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Chapter 391: Next
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Siva didn’t pay much attention to the other four and in fact, he didn’t even care if they would listen to his suggestion and actually help on the fight by reducing the threats.
Simply speaking, he only challenged them.
Whether they would actually do it or not is already up to them and not his concern. He’d done his job and his part of the bargain, now come his personal desire to take revenge.
The concept of time that had gone past inside the world —no— universe of Terra can hardly even be believed by mere words.
And yet, as profoundly miraculous as it may seem, Siva had indeed existed in a time trillions of years in the past than the current time frame, four years ago.
The further he goes inside of the mothership, the quieter it got.
Those eight Demon Commanders earlier were all horrifying boss monsters when in front of ordinary players of RPG: Terroa, but to Siva… they merely represented the object of his hate, the apple of his arrow strung within his bow.
But it was the last of the defenses.
“Baal is the egoistic and cowardly Emperor of the Fireflame Beasts. Of all the races of creatures who had absconded to the Rule of Darkness, they, the Fireflame Beasts, are the most unscrupulous and petty of all… with no principles and just pure actual brains and brawns. This is the reason how they’ve still managed to raise an Archfiend such as Baal in the entirety of the Burning Apocalypse Dominion.”
Siva continued to play a monologue, seeming to be talking to someone yet there was no one there to reply or even listen to him.
—aside from Cortana.
[It's too quiet, boss.]
“This is perfectly natural. Baal is proud of his own race and thinks that their ugliness is the strongest and most beautiful of all races out there. He even looks down on the other Generals, especially the bipedal, four-limbed humanoids like Eros, Sefirah, and Invidious. In retrospect, I remember him being a little bit stronger than Invidious and Eros but he’s too far behind in strength from Sefirah. In terms of horridness, though, I’d say he’s the best of them.”
The shape of the hole in the ‘chest’ of the large ship is like a cone; the deeper you go, the tighter the edge becomes, the lighter the damage done to the ship’s interior, and the hotter it gets.
“This rising temperature is proof that we’re getting close to him.”
Of course, Siva was in a cursed form. He doesn’t need oxygen and he can’t feel too cold nor heat. If ever it was explained, then he’s too comfortable in this cursed state.
It’s the perk and yet it’s the curse.
Baal’s “Mobile Armor” was 15km in actual size so naturally the thickness of it was also measured by kilometers.
Thee damage to the chest opening was 500m in size but the deeper you go, the shallower it gets.
[I’m scanning hostile energy signatures.]
‘Definitely. We are entering his chamber’s vicinity so his personal guards will also be present. Just the mere fact that we’ve made it this far means that he is still unconscious. His minions had focused all security outside and only kept his so called Royal Guards close to him. Typical of Baal. These hostile energy lifeforms you’re detecting are all his trusty Commanders raised from the dead.’
Siva had gone close to 50% of the entire opening and by now, the temperature had already reached a scalding degree that his armor had started to feel its natural anti-high temperature attributes.
Black Ironwood Alloy is a special alloy made 90% in total effort by the Humans of the Terran-Human Alliance who had miraculous NanoTech and Alloy-refining technologies.
These “alloys” they introduced to the Terrans all had that attributes that considered Space Travel upon its conception.
As such, atmospheric ascent and descent always equated the possibility of such circumstances for the future Warships Building Technologies.
The result of such features of the material is that, including the red muffler-cum-mantle, the armour set itself started to glow a bright golden orange.
[Visual scans indicated the depth of damage to be approximately 2.4km deep.]
Within a short few minutes, Siva had traversed a total of 1.3km. Within this period of time, Siva had trashed more than twelve Commanders and every single one of them could be described as strong as Thorn or even Volt in full power.
To put it bluntly, his limit was eight against one. If one more added on that, there would be impasse, but ten… he’d start to feel the pressure.
Good thing though, these ‘Commanders’ went to give him their [Black Ball] items one by one so the pressure was almost null —thanks to Killing Zone.
75% deep, the temperature had already shifted to as hot as a stove’s furnace, around 900 Kelvin!
In this temperature, the durability of the armor had started to be affected and, bit by bit, 0.5% was being chipped off every 5 minutes that passes by.
‘Cortana.’
[Yes boss.]
Space rippled and small parts and even the blades appeared, forming a tornado with Siva in the midst of it; the smallest ‘parts’ were as small the tip of a ballpen with the largest ones, the blades, as large as one’s own hands.
They were on different angles, positions, even of different orbiting speeds and displacements —but they were all circulating around him like a giant fan of sorts— alternating in the layers of their position in the formation and then resurfacing again when they’ve all cooled down.
It was a wondrous sight to see, an impromptu way of distributing heatwaves using wind movements and wave-distribution techniques.
(AN: please google it, wave-distribution tekniks)
Siva’s armour temperature was regulated between 400 and 500 kelvin.
