Valerie, with her enhanced eyesight looked up into the sky and could see just beyond the planet's atmosphere hundreds upon thousands of black specks.
Those very same specks only grew in size until developing into numerous spirals. They pulsed with power, emanating a pressure as the woman’s expression hardened.
They were gates. Delivering an army to devour her world. Waves upon waves of black spewed from the spirals, gnawing away at the natural barrier surrounding the planet. Creatures, monsters, no... they could only be described as a nightmare.
Valerie could only watch as the sheer number of enemies enshrouded the sky in an ocean of darkness. While her body could feel every impact, every explosion smashing against the barrier as a crack ripped through the skies. Underneath her, the will of the world groaned in pain. Tremors rushed through the earth; plates shifted to reveal an abyss as nature itself cried out in agony.
Then another crack appeared, fracturing across the horizon until finally, everything collapsed.
The sky fell as the nightmares tore through the last of the barrier and rushed into the world. Terror was made known as the black mass filled hearts with dread. Valerie knew her world, Alyria, would die on this day.
‘Still,’ she thought. ‘You’ll have to go through me.’
Unfurling her wings, she jumped to the skies as the ground cratered beneath the force. Valerie glanced back at the surface. Her eyes scanning the world’s inhabitants with cold contempt. They were once her enemies, but now, forced to be allies for the fate of their planet.
She hovered in the air, just barely above the clouds and surveyed the hordes approaching her. They were fast, slicing through the winds with demonic scythe-like arms and wings. Singling out an individual creature from the writhing mass, she activated her identification skill.
[Abomination - lvl ????]
But what she saw caused a frown to spread across her face.
‘I can’t see its level...?’
Suddenly, a surge of danger spiked from behind her. Valerie quickly turned as her arms instinctively crossed before herself.
Bang!!
Her eyes widened in shock as an enormous force smashed into her arms and sent her tumbling through the air. Black spots entered her vision as the pain from the impact shot up her arms and into her body.
'Bastard.’
Gritting her teeth, she spread her wings outwards, straining against the air as her momentum instantly stopped. Following close behind was a booming soundwave that tore through the skies.
Most would call it akin to thunder.
Gathering herself, she quickly took in her surroundings. She noted that she was still hovering above the clouds, yet the impact had blasted her nearly a kilometer away. Possibly further if she hadn’t stopped herself. While for her arms, the impact had fractured and crushed them into her torso.
Valerie’s eyes brimmed with bloodlust as her natural regeneration kicked in, her decimated arms snapping back into place as her form began to glow with black flames. The air pressure around her increased as her aura continued to flare in size. Until suddenly, the blaze paused, obeying her will as it separated from her body and floated in front of her.
The flame expanded once, then immediately contracted before condensing into the outline of a scythe. Valerie’s eyes lit up with delight as the frame rotated rapidly, refining itself over as the power of the night funneled into the weapon.
“It’s been a while, Vitria.”
Humming slightly as if responding to her words, the scythe’s movement came to a standstill and hovered in the air horizontally. Waiting for the touch of its beloved owner.
Valerie reached out for the weapon, gripping the shaft as a shockwave blasted out from her position. Instantly evaporating the clouds as power traveled into her being. She looked up, eyes boring into the abomination as she flexed her wings.
“My turn,” she grinned.
Flexing her wings, the woman shot forward and closed the gap between herself and the creature in just under a fraction of a second. She slashed forward, cleaving across its torso in an act of revenge as its lifeless corpse began to drop, igniting with flames from the air friction.
Valerie released a laugh at the sight, but the creature was soon replaced by a horde of nightmares. They rushed through the skies towards her in complete disarray. Eyes glinting with red as their outstretched claws reached to tear her apart.
Yet it was futile.
The woman’s laugh only grew as her mana was channeled into the scythe. Chaotic ripples pulsed across the air from the weapon, and a silence soon filled the skies.
‘Boom.’
A second later, the creatures dropped like flies as sound resumed.
Valerie had swung her scythe, sending a wave of destruction arcing through the expanse and instantly obliterating the entire horde.
Her gaze fell to the scythe as she smiled, the familiar energy thrumming at her fingertips as she prepared herself for the next wave.
This fight was just starting to begin.
****
Hours had passed and the woman’s body was wreathed from head to toe with the blood and entrails of her enemy. As for the allied forces, they were slowly being slaughtered one after another. Unable to create even a single dent in the flow of nightmares.
Valerie’s breathing was heavy. She thought she had slain at least a couple billion abominations, yet the battle showed no signs of stoppage. The gates in the skies still existed, the stream of enemies unending. Even she was beginning to lose hope.
