Chapter 212: Will of Kalmoore

While Aegis’ petrification wore off another player jumped from the skies and appeared next to him and Kaito, [Kenji - Level 165]. He was wearing a set of blue and white robes that matched the style of Kaito’s kimono, with a staff on his back. They both looked somewhat familiar to Aegis, and now that he read his buff, he recalled why. Kenji had been the illusionist player during Yumily’s concert that he’d seen several months ago. Kaito was Yumily’s bodyguard, a samurai class player.

When the de-petrification from the music finished, Aegis could more clearly hear that it wasn’t a vibration entering his ears, but a bass being strummed. He looked forward at Jealousy and saw her staring at something up above him, and he followed her eyes to see it.

Yumily, along with several other players, stood at the side of her airship as it soared through the sky towards them. Kaito then promptly held out his hand to help Aegis get back on his feet.

“Here.” Kenji held out a blue mana elixir to Aegis, which he quickly opened and drank with a nod of thanks towards him. “We’ve been using airburst, and every possible cooldown in this game, to get our airship here in time.” Kenji explained. Following this, multiple other players began jumping down off of the airship and landing all around Aegis.

“It’s time for the real hero of Kalmoore to finally make his appearance.” Keldan cheered excitedly as he, Vriflow, Rocknight and Swiftstar landed nearby.

“Dude, shut up, you’re embarrassing me in front of the pop idol.” Rocknight angrily nudged him.

“Yo. Long time no see, Aegis.” Eccen said as he and Galanis landed nearby as well. Two players that Aegis hadn’t encountered since back in the Darxon hideout, were both now sitting at levels 103 and 106 respectively. “Looks like you could use a hand.” Aegis saw him, then saw Yuki and Josephine land as well, and tears swelled up in his eyes as he couldn’t help but smile.

“Get it together, it’s still a level 200 Raid boss. You’re going to have to lead us.” Josephine walked forward and patted him on the shoulder.

“I gathered every high level player who was still alive in Kordas and Rene. I’m sorry we took so long.” Yumily shouted as she jumped down as well, and behind her a series of 10 pink glowing instruments followed her, not unlike how battlemasters carried their weapons behind them. “And I’m sorry for all of my fans waiting for my concert in Savringard, but I had to cancel. I failed the people of Arallia once, but I won’t let it happen again.” Yumily said, turning to Aegis and giving him a nod of respect. Following this, she sent him a party invitation, which he quickly accepted and saw that everyone present was already in the group - it was a raid party.

“I’m not very good at leading raids, but I’ll keep this music playing so one gets petrified.” Yumily said to Aegis shyly as she transferred party leadership over to him.

“Thanks.” Aegis nodded before turning back to face Jealousy.

“I get the feeling I have been severely underestimated. Your friends have come to join you in death, I see.” Jealousy hissed as she whipped her tendrils around from atop her head. Within seconds, she identified Yumily as the biggest threat and locked onto her as she stood far back behind everyone else. “Let’s turn that music off first.”

“Nah. Like I said before…” Aegis moved to stand in front of Kenji and Kaito, adjusting the straps on his shield briefly before raising it up. “You’re not getting past my shield.” He cracked his neck to the side, then dug his feet into the ground.

“Kenji, make us all Yumily. Kaito, Rocknight, flank. Eccen, Keldan, Swiftstar, her wings. Galanis on me, Josephine on the group, Vriflow on Yumily. Yuki, threads on me.” Aegis gave the orders out quickly and succinctly, so that everyone heard just enough to know what they needed to do. “And Yumily…” Aegis turned to her, and without needing to hear his instructions, she nodded back at him with a smile.

“Kick it.” She shouted while extending her hands out to the sides, fingers spread and glowing pink. Jealousy jumped into the air and flapped her wings to get an angle on Yumily, her hands glowing black. A moment later, she fired a black beam of energy out at Yumily, but Aegis quickly leapt into the air and blocked the shot from hitting Yumily with his shield.

“You deaf?” Aegis shouted at Jealousy, who hissed back at him. “I was blocking your attacks with my eyes shut, how do you think it’s going to go for you now?”

“SILENCE, IMPERTINENT PRIEST! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF MY TRUE STRENGTH!”

