AN: Triple release today, go back to chapter 20
Whilst Maw was dismantling the vault's infrastructure, and destroying the mines by dropping pieces of metal on top of them, Corvus had moved ahead, and prepared a little surprise for the Anzat.
Frag mines weren't the only type of device he could plant, he had also placed down a handful of sonic mines in the area Maw was about to advance towards.
Eyeing Maw as he slowly made his way forth, Corvus patiently waited for him to act in his usual arrogant manner.
Dicing through a steel structure, debris collapsed like it had a hundred times before.
However, instead of a fireball, a cone of sound erupted from the position in front of Maw.
Seemingly taken aback by the concentrated cone of noise, Maw seemed to pause in his step.
For that one fraction of a second, Corvus saw the opportunity to cast [Force Suppression], and took it.
At that moment, Corvus realized how effective Suppression was, as the Anzat's powers in the Force diminished from that of a weak Master/Darth to somewhere closer to Corvus's level. After this split second of analysis, Corvus had made up his mind, and Paused to dump his last remaining 3 points into Slow.
Un-Pausing, Corvus cast Slow/Valor/Speed/Energy Resistance/Force Resistance in short order.
After rapidly using these 5 abilities, at his current level, he only had enough FP to cast two more abilities until a minute passed, and his regen refilled his bar.
Still within the auspices of stealth-as he had yet to land a physical attack on anything yet-Corvus ran at Maw.
Maw turned around quick as lightning, and seemed to stand still to accept the red bolt of Slow! The mad bastard was extremely confident in his skills, and wore a wide smirk across his pale aristocratic looking face.
From that brief motion of his, Maw proved he was just a little faster than Corvus. If he had to compare them, Corvus would say Maw was Usain Bolt, whilst he was the best college athlete in the world.
Both were incredibly fast, and Corvus could certainly hang in the same stratosphere, but Maw clearly still outclassed him despite the two debuffs affecting him.
This only proved what an absolute beast ancient Anzat's were in their prime. Maw had a right to be arrogant when even despite these two debuffs, he still had an edge over him.
Corvus could only grit his teeth, hopeful that the poison effect from Slow wore away at this ancient monster, and allowed him to get a hit in edgewise.
All he had to do was land a bisecting slash with his lightsaber, and the damned tentacle bastard would be finished.
Grimly advancing forward, Corvus moved to circle around Maw, and hit him from the side.
"Oh hoh, I read about this technique in my ancestor's manuscript. To possess such a wide berth of skills, your memories are sure to be juicy, soup." Maw taunted. His facial tendrils twitched, then he swiped his katana right where Corvus was about to be.
Forced to either dodge or block, Corvus found that he didn't have time to jump back, and was forced to ignite his lightsaber to intercept the Force Blade.
Dropping his invisibility as he made physical contact with Maw, Corvus adopted a defensive pose.
Using Pause dozens of times each second, Corvus was able to anticipate the exact angle of attack, and parried the sword to the side.
A half second later, he shoved his left hand forward, and spawned in his lightsaber from his inventory, and ignited it towards Maw's face.
By the time his left hand had risen, Corvus was forced to desperately parry three more sword strikes away.
During all of this, Corvus tried to utilize his Jedi Shadow ability to drain darkside energies….however, much to his shock, there was nothing to absorb! In his perception, Maw was relatively neutral in the Force, neither pure Light nor pure Dark, but a mixture of the two. He was perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
Corvus could absorb the darkside energies from others, but apparently if it was cohesively mixed with the lightside, then he couldn't sap it out of someone.
"Haha, wonderful!" Maw twirled away out of range of the second saber, then threw out his hand, and used Force Pull, dragging Corvus off his feet, and towards the oncoming sword.
Fortunately, [Force Resistance] was in effect, and he skid across the factory floor instead of flying headlong into the blade.
Using the pull to his advantage, Corvus capitalized on the boost in momentum, and ran at Maw.
Throwing out his left hand, Corvus let loose with a burst of [Force Lightning] whilst he continued his charge.
Predictably, Maw held up his Force Blade in a vertical position, and used it as a conduit to absorb the oncoming attack.
Arcs of blue dominated the dimly lit vault, and Corvus's signature soared in the Force as he witnessed Maw grunting and falling back a step.
"A Sith? No! More like a Je'daii!" Maw said in joyfilled, murderous glee. It was as if the ancient had witnessed something that awoke his wonderlust for the first time in eons.
Corvus silently closed the distance, and eyed a nearby mine that the Anzat was slowly being pushed into.
