Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 155: Full Frontal Assault

His odd method of aiming was a special technique Sap Trang was using to give the powerhouses as little warning as possible. He remembered how Lord Zac had seemed to know the bullets were coming before the bang even arrived, and he wanted to avoid that situation. Sap didn’t know if his tactic worked, but it should be better than doing nothing.

However, the bullet didn’t work on this man, as the high priest roared and a wave of golden flame exploded out from him, covering almost half the camp in an instant. The bullet was scorched into nothingness, and all the poison in the area was incinerated.

A few hundred dead or dying lay on the ground, but a large group were still battle-ready, though none looked completely unscathed.

“Conviction!” the man roared while pointing to the west, letting Sap know the high priest was the one who gave the initial warning.

Multiple priests and monks immediately turned toward that direction, and suddenly it was as though the heavens itself punished the whole area to the west of the camp. Blazing golden beams slammed into the ground from the skies, creating seas of fire that covered hundreds of meters.

Sap guessed the two remaining demons were located in that area, and immediately reloaded his gun and in quick succession fired off two bullets toward the high priest.

The demon shot at the same target, as Janos likely also realized the mace-wielding high priest was the largest threat to their operation and Port Atwood.

Unfortunately the bullets didn’t work any better for the illusionist either, as every shot disintegrated before they hit the man. Waves of billowing heat kept wafting out from the priest, making Sap wonder just how much Cosmos Energy the man contained. Interestingly enough the fire didn’t seem to ham the priests, but rather strengthen them.

Sap didn’t have time to mull it over as the high priest’s head suddenly snapped right toward his direction, and it felt as though the priest looked back at him through the scope. Great fear flooded Sap’s heart, and it felt as though reality went into slow motion.

“Illusion broken, he knows,” Janos said and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Sap desperately shot another bullet at the man, but it was to no avail as the high priest lifted his mace toward his direction, seemingly giving out a death sentence.

A great light shone down on Sap from the heavens above, and he looked up to see boundless fire descending upon him. It felt like the fire didn’t only want to burn his body, but even his soul. Sap completely froze, unsure what to do apart from pray to Buddha.

However, shadows suddenly gathered above him, and the fire was blocked right above him, while the forest around their bushes turned to cinders.

Out of the darkness Ogras and a three meter tall hideous monster stepped out. The monster was full of thorns and vines, and multicolored gases wafted out from it, making it look like something out of a horror story.

Before Sap had time to react the monster slowly transformed into the female demon. She was burned and bruised at various places, just like Ogras, but it was undoubtedly her. Sap even forgot the battle as he stared at the woman who frowned as she saw his gaze.

Before Sap could do anything else shadows started rushing toward Ogras, and it looked like they were becoming a second layer of skin on him.

“Split up and flee,” Ogras said with a voice that sounded as though it came from the depths of hell as his body turned completely black.

Sap unhesitantly followed the order, as this battle was not something someone like him could intrude upon. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Janos do the same, and further in the distance he saw a squad of furious-looking priests start moving toward them. A primal fear pushed Sapʼs legs forward, but a morbid curiosity made him throw one last look at the battle.

Ogras looked like a god of darkness with two huge black wings on his back as he hovered facing the high priest who radiated a blazing glory. A gigantic sun burned behind the priest’s back, and the mace in his hand seemed to feed upon the celestial fire.

Sap almost thought he was back in an illusion, but knew he wasn’t so lucky. The world had truly turned crazy.

The ten-meter monoliths that the Corpse Golems carried around emitted an intensely uncomfortable feeling, as though they emitted the chill of death itself. Zac got goosebumps from their aura even from his hiding spot amongst the foliage. The undead seemed to love it though and even fought amongst themselves to get as close as possible to them.

Zac actually knew what those things were since he had looked up as much general knowledge as he could about the undead forces in preparation for finding his sister. He would likely need to traverse the domain of the undead to reach her, and any knowledge would help.

The large pillars were called unholy beacons, and they were tools that transformed Cosmic Energy into miasma.

There were many unclear points as to how the undead legions could actually exist, but it was clearly linked to miasma. The undead did not cultivate using Cosmic Energy, and to a certain degree it was almost harmful to them. While normal Cosmic Energy was without attunement, it could be considered to be basic building block of life. However, putting that into the body of a living corpse could be quite harmful.

They instead absorbed miasma, or Death Attuned Cosmic Energy as it was also called. Some places where extreme bloodshed had taken place naturally created miasma, other times the undead forces manufactured it with beacons and arrays. The beacons essentially terraformed an area into an environment that suited the undead.

The need for miasma was also one of the reasons why the undead forces created such a number of zombies. Zombies were generally quite weak unless they managed to awaken their intelligence, but they acted as miniature unholy beacons.

Low tiered Zombies could still absorb Cosmic Energy, but most of it was actually released again as miasma. The process was far less efficient compared to the real beacons, but Zombies were self-propagating, creating a natural spread of the undead domain.

Miasma was not too toxic to humans, and one could actually absorb it just like Cosmic Energy. However, doing so for too long would have negative effects, affecting both the mind and the body. That only went for people like Zac who had a sturdy constitution though.

A normal mortal at level 1 would fall sick and die within a few days if he or she stayed within miasma, while Zac would be able to traverse the whole incursion without much problem.

