Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 497: Clash with the Devourer

All sound fades away, replaced with a silence unlike anything Iʼve ever experienced. I canʼt hear my heartbeat. I canʼt hear my breathing. Nothing. Colors fade to black and white, save the vibrant blue of mana.

In that world, the crown above my head appears darker than even the deepest shades of black around it.

My domain, enhanced by the additional effects of my Pride subclass, envelops me and the crown as I focus with absolute intensity. The crown absorbs all my mana, and I allow it to do so—but in return, I bend it to my will. Every ounce of effort and experience poured into making that happen.

I’m far stronger than I was before, and for that brief moment, the crown permits it. Because it’s my mana. It’s part of my skill.

The crown´s effect expands even more, and the ambient mana gets drawn in from the air around me, the crown hungrily sucking it in like a whirlpool eager to devour everything. The shield around the eye dissolves into a cloud of mana particles, as even it gets siphoned away.

The eye’s inscriptions fail to materialize as the crown begins drawing in all the mana the monster can produce. The sheer volume of mana is staggering, increasing as the monster steadily regains its original strength, and yet the black crown above my head continues to absorb it effortlessly.

No skill powered by mana is able to manifest within its reach.

The eye starts falling down, unable to keep itself in the air, and as it passes by me, multiple javelins trailed by lightning pierce through the eye, only for it to regenerate. Its fleshy veins drawing in materials from the flesh golems to close the wounds with the sizzling pop of rapidly molded tissue.

Every golem still on the ground quickly grows a new set of wings and heads right for me. Numbering in the hundreds in a matter of seconds, each the size of a multi-story building.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Wait a bit longer, let your new trait enhancement and passive apply just a tiny bit more, just a little bit.

Good.

I reach out to my crown, drawing on the overwhelming power within to fuel my skill. A single pulse of [Resonance] radiates outward, crackling with the immense mana drawn in by the crown. The pulse surges through the area like an unstoppable tide.

In an instant, the hundreds of flesh golems closing in on me are obliterated, shredded into countless fragments, immediately reduced to nothing more than grains of sand scattering on the wind.

The pulse continues on, slamming into the giant eye. The attack digs into its body, tearing it apart, layer by layer, with a ravenous hunger. Half of the eye is obliterated under the relentless onslaught.

Then the backlash strikes, hitting me hard—the aftereffects of my skill, the damage from my crown, the application of my new trait, and the passive all take their toll at once. For a moment, I falter, dropping slightly before regaining control of my kinetic energy and lifting myself back into the air.

Three javelins of black mana take shape above me, hurtling toward the damaged eye and piercing deep into it. Blood pours down in torrents like waterfalls, glimmering as it cascades through the sky. Yet, even as it suffers, the remaining fragment of the beast’s pupil fixes its gaze on me, emanating an inhuman, emotionless intelligence.

All of the creature’s remaining veins burst into motion, forming even more intricate inscriptions. Just looking at it makes me want to vomit, and my eyes become hazy as the edges of the inscription blurs.

Even without mana, the veins form another inscription and it activates.

No, it would seem that even the tiniest fraction of mana the monster generates—just managing to escape before my crown can absorb it—turns out to be enough to activate them. The monster calmly works to bypass the threat presented by my crown, as if it were nothing more than another obstacle to be outmaneuvered.

The effects of the inscription are directed at the monster itself and the entire eye begins to blur, the javelins lodged in its flesh falling to the ground as the monster fades becoming transparent and immaterial.

Another pulse of [Resonance] passes through the monster as if it weren’t even there. The same goes for any other attacks I fire off in quick succession, each fueled by that powerful mana guided by my body’s capacity to channel vast quantities of energy.

The eye activates another series of inscriptions, its wounds sizzling and sealing until it is fully healed. Its mana surges, growing stronger with each passing moment, inching ever closer to its original power—a level where I won’t stand a chance.

But the same goes for me. My Mana Wavelength Iris pierces through the veil and sees the place where the monster shifted itself.

