Chapter 1100: Infernal Verdant
đź’Ż...
Arthur and Evan launched themselves forward without hesitation, as Vonun landed and raised his large spear, filling it with darkness law energy.
He swung the spear with earth-shattering force, prompting Arthur to immediately dart to the side to evade the blow.
Arthur then infused his black sword with destruction law energy and slashed through the wooden tendrils, while Evan coated them in frostfire to make them brittle, just in time for Artemisia’s lightning to descend and shatter them.
’Blessing of Destruction: Second Activation.’
The Destruction Resonance field expanded at Evan’s internal command, and sensing it, Vonun immediately raised his spear and activated his Pseudo-Authority.
But before he could destroy the Resonance field, Arthur’s blade descended from behind, forcing Vonun to spin and meet Lostvayne’s edge with a swing of his spear.
Evan charged in, the Unforged raised high as World Sunder activated, his blade cleaving downward with an island-splitting slash of energy.
However, Vonun blocked the strike with only his tail, then muttered a command under his breath.
"Cursed Vines."
The ground before Evan split apart, and from the rupture emerged a towering wooden Treant with a weeping face.
It roared and charged at him, but Evan didn’t spare it a single moment of attention.
’Frost-Thunder Guardian.’
The three-skill combo activated, and behind him rose a massive humanoid avatar, brandishing a sword of frozen lightning and a shield wreathed in frostfire.
The two giants clashed instantly, each thunderous impact sending wooden shards and embers flying.
As Evan dashed forward to join Arthur in confronting Vonun, Artemisia issued orders to the others.
"Crim, Hibiki. Keep those small fries away from them.
Beatrix, we’re supporting the two!"
Beatrix immediately understood Artemisia’s intent without needing further explanation. Arthur and Evan possessed the highest Attack Power, so they were clearly designated as the Main Damage Dealers in this fight.
The rest of them needed to focus on support and ensure that the lesser enemies didn’t interfere.
Artemisia activated her Queen of Evolution skill, and Beatrix used spatial warping to teleport her directly behind Evan, just as he was sent flying backwards by a strike from Vonun’s tail.
"Evolve Ally."
Placing a hand on Evan’s back, Artemisia channelled her Evolution Power into his body, temporarily boosting his base parameters.
For someone like Evan, whose numerous buffs scaled directly off base stats, this enhancement was invaluable.
Naturally, Vonun noticed her actions and his tail lashed forward, aiming to skewer Artemisia in a single strike.
Wooden tendrils shot up from the ground, aiming to pin Artemisia in place, but before they could reach her, Arthur appeared, grabbing hold of Vonun’s tail and yanking it back before swinging his sword down.
"?!"
Vonun sensed the danger and immediately abandoned his attempt on Artemisia, diverting his focus to blocking Arthur’s strike before it could slice through his tail.
**BOOMM!!!
Sword and spear collided, their respective law energies clashing violently as each tried to overpower the other.
At that moment, Artemisia ignored the overwhelming pressure radiating from Arthur’s active Progenitor Authority and pressed her hand against his back.
"Evolve Ally!"
Just touching him in this state was enough to burn the skin clean off her palm, but the goddess gritted her teeth and endured the pain, buffing Arthur before Beatrix warped her away to prevent Vonun from targeting her again.
From the side, Evan flashed in, his sword ripping through the air toward Vonun’s neck, forcing the Archdevil to raise his hand to deflect the incoming strike.
The impact of the strike sent tremors through Vonun’s arm, forcing the Archdevil to stumble back a few steps, visibly taken aback.
Evan followed up with another slash, this time releasing a burst of ice from his blade, prompting Vonun to hastily envelop his arm in infernal magic power to keep it from freezing solid.
While it wasn’t as ridiculous as Arthur’s destruction-infused sword, the Unforged Vale that Evan wielded had its own set of broken abilities.
|...
Hero of Mimicry Equip Bonus: Amplifies the power of all Mimicked Abilities by 10%.
Abilities;
Retains all abilities of the ’Base’ Weapon.
Enhances all abilities of the ’Base’ Weapon by 50%.
Amplifies infused energy by 1.5x.
Energy Blade Mode.
Unique:
When clashing repeatedly with a designated target weapon, the Vale Blade analyses the weapon’s construction and replicates it within itself using the essence of the law of Mimicry.
The aforementioned Ability can only be used by someone who can wield the Law of Mimicry.
Limited Appearance Modification.
Vanitas Frostshade
...|
The ’Base’ weapon, the Unforged Vanquisher, had the ability to increase overall attack power by 10% for one minute with each successful hit on an opponent, stacking up to ten times, though this effect could only trigger once every twenty seconds.
Originally, the buff was just 5%, with a maximum of five stacks and a ten-second cooldown, but the bracelet on Evan’s left wrist—the ’Doubler’—lived up to its name by doubling the effect.
Then, there was Vanitas’ ability, which granted a 10% increase to attack power when infused with energy. If Evan had demonic energy, the boost would have been 20%, but even the 10% was a solid enhancement, especially when combined with the Unforged’s stacking bonus.
Lastly, Frostshade granted a boost to everything ice-related, whether it was spells, skills, or just raw ice energy bursts.
All these effects, together with Artemisia’s buffs and Evan’s own stat enhancements, made Vonun treat his attacks with just as much caution as Arthur’s, despite the clear difference in actual damage output.
’The real issue is that both of their attacks ignore defences!’
The thought crossed the Archdevil’s mind as he swung his spear to deflect Arthur’s blade, while his tail shot out, intercepting Evan’s sword.
Arcs of destructive energy carved violently through the landscape, shredding everything within a hundred-metre radius around the trio.
