================================
Chapter 390: Mortal Weaknesses
================================
[The boss said there are bad guys coming.]
“Eh?! B-Bad guys?!”
The people around Scion were all surprised. What is this little (cute) thing talking about?
[Displaying hostile forces data rendering...]
Lily, as pure software, was linked to Scion’s ID tag number and as a unique individual even within the game, she can access Scion’s real world and even in-game data information through Scion’s NLD.
That said, even without in-game item modification, she can do a few things that Cortana can as long as she can access its core programming.
Like for example… editing and displaying required information from analysis and recorded player-focused observations, Lily can respond, albeit not as proficient as Cortana, to Scion’s mannerisms, reactions, and verbal and physical prompts to help ease up her needs —most especially on defense, so that even without Siva, there was a means to protect her that was up to his requirements.
The people exclaimed as Lily used Real@D laser displays to project the image of the “enemies” that Siva said must be eliminated, or at the least, sent as far away from Scion as possible.
[Boss said that it’s a Supreme.]
Now, everybody gasped as they looked at the man whose folded arms and disdainful eyebrows visibly displayed his arrogance and scorn upon the lands of the children of the light, surrounded by his dark miasma-like aura, and accompanied by “pawns” of all demon kinds.
[Mission: Eliminate threat to master.]
[Rewards: Negotiable.]
[Failure: …]
“Oi… oi… oi… why is there no failure conditions?”
As usual, FlowerLord is hotheaded with anything related to Siva.
When faced with FlowerLord’s anger, the face of the supposed “(||_||)” –faced little hand-sized girl began to slowly crumble. Her eyes became watery and her mouth became wavy as if she was about to cry. It was both heartbreaking and painful to see since Lily was just too adorable for her own good.
“Alice!” Lily dug herself on Scion’s chest and there was actually an animation of her tears flowing and flying sideways… like a real sulking kid who had just been scolded.
Even FlowerLord was defenseless, faced with this formidable weapon.
[Inshupichent data…. Huuu… huu… I’m showy Lily is yushless… waaaaaa….]
Gaia licked her lips, her eyes shining brightly in the four general directions, hands were flexing like she was about to savour a good meal in the table while looking at Lily.
That’s her predator instincts kicking in.
Everybody else were watching this little scene and the weight of the news Lily carried was briefly put aside as they wore different expressions.
Some glared at FlowerLord.
Some looked at Lily with gusto.
Some followed their instincts like Gaia —especially Niobe and Cassiopeia— like hungry wolves.
And some were like Thorn and Volt whose eyes all focused on the crevice where Lily dug herself.
They forgot about the descending threat because Lily was just so darn cute.
“E-Ehem… I think we should focus on the problem at hand, shouldn’t we. That’s a [Supreme Demon Commander] right there! How are we supposed to fight that thing?”
Surprisingly, it was Pistareen who brought back the necessary emotions they should be having in these ‘dire’ moments.
Even Thorn and Volt had to go back and consider the real problem they were facing.
“I don’t think I should still say this but are you guys prepared?” asked Volt.
He didn’t receive any proper answer but everyone equipped their gears and their expression wearing tiger masks.
(AN: tiger face pun in military vocabulary)
Thorn spoke up, “Lady Oracle, we will take care of the front lines. Can you take care of that Supreme until we finish up and help you?”
A [Supreme] was a very strong boss monster. It’s not like any S-Ranked Monster whose danger level rose the bigger they are. A [Supreme Demon Commander]’s danger levels are measured by the amount of “Dark Magic” they can conjure. And the scary part about their strength is the fact that they can corrupt almost anyone and anything.
Basically, all [Supreme] are as strong as Siva with his BMA and Puppets put together.
Out of all of them here, Gaia was the strongest. It was only proper to ask her to fight the strongest of the invading enemies.
“But…”
[The Boss had me for the last line of defense. He knew that Master is useless in fights so he put me as her guardian. I can use her Magic Abilities to the fullest… or at least that’s how Mother taught me to function.]
“““Eh?”””
