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Phoenix Rising
ARC 15: Chapter 386 - Monstrous Despair

ARC 15: Chapter 386 - Monstrous Despair

A battle of life and death was being waged on the Human Continent between the forces of the Demons and the populace of the Humans alongside the Phoenix Clan. The tide of the battle appeared to be on an equal scale between them until the order from the Calamity Titan reached the three Demon Kings fighting their individual battle.

“The master finally realised how tedious this battle is!” the Serpentia Demon King said, laughing haughtily as she flew away from her opponent, who was Zen, the Phoenix Emperor.

As she pulled out the five sealed boxes that she received earlier on, the Grobula Demon King became concerned and said, “Hold on!”

She looked at him in surprise while the giant Demon King shouted while batting out with the Atem, the angel.

“You’re going against the orders of our master?! Fool! You know what he’ll do to us if we disobey his direct command?!”

“That’s not it! I just… have this bad feeling about them…”

“If you’re going to be a coward, then hand them to me!” the woman demanded, glaring venomously at him as if he was a traitor.

He glared back at her and pulled out the boxes that he and the giant had before throwing them at her. She used magic to catch them in mid-flight and hovered the fifteen boxes in front of her before exerting energy into them. In an instant, the boxes burst into flames and showed fifteen seeds hovering in front of her.

As she smiled confidently, Zen, Darian and Atem withdrew as the giant attempted to smash the three of them. Zen was concerned about the fifteen seeds and wondered what she was going to do with them. The same concern ran through the minds of both Darian and Atem and the three of them tried to stop her, but the giant and the grey skinned demon kings stopped them in their tracks.

“Hmph! These things probably need to be cultivated to gain physical forms and obtain energy,” she said and snorted. Aiming her right hand at the seeds, she waved her middle finger and forefinger upward at the same time while saying, “Life Resonance. Energy Channel. Field Dispersion.”

In an instant, the allied demon warriors began to scream and clutch their throats as if life was being sucked out of them as particles of light extracted from their bodies. Very soon, countless particles of light soared through the air and gathered around the fifteen seeds in front of her while the victims became lifeless and collapsed onto the ground. Even the giants were not spared as they flailed wildly in desperation before they too collapsed.

As the grey skinned demon king stared around in horror, the giant demon king bellowed, “What the hell?! What are you doing, woman! They’re my kin! You’re killing our people!”

She merely grinned evilly up at him and replied, “You only see the loses, but I see the potential in the monster our master ordered us to unleash!”

Meanwhile, the Humans and Phoenix Clan warriors were at a loss because of their recently engaging enemies suddenly dying right before their eyes. Zen was feeling confident with the decreased number of the enemies and was about to order them to charge when Darian shouted before he could.

“Retreat!”

“What?!” Zen exclaimed, staring incredulously at him. “Darian! Our enemy numbers have decreased greatly! Apart from the thing that’s gathering a large amount of energy and power, we can still win this battle!”

Darian shook his head firmly and replied with a serious tone in his voice.

“No, Zen. We have to retreat. That person was reckless enough to sacrifice the lives of her allies to power up that thing before her. My gut feeling’s telling me that thing’s extremely dangerous and that’s why we must retreat!”

“How can you be so sure, Darian? We don’t know what we’re dealing with!”

“That’s exactly my point!” Darian retorted, glaring fiercely up at the thing that was starting to glow brightly. “We don’t know what thing is or what it could possibly do. Call it my battle initiations of fighting countless times over the last 300 years, but my instincts are screaming at me to retreat!”

Zen widened his eyes in surprise as he remembered hearing stories of Darian’s presence in the battlefields throughout the last 300 hundred years. He believed them to be just false rumours spread because of his undaunting fame, but he finally had to accept the experienced warrior’s words as the better judgement than his.

At that moment, Atem said supportively, “I agree with him, Zen. It’s better to get away and watch from a safe distance to see what happens before making the next move.”

At the proposal, the two of them made, Zen merely nodded and turned around before yelling, “All forces! Retreat! We’re falling back!”