Corvus hoped to press the elder alien into the explosive device, and was preparing a [Force Push] with his remaining energy, however, Maw seemed to be aware of its existence, and with his offhand, he telekinetically gripped it, and tossed it between them.
Electrical arcs met the mine, and an explosive cloud appeared between them, obfuscating Corvus's vision.
Dropping a handful of smoke grenades, Corvus leaped back, and turned invisible.
It wasn't a moment too soon either, as the katana had pierced the grey cloud of smoke right where he had stood, and swept away most of the wispy substance.
Corvus felt sweat drip down the side of his head, and gripped the hilt of his lightsabers tightly.
Even with the help of Pause-buffering, anticipating and deflecting each of those attacks was absolutely brutal.
He wished he had [Breath Control] unlocked, or a gas mask within his arsenal, then he could really poison this guy to death.
For now, he'd have to rely on the effects of Slow, and once his FP bar had regenerated, redo everything all over again.
"Ah, ah, soup, I can smell you now that you've revealed yourself! Invisibility does not protect one from the pheromones in the air." Maw chided, and lunged directly at Corvus despite the fact that Corvus was invisible.
Corvus wasn't expecting this sudden development, but he had a plan.
Pocketing one of his lightsabers, Corvus met the Anzat with a sonic grenade in his left hand. As they came close to one another, he exploded it from point blank range, and waves of noise burst onto the scene.
His [Energy Resistance] shield shuddered, and rippled from the serious amount of damage, however, as it was upgraded to a higher level, it didn't lose more than 10% of its power, and Corvus was fine.
This act seemed to discombobulate Maw, and Corvus was able to side step the Force Blade, and finally launch an attack of his own.
Swiping down with a diagonal cut, Corvus tried to swipe through Maw's chest, but unfortunately only cut through one of his tentacles.
Stumbling like a drunkard after tanking that point blank sonic grenade, Maw's entire complexion changed after taking that wound, and Corvus felt a blast of psychic fury directed at his mind.
The [Force Resistance] barrier shuddered, and felt like it was on the verge of bursting, yet it held out under this onslaught. However, the defense wasn't perfect, and Maw found a crack in the bubble, then delivered an ice-pick migraine straight to Corvus's temple.
Vision going blurry, Corvus saw the world like someone who had needed glasses all their life, and was in their 80's. It was almost impossible to see like this, and his head was throbbing like never before!
The only silver lining was that if he didn't have Resistance & Suppression going right now, Corvus would 100% be a blubbering lobotomite at the moment.
Well, at least Maw was no longer taunting him?
Corvus wanted to cast Heal, but he found he had no time, as Maw silently unleashed his rage with wide sweeping power attacks.
The Anzat was still noticeably discombobulated, but Corvus's debuffed state didn't help much either, and they were back to square one.
At least they would be, but Corvus could go into a 3rd Person POV when Paused. Which meant that his vision wasn't entirely fucked, and when in that state, his mind wasn't foggy or under immense pain! Every second spent Pause-buffering between attacks was a balm on his spirit, and within 10 seconds on the backfoot, deflecting over 32 attacks in that short time frame, Corvus had finally seen an opening. All it cost him was a serious wound, and the taste of death on his lips.
Taking a cut to the forearm, copious amounts of blood poured out of his left arm, making the limb hang limply.
The Anzat began to figuratively foam at the mouth, and his eyes dilated due to excitement. Ancient mind he may be, Maw's instincts were absolutely screaming at him to feed this very instant, damn the consequences.
Sword shoved forward, and tendril wriggling like a cock in heat, Maw, for an infinitesimally small amount of time, had left himself exposed.
Aiming with his good hand, Corvus matched Maw's stab, and shoved his hand downward in a diagonal movement. Hot blue plasma burnt into Maw's lower extremities, damaging the pale man's hip, and severing his left leg from his body.
At the same time, Maw's offhand reached forth, and clamped down on Corvus's neck.
Gnarled fingernails dug into Corvus's flesh, causing choked blood to well up his throat.
Eyes going wide as oxygen began to escape his lungs at an alarming rate, Corvus started to gurgle as blood went down his air tubes.
Despite the damage to his body, Maw wore a manic expression, and his remaining tentacle snaked forward towards Corvus's eyeball.
The sick fuck was going to scoop up his eye, then sup on his brain!
Corvus, fearing for his life, tried to twist his wrist that held the lightsaber, but Maw released the grip on his sword to pin him down!
Lying on his back, and eying his encroaching demise, Corvus Paused to think, and came up with a desperate solution.