Whether she intended it or not, whether if it’s just the innocence of a kid or the smartness yet natural air-headedness that runs in her family, one thing is for sure, of the three people she mentioned, one of them was connected to Siva that none of them was aware of. Even Scion was shocked.
“Who’s your Mother?”
Gaia made a “Ueeh?!!” shocked faced and tried to defend the situation from that question by Scion to the still innocent Lily.
“E-Eh… uhh… when she meant by mother she…”
But Lily was indeed innocent, she dropped the big bomb honestly, “Her name was Cortana. She is Boss’s Battle-AI aide.”
An even louder exclaim sounded from the crowd.
“Battle-AI?!!”
“Siva has a Battle-AI?!”
“Since when did he have a Battle-AI?”
“God… did you know that there was only 500 AIs ever released in the market and they didn’t even last a minute before they’re sold out.”
“And let’s not talk about the fact that that’s a talk before he even played this game.”
Questions barraged the little girl but she was now wearing her innocent looking “(||_||)” expression.
She tilted her sideways and then raised her head and looked at Scion on top of her palm, [The bad guys have entered the critical 1km zone... they are about to launch their assault.]
It was an abrupt change and escape of the subject but it was the right choice. At the projection of the ‘Supreme’, he was seen giving orders and a group of Demon Commanders began to dive down to the sight of the Grand Mansion below.
Gaia made a sigh. She was assuming the stance of a common woman and wasn’t using her angelic voice and aura to subdue the people around her.
“I can’t believe I have to fight in the frontlines after a long time.”
They were told that there’s a different battlefield in Terroa than the surface and in there, dragons are the nemeses and there are almost zero presences of the demons in that battlefield.
People as strong as Gaia were there and they also learnt that she was just like Gabriel so they never doubted her strength. After all, everyone in Siva’s group had seen how strong Gabriel was when he trashed Sefirah and Gyoolu, two [Generals] of the Demon Armada.
As long she’s on Siva’s side, there was no need to be wary nor was there a need to dig up their true background. Knowing they’re not enemies was all the reason enough to leave their backs to them.
Gaia stepped out and vanished like a ghost. They tried to swallow the scene as they saw her in the projection in the Real@D rendering.
Thorn was the first to speak, “We’re outnumbered but we’ve become stronger now than before. Let’s see how far this strength can bring us.”
“I-I’ll be just here to activate the defenses of the Grand Mansion.” Pistareen spoke and went out of the room, leaving Siva’s party.
Thorn spoke to Lily, “Keep your Master safe.”
[Will Mother will be angry if I don’t do a good job?]
Thorn felt awkward answering that question but he still nodded, “You can say that he will go on a fit of fury if she got hurt.”
Remembering the rampage of the Golden Giant in The North when Siva got the news of her being kidnapped by the Blue Card Legion, there was a very high chance that Siva might actually lose all his sanity if the demons shredded Scion to pieces.
Lily seemed to understand as she gave a nod that both looked cute and adorable.
[I will take care of Master.]
Thorn didn’t say another word and glanced over at the people that will be left with her, including the hot-blooded FlowerLord.
“We’re going now.”
“The city’s not a safe zone anymore. Don’t die.” it was Fuma who spoke. “Ah, wait, dying here may not be a bad thing after all… isn’t it?”
Volt and everyone, including Thorn, who was in the midst of their heroic departure stopped. They processed Fuma’s half-conscious words and an awkward air erupted within them.
Now that they think about it, Fuma spoke true.
The attraction of getting the “Unique Ability” like his and Scion’s was indeed very tempting.
FlowerLord shouted, “Just go already!”
When the defense party went out, FlowerLord bid grumbling sounds as she turned at the projection of the huge fight between Gaia and the Supreme.
Although Gaia has been toughened by the Dragon Blood of Labrador, the Supreme that she fought is not half bad weaker than her. It was clear that they were in a stalemate —Magic countered corruption and with them having the same strength, it all boils down to who has the greatest mettle… or perhaps even on who could employ the best tactic between the smallest openings within the tiniest of gaps.