The armies were momentarily surprised before quickly beginning to run back the way they had come before. They, like him, wanted to continue the battle, but they resigned to following their leader’s orders because of their faith in his decision-making skills.

As they watched and waited, the shining light suddenly grew so bright that no one could keep looking and everyone averted their eyes for dear life. A few seconds later, the light dimmed and returned all vision to normal, allowing the warriors to reopen their eyes to see that nothing within the vicinity had changed. Darian, Zen and Atem looked up and were startled to see a single figure appear other than the three demon kings.

The being had a purple body that looked pretty slim and downright normal in consideration to the amount of energy and lives it consumed. Seeing it, Atem gulped nervously and Zen raised an eyebrow in scepticism while Darian narrowed his eyes suspiciously. His honed battle instincts, after participating in countless battles, trigged an alarm that meant that he was staring at death’s door. In one single phrase, he considered that monster to be outrageously dangerous.

“Man…! I was expecting something monstrous, but a thing like that? What a let-down,” said several of the Phoenix Clan warriors while others muttered similar words.

Zen also agreed with them, but Atem and Darian knew otherwise and kept their silence while watching the proceedings. The monster slowly hovered in front of the Serpentia Demon King and slowly opened its eyes to stare into the proud face of its caster. It remained there almost lifeless-like as it continuously stared into her face.

“Are you that taken in by my beautiful appearance?” the woman asked, showing off her beauty with an air of arrogance. Seeing that the monster did not make any move, she chuckled and pointed towards their enemies and ordered, “Kill them! Wipe them out! I order you in my name as your master!”

This time, the monster suddenly came to life as it lifted its head in attention before turning to look towards the indicated target. After looking briefly at them, it turned back to face the woman with the same expressionless face. The woman continued to smile when, all of a sudden, the monster grabbed the woman by her throat and began choking her to death.

The giant and the grobula demon king was shocked before the grey skinned warrior charged forward while yelling, “What the hell are you doing?!”

He got closer and smashed the monster’s head with his fist with all his might. A shock wave was unleashed and it buffeted them for a moment, but it did not faze the monster. Instead, it released one hand choking the woman and returned the blow by smashing its clenched fist across the warrior’s face.

The impact was so strong that the grey skinned warrior spun round and round countless times in a matter of seconds before he finally managed to stop himself. He hovered there clutching his jaw where the impact had any effect on and pulling his hand away from the mouth, he was shocked to find blood and several broken teeth lying on his open hand. At the same time, he felt an immense pain around his mouth and it made him realise his jaw was completely broken.

At the same time, the woman began twitching wildly, and her eyes almost shot out of their sockets by how painful the choking sensation was. She attempted to use her magic but the pressure of the pain made it impossible to defend her life against this monster. All she could do was scratch it with her hand and flail helplessly before a loud cracking sound was heard at the moment her neck completed cracked.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She was dead and the watching witnesses did not like any of the moment they had to witness till her eventuality. Still, the monster did not have enough of her as it shifted its hands from her broken neck to her face before exerting great force. In an instant, it crushed the face in between the palms of its hand and blood spurted out, covering the monster from head to toe in it.

Finally, it released the limp body that slowly floated down, but the monster had one thing left to perform in its tiny mind. Aiming its blood-soaked hands, it shot one powerful energy blast that incinerated the body entirely before the energy wave hit the ground and created a small explosion. Smoke and wind got released from it before spreading everywhere and it took a few seconds before it dissipated to bring the view back to normal.

The monster continued to hover in mid-air while staring at towards the ground before turning its head towards the grey skinned warrior. As they made eye contact with one another, the grey skinned demon king widened his eyes in shock and powered up instantly before flying away from it, his heart filled with the fear of death. The monster watched him go before looking up as a gigantic club swung down on its head.

The giant demon king, finally recovering, became infuriated beyond belief and swung his large club down on the monster. It’s impact on the monster was so strong that it smashed the monster into the ground with immense force. The smashing of the monster shook the ground greatly before the club came down and slammed hard onto the ground.

