"I see, are you all as a group on the same page? I am not afraid to share with you all what I know, but you all must be ready and willing to accept the fact of my words."
Fenrich said, releasing his recently acquired Dao of Sharpness. Silver beams that were as thick as an adult bodybuilder's legs danced around Fenrich. His eyes gaining a silver tint, minute cuts appeared on all 9 individuals cheeks.
"This is what Masterclass control over one's Dao looks like, all nine of your heads would fall before you even felt the pain. And yet with strength like this, a fancy Title to boot, I by no means have the power to ensure my own survival, let alone the survival of us as a whole. If you want answers you will get answers, but I do not want to see the looks of despair and hopelessness after the fact." Fenrich said coldly, his entire presence going under a complete change.
Gone was the mild mannered calm and collected Fenrich, what replaced it was the cold killer side that had seen humanity's demise. He alone out of 8 billion survived. Even humanity's apex powerhouses had fallen, but he, as a mortal, had slaughtered the divine like a bunch of headless chickens.
Laura steeled herself as she too began countering Fenrich's Dao despite it being a losing battle. "We have the right to know Fenrich, diamonds are made under pressure. You have seen how we all fought, and how we're far more superior than the others."
Fenrich cut Laura off as he began name dropping those present.
"Garen, you created a martial sect known as the Burning Sun Constellation, you were a single step away from achieving Godhood. But, you were struck down by more than 50 Gods who feared your potential and slayed you early."
"Lukas, the War God of humanity, you alone entered the gates of Hell and achieved divinity by slaying uncountable devils, devil lords, devil Gods and rose to challenge Satan himself. In the end, your only friend and ally Seraphina, plunged her sword through your Cultivator's core, stealing your divinity and Internal God Realm as she replaced Satan as the Empress of Hell. They later marched on Earth and was the beginning of the fall for what humanity remained. In 2 days, 15 million of Humanity's strongest survivors perished
"Isabella, you have the natural Holy Priestess Divine Body, you were murdered by the foreign races before reaching level 30 in a past lifetime. You had too much power without the proper time to establish yourself. Your entire family tree was enslaved and sold off as war slaves so another "you" wouldn't appear."
"ENOUGH!" Laura shouted as she stabbed her Zanbato mere inches away from Fenrich's seated position. "You telling us of how we previously died before is not helping the morale, Fenrich. You who have taken the leadership of our group, you must bear the weight of the crown you wear! Enough with the bullshit, tell us how it is without the flavorful words!"
Fenrich was not at all surprised by Laura's outburst, instead this was his goal all along. Those minds that had the seedling of fear grow inside them, vastly accelerated their growth and further stimulated the potential sleeping within. Nonetheless, his goal had been achieved. At first everyone's eyes remained unfocused and their Will had not been kindled by another's yet, now looking at those present who had their deaths told, and those who hadn't yet. The joviality and ignorance was gone, what replaced it was cold-blooded determination to take control of their own lives going forward.
"Good. The change in all your eye's is what I wanted to see. Only when you know the stakes will you all truly grow the fastest surpassing one hurdle after the next. Let's continu-"
Fenrich condensed his Dao of Sharpness on his index and middle finger of his right hand, aimed it 3 centimeters away from Laura's left cheek and fired it off. Just as the whole group was about to go up in arms, they audibly heard a loud squelch. Moving away as they all took to behind Fenrich, a dwarven corpse with a 2 centimeter hole through his skull fell from the ceiling.
"Discussions will have to wait, Isabella you're level 10 now. You should have gained your first spell that can heal an injured Soul, correct?" Fenrich turned his gaze to Isabella as he could not hide the gleam of hope within his own eyes.
"Yes, that is correct, Fenrich. However, it will put me into a weakened period for 24 hours." Isabella answered truthfully with no fear in her voice.
"Garen, you'll be tasked with guarding Isabella for the next 24 hours."
