Two days after the encounter with the mysterious scientist, Jean continued her path of rampage across the Chaos Domain.
What the scientist by the name of Jared told her was...informative. Apparently, she was some sort of manmade entity designed by a powerful former Protector to replace the current Protector Corps.
Her opinion? Casual shrugs before continuing with her goal to seize as much power as possible as soon as possible.
After she woke up on that field and realized everything was gone, she made no attempt to wonder what happened to Jared, nor did she ponder the idea of looking after her creator. She was well aware that, as of now, she was no more than an ant before the Protector Corps. The more she knew, the more dangerous her situation was.
All she could do was keep that knowledge at the back of her head and continue with her path as if nothing happened.
The advancement of the battle lines continued. Protectors continued to wipe out countless Chaos Descendants with single strikes. At the same time, lagging way behind them, Voyagers and Supplicant forces fought and died against the Chaos Descendants in a war of attrition.
Both sides were composed of numberless deadly combatants. Chaos Descendants had little logic, nor were they plagued by fear or thoughts of self-preservation. Their numbers were endless, as countless billions of them could be formed in mere moments across the endless territory that was the Chaos Domain.
The Voyagers and the Supplicants weren’t weak either. Supplicants, well...their loyalty to the Protector Corps was boundless, and they gladly embraced every casualty. As for the Voyagers, all the weak ones have washed out ages ago. Those present here were all champions who have completed multiple missions. They were gods and celestials and beasts and monsters. They were the destroyer of worlds and the subjugation of realms. And here in the Chaos Domain, with no other option but to fight, they displayed a terrifying level of power and resilience, carving a bloody path across the realm of utter terror.
Countless beings from all sides met their end across the Chaos Domain every moment. Every single one of these beings could step into the world of Starcraft and rip Amon to pieces with ease. Here, they were no more than cannon fodders.
Across a tiny area of the Chaos Domain, numberless Chaos Descendants fell before the metal feet of the Wardens and the Purifiers. Some of them were weak, with a single rune round from a Purifier Swordguard sufficient to end their pathetic, meaningless lives. Others were much more durable, being able to survive waves of shells and requiring Jean herself to step in and seal the kill.
But the fact remained that the Chaos Domain was no easy world to conquer. For one thing, the world itself was actively targeting the intruders. It couldn’t just blast the Voyagers into oblivion because the Protectors intervened, but it could still make a few strikes here and there.
Once, Jean watched as legions of Wardens perished when the ground beneath their feet suddenly turned to lava without the slightest hint. Another time, from a distance away, Jean saw a space slither opened up across a squad of Iron Garrison troops. The Iron Garrison squad was instantly decimated, reduced to pieces of flesh and bone here and there as the very space they occupied crumbled onto itself.
The ability for the consciousness of the Chaos Domain to rewrite reality, though it was significantly suppressed, still claimed the lives of countless Voyagers and Supplicants.
Making things a lot more difficult was the endless hordes of Chaos Descendants. When they arrived, the Protectors massacred every Chaos Descendant with a CAS above 10,000, but danger still lurked in every corner. For a Voyager with a CAS of below 1,000, any Tier 3 Chaos Descendant could kill them as easily as a Tier 4 or above Chaos Descendant.
This was the issue that Jean ran into as she, from kilometers away, observed a beast of nightmare through the Eye of the Seeker that she purchased ages ago when she first entered the City of the Voyagers.
Distinctly, Jean could tell the beast was some sort of octopus. Well, some sort of octopus that was as large as a mountain, and had all sorts of high tech weapons attached to its many tentacles. So it was based on technology, right? Then how do you explain that shining runes and magical matrixes on its main body? It was as if this monster was the perfect combination of Technology, Magic, and Mutations.
When the Protectors said the Chaos Domain was a world with next to no logic, they weren’t lying.
The Octopus was first discovered by a Voyager different from Jean. When he realized the Octopus was too powerful for him to beat alone, he called for help from his Voyager Watch. Yes...that was something all Protector forces could do. Whether these requests for help would be answered was a different question altogether.
Jean was among the dozen or so Voyagers that decided to go over and check out what happened and if they had the chance to make a profit. When they arrived, they weren’t too happy to see that the first Voyager was already reduced to a pile of battered meat hanging on one of the tentacles of the Octopus.
“Yeah, I’m not taking on that hentai monster.” A Voyager a distance away from Jean commented, having next to no intention of fighting this battle. “Someone should call in Phaseship fire support from the Iron Garrison. I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help.”
In the sky above the Chaos Domain were entire fleets of Phaseships that belonged to the Protectors and their Supplicants, carrying enough firepower to level a hundred of these octopuses in one strike.
The interesting thing was that, even in the Chaos Domain, the Voyagers functioned on more of a bounty system. If someone wanted to sit back and hide in safety or just slack off in general, they theoretically could. But if the said Voyager hoped to use this opportunity in the Chaos Domain to enhance themselves, they had to take on the Chaos Descendants. And the Voyagers here knew all too well that slacking off would never lead to anything good.
