Defiance of the Fall

the attacks.
Sometimes the golden circle on its left arm lit up and formed a shield that blocked out the attack.
However, after seeing the shield a few times he realized that it wasn’t a traditional mage’s bubble or array defense.

The golden layer was pure life-attuned energy, and it didn’t block the attacks as much as it somehow swallowed them.
The attacks entered the golden shield, making it flicker a bit, but nothing exited at the other side.

Zac couldn’t quite grasp what type of concept it utilized to neutralize his attacks.
If it just used the Dao of Life to heal itself after getting hurt he could have understood it, but this was something else entirely.

Suddenly he sensed some danger again, and he started to reposition himself as he kept his eyes on the tentacle of death.
But to his surprise it wasn’t the death-attuned side that attacked him, but rather the golden arm.
A bright light lit up in the middle of the golden circle at the end of the arm, and the next moment an energy ball shot straight at Zac.

’

Zac’s brows rose in alarm as he quickly flashed away, but it didn’t help one bit as the energy attack followed him like a bloodhound.
It was also much faster than Zac was, even when utilizing [Loamwalker], so in the end he was forced to stop and erect his defenses.

Shimmering leaves whirled around him, each imbued with the Dao of Trees, as he took a defensive posture where he imbued his body with the Dao of Hardness.
The energy ball zoomed straight toward him, and the leaves moved to intercept.

But the moment the ball touched the first layer of defense the leaves lit up in a blazing emerald luster.
Since Zac was the one who summoned it and imbued it with his Dao he could sense what was going on, and he couldn’t make heads or tails out of it.
The leaf wasn’t getting damaged, it was getting empowered.

Unceasing and vast energies of life were flooding the leaves, and they shone brighter and brighter as they actually grew larger.
But in just a second the effect drastically changed, as the lights dimmed and the leaves started to wilt.

The next moment it crumbled and the light passed straight through.
Zac’s brows rose in alarm since he had acutely sensed what happened.
The ball of life had pushed too much lifeforce into the leaf, and even though they weren ’t real the ball had forced the leaves to go through their natural state of life in just a second.

Zac immediately gave up his defense and tried to flash away again, but it was to avail as the ball slammed into his back.
The Dao of Hardness didn’t help him in the slightest as it enterest his body like a burning sun.

Zac’s whole body turned red in an instant, veins popping out all over his body.
It felt terribly similar to when he had been in the pond of Cosmic Water.
Terrifying amounts of life tried to force themselves into his cells, overtaxing them and forcing them into death.
It was the opposite of his own insights; this was death through life – an attack using the natural lifecycle.

Zac felt his lifeforce getting spent at an alarming rate to exhaust the energy ball, and he was out of ideas of how to deal with the alien force in his body.
It was just too strong and vast, and it felt like his Daos were children trying to push away a grown adult when he tried to utilize them to isolate the attack.

’

But suddenly his Duplicity core woke up and started to frenziedly absorb the energies in his body.
It looked like the life-attuned energy was getting sucked in by a black hole, and the ball fractured while its energies were drawn inside.
In just a moment the core had absorbed the whole attack, and it’s golden half buzzed with energy.

Unfortunately, it was not all good news.
There were limits to how much energy the Core could contain, at least in its current state, and the absorption of the pure Dao of Life had pushed it to its limits.
Worse yet, the balance between the two sides had become lopsided due to the lack of death-attuned energy.

It felt like when the core had just been formed, and there was a massive lack of life-attuned energy inside.
However, now there was nothing for the core to absorb, and Zac sensed that it was getting more and more out of control.

He didn’t know what would happen if the core got damaged or cracked, but he didn’t want to find out.
At the very least it would cause massive damage, but it wasn’t impossible it would deprive him of his second class.
Or even kill him.
He quickly took out one of his miasma crystals, but the rate of absorption was nowhere near what he needed.

The energy in the crystals was a lower grade compared to the real Dao of Life, and it was like he was trying to divert a river by throwing some gravel in the waters.
Perhaps it would work after a while after he had absorbed enough crystals, but he sensed his core wouldn’t be able to take it until then.

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Out of options Zac grit his teeth and pushed straight toward the construct.
It lifted its golden hand again, but Zac growled and launched a quick succession of Dao-empowered fractal blades at it, each aimed at the same spot.

Another golden shield erupted around the hand, but the force of a dozen blades was not something that even the construct could handle.
The first handful of blades were cleanly absorbed by the shield, but at the 7th one, it flickered and disappeared.
The next two attacks actually landed right on the golden arm, pushing it away and causing some dents to form.

But just a second later another golden shield was formed and started to absorb the remaining strikes.
Luckily Zac had already accomplished his goal at this point, and he was closing in on the thing while its golden arm was occupied.
The black tentacle launched straight at him with terrifying speed, just as he had expected.
Even though his mind screamed of danger Zac chose to stand fast this time, allowing it to hit him square in his chest and throw him away.

Zac spat out a mouthful of blood and unsteadily got to his feet.
His face was pale as a sheet as he sensed a horrible energy rampage through his body.
It felt like his whole being was quickly withering away, but he forcibly ignored his decaying state, his all attention being on the Duplicity core.

He was already in desperate straights, and his only idea was to fight fire with fire.