Chapter 61: The Clash
What the hell were the Fingers of Gluttony?
What was a Seat of Evil?
Roy had to swallow a groan of despair. He couldn’t risk revealing his current state to his army, lest their morale follow suit and deflate.
Whatever. We just have to kill a bunch and prevent the worst from descending, right? I think we’ll manage.
Worrying too much would only push him into despair, which would be hurtful to his mindset and might affect the upcoming battle negatively.
"All right, everyone — gear up and weapons tight. The enemy is about to strike," Roy warned as he summoned his own fully plated navy blue armor.
The rest followed suit, and immediately the bunch all resembled SWAT agents from Earth or Black Ops — coated in full tactical armor. Except the armor of Earth didn’t carry the ethereal sheen of ether, the luminous glow of inscriptions, or the astronomical buffs in damage and defense.
The colossal gates separating them from the outside slowly pulled apart autonomously...
Weapons gripped tight, standing tense and straight in formation — the army stepped out.
...
At the extreme north of the Cosmic Policing Quarters, the fracture in space undulated.
Rattling furiously, pulsing cracks extended widely across space.
Space bulged forward as chips like shattered glass fell. The cracks spread so wide they covered miles and scaled heights.
Dum! Dum! Dum!
Dull thuds could be heard from the other end, as though someone was furiously banging at a shattering windscreen.
Crack!
Suddenly, a big crack formed — and protruding from the abyssal end was a skeletal arm.
The arm retracted and crackled from another side. This time, as it retracted, in its place hundreds of fiendish body parts bulged from the abyssal end of the chipping space — arms, legs, and even rotting, horrendous faces.
They took greedy breaths of the dense green before them, becoming more frenzied like starving wraiths.
And after a brief, furious struggle, space gave in. With a loud shatter, it crumbled before the pressure.
There was a slight pause before—
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
A cacophony of unpleasant screeching rang out, followed by a tremor of the earth, as hordes of corrupt creatures scrambled out.
Amalgamations of rotting flesh, dripping with pus and black putrid liquid. Savage faces sagging from rot and decay, with pure mad red gazes — this was a perfect description of these creatures.
Stark naked, these creatures stormed into the forest of Roy’s territory.
As harbingers of corruption, everywhere they passed, they spread rot and death.
Grass withered. Trees turned ash grey. Even the dense, moist fertile soil hardened, turning black and dry — cracks spreading at each step.
Ether rejected them. The plain sought to purge them, but it couldn’t act on its own. It needed an envoy.
At the far end where Roy stood, a familiar blood-red screen appeared in his view.
This wasn’t his system — but this screen he could recognize. It was the first screen that appeared in his vision right before the Ascent.
[Will of the World will grant merit for each creature of corruption that is vanquished!]
Roy’s eyes widened. This is new. What is a merit? Whatever it is, it has to be good.
Licking his lips, Roy gazed at the storming cloud of dust looming in the distance. That was definitely the Variants.
He could hear tense clanks behind him as his soldiers got ready, but he held up his hand, signaling for them to hold.
And very soon, the rabid abominations were in sight. Hands still held up high to refrain those behind him from acting, he yelled an order:
"FIRE!"
Hummmmm!
The hum of machinery starting up sounded, followed by—
Buzzzzzzzt!!!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Both laser and turret offense systems bloomed with action.
Massive caliber rounds from the numerous turrets tore through the crowd of horrors, decimating them into chunks of rotting meat and revolting pus.
The numerous laser cannons emitted high-intensity energy beams, which tore through their fair share of prey — leaving nothing behind but carbonized chunks and ashes.
And so, the corrupted Variants’ charge couldn’t proceed. Their numbers were frighteningly numerous, but in the face of the fully prepared offense systems of Ageis, their charge showed no progress.
Deep in Ageis, civilian volunteers could be seen running to and fro — maintaining the offense systems, reloading when needed, dousing with cooling agents when overheating was detected, and rushing to repair anything that failed.
In this battle, most civilians were deployed — leaving children and their caretakers safe in airtight, high-defense bunkers.
Roy, still with his arm up, watched with bated breath. And finally, what he was waiting for happened.
The offense of Ageis couldn’t keep up with the intense, rapid rush of the enemy. These creatures had no fear of death or pain. They didn’t mind climbing on the corpses of their comrades. They didn’t care if they stampeded their own to death. They felt nothing but the intense, overwhelming, insatiable hunger that only fresh flesh and blood could satiate.
Roy’s arm dropped as he hopped onto the back of Alpha, planning to ride him as a steed.
And he ordered coldly, "Now we move!"
As though waiting for this order, Alpha rushed forward — the others following right behind.
With a laser gun in one hand and a stun stick in the other, Roy was ready for battle. Plasma hummed on one side, current crackled on the other.
In seconds, Alpha had arrived at the rushing army of rabid zombies.
Tugging on the skill Electric Amp (SS), torrents of electricity streaked from the stun stick, and the plasma gun shone with more intensity.
Crackle! Pop!
Arms swinging — frying every foe on contact. The other arm — carbonizing every enemy in the distance. Alpha, though being used as a ride, wasn’t idle either — his rugged, glistening fangs crunching through the fragile, rotting horrors.
From nowhere, one of the zombie-like creatures landed on Roy’s back — gnawing and clawing vainly at his body.
His stun stick arced, reducing it to cinders.
Well, this isn’t so bad... Roy regretted having the thought the moment it came.
As a distinct figure from the crowd of rabid zombies headed his way.
With a frown, he aimed with his left and fired plasma beams in hopes of reducing it to ash.
But this creature seemed different. Holding an arm up in defense, it continued forward — the plasma beams failing to sizzle through the monster.
Roy clenched his teeth as he leapt from Alpha’s back toward the looming creature.
Its presence gave him an ominous vibe. He knew instinctively he had to eradicate that monster.
His right arm burst into motion mid-air as his stun stick arced down, crackling with intense voltage.
Boom!
The ground underneath the creature caved — but the creature did not. It held the stun stick in place, and the furious currents did nothing to it except sizzle up a few rotting fluids.
Roy frowned harder. He had learned control over his Electric Amp skill, so though not 1000x, the weapon could handle 21x — which was high enough that only a select few could take a hit without immediately being fried.
But here this thing was — unharmed!
The abomination’s lips tore apart to its ears into a smile as its other arm clenched tight and swung heavily into Roy’s chest.
Boooooom!
Roy’s figure flew out of sight, leaving the stun stick behind — his body skidding across the battlefield.
"Argh!" he grunted as a trail of blood leaked from the corner of his lips beneath his helmet.
He gazed at his chest and saw a dented fist imprint. His hair stood on end — this was freaking Epic-tier armor.
System... is this a Finger of Gluttony? he couldn’t help but ask.
But the reply he got made his heart sink in despair.
[No...]
If... If this wasn’t a finger how horrifying would a finger be?