“Yeah? You know nothing of our airship pilot!” Kaito shouted up at her, and following this, several blasts of arcane energy were fired from magical cannons on the sides of the airship. Then, loud music began to blare from Yumily’s instruments, and pink bolts of energy rapidly shot out from each of them as a guitar riff kicked in alongside a drumline, and the already strumming bass picked up.

“GRAND MASQUERADE!” Kenji shouted, releasing a shockwave of purple energy that engulfed the battlefield. In an instant, the appearance of every other player warped to look as though they were Yumily. Aegis as well, saw everyone now as Yumily except himself as the illusion overtook the area.

“Aura of Beauty!” Vriflow cast,

“Aura of Thunder.” Galanis shouted, both of their auras reaching everyone in the area.

“Aura of light!” Aegis joined in, releasing the light energy out to everyone that it could reach.

“EMBRACE THE ABYSS! SWALLOW!” Jealousy screamed at the top of her lungs as she expanded her wings, and following this, dozens of bolts of black energy fired out from her back and bombarded the battlefield below her. Keldan, Swiftstar and Eccen began firing rapid bolts of magic and arrows that mixed in with the pink arrows of Yumily. Each time Yumily’s arrows hit Jealousy, it imprinted a magic rune on her, which the other ranged attackers were able to trigger explosive damage from by hitting them with their own projectiles.

Simultaneously Aegis used his guard as mid-air footing to keep himself up and began jumping around to block her attacks from reaching Yumily. Kaito moved to deflect shots from hitting Kenji, and Galanis, Josephine and Vriflow used their shields to protect the other damage dealers, sending out heals to who needed them. She continued her barrage of repeated shadow blasts, targeting the Yumily illusions indiscriminately, but Aegis slowly used his guards as footholds to close the gap until he got close enough to jump on her, grabbing her wings and pulling them closed just enough to cause her to lose altitude and plummet out of the sky. Once he had, Yuki threw her iron needle up at Jealousy from behind.

"Grappling shot!" Yuki shouted, and with the weight of Aegis helping her out, Yuki grapped the end of her grappling rope as the needle hit Jealousy, and yanked on it to help pull her out of the sky.

“Being grappled doesn't feel so nice, does it?!” Aegis shouted at her, as she reacted by swiping her claws out at him. He took the hits, but was less fearful of them now as he was immediately healed from the damage by his companions. Once she and Aegis landed back on the ground, he jumped backwards and Rocknight and Kaito jumped in. A large hammer, and a katana.

“Bless, bless.” Aegis cast on them both as they rapidly struck at the boss from behind. She attempted to swerve around to swipe her claws out at them, but Aegis maneuvered around her with his shield to block the hits with incredible speed. While this happened, Yuki sent threads out at Aegis to enhance his defenses, and Yumily began rapping, rather than singing, with an aggressive tone that timed perfectly with her pink musical notes that continued to barrage Jealousy from a distance.

> “I’m a 21st century bard up in your face,

> Fight my music, watch me lose it, gonna make you a disgrace,

> See what happens when you come at me, attackin’ this place,

> Nothing left but to despair as I remove you from my space,”

“Aw shit, she gettin' her ass kicked to a soundtrack.” Rocknight smirked between his strikes, sending chunks of earth up from the ground that pierced into Jealousy’s legs in between Kaito’s rapid katana strikes.

Jealousy attempted to attack Kaito and Rocknight repeatedly - their weapons kept their appearance but they all looked identical to Yumily. Jealousy wasn’t stupid enough to fall for the illusion, though, and in between her retaliatory strikes, she attempted to dash away from Aegis and the two flanking melee attackers.

Aegis just wasn’t letting her, though. He followed her eyes and was able to predict where she was going before she did, and jumped infront of her with his mithral shield repeatedly, intercepting her movement and keeping her locked down within range of the melee fighters. Even attempts to fly up in the air were being thwarted by Aegis as he repeatedly jumped up off of his shield projections to get above her, then bashed his shield down on her to keep her on the ground.

“How many times do I need to say it?!” Aegis shouted at her with determination, while many ranged attacks hit her wings from a distance thanks to Keldan, Eccen and Swiftstar. “You’re not getting past my shield.” Aegis said while landing in front of her. Her tails and claws came at him rapidly, dealing large amounts of damage, but he wasn’t afraid of them anymore. It wasn’t just him healing up the damage dealt by her, but Josephine, Vriflow and Galanis helping out. Like this, with his mithral shield and high level armor, there was no chance she’d ever take him down.

