novelapdf Prismatic Refraction
Prismatic Refraction
(¡BOOOOOM-HUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-SHHHHHHHHHHH...!)Following the thunderous roar of the luminous explosion that blanketed the horizon, an unnatural silence took hold of the area.
<"Are you alright, partner?">
In the sky, the light dissipated, revealing a figure that defied the logic of the preceding carnage.
"I feel sick..."
In the center of the heavens, where a thousand-armed beast had once roared, now floated an exhausted "girl."
"I think... I have a new trauma... because of the locusts..."
He wore a fluffy, voluminous dress composed of layers of silk and lace, standing in absolute contrast with snowy white and deep black.
<"It’s to be expected, considering how much information you received all at once... Haaa... And well... was it worth burning your brain like that?">
He had long silver hair waving in the wind with an ethereal softness, framing a face of cold, fractured beauty.
"As for whether it was worth it or not... I’d say... I never want to do it again... NEVER."
At the center of his chest, a silver locket of ancient filigree held a rainbow gem; the stone did not just glow, it fluctuated in impossible colors, as if containing an internal universe in constant expansion and collapse.
"Besides... Goldie is definitely out of commission..."
However, that youthful beauty remained motionless, eyes closed, while fresh, liquid blood welled from his tear ducts, trailing down his cheeks like tears of ruby.
<"I can see that at a glance; by the way, you seem to be suffering from a hemorrhage.">
From his nose, a constant thread of crimson also flowed—a sign of the internal trauma caused by the sensory overload of information sent to the brain in a single instant.
"Yep, I can feel the blood flowing..."
In his arms, Mireya delicately cradled a golden straw doll.
("Ugh... It hurts... No more...")
While one arm held the small doll against his chest, the other moved in parallel, using the back of his free hand to rhythmically wipe the blood dripping from his nose.
"I'm sorry, Goldie..."
But in that moment of calm, after Mireya had adopted his new and ornamental form, the ground of the highway rumbled once more with volcanic fury.
(¡¡¡BRRRR-RUMMMB...!!!)
It was not a natural earthquake, but the echo of a will that refused to be extinguished.
(¡¡KRA-HOOOMMM!!!)
From the depths of the blood-flooded fissure, the rock walls vibrated until they cracked, launching a sonic wave that caused Mireya’s black-and-white dress to flutter violently.
"Oh, hell... Are you kidding me...?"
"Damn it all... There, there... Everything will be fine..."
Despite the threat, Mireya—suspended in the air—showed no trace of fear.
("It hurts... It hurts... No more...")
With a chilling delicacy, he ran his fingers over the head of the little Goldie doll, stroking it as if trying to soothe the terror of a child.
"Seriously... why do I only get to fight Raid Bosses? Isn't that unfair?!"
At the same time, with a trail of fresh blood sliding down his chin and his eyes still closed in a gesture of exhaustion, Mireya let out a critique heavy with sarcasm.
<"Though I personally believe that is exactly what is necessary for it to be a fair fight.">
"Whose side are you on, Echidna...?"
In that moment, just on the verge of starting a domestic spat, the edge of the fissure exploded.
(¡CHLACK!... ¡SHLORP!... ¡VREEE-RRRUMMM!)
From the darkness of the abyss emerged an extremity that no longer held human or animal form; it was like a melted arm, a mass of boiling and nearly unrecognizable biomass where chitin fused with liquefied flesh in a blackish hue.
(¡CRA-A-ACK!... ¡PSSSS-KRRRRSH!)
Deformed fingers dug into the solid asphalt with hydraulic force, cracking the surface as the Titan attempted to drag what remained of its consciousness out of the blood grave Mireya had built for it.
"Hey, Echidna... just for confirmation... is the car at a safe distance already...?"
Mireya ignored the thundering of the earth.
<"At this point, I don't think you need to worry about involving them; they are already at an acceptable distance.">
With an unsettling parsimony, he finished wiping the crimson trail from his nose using the back of his free hand.
"Alright, then let's do it."
Next, his hand moved to his cheeks, dragging his fingers slowly to dry the tears of blood that continued to well up.
"Sss-huuu... Fff-uuuh..."
In that moment, his body experienced a delayed physical collapse: his shoulders slumped, and his chest began to rise and fall in a sequence of deep, erratic inhalations and exhalations.
"Let’s try something new..."
It was the breathing of someone who had forced their nervous system past the breaking point; an agonizing pause, similar to a predator that, after a divine effort, stops for a second to avoid fainting, trying to reorder its thoughts amidst the sensory dissonance.
<"Something new, eh? Every time you say that, something interesting is about to happen... I truly can't wait~">
In parallel to that moment of vulnerability, the fissure vomited the rest of the nightmare.
(¡GULP-SHLORRR... K-BOOM... SCRRR-E-E-ECH!)
The Titan's second hand slammed against the edge of the asphalt, and with a hydraulic effort that made the highway structure creak, the creature began to rise.
"¡¡¡SKREEE-VROOO-O-O-RRRSH!!!"
The Titan had been stripped of all majesty. Its appearance was now that of a walking biological corpse; a colossal skeleton that refused to rest. Its ribcage was exposed, with broken, charred ribs peeking through tatters of flesh that hung like rotting banners.
"¡¡¡CONSUME...!!!"
