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Chapter 394: A Stunning Defeat
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There were seven levels led by 2 ‘knights’ at the very front; then 4 ‘swordsmen’ behind them; then 8 knights on the third level; then 16 spearmen on the fourth; and then 32 more spearmen on the fifth; 64 swordsmen on the 6th level; and finally, a long line of 128 archers on the seventh and last level.
-2
–4
—8
-—16
–—32
——64
——128
Aside from the last line of archers, the alternating formation of knights-swordsmen-spearmen is an intimidating force to be reckoned with.
“Ah, it felt like it’s been so long since I last felt it.”
[Excitement?]
‘Fear.’
[But why do I read your thoughts as exci—oh!]
Siva’s smile remained but he became wary. If it was in his past life, he would have charged straight to this horde and smashed them over and over.
It was the only way he could fight against the fear of death back then. Now, it was different but still essentially the same in many ways.
[Is it just plain perverseness? Boss, you’re one of those warmongers.]
‘Shut up.’
Siva is a weak Terran now—not even an immortal— so instead of recklessly clashing with the enemies, he meant to deal with them using all his advantages, using tricks, tactics, and a little bit of brain.
The smile on his lips meant something else but the subconscious thirst for violence was there and that there was also the hidden excitement of fighting an enemy that is two levels out of his league.
—can I do it?
—will I fall here?
—am I able to even wound him?
Siva was full of questions but he wasn’t a bit least in doubt.
—right… it was just like this before.
Siva calmly remembered his past life. It was the life that he spent fighting for survival, fighting for the right to live, fighting for the chance to see the light of the next day again.
He was used to being the underdog. Win if you are able to and run if you can’t. That was his style in the past. It can’t be applied to the circumstances of his current situation.
If he backs down now, Jeremiah will fall and that is also going to spell the doom of the other cities.
This was a situation he can’t take a step back from so he must win at all costs. The odds against him were just too high, bordering impossible, and it is also the reason why he was smiling.
He could feel the scent of unfairness as big as his world revolving around this situation.
He must win.
He must decimate this mothership.
He must kill Baal.
Thinking about it all…. Siva’s breathing began to unconsciously quicken and Cortana looked at him with a meaningful glance.
“Your soul is mine!” El Bravo was really furious. All Devil Gods had the ability to take away the souls of their victims to either eat to get stronger, or torture for fun.
Either option is painful so even though Siva is a [Player] and not a Citizen of this Universe, he still felt threatened at the notion because of what had happened to him.
Pant… Pant… Pant…
The Undead Army of elites charged over, their overall speed wasn’t half bad.
Siva knew that this is going to be painful and so he adjusted his mind and prepared his body.
He was ready for a clash.
“Ahahaha…” a slow laughter escaped from him.
Pain was areal for him and as well as even death.
He was terrified by the idea of his soul being at the hands of a Devil. That’s why he was smiling. It was a smile that welcomed the challenge and rejected the tiniest of the notion of death.
“You can’t kill me.” He declared. “And I won’t kill you because I need your body for an experiment.”
There was nothing else stopping him from going on a violent spree right now…
…and when he thought of that, his short breathing stopped and he looked at the legion, then to their summoner, and his world began to slow.
POOM!
–it was another silent explosion…
—-but there was no Mana used…
——it was the silent sound of rippling space…
–——when Siva was using his upgraded inventory.
The ‘blades’ danced as if they were in frenzy, a storm of alternating, slicing razorblades encircled him like a King of Blades.
(AN: cough… cough…)
“Let’s clash!”
XIU!!
XIU!!
—XIU!!!
Before, they had to conduct themselves in line of a pattern set instinctively by Siva and executed thru Cortana’s control, now, Cortana interpreted Siva’s raging ‘violence’ as is and didn’t’ set any controlling patterns on it whatsoever.
Siva’s thoughts were the ‘formation’ taken by these blades themselves and they were the direct words that Siva’s unspoken thoughts were screaming.
The seemingly orderly blades suddenly went into turmoil as if they were bees disturbed on their own nest. They crisscrossed and almost collided into each other, but they passed through like a double turbine and went straight into grinding the ‘spirits’ summoned by El Bravo’s Dark Magic.
No wails could be heard but there were the sound of grinding metals. These ‘spirits’ were half material and half spectre —wraiths that could kill any living being with their cursed blades.
T-T-T-T-T-TANG!!!
The bulky armored spectres collided with the blade storm and the blades bounced off their bodies as if it had hit something akin to a solid boulder.
