Conductors ran quickly around the Hulking man, throwing rocks at him as they moved. Each impact was worthless in terms of damage, however, it did serve to piss the berserker off immensely. After a moment of this pathetic barrage, he roared in anger and leapt upwards.

“BOOM!!”

With a thunderous crash, he slammed his fist into the ground, creating another dust explosion. With his vision obscured, the berserker began to swing wildly at them, never managing to land a single blow.

More moments passed as Cypher and Alex continued to hurl rocks at him. Alex even threw in a few fireballs to weaken his wards again. Once again, the man roared in anger, however this time, he extended his arms.

Cypher and Alex locked eyes and nodded, this was their chance!

Just as he had before, the berserker began to spin at an insane speed, and like a tornado, moved closer to the nearest of the two.

Alex, seeing this, reached into his dimensional pocket and pulled forth a long wire of thick steel. It was graded for a Rank-Two Zightbeast, so given its durability, it would work for their purposes. Hopefully.

Half of the wire remained inside Alex’s dimensional pocket, but the other half was quickly tossed to Cypher who caught it and placed it within his own dimensional pocket.

The wire snapped taught, and it let out a metallic twang as Cypher and Alex jumped back a few feet. The berserker swirled right into the wire and immediately got tangled up thanks to his strange headband and extended arms. His tornado-like movement stopped after a moment and the thick wire was wrapped tightly around his neck and head.

As the wire had tangled the berserker up, the two of them had been pulled closer to him despite their struggling. It was really incredible how much power and torque that attack of his contained. However, with him tangled up like this, it didn’t matter anymore. The two of them ran in opposite directions, and as they did, the wire pulled itself tighter and tighter around the berserker’s head and neck.

When it came to dimensional pockets, only the owner of said pocket could pull things out of it. Given that knowledge, Cypher and Alex had devised a plan to handle the raging berserker. Their normal attacks simply weren’t enough to inflict sufficient damage on him.

The only way for them to win would be to expend every ounce of their Zight. However, that was impractical, since they still had an entire ruin to explore. Therefore it was something they weren’t willing to do.

But, with this method, as long as they kept running the pressure of the wire would do all the work for them. What was more, is that the berserker could do nothing. With the wire already wrapped tightly around his neck and head, he couldn’t get a firm enough grip to wrench it loose, but that didn’t even matter. Not only was his head restricted by the wire, but his arms were also tangled up now and unable to move more than a few inches.

He struggled as the thick wire began to sink slowly into his flesh. Agonized groans began to fill the air as Cypher and Alex moved further apart, but eventually, they reached their limit. The dimensional pocket was anchored to an item carried by the Conductor, such as a ring or a medallion, or some other piece of jewelry.

Normally this wasn’t an issue. Items would be summoned or put away instantly, which required no effort on the part of the owner. However, this time both of them had a long cable sticking out of their dimensional pockets, and it was tied tightly around a man with immense strength.

He was putting up a fight and trying to break the bonds around him and that required both of them to struggle against his might. Small fractures appeared in their rings as they pulled. The dimensional pockets weren’t just portals on the surface of those items, but small hovering cracks in reality.

A few centimeters of space existed between those cracks and the surface of the rings, but a lot of force was still being applied to the items as they struggled. Additionally, after running so far, they were unable to continue to gain any distance without destroying the enchanted rings, and even if they could have, they lacked the strength to keep moving away.

With things as they were, the wire was no longer sinking into the man’s flesh either. Their plan had failed. The idea behind it was that his tornado-like motion would have tangled him up, and his body would have been ripped apart by the wire and his own rotational force. Unfortunately, they had underestimated his durability and now found themselves at a standstill.

Slowly, each of them began to pull the wire further into their dimensional pockets. However, this only drew them closer to the man and his roars of anger only got louder and more ferocious. Cypher and Alex moved around him and met in front of him. Together they pulled harder and slowly sucked more of the wire into their dimensional pockets.