It felt like a miniature earthquake had occurred, causing most of the people to lose their footing and collapse on the ground. At the same time, the monster raised its club and held it firmly over its head with immense strength before smashing the club on the spot where the monster crashed at.

The impact from the giant club on the ground shook the ground so violently that the ground in the area cracked and much of it got destroyed. The area, where the warriors stood, was managed to be saved because of their timely activation of magic barrier spells that protected them.

The impact’s force shook the entire continent of the Human Continent and caused a fearful stir around it. The inhabitants of Mardana Kingdom and Ashtra Kingdom felt the tremors lightly as they were far away, but the Floria Kingdom was not so lucky. The inhabitants all began screaming in shock and fright as they evacuated their homes and hurried onto the streets. Those inside the protection of the kingdom’s castle also began to fear and slowly filled out of their rooms.

The babies began crying in fear from the intense tremors that shook the room, they were in, greatly.

“What’s going on?!” Silvera exclaimed, clutching her baby desperately.

“Everyone! Outside! Now!” Ondine called while clutching her own baby daughter that was crying like the others.

Following her lead, Emilia, Tetra, Silvera, Sumara and Sonia fled outside clutching their babies who were crying. At that moment, Cantia and several of the soldiers came to them in a hurry since they were close by from the start. From the other room next to them, Priya, Indira, Mariana clutching a baby boy belonging to Shalay as the mother brought up the rear.

“What’s happening?!” Shasha Phylon, wife of Zen Phylon, the Phoenix Emperor, exclaimed sharply as she reached them together with several of the guards for protection. “What’s going on?!”

“It’s the war,” said Emilia quietly, carrying her baby son who was looking around with a cute anxious look on his face.

“Something must’ve happened for this kind of tremor to be happening right now,” said Sumara in a calm voice, managing to slowly settled her baby girl down by patting gently on her back. “This isn’t good.”

“Oh…” said Sasha shortly and looked down.

She was looking composed, but her body betrayed and shook slightly while she nervously twirled the wedding ring she received from her husband on her middle finger. It was not a custom for the Phoenix Clan to give each other anything during their wedding, but on the night of their wedding, Zen had displayed two rings; one for him and one for her. He believed it to hold a special bond between the two, and she accepted it as a sign of the strong bond between them.

“Please be safe…!” she prayed quietly while continuously twirling the wedding ring in nervousness.

Meanwhile, inside the king’s office room, Venezuela had her head faced down on the desk while Erza sat looking helpless. The reason that Venezuela was slumped over her desk was because she was shocked after being reported of the Angel Army’s circumstances. At least, she felt relieved that they got out of there alive when the shaking struck the room, and she found herself facing the desk with a slight bump on her forehead.

“Oww…!” she said, lifting her head and rubbing her forehead gently. “This is so stupid…!”

“It’ll settle down soon enough,” said Erza with an encouragingly smile on her face.

“I know that!” Venezuela snapped irritably. “What I’m annoyed about is this entire battle! My men and our allies are in the middle of a fierce battle and all we can do is sit around and talk! I feel so useless!” She turned towards Erza fiercly and asked, “Don’t you feel at all useless?!”

Erza, for a moment, looked expressionlessly at her before smiling sadly and saying, “I said this before; I will perform my duties as I am required to and you, as the queen of the kingdom, must fulfil your duties. Doing more than what your role calls for will only hamper the procedures.”

“Dammit!” Venezuela said in annoyed. “I hate your way of systematic lifestyle! We have to do what we can to help others! It’s the only way one can move forward in protecting and safeguarding one another!”

Erza smiled softly and replied, “I agree and that’s why we don’t interfere in places that don’t have a place for us.”

Venezuela glanced at her for a moment before turning back to face her desk and said, “Yeah. You’re right.” She finally sighed in weariness and wished, “I wish I had a helping hand that could bring my husband and his allies here.”

The room continued to shake as the two women remained in their stationary position, but something else was moving within the room. Blue energy butterflies that entered the room through the closed doors and lit up the room brightly in their glow. The two girls looked towards the butterflies in awe as the small beings of energy gathered together and formed into a person wearing a strange assortment of clothes associated with the Mythological Gods.