Kaito’s katana was dealing massive damage thanks to Aegis’ bless, and Galanis’ aura of thunder. Yumily’s musical imprints were enhancing the ranged damage dealer attacks as well, and Aegis made sure to cast bless on them as soon as the opportunity arose.

Jealousy soon began demonstrating her ability to use her claws and tail at the same time as being able to send out barrages of shadow energy across the battlefield, testing the limits of what Aegis was able to block using his shield and guard. He prioritized utilizing his guard skill to keep Jealousy locked down, though, and allowed the other clerics to take up the role of blocking the shadow barrage strikes that showered across the battlefield.

“This light disgusts me.” Jealousy hissed in frustration, suddenly stomping her hooves down into the dirt and releasing a powerful shockwave that knocked Kaito, Aegis, and Rocknight backwards, the three barely able to stop themselves from falling over. With the shockwave, two things happened. Firstly, her skin began to give off a dim red glow to signal her enraged status, despite the fight being still early. Secondly, a black abyssal mist grew outwards from her, despite Aegis’ aura of light. The mist ran up against Aegis and fought against the light of his aura for space, but was winning.

“This time, I saved it.” Aegis said as he saw the darkness growing, and stomped his feet down as well to match Jealousy’s stance. “AVATAR OF EIRENE!” Aegis shouted as he erupted in a burst of holy light energy, his entire body being encased in it as the power of his aura of light extended further out. It didn’t remove the abyssal mist from Jealousy’s ability, but it began pushing it back and fighting it more intensely.

“RISE, MINIONS OF THE ABYSS. YOUR MASTER CALLS FOR YOU.” Jealousy yelled while raising her hands into the air and glaring forward at Aegis. “It has been hundreds of years since I have fought an Avatar of Eirene. The last time, she insulted us at the battle of Hrath’mir. This time, I will make sure to consume her light permanently.” Jealousy growled at him. Dark silhouettes began to grow out of the black mist around Jealousy. Some were small, insignificant abysslings that formed up and began charging out at the nearby players. One, however, continued to grow upwards as it slowly took the form of a gigantic Juggernaut, reaching the height of the airship flying above.

“Destroy the island stone.” Jealousy ordered the Juggernaut once it had finished forming. It let a horrendous roar before it began stomping forward, taking a swing out at the airship in its way with its blade arm, but the blade was stopped as Aegis launched himself up using guard projections, and blocked the blade with his shield while landing on the deck of the ship.

“Kill Jealousy, I’ll protect the stone and lock her down as best as I can. Eccen, keep the abysslings under control.” Aegis ordered them as he spotted several reapers beginning to form out of the mist above the abysslings. “Swiftstar, keep the reapers under control.” Aegis added. The two rangers turned their bows onto the swarming smaller creatures that began charging out of the darkness in all directions.

“Masquerade isn’t effective, switch to damage and supportive illusions. Hide the island stone as best you can, if possible.” Aegis instructed Kenji who nodded back at him and began casting spells in the direction of the grove behind them.

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Jealousy took advantage of Aegis being up on the airship and dashed forward through the other players to get towards Yumily, but Kaito moved to intercept her with his katana, stopping her forward movement. She retaliated by pulling her claws back to strike down at him, but he’d bought enough time for Aegis to jump back onto the ground and block the attacks for Kaito using his shield, while Kaito maneuvered behind her once more with Rocknight to land more strikes on her. All the while, multiple elements of spells and pink bolts continued to barrage Jealousy’s wings, dealing a constant stream of damage thanks to Keldan and Yumily.

The Airship maneuvered to the side of the Juggernaut and released several blasts of arcane magic at it. The damage was high, but more importantly the force behind the blasts caused the Juggernaut to stumble backwards.

“Keep blasting it. Hold it back as much as you can!” Aegis shouted up at the airship.

“Roger!” A voice from atop the ship replied - the piloting player which Aegis only saw through the party interface. Around Aegis, arrows flew in all directions in pursuit of the numerous low level abysslings and reapers swarming around - new ones were repeatedly forming out of the black mist around Jealousy.