And to even lower the temperature, Siva allowed an item to be used alongside his turbine formation.
It was a blue gaseous synthetic element —plasma smoke screen. In turn, he looked like an exposed humanoid turbo charger without the metal sleeve, only, he looked like an Ice-Elemental of other VR-Games that centered on more fantasy elements.
With this combination, the temperature went down to a staggering 27*C —300 kelvin— not even hot enough to boil a kettle of water.
Vision was impeded by the blue gas, yes, but it didn’t matter. He had Cortana.
[Displaying scans data…]
Through his blocked vision, he could see the few blue-line ‘figures’ of the hostile lifeforms carrying high-energy undulations. In just one glance, it was easy to tell that all of them were creatures from the Burning Apocalypse Dominion.
All of them were radiating high energy heat waves that the thermo-camera rendering of their ‘figures’ revealed who they are without much trouble.
“Let’s see… those two legged ones look like the Firebrats, then those multi legged ones are from the Entropies Race, then there’s Death Heaters, a few Salamandrakes and then, yep, an acting squad captain from the Fireflame Beasts… ah, I’ve never paid attention to their resources before but I now needed these fire-bred bunch of resources, they are just perfect.”
It was an eye-catching set of words. If Baal would be awake and know what’s running on Siva’s mind right now, he’d choose to face himself than to give Siva these free items.
Just like how Demons grow by consuming the soul and flesh bodies of Terrans and Humans, Mortals can also use a few special demons —especially all elemental-alignment ones— to create their tools of war and even a few household items.
[Darkness] may have ruled almost the entirety of the universe but there will always be something or even someone that’ll uphold the balance of power in the universe.
The universe cannot live without [Balance].
Isn’t that the reason why, before the ultimate circle of Life and Death, the greatest law in the universe is the law of Balance…
From the Eight Grand Elements that serves the very foundation of the physical universe…
…..…to the Three Universal Laws that upholds the worlds at which the lifeforms live…
...………is the [Essence of Balance] that keeps the universe ticking, preventing the ultimate ruin that will kill every inhabitant of the universe, regardless of the race.
As such, because the universe was already in the embraces of darkness, all the [Light] had gathered in Terroa which led to the ‘limit’ set upon to all the beings of Immortality.
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In the vast Great Dark, these ‘LAGRAM Alliance’ may be able to possess the power close to, if not already in, the power of Immortals.
But they are in Terroa and the ‘limit’ was here that puts meaning to the [Essence of Balance].
Siva was using the principles and logic of the vast universe he knew of the Ragnarok Era to use at this very moment.
He was planning to harvest these resources and put them to good use in his own way.
“Wehehehe…” it was a weird laugh.
[Boss’s eyes are burning in a weird way. The brain patterns are going telling me something else that’s both scary, but weirdly practically, but scary still.]
It’s wasn’t greed but just pure bliss. Resources are bringing themselves on his doorsteps, why should he refuse?
“Arrr… I feel an ominous vibe, cap’n.”
“I feel it too.”
“I feel it three.”
“My bones are tingling.”
“My scales are shaking.”
“Hear my command. Those who will withdraw from here will be eaten alive, you hear me?”
“We hear you, cap’n.”
“But I’m scared though.”
“You stay quiet! Look! That one looks like he can smell your fear. So don’t let him.”
“Aye… cap’n.”
Siva could hear them through his domain and if he hadn’t recalled everything, he wouldn’t have been able to understand the language they were using.
A bashful smile beamed on his lips. But because of his curse, it looked more like a devil than a real person being embarrassed by their wicked ideas.
“Storm.”
The command was given.
Blades flew through the gaps and killed the hiding ‘figures’ who thought they were actually hidden.
“Bwehehehehe…. Come! Give me more resources to use for my experiments!! Bwahhahaha…. I was never able to fulfill my grand engineering designs in my past life so I will fulfill them now! I am the full reborn version of a modern age necromancer! You will all become my prey!!! GYAHAHAHAHA!!!”
Unwittingly, because of his pent up rage and his desire for more power, Siva was using three kinds of laughs that was awkward to the ears.
It was a different laugh from what the world knows but it was still dreadful nonetheless.
Simultaneous cries for help and mercy rung but it was a time of war… Siva is a commander… only a commander of the same rank would be able to put up the flag to announce the right for a parley.
*****
In a burning chamber that seemed to be made of fire, there was a throne-looking control panel with a giant figure seated on top of it.
Straps were connected to his head that looked like some sort of heat-resistant wires.
The ‘being’ on the throne was [Baal].
Because of the shock of the damage he received, he fell unconscious and is unaware of the thieves in the mothership that he was proud of.
And yet, instinctively, he could hear and feel the cries of agony of his children…
There was a harvester inside the ship!
