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Chapter 402: The Emperor of Flames
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His next move, however, was to let the blue smoke domain into this fiery hot chamber to cool down the heat while crashing all the computer system and all consoles at the same time.
The ship’s AI didn’t even get word in before being shushed violently.
Siva saw Baal who seemed to have just woken up, his body writhing of magma, exploded into a fiery whirlpool as he released his Mana.
His blue smoke domain was blasted off and a few blades melted on the spot as it met the fire.
‘Whew… and it was just a waking up yawn…’
Their gazes met and Baal blinked in confusion.
{Intruder?}
He was speaking in the Terran Tongue with a tinge of bewilderment. He was still disoriented with what had happened and how he was unconscious.
Baal used his neural connection to contact the ship AI but there was no response. He turned his head and saw the shattered computers of his private chambers but was still confused with the how and why he can’t remember anything prior to being rendered unconscious.
“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?”
Baal was confused with the question.
He didn’t know this Terran but he could feel the unrestrained hostility radiating on his shoulders.
{Who are you?}
The man laughed, he stretched his hand and the War God Axe that lay there on the side came back to his hand.
“Good question. Let’s make proper introductions then, shall we? My name is Siva, your old friend, and I am here to remove your ugly head from your horridly unsightly shoulders.”
{Siva?}
Baal felt confused for some reason, this one name seems to cause him to shudder but he just can’t place a finger on how and why.
“Yeah. It’s me, Siva… your old friend.” Siva didn’t mince with anymore words as he stepped on the side and calmly ordered, “Fire.”
Nine successive explosive sounds rung and there were the whirling of the heat wave for a moment before the nine rounds of artillery fires hit Baal with surprise and precision, incurring damages along with the loud explosions and his agonized cry.
“Reload.”
Siva didn’t give him a chance to move as well.
With a flick of his hand, he tossed three friable bombs which exploded to the still fiery body of the Devil God and the blue smoke domain spread in the room as he released his Killing Zone and then delivered a vicious slash.
{You impudent fool!}
A roaring cry of anger exploded along with a fiery domain erupting from the burning Belphegor.
(AN: “Belphegor of the Sloth” is a title and can also work as a name. “Baal” is his given name but as an Emperor, his Imperial Title is also his name so depending on the context, I’ll be switching on both of these proper nouns. And this will also persist to the future when “titled individuals” are mentioned in our story…)
It all happened just as the slash hit his head. The fiery domain erupted from Baal’s body and it had enough force to push Siva backing even with the total weight of the BMA while in midair.
The power of that explosion of fire-attributed Mana was actually enough to not only force back the blue smoke domain but actually slam Siva into a stack of computers 30m away from Baal.
Everything around Baal, including his throne had now been reduced to fiery remains.
He was standing there with a large shield on his two left hands and a large flaming sword almost his own height on his pair of right hands.
{A mere Terran tried to attack me! I will torture your soul for eternities!}
Siva pushed a broken half-melted plasma monitor off his body and casually stood up. He was buying enough time to charge his cannons outside.
“You’re all talk you know that, Baal, but let me just correct you on one thing—” While he was talking, Siva’s blue smoke domain kept increasing around him as well. “—I am Mitran.”
{Mitran?!! Those cursed fo—WAIT!! Siva?!! You’re Siva?! SHET… SHET! SHET!! How are you still alive until now?!!}
Siva didn’t answer and only flicked his finger at the centaur and quickly pounced at him like a mad dog ready for a death fight.
Fear embraced the Belphegor and he backed off as he prepared his shield to block the attack.
Slow. Baal thought. But the attack still came, right after a blue smoke erupted from that small thing that Siva flicked with his finger.
The small ‘thing’ shattered and released that blue smoke domain and it engulfed him and Siva. With a crackle of lightning, an explosive sound occurred and Baal felt quite shocked by the surge of tickling electricity that run through his body.
But this slight opening was enough for Siva to give a full force attack at the centaur’s open left front leg.
A roar of agony erupted on Baal as he swiped his shield to bash Siva away from him.
Siva stepped back but he was still hit and the fiery magma arm that contained strength that far outdid his threw him flying off towards a wall again.