But the momentum of the spectre paused as it also received the shock of the attack. The momentum of the flying blades amplified by Siva’s Absolute Domain was comparable to a full-weighing Cyclone and when it collided with the Spectre who seemed to have an absolute defense as well, they both had received the brunt of the attacks and neutralized each other with the Spectres slightly having the bit of upperhand.
“As expected of a Supreme.” These Spectres are nothing more than just low-level summoning of the Devil Gods.
If they put their all into it, they can even summon a Corpse Dragon, or a Zombie Dragon, or a Bone Dragon that had the level of at least Lesser Dragon or at the weakest type of True Dragon.
But it needed time and concentration.
“In your current state and my abilities, you won’t be able to summon even just a finger of them.”
Still, that was a force that can decimate Jeremiah with a flick of its tail, and at least half of the country if it used just one [Dragon Roar].
“But the difference between us is that you only have more than a hundred while I have triple the number of yours combined!”
Siva subconsciously, slowly, raised his left hand as he gazed coldly at El Bravo to prepare to cast his [Storm] and other [Omni Forms] alongside it.
Then, the slowly rising hand clenched to a fist and halfway to the next action, Siva stopped, sweating coldly on his back.
—fuck damnit!!!
[Aw geez, boss. You almost did it.]
Siva cursed inwardly. He almost crushed his own pride and ego with his own hand!
—what the hell is this fake woman doing to me?!!
[You know it subconsciously, Boss.]
‘Shut up!’
He could almost feel Cortana laughing at him.
No.
Siva knew she was laughing at him.
“Fuck damn it! Storm. Storm! STORM!!!”
He repeatedly poked his finger in midair as if urging the attack ‘pattern’ forward a little faster and a little harder.
The blades followed Siva’s agitation and ‘pressed’ forth with surging momentum, like a worm that rose from behind him and overpowered the legion of spectre with numbers and unrelenting strength.
“Ahahahaha!”
It was a deranged laughter of someone who wants to forget the shame of almost eating his own pride.
[…]
Siva was an egoistic guy back when he was still the “Protector of the Stars” because he knew he was a strong Immortal and also the first, feared by many, even by the Gods.
He would never allow himself to copy someone else’s trademark signature moves… no matter how cool it may look or sound like.
[Boss is so fickle.]
‘Shut up!’
El Bravo’s legion was being suppressed and since he was also someone who had pride with his own strength, he couldn’t accept the fact that Siva was overpowering his summoned beings. He wanted to summon stronger familiars but with Siva’s ‘storm’ of blades, he knew he wouldn’t get a chance. And this made him even more angry.
He roared and cast another spell. This time, Dark Mana erupted around him and engulfed everything in his immediate 30m-wide vicinity.
The resulting explosion of Dark Mana transformed into a weapon —a giant Black-Flaming Hammer.
Just one look was enough to speak of its menacing might and aftereffects.
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“I’ll crush you myself!”
El Bravo leapt into the air and the Archers at the far back of the legion of spectres released array upon array of arrows to cover their summoner.
The arrows accurately hit the blades and the clash of metals resounded beautifully in succession, with a gap being made where the other swordsmen and spearmen used to approach Siva.
It was a beautiful sight of their forces going back and forth… with the exception of a rushing flaming being in the midst of it.
The Knights, Swordsmen, and Spearmen jumped in many directions, surrounding Siva in midair as they synchronized their attacks with El Bravo.
SWOOSH!!
One wing of the black-flaming hammer and the line of blades scattered like insects meeting pesticide.
“HAH!!”
El Bravo was fast despite his size and only with the help of the Domain was Siva able to react in time to evade the crushing blow of the hammer.
“Urgh!!”
Yet, Siva knew he wasn’t out of danger yet. Just as the hammer went past his face, a fire blast burst in front of him and collided against his ‘PSS’–imbued armor surface.
BANG!!!
The ‘cold aura’ was brushed aside and the force of the attack hit Siva, blasting him off backwards. He slammed at the wall 40m behind him and made a dent of his own before bouncing off like a ball.
He lifted his head up and saw El Bravo looming at him like a bully. His War Hammer raised upwards, his eyes gleaming with a savage glow. He really wanted to kill Siva within the fastest time possible.
A beautiful fiery arc projected, the War Hammer hit the floor as Siva rolled over Bravo to avoid it, lifting his right hand at the armored abdomen of his foe.
Space rippled but nothing happened and Siva was open for the kill.