In most cases, facing the Chaos Descendants was as beneficial to the Voyagers as it was risky. For spell-based Voyagers, running into a dark wizard meant the chance to learn destruction spells nearly-impossible to find elsewhere. For tech-based Voyagers, taking on tech-based Chaos Descendants was a chance to access more advanced schematics.
Jean, for example, has profited greatly from this trip here. The execution and dissection of the Carrions provided valuable schematics that, as soon as she returned to safety, could be turned into Carrions with a CAS in the hundreds. The Necromancer she killed provided precious knowledge she could use to play with the dead even more than before.
Perhaps most importantly...what was Jean again? She was a Reapress! And her powers grew with the amount of death she witnessed and experienced. And how many have died in the Chaos Domain? Billions? Trillions? She wasn’t near most of the deaths, but the numbers added up nonetheless, and Jean’s Power of Death grew with every passing second she spent in the hell that was the Chaos Domain.
Jean glanced at the Voyager that put forth the idea of calling for aid. Having a Phaseship drop some casual orbital bombardment was good and all, but when that happened, all would burn and perish. She could still benefit from the destruction of an entity of this prowess, but it wasn’t as much benefit as if she delivered the kill herself, slowly and painfully.
Jean swore she didn't enjoy any of this. It was just the nature of the power structure of Reapers and Reapresses.
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But even with her boosted power, Jean didn't feel any confidence in beating the Octopus. She didn't exactly know how powerful it was, but it was definitely no push-over. If she wanted to slay that beast, she needed aid.
And so she turned to the other Voyagers in the proximity. Namely, the Voyager that made the snarky comment.
“What’s your major?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Just curious.”
That Voyager glanced at Jean. He didn't know how many missions she had passed, but he did know she wasn’t to be meddled with. In fact, even now, he could sense something weird from Jean. Jean’s helmet wasn’t on, and he could see her pretty face, but instead of feeling interested, he only felt his heart sink for some odd reason. There was an odd sense of fear and disgust that he was feeling toward the female Voyager before him. It was the disgust by the living toward death itself.
Suddenly, without warning, the Voyager turned and disappeared, only reappearing a hundred kilometers away for a brief second before disappearing again.
“...”
If Jean could, she would find her mouth hung open and her mouth speechless. Was she really that terrifying? Was she so scary that a Voyager just turned and fled mid-conversation? Well...that was probably the best thing he could’ve done, but…
Sometimes, the Power of Death and her existence as a Reapress could be quite an issue. Almost all living beings inherently despised a walking embodiment of death such as Jean. Most mortals could ignore it, but for Voyagers whose sensations were more acute, this could convince them not to trust Jean...and probably rightfully so.
Taking her mind off that Voyager, Jean turned and glanced across the battlefield. The combination of the Eye of the Seeker and the countless observers she had in the air told her that the battlefield was mostly clear. Most of the Voyagers decided to simply avoid this area. If this remained to be the case for a while, the Supplicants would probably dispatch forces to systematically deal with this obstacle.
That was when Jean Turner struck.
A swipe on her Voyager Watch sent a pair of jetpacks onto her back. Her helmet covered her head once again, completing her Voyager set. A brief check told Jean that Yellow Crystals were powering the set. Flames erupted under her jetpack as she darted into the air and toward the Octopus.
The Octopus sensed her quickly, and it responded to her move with an endless barrage of assaults. Cannon shells exploded all around her. They were joined by flickers of explosions, the results of destructive magical spells.
A black layer covered Jean’s body as she advanced forward. Shrapnels? Killed. Explosions? Killed. Spells? Killed. It would take a lot more effort to take down a Tier 3 Voyager like Jean.
As Jean got closer, the Octopus suddenly moved its body, and before Jean knew it, two tentacles pierced space and grabbed onto her body with lightning speed. The next moment, the tentacles tightened with enough force to crush a starship, and Jean could feel as her Voyager Armor did its best to stand its ground.
This must be how the first Voyager died.
Placed in danger, Jean wasn’t quite concerned. She waved her hand and summoned her Soulbringer, the halberd.
The first thing she tried to do was drag the Octopus’s soul out of its body. Once its soul was outside, it might as well be a well-wrapped gift in front of the Reapress. But as Jean worked, she realized it was like trying to flay someone with a butter knife. Was it possible? Sure, but it would take too much effort to be practical.
Quite the comparison there…
As the initial efforts failed and realizing she was a little short on time, Jean turned and started to work on the tentacles. The Octopus suddenly jerked forward and screeched in agony as the Power of Death overwhelmed the two tentacles, erasing their very existence from reality.
Using the opportunity of being newly freed, Jean drew her Voyager Rifle and started shelling on the Octopus. The Rifle was powered by Yellow Crystals as well, with each shot capable of threatening any Tier 2 combatant. The issue was that they were merely deflected off the skin of the Octopus without achieving much.