The crown fights my control but I use its mana, and I resonate with it, adapting the frequency to the space the monster has sequestered itself. The crown then starts absorbing the eyeʼs mana.

Behind me, threads of mana form, moving like the eye’s fleshy veins, shaping into inscriptions. I try to mimic and adapt one of the monster’s previous attacks, and when the preparations are complete, a pulse of mana from the crown ripples through the dense threads of mana.

The threads snap, crumble, and disintegrate, unable to withstand the immense amount of mana. The backlash is worse than I expected, and the difficulty of forming and activating the inscriptions is far greater than I thought.

Excitement stirs inside me as I make adjustments. I adapt the inscriptions to myself, replaying the monster’s actions, alter the way I’m channeling my mana, and modify the frequency and quantity.

Then, I start creating the lines, weaving the inscriptions anew—using Ley Lines instead. The pain grows, and the eye increases its efforts.

Another inscription formed from its fleshy veins flares into activation, and a huge part of the sky turns dark red. Overtaken in its entirety, interwoven with the creature’s veins, forming more inscriptions. Then the eye makes a change in the way it handles its mana changes as well, constantly deploying that field that makes the monster shift. All the while, that eye stares at me, a calm, alien intelligence glowing within.

My attempt collapses under the crushing weight of the oppressive force generated by the blood-red sky.

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Then the monster avoids another attack by shifting its position and turning transparent, all the while generating more mana and letting it be absorbed—amounts I haven’t felt in a long time.

I know what it’s doing, but I can’t stop it. Even with the crown under my control, even with the monster’s awareness, I can’t do more. Right now, I lack the ability to use it to its fullest, I simply lack the capacity to face an opponent this powerful.

Finally, it reaches the point where I canʼt hold onto it anymore, and the incredibly charged crown slips from my control, failing to absorb any more mana. Immediately starting to break down as cracks of white spiderweb their way across its surface.

(You can throw the box at the eye.)

Tess does just that, the box of white sand crashes into the tentacles protecting the creature, immediately charging the contents to an incredible degree, and it starts flying around the beast like an enraged swarm of bees, piercing through the monster’s skin with ease.

Even so, bleeding as the sand grinds it down to paste the eye starts to build up layers upon layers of barriers around my crown.

I know it shouldn’t be enough. I know exactly how much mana the crown has taken from the monster and me. And yet…

(We are leaving,) I state, sending another message to the ground.

As I land on the ground, my legs give up and I fall to my knees, but I push through it, reaching through Ley Lines and connecting to the others.

Then I teleport us all away, dropping us at a point I set up near the abandoned fortress.

All of us appear here and check on each other, some of them are carrying items from my room and others have brought additional loot from the city—still visible in the distance.

The blood red sky stretches on for miles as the fleshy veins expand further. And amongst all that red, over the city, the black crown still floats, the monster’s veins, barriers, and flesh continuing to surround it even while being constantly ravaged by the wildly swarming particles of white sand.

The dark red sky turns bright white for a moment. But I don’t get any kill notifications.

Instead, all of my running skills fail as I feel a new pull on my mana.

And in the place where the crown was, there is now a black, siphoning all the mana from the area, siphoning away the barriers the eye is struggling to build around it. There are more and more of them, creating a thick layer and inscriptions activated by these fleshy veins. Even through all these efforts, the black mana keeps pulling on the mana of the monster. Not as strongly as it could as a crown, but it still does nonetheless.

I donʼt think that black orb will endure the monster much longer. Even now, the eye feels stronger than level 350, and my best, likely not accurate, estimate is closer to 400. Still far off from the usual around level 500 of Champions, but I have no intention of staying here and waiting to see if the monster can regain its peak form.

Having had a moment to recover some mana, I force my mind to work again, pushing through the pain and reaching through my [Ley Line] to teleport us once again.

A chill creeps up the back of my head, and I sense movement reaching toward me. But I’m too slow—far too slow to react.