[Ding! You have received the Soothing Soul Rejuvenation Spell level 1)]
[Ding! Your Abyssal Void Baron Soul has recovered to 12.5%]
[Ding! Your Abyssal Void Baron Soul has gone through Soul refinement, 2.35% > 3.07%]
[Ding! You may now use the full extent of your Dao without Soul backlash.]
Isabella turned a ghastly white colour, her clothes were drenched in sweat and sticking to her body. All the energy in her body had been completely sapped away, this was a major faucet of Isabella's power. But the terrifying part only appeared after level 25, when she achieved her first Class evolution, gaining a 1-winged Angel Of Death Spirit Guardian. Plus all the other Enhancing Soul magic, Offensive Soul magic and her own Soul based Dao from her Holy Priestess Divine Body.
[Hey, partner. I know you're way smarter than this, but you technically don't have to fight crippled by your lacking use of Mana anymore. If you'd checked my Status Page sooner, you'd find I have 10,000 Mana Points and can use one of my Skills - Symbiote Mana Transfer, you'd be using my Mana to strengthen your body, Skills and Dao further. Dumb ass.]
Fenrich felt a slap on the back of his head both physically and mentally.
[Now get your ass in gear and be smarter going forward. I don't want to die a pathetic death because of a retar- not a smart person.]
[Ding! You have received the Symbiote Mana Transfer level 1. "Hey, look at me, I'm not a dumbass!"]
That last notification was followed with the laughing of the Abyssal Symbiote inside his mind.
Fenrich's previous weakened self was reverted by a 10th, the only signs of it was the dried blood caked onto his body. Fenrich was about to take the lead of the group until he felt a hand pull him back.
Laura had steely determination in her eyes, "Let me take the reins this time, captain. I can still feel your weakness through my Dao of Rebirth." Fenrich merely smiled as he nodded his head, not saying anything more or less.
"Everybody, go!"
Laura launched herself forward as she horizontally slashed her Zanbato upwards with a thin sheen of Dao encompassing her weapon, a loud "klang" resounded as she blasted the opponent backwards bursting through the wall of the safe room. On his Minimap, Fenrich saw 4 Crowns, and 15 smaller red dots surrounding them from all directions.
"Ryan you're with me, don't worry about friendly fire. I can withstand all the firepower you can throw at the enemies, hold nothing back!"
[Abyssal Symbiote Physique Enhancement level 1 has been activated. All basic attributes gain +30, all advanced attributes gain +10]
[Metamorphosis level 1 has been activated. All basic and advanced attributes are doubled for the next 5 minutes, twenty-four hour cool down.]
[Mana Points 7,500/10,000]
Metamorphosis used a quarter of the Abyssal Symbiotes Mana Point, given the buff he'd just gained from it was more than a fair price.
[Abyssal Sword Forge level 1 - creates an Abyssal Sword every 8 seconds and holds a maximum capacity of 10. Costs 250 Mana Points per minute.]
[Abyssal Swords level 1 - creates 3 controllable Abyssal Swords that deal 45% damage based on your Strength attribute, and deals 25% Chaos Damage that cannot be mitigated. Costs 125 Mana Points, and an upkeep of 2 Mana Points per second for each sword in active control.]
Fenrich shot his Abyssal Swords forward as he entered melee with a Golem like creature wielding a Scythe. Fenrich increased his capabilities further imbuing his body with Mana and strengthening it.
Fenrich clashed with the Golem, surprisingly both were of equal strength and couldn't gain an advantage over the other. Fenrich twisted both wrists as he created momentum as his Steel Greatsword was on the back end of the scythes blade, and slammed it downwards embedding it into the concrete floor.
Stepping on the scythe, Fenrich used it as a runway as he flashed forward the 10 meter tall giant, imbuing his knee with Mana and smashing it into the golems nose.
Two crunches sounded out as he felt one being his knee bone shatter into shards, the other came from the golem. Not losing this opportunity Fenrich's hands reached for the golems head and heaved himself upwards and over, in-between his feet was his Steel Greatsword. And like a bee readying it's stinger, with his core muscles he pierced through the golems right eye socket going through the back end of its head.