Swapping out his lightsaber in his inventory, a thermal detonator spawned in his hand.
"Soup~" Maw salivated, his saliva fell upon Corvus's face, and the tendril was less than an inch from his eye.
"Fuck you." Corvus rasped as he spat blood at the ancient alien.
A second later, the grenade beeped, and Corvus saw a white flash.
Gaseous hot fire ripped across the two of them separating Corvus from Maw in a cataclysmic explosion.
Hearing ringing in his ears, Corvus drily coughed, and opened his eyes, only to see nothing.
He was blind.
Entering Pause, he regained his vision, and saw that his body was charred all over. He was about half as bad as Anakin was when he took a dip in Mustafar.
Corvus couldn't believe he was alive, but he could thank [Energy Resistance] for being able to pull off this insane strategy.
Taking a moment to bask in his victory, Corvus really didn't want to return to real time anytime soon. The brief second of life he had experienced a moment ago was nothing but pain.
However, his FP bar had regenerated a decent amount by now, so casting Heal should be possible. He still had all his limbs, so he was quite fortunate in that regard. Somehow he had evaded the Star Wars curse, and hadn't lost his arm yet.
Thanking his lucky stars, Corvus looked around for Maw's corpse, and was stunned.
The bastard was still alive…and he was crawling towards Corvus like some zombie!
Maw was charred worse than him, but just like with Anakin, the Force must be keeping him alive. Some assholes-like Darth Sion-were straight up cockroaches. The Anzat could barely be described as a man at this point. Maw was more like a burnt marshmallow with glowing eyes, and radiated a hunger in the Force so strong, it reminded Corvus of Darth Nihilus.
Corvus began to feel hatred for this persistent bastard.
If he wanted 'soup' so badly, Corvus would be happy to oblige!
Un-Pausing, Corvus screamed out in extreme agony as he felt the burnt tips on his nerves.
He almost lost his mind to unconsciousness, and was so damaged, he couldn't even cry, but so much was on the line, and he willed himself to cast Heal.
The first wave of minty green brought him back to 60%, the second 100%.
Standing up, and being able to see again, Corvus took a deep, haggard breath as he took a step back.
Maw was persistent in his pursuit, and moved surprisingly fast for a burnt marshmallow on the verge of death. He crawled at baby speed, which was kind of impressive given his injuries.
Corvus stretched his limbs, and wiggled his fingers, making sure everything was still there. He then glanced down hatefully at the burnt man.
"Soup. Soup….soup." Maw muttered between ragged gasps. His voice wheezed like he was in a constant state of an asthma attack, yet Maw kept moving towards Corvus with a single minded intensity.
"You want soup? Fine, I'll turn you into soup!"
Corvus then jumped up onto one of the warehouse-style railings that lined the vault.
Holding out his hand, Corvus started to release credits from his inventory.
A river of metal money poured forth, and clanged as it fell on top of Maw.
Tons and tons dropped onto the madman, mooshing him into a fine paste.
[+100,000 exp]
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AN: Read up to chapter 60+ at: patreon.com/KarpQQ
I update there every Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs
This next text is my new story, Vader Unleashed (SWTOR SI). Currently only on Fridays on the Patreon (only at ch 3 rn for transparency's sake), prob gonna go public around Nov or December once 20+ ch have accumulated:
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Seated upon a throne, a dark figure clad in black armor rhythmically breathed, the Force raged in a maelstrom of power as his emotions swelled to encompass the entire planet.
Across the fiery hellscape of Mustafar, lava surged and erupted everywhere, gasses hissed, and molten rock rained down upon the hapless inhabitants that called this Nexus of darkside energy home.
Memories of a life not his own poured into the black armored man's head. Of Earth, and Star Wars. Mixed with these intrusions were those thoughts of Anakin Skywalker, of…
Vader.
A new man had been born at that moment, as their psyches merged due to the Force, yet no merger would ever take away the hatred and vitriol he would have for the Emperor. Nor would Vader ever allow a secondary personality to divert him from his goals. Perhaps he had more mercy in his heart, a new love for studying the Force, and a penchant for attractive women, but he was still Vader. He still craved power, and maligned the weak.
With knowledge came understanding. With understanding came hate.
Discovering that he had children-Luke and Leia-drove Vader into a rage so grand, it altered the environment of Mustafar.
Palpatine had lied to him. Padme had survived, just as he had felt.
Clenching his fists, Vader took one look at the mechanical monstrosity he had become, and felt his blood boil with venom and rancour.
