Listen While Reading: Open the Gates of Hell
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Ding!
[The {Raid Boss: 3/3}: [Judgement, The Great Abyssal Flame Snake (Tier 5)] has emerged from amidst the dark skies!]
[If you can’t stop him in time, Elderbridge will be destroyed completely.]
An enormous flying, armored serpent, Judgement, emerged from within the skies; the third and last Raid Boss had already appeared. Its ability to fly was the primary problem, allowing it to ignore all the battle going on below and immediately try to assault the city of Elderbridge.
With no more than half a kilometer away from the city, the enormous serpent rushed towards Elderbridge. As it flew across the skies, black clouds gathered around its body, raining down fireballs made of black and purple flames.
“Ah, Vlad! Help me out defend!”
Teressa immediately rushed towards the skies, as she faced hundreds of giant fireballs coming down to Elderbridge, strong enough to destroy the entire city if they were to fall.
“Yeah!”
Vlad nodded, quickly gathering Arcana and imbuing it into his hands. Then he glanced into the night sky and how the crimson moon was shining brightly.
“It should be fine now then!”
Bathing in the crimson moonlight, Vlad’s Arcana Aura surged rapidly from his body, absorbing this energy and granting him the ability to unleash divine power.
His Divine Protection, granted by the Crimson Moon Goddess, Achlys, started fusing with his magical properties through the effects of his Class and his Class Skill.
“{Crimson Moon Arcane Arts}!”
FLAAASH!
Crimson Moonlight surged from his fingertips as he closed his palms, his mind and body putting themselves into the act of praying!
Immediately afterwards, a divine force intervened, rapidly imbuing itself into Vlad and then suddenly spreading across the entire walls of Elderbridge.
“{Stone Walls}!”
RUMBLE!
Suddenly, large five-meter-tall pillars made of the same stone as the walls emerged, absorbing the boundless Crimson Moonlight and taking the shape of giant bat-like totems.
They were twenty in total, and they all interconnected around Elderbridge, connecting through rays of crimson moonlight.
The ferocious eyes of the monstrous bat-like totems opened, glowing fiercely, and the moonlight gathered, taking the shape of an enormous crimson dome, a barrier protecting the entirety of Elderbridge.
“{Divine Crimson Moonlight Barrier}!”
At the same time, Teressa also did the same thing her son did, channeling the powers of the Crimson Moonlight through her triple divine protection and imbuing even more divine moonlight into the barrier.
This was one of the plans Vlad and his mother had planned were they to ever be attacked from the skies like this! However, they never thought they would have to use such a trump card so soon!
The giant fireballs rained down upon the barrier, and as countless explosions emerged one after another, whoever remained within the city gasped as they saw a crimson barrier protecting them.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The pressure for Teressa and Vlad was immense, the rain of fireballs was powerful, and the barriers had to be reinforced with two layers to barely be able to hold on.
Yet…
Crack, crack…!
Cracks were already beginning to spread across the barrier; it was already about to break!
“Are you kidding me?!” Vlad complained. “Is this because of my low stats? Or is it because of the skill level? Or both?!”
Vlad quickly considered using the powers of the Heavenly Demon, but that would instantly interrupt the barrier, and he had already seen that even with that overwhelming power, his attack range wasn’t too big, he would be unable to protect the city, and he would still waste away the small amount of time he can use that power trying to defend the city.
He had to first stabilize its defenses before using his greatest trump card, so he would be sure that within that time frame he would be able to defeat all the opponents and be done with it!
“Brother! Let me help, please!”
“Camilla?”
Vlad felt Camilla’s powers course through his body as her Psychic Powers were infused through her hands touching his shoulders.
FLUOSH!
“Thank you! Let’s try to reinforce the barrier then…”
Psychic Energy was, just like any other power, somehow related to the Element of the Mind, and as long as Vlad could visualize it as one, Geomancy and his Advanced Level of Alchemy, combined with his understanding of Magic like nobody else, worked together to make his visualization a reality.