With his remaining good leg, Fenrich used it to launch off as a massive blue fireball bigger than 3 combined soccer balls lit the golem up in flames ending its misery.
Fenrich willed one of the Abyssal Swords to appear in his left hand, and javelin threw it as a mage was in the middle of casting a big spell. The sword tore through the mages Mana Barrier, impaling him through the chest to the ground. His casting was successfully interrupted and his life began draining away.
A set of Fire Spears was launched at Fenrich, which he managed to deflect 2 but took the remaining one to his abdomen. Thankfully for a thick coating of Mana, it did not pierce through but it did scorch his abdomen up to his chest. Causing a critical -675 to float above his head, even with a Berserk ability and heightened stats bolstering him.
Taking a quick glance around Fenrich quickly found the one responsible for dropping his 30% in a single shot. Fenrich's speed accelerated as he left after images to his left and right, intermittently changing sides keeping the images "physical," when the mage King from a Fairy race targeted one of the copies. Fenrich smashed his left foot down, exploding forth with speed causing a tunnel of wind to blow everyone to both sides.
"Silver Combat Technique - After Shadow Slash!"
The room visibly darkened, shadows popping out in the form of miniature blades of condensed shadow. These all did a small percentile of Fenrich's total Strength and Intelligence
-240
-180
-150
-370!
-74
After all the shadows dispersed, a greater shadow sword wreathed in flames slashed downwards, "splitting" the Fairy King Mage in half, when he opened his eyes and realized no damage happened, they world began chaotically rotating, then he realized as his head came to a stop seeing the headless corpse crumbling. "Ho-"
Fenrich stomped on the head of the Fairy King Mage, Fenrich figure exploded into an azure blue with his right hand, and the silver beams of condensed Sharpness Dao with his left.
He pushed both hands together causing both energies to mix, and in the middle of both hands a small lotus flower.
"Mana Combat Technique: first page second verse - Ultyrs Tears!"
Two mystical eyes opened up as the roof of their safe room and spatial layer was torn off. Gigantic silver blue eyes hung above enemies every body 100 meters into the air, nearly passing through the layer of Void.
One silver and one azure blue arm cupped the lotus flower, and squeezed it together as it obliterated into petals and motes of light. Fenrich expanded his Will out in a 75 meter radius, "marking" 130 enemies instantly and a suction force began pulling them all together.
The flesh on Fenrich's forearms began lifting up as if a sushi chef fileting salmon.
"Gold Mana Technique - Orbital Resonance!"
Blood burst out from Fenrich's back as the skin opened up to both sides, exposing muscle and bone within his internal system.
Azure blue and silver Sharpness lit up both palms like flames, Fenrich clapped both hands together and as he did, the pressure on his body skyrocketed causing 80 bones to snap simultaneously.
"Epic Combat Technique - Void Shattering Palm!"
A massive orb of chaotic energy blew up, incineration 70 of the people caught, and the beams of Mana and silver Sharpness erupted as the pillar of combined energies tore through the Void layer.
"Run! Everybody now!"
The moment the Void layer separated, Fenrich felt the gaze of an archaic entity so vast it nearly extinguished his Soul, if It weren't for him forcefully severing the connection at the last moment, his existence would have been like sand castles on the beach. Taken away with the waves.
Fenrich's force of Will kept his body moving forward, with the last bit of the Abyssal Symbiotes Mana, he formed an azure blue hand cupping all of his team, and throwing them through as he shouted at the top of his lungs
"We will meet in the upper spatial expansion layers. This will quickly become a dead zone! Laura, tag! You're the temporary leader. Ensure Isabella's and your guys' safety! I-" Before Fenrich could finish, a gigantic hand came down like divine retribution "squashing" him as blood burst out everywhere
Laura, who had seen this scene at the last minute, slapped herself across the face and wiped her eyes with her fingers.