“Fool!” El Bravo roared and tried to crush Siva with his hooves and body, slamming at the floor against the Terran, blasting him to the wall once again.
“And here I thought you were something special.”
This time, it was El Bravo’s turn to mock him. His sneering visage and fire-spewing nose looked even uglier when he was smiling.
Siva rolled again, kicking the floor, and then aiming a fist right at the Devil while his left palm continued to point at El Bravo’s body. Space rippled again.
“Weak! You’re so fucking weak and full of talk!”
Fiery aura exploded from his body and blasted Siva off his zone, slamming him away from him once again towards another wall.
When Siva bounded off like ragged doll, El Bravo followed through with an uppercut, then a kick, and then a sideway swing, blasting Siva away like a metal clad punching bag.
THUD! THUD!! THUD!!!
Siva rolled three times due to the force of the last attack. He slammed —once again— in that narrow hallway but didn’t mind it as he stood up again, fists balled, eyes gleaming with wild violence in its red devilish cursed glow.
“Ahahaha…”
—it was laughter full of scorn and mockery.
“You know, for a Supreme, you’re awfully weak.”
El Bravo’s fury was renewed. He roared in reply.
Siva, of course, won’t just be a punching bag for a centaur who can’t even think straight. He dodged the wild swing of the hammer and delivered a palm strike to his humanoid abdomen. Space rippled.
Nothing happened.
“It doesn’t even tickle!” El Bravo stopped bothering with Siva’s useless attacks and sent him flying with a backhanded rabbit punch.
Still, despite having been slammed to the floor for the umpteenth time, Siva continued to laugh and jeer at him.
“I’m still standing, weakling.”
“AAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
Siva continued to counter and continued to be sent flying, repeating the cycle over and over.
While laughing in a maniacal manner, exchanging blow per blow with the centaur, Siva never once forgotten to send a palm strike to El Bravo, while he drank Red Potions from time to time.
“You are nothing more than just a Terran! Die!!”
His fire aura exploded again and met Siva’s fist. His War Hammer followed a different trajectory, hitting Siva on his right flank, smashing him towards the inner folds of the hallway, deeper into their ship, making him roll and tumble, and spin, and bawl in pain.
Siva skidded. The force of that last attack sent him tumbling over ten times, a hundred plus meters away, until he reached the sectional partition and slammed hard inverted at the closed sliding door.
“Urggghhh….”
He groaned, obviously feeling the pain but Siva is still alive and breathing. In fact, he didn’t receive much damage as his tempered body and armour was capable of receiving these kinds of attacks in addition to him drinking Red Potions to heal some of the damage, mitigating an overall catastrophic plight to the bitter end.
“You fucking ant! Why don’t you die?!!”
BANG!!!
A full weight smashing of the hammer planted Siva to the floor.
He didn’t even wait and El Bravo used one of his front hooves to step on Siva and kicked him.
The sliding door behind him even broke and Siva pierced through it like a cannon ball.
Still, Siva continued to point his palm at him even to the last second before he was kicked out.
The fragments of space continued to ripple. It was minimum and almost can’t be felt but for a Chaos God-level existence this close, it was obvious.
El Bravo was obviously angry. If it was any normal opponent, they would have been dead by now but this guy was obviously weaker than him by several levels and yet he was still alive despite receiving all his attacks square to his body.
Now that he thought back to it, why does he feel like his attacks are getting weaker?
The dents on Siva’s armor were the result of all his earlier attacks. The latter ones were all delivered squarely and yet it didn’t even make another dent on him.
Why?
How?
He raised his left fist and gathered a fist-sized red-black Mana ball. The undulations of this Mana gathered around his fist like serpents and even stretched as far as his arm as he glared at Siva.
“Dark Fire!” It was one of the symbolic abilities of the Fireflame Beasts as high ranking Devil Gods!
He released his Mana towards Siva and although they were 30+ meters apart, that distance was like a single step as the pillar of red-black fire scorched the supposed fire-resistant walls of the hallway and went straight through towards Siva.
Siva wasn’t able to dodge it and could only block with all his might. He summoned numerous Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades within the second and detonated them simultaneously.
Then he also summoned a few ‘damaged’ corpses of El Bravo’s minions and brethren to act as shield to block the attack.
It neutralized more than half of the fiery momentum before being turned to ashes and Siva still laughed loudly as he used his arms to block the blast.
“Hahahaha… so weak! WEEEEAAAAAAKKKKK…!!”
Despite being at the level of a Chaos God, this Devil God named El Bravo was obviously weaker than the enemies Siva had faced before.