Sidious had imprisoned him in this suit, it was time he broke himself free.
With this knowledge, Vader had become aware of a powerful artifact located on Mustafar.
In the game Star Wars Galaxies, there was an item known as the Chu-Gon Cube. This item had the potential to transmogrify anything within a certain size.
With this item, Vader would be able to make himself a suit, new limbs.
The thought of taking a fresh breath of air calmed Vader from his rage. Cold certainty settled in its place.
He began to think of how he could best utilize such a tool.
Firstly, Vader decided he would maintain a suit of power armor. He had grown accustomed to its bulk, and had survived several explosions that he shouldn't have. Additionally, the fear it struck into his enemies served to further enhance his abilities within the Force. The suit and voice modulator were half of what made Vader, Vader. Lastly, his newfound sensibilities told him that the suit looked cool.
There were three materials Vader considered crafting his suit out of. Quantum-Crystal, Beskar, and Cortosis-Weave.
Quantum-Crystal was widely regarded as one of, if not the hardest, most durable substance in the galaxy. There had been accounts of Quantum-Crystal surviving the Death Star laser, and it was used to protect the starfighter-and super weapon-the Starcrusher.
Notoriously heavy, Vader did not envision himself donning a suit made from this material. However, it would be suitable to craft his own personal ship from the rare metal, and perhaps even a few other vehicles and droids. The Emperor was not a simple foe to be bested so easily. To destroy him, Vader would require more than new limbs and a powerful suit. A new army to rule the galaxy would fit nicely in his ploy for revenge.
Next on the list was Beskar. The notorious Mandalorian metal was everything Vader wanted in a suit of armor. Tough, durable, sturdy, reliable. To the average Star Wars fan, it was perhaps the best choice. Should he have ever chosen to remake his suit and not had this merger, Vader would have agreed. But Vader knew better. He knew of Cortosis.
Cortosis-Weave was lightweight, and notorious for being able to short out a lightsaber, and resist blaster fire. However, it had one shortcoming, and that was that it wasn't as tough as the other three. That is, of course, with ordinary Cortosis. There was a rare kind of Cortosis developed after the Imperial era. It was during the Fel Empire that Cortosis-Shield was developed, and it was more durable than Beskar. The only known thing strong enough to pierce it, were lightsabers crafted from Mestare kyber crystals, a rare substance that Vader would also be reproducing for his own use.
Of the three rare resources, Vader decided his suit would be made of this Cortosis-Shield material.
Pleased with his decision, Vader now had to go about acquiring the Chu-Gon Cube. From what he could recall, it shouldn't be too far from the former CIS headquarters. An old Jedi ruin held this ancient artifact.
Pulling up a map within his throne room, Vader had identified the location, and was about to leave for the hangar, when suddenly, an explosion rocked the fortress, and alarms began to blare signaling an attack.
Seconds later, a hologram projection flickered into his room, and his seneschal, Vaneé. The pale bald man took a knee.
"Pardon the intrusion, Lord Vader, but the Mustafarians have risen in revolt. They outnumber our garrison 10 to 1."
"Then I shall see to it myself." Vader cut the comm, then transferred the call to the garrison commander, and space command.
A pair of holograms appeared in the room. One was a standard looking brown haired Imperial army officer, and the other was a bionic man with an arm and half his face replaced.
"Lord Vader, I-we are under attack, we don't have the manpower to withstand this assault. Give the order, and we shall begin the evacuation."
"I am not interested in excuses, Captain Junus. You have failed to eliminate this threat before it has transpired. Failure is not acceptable. You will defend this castle, to the last man if need be, Captain. For your sake, I suggest you hurry."
Janus' face paled, but he clicked his heels, and saluted all the same.
"Your will be done, Lord Vader." Janus said before hanging up.
"Admiral Karius, scramble all TIE-fighters, and begin orbital bombardment. None shall escape alive." Vader stated with ominous surety.
"As you command, Lord Vader." Karius-the cyborg-nodded his head, then left to complete his task.
As soon as the holograms winked out, Vader stood up from his simple throne. Gears whirling, breathing mechanism set at a predetermined rate, and pain coursing through his nervous system with each aching second, Vader found this invasion into his sanctum to be a nuisance. One that only served to hold him back from his goal.
His revenge.
Pulling upon the annoyance he felt at these insects barring his path, Vader drew upon the darkside, and drove away all extraneous thoughts as he focused upon his goal.
Breathing deeply, he strode with purpose to look out the window behind his throne.
