“Admiral, I'll be stepping out for a bit,” Jack said as he passed the man speaking to a familiar blonde officer.
“Your Majesty,” Commander Houlihan bowed, nodding to Jack who continued on his way.
“Sir?” Skirita said, eyeing the massive blade on Jack's shoulder.
“There's an Apostle nearby, finish securing the boats, I've got to test out a new toy,” Jack said before spreading his silver wings and taking flight before the admiral could stop him.
Above the port, Jack narrowed his eye, sensing a strong presence east of the city.
“Lots of demonspawn, a horde led by agents and an Apostle.”
“Great,” Jack said, drawing mana to himself as he twirled the massive two handed blade before firmly holding the great sword in his hand.
[COMPATIBLE HEAVENLY HOST DETECTED!]
[GRADE/S: ANCESTRAL ARTIFACT]
[Artifact Name: Gram]
[PROFICIENCY: ???]
[Skill: Guard Charge]
[Skill: Empower]
[Skill: ???]
[Skill: ???]
[Skill ???]
[DESC]: A prototype blade crafted by the blacksmith Wayland to imitate the legendary Dandelga. When charged with flame affinity, the blade’s core ignites, boosting all fire related abilities and intensifying their use.]
[CLAIM OWNERSHIP? >Y/N?]
Jack tapped on Y, the weapon’s skills immediately joining with his growing list of abilities as he took off towards the ominous presence.
It wasn't long before Jack spotted the horde, the crowd of swirling black masses spreading across the landscape like a cancerous infestation.
“Seems like the swarms are getting worse.”
There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, however, the sight of which were a common occurrence that Jack was all but familiar with.
“Let's say hello,” Jack said, his body radiating with golden energy as arcs of red lightning cackled around him.
Jack put his hand out, daybreak at his back, the clouds above began to swirl, twisting to his will as those from Zanzibar looked on with awe at the storm gathering in the distance.
Fortunately, he was quite a distance away so his battle shouldn't affect the port too much.
“Answer me, O’ storm,” Jack muttered, the gathering air discharging violent electricity that moved at Jack's direction to shatter the earth.
The results were immediate devastation.
“ARRRRROH!” The howl of a damned beast echoed, drawing Jack's eye to the headless knight with blue flames billowing from her body.
Athena.
“Seems like she regenerated faster than I had hoped…” Jack frowned, realizing he hadn't purged enough of her code to completely destroy the demonspawn apostle regurgitated by the Infinity Machine.
However, it wasn't that she had reappeared that irked Jack but rather the fact that she wasn't alone.
A winged being covered head to toe im white chitinous material stood beside the black armored knight. His imposing form towering over the sentient dullahan who appeared more like a teenager playing dress up beside the man.
It pointed at Jack.
“Shit…” Jack let out, realizing why he hadn't felt the apostle. It was compressing it’s energy, the mana it let out barely a flicker in the wind but from looks alone, Jack could instinctually feel his aura.
“Judgement, be upon thee,” A low voice laced with a simmering rage that took Jack by surprise.
“Ah fuc-”
Immediately invisible claws wrapped around Jack's body, dragging him to the earth in an uncontrolled plummet as hordes of surviving demonspawn pounced onto their quarry.
For a moment, Skirita held his breath, the old officer watching from a periscope as his King was buried beneath hordes of monsters.
“Houlihan! Spin up the wyvern jets, have our mechs ready to deploy and our soldiers on the up!” Skirita barked with the officer racing off and yelling into her radio as Skirita went back to observe the battle.
Jack roared, unleashing a blast of electricity that swirled around his sword emolated by fira that disintegrated his assailants into motes of black dust.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Standing there in the smoldering field, Jack rose to his feet, glaring at the monsters that balked upon making eye contact.
Hesitation. Fear.
Two things believed to be impossible for the primal creatures made of shredded souls.
But that was false, the fact that the swarm snarled and skittered around Jack was proof of that.
The headless knight known as Athena held her hand upward in its black-clawed hands, her mouth elongating to let out a shrill shriek that spurred the demons forward.
Jack lifted Gram, his hands arcing with lightning that imbued the great sword as he swung.
Devastation.
The front wave eliminated by a slash of electricity shot out in an arc.
“Huh… I could get used to this,” Jack smirked, admiring the weapon before his focus shifted back to the two apostles.
“You. Are not Sahaqiel…” The apostle in white chitinous armor growled while his friend continued to shriek, no doubt a loss of intellect since her last run in with Jack.
“Sorry to disappoint,” Jack said, gripping his weapon as he prepared his silver feathers.
Suddenly spikes, bone-like material erupting from the ground aimed at Jack that was blocked by his silver wings.
He pivoted, taking to the sky, his eye picking up traces of overwhelming mana as the bone knight spoke.
“Judgement.”
Jack was immediately blasted back, thankfully the shield formed around his body from his wings blocked the spikes erupting from the ground.
Bouncing away from the stakes of bone, a gout of flames greeted Jack, the blue heat caught by one wing while his other took the burnt of more chitinous spears rising from the earth.
“SCREEE!”
A scream, a nest agent leaping at him from behind. Flapping his wings Jack allowed the two apostle attacks to clash, pushing his way backward into the nest agent that flew over his shoulders.