“{Geomancy}: {Psychic Barrier Reinforcement}!”
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FLAAASH!
Invisible Psychic Energy coming from Camilla and her Arcana energy reserves rushed into the enormous barrier, the countless cracks suddenly being filled by this invisible or gray-colored energy.
RUMBLE!
The barrier grew three times as thicker, with an additional layer of defenses! The rain of fireballs ended after that, and the city down below remained unscathed.
“We did it, Camilla!” Vlad smiled, relieved. “Camilla?”
He glanced at his sister, only to gasp as he saw Camilla’s nose bleeding and her face looking dizzy and exhausted, almost about to pass out.
“Uhh… I’m… glad… My head hurts…”
“Camilla!”
Vlad barely managed to catch Camilla before she was to fall from the walls.
“Drink these, Camilla!”
He quickly took out the healing potions he received from the newbie gift, letting her drink one of them, then an Arcana potion afterwards.
“Hahh… Hahh… Brother…”
She seemed to have recovered a bit after drinking them; she was no longer bleeding, but she seemed to be having a terrible fever and headache.
“Drink this too! And… right, blood! Do you need blood?”
As Vlad was feeding her a Stamina Potion, he quickly waved his hand as he imbued the Divine Moonlight Powers into his Blood Manipulation.
“{Blood Bending}!”
As he saw the soldiers, his plants, and the blazing doppelgangers fighting the monsters coming from the ground and also Argentia and Chris fighting the first Raid Boss, he manipulated the blood from the nearby corpses, creating several rivers of crimson blood that lifted all the way to the walls where they were.
“Vlad! What happened to your sister?!”
Teressa couldn’t go check them as she was holding the barrier, but she immediately noticed that her daughter seemed exhausted in her son’s arms.
“She almost passed out after helping us with the barrier; I’ll feed her blood; just hold on for a few more seconds, mom!”
“Okay!”
Teressa looked into the skies; suddenly, she realized Judgement was looking directly at her, into her eyes; his presence alone sent shivers down her spine.
“So you’re even using the powers of the Moon Goddesses against me?”
He glanced at the powerful barrier while squinting his eyes and then smiled defiantly, showing his sharp teeth. The draconic serpent’s flames grew ever larger.
“You think that can stop my Vengeful Flames?!”
FLUOSH!
His entire body suddenly erupted with even more fire as he rushed down towards the city; accompanying him were over three hundred Armored Wyverns, also covered in his Vengeful Flames and made even stronger.
“Then I’ll simply have to destroy that barrier with all I have!”
“No!”
“Dammit!”
Vlad and Teressa were unable to stop Judgement, as he rushed down with all his body and clashed against the barrier with the combination of his weight and his blazing prowess.
CRAAASH!
The barrier trembled; countless cracks appeared across it once more; it was barely able to tank Judgement’s charge, but another hit would surely shatter it.
“Stop it, you damn serpent!”
Teressa swung her hands upwards as a gigantic wave of frost engulfed Judgement completely, sending him flying into the skies again and rapidly beginning to turn off his flames!
“Ugh?! My fire…!” Judgement muttered. “No, MY FLAMES ARE STRONGER!”
FLUOSH!
However, he overcharged his own body with his Arcana, producing even more flames than before and destroying Teressa’s frost covering his body.
“Punishment must be given!” he roared. “You will all die so we can all prosper! Go, my wyverns!”
Slightly tired after having been almost frozen alive, Judgement required some recovery of a couple minutes, sending his wyverns towards the barriers, aiming to destroy them completely.
“Hahhh… Hahh… I also need to drink blood; I’m exhausted already!” Teressa muttered. “Dammit, you damn… Ugh!”
She furiously roared, releasing another wave of frost. Dozens of wyverns were instantly frozen and then shattered into pieces, but those that managed to survive quickly freed themselves from her ice, the Vengeful Flames covering their bodies and helping them survive even her deadly cold.
“Those fucking things…!”