He crashed through the stacks of computers and once again tumbled back, rolling for 40m before he found his ground and skidded into a stop.
Baal notice the difference immediately.
{You’ve gotten weak!}
Siva shook his head as he stood on his feet, “And so are you.”
He rushed towards Baal once again.
Baal shook his body to brush off the lingering feel of the tickling electricity and his magma body made a fiery writhing act as it erupted in another one of his fiery outburst of Fire-attribute Mana.
With a single step, Baal confronted Siva’s diagonal slash with a swipe of his fiery black shield.
A resounding clang echoed in the chamber and the toppled Siva flew backwards to the direction he’d actually come from.
Baal didn’t give him chance and lunged forth with his fiery sword, a piercing attack straight towards Siva’s chest.
The blue smoke domain parted and the fiery sword went in for a kill. Siva forced his body to twist in the m idle of falling and he barely escaped injury with only a part of the chest armor of the BMA being chipped away by the attack.
‘Cortana!’ Siva mentally roared.
[Implanting…]
In that single moment of their proximity, Cortana put all her processors into putting as much of the friable bombs inside Baal’s body.
—only to report a fatal statement at the very first instant that she wanted to act:
[Boss, a barrier of Mana is protecting his body!]
‘Makes sense…’ Siva wasn’t that surprised, ‘…Baal is originally an Elder God. I’d actually be quite a bit surprised if this meager power from an Immortal actually worked on him.’
Gabriel was the maker and creator of the Inventory Plus Ultra. He wasn’t even a full-Immortal yet.
Siva understood this principle.
In this universe, an Immortal, using his or her own divinity and might, can contend even against any Chaos God given the right circumstances. They can even win against them under these conditions.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
But to contend against an Elder God and survive a clash should only be on specific conditions.
To win is another story.
But for Primordial Gods… they are the peak of the existences in this universe and although they’re all extinct, these surviving Devil Gods are essentially Primordial Gods and Elder Gods when at the peak of their powers and so naturally, an Immortal’s tiny ‘authority’ over a specific attribute of the Universal Laws and Elements wouldn’t win against them.
—much less Gabriel’s actual divinity that’s merely on the Quasi-Immortal level.
The moment of neural signal talk and Siva dodging that thrust ended and Siva pulled himself back at a distance of 20m away from Baal.
But the latter didn’t give him any breather.
{This is for my humiliation from back then!}
Siva beamed madly behind his helm, “If we’re both at the peak of our power, you’d be cowering now in the same way you did back then! Hah!”
A wild back handed swing from Baal left an arc of fiery light as it went straight for Siva’s head. Siva’s eyes were lit with the light of madness as he bade a roar and made a pose.
At the instant he was about to be hit in the head by Baal’s blade, he vanished like a bubble popped in a blink of an eye.
Something shattered on Baal’s chest and he looked down to see Siva with a full swing of his War God Axe already on the hit against him.
Accompanying his strike, a loud explosion of power erupted and the axe blade seemed to become a drill that first went soft as if there was an air between its blade and his chest, and then became hard —like a jackhammer that finished a rotation—the slack suddenly striking with power crushed the surface of his volcanic skin.
Baal was sent backing with a painful agonized cry from the bottom his throat.
And yet the blue smoke seem to stick at his skin as the attack was followed by blades that served to deepen the gaping wound on his chest.
{Aaaaargh…}
Baal sent his head back and roared in agony, using his sword to swing around him, hoping to hit Siva if he would follow through a second attack.
His Fire-attribute Mana erupted in a defensive aura and everything around him burned gain, including the ten blades that Siva used to add more damage to Baal’s skin.
“Painful isn’t it?” Siva mocked and then flicked his fingers again and rushed towards Baal to make another clash.
{YOOOOUUUUU!!!}
Baal was totally enraged now and he put his shield in front of him, charging straight towards Siva, his sword resting beside him.
Siva beamed a smile that turned into laughter.
It was the laughter of madness that the world knew of him as his trademark, the symbol of his name.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…!!”
[Aye, the boss had lost himself to his madness.]