On solid ground, Jack spun, grabbing an oncoming nest guardian’s fist and crushing it before twisting and yanking, pulling the monster close and driving his fist through the bird-faced monster’s beak and out its neck.
Jack latched his hand onto the back of the monster’s skull, spinning and using the corpse to take the brunt of the ghastly flames spewed at him by the dullahan.
“Lilith, keep the small fry busy!” Jack ordered as his left wing broke off, the feathers under Lilith’s control who began harassing Athena so Jack could face the skeletal knight. “Shit!”
Jack shifted his head, avoiding the bone spear before ducking beneath the apostle’s weapon as it spread its calcified wings.
“Damn!” Jack hissed, moving Gram, the two-handed weapon blocking the skeletal wings stabbing at him as more nest agents converged on him.
In response, Jack activated repulse and energize while imbuing Gram, the weapon’s innate force absorption, causing the blade to visibly hum with power as he blasted his surroundings.
Pivoting on his feet, Jack swung upwards, unleashing a wave of electricity as he took flight to escape the skeletal spears rising from the earth.
“Do you ever fuck off?!” Jack spat, twirling his weapon and bisecting a nest agent in half before slamming the sword into the earth to send a wave of wind that split the column of blue fire aimed at him.
Jack let Gram go, grabbing the crawling torso on the ground and draining it before summoning a gunblade from his storage bracelet. Throwing the shriveled corpse away, Jack opened fire repeatedly at the skeletal apostle who caught the first round with its mana barrier before the second one punched through, allowing the first bullet to explode.
A small trick, one used to counter awakened by firing a delayed HE round before shattering the mana barrier with an armyretheium-tipped bullet to catch the awakened by surprise.
Sadly, Jack wasn’t greeted by an exploded corpse, instead out of the smoke came a hail of bones that broke from the apostle’s wings to chase Jack.
Fortunately, Lilith was there, countering the barrage by taking control of Jack’s right wing and sending the feathers to clash against the deadly chitin in a show of sparks as Jack picked up Gram and threw it at Athena.
The dullahan effortlessly avoided it, tilting its body and allowing the massive blade to soar past. But Jack wasn’t done, he wrapped the buster blade with telekinetic hold, pulling the sword towards him to smack Athena in her flank as he activated dash and summoned the kaldr hammer he had regulated to an emergency teleport item.
Athena’s body immediately ignited, its ghastly face held out to greet Jack who smacked the dullahan’s wrist away and closed the distance.
“CALL LIGHTNING!” Jack barked, activating the weapon’s skill he struck the apostle squarely in the chest, planting the old-world goddess into the earth with a thunderous crash of lightning.
-56 HP
Jack’s jaw clenched, his eye wide, the proximity of such a skill charring the side of his face.
“WATCH OUT!”
Jack spun, instinctually lifting the hammer to deflect the chitin spear that pierced his shoulder and sent him rolling backwards.
[-14 HP]
[WARNING! ERROR! COrru-]
Jack dismissed the notification, already feeling the corruption attempting to take root in his dislocated shoulder as his enemies gathered together.
“Judgement, be upon thee.”
Those words, the same pressure, invisible claws that reached up to pull Jack down. Yet this time he was prepared, he swiped, activating Gehenna, the power canceling the enemy skill and allowing Jack to regather his feathers to form a shield against the torrent of flames.
“Shit! It’s bad enough fighting one of them!” Jack hissed angrily, wishing Ruby was healed or Sahaqiel there to help micromanage this fight.
If he had time. A moment of surprise. Maybe he could-
“RETREAT! GET OUT OF THERE!”
“Huh?” Wide-eyed, Jack backpedaled at the sound of the voice from his COM-LINK, allowing him to dodge as the whir of machine guns and explosions coated the air.
Two wyvern aircraft flew overhead, dropping their payload on the swarm as a multitude of IFVs and tanks opened fire at the apostles.
With this momentary reprieve, Jack caught his breath, summoning Gram towards himself as the two apostles turned their attention towards the imperial guard.
One jet made another pass, opening up with its 30mm machine guns that shredded the mana barriers of the apostles and forcing the chiten-knight to conjure a carapace of bone to protect itself as Athena roared and melted the bullets.
In response the apostle clad in bone launched a spear, striking the jet clearly that turned the state-of-the-art aircraft into a plum of trailing fiery debris.
I guess this is my chance. Jack said to himself, watching the pilots ejection seat shoot into the sky.
“Lilith… come to me,” Jack hissed, feeling the woman’s innate rage bubbling up within himself, the spiritron of the fallen spirit rising behind Jack and drawing the apostles’ attention.
Made manifest, Lilith’s form attached to Jack’s body, forming murky ink-like tentacles that spread out as she sunk into Jack with their bodies merging.
As one, Jack stood with Gram in both hands, his back adorned with six raven and silver wings, his skin alight with runes as the air danced with lightning.
“Die.”
A singular word uttered by Jack, his voice laced with calm rage as his wings flapped and he vanished. The earth below him split, the barrier of sound broken. With energize, dash, gehenna, and his own strength pushing against the earth, Jack slashed, delivering an attack only possible thanks to surprise, distraction, and support by the Imperial guard.