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Volume 5
Chapter 218: When the Curtain Falls
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The cannon shots hit Akhenaton and though not much damage was dealt, the sheer number of them alone is enough to make him stumble from his position.
Kladis let out a laugh, “That’s it! Push him harder! Fire at will and don’t conserve anything! Die! Die! Die!”
The Legion’s warships were around 6-8km away from Akhenaton and while falling from that height takes only less than a minute, hiking up that distance was yet another matter.
Akhenaton staggered and he took three booming and ground-shaking steps back before stabilizing himself while swinging the Godhammer for balance.
The barrage of cannon fires was coming from three directions; two on the left side, one from the right… and all of them are generally from the front direction.
Not only that. Just as Akhenaton had found its ground, volleys of bright golden yellow streams of lights shot forth from the cannons mounted below the hulls of the Lambda-Class warships of The Legion.
BZZT! BZZT! BZZT! .........BZZT…!!
One ray after another hit Akhenaton and a few chunks of golden metal were being chipped off on every hit that makes contact with its golden metallic skin.
Almost immediately, burnt marks could be seen to where those bright yellow beaming lights ha hit.
The impact also caused detonating sounds as the giant golden idol was pushed off his feet and stumblingly fell on his back.
GROOHMMM…!!
The entire land shook, quaked, and trembled as the giant golden idol 1km in size had lost its grounds!
Not one second is being wasted, when Akhenaton is trying to stand up, the rays of lights along with the bombardment of the warships were hitting the hands and the legs, and so he kept falling down.
The warships of The Legion were dancing around while simultaneously dodging the Cyclones that swarmed like bees around them.
High above, the same things were happening.
Anti-aerial fire swarm maneuvers were being launched by both fleets in addition to the active Shield Mages that erected barriers while being reinforced by many Support Mages. So the advantages of the Cyclones are now slightly neutralized.
“This fucker…” Inside Akhenaton, Siva cursed and he waved his left hand to summon five islands, forming a land barrier in front of him.
When the wall was erected, he cried out towards the sky, “Marshal, this is your chance!”
Siva’s voice seemed to be tired and a bit hoarse but he still had the entire plan’s blueprint in his mind which is the reason why Marshal D’Catch felt admiration to his tenacity.
“He can’t back down now that’s why he needs to pull himself up even if he falls from losing a limb.” The marshal murmured and followed the command.
Right at that moment, five large streams of bright golden yellow lights came falling from the sky. Their targets weren’t the warships but the castle base.
By now, six of the shattered layers were already repaired while the four others that Siva destroyed earlier were still being restored.
Akhenaton let out a roar and hastily stood up, Kladis who was smiling frowned again.
“Fuck him! This isn’t going to end! We have to buy time for the Infiltration team to get out of…” right at that moment, a pop up window appeared in front of Kladis and his grim face became joyfully angry as he yelled out for Zaza. “You bastards! You finally come out?! Hurry up and get your ass to the Rewloola! We’re getting out of this city!”
“Kladis!” Redeye yelled, worried, “What the fuck’s happening? Why is the Elder God of Warjillis here?!”
“Yeah, Kladis…” Zaza interjected, “We also have something very important to tell you about this spire’s secret chamber.”
“That’s for later! We have to get out of here!” Kladis glanced at the rising Akhenaton and his face grim at the sight of that towering golden nightmare. “Damn it, he’s up already! You guys better comeback to the Rewloola right now or we would have wasted this shit for nothing!”
After that, he ended the call and focused his gaze to the Akhenaton that, by now, was already on his feet and had its left side facing him.
Its face was still blank and stoic, but Kladis could feel that inside that thing was that NPC who gave him the fright earlier.
But… remembering it now made him even more angry that he stomped his feet and declared a command as he waved a hand up front.
“All units! Forget about the small fries from above and just continue to bombard that bastard in front of The Legion! Whoever gets to take him down will be promoted immediately to a Strike Commander and lead his own fleet!”
A unified reply came from the guild communications channel on their communicators and this energized cry of his subordinates made Kladis beam a smile.
Akhenaton now stood straight, holding his staff on the other hand but before Kladis could register in his mind that the Godhammer was already unequipped the staff in Siva’s hand began to change form again.
Only a minor change happened but this minor change was what made him look more frightening.
“A Scepter?” Kladis asked himself. “Have I seen that golden Scepter before? Why does it look familiar?”
In Akhenaton’s hand was a golden scepter, with a red gem at the head of the shaft. Back in the real world, if one would look closely, this scepter actually resembled that artifact displayed in the British Museum that had once belonged to an unforgettable king.
Right now though, Akhenaton held the scepter in his right hand while his left hand gestured a palm towards the closest warship as if gentle pushing an island in front of it.
Siva, inside the heart, glared at the castle, “You just wait there. I will burn this legion you are so proud of down to the ground!”
As he spoke, he turned his gaze to that warship and…
PIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGGGGG!!!
Like the sound of empty glass being hit by a spoon… it wasn’t a physical sound that one could hear when they’re awake, no, it was the kind of sound generated when the ears had received a shock that almost exceeded the frequency of the eardrums can manage.
And yet there wasn’t even a physical sound that emitted from anywhere in that moment and only a bright illusory light that shined off from the red gem at the head of the scepter in Akhenaton’s hand.
Those with photographic memory would be able to recognize this scepter if they’d get the chance to see it more accurately…
Perhaps the live broadcast of the networks would then reveal this fact alone to the world.
That this particular item was connected to a person…
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«Naiki’s Scepter of Divinity»
Type: Accessory
Rarity: Legendary
Weight Units: 25 we
Inventory Slots: 24 slots
Durability: 100/100%
Materials: Gold Trinket, Manna Stone, Unknown*
Manufacturer: Ancient Roman Empire
Item Description:
A scepter whose use and authority had long since passed. Though it’s still in perfect condition, its symbol and what it represents had been long forgotten. By now, it is only an artifact and a very rare collector’s item to those who seek the ancient items of Terroa.
Although it is also a weapon in essence, its design and make does not have the hardness of a blunt weapon and therefore can only be used as a hand accessory.
Grants:
Attention (ACTIVE)
Channel (PASSIVE) [Locked]
Charisma +30
Power +10
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The only time that Siva had openly used it was during the time of him and Volt’s escape in the Anazon Forest where he got his cursed state, but the manner at which he had acquired this item had been known all throughout Terroa by the members of Helium Guild.
Its only useful ability at this time was «Attention», with a very peculiar effect.
In some cases, it’s a burden and a useless item… but at this very moment, it was a trump card.
As soon as they directly saw the light, the pinging sound was directly transcribed on their brains that they all, without a miss, gazed at that object in Akhenaton’s hand.
The warships stopped moving since the pilots that are making them move had their full attention focused on that one single entity.
And following this moment of pause, that one simple gesture of Akhenaton where he seemed to be pushing the islands in front of him did indeed cause those two islands to fly.
BOOM!
………BOOM!
The closest warship is a Knight-Class, 3km away, one with the toughest defense and a Close-Range focused offense. The island-meteor only needed four seconds before it reached that Knight-Class warship.
«Attention» has a timed effect of just a moment but a moment was enough to cause confusion to the mind.
The effect differs from every individual.
Its confusion effects may last for just a moment for some individuals but there are some who will have a lasting effect longer than most people.
NPCs were designed with the same normal confusion time rate as normal humans. And humans, for an average, had a more or less 5sec confusion time rate.
In a battlefield, five seconds meant a lifetime.
Not to mention that the warship was currently stopped, even when the pilots and navigators woke up in time, the moment to reactivate the engines to fire up the thrusters for an emergency evasion maneuver, as well as fire the cannons at the same time to render that linear meteor to smithereens, would all at least need two seconds to accomplish.
But that was speaking in a perfect world’s wishful thinking regarding this moment.
The speed at which the meter launched was triple that of Akhenaton’s maximum travel speed.
Within five seconds, one of the two islands that shot out reached the Knight-Class warship while the second island hit one of the Garuda-Class hovering at a 4km distance.
BOOM! ………BOOM…!!
It took a while before the second explosion occurred but when it did, the sound of it shook every member of The Legion’s souls.
“My ships… ah!”
Following the impact sounds, two fiery pieces of metals slowly fell down from the sky and this sight caused Kladis to scream too late.
“This ability to get everyone’s attention…” Kira, on the back, was aghast. “That light is the key but it was too powerful! Why do I feel like I’ve seen it before?”
The two islands that just crushed the two warships stopped and the other two islands that served as launch platforms and blockades for Marshal D’Catch since earlier had not changed in their positions.
Remember that these islands measured at least 1km and traveled at a speed three times faster than the Akhenaton’s travel speed.
When they fly, in accordance to their sizes, just where would you put a measly little ship measuring a few hundred meters in size?
BZZT! BZZT! BZZT! BZZT! ………BZZZZTT…!!!
Before the horror of destruction, the crescendo of the terror Akhenaton brought was suddenly amplified by five long-ranged yellow rays of light that shot down from the blue sky and hit all the defenseless and still dazed Lambda-Class warships of The Legion.
Earlier, they just caused damages to the shield of the castle base and prolong its recovery. Now, their target had changed and by this, one could only guess just how magnificent the timing of these suppression fires.
Although the shields had begun to rise up again from the earlier confused Shield Mages, three of the long-range warships of The Legion was still hit directly at their hulls.
“Aaahhhh!!”
“Help meee…!!”
“Fire at the starboard cabins!”
“Sector 32 through 59 is gone! The right longhorn is damaged!”
“It’s a melt down! Run for your lives!”
BOOM!
…BOOOM!
……..BOOOOOM…!!
Following this surprise attack, explosion occurred from within the damaged warships.
The «Longhorn » is a long-range specialized cannon.
Its mounting requirements are average but it takes a lot of energy just to fire one shot. As such, a warship with a Longhorn always needs a lot of time just to charge one single shot.
The more Longhorn cannon has the more specialized a warship is. That’s why of all the warships that’s been fitted with these big boys, the most specialized sniping warship that boasted of performance over the ratio of the rate-of-fire has been the Lambda-Class warships.
Every Lambda-Class warship can carry a total of three Longhorns on their hulls and all it had to sacrifice is a little bit of defense with its maneuverability almost not having any downward defects.
Since earlier, the five Lambda-Class warships of Marshal D’Catch had always been charging and those who had fired three shots since then had always been the ones that belonged to the Warjillis Guilds.
“Again.” The marshal ordered.
BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!
Three mighty pillars of light shot down from the heavens and descended upon the rest of the Lambda-Class warships of The Legion.
“Nooooo!!” Kladis could only scream and this was a scream accompanied by extreme anger and regret.
He could still hear the screams of those NPCs and the Users from The Legion in his communication channel and it wasn’t a good sound to hear, especially to see.
But right now, Kladis only stood there and watched as five mighty Lambda-Class warships from his fleet fell from the sky as balls of flames.
But before he could even recover, a batch of bombardment fire descended from the sky again and this time, its targets were the sitting ducks of a batch of Cyclones in the sky.
“Ah… Ah… Ah…”
His mind… was being stirred while being fried…
And not even a moment later, a bombardment of solid shells hit the still recovering shield barrier of Apus Epirus, not giving time for it to recover.
“Run! RUN!”
“Help!”
“There’s fire at the 4th tower!”
The seconds felt longer than usual and Kladis could only watch as his mighty fleet was reduced into balls of fire in but fewer than ten seconds.
Right now, the despairing screams of the members of The Legion was shaking his core like snow globe.
Kira, behind him, was also astonished beyond relief. A single NPC Boss Enemy had burned at least half of the fire power of the Blue Card Legion.
It was one thing to lose them fairly in a battlefield but that one light of the «Attention» earlier had caused the downfall of their glorious armada.
She doesn’t know what ability it was that caused this effect but she knew that it was that one weird light.
Kira was aware of some key information in the game and though there are a few other items with almost the same special effects and result like that light earlier, there were still a lot of them and dissecting them one by one would still take a lot of time.
On the fifteenth second, the shields were already erected but when Kladis turned his head to look at Akhenaton, the giant golden idol was already in the sky… he had jumped… the eternal night covered his surroundings… while the scepter had turned into a Godhammer again with his target this time being the pair of Garuda-Class warships that happens to be just 1km apart with each other, 7km away.
“Move your asses!” Kladis yelled desperately.
Alas, the diversion attack of the marshal was coordinated with Siva’s actions and all The Legion could do was defend, stand, and watch as their overall forces were chipped off one by one.
With a swing of the Godhammer, the shield of the warship resisted for a moment before it actually collapsed into tiny pieces of glass and the large heavy hammer smashing directly into the floating warship.
One should remember that Akhenaton is 1km large while the Godhammer, considering its size when it was with Siva, took 50% of his own size.
How large the Godhammer was is not important but what is important is the fact that it was bigger than the warship and at this moment, it received the full brunt of a full-bodied swing.
BOOM!
The warship exploded into countless bits of fiery pieces as a shadow of an expressionless Akhenaton loomed over everyone’s gazes.
Following that, Akhenaton turned around its body and used his left hand like a leftist pitcher throwing a fast ball towards the second Garuda-Class warship. His full weight put into his hips, he finished the throw and an island shot out towards that warship.
BOOM!
Yet again, this warship only resisted for a second before it was reduced into many pieces of burning debris falling down from the sky.
Those warships were hovering at least 2km from the ground and so everyone below was looking up at the godly image of that golden idol amidst the blackened blue sky.
Before, this expressionless face felt like a joke. But now that this very face itself had been the one that’s responsible to the death and destruction of the fleet that The Legion was so proud of…
This very same expressionless and placid, uncaring face… have become the face of nightmare and the very symbol of a deathly curse.
“God…”
“This is… this is impossible…”
“We have provoked a calamity!”
“War God… Donar… this is more than just a bad joke!”
Many Users and NPCs began to lose morale. It was just a single ‘warship’ called Akhenaton and yet its power was beyond anyone’s calculations.
As of this moment, Kladis, who had been shaking on his booth since earlier, remembered the words that Elder God Donar said.
“Your death will be slow… long… and painful…”
—this thought was just like the darkest omen.
Of course, Kladis wouldn’t be willing to experience that kind of humiliating pain.
He, Kladis, knew that starting today, the Blue Card Legion will be no more... and there's no one else to blame it on except for him.
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RETRIBUTION!
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Next chapter: Kladis makes a desperate move.