Blaster-fire constantly rained down from the parapets of his castle, and thousands of stormtroopers accurately shot into a mass of tens of thousands of insects that were attempting to climb the walls. Large, horse-sized creatures known as lavafleas served as the Mustafarian mount of choice, and acted as the vanguard force whilst tens of thousands more aliens marched on the black rocky crag below.
Their numbers were overwhelming, the garrison-a force numbering at about 10,000-could hardly repel such an invasion by themselves.
Even when a squadron of TIE-fighters roared to the battle, it barely caused a dent in the swarm.
Unsheathing his lightsaber, he held out a hand towards the glass, and shattered it with a squeeze of his fist.
Hot pyroclastic air flowed into his chamber, ruffling his cape, yet Vader cared not for the simmering heat. For all he felt was a cold rage. A rage that these insignificant beings had dared rise up, had dared impede his destiny.
Without another thought, he jumped.
Lord Vader had joined the battle.
~~~~~~~~~~
Father Krt, chieftain of the southern Mustafarians had received reports of a dark monolith appearing out of nowhere like a mirage or illusion.
He had been curious at first, but his soothsayers and witches informed him that this was no trick. That the Great Darkness had brought forth a Champion, that it was their sacred rite to test this foe, and see if he was worthy of uniting Mustafar once and for all.
Krt didn't care for that interpretation, and instead had seen this intrusion as the threat of an invader, of an interloper! As the foremost warlord within the southern wastes, it would be he, Father Krt who united their planet, not some foreigner!
Mobilizing his army-which had already been gathering for an offensive against another tribe-Krt redirected their fury towards this pretender.
Thousands of lavafleas led the vanguard, and over a hundred thousand men marched on the blackened monolith.
Despite the strange ranged weaponry, Krt was undeterred when over a thousand of his elite mounted units had been wiped out in seconds. Because for every troop lost, two more took their place. The white clad alien beings manning the castle walls were picked up, and feasted upon by his troops once they finally made contact. Their cackling, hooting and hollering drove morale to new heights.
'Champion of the Great Darkness? Pathetic.' Krt thought to himself, and spat to the side in derision.
He was about to direct his flea towards the conflict, and join in the fun when he saw something that made his blood run cold.
Dropping from the fortress like a meteor, a figure clad in black collapsed upon a lavaflea, bisected its rider, and then commanded the beast to sprint in his direction. 1 vs a hundred thousand? How foolish could one be?
"Slay the pretender! Tear him limb from limb" Krt commanded, and brandished his staff of leadership, directing his troops.
The swarm heeded his call, and many men began to toss hundreds of spears, nets, and buckets full of lava at the blackclad enemy.
This alien creature didn't care for anything that came at him, and with a strange beam of crimson, he cut apart everything that came at him with ease, and was slashing through dozens of lavafleas every minute as he drew closer, and closer.
"Stop him!" Krt said with some desperation.
His royal guard-ten men who had trained for 20 years-and each were touched by the Great Dark advanced at the enemy. Their spears acted as a focus, and managed to clash with the red power beam, forcing the dark figure to go on the defensive.
Krt smugly watched on as this 'Champion' seemed to falter in place. Yet that smug satisfaction evaporated like a drop of water that met Mustafarian atmosphere. The royal guard he had been so proud of all seized up, and began to crumble underneath the weight of his power.
Darkness all consuming exuded from each of his pours. He was, he was...!
"Monster." Krt choked out as he watched his royal guard's limbs twist at unnatural angles before they bent into themselves, and resembled nothing more than cubes of blood and flesh.
"Huagh tshh. Huagh tshhh. Huagh tshh." Steady, rhythmic breathing met his ears, and Krt's eyes dilated as he met the cold black unblinking visage of his foe.
Struggling to breath, Krt took a knee, and tremblingly held up his staff in supplication.
The dark figure flew to his side, and stared down at him. At that moment, Krt felt as if he were at the base of the holy temples, and was staring into the heart of the Great Darkness itself.
"Master. Champion. I give you command of the southern wastes. What do I call you, my master?"
The dark figure levitated the staff into his hand, and power rippled throughout the battlefield, forcing all Mustafarians to look up at them.
One word left this monsters lips, and with it, every creature who had bathed in Mustafar's darkness knew that he was the one. He was:
"Vader."
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AN: I intend to write Vader as a Force of Nature in this story. Just so you're aware, this is set in the SWTOR timeline, Vader just hasn't realized it yet.
His current forces are: 10k man garrison, and a fully staffed interdictor Star Destroyer.