Zac hadn’t expected the undead invaders to actually bring beacons with them to the island. It meant they weren’t just planning a quick assault, but a long term occupation of the area after his town was dealt with.

A frown emerged on Zac’s face as he surveyed the shining pillars, as he couldn’t have those things keep spewing out miasma. It had only been a few hours since the invaders arrived, but the vicinity was already largely converted, giving it a ghastly feeling.

A large part of the island might become uninhabitable if the monoliths were left unchecked for too long. Their presence only reaffirmed his opinion that the third wave needed to be dealt with in a lightning-quick manner. If everything went well here he might actually strike a second leader within the hour, as soon as the Zombies started rampaging.

There were a few more minutes before the agreed-upon time, and Zac kept looking over the area to get a grasp of the forces the Corpse Lord brought. He counted at least fifty Corpse golems, most of which surrounded the monoliths. He could only find five aberrations though. Perhaps those freaks of nature were quite rare, Zac didn’t really have much knowledge about them.

Finally he spotted a large tent that looked surprisingly normal, apart from its dour colors. The walking corpses didn’t care about a roof over their heads, so it should belong to the Corpse lord. There were a few corpse golems standing guard around it as well, making it quite hard to sneak up on.

However, he was already prepared to fight through a sea of Zombies to reach the Corpse Lord, as sneaking around wasn’t his strong suit. Hopefully having the necklace while speeding through the masses with [Loamwalker] would be enough to give him a leg up on the enemy.

It was almost time, so Zac steadied his breath for a few seconds, some fear lingering in his heart. However, that fear was eclipsed by a steely determination. Months on this island had reforged him and given him an unflinching mentality. Just seeing the horrid sight in front of him would have made him run away screaming a year ago, but now he only looked at it from a tactical viewpoint.

He took out his axe again, carefully looking it over. Hopefully the upgrade would prove useful in the fight, as the stone cost 6 million. He felt the excitement of the axe when he fed it the stone, but he still hadn’t figured out what had changed by using it. It looked pretty much the same as before, and he hadn’t really felt anything different when he killed the rockmen earlier.

Next he put on a nondescript cloak that would mask himself a bit, and without stalling any further rushed toward the command tent when there were five seconds left to the deadline. Each step with [Loamwalker] pushed him almost ten meters, barely leaving a shadow in his wake.

Most of the zombies didn’t even register Zacʼs passing by and mindlessly kept milling about. A few gave a start and started growling while looking around with confused faces, perhaps trying to understand what was going on.

Zac didn’t bother with them as he infused a huge amount of Cosmic Energy into his arms and axe, wanting to end it all with one swift strike.

Finally he arrived right outside the tent, and Zac was already mid-swing when he appeared. A five-meter fractal blade ripped through the air horizontally, infused with the Dao of Heaviness. A corpse golem stood in the way of the swing, but [Verun’s Bite] had the force of a train as it ripped right through its dense muscles, completely bisecting the hulking golem.

The blade continued unimpeded right into the tent, but as it was almost completely through Zac felt a painful shockwave in his arm as his swing lost all its momentum instantaneously. A huge shockwave spread out, pushing away any Zombies in the vicinity, and two of the huge corpse golems even fell on their backs from the force.

The tent was rendered into ribbons by the wild energies, showing Zac the interior of the tent. The Corpse Lord stood stable like a mountain, his bone hook holding Zac’s fractal blade in place. Zac’s eyes met with the sinister eyes glowing like red orbs of the undead leader, and the Corpse Lord’s mouth opened into a ghastly grin showing sharp teeth.

“I suspected you might try this, human,” the undead warrior said with a sneer. “You think my true death will solve your problems, and you might be right. But just this amount of power won’t be enough.”

Zac didnʼt know why he could understand the undead generalʼs words, but it didnʼt matter. He didn’t answer the taunt, instead quickly materializing a new fractal blade. He actually noted that the hand of the Corpse Lord was very subtly shaking, probably meaning that the defense wasn’t quite as relaxed as the undead humanoid wanted to make it look.

He remembered Ogras advice and mustered all he had in each of his swings. He needed to end this quickly before he was overrun by a sea of undead monstrosities. Each of Zac’s swings was imbued by either his Dao of Heaviness or Dao of Sharpness, and he tried everything in his book in order to create an opening.

The Undead was an even match, the huge bone hook tearing through the air to meet each and every swing. Zac noted with some relief he was actually pushing the man back a bit, and kept his pace up. However, he didnʼt dare relax as it seemed the undead wasnʼt using any Dao, and Zac wouldnʼt believe a leader of an incursion didnʼt possess a few of them at least.

Zac was also getting a constant stream of Cosmic Energy, as the Zombies in the area unhesitantly joined the fight between the two powerhouses, and kept streaming toward Zac in an effort to disrupt his rhythm. However, the Zombies were too weak to do much of anything, and most were destroyed simply by the errant energies or shockwaves from the battle.

Suddenly the Corpse Lord jumped back and released a bestial roar. The unholy beacons around them blazed to life and shone with a ghastly turquoise that covered the whole area. The world turned almost monochrome with all warm colors in the spectrum gone.

It appeared the Corpse Lord was going all out.