Not only that, he was also continuously taunting him and depleting his thinking capability. He was obviously making him angrier, and it was depriving El Bravo his capacity to think properly in this fight.
“I’ll kill you!”
The entire hallway was halfway scorched and also melted, but it remained intact, with just a few bits and pieces of red-black flames dancing here and there.
After rolling a few more tens of meters, Siva had reached yet another intersection and slammed at the sliding door, groaning in pain yet again.
Siva stood up, slowly, staggering for a bit before he laughed out again at the incoming fiery centaur.
He stretched out his left hand, “You’re weak!”
El Bravo hated him and the taunt was affecting his bearing like a little child.
He swung his War Hammer, but Siva dodged it and docked down. His left hand stretched out and space once again rippled.
“You’re going to die because you’re weak.”
“YOU are the one going to die, Terran! RAH!!!”
At this time, the spectres had reached Siva and the arrows flew faster than a bullet, hitting his armour, and the spearmen rushed in, the knights and the swordsmen swung their swords, pushing him back again and again to his limits.
When the momentum of the attacks ended, the big shadow of El Bravo came looming over him again.
The black-flaming hammer swung a beautiful arc. A dent was planted on the door with Siva, but his dark blue armor didn’t cave in.
El Bravo became increasingly concerned.
He can still kick Siva through the doors and dent the hardened walls but it was clear that his attacks became weaker when hitting Siva.
How?
Why?
But Siva didn’t answer his thoughts and laughed at him. Both his hands were at El Bravo’s direction.
“Ahahaha… you’re going to die an idiot, not even knowing how you will die. But thankfully, I needed you alive so I won’t kill you and will only render you immobile.”
“Hah! Boast all you want,.. You will die by my hands this very day.”
Another ball of red-black Mana formed into his left fist and just as he was about to smash it directly at Siva, he heard him speak something.
“Let me ask you something. How is your body?”
“Huh?”
Fireflame Beasts weren’t capable of sweating but if he was, El Bravo should be sweating coldly now.
“It’s been eight seconds since the second batch.”
“What are you—”
El Bravo also realized, ever since Siva had last hit him with his palm, it has indeed been more or less eight seconds. And all this time, he only continued to trash him and didn’t even notice it all.
But now that he did, he realized that the anomaly he increasingly felt all this time started at that very moment, eight second ago.
“You’ve hit me for twenty seconds, ya know that?”
Fights on their level were just too intense and so fast that no ordinary being could catch up to them.
An eight seconds bout?
Twenty seconds battle?
Even just a mere second would feel like plenty if the fighters were on their level of power.
Their comprehension of ‘speed’ is just different to the lower lifeforms because they are indeed just that… they are higher existences.
El Bravo felt a chill creep its way to his spine and he stopped. No. It’s not that he wanted to stop but his body itself stopped moving.
“W-What’s happening?” he yelled but his actions were all dull as if he was moving in a mud bath.
El Bravo could even feel that his insides were now hurting and there are also painful cracks with each muscle he wanted to move.
Still, he was a warrior and this level of pain was on a tolerable scale. What he dreaded, however, is the fact that he now can’t move a muscle the way he wanted them to. Not even his Mana moved the way he wanted to move and his control over it vanished within the next instant.
“No!”
Mana is the source of power and life. To control the source of one’s Mana is to take control over your life.
If you lose control over it as a God-level existence, then it means utter humiliation… and even death.
—especially in a battlefield.
He raised his head and saw Siva spit out an empty vial from the small Y-shaped opening of his helm.
“What did you do to me? WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME, TERRAN…!!”
Despite staggering, Siva stood and walked over to the stiffened Supreme Commander. He can’t even properly use Mana and so the spectres that he had summoned all vanished, unable to get the renewal of the Mana from their summoner.
They all disappeared with ghastly wails.
“Pant… pant… you fight with brains, idiot… pant…”
Space rippled around Siva and the ‘blue aura’ once again appeared to revolve around the tired him.
His body still ached despite his injuries healing. He also summoned a few hundred of NanoCubes and it latched into his armor, repairing the parts broken by the earlier clash.
“Urgh… if I wasn’t tempered by Dragon Blood and aren’t wearing this armor, I would have really died back there. Your punches can literally destroy this armor with a defensive strength of a battleship.”
The Black Master Armament… it was Siva’s pride and glory, the product of his imagination that met a chance to materialize.
Not only NanoCubes, but 0.5 cm-sized ‘parts’ from his BMA also manifested as they revolved around not Siva but to their target… El Bravo.