Siva’s nature was rekindled ever since he recalled all his [memories]. He was a battle monger through and through. To contest against strong enemies to test his limits was his happiness back then… and at these very moments, he was living in its madness.
He met the charge with full downward swing of his War God Axe but just as it was about to hit, Baal swung the shield to outbalance him.
And yet, Siva wasn’t there. the swung met air and there was the weightlessness of hitting nothing.
{Where…}
He saw Siva actually went passed him and his wild swing of the axe was meant for his horse body.
{Aaaaahhh…}
It was a wild cry of madness as well, of rage and a fury that couldn’t be measured.
Baal threw the shield to ruin Siva’s balance and he hit the axe just as it was swung down.
He sidestepped and thrust his fiery sword at Siva once again, a stabbing motion with the mastery of an actual Devil God with a knightly profession.
Precise and frightening fast, the stab went through Siva’s defenses and parted his blue smoke domain once again, going straight to the same spot where the chip on his armor had been.
Siva twisted his body, yet again, in midair to dodge it and the blade passed through, once again, on the same manner it did earlier —only— it slashed down at the end of its thrust and crushed Siva to the floor.
A resounding noise of a blunt fall rung but Siva still laughed and flicked his finger, another shattering sound and the blue smoke domain erupted right at Baal’s face, followed by flying blades going for the holes on his face.
{How dare you fight so dirty!!!}
Fire-attribute Mana erupted again and defensively protected Baal, blowing Siva away and melting the blades that were sent to kill him.
“Ahahaha… I love that look on your face.”
Siva was in a pile of plasma screens looking very miserable but he still found the orcish look on his enemy’s face funny. In a life and death match, it is indeed a rare thing to witness. It just goes to show the difference in experience between the two.
One was a ruler who lorded over countless pawns and Commanders while the other is someone who met and yelled at death eye to eye countless times.
Siva sprung up to his feet and a fiery whip that was an extension of Baal’s sword went past where his legs had been.
Baal roared in anger and swung his sword-whip in a slash and the area the whip hit burned in a deep red and golden-yellow fire.
Siva danced around, dodging the attacks, and then laughing at Baal’s efforts.
After dancing for a dodge a few times, he dashed straight towards Baal in a backhanded swing. Baal raised his shield to block and held his sword at the ready for a stab… but then, Siva vanished.
Something shattered on Baal’s face and he became distracted with the blue smoke that erupted on his face like earlier.
What followed next was another set of pain as he felt something hit his chest and back separately in a two hit combo.
He backed off from the pain but then blades flew out from thin air hitting the same spots where he was just hit, doubling the pain he felt and widening the damage he received.
Baal let out another roar and fire erupted from his body again to push and melt everything away from him ultimately.
He saw Siva tumble over, ruining his attacking pose so he followed it with a falling slash to his head.
{Die!!!}
Siva only met his attack with a calm gaze with his voice trailing a word.
“Fire.”
—and following that were nine consecutively loud explosions, accompanied thereafter by the searing pain on his right flank and his body tumbling over, outbalanced from the force of the cannon fires.
“You really are tough!” Baal had just received nine full volleys of the Bloody Mary ballistic battery and yet he was still alright and the attack only felt as if they were mere extra strong punches.
{Where did…}
“Don’t look away.”
Siva’s voice trailed behind Baal and he snapped to look back at Siva that’s already inside his defensive circle, the slash he received from the one moment of his distraction hit the same spot he had already been injured earlier.
Baal’s cry of pain erupted once again and his eyes glared hatefully at Siva as he removed one hand on his sword and grabbed Siva by the arm and tossed him upwards where he bashed him with a swing of his fiery sword.
Siva summoned his Shield but it was melted in half before the force cut through it.
In his last attempt to stop this killing chop, he also tossed Baal a Spark Grenade.
CRACKLE!!!
The lightning strike generated wasn’t enough to actually stun him for long but was enough to affect his momentum.
Siva swung the War God Axe and clashed with the fiery sword, a small part was chipped away but the force created was enough to put distance between him and Baal.
He flipped in midair and landed softly on the floor with the help of Cortana’s balancing with the BMA.
