Chapter 110 – Annihilation

An inch deep in blood, Trey stood amongst the corpses with an unnerving cackle echoing across the ruined street. The thought of what was to come, and the pain he’d inflicted on the bandits before their deaths, was hilarious to him.

His cackle grew in volume and pitch, and his eyes widened, until he knelt to the bloodied ground in an uncontrollable fit of laughter as his insanity bar hovered around 90%. Power radiated through him, and though he was in an unordinary state of mind – it was not one that would hinder him in the fight to come. His will to kill was crystal clear, and visions of various different battle scenarios played out in front of him to replace the normal self-mutilating oddities that usually plagued his vision.

He was a locked and loaded gun ready to spring.

Behind him, the ground shook as Juila slammed fist-down into the ground – shattering the skeleton of one of the bodies beneath her in a spray of guts before she stood to the full 7 foot height of muscular demoness she’d become. She grinned at her madly laughing master and then tossed the head of a soldier she’d killed across the street – having brought the fleshy skull with her as a warning to bounce across the road… stopping just in front of the dark knight.

Clinging to her shoulder was Napoleon, and the little ball of death hissed profanities at the small army lined up across the street as newly formed zombies began to rise from the corpses amidst Taen’s muttering. The corpses that rose were filled with pale blue light that shown out from their eye sockets before going back to blank and ordinary stares while dripping bodily fluids from their wounds and standing stupidly at attention.

The dark knight with the red-feathered helm took a step forward, kicking aside the head that Juila had tossed his way and gesturing to the laughing summoner twenty yards away with a sleek longsword that sparked with lightning. “You seem to be enjoying yourself. Tell me, what is it that you find so funny?”

Trey’s red eyes shot open further, and he whipped his head up at a slant to grin mischievously. “Nothing at all, baby girl! Nothing at all…”

He slowly stood, reaching out the hand not holding Talsh’Noc’Un and forming claws… raking long, bloody marks across Piggy’s flesh as he cut deep into the demoness-elf hybrid. Piggy winced, and she gripped two of Jason’s health potions tight against her chest, but the smile she gave him was one of pure love and lust. The intricate, demonic tattoos along her skin glowed a little greener, flaring as the pain was inflicted upon her new body… and her power level continued to climb.

- Unholy Script of Abuse (Physical Attribute): Unholy Scripts are written into Piggy’s flesh. Unholy Script of Abuse activates whenever Piggy is physically, sexually or mentally abused and tortured by her master, and grants her a vast but temporary surge in all stats. The bonus length of duration and amount of bonus given is completely dependent upon how much abuse or torture was received, but is capped at a length of 30 days and an amount of 2,500,000%. Bonuses decay over time but may be stacked with one another for each episode of abuse up to a maximum of 2,500,000%.

The dark knight took another step forward, curiously observing Trey’s torture as blood poured out from Piggy’s wounds – with fountains of blood that Ezdeath had summoned pooling in the air to bind Piggy’s wounds shut again as the torture went on. Then his attention was taken elsewhere as Ezdeath slammed the butt of her halberd into the ground – radiating power with a warning of intent as her snow-white hair whipped about in the wind elegantly from underneath her devil-like helm.

There was a long pause as the two sides considered one another. With Taen maxing out his zombie limit, and having exhausted his mana pool entirely along with a mana potion to do so, the undead on their side numbered an additional 34 zombies to back up the rest of Trey’s forces.

“Surrender the sword…” the armored knight stated coldly while lifting his shield ahead of him. “Surrender Talsh’Noc’Un… and we will let you live. The sword alone is what we seek, and you would be wise to part willingly with it… lest I take it from your cold, dead corpse instead. Originally I’d planned to take your bodies too, the bounties are rather high… but not high enough to warrant more death on my side. The sword alone has had its bounty raised fifty fold, so that should suffice. Take my gracious offer, and be done with it.”

This, in response, caused many of the demons surrounding Trey to outwardly laugh.

Bounty hunters. They’d finally found him.

Ezdeath in particular though this offer funny, and her shoulders began to bounce as her pure, rich voice echoed across the ruins nearby. She twirled her halberd around, pointed at the knight with a sneer hidden by the full-plate armor she wore, and gestured him forward with it. “Come and take it, worm. You humans always amaze me with your insolence.”

