Chapter 33 The Gods Gift

Chapter 33 The Gods Gift
The emerald fragments of the turtle's shell gathered instead of scattering. Across the cracked plates of the Warback's shell, thin threads of light slid through seams of stone like veins reconnecting beneath wounded flesh.

Chaos settled into rhythm.

Pressure surged through Jax's chest as the ground itself seemed to breathe through him. Each pulse of power climbed his arms with crushing weight, heavier than anything his body had ever carried.

The crater carved into the Warback's shell throbbed with black veins. Corruption bled through exposed layers of shell and stone while iron rods hammered power downward, driving rot deeper into the wound. The tropical growth spread across its back trembled with every pulse. Broken palms, tangled roots, and corrupted undergrowth shivered above a god's injured flesh.

The demon noticed immediately, its attention snapping toward the light threading between the anchors.

"So," the creature murmured, claws flexing slowly as it studied the resistance building beneath its ritual. "The God still struggles."

Behind him, Alexander's voice cut cleanly across the battlefield.

"Everyone on me now!"

Clouse disengaged first. Ana followed without hesitation, both moving toward the place where Alexander knelt beside Mira with his hands pressed into the shell, earth mana pouring through him in a brutal effort to keep her alive.

Toby stepped forward instead, planting himself between Jax and the demon with the steady certainty of a wall set in stone.

Across the crater, the Warback's eye opened.

Steady despite the corruption eating through its shell.

Its gaze fixed on Jax for a single suspended heartbeat, and something vast brushed against his mind.

Then one clean instinct struck through him with the force of a collapsing mountain.

Realization snapped into place.

This power needed shape. Something built to carry force deeper than bone ever could. Something meant to drive strength into the earth and split what had no right to remain.

Jax slammed his hand into the cracked shell, fingers grinding against rough stone and fractured plate.

Light exploded through the fractures beneath his palm, racing across the plates before surging back in a violent wave. A massive section of the Warback's shell near the crater tore free with a thunderous crack. Stone erupted beneath it, hardened, lengthened, and locked into Jax's grip while the curved shell plate slammed into place at its end.

A hammer formed in his hands.

Not metal. Not forged. Living shell and dense earth fused together, veins of light burning through the massive head like pressure trapped under stone.

The demon stared.

For the first time since the battle began, uncertainty crossed its face.

"You were not meant to touch that power."

Jax moved before it finished.

The hammer crashed into the Warback's shell.

Impact detonated across the battlefield.

Shock raced through the carapace and into the corruption lattice surrounding the crater. Rods snapped like brittle bone. Black veins convulsed. Roots feeding the ritual tore apart beneath the force ripping through them.

The demon staggered, corruption spilling from the fractures running along its body.

Jax lifted the hammer again, breath ragged as more power roared through his arms. Nearby anchors cracked under the pressure surging upward from the Warback's awakening body, but the roots still clung to the wound.

Smashing alone would not finish this.

Understanding arrived without language.

The hammer shuddered in his grip.

Lines raced across the shell plate. Stone split along widening seams as the curved armor folded inward, narrowing into a heavy crescent blade along the same stone haft.

Hammer became axe.

The demon lunged across the broken shell, abandoning the collapsing ritual entirely. Corrupted claws tore through the air as it rushed him, black energy bleeding from the fractures spreading across its form. Whatever confidence it had carried into this fight was gone now.

Only urgency remained.

Toby braced behind Jax's shoulder, boots digging into the cracked shell as he set himself to hold the line.

He stepped forward, closing the distance with the charging demon.

"BREAK!"

The axe felt impossibly heavy and perfectly balanced at once, the pulse running through it matching the living rhythm beneath the battlefield. This was not borrowed strength in the way his own magic had always been his.

This was something larger allowing itself to be wielded for one brief, violent moment.

The demon struck first, claws descending in a brutal arc meant to tear him apart.

Jax swung.

Shell and stone collided with corrupted flesh in an explosive crash that shook the air. The blade tore through the demon's guard and bit deep into its body, the force of the strike driving both of them back across the cracked shell.

The demon reacted instantly. Corruption surged toward the wound like a living thing, black veins thickening as the ritual tried to reassert itself. The rods hammered downward in answer, driving more power into the shell as the demon's claws locked around the haft of the axe, trying to rip the weapon free before the current could spread.

Then the Warback answered.

Power surged through the axe and into the demon's body, flooding the corruption channels that had carried the ritual only moments before.

The ancient current did not meet resistance.

It consumed it.

Black veins ignited beneath the pressure as emerald light tore through them like wildfire through dry roots.

The demon screamed.

A final pulse rolled across the battlefield.

Silence followed.

Roots shriveled into brittle ash across the shell. Shattered rods fell from cracked plates and clattered uselessly against living stone. Around the crater, corrupted growth sagged and died while the pressure suffocating the Warback's shell bled away in ragged waves.

Jax stood at the center of the ruin, the axe still buried where the demon had fallen.

Then the weapon began to fade.

Strength drained from his limbs as quickly as it had arrived. The stone haft crumbled in his grip. The shell plate settled slowly back into the Warback's armor as the power flowing through him withdrew and returned to the ancient creature beneath the battlefield.

His legs trembled.

Across the crater, the Warback's enormous eye remained open, steady and watchful.

For one quiet moment, the light beneath the shell brightened gently and rolled through the battlefield in a calm, even pulse.

The pulse passed through Jax like a tide brushing stone.

Not power this time.

Recognition.

Jax tried to take another step, but his body refused. The last threads of power slipped from his veins and sank back into the living stone beneath his boots.

Exhaustion hit all at once, turning his arms numb and his chest hollow.

Behind him, Alexander shouted something sharp enough to cut through the fading noise in Jax's skull, but the words blurred before they reached him.

The Warback's eye slowly lowered across the crater, its glow dimming back into the steady pulse of ancient life.

Ground rushed upward as Jax's knees gave out beneath him.

Darkness closed in before he ever felt the impact.