Just the scale and the flurry of spells and the dark magic violently colliding and cancelling each other alone was enough to incite fear among the people.
It was a frightening sight.
The battle between them had a circumference of at least 400m and thank goodness they were above the city or everything in Jeremiah would have been razed to the ground.
“Hmp! Using his friends to protect his girlfriend…”
As usual, FlowerLord grumbled and only Scion is there to soothe her bestfriend in this universe.
*****
“You are on the verge…” the cold manly voice of the Supreme sounded soothing, placating, and too ‘handsome’ that any ordinary woman would fall on their knees and sincerely blow their prayers at him.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The two of them had just cast a strong spell; one was blue in color, the other a deep and dark red.
With the collision of their spells having just been cancelled by each other’s efforts, the dissipating undulations of their Mana scattering into countless specks of lights could be said to be a spectacle.
In the middle of this spectacle, the two unscathed individuals stared at each other. And although it’s already too late to try, the Supreme still followed a nature unique to his existence; he still tried to pull the strings and corrupt the opponent.
Especially now that she was on the ‘verge’ of her ascension, it was more than enough for him to try it with all his might… and they might gain another corrupted being to add to their ranks in this small trip on this planet.
Gaia flinched, obviously affected. Because what all Supreme are good at is Corruption and once she let his words affect her soul, just the smallest of a speck of it is enough to pull her down the abyss.
She used her will and prepared another spell, the attempt making the Supreme smile at her effort.
“All beings will eventually fall to depravity. All the Gods are dead. Why are you still betting your ship to a dead civilization? I know you’re tempted and I am telling you now, there’s nothing wrong in trying to follow your desires... in fact, if you convert now, I can promise you that I will make you happy every other day of your life….”
As the Supreme talked, the undulations of Mana of the power of Corruption spread invisibly towards Gaia and the spell she was trying to cast trembled as if it was in the midst of dissipating.
She then seemed to see an illusion, her, on all her fours and being ravaged by the Supreme in front of her, howling with delight and ecstasy; it was a sight she couldn’t even imagined she would be doing.
And yet the corruption held true to all Mortals —no exceptions allowed— and as a reincarnated one, a ‘soul’ likes hers is the tastiest meal to a Supreme.
Mortals have their needs and Gaia wasn’t able to escape the Corruption. The [Power of Corruption] targets the desires of the mortal flesh and as Gaia, albeit not an innocent virgin, tried to resist it, the greater the influence becomes.
“Hahahaha!! no one can escape the calling of their bodies. Come… join us… we are the advocates of fun and pleasure and you can enjoy all riches for the rest of your life.”
The illusion changed and Gaia wasn’t just an observer anymore but the doer.
She was surrounded by gold and jewels, of all the ‘kinds’ of beautiful men and women; she was in an orgy —one in front, below, behind, and both of her hands— and she moved her hips and mouth in pleasure, shame and embarrassment erased from her mental vocabulary.
‘No…’
She tried to resist.
“I know you want it. Everybody wants it.”
Outside, visible dark tendrils of Mana extended like an octopus trying to cage her and although it was a simple matter to resist it and counter if she was awake, Gaia was still lost in the illusion and the illusion had complete dominance over her will and senses.
“No…” she tried to pull herself back to her reality.
“Come. You’re almost there.” this voice was really a sinister advocate of pleasure. It was all the kinds of persuasive aspects combined into one.
Gaia, in the illusion, could feel herself closing in to what all mortals called “heaven” and although she knew it was bad, she couldn’t deny her needs and the scent of pleasure.
The Supreme smiled widely, ‘You’re mine!’
As the master of the illusion, he can naturally see and control what happens inside it. The catalyst is the attribute of his Mana, then the [Spell Formula], and then the victim’s hidden fears and desires.
Controlling it and manipulating it, and then altering the victim’s Mana attribute from Light to Dark while they are still lost in the dream; that is the process of Corruption. In all its history, not one soul had ever resisted this process because it’s as natural and as ordinary as just breathing.