“Know your place.” Sithis rumbled in agreement, stepping forward along with Butcher as the two huge figures towered over the small army ahead of them.

The knight cocked his head, noticing Rivia as the culn priestess – with glowing infernal halo hovering overhead – made her way down the last of the steps to join the others. He then turned his attention back to Trey, who still stood raking his claws across Piggy’s skin as the infernal elf’s wounds sealed shut via the bloody fountains Ezdeath had conjured… while her tattoos continued to brighten. “We outnumber you three to one. You will not win this, and there is no reason for us all to die. But I am a gracious man, and will allow you this one more chance to surrender the sword. Give me the sword, and we will be on our way. It is that, or your lives.”

Trey didn’t know how many men were across the street ahead of them, but it was definitely more than a hundred… and most of them were densely packed. His mind raced far faster than a normal human now, with his rage bar fueling his need to kill… but he didn’t necessarily need to do it all himself. Just seeing them die would be enough, and doing it effectively as possible…

He could make this a work of art.

Trey turned Piggy’s face, taking his bloodied claws from where they’d been imbedded in her side and thrusting her skull forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. Then, leaning his head down slightly to whisper in her ear, he spoke the words: “Show me what you can do… my beautiful Piggy.”

The masochistic elf glanced up at him, tears of happiness radiating down her face as her lip quivered in excitement and she nodded. The knight, however, took it for what it was and began to scream out orders to move.

Arrows were notched, barriers of arcane light and buffing auras were placed overhead, and the dark knight fell back into the front line as the heavily armored soldiers began to slowly march forward. “YOU CHOOSE DEATH THEN!”

Just as the first of the arrows, flaming missiles, and bolts of purple arcane energy began to soar through the air towards Trey’s own, smaller army – Trey gave three simultaneous commands through his minion-master links, and Taen’s zombies began to rush forward to intercept the barrage as cannon fodder.

“Piggy. Rivia. Juila.”

Pestilence^^^ (Dark Miracle) - Level 34

* Disease afflicts your opponent, causing rot at an accelerated rate. Very painful.

* Reduces HP and SP equally.

* Upgrade 1> Pestilence spreads to those who come into contact with an afflicted target as long as the caster deems them enemies

* Upgrade 2> May simultaneously cast Pestilence on three different targets with the same miracle and DP point

* Upgrade 3> Pestilence now does an initial burst of dark damage in the form of a small target-engulfing explosion before undergoing the usual damage over time effect with rot and necrosis. Enemies caught in the explosion are also afflicted with pestilence’s rot. (Explosion base radius is 3 feet away from target)

Alkir’s Infernal Halo

Item Tier: (15) Transcendent

Bonuses: Increase casting speed and range for all miracles by 300%

Requirements: Have Alkir bestow this item upon you as a sign of your devotion

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Durability: Unbreakable

Special: Soulbound to Rivia Ahst. Dismissible.

The infernal halo allowed Rivia to cast her pestilence miracle four times over the next second. Each of the four miracles hit three, different, spaced-out targets for a total of 12. Each target exploded with a base radius of 3 multiplied by 300% to make a bas radius of 9 feet from every one of the 12 target points to cover and overlap with one another, and every blast radius afflicted everyone caught up in it with an initial base damage – followed up by spreading necrosis and rot. The entire enemy army was engulfed in a black, necrotic blast of unholy power – and they simply couldn’t react. The initial attack from Rivia came like a freight train that tore them apart in screams and explosions of dark power – flinging many of the tightly clumped enemies into one another as armored bodies slammed into one another or crushed those who weren’t wearing such heavy protective gear. The casters and archers in the back that’d been preparing to shoot off another volley again misfired en masse, sending magics and sharpened arrowheads all around at random with many of them slamming into nearby allies with explosions and piercing shrapnel.

To say the least, it was beyond devastating… and Piggy’s Carnage was activated at the exact same time.

- Carnage (Master’s Ability): Only activatable by her master. Piggy gains tremendous amounts of aggression towards her master’s enemies, a lack of pain sensation, a vast defensive bonus to magic and physical attacks, the ability to fly, a destructive Chaos Lightning Aura, and +700% to all stats. This ability’s effects last for 2 minutes and may stack with Unholy Script of Abuse bonuses. Upon the end of this ability, Piggy is teleported back to her master’s side. Very long cooldown.