"What the fuck are you all standing around for! Move your asses NOW!" Laura exploded as she hauled the unconscious Garen and Isabella over her shoulders and began running at top speed.
Tentacles burst through the walls as they began playing a life and death game of tag with Laura and the rest of the group. Then arms emerged, Laura quickly fired off her Balor's Gaze to get a better look at this Abyssal Fiends status page.
The Collector (Emperor)
Tier: D Grade
Level: 750
Health: 75,000,000
Mana Points: 525,000,000
"Son of a fucking bitch!"
Laura gasped in horror, then she realized her vision was gone completely. A mind-numbing stinging pain resonated from where her eyes were. She put her hands over quickly and came to another horror of her own, her eyes had exploded just from looking back at The Collector to use Balor's Gaze
"The price to use the Karmic Eyes Of Yves was one eye… I have no choice but to risk it, Fenrich left me in charge."
Pushing aside the pain and fighting through the blood tears and goop that was once her eyes, Laura activated Karmic Eyes Of Yves.
Inside her Soul, Laura saw 4,000 possible "futures" And out of 4,000 only a single one showed their survival, but doing so would mean sacrificing a part of her own humanity.
Gritting her teeth as she took Fenrich's trust in her to heart, Laura commanded as she said aloud, "Jackson, Exploding Arrow on the ceiling 245 meters ahead of us! Ryan, follow it up with pouring all your Mana Points into your Fireball spell. When the roof comes down we have to jump through and enter into the Void! Twenty feet to our left inside the Void is our ticket to survival!"
Ryan began pouring all his Mana Points into his Fireball spell, when he drained his whole pool of 1,300 Mana Points he called out "Ready!"
Jackson had been calculating the distance as they kept running, the arms and hands getting ever closer to their group. With 75 meters left, Jackson took aim and shot out with his Exploding Arrow level 3. As soon as he let the arrow fly, Ryan added an Enhancement level 2 onto the arrow and cast his Fireball.
Both spells tore the ceiling down, and out of the ceiling came a group of innocent Elves, Laura had been using her Dao of Rebirth so far to recover her eyes, but it was too weak just yet. At least it successfully paid off to shave off a small portion of the pain assaulting her.
Lukas jumped first as he used his heels as anchors into the remaining rubble of the ceiling. "Quick, all of you jump and reach for my hands, trust me and I will not miss fire, you all will get to safety!"
Sasha emptied all her Mana Points using a Group Teleport level 1 to appear just below Lukas.
Alex took point as he put his two hands together and yelled, "Use my hands as a launchpad to reach Lukas' hands! Laura you first! You have Garen and Isabella."
Before Alex could react, Laura's figures grew out 9 arms sprouting from her back, she grabbed hold of everybody and Lukas by his feet. Using all the strength and power of her Rebirth Dao, Laura jumped upwards of 10 meters with a combined amount of 842 kilograms, entering the void she began tossing everybody into the foretold survival point.
After everybody vanished while in the middle of the Void, Laura went to jump but she realized a veiny undead-like arm grabbed her right leg the moment she began to jump, and then it heaved back as it ripped her entire right leg off from her body.
"Grrrrrrkh!"
Laura ground her teeth together grunting as the immediate pain nearly knocked her out unconscious. She bit through the tip of her tongue, the various nerve endings firing as it shocked her brain to move from the fact of the chill of death she began feeling crop up on her. In the Void, losing that amount of blood was a much scarier version of fishing; she could already feel the overwhelming aura of other monstrosities as they locked onto her position.
With a last ditch effort, Laura calmed her mind and focused intensely as she felt for the most minute fluctuations, nothing could be felt but she could feel as if her Soul was being hammered by a Grandmaster Blacksmith.
Feeling the nape on her left side heat up the slightest bit compared to the Void and creeping embrace of deaths chill. Laura used what remained of her Mana Points to make a small combustion moving her body a single inch to the right.