“SKKKRRRRT!”

Their feet dragged across the ground as they were pulled closer to the man. Cypher motioned to Alex to take his ring, and with some difficulty, Alex managed to slide it around his finger. The wire twanged again as the tension dropped for a moment and then pulled tighter once more.

Cypher’s earlier doubts surged through his mind. Once again he was facing down an opponent that could kill him, but this time he wasn’t about to let himself lose. He wanted, no, needed to show that he could handle this kind of threat. He had Alex helping him, but even still, this was a chance for him to prove himself.

It wasn’t a matter of showing off, that would be stupid in a situation like this. Instead, he had to prove to himself that he could handle battles like this without faltering. It was the only way he could begin down his own path to power. With that, his plan was set and he readied himself.

Cypher jumped up and over the berserker who stared at him with bloodshot eyes. Blood ran down his anger-twisted face, and Cypher flashed him a smile, which only enraged him more. The berserker struggled harder, and the wire sunk a bit deeper into his flesh.

Cypher landed, took a deep breath, and began to chant a spell with his arms raised. “Duet, Verse 2, Subjugation of Shifting sands!” Two large slabs of stone rose up from the earth and collided with the body of the berserker. As they collapsed into him, they exploded into a vast amount of sand that held him in place and covered his entire body.

Cypher cast another spell despite his quickly depleting Zight reserves, “Trio, Verse 1, Cascade of Magma!” A small portal made of Zight opened up above the stone prison. The air shimmered as the laws of the world were bent and changed to Cypher’s will. The Zight cost for this was immense, and it nearly depleted the last of his reserves but it was worth it.

A thick stream of magma began to flow out of the portal and swirled around the sandy prison, but Cypher wasn’t done there, and he continued with his chain of spells undaunted. “Duet, Verse 2, Atmospheric Pressure!”

WHAM!

With a thunderous sound, the air around the sandy prison was compressed down by several hundred tons. At that moment, he let the magma flow inwards towards the compressed sand, which turned the outer later into molten glass instantly. With sweat beading down his face and his Orrium quivering, he converted some of his physical energy into Zight and cast a fourth spell. “Duet, Verse 3, High Tide!”

Once again the laws of the world were manipulated, and from that manipulation, a cylinder of water began to fill the magma-covered, compressed glass prison. Boiling hot steam quickly filled the area, but Cypher continued to funnel Zight into his spells. The magma soon hardened and further blocked off the berserker from the world.

Cypher was being reckless, but his desire to prove his own strength was pushing him forward. When casting spells one usually found it easier to use the forces at hand. For example, an earth spell was simple because the earth was everywhere, same with wind and on occasion water.

However, when conjuring an element out of pure Zight, the cost was much much higher as it required the manipulation of the world’s laws and properties. This of course was made more difficult by the level of spells he was using.

Cypher had used three Rank-Two spells and a single Rank-Three spell. Not only that, but they were even cast multiple times each, and he was chaining all four primary elements together at the same time. The cost of such a thing was incredibly taxing on his Orrium, mental energy, and his body.

Most Conductors would end up suffering the side effects of using so many spells after a battle had ended, but he was paying that price now. The magma and water hadn’t been present and needed to be conjured from Zight alone. Because of this, his Orrium was completely empty, despite refilling it with his physical energy. Even those reserves were running low and he could barely stand at this point.

However, what stood before him now was a solid block of compressed obsidian. The combination of spells had been incredibly difficult to chain together, but thanks to that specific combination, the berserker was now completely obliterated. Not even someone in the fourth rank could have survived such a clever combination of spells and effects.

Of course, a person that strong wouldn’t have found themselves in a situation like that, especially against two Rank-One Conductors. However, the fact still remained that this series of spells was more than fatal for the berserker. Cypher and Alex had won but at an incredible cost.

With his Orrium empty, his body struggling to stand, and his mental energy almost completely expended, Cypher fell backward into the dirt and passed out.