The infernal elf screamed as her glowing tattoos flared to life, blazing far beyond the glow that’d been illuminating her body moments before and turning into a deep red and black. Chaos mana erupted from her body, her eyes and hair caught fire, and a split second later she’d shot forward into flight – startling even Ezdeath and Sithis – to shatter into the remnants of the scattered front lines before the first of the bodies flung about by Rivia’s pestilence explosions landed back onto the ground. Chaos mana blew apart bodies at random all around her as the infernal elf tore heavily armored men apart with her bed hands – black and red lightning shredding them apart like meat through a grinder in a blur of motion.

Immediately afterwards, Juila’s blood aura was forcefully expanded by sheer willpower. It’d been a good guess on Trey’s part, partially inspired from the insanity coursing through his mind, but it worked.

- Blood Price (Aura): Juila now has a passive blood aura that slowly leeches life off any enemies who have open wounds within 50 yards. Excess health absorbed beyond her maximum HP is applied as temporary defensive bonuses. Small amounts of leech life are also applied to physical strikes of any sort for herself and any party-bound allies within Aura’s radius.

The small streams of blood that’d been collected from the dead and dying were now emphasized five-fold, and it found new targets in the mangled and afflicted bodies that Rivia’s pestilence or Piggy’s chaos aura had damaged. Blood was ripped from the pores of their rotting skin and wounds in waves of crimson, eviscerating many of them on the spot as the red rivers lurched forward to pour into Trey’s demoness.

Within seconds the main force of the enemy army was utterly torn apart, with the remnants of it continuing to die at an extremely fast rate after the combination attack by all three demoness’. However, it wasn’t over yet – as even more of the bounty hunters that’d been hiding in the adjacent buildings began pouring forth; not wanting to wait any longer and try their hand at ambush after seeing their allies wiped out so fast.

“They’re trying to rush us and crush us with numbers…” Ezdeath said softly as the surprised pure-blood succubus glanced back at Trey with an admiring gleam in her eyes. “Even after what they just saw. Truly stupid creatures, these humans are…”

A shockwave radiated out from where Piggy slammed a fist through the dark knight’s feathered helmet, puncturing his skull and ripping his armored body apart effortlessly as she screamed in rage.

Trey just chuckled malevolently, eyeing the oncoming enemies.

“It wouldn’t be fair to let these three have all the fun, would it?” Trey gave Ezdeath a wink just as Butcher and Coriana rushed headlong with Taen’s zombies to meet the enemy on the left - with Taen calling out for Trey’s demons to take the ones on the right.

Ezdeath let out a loud giggle as her wings spun about to cleave a multitude of enemies in a whirlwind of her halberd’s blade. Ripping out the throat of another with one of her claws she blinded her next set of opponents with a sacred art, quickestep, leaving another few dead men in her wake. Atharost and Sithis were seemingly trying to one up one another as they charged headlong into the crowd of panicking attackers, dwarfing all of their opponents as they burned, clobbered and crushed any nearby. Trey on the other hand remained calm and collected as he seemed to slowly and mindlessly walk through the carnage to one-hit kill anyone who got close enough to be struck by his greatsword - with Napoleon flinging out green, curse-imbued firebolts as the imp continued screeching out profanities. Reaching up his free hand, Trey sent numerous chaos chains to enter this realm - homing in on enemies to pierce through them and go on to the next.

“FEED… ME…” Talsh’Noc’Un echoed out in its typical wraithspeak, startling even Taen on the other side of the battlefield as Sithis breathed hellfire into the oncoming crowds before ripping arms off bodies to beat them to death with their own hands.

The young necromancer only took another moment to look at the scene before he bolted forward and joined his enormous flesh golem in crushing the remaining enemies that were still desperate to get the bounty on Trey’s sword.

Taen rolled, dodged, and continued to sprint - then slid like a soccer player to undercut the legs of two nearby enemies, quickly finishing them off before they hit the ground.

