“How is it possible that the Ash Huntress is here with you?” Lady Saet, the ruler of the celestial beings in this area asked me bluntly as we both watched Niiya at play with a group of four young celestials. They were flying as gracefully as sparrows as she leaped from one enormous branch to another in a game of tag. The display of agility was otherworldly in normal terms but the winged boys and girl were in another league entirely while airborne. “And in the body of that little girl as well.” She added.
“Niiya’s title and powers came with her evolution when I gave her my brand. The process made it sound like Ash Huntress was a species rather than a specific individual.” I replied, recalling the info panels when she had evolved.
Saet made a bemused clucking sound and shook her head. “A race of Ash Huntresses? No, Count. The Ash Huntress is a very specific spirit being named Azitet. She is a vengeful and monstrously powerful entity, and falling within her Ashen Nightmare spells doom for all but the mightiest demons. For Niiya to gain that title and ability is beyond unprecedented. She is very young now, and her power is immature. Ashen Nightmare grows by devouring negative emotion, and then manifesting it as physical phenomenon. Would you be willing to ask her to do something for the sake of my curiosity?” She asked in a brighter tone.
“If it’s a reasonable ask then sure. You can call me Gray by the way” I answered with a cocked eyebrow. Where was she going with this?
“Could you ask her to come and summon an enemy she absorbed with her domain?” She requested with a winning smile.
I sent a telepathic call to Niiya, and she instantly broke off pursuit of the celestial girl and appeared before us less than a second later.
“Lady Saet has a favor to ask.” I said out loud, more to prompt Saet than inform Niiya.
The dark skinned cat girl looked up just slightly to stare at Saet expectantly. It was a grown up expression a million years removed from the tiny terrified child that had once clung to my pant leg for dear life. It wasn’t just her expression that was growing up at an unnatural rate. Her body was now at least that of a fifteen year old. She would probably never be very tall but she was very nearly five feet now, and the size of her hands and feet indicated she still had some more growing to do. She was going to be a looker, that much was clear even to me, and the constant glances the celestial boys were giving her were all too obvious. Saet’s voice interrupted my observations.
“Niiya, could I see one of the enemies you have in your domain?” She asked as though she were speaking to an adult.
“They’re not enemies anymore.” Niiya answered easily. “They’re friends but I know what you mean.” She finished by holding her right hand out with her palm facing away.
A thick plume of ash poured from her palm, and quickly took the shape of something immense in size. The silhouette was at least fifteen feet tall. The figure became more defined, and then too defined. It was a moonwolf, but nothing like anything I could have imagined. It was pure nightmare fuel, with exaggerated teeth and claws both dripping nearly black blood. It was powerful too, I could sense the strength without needing Appraisal.
“It’s beautiful, and just as I thought.” Saet muttered as she closely examined the summoned beast. “The monsters are as they appeared to Niiya as a small and vulnerable child. This is truly amazing. The fact that creatures appear altered as she perceives them means that this domain may scale with the amount of emotional control and mental focus she is able to achieve.” She turned back to Niiya and gave a gracious nod. “Thank you, that is all I wanted to see.”
As Niiya absorbed the ash back into her hand, a deafening horn sounded. The immediate reaction of every nearby celestial made me recognize the alarm for what it was. They immediately took wing and flew with remarkable coordination high up and out of sight.
“We’re under attack.” Saet said. “This must be a retaliation from Zurg.”
“In that case I should probably lend a hand.” I said, drawing a knowing look from the celestial ruler.
“Do as you please, Count.” She said with a light shake of her golden tresses. “I must report to the throne room at once.”
“I’ll head south to slow them down, Niiya I want you to protect Lady Saet in the throne room. Don’t let any enemies near her.” I hoped I was hiding my real selfish intentions of keeping her out of the main fight well enough.
Niiya’s face screwed up and I was sure a protest was forthcoming, but she instead bit her lip and nodded firmly. “Save me a cyclops, if you get rid of them all I won’t have one.”
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So that was her worry, that I was going to annihilate them all before she could add one to her menagerie. I couldn’t blame her at all. I went through a pretty intense Pokemon phase once too.
With a long hug and a kiss on my cheek, she released me and allowed Lady Saet to carry her princess style as she flew away to the hidden throne room.
Without the distraction, I could now feel the vibrations. Even all the way up here, hundreds of meters above the ground I could feel the menacing approach of the enemy.
My instincts sped my flight as I leaped off of the wide bough that supported a whole village and a grassy park. I flew through the massive canopy of the celestial oak, noting the precise evacuations of the thousands of citizens and the mobilization of the winged soldiers.