Billowing winds struck her as her Soul "saw" what looked like something written out of Lovecraftian horror and failed to split her in half from the waist. Using her left foot she kicked off its fleshy appendage and shot herself forward.
Laura exited the Void as she burst through the opening between Void layers, entering the spatial layer that the rest of the group made it through.
When she appeared, her body was half frozen and blood was still gushing out of her right side where her entire leg was missing.
"Laura!"
Sasha and Julia gasped in terror as they shouted the half unconscious woman's name. The two girls froze on the spot and were only reawakened when Lukas was yelling at everybody.
"Pull your shit together girls, unless you want her to truly die get the fuck out of the way! Ryan! Use your Fireball spell and keep it active in your palm, cauterize it before Laura dies of blood loss."
Lukas busied himself pulling out a small piece of wood from his inventory space, and wrapped it around in cloth, opened Laura's mouth and put it in between her teeth as he yelled at her as loud as he could.
"You're going to feel an uncanny fuck load of pain momentarily, bite as hard as you have to. You're going to survive, you're not dying on my watch Laura!"
"NOW!" Lukas shouted at Ryan as he held Laura's shoulders down with all his might.
Laura's eyebrows jumped as a blood curdling screech ripped itself out from her throat, Laura's body spasmed and jumped as she grabbed onto Lukas' shoulders clenching so tight the man could feel his shoulder bones begin to cave in.
Then all the pressure vanished, Laura's arms went limp as the severe pain override all the willpower the woman had left and she passed out. The shock to her system from her eyes bursting, right leg being entirely ripped off from her body and then the cauterization. Lukas was stunned at just how strong Laura's mentality was, not even he could guarantee he could keep himself from going insane at the loss of an entire part of his body.
"Heads up we have a crown approaching us!" Jackson called out as his Minimap blared warnings at him. Jackson already took aim down sight, Ryan was pulling Mana Points out of his ass as his reserves were completely dried up.
What appeared before them was a Pixie like figure that was far more diminutive, it was the size of a small stuffed toy with 4 wings flapping to keep it airborne.
"Peace. Smell blood. Humans are close to dying. I will help." The pixie spoke broken English as it seemed as it was mulling over the word to pick. "Not enemy. Promise. Want to help humans. Human King saved my people. Now I save yours"
The pixie began floating off, then stopped as it looked frustrated. It then did the most human thing they'd seen so far, it raised its middle finger and made come here motions with it.
"Bahahahahahahaha! I can't tell if it's trying to tell us to fuck off or follow it." The pent up anxiety and fear for his life finally broke Ryan as he began cackling like a witch. Ryan pushed his glasses up before he grabbed them and threw them to the ground, and stomped on them. "FUCK IT ALL! FUCK THIS WORLD!"
If they weren't all injured, deathly exhausted or traumatized in one way or another, they weren't far from losing what made them sane. They all felt it, that unspeakable kind of all encompassing terror as an Eldritch horror stared them down, attempting to destroy and scatter their Soul.
Lukas chopped the back of Ryan's neck, giving the young kid as much freedom from his own demons as humanely possible.
"We follow the Pixie. Laura is still near death, Isabella has possible Soul damage, and Garen is in an unknown state. If anyone has an issue with me making commands, speak up now."
Alex shook his head as he spoke up, "Nobody has anything to say after what we all just experienced, we're barely keeping it together now. We will follow you and react as necessary afterwards."
Alex gently picked Laura up and carried her unconscious body in a princess carry.
"Very well, we move as one now, one step forward, eyes alert and madness ready to kill whatever gets In the way of our way!"
Lukas' hands clenched into a fist, drawing blood as his fingernails pierced through the flesh, never had he felt so powerless and useless in his whole life. Never again! NEVER!
Lukas' eyes turned a shade of crimson as his own mentality began warping and twisting for the worse.
When a butterfly flaps its wings, it causes catastrophic changes to happen across the known timeline.