The sound of pierced air reached Jean again, but not before a tentacle smashed into Jean and whipped her into the horizon. Without the protections on her, Jean could’ve been reduced to a bloody mist with that single strike. Even now, as she flew back, Jean felt her intestines collapsing from the sheer kinetic energy passed onto her. Countless cracks spread across her skin.
Thankfully, Jean was a Reapress, and the power of a Reapress laid in her soul, not her body. In the World of the Romans, she literally switched a body to infiltrate another world. As long as her body was intact and her soul was fine, Jean would be fully functional. Of course, she wouldn’t be going around seducing anyone with blood literally bursting out of her skin, but that was minor for the moment.
As she quickly replaced her destroyed jetpack, Jean went across her options once again. What weapons in her arsenal could help her take down this beast? Brute force would be futile. Her Wardens and Purifiers, even the best B-2 Warden Battlecruisers and Warden Capitalguards, wouldn’t even be able to threaten the Octopus. Her Worldship? Its CAS was 1,300 with a Green Crystal, but it wasn’t a guaranteed win either. Should she switch it to a Yellow Crystal?
What else did she have in her Watch? Kashank Guardians? These beings with a CAS of 150 couldn’t last a moment in front of the Octopus. 2 Hellfire Traps? What a joke!
And what about her powers as a Reapress? She couldn’t strip the soul out of the Octopus. Maybe a wraith storm? But judging by what she felt from the Octopus, its soul was too strong to be overrun with cheap souls, no matter the numbers. She wouldn’t have the opportunity to corrode the entire beast, not when her enemy was literally the size of a mountain. And possession? What could that do?
And then, she remembered something.
A trick. A trick she learned from the hundreds of times she was brutally murdered in the Dream Realm. A trick that helped her kill a fellow Voyager, Trinity, who was one of the most powerful foes she has faced and killed.
Jean advanced again. The limited intelligence of the Octopus raised a question, but that strand of logic quickly disappeared as the urge for violence consumed the beast. This was the Chaos Domain, not the Logic Domain. Once again, a dozen tentacles whipped out at Jean, going for the kill.
Except as soon as the tentacles got close to Jean, they suddenly collapsed right where they were. Each hundreds of meters long, these tentacles hit the ground and crushed thousands of Chaos Descendants so weak and insignificant that neither Jean nor the Octopus cared about for as much as a moment.
Now that was just sad.
The Octopus was slightly taken back, unsure of what happened. In reality, what Jean did was use the Power of Death to create a hallucination. Instead of targeting the Octopus’s soul, she reached into the sensory system of the tentacles and convinced them that they were, in fact, “dead”. And dead things couldn’t obey commands or move to strike. They could only collapse where they were.
Jean has always been a smart fighter. She could be a fearless berserker if she needed to, but in most cases, she used her brain as much as her powers.
The Octopus’s fears were quickly consumed by fury, and it doubled down on trying to kill Jean. Twice the amount of tentacles struck down on Jean with unbelievable speed, but what happened moments ago was repeated once again as all of those tentacles were disabled as well. Jean’s power has been amplified countless times since she became a Reapress. It was more than enough to handle the Octopus’s last stand.
This trick of Jean’s was by no means invincible, but it was enough to catch enemies by surprise and give her an upper hand. The Octopus tried to fight back, but it never had the intelligence to realize its disabled tentacles weren’t truly dead. It made no effort to regain control, which made the hallucinations permanent.
And soon, it was clear that the Octopus’s end was near.
Eventually, all of its tentacles were gone. Jean, somewhat exhausted, landed on top of the monster’s giant head. All around her, dead tentacles covered the ground like roads leading to the mountain top. And today, the mountain was about to die.
Slowly and painfully, Jean used her Power of Death to chip away at the defenseless Octopus. Part by part, the enormous beast, capable of consuming entire planets outside the Chaos Domain, found itself deviating further and further away from the realm of the living and closer and closer to the world of the dead. Its earth-shattering growls were turned to whimpers as it realized its ultimate fate. But Jean, being the typical Jean Turner, showed no mercy.
And finally, the Octopus died. Body and soul alike were wiped off the surface of the Chaos Domain.
As the life was ended, Jean’s eyes suddenly turned pitch black. Perhaps it was nothing in the Chaos Domain in life or in death, but the Octopus was a Tier 3 Entity with a CAS in the thousands. If the death of a billion souls was a snack for Jean, then the death of the Octopus was a feast.
“Death is inevitable, for all things come to an end...” She suddenly whispered. Already, she could feel the Power of Death boiling in her body and soul alike. She could feel them growing. Enhancing. Strengthening. And if there was something that could make her feel the tiniest sense of pleasure, this was it.
She suddenly summoned the halberd, and all of a sudden, every Chaos Descendant with a one-kilometer radius of her disappeared.
“And none shall escape Death!”