“You will not stop the darkness, Priest of Eirene!” Jealousy hissed at Aegis as he remained standing between her and the stone, amidst the dark abyss with light emanating from his body. She repeatedly struck out at him with her claws and tail, sending barrages of black magic out across the battlefield aimed at Yumily, which Josephine was sure to block with her shield and heal herself through. Yumily remained standing still, focused on her music as it continued to play over the battle, her voice inspiring everyone to do their best as her pink arrows attacked in sync with the rhythm.

Aegis’ viewership shot up into the 10’s of millions. Due to Yumily herself not streaming, all of her fans were coming to him in addition to everyone eagerly waiting to see the conclusion to the abyssal invasion. For the first time, Aegis surpassed Makaroth and Feng, and took the slot as the number one most viewed streamer in the entire Shattered World Online.

“By the way!” Keldan shouted as he closed in on Aegis, releasing repeated blasts of elementalist damage on Jealousy. “I’m streaming with my profanity filter turned off. If anyone wants to see what this nude raid boss -really- looks like.” Keldan shouted.

“Seriously?” Aegis turned to him with raised eyebrows.

“What?” Keldan shrugged, while simultaneously his viewership suddenly shot up from 1,000 to 25,000. Aegis didn’t have time to argue though, the Juggernaut was stomping beyond him and the Airship towards the island stone.

Any time Aegis turned away from Jealousy to track the Juggernaut’s movements as it stomped across the ground nearby, Jealousy took advantage of the openings to land attacks. Having enraged, her strikes were dealing much more damage and forcing the other clerics and himself to heal more intensely to keep up with the damage.

“Don’t worry, I got it.” Kenji shouted to Aegis after seeing him concerned with the Juggernaut. With a wave of his staff, he created a gigantic shimmering illusion of a second grove of yellow trees to the east, while simultaneously making it look like the original grove wasn’t there. Jealousy could clearly see through the illusions and ignored them, but the Juggernaut could not and began stomping away from the battle eastward.

“SUCH CHEAP TRICKS!” Jealousy roared ferociously upon seeing her Juggernaut stomping away to nowhere. She then jumped back away from Aegis and spun rapidly with her wings extended out, slashing them towards Rocknight and Kaito and Aegis all at once and forcing them to all jump away and avoid the strikes. Following it, she raised her hands into the air once more, and out of the black mist a second Juggernaut began to form. Aegis took a deep nervous breath as it finished forming, the sound of the first juggernaut stomping away still audible.

“Good thing you hit really hard.” Aegis said as he dashed forward, positioning himself between Jealousy and the Juggernaut’s foot as it finished forming. “VIRABHADRA!” He shouted as loud as he could, releasing a dome of white energy around himself that hit both Jealousy, and the newly formed Juggernaut.

You deal 3,203,506 Holy damage.

You deal 3,203,506 Holy damage.

The damage split evenly between Jealousy and the Juggernaut, and to Aegis surprise, it was enough to kill the Juggernaut and cause it to roar out in agony as it began to disintegrate just as quickly as it had formed out of the mist. Jealousy winced from the strike, glaring up at the red arms of shiva that had temporarily formed around Aegis during the cast, but she looked more angry than injured from the attack, and began her retaliation with her claws and tail.

Kenji continued to lead the first Juggernaut away, the rangers kept the smaller creatures under control, and the damage was maintained on Jealousy. It was only 30 seconds later before she began forming a new Juggernaut, though.

“This is her enraged mechanic. She’s just going to try and overwhelm us using creatures of the abyss.” Aegis called out as he saw it finishing forming, roar, and begin stomping towards the real island stone. “Kenji?”

“I can juggle them, but only actually trick one at a time.” Kenji explained anxiously, while the airship pilot above blasted the newly formed Juggernaut to hold it back slightly. The recharge time on the arcane cannons was too long to hold it back consistently, though.

“I can hold one back.” Kaito suggested.

“No, we need your damage. Focus on killing her as fast as possible!” Aegis shouted as he glared at the grinning Jealousy.