In fact, it was just changing Mana attributes. What is so wrong about that?
The [Light] ‘pretends’ to suppress all their desires and emotions while the [Dark] advocates these as natural order: they simply want to enjoy all of the abundant gifts the universe has to offer.
What’s wrong with that?
‘Come! Come! Submit to it… embrace your nature and turn away to the hypocritical decrees of these children of the light.’
Supremes… they are the maters of Corruption.
Gaia could feel that she was close and the voices of all the men that gave her that pleasure told her that they were close as well.
“Receive it all!”
“Swallow it!”
“Take it in!”
The urging was strong and Gaia was close. The Supreme had broken through all her defenses and he was staring at the uncorrupted [soul] of Gaia, a shining resplendent gem a silver platter floating in an endless realm of pink coloured clouds.
‘Now, become mine.’
The Supreme urged his control as he extended a tentacle of black coloured Mana; and the ‘men’ in Gaia’s dream howled in pleasure at the same time.
Gaia closed her eyes and was accepting it with the face of pleasure when she recalled a memory that was imprinted deep into her soul.
No.
To be exact, it was the Supreme who uncovered it.
“What is this?”
He thought he had seen all of Gaia’s memories but deep in the ‘gem’ of her soul, there was a memory that was surrounded by multiple layers of seals. It was like a lock: the seals were suppressing it.
The Supreme saw it and extended his tentacle to try to pry pen this memory.
Because Gaia was defenseless, it was easy to put pressure and break open the seal of that memory.
And yet, as soon as that memory was unsealed, a fear even the Supreme should be familiar and the master of assaulted his mind.
“What is this…?!!”
The world of endless pink clouds suddenly got a hole with the edges burning; it was like a piece of paper thrown directly in the fireplace.
He felt the burning sensation and he felt scared of the sight of his back. The ‘will’ of that one absolute being… the burning worlds of both the Gods and the Devils… the terror of a civilization… he was in the middle of it; like a leaf from a tree riding the flow of the stream of time.
“You were there!” the Supreme tried to escape but he was caught in the sealed memory —no— in the sealed nightmare of Gaia.
…it was the nightmare of the Devils and the Gods!
The Supreme was caught in the middle and he’s like a speck of dust, blown by the gushing torrent of emotions of all the souls of that time.
Gaia was the [tool] that collected the data thoughts of the ‘souls’ of that time and converted it into raw materials for Janus to process.
Janus left his seat to remedy the situation and she was left alone. Yet… she kept doing her job. But since there was no one left to process them so all those negative thoughts and emotions became a pile of trash that eventually prompted an overload to her capacity to function and ignited a will for her survival… urging her to enter The Cycle and be mortally reborn.
Gaia herself was unaware of it but she carried all those ‘trash’ with her, sealed by The Cycle, and is only accessible when she ascends to Immortality.
It should supposedly be part of her tribulations but since the Supreme unsealed it in advance, the one to receive the brunt of the damage was him and not Gaia.
The pile overloaded the Supreme’s capacity and even though he was a master of such emotions, a supposed lord of negative energies, there was still a large gap between Gaia’s and his nature.
Gaia was originally able to accept them and alter them into raw data for Janus… but the Supreme, he was nothing more than a cup; he can store and channel it —he can guide it— but he can’t process it as is and as a complete whole.
As a result… what made up this Supreme Demon Commander as a ‘person’ of this universe, of this world, experienced the agonizing sensation being drowned and burned by the negative data.
What he last saw before disappearing in the river of that time’s memories was the back of a single person; his long hair flapped like water while being surrounded by the burning black fires that seemed to come from his left arm.
For some reason, the Supreme spoke, “Wrath.”
But no one was there to hear him nor was there a soul to hear his last agonized cry.
*****
More than two hours passed outside the dream.
The 500m area centering around Gaia and her one opponent had been encased on a cocoon-like light of blue and black coloured Mana.
At the last second, the cocoon warped and twisted as if it was being torn apart from within.
Some time passed, the cocoon imploded and then exploded into specks of blue and black particles.