The earth shook with each slam of the flesh-golem’s fists. Men and women died one by one as Coriana blinked in and out of existence, tearing souls from bodies before blipping away into nothingness again. Torrents of fire, shadow and chaos burned through the oncoming enemy charge, with Trey’s front line - specifically Ezdeath, Juila, Piggy, and Sithis - tearing through those who made it past the magical bombardment. Ezdeath easily outperformed the others in this aspect, or at least she could have - but she was having a lot of fun just watching her compatriots go at it and held back so the others could get in some more killing. What hope the remaining hundred or so bounty hunters still had was quickly shattered, and the desperate fools began to break ranks and run in a panic. Eventually it all began to merge into one single chase as the bounty hunters took to run down the main road - with undead and demons in hot pursuit… both on land, and above in the air.

“Hello Taen,” Trey stated as a flurry of shadow blades rained down upon a fleeing group of the remaining enemies. Two more mages seemed like they were summoning magics to do their bidding before Trey unleashed a roar of the banshee and silenced them - finishing them off as he shadowstepped forward to rip their bodies apart. Twenty yards further, Sithis grinned to lift up a large clawed foot and slammed it down to crush another man like a watermelon under a sledgehammer. Sithis blazed with chaos magic engulfing his body and fired off two chaos balls out of Taen’s line of sight, with a flaming ifrit speeding out in the air to where the shots had been fired.

Trey smiled out at Taen through ruby ethereal jaws with an evil look in his crimson eyes. He turned back around to a single woman mage who was running for dear life, terror stricken as she looked back. She didn’t last another second as Trey unleashed an Obliterate attack from his greatsword fifty yards away and tore up the woman along with everything around her in a mass of chaos energy.

His grin grew wider. “Once upon a time, I was only able to use that attack when things made contact with Talsh’Noc’Un, but now I can release it at a distance. Pretty devastating, wouldn’t you say so?”

The ground smoldered, and a deep, narrow trench had been carved into the stone all the way across the fifty-yard path.

Taen nodded absentmindedly as he took in the wreckage left by the blast. “Did you really have to kill her though? She was running away.”

Trey continued to grin, and he raised both eyebrows as his insanity began to cool off.. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned since getting here to this shithole of a planet, it is this: Do a job thoroughly or don’t do it at all. If someone hits you, hit them back twice as hard. Life treats you better if you do. She was amongst those who attacked us unprovoked, she sealed her fate the moment they made such a foolish decision.”

The summoner turned to Ezdeath who was standing patiently by, armor covered in blood, as she removed her helm and smiled up sweetly at her master.

“Yes?”

“Did I do well!?” Ezdeath asked hopefully as she seemed to bounce up and down on her tip-toes. “Did I?!”

Trey was taken aback momentarily before chuckling and hugging the silly girl. “Of course you did. You don’t have to ask!”

“I just wanted to hear you say it!” replied Ezdeath giddily as she embraced Trey back forcefully, taking a moment to give him a peck on the cheek.

Piggy no doubt would have been green with envy after watching that, but she was currently using the last minute of her carnage ability to tear through the fleeing enemies - soaring through the air and tearing apart buildings as she went in showers of stone and chaos mana.

“Ahem.”

Trey turned around and saw Rivia looking up expectantly at him as her infernal halo faded away, and Ezdeath promptly let go while blushing.

“You did amazing as well!” Trey laughed, seeing Rivia’s face light up with a smile as he came to embrace her. Throwing both arms around the culn priestess, he gave her a firm kiss and spanked her ass before pulling her into a long bear hug. “That was amazing! The way you, Piggy and Juila…”

Taen watched Trey pepper his minions with compliments, having mixed feelings about all that’d happened up until then. He didn’t think less of Trey for his decision to kill the fleeing woman. He understood why Trey did it, but Taen couldn’t help but think that he would have let her go out of mercy. He felt saddened at the needless loss of life, quickly realizing that was ironic considering his profession with undeath, and turned back around to hurry towards the building.

It took a little bit longer than he’d liked, splashing through the blood and bile - stepping over corpses as he went, and it really impressed upon him the sheer power their group wielded. They’d just annialated an entire fucking army in less than a minute, and Taen was seriously curious as to what kind of level gains they’d get after seeing such a ridiculous combination attack. Specifically from Juila, Piggy and Rivia. It’d been beyond brutal, and Taen whistled just once in admiration as he thought about it more.

But he had work to do, he’d think about that more in detail later.

He came to the building’s bottom and went up the stairs, hoping he’d be able to restore Bann back to health now that the fight was pretty much over. Aside from the screams of the fleeing victims meeting death at the hands of Sithis and Atharost, all of the enemy had been eradicated.