A few minutes later I was free of the tree and speeding toward the great dome barrier protecting the area. I passed through it effortlessly thanks to the token Saet had gifted to me as thanks for defeating the cyclops general Thurg. I reached the clear cut, desolate territory of the cyclops a few minutes later and beheld a sight I was absolutely not prepared for. A cyclops army, nearly a thousand of the colossal brutes stood in an alarmingly ordered formation facing north.
Before them, the ground was darkened by a sea of smaller monsters. With my empowered vision I could tell that these weren’t mere orcs or gnolls, but demons from the far southern territory. They were all of the same species. While tiny next to the cyclops, they would dwarf a human and their four lanky arms were covered in black feathers and ended in grotesque bone hooks. Their heads were that of a mutant crow with a long razor sharp beak. I recognized them from EG instantly. They were known as flayer demons, but some clever dnd fan had dubbed them ‘rook horrors’ as they looked like a cross between a crow and that iconic underground monster. It was typical to find them in large groups but this was unprecedented. There was no sign of the infamous Zurg, but I could sense a serious power on the ground within the swarm of rook horrors. Try as I might I couldn’t get a bead on it, though.
I took several deep breaths, drank my pre-combat elixirs, and pulled out Charon’s Call. It was time to unleash the full scale destruction of the weapon.
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*Equipped: Charon’s Call - Spear
(Item Score 899) Skin: Default
Damage (Physical): 416
Damage (Soul): 280
Indestructible
“And those living souls that would dare parade themselves before the sordid god Charon shall be regarded as the most unfortunate in all of Creation.”
Charon’s Call: Cooldown 23h:59m:59s
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Just like before, black clouds gathered heralded by a disembodied choir of sirens’ singing. Charon descended in all of his wretched and epic glory. Chains wound down from the great black metal rings in his six bone hands, infinite and seeking flesh to eviscerate. The vision was enough to make the blood of any sane creature run cold.
As one, the thousands of demonic eyes of the rook horrors and the beach ball sized eyes of the cyclops looked up. The monsters weren’t stunned by the siren’s song as the weak human soldiers had been. They showed no fear, or even surprise. It was then that I noticed something very odd. Their movements were synchronized. It looked like a lazily animated CGI army where each soldier had simply been copy pasted from the one next to it. Many enemies were destroyed in the next moments. The chains of Charon turned black with the blood of demons as at least a thousand were consumed. It was barely a dent in their forces though, and I grew more uneasy as simultaneously every single monster acted at once with mechanical precision. Rook horrors began climbing the chains, leaping high and using their bone hooks to climb the chains with startling agility.
Never in all of the times I had used Charon’s Call did I imagine that it could be the target of attacks itself. The hook horrors swarmed like angry ants, using the chains and their own dead comrades as a ladder. In that chaotic moment, another sensation entered my mind. The power I had sensed among them earlier began to grow, and consolidate in a single spot on the ground. I peered with all my might and finally glimpsed the source. A cyclops, but it was tiny. It was literally the size of a dwarf, but its eye glowed deep red and the power rolling off of it was at least as strong as mine. That couldn’t be...
“Appraisal” I said, feeling my throat tighten for the first time in a long time. Something about this thing was setting my instincts off in a big way. The data that was displayed made me realize something that I had been unsure of. This new body could indeed produce a cold sweat.
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Zurg
Flesh Titan Progress to Next Evolution: 80%
Level: 6 XP: 40% to Next Level
Life: 66,300/66,300 Soul Energy 1920/1920
Strength: 985
Endurance: 16,575
Agility: 4,599
Soul: 480
Skills:
Royalty-Monster King: All nearby monsters are compelled to obey you implicitly.
Blood Link (Requires Royalty): All creatures affected by your Royalty skill may be possessed and controlled by you directly. While controlling a monster, you gain a portion of their Endurance and Health. When a Blood Linked creature dies, gained Endurance becomes permanent.
Mass Manipulation: Alter the volume of your body. Reducing volume reduces Strength and increases Agility and vice versa.
Rapid Regeneration III: Regenerate (15%) of Maximum Health every second.
Overfiend’s Blessing: Resist (50%) of all Elemental, Celestial, and Infernal Damage.
Perfect Mental Resistance 10/10 (World Boss): Immune to all Fear, Charm, and Confusion effects.
Titan Flesh: Immune to normal weapons and weak magic.
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Remember way back when I told you that highly evolved World Bosses weren’t something to fight, but rather avoid at all costs? This right here was a pretty solid example of that. That being said, I was grinning ear to ear as I read it. Now this was a BOSS, a fuck you don’t even try boss. This was a one shot killer with defenses stacked so thick, even Fromsoft would say ‘Maybe dial this one back a bit’. This was a no save, disc 3 Ruby Weapon and baby it was all mine.