“Status,” she muttered just as a wave of energy erupted from her being, disintegrating thousands of enemies. Scoffing at the sight, she turned her attention to the blue translucent screen that sprung into view.
Name: Valerie
Race: Human (Modified)
Class: Seraphim of the Night
Level: 897
HP: 234,192,162/500,000,000
MP: 727,215,815/10,000,000,000
Strength: 45,000,000
Endurance: 60,000,000
Vitality: 50,000,000
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Wisdom: 1,000,000,000
Intelligence: 690,000,000
Agility: 125,000,000
Unassigned stat points: 5,000,000
Skills {Collapsed}
Scanning over the screen, she wasn’t surprised to see her condition. Her health was a little under half while her mana was still going strong.
‘Five mil points,’ she thought. ‘Not bad.’
Valerie moved her finger up to the screen. But before she could even allocate her unspent stat points, a giant maw opened up in front of her, threatening to swallow her whole. Rows upon rows of serrated teeth lined the inside of its mouth, rotating in fluid synchronization to grind her to shreds.
Seeing the jaws closing upon her, Valerie moved at the last moment. She infused power into her wings, shooting backwards while creating a shockwave in the creature’s mouth.
“Gross,” she muttered.
From afar, the stench wasn’t nearly as bad, but the sight of the creature sent a shiver down her spine. It was massive, perhaps the size of a small mountain. Strange phantom-like tails flowed behind its bloated whale-like body. Its skin was thick, but also a little translucent, almost like a shadow. But that trait only allowed her to peer within its body.
Organs, corrupted with blackened veins, remained floating within a sea of pus. While sunken at the surface of its abdomen were corpses. Corpses from the people of her world, writhing about in their eternal torment.
It was strong she had to admit, definitely stronger than the things she had slaughtered.
“But I do have to say...” she grinned. “You chose the wrong f*cking f*cker to f*ck with.”
Raising her scythe up high, she sent a surge of mana through the weapon and brought it down.
Again, an arc of pure destruction rushed through the air, although this time, its strength and magnitude were many, many times higher.
The attack collided with the creature, unleashing pure devastation as the arc left a deep gash within its body. Black blood leaked from the wound, slowly at first before it came rushing out like a torrent. While its phantom tails writhed about in erratic patterns.
But Valerie didn’t let up and flew above the creature. She raised her scythe, bringing it down as another arc came crashing down. The same thing occurred as a second gash appeared from above, slicing nearly halfway through its height.
Seeing the blood that erupted from her attacks, a manic smile came to her face.
“Let the night—” she whispered.
As soon as the words were uttered, the whale’s body was set ablaze. Black flames danced along the lacerations, spreading around and within the creature as a primordial roar was released. Through its translucent skin, organs were ruptured, popping one after another as the flames melted through massive portions of flesh. Valerie could almost feel its pain as its massive eye latched onto her through its hell. Yet she shew no fear and only smiled.
“Burn.”
BOOM!!
Her mana spiraled through the air, reacting with the black flames as a massive explosion tore through the skies. Gore, guts and blood flew everywhere, painting the sky in black as Valerie wrapped her wings around herself.
Hearing the explosion come to a pause, she unfurled her wings and assessed the overall state of the battle. But what she saw brought a frown to her lips; it was not going well.
Down below on the surface, was a viscous ocean of red. The blood of her allies. As for the sky, the amount of black only grew.
‘I think it’s time,’ she thought.
There were a couple of cards left up her sleeve, and now was the perfect time to use them.
Moving away from the skies, she flew through a nearby cloud and used the moisture to clean her body. She quickly dispatched an abomination that was tailing her and flew down to the surface.
Making sure that any creatures weren’t around her, the woman pulled out a staff from her inventory and drove it into the ground. Valerie then murmured an incantation, sweat building on her brow before she slammed her hands together.
Immediately, a magic circle appeared at her feet and spread outwards, covering nearly a length of several kilometers as a massive beam of energy shot towards the skies. Those that were caught by the beam were instantly disintegrated.
Matching the circle on the ground, another magic array appeared at the end of the beam. Runes and chaotic patterns were inscribed into the circle as they shone with white. The array started to rotate rapidly at first, but as the circle grew larger its spinning began to slow.
Valerie continued to fuel her mana into the staff, her hands producing smoke at the transfer of energy while minuscule cracks appeared in the staff. Until finally, the circle in the sky stretched across nearly the entire horizon. It was the prelude to her spell.