Teressa glanced at her son, desperately feeding blood to Camilla before she was to pass out or, even worse, die from brain damage after having overused her Psychic Powers.
Argentia was still wrestling against the first raid boss, who ended up being incredibly resilient and powerful. Now having entered a berserk state once he lost all his armor, he was making the dragon bleed all over. Chris had to constantly heal him.
“If this continues…!” she muttered. “Elderbridge will…!”
Despite how far they got, they still had not enough forces. The plants and the soldiers had held back really well at the beginning, but almost half of them had already died.
“I have to grab… Vlad and Camilla and get out of here before…!”
She was already desperate, thinking only of her own survival and that of her kids; it wasn’t just because she was a merciless vampire; this would be the thought process of any mother in this situation.
“SHYAAAH!”
The roars of the furious Wyverns woke her up from her daze, as they started attacking and bombarding the barrier, constantly spreading the smaller cracks.
At the same time, Judgement was already almost fully recovered, his flames burning even stronger than before.
“I have to…!”
As Teressa was about to let the barrier break and escape, suddenly…
FLASH!
A bright pink light emerged, in the shape of a neon pink star.
“Huh?”
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Then, the star divided into many at the same time, spreading across the skies and engulfing the wyverns in explosions of bright pink and purple light.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The wyverns, unable to avoid as they were slightly hypnotized by the stars, were blown up to pieces one after another.
“W-Wha… Who was that?!”
Teressa glanced around, suddenly noticing something.
“CHARGE!”
A group of citizens rushed into battle, wearing expensive-looking armor and equipment and wielding powerful magic weapons.
Moon Elves, Werewolves, Imps, Goblins, Orcs, Blood Elves, Succubus and Incubus, and many more, of all shapes and sizes, attacked the wyverns.
Using the shattering barrier as their foothold, they rushed towards battle, swinging their swords and slashing the monsters’ wings, using their axes to cleave their heads off, and using magic to bombard them from afar.
“Huh?”
Teressa couldn’t believe it; the wyverns started dying in masse, rapidly dropping dead over the barrier one after another.
Leading this army of hundreds of people, there was a single woman, some sort of Succubus girl with pink hair and bright star-shaped eyes.
“Hehehe! Are you guys enjoying the show? Kill as many monsters as you can! So you get all the Points! This is the first event of many, so don’t waste your time! Kill, kill, kill!”
As she giggled and cheered the many people, her melodic voice, like a song, enhanced their strength, their stats skyrocketed, and everyone became even stronger.
They ultimately split into two armies, one of them jumping off the walls and getting involved in the war surrounding Elderbridge’s walls.
“Don’t waste any points; kill all the armored fuckers!”
“Hahaha! I’m going to buy some expensive shit with those points!”
“Vlad and Alitheus are hogging all the rewards; don’t let them!”
“Hey bastard, that monster was mine!”
“I didn’t see your name on it! Wanna go?! These are my points!”
They were an unruly bunch of mannerless scoundrels; however, they were fighting and helping Elderbridge, and Teressa, Vlad, and Alitheus immediately realized who they were.
“Players?!”
As Vlad continued feeding blood to his sister until she looked much better, suddenly, the girl leading the Players appeared above her.
“Heheh! And we found him! Here he is, guys! Vlad, the most famous Player of FSO in person! Huh? Are you having a hard time? What happened to your sister?”
“W-What?”
Vlad didn’t know what to even say, but he was being filmed live, and there were tens of thousands of people watching him in this very moment.
“Ooh! Aren’t you shy? I like shy guys!” giggled the girl. “I’m Queenie! A super-duper famous streamer and the idol of FSO! Nice to meet you handsome! We’ve come as backup! I hope you don’t mind us stealing some of your points!”
“N-No, not at all! By all means, go ahead!” Vlad smiled. “Please, kill them all!”
“You heard him, boys!” laughed the girl. “Go kill them all!”
“OOOOHHHHH!”
The players roared, charging against the monsters like a relentless army of even worse monsters.
The greed and drive of gamers must never be underestimated.
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