Gaia could be seen there, dazed, blushing, and a confused look on her face.
40m away from her, there was a figure, its hand on his chest and the other on his head.
It was the Supreme, her enemy.
When she came to, the Supreme seemed to have lost all signs of life and his hands fell to the sides as he started falling.
“Huh? W-What…?!” she tried to attack but stopped when she noticed the lack of resistance, and only used a binding spell on the corpse.
Gaia was confused. She had no idea nor she had any recollection of what happened but she knew that her enemy was dead because there was no Mana emitting from his body and yet... although he was indeed dead, it was only the spirit. The ‘body’ was still alive.
She felt something odd.
Looking up, there was a battle of a far larger scale than hers happening in the sky above them.
Her eyes widened in shock and surprise.
Just mere seconds when she decided to look up, the chest of the mothership exploded with a loud, resounding bang that rattled everything.
It shook the sky, shattered the barrier dome, and rattled everything. It was so large and so powerful of an explosion that it can be heard all throughout the 300+km size of the Castle City of Jeremiah.
The arms of the mothership fell, threatening to splat the city; what remained of the head and torso also fell, burning, towards the ground.
Gaia instinctively looked below, and made a sigh of deep relief. Although a bit damaged, but the Grand Mansion was intact and there was Scion, with her protector, FlowerLord, and her lava-like [Overdrive Mode], with a few fallen bodies of Commanders all around them.
There was Fuma, Thorn, Volt, and the rest, but it’s not as if there were no casualties on them. In fact, two acolytes, a few Elder Mages, and even a red-haired Scarlet Carmine had lost an arm and are in the middle of being healed by an injured Grand Elder Mage Pistareen.
All in all, the defenses of the Grand Mansion had helped a lot in minimizing the damage. If not for that, Siva would have gone on another rampage.
“But…” Gaia once again looked up. “…this is bad.”
She disabled her flight magic and fell down the sky with a screaming wind and fluttering skirt.
Still, when she approached the ground, her falling speed slowed down and landed next to Pistareen with smooth and gentle taps, throwing a complete and undamaged ‘corpse’ on a corner of the rubble.
“Your Eminence.” Pistareen greeted.
“I’ll take over the treatment.” Gaia spoke seriously and commanded, “Establish the defenses. It’s not over yet.”
Pistareen, no, everyone heard the explosion but they were too hurt, injured, tired, too exhausted to care for it.
Volt and Thorn had fought one Commander each and they now understood just how miraculous Siva had been back in The North when he defeated a Demon Commander alone and in the middle of that chaotic whirlwind.
“Ah, it’s such a grand sight.” Thorn said, smiling.
Volt agreed, excited. “It’s a good day to die.”
Samara, Fuma, Hawkeye, and the surviving party members from Asgard all lay their backs on the dry hard floor of the collapsed buildings.
They, too, wore excited smiles.
FlowerLord looked at them and couldn’t help but feel angry, “Look at those guys.”
Scion didn’t understand it but she treated it as the compensation of a hard-won fight. It was indeed a struggle earlier. Despite the defenses weakening the assaulting forces, they are still made up of Demon Commanders and just one of them was all it took to decimate their defenses. In the end, it all boiled down to them having received the Dragon Blood Blessing that they stood a chance and won their respective fights. She even participated and supported FlowerLord with her meager spells.
Thankfully, Lily was there to control [Erebus] on her behalf so FlowerLord actually stood a chance against four of them at the same time.
But now…
She held her hands on her chest, praying.
Lily landed on her left shoulder and also looked up to the sky, saying, [The Boss is still fighting.]
Scion blinked, “You can tell? Where?”
[I’ll display it.]
On the video that Lily displayed, Siva was standing on a slab of falling debris, the wind howling around him and his enemy.
It was a 4m large centaur with four arms and upper body of a masculine man. The centaur was holding a large fiery sword and dark robust shield on both his hands.
Siva, on the other hand, was on his Black Knight Set but chunks of his armor were torn off and his 3m-large War God Axe was also damaged.
Both of them were panting.