“I heard a desperate voice call for a ‘helping hand’ and here I am,” stated the God of Energy, Engraut.

For a moment, the two of them looked surprised before they looked very relieved, and Venezuela jumped to her feet with immense energy flaring up at once.

“Engurat!” she called, feeling extremely relieved upon seeing someone that could help her.

He raised a friendly hand and said, “Helloooo… Wow…!” The sudden shaking motion of the room caused him to end his sentence differently and he asked, “Oh my… Did you enchant the room or something to relive stress?”

“No. There’s a war currently going on. Can’t you feel it?” Erza asked, just as Venezuela stared at him incredulously.

Engruat momentarily remined silent as he sensed the happenings outside and said, “Mmm. I see. A lot of energies gathered together… much of them very scared…” He turned back to face them and asked, “Where’s Lakshman, and where are all the Nine Pillars of Power?”

As the two women remained silent, his eyes turned towards his left and for the first time since entering the room, he noticed the shimmering light framed in the wall. In an instant, he figured out that it was a portal leading to another dimension, and he also understood that the Nine Pillars of Power were in there.

“Can you please go in there and tell them what’s happening?” Erza asked as Venezuela seemed to lack the power to speak due to the sadness she was feeling at her husband and allies remaining locked up inside a dimension. “At this rate, our allies will be defeated easily if the Calamity Titan decided to make his move. Besides that, they might not stand a chance against this new threat that’s unleashed its force upon all battlefields.”

Engraut turned back to look at them and smiled as he replied, “I understand. Leave it to me.”

With an encouraging grin on his face, the God of Energy turned and walked towards the shimmering light. He stopped right in front of it and gazed curiously at it before smiling and transforming into blue energy butterflies. With little effort, they passed through the portal and soared towards the dimension in which the Nine Pillars of Power were located in.

At the same time, on the battlefield near the Floria Kingdom, the tremors slowly came to a halt and everyone slowly got back to their feet. They were shocked at how intense the earthquake that almost destroyed the ground they stood on and were grateful for being spared.

The smoke from the debris slowly cleared and revealed the giant standing there breathing a little quickly. It looked like even he had struggled to maintain his balance as the ground beneath him gave way and almost brought him down. Still, for being a mighty giant, he managed to retain his footing by holding his position out forcefully against the tide of the earthquake.

There were a few seconds of silence as there was no sign of the monster before one of the soldiers sighed, “Guess that’s the end of—!”

Before the sentence could be finished, however, the ground beneath them started to shake again and it gradually became intense. Fearing an after effects, they desperately activated barrier spells around them and the ground for dear life, but nothing happened to them.

Instead, what happened was that a huge amount of energy was unleashed from beneath the huge club hammered into the ground. The massive energy wave burst through the stuck club, destroying each and every piece of it from within before bursting out at the top. It continued to carry towards the surprised giant before enveloping his massive head. The light lasted for a few seconds before vanishing and it left a headless giant in its wake.

The headless giant’s body slackened its grip on the club and it slowly rolled over to the side and fell with a loud thud. A moment later, the body of the headless giant slowly keeled over and hit the ground with a heavy thud that lifted a lot of debris before they also fell silently in its wake.

The entire area was filled with a horrified silence as none of the warriors could believe such a powerful create was brought down so easily. Then, as the splintered wood of the club slowly cleared, a shadowy figure appeared to be hovering in the air. As the vision of the dust cleared to reveal more details, everyone’s eyes widened in shock at recognising what it was.

It was the purple monster from before, but it was floating in mid-air and staring down at the collapsed body of the giant. A moment later, sensing movement from the side, it slowly turned towards them with the same expressionless look on its face.

Watching this, Zen could only stare in horror with his hands relaxed, and his mouth slightly open. He was staring in awe, not from amazement, but from the fear he felt from the monster. He, like his fellow warriors, felt hopelessness consuming their minds and could only feel a monstrous despair as the purple monster slowly approached them.