An attack meant for me pierces Lilyʼs chest. A blood-red vein spanning the distance between here and the city miles away.

The eye fixes its gaze on our position, preparing another attack. Simultaneously, it forms barriers around the orb, even as it’s being relentlessly worn away by the white sand.

”Oh, you don’t,” Lily whispers. Gray mana seeps out around her arms, as she grabs the vein piercing her with a short scream.

Immediately, that gray mana disintegrates the vein at terrifying speed, devouring it like a fuse, tracing a path toward the source of the attack.

For a split second, the monster seems willing to let the gray mana reach it. But in the end decides against it, moving its other tentacles to tear it off.

I touch Lilyʼs shoulder, replacing the [Ley Line] connection her attack removed, and teleport our entire group before another attack can reach us. Even so, in mid-teleport, something crashes into us. Doing so in a way I havenʼt felt before. Itʼs not physical, and most of all it reminds me of when the thylarin brothers back messed with my anchor back on Deathtrap.

Then itʼs followed up by a second force that fights against it.

The [Ley Line] Iʼm pulling us through threatens to snap, and within that short moment, I once again force my battered body and mind into overdrive, relying on my strengthened trait to pick up the slack, just to hold everything together. Even now, I have no idea what such a terribly messed-up teleport could do.

At last, we break free, but instead of appearing near Hollowgate, we arrive in an unfamiliar place, scattered across the ground. Some of us are missing limbs, others are simply injured, and a few are even unconscious. All my items, all the items they looted, our weapons have been scattered across the area in much the same way.

With a groan, I remove the damaged [Ley Line] that brought us here and form a small orb of black mana to remove any residue that could help them track us.

When itʼs done, I force myself to my feet and stagger over to Lily, who lies on the ground, breathing heavily. The wound on her chest is covered by the red flesh of the monster as it tries to devour and turn her into another fleshy golem or something worse. Her gray mana keeps firing up around her heart to defend it and keep the infected flesh from reaching her brain, but Lily seems to have trouble focusing on removing it thanks to some side effect of the invading flesh. It spreads through her body, disrupting her mana, damaging her marks, and attempting to change her, to take control.

Lily meets my eyes and clenches her teeth, giving me a signal.

Kinetic energy collects in my body as I transfer what little mana I have left and let it generate a bit more. It comes forth in bursts, directed at Lily, concentrated as much as I can manage, turning the flesh surrounding her chest wound into a fleshy crater, evaporating the majority of the monster’s red flesh.

Lily doesnʼt even groan in pain; instead, her eyes look scary as they remain wide open, observing my actions.

[Disintegration], now easier for her to use, activates, obliterating her own body. It takes her right arm, the right side of her chest near her heart, and even a part of her waist and neck, aiming at removing the remains of the red flesh.

When she looks at me I shake my head and point higher at her neck.

She repeats it, her eyes slowly glazing over as her broken body bleeds from open wounds.

I shake my head again and point at her belly.

Another part of her disappears. Bloody foam forms around her mouth. She doesnʼt breathe anymore. She canʼt, with most of her lungs and chest missing.

I get to my knees and move closer to her, and slap her across the face, forcing her dwindling attention back to me.

For a moment she closes her eyes.

Quickly I grab her head and shake it.

Lily opens her eyes, a bit confused but after seeing me she smiles and tries to say something.

The kinetic energy I’ve been collecting since the last attack bursts forth with an accuracy I didnʼt even know I was capable of. It obliterates the tiny remains of red flesh in multiple spots, hurting Lily further and making her body twitch as each strike makes contact.

”Heal.” I donʼt even recognize my voice as I speak, simply repeating the word, ”Heal.”

Lily takes a moment, as if she were having trouble hearing me or as if she couldn’t quite understand my words. Only after a while does she nod slowly, and both of her legs below her knees disappear with a quick use of [Sacrifice]. Her neck, her chest, her arms, and blood, begin to regenerate at incredible speed.

Then she takes a deep breath.