Vonun then spun at a speed he was certain Evan couldn’t possibly react to, but Arthur’s Pseudo-Authority: Shared Memories of the Future allowed Evan to begin moving in anticipation five to ten seconds before Vonun even launched the attack.
|¬Gravity! Down!¬|
By Arthur’s command, the gravitational force acting on Vonun instantly quintupled, drastically slowing his movement. Both Arthur and Evan unleashed a hail of destruction-infused projectiles, each explosion warping the surrounding air.
Arthur teleported high above, raising Lostvayne as his Gravity Pseudo-Authority activated again, generating a gravitational field that distorted the space around him. A series of gravity-enhanced destruction blasts rained down on Vonun, each one compressing the atmosphere and ripping through anything in its path.
Time energy curled around Arthur, and in the next instant, he was directly above Vonun with his sword raised.
"Continental Split."
"?!"
Sensing imminent danger, Vonun unhesitatingly poured his full strength into his Pseudo-Authority of Wood, condensing it all into his spear.
At the sight, Evan shook his head and activated Blink.
’I’m not sticking around for that...’
He vanished a split second before Arthur’s sword and Vonun’s spear collided in an explosion of blinding light and deafening force.
**KABOOOM!!
A shockwave burst outward, ripping through the forest and hurling debris in all directions.
Two streaks of light shot into the sky, Arthur and Vonun, clashing at speeds too fast for Evan to interfere without risking disruption to Arthur. So, he remained on the ground, choosing instead to wait for the right moment.
Vonun launched a barrage of dark green energy beams, but as they neared Arthur, they noticeably slowed, just enough for Evan to use Elemental Weapon Projection and shoot them down.
Simultaneously, Arthur expanded his time energy, enveloping Vonun and freezing his time, then delivered a powerful kick that sent him crashing downward.
Seeing this as an opening, Hibiki unleashed her Succubus Charm at full strength, waves of pinkish mist surging toward Vonun.
But rather than provoking the expected reaction, her charm simply dissipated, as though it struck nothing at all. Her eyes widened in realisation, and she shouted, her voice ringing out.
"This isn’t the real Vonun! It’s a wood clone!"
""We know!!!""
Arthur and Evan yelled back in unison as they both charged at it.
As a Progenitor, Arthur could instantly recognise whether he was facing a real Archdevil or not, while Evan had simply used Appraisal.
Arthur swung his sword, unleashing a wide arc of destruction energy, and Evan followed up with a Prismatic Vortex of flames that tore straight through the wooden clone.
Under their unrelenting assault, the clone finally buckled, cracking and splintering apart.
Arthur struck the finishing blow, swinging Lostvayne in a horizontal arc that took off its head, but something about it felt off.
Even in its final moments, the clone didn’t display any shock, fear, or surprise.
Arthur knew it wasn’t just a mindless construct; the clone carried Vonun’s consciousness, and its reactions reflected the real Vonun’s thoughts.
Vonun wasn’t surprised by the clone’s defeat since he clearly understood the extent of Arthur and Evan’s power.
In fact, he seemed satisfied.
The time his clone had occupied their group was enough to prevent them from rejoining the Spirits as originally planned. The only Spirits capable of reaching this far were currently tied up with the Infernal Archdevils, so no backup could be expected.
The six had been held exactly where Vonun wanted them, and the clone had bought him just enough time.
’I just have to deal with his teleportation.’
As the clone’s severed head spun through the air, it uttered two words.
[Infernal Verdancy.]
The ground trembled and split apart, then the entire area pulsed with life energy.
Arthur began casting another teleportation spell, but before he could finish, Vonun’s clone burst with Creation law energy, a powerful eruption that disrupted his magic and threw him off-balance with a painful backlash.
Evan’s Danger Sense blared an alarm, his instincts screaming that Vonun’s trap was only just beginning.
Then, the swarm appeared.
From the depths of the surrounding forest, countless Vanguards emerged—plant-like creatures adorned with floral patterns and leaf-covered bodies.
Each one bore a small blooming flower on its forehead, radiating wood and creation law energy.
They stormed forward with mindless fury, eyes locked onto Arthur, Evan, and the others.
Evan swung his blade, unleashing Frostshade’s signature sweeping wave of ice that instantly froze dozens of the swarm into statues. But it made little difference as more clambered over the ice, crushing both the frozen bodies beneath with sheer numbers as they advanced without pause.
The horde continued closing in from all directions, an unstoppable flood that reformed as quickly as it was destroyed.
"Fuck! They just keep coming!"
Arthur shouted, his voice nearly drowned beneath the overwhelming chaos.
Evan frowned silently, deactivating BoD’s Second Activation and activating Elemental Surge, releasing explosive bursts of fire and lightning that tore through clusters of the creatures.
"This is why he sent the clone."
Beatrix muttered, her tone grim as she wiped out whole patches of the horde with pinpoint spatial deletions.
"He wanted us isolated, here, far from the army. He bought time for this."
Close by, Artemisia’s lightning-infused blades tore through several Vanguards at once, electricity crackling as she moved with ceaseless speed.
But each kill only seemed to make things worse, as the fallen were instantly replaced by new attackers, the horde multiplying and striking back with increasing intensity.
Crim fought to hold off the swarm using spikes and walls formed from the blood of dead devils, but the fallen enemies kept rising again, absorbed by the ground and reborn. The swarm endlessly charged in from all sides, refilling any gaps the group managed to clear.
In the distance, the main spirit army was also locked in battle against the same relentless tide.
The sheer numbers of the enemies made them all realise they were now facing Triffid’s Special Vanguards—Swarm Vanguards.