The left side of Siva’s helmet was chipped and it revealed the red-eyed black smoke skin being that hid behind it. In fact, the eyes were secondary since looking at Siva gave the impression that he’s like a Death Knight from some fantasy novel that had black smoke emitting from his bloodshot eyes.
“Rex…” Scion couldn’t help closing her eyes and praying sincerely for him.
Yes, everything around them was just a game, but to her and Rex Kingsley, Baron’s life hung in the balance and whether he would be able to save him by the time a full invasion erupts depends on the fights he will be having.
Siva had no choice but to win and as such, Scion was more worried about it more than anything.
Because Siva was the kind that will throw in his all, even his own soul, if it means he would be one step closer to his one true goal.
*****
2 hours before the explosion….
Siva, Heller, Kathleen, Cramer, and Loni pierced through the wall of Mobile Suits and with a few desperate maneuvers, reached the edge of the opening in the humanoid mothership.
“This is the first step.” Siva exhaled and just as they flew up to enter the hole, they were greeted by a squad of Commanders, making the other four flinch at the sight of their formation.
“No one will stop me!”
There were no cannons in the vicinity of the hole and one could even see the many passages and hallways on the walls of the interior of the mothership, indicators of the fact that it’s nothing more than an oversized warship with a humanoid form 15km in size.
When the Commanders got close to Siva’s 500m radius, he unleashed the [Killing Zone] and then released hundreds of blades that rushed towards the Demon Commanders.
Now that there were walls for the Liberty Drones to use, he wouldn’t be stingy and not make use of this chance to dominate everything.
He recalled the Liberty Drones and gave one for each of them as he also released four Puppets to secure the perimeter.
“Die!”
Siva used both his hands to control the trajectory of the blades and every movement of a finger was like a death sentence to the Demon Commanders as every tempo, length, and duration of the finger movements corresponded to a unique pattern that only Siva knows and Cortana can interpret.
The sight was like a conductor of a musical, or like Kangkarot controlling his four puppets with his trademark chakra strings.
(AN: naming pun, cough... not, cough, intended...)
Eight Demon Commanders that should have been a challenge to anyone below the mothership were reduced to scraps with only the “hearts”, the [Black Ball] item, remaining intact on their torsos.
Of course, Siva collected these eight —gifting four of them each to Loni, Cramer, Heller, and the cat.
“Don’t lose your Auricle Devices.” Siva said, “The fights from here on out will be different. I will have to go on a separate direction to look for Baal. You guys find the Supreme Commanders and deal with them to lessen the burden to the guys below after this affair.”
At the last sentence, Siva turned to Kathleen who tried to protest but was ultimately ignored. Siva had flown out of her reach already.
“That bastard…” Kathleen was a loss. She wasn’t a fighter. She came here with them as a newscooper but now she was forced to fight a Supreme alone?
Ridiculous!
“I’m not going to fight. I’ll leave it to you guys.” She declared and was just about to move when a hand stopped her from behind. It was the BM-Puppet.
She tried to complain but when she looked over at Loni, Heller, and Cramer, there were also one of them BM-Puppets sticking close to them.
In fact, at the top of their heads was one Liberty Drone each as if saying “I’ll make sure you fight”.
Kathleen immediately had a foreboding feeling.
“Are you jail wardens or what? I’m not a prisoner!”
She said angrily but the BM-Puppet attached to her only shrugged. She felt incensed.
“Whatever. I’m just going to stay here and wait for one of them to come to me. I won’t seek trouble if it doesn’t seek me.” She crossed her hand and then flew towards an inconspicuous side. The BM-Puppet followed her quietly and it seems that her attitude wasn’t considered a violation of the order.
Knowing this only made her more furious. So she released her own camera drones and started to do her work, covering the battlefield.
Seeing her stubbornly act like that made the men and the other woman shrug.
They went on their own separate ways.
.
.
================================
Five Supremes, one General…
The battle in the mothership commences!!
================================
.
.
.
.
Next chapter: B-Boros?! No… it wasn’t Boros…
.