From the very first moment Jake laid eyes on the ritual circle, he knew there was no way the Twinhead Emperor would be capable of absorbing all the energy contained in the bone spheres. Each sphere held the death energy and curse energy of hundreds, if not over a thousand, dead C-grades alone. This wasn’t even mentioning the uncountable D- and E-grades who had also senselessly fallen in the conflict created by the Twin Emperors.
Even if the boss did then filter a lot of energy out to only absorb the pure Records, there was still a lot left over. This energy had all merged into the semi-intangible ritual circle, which remained mostly untouched despite all the physical destruction.
Now, the Twinhead Emperor was going to reclaim this energy as he stood in the center and raised his staff high. In their initial plans, they had expected the Twinhead Emperor to absorb the energy to help heal. This was still part of the boss’ plan, but Jake realized they had once again underestimated their opponent.
As the Twinhead Emperor reactivated the ritual, two things happened at once. Firstly, a few new runes appeared on his body as death energy began entering through these runes to heal, while secondly, a massive rune was summoned in the air, drawing in all the curse energy.
“Those runes on his body… they are reversing the concept of death into pure life energy,” Dina said, sounding a bit perplexed.
“Even better,” Jake grinned… because, in this rare instance, underestimating the boss had come to their advantage.
The boss had erected a barrier just around himself, as he couldn’t cover the entire ritual circle. As the Twinhead Emperor had just begun to absorb death energy and he condensed some curse magic, a raindrop fell upon the barrier. Soon, more began to fall all over the ritual circle, each drop containing the energy of time.
It took him a moment too long to notice something was off as Jake mentally activated their little trap. Before the two Twin Emperors had begun their ritual, Jake and the Sword Saint had spent a bit over a week doing some slight modifications to the ritual circle the boss had created. It was very minor ones they had overlaid on the other ritual circle. Without power, it had been borderline undetectable, but now, it was getting fed plenty of time affinity energy, which would be one fuel source.
The other? The power of pure hunger.
In the middle of the ritual circle, forgotten entirely by the boss, was a black piece of metal sticking out - a lone katar thrown by Jake’s Eternal Shadow right at the beginning of the fight. Now, this katar suddenly began to hum with power as it became one with the ritual circle.
“What have you-“
The Twinhead Emperor didn’t get further as he suddenly stopped, feeling the effects of the ritual. He had merged himself with it to absorb its energy… created a direct connection between himself and anything inside said ritual. And now, there was a very hungry katar, further empowered by the concept of time, that was more than happy to tap into this delicious connection.
“YOU! Lord of Hunger!” the Twinhead Emperor roared, Jake grimacing as he was still descending down from above. He really didn’t need to be reminded of that nickname.
Not that the ogre was wrong, as it was the energy of the Sin Curse that was suddenly overwhelming the entire ritual. It was so dominant that black intangible and semi-translucent tendrils rose from all over the circle and sought the Twinhead Emperor with pure hunger.
The tendrils began to latch onto the cursed rune above the ogre as they also pierced into the runes on his body, sucking out energy like leeches. Jake happily controlled it all as best he could, feeling the delight from the mythical weapon as it ate well from not only the ogre but all the remnant energy from the ritual itself.
Realizing he was not winning this fight for control, the Twinhead Emperor made a quick decision. The rune above him promptly exploded, releasing a black wave of energy that was mostly pulled in and absorbed by Eternal Hunger, but Dina did have to block the rest.
“Fine, have it your way,”the ogre said with anger as he raised a foot and stomped hard. Jake, flying above, saw cracks spread out from the Twinhead Emperor below. Dozens of them spread in moments from his position, hundreds of kilometers in every direction before he stomped a second time.
The cracks instantly shook and fractured further. A massive earthquake shattered the terrain below, the sheer power enough to finally dismantle the entire ritual circle for good, dispelling all the tendrils. Giant masses of land began to rise, and others fell as the world looked like it split open. Jake also felt Eternal about to be buried deep beneath the ground, but with a mental command and some focus, it dispersed into black energy before reappearing within his Soulspace a few seconds later.
“Everyone okay?” Jake quickly tried to check in with his party, but before he even got an answer, he pulled his bow back out.
“On me,” the Sword Saint responded, Jake having already spotted them. In the chaos, the Twinhead Emperor had singled out the Sword Saint and was now engaging him in a one-on-one. The two of them were rapidly moving through the deep ravines, the old man clearly at a disadvantage but holding his own pretty well, his new skill definitely getting put to use as water clones were destroyed in spades.