No trace of its polished carapace remained; instead, skin clung to bone in a parched, blackened texture, revealing hypertrophied tendons that tensed with a hydraulic screech.
"I can feel it..."
Its jaw, devoid of lips and gums, opened at an impossible angle, letting strings of the ocean of blood in which it had drowned escape.
"It really hurts, doesn't it?"
It was a prehistoric relic reanimated by pure survival instinct, guided toward the largest energy signature with the sole objective of consuming and integrating it.
"¡KRRRGHT—!"
But the Titan's roar—a dry vibration emanating from its exposed ribs and scorched throat—was silenced before it could be born.
"It’s been a long night... for you... and for me... right?"
In response to the skeleton's attempt to stand, Mireya stopped merely breathing and released his aura.
(¡¡VUUUU-OOOO-SHHHHMMMM!!)
In a silent burst, a colossal aurora unfurled across the sky of The Veil, extending with supernatural speed until it covered a radius of eighty kilometers.
"Let's put an end to this... together..."
The night sky was dyed with undulating veils of emerald, violet, and crimson light; a celestial crown that marked a harmonic light show across the surrounding territory.
(¡GRRR-O-O-SSSH... CLACK-CK!)
Below, the Titan managed to pull itself up on its deformed limbs. Its gaze, empty of eyes but full of ancestral hunger, fixed on Mireya; it did not see him as an enemy, but as an infinite source of energy that its dead biology needed to devour to become whole.
"Prism of the Eighth Purity..."
It was in that moment of maximum tension that Mireya decided to reveal his new nature.
"There are eight manifestations... one for each..."
With an apathetic slowness filled with deep compassion, he began to open his eyes.
"I still don't control them very well... That's why... they aren't so easy to use... But..."
His eyelids opened heavily, revealing two orbs of absolute white, devoid of pupils, which seemed to shine by reflecting everything else; suddenly, they began to fluctuate in an infinite chromatic progression.
"We're going to try."
They were not simple eyes; they were prisms containing all frequencies of the visible spectrum, flashing colors that did not belong to this world.
"Come on... let's do it together..."
Mireya raised his free hand toward the aurora-lit sky and spoke with a voice that resonated like shattering crystal.
"Seventh Manifestation..."
In response to his command, a halo of pure energy exploded around him.
(¡PF-IP! ¡PF-IP! ¡PF-IP! ¡PF-IP! ¡PF-IP! ¡PF-IP! ¡PF-IP! ¡PF-IP!)
Out of nowhere, eight figures materialized: eight shikigamis, tiny men of white paper, two-dimensional but imbued with a crushing spiritual presence.
(¡¡VREEE-IIII-SHHHH...!!)
Immediately, the shikigamis began to orbit Mireya in a perfect geometric dance, tracing trails of light that intertwined with the fluctuating glow of his eyes, while the Goldie straw doll remained in his other arm, like the motionless center of an execution ritual.
"Seventh Manifestation: Reflection."
Upon the order, the eight paper shikigamis broke their circular orbit.
(¡ZZZHT—KLANG!... VREEE-IIII-NNNG...)
With precise, synchronized movements, they positioned themselves in the air before Mireya, weaving their bursts of energy until they formed a perfect geometric frame.
"Here we go..."
In a matter of milliseconds, a screen of solid light and fluctuating colors materialized between the shikigamis; a dimensional mirror that vibrated with the same chromatic intensity as Mireya’s eyes, blocking the Titan’s vision and distorting reality at that focal point.
"¡¡COME HERE!!"
With a gesture that blended the domestic with the divine, Mireya extended his free hand and, in a soft flash of light, summoned a pale pink frying pan.
<"Wait... do you plan to...?">
The object, seemingly harmless, acted immediately as an energy catalyst, instantly compressing the aura of the aurora that covered the eighty-kilometer radius.
(¡¡¡VROOOOOOO-WHIIIIIIIIII-SHHHHHHHH!!!)
The air around Mireya violently contracted.
"Aura..."
The energy of the aurora, the emerald veils, and the violet lights of the sky were swept into the pink metal, condensing into a sphere of absolute pressure upon the surface of the pan.
"...Wave!!"
In that instant, the frying pan released the critical mass of harmonic energy in a tide of pure power which, upon colliding with the geometric frame of the shikigamis, underwent a violent refraction.
(¡¡VOM-P... KRASH-IIII-ZZZSH!!)
The solid light screen multiplied the impact’s power, projecting a wall of prismatic light that surged toward the Titan's skeletal frame with a speed that distorted space in its wake.
"¡¡¡¡GRRRROOAAAWWWLLL!!!!"
In its final desperation, the Titan extended its melted arm toward the light.
"I’m so... sorry..."
Its dislocated jaw opened in a howl of pure hunger, attempting to devour the very force coming to erase it.
(¡¡¡KRA-SHHHH-WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-BOOOM!!!)
But there was no possible resistance. Upon contact with the refracted attack, the remaining biomass, charred bones, and necrotic will of the giant were subjected to instantaneous molecular disintegration that attacked every frequency simultaneously.
(¡¡¡BOOOOOM-HUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-SHHHHHHHHHHH-KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!)
The massive explosion that followed erased the enemy's silhouette under a shroud of blinding light that illuminated every corner of the eighty kilometers covered by the aurora, to the beat of the earth trembling under the weight of a force that left no remains—a detonation that evaporated the ocean of blood and crushed the rock into crystal dust.