“How bright is your light, truly?” She smirked before lunging at him and striking rapidly, whilst the Juggernaut stomped by towards the island stone. Kenji did as promised and began juggling his illusions between the first and second Juggernaut, keeping them confused on where the real island stone’s location was. This allowed Aegis to remain focused on locking down Jealousy so that his companions could easily hit her with their attacks, but it wasn’t long before Jealousy knocked them away with a spin of her wings again, raised her arms up, and began forming the third Juggernaut.

“Two’s my limit!” Kenji warned Aegis.

“No problem, I got it!” Josephine declared, moving to intercept the third one. Aegis gave her a knowing nod. “Galanis, Vriflow, take next, I’ll handle healing myself and the group. Just keep yourselves alive and don’t let their blade-arms touch the island stone!” Aegis shouted, getting nods from the two clerics.

The battlefield quickly became chaotic - not just that more Juggernauts appeared and began stomping towards the island stone, but that abysslings and reapers were forming faster. Keldan, Eccen and Swiftstar were doing their best to not only kill the smaller creatures, but continue their contributions in dealing damage to jealousy. Yumily kept her music playing and repeatedly sent bolts of magic out at Jealousy. Truly, though, the only real sources of damage on her that stayed consistent were Kaito and Rocknight. Luckily, they were both strong and doing massive damage thanks to Aegis’ bless enchant, and Galanis’ aura of thunder.

The fourth Juggernaut came out, and Vriflow moved to intercept it. Then the fifth, and Galanis took it on with his shield. But a minute later came the sixth Juggernaut, and the large monsters began crowding around the island stone, trying to find a way to strike it. Aegis was forced back, making sure to stay between the sixth juggernaut and the island stone, but moving backwards made his positioning awkward for handling Jealousy.

Jealousy took advantage of this by continuously threatening attacks against Yumily to end her music, and with no other clerics available to protect her, she was extremely vulnerable to Jealousy’s quick movements.

“Stay close to me and I’ll protect you!” Aegis ordered Yumily, causing her to nod back anxiously as she maintained her music. As Aegis dashed into the grove of yellow trees to get ahead of the sixth juggernaut, Yumily chased after him with her 10 floating instruments, and Jealousy pursued as well. Yuki made sure to keep up and maintain her threads, casting a second set of strings out to Yumily to help protect her as well.

The sixth juggernaut swung his blade arm down towards the stone, and Aegis jumped up with his shield to block it, then created a guard in front of Yumily as Jealousy dashed towards her, followed by Aegis rushing to Yumily’s side with his real body to block several more strikes from hitting the singer. Aegis was rapidly healing himself in between, but Jealousy took advantage of Aegis’ attention being divided to fly up into the air above the yellow canopy, and hold her palms out in the direction of the stone to charge up her black beam attack, aimed at it.

“Get it through your thick skull, Jealousy!” Aegis shouted as he looked up and saw it charging. He jumped up onto the branches of a nearby tree, then launched himself up into the air in front of Jealousy. He held his shield out to block her beam, while simultaneously spotting out of the corner of his eye the sixth juggernaut was swinging his blade down on the stone again. He blocked her beam and created a guard to block the juggernaut's strike simultaneously. Black energy exploded out from the impact on Aegis’ shield, and he took massive damage from this attack and the Juggernaut hitting his guard, but his Avatar of Eirene spell was buffing his armor significantly, making it easily healable.

“You’re not getting passed my shield.” Aegis glared at Jealousy as the debris and dust from her attack settled and he slowly fell back down into the yellow canopy below. He could see it, though - for the first time, there was a look of desperation and panic in Jealousy’s eyes. Her health was low and she was almost dead.

“I. DESPISE. YOU!” Jealousy screeched at him as she raised her hands into the air, and the black mist around her began to form a 7th Juggernaut.

“She’s almost dead, use everything you have left!” Aegis shouted desperately. “ECCEN, SWIFTSTAR!” He added, getting nods from the rangers. Both of them, almost in unison, abandoned attacks on the reapers and abysslings, firing ranger marks up at Jealousy as she remained stationary while summoning her 7th Juggernaut.

“Rain of arrows.” Eccen said calmly.

“RAIN OF ARROWS!” Swiftstar shouted with enthusiasm. Both of them dumped their remaining mana to release a large barrage of dozens of arrows that all converged onto Jealousy.