It did help when an arrow suddenly pierced out from one of the ravine’s walls, hitting the ogre in the side. A second arrow shot down from above just after before a third came from yet another unpredictable angle. The boss was already damaged quite a bit, which was part of why he was slowed down, but annoyingly so, he was still healing even if they had stopped the ritual. One thing was for sure, though… the boss was using up his energy damn fast.
Once the three others – maybe except for the King as he was not in the best state – joined them, they should be able to-
“Elementals!” Dina suddenly yelled through the Golden Mark, Jake cursing internally as he released a Pulse of Perception to check out the situation.
Just as she had said, out of the deep walls of the ravines, elementals had begun to crawl out, made up of the stone itself. Jake counted a dozen of them, each more than ten meters tall and made up of pure earth. Using Identify, Jake cursed even more.
[Summoned Earth Elemental – lvl 320]
“Hunter, continue to assist the swordsman, the dryad, and I shall deal with these elementals,” the Fallen King said quickly.
“Ree!” Sylphie also added as she swooped in from above the crevice, crashing into an elemental that was closing in on Dina. The Fallen King also quickly made his way to the dryad, as Dina knelt down and focused while protected.
Jake continued helping the Sword Saint while flying down. Every one of his arrows gave the Twinhead Emperor pause or forced him to take damage, giving the Sword Saint enough space to not be wholly overwhelmed. The pressure on him was still intense, as the ogre used both staff and sword to try and take him down, but the elementals the shaman had summoned seemed to have taken a lot out of him as the magic coming from the staff was limited. It also didn’t help that the shaman’s head wasn’t fully healed yet from Jake’s nice opening arrow.
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The poison inside the Twinhead Emperor also only got worse and worse with every arrow, the first one having naturally come with a nice payload. Annoyingly so, his poison didn’t work as well as he had hoped. The Heartrot Poison was very rooted in the concept of death, which the ogre had a high natural resistance to. The poison was still working, just not as well as Jake would have liked.
Soon, as Jake was still shooting arrow after arrow, he felt a green aura spread from the deep crevice with Dina in as she was finished with her magic. She, too, had made her preparations before the battle, which took the form of quite literally planting the seeds for a big upcoming spell… one she used now.
A deep thrumming sound came from beneath the ground everywhere as suddenly the ground erupted once more. Thick roots pierced out of the walls and floor of the deep valleys formed from the earthquake, quickly entangling all of the Summoned Earth Elementals at once. The Twinhead Emperor himself also wasn’t spared, as he suddenly found himself surrounded by thick roots that began to promptly sprout vines that whipped toward him, entangling both his arms.
Finally, the Sword Saint could get some distance… except he decided to use this chance to attack instead. Barely taking a step back, he raised his sword and took a stance, not allowing the many wounds marring his body to affect him. As he took a deep breath, his body exploded with power, and for a moment, his entire form changed into one of his younger self as he stabbed.
“Glimpse of Spring: Erosion.”
Entangled, the ogre couldn’t fully respond as he tried to fire a beam from his eyes at the water stream. The thin stream was too fast, and even as the eyebeam hit, it was simply parted in two as the stab continued forward into the chest of the Twinhead Ogre.
Jake saw the torrent of blood shoot out of the ogre’s back as his own arrow rain also arrived, a dozen piercing into the arms and shoulders of the boss. In his chest, a hole big enough to pass a basketball through had opened from the Sword Saint’s Glimpse of Spring, dripping with blood and water. Jake quickly charged another Arcane Powershot, aiming to hopefully take the boss down for good or at least blow up one of the heads again.
Yet, right as Jake began to charge his powershot, a sigh echoed in his ears, the ogre’s aura changing once more. Below, he saw the Sword Saint rapidly retreat as Dina sent yet another message.
“Watch out… I feel a powerful energy of death. Make distance.”
Jake still kept flying down despite the warning but wouldn’t go all the way. He saw the Sword Saint quickly make his way back toward Dina and the others, who were quickly finishing off the Summoned Earth Elementals, which were still entangled in dense and powerful roots.
Right then, the roots began to decay. It started from the ones surrounding the Twinhead Emperor but quickly spread from there, soon making the entire huge root network rot from within. A dark mist spread from the boss, one that gave Jake a powerful response from Sense of the Malefic Viper…
It was poison mist. A natural poison of pure death, born from decay, further infused with a powerful curse. The form of the Twinhead Emperor had turned gray within the dense mist as the ground itself began to lose all color, and with heavy steps, the ogre began to walk toward Dina and company. With every step, the mist grew stronger, the Twinhead Emperor walking with his thick blade over one shoulder.
Then, the ogre suddenly shot forward as he sprinted toward Dina. The staff was gone… which was also when Jake noticed. The head of the shaman looked as if he was knocked out. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t do anything. Jake was confused, but luckily, his confusion didn’t last long.