Looking closely, aside from the centaurus physical aspect of his body and the four four-fingered two-jointed humanoid arms, Baal’s upper body was just like that of a Human’s—no—he looked like an orc!
Baal was mumbling as if he was dreaming, perhaps he perceived the deaths of his kins and thought it was a bad dream?
Nevertheless, it was clear that he was receiving a sort of intuitional warning. In his dream, he was witnessing his real body’s death from the hands of that walking nightmare all over again.
The ‘fires’ that surrounded the chamber as one of his subconscious actions of self-preservation and defense, started to fluctuate and Baal’s eyes and long fiery eyebrows began to twitch. He was in the verge of waking up.
His body that was made of lava fluctuated from the blackish-magma-rock to a burning gold and scarlet colouration, the Mana with a Dark attribute but had a solid Fire Elemental Alignment began to breathe-in with the fires within the room.
Bang…
………..BANG!
………………BANG!!!
Three long and loud ‘knocking’ sounds were heard from the chamber doors, and with the last banging sound, the sliding doors burst open.
“Aaahhhh, I found you.” A man’s delighted voice.
Baal opened his eyes and the fires exploded, the man’s tangible ‘blue’ aura were blasted away but it still did its job to absorb 90% of the heatwave that blasted forth from Baal’s body.
[Intruder?]
Baal looked at the man and could feel the power of Darkness surrounding him. It was the power that he represents and should be familiar with—and yet there was something within the man that he found both familiar and weirdly foreign at the same time.
“Yo…” the man’s voice sounded friendly but there was an unrestricted hostility and malevolent intent layered on that greeting. “…it’s been a few millions of years, ain’t it?”
[Who are you?]
This time, Baal had woken up. He knew this man but at the same time, he couldn’t pinpoint who he was in his memories.
“Ahahaha… good question.” The man laughed and summoned a 3m large dark blue axe. “Let us make the proper introductions…”
*****
Just a few minutes earlier…
“This is the end of the road.”
An hour of collecting fire-elemental resources had made Siva’s mood slightly lighter. He momentarily forgotten the millennial-old vendetta and only put his mind into focusing on finding the ringleader of this entire incident.
Temperature had risen to a solid 400 kelvin and it was slightly rising the deeper he gets in.
“I’ve traveled a 2.5km vertically and I am yet to be able to reach the core of the mothership. Maybe I should have really added one more warship for that surprise attack earlier…”
As regretful as Siva was, he knew he couldn’t have reduced the defenses of Asgard and also knew that Jeremiah wouldn’t have listened to him.
“Still, looking at the layout of this ship so far, I’m a bit surprised to learn that this ship was actually in an upright position when horizontally like this.”
If it’s a person, this ‘Mobile Armor’ should be face down in position. In other words, as a ‘ship’, its upright bow-faced position should be the current position it was in.
[Thermal scanners indicated a spike on the high temperature beyond the wall in front of us.]
Siva thought for a moment.
‘Cortana, are you able to scan the area in front of us right now using the domain?’
[Absolute Domain output is affected. Unable to extend at normal distance… readjusting tenuity of NanoField output… done. Absolute Domain can only be used within a 100m radius at the moment.]
Because of the concentration of high temperature, the NanoField is affected and in order not to ‘burn’ the NanoField, it had to conduct a cycle within the ‘field’ that had the cool plasma smoke screen.
‘What if we don’t consider the consumption of the Plasma Smoke Screen?’
[Domain integrity can be maintained but consumes 5 Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades per 10sec.]
‘It’s a large consumption—’
Siva wore a worried look momentarily… before he beamed in a wide smile.
‘—for someone who bought their items with their own money! Cortana, increase consumption to at least one PSS-Grenade per second! Let’s put this sun of a beach’s fiery paradise into a freezing ice tundra!’
The PSS-Grenades can’t ‘freeze’ anything but if a fire-attributed domain such Baal’s lair were to meet an opposing element, the reaction will be quite an interesting sight.
‘In addition, let’s destroy every nook and cranny we can until we find where he’s hiding.’
[Boss, for some reason, I am being influenced by your odd behavior. It’s like I wanna destroy all that I see in this place and create as much explosion as I can within the limits of my existence! Bwehehe!!! —is what I wanna say but really, I feel weirded by your current mental strain. It’s unique. I can’t seem to follow a standard article for a record of it.]
Siva looked at her then smiled, “Cortana, there are times in life that you must release all your pent up frustration or you will go haywire.”
He was taking his own advice that’s why he felt a sense of nostalgia releasing his inner self in this place that’s owned by his enemy.
Baal was the kind that actually feels really lazy all the time that’s why he makes things. But the things he makes are all precious to him.
You can say that for someone you had a vendetta on, crapping over their refrigerator and f*cking all their fox-eared bushy-tailed cute housemaids, and impregnating their wives is a fulfilling revenge.