His blue smoke domain started to gather again, and Baal pressed a hand on his chest, checking the size of his now profusely bleeding wound.
The more he felt the pain, the angrier he got.
“What, you won’t run away and fight me now?”
{You’re the one that kept on running away!}
Baal was really mad right now. Siva kept on twisting the truth and kept on making it look that he was the one running around all this time.
Siva laughed heartily, “The cowardly emperor now is a brave warrior… that’s the exact same way your descendants died you know. They also thought the act of running away is disgraceful so they fought on until the moment they died, believing that it was not shameful to run away with your tail tucked in between your legs.”
Siva’s grin behind his helm, through that blackness of his skin, looked like a mocking grin of a devil. It only infuriated Baal even more.
“And you know, I just fought someone with that same kind of conviction. What was his name again, oh I think his name was Antukin. He just won’t stop spouting things about honor this and honor that so I killed him with his dignity intact.”
Baal’s eyes went wide and he roared in anger.
{WHAT DID YOU DO?!!}
Siva blinked innocence, “What, your sons are more important to you than your ship now? Was I wrong, or it’s really okay to destroy your ship and let your crown prince live?”
{SIVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!}
“Ahaha… I was just joking. Antukin is already dead so you have nothing to worry about.”
{Y-You… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh…!!}
Baal let out a howl of wrath and agony, the fire type Mana on his body wildly erupted with his rage.
[His energy levels are quickly rising, sir!]
‘Oops. Time to bail. Initiated Plan-C.’
Siva quickly rushed out of the throne and went to recover the three Bloody Mary Cannons and then sent ‘parts’ out to every direction to gather the still scattered blue smoke domain around himself.
He was getting a bad feeling about this.
As soon as he finished, the throne room began to be filled with fire as if the world inside was a fiery inferno straight out of purgatory.
Siva quickly made his way out the central chamber towards a certain facility. While Baal was lost in his moment of agony, he used this time to get away and put on a last ditch plan.
Because Cortana had already hacked her way to get the map of the ship, along with Captain Nemo’s map earlier.
Siva didn’t have to specifically go through the wall to get into the life-support facility.
To cause a meltdown, he just have to wreck it.
He pressed his hand to the wall and after just a few seconds, an explosion occurred on the other side and when he heard it, he knew that he had already accomplished his mission here.
It was at the time when a loud explosion rung from the direction of the central chamber.
The walls erupted into a fiery world and the fires of purgatory seeped through them as a shadow of the perpetrator came into Siva’s view.
{YOU WILL PAY FOR MY SONS’ LIVES!!!}
Siva, seeing the imposing power, laughed loudly.
“I’d like to see you try.”
Baal roared loudly as two hands from his sides let go of the shield and the sword, and gathered Mana that formed into balls of fire in his palms.
“Oh, are you going to destroy your ship now?”
{…if it kills you, then I will.}
Siva’s expression sunk. “This is trouble.” He said to himself.
[Boss, I just finished making a Liberty Drone.]
Right, because the Dáinsleif was already complete, Cortana’s item production came back to the normal while she also created bullets for Dáinsleif.
‘Perfect timing.’
Just in time, two pillars of fire came straight at his face so fast that Siva wasn’t able to react in time to dodge so he could only gather the blue smoke domain like a cape and block the majority of the fire blast.
The blue smoke domain was burnt like a splinter of thin wood and Siva received the force of the attack with a cross armed block.
He could feel the searing pain on his arms with the majority of his arm guards melting from the heat.
{I WILL MAKE SURE TO KILL YOU SLOWLY…}
Baal’s voice was hoarse from his pain and fury; he wasn’t going to give Siva a chance to recover even the smallest smidgen to catch his breath.
Siva slammed on the wall and he slid down slowly, his eyes fixed to Baal with the same kind of hate he was feeling. The two of them hated each other.
“That should be my line.” Siva hissed. “Then let’s just see whose hate burns the hottest between the two of us.”
After he spoke, Siva summoned a 10m large rifle after a ripple in space.
Seeing it made Baal squint his eyes, scrutinizing the weaponry.
{A human weapon?}
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Baal is strong…!!
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Next chapter: Their clash continues!