“One soul… is purely assisting the other,” the Fallen King warned. “We face only the warrior as of this moment, limiting the diversity of skill for power. A temporary empowered state, we should aim to buy time.”
The message was instant, courtesy of telepathy. Jake saw the Twinhead Emperor close in on his party, the Sword Saint having just made it back to them, pretty injured, along with the Fallen King. For them to enter this domain of death wouldn’t be good, and in their injured states, they were simply too slow… so he made a split-second decision.
“Dina, focus on fixing up the two oldies, Sylphie, make sure the poison doesn’t reach them… I’ll keep the big guy busy,” Jake said as he focused while stepping down, Pushing One Step to its limits. As a minor fuck you to the Fallen King, Jake also finally passed a barrier as he, with a single step, traveled more than a hundred miles. He appeared on the ground, right between the charging ogre and his party, who were still making some good distance.
“You…” the voice of the Twinhead Emperor spoke. “Deceitful rat. You are no Lord of Hunger!”
“That,” Jake said, getting into a stance with katars drawn, “we agree on.”
In the very next moment, the wave of pure, deathly mist washed over his body. Jake hid his smile as he took a deep breath through his nose, really experiencing the poison. To breathe a naturally born poison, mixed with curse energy like this… was actually surprisingly tasty.
Honestly, poison and curses… yeah, it was quite an unlucky matchup for the Twinhead Emperor.
Jake charged toward his opponent, too, Arcane Awakening already fully activated as no matter how good the matchup, he could not afford to hold back in the slightest. The two of them clashed in the middle of the deep gorge, the large two-handed blade swinging with the intent to cut Jake in two.
With a light jump, Jake dodged the blow as he stepped down while just above the blade, double-jumping in the air to get behind the large ogre. The Twinhead Emperor quickly spun around, trying to backhand Jake, but he was faster as the fist of the ogre met an outstretched katar that pierced into his flesh.
Groaning once more, the ogre continued his blow, sending Jake sliding back from the impact with his wrist hurting. Without pause, the Twinhead Emperor continued his attack, aggressively swinging while making sure to keep Jake close. The curse and poison were being subtly controlled throughout the fight to congregate around where Jake was to affect him more… something he truly didn’t mind. In fact, he found it kind of nice to have increased resource regeneration from Palate working overtime, with even Eternal Hunger getting in a good dessert after the ritual.
Jake tried not to let this slip as he attempted to fight in an almost desperate fashion, constantly staying on the offensive. In truth, he was very much playing things safe, never overcommitting or going too far, as he battled the far more powerful opponent. The punches alone were enough to send him flying, and he definitely didn’t want to take a blade head-on like the Fallen King had done a few dozen times, so he stuck to dodging and weaving in between the swings.
It ended up taking over a minute before the Twinhead Emperor noticed something was wrong. Jake had tried to fake being affected by the poison, but he simply couldn’t do it convincingly enough while also staying fast enough to not lose a limb.
“I understand now,”the Twinhead Emperor said as he suddenly stopped attacking. “You are the Lord of Hunger… or at least the one who pretended to be. I do not know which trickery you used or how you knew of that old forgotten legend, but you truthfully had me fooled.”
Jake was staring blankly at the boss after hearing those words. What the fuck kind of old forgotten legend was he walking about? Jake had just picked a generic name he thought sounded kinda cool and rolled with it. Well, not like he was going to complain about tapping into some old legend to sell the story more convincingly.
“Perhaps you are our trial to reach beyond… a lesson by the multiverse for the two of us to realize our foolishness in trying to no longer stay as one,” the ogre said with a thoughtful voice.
“You got it mixed up… you’re our challenge to reach beyond,” Jake shot back, happy to keep the boss talking for a moment.
“I do not believe those two statements to be contradictory,” the Twinhead Emperor shook his head – the one who was actually awake. “But I do find it questionable of you five … to have chosen a challenge you cannot hope to overcome is truly foolish.”
As he said this, the poison mist began to fade as it flew toward the boss. The runes that had tried to absorb energy from the ritual earlier appeared again, sucking in all of the mist and infusing the ogre’s body with energy.
Jake cursed under his breath as he once more saw the boss heal, the hole in his chest even regenerating at visual speeds. Sure, he was using up his resources, but due to his soul mutation, the boss had way more than could be considered normal, and he was also absorbing energy from the environment at an unnatural pace.
It truly made for one tanky bastard that was ridiculously hard to put down for good. Jake just hoped he didn’t have too many more tricks up his-
Slamming the two-handed blade into the ground, the Twin Emperor’s body exploded with power as a pillar of black light fell upon him.
“Arise, cursed spirits of the fallen.”
Oh, you gotta be bloody kidding me…