The nest had been wiped out, in its place was a crater that could easily engulf a small village. What did the others think?
Teffa and Yui had their mouths agape while the other 2 voiced their thoughts.
"Was that a whole nest? Such destructive power at such a range..." (Remy)
"What was that?!" (Rifur)
"Threat recognised, initiating extermination" (???)
A strange sounding third voice had resounded around our group and interrupted everyone's thoughts. Everyone looked at Yui as the prime target of suspicion due to its rather high pitch and her lack of participation in discussion, but it was not her. As if it had all been a facade, his skin had dropped off onto the ground revealing a new figure. Teffa was a spy for the demons, it was the only conclusion due to the 2 horns sprouting out of his head. Unlike the previous clumsy demeanour, he now gave out a serious aura exuded by his trained movements.
His skin colour hadn't changed at all, so the demons in this world weren't that much different from the humans. Boasting superior physical and magical abilities, they had access to different class trees, though they can also use the normal classes.
"4 Heavenly kings, demon general, Affetar. You seem to wield power too great for humans to possess, I'll have to exterminate you before the demon king's arrival." (Affetar)
He seemed to have power rivalling that of a heroes, however even so, it was still far too weak.
" I have power rivalling that of a heroes, the power of the 4 heavenly kings. The power stronger is one from an origin class, like the majesty, the great demon lord." (Affetar)
How sad, and I thought the battle was over. Here comes the underling after the final boss? What a joke.
" Surrender and I will make your death painless"(Affetar)
"Aren't you out of your place? I defeated the demon lord, I wield the authority of conquest and death. What power do you have before an origin class with 2 authorities?"
"That is impossible. I'll have defeat you swiftly to drive in our power difference. When you're hit with despair, you will understa-" (Affetar)
"[Conquest] attack the soul, don't kill it yet. "
"Guhah? AAaaAAAaaAAHHHhHHHh
HHhhHhhhhHhHHHHHHHag!!!??!!!" (Affetar)
"Oh ho? Unlike the demon lord, your can't handle the pain of your soul being torn apart huh?"
"Guh!! [Machina]!"(Affetar)
A perfectly new body and soul form adjacent to the original before his consciousness was transferred. Soon after, hundreds more formed, surrounding the small group in the middle of the forest.
"Then I just have to get serious! I'm the strongest of the 4 heavenly kings, said to match the demon lord if he didn't have the authority of death!" (Affetar)
Giant chains rose from underground, penetrating the surface and creating fissures, before arching in the air into one another. At one point of the parabola trajectory formed, the chains stopped moving, as if caught on to something. The sky itself distorted to reveal a hidden giant machinery, large enough to be a city and cover the sky. The teachers realised what it meant and could only do their best in evacuation of the students. This was the strongest of the 4 heavenly kings, figuratively speaking, deus ex machina.
It had enough destructive power erase cities with ease and armour that was so strong, only tier 5 skills could affect it, and even then it would just be a scratch. Locking on to its target, the giant serpent like machinery with 1 ominous green glowing eye stared down at me. The chains continued flowing into the air as if there was an infinite amount of length.
"FIRE!!" (Affetar)
Beams from all directions materialised out of thin air, defying space and rendering the actual guns on the structure useless, now they just looked like decoration. Destructive force rain down in my general direction, but just like his class skill [Machina], [abyss control] isn't such a weak skill as well. Forming a barrier, all the beams weren't even deflected or defended against, they were absorbed. Firing back those same beams, a strange transparent mint barrier expanded, struggling to deflect the blow. An energy shield?! Wasn't this a fantasy world? Well magic barriers are already something similar, why was I surprised? One thing was for sure was that it looked really cool. Too bad, it was a class skill not a skill from an authority or 'sin'. So I couldn't imitate it if I wanted to.
The energy shield was really simple to destroy, in order to form it in the first place it would take a lot of energy. If they wanted to sustain it, they had to use up more mana, that goes for the scenario when damage is dealt to the shield. To put it simply, attacking the shield wouldn't affect the person behind, but it would burn their mana reserves really quickly if the attack was sufficient enough. The best type of attack for an occasion like this would be to do continuous damage. Something like firing a barrage of projectiles would be a decent attempt as well, it then depended on who would run out of mana first.
To give a reference, it takes an hour for a person to fully recharge their mana pool, that meant that intelligence also boosted mana recovery besides mana storage. Base on that fact alone, I had quite a decent amount that wouldn't run out anytime soon. Waving my right hand down for no reason, it was my turn to fire beams of destructive energy from all directions, stakes of darkness fired so quick they look like a single beam.
The speed of destruction was so quick that cracks would form on the shield before the owner could repair it back with mana. I could brute force it and try to break the shield faster than it can regenerate, but I had time to burn, adding to it was the fact that a battle of attrition was to my advantage due to my larger mana pool.
Seeing the situation wasn't going to improve any time soon, Affetar needed to change the pace of the battle before his mana was burned into a meagre amount, insufficient for battle. An attack was coming from all sides, it was basically an encirclement, therefore he needed to break out from one side. Determining his next move in an instant, the giant machine serpent rushed towards Emily.
That was a mistake. Copying the shield's pattern of regenerating itself after receiving damage, a large spear of darkness that had a diameter of the height of 2 adults forced itself through the energy shield before penetrating through the head of the machine serpent. Inside, it continued to branch into smaller spears that pierce back to the outside before exploding.