[Reckoning of the Dead]
Convert souls to fuel
Yet would it even be enough?
Valerie quickly assigned all the unallocated points into intelligence. Any increase in strength would matter the most.
Gripping down on her staff, the material shattered underneath her fingers as she released the spell. Immediately, the color of white was re-introduced to the hell scape of Alyria. Valerie brought her eyes up and saw tendrils, billions of thin white tendrils floating through the air that connected to her back. It was the soul fuel she had just harvested from every single person/being that had perished within this battle.
Holding no remorse for the world, she clenched her jaw as the intake of energy increased. The tendrils grew thicker, burning her flesh with radiant energy as her wings expanded, splitting into four, then six. Three black wings on the left, three white wings on the right. They thrummed with power and emanated a rainbow iridescent light.
Exhaling, her eyes shone with chaos as she raised an arm, the magic circle in the sky responding to her command. Thrumming with the same rainbow energy, the circle started to spin until it was so fast that it looked to be static. Then, the heavens were opened.
A single blinding ray of energy shot down from the circle, smashing into the armies of nightmares as millions were eliminated from existence.
However, that was only the beginning.
Following the first beam of energy, the second was fired. Then the third, fourth, fifth and so on. Soon the skies became filled with the sound of explosions and bright flashes of rainbow light.
But even so, there was no end to the creatures. Valerie began to despair as the gates continued to spout out the abominations. What use was her being alive if there was no one to share the world with? What was the point to fight against an unwinnable enemy?
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she looked over the lands. Not a single city remained, forests were razed, mountains were collapsed, and the earth itself was gouged. The very durability of the planet was collapsing.
Soon, her spell that had been continuously raining death upon her enemy began to fade away. The soul fuel completely used up; several billions of lives consumed in mere minutes.
It was then that her eyes widened. Valerie felt a presence, an enormous feeling that eclipsed anything she had ever seen before. All she could do was steel herself as a massive rift tore through the skies. Seconds later, a metallic hull protruded from the rift. Elegant, alien runes etched into its surface as the warship announced itself into the world.
Yet the presence wasn’t from the warship itself, rather it was from a being within it. A being which could only be described as absolute.
Valerie charged her six wings, then ascended to the heavens as an enormous crater was left behind. She flew into the air, effortlessly slaughtering through the hordes of nightmares as she made her way to the source of the suffocating presence.
Finally reaching the height of the warship’s hull, she took in its massive size. It could only be described as a continent, but her eyes wavered. Not at the sheer size of the ship, but because her eyes were locked with a humanoid figure, a woman shrouded in a dress of black. Valerie frowned, there was something familiar about the figure, but she wasn’t able to ascertain it.
‘Never thought I had to use this,’ Valerie narrowed her eyes.
[Nova Cannon]
Charges: 1/1
Pushing all her remaining mana in front of her, a massive weapon of steel came to life. It was a cannon with the purpose to level empires. It’s barrel had a length of five hundred meters as several thousand magic arrays were fitted within. Behind herself, were even more circles, drawing in energy and fueling the weapon of mass destruction with even more power.
Seconds later, the weapon started to hum, red lightning dancing around the barrel as it continued to charge. Even so, the figure did not waver in the face of such a power and merely smiled.
Then, the world was baptized with a flash of red. The weapon shattered, collapsing from the back end as the damage permeated through the steel. Space collapsed, wavered, then was void as red lightning erupted from the muzzle. Condensing into a thin line directly aimed for the head of the figure.
“Die!” Valerie snarled.
The beam expanded, a cylinder of energy taking its place as the weapon was fired. Valerie waited for the following explosion, her knees weakening. But nothing happened.
Time… was stopped?
‘How?’
Suddenly, her perception flared as goosebumps spread across her skin, danger. She moved backwards, wings in unison to escape, but it was too late.
She felt her body slow, then freeze as the world’s rotation stopped. But Valerie quickly noticed from the cold surrounding her body that time had not actually paused. Instead, the entire atmosphere was covered in ice, the very essence of mana frozen to create the illusion of time being stopped.
[You have been afflicted with the ice of Niflheim]
[Death is inevitable]
Alarm bells blared across her mind, all her senses were telling her to escape, to run away, but there was nothing she could do. She was trapped in the eternal ice, knowing she would die.
Her eyes flickered once as she gazed once more at the figures emotionless face, then she laughed.
[You have died]
The woman released her final breath as the cold embrace of death wrapped itself around her.
Name: Valerie
Race: Human (Modified)
Class: Seraphim of the Night
Level: 904
HP: 0/500,000,000