(AN: cough chicken tie, cough, logic, pls don’t ask)
Cortana stared at him and only swiped the air as she ‘archived’ the notion(s) from Siva’s logic.
“For starters, destroy this wall for me.”
Space rippled and one by one, in a matter of just a few instants, 50 PSS-Grenades scattered all their blue charges and the electro-conducting smoke stuck to the vicinity of the wall above him.
‘And the finisher…’
Siva beamed widely, pointing his right index and middle finger like a “hand gun” and spoke.
“Bang.”
A Spark Grenade was released and the massive explosion literally destroyed the ceiling wall that he deemed as an obstacle to his objective.
Compared to the overall size of the mothership, it was but a small tickling explosion akin to a bite of a mosquito. But to the vicinity of the area, to all the ‘residents’ of the ship… it was an explosion that only a Supreme are actually capable of.
There was a very strong heat wave that assaulted Siva as soon as that ceiling wall broke open.
He didn’t think twice and, just like an ice-elemental, he floated upwards to that hole and landed himself on a long hallway.
The walls, just like how it was outside, looked like an actual alien-ish wall; a cross between concrete and zerg-infested buildings. It wasn’t alive and isn’t breathing, but the aesthetics and design are such.
There were also sliding walls that had alienish art concept on them every few hundred meters and at a fix distance of every 50m or so were wide sliding doors indicating a room or a facility.
Looking, the ceiling was around 6m high. It was a space enough for him to swing his [War God Axe] and still had enough space to maneuver within.
In short, since Baal himself is around 5m high, it was only natural for the size standards of his own ship to be close to his being.
Lastly, what was different from these walls is that the ‘walls’ themselves emit some kind of heat akin to a wall of an engine in the middle of a ride. It was really hot that without Siva’s ‘cooling aura’ would slowly melt his armour within a few minutes.
“Too bad I didn’t have any BM-Puppets left in me or I would have gone on a rampage using them.”
Siva shrugged. Set the BM-Puppets to defend the Grand Mansion and gave away the rest to the four to serve as their support.
He could go left or right so Siva made a decision.
‘Cortana, choose for me.’
[Left sir.]
‘Why?’
[Because there are only 30 idle enemies on my scan range on that distance whereas I’m detecting 54 enemies from the left side rushing over to your location.]
Siva beamed, “Good suggestion.”
He started running towards that direction but even before he made five steps, Siva had left 10 PSS-Grenades on where was standing and then ignited them when he was 20m away.
The resulting explosion destroyed the ceiling and the walls and wires and metals stuck out as Siva saw what was revealed on the other side of wall he was facing earlier.
It seemed to be a sleeping quarters for captain-ranked Fireflame Beasts.
“Jackpot.” He entered through the hole in the wall he had just blasted while sending a few blades to greet the fire-aligned ‘monsters’ on the left hall.
Of course, the idle monsters on the right side did not escape him as well —all of them entered his inventory with open arms.
“Ah, isn’t this a sword imbued with pure fire-type materials? TAKE! Oh, a dagger with fire damage? TAKE! What is this, a shin guard with fire-def? Oh I am taking you with me! TAAAAAKE!!!”
He was an unbridle thief. At least a proper thief would be sneaky about it unlike Siva who took up the mantle of the profession blatantly and openly without shame nor hesitation.
If Pitou was here, a ‘face palm’ scene would have occurred for sullying the questionably honorable profession. At least Pitou was an honorable thief.
Siva was plundering the ship while killing enemies in his detection range.
“Next!”
Siva didn’t go elsewhere and instead went up.
BOOM!!!
Rubbles flew almost everywhere and a hole in the floor opened up, shocking the escaping monsters —no— demon pawns that, with their fiery bodies, are all walking smart resources from the Burning Apocalypse Dominion.
They weren’t even considered ‘people’ anymore in Siva’s eyes.
Every monster, standing or have fallen, were all stunned at the sight of an ‘ice-elemental’ floating up from the hole in the ceiling. To them, it felt like they were being cast in an alien-horror film that’s to be shown in Wattpad Cinemas in the still near-far future.
In their vision, they are like the pitiful members of the crew trapped with Siva-X in a stuck-up warship in an alien-land called Terroa.
They instinctively knew that Siva-X was going to hunt them all down.
Siva’s face was covered with the mask but he still smiled when he saw the precious resources with shaking bodies looking at him —and the precious living resources all felt the coldness of that smile.
Siva felt bliss. Pure and untainted bliss.
“Ahhh, this is a resource paradise.”
He spread his arms wide, welcoming the breeze of the harvest season in full bloom this summer.
“Storm.”
Thus the harvest commenced once again.
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Uphold the honor of the thieves…!!
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Next chapter: The WHAT?!!
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