He reached him and stretched out a hand.
Space rippled and there was a sound of a muffled explosion inside EL Bravo’s body.
“GAAAAAHHH!!!”
This time, it was a cry of shock with extreme pain in a sand-gargling, orcish manner.
Electricity snaked around his body as he fell to his four knees. His face twisted in pain but El Bravo Supreme was still alive.
He looked at Siva with both fear and bewilderment, not knowing what happened and how Siva attacked him from inside his own body.
“What… did… you…” talking became hard in his current half-awake, half-sleepy stunned state.
The reason why he could stay awake is because of the fear that crept all over his body.
For the miraculous first time ever, he felt fear for his own life.
“Wha… what did you… what did you do to me?”
He was stammering, swallowing his words. Right now, he could only talk as his entire body was in a state of paralysis. The reason why he was upright is also because of the BMA ‘parts’ that supported his 3m large frame.
“160.” Siva said.
“What?”
A ‘crunch’ sounded from his feet that startled the Supreme Commander. It was the vial of Red Potion Siva spat out earlier.
“160.” Siva repeated. “That’s the total number of PSS-Grenades I’ve put inside your body.”
It didn’t even occur to El Bravo that Siva was actually talking to him using the language of the Devil Gods Race.
He was shocked at the content of Siva’s words.
160?
He put 160 what inside his body?
Since when did he put them inside his body?
Alas, Siva didn’t dare to explain as the tiny parts of BMA hovering around El Bravo entered his body through his skin… the focus was on his neck and his spine, with the smallest ‘part’ that entered those areas as small as a millimeter.
Now that he can’t use Mana because Siva used a ‘cheat’ to contaminate his body, the [scan] was now able to study El Bravo’s body as if it was exposed with no secrets, like a lab specimen with Siva being the scientist who procured him somewhere.
Still, it’s only a matter of time. If the stun effect is lifted, he will be battle-capable again and since he was already aware of Siva’s frightening ability in a close-range fight, he can just cast spells one after another in a distance and he could still win against Siva who can’t even use magic.
El Bravo is actually alright, in fact. He was only in a stunned state… nothing more.
Since he activated [Release] and had temporarily regained his full power, his body also recovered its natural strength so his internals were actually okay, although he was still stiff and rigid within.
Ten seconds… that’s all it takes for him to force his Mana to move again and once he do he can kill this Terran just by lifting his finger with one Darkness Spell.
El Bravo sneered inside.
‘That’s it… dawdle. Buy me more time. Talk more.’
He was still a Commander and he was still smart. It wasn’t hard for him to create plans in an instant of a second. He wouldn’t commit a second mistake.
Still, in a fight on their level, even just a second of being in a stunned state was already enough to put his life in jeopardy.
He felt fear at the prospect but he shut his mouth.
“GAH!!!”
This pain was abnormally great for something very small.
When the ‘parts’ entered his body, he could feel them tearing apart his flesh and destroying something very important to him.
As he realized what Siva was trying to do, it was already too late for him. His plans… Siva had seen through all of them!
“I’LL KILL YOU!! YOU MOTHERF*CKING TERRAN SUN OF A BEACH!!! I’LL KILL YOU!!!”
“Too loud!” Siva gave a mental thought.
SNAP!
Something was broken in El Bravo’s body and his two fiery eyes rolled up as he lost consciousness.
Siva actually cut the connection of his brain to his body! It was a surgical operation. Even if his brain can give a signal and become awake, only his mind is aware and he won’t be able to use any magic.
He was practically brain dead but his body was still alive. It was smart and also cruel.
“Heh. You might have the strength of a Chaos God but your fighting style is crude. You’re the largest disappointment in their ranks. Totally unworthy.”
Siva summoned more parts of the BMA and then made a “lock” that sealed the body parts of El Bravo in a metallic ‘Box’ package.
“Aish… I shouldn’t have left all the Puppet Armors within the Grand Mansion.”
Now, Siva was regretting not having a puppet cage to [seal] this trophy and had to waste a few parts of the BMA just for this plan he thought of at a whim.
When he was done, El Bravo was immobilized in a cage-like metallic contraption his own size, and was actually ‘guarded’ by a Liberty Drone —the last one in his arsenal since all production resources are being focused on finishing [Dáinsleif].
He gave a thought command and the Liberty Drone flew towards the direction he came from —to that hole he made— and then fell downwards, straight towards the city.
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A stunning defeat!!
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Next chapter: A package is delivered….
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