“Yumily?” Kaito looked towards her as she stood on the ground amongst the trees nearby.

“Do it.” Yumily nodded at him. Once she said this, Kaito bent his knees and sheathed his katana, taking a drawing stance as he closed his eyes and tilted his head up in Jealousy’s direction. “Double-edged draw.” He cast, creating a buff on himself which Aegis briefly was able to read - something he hadn’t seen before due to it being an advanced class skill.

[Double-edged Draw]

The next Katana skill you use after drawing your blade will deal quadrupled damage, but half of its damage will be applied to yourself.

Source: Kaito

Following this, he opened his eyes and drew his sword, then with incredible agility, jumped straight up into the sky and slashed his sword through Jealousy’s body as he passed her.

“Horobi no ha.” He spoke calmly, and a massive damage number appeared over Jealousy’s body, causing her to take 8,335,092 damage. Following it, two things happened - Kaito’s katana shattered, and he took half of that damage. He was forced to log out of the gameworld, but Jealousy audibly screamed in pain from the attack.

Amazingly, though, she was still standing and kept summoning the 7th juggernaut. Aegis was forced away to block a blade strike from the sixth from hitting the island stone.

“Hey hey hey, he’s not the only one with a flashy cooldown attack.” Rocknight shouted as he moved to stand underneath Jealousy.

“Earthquake Strike!” He slammed his hammer into the ground beneath her, causing the ground all around the battlefield to violently quake and shoot up large chunks of earth at her as they formed into spikes of rock and dirt. The quaking had the added benefit of throwing the Juggernauts off balance, and killing many of the reapers and abysslings.

“Me too, let me get in on this.” Keldan shouted as the 7th juggernaut finished forming and let out an angry roar.

“Elemental Convergence!” He shouted, forming a ball of lightning, ice, fire, water, earth, wind, poison and shadow. Once the ball formed, it shot out at Jealousy and dealt massive damage to her. The explosion erupted in multiple flashes of light, preventing the group from seeing her for a moment, but once it settled they saw she was still flying in the air beside the 7th Juggernaut.

“Damnit, she’s still standing?” Vriflow shouted out in disbelief in between blocking a strike from the Juggernaut in front of her.

"Hyaku-man Hari!" Yuki shouted, creating an uncountable number of iron needles in the sky all around Jealousy. A moment later, they converged on her, each dealing 1 damage and in total dealing 1 million, but draining Yuki's damage. Once he'd gone, though, she saw that Jealousy was still standing and looked on with disappointment as her thread connections to Yumily and Aegis both disappeared.

“I apologize, everyone.” Yumily shouted, drawing attention to herself as Aegis moved to stand in front of the island stone amongst the trees, preparing to block strikes from both the 6th and 7th Juggernaut as Jealousy turned her eyes on Yumily. “This attack is a bit embarrassing, so please plug your ears.” She said with a polite bow.

“Just do it already.” Kenji rolled her eyes at her. She nodded, then opened her mouth and looked up at Jealousy as Jealousy dashed towards her with incredible speed.

“Die, musician.” Jealousy roared as she extended her claws out and readied a strike. Yumily responded by doing something no one was expecting - she suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs. Her voice sounded horrid, releasing a shockwave of energy as it traveled out of her mouth in Jealousy’s direction.

Jealousy stopped flying towards Yumily in favor of clutching her ears, desperately trying to block out the sound from Yumily’s scream. It wasn’t just Jealousy, either, as Aegis and the others, as well as the Juggernauts, attempted to cover their ears. The sound carried, and was maintained by Yumily as she continued to scream. Soon, Aegis and the others began taking small amounts of psychic damage just from proximity to the attack.

Looking at Jealousy, Aegis saw she was repeatedly taking 53,320 psychic damage every second as she remained within Yumily’s scream, until finally, Jealousy released her ears and let out her own loud roar of anger. Her body began disintegrating, and the moment it did, Yumily stopped screaming.

Simultaneously, the black mist around Jealousy faded, and the Juggernauts and abysslings all around them began to fade away along with the mist.

It took a few moments for Aegis’ hearing to return to him, and in that time, all enemies around the island stone disappeared, and several purple orbs fell out of Jealousy’s body, along with a single orange item orb.

You have slain